Incline Hearkenwold - an IceBlink and DC engine Campaign

[Dorateen]

I have a new version of Hearkenwold available to download. This has been updated to build 193 of the IceBlink engine, and can be found here:

Hearkenwold

The adventure for the guild of paladins is now complete. Unlike the thief guild quest, which featured the exploration of a single multi-level dungeon, this content is spread across regions with various locations of interest. Some examples include a haunted house:

And a forgotten temple:

Here's a bit of narration I like from another dungeon.

Should paladins in the party accomplish their objective, they can return to the guild master and receive membership into the Holy Zephyrs. This includes gaining a trait that increases two stats for the character.

Finally, in an effort to make the mechanics of the game more robust, I am slowly adding new options for character building. I have added a new trait in the system, a combat feat called "Sweep". It is able to be learned by Fighters at 4th level, Paladins at 6th level, and Rangers at 8th level. For any games in progress, this trait will be available to select the next time those characters train, at the appropriate level of advancement.

Next up, I am going to start on the Fighter guild adventure. I will discuss in more detail with the next update.

 

[vlzvl]

Here's a bit of narration I like from another dungeon.

I really like how you're using english, it really adds to the atmosphere, i wish i had that too
How much content does Hearkenwold currently has? Otherwise, how long to beat it on average?
I am fascinated about the amount of work you've done for a single class, let alone other classes.
Many nice ideas all around & effective conventions to keep them playing.

 

[CryptRat]

I played in two bits and didn't play the last iterations but the game is probably more than 25 hour long now, like an average Gold Box game, but with much more unique content.

Also the writing is indeed top notch.

 

[Dorateen]

Here's a bit of narration I like from another dungeon.

I really like how you're using english, it really adds to the atmosphere, i wish i had that too
How much content does Hearkenwold currently has? Otherwise, how long to beat it on average?
I am fascinated about the amount of work you've done for a single class, let alone other classes.
Many nice ideas all around & effective conventions to keep them playing.

Thank you, vlzvl. I don't know if it shows, but my favorite writer of computer role-playing games is D.W. Bradley from the later Wizardry series. Although a lot of old school games had decent flavor text, with the idea of making it feel like a dungeon master narrating events and descriptions like in pen and paper.

I've been working on this project for about 7 and a half years now. I keep adding content, working toward an end goal, but I want it to be big. I have not timed a play through, because I think there is a lot of optional content, and it depends on the style of a player. 25 hours right now sounds accurate.

One of the very important things to me is to create an adventure for a party of individuals. So each character should get their moment to shine.

 

[Dysterkvist]

I had never heard of this engine before, but it seems nice at first glance. Without having read too much about the inner workings of it, can you import new art assets or are you stuck with the default ones?

 

[eXalted]

can you import new art assets or are you stuck with the default ones?

Yes, you can import graphics and audio. It's pretty good, shame that it's so unknown.

 

[slowdive]

Here is an example of completely different art and interface done by Zach. It shows a bit of how the builder can customize their story experience in the engine.

 

[Dorateen]

can you import new art assets or are you stuck with the default ones?

Highly customizable. While there are some default assets, a builder can work with any kind of art by importing the graphics and formatting as necessary. (Like tokens are 100 x 100.)

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Hmmmm ACS assets from 1980s maybe? Modern ACS heelz yeah.

 

[Dysterkvist]

can you import new art assets or are you stuck with the default ones?

Highly customizable. While there are some default assets, a builder can work with any kind of art by importing the graphics and formatting as necessary. (Like tokens are 100 x 100.)

Very nice!

 

[Dorateen]

I'm in the middle of working on the guild adventure for Fighters in the Hearkenwold campaign. In order for any character to even access the respective class guilds, they must first obtain a sponsor; that is an NPC in the gameworld who will recommend the party to their Order. Previously, I had already populated various maps with such representatives for the Cleric, Ranger, Thief and Paladin guilds. That is why I started working on those questlines first. Now to proceed with the Fighter path, I had to place a new NPC that the party can come across on a new map that has opened up. Once the characters are able to find the sponsor, Fighters in the party will learn about the mission required of them.

This adventure will take the player to a new region, an area of open grassland called the Ephghan Plains. I'll let the Fighter Guild Master explain:

And here is a preview of the land, which is comprised of multiple interconnected maps.

Since this is an outdoor scenario, there is not much in the way of dungeon-y locations. Instead, I am adding different encounters to the overworld, which will hopefully be of interest. For example, the party can meet a special trainer who will teach Fighters how to be a Barbarian. This is separate from the guild content, so any player is free to explore and find this trainer and transition their Fighters into Barbarians, if they wish. Hearkenwold is still built around the six core classes. However, I have wanted to create a way for some characters to branch out. It is done via the traits system. Essentially, "Barbarian", is a trait that can be applied to the Fighter template by speaking to the aforementioned trainer. As shown in the screenshot below, the trait will grant an increase in hit points as well as a neat ability of the character having a chance to jump back up in battle at the start of each round, if they are knocked below 0 hit points.

And here is a moment captured in battle, if you refer to the combat log on the left, it shows that Dorateen (with the Barbarian trait) goes into rage when attacking a mastodon.

I have finished the primary content of this particular adventure, meaning the objectives that Fighters will need to achieve. From here, I still must include the additional features of the area, both combat and non-combat encounters, to flesh out the otherwise open expanse. So I am expecting to finish everything this month, and would anticipate a new version of Hearkenwold available at the beginning of July.

 

[Dorateen]

I finished a week early, and have a new version of Hearkenwold available to download. This uses build 196 of the IceBlink engine, which can be found here:

Hearkenwold

The campaign now includes the Fighter class guild quest. This adventure opens up a new area, the region known as the Ephghan Plains. Did I mention, you can fight dinosaurs.

If fighters in the party complete their assignment, they can return to the Guildmaster to be inducted into the order of the Magnificent Blades. In addition to other benefits, this distinction gets recorded into the Journal:

I also added a new trait into the system that can be learned when leveling up. Trip allows a character in melee to cause a targeted enemy to become prone for two rounds. It costs 5 spell points to activate this trait, which is why all classes have a pool of spell points, even non-magical professions like fighters and thieves. The availability is as follows: Trip can be learned by Fighter and Thief characters at 4th level, and by Rangers and Paladin characters at 6th level. This is one of the first active traits, requiring the player to select the "u" keyboard command to Use the trait in combat. That will bring up the screen below:

Finally, I am ready to start on the last guild adventure, which will be for Wizards. I have found a good pen and paper dungeon crawl to convert into Hearkenwold. I think it will fit in with the theme of needing to complete a mission specific to an individual class. I will talk more about it in the next post.

And I have an updated image of how the overworld maps all connect together:

Spoiler

 

[Dorateen]

A small update while I am in the middle of working on the Wizard guild adventure. One thing I did not detail in the previous release was that I swapped out the portrait used for Xemne, an NPC magess who is met in Castle Hearkenwold. A few years ago, when I did a partial conversion of the module in the FRUA engine, I decided to select the picture of one of the default shopkeepers for this character. Since then, I've always thought she better represents the image of Xemne that I've had in mind. Now she finally appears as such in the IceBlink version. A little foreshadowing here, and she might be relevant to the present instructions for wizard party members.

Naturally, there will be a new location for the party to travel to. Here is a fight that takes place among ruins and rubble. It is supposed to be considered difficult terrain, so to reflect this, there is a special battle condition that reduces the movement of characters to one square.

Now the Stag Beetles think they have the advantage!

And lastly, here is a small portion of a dungeon to be explored. Profound mystery awaits, especially for those wizards who wish to join the guild.

I am estimating that it will take me the rest of this month, and most of August to finish this adventure and have the next version of Hearkenwold available to run.

 

[vlzvl]

Hey, nice progress as always
I don't know if its a processing thing, but i noticed your sprites are either sharp or bilinear filtered. How about not using filtering at all?
Also, have you considered using more detailed party sprites? Most of the monster sprites look a lot better.

 

[Dorateen]

Hey, nice progress as always
I don't know if its a processing thing, but i noticed your sprites are either sharp or bilinear filtered. How about not using filtering at all?
Also, have you considered using more detailed party sprites? Most of the monster sprites look a lot better.

Thanks, vlzvl. The quality of the graphics is a bit all over the place, I'm afraid. Sprites and tiles have been lifted straight from the Forgotten Realms Unlimted Adventures archive here:

http://frua.corhub.com/

All I have to do is modify them to meet the specifications for IceBlink, which uses 100 x 100 tokens. At one point, we were working with 64 x 64 sizes, so the older ones used for the player character sprites have been adjusted. But I have not made any other refinements to the assets created by the original artists. I could look into it.

 

[Dorateen]

I'm trying to finish the Wizard guild adventure, and I am down to the last couple of areas. It should be no surprise that this scenario will involve exploration of a Wizards Tower. Thus, in addition to fighting monsters, there will be featured traps and tricks and all sorts of magical chicanery.

One of the things I enjoy about a classic dungeon romp is the opportunity to introduce old favorites from the Monster Manual into the Hearkenwold campaign. Like the Gelatinous Cube.

On a related note, I have started working on a conversion of Hearkenwold into the Knight of the Chalice 2 engine. It is a new challenge, and rebuilding everything can be instructive and fun, too. I still consider IceBlink, and always will, as the definitive version of Hearkenwold. Once the Wizard Guild adventure is completed, then all six quests will be available to the player. This seems to be a good place to put the creation of new content on pause, as anything afterward will require at least one character in the party to be a guild member. This will give players a chance to get caught up.

I will still continue to be attentive to the IceBlink version, and will address any issues that I find or are reported. And when the time comes to continue the main adventure arc, it will be designed in the IceBlink engine.

The new IceBlink build should be available by the end of this month.

 

[Dorateen]

I have a new version of the Hearkenwold campaign available to download. This uses build 196.1 of the IceBlink engine, and can be downloaded here:

Hearkenwold

The focus of the content in this update is the inclusion of the guild quest for Wizards. First, a little bit of lore about mages in the gameworld. Xemne, an NPC in the castle, explains.

If the party is diligent, and pursue the objective given to them, then wizard characters might discover this opportunity to align with one of the four orders mentioned above.

What these do, is grant a bonus trait to the wizard. Each has a different effect, but only one can be chosen before the rest of the books become unreadable. This is separate from the actual distinction of the guild, and more like how Fighters have the option to acquire the Barbarian trait. However, should wizards complete their mission, they must return to the guildmaster to be granted membership into the Wands of Wonder.

In addition, I have added a new spell to the game that wizards can learn at 6th level. It is Disintegration, a type of feast or famine spell that can cause a lot of pain to a single target.

The result of the spell in action, displayed in the combat log. Four monsters started this encounter, and then there were three. Take that, Hook Horror!

With the Wizard guild quest part of the campaign, all six player classes are represented. At least one character must be a member of these prestigious affiliations in order to have audience with the Ruler of Hearkenwold when the adventure continues in a future update.

 

[The Red Knight]

Infinitron newspost this.
Guild quests milestone reached + content additions on hold for now according to recent posts.

 

[Infinitron]

And when the time comes to continue the main adventure arc, it will be designed in the IceBlink engine.

So you're just converting what you've created until now to KOTC2 for the fun of it? You're going to maintain two versions of the same campaign?

 

[Dorateen]

And when the time comes to continue the main adventure arc, it will be designed in the IceBlink engine.

So you're just converting what you've created until now to KOTC2 for the fun of it? You're going to maintain two versions of the same campaign?

Yes, the KotC project I am working on will include everything that exists up to this point today. That is going to take me at least a few months, I estimate. While I will have to make some adjustments for the new engine, it will be faithful to all the content.

I will continue to look for any bugs or issues found with the IceBlink version.

 

[Infinitron]

I will continue to look for any bugs or issues found with the IceBlink version.

But you also say you're also going to "continue the main adventure arc" in Iceblink afterwards, so this is just a temporary pause on that version?

 

[Dorateen]

Yes. The next part of the campaign will take place after the guild quests. So this is a good place to pause. But then I will design the continuation in IceBlink first.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Never played on iceblink engine before but I really wanna try this game. How does the enemy AI stand pitted against KOTC's? Does it offer a similar challenge or is it more goldbox-like?

 

[Dorateen]

More Gold Box like.

edit: I just want to expand on this a little bit. While IceBlink borrows some features from 3rd edition D&D, I find that I approached combat and character building more like AD&D. On the subject of AI, nothing can really compare to the system of options and creature behavior that Pierre created for KotC, which is why I am doing the remake. Nevertheless, IceBlink AI is serviceable, and I think the fundamental encounter design is clever enough to throw a few surprises at the player.

 

[Dorateen]

I would like to give a summary of how Hearkenwold for the IceBlink engine is structured. Over the years, I built up the campaign in stages, which are characterized by content revolving around events or over-arching goals for the party.

• Stage 1 involves the investigation of the attack on Kelton Manor
• Stage 2 includes the return to the Manor itself
• Stage 3 is the journey to Relmfur and its civil unrest with the city of Skardale
• Stage 4 contains the six class related guild adventures

Because of the non-linear approach of Hearkenwold, a player is free to move between these stages, accessing content in just about any order. Such that it is possible to engage with the guild quests before going to Relmfur. Or one could reach Skardale without ever resolving any of the Kelton Manor stuff.

The relevancy to the current rebuilding of the campaign in the KotC2 engine is that I'm nearly finished with Stage 1, I expect to have that completed this month. And then I will work on Stage 2, and so on. With luck, I should be entering the guild phase by the end of the year.