Sandy

Heroica RPG - Quest Masters' Lounge

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I have a more refined pitch now that I'd like to share. I also have some pictures of scenery and enemies, if you'd like them PM'd to you. And if you would like to know the details, I do need a little help on enemy levels and health.

Cave Sounds

Assignment: "Horrid sounds have been coming from the cave on my property. I don't know what's causing them, but I have my suspicions. Find the source of that wretched racket, and eliminate it." ~ Eran Hinckwell, esteemed member of the Hinckwells.

Party Requirements: "I need five strong fighters to explore the cave. I can't say for sure what's causing those horrible noises, but if my suspicions are correct, you're going to need as much fighting force as you can get."

Reward: "One level of experience apiece, and whatever loot you find in the cave. If you bring me back a shovel, I'll also give you something shiny."

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Okay Sandy, I'm going to start pulling up some ideas, I may even start on the sets, for the next round of quests. I'll let you know what I'm planning. :sweet:

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Okay, so a few questions:

1) May I PM you a pitch/intro for the quest I had in mind, as well as some of the included ideas/mechanics, if you're interested in the initial pitch? (Yes, I know that you'll want me to have some questing experience under my belt, and I don't plan on having this ready until at least the next batch of quests are through anyway, so hopefully I manage to hop into one of them, else I'll just have more time to flesh out this idea, heh)

2) With the addition of the "Lullaby Wand" from the Missing Matriarch quest (and other unique weapons that I may not have seen from the other two), are you going to keep a publicly accessible table/database of all such unique weapons, for reference when hosting? Just so that the signatures don't get cluttered with weapon text, and QMs don't have to dig through old quests' threads to find weapon info (or blindly trust the members to recall the stats/effects correctly)

3) What balancing plans do you have for parties of mixed level ranges? We now have at least one level 10 player, several in the 5+ range, and yet plenty that are still Lv1. If the plan, from here on out, is to limit quests to players of similar level, then we will effectively create lock-outs on players, or at least run into an issue of waves of quests, where it may eventually boil down to alternating between Group A&B(&C), to avoid excluding any players multiple "waves" in a row (say you sign up for Quest #4, then after the wave of Q4,5,6 are done, you are 5+ levels ahead of "the pack" again, but then Q7 comes out and it *really* appeals to you, but because "the pack" didn't get to participate in the last round of quests, AND are significantly lower level than you, you stand virtually no chance of getting into Q7, and will likely have to wait until Q10,11,12 are released, assuming two "groups" of players). That, or there will have to be some interesting dynamic scaling in effect for combat... or someone's going to have a cakewalk while others will hit a brickwall, in a mixed-level party.

**The idea I'm trying to present above, with the "waves" may not be clear, so if you need me to explain it better, I'd be happy to try

4) For quest planning, in terms of balancing combat and monsters (barring my third question, for the moment), will you (or others) be available to help create monsters that are both challenging, but fair, if someone is preparing a quest, and has the idea for the monster(/encounter) and its abilities?

I have more questions, but most of them are more directly tied to the plotline I'm preparing, so I'll ask them as the need arises.

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1) May I PM you a pitch/intro for the quest I had in mind, as well as some of the included ideas/mechanics, if you're interested in the initial pitch? (Yes, I know that you'll want me to have some questing experience under my belt, and I don't plan on having this ready until at least the next batch of quests are through anyway, so hopefully I manage to hop into one of them, else I'll just have more time to flesh out this idea, heh)

Please send me your pitch only after you've gotten experience from playing the game. It's not that I wouldn't be interested in reading it, I just wish you'd really get to know the basics of this game before you start making up your own mechanics. I'm open for suggestions and new additions, but they need to fit the game we're playing here.

2) With the addition of the "Lullaby Wand" from the Missing Matriarch quest (and other unique weapons that I may not have seen from the other two), are you going to keep a publicly accessible table/database of all such unique weapons, for reference when hosting? Just so that the signatures don't get cluttered with weapon text, and QMs don't have to dig through old quests' threads to find weapon info (or blindly trust the members to recall the stats/effects correctly)

I have no such plans, because these special equipment should be rare. And I trust people will sell their low-level equipment instead of hoarding them in their inventory.

3) What balancing plans do you have for parties of mixed level ranges? We now have at least one level 10 player, several in the 5+ range, and yet plenty that are still Lv1. If the plan, from here on out, is to limit quests to players of similar level, then we will effectively create lock-outs on players, or at least run into an issue of waves of quests, where it may eventually boil down to alternating between Group A&B(&C), to avoid excluding any players multiple "waves" in a row (say you sign up for Quest #4, then after the wave of Q4,5,6 are done, you are 5+ levels ahead of "the pack" again, but then Q7 comes out and it *really* appeals to you, but because "the pack" didn't get to participate in the last round of quests, AND are significantly lower level than you, you stand virtually no chance of getting into Q7, and will likely have to wait until Q10,11,12 are released, assuming two "groups" of players). That, or there will have to be some interesting dynamic scaling in effect for combat... or someone's going to have a cakewalk while others will hit a brickwall, in a mixed-level party.

**The idea I'm trying to present above, with the "waves" may not be clear, so if you need me to explain it better, I'd be happy to try

Well, the level-up system is already scaled, as you can see from the rules. A player above Level 10 will only gain half a level from battles, while a player above Level 20 will get one third of a level and so on.

It is up to each Quest Master to decide what level range of players they want for their quest. I see no reason why Level 1 player cannot be in the same party with a Level 5 player, but I admit it might become troublesome if a Level 1 player is with Level 20 players. But we'll just have to see how the future quests go...

4) For quest planning, in terms of balancing combat and monsters (barring my third question, for the moment), will you (or others) be available to help create monsters that are both challenging, but fair, if someone is preparing a quest, and has the idea for the monster(/encounter) and its abilities?

The thing is, you don't have to "lock in" your created monsters until just the battle they're in begins. I've had to make many adjustments to the monsters in my quests before the parties encountered them to keep them at the right challenge level for them. It all comes down to calculating approximately how many successful hits will it take for the party to beat the monster, but ultimately it all comes down to how the die rolls.

But to answer your question, of course I am more than happy to help anyone in planning their quest.

Thanks for the questions, keep them coming!

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Please send me your pitch only after you've gotten experience from playing the game. It's not that I wouldn't be interested in reading it, I just wish you'd really get to know the basics of this game before you start making up your own mechanics. I'm open for suggestions and new additions, but they need to fit the game we're playing here.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that I was planning on making any drastic changes or additions. Far from it. Aside from the splitting of the party, as I asked about earlier in the thread, which would be a significant change from the static party setting in all 3 so far, I didn't have anything revolutionary. Ideas such as providing questers some creature comforts, at the expense of gold (an Inn, for example). Or a general store, that might sell various items that could have unique uses as the quest advances, should the players buy them *and* recognize an opportunity to use them creatively, but serve little to no purpose outside of the quest. That sort of thing. Stuff that hasn't been seen yet, and that I would want to run past you before implementing, so as not to break away from the game you've put together for us.

And on that note, I won't claim to be well-experienced in playing the game, though I have been following the three quests fairly actively, and don't believe I'm planning with my eyes closed, so to speak. But of course, I'm more than willing to wait until you're comfortable with my level of experience to consider such things. :)

I have no such plans, because these special equipment should be rare. And I trust people will sell their low-level equipment instead of hoarding them in their inventory.

Perhaps I should have clarified there, I didn't mean that I expected players to keep their "Rusty Short Sword of +0 Stats" listed in their inventory while wielding their "Glowing Excalibur of One-Hit Killing", I was only talking about the effect text for the weapons, again quoting the "Lullaby Wand (WP:X), on-hit sleep effect". Although, upon re-reading the quest's thread, it appears I was overcomplicating my memory of the actual effect, and it is simply a constant thing, not requiring any further description than that it is on-hit. Oops!

Well, the level-up system is already scaled, as you can see from the rules. A player above Level 10 will only gain half a level from battles, while a player above Level 20 will get one third of a level and so on.

It is up to each Quest Master to decide what level range of players they want for their quest. I see no reason why Level 1 player cannot be in the same party with a Level 5 player, but I admit it might become troublesome if a Level 1 player is with Level 20 players. But we'll just have to see how the future quests go...

My main concern was just with combat, not so much the leveling system, as I imagine it will begin to prove difficult to balance encounters between higher and lower leveled characters without making it too easy for the higher characters to steamroll, or the lower characters to feel ineffective. While I haven't seen any issues in Q3 with Nyx so far, I'm curious to see how it will work out as the parties get more varied in level. As you said, we'll see!

The thing is, you don't have to "lock in" your created monsters until just the battle they're in begins. I've had to make many adjustments to the monsters in my quests before the parties encountered them to keep them at the right challenge level for them. It all comes down to calculating approximately how many successful hits will it take for the party to beat the monster, but ultimately it all comes down to how the die rolls.

I had plans in mind to, for each possible encounter, have various versions ready beforehand, or at least predetermined adjustments, to account for which class, and how many people, entered into combat, so I was prepared to have dynamic encounters, only finalized when combat began. It was, in particular, the bit about "how many successful hits it will take for the party to beat the monster" that I was unsure of, and still am (hence, I plan on seeking input if/when the time comes, heh)

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Did anyone continue with the development of a revisitable dungeon idea? Or a raid dungeon that requires more than one 5-6-man party?

LU!

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Hey everybody I'd love to host a quest and I've got several ideas for quests. I'd like to know which one you all think I should develop.(I sure can't decide.)

So here they are.

Classic quest-Help free a town from the clutches of an evil baron. (I'd like to do this one but to be honest it's probably a little to ambitions)

First you would have to get too the town ,where you would get the choice to do some side missions, and then you would storm the main bad guy base.

Dark forest quest-Go Help a group of rangers hold back the tide of evil infesting the forest.

Don't know how this quest would progress yet.

Wizards council quest-Help the council of wizards with their problem in a grand city.

Explore city ,visit wizards , and do some small tasks to earn their trust, then do main mission.

Haunted castle quest-Investigate the many strange disappearances in a secluded castle ruled by a struggling king.

Explore haunted castle, investigate mystery, clear all the monsters out.

Arena style quest-Knight's tournament, Medevil boxing, wizards duel, or Roman gladiator style, this quest could take many forms.

Fight one-on-one battles against opponents , and maybe team mates(not sure if that part would work:wacko:), with maybe one large battle in between, and maybe a little extra stuff in between. It would be a tournament though so their would only be one winner, everyone would get a prize though.

Whew, that's all of them, hope you guys like them and can help me pick one out. I may be thinking a little bit ambitious on some of these, but I think I can make them work.

If some one wants to host a quest but is having trouble making one up, or if you really like one of my ideas,and I don't choose to develop that one. I'd be happy to let you use my ideas and maybe help you work out the details too. No reason to let a good idea go to waste.

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I have created a new quest that is not as nearly as long as one of my previous ones. this one is based around Halloween, basically a vampire is plotting to attack a nearby village. the adventurers must battle through his haunted mansion. :sceptic: Does it sound okay?

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It sounds good, but not as much when you summarize it into a few words like that. My advice: keep the quest specifics to yourself until it's time to fully introduce them. As long as you know what you're doing, your quests should be fine. Responses for asking if it is a good idea shouldn't affect your ability to host, so IMO, don't ask at all. Especially if you got put down by a comment like "no that's dumb" and it could've turned out to be a great quest. :wink:

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It sounds good, but not as much when you summarize it into a few words like that. My advice: keep the quest specifics to yourself until it's time to fully introduce them. As long as you know what you're doing, your quests should be fine. Responses for asking if it is a good idea shouldn't affect your ability to host, so IMO, don't ask at all. Especially if you got put down by a comment like "no that's dumb" and it could've turned out to be a great quest. :wink:

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Oh oh! I have a quest! I shall get to work doing all the little bits one needs to build first and then I have to learn the mechanics and get hold of a heroica dice yes?

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Technically you don't need a heroica die, just a random number generator, which are easy to find online. I to am pondering on a quest idea, but I need to finish up my first one and then see how much scenery I can build with my limited collection at the moment.

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I'm just using a normal ol' fashion die. I tested number generators before the quest, but they pumped out a lot of threes for some reason, so I decided that fate works best when really truly random.

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I'm just using a normal ol' fashion die. I tested number generators before the quest, but they pumped out a lot of threes for some reason, so I decided that fate works best when really truly random.

If you're making threes Hits, I don't think random fate worked while I was battling. :tongue:

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So I'm up for suggestions from the current QM's, how do you go about figuring enemy stats, it's been pretty much standard that they are at the same level or a little below or above the level of the party, but how about health? Has anyone done the probability calculations on how much health per monster given X amount of party members versus X amount of monsters at X level? I've taken statistics, so I could probably figure out what is statistically speaking the best stats to give my enemies, but I didn't feel like doing all that work if somebody had come up with a simpler method :tongue:

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So I'm up for suggestions from the current QM's, how do you go about figuring enemy stats, it's been pretty much standard that they are at the same level or a little below or above the level of the party, but how about health? Has anyone done the probability calculations on how much health per monster given X amount of party members versus X amount of monsters at X level? I've taken statistics, so I could probably figure out what is statistically speaking the best stats to give my enemies, but I didn't feel like doing all that work if somebody had come up with a simpler method :tongue:

I usually decide the health of the enemies based on the strength of the party at the time they encounter the said enemies. It's just a matter of evaluating how many normal hits it'll take to bring the enemy down, and whether you want to make the enemy easier or tougher than that.

Six Level 1 players can deal a total of 24 damage per round if they all get a normal hit, so two enemies with around 12 health or three with around 8 health would be the standard battle.

You also have to remember that the more health the enemies have, the more likely they are to damage the party before they are taken down. And because of the Free Hits, the more enemies there are in battle in total, the tougher it'll be.

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So a few game mechanics I've pondering upon for a future quest, but I wanted to get some feedback on them first. All of these would be service that may be purchased at local businesses during a quest, just like in the marketplace.

• Hollow Blade: A glass tube is inserted within a weapon allowing an item such as a potion/grand potion, mead, tonic/grand tonic, remedy, elixir, phoenix essence, etc. to be stored in the hilt, allowing for use at anytime during the battle without costing a turn, i.e. the player may use a potion if it has been stored in the weapon without sacrificing his turn. Costs 35 Gold.

• Upgrade to Poison Blade: A seedy individual will permanently instill a poison effect onto an individual’s weapon. Costs 35 Gold and 1 Venom.

• Loan-Shark: A seedy individual will loan an amount of money at 25% interest, up to -- gold for the entirety of the quest. The individuals must repay him by the end of the quest or be forced to sacrifice their inventory to make up the difference at the end. If the party fails, they will only have to give up any items they bought during the quest with the loaner's money.

Edited by Waterbrick Down

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So a few game mechanics I've pondering upon for a future quest, but I wanted to get some feedback on them first. All of these would be service that may be purchased at local businesses during a quest, just like in the marketplace.

• Hollow Blade: A glass tube is inserted within a weapon allowing an item such as a potion/grand potion, mead, tonic/grand tonic, remedy, elixir, phoenix essence, etc. to be stored in the hilt, allowing for use at anytime during the battle without costing a turn, i.e. the player may use a potion if it has been stored in the weapon without sacrificing his turn. Costs 35 Gold.

• Upgrade to Poison Blade: A seedy individual will permanently instill a poison effect onto an individual’s weapon. Costs 35 Gold and 1 Venom.

• Loan-Shark: A seedy individual will loan an amount of money at 25% interest, up to -- gold for the entirety of the quest. The individuals must repay him by the end of the quest or be forced to sacrifice their inventory to make up the difference at the end. If the party fails, they will only have to give up any items they bought during the quest with the loaner's money.

I like this idea, I was thinking about more classes. Sticking to the original Heroica classes but being upgraded at a certain level.

e.g. Level 20 Mage -> Level 20 Necromancer or Level 20 Summoner something along those lines.

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I like this idea, I was thinking about more classes. Sticking to the original Heroica classes but being upgraded at a certain level.

e.g. Level 20 Mage -> Level 20 Necromancer or Level 20 Summoner something along those lines.

Advanced classes are unlocked at Level 15. (the details of which aren't known since no one has reached Level 15 yet)

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Advanced classes are unlocked at Level 15. (the details of which aren't known since no one has reached Level 15 yet)

Ah, :blush: I didn't know that.

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• Upgrade to Poison Blade: A seedy individual will permanently instill a poison effect onto an individual’s weapon. Costs 35 Gold and 1 Venom.

I like this idea but with a Venom requirement of 20...or 30...or 50. :devil: Make a player truely earn the right to never have to purchase a vial of venom again.

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So a few game mechanics I've pondering upon for a future quest, but I wanted to get some feedback on them first. All of these would be service that may be purchased at local businesses during a quest, just like in the marketplace.

• Hollow Blade: A glass tube is inserted within a weapon allowing an item such as a potion/grand potion, mead, tonic/grand tonic, remedy, elixir, phoenix essence, etc. to be stored in the hilt, allowing for use at anytime during the battle without costing a turn, i.e. the player may use a potion if it has been stored in the weapon without sacrificing his turn. Costs 35 Gold.

• Upgrade to Poison Blade: A seedy individual will permanently instill a poison effect onto an individual’s weapon. Costs 35 Gold and 1 Venom.

• Loan-Shark: A seedy individual will loan an amount of money at 25% interest, up to -- gold for the entirety of the quest. The individuals must repay him by the end of the quest or be forced to sacrifice their inventory to make up the difference at the end. If the party fails, they will only have to give up any items they bought during the quest with the loaner's money.

I think the first service is okay, but it should cost a little more, say 50 gold. And only one item should be able to be stored into the weapon.

I don't really like the second service, since it negates the need to buy Venoms anymore.

The third service is great, I approve of it. :grin:

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I like this idea but with a Venom requirement of 20...or 30...or 50. :devil: Make a player truely earn the right to never have to purchase a vial of venom again.

I think the first service is okay, but it should cost a little more, say 50 gold. And only one item should be able to be stored into the weapon.

I don't really like the second service, since it negates the need to buy Venoms anymore.

The third service is great, I approve of it. :grin:

I'm planning on the first service only enabling 1 item to be stored, otherwise it would be overkill, and way to complicated for QM's to keep track of. Good point about the price I may jack it up a little, it's the balance of weighing the benefits with the costs. There haven't been that many battles that last a ton of rounds (until now cralegoboy) where the party members would have wanted to use an item mid-battle, so maybe this service will be superfluous, but we'll give it a shot.

The point of the first two mechanics would allow for people holding onto specific weapons for a while and upgrading it should they so chose, instead of this constant acquiring a new weapon every quest mentality. :shrug_confused: I may take your suggestion Jebediahs and increase the cost, currently there is an average of 6 battles per quest, this would amount to 6 venoms per quest and thus 30 gold per quest spent on venom (excluding drops) so at this rate an individual with a poisoned blade would pay for itself after 1.33 quests. Since the average player is likely to only heavily participate in 3 quests, they will spend the majority of their time with (basically) an unlimited supply of venom. I could go into the graphing and limit behavior but I'll save us the fun of it:tongue: Therefore I think I'll increase the cost to two thirds of the average players playing experience, thus 60 gold worth of venom plus the initial venom and a service charge equals 75 Gold. We still have yet to see the full consequences of effect-weapons, the only one in existence I believe is the lullaby wand that Quarryman's character uses, so time will tell.

Since most people splurge on items and upgrades before quests begin, the third service will give my upcoming party a chance to buy some pretty interesting items/services mid-quest, though they will have to pay for that luxury :shark:

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How about some class specific quests?

e.g.

Quest: Paladin's Pilgrimage

Classes: Knights & Clerics ONLY

etc. etc.

I don't know if this has already been proposed or is being considered or is in the rules. :hmpf_bad: It was just an idea. :wink:

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