Thanks, slowdive. Another idea is for example, a wizard prestige class. You could make a magic specific trait that enhanced the character's spell casting abilities. Call it "Sorcerer" or "Warlock", or whatever, and have it learned by wizards from a trainer or a book or any other conversation trigger. I see it as a way to add some flavor to the base classes.I really like the use of a trait for transitioning a fighter to a barbarian class. That’s a cool idea that could be used in many ways to develop a character further.
Hearkenwold
Re: Hearkenwold
Re: Hearkenwold
I like you thinking there. It really does sound like a super cool idea for adding some character development flavor. I like the idea about the wizard class as well.
Re: Hearkenwold
Just before the end of the month, I've completed the Fighter guild adventure, and it is now part of the Hearkenwold campaign. The updated module uses build 196 of the IceBlink engine and can be downloaded from the link below:
https://neverwintervault.org/project/ic ... earkenwold
As I discussed in the previous post, the adventure involves sending the party to a new area of grassland called the Ephghan Plains. It is also freely accessible to the party at any time, if they are strong enough to survive making the journey, and the dangers that inhabit this land. Like dinosaurs...
However, fighters in the party will need to have spoken with the Guildmaster of the Magnificent Blades, and received the quest from that organization, in order to interact meaningfully with the antagonists of this region. Once they achieve their goal, then Fighters can return to the guild and get their rewards. Like the other class adventures, it includes a trait that will boost two ability attributes, and notation scribed into the player's journal.
Also, I have added a new trait into the mechanics. Trip allows a character to render a targeted melee enemy prone for a couple of rounds. It counts as a free actions, meaning a character can attempt to trip, and then make a standard attack on the same turn. In order to balance this, and hopefully prevent spamming the trait every attack, its use comes with a cost of 5 spell points. Trip is available to be learned by Fighters and Thieves at 4th level, and Rangers and Paladins at 6th level.
This is an active trait, unlike most others that are passive and happen automatically when conditions are met, such as Cleave or Sweep, or Two Attacks, which simply grants an extra attack. Instead, the player must USE the trait by selecting the "u" keyboard command in combat, and selecting Trip accordingly, from the screen below:
And finally, I am ready to begin the last guild adventure, the one for Wizards. I will talk more about it in the next update. But it will use a conversion of a pen and paper module, which I think will fit nicely into the context of Hearkenwold.
I have updated the image of the "World Map" showing how the overworld all connects together. Nothing fancy, but shows how it is starting to fill in the pieces.
https://neverwintervault.org/project/ic ... earkenwold
As I discussed in the previous post, the adventure involves sending the party to a new area of grassland called the Ephghan Plains. It is also freely accessible to the party at any time, if they are strong enough to survive making the journey, and the dangers that inhabit this land. Like dinosaurs...
However, fighters in the party will need to have spoken with the Guildmaster of the Magnificent Blades, and received the quest from that organization, in order to interact meaningfully with the antagonists of this region. Once they achieve their goal, then Fighters can return to the guild and get their rewards. Like the other class adventures, it includes a trait that will boost two ability attributes, and notation scribed into the player's journal.
Also, I have added a new trait into the mechanics. Trip allows a character to render a targeted melee enemy prone for a couple of rounds. It counts as a free actions, meaning a character can attempt to trip, and then make a standard attack on the same turn. In order to balance this, and hopefully prevent spamming the trait every attack, its use comes with a cost of 5 spell points. Trip is available to be learned by Fighters and Thieves at 4th level, and Rangers and Paladins at 6th level.
This is an active trait, unlike most others that are passive and happen automatically when conditions are met, such as Cleave or Sweep, or Two Attacks, which simply grants an extra attack. Instead, the player must USE the trait by selecting the "u" keyboard command in combat, and selecting Trip accordingly, from the screen below:
And finally, I am ready to begin the last guild adventure, the one for Wizards. I will talk more about it in the next update. But it will use a conversion of a pen and paper module, which I think will fit nicely into the context of Hearkenwold.
I have updated the image of the "World Map" showing how the overworld all connects together. Nothing fancy, but shows how it is starting to fill in the pieces.
Re: Hearkenwold
Awesome! I love the use of the active trip trait. That sounds like it will be fun to use and adds additional strategy to combat.
Re: Hearkenwold
Thanks, slowdive. I hope it is not too overpowered. In testing, I had one battle that the only reason our party won was because our ranger went around tripping monsters. But it depleted his spell points, and in the normal progression of a game, that could be a consideration as well.
Re: Hearkenwold
That’s true, you’ll have to choose wisely and conserve those SP. many of the fighter types that can afford to roam around don’t have a lot of SP to waste either. I think it will balances out nicely.
Re: Hearkenwold
July Update
I have a smallish update, because I just released a version of Hearkenwold a couple of weeks ago. Since then, I have started on the guild adventure for wizard party members, which will allow them opportunity to join the illustrious Wands of Wonder. One thing I did not mention with the previous update, I switched out the picture used for an early NPC the party meets in the Castle. This change goes back to when I made Hearkenwold as a module for FRUA. At the time, I picked one of the female shopkeepers to represent Xemne, and I have always found that this image better captures her personality and mannerisms. So now, this is how Xemne appears in the IceBlink engine.
In the ruins of a keep, the party will fight on difficult terrain, ground that is strewn with rubble. To realize this in battle, I am using one of the encounter settings that restricts character movement to one square.
That should please the Stag Beetles, a new monster type for the party to content with.
Finally, I wanted to share a peek at one of the dungeon levels. This is only a glimpse at the map, and as I have designed others, it will connect and expand across additional screens. So even though an individual local map is a 12 x 12 area, together they stitch to form a decent sized dungeon to explore.
I am hoping to complete this adventure by the end of August. With the next release of Hearkenwold, all the guild quests will be available to appropriate members of the party. And then the real fun begins!
I have a smallish update, because I just released a version of Hearkenwold a couple of weeks ago. Since then, I have started on the guild adventure for wizard party members, which will allow them opportunity to join the illustrious Wands of Wonder. One thing I did not mention with the previous update, I switched out the picture used for an early NPC the party meets in the Castle. This change goes back to when I made Hearkenwold as a module for FRUA. At the time, I picked one of the female shopkeepers to represent Xemne, and I have always found that this image better captures her personality and mannerisms. So now, this is how Xemne appears in the IceBlink engine.
In the ruins of a keep, the party will fight on difficult terrain, ground that is strewn with rubble. To realize this in battle, I am using one of the encounter settings that restricts character movement to one square.
That should please the Stag Beetles, a new monster type for the party to content with.
Finally, I wanted to share a peek at one of the dungeon levels. This is only a glimpse at the map, and as I have designed others, it will connect and expand across additional screens. So even though an individual local map is a 12 x 12 area, together they stitch to form a decent sized dungeon to explore.
I am hoping to complete this adventure by the end of August. With the next release of Hearkenwold, all the guild quests will be available to appropriate members of the party. And then the real fun begins!
Re: Hearkenwold
Awesome work! I always knew there was more to come from Xemne ever since the first alpha version 
The battle encounter with the rough terrain and one square movement sounds great. Karl definitely added some great combat features for builders to use. I’m curious how the larger dungeon level will turn out, sounds like it’ll be interesting and add a new feel to the typical design.
The battle encounter with the rough terrain and one square movement sounds great. Karl definitely added some great combat features for builders to use. I’m curious how the larger dungeon level will turn out, sounds like it’ll be interesting and add a new feel to the typical design.
Re: Hearkenwold
Thanks, slowdive. Some of the later content includes dungeons that I designed as "continuous" using the method of linking multiple maps. For example in the dungeon above, the green transition bar indicates the hallway continues south, onto a new map. But it is still considered part of the same dungeon level. By doing this with 4 maps, it makes a 12 x 12 area now 24 x 24.
Re: Hearkenwold
August Update
I am almost done with the Wizard Guild adventure, working on the last two levels of a tower. Of course, after that, I still need to wrap up everything with the guildmaster, when reporting back, but that should not take too much time. That the party will explore a wizards tower was probably evident. And the location provides some new challenges for the player in terms of tricks and traps. Here is one example from this particular dungeon crawl:
Naturally, there are still plenty of monsters to fight. One of the things I like to do is add new monsters into the ever expanding catalogue of creatures, especially D&D classics like the Gelatinous Cube.
When the wizard guild quest is finished, then all six class-related missions will be available to the player. This is an important milestone, and a defining moment for the overarching adventure. As I have mentioned, before the party can receive audience with the King of Castle Hearkenwold, at least one member of the party must belong to a guild. So players will not be able to access any further content until they have accomplished this achievement.
I am going to be spending some time on a related project, recreating Hearkenwold in the recently released Knights of the Chalice 2 engine. It's remarkable how mostly compatible the two platforms are, which so far has proved promising. At the same time, I want to give a ton of credit to slowdive and karl, because in comparison the IceBlink engine is much more intuitive and user-friendly for a builder. Really, IceBlink is an amazing engine. In fact, the main thing KotC has going for it, and why I was interested, is because it has a more robust system of game mechanics already in place. Now I firmly believe that everything in KotC, from races and classes to skills and spells, could be more or less created in IceBlink. But that will take some effort. For the time being, it will interesting to place Hearkenwold in this environment and see what happens. Obviously the opportunity to attract new players is also appealing.
Still, Hearkenwold will remain forever an IceBlink adventure first and foremost. When the time comes for me to resume the adventure, post guild quests, I will be building in the IceBlink engine. Really, I would expect that to be somewhere around the first half of 2021.
Finally, I have had the chance to start a continuous play through of the guild content. So far, the party has done the Paladin, Cleric, and Ranger adventures. Our Thief and Wizard have made it to level 9. And reaching that point, the wizard selected his last spell available. So going forward, definitely need more spells! This will be a good gauge for a higher level party, and help me to design new content accordingly.
The next build of Hearkenwold for IceBlink should be available by the end of this month.
I am almost done with the Wizard Guild adventure, working on the last two levels of a tower. Of course, after that, I still need to wrap up everything with the guildmaster, when reporting back, but that should not take too much time. That the party will explore a wizards tower was probably evident. And the location provides some new challenges for the player in terms of tricks and traps. Here is one example from this particular dungeon crawl:
Naturally, there are still plenty of monsters to fight. One of the things I like to do is add new monsters into the ever expanding catalogue of creatures, especially D&D classics like the Gelatinous Cube.
When the wizard guild quest is finished, then all six class-related missions will be available to the player. This is an important milestone, and a defining moment for the overarching adventure. As I have mentioned, before the party can receive audience with the King of Castle Hearkenwold, at least one member of the party must belong to a guild. So players will not be able to access any further content until they have accomplished this achievement.
I am going to be spending some time on a related project, recreating Hearkenwold in the recently released Knights of the Chalice 2 engine. It's remarkable how mostly compatible the two platforms are, which so far has proved promising. At the same time, I want to give a ton of credit to slowdive and karl, because in comparison the IceBlink engine is much more intuitive and user-friendly for a builder. Really, IceBlink is an amazing engine. In fact, the main thing KotC has going for it, and why I was interested, is because it has a more robust system of game mechanics already in place. Now I firmly believe that everything in KotC, from races and classes to skills and spells, could be more or less created in IceBlink. But that will take some effort. For the time being, it will interesting to place Hearkenwold in this environment and see what happens. Obviously the opportunity to attract new players is also appealing.
Still, Hearkenwold will remain forever an IceBlink adventure first and foremost. When the time comes for me to resume the adventure, post guild quests, I will be building in the IceBlink engine. Really, I would expect that to be somewhere around the first half of 2021.
Finally, I have had the chance to start a continuous play through of the guild content. So far, the party has done the Paladin, Cleric, and Ranger adventures. Our Thief and Wizard have made it to level 9. And reaching that point, the wizard selected his last spell available. So going forward, definitely need more spells! This will be a good gauge for a higher level party, and help me to design new content accordingly.
The next build of Hearkenwold for IceBlink should be available by the end of this month.