It's Dagger...Dagger Valley...yeaooowww!

I'm not sure why I started this with air guitar. But I did, so lets not speak of it again!

I've started a new kickstarter called 'Dagger Valley'. It's a blend of comic panels and a roll high for high scores game. It's sort of like playing zero level D&D - ie, you roll a lot and hope for high rolls to get through! Which I like as a premise. It'll be released as a free game on kickstarter, which you can be customed into the game to some degree depending on the reward you choose!

It's got a pretty humble goal of $66, which seems more than reasonable to me. A bargain even, yah yah?

I think I'd ramble onto some subject that's too obscure for a blurb about now, so I'll leave you with the link again instead! Dagger Valley

Adventure Writing Advice

My advice:

Don't come up with an adventure. Yep, this goes counter to a lot of other advice you'll find everywhere else.

What you want is for each player to make up a life goal for their PC, like 'Find my sister' or 'Build a grand cathedral' or 'Kill the man who sold me out and left me to die'

Then make up various forces in the area. Try to avoid 'if you don't stop them, the world will end' stuff.

Have a range - some forces might want to destroy a city. Others might just want to steal apples from an orchard. Write up three or so, ranging in size.

Then write up clues that would show these things are happening. Eg, creatures are stealing parts for a powerful arcane bomb in the night. Write up clues that could be found in a number of places - whether the players stay in a bar, delive underground or climb a mountain, try and write clues that could happen in as many of these places as possible - preferably all of them (though that can be hard).

Then write up how, if not interfeared with, these plans will happen over time.

Now do one or two more, per player, in regards to their own goals.

Finally, two things: accept that none of this material might get used!! The PC's might go and do something else. Let go of the idea everything you write will get used - don't fall in love with a piece of material and think 'this is gunna be so great when they do it' - because they might not do it. It's ok, setting wise it might be possible for it to happen another time. But if it's not possible anymore (it involves the king and the king died), just accept its gone. Sometimes its meant to happen, other times not.

And do not fear a split party!

(Sub note: Once again I wrote this somewhere else first )

My browser game WIP! #1, Introduction to Driftwurld!

Yus! I've got a little work in progress browser game going now! It has a short story and a combat system where you have to watch out for the monster special attack! Also a timed weapon system - maybe you'll get lucky and get quad damage!

Here's the link! (recently edited due to migration)
http://www.driftwurld.herobo.com/login.php

When game cyclic events get larger and closer to real life cyclic events

How do you find a picture for cyclic events?
Who knows!? So here's a cool witchhunter from warhammer online!

From an interview on guild wars 2

It’s important to clarify that the event system is cyclical in nature. Events will occur again in the game world; they go in cycles where chains of events cascade out based on decisions and actions taken by the players. These events change the world when they occur, but it isn’t a change that lasts forever in the persistent world, it’s a change that lasts as long as the event chains in the area continue along that path until they cycle around into other events, all driven by player actions.

 Now, part of my intellectual mind says to me this is effectively simply another scale of orcs standing around, picking dasies. Something the guild wars guys aren't fond of

You then get a quest which says, "Kill 0/10 ogres" and you proceed to kill a bunch of ogres standing around in a field picking daisies. Since every player in the game needs to be able to do this quest, the ogres will never actually threaten the character's home - they will just eternally pick daisies in the field. The ogres aren't actually doing what the quest says they are - the game is lying to you!

I mean, aren't the orcs dynamic? Can't you interact with them, kill them, and hey they are cyclical dynamic events too - coming back in one minute. Aren't they just as much dynamic events, simply at a smaller scale (side note: Actually reading this again it looks like the GW2 guys primary concern is that the orcs aren't attacking the farm, but nm)

But the funny thing is, real life is a set of cyclic events which are at a larger scale. Go hunt and kill a rabit - another rabit will 'respawn' over time, after the others have had babies. Whether from day to day, or the seasons, are cyclic events. Forests regrowing after being cut down is a cyclic event. All of these happen at a much larger, more complicated scale and longer time span. But they too are cyclic.

So I think that's why GW2's dynamic events have appeal (atleast to me), as opposed to the "over the standing there doing nothing and comes back in a minute orc" from above.

Although perhaps no one else see's the orc and GW2 dynamic events as merely the same thing but at different scales, so I'm arguing about something I just see. Oh well.

I'm thinking of writing up some stuff on more naturalistic cyclic events - where monsters respawn by the old fashioned way - breeding and rearing young, and such (remember how you imagined monsters before they just appeared outta thin air)

Some target numbers for mmorpgs would be nifty

I was playing runes of magic the other day and I realised that in play, I'd simply be made quite alot happier if there was some sort of rating system for beating monsters - like killing them in X number of seconds. And your character would get to a new zone, and be lower level and lower kit, but you'd see your number improve and get closer to the number then finally beat it!

A bot from global agenda, simply because it looks cool!

Yeah, sure, it's still basically accumulating numbers to beat it. But it'd be more interesting than accumulating numbers and just going 'more is gud!'. Atleast it's hitting a goal here.

Also I hate bloggers labels box - I wish it showed the more commonly used ones, like wordpress does! I can't find the important ones at all easily!

A stark land, a family, a threat

Okay, here we go - a framing of a scene as a kick off. This is a sort of story game where you can play a game so as to make choice in where the story goes and who the adventurer(s) are, as people.

You play this game to get a code from the end: http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/101477

The game's not supposed to be entertaining in itself (though if you enjoy it, that's good). It's there so only somone who puts some effort in can influence the story. I'll probably make one more in theme with the story latter, directly based on effort I get from other people.
~~~

Dark clouds and thunder brewed on the horizon of a post apocalyptic land. Torn ground, with waving, dead grass and snaking lines of cracked ashphalt stretched out from the distance to the point where a small family had put up walls, roof and sewn a few crops in hope of food.

The Breakermans had managed this small farm for some time now, clinging tenaciously to this land and eaking out a life here. But then the Polts had started showing up. Blurred, hunched figures at a distance amongst broken trees and ruins at the perimiter of the crops. Rare at first. But now more and more were seen each time. The lore was clear on what this meant. It meant they were coming. And only chaos and fury would sate whatever hunger that drove them.

~~~
As an adventurer in this blasted land and upon finding this situation, you could
A: Prepare at the farmsted itself with the Breakerman family, for the assault. But the Polts would no doubt tear up the crops as they came and it would also put risk upon the family. Or you could
B: take that risk on your own shoulders and head out in advance of the Polt attack, and strike at the heart of their gathering.
C: Or you could even pass on by, perhaps to return latter and pick upon what bones are left.

If you have the code from the game, post it along with your characters choice in the comments section. First come best dressed If someone has just posted the code with no choice, or have posted the code and something that's nothing to do with this (bound to happen, some people can't do much more than be human), the first person to take the code and write it and their choice is what happens next.