4. HQ25 - Story Arc discussion

[Teldurn]

I second the nomination for GK to do the art. I like his style and getting a bunch of brand new art in a similar style would be great for the project.

[gootchute]

I like the idea of balancing it as an alternative quest system. I assume we would include the essential artifacts for the wizard at the very least (wizard staff, cloak, wand of magic). If not I could design a new set to make him equivalent power but different slightly.

As said before there will be new major artifacts for all 4 heroes.

[Sjeng]

I second the nomination for GK to do the art. I like his style and getting a bunch of brand new art in a similar style would be great for the project.

YES! Amazones in chainmail bikinis on the cover!

[Goblin-King]

I would really love to do a HQ painting, though I won't be able to match the original cover. That one is made of awesome and win.
All I need is to know what the actual story/quests/monsters will be - ergo I won't get started before we are at least halfway into actual production.
Did we ever actually finally 100% agree on a list of new monsters and/stats by the way?

But how about that idea of making it 5x5 quests? Like I said before, it will be easy for a single person to write a tight story for 5 quests, rather than 15 persons disagreeing over 25 quests
If I may add a touch. The first 5 quests are "introduction" quests and shopping are allowed in-between. The last 20 quests are "chapters" where you play 5 in a row without shopping.
If we in fact intend to make it an alternative Game System quest book, intended for new heroes I think they should at least be allowed to gear up a little during the start up.

[Sjeng]

Hmm, multiple quest paths might be just what we need here...

Q1: village raided bij lesser evil, heroes only survivors, must work together. At the end contacted by Mentor.
Q2-Q3: followup quests where our heroes find out that the lesser evil is commanded by greater evil.
At the end of Q3 the party must choose what path to follow:

Q4-Q8: path 1: follow the dragonkin lead
Q9-Q13: path 2: follow the chaos lead
Q14-Q18: path 3: follow the greenskins lead

Undead mixed in everywhere, as the greater evil surely will have necromancers.
Players can choose to take just 1 path, or simply play all three.
After they find out the greater scheme of things, Mentor tells them there are artefacts that can defeat the greater Evil.

Q19: Go find artefact A (greenskin caves/mines? dwarf artefact)
Q20: Go find artefact B (dragonkin swamps? wizard artefact)
Q21: Go find artefact C (chaos beastmen woods? elf artefact)
Q22: Go find artefact D (undead crypts? barbarian artefact)
Q23: Find forgotten dwarven forge in chaos dwarven territory to combine artefacts into superweapon
Q24: Find secret lair of greater Evil
Q25: Defeat greater Evil

This storyline is already cut up into chapters. Just a little different: 3-5-5-5-7
This could be split up further into 3-5-5-5-4-3 perhaps.

Chapter 1:
Q1: village raided bij lesser evil, heroes only survivors, must work together. At the end contacted by Mentor.
Q2-Q3: followup quests where our heroes find out that the lesser evil is commanded by greater evil.
At the end of Q3 the party must choose what path to follow:

Chapter 2:
Q4-Q8: path 1: follow the dragonkin lead

Chapter 3:
Q9-Q13: path 2: follow the chaos lead

Chapter 4:
Q14-Q18: path 3: follow the greenskins lead

Undead mixed in, as the greater evil surely will have necromancers. With 5 quests per lead, there's room for an undead quest/environment.
Players can choose to take just 1 path, or simply play all three.
After they find out the greater scheme of things, Mentor tells them there are artefacts that can defeat the greater Evil.

Chapter 5:
Q19: Go find artefact A (greenskin caves/mines? Dwarf artefact)
Q20: Go find artefact B (dragonkin swamps? Barbarian artefact)
Q21: Go find artefact C (chaos beastmen woods? Elf artefact)
Q22: Go find artefact D (undead crypts? Wizard artefact) (switched around)

Chapter 6 - Finale:
Q23: Find forgotten dwarven forge in chaos dwarven territory to combine artefacts into superweapon or something they simply need to FIND the evil lair. (1 time use artefact that grants protection against some Greater Evil spell that keeps heroes away, or hides the Evil from sight.)
Q24: Find secret lair of greater Evil with the special artefact.
Q25: Defeat greater Evil

Something like this maybe?

[Goblin-King]

Aah okay - I must admit it's been too long... I'm starting to forget most of what we talked about...

[Teldurn]

Hmm, multiple quest paths might be just what we need here...

Q1: village raided bij lesser evil, heroes only survivors, must work together. At the end contacted by Mentor.
Q2-Q3: followup quests where our heroes find out that the lesser evil is commanded by greater evil.
At the end of Q3 the party must choose what path to follow:

Q4-Q8: path 1: follow the dragonkin lead
Q9-Q13: path 2: follow the chaos lead
Q14-Q18: path 3: follow the greenskins lead

Undead mixed in everywhere, as the greater evil surely will have necromancers.
Players can choose to take just 1 path, or simply play all three.
After they find out the greater scheme of things, Mentor tells them there are artefacts that can defeat the greater Evil.

Q19: Go find artefact A (greenskin caves/mines? dwarf artefact)
Q20: Go find artefact B (dragonkin swamps? wizard artefact)
Q21: Go find artefact C (chaos beastmen woods? elf artefact)
Q22: Go find artefact D (undead crypts? barbarian artefact)
Q23: Find forgotten dwarven forge in chaos dwarven territory to combine artefacts into superweapon
Q24: Find secret lair of greater Evil
Q25: Defeat greater Evil

This storyline is already cut up into chapters. Just a little different: 3-5-5-5-7
This could be split up further into 3-5-5-5-4-3 perhaps.

Chapter 1:
Q1: village raided bij lesser evil, heroes only survivors, must work together. At the end contacted by Mentor.
Q2-Q3: followup quests where our heroes find out that the lesser evil is commanded by greater evil.
At the end of Q3 the party must choose what path to follow:

Chapter 2:
Q4-Q8: path 1: follow the dragonkin lead

Chapter 3:
Q9-Q13: path 2: follow the chaos lead

Chapter 4:
Q14-Q18: path 3: follow the greenskins lead

Undead mixed in, as the greater evil surely will have necromancers. With 5 quests per lead, there's room for an undead quest/environment.
Players can choose to take just 1 path, or simply play all three.
After they find out the greater scheme of things, Mentor tells them there are artefacts that can defeat the greater Evil.

Chapter 5:
Q19: Go find artefact A (greenskin caves/mines? Dwarf artefact)
Q20: Go find artefact B (dragonkin swamps? Barbarian artefact)
Q21: Go find artefact C (chaos beastmen woods? Elf artefact)
Q22: Go find artefact D (undead crypts? Wizard artefact) (switched around)

Chapter 6 - Finale:
Q23: Find forgotten dwarven forge in chaos dwarven territory to combine artefacts into superweapon or something they simply need to FIND the evil lair. (1 time use artefact that grants protection against some Greater Evil spell that keeps heroes away, or hides the Evil from sight.)
Q24: Find secret lair of greater Evil with the special artefact.
Q25: Defeat greater Evil

Something like this maybe?

I find this breaking up to be quite good. I vote for this as the questbook outline. One or two people can each do each chapter, which I agree with Goblin-King, is easier to crank out than dozens of people disagreeing on the whole thing completely.

[Goblin-King]

What exactly are "following the leads" supposed to mean? Dragonkin, chaos, greenskin...

Is it "choose your own adventure" style? (for replay value)
Or can the heroes just choose the order they want to do the quests themselves?

[Teldurn]

I read it to mean that after chapter 1, you have the option of going three separate (and non-mutually-exclusive) ways and then continuing to chapter 5. So theoretically it would be possible to go quests 1 - 3. Then skip to chapter 3 by choosing that lead, then skip to chapter 5.

It also remains an option that the group can simply do the quests in order, but I don't know how that would work from a story perspective if you have to follow leads to the exclusion of other leads.

[MrBigB]

I took it to mean the party could choose any one/combination/all of leads they choose. I assumed each lead could provide enough story to progress to the next chapter, but it'd be cool if each lead uncovered slightly different information. That way the more leads a group does, the fuller their understanding of total plot and/or hint at things to come?

One example I thought of was maybe somewhere in each lead there is info that "unlocks" some small hidden room/area in a later mission that's only available if the coorisponding lead was completed. Nothing huge or complex, just a little bonus for those who follow more then one lead