Vallenhas Story - a missed Stronghold Opportunity

alphastream

I very much like the Vallenhas Story as a story. I can't help but think that this was a missed opportunity, however, to have a really cool impact on guilds.

If that black orb was over our strongholds, and our NPCs or even higher rank guild members were strangely ill, and our stronghold was descending into Avernus... that would truly have engaged players. Those not in guilds could go with the Vallenhas stronghold, but linking the module to our strongholds would have brought players back in droves.

hrakh

alphastream said:

I very much like the Vallenhas Story as a story. I can't help but think that this was a missed opportunity, however, to have a really cool impact on guilds.

If that black orb was over our strongholds, and our NPCs or even higher rank guild members were strangely ill, and our stronghold was descending into Avernus... that would truly have engaged players. Those not in guilds could go with the Vallenhas stronghold, but linking the module to our strongholds would have brought players back in droves.

Agreed, but then you spend a lot of time with actual D&D design.. its obviously just not quite the same.. Maybe you need to consider a career switch? Cryptic may need a designer sooner or later

alphastream

Ha-ha, thanks! It would be really cool. I have friends who work on that kind of video game story design and it can be great.

This game has had some releases/zones with amazing stories. I know they can do it. The story can be engaging, simple enough for new players, and still reward us for our past play time. Strongholds are often left behind, and this could have been a way to do that.

hustin1

One of my level-80 alts had never run the low-level quests, and as I type this I'm in the Clockwork Tomb. This is a great example of lore synergy. There are a couple of lore entries in there that begin setting up the story to the Dread Ring campaign. It would be nice if the devs did some of this again. One opportunity might have been to sprinkle lore in our strongholds alluding to problems at the Vallenhas estate.