Ye Olde Inn

OK you Warlocks, Witch Doctors, Pox Doctors & Shamen, I have just accquired an effigy of Grima Wormtongue, by far my most favourite character from LoR. So, am thinking of building a Quest around him, as the central character!! Using the Chaos Spells as his weapon, and an army of Undead as his followers. Found a spectacular shield against Magic, called the "Pentangle" or "Pentagram" shield for the heroes to ward off his spells. Any hints or tips?

id say use him sparingly, if a villain is to have a big effect his appearances have to be memorable. if hes only in the last room and is defeated after a single quest then hes not much of a memorable bad guy. have him escape from or best the heroes in the first quest, another quest to gain the shield you use against him (maybe even racing him to the shield) before a third quest where you finally track him down and confront him.
also, give him a storyline, is he a fallen royal mage, a deranged amateur whos got himself into something he cant handle? is he an innocent man possessed by an evil spirit? a failed apprentice out for revenge? whats he been doing thats brought him to the heroes attention? why must he be stopped? what are the consequences if hes not?
the witch king had a nice big quest line built up around him and thats what made him a memorable villain. lots of other quest have a easily forgetable orc chief whos organising raids etc etc, he appears in the last room, dies three rounds later and no-one can even remember his name by the start of the next quest.
i also prefer using generic monsters sparingly as well, room after room packed with lots of monsters in each not only gets dull and repetitive but slows down a quest as well, a few carefully placed monsters in strategic positions make for a smoother flowing story and adds a bit of tension.
also, and this is just my personal taste, i tend to avoid using too many letters in the quest notes. you know what i mean, the quest notes that go up to X, Y or Z where every room has a magical trap, mystical object or unique monster. you want these to be 'Events' but when theyre just piled in one after the other it gets too much. i rarely want to make a quest that goes past D or E on the quest notes.

Thanks for your input, Tott. Tried a couple of ideas today, Grima stands behind a wall of Undead, and can escape, on his turn,(Morcars), via standard Secret Door, if his defensive wall collapses, and he is in dire peril. Gave him the Pentacle Shield, not the Heroes, It reads "This shield can only be used by Dark Wizards & Warlocks. If a White Wizard casts a spell on you, roll a Combat Dice, if a Black Shield, your Pentacle fails, & you suffer the effects of the Spell". Gave him also 5 dice in defence against hand weapons. Played a couple of rooms, seems to work quite well, his army fought well, he lost only one of his five body points, so building on that. (Great to be Retyred, one can conjure & manouvre all day). If you go to Windows Live Photos you may be able to see some pictures, as I have tried to set up a link, has it worked ?

looks interesting! hopefully we'll see that in a quest soon!
you inspired me tho (it is a great model!) so ive quickly whacked together a short quest line. slightly different take on him compared to what you did
hope you like!

Looking good, Tott, you are right of course, about tooo many monsters, better to have one hard to beat than 10 paper tigers

Oh, nice adventure - moreover, a little bit of tragedy & romance in there.
Thanks for writing & posting it!

Well, here it is, my first published Quest! I used the Heroscribe software and some technical advice from drathe. Constructive critiscism welcome, but treat me gently!

nice way of chasing him around the board! only thing i noticed was that you have two wandering monsters!

Tott wrote:nice way of chasing him around the board! only thing i noticed was that you have two wandering monsters!

Sorry, could not delete the orc at the bottom, definitely Mr Green with computors!!

ken wrote:

Tott wrote:nice way of chasing him around the board! only thing i noticed was that you have two wandering monsters!

Sorry, could not delete the orc at the bottom, definitely Mr Green with computors!!

Maybe its just me but this looks like it's in a simple word doc. You should just be able to doubleclick the bottom wandering monster listing (the orc) and delete it easy. Hope that helps.