Part 1: "Witch's Hovel" Prologue: Spoiler "The Guardians of The Forest have reported an overwhelming number of undead wandering in from from the south. I suspect someone is practicing the dark and highly ILLEGAL PRACTICE OF NECROMANCY AND I WILL NOT STAND FOR IT!!!" The king slams his fists on the table in rage. "..Ahem.. Excuse me. Where was I? ..Ah, yes. I need you three to venture into the forest. Locate and DESTROY the source of this disturbance. Check Withering Falls, Lundmeer's Nook, and that godforsaken Witch's Hovel... Move quick! Be discreet! Best not be seen lest we cause panic!" Your party disappears into the shade of the southern forest. Epilogue: Spoiler As the circle is broken, a massive puff of thick, black smoke explodes from the ground engulfing the witch and then the entire party. The smoke clears and your party begins to feel a bit strange. The witch is nowhere in sight. Before you go after her, you decide to ransack her place in search of TREASURE!! Part 2: "Cellar of Disciples" Prologue: Spoiler Still a bit woozy from whatever was in that smoke, your party has now eaten all of the leftovers from the witch's icebox and Ming won't shut up about how huge his hands are. Suddenly, Lothar begins sniffing as if, perhaps, he smells something. He jumps up and begins frantically searching for the source of the smell. He sniffs up high. He sniffs down low. Finally, Lothar runs out the back door to the side of the hovel. Ming takes notice and quickly flies out to join him. He rounds the corner to see Lothar straightening his tail and pointing his nose at the cellar door--Wait. What?! Epilogue: Spoiler Okay, so she turned you into animals and unleashed her cult on you. Not good. But look on the bright side... TREASURE!! Part 3: "The Rift" Prologue: Spoiler So your party; Dog, Bug, Plant Thing; travels deeper still, because, well, what else are you gonna do? "Shh! Shutup!" Wait. Who, me? "SHHH! SHUT UP!" You can't shush the narrat-- "Shutup! There she is...THE WITCH!!" The witch holds up her hand, as if to offer a treaty. "Please, listen... I am not a witch. My name is Andengal. I am a seer. I sometimes have visions. Visions of what may come. Here in this ancient dwarven temple, there has been a tear." "ARF! ARF! RRUUFFFF?!" Lothar asks. "A tear in reality," Andengal replies, "Your king, the one who sent you after me, did he not? Your king wishes to exploit this tear for his own selfish gain. For profit! I was amassing an undead army to protect this tear--this rift--from evil men such as he. But then you guys came and now-- Anyway. Sorry I had to turn you into animals..." She casts a spell, returning you to your original forms. "..and I hope my disciples didn't give you too much trouble." So... Shall we? Epilogue: Spoiler Andengal disappears into the portal and in a flash of white light so intense it knocks all but Lothar off their feet, the rift closes, leaving your party to be all like... "Whaaat?!" ... Suddenly, the portal rips back open, but only partially. A hand reaches through the opening and tosses some treasure onto the ground. A fading voice shouts "Thanks again, guys!" as the portal slams out of existence. Part 4: "My Father, My King" Prologue: Spoiler Andengal tunnels through an infinitude of dimensions; her truest form revealed. Her father, formless at first, greets her warmly but silently. "Father," cries Andengal, "You have not been a good king. You have not used your power well." Her father, The King, replies, "I know." Slowly, the chaos is made concrete by your mind and the final battle ensues. Epilogue: Spoiler As he fades from existence, the king has one last message for his daughter: "Andengal, you must know this before I'm gone. It's about Lothar... He's your brother. Lothar is the true and rightful heir to my throne... and Ande..." "Yes, father?" "..I'm proud of you." With a tear in her eye, Andengal travels through time and space to return with the news of how she pretty much saved the whole kingdom single-handedly. Nobody cares though, because they're too busy opening their TREASURE!! So there it is. I hope you enjoy it! I would love to hear all the feedback, comments, suggestions, etc.. Thanks!
My gods. The difficulty really ramped up at the end there. Those last two missions were BRUTAL. It took me several retries to figure out how I was supposed to use the tunnels in The Rift, and even then it was a near thing. I feel like I was playing at the top of my game with My Father, My King, and still only won after a grueling series of defeats. And the maps... each of the maps is a masterpiece unto itself. My one complaint is that in Witch's Hovel and The Rift, there are several terrain pieces that usually indicate impassible or blocking terrain, that in these maps were just difficult terrain - that said, the maps were so pretty to look at, I understood why you made those choices, even if I wouldn't have done it myself. The monsters were all beautifully chosen, with lots of fun interaction between each side's cards. I cannot praise your work highly enough. You have a gift, good sir. I look forward to playing more maps by you in the future.
@Inkfingers I have been without internet, so I apologize for the late reply, but I very much appreciate your feedback and kind words! I had been wondering how difficult these are. They go through so many changes as I'm working on them, I start to lose track of which versions are too hard and such. At one point, I had considered having 6 scuttlers instead of 8 on The Rift. And the map for My Father, My King once had one blocked square in the center which makes it quite a bit easier, so I may consider adding that back. I will also look into replacing the misleading blocking terrain squares since I plan on submitting to MM. Thanks again for the feedback and encouraging words! It means a lot!
The first two levels I found difficult but doable, so long as I was careful. The last two would definitely benefit from a difficulty reduction before become a MM map. I'm going to go play through the rift with two fewer crawlers, see how that feels. Also, check the terrain by the starting point in The Rift - some of that is similarly confusing, specifically the volcanic-looking stuff - it's not even consistently difficult or blocking.
Let me know how it goes! I just went and attempted the last two maps again.. They are a LOT harder than I remember. haha. On The Rift, is it just the one little lava rock that I accidentally left open? or was there more confusion than that? UPDATES: I put up new versions of everything except Cellar of Disciples. Witch's Hovel: I think I made all the terrain like it's supposed to be. The Rift: Fixed that accidentally open terrain square. Less scuttlers and made the Tsastiis minions. This one is probably still too hard, but I'm not very good anyway, so I can't always tell. My Father, My King: Added a blocking square in the center of the map. I can win this one about three quarters of the time using this strategy: Spoiler Always stay at least 3 spaces away from the other dragon. Shoot him with your acid every chance you get/keep his side of the map covered in it. Always save a resistant hide.
I could do The Rift consistently with just 6 Crawlers - having the Tsastiis be minions will make it easier, but also significantly less grindy at the end, which is probably a good thing. I was talking about the lava rock. I'll go for the updated MFMK map tomorrow.
Did the thing. Lacked the pulse-pounding thrill of the first version. Something about having to dodge as the dragon tried to get in melee range was a lot of fun. I wish there was a middle ground between Xanthicus and the green dragon in terms of power, because that would be perfect for this. Maybe a version where you're ducking around killing low HP sparks or something, that respawn every round, and that's the way you get enough VP to win - by dodging Xanthicus until you've collected a few turns worth? I'm gonna mock up some unadorned maps, see if I can kludge a version that's as fun to play as the original, but not as difficult. I think part of what I'm reacting too is that there are so many turns where you don't move, you don't do anything but just play acid, and to me, that doesn't feel fun.
I'm with ya on all that.. I feel exactly the same way. I was just hoping the novelty of the whole David vs Goliath thing ("He's got twice my health, but I still got him!") plus the excitement of figuring out the strategy would make up for it... ...But I agree completely. Let me know if you come with anything!
And that's exactly the feeling I got from the first version! Now we just have to find a way to get there that doesn't involve a half-dozen deaths AFTER I figured it out. Do we know if the Soul Jars from the expansion are available in the level editor? I can't find them, but there's a whole long list of random enemies, so that doesn't mean they aren't there.
Any specification to when AI characters will be available in May? As in start, end or do you need a test build to add it with?
Thes are just amazing maps! The most beautiful in all of cardhuntria. The game-developer-artist in you shines through. Here's some of my favorite things: I love the dramatic use of lighting in the witch's hovel, especially shining out of the windows. I'm assuming the light source is on the ceiling so we can't see it. I love the connection between the trapdoors on level one and level two, yet with super shading to denote that the terrain was from a previous level. It makes the story more seamless. I love the innovative use of the lava doodads on the rift and the amazing blend of colors and textures on the final map. The icing in the cake is how the snow is osmosing off of the board on my father my king. You're really pushing the boundaries of the limited pallete we've been given. Using boundaries to create magnificently rather than complaining about tools you don't have. I love it. @Flaxative My hope is that this would be the future of Cardhuntria. A sandbox-esque playground for D&D DMs and storytellers. If the manpower of BM allows it: allow map creators to craft scenarios that users could buy with pizza. Pay the creators in cash % of how much play their content brings in. Then there could be vastly more content and this could be a legitimate space where DMs could function.
@tolkien Wow. Thank you for that. It is really, REALLY nice when someone takes that much interest in your work. Very inspiring! I have been heavily considering creating my own sandbox-esque playground for D&D DMs (well said, by the way) inspired by the scenario builder and its brilliance... I love the idea of making the scenario building/DMing a bigger thing. I see a lot of potential there, and I'm the kinda guy who actually enjoys building games more than I do playing them, so I'd be all over that! Thanks again, tolkien, for the encouragement/inspiration!
