Sandy

Heroica RPG - Quest Masters' Lounge

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Oh, and something else I just remembered I wanted to do in my 147 wrap up! It's time for an episode of "Quest Ideas Endgame Came Up With But Does Not Have The Time To Host So Someone Else Can Do Them If They Really Feel Like It" (QIECUWBDNHTTTHSSECDTITRFLIT for short.)

-One of Gabriel's contacts gets pissed that Gabriel is slowly moving his stake outside of the assassination/drugs business, and tries to take Gabriel out.

-A hunting/tracking quest where the party is just released into a huge exoanse of nature (probably a snow mountain) and has to track down and kill a boss monster. Not heavy on NPC interaction, lots and lots of environmental pictures and exploring.

-A murder mystery set in the Progg Colony, so I could finally flesh out all the locations there that the party has never been to. :laugh:

-A quest set n a casino in some foreign resort, in which the goal is to take the 400 gold given and drive it up to 3000 gold in earnings. Another mystery type thing, as there would've been factors such as cheaters and stacked games and such.

Edited by Endgame

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Let's talk about the Rod of Wonder for a moment. It's considered one of the most memorable, and ridiculous items in roleplaying. It can turn an encounter into a cake walk, a much more gruelling experience, or anything, and everything, in between. What is a Rod of Wonder? It's a magical item, often a wand, that when used, emits a random effect with said effect being determined by a die roll. Such effects have been turning weapons into flowers, emitting hunks of gems that damage opponents, summoning rhinoceroses, changing characters genders, species, and skin colour, causing hair to fall out, casting the skin to stone spell, teleporting characters, having the wand berate the wielder for misusing it, causing fish to rain from the sky, shoot laser beams, summon demons, turning gold to lead, and so forth. It's an unpredictable weapon, but one that often causes a lot of enjoyment for players.

So, the question is could this item work in the world in Heroica on a mechanical level, and how? Thematically it fits right in with the world's high fantasy/magitek setting, but could it be created without completely imploding in on itself? What are your guys's thoughts on this?

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So, the question is could this item work in the world in Heroica on a mechanical level, and how? Thematically it fits right in with the world's high fantasy/magitek setting, but could it be created without completely imploding in on itself? What are your guys's thoughts on this?

I think it would come down to the QMs. Of course it probably would have some nerfing after it's first outing or so by Sandy, but it probably would work on a case-by-case basis, as long as it wasn't messing with the other PCs too much, or the QM's vision for the quest. I'd love to see it on a quest like a test run and then put my thoughts after that,

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Let's talk about the Rod of Wonder for a moment.

So, the question is could this item work in the world in Heroica on a mechanical level, and how? Thematically it fits right in with the world's high fantasy/magitek setting, but could it be created without completely imploding in on itself? What are your guys's thoughts on this?

Frankly it sounds like a giant pain in the back side. If I was Quest Master(ing) I might just banned it from any my quest or it would just fail every time it gets used (like nothing going to happen). It sounds to chaotic for me to think up a bunch of random stuff for it. (Well that is my two cents.)

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Frankly it sounds like a giant pain in the back side. If I was Quest Master(ing) I might just banned it from any my quest or it would just fail every time it gets used (like nothing going to happen). It sounds to chaotic for me to think up a bunch of random stuff for it. (Well that is my two cents.)

As a note, most games the Rod of Wonder is included in has a table to determine the effects that's usually kept hidden from the players and characters.

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I hate extra die rolls, but I could see it working if each QM at the beginning of a quest it was on drew up results 1-6 and never disclosed them (or maybe disclosed them at the end of the quest?). Then other QMs could reuse some effects as well as replacing any they wanted to.

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Ok, now that I am back at my computer, I thought I would put down some thoughts on Quest #153.

Summary: Overall I enjoyed this quest, even if I felt some of the die were working against us!

Pacing: I think the game flowed fairly well, with battles running at a smooth pace. There didn't seem like any times we were rushed and/or any times things went stagnant (even when a few of us had RL events)

Plot: I think that overall the scenario played out well. There were a few instances where I felt I just needed to "go with the flow" rather than ask too many questions, but I think those were minimal. I think players with more experience with the Court of Demons would have perhaps benefited more, but that was spelled out from the start and I don't feel I was at any disadvantage having not interacted with them before.

Battles: They were ok. We won them so I cannot complain, but man were those dice roles brutal at times. I am a bit of a hoarder, so I don't like using my consumables but it certainly felt like I needed too. A lot of potential team KOs, but that brought out strategy and I definitely think our team worked fairly well together.

Character feedback: This was a bit of a quiet group (of which I know I am plenty guilty), and our characters didn't really mesh at times (which is ok). Had we talked/roleplayed more we might have gotten more out of it, but overall I enjoyed the interactions.

My really only specific feedback would be directed at Wiz/Lord Cedric. In that regards I would just say try and flush out your character more. You can be quiet and moody if you want, but at least give descriptions so that the others have something to work with. At times you gave a one/few word answer which left little to imagine. But none the less, you stayed engaged throughout and helped the party even with the level handicap.

 

Thanks again for hosting Zepher!

 

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Ok, Quest #152, this is going to be a short thought. I hope you guys had fun with it. I did (although some headaches, but hey that always was happens), and it was nice to do a quest away from Tridentia that I could be a little more loose and silly with. I really wanted absurd tasks so I hoped that panned out. I'm glad you guys ran with it and made choices (Hoke with the final task, for example). At first I was concerned about putting two barbarians in the party but it worked out well. Balancing the battles was a little difficult at points but I think you guys managed pretty well. I want to thank Flipz for the suggestion of a seating puzzle.

Also, Heckz was hilarious.

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Quest #153

Okay, so, not a perfect quest, but I thought it ran relatively smoothly over all.  There were a few glaring errors that I'll get to shortly, but first I'll pat myself on the back and say that I think it accomplished its main two goals, though not perfectly.  I intended for the quest to both flesh out The New Court of Demons, since I think they got some bad press in 139 (yes, Zane is a weird and pretty bad dude, def skewing morally gray to black, but the rest are meant to skew more gray to white while being loyal to him, and I thought I did a poor job of telling that story in 139).  I also wanted to show what "country bumpkins" from Baltarok and the Darklands would think of Eubric - Eubric has been idealized by the heroes and a lot of QMs, but we've always suggested there are dark undertones as well, and I thought it'd be nice to show off both sides from an outsider perspective.

So, let's talk story problems.  Too many NPCs!  Originally, the guards weren't going to be in it at all, but I thought they'd be nice in the beginning and then they made sense later, and helped bring some symmetry, so I brought them back.  Maybe they should have been cut.  I was going to cut Lane to sort of balance things out, but then I didn't want to cut Bonaparte rep.  I also don't like "leveling down" NPCs because I don't think it makes sense, but his inclusion did really ruin that final battle, so realistically that may just have to be a principle I give up on.  Finally, I really wanted to let Johnny stay on and see an adventure through, because he's an unprincipled dude but he has to have some morals, and I think loyalty to people he actually considers friends would be it.  BUT he really didn't get a chance to add much.

So, that's that on the story front.  I feel like the NPCs and heroes interaction was okay.  I think i should have played up Parvati's worry, but I think that presenting the heroes with the outsiders, as well as the good and the bad in the city was nice (I'm glad that people finally got to see the Watch actually do something good, so that was a reason I was happy to include them).  Conversation between the PCs was a little quieter - don't know if it was the quest, or what.  Darkstan and Cedric are both quieter heroes, so I guess that makes sense.  Still, I understand that the quest maybe didn't allow for a lot of "philosophical talk" or even decision making - it was a pretty clear go here do this, which I needed after hosting a behemoth.

Battles and loot were okay.  Nothing super unique dropped, but I don't think that's bad.  I like the Shattering Arrows, and think they'll be useful in the future, so I was happy to get those out there.  The battles themselves were a bit hit or miss.  Like I said, Lane really ruined the last one, that's on me.  I considered different mechanics for that one a lot, and don't think I settled on the best one.  The Native Sons battle went well, but the inside was a little too hard and the outside a little too easy.  I like enemies that can buff themselves - it adds a bit of a ticking clock element without a direct ticking clock.

Finally, I did design this quest without assuming any particular heroes would go on it.  I'm glad you didn't feel left out, Comrade Commander, but I imagine it was a little difficult with Matthias knowing all the NPCs and no one else knowing any.  That's just the way it is with recurring NPCs in my quests.  I can't think of a way around it, though Matthias was particularly well equipped in that randomly pretty much every single NPC was one he knew (from both 102 and 139, which had a huge number of NPCs each).

HEROES:

Matthias - I think I've said a lot of what can be said about Matthias.  He's a strong moral leader, and a good friend to a lot of my NPCs at this point.  That being said, I miss a little bit of his moral indignation from earlier quests.  Heroica, since it requires teamwork, tends to flatten that out of characters uniformly, and I know it can be an exhausting trait to play (Boomingham has certainly lost some of his "less desirable" traits over time).  But I still think there can be a balance.  That being said, Matthias' new immortality is being played well - not front and center, because he doesn't really know what it means yet, but still definitely something he is aware of and that he is aware must effect him.

Throlar - I like Throlar a lot too, but would offer up a similar critique in that in softening him we have lost a little too much of his edge.  He pissed me off a bit in his early quests, but now I feel he's too cooperative.  :tongue:  I like his brusqueness, and feel it was a little missing.  I do like a lot of the traits that he has retained though - he's still very weirdly business like sometimes, still pretty indignant, and I had forgotten he was meant to be in Baltarok, and thought it was an interesting thread you played up without it taking over.  I'd love to see his "ambassador" roots more.  I thought it worked well in this quest that he knew he was supposed to be elsewhere and had been waylaid, but was still interested in the work he was currently engaged in.  Overall a character that has grown on me enormously.

Darkstan - I don't think there's anything wrong with stoic heroes, which is exactly how Darkstan strikes me.  He has a strong lineage with Hoke (one of my all time favorite heroes) and Tarn (another all time favorite).  They are strong in their silence, and it makes when they voice opinions all that much stronger.  He has also inherited the lineage of pragmatism sometimes trumping morality - he isn't slow to loot, which I think is very revealing.  Stoic doesn't always mean entirely moral in every instance.  I like Darkstan a lot, and think he's work well at holding the glue of a team together.  I'd be really interested to see him confronted with more moral challenges, and see where he lands on them.  I hope to host him again!

Cedric - Strong new hero.  Like Comrade said, a little quiet, but that should come with time.  I was sorry to see that your decision to treat your fellow heroes rather offensively was jumped on.  Like I said to some earlier heroes, rounding out the really sharp edges it important, but not losing the edge is equally important.  I know a lot of people who are genuinely jerks to strangers... some people that I'm friends with!  Some of them are jerks to their friends!  Sometimes that's what makes them lovable.  A lot of the heroes in the game are plagued with "am I actually doing good" which is a question built into a organization called heroes that are for hire.  I'd love to see a hero not interested in that question, so I'd say, go for it!  Go in, get the job done, get out.  You would still be a team player in the meta game (not derailing the storyline) while being combative in game, and that's what matters - as long as you aren't stealing the story from anyone else, I'd say Cedric can be who he is.  As for being quiet, as I said to Comrade Commander, I think that's a fine trait too, but make sure it's a choice rather than not knowing what to do.  Strength comes from both being quiet, and acting when needed.

Thanks for the quest, guys!  I think I'll be getting to work on my finale soon, if people are still interested in it!  It's got a lot of planning required, but I think this is the time if any.

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If you have time I would be grateful if people would check out this link:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/101964690@N03/

I've been slowly churning out bad guys and items for various quests I would like to do. Most of the characters and creatures I'm keeping private, but for many of the items and simpler bad guys, I would love two things. 

1. People to offer any balancing or creative input on what they think the item should be called or how it might function for keeping the game balance yet interesting.

2. Please please please feel free to use/finalize the creation of any of the items etc that you like. I can't run a quest which gives out 50 rewards to each member.. and that's the ratio they are coming out in ;P . I'd love to see other people use them in their quests, as i continue to work on my own.

I'd be very happy to see comments on the flickr page suggesting stuff, and will change the description of the items accordingly. 

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49 minutes ago, Siercon and Coral said:

If you have time I would be grateful if people would check out this link:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/101964690@N03/

I've been slowly churning out bad guys and items for various quests I would like to do. Most of the characters and creatures I'm keeping private, but for many of the items and simpler bad guys, I would love two things. 

1. People to offer any balancing or creative input on what they think the item should be called or how it might function for keeping the game balance yet interesting.

2. Please please please feel free to use/finalize the creation of any of the items etc that you like. I can't run a quest which gives out 50 rewards to each member.. and that's the ratio they are coming out in ;P . I'd love to see other people use them in their quests, as i continue to work on my own.

I'd be very happy to see comments on the flickr page suggesting stuff, and will change the description of the items accordingly. 

I like them! When I get some time tomorrow after I wake up I'll shoot some ideas.

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14 hours ago, KotZ said:

I like them! When I get some time tomorrow after I wake up I'll shoot some ideas.

Thanks so much, and that would be much appreciated and super helpful!

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So Quest 155, one of my favorites to host, albeit a little longer than I had hoped. I had been planning a Christmas caper for my D&D group and decided to adapt it for Heroica, essentially taking a twist on the classic Grinch Who Stole Christmas. The balance came in keeping the Party suspicious of the Grunch but also willing to work with him when the real threat was revealed. Thankfully everything went smoothly and I've got to say that the Party was fantastic watching them work through the story. Aside from the extra length of the quest, all-in-all I think the balance was struck in terms of RP, story, battles, and puzzles. I generally like giving a breakdown of the quest so here we go:

Story:
As mentioned before the story was meant to be a twist on a classic tale and I tried to imbibe some holiday cheer and Seuss whimsy into the overall plot as well. The rhymes were one of my favorite parts to come up with and I had a blast crafting each part of the story. Overall Mopag hasn't gotten a lot of screen time within Heroica so hopefully it's been more fleshed out so that future QM's have strings to pull on in future quests. In regards to a villain, I do love the Dark Dwarves, I really think they fit a niche that for the most part has been unfilled in Heroica's history. Traditionally most RPG settings have your evil races and for the most part, Heroica has been intentional of not casting any particular monsters in a totally evil light, aside from maybe mindflayers and demons. Dark Dwarves are somewhat like the Drow of the D&D world and I think it's good to have a group every once and a while that a Party can reliably assume is the enemy. You don't want to use the motif all the time, but it can serve as a nice change from the simply misunderstood monster trope we tend to find our stories centered around.

Puzzles:
I always attempt to include some puzzles as they simply appeal to a segment of the RPG community just as in depth RP sessions and complex battles. Almost everyone got the spot the difference puzzle, but no one was able to solve the ice flow puzzle. Granted the ice flow puzzle was probably the most difficult puzzle I've ever developed and unless you approach it with a specific strategy it's going to be very time consuming. The trick was to note the repeating pattern of the flows and then move the group accordingly, literally building each of the frames of the repeat or drawing them out with graph paper would have been your best shot. The puzzle itself incorporated red herrings and false trails as designing a challenging maze for an RPG can be extremely difficult. Another way to look at the problem would have been to think of the maze as a 3 dimensional puzzle with each slice of the 3D maze representing a single frame. The actual answer is: I'm very impressed by the attempts that were made to solve it and I'm now aware of how hard not to make my puzzles.

Battles:
I'm never much of a battle guy, but I think aside from the final battle which was just a slog fest, the first two battles were fairly balanced. With a Druid, I like to amp the battle up a little since revival is such a greater possibility. Enemies that can deal out negative effects on hits are also much stronger than one might give them credit for and creating "Remedy" type abilities really help the longevity of enemies in a phase of the game where such weapons and consumables are so prevalent. It is worth noting that the Party could have skipped the Wight encounter simply by paying a Phoenix Essence each, but the resulting battle still ended up being interesting. I was surprised that the Party split when it came to the final battle, but still wanted to show that there are consequences to every action. I was also surprised at how much enemies that could replicate Party positive effects would dissuade them from using them. The last battle lasted quite a bit longer than expected, but I think that was more Party dependent as they chose to conserve their consumables which would have accelerated the speed of the battle and chose to play it safe in terms of always fighting from the back row. It is worth noting that as a QM, if I see a party employing the same strategy I am going to take advantage of it as some time to force them to try something different, like how camping in the last battle could lead to the loss of innocents' lives. I'm still torn about whether to allow resurrection of the children as it did take away from the high stakes hostage situation, but for the themes of the quest I think it worked out for the best. Either way I hope the loot was satisfactory for the amount of effort that went into the battles themselves.

Role-playing & Players:
Nerwen (Chromeknight) - I'm disappointed we couldn't have you longer in the quest, your characterization of Nerwen is always a treat to watch and play off of. Here's hoping to have you back soon.

Vindsval (Asphalt) - I don't think I've ever had the opportunity to DM you before this, so I can say that it was indeed very satisfying. Your character is very well fleshed out at this point and he's established himself and his mythos so well that it feels unnecessary for him to expand upon his comments concerning the Wanderer or his history as a witch, they simply flow naturally out of him. I like the gentle giant feel that you're going for, but I wouldn't mind seeing some of the chinks in his armor at some point. Perfect characters are hard to sympathize with or really care about in the end because we generally have a hard time relating to them. As a reader we know the hardships he's endured and the pains and suffering he's labored through, but outside of those struggles, he's simply the character who is always right, whether morally, logically, or emotionally. There's no real flaws in his character, which can be fine in small doses but somewhat boring in the long run as a reader. Other than that small criticism, I enjoy him wholeheartedly and would definitely look forward to hosting him again.

Monk Pretzel (Palathdaric) - Pretzel is a beast in terms of combat.:laugh: I'm still not convinced that the Artisan class is balanced as it's an absurd combination of possibilities both defensively and offensively, but he definitely was the most challenging character to balance for. If I had him for a longer quest I definitely would have instituted more battles that had win conditions other than outlast the enemy, because honestly creating an enemy that can overcome his SP and immunities without also one-shotting another character is nigh impossible. Heroica RPG is sadly tied into the system of single die battle results and when one creates an enemy to specifically deal with a certain character the easiest solution is simply to have the character ignore them and target a different enemy. :laugh: In the end I decided to simply let Pretzel be Pretzel and try and challenge the rest of the party to some mild success. Ah well, from a RP standpoint, I'd have liked to see the effects of Pretzel's previous quests playing more into his character, but outside of that he was a reliable source of steadfastness for the Party and I did like the point where he reacted to the power of his Magic Compass. I thought that little bit was brilliant from a character standpoint and really helped to highlight the reality of normal characters being bestowed with incredible powers.

Thalion (-obelix-) - As the fill in party leader for the group, I think you did a great job of filling the niche of strategic battle leader and caring Role-player. Like Vindsval Thalion also suffers from nice guy syndrome and there's not much that makes him stand out as a character. I would have thought his transition to Mystic Knight would have had more of an effect on his attitude, maybe making him more of a take charge type. I will commend you on playing out the Hexed effect to the letter in that you were great. I'd still gladly take Thalion on another quest, I'd hope to have him more solidified though in his personality.

Matthias (StickFig) - Matthias is always one of my favorite's to host, he's definitely established his personality and it shown through in this quest as well. As the sole provider of resurrections in the group he was very to have along for balance purposes and his interactions both with Grunch and the children were great. The moment at the beginning of the quest that he stepped into the back room and came face to face with a tense situation really was fantastic and his contributions throughout the remainder of the story were excellent as well. Not much I could give you in terms of criticisms, you've got a really good build and it allowed you to hold your own among much more powerful characters. All in all a delight to have you along.

I may add more notes in the upcoming few days, but this is a good summary of my experience and it was indeed a positive one. Thanks again for all of your patience in the running of this quest, it was a pleasure playing along with all of you.:classic:

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If you think Artisan is unbalanced, how come everyone who has gone that path has quickly given it up apart from me? :tongue: Okay, I admit, it might not be entirely balance, but... :grin:

Thank you so much for the quest, WaterbrickDown. It really was a lot of fun. I love these simple, relatively straight forwards quests. They really are my favourites. Also, puzzles are signature you and yours are always fabulous. I almost feel bad that none of us could finish the ice one, because as hard as I found to complete it, it must have been far harder for you to come up with it. Though I thought the last battle was difficult, certainly with Matthias being able to revive the children, it made it easier. I think we also got good rolls. In the beginning I thought that every three rounds two more dwarfs would join and I was like...what!!! I guess I should just read more carefully. :blush: 

Loot was fine, though honestly, in quests this good, I would have no problems even if you didn't give any loot. :thumbup:

I really like the time when Pretzel Magic Compassed the enemy away. I really liked the sort of awkwardness it produced between Thalion and Pretzel.

I'm not entirely sure why Pretzel wasn't more suspicious of Grunch. I think he was maxed out with Vind, but Vind obviously had such heart for kids and kept getting Guardian Angels (how annoying was that for Pretzel? :hmpf_bad: ), that he really just ran out of arguments against them, but instead tried to outshine them in being good. :grin:

It was a pleasure playing with all of you. I wish I could have participated more in role-playing. I still hope to QM again, but I really need to sort myself out and how to go about that.

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Thanks for Having Vindsval along on this one.  I had a lot of fun.

Story:

       I liked it.  I am glad the Grinch Grunch ended up being an allie instead of the obvious enemy.  I liked the adaptation from the well known story to the game.  I would have liked to hear a little more evil monologging from our villain to know a bit more of what he was doing and why.  Did Monk and Vindsval miss some of that in our failed attempt at an offshoot?

Puzzles:

       I hate puzzles.  The seek and find was a blast, but I still have nightmares about that ice flow challenge.  I need to find the picture I took.  I literally printed out the video frame by frame and worked it out on paper and I still got it wrong.  My hat is off to you good sir for taking the time to put it together and not punishing us poor dullards when we couldn't get it together.

Loot:

      Loot was good and original.  The Bag of Many things is awesome.  I can't wait to put it to use, and I am going to like Vindsval's new arm.  There was plenty of god ol cash as well and my first ever Bright Polish.  All in all I think we made out pretty nicely.  I am still waiting to find a scroll shop though.  Maybe next time.

Battles:

      I was also afraid that the dwarves call on the third round would end up being call every three rounds and then we would have definitely failed the quest.  Most of the fights took strategy and we paid for it when we didn't think it through.  It made us read things more closely which I liked.

Characters:

Nerwen (Chromeknight) - I am sorry you had to drop out.  I hadn't had to opportunity to play with you before and it is always nice to meet new characters.

Vindsval (Asphalt) -I feel like I dropped the ball on this one.  You are right, he is starting to sound a little too goody two shoed on some of the issues.  I need to get him into a situation where he is forced to let the beast out so to speak and it costs him ethically or emotionally.  I thought there might have been an opportunity when we came back to the children and there had already been a fatality, but matthias came to the rescue and it passed.  there was some potential for a blow up between pretzel and Vindsval but for one reason or another neither of us pushed the issue.  I think both of them being soft hearted for children defused a lot of the conflict.  I don't know pretzel's back story, but nearly every quest Vindsval has been on included a lost, wounded, or endangered child.  Seems to be his thing.  I think part of it is as a player I am very reticent to start a fight with another player.  I should have talked to Palathadaric out of character to see if he wanted to work a full out fight between the two.    But yeah, good two shoes note taken, and I will work on that.  Maybe with a switch to Vindicator some of Vindsval's polish will get scraped off.

Monk Pretzel (Palathdaric) -  Ohh you racist little yellow skin.  I am both glad and sorry we didn't play that up harder.  Like I mentioned before, I am loath to start an all out fight with another character, but I think we both missed a chance to see what Vindsval and Monk could do when he is forced into a confrontation with the nastiness of the human race.   I wish I knew more about the Monks background, I might have known better how to play off him.  You did great with his attitude.  He softened a lot towards the green skins when it became evident that children were involved.  Is there a story in his past about it?    I would like to travel with Pretzel again.  And I would love to find out a little bit more about how jaded and angry he is in regards to green skins, and especially a green skin with divine support.

Thalion (-obelix-) - Thanks for taking up the reigns when we lost our leader.  You did a good job, both letting characters know what you wanted to do and letting us screw up on our own.  

Matthias (StickFig) - First, without Matthias on board I am pretty sure we would have lost the day.  His ability to heal and revive both the players and the children was invaluable.  I think this is only my second time playing with a druid, and they are a powerhouse.  I look forward to seeing more of that in the future.  

 

All in all, I had fun, and I look forward to questing for and with all of you again sometime.

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@Waterbrick Down, great quest, and all the more amazing that you're a parent now! Welcome to a whole new world! Can't say how happy I am for you.
 

On 4/30/2017 at 5:56 PM, Waterbrick Down said:

Battles: ... I'm still torn about whether to allow resurrection of the children as it did take away from the high stakes hostage situation, but for the themes of the quest I think it worked out for the best.

I'm just saying, @Zepher would have let them die, or the Santa dwarf boss guy would have resurrected three times, or something :poke:, and there's a time and a place for that, but with the Seuss-inspired feel of the quest, this was right. And I'm a parent, I need a happy ending in a story like that. Plus, druid gonna druid. I'm just mad at those dumb guardian angels - what kind of angel doesn't protect kids?! :pir-oh:
 

On 4/30/2017 at 5:56 PM, Waterbrick Down said:

Matthias (StickFig) - Matthias is always one of my favorites to host, he's definitely established his personality and it showed through in this quest as well.

Thanks for the compliments - honestly I feel like I owe you all an apology. This semester has been a slog in all possible ways: classes, extended family drama, health issues... I haven't had the focus I really want to for this game but it has been a welcome escape. I will work on more thoughts later, but for now, thank you all, especially WBD, for making this another wonderful quest. Honestly, Matthias has never been on a bad one!

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11 hours ago, StickFig said:

I'm just mad at those dumb guardian angels - what kind of angel doesn't protect kids?! :pir-oh:

Orcish Guardian Angels, what do you expect? :hmpf_bad: 

Yeah, as a person I don't really like conflicts, but Pretzel is a confrontational character (Oh, I didn't need to say that? :tongue: ), so sometimes I have a hard time balancing sticking to his character while also avoiding causing too much problems with holding back the party. Also, I just don't have as much time for Heroica and arguing for Pretzel. :grin:

I do have to say that one of the most rewarding parts of the quests was when Pretzel forced Vind to pretend like he was his slave. I'm sure Pretzel did it more for the satisfaction of lording over Vind than actually thinking it would work to convince the others. :laugh:

I think Pretzel did really have a shift since Baba got into his mind. He's just not so self-assured as he used to be and his philosophy is sort of cracking. It's also embarrassing for him to be known in the hall as having sided with the Wolfgang, even though he tells himself he did it for a good cause.

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On 5/1/2017 at 7:18 AM, Palathadric said:

I'm not entirely sure why Pretzel wasn't more suspicious of Grunch. I think he was maxed out with Vind, but Vind obviously had such heart for kids and kept getting Guardian Angels (how annoying was that for Pretzel? :hmpf_bad: ), that he really just ran out of arguments against them, but instead tried to outshine them in being good. :grin:

That actually shows character development, if he can be persuaded through counter-examples of his prejudices then that is actual personality progression. :classic: Concerning the puzzle I just realized I didn't post the solution, here it is:

Up    Up    Down    Up    Left     Up    Left     Left     Left     Right    Left    Left    Up    Up    Left    Up    Left    Right    Up    Up    Up    Right    Up    Down    Right    Down    Down    Right    Right    Down    Right    Up    Left    Up    Right    Down    Right    Right    Right    Up    Right    Up    Right    Right    Right    Up    Up    Down    Right    Left    Up    Up    Up    Left    Left    Down    Down    Left    Down    Up    Left    Up    Left    Left    Down    Down    Left    Left    Up    Left    Left    Left    Up    Up    Up    Up    Left    Right    Right    Down    Left    Up    Right    Right    Right    Right    Right    Down    Up    Right    Right    Left    Left    Right    Up    Up    Down    Up    Up

On 5/1/2017 at 2:41 PM, Asphalt said:

Thanks for Having Vindsval along on this one.  I had a lot of fun.

Story:

       I liked it.  I am glad the Grinch Grunch ended up being an allie instead of the obvious enemy.  I liked the adaptation from the well known story to the game.  I would have liked to hear a little more evil monologging from our villain to know a bit more of what he was doing and why.  Did Monk and Vindsval miss some of that in our failed attempt at an offshoot?

You didn't miss much. I didn't include much on the villain's motivation as I didn't want to complicate the story. I wanted a pretty straight forward "this is the bad guy because he does bad things" not because he's misunderstood or a victim of his circumstances. Grunch being a hero was the only twist of the story and I didn't want to push it any further than that.

Quote

Grunch, Matthias, and Thalion move forward silently. The tunnel soon opens up to a large cavern, boxes are being loaded onto a giant sleigh and a group of Dark Dwarves stand round the vehicle.

32670231263_775207d900_c.jpg


31060886224_fec42209dd_t.jpg
"What's this?"

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"Your judgement."

PREPARE FOR BATTLE!

22 hours ago, StickFig said:

@Waterbrick Down, great quest, and all the more amazing that you're a parent now! Welcome to a whole new world! Can't say how happy I am for you.
 

I'm just saying, @Zepher would have let them die, or the Santa dwarf boss guy would have resurrected three times, or something :poke:, and there's a time and a place for that, but with the Seuss-inspired feel of the quest, this was right. And I'm a parent, I need a happy ending in a story like that. Plus, druid gonna druid. I'm just mad at those dumb guardian angels - what kind of angel doesn't protect kids?! :pir-oh:

Thanks StickFig, it struck me the other day just how long I've been in Heroica RPG, since I started, I've graduated college, got married, and had a kid, it can be a welcome relaxing agent from the business of every day life.

I agree with you in that having the kids be raised seemed the better fit for the theme. And as for the angel, meh I had to keep the battle somewhat balanced.

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By the way, the little verses at every interlude were brilliant. :wub:

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Thanks for the missing picture.  Which reminds me.  I very much enjoyed all of your scenes.

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First of, I would like to start by saying thank you for an amazing quest WBD; your quests are always fun, and this one was no exception. I truly enjoyed the story, it was pleasant and easy to follow, the twists were great, and there were no complicated or convoluted endings, which is refreshing. I do however have to apologize for my incompetence in solving the puzzles (as they are kind of a staple in your quests), but that is not your fault, its mine - that is the reason I never got into Professor Layton games (even though I think they are pretty good games :classic:)...

As for Thalion, what you said is true, he is suffering from the "good guy syndrome", but I started playing him like that when I joined Heroica, and I didn't want to have him make a radical alignment and personality shift for no apparent reason (as I think that would be just poor role playing), but I should probably make him a somewhat more stout character now that he is a knight; while still trying to maintain his good-guy traits. We'll see how it will turn out.

Thank you for your kind words everyone, I was my pleasure to fill in the role of party leader. My fellow players were all great, and it would be my pleasure to go on a quest again with any and all of them. I will, however, point these things out: Monk was an absolute powerhouse at some points in the battles, and the same goes for Matthias in regards to healing and keeping the party alive. Great job guys! I really enjoyed Vindsval's dedication to his deity and never missing an opportunity to role playing with it. I was very sorry to see Nerwen (Chromeknight) had to leave us mid-quest but I believe there were good reasons for that; I always enjoy Thalion-Nerwen synergy, as I think they make a pretty good team. :sweet:

P.S. I apologize for my absence in the last week, I wanted to reply sooner but things have been a little hectic at work.

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On 5/5/2017 at 9:08 AM, Palathadric said:

By the way, the little verses at every interlude were brilliant. :wub:

On 5/5/2017 at 9:48 AM, Asphalt said:

Thanks for the missing picture.  Which reminds me.  I very much enjoyed all of your scenes.

+1 on both. Excellent!

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Quest 157 

Well where do I start...I kinda wonder if I even should of sign up for the quest. I feel a little burned out in general and I guess I won't sign up for anything to soon. (Not to mention some personal stuff I really need to take care of before I want to go on another.) And I guess it would not of bothered me if I was not picked to go on the quest. Not to mention Germ seem to get smacked around a little in this quest. 

I guess I put a thought or two on the other players.

Hoke - It seems like he is just annoyed with everyone in general. (I am wondering if I am just projecting something on to you.) 

Torald - He seems to know that he is not the smartest tool in the shed. (To me it seem like you did not even try to solve any of the puzzles.) 

Throlar - (For some reason I am drawing a little bit of a blank.) But I guess some will say it was good when you were freaking out over Lippi getting hurt. 

Ezeran - (I am getting the "blank" problem with you too. But I think you said you were busy.) Then their is the role playing with August in the last battle. I am not totally sure what to think about that, is it good or is it bad. 

OK, a few things about the quest itself. The shop it seemed a little lack luster to me. (I did notice you use some pictures or items from Sericon & Coral.) Second thing the "door puzzle" if you couldn't tell I thought it was freaking vage. And I know I was not only one who thought so. Good thing Throlar figured it out. Last thing the battles , it seem like since Hoke killed off the manticores super fast. You made it seem the rest of the battles got bumped up some how. And I think the last battle show it a little, since half of the party got KO. 

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