Ye Olde Inn

mitchiemasha wrote:Here's a question. Why is the healing surge a trap image?

Because if you don't actually know its original content, then the meaning of a surge can be interpreted into it.

mitchiemasha wrote:In the Quest book I'm not a fan of the way each note is put in its own box. This makes it take up extra space, which wastes paper and ink. The notes will be just as readable not in the box. As for the set up, couldn't you simply put an emblem for each type and how many in the corner of the room as it's free to place as you choose?

As soon as I've made up my mind - which is to be soon before too many people print too many quest books - I'll change the layout.
I'll start with doing away with the frames, that's a great suggestion for starters.
Also, I want parchment for the introduction. I'd also like monster icons in the notes. That way I could even use Anderas' quest difficulty system easily. But I simply don't have the icons for my miniatures, and it's many.
As it is now, I can send odt/doc-files to anyone who wants to change the monster types since, frankly, nobody will play with my miniature setup when the later quest packs are coming.
I have come up with a compromise which would be a table in every quest book that shows how the original HQ figures can proxy my new villains. Not elegant, but probably worth it because the table would be quick to do.

mitchiemasha wrote:Areas and movement starts half way through the page. Is their a reason for this, A picture to be placed? The spacing between your sections doesn't follow a consistent rule, chapters paragraphs etc.

Yes, pictures. I have a version with art for me to print at home, but I won't publish this version because of copyright. I'm just too paranoid for that. In the readme-file, there's a hint on how you could handle this.
As my version has art, and the one in the dropbox hasn't, I needed to align the layouts accomodating for art.
Again, the Read Me FIRST-file explains this and gives you hints with a pointy elbow.
My friend Dean Laxer is an artist and I'm not terribly talentless myself, but there's so many projects to juggle, and drawing art is not a priority. I've been planning on dropping some commissions on The Lax soon, however. I want covers for all the quest books, too.

Thank you very much for your feedback, it's highly appreciated, and some of your tips are well worth considering and implementing.
In general, anybody can ask me for the writer-/word-files to change around things themselves or even ask me to do it readymade.
As I said, I'll start with dropping the notes frames and probably some spacing in the notes.

That makes sense now. I had guessed it might of been pictures but never thought about copyright paranoia. I couldn't think why, if you already know the size, why aren't they there or simply not put the space in yet. I did have a read of the read me first but must of skipped that bit.

Another thing that would be a great help for us who will be downloading your work, is to include a date and version number. That way we can tell if we have a current version. If you could include one that would be amazing.

That's not a problem at all. Will do that right now.
Next to the individual files, can you see the date? That would save me adding them.

I now added (v1.1) to every folder, so any updates will be presented here titled with the new version.

yes, a version number will do, thank you.

Working on a new quest introduction frame right now (well, old... EU version Mentor sealed parchment).

https://www.dropbox.com/home/HQ%20-%20Heroes%20%26%20Villains/09%20-%20Q3%20-%20GRAVES%20%26%20GRIEVANCES%20(v1.2)

The third questbook, Graves & Grievances, is up. I can't promise I'll never use these alliterated titles ever again. They just come to me in my dreams.
G&G is basically the Witchlord trilogy of quests 12 through 14 of the GS quest book.
It's also the first one that utilizes my new Mentor's introduction frame, done in Phtotoshop individually, and doing away with the table borders that mitchiemasha doesn't like.
I agree, this is better. But to fill a Din A4 double page, I left the gaps as they were. For most quests, this gives a tidy and nicely filled first impression.

That's it for the game system quests now. "Castle of Mystery" is the only one left that hasn't gotten a treatment to one of my quest packs, but I'll get to that.

That link say's there is nothing there but the first post link still works.

For consistency, if using 2 pages for your Quests, it might be an idea to put all the Quest notes on the second page. In book 3, Quest 4.3 is the only Q with A on the front page. I'll usually only print a quest if it takes up 1 sheet of A4, 2x A5 style but I've just got a laser, printing booth sides isn't as bad as inkjet. We've already got too much paper at the table.

For simplicity's sake, keep those almighty alliterations! They are best for recalling and remembering; and you could set your style in stone after that smart start.

I like the clean up in your quest system. In the original, there were some sidequests, the Orc quests, and the witch lord; mixed up. Ok, the witch lord was somewhat separated.

For you, i propose to take mage of the mirror from Goblin King; Melar's Maze and another mazelike Quest and put it into your fourth quest book "Meandering Mazes".
Those quests, you reveal one by one when some player draws the treasure card "Map", and then the players may choose to play it or not.

mitchiemasha wrote:That link say's there is nothing there but the first post link still works.

For consistency, if using 2 pages for your Quests, it might be an idea to put all the Quest notes on the second page. In book 3, Quest 4.3 is the only Q with A on the front page. I'll usually only print a quest if it takes up 1 sheet of A4, 2x A5 style but I've just got a laser, printing booth sides isn't as bad as inkjet. We've already got too much paper at the table.

Myself, I play with my laptop which means the whole quest is open.
I sit at the longer side of the table, the laptop sity on the chair next to me.
I could send you the writer/word-files to compress the layouts if you want.
That special case where note A is on the first page is because else the entire notes don't fit on two pages.
As I use the Heroscribe icon pngs for the letter, they will take that much room from top to bottom in the table's left part.
It's a bummer, as I would like to have less open space between one-line-notes, but I don't know how.

Anderas wrote:For you, i propose to take mage of the mirror from Goblin King; Melar's Maze and another mazelike Quest and put it into your fourth quest book "Meandering Mazes".
Those quests, you reveal one by one when some player draws the treasure card "Map", and then the players may choose to play it or not.

At this point, I really have to juggle difficulties and villain types well.
The former to be somewhat wavy, but rising in tendency, the latter to be quite mixed up.
For example, I'll use either the first part of Kellar's Keep to introduce Skaven (Brood, they'll be called in my game; probably adapting Sjeng's Into the Sewers in some way or another), the second probably will introduce Darkdwarfs.
I have quite a few fanwritten quests and questpacks in the back of my head for adapting.

Just tried to download your Witch Lord Variant, but your dropbox link doesn't work. I'll try on the first page instead.

That worked. Downloadable, it is here

What does it mean, you can set up the monster in unlimited distance?
(it appears several times, for example in the quest note E of return to Crakehall)

You set up the monster in the room, or behind the group, or on the entry, or in the middle of the group, anywhere on the board, as you like?

If yes, i like that idea. Need to flesh it out in my head, though.