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Blades of Exile Scenario Contest Results:
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First Scenario Contest (Spiderweb Software, Fall 1998)
1) Tatterdemalion (Tarl Roger Kudrick)
2) Quest of the Spheres (Brett Bixler)
3) Trouble in Mendor (Ben Frank)
4) Rubacus & The Magnificent Six (Leon Lin)
5) Nightfall & Truffle Days (Scott Evans)
6) The Amazonian Saga (Haneda Yoshiyuki)
7) Raquelle’s Nightmare (Mike Natushko)
8) Under the God’s Hand (Alex Jackson)
9) Erika’s Legacy (Bonnie Gorshe)
10) The Wreck of the Slug (Tony Wilsdon & Sue Harris)
11) Nephil’s Gambit (Tormod Strangeland)
12) Treacherous Waters (Declan Walsh)
Second Scenario Contest (Olympia, Fall 1999)
1) Redemption (Alcritas)
2) Of Good And Evil (Alcritas)
3) Farmhands Save the Day!! (Measle)
4) Election (Nick Jones)
5) Destiny of the Spheres (Brett Bixler)
6) River and Leaf (Akhronath)
7) The Forsaken (Drizzt)
8) Eye for an Eye (The Avatar)
9) Borderlands: Encounter (Taraka)
First Short Scenario Contest (Olympia, late 1999/early 2000)
1) Lost Expedition (Brett Bixler)
2) Earthward Road (Akhronath)
3) The Magic Flute (Measle)
4) The Four Horsemen (Glynn Stewart)
5) Daughters of Aiyina (Janet Cone)
6) It (Joel O'Brien)
First Graphics Competition (Olympia, Summer 2000?)
Third Scenario Contest (Olympia, late 2000)
1) Masks (Brett Bixler)
2) An Apology (Alcritas)
3) Lamentations (Alcritas)
4) Destiny (Robert Ashton)
5) New Life (Will Wyatt)
6) Linderwall (Kathy Ray)
Best Scenario Challenge: Masks
Best Artistic Presentation: Masks
Most Innovative: An Apology
Best Small Scenario: Destiny
Best Newcomer: New Life
Best Utility Scenario: Alternate Level Builder (Drakefyre)
Second Short Scenario Contest (Olympia, Spring 2001)
1) Zankozzie's Big Mistake (Ryan Phelps)
2) Pyramids (Juliet Rowley)
3) Prelude to an Island Song (Janet Cone)
4) Unbalanced Accounts (Terror's Martyr)
Second Graphics Competition (Olympia, Spring 2001)
Fourth Scenario Contest (Olympia, late 2001)
1) Falling Stars (Alcritas)
2) At the Gallows (Stareye)
3) Shadow of the Stranger (Drizzt)
4) Chains (Ryan Phelps)
5) The Draining (Flamefiend)
6) Isle of Boredom (The Creator)
7) The Leaving (Milu)
Best Small Scenario: Chains
Best Medium Scenario: The Draining
Best Epic Scenario: Falling Stars
Best Newcomer: Isle of Boredom
Best Utility: Cheater's Paradise (Robin Thomas)
Scenario Review Contest (Olympia, January 2002)
Best Overall Contributor: Stareye
Best Review: Drizzt
The 1/10 Contest (Olympia, Spring 2002)
1) Deadly Goblins (The Creator)
2) Dirty Gold (Ryan Phelps)
3) Demon (Khoth)
3) Echoes: Assault (Terror’s Martyr)
5) Ugantan Nightmare (The Creator)
6) Liberation (Glynn Stewart)
7) Echoes: Black Horse (Terror’s Martyr)
8) A Little Girl (Zxquez)
Blades of Exile Programming Contest (Brett Bixler, early 2002)
1) Complex (Frame) Animation (The Creator)
2) Simple Special Spell (Stareye)
3) Simple Counterspell (Stareye)
4) Complex Counterspell / Special Spell Sequence (Stareye)
5) Alternating Day and Night (Drizzt)
6) The Way Out, by Ian Klinkhamer (Alcritas)
7) NPC Town Encounter Saves (Stareye)
8) Creating an Anti-Magic Cloud (Drizzt)
9) Customizing Custom Spells (Flamefiend)
10) Soul Crystal (Conditional Spells) (Stareye)
11) The Debug Check (Alcritas)
12) The Shadow Effect (Alcritas)
Fifth/Omega Scenario Contest (Olympia, late 2002)
1) Quintessence (Brett Bixler)
2) Spears (Stareye)
3) Revenge (The Creator)
4) Adventurer's Club 2 (Shyguy)
5) Back to Normal (Measle)
6) Adventurer's Club 1 (Shyguy)
7) Deadly Goblins
8) Echoes: Assault
Best Movie: Foreshadows (Stareye)
Best Utility: Animations (The Creator)
Best Large Scenario: Quintessence
Best Small Scenario: Back to Normal
Best Newcomer: Adventurer's Club 2
Third Graphics Competition (attached to the scenario contest)
First Scenario Ranking Contest (Olympia, August-September 2003)
1) Terror's Martyr
2) Milu
3) Khoth
Sixth Scenario Contest (Olympia, Winter 2003/2004)
1) Emulations (Stareye)
2) Adventurer's Club 3 (Shyguy)
3) Bandits 2 (Terror’s Martyr)
4) Two Strands (Terror’s Marytr)
5) Malkriss (The Great Mister)
Best Large Scenario: Adventurer's Club 3/Emulations (tie)
Best Short Scenario: Two Strands
Best Newcomer: Malkriss
Fourth Graphics Competition (attached to the scenario contest)
Don't Fix the Shark Scenario Contest (Olympia, Spring 2004)
1) Hunted! (Thuryl)
2) Nebulous Times Hence (Terror’s Martyr)
3) Areni (The Creator)
4) Sir Psycho Sexy (Alec Kyras)
5) Escapades in the Green Mountains (Lucid Dreamer)
6) The Abyss (WildKarrdeSmuggler)
7) Virtual Confession Booth (Measle)
8) Minimalism (Terror’s Martyr)
9) The Scenario (Almighty Doer of Stuff)
Second Scenario Ranking Contest (Olympia, Summer 2004)
1) Bain-Ihrno
2) Stareye
3) SM Adventurer
Seventh Scenario Contest (Olympia, Summer 2005)
1) Tomorrow (Alcritas)
2) Roots (Thuryl)
2) Nebulous Times Hence
4) Areni
5) Corporeus (Terror's Martyr)
6) Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue (Kelandon)
7) The Nephils' Defense (Bain-Ihrno)
8) The Future (CaputMortuum)
9) Fort Emerald Robbery (Bain-Ihrno)
Best Newcomer: Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
Third Scenario Ranking Contest (Olympia, August 2005)
1) Arachnid
2) Gizmo
3) SM Adventurer
The Pearl Contest (Olympia, Fall 2005)
1) Kill Self, Win Prize (Terror's Martyr)
Fourth Scenario Ranking Contest (Olympia, August 2006)
1) Terror's Martyr
2) SM Adventurer
3) Bain-Ihrno
Fallacies of Summoning:
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Summoning is utterly and totally worthless if you want play an Exile game correctly and with the most satisfaction. I have not once summoned anything in the past four years (except to test my BoE scenarios).
Summoning is a huge drainer of spell points. The spells' costs range from Summon Beast (4) to Summon Guardian (14), with Simulacrum and Capture Soul usually wasting even more spell points. With those spell points, you could be casting Avatar, Major Blessing, Slow Group, Divine Thud, Firestorm, Flamestrike, or even Mass Sanctuary. Summoning also takes up valuable AP, even when doing so from a horn or scroll.
Summoned monsters only have one thing going for them -- they befuddle enemy spellcasters and archers. If that's what you need, it makes sense to only cast Weak Summoning (6) and Sticks to Snakes (6), since those spells offer the most monsters the take the bullets for you. But distracting the enemies means that you'll have to wade your way through them if you want to reach their spellcasters and archers.
You do not want summoned creatures to kill monsters for you unless you're level 50 and bored. You get less experience, which is split up, giving people even less experience. True, you can kill summoned monsters of your own for experience, but what's the point? There's always the regenerating Empire soldiers at Lorelei and the Third Empire Army camp in Exile III and the Empire guards in Exile II.
A person can truly become a much better Exile player by abandoning summoning. Try it your next play through. It might make all the difference.
Vahnatai -- Friend or Foe?
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I've always been a staunch supporter of the Vahnatai (I killed Erika in Exile III to stop her from dueling Rentar and the other Vahnatai), and Blades of Exile needs to have a different attitude towards them. Many of the Vahnatai I have seen in scenarios have been hostile, Empire-hating maniacs. The general perception of Vahnatai on the surface is negative, but that doesn't mean that it has to be right.
The Vahnatai that had the Crystal Souls stolen from them are just one clan of Vahnatai, and they were pretty much routed by six PCs in Exile III. There are other clans out there that have not yet made contact with the humans. Some may welcome them, while others may spurn them. Rentar-Ihrno swore revenge, saying that the Vahnatai never forget, but that is not the only Vahnatai storyline available to designers.
Beyond the Vahnatai lands in Exile II there are many more cities, both from Rentar's clan and others. The clan we met in Exiles II and III was just one, albeit a powerful one, with their own set of crystal souls. Olgai is a new city, constructed after Resting, and it's just the biggest one of this clan's latest waking era. Other clans of Vahnatai are not just waking up, and there are some Vahnatai civilizations that have been flourishing for centuries, undiscovered by anyone.
Aspiring designers could create a scenario that takes place wholly in Vahnatai lands, with your party as human diplomats, making your first contact with the other clans. As Stephen Masel said, "I think they've had a pretty bad rap. Maybe it's because BoE doesn't allow you to put Vahnatai in the party so it's hard to write a scenario that's pro Vahnatai or anti-human."
Scenarios set before Exile III will work, with the party working with, against, or parallel to the main party in Exile II. Or scenarios way before Exile I, where Vahnatai are still on the surface, or where the Vahnatai have just created your party, and you have to deal with renegade Vahnatai. A scenario that explains why the Vahnatai fled the surface could be very interesting too.
Scenario designers don't need to make Vahnatai with an anti-human sentiment. There are lots of good plots with the Vahnatai as the party's friends, and scenario designers are squandering them. For more information on the Vahnatai, check out Vahnatai Week, where everything we know about Vahnatai (and some things we don't) is available.
Using Custom Graphics:
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Create a blank image in a graphics program. It should be 280 by 360 (you can always add more rows to the bottom later).
Each individual graphic is 28x36 pixels. If you have a 1x1 monster, you need four 1x1 graphics (looking right, looking left, attacking right, attacking left), which should be 112x36 pixels. Paste the graphics into the upper left corner. Put your next graphic next to it (now you should have 224x36). Split your next monster in half, with its looking images on the end of this line and the attacking images on the bottom of the next line. It is imperative that you stay within your 28x36 slots.
To use the graphics in the editor, add 1000 to the slot number of the first image of the monster. The first monster would go into the editor as 1000, the second would go in as 1004, then 1008, 1012, etc. You put these number in the monster graphic slot when you're creating monsters.
Creating Virtual Spell Points:
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Since you can't check for spell points (SP) in Blades, special spells usually have other limits. However, virtual SP works like regular SP. There are several ways to implement this.
1) Give the party a certain amount of SP at the beginning.
2) Surround the party with moldy walls and altars. For each wall they crumble, they get 8 virtual SP, and for each altar they sanctify they get 50. You can use a terrain checking method for this. However, you'll have to set one flag to the max XP and one to the level of current SP and check them against each other when you regenerate.
Personally, I prefer the first method. Be sure to set a flag (1,1 for example) to the amount of Virtual SP you want them to start out with (it doesn't necessarily have to be the maximum SP).
However, when actually calling for this and checking it in a spell, you can do the following (for a spell point cap of 50):
0. If SDF 1,1 >= 30, then goto 1; else GOTO 2.
//We're making this spell cost 30 SP
1. Increment SDF 1,1 by -30; GOTO 3
2. Display message ('You do not have enough SP to cast this spell.'); END
//Everything below this is the actual effect of the special spell. This will look different for every spell.
3. Display Small Message ('Party casts: Special Heal'); GOTO 4
4. Play Sound (24 or 25); GOTO 5
5. Affect Health - Increase by 50; END
To regenerate SP using the first method (this should be a scenario timer special called every 500 to 1500 moves):
0. If SDF 1,1 = 50, then END; else GOTO 1.
//First we check to see if it actually needs regenerating. We're keeping the cap at 50.
1. Increment SDF 1,1 by 1; END
To regenerate SP using the second method (again, a scenario timer special every 500-1500 moves):
0. If SDF Compare (1,1 to 1,2) greater than or equal to, then END; else GOTO 1
//Set the first SDF to 1,1 and the second to whichever holds the maximum SP (1,2 in this case). If the first is less, we regenerate SP.
1. Increment SDF 1,1 by 1; END
Regenerating Alchemical Ingredients Outdoors:
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For alchemy ingredients in the outdoors to regrow:
//SDF 100,0 will control which message the party gets when they step on the patch of ingredients. You could also add in a cave lore or woodsman check before this.
0. IF SDF 100,0 < 5, THEN GOTO 1; ELSE GOTO 2
1. Forced Give; "Ingredients"; ("You find a patch of 'ingredient' and take some. It should regrow in a little while."); GOTO 3
2. Display Msg; ("It hasn't regrown yet"); END
3. Set SDF 100,0 = 10; GOTO 4
//The moves for the timer can be set for however many moves you want it to be before the patch regrows. 7500 is about two days.
4. Start General Timer, 7500 moves, CALL Spec 5
5. Set SDF 100,0 = 0; END
To limit the number of times returning to the patch:
//Again, 100,0 represents the day counter, but 100,1 will represent the incremented flag. Let's say that you can only visit it four times before you pick it bare.
0. IF SDF 100,1 = 4, THEN GOTO 8; ELSE GOTO 1
1. IF SDF 100,0 < 5, THEN GOTO 2; ELSE GOTO 3
2. Forced Give; "Ingredients"; ("You find a patch of 'ingredient' and take some. It should regrow in a little while."); GOTO 4
3. Display Msg; ("It hasn't regrown yet"); END
4. Set SDF 100,0 = 10; GOTO 5
5. Increment 100,1 by +1; GOTO 6
6. Start General Timer, 7500 moves, CALL Spec 7
7. Set SDF 100,0 = 0; END
8. Display Msg, ("You've picked the ingredient dry. It doesn't look like it will grow back."); END
Aceron's BoE Item Statistics:
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Aceron's Item List:
These are the basic statistics for a vast archive of items:
NAME DMG HANDS WGHT PIC OTHER ___________EDGED_______________________________________________________________ Knife 4 1H 7 Knife - Stiletto 4 1H 8 Knife - Dagger 5 1H 10 Knife - Main Gauche 5 1H 10 Knife +1 Defense Dirk 6 1H 12 Knife - Shortsword 6 1H 15 Broadsword - Rapier 7 1H 15 Broadsword - Wakizashi 8 1H 15 Curved Sword - Cutlass 8 1H 20 Broadsword - Backsword 8 1H 20 Broadsword - Scimitar 8 1H 25 Curved Sword - Saber 9 1H 20 Broadsword - Broadsword 9 1H 25 Broadsword - Waveblade 10 1H 20 Waveblade - Katana 14 1H 25 Curved Sword Rare! Expensive! Longsword 11 1H 30 Greatsword - Falchion 12 1H 40 Curved Sword - Axe 7 1H 20 Axe - Flameberge 10 1H 25 Waveblade - Tulwar 14 2H 35 Greatsword - Scythe Blade 12 2H 35 Curved Sword - Greatsword 14 2H 45 Greatsword - Great Axe 15 2H 50 Axe - Bastard Sword 13 2H 40 Greatsword - Claymore 16 2H 60 Huge Sword - Warblade 18 2H 80 Huge Sword - ___________BASHING______________________________________________________________ Club 5 1H 12 Club - Spiked Club 8 1H 15 Club - Mace 7 1H 18 Mace - Hammer 8 1H 25 Hammer - War Mattock 10 1H 20 Hammer - Flail 9 1H 30 Flail - Ball and Chain 10 1H 35 Flail - Morning Star 11 1H 35 Flail - Whip 6 1H 15 Whip - Chain Whip 8 1H 25 Flail - Huge Club 15 2H 75 Club - Maul 14 2H 40 Mace - Great Mace 13 2H 45 Mace - Warhammer 12 2H 35 Pole Hammer - Quarterstaff 8 2H 30 Staff - ___________POLE_________________________________________________________________ Spear 9 2H 30 Spear - Pike 16 2H 30 Spear - Lance 14 2H 35 Spear - Trident 15 2H 35 Slith Spear - War Fork 20 2H 50 Slith Spear - Bardiche 12 2H 35 Bardiche - Halberd 18 2H 50 Halberd - Naginata 24 2H 40 Spear Rare! Expensive! Bill 10 2H 30 Halberd - Guisarme 10 2H 30 Halberd - Glaive 17 2H 45 Halberd - Partisan 11 2H 35 Spear - Scythe 12 2H 40 Halberd - Ranseur 12 2H 35 Halberd - Voulge 21 2H 80 Halberd - ___________TYPES________________________________________________________________ Stone +0 Stone Greatsword Wood +0 Wooden Greatsword Crude +0 Crude Greatsword Bronze +1 Bronze Greatsword Fine +1 Fine Greatsword Iron +2 Iron Greatsword Steel +3 Steel Greatsword Battle +4 Battle Greatsword Magic +5 Magic Greatsword Mithral +6 Mithral Greatsword Adamantite +7 Adamantite Greatsword Itrium +9 Itrium Greatsword
Eliminating Impenetrable Doors:
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This code sequence will save you at least three terrain spots, and it will make your audience save the SP from casting Unlock. This sequence will show you how to use a special item to get through to the door.
//This special is to be placed on the spaces beside the door on which the party can walk.
0. If Have Special Item(Key, Amulet, etc)THEN GOTO 1; ELSE GOTO 2.
1. Display One-Time Text Message ("You have unlocked the door.") END
2. Can't Enter (no enter) THEN GOTO 3.
3. Display One-Time Text Message ("This door is locked, and you can't unlock it.)
You can also use a stuff done flag instead of a special item by changing the code as follows:
0. If SDF X,Y > Z THEN GOTO 1; ELSE GOTO 2.
1. Display One-Time Text Message ("You have unlocked the door.") END
2. Can't Enter (no enter) THEN GOTO 3.
3. Display One-Time Text Message ("This door is locked, and you can't unlock it.)
Teleporting Between Towns:
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This is a relatively simple sequence, and it continues to amaze me that it wasn't included in the editor.
//Change all a's, b's, x's, y's, z's, and Town A's into whatever is appropriate in your scenario.
0. Combat Block (no enter); IF can enter GOTO 1
1. Do SFX Burst on a,b (telep); GOTO 2
//The SFX Burst should occur on the space where the party is located -- it's easiest to do this when the teleporter is at the end of a long, single-tile-width hallway.
2. Stairway x,y to z in Town A (Always change level); THEN GOTO 3
3. Do SFX Burst on x,y (telep); THEN END.
//The x,y in nodes 2 and 3 should be the same.
Blades of Exile:
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When you first download the demo of Blades of Exile ($30, Spiderweb Software), you will be able to play one of three included scenarios. However, you will first need to create a party. You may have up to six adventurers in your party. You can name them, choose their graphics, their advantages and disadvantages, and allocate skill points for their skills. The screen is fairly straightforward. There are many skills, most of which are useful. The amount of customization the player has is phenomenal, and you can create any character you'd like.
Valley of the Dying Things is an interesting, but not spectacular scenario. You, the adventurers, have come to save Skylark Vale from a mysterious disease that has been plaguing the land. To do so, you descend deep into an old mage school and determine what�s going on. It�s original, but parts of it are not fully fleshed out. However, it will help you become accustomed to the way things work in Blades of Exile.
If you can get past the graphics, which are detailed, 2D graphics (which can be customized easily) and the turn-based combat (which is really very good, once you get used to it) you should know that, of the other two scenarios that come with Blades of Exile, one is great and one is pretty bad. A Small Rebellion places your party in the middle of a rebellion against the Empire. However, you can choose which side to support, and both paths are interesting and well designed. Characters have interesting dialogue, and the only nitpicks are that there is an ill-placed laboratory that really shouldn�t exist, and that the plot seems rather unoriginal. However, the delivery is excellent.
Za-Khazi Run, the next scenario, is the worst of the three. The party is supposed to deliver wands to a besieged fortress at the end of a winding river passage in less that 21 days. It randomly interposes monsters in Exile, where they really don�t belong. Troglodytes and unicorns are surface creatures, and the villains, the lizard-like Slithzerikai, are not aggressive towards humans. Several dungeons (Morog�s Lair and the Vahnatai crypt) are designed just to delay the party. Once you get near the fort, the dragon Khoth forces you through a conveyer maze and puts you in fields of mushrooms that make you sleepy, � la Wizard of Oz.
However, Blades of Exile�s true strength lies beyond these included scenarios. Included with Blades of Exile is the Scenario Editor, with which you can create your own scenarios playable in Blades of Exile. Even if you don�t plan on making them yourself, there are over 175 user-created scenarios available. Over 50 of them are good scenarios better than the three included ones. Over 25 of those are masterpieces, which are better than commercial RPGs in terms of plot, character development, and story. Some of the best are Tatterdemalion, Nephil�s Gambit, Shadow of the Stranger, Quintessence, Spears, and Falling Stars.
If you plan to make your own scenarios, you will be spending many hours in the scenario editor. The interface is simple, and rather user-friendly. You can fully customize monsters, items, and terrain. You can paint the outdoors and towns. You can add monsters to them and dialogue to the monsters. However, the meat of the editor lies with special nodes and Stuff Done Flags (SDFs). Special nodes are what allow you to show dialog boxes, curse the party, register that the party has completed a quest, teleport the party, and do pretty much everything cool that you can think of.
SDFs are the variables of the scenario editor. They have two parts, and a Stuff Done Flag is read similar to an ordered pair (1,1, for example). They start out with a value of zero, and they can be checked, incremented, changed, flipped, copied, and more. There is a large community committed to designing scenarios, and they are quick to help anyone who asks a question. Check out the Lyceum (http://lyceum.desperance.net) for scenario reviews, design help, and Alcritas' scenarios.
However, the editor is not without its flaws. Some items have the wrong abilities, as do some monsters. It's recommended that you download a fixed bladbase from Brett Bixler's site if you plan on designing scenarios. Also, some features just don't work, but there are usually workarounds. The Blades of Exile community is still discovering new things. The latest is several techniques for creating a mini movie within a scenario, or even as a separate scenario.
Overall, Blades of Exile�s strength lies in the user-designed scenarios and its powerful, yet easy-to-use editor. Some of the scenarios out there are truly amazing, and any user can try his or her hand at designing. If you can get past the older graphics and first three scenarios, a gem awaits you. Scenarios are measured in terms of plot and story, and many do not disappoint. Blades of Exile is a 9/10 in my book, and I encourage anyone who values a good story to register and try it out.
Riddle of the Spheres:
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Riddle of the Spheres, RotS for future reference, is a magnificent epic by Brett Bixler. The first major scenario produced for Blades of Exile, it has become one of the standards that aspiring designers try to shoot for. In its entirety, the Spheres Trilogy is a marvelous epic. As individual scenarios, they still are some of the best scenarios around.
RotS introduces the player to the Realm of the Spheres, a land where Music reigns, a land nearly untouched by the Empire. As a mercenary, it is your job to recover the missing spheres of music, Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, and Ti. To do so, you must traverse miles of outdoor sections, spanning the entire Realm of the Spheres. Along the way, you meet the D'kar, a foul species that evidently hates you and the spheres (or perhaps they're Leatbles evangelists).
A lot of ingenuity went into the quests, dungeons, and monsters in RotS, and it's evident. The towns and dialogue are crafted with expert skill, and this holds true in all but a few places.
It is impossible to talk about the Spheres Trilogy without mentioning the graphics. The bridges between islands are an excellent use of custom graphics, the graphics are used wisely and are of good quality. The outdoor setup is among the best I have ever seen, and for a scenario which takes up so many outdoor sections, it's truly spectacular.
I have few gripes about this scenario, but one is of the utmost importance. In the fortress on the lake, it is possible to be stuck on the water, with no way to get back to your boat or to the floor. Besides this, however, there are relatively few things technically lacking about the scenario. Although the level of editor skill is not excellent, it is great for a first scenario, and is higher than that of most modern scenarios.
I believe that a few characters and towns could use more fleshing out, and some of the missions seemed a little forced. Also, the plot is showing some age. Were I to write this a year ago, my score would be higher. Overall, however, this is a model Blades of Exile scenario, and the first to show what the editor was capable of.
My score: 8.4
An Apology:
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by Ian Klinkhamer (alcritas@att.net)
An Apology is, by far, one of Alcritas's better scenarios. It demonstrates an excellent mastery of special nodes, an intriguing plot, and offers challenging combat for experienced players. As we first glance at this astonishing work, we must take into consideration Alcritas's other scenarios, most of which were excellent. An Apology is a fitting continuation of the series, although it goes about it in an unconventional manner.
First off, there is no outdoors whatsoever, unless you uncover the bug in the Syracuse. All traveling between towns is taken care of by forced stairways. This may have reduced the time necessary for completion, but it has not affected the novelty of the scenario in any way.
In addition to this, the plot is extremely linear, as you are forced by the stairways to do whatever Xenophon bids of you. However, I feel that this does not detract from the scenario at all, but adds a sense of importance and urgency, which is further developed by the dialogue of Xenophon, Alcritas, Kaleb, Kriken, and more. Alcritas has set new standards in this scenario with several scenes, which I will delve into in detail.
One of the first innovative sequences is Dreams of Forever, a black and white dream town. Eventually Sage can be found here, but the slow deterioration of the walls, ground, and people is wonderfully executed. Another such scene is the Road to Corinth, a town in which the party is set upon by a group of raiding sliths, which change as the storyteller remembers different accounts of the battle. Imagine my consternation when, without notice, the lone Slith Warrior turns into a band of Troglodytes!
This brings up another point about the scenario, the challenging combat. In the normal, difficult version, my two-PC party barely survived each encounter, and kept me on the edge of my seat. My six-PC party was better equipped for the situations, but they still lost two PCs during the course of the scenario. Though not nearly as hard as some scenarios I've played, this was the most challenging for the low-level party, and my score reflects that.
The multi-faceted story is improved upon by Socrates (er . Alcritas). who gives you chores to do before he'll help you and your mentor, Xenophon. Feeding the Morgles and watering the glowing plants are among the innovative chores and really show node mastery beyond what Jeff Vogel intended.
The last dungeon, the Syracuse, is remarkable. A large ship, the Syracuse comes complete with explosives, a chase scene, and a tough combat at the end. One of my few quibbles is that the Syracuse can be left, leading the party into an empty outdoors, with no possibility for re-entry.
Overall, I have few gripes with this marvelous scenario. However, I have one last quibble. When I played the scenario with a level five singleton, the monster levels doubled, making the game nearly impossible, and it was sheer luck that I managed to win.
My score: 9.6
Requelle's Nightmare:
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by Mike Natushko (mhnatus@calstatela.edu)
Requelle's Nightmare is a very interesting scenario, now at version 2. The first scenario to send the party to the world of dreams, Requelle's Nightmare uses a unique storyline to interest the player. Requelle, of the Triad, and everyone else in the Tower of Magi has been having strange nightmares lately. It's up to you, the adventurers, to stop the nightmares and bring calm back to the Tower.
As soon as you open the scenario, you're immediately presented with a nightmare. You send characters through a portal, where they must reach the center portal a certain number of times before you wake up. This is, although some people do not recognize it as such, an interesting way of checking the party's level. If you kill the monsters, you're not allowed into the scenario.
In addition to this, as soon as you wake up, you're sent on a quest. 'X' will only tell you important information if you go to the clock tower and tell him the time. The time is set by a combination of timers, clicks, and text messages. When you finally return to 'X', he gives you the password, and you're off to find the Avian Nectar nearby.
When you get back and visit Requelle, you manage arrive just when Requelle is captured by the dream makers. When you finally go to the world of dreams, you're confronted by a world so totally different than the one you were just in. Monsters that appear out of nowhere, decoys, boulders and vortices, and even simulacra of people you know from the tower.
While the majority of the scenario takes place in the dream world, plot linearity is still an issue. You feel pushed along from place to place, and the sense of urgency is never completely fleshed out. You just feel like another group of adventurers, instead of a mission to save one of the members of the Triad. The characters are not developed enough to seriously give you a feel of the new Tower of Magi. You never end up eliciting emotions for the characters you interact with, and they could be made much more interesting with a little more dialogue.
All in all, the dream sequence is one of the best in the scenario. A scene where you fight your 'mirror images' also occurs. Sprinkled throughout the scenario are bits of humourous jokes and references, mixed in just often enough to deflate the serious feeling of the scenario.
However, even though many sequences do not disappoint, the plot is not an extremely gripping one. You can never quite tell what mood the author intended to set, as the seriousness never quite comes to a climax, and you're rushed through one end of the scenario to the other. What keeps you going instead of the plot is the dungeon design and innovative special nodes.
The puzzles are certainly entertaining, and at the right player level. They never frustrate you, and the boulder and vortex puzzle is still one of the best in any scenario.
My score: 8.5