Ye Olde Inn 25th Anniversary HeroQuest quest pack

[TMU]

I've always known you had it in you.

Tho I'm not sure is it a good thing to think like you

[Teldurn]

Trying to get back on topic here. *puts on project manager hat*

What sort of progress have we made on this project? I don't have time to go back through 28 pages of posts, but from memory I seem to recall that:

1. some of us were working on the 25th Anniversary logo with the skull and acacia leaves, but it hasn't yet been finalized.
2. we're still trying to decide on a theme for the inclusion of new monster sets.
3. we have an ongoing thread about individual quests to be submitted, but without first finalizing the theme, this can't get done.

Have I missed any major aspects?

[knightkrawler]

We should divide this thread into more specific threads.
- Layout and design
- Themes and Motifs
- Quest outline and plots
- [Playtesting of rules and quests as sson as possible]

And only when we've settled upon these, we can move to even more specific things like
- Monsters and stats/special rules
- Equipment and artifacts
- Spells and skills for heroes and NPCs

Otherwise, I strongly fear that those interested in this here matter won't be interested anymore if they missed 4 pages of discussing without results just because they weren't in the forum for 2 days. And then they go for another try and find out their idea has been posted and dicussed and... I think we all know what I'm talking about here. Teldurn pointed the problem out and I see it that way, too.
Frankly, this is leading nowhere right now as it is.

I also strongly recommend one thread under supervision of Sjeng or Goblin-King where nobody may post but the supervisor and nothing may be posted but results (seemingly) agreed upon. You know, to link to for anyone new willing to discuss or recovering interest after a hiatus.

[Balinor]

Personally, I think of skulmar as a sort of priest type character myself.

As for chaos theme big boss - how about a demon of some type, maybe something like my major demon:
Major Demon
Move:8 AD:6 DD:8 Body:5 Mind:6
Special: Creature cannot be harmed except by magical weapon or magic spells; Creature will have 9 spells
(Evil Wizard Spells only)

Maybe bring the body points up just a bit, to make it a little harder to kill?
Give it a name and a personality to make it less generic.

I agree with the stats of the boss mostly, but let me remind you that the Witch Lord from the main quest book had the following stats:
Move:10 AD:5 DD:6 Body:4 and Mind:6(why the hell do we ever include mind) any way the reason I bring him up is he was fought solely by one character who had the Spirit Blade, which excluded 3 other players from being active in his defeat. Sure he summons minions to fight the others but they really get no satisfaction when the minions are defeated and one lone hero is still fighting the BBEG.

Also we are talking 25 quest, I think there needs to be points where the party gets to fight boss monsters to collect the magic and artifact items they will need to defeat the final boss. Those preliminary bosses would be great at the above stats that Torilen posted, the defense gives them a chance to make it a tough fight, but the final boss should be able to be defeated by all players and have the body points to make it a tough fight.

I agree with keeping it simple and not pages upon pages of text, but with 25 quest instead of 14 or 10 there should be enough content and variety to make it interesting till the end.

I stand by my idea that the quest should begin in the aftermath of an attack on town, from town there should be 3 or 4 quest paths that can be followed and perhaps revisited to finish, and at the bottom of the last a final quest path leading to the BBEG.

Each of those quest paths could have a seperate theme, artifacts and magic to collect along the way to the final boss, and mini bosses to define a benchmark in progress.

[Balinor]

Trying to get back on topic here. *puts on project manager hat*

What sort of progress have we made on this project? I don't have time to go back through 28 pages of posts, but from memory I seem to recall that:

1. some of us were working on the 25th Anniversary logo with the skull and acacia leaves, but it hasn't yet been finalized.
2. we're still trying to decide on a theme for the inclusion of new monster sets.
3. we have an ongoing thread about individual quests to be submitted, but without first finalizing the theme, this can't get done.

Have I missed any major aspects?

I agree completely that we need to come to a consensus on structure and theme before any real design work can be done.

I also feel that we need to determine how many people are really going to contribute and in what fashion and determine if we want to do a contest for quest or if we want to delegate teams to work on different sections and one leader from each team to make sure we are tying in well with the other section designers.

[Balinor]

by the way when this is all done I will gladly pay somebody who can get me a professional quality print of all of it and perhaps even a custom box.

[knightkrawler]

So this is going a direction - or rather, a myriad of directions - where there's a need for me to say this:

1. Maybe everyone interested should at the very beginning WRITE A PLOT with subplots (a table of contents with outlined story), post that, and then let there be a poll to decide on the best story. Then ONE author - or a team of authors, for that matter, writes the outline, detailed into subplots/sub-quest packs and single quests with rough A->B plots. This cannot be something every single forum member squirts their juice into after everyone has made their entry and a poll has decided. Do not get me wrong there.

2. THEN, the quests have to be roughly assigned to different people, but only in subplot stages to put the different subbosses and artifacts in succession in there. Subplot after subplot. That is crucial. Special rules should be sparse, and left alone for wording for someone who's good at it (chaoticprime or Daedalus, e.g). Again, this will probably take the brunt of the time, and there's gonna be deadlines to meet. We have a year, but the subplots cannot be worked on simultaneously, but one after the other.
The questmaking at this stage is just a HeroScribe map with pretty much unformatted word-documents.

3. THEN, everyone who's still interested, can post WHAT THEY CAN/WANT TO WORK ON. Wording the cards, choosing images, writing special rules, writing the texts for spells, artefacts, equipment... That would be commission work for others having written quests and come up with spells for NPCs and stuff like that.

4. THEN, edit it. Community service here. Wording, coherence, grammar, everything. As few people as possible good at language should re-word all quest texts, almost simultaneously another person or two can edit and format the quests into pdf's.

5. THEN, layout. Finishing cards, adjusting stats, wording as many quests as possible by as few people as possible, for coherence. AMking print-ready pdf sheets. Deciding if rule and quest book should be seperated, things like these. Editing again and again until December 2014. That is still the 25th anniversary. Then put it online.

Ugh, I have spoken.

[Goblin-King]

I fully agree.
Here is how I see this situation.

* While opinions are flying I don't get the vibe that anyone will quit the project in rage should their ideas not be used
* Everyone is eager to start creating stuff but the lack of direction kinda prohibits this
* I actually think we are all too respectful and polite- nobody want to force their ideas through (groovy, but not an attitude that gets things done)
* We want to please everyone, but we gotta realize that it's simply impossible. 10+ people are never gonna agree 100%
* This thread is in itself getting too large and too spread out, adding to the confusion

The main issue I think is project management.
I think it's pretty much vital at this point that someone is taking this in a direction and has some authority to make final decisions.
There's a reason "real" projects have managers/directors.

A good example was the monster poll. We discussed, we voted, and we kept discussing.
The discussion was good, but someone should have been able to cut through and say "this is how we do it then - move on!"
I recall reading several saying something along the lines "I want this, but if we do that instead I'm gonna go along with it even if it wasn't my first choice".

Adding a director will certainly color the final product as some things will undeniably come down to personal taste.
If Sjeng, kk or myself directed this it would certainly be three very different packs!
But I am willing to accept this. I say we agree for someone to direct this with a certain amount of authority.

ugh!

[knightkrawler]

I vote for not me.
My brain is scattered all over the place I call my life and my projects. But I'll help if and whenever I can.

[The Road Warrior]

I've got to agree with kk and gk. At the moment this project is lacking focus and direction and someone needs to take charge of it, to move it forward.

Personally I have no desire to take this role as there are other projects/quest packs I wish to work on like the Chronicles of Sir Ragnar however, I would like to point out that this poll is clearly over, no one has voted for a while and there is a clear winner. A new poll should be set up where we can choose which monster type to add, everyone that votes should also add a brief description of why they chose the monster and how they would use it e.g. a brief plot synopsis.