KC's EPIC COMMUNITY PROJECT! I NEED YOUR HELP!!!

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by Sujoah

Just so you know, the link to Migol's Tomb Caverns isn't complete. The instructions for the battlefield are, but the story isn't.

Hmmm... I can't try the link because I'm at work, but if you can get to the build instructions, you should have the story. It's on the last page of the Instructions, intermixed with the scenario rules.

I also added a front page link to the Prologue I put up a few days ago, and updated the Overview link to a more relevant post.

[Sujoah]

Originally Posted by killercactus

Hmmm... I can't try the link because I'm at work, but if you can get to the build instructions, you should have the story. It's on the last page of the Instructions, intermixed with the scenario rules.

Put it in spoilers to save room.

Spoiler Alert!

Originally Posted by Migol's Tomb Caverns, Page 4

Having won the battle at Migol's Tomb against the Marro, the party descends into the caverns beneath the tomb, which leads to the land of Laur,
and further south, Lindseframe and Einar's fortress. These caves haven't been used to travel from Nostrauland to Laur since the great Migol was
laid to rest here, but the glowing field surrounding the Kyrien Mountains has made it impossible to navigate the river, giving our heroes no
choice. As they would soon learn, this cavern holds a secret that has laid buried for years.
The glyphs of Sturla surrounded by Violet starting spaces represent Save Points. These are each their own separate room where the party can
Save their adventure. If the party is defeated, they restart from the last Save Point they passed, and the DM and Player can switch places if they
like.
"I can't believe we have to trudge through a tomb just to get to Lindseframe" Syvarris said as the heroes descended the old stairs into the
cavern below Migol's Tomb. The attack from the Marro army in Upper Bleakewoode was unexpected, and the heroes were wary.
"I wonder what's down here? said Raelin, surveying the area.
"Your death."
Three Minions of Utgar stood across the cavern room, glowering at Raelin and Drake.
"Minions of Utgar?!" said Drake in surprise. "What are you doing down here?"
But it was too late - the Minions were already swooping in.
Room 1: Entrance to the Caverns
Player: Start the party on any of the Cyan start spaces.
DM: Start 3 Minions of Utgar on any of the Red start spaces.
Special Rules: The Minions take the party by surprise as they enter the cavern - the DM automatically wins initiative in Round 1. The chest on
the left contains 50 Gold, and the chest on the right contains 40 Gold. If a hero springs the trap on either chest, rocks from the cavern above
fall onto the hero and bury the treasure. Roll one unblockable attack die against the hero that sprung the trap.
Room 2: Runa's Revenge
After finishing off the Minions, the heroes venture through the darkness into the next room, discussing what's transpired.
"Utgar must have sent those Soulborgs in Stechavan, and the Marro we fought at the Tomb. He's going after Jandar's Amulets. Now he's
sending more of his fiends through this cave to try and flood Nostrauland! The War was over!!!" cried Raelin in despair. She had never known
peace prior to this, and was beginning to grow accustomed to it.
"Well, whatever Utgar has sent into this cavern will have to get through us." said Drake, confidently.
"He had better have sent more than those pathetic red-winged Kyrie if he wants them to get past me through these rat-infested caves." said
Syvarris with his usual arrogant swagger. "I don't need - "
"YOU!!!"
Raelin had just flown straight into the air, and was now screaming. "Why!!, the war is over! What do you want, Runa?!! What does Utgar want
with Jandar's Amulets? He returned them to the Wellsprings!"
Runa the Kyrie Warrior was standing at the far wall of the cavern, her dangerous Helm shining though the darkness. "You know nothing, you
pitiful excuse for a warrior. You don't deserve to draw another breath. Our destiny is here and now, Raelin! Meet your maker!"
Player: Start the party on any of the Green start spaces.
DM: Start Runa and 3 Minions of Utgar on any of the Red start spaces.
Special Rules: If all three of the Minions are defeated before Runa, Runa will flee and the Player wins. The chest contains a Heroic Rune. If a
hero springs the trap, vines shoot out from the wall and hold the hero in place. That hero cannot move unless another hero is adjacent to him,
and the treasure is lost.
As the party advances on Runa, she looks up to the ceiling and concentrates. Rocks begin to fall from the ceiling toward the heroes, who dive
out of the way. When they recovered, Runa was gone, but they could hear her shrill voice behind them, flying for the Tomb exit.
"We'll meet again, pathetic one! One day, you will die at my feet!"
Room 3: Save Point
Room 4: Wall of Rock
It took some time to calm Raelin down after the intense battle with Runa. After some rest, the heroes continued forward, hoping to soon reach
the exit and make for Lindesframe.
"It's no wonder why Utgar lost the war." said Syvarris as he tossed his hair behind him. "His warriors have are all braun - they've no skill on the
battlefield. Easy outmanuevered by the clever."
"Don't get cocky, Syvarris." Drake warned. "We don't know if Utgar has anything else coming through these caves."
But Syvarris had just stopped - he looked as though his feet were rooted to the ground on which he stood. There, across some small pools of

water in the cavern floor stood a giant Troll with a huge cleaver like blade - Krug. The beast that nearly killed Syvarris on Feylund before Ullar

So, it kind of just ends.

Also, around the bottom of the spiral of the entire dungeon, you have a triple-hex rock piece, with one hex hanging over the edge of a seven hex. So, if a single spaced figure stands there, it will fall.

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by Sujoah

Put it in spoilers to save room.

Spoiler Alert!

So, it kind of just ends.

Also, around the bottom of the spiral of the entire dungeon, you have a triple-hex rock piece, with one hex hanging over the edge of a seven hex. So, if a single spaced figure stands there, it will fall.

Thanks, Sujoah. I'll have to do a re-upload tonight to fix those. The instructions must've carried onto another page that didn't make the PDF transfer or something.

Thanks also for pointing out my triple-hex hangover - that's a mistake. I'll correct it tonight with the new upload.

[killercactus]

Betrayals of Utgar Battle #1 - Soulborg Ambush

As the heroes make their way south through Nastrauland, they come upon the mountain pass of Stechavan, where the scout Zetacron holds a post with his small band of Omnicron Repulsors. However, as the heroes make their way into the pass, they see a Repulsor moving to light the beacon to signal Jandar of incoming trouble, only for it to be shot down by a massive black Soulborg - a Deathwalker - before it could get the beacon lit. These are Utgar's Soulborgs - a Deathwalker, and animalistic Deathstalkers and Deathreavers. Drake, Raelin and Syvarris, knowing no additional help will be coming for the Omnicrons, charge into battle and to their aid.

Players Army:

Party
Drake RotV - 110
Raelin RotV - 190
Syvarris - 290

Guests (controlled by Player as well in a 2-Player Game. In a 3 or 4 Player game, the Guests are controlled separately, but Raelin's aura still affects them)
Zetacron - 350
Omnicron Repulsors x3 - 470

vs.

DM's Army:

Deathwalker 8000 - 130
Deathstalkers x2 - 330
Deathreavers x3 - 450

In a 3 or 4 Player game, the DM's army is broken into these two teams:

Deathwakler 8000
Deathreavers x3

Deathstalkers x2

Battlefield: Stechavan Pass (pic forthcoming - I need to check the RotV rulebook because I thought I remembered a specific scenario for this)

Special Rules: The DM wins if they destroy Drake, Raelin and Syvarris - they do not need to destroy Zetacron or the Omnicron Repulsors to win. Player obtains Gold for all units destroyed, even if the Guests destroy the unit.

[killercactus]

I've updated the usable heroes on Page 1, and also the Overview and Rules on Page 2, which goes into much more detail now on how the campaign is actually played.

Also, I haven't figured out yet how to correct the "missing story" from my PDF file. It seems like I have too much text for the "Map Parameters" section of VS to handle, and it only prints out the one page.

My solution at this point is to copy and paste the text into Word, print that to a PDF, and add those pages to my PDF printout of the Map, and upload that. The problem is that I don't have Microsoft Office at home, and therefore have to e-mail it to myself so I can transfer it to Word at Work, and then e-mail it back so I can upload it at home, since I can't upload from work [inhale].

Unless someone knows how to get VS to print more than one page of Map Parameters...

Also, if you need the rest of the story/bestiary, here's a summary:

Spoiler Alert!

Syvarris can't get Order Markers for the first round in the Krug room, but then he snaps out of it. After Krug is defeated, he thanks the rest of the party profusely for savings his life, and has a rare humbling Syvarris moment. The next room contains 6 Minions and the chest has 100 Gold - no other special rules.

A Save Point follows, and then the final Wellspring room contains Taelord and 6 Minions, with Taelord starting in the high starting space. The heroes only have to kill Taelord to win.

Once Taelord is defeated, Utgar himself calls off the battle. He looks half-dead and frail. He explains that upon finding and drinking from the next-to-last Wellspring (this one), he had a terrible vision of the destruction of the universe, caused by uniting the Amulets to form a portal into another world. It was then that he sent an emissary to the Alliance and surrendered the War of the Valkyrie. Since then, his armies have either abandoned or betrayed him, except for his loyal Kyrie. The Orcs left and moved west, the Deathborgs moved south with Vydar's Soulborgs to rebuild a city in the image of Alpha Prime, and the Marro have become wild, spreading through Upper Bleakewoode and Laur. Worst of all, Cyprien chastised Utgar for his weakness, and wanted him to continue the war. When he refused, Cyprien and the undead (now following Cyprien) attacked Utgar and the Kyrie, killing most of his Minions and severely wounding Utgar himself. Utgar fled the Kyrien Mountains, which Cyprien now controls. He says that Cyprien is the one after the Amulets, and he's used them to erect the energy forcefield around the Kyrien Mountains that now stands. The field was made by the power of the Amulets, and can only be destroyed by them, so the party must find the remaining Amulets, as a greater number of them than Cyprien possesses will break the field and allow the Kyrien Mountains to be accessed and Cyprien defeated. Utgar tells them the locations of the rest of the Wellsprings, except one that was never found. The Tundra, Volcarren Wasteland, a cavern on Haukeland, a cavern in Kinsland, and 2 in the Forgotten Forest to go along with this one, and the 7 that the Valkyrie previously controlled. Cyprien does not know of the other locations, and will go after the Valkyrie-controlled Wellsprings first.

The party leaves the cavern to travel to Lindesframe and hopefully obtain Einar's Amulet before Cyprien does. He gives them the Amulet of Courage from this Wellspring, which gives the equipped hero +1 Defense and the Combat Challenge Special Power (see Tandros Kreel)

[killercactus]

The story continues after the battle at Stechavan Pass...

Spoiler Alert!

After the battle at the pass, Drake, Raelin and Syvarris stayed to make sure none other of Utgar's forces were in the area planning to attack Nastrauland, bid the Soulborgs farewell and continued on their journey to Montfre Manor.

"Utgar must be the one after the Amulets." said Raelin, her voice filled with despair. "He said the war was over - and Jandar believed him."

"As did the rest of the Valkyrie." added Syvarris. "Such blindness..."

"Or wisdom", cut in Drake. "Jandar would not tell me why he was so quick to believe Utgar was done with the war. Did Ullar tell you?"

"No, he would not say..." Syvarris said.

"It's hard to believe that 5 Valkyrie Lords could be this easily duped by Utgar. They must have had proof that he would not threaten again. It would take a lot to get them to trust Utgar - especially Jandar.", said Drake, pausing to think.

"But we've just seen Utgar's - !" shouted Raelin, but Drake interrupted her:

"For all we know, those Soulborgs could've been reprogrammed to attack Nastrauland, and if there's any leader that I'd bet would reprogram a Soulborg - it's Vydar. He looks more suspicious by the minute. We'd better hurry to Anund."

When the heroes reached the gates of Montfre Manor, two Microcorp Agents clad in black armored suits were standing guard in towers above the doors. Drake hailed to them:

"We come to speak with Vydar - where is he?"

One of the Agents touched a microphone in his ear, but the Agents didn't answer with words - they answered with gunfire. Drake's Sword of Thorian allowed him to dodge the bullets easily, and Raelin slammed her Spear into the ground, protecting herself and Syvarris from the bullets. However, at that moment smoke engulfed the clearing, leaving the heroes blinded. The next thing the heroes saw were four female Agents surrounding them - three dressed in white, aiming their guns towards the heroes' heads at point-blank range, and one in black who was now holding their weapons.

"What is the meaning of this!" exclaimed Syvarris. "Unhand me, woman, and return my bow!"

"Chill out, blondie." said Chrissy, the red-headed Nakita Agent. "You're lucky to be standing here. I could've shot you just for wearing that ridiculous outfit."

"Yeah", said Angela, the dark-skinned Agent. "Did your mommy make that dress for you?"

"At least THIS guy's kinda cute..." added Kimberly, the brunette, winking at Drake. Raelin's nose twisted in disgust.

"Enough", said the Agent in black. Agent Skahen was well known among the Alliance for her skills of stealth and trickery during the War of the Valkyrie. It didn't surprise Drake or Raelin that she could've taken their weapons so easily under cover of the smoke. Syvarris, on the other hand, was so outranged he seemed to have lost the ability to speak. "Why are you here?"

"We've come representing Jandar and Ullar", Raelin said. "They wish to give a message to Lord Vydar. Jandar tried to use the Looking Glass, but did not receive a response."

"We sure got a response from your Agents, though - what's the big idea? And stop oogling me.", Drake added to Kimberly, who was batting her eyelashes and her pistol in his direction.

"Our security has been tightened recently." was all Skahen would offer. "If you wish to speak with Vydar, you do so under our watch. Nakita! - Escort these three into Vydar's hall. He can decide how best to deal with them."

[killercactus]

It's been a while since I updated this, and I know I'm jumping all over the place, but please bear with me. This campaign is going to be amazing when it's done.


Here's another battle for the Heroes - this time after Einar's Fortress. It takes place in the Durgeth Swamp:


DOWNLOAD

I basically just did a revamp of the Durgeth Swamp battlefield from the RotV rulebook, using 1 SotM and 2 Jungle sets. You can read the instructions to the battle in the download, but it pits Khosumet and a slew of Wolves against Acolarh, some Warriors of Ashra and Heroes from your party. The glyph is the Dire Stone, which Acolarh is trying to reclaim from the wolves.

I have some really big ideas for this, including Summon Glyphs that allow Heroes to summon powerful beasts into the battle with them, a collisseum where you can put a treasure on the line and choose one Hero from your Party to fight one-on-one against a foe to win other treasures, and a ton of secrets that you can find throughout the campaign to unlock more usable Heroes and treasures.

[killercactus]

I updated this post with a description of Fortresses and Towns, and a little more overall description of how the campaign is played.

Also, concerning the Overworld and the vast amount of terrain it requires - could Overworld movement be accomplished just by using the "Play" feature in Virtualscape? I've never tried it, but could someone just place a Drake figure on the 3D map picture and move him around right there in the program? That would solve everything very simply if it's possible.

[yagyuninja]

Originally Posted by killercactus

After typing all of this, I realized that it's very, very random if you've never played Shining Force. So, I spoiler tagged it - feel free to read if you've played Shining Force, or are really open minded:

Spoiler Alert!

As far as my first random idea, it comes from the games Shining Force and Shining Force II for Sega Genesis (they're very much like the Fire Emblem series). The battle system in this game almost mirrors Heroscape - each unit has a Movement value, Range, Attack, Defense, and Life (HP).

There's got to be a way to translate Heroscape into a Shining Force like campaign. I'm thinking a player starts out with 3 heroes, and progresses through a series of Battle / Town / Battle / Town, etc, gaining new heroes along the way and also fighting stronger monsters.

At the towns, Heroes can resurrect their dead, possibly discover new heroes or even visit the shops to upgrade their equipment. In the case of shops, they could earn gold equal to the total point value of the monsters destroyed in the previous battle.

I have a couple of friends who don't play Heroscape, but really enjoyed Shining Force II. What I'd like to do is try to basically replicate Shining Force II by using Heroscape figures as closely as possible. Here's a starting point (with who each Scape character represents for those of you familiar with Shining Force II):

The player starts with 3 heroes:

Tandros Kreel [Bowie - the Hero of the party]
Ana Karithon [Sarah - the party's first healer]
Darrak Ambershard [Jaha - a dwarven Warrior. I skipped Chester the centaur, since they aren't very well represented in Scape]

And then can find and recruit along the way:

Erevan Sunshadow [Kazin - a Mage]
Shiori [Slade, a thief that becomes a ninja]
Marcu [Kiwi - a pet turtle]
Othkurik [Peter - a phoenix, and the most powerful character]
Me-Burq-Sa [May - a mounted archer]
Khosumet [Gerhalt - a Wolfman]
Concan [Luke - a sword-wielding birdman]
Syvarris [Elric - an Elven archer]
Zetacron [Rohde - a scientist that shoots bombs out of a cannon]
Master Woo [Karna - a master monk]
Chardris [Tyrin - a wizard]
Alastair Macdirk [Randolf - a dwarf warrior. I use Migol below, so I substituted in a human]
Jorhdawn [Janet - an Elven archer. We're out of archers, so I put in another Wizard]
Kyntela Gwyn [Taya - a sorceress]
Ulginesh [Jaro - a flying centaur]
Atlaga [Skreech - another birdman]
Kelda [Frayja - the party's best healer]
Migol [Gyan - another dwarven warrior]
Major X17 [Zynk - a Robot]
Sir Denrick [Lemon - a knight]
Gurei-Oni [Claude, a golem. Oni was about the best I could come up with. A custom Granite Guardian hero would be perfect.]
Sonlen [Chaz - a Wizard]
Raelin SotM [Sheela - a Master Monk that casts Boost, a defense increasing spell]

The battle system for this would work a bit differently from Scape. In Shining Force, each unit of your party takes a turn in a given round, and you can have up to 12 units. So, what I thought of doing is using up to 3 different colored sets of Order Markers for the Player's army (up to 12 heroes) and as many as needed for the evil army (which can have more than 12). Only one OM can go onto each army card, and the X counts as a 4, which is revealed to take a turn just like 1,2 and 3. The evil army would mostly consist of squad figures and heroes not listed here, and would scale up based on the Player's number of units and equipment.

While in the towns, the Player can change units in and out of his army, or replace dead ones with others if he doesn't want to resurrect them.

One of the coolest things about Shining Force II was the ability to promote your heroes to a fighting class. Once they attained a certain level, they were able to be promoted to a different class, which allowed them to gain more abilities. I'm not quite sure how to represent that, but I definately want to include it.

I also need to figure out the enemy battles from beginning to end (I think there are 30 mandatory battles in Shining Force II).

Man - that really was a random idea.

Awesome. I love Shining Force (though I do enjoy 1 more than 2). I think the promotion part of the game was possibly my favorite aspect, so I'd definitely want to figure out how to get that to work. In fact I might forgo the thematic character picks just to make all the unpromoted guys as low point as possible. That way, you can just replace them later with a guy worth more points with a similar play style. It doesn't have to be totally balanced either; some of the guys in Shining Force weren't that great, and others were incredible (leveled and promoted Arthur in SF1? Worth the wait.)

Another cool thing to include were the special promotion items in SF2. You know, instead of turning Sarah into a Priest, she could become a Monk? The cool punching + kicking type of course. You could have extremely difficult (but rewarding) treasures in certain battle maps that if collected could turn one of your fighters into Kaemon Awa or Drake v.2.

[S1R_ART0R1US]

Wow, there is a ton of stuff in this thread. I like your overworld idea, and the lexan mat seems like it would work perfectly!

[killercactus]

OK, it's been ages since I updated this thread.

Real life intervened with my campaign creations, but it hasn't stopped my brain from working. Betrayals of Utgar is still alive and, with the arrival of D2 and D3, it will be better than ever when finished.

The original storyline involved Cyprien turning on Utgar and opening a rift into another world with the Amulets from the Wellsprings. Now I have a far better idea for the main storyline.

Also, the monsters in the beastiary have changed. With this huge slew of Uncommon Heroes that work perfectly as campaign monsters, I just had to work them into my random battles. They're too perfect - so I've updated the beastiary (which is now on the front page) with mostly Uncommons, but a couple commons and uniques in there, too (uniques like Gurei-Oni and Shurrak work very well functioning as uncommon Cyclopes and Fire Giants). Also, with all of these new Treasure Glyphs, there really isn't much need for me to create my own treasure in the shops anymore - I can just use real stuff! I've updated all of the shops to include the real Treasure Glyphs, along with their Gold costs.

One glyph I will continue to add though is the Vial of Resurrection, except that's already pretty much an official treasure anyway since it's used in the MS3 campaign. Also I'll continue to add more Ancient Artifacts that are based on current Heroscape Special Powers (the Rod of Negation, Spear of Gerda, Sword of Thorian, etc.).

I'd like to get back to working on this a bit each night. I think this time I will complete the entire storyline first, and then fill in the battles and dungeons with maps afterwards. All of the battles and dungeons I've already posted will remain the same.

Thanks to anyone that's still here, and keep watching!

[killercactus]

I've still been hard at work on this, putting in about an hour or so on average each day. I'm almost through the story and DM manual, which is coming along nicely. I'd say the whole project is about 50% done, and it's 95% done in my mind, so I just need to transfer it to Word Documents and Virtualscape.