Sandy

Heroica RPG - Quest Masters' Lounge

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I'd like to say a thank you to WaterBrickDown for hosting my first quest. I'll post a more in depth review later.

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I would also like to thank WBD for hosting #149! I had great fun and it gave Ezeran a good platform to evolve some parts of his character. I will also give a more full-lenght review later.

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So 149 thoughts, first off I’d like to say that this was definitely an enjoyable quest to host and as is always the case it’d due to the players. You all were great active players and seeing characters change from when the quest begins to when it ends is one of the most satisfying experiences for a QM. Regarding the quest itself, I borrowed the idea of a dungeon crawler set in a chemistry setup from a D&D game and ported over all the background between the Guild of Invision and the Ziegfrieds. I’m pleased with how it turned out and hoped the blend of free choice and storyline worked for the party. I did note there was some confusion concerning how to actually “fix” what was going on and I know that’s an area I as a QM generally struggle in, I have a tendency to want my players to figure things out as opposed to having an NPC tell them what’s the issue. Having an NPC along for the ride in this case probably wouldn’t have hurt, but hindsight’s always 20/20.

Speaking of the NPC’s, I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. The side story of the golems was originally not planned, but I like how it turned out and I wanted to offer a side quest that didn’t really interfere with the main story but also provided some distraction so it didn’t seem too singularly focused. Marco and Volatio worked exactly as I wanted them to, they’re villains, but only depending upon your perspective. It’s a tough balance and there was potential for a party split dependent upon how they viewed morality and it was cool to see the spectrum that everyone fell on, all the way from opposed (Timothy and Petaldan) to somewhat neutral (Kid and Hunkan) to on task (Ezeran and Torald). I’ll say more in the player reviews, but the role-play during the final scenes was some of the best I’ve had the pleasure of hosting. Surveying some of my past quests (28, 65, 90, 108, 116, 149) I definitely have a tendency to force my players into tricky decisions, so hopefully my next quest or two will be a little more clear cut.

The flow of the quest felt good to me, it wasn’t too rushed and never seemed to drag, part of that came from excellently attentive players, if anything I wouldn’t have minded the Party spending a little more time interacting with things. The balance between battles and role-play/puzzles seemed good and I hope it provided some ways for the lower level heroes to not feel totally useless around the higher level heroes. Regarding the puzzles themselves, I was actually surprised at the difficulty of the chains puzzle, it’s always hard to judge how tough things are going to be looking at a screen as opposed to the actual object. You actually skipped one of the puzzles (acid pit) and solved it with magic. You could have grabbed some baking soda from Sudz and mixed it with the vinegar (acid) and created a bubbling geyser to shoot you upwards, but your solution worked just fine as well, hopefully the ether cost wasn’t too much of an issue.

I’m really happy with how the battles turned out; I often tend for either drawn out fights where the heroes aren’t really threatened but it takes them a ton of time to wear the enemies down or really easy battles that are over before they’re begun. I really feel like the Party was threatened at points and came out on top. The last battle was meant to be difficult if you didn’t have all six party members, so you were fighting an uphill battle and I was really rooting for you to pull through. I think a strategically placed phoenix essence might have gotten you there, but it’s all dependent upon how conservative you want to be with your consumables. The only aspect of the battles and the quest in general I was unsure about was the loot. Over the course of about a month you all ended up with:

~6 XP bumps

200 Gold per person

2 Unique Items 2 Unique Weapons

2 Artifacts

1 Gem

1 Tool

Some Consumables

Of course you missed out on reputation, another gem, unique artifact, unique consumable, and if you had searched harder/interacted more (Athanor & Double Retort) two weapon upgrades (+1 Healing, +1 Power), but I felt there had to be some consequences for a lost battle/party split.

Speaking of the Party:

Ezeran (MysticModulus)

I saw Ezeran come quite a ways this quest. At first I had relegated him to a wacky wizard with a weird growth, but seeing him become serious towards the end of the quest was a refreshing change. His friendship with Torald is a great one and one that I wouldn’t mind seeing put under tension at some point to deepen it more. Your speeches and interactions with the NPC’s were quite memorable not to mention those with your fellow party members. I was not expecting your songs, and I’m glad to see such creativity in our player base. Ezeran might make an interesting minstrel seeing he can sing his own duets. Overall you were great, attentive, strategically sound and an all-around perfect player to QM. You’ll be welcome on any of my future quests.

Torald (Alfadas)

First off Torald is great, but he’s also a tad plain in certain circumstances. The one thing I enjoy about you is that you role-play your battles and doing so encourages me to focus more on the descriptions of the rounds. Seeing his frustration build during the fights is great and fitting! The only issue is that Torald seems to lose his frustration whenever he’s out of the battles. I’d encourage you to carry that over into his RP, if a professional sports player is in a slump he’ll be mopey or angry to those around him, likewise if a barbarian can’t seem to kill anything I can imagine that affecting his ego and him becoming snappy to those around him or reckless in his attempt to prove himself. Torald is amazing and I’m interested to see how he progresses especially in his friendship with Ezeran. As I said above, I’d love to see their friendship tested as I feel that would really give opportunity for the both of you to expand upon your characters. From a build perspective, you have one of the nastiest weapons in that you’ll always deliver a debilitating negative effect as long as you hit. I don’t like putting immunities on my enemies just for balance purposes but Torald definitely made some of the battles easier with his fragile inducing strikes.

Petaldan (Palathadric)

If you’re going for lawful good somewhat naïve child soldier, you’re doing a great job. Petaldan’s actions definitely match his words and it’s great to see a player using the Diplomacy trait along with diplomatic speeches. I don’t have a ton of criticism for you, you play your character consistently and he’s a refreshing change from Monk Pretzel and I can see the experience you’ve gained playing one character transfer over to this new one. If anything I’d be more interested in what he’s planning on doing with his life. All characters have goals (or should) Petaldan’s still seem a little vague and I wouldn’t mind him talking about them a little more every once in a while. Other than that, I was glad to have you along and you functioned with no problem as the party leader.

Hunkan (BountyBeast)

Another dwarf! I love the race and wish we saw more of them. Hunkan’s a great character and you’re doing a great job with him. He definitely spoke his opinion but always seemed to have his head on his shoulders. For your first full quest you did great and I loved seeing the attentiveness you provided especially in the puzzles. You’ve got a ton of potential with Hunkan and I’d love to see you expand upon one or two aspects of his personality. Right now he comes across as somewhat generic, but as I’ve said you’ve got a lot you could work with both from a racial standpoint (as dwarf is he stubborn, why doesn’t he have a beard, does he drink a lot, what are his feelings toward other races) as well as class perspective (is he sneaky burglar, a greedy thief, a muscly thug, a suave rapscallion, a mischievous trickster, or a mysterious spy). Glad you were able to be on the quest and I look forward to what’s to come.

Kid (dum)

The leprechaun ranger, you’ve already got a unique race going for you feel free to expand upon it. Kid was very talkative as well as extremely attentive. I could definitely feel his personality coming through, I’d just caution you to sometimes make sure your characters actions/ideologies aren’t coming out of left field. Having a murderous leprechaun can be fun “surrender or die”, but we need some basis for why Kid is like that. The jovial attitude sometimes feels incongruent with his forceful actions. As a reader, he’s fun to read but we want to know why he’s acting the way he does. Keep up the good work and I’m sure Kid will go far. Similar to Hunkan, don’t feel afraid to expand upon his personality and how that is affected by his race and class.

Timothy (Rider Raider)

I was a tad hesitant about first having you as you seemed a little too enthusiastic to join, but after QM you for a month, I was quite satisfied with your contributions to this quest. We haven’t really seen any satyrs yet in Heroica so it’d be cool to see their culture expanded upon. I know you’ve got a little bit of a backstory already brewing and I was glad to see you aren’t devoting too much to it. Release it in small pieces. Generally as humans we don’t bring up the past unless it’s specifically related to the present so look for those opportunities that will spur a memory or thought about Timothy’s past and then mention them as an aside unless directly asked. You did a great job fitting right in with the party and you definitely had your own voice in the discussions. If anything play out your cleric background a little more, he’s deriving his power from a deity so it be cool to learn a little more about his relationship with that aspect of his personality. For great cleric role-playing read Sandy’s Ellaria, Chromeknight’s Nerwen, Scorpiox’s Haldor, and Asphalt’s Vindsval.

Wolfwind (Kappy)

Not sure if you’ll ever make it back on here. But thanks for participating while you could. It would have been interesting to see where you took your character. Perhaps one day he’ll return.

Overall this was a great quest to host and all those who played in it were excellent. Thanks to all those for your time and attention and I look forward to the years ahead playing with some of you newer players.

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Just wanted to say that this quest was absolutely fabulous. I really don't know how you can take such a simple concept of us working our way through a machine like that and turn it into such a great quest, but I really did have a ton of fun on this one. A lot of it was also due to such a fabulous party, who were all very active and that way nice.

I thought the ending was excellent. Sometimes I had difficulty separating character knowledge from player knowledge as obviously I immediately thought the Ziegfrieds were behind the problem, but Petaldan is far too unsuspecting for that, but the argument with everyone at the end was very good. At first, I wanted Petaldan to just throw a Smoke Bomb and let the guys escape, so I wrote to a few of the party about that, but then decided against the idea later. I couldn't really see Petaldan just walking away from a situation like that, but sometimes it's obviously better to let the quest be more enjoyable for all the other players than to stick to what is the most in-character thing for your player. Even it would have been allowed, there was no way that Petaldan would have fought against Ezeran and Torald though.

Interacting with the whole party throughout was a lot of fun. I'm really happy with Petaldan's relationship with Ezeran and Torald and hope it won't be too ruined after the events at the end of this quest. We shall see, I suppose. He also has a new friend in Timothy.

All-in-all, I'm really had to have been chosen for this quest, and I'm really happy for all of the time that you and all of my fellow questees invested in it. It made for a really swell quest.

I enjoy playing Petaldan as well. I feel Pretzel has gone a bit to cynical recently, which is understandable considering his recent experiences, so playing Petaldan has been quite a breath of fresh air. As far as him having future plans, he's still just a little kid trying to be a hero for now. :grin:

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149! Wow! This quest was nothing short of truly amazing! Let's start with the general atmosphere: a creeping surrealistic and eerie atmopshere seemingly influenced by Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard from Oz and something vaguely Poe:ish. I don't know exactly how that atmosphere was established or maintained but it worked wonders (which as pointed out above is amazing considering the party slugged their way through a glass-ware assembly). Hat off for that WBD!

The NPC's were great. They were responding in a realistic manner and they were not to far out. I love the slightly arrogant doctor, the love-sick golems and of course the (in Ezerans mind) sneaky villains: Marco and his trusted pet djinn. They played their roles well without being to cartoonish.

When it comes to the story, well it was pretty straight forward with a good balance between player freedom and hints. Ezerans misgivings towards the Ziegfrieds was spot on from the start (hence his conclusive analysis: "Can it have been infested?") but it didn't matter because many surprises awaited the party. The side quest with the golems were a big distraction from the objective if you ask Ezeran but objectively it had its merits. The situation where the party acted like impromptu-musicians was hysterical. I actually laughed out when I re-read it. The end was excellent, it could as well be a perfect cliffhanger but it gave the story some depth as the heroes actually failed regarding the mission from the clients. The last battle and the actions and dialogue almost seemed scripted, it was that good! The pacing was almost perfect, probably because of the frequent activity of all involved!

And alas the party. What a party!

Torald - Being almost a dynamic duo by now Ezeran and Torald continues their friendship but I agree with WBD:s analysis: for them to take the next step there have to be some kind of disagreement or even a mild conflict. I love the way that Torald lends his character to narrate the fighting-sequences. I hope he will show a bigger palette of emotions in a near future so that he can develop even further.

Petaldan - Even though Ezeran sometimes have a short temper he is not prone to holding grudges for long, which is good for Petaldan! I love the roleplaying of this character as he truly is displayed like a boy in shining armor about to save the world and do good deeds. Ezeran is a bit more complex when it comes to moral issues... The dialogue and disparate moral reflections really added much to their relation (and to the story as a whole). Keep up the good work Boy Wonder!

Hunkan - I love the grumpiness and the sullen look of the dwarven rogue. He made a not to charming first impression with Ezeran in the hall and their relation kind of continued being a bit stale throughout the quest, and that's not a bad thing just a logical outcome of previous events! Hunkan did however redeem himself as he chose to stand against the Ziegfrieds in the final battle.

Kid - While I like the quirkiness and the jokingly manner I hope that Kid gets some more depth since he could easily be cartoonish in those respects. That's probably just a matter of time as shown by his actions and speech in the final battle.

Tim - Didn't know what to expect from this character, maybe a bit more flavour from the fact that he is a satyr and that is almost unheard of.

I was very happy to get the opportunity to enhance certain character traits of Ezeran during this quest. I want him to be more than the mage with a demon symbiont and highlight his moral complexity and hint at his somewhat complex background. Maybe he would make an excellent minstrel? I just need to find the rep. for him! I'm really happy to have been a part of this excellent display of roleplaying at its best! Truly marvelous! Great work WBD and great work to all of you excellent roleplayers, I look forward to invest more time and energy in upcoming quests and in common banter in the hall. Cheers!

Edited by MysticModulus

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One more thing: the rewards and loot was balanced and moderate, as it should be in my humble opinion. Now I can postpone the though decision of choosing an advanced job class for Ezeran as well. :laugh:

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I've read through the thread for #149 again and it really stands out as a coherent quest with many qualities. You spoiled us rotten WBD, well done!

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Thanks. :classic: All in all it's a very concise read, but you all managed to fit a lot into it. I've got another short quest in the works so we'll see if we can get some of the same party together potentially.

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Thanks. :classic: All in all it's a very concise read, but you all managed to fit a lot into it. I've got another short quest in the works so we'll see if we can get some of the same party together potentially.

That would be very interesting! Don't feel that you have to raise the bar though! And don't put to much pressure on yourself!

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Thanks. :classic: All in all it's a very concise read, but you all managed to fit a lot into it. I've got another short quest in the works so we'll see if we can get some of the same party together potentially.

:drool: I look forward to it. Let's see if Petaldan can get on it.

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Took me a while to get my thoughts down, but here it is.

ahem

Quest #149 In-Depth Review

As a first quest, this was amazing. The environment (build wise) was simple, but the concept behind it just made each room magical. WBD obviously has a ton of experience in QMing, and it definitely shows in this fantastically built quest. The NPCs were creative, the circumstance was really unique (especially for a quest built for those in lower level), and the interactions with the other players was fantastic. This party really made the quest, and I would quest with any one of them again in a heartbeat.

NPCs:

Dr. Cula did not originate from this quest, but still his execution in this one deserves to be commended. He's jolly, but he has an agenda (as seen by the epilogue). He's just a fun and colorful character that's great to interact with.

The golems were really interesting in their designs, and their whole longing for each other was interesting, although I thought it could have had a bigger payoff (I thought perhaps the two would chemically combine into a new substance or something which would fix the pipes, but whatever.)

Marco was interesting mostly because of the questions he provided. The way he unexpectedly split the party was really fun to see, and I wonder what will happen when Cula and the rest of the union get their hands on him.

Volatio was a lot of fun to watch (I say that a lot huh) with the way he got offended at everyone's perception of genies, his sucking up to Marco. Another colorful character for this colorful quest, really fit the environment.

Quest:

So many puzzles. Yikes. I'm bad at those, but I'm glad they were in there. Made the quest more than dialogue and fighting. One criticism I have is not entirely WBD's fault or really anyone's, but the final argument seemed dragged on a bit longer than it needed to be. I'm not saying this because it was boring or that I just care about fighting, but it reached a point where all the lines had been drawn, everyone knew who was where (except Ezeran's twist), but it kept going. We all knew everyone wasn't going to change their side, and we kept repeating the same argument(s) over and over. Again, no one's fault really, but that happened. Speaking of which, I think the climax had a lot of twists that could have been followed through with (for everyone). I think if I was going to have Kid drop out, he should have stuck to it for a bit longer. I think maybe if Ezeran had stayed on the other side Ezeran could have explained his whole "freedom has a price" thing a little earlier so that it didn't seem like he was switching back to the "capture him" side for no reason. And I really wish Timothy's whole thing with trying to push Marco into the portal trick had succeeded, my jaw hung open when I read that one. I loved it. But, QMs plan boss battles and drops, and if I had successfully followed after them, he would have to make a set he wasn't prepared for, so I totally understand. Good twist at the end, maybe this ties into this next quest you've been working on.

The Party:

Me: I thought Kid's general personality came across pretty well, although sometimes one thing he did conflicted with another. I've been trying to play him as sort of a happy but nonchalant, not to say apathetic, just not entirely worried of what others think of him or what's going on and doesn't care about possibly offending others. Deep down he's supposed to be a little self loathing, hating himself for failures or not doing good enough. The self loathing really came to play for me when he threw his crossbow on the ground, but I feel like I rushed his whole back into battle thing too much, and should have kept him down a few more turns, maybe strategically helping if he assisted later, and being more dramatically realistic. All in all, I like that he's not carbon-copying other characters, but he needs a lot more work, and I am open to suggestions. But enough about me, let's get down to the rest of this amazing party.

Ezeran: From what I observed, Ezeran's always been a basic odd but wise wizard figure (not that that's bad in the least, we all start from archetypes), but near the end of this quest, we really got to see him develop a bit more into a darker character, not above changing his motives and end goals for some cash or other such rewards and being somewhat merciless when it comes to those who cannot pay. Ezeran is always entertaining to be around, and I feel like he may go through some major character changes soon.

Oh, I almost forgot about the symbiont. I think the odd chest growth could factor in a little bit more to his character, not being too intrusive, but right now he seems just like a thing that is mentioned now and then, and he could add a bit more. Maybe as time progresses, give it more control over the body, perhaps have it grow, or maybe allow it to talk. Or don't. Those might all be horrible ideas.

Torald: Everyone loves Torald, and he's a great questmate. However, he definitely could use some more character. Not sure if I have much more to add than what's already been said, except that I think Torald could be a little more loyal to the guild of invision. I mean he is, but he doesn't (at least in this quest) mention why. Being a warrior type, I imagine loyalty to be a strong thing in his blood, but he would also talk about how and why he feels the way he does about the guild/union frequently. I also really like WBD's idea of testing the friendship of him and Ezeran, as it would add more to both characters after they reunite (or don't).

Wolfwind: Sorry you got banned, dude. If somehow he's able to see this or ever come back, I'd like to say that most of what he did just seemed to be him agreeing with everyone else, instead of forming his own opinions. But maybe he would have if he continued in the quest. I dunno. Godspeed.

Hunkan: I've always liked Hunkan since the brief run-ins at the hall through the fields of glory, and I'm disapointed that I didn't interact with him very much this quest, as I feel like the two personalities could bounce off of each other very well. They're both from shorter races, both seem to understand that they're mercenaries more than heroes, and they're both a bit sarcastic. For example, Kid sees situation A and thinks "Hey, that's funny!" Hunkan sees situation A and says "Wow, that's stupid." (if that makes sense). So yeah, these two could have some funny interactions in the future. I really appreciated the fact that although Hunkan is a bit grumpy, he isn't emo, and he really knows what he's doing and sticks to the job. Although he stuck with the side of being loyal to the employers, he didn't immediately jump to the "surrender or die" thing that I did, which shows how rational he is. To sum up, he's grumpy, he's funny, he's rational, and I should talk to him more often.

Petaldan: Petaldan's positivity and innocence is refreshing to be around, but in the big argument at the end he seemed a little judgmental. However, for the majority of the quest he was a lovable little kid who turns out to be wiser than a group of adults. I really like this twist of a character, and can't wait to see what he becomes. But as far as suggestions go, I think he should have a little more childness in his character. Every once in a while he giggles or something, but the more he mixes noble and wise with innocent and young, the more we like him.

Timothy: Out of all of these characters, Timothy surprised me the most. He was a new guy that really wanted to take Wolfwind's place, so I was a little concerned that he would just be someone who would be hyperactive (not sure how that's possible online), but in fact, he seemed the most developed of the group. I honestly don't know why. I find it hard to sum up his character. He's not a mystery, he's not a stereotype, but something about him alway seemed tied to something, he really understands who his character is. This probably has to do with him already having an entire solid backstory actually written out, and although he didn't blurt it out in a flashback or anything, this really seemed to help him know who he was. Even though he wasn't constantly being depressed about his wife, I'm guessing having a hard copy of his entire story led to his successful role-play. Good job, dude.

Well that's all of it, I think. I got a bit rambly at times, I think. I really liked this quest and can't wait to participate in a quest with the same questmates, the same QM, or a follow up story to this one, or even (and hopefully) all three. Good job to everyone all around, but especially to WBD for hosting. Glad this could be my first quest (excluding our infamous FoG run).

Edited by dum

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Ezeran: From what I observed, Ezeran's always been a basic odd but wise wizard figure (not that that's bad in the least, we all start from archetypes), but near the end of this quest, we really got to see him develop a bit more into a darker character, not above changing his motives and end goals for some cash or other such rewards and being somewhat merciless when it comes to those who cannot pay. Ezeran is always entertaining to be around, and I feel like he may go through some major character changes soon.

Oh, I almost forgot about the symbiont. I think the odd chest growth could factor in a little bit more to his character, not being too intrusive, but right now he seems just like a thing that is mentioned now and then, and he could add a bit more. Maybe as time progresses, give it more control over the body, perhaps have it grow, or maybe allow it to talk. Or don't. Those might all be horrible ideas.

Interesting feedback, I have been careful not to let the symbiont take over Ezerans character to much. I do have a plan for it, but I don't want Ezeran to be just the "wizard with the symbiont" at this point. It do influence his character quiet a lot it just don't show (or sometimes it does but the thing is the reader won't always be able to see it).

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Interesting feedback, I have been careful not to let the symbiont take over Ezerans character to much. I do have a plan for it, but I don't want Ezeran to be just the "wizard with the symbiont" at this point. It do influence his character quiet a lot it just don't show (or sometimes it does but the thing is the reader won't always be able to see it).

Yeah I agree that it shouldn't be like his one trait, and I see you're trying not to show it off.

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Petaldan: Petaldan's positivity and innocence is refreshing to be around, but in the big argument at the end he seemed a little judgmental. However, for the majority of the quest he was a lovable little kid who turns out to be wiser than a group of adults. I really like this twist of a character, and can't wait to see what he becomes. But as far as suggestions go, I think he should have a little more childness in his character. Every once in a while he giggles or something, but the more he mixes noble and wise with innocent and young, the more we like him.

Thanks and noted. Petaldan has yet to kill a person, I believe (excluding the scum in his first quest. So that's why he had a hard time. Mainly though, he realized that by letting the Ziegfrieds go, everyone would benefit: the machine would be fixed and the Ziegfrieds would leave, and we would have gotten our reputation with the Guild. I believe Petaldan would find if he had to, to complete the job, unless the person was super friendly or something, but he saw no reason to fight in that instance since completely the quest and letting the Ziegfrieds go worked hand-in-hand.

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Quest #145

First of all, big apologies for disappearing after the quest was done (again :blush: ) Somehow, it seems I always need to take (or it just happens by itself), a total break off when the quest is finished, just to concentrate on RL and not follow anything on any forums. But now I should be back.

Second, thanks Pally (can we call you Pally :tongue: ), Palathadric for a good quest. It was your first one, right.

Not bad, I don´t think I could had done any better. I will have to try someday.

As others said the pacing was a, to be honest, almost "nightmareish" but that had to do pretty much with that almost everybody had some real life issuses to handle. (Hope everything is turning for the better)

I liked the battles, maybe a bit too hard. But that is not a bad thing, why should every battle need to be easy. But there should had been more of them, ofcourse we did talk ourselves out of one atleast but when the quest was this long the lack of needed exp. and leveling up was bit of a let down.

Loot and rewards were great, almost too good. But maybe it was a little compensation for the slow pace :wink:

Story and plot was good but confusing as others pointed out. At point it seemed none knew what to do. The ending somewhat explained some bits.

I liked the NPC but maybe more fleshing out but that is not easy to achive. Exp. Cheapy was good, a real rat he turn out to be :sweet::tongue:.

The other players. Great job roleplaying, considering that the RL issues. And I will look forwards to playing with you all again.

Too bad it seems Cree (Pedguin) has left the game for now. Take care.

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I am trying to design a plot for a quest but I do not want to go overboard with complicity. If anyone is willing to help me out, please message me, thanks! :classic:

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I am trying to design a plot for a quest but I do not want to go overboard with complicity. If anyone is willing to help me out, please message me, thanks! :classic:

I'm helping Rider Raider with his. Send me your plot details and I'll look it over. :thumbup:

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Quest #146

First, I want to say thanks again to the questees and Sandy for letting me go back to Tridentia and have the penultimate quest in the arc I've been working on. Another thanks to CJP for taking the pictures for me (although my photoshop abilities are still lackluster, but eh, good enough for right now); they're certainly the best ones I've had on my quests so far. If there was any of the Tridentia quests that the players are really important, it's this one. This quest had the most player agency I've given and you guys really shaped what is going to happen in the final Tridentia quest.

I want to start with the bad first.

Pacing; I felt like I was a little slow this quest in responding and just how long the quest took. That maybe why the quest seemed to have ended abruptly. Yes and no. I was seeing lack of comments (Scuba, and where in the world has TCM gone?) and I guess general fatigue. I was feeling it, too, but I think ending the quest and letting the final bit be much more optional was the right choice. As for battles, I'm not sure how I feel about most of the battles, so I'll put this tentatively in the bad category. The final battle was loads of fun to plan and organize, but I could have explained everything better, and I should have made either more ballistae and/or lowered both ships' health to make the battle more intense. The sidequest felt a little tacked on (something I've always had a problem with), but it mainly served as a way to get you to understand the town more and interact with the NPCs more than just "train them and fight with them".

For the good:

I'm really glad I got to expand the cast of Tridentians more. A good 75% of them will reappear in the final quest, so I hope they're fun to interact with. Depending on the feedback, I'll adjust who exactly will be in it, where, etc. I like how I've been able to grow Luke and give him more of a family, be it with William and Lacy or with past Heroes who have come to the island. The final battle, as I said was loads of fun to plan and organize. Although after it ended I realized just how much loot I was giving away.

I wanted to give a seperate section for player agency/improv I had to do. Originally, the party wasn't supposed to split, but Calamity went off and did it and I'm glad she did. I actually didn't expect that to happen so I adjusted for her miniquest as best I could and made up a few ways to give her something to do without the others that they couldn't see, and that would affect the outcome of the quest. You guys have no idea how much you've influenced the final quest, which I'll reveal when that quest is over in the future. Also the jokes. I really enjoyed making my atrocious jokes with you guys on this quest, be it with the horses, etc.

Heroes

Annie- I always liked QMing for Annie. It's great to see how she's grown over the past quests and how much she remembers about Tridentia and other characters. Mystic Knight is a strong class for her and I'm excited to see where you take her. This is my personal opinion, but I'd love to see her take on Battle Mage, especially as she grows in confidence.

Warlen- Warlen is a unique case. Warlen (and Quarion) were on my second quest as Kiray and Warlen participated on the second Tridentia quest, so I've been on both sides with him. I'll admit, I didn't like Warlen in the beginning but he has grown on me. I think you did a fine job of leading the party this quest (although you went missing in the middle of the final battle so :shrug_confused: ). Aside from that, I hope to see you and Warlen more.

Avalanche- Avalanche is a cool character. I like the fact he's a yeti, and he's a raider which just seems like an awesome class. You were great to QM; you always posted and did so in a timely manner for the most part. Avalanche seems like an intelligent character and I like him. Keep taking him where you're taking him, is my suggestion.

Calamity- I'm so-so on Calamity still. The questee in me likes Calamity because she's Wolfgang so I hope in a quest she and Kiray get along well. As for QMing, there are some suggestions I have like using/posting her a bit more. I do really like how you seemed to take Luke under her wing and give a different mentor role than he's had with Vindsval, and I'm excited for how that will play out. As I said above, this party had the most player agency and I gave you the most, especially with Luke.

Comments and criticism is more than welcome, be it from questees or spectators.

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I'll agree with your sentiment for the most part. I will comment that the battles were for the most part rather well planned out thematically wise. The fight in the forest had forest-like creatures. The fight on the ship had lots of ranged and melee opponents. It was a step up from your last quest, as each battle seemed to flow nicely into the next. I also did enjoy your NPCs, and they, for the most part, stayed relevant. No-one dipped into the background and disappeared like a few did your last quest. As much as I agree with the pacing issues and people mysteriously disappearing in the middle of the quest always sucks, I'm glad to see that you took criticism from the last quest and put it to use in a positive way. :classic:

The ship battle was pretty interesting. I can't see a need for it myself, but it definitely made me think things through a little, and I do enjoy that in a fight. :thumbup:

And yes, the awful puns were particularly memorable. :laugh:

Thanks for having me, KotZ, I had a good time! :thumbup:

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Thanks for a great quest :thumbup: I enjoyed it overall, although the pacing was rather slow (but that was mostly down to laziness on the part of some questees, not the story itself). Avalanche got to quest with some new faces and meet some new NPCs, and in particular I enjoyed the ship battle. Good job KotZ :classic:

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A thought that just came to mind:

Characters who are higher-level are more likely to make it through a battle than characters who are lower-level (through Artifacts, Artifact slots, higher health pools, more consumables, and just generally having more resources). Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

As an argument for "good thing", characters at higher levels need more experience to level-up, so while a Level 40 or higher character will likely make it through 5 out of 6 battles, they need to actually meet those odds to level up, whereas a Level 5 character only needs to survive one of those battles to increase their Level (and the benefits of leveling are a lot more impactful to a low-Level character than a high-level character). Additionally, high-Level characters should be stronger and tougher than low-Level characters because of all the time and effort they've invested into attaining their status.

As an argument for "bad thing", it puts a barrier of entry into the game, where high-level characters tend to breeze through battles while low-levels hang on the edge of death; similarly, low-level characters often end up sitting around doing nothing because the Big Bad Major Enemy with a massive health pool and a ridiculous Power will one-shot low-level characters several times over while the high-level characters can take two or even three hits to drop. In addition, low-level characters NEED every point of HP they can get just so they CAN survive battles, whereas at high levels just one or two points of HP don't do much for your overall survivability.

So which perspective is right? What can be done on the QM side to even or reverse these odds? Are things like level-matching ("Level ??") enemies enough? What about things like Endgame's shared-HP mechanic? Do these actually change the survivability dynamic, or are there other factors in play that need to be addressed as well?

Just food for thought. :classic:

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