Flipz

OOC: Doc, I thought Footsoldiers deal double damage to Ranged units? The Crossbowmen my troops hit should be dead. Will be rather busy tomorrow, so don't hold anything up on my account.

Hey, can I get a quick show of hands of Whovians in Heroica? (Preferably those with set-building skills--Eubric, specifically.)

About a month ago I was tossing around ideas for a Christmas Special Quest, I figure for me if I start on it now it should be for Christmas 2015. Also, Doc: *poke* *poke*

"Wipe them out, men! One good hit will do it!" Arthur's troops attack Pongcanis Crossbowmen B.

Jebs, I know you're trying to make a decent profit in comparison to what you could have gotten via GP, but no one's going to pay 2,000 Gold for anything anymore. The income's just not there. You know, it seems to me that the market seems to be deflating somewhat price-wise. That's good to see, considering that was the biggest reason for the Mug Nerf.

What good stuff did we get out of 53??? The Jester's Hat, Special Edition Zoot's Plaything, and Zee Standard were literally the only pieces of decent loot we got from that Quest. 50 and 75 were definitely filled with a lot of very strong loot, though, I'll agree.

Arthur's troops move Southeast into the building. "Prepare yourselves--this will be over soon." Arthur's mind was adrift, however. How much more could I be doing if I were more like Vipera, able to coordinate an army through the power of her thoughts alone? If only I knew how to embrace that heritage...if only I knew where it came from. Something felt...well, wrong. Like he'd somehow failed someone very dear to him, and he might not get a chance to rectify his mistake. He turns to Nerwen and Ellaria, whose units were next to him, and speaks, rather than resorting to the Z-mail that had been so useful in coordinating their actions. "Lady Ellaria, Lady Nerwen, you're more closely connected to the realm of the divine magicks than I am...do your gods warn you of anything...wrong? Is there some impending doom marching on Eubric even as we fight to save R'kliff?" OOC: I believe Command allows Paragons to issue orders to NPCs, so technically Zeph's orders could override any of ours, I guess. Aura of Honor is one of the new traits for the Level 40 Veteran Classes--last I checked, it reads: "If all other party members have less than half of their health left, the guardian knight is bestowed with an aura that doubles their own health and draws in all attacks." Which doesn't come into play, because we'd have to lose at least one of the diplomats before we'd be able to use it, and we can't have that.

It really depends on your party--if everyone in the party is going to be of similar disposition, then Perma-KO will be more fair, but less interesting. Part of the tension in 53's KO-fest was that several party members legitimately disliked each other, AND that we had a bunch of NPCs to baby-sit. That's still one of the more frustrating aspects of 53, incidentally. The NPCs were severely over-delicate, meaning we had to go crazy trying to keep them alive--and then, in spite of all that, some of the ones we were indifferent to (at the time) got kept alive by Plot Armor, and then got killed at the end even though we used a Phoenix Essence on them. (Coming up on a year later and it still smarts that we could have saved Hans with almost no change to the plot.) My advice? If you don't want to stress out the party, be transparent in everything you do. We had no clue exactly how important each Spire was (example: if I'd known that Wren would have been Lucky even after we defended the Spire at Guffington Manor, I would have joined Atramor at the Observatory and lobbied for others to do the same), we didn't know which NPCs would die if KO'd, we didn't know which NPCs were doomed from the start, we didn't know how many more battles there were to come...basically, we were running in the dark for four months, and it amped up the tension like you wouldn't believe. That's also part of why Dastan worked so well--for the most part, we heeded the QMs' wishes that we didn't look at the other Quests, so we flew blind there as well, and it kept the level of peril high. In Dastan, however, there was a concrete objective, and we were given a general idea of what we had to do to achieve it, so the balance was fairly even in that respect. (To be clear, the lack of transparency ADDED a lot to 53, to be sure--but it also added stress. Your call whether the benefits are worth the costs. ) If your party IS of different dispositions, I'd recommend making multiple paths through the events of your finale. Zeph was really generous in letting me improv with Arthur (and I maintain that the best parts of 53 WERE when he let some characters go "off the rails" and have a spontaneous, unplanned effect on his characters and the world), but I'd want to have at least a little wiggle room (preferably via side-Quests) prepared for characters who would otherwise find themselves getting overruled all the time. Also: for the gods' sake, DON'T FORGET TO ROLEPLAY THE **** OUT OF YOUR NPCS. SO many QMs forget this, especially during the more "epic" portions of their stories and their mechanic-ridden fights. I'm not sure what causes it--perhaps it's a perception that certain NPCs have become the "voice" of the QM, and a subconscious desire not to influence the players' choices? In any case, it's a BIG thing; what makes Zepher's NPCs (and Sandy's as well, when he's consciously doing it) so engaging is that they have opinions and beliefs--rather than being the QM's mouthpiece for plot exposition and guidance, they have personalities, and almost end up as players of their own right. That's fantastic, and it need to happen more often. One thing that was missing in 53 was those characters' voices, offering opinions on strategy and tactics based not from "I'm a QM-played character, so I have advanced foreknowledge of what's to come, so I'm going to screw over/forewarn the player characters based on that," but from "I don't know any more than you, but this is what I think based on my goals and motivations." (And yes, I realize how difficult that is to separate, especially when we were so hungry for even a SHRED of information on what was ahead--that's the deliberate lack of transparency coming into play.) It's one thing I noticed in 48--Punii and Hal sort of faded into the background at times, especially towards the middle portion of the Quest. The way you have allied NPCs chatting mid-battle next to their stats helps a LOT, Endgame (just make sure to update it EVERY round!), but I still would also have liked your NPCs to chime in more often in general. Again, that separation would help a lot--imagine your party NPCs want to reach the next Level just as much as you want your own character to, and you'll be a third of the way there.

Arthur's troops follow their new orders. Also, Doc, consider an action from Chrome to be an action from me--I have no idea if I'll be able to get online again. Arthur himself, during the phases in which his troops are pausing, uses his Magic Compass to locate which hex Indiacca is in, then uses his Telescope to examine that hex and the hex Northeast of Pongcanis Crossbowmen A.

OOC: Eh, better the way it worked out, Sandy. Also, sorry everyone for not being around, I'm still CRAZY sick and barely coherent. "The Elves should move into the building, directly South and Southeast of where I am. From there, they're completely untouchable by the enemy's crossbows, but can attack the enemy crossbowmen at will until they are dead." "My troops, and the rest of the Resistance troops, should move as far due East of my troops' current position as possible, until we spot enemy combatants--staying out of range of the enemy Crossbowmen at all costs. The Knights should move five units South of my troops' current position, and should copy the 'move due East as possible' strategy from that point." "For ease of coordination, the Elves should be the last to move into position, so that our troops can scout out more of the area without having to wait for reports on combat engagements."

Exactly. If that's how Donny USED to dress, and then he switched out for those drab, boring Wolfgang clothes that didn't even have the decency to grant stat bonuses... ...oh gods. I'm turning into Docken.

So the Wolfgang commit crimes against the Houses and against fashion.

Is his first name Marvolo?

Arthur's troops also move Southeast. OOC: So, so sorry! I could have sworn I'd already posted, and then I was SUPER sick all day yesterday and didn't think to check.

Well, there are only so many aesthetically pleasing cave layouts possible for a given number of rooms...

Way of the world. That thing called "common decency", in which people are supposed to repay kindness with kindness? It's a myth, just like karma. Doesn't exist. At all. Trust me. Myth F*cking Busted. What's that? Oh, noo, I have no experience with that whatsoever.[/obvioussarcasm] Heroica's generally pretty good at demonstrating this lesson, but we players tend to be abnormally obtuse about accepting it.

The Wolfgang simply fail horribly at being sympathetic.

It's a popular smartphone game. If I type it properly, it becomes "Grumpy Sparrows".

Protip: if you've already found the one "mine" next to a "1" square, that means all of the OTHER squares next to the "1" square are safe. The same is true if you've found BOTH "mines" next to a "2" square, all three "mines" next to a "3" square, etc... Minesweeper really is a computer game of the last generation, though. Nowadays it's been eclipsed by things like Angri B1rds and the billion and a half "Bejeweled" clones out there.

OOC: Zeph, your troops will automatically move into the space vacated by the enemy they defeat, so you'll be able to attack twice either way. "Hang in there, men even if the dwarf's incompetence is going to get us all killed... The Knights can handle the troops up here, move Southeast towards those squishy crossbowmen." "To be frank, it would be best if the Elves take out the crossbowmen, preferably from within the safety of a building for the added cover. The melee units should move to stay within striking range should the Pogs have more forces in the area, but the Elves' shields will render them, currently, invulnerable to attack." As little as some in the party wanted to admit it, the Elves' help had proven vital. He knew that he, at least, would be extending them a very sincere thanks for their assistance.

Can I just say how much I love mimicking enemies? Level ??? (level is equal to the attacker's) in particular. The scaling is just about perfect, in my book, especially for mixed-Level parties.

People ought to reexamine their play styles from time to time--their QMing style as well. It's really easy to get stale, and really hard to keep reevaluating what's really important in the game. People seem to like luck and chance in the game. Nostrums alter that luck, thus people become dissatisfied. Just a note: if we do limit Nostrums (and I do think we should), we should also, as QMs, try to be more hesitant about putting Luck on our enemies. It's basically the same problem Lucky Heroes cause to enemies, except that enemies have no issue with supply, and with fewer Nostrums available as a countering strategy, it'll be even more devastating than it already is.

*raises hand* ...though you'll probably have to wait a while.

To those complaining that Nostrums make it impossible to roll Specials: it's bad, but not NEARLY as bad as people are implying. Realistically, Special Damage should be as rare for the enemies as Shields are for Heroes--there's a little bit of overreliance on them as THE balancing factor, really. Passive Specials are a lot more versatile. And this time consumables are going to get nerfed because of that select few. Last time, it was because the strategy earned money. This time, it's because they deal too much damage/make it hard for QMs to balance battles. Next, people will be complaining because they'll be buying tons of Potions/Health Cores and never needing to be healed. Fact of the matter is, some players of this game are filthy stinking rich, and can pretty much buy their way out of any situation. People can either try to bring them down to everyone else's level and end up nerfing everyone and everything (because it's too obviously unfair to strip those specific people of their wealth), or they can instead try buffing others UP to their level and have those wealthy people complain about not being given as much loot. Either way, someone's going to end up unhappy, unless we all recognize there's a gap and just segregate the "problem" characters into different Quests until things even out on their own. Trying to solve the problem with some kind of overarching solution is just going to shift the problem into a different arena. Let's just leave things alone.

"All right, if the Knights move Northwest, my troops can join them in attacking Spearmen D together. Lady Ellaria's troops, meanwhile, can take on Spearmen B to ensure they don't get a chance to catch us unawares. Lady Nerwen, your troops should join Lady Ellaria's in attacking Spearmen B, while the diplomats should retreat South or Southwest and Master Vandangant's troops cover them by attacking Spearmen C. Throlar, move your troops Southwest--it'll force the Swordsmen to move Southwest to pursue them, and with luck, next Round we'll be able to let the Knights take them on." As Arthur points out the strategies on the map, an aura overtakes him--an aura of command, a different one than any of the others, save perhaps Nerwen in Dastan, had seen. All can see how he had been able to orchestrate the military triumphs at Bric'bay and on the fields and mountains of Dastan. Suggested Battle Order and Actions: Knights of Patuqun- Move NW and Attack Spearmen D Resistance Spearmen B- Attack Spearmen D Resistance Spearmen A- Attack Spearmen B Resistance Spearmen C- Move Southwest Diplomats- Move South or Southwest Elven Warriors A- Attack Spearmen B Elven Warriors B- Attack Spearmen C OOC: Also, looking at the map, Resistance Spearmen B and C should have a Defense bonus from being In A Building.