swils

Dangit, Cornelius, way to take everything I was trying to say and put it in a condensed, well-summated, and easy to understand format. How dare you!

In regard to items that don't fit on certain characters, and the choice of "form or function", I wholeheartedly disagree. In lots of modern, successful MMORPGs, most armor and items in general are generic. They will scale to fit the user. It helps to keep the game accessible. In a pen and paper setting, in a tight-knit circle, such limitations are more appropriate. Let's say that the orc in your party finds a bonemail chainskirt of humanslaying. When he later finds a dragonbone plateskirt of human genociding, it is highly unlikely that the human in your group is going to want that humanslaying piece, due in large part to the alignment of that character. Heroica doesn't go that deep. When Player A is done with Item 1, it would be nice if he/she was able to easily pass it on to Player B, so that they might use it. If Player 2 were incapable of equipping it for one cosmetic reason or another, sure, there could be a lengthy and expensive modification process, but why bother? Why not just let them use it? Suspension of Disbelief Also, I wholeheartedly agree--I *love* when the QMs include actual pictures of the items they are awarding. It helps to keep you in the LEGO mindset. But as was mentioned before, I don't think that should mean the players should have to equip it to their character in order to be considered as "wearing" it. The QM presented their interpretation of the item. The Player listed it under his equipment. At the conclusion of the quest, the item, its description, and its picture will be archived in CallMePie's thread on that matter. If the player wants to go the extra mile and acquire the item/pieces of the item, and replicate as best they can on their figure and rephotograph it, that's great! I encourage that and think the involvement in the game is wonderful. But I don't think that point has any real relevance to the matter of limitations on equipment. It is the responsibility of the QMs to provide details, plotline or otherwise (pictures, in this case) that keep people interested in the quest. But the players earned their reward. Why limit them just because the actual amulet is made of an oversized windscreen and chain, rather than just recognize that the pictured item is a scaled up version?

It's an interesting list, for sure, but I think its overly complicated for Heroica RPG, as Sandy has presented it to us (Please, correct me if I'm wrong, Sandy). And then there's the issue that was mentioned where people will try to bend the rules wherever they can. A character wearing a Ninja wrap could still fit a cape under it, it would just be a tight squeeze. And certainly, a mask-type minifigure head would fit underneath the wrap as well. So logically, you should be able to wear all three on your character, right? Similarly, while you may only be able to wear one hat, you could theoretically be wearing four necklaces/amulets at once and still be considered realistic... It gets far too nitpicky. I really don't think it's a good idea to start giving artifacts multiple classifications. If it's *primarily* a head-piece, then it would fit the "Head" slot. If it's a cloak with a hood, then it fits the "Back" slot, and you can just imagine your character wears it with the hood down. If it's X it fits X slot, regardless of whether or not it *appears* to cover up Y slot as well. You get the picture. If it is a truly super-powerful item and would be over the top alongside anything else, then give it an additional effect that says "May not be equipped with any other artifacts." Otherwise, use some common sense, both in equipping items, and in *designing* them. If you've got two artifact hats, then for all I care, wear 'em. It's your choice. Honestly, I don't think it will end up being that much of a broken mechanic. Of course, you could (and I'm sure would be encouraged to) act in a more realistic manner, and use only one of them at a time. But again, your artifacts, your choice.*1* On the other hand, if you're hosting a quest (and I'm looking down the road a ways here), and your entire party all has unique hats equipped, don't offer a hat as a reward. *1* If I ever host, and I run into a player doing this, then be warned, there will likely be a completely random windstorm that blows through the area and tosses your 2nd hat somewhere far away. It won't be lost, but you'll have to go find it, or wait for it to be returned at the end of the quest. But hey, that's what you get for acting walking around with two hats on your head, looking like a fool. I mean, come on, that second one can't -possibly- be sitting very steadily... You've only yourself to blame! Edit: All of this, of course, is pure speculation and suggestion on my own part. It's ultimately up to you, Sandy, how to handle it, and I really don't mean to step on your toes by saying what I think is the right or wrong approach for this

Four seems like a lot to me. In an admittedly extreme scenario, someone with 4 Artifacts could be under the effects of the three main condition-altering potions permanently, and still have room for something more (and even then, that's just "basic" artifacts, things that don't modify the character's behavior/battle actions that much). I think that having one weapon and two artifacts equipped at once is plenty. If you really want to add a realism factor in, then the "One hat, one pair of gloves, one pair of shoes...etc" rule could still be employed, but I think it would just make things more complicated than necessary. Though, to be fair, "item-slots" could be used to limit/prevent stacking.. if a QM wants to provide an artifact, but is afraid it could be too powerful if used in conjunction with another already in existence, say, a hat, then the new item could also be made a hat, and thus the two items will *never* be worn at the same time by a player. Unless, of course, I decide to re-roll as a two-headed ogre! Heh.

Reaching the Market with 285 gold to his name, Thormanil approaches Elphaba, and purchases a Topaz. 285 - 100 = 185G With the gemstone in hand, he next pays a visit to Anwyl, and lays his axes down on the counter, placing the Topaz alongside them. As he tells Anwyl what he would like done, the smith writes up a receipt: 50G WP 4->5 60G WP 5->6 50G Lightning Enchantment -160G Total Cost Thundering Shadeaux Axes (WP:6, Lightning) Gold Remaining: 25G Thormanil nods in agreement with the work order, and Anwyl gets to work. A while later he returns to the counter and passes the weapons back to Thormanil. He immediately notices that the blades have been cleaned and sharpened to a razor's edge. He reaches out to run his finger along one of the blades, but yanks his hand back as a jolt of electricity arcs from the axe to his finger. Anwyl grins, proud, as always, of his craftsmanship. Thormanil thanks him for the work done: Yer a master of the trade, that's for sure. Now, I've got one last thing. He places the Pongcanis Tongue and Chunk of the Lucky Table on the counter. How much would ya charge me to make me somethin' useful outta these? Anwyl looks at the strange items placed before him, then up to Thormanil, then back down at the items. He picks them up and chuckles, just before shoving the large splinter of wood straight into the tongue. Grin as wide as ever, he hands the new "weapon" back to the barbarian, saying: Here ya go. I call it "Tongue on a Stick" and it's about as strong as you'd expect it to be--a weapon power of 1. And don't give me any lip (harhar) about the name. You're paying me to craft weapons, not write poetry. Actually, you're not even paying me for this one at all. Child coulda done that, so we'll say it's on the house. Now, need anything else today? He hands the new weapon back to Thormanil. Tongue on a Stick (WP:1, CoLT Effect)

Thanks for the clarification. And yeah, no argument on the usefulness. Imagine if I end up in a fight against something that has an abnormally high chance to dodge attacks. Won't that creature look silly as I repeatedly smack it with a tongue-on-a-stick until it's dead, haha! Although, I'm not quite sure I understood your example entirely. Particularly the "better odds of finishing him" part. Both weapons would have the same chance to finish him, the difference being that the CoLT-weapon would have an additional chance to bring him down to 4 health. Which, in a team setting, could mean the difference between a follow-up attack from a teammate either killing it, or leaving it with 1 health, I suppose, heh. Edit: @darkdragon, I think that would work as a very rough estimate on the QM's end, but really, I think the largest factor in quest length is the party size and/or availability schedules of party members and QM.

Hey Doc, was hoping to get a quick clarification on the Chunk of Lucky Table's effect. I initially took it to mean that the WP is set *and* limited to WP=1. I was writing up my Marketplace post (since I had already updated my signature), and just wanted to make sure that this was how the effect worked. Wouldn't want to toss it on a for-fun weapon only to find out that I could have built the WP of my main weapons back up after reverting to WP1, heh.

His voice having been lost amongst all the conversations happening in the bar, Thormanil decides to just fork over the extra gold and make all his purchases in the market. On his way out of the Hall, he scrawls his name on the sign-up sheets for Quests 14, 15, and 16. His hand hovered over the list for The Lion's Share, but for the time being, his allegiance was with the Shadeaux. Or, at least, he wasn't looking to jump ship so readily. There were plenty of other heroes who would leap at the chance to help the Hinckwells, so why not let them clean up the mess he'd just caused? Heck, if they do a good enough job of spoiling the plans of the Shadeaux, the House might find need of his assistance again in the future. Now having stood at the Quest Board for quite a length, he snapped back to the moment and proceeded towards the Market.

As Thormanil walks back into the bar, those with a keen eye begin to question whether or not he seems *just* a little bit taller than he was when he had first set out. Maybe he was standing a bit straighter, with the confidence and experience of a true quest under his belt, or maybe... maybe there was a little something more. He heads over to the table with Tomas, De'kra, and the rest of his friends, taking note of the gold De'kra was offering back. Thank you, De'kra. Best money I've yet invested, I gotta say, your foresight for that last fight really gave us the upper hand going into it. Can you imagine if we'd blindly rushed in against the Lions? We coulda been swarmed! Hah! Now, THAT would have made for a great story! Pocketing the 25 gold, he sifts through his coinpurse, figuring out how much he's got now. Aha, got a tidy little sum now! Think it's time I get a little shopping done! Oh, I know, I just got here, but hey, I'll be back soon enough! Try not ta miss me, hah! Standing up again, he shouts to the entirety of the bar: Ay! You lot! Anyone looking to part with any gemstones? Tell me what you've got and I'll let ya know if I'm interested! Go on, don't be afraid to shout it out at me! OOC: In the interest of helping me locate any offers, should anyone be looking to sell, could you open with "Hey, Thormanil!" so that I can ctrl+F it easily, but it still doesn't seem out of character? e.g. "Hey, Thormanil! I'd like to sell you a ____" Thanks in advance

If it eases your mind at all, once I incorporated the Chunk into a weapon, I was planning to have it in my inventory as an acronym, with the expanded text containing the effect description.

Oh, well hmph , what reason do I have to continue following along with the storyline if not for a monster of my own namesake? Pausing, swils recalls the last two months of questing, and reconsiders: Err, right, just what sort of rubbish was I thinking a moment ago? How silly of me! I did really enjoy how you included a bunch of little easter-eggs and such, breaking the fourth wall, so to speak. Not to say other QM's haven't, but, having been a part of this quest, I feel qualified to comment on them directly. It helped to break up the feeling of being on a relatively strict plotline, having little deviations based upon what was going on/being said amongst the players.

Maybe we'll have the chance to see the yet-elusive Swilsbear in a RotJ-Rancor-esque setting further down the plotline. Surely, there's room for future heroes to make a mistake and wind up in such a situation, hm? That table really was lucky, though, I swear it. Haven't had rolls that good since early on in the quest, heh.

Ah, so they really were just playful items, nothing too devious hidden in there, heh. And, of course, I can't imagine the uproar that would be caused by the eight of us leaving the quest with that much gold and experience. And we thought people were riled up over that ancient fire sword... hah! Just got finished reading the conclusion. Love the storytelling, and the accompanying pictures were great. You've got a real knack for this, and I look forward to Q17--participating OR watching! Despite the deception of the Shadeaux, I think I'll maintain my allegiance until I find one of their blades lodged square in my back. Everybody's got a motive these days, and at least they kept true to their word, letting us keep our weapons, paying us at the conclusion, AND not hiring a bunch of assassins to catch us unaware on our way home, haha.

Psh, thanks for bearing with us for those months! I had a great time on the quest. Would that have been 300 apiece on top of the split reward from the Shadeaux? Ah well, glad we set the stage for the sequel so nicely, and played right into your plot, heh. I posted a question/comment on the final battle in the Discussion thread, but I can't imagine what terrible end we might have met if we'd tried to take on all four leaders. Way I see it, we would have won the battle or failed the quest, or been beaten senseless I am curious about the trick-or-treat items, though. Since I don't think we'll be using them outside the quest, any chance you could tell us what they do? I was going to toss the Skull Bomb at Ad-hoh to test out the powers of his new cloak, but didn't get the chance in-thread, haha!

It's brilliant! I'd been thinking of refitting my old axe along the lines of "Splinterwood Greataxe", but oh my, the Tongue is so much better!

Over the summer, I got back into building. Then FBTB had their alphabet fighter contest, and I started to work on an entry (my "R-wing"), but never got around to completing it. It would have been in the shape of a lowercase "r", though I never came up with a proper and fitting cockpit design. It would have been an asymmetrical fighter. Brickshelf Folder Then the final date for the contest passed, and I decided that I wanted to build something larger, bulkier, though still classified as a starfighter. I want to say that I drew a bit of inspiration from the V-19, the Skyhopper, and the ARC Fighter. Again, finished up a wing, and would have mirrored this one on the opposite side of a fuselage/body and cockpit, had I ever gotten around to finishing it. Brickshelf Folder Now, the engines are definitely not purely of my own creation. I looked to both LEGO models and some nice MOCs for inspiration/guidance in this style of engine cylinder, though I can't for the life of me recall *which* MOCs I looked at (hey, it was quite a few months ago, and I've had to cram any empty space in my brain full of -school- stuff. Blech!), so I'm quite sorry if you look at this and say to yourself, "Hey, that looks an awful lot like MY engine...", I don't *think* I directly copied any designs, and certainly don't mean to claim any sort of credit if you feel it's not due. Just let me know! Additionally, I'm sorry for the blurriness, graininess, and backgrounds on these. I took pictures of them, at the time, just to archive them in case they got knocked over and I had to rebuild them. On that note, let's get to the main reason for the thread: Here I am now, 4000 miles away, and I'm going to try to rebuild and expand upon these models through LDD. I've got a rough idea in my head of what to do with them, but I'm all ears for suggestions. Think something looks odd, and would be better done in a different way? Say so! I'd love suggestions pertaining to the cockpits, as those are, and always have been, my weakest point when building craft. In my younger days, I'd build something, and then usually just fit one of the prefab 10x4 pieces and matching windscreens in there, and call it a day Edit: Whooops, linked to *huge* photos. Resizing, be right back. Edit 2: Aw, bugger. Uploading the 800x600's de-publicized the folders.

Great job everyone! Leo, Xander, seems I had nothing to worry about, you guys finished strong and wiped the floor with those two! And Ad-hoh, you look simply.. dashing! Hah! Now, let's see what those two have to say for themselves... Looking over at the elves, limp on the floor, he pauses, and looks to Shawe They, uh.. are they even.. ..hrm.

Don't want to be cluttering up our thread too much with OOC, especially not in the middle of the battle! Is that so? I really should pay more attention to similar actions in other quests, I might learn a thing or to, haha. Anyway, I think that everything should be fine this turn. Regardless of how far from the mark we were with engaging the elves, I'm quite glad we went with them. The amount of special damage rolls so far would have put is in quite a bind with either of the other two groups. Edit: That being said, I do wonder if giving at least one of the elves a secondary Special Damage would have upped the difficulty to an unreasonable level. The Knights' SD had a secondary effect to prevent a literal flood of enemies, but the elves' SD are all fairly useless once one of them has been triggered. I mean, we've done well so far despite having magic damage nullified, but what if Keveak's and Ricroar's SD abilities had been something to the effect of "Lasts for the duration of this turn, and the next. If someone under the protection of Spell Resistance is targeted by a magic spell, that spell is instead reflected" Something like a Sentinel Position, but adjusted for magic. If I ever get around to putting together a quest, I can guarantee that the players will just love the challenges involved... Edit 2: "this time", I'll assume/hope that ties in with your previous comment about how you've got more planned for this plot.. Quite looking forward to the conclusion and future quests in this vein! And ooh, that's a very interesting little trinket, thank ya kindly! Unique effect, though nicely balanced by the WP limitation. I think I'll have to be paying a visit to the smithy, see about getting him to sharpen my old greataxe.

Yar, with any luck, this'll be these elves' last few breaths, and we'll have made it through fairly unscathed! Barring all these damn splinters in my legs, of course. OOC: Aye, you could, and I figured that's what you'd meant. But why waste a good potion when we've got a healbot on our side?

Well of course, you big brute! I was thinking of someone with a bit of an affinity for holy magic... haha! But I'm running out of splinters of this table, so it can't hurt to take it easy for a round or two. I really should grab a chunk of this table on our way out, see if the blacksmith can't work it into some new axe handles. This table is brilliant luck, I tell ya!

Wardancer, this is a beautiful custom. The lines are crisp, color scheme has a distinct forest/elven feel to it, and there's just enough model customization to make it unique without going overboard. And don't get me started on that vig. Love it!

Keep it up! I'll attack Keveak from the back row, just to be safe. Unless, of course, someone tosses a heal on me, then I'll step back up to the front lines, hah!

Aside from the name being a bit of a disappointment ("The Nameless Knight", "Sir Anon Emus", come on ), it's a really nice custom! Looks clean, and are those the wings off of a Fright Knight helm? I like the bracers, though I'm not experienced enough to say whether they are custom or stock , still like 'em though haha. Good luck to you!

Leo has offered us his shield for the round, are you sure you don't want to take another swing at them, Tomas? I can certainly understand if you'd rather play it safe, though. But hey, this is more like it! Those elves never stood a chance! I'll wipe those smug grins clear off their faces. I'll attack Keveak from the front row. OOC: Oh man, I can't believe I missed a round! Here I was, thinking that someone else was holding things up, and getting rather anxious to see what happened next, haha. Whoops!

Grumble grumble stupid elves grumble.