Knights of the Daystorm - Design Thread - 100% complete

[Velenne]

This project is complete. Please direct new questions and comments to the release thread HERE.

CAPTAIN'S LOG STARDATE 1/22: The enigmatic 'truth' has placed this thread on the front page of Scapers! I'm very excited! I'd like to welcome all you folks visiting this thread from the link provided. Below is a brief overview of what this campaign entails. Relevant links are also below. Please note that this project is unfinished and needs you to get us the rest of the way home! If you get a chance to play through any or all of KotDS, please let me know what you think and I can make improvements accordingly.

Here's a placeholder for what I'm planning. It will also serve to motivate me to test and complete it and provide regular updates.

• There are 5 dungeons in this campaign.
• It's being designed to work with 2, 3, and/or 4 players during any stage.
• There's an over-arcing story heavily inspired by Final Fantasy I. Each dungeon consists of 4-5 rooms/encounters with a Guardian fight at the end.
• The party will face and be composed of a variety of heroes and monsters. You'll have the chance along the way to convert a few as well.
• Variability will be important. You can do the 4 main dungeons in any order you choose.
• The maps/dungeons will also be epic in scope. You'll need about 2 of every expansion to do the whole thing, but as is the beauty of Heroscape, you can always swap out terrain you don't have and use the rules anyway!

The process has begun! Check out the drafts below. I'll make regular updates and revisions as we go.

Download these first! You'll need them to play.
Game Guide in PDF format.
Player's Campaign Status Tracker


Water Dungeon



Fire Dungeon (Runa's Riddles HERE)



Air Dungeon



Earth Dungeon



Sanctuary

[Vilsara]

This seems like a fun epic game, and I'm glad you've taken the placeholder this early, since I've been eager to try out an epic campaign- or at least see one- since DnD was first revealed.

Good luck with the story, first off. I'm sure that's going to a huge part of the campaign, but it'll probably be hard to nail. As a young writer, I'll be eager to see how you tie this in to the game (or, well, copiously edit your spelling and grammar ).

The converting idea also sounds intruiging; I feel most eager to see how you pull that off. Sounds like you're taking a bit of inspiration from Fire Emblem.

I'll be watching this space, and probably be giving out quite a bit of +rep.

[Velenne]

Thanks for the kindness, Vilsara! I look forward to your feedback!

Here's a bit more of what I have so far. I think the story in particular can be tightened up.

1. Story
   1. Player represents a party of Heroes, the Knights of the Daystorm, who originate on Earth and are thus comprised entirely of humans.
   2. Four 'Keys' bound to the elements have been hidden across space and time by ???? and are protected by eternal Guardians.
   3. The player chooses the order in which to find the keys, and thus also determines which Heroes he/she will have access to in each subsequent dungeon.
      1. For example, the Earth Key might be on Feylund. After completing that dungeon, the player will be able to draft from Feylund heroes as well as Earths'.
   4. After gathering all 4 Keys, the player uses them (thus losing them) to gain access to a final dungeon.
2. General Gameplay
   1. Player begins with a drafted army of up to 550 points, max 6 Heroes, all from Earth. DM uses the dungeon's prescribed bestiary.
   2. If the DM manages an Total Party Kill (TPK) in the first dungeon, the player may restart with an entirely different party. If the DM manages a TPK in any subsequent dungeon, the previous Keys are lost and the adventure is over and evil triumphs. Player and DM switch roles.
   3. If a player's character (PC) dies in a dungeon, it may never be reused and must be replaced from the allowed pool of Heroes.
   4. A player may not drop a party member to replace with another. Knighthood is a mantle taken until death. Feeding a Knight to an angry troll to make room for another candidate is perfectly acceptible. (No one ever said Knights were good...)
   5. Treasure is carried over from one dungeon to the next, however bonuses to a given stat do not stack.
   6. Each dungeon will have scalable encounters to become more difficult as the player's party becomes more powerful.
3. Dungeons
   1. Fire Dungeon
      1. Fire Key - grants an AoE Special Attack to the bearer
      2. Valhalla
      3. Lava/Rock terrain
      4. Boss fight = Sujoah
   2. Earth Dungeon
      1. Earth Key - grants 1 round of invulnerability/dungeon
      2. Toril
      3. Swamp/Underdark terrain
      4. Boss fight = Othkurik
   3. Water Dungeon
      1. Water Key - slither, disengage 7?
      2. Feylund
      3. Ice,sand/water terrain
      4. Boss fight = Cyprien
   4. Air Dungeon
      1. Air Key - Flight
      2. Alpha Prime
      3. Castle/Road terrain
      4. Boss fight = Q10
   5. Final Dungeon (Name??)
      1. Lose all keys
      2. Icaria
      3. Terrain = boss' original terrain
      4. All bosses back-to-back followed by battle with Charos?.

Beyond just the battles, I want to include multiple scenario challenges in each dungeon. So it won't always be about having a party with the best stats, but maybe the best synergy or a variety of useful abilities. Also, I'd like to balance the rewards from each dungeon with the usefulness of being able to draft Heroes from that world after you beat it. Finally, the scaling issue is going to have to be very tightly controlled to allow for more powerful parties without crushing them.

[Velenne]

Working list of draftable heroes:

Originally Posted by Alpha Prime]

1. Major X17
2. Zetacron

[/quote]

[QUOTE="Earth

1. Agent Carr
2. Agent Skahen
3. Alastair Macdirk
4. Brave Arrow
5. Crixus
6. Deadeye Dan
7. Elgrim
8. Finn
9. Guilty McCreech
10. Hatamoto Taro
11. Isamu
12. James Murphy
13. Johnny "Shotgun" Sullivan
14. Kaemon Awa
15. Kumiko
16. Marcus Decimus Gallus
17. Master Win Chiu Woo
18. Moriko
19. Otonashi
20. Parmenio
21. Retiarius
22. Sgt. Drake (RotV)
23. Shiori
24. Sir Denrick
25. Sir Gilbert
26. Sir Hawthorne
27. Thorgrim
28. Valguard

Originally Posted by Feylund

1. Acolarh
2. Arkmer
3. Brunak
4. Chardris
5. Emirroon
6. Gurei-Oni
7. Jorhdawn
8. Khosumet
9. Kyntela Gwyn
10. Migol Ironwill
11. Morsbane
12. Syvarris

Originally Posted by Toril

1. Ana Karithon
2. Darrak Ambershard
3. Erevan Sunshadow
4. Tandros Kreel

Originally Posted by Valhalla

1. Atlaga
2. Concan
3. Empress Kiova
4. Kelda
5. Raelin (SotM)
6. Saylind

So you start with a big list of 28 human and can eventually expand that to another 24 for 52 total options. That should help guarantee no game plays the same twice.

[Velenne]

Custom Treasure Glyphs and Traps. I plan on using very simple d20-based treasure and trap tables.

Originally Posted by Treasure

Shield of Arrow Deflection: +2 Defense vs. non-adjacent normal attacks

Seeking Ammunition: Units defending against non-adjacent normal attacks from the owner cannot negate the attack using any special power on an Army Card or glyph.

Amulet of Health: Grants 2 extra Life to the owner .

Boots of Haste: +2 Move to the owner. Further, the owner may move an additional 2 spaces if the owner does not attack this turn.

Vorpal Sword: When making a normal, adjacent attack, if the owner rolls a skull on every dice, the defending figure receives a wound for every skull and cannot roll any defense dice.

Ring of Protection +2: +2 Defense

Eyes of the Eagle: +1 to Range if the owner already has a Range greater than 1.

Potion of Cure Light Wounds: After moving and instead of attacking, discard the Potion of Cure Light Wounds and remove 2 wounds from the owner.

Scroll of Teleport: (Wizard only) Before moving and instead of attacking, discard the Scroll of Teleport and choose an empty space up to 8 clear-sight spaces away from the owner. Move the owner and up to two adjacent friendly figures to that space. Place any chosen teleported figure(s) adjacent to the owner. If the owner and any chosen figures are engaged when they start to teleport, they do not take leaving engagement attacks.

Scroll of Deep Slumber: (Wizard only) After moving and instead of attacking, discard the Scroll of Deep Slumber and choose a Common figure within 5 clear sight spaces. Roll a d20. If you roll a 10 or higher, remove all Order Markers from that figure's card.

Luckstone: When the owner rolls a d20, add 1 to whatever number is rolled.

[Sujoah]

These are really awesome ideas! But, how many sets will it take to make a single dungeon? And how many for a single room? Because this sounds really fun, but I would rather not have to take apart and build a new map every time I finish a room.

[Velenne]

Originally Posted by Toad Rocket

I find this very intersting as I already have started a similar project.

However....


Seriously, your killing me. The ideas and maps sound cool, but pictures man. Pictures!

All in good time! I'm still fiddling with all the maps in VS. I promise to post some up since I'll be hunting for feedback.

Originally Posted by Sujoah

These are really awesome ideas! But, how many sets will it take to make a single dungeon? And how many for a single room? Because this sounds really fun, but I would rather not have to take apart and build a new map every time I finish a room.

I'm not really operating within a set limit. I can tell you that I have 3 of every terrain set so i'll certainly never go above that, but you should be able to build the entire dungeon within those parameters easily. In other words, I'll never use more than 3 of a single set (more likely 2) during the construction of any dungeon. The rooms themselves will therefore be smaller skirmishes.

[Velenne]

Earth Key
Toril

4 Rooms, 3 Treasures

Room 1 - Another adventuring party awaits the Knights in these ruins. The group proposes a contest. Pair off members of each party (DM's choice). If the Knights number more than 4, the remainder wait on the sidelines. The combatants fight 1v1 and if the Knights can win any 2 contests, the other party will agree to let them go first and can be recruited in later dungeons. Refuse, and you must fight them all at the same time.

Room 2 - This swamp is inhabited by a clutch of Feral Trolls. The trolls might easily surround the Knights but the terrain may have a few defensible positions for wary adventurers. A Vorpal Sword rests half-buried in the muck in the open as bait for the foolhardy.

Room 3 - Pelloth and his drow mercenaries are in the middle of a ceremony in which he hopes to gain enough power to destroy the black dragon himself and claim the Earth Key. Each unwitting drow he manages to sacrfrice will bolster his stats. In a discarded sachel the party can also find several wizard scrolls.

Room 4 - Though young, Othkurik has had enough time properly trap its lair against intrusion. The party must contend with these traps while defending against the creature's acid spit and enhanced maneuverability.

Earth Key - +2 Defense. Also, once per dungeon the owner may declare him or herself to be immune to all attacks and damage for the remainder of the current round. During this round, the owner cannot move.

[Ormus]

Velenne, I'm following this w/ intent...

I noticed in the Fire pdf you mention the riddles...

Have you thought of those sample ones yet?...just curious.

Great setups

[mnguy12000]

this looks completely awesome! Too bad it sounds like you need a lot of terrian for this and i dont have it! But sounds fantastic!

[Velenne]

Originally Posted by mnguy12000

this looks completely awesome! Too bad it sounds like you need a lot of terrian for this and i dont have it! But sounds fantastic!

I hope it turns out well. And don't worry if you don't have all the terrain. The beauty of Heroscape is that if you're missing some things, you can always proxy it with stuff you do have.

[Ormus]

Velenne this is good stuff. I especially love the riddle mechanic. In the past I have put little 'in-game' type of allusion riddles into scenarios that were necessary to solve in order to find 'hidden' item glyphs.

Great minds think alike I suppose... because when I first saw the DnD terrain I had this image of a Lavadungeon/Swampdungeon/Roaddungeon combo w/ respective Fire/Water/Ether item glyphs to be recovered from each room. I think I posted those jpegs that in my last map thread. Though mine are Talismen not Keys and my map is cohesive, w/ just one room per theme, one map, not a campaign. Anyways...Great work, I will follow this thread w/ enthusiasm...


;thumbsup: