Author Topic: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?  (Read 11797 times)

Offline Grim Squeaker

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Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« on: July 11, 2005, 04:20:09 AM »
So, did you ever decide on using some of those WHQ settlement/travel events from the WHQ RP book?  If so, I'm curious as to which.  (And for others reading this thread, this is not the place for random discussion of WHQ).
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Offline jester

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2005, 05:11:44 AM »
WHQ? Just to be on the safe side!
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Offline Grim Squeaker

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2005, 05:22:58 AM »
WHQ? Just to be on the safe side!

Warhammer Quest.  The Roleplay book has many random encounters that can occur in settlements or when travelling.  Some of these are perfect to adapt to BG2 random events.
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Offline SimDing0™

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2005, 06:41:23 PM »
I haven't put it to use yet, I'm afraid. A read through revealed an awful lot of stuff that's wouldn't apply terribly well to BG2, so if you can point out some specific recommendations, that'd be good. I can't promise substantial work on any of them any time soon though.

Offline Grim Squeaker

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #4 on: July 25, 2005, 10:22:55 AM »
Had a look through and found a few things which would add a couple of encounters to the game:

In city:

Pickpocket: In cities, have some random people wander past you and steal money from you.  Based on your dexterity (bonus if thief) whether you get floating text saying whether you felt something or, if really good, you catch his hand and start a dialogue

Duel: In a tavern you are challenged to a duel.  Nuff said.

Pet Dog: Less serious, but a dog could follow you about the docks or somewhere

Runaway: In the circus area an animal escapes and you can try and stop it before it runs into innocents etc, trying to make its way out

Crime: Someone accuses you of a murder.  This would be a longer quest

Between locations:

Pedlar: Offers to sell you some new items of equipment, plus some usual stuff like healing

Prisoner: Encounter mercenaries dragged a man behind them.  You can fight them or let them go.  Reward if you save him.

Witch's Cave: Encounter some sorceress who offers to enchant you somehow.  If you accept her offer (give her money): 1/3 chance you are cursed somehow for a week, 1/3 chance of nothing, 1/3 chance you get bonus hitpoints for a week or something

Lightning: One of the party is struck by lightning, breaking unenchanted weapons and armour (s)he is carrying

Ambush: Just more ambushes really
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Offline SixOfSpades

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #5 on: July 26, 2005, 01:12:23 PM »
Pet Dog: Less serious, but a dog could follow you about the docks or somewhere
I had a similar idea: Commoners (especially kids) running away from a Rabid Dog that's under Morale Failure: Berserk in a populated area. Reputation point if you Heal or Cure Disease the dog instead of killing it.

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Prisoner: Encounter mercenaries dragged a man behind them.  You can fight them or let them go.  Reward if you save him.
Shouldn't there be a 50/50 chance (or something) that the man is actually guilty? There's already too many corrupt officials in this game.

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Lightning: One of the party is struck by lightning, breaking unenchanted weapons and armour (s)he is carrying
Random lightning strikes are already included in the game, but if you ask me, since they don't pack enough of a punch to kill the average (non-Electric-resistant) adventurer outright, there's really no point in having them destroy items--and the items they'd destroy wouldn't be determined by their enchantment, but whether or not they're made of wood. If there's going to be any tweaks to the lightning (Call Lightning as well), it should be to make it more likely to strike those with metal armor and weapons. [Keldorn, holding Lilarcor over his head, would make one heck of a lot better lightning rod than, say, Jan with a Crossbow.]



Ormand: While traveling in the country roughly a week after clearing the de'Arnisse Keep, you are waylaid by a Ranger named Ormand Fevian. He says he represents the Elven community of Suldenessellar, and he has been assigned to track down an important ceremonial heirloom, the Elven Court Bow (which the party must be carrying). It was all right that the Bow should remain in Human hands for fifty years or so--that would only be just--but it has been over 200 years now and still the Bow has not been returned, and the Elves' patience is wearing thin. Ormand was able to trace the Bow to this region of Amn, and now that you have been seen carrying the Bow openly, it was a simple matter to track you down.
You can either give him the Bow flat-out, sell it for a fair price, sell it for an unfair price, ask for a weapon of similar quality in trade (Ormand gives you his own Ripper+2), or refuse altogether. If you take the latter route, Ormand will issue some dire warnings before he leaves.
A few days later, the party will be waylaid again, in a grassland or forest waylay map, again by Ormand. He gives you one last chance to surrender the Bow, although he offerers much less gold than he did last time. If you still refuse, the party finds itself under attack from a total of 12 Elves (Rangers of all stripes), who have surrounded them. Note: Elves are not in the habit of throwing their lives away in the manner of, say, Shadow Thieves. They won't take the field with insufficient forces to get the job done, so these guys are good. They will also drink Potions of Invisibility and flee (or heal/regroup if they can) rather than let you kill them.
If Ormand survives the encounter (or you never fight at all), it might be a nice touch to rename as "Ormand" the Elf who dies saving the Moonblade in Suldenessellar.


Wilbur: About 3 days after the excitement of the Skinner Murders has passed, you are passing through the Bridge District when you are accosted by a fellow named Wilbur. He seems nervous, and he's in an awful hurry, but he's got to sell this sword really quick: His dad's dying, and he knows a Cowled Wizard who says he can cure him, but he's got to have payment in advance, and this sword is the only thing Wilbur owns that can raise that kind of money, fast. He will open a store file, so you can see what's for sale: A Scimitar+3, where each hit grants a -1 bonus to the wielder's THAC0 for 1 round. If you choose not to (or cannot) buy, Wilbur runs off in search of another buyer.
If you do buy, the next time you reach the southern area of the Bridge District (which is likely to be within the next few seconds), the party is accosted by a Marilith. (All nearby citizens flee the area.) She wants her sword back, and she is PISSED. It's bad enough to have some fool adventurers steal one of her treasured blades, but to make her come all the way to the Prime Material to regain it? The indignity! She can tell that you are not the ones who robbed her, so she will not kill you unless you fail to hand over the weapon immediately. Should you choose to fight, which you probably will, be warned that this is a ToB enemy, who has not been softened one bit to compensate for the fact that you might be fighting her in very early SoA. If the party flees the scene without killing her, or otherwise fails to kill her after 3 turns or so, a party of Cowled Enforcers takes care of her, and the party takes a -3 Reputation penalty, which is only fair considering that they'll be blamed for a demon rampaging through the Bridge District.
After the encounter with Wilbur, if the party has not yet encountered Dracandros & Co., Wilbur will be found fighting alongside them.

Offline NiGHTMARE

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #6 on: July 26, 2005, 01:19:30 PM »
Ormand: While traveling in the country roughly a week after clearing the de'Arnisse Keep, you are waylaid by a Ranger named Ormand Fevian. He says he represents the Elven community of Suldenessellar, and he has been assigned to track down an important ceremonial heirloom, the Elven Court Bow (which the party must be carrying). It was all right that the Bow should remain in Human hands for fifty years or so--that would only be just--but it has been over 200 years now and still the Bow has not been returned, and the Elves' patience is wearing thin.

What if the bow is being carried by a non-human party member? :)
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Offline Mr.WaeseL

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #7 on: July 26, 2005, 02:00:06 PM »
Well, everyone in the D'arnise Keep is human, so it would still work.

On Ormand: I like it.

On Wilbur: A Marilith is EVIL. She probably wouldn't hesitate to kill you for just looking at her sword. Why not replace the Marilith with somehting else? That way, the whole encounter has a lot less of the "look at the DM whipping his penis around" feel ;)

Offline SixOfSpades

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #8 on: July 27, 2005, 02:01:16 AM »
What if the bow is being carried by a non-human party member? :)
Even if the entire party is full-blooded Elves, that doesn't mean they have a right to carry the Bow. That could come only after some exceptionally noteworthy service, most likely to the Elven community especially. Saving the Tree of Life would be an obvious contender here, so perhaps the Bow could be awarded to you along with the Amulet of the Seldarine, although the Bow would need some significant additional enchantments if anyone's even going to notice it in ToB.


On Ormand: I like it.
Thanks. :)

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A Marilith is EVIL. She probably wouldn't hesitate to kill you for just looking at her sword.
That's why I wanted to include her distaste for the Prime Material, unwilling to stay for a second longer than she needed to. I also wanted to see a Demonic creature with a personality a little bit more complex than "I am an Evil Demon, I will eat you now."

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Why not replace the Marilith with somehting else? That way, the whole encounter has a lot less of the "look at the DM whipping his penis around" feel ;)
Well, I read something about Mariliths being very attached to their weapons in this fashion, so it fits the canon--which of course is a nice way of saying it's not very original. Re: penis, do you mean that the Marilith makes it seem overpowered?

Offline Mr.WaeseL

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #9 on: July 31, 2005, 11:47:26 AM »
Yeah. The scene is basically just " give up the sword, and watch some NPC's fight.", which is basicaly the DM showing off his goods ;)

Why not make the Marilith a WK tiefling from the maze level? They're pretty powerful for a low-level party, and evil outsiders as well.

Offline SixOfSpades

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #10 on: July 31, 2005, 04:16:06 PM »
"Watch some NPCs fight?" Well, sure, if you're not able to kill the Marilith within a set amount of time (which pretty much means, if you have to run away), then some Cowled Enforcers will DD in and send the thing back to the Abyss. Otherwise, it's just a challenging fight, a melee enemy who can cast PfMW when your party is probably at a low level. I like the idea of it being a Marilith because
a) Their attachment to their weapons is well-known, so this encounter makes all kinds of sense, and
b) They look damn cool, and we hardly see any of them.

I'm going to continue to fly off on this tangent....
3 Attacks per Round, permanent Improved Haste.
Main-hand weapon is an undroppable Longsword+2: Each hit has 25% chance of adding 2 points of Cold damage, and 25% chance of healing the wielder 1 hitpoint. The sword itself grants 10% Magic Resistance, immunity to Charm and Fear, and Regenerates 1 hitpoint per 10 rounds.
Offhand weapon is an undroppable, unenchanted Club that has a 50% chance of adding 1D2 Fire damage to each hit.
This will simulate a 6-armed Marilith wielding Adjatha the Drinker, Sword of Balduran, Varscona, Dragonslayer, a typical Torch, and an empty fist. None of these weapons will actually be dropped, of course, but other weapons might: The quality of the dropped weapons, if indeed any are dropped at all, should be left to the betatesters.

Offline SimDing0™

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #11 on: August 01, 2005, 08:19:45 AM »
That way, the whole encounter has a lot less of the "look at the DM whipping his penis around" feel ;)
Given that you can easily encounter enemies at this stage of the game who gate in Pit Fiends and Balors, both of which are canonically far more powerful than Mariliths, I'm not feeling the penis-whipping element here.

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This will simulate a 6-armed Marilith wielding Adjatha the Drinker, Sword of Balduran, Varscona, Dragonslayer, a typical Torch, and an empty fist. None of these weapons will actually be dropped, of course, but other weapons might: The quality of the dropped weapons, if indeed any are dropped at all, should be left to the betatesters.
And, uh, it's desirable to simulate a Marilith with various undroppable unique weapons? That feels moderately Weimer-esque to me. I think it'd work better to model her on one of those enocuntered in ToB (penultimate level of WK, perhaps).
Dropping weapons tends to go against what we come to expect from the rest of the Mariliths in the game (and the rest of the creatures with non-standard animations, in fact): that you don't get their weapons, for whatever reason. I can easily code it so every Marilith drops six scimitars +1 or whatever (which is utterly insignificant to balance in ToB), but having just one in the game who drops her weapons is somewhat inconsistent.

Offline Grim Squeaker

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #12 on: August 01, 2005, 10:21:41 AM »
Should some of this be split as it's two different conversations: WHQ encounters and SixOfSpades' ideas.
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Offline SixOfSpades

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #13 on: August 01, 2005, 12:51:42 PM »
And, uh, it's desirable to simulate a Marilith with various undroppable unique weapons?
Sorry, forgot to clarify that my weapon design was merely an example of how 6 weapons could be easily rendered into 2. That's why I said that the exact enchantments on the weapons should be left up in the air for now.

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I can easily code it so every Marilith drops six scimitars +1 or whatever (which is utterly insignificant to balance in ToB), but having just one in the game who drops her weapons is somewhat inconsistent.
I agree. As far as creatures with unique animations dropping their weapons go, I think Mariliths' weapons should be #1 as far as looting goes, because we can see that they're carrying what are obviously standard, normal-sized weapons that can be used by anyone with a humanoid hand. This isn't like cutting off some Dragon's claws and trying to stab people with them, or trying to swing a Fire Giant's Axe. (Don't get me started on how Frostreaver and the Runehammer are 1-handed weapons, and how Mazzy can wear a Fire Giant's armor.)
Ahem. Mariliths. Personally, I'd be fine with all Mariliths getting a set of weapons with nothing but base enchantments, ranging from +0 to +3. Judging by their avatar, they carry two Scimitars, two Daggers, an Axe, and a machete-like weapon that would probably in the Long Sword category.


Should some of this be split as it's two different conversations: WHQ encounters and SixOfSpades' ideas.
Well, if the two sources run into the same end result, I don't see a conflict. I'm not trying to discourage WHQ discussion by any means.

Offline SixOfSpades

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #14 on: August 10, 2005, 07:28:06 PM »
A tweak to the Ormand quest: If you first encounter Ormand in Chapter 6, he can never ambush you with his pack of Rangers if you refuse to return the Bow. One soldier might be spared from the defenses of Suldenessellar, especially as he was already searching for the bow long before the Exile returned, but they can't afford to give up twelve skilled fighters simply in order to retrieve a Bow.

Offline rreinier

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Re: Sim: WHQ-based encounters?
« Reply #15 on: October 29, 2005, 02:19:22 PM »
I like both these ideas very, very much. I wonder if the party should not also receive a minor hit (-1) to reputation even if the Enforcers are not needed.

 

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