Sandy

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but as the manager of this game I'd like to repeat the request that unique items should be made as simple as possible for both the players' and the QMs' sake. Overly complicated and case-specific effects just render the item unusable. And please don't bend the basic rules with the items - shields are restricted only to certain classes for balance reasons, so don't create shields that can be used by other classes (and don't try to bypass this by calling the shield an artefact ). I really wish that QMs discuss about their unique items with me so I can help evaluate how well they fit into the game mechanics and avoid confusion and situations like the ones mentioned above.

I like the idea behind your expert job class (which could be called just "Priest" or "Highpriest"), but it actually sounds underpowered in terms of what it can do, at least compared to my expert classes. Especially their SHIELD skill could be more powerful (like being able to revive fallen allies and remove negative statuses), and their "Preaching" trait could be tied to their strength in battle - the more followers the priest converts (as dictated by QMs), the more powerful his attacks become. The critical healing giving blessed-effect as well seems a bit off, if the other levels of healing don't give it too.

Current sign-ups: Quest #33: Wanted! Violetta the Cat Burglar 1. Althior Emorith, Level 17½ Sage (K-nut) 2. Alexis Fenral, Level 19 Evoker (Masked Builder) 3. Thormanil Nihai, Level 18½ Shaman (swils) 4. Monk Pretzel, Level 5 Cleric (palathadric) 5. Arasmyth RuGard, Level 11 Mage (Kadabra) 6. Benji Carvenhall, Level 16 Warden (Flare) Quest #34: The Dark Secret 1. Daxus Octavian, Level 6 Rogue (LEGOman273) 2. Dak Shadeaux, Level 11½ Rogue (Darth Nihilus) 3. Lycan Dean, Level 1 Rogue (TheBoyWonder) 4. Monk Pretzel, Level 5 Cleric (palathadric) 5. Benji Carvenhall, Level 16 Warden (Flare)

Thanks for the quest ideas! I usually give feedback over PMs, but I'm going to make an exception and do it here. Please don't be offended if I turn your idea down. I try to be honest about the reasons why I don't like it, but you are always welcome to prove me wrong or pitch something more convincing. There's no way I will let you host a quest until you've learned to at least put proper capitals and punctuation to your text, sorry. As far as the story goes, Ennon is a lost kingdom, there's no humans living there anymore, just small bands of orcs. I like this idea, even though it is quite simplistic and straightforward. The name is a bit odd, since the heroes wouldn't have to do any hunting, really. The lich is waiting for them in his castle, after all. Again the spelling leaves something to be desired, but I also don't get the general idea of this quest. Is this taking place in Eubric? Why does the Town Watch have a chairman? And why on earth would the Houses in Power "riot" over anything? I think you should play the game more before you pitch anything, anyway, to learn more about what this is all about. We discussed this already over PM, I think, and I still don't like the idea that you mix up the two merchant houses with pirates. I just don't think they'd resort to that method - or at least be so open about it. And yeah, there are no pirates around Free Islands, but there's a lot of uncharted territory (for us, not in the game's context) around the Crystalline Sea. As a quest creator, you are free to create whatever you want - islands, cities, countries, even entire continents if you want to.

Exactly. It's because targetted enemies are sort of "locked in a duel" with the hero, while the enemies that are not targetted are free to attack anyone they want - even if they suffer from area-of-effect damage.

Don't make assumptions about something you know nothing about...

Please pitch a simpler and shorter quest first, Kadabra. You're inexperienced as a host, so you must not take on more than you can handle, and certainly not something as large-scale and ambitious as that quest seems to be. But who knows, maybe one day you'll get to host that quest as well.

Well you can console yourself with the knowledge that at least none of my expert job classes are real moneymakers. The Beast Warriors can steal, but only in their humanoid form.

You are right, I somehow neglected to give you guys the earned reputation from Quest #17. That's fixed now. Boy, the Hinckwells sure have a lot of heroes on their side! That was just a collective name for your group of NPCs I made up to give an example. Again, you don't have to create an expert class even if you consider yourself an "accomplished QM". I just thought this was a nice way of rewarding certain people's creativity and dedication to this game.

I think people avert those two factions mostly because I haven't properly introduced them yet. But that's about to change at least for the alchemists, since my next two quests are now open for applicants.

The heroes remaining in the hall were growing restless. They were already frustrated by not getting chosen into any of the wealth of quests that were open some weeks ago, and now they had nothing else to do but to drink and bicker with each other. Finally the doors of the hall opened twice in succession, and two bills were posted on the Quest Board. The first was brought by a scruffy watchman from the Town Watch, while the other was posted by an alchemist dressed in stinking and stained robes. The bored heroes gathered to read the pitches, pondering whether or not to sign in. They noticed that neither of the missions seemed to take very long, at least at face-value. ~Two new quests have been posted on the Quest Board (#33 and #34 by Sandy).~

Not without failing the quest. You can't really refuse something as abstract as reputation. "No, Mr. Hinckwell, I don't want you to keep me in high regard. The Shadeaux won't like me otherwise." EDIT: Dammit, Scubacarrot, you stole my joke!

Of course you can stick with your basic class. Nobody's going to twist your arm and force you to change. Expert classes can be switched as long as you have a "great" reputation with the other faction as well (or whatever conditions the other QMs require for their classes). The levels of reputation are "good" (after completing one quest for the faction successfully), "great" (after two quests) and "outstanding" (after three quests). These will have storyline purposes later on, if we ever get to that point with the main story. There's still loads of quests for me to host before that...

The mechanics of the expert job classes will be explained in more details later, but you can play the affiliated class only as long as you keep up the good reputation with the faction (it doesn't matter if it drops from "great" to "good" just as long as the player is in good terms with the faction). What would prevent BoyWonder from selling his old items for only a nominal price, like 1 gold? I say no, the character has been dropped out so his stuff is gone with him. Earn your own loot, dammit. Isn't everyone in Heroica some sort of mercenaries already? I just don't see the point of adding another neutral class, since you can still play as an advanced class even after you reach Level 30.

Well, balancing the seven is quite a hassle already, and I wanted to leave room for the classes pitched by the other QMs. For reference, the other classes I toyed in my head were: Gladiator Crusader Jester Illusionist Gambler Heretic Exorcist Privateer Weather Prophet Falconer Mandrake Tao Master Ninja Tamer Feel free to use any of these titles if you are designing your own expert job classes. But remember that I only accept pitches from people who have hosted quests. Umm, the whole point of the expert classes is to reward loyalty to a certain faction. You can always just stick with the advanced job classes until you reach Level 50, if you want to remain neutral.

Are you seriously asking this? Let me get this right: you're afraid of de-humanizing minifigs?!

It doesn't, just as long you're in the turn order after the person that revived you.

I think your proposed job class is best left for NPCs, because it's quite imbalanced in terms of power, and unnecessarily complex. It also doesn't make sense that the job class would permanently change the character's whole appearance. You are welcomed to pitch me anything whenever you think the idea is fleshed out enough.

Funny you felt that way without even testing them out in battle... Have you got any suggestions to make the choices less limiting, then? I'd love to hear your thoughts in more detail.

I'm sad to see you leave so abruptly, so please don't do anything you'll regret later. Anyway, you cannot give your items to other players if you're really leaving the game. Everything your character owns will be lost along with him. This rule was imposed to prevent people from transferring the stuff on their old character to a new character. You should know this, since Leo is your second character...

I'll have my two quests up later this week, most probably.

Not "Super Paladin", then? Just to clarify, the expert job classes created by other QMs don't have to be tied with the reputation system. You can give them out as a quest reward, for example. They still need to be approved by me prior to that, and the Level 30 rule must apply to them as well.

The job class in this game is a combination of barbarian, knight and rogue. I toyed with names like "Champion", "Warlord" and "Warhero", but ultimately decided that "Paragon" was ambiguous enough as well as going well together with Prophet. If you were talking about the meaning of the word, then Google is your friend.

In the Final Fantasy videogame series Dragoon is another name for a Dragon Knight. That's what I'm going after with Heroica as well.

You can still play only one job class at a time. The expert job classes are quite a bit of deviation from the basic and advanced classes, since they're all unique, so some people might choose to skip them altogether.