Okay, Foundry Authors... Give me story quests.

raphaeldisanto · July 2013

Gimme some story quests.

Tantalize me with your tales. Entertain me with your environments. Please me with your plots. Immerse me with your ingenuity. Okay, maybe that's enough alliteration.

But all good stories are driven by conflict. And by conflict I do not mean "here's another bunch of bad guys to kill." Good, narrative conflict comes from the people involved in the stories. So give me NPCs I can talk to, NPCs with personalities and character, with hopes and dreams and motivations of their own. NPCs that are more than just expositional info-dumps that issue orders to my character like a task-giving vending machine.

Give me a gripping and enthralling tale that encompasses far more than just "Here's a wall of text that describes why I need you to go into the dungeon, now go into the dungeon." Give me a plot-driven quest where the narrative drives the action, not the other way around. Give me a story where the plot isn't some thinly-veiled anorexic reason to serve up yet another group of random_badguys_01.

Give me a gaming experience where the plot stands front and center and isn't relegated to simply filling in time between combat set pieces.

List the shortcodes here. This is a short workweek. I want a list of things to do come July 4th.

So.. C'mon, foundry authors..

.. tell me a story.

lolsorhand · July 2013

Try my campaign in the signature

Though I don't give out the full story in one quest, it is a campaign after all.

raphaeldisanto · July 2013

I'll give it a shot

talli0 · July 2013

You can try out part 1 of my campaign listed in my sig. Quite a bit of story going on but like lolsorhand above, I don't give it all out in the first part.

And the good thing is that I'm only a few days away from releasing part 2 in all of its glory, which is where I'm ramping up the story.

celestarion · July 2013

You can give a try to "The Whispers from the Void". I worked a lot on storyline. I would be happy to know your opinion.

NW-DUISZ4OXA

raphaeldisanto · July 2013

Thanks guys. I'll definitely check them out.

.. and it's not about giving out the story in one quest, but the story does need to hook me in. Remember, from a literary* perspective, plot can be defined as a "sequence of unique events that advance the narrative."

Generally speaking, a dungeon crawl (or any extended combat set piece) only ever counts as one event, unless multiple narratively important things happen in it - maybe you lose a party member, then you discover a traitor, then an unexpected ally shows up; all those things would advance the narrative in some small way.

However, it generally takes a very skilled writer to do that. There's a reason why plays, movies, novels and other forms of storytelling are broken up into these things called "scenes". It's a tried and tested proven method that works. Each new scene moves the narrative along. A dungeon crawl is generally one big scene and usually the narrative isn't moved along that far regardless of how much time you spend wading through trash mobs.

What I want is quests that grab you and hit you over the head with the "I need to know what happens next!" hammer, because that's really my only motivation for playing video games in general (including Foundry quests) - In fact.. it's really my main motivation for consuming any form of entertainment content, reading novels, watching movies or TV shows, or anything like that -

- To find out what happens next in the story. But in order for that to happen, the story's gotta be good enough to make me want to do that.

* And yes, I won't lie. I -am- looking at this from a literary perspective. I'm an artist and a novelist and not very much of a gamer. I'm an advocate of the english language and a student of the art of storytelling. I'll admit that I'm not the target audience for Neverwinter's Action-RPG-MMO thing, but I'm here because of the Foundry.

redneckronin · July 2013

I hope the story in my campaign does what you want.

Details in my sig, and if the Foundry Publish Bug gets fixed part 3 may be ready (in beta form) by the end of the week.

All The Best

gornonthecob · July 2013

If you haven't played mine yet, it sounds pretty much how you described.

You might also try one called (great, I can't find it now.)
I thought it was called "The Devil's Game" or something like that. The description was really short, something like:
"Sit down." he said. "Play this game with us." You could not resist."
I really liked this one because it was in that category of quests where you found yourself thrown into something you didn't bargain for.
And that's really what adventure is!

lolsorhand · July 2013

raphaeldisanto wrote: »

Thanks guys. I'll definitely check them out.

.. and it's not about giving out the story in one quest, but the story does need to hook me in. Remember, from a literary* perspective, plot can be defined as a "sequence of unique events that advance the narrative."

Generally speaking, a dungeon crawl only ever counts as one event, unless multiple narratively important things happen in it - maybe you lose a party member, then you discover a traitor, then an unexpected ally shows up; all those things would advance the narrative in some small way.

However, it generally takes a very skilled writer to do that. There's a reason why plays, movies, novels and other forms of storytelling are broken up into these things called "scenes". It's a tried and tested proven method that works. Each new scene moves the narrative along. A dungeon crawl is generally one big scene and usually the narrative isn't moved along that far regardless of how much time you spend wading through trash mobs.

What I want is quests that grab you and hit you over the head with the "I need to know what happens next!" hammer, because that's really my only motivation for playing video games in general (including Foundry quests) - In fact.. it's really my main motivation for consuming any form of entertainment content, reading novels, watching movies or TV shows, or anything like that -

- To find out what happens next in the story. But in order for that to happen, the story's gotta be good enough to make me want to do that.

* And yes, I won't lie. I -am- looking at this from a literary perspective. I'm an artist and a novelist and not very much of a gamer. I'm an advocate of the english language and a student of the art of storytelling. I'll admit that I'm not the target audience for Neverwinter's Action-RPG-MMO thing, but I'm here because of the Foundry.

Currently working on part 3 of Brethren, it's been a journey to make, one area took me one week of working several hours per day. I'm glad with the result though, think I might be able to release part 3 within this week, or beginning of next. Will give the campaign as whole a thread in this part of the forum as well then

drakesigar · July 2013

I think my quest is eligible. There’s a whole opening level dedicated to the campaign hook, dozens of optional conversations, and an area which is constructed logically on how these people would be able to live in their environment day to day. Link in sig!

krisrmurray · July 2013

Give a go at mine. It's a good balance of story, puzzles, and fighting. See the short code in my sig.
Cheers!

runis12 · July 2013

:cool: I'd love for ya to check mine out some time. Information in signature.

sourcreamking · July 2013

raphaeldisanto wrote: »

Gimme some story quests.

Tantalize me with your tales. Entertain me with your environments. Please me with your plots. Immerse me with your ingenuity. Okay, maybe that's enough alliteration.

But all good stories are driven by conflict. And by conflict I do not mean "here's another bunch of bad guys to kill." Good, narrative conflict comes from the people involved in the stories. So give me NPCs I can talk to, NPCs with personalities and character, with hopes and dreams and motivations of their own. NPCs that are more than just expositional info-dumps that issue orders to my character like a task-giving vending machine.

Give me a gripping and enthralling tale that encompasses far more than just "Here's a wall of text that describes why I need you to go into the dungeon, now go into the dungeon." Give me a plot-driven quest where the narrative drives the action, not the other way around. Give me a story where the plot isn't some thinly-veiled anorexic reason to serve up yet another group of random_badguys_01.

Give me a gaming experience where the plot stands front and center and isn't relegated to simply filling in time between combat set pieces.

List the shortcodes here. This is a short workweek. I want a list of things to do come July 4th.

So.. C'mon, foundry authors..

.. tell me a story.

You could try my campaign if you'd like... Should have a story. Hope you like it

xpurpleinsanityx · July 2013

Hiya...mine is the first part to a campaign, so it is essentially prologue, but I tried to add a lot of elements that hint at what is to come in a mysterious manner.

I'd love to get your feedback

Part 1: Rising of the Dragons: NW-DNGIC6AJC

Note: I did a massive update to my first (and again final, as it is revisited in the story) map and am stuck "currently publishing". Hopefully, I get out of the "currently publishing" hell before you get to my quest.

zbkolde · July 2013

raphaeldisanto wrote: »

Gimme some story quests.

...

I feel the same way. I've been getting frustrated with too many combat-focused quests lately. I also get frustrated with all the comments about my quest telling me to add more mobs. To those people: No.

Having said that, my first quest, while light on combat, is also not too in depth on story either. There is a story, but it's a short and simple one. It's an introduction, to the characters and setting, that my other quests will be based from. There is exploration that seemingly no one ever bothers with, where certain things can be discovered that will be used in other quests later. There is also optional dialog that gives some back story. It's short, simple, a little silly, but full of prelude at the same time. The next quest is in production, but with numerous foundry issues and the lack of certain assets i'm hoping will come with the release of Feywild, it may be awhile before it's ready for publish.

I'm also a writer, and while i enjoy the action MMO side of Neverwinter as well, i'm really liking the foundry. I have a knack of bringing up emotions in people with my writing, and that is what i intend to do with future foundry quests. My first quest was a learning experience, which i molded into an introduction. Sometimes i wonder if there is any point to making the other quests i have planned, since there is very little appreciation for low-combat stories. Wish there were more players like you (and me) out there. But, i digress.

Give it a go if you like, follow the link in my signature for more info.

beeblebrox69 · July 2013

My first quest has been praised for the story and environments, so give it a try if you get a chance. Details in the sig.

Thanks!

shorlong · July 2013

Well, I won't lie, mine has a lot of combat, and I have been told it is rather difficult (I did die running it with my 57 CW), but it is a fun challenge, and nothing impossible to do. This sets up the story to follow in the next 9 chapters. There are a total of 18 dialogue points in the quest, with some of them optional to help build the story if you choose to talk to them. If not, you hit the main points and continue. Some options, if there is a lot of story to convey, give the option of jumping straight into the action. Again, it is somewhat of a difficult quest, but I know it is soloable, but there have been a few who can't solo it.

If you decide not to try this one, completely understand, but you're missing out on a great story

shorlong · July 2013

zbkolde wrote: »

I feel the same way. I've been getting frustrated with too many combat-focused quests lately. I also get frustrated with all the comments about my quest telling me to add more mobs. To those people: No.

Having said that, my first quest, while light on combat, is also not too in depth on story either. There is a story, but it's a short and simple one. It's an introduction, to the characters and setting, that my other quests will be based from. There is exploration that seemingly no one ever bothers with, where certain things can be discovered that will be used in other quests later. There is also optional dialog that gives some back story. It's short, simple, a little silly, but full of prelude at the same time. The next quest is in production, but with numerous foundry issues and the lack of certain assets i'm hoping will come with the release of Feywild, it may be awhile before it's ready for publish.

I'm also a writer, and while i enjoy the action MMO side of Neverwinter as well, i'm really liking the foundry. I have a knack of bringing up emotions in people with my writing, and that is what i intend to do with future foundry quests. My first quest was a learning experience, which i molded into an introduction. Sometimes i wonder if there is any point to making the other quests i have planned, since there is very little appreciation for low-combat stories. Wish there were more players like you (and me) out there. But, i digress.

Give it a go if you like, follow the link in my signature for more info.

Not to derail the topic, but do keep in mind, one can make a fair balance between both combat and story. Remember, this is a video game, afterall. Cheers!

raphaeldisanto · July 2013

I don't think it being a video game should preclude people from either making or wanting to play the types of quests that they prefer. As I said in an earlier post - I'm well aware that, personally, I'm not the target audience for an action-RPG like Neverwinter, but the Foundry itself doesn't restrict or limit you in that way. There's no mandatory-combat rule when creating a Foundry quest. So, you want to make (or play) combat-less quests, more power to ya. You want to make (or play) 100% combat old-school dungeon crawls? More power to ya there, too

As I said, good stories are all about conflict resolution. And violence is definitely a valid form of conflict resolution. I'm not even advocating introducing alternative forms of conflict resolution; some of my favorite movies are cheesy 80s action movies.

I certainly didn't intend for this to be an anti-combat post. But combat won't keep my attention without plot/story/narrative. Although, that said, in the interests of full disclosure, I think I should admit that too much combat frustrates me, because I just want to get to the next bit of the plot, find out what happens next. If there's too much combat that just gets in the way of me finding out what happens next.

In that instance, the story parts become a reward for slogging through the combat, and I don't like being held to ransom.

oortexplorer · July 2013

You can certainly try mine (info in sig), it's a comedy but with a story and heavy on the dialogue.

pris23 · July 2013

You are welcome to give mine a go if you want to. It is a campaign that only has Part 1 and 2 out at the moment. It does have both story and combat to go along with the story.

My quest information is in my signature. If you have time to play it I hope you enjoy it! Each quest takes around 30 minutes +/-.

If you do play through it please feel free to PM me with your thoughts or post them on the following thread: http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?369081-Now-trading-reviews-for-The-Secret-to-Paradise-Part-2-Into-the-Mist

shorlong · July 2013

raphaeldisanto wrote: »

I don't think it being a video game should preclude people from either making or wanting to play the types of quests that they prefer. As I said in an earlier post - I'm well aware that, personally, I'm not the target audience for an action-RPG like Neverwinter, but the Foundry itself doesn't restrict or limit you in that way. There's no mandatory-combat rule when creating a Foundry quest. So, you want to make (or play) combat-less quests, more power to ya. You want to make (or play) 100% combat old-school dungeon crawls? More power to ya there, too

As I said, good stories are all about conflict resolution. And violence is definitely a valid form of conflict resolution. I'm not even advocating introducing alternative forms of conflict resolution; some of my favorite movies are cheesy 80s action movies.

I certainly didn't intend for this to be an anti-combat post. But combat won't keep my attention without plot/story/narrative. Although, that said, in the interests of full disclosure, I think I should admit that too much combat frustrates me, because I just want to get to the next bit of the plot, find out what happens next. If there's too much combat that just gets in the way of me finding out what happens next.

In that instance, the story parts become a reward for slogging through the combat, and I don't like being held to ransom.

Absolutely agree. I will not infringe on the rights of anyone to make a combat-less quest. But, often times, those authors will have an air that seems to say their quests are better than others, when one can make a perfectly great quest that has both elements in equal amounts. Just saying!

nimmanu · July 2013

Mine's not out yet. It's almost completely story-driven. On the other hand, I'm making it so that you can also power right through it, beginning to end, and while you miss the story, at least you get a chest at the end.

That being said, I don't like the "if there's too much combat, I feel like the story is being held hostage" idea. I'd like to have more information on how much is "too much".

My main point for my foundry story is, personally, the story. I am building long chats and making a lot of interactive objects that tell you environmental cues. I don't want the story-lovers (my main target) to become lost in combat and annoyed. On the other hand, I need combat to happen because this an invasion story, essentially.

So more on "too much" would be helpful. If you're so inclined.

veakari · July 2013

I've tried to introduce story through a lot of journals, besides directly in the quest lines. I've also tried to make it so that if you didn't start with the first quest, you could still get a sense of what was missed through various interactable objects in my settings.

I'm not as happy with my first one, as the later ones. As soon as I finish the one I'm currently working on, I plan to re-work the first one to make it a better experience - lot's of changes took place in the editor since I made the first one.

Campaign: Draboken Legacy
NWS-DTDEV6A56

Quest: A Dying Man's Request
NW-DGAEJTH7O.

Quest: A Sister's Vexation
NW-DEQAMG8AX

Quest: While the Cat's Away
NW-DJD8M4OQR

Currently being worked on: Quest: When Darkness Falls
NW-DNHHXYYET

Still more to come! ~Veakari

raphaeldisanto · July 2013

shorlong wrote: »

Absolutely agree. I will not infringe on the rights of anyone to make a combat-less quest. But, often times, those authors will have an air that seems to say their quests are better than others, when one can make a perfectly great quest that has both elements in equal amounts. Just saying!

Oh, I totally agree. That's why you'll never hear me saying quest X is better than quest Y. The closest you'll ever hear me come is "I liked X better than Y", or "X is more to my taste than Y"

Opinions are always subjective. When it comes to something like this, there is nothing that's objectively "better" than any other thing because there's no such thing as an objective rating for a wholly subjective medium like this.

raphaeldisanto · July 2013

nimmanu wrote: »

Mine's not out yet. It's almost completely story-driven. On the other hand, I'm making it so that you can also power right through it, beginning to end, and while you miss the story, at least you get a chest at the end.

That being said, I don't like the "if there's too much combat, I feel like the story is being held hostage" idea. I'd like to have more information on how much is "too much".

My main point for my foundry story is, personally, the story. I am building long chats and making a lot of interactive objects that tell you environmental cues. I don't want the story-lovers (my main target) to become lost in combat and annoyed. On the other hand, I need combat to happen because this an invasion story, essentially.

So more on "too much" would be helpful. If you're so inclined.

Haha

Unfortunately, that's going to vary from person to person, and even then each individual may have a hard time actually verbalizing exactly how much is too much.

I say that as a cop out because, as one of those aforementioned individuals, I can't give you a definitive answer. Could we count it as some percentage of the total time you spend actually playing through the quest? Is 20% combat, 80% non-combat too much? 40/60? 50/50? 60/40? It's hard to know.

It's hard to put an actual number to it.

All I'll say is that when you look at something like Dragon Age or Mass Effect, two acclaimed and supposedly story-driven RPGs from one of the most lauded western RPG development houses in the world, exactly how much time do you spend advancing the plot, and how much time do you spend killing bad guys?

Combat pads playtime, because, frankly, it's easier, faster and quicker, to throw down a bunch of waves of enemies to hold the player up for 15 minutes than it is to write narrative and plot that will take the player an equivalent 15 minutes to work their way through. Even players that read every line of dialogue - Writing dialogue takes a long time, and it's hard to do well.

Sure, designing fun combat encounters is also hard to do well - But that's not the point. Even badly written dialogue takes longer to produce than poorly designed encounters designed to last the same length of time.

Think about how short a time it would take you to produce, say, a long corridor in the foundry. Then put encounters every few feet. Not really talking about stacking them. Just continuous. You could set that up in the Foundry in 20 minutes, tops. It would be boring, and terrible combat, but it would be easy to make that corridor last 15 minutes.

Now think about how long it would take you to write enough dialogue to last 15 minutes, even if that dialogue was herpy-derpy and of an equivalently bad quality to the combat I just described. Even typing 15-minutes worth of "hello" over and over into the dialogue editor is going to take you a whole lot longer than the 20 minutes it took you to make the combat corridor.

nimmanu · July 2013

It may surprise you to note, that was quite helpful.

I know for some, the time spent reading stuff is "wasted". However, my desire is to cater to people more like you (and myself). There will be tons of things to click on, and each gives a bit more story or adds to the (hopefully) threatening and ominous environment I'm going for to some degree. It's pretty hard without... well... more (in the foundry). But I'm hoping things like, "The sinister egg sack pulses with life" will set a tone that is a little harder to set without better atmosphere choices.

It needs combat, but I haven't placed a lot of mobs that don't have a reason to be there. A small farm is overrun by spiders... there are spiders there. But there are no spiders at the gates of the city... and so no spiders at the gates of the city, lol.

I love the environmental cues you can add, too. Moving animals, frightened NPCs, and the little floating comment tags.

It's strange, but it's very challenging to do these. Include popular culture references... don't include them... hmmm.

Lots of mobs... few mobs... hmmm.

Use the floating text tags... don't use the floating text tags... la la la.

Yes, writing the dialogue (and, actually, setting the environments) is taking up truckloads of my time. It takes far more time to do the dialogue than it takes someone to read through it, and I write extremely fast. It's also a challenge to make it so that the "[forget] the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" people can get to the end in record time, while the rest of us can take our time, as well.

celantra · July 2013

Take a look at City in Conflict its searchable. Part III coming shortly.

swordsworn · July 2013

I'm going to highly recomend you play "Nightmanre on Market street." by swepea. Best story driven foundry I have played so far. Please play this even if you ignore both my quest. This author deserves to be in the best tab. Looking forward to the campain completion.

Also the two in my sig I consider to be story driven. In defence of the begar king tho not pages apone pages of text I consider a story driven solo dungon. but it is long, somtimes hard, and if you don't know how to evade and possition against nockback can be deadly.

The infiity chest is a cute short story with a bit of humor and at 10 min you cant realy go wrong can you?

dzogen · July 2013

raphaeldisanto wrote: »

I don't think it being a video game should preclude people from either making or wanting to play the types of quests that they prefer. As I said in an earlier post - I'm well aware that, personally, I'm not the target audience for an action-RPG like Neverwinter, but the Foundry itself doesn't restrict or limit you in that way. There's no mandatory-combat rule when creating a Foundry quest. So, you want to make (or play) combat-less quests, more power to ya. You want to make (or play) 100% combat old-school dungeon crawls? More power to ya there, too

As I said, good stories are all about conflict resolution. And violence is definitely a valid form of conflict resolution. I'm not even advocating introducing alternative forms of conflict resolution; some of my favorite movies are cheesy 80s action movies.

I certainly didn't intend for this to be an anti-combat post. But combat won't keep my attention without plot/story/narrative. Although, that said, in the interests of full disclosure, I think I should admit that too much combat frustrates me, because I just want to get to the next bit of the plot, find out what happens next. If there's too much combat that just gets in the way of me finding out what happens next.

In that instance, the story parts become a reward for slogging through the combat, and I don't like being held to ransom.

If you are looking for light story campy and non-canon I am your guy.

All have some sort of conflict and resolution. Pretty basic, really.

Even my 1 minute quest has it, but you'll have to subscribe to find it.

lrkqella · July 2013

I'd be honoured if you'd give mine a try. I think you will find it to your liking.

Cheers

Knyght.

Okay, Foundry Authors... Give me story quests.

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