Incline Hearkenwold - an IceBlink and DC engine Campaign

[Dorateen]

I'm back with a new report of progress for Hearkenwold.

To recap, I've been in the middle of working on the dwarven Halls of Hamhock, which is a stand alone adventure that will be integrated as part of the broader campaign. Here, the lower halls of the mountain represent a more crunchy dungeon crawling experience, with the Second Hall being an expansive level made up of over a dozen interconnected maps. It's an area featuring tricks and traps and sick encounters like this one, which introduces a new monster: the giant ogre. That ugly son of an unnamed goat in the left hand corner of the screen below has got 70 hit points, attacks twice for up to 25 damage, and has a little magic resistance.

Something neat is in the following screen, the tongues of flame on the floor are actually animated props, used for the first time in this module. In game, they flicker and wave back and forth, making the otherwise flat 2D map a little more dynamic. Also, as indicated in the message log, the party will take some damage if they walk on these tiles.

The enemy is all about this Hall, watching, waiting to pounce on the characters and initiate more glorious turn-based combat.

One might ask why go through the trouble to undertake such a dangerous mission. The answer is because of the new loot that can be found. It's always about the loot.

Finally, the lowest level will be the dwarven mines, plunging beneath the mountain in another maze-like series of passages that need to be navigated. Once I put this all together, I have to go back to tie up loose-ends, revisit content that was left unfinished, and generally polish the module. The future release for download will use an updated version of the IceBlink engine, as internally, we are on build 155. Targeting to have this completed by the end of June or thereabouts.

 

[Dorateen]

Make yourself ready for the lords of the dark
They'll watch your way
So be cautious, quiet and heark

I have a new update of the Hearkenwold campaign available for download. This is now using build 164 of the IceBlink engine. The file can be downloaded from here:
https://neverwintervault.org/project/iceblink/module/hearkenwold

The main feature of this update is the inclusion of the Halls of Hamhock, which is an adventure designed for characters of 5th to 7th level. It is also a dungeon complex that does not allow the party to leave until they have completed the quest. Therefore, I have restricted access to needing at least one Level 5 character in the party. When the player approaches the guards at the Mountain gates, such a character of sufficient experience will have the dialogue option to express their ability to survive the Halls. Following this path will open the opportunity to enter the Dwarf Kingdom.

The instructions for installation are as follows: Download the hearkenwold_164.7z file. From the uncompressed folder, move the IBBeta164 folder to your computer's Documents folder. Start the IceBlink2 application, and tab through the modules to select Hearkenwold. The first time starting a new game, players will need to create up to six characters to add to the party.

If anyone is in the middle of playing Hearkenwold, or has played through the campaign so far, it is easy to transfer saves and characters to the new 164 build. In the IceBlink folder you have, there is a saves folder. From there, copy the hearkenwold folder and paste it in the saves folder of IBBeta164. When you run Hearkenwold and choose to load a game, you will have a list of any previous saves.

 

[CryptRat]

Probably my favourite line :

This one was good too :

 

[CryptRat]

It was a fun ride, a game can never have enough dwarven places.

 

[Dorateen]

Congratulations, CryptRat, and thank you for playing! May I ask what level your party finished at?

 

[CryptRat]

Sure, the fighters are at level 7 and the mages at level 8. I finished with 10962 XPs so the cleric is like 2 battles away from level 8 and the thief from level 9. Thanks for making the game.

 

[Dorateen]

Well that was a fun little diversion. Now it is time to go back to working on the main Hearkenwold campaign. One of the features I have been waiting to expand on is the inclusion of class-related guilds, which tie into the overarching adventure. Already in the gameworld there exist several NPCs who will tell the party about special organizations, and they will offer characters sponsorship. There are four presently to be found, a couple examples are:

As should be evident from the context, these are tied to specific player classes. I still need to add two more NPCs so that all six are represented. Then there is creating the actual guild interaction for the characters to apply for membership, and the corresponding quests in order to join. When prompted by the board of guilds for a sponsor, it will bring up the keyword parser so that player will need to type in the appropriate name.

I have started with the Cleric guild first. All of this content will require new maps to be designed, further increasing the size of Hearkenwold to explore. In the meantime, I will continue to update the module as I discover issues here and there through testing or if any significant engine changes are introduced.

 

[Kliwer]

Hellow Dorateen!

I’m going to play Your game, it looks very promising. However I wish to know something more about ruleset first. So, if You may Sir, answer a few questions.

· Some classes (paladin) and races (gnome) have no descriptions… What are their properties?

· What does the “wisdom” stat do? Is it important for paladins/rangers or only for clerics?

· How to activate thief skills, especially backstabbing?

· How dexterity and armor work together? As in AD&D (bonus from dexterity always applied) or as in D&D 3 (bonus from dexterity limited by the type of armor)?

· Is there any tactical reason to NOT take every single class to our group (paladin+fighter+cleric+thief+ranger+wizard)?

· Are they any other things I should know to understand the ruleset?


Thank You for Your kindness.

 

[Dorateen]

Hellow Dorateen!

I’m going to play Your game, it looks very promising. However I wish to know something more about ruleset first. So, if You may Sir, answer a few questions.

· Some classes (paladin) and races (gnome) have no descriptions… What are their properties?

· What does the “wisdom” stat do? Is it important for paladins/rangers or only for clerics?

· How to activate thief skills, especially backstabbing?

· How dexterity and armor work together? As in AD&D (bonus from dexterity always applied) or as in D&D 3 (bonus from dexterity limited by the type of armor)?

· Is there any tactical reason to NOT take every single class to our group (paladin+fighter+cleric+thief+ranger+wizard)?

· Are they any other things I should know to understand the ruleset?


Thank You for Your kindness.

He Kliwer, thank you for your interest.

The paladin is a hybrid class, a fighter who gets cleric spells. They make a good back up healer, and also get the Lay on Hands Spell. The intelligence stat will increase the amount of spell points they get.

Gnomes get +2 to intelligence and wisdom, but -2 to strength and constitution. So they make a good choice for spellcasting classes.

Wisdom is primarily used as check in some dialogue options.

To activate a backstab, you first need to have the Sneak Attack trait. You should have that available to select at 2nd level. In combat, when you skip or finish a thief's turn without taking an action, the character will go into Stealth mode. They can then move around on their next turn and will not be able to be targeted by enemies. Position a thief diagonally behind the direction an enemy is facing. The little yellow arrows on the icons show the direction. As long as a thief has stealth and is in the shadows, and has the sneak attack trait, their attack will be a backstab. This will increase in damage as they go up in levels.

It is like D&D 3. Some armor like plate mail has a max dexterity bonus. So a character wearing heavy armor will not receive the armor class bonus from dexterity. However, some light armor or magical armor has a high cap on dexterity, and in that case characters will receive the AC bonus from the armor, and also their dex bonus.

No reason not to take one of each class for the 6 member party. However that comes down to play style. Fighters are pretty powerful with their access to cleave and two attack traits. So bringing along two fighters could make combat easier. Generaly, doubling up on any class will add some variety and mix things up. Having two wizards could be also effective, with one casting debuff spells, and another offensive magic.

The only other thing about the ruleset is to keep in mind, this uses a spell point system for magic, so that is a deviation from D&D. There are spell points potions or other items, so remember to use those if your characters run low. Resting is restricted to specific spots like beds or campfires. If a character is standing next to an enemy and tries to cast a spell, they will provoke an attack of opportunity. And if they take damage, they could lose the spell. So you want to keep your spellcasters out of melee combat as much as possible.

A small quirk of the module, armor class for player characters is displayed on the character screen in descending numbers (lower is better) like in AD&D. But monsters and the engine really uses the d20 system, with BAB to determine hits. It is an easy conversion that uses 10 as a baseline. So a 4 AC for player characters (10 minus 6) is treated as a 16 for calculations (10 + 6).

Any other questions just let me know!

 

[Kliwer]

Thank You for quick answer! I'm sure I will have a good time with Your module.

So it is enough to have one character with high wisdom – just for dialogues? It seems that there are two dialogue-only stats… (wis, cha), a bit strange, isn’t it?

 

[Dorateen]

So it is enough to have one character with high wisdom – just for dialogues? It seems that there are two dialogue-only stats… (wis, cha), a bit strange, isn’t it?

Yes, one high wisdom character is enough. I'm grateful that you inquired about this, as in fact the wisdom stat should be the stat that affects spell points for clerics and paladins, as well as Will saves. I think this was a bug in the engine from a while ago (IceBlink has gone through many revisions) but has not been fixed yet. Instead, intelligence is affecting spell points for ALL classes. I will see if I can fix this on the module level, unless it is hard coded.

Thanks!

 

[Kliwer]

Is there any shop near the castle? My party has almost no weapons, but some money and gems.

 

[Dorateen]

On the east side of the castle is the chest with some short swords, bow and arrows and leather armors. Did you grab that to start out with? New equipment will have to be found at first by defeating certain enemies. There is no shop immediately nearby, you would have to walk to a tavern much further east (might need to be stronger to venture that far) or if you have 50 gold you could take the carriage to the city of Khyn, there are stores there. You could also try walking south to the city, but again, low level characters might run into trouble.

 

[slowdive]

I think you can set which attribute impacts spell points for each class in the class editor... It is this property: modifierFromSPRelevantAttribute

 

[Dorateen]

I think you can set which attribute impacts spell points for each class in the class editor... It is this property: modifierFromSPRelevantAttribute

Yes, I found it, thank you. I want to test a save game to make sure it works retroactively with created characters. That is, confirm cleric and paladin have more spell points with the setting changed. This will be included in the next version I upload.

 

[Kliwer]

I will be glad to play the modified version. What’s about will saving throws?

I have played for some time. The adventure is very pleasant. I like dialogues very much - they have traditional fantasy style and they are not too wordy (which is common disease in fan-made modules - for example the Swordflight modules for Neverwinter Nights need so many words to communicate the simplest, most banal thing that I lost will to play).

Heh, I have skipped whole right wing of the castle, so I didn't have short swords and armors ... I have cleaned 4 or 5 locations (and one cave) with my bare fists - a very heroic deed in my book ... The lack of shop is not huge problem, however my ranger has not enough missiles.

My only complaint is the RPG system. It is, for me, too simple. I wish to have more traits to choose during level-ups (especially that I do not need more than one character with diplomacy / bluff / intimidation). There are not many spells also (well, about the same quantity than in Gold Box when we count only useful spells ... so it is not that bad, and balance is better).

Two more questions:
How to use pickpocket skill?
How to change selected weapon during battles?

 

[Dorateen]

I will be glad to play the modified version. What’s about will saving throws?

. I have cleaned 4 or 5 locations (and one cave) with my bare fists - a very heroic deed in my book ... The lack of shop is not huge problem, however my ranger has not enough missiles.

My only complaint is the RPG system. It is, for me, too simple. I wish to have more traits to choose during level-ups (especially that I do not need more than one character with diplomacy / bluff / intimidation). There are not many spells also (well, about the same quantity than in Gold Box when we count only useful spells ... so it is not that bad, and balance is better).

Two more questions:
How to use pickpocket skill?
How to change selected weapon during battles?

Hey, that is most impressive and also kind of satisfying punching goblins to death. I meant to say earlier, as you explore and fight more, you should find some better equipment upgrades.

It is a pretty basic system, and as you pointed out, closer in quantity of features to the Gold Box games rather then 3.5 D&D. Pickpocket is not implemented in the module, at least not yet. If I were going to design a situation to use the skill, it would most likely be through the conversation interface, and then checking for a character to make a skill check. I have to look further into saving throws, I saw that Will is affected by intelligence, but have not been able to change that.

In combat, on the bottom of the screen is the row of buttons to click on to access a character's inventory. The One on the far left will bring up the character sheet showing equppied items. Click on the weapon you want to change, and it will bring up the other inventory screen showing other weapons available to use. Keep in mind, a character must be able to use it or else a weapon might not appear. (Like wizards can't use swords and stuff.) Click on the new weapon, and it should swap out.

 

[Kliwer]

Ok, are they any other useless skills? I have already invested traits into pickpocketing.
Is it good idea to give scout skill to my ranger (instead of thief who have a lot of other useful skills to buy)?

 

[Dorateen]

Ok, are they any other useless skills? I have already invested traits into pickpocketing.
Is it good idea to give scout skill to my ranger (instead of thief who have a lot of other useful skills to buy)?

Most of the focus is on combat related skills. Precise Shot, Point Blank Shot and Rapid Shot will be better for a ranger and have priority over the Spot skill. There is a place where a character having Bluff could come in handy.

 

[Sonic Titan]

I just stumbled across this game earlier when perusing the screenshots thread. Immediately I was drawn to the graphic/art style. Right up my alley. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was created by a familiar name Dorateen !

Looking forward to integrating this gem into my repertoire!

 

[Dorateen]

Thank you, Sonic Titan

I have a new version of Hearkenwold that I just made available to download. This fixes the oversight that the Wisdom bonus had not been applied to spell points for Clerics and Paladins. The file can be downloaded from here:

Hearkenwold

As before, if anyone is in the middle of playing the game, they can copy the "Hearkenwold" folder inside the saves folder of the IBBeta version you are using, and copy it into the saves folder of the new IBBeta 164.1 folder. When you start the module, you will be able to load any previous saved games. The wisdom fix will be active. For example, in the screenshot below, here is a cleric who has a 17 Wisdom. That equals a +3 bonus. At 6th level, it means an extra 18 spell points. You can see that he had 60 but now it shows 78 SP accordingly.

Likewise, for our party's paladin. He has a wisdom of 13. That is a +1 bonus. At level 5, it would mean an extra 5 spell points. In previous versions, he had 25 spell points. Now, on the top character portrait, you will see it has increased to 30/30 indicated underneath the hit point numbers.

I had been in the middle of working on the content for the Cleric guild quest. So I suppose it is ironic that this oversight was brought up to me at this time. From the last update, I had talked about how the guilds will require the character to give the name of an NPC who recommends them to the order. This is how the text parser pop-up window will appear:

Also, there are a few new encounters, including this one with a flock of stirges. Once again, I want to point out the little yellow arrows that appear on the monster and character combat icons. These indicate the direction someone is face. It is crucial as flanking directly opposite an opponent grants a +2 attack bonus, and a thief in stealth mode needs to be directly behind an enemy to trigger a backstab. Tactical positioning is what I believe makes turn based battles fun.

I had intended to release a new version once the cleric guild assignment is fully complete and functional. It will probably be a few more weeks before I finish that. But I am always happy to get feedback and bug reports, and fix the module if players discover any issues.

 

[Kliwer]

Bug report:
To the south of castle it is the female bard. She ordered me to regain her instruments. She is also connected with small quest from the poet in castle (to deliver some lyrics). The case is: if you alredy finished the quest about instruments it is impossible to give lyrics to the bard (lack of appropriate dialogue line).

 

[Dorateen]

Bug report:
To the south of castle it is the female bard. She ordered me to regain her instruments. She is also connected with small quest from the poet in castle (to deliver some lyrics). The case is: if you alredy finished the quest about instruments it is impossible to give lyrics to the bard (lack of appropriate dialogue line).

Thanks, I will fix this. The bard quest has multiple stages that I track with with global integers. I probably missed including a check for the finished quest on the dialogue about the poem.

edit: I see, I failed to put the dialogue option and check for the poem on the branch once the instruments have been returned. Good catch.

 

[Kliwer]

Ok, sorry for complaining. I like the game very much, but it is a bit too buggy.

The quest from some merchants in the city. They ordered me to investigate the bishop in the castle. A few bugs:
-I asked another cleric in the castle to call bishop upstairs. The bishop disappeard, however when I'm coming close to his old position the dialogue still start.
-I found some book in the cellar, after battle with some fire elemental. I showed it captain of the guard (in the castle) but he were not interested with it. After that I went to the city to finishe quest but there were no dialogi option with those merchants (maby becouse captain of the guard took the book?)
-I told the bishop about those merchants (as I sad - I could start dialogue with "invisible" bishop). When I arrived to their hause there were some graphic bug ("blank picture" or something like that).

The much more annoing problem are disappearing arrows. I can't catch when it becomes (after loading game? after new area transition?) The whole stack of arrows (equiped by ranger) turns into just one arrow. From that moment I can shoot infinitely until I find another stack of arrows -> in this moment those new stack replaces my "magical returning arrow of bug". I lost a ton of arrows and stones due to this bug (and there are no more supplies in shop).

 

[Dorateen]

Ok, sorry for complaining. I like the game very much, but it is a bit too buggy.

The quest from some merchants in the city. They ordered me to investigate the bishop in the castle. A few bugs:
-I asked another cleric in the castle to call bishop upstairs. The bishop disappeard, however when I'm coming close to his old position the dialogue still start.
-I found some book in the cellar, after battle with some fire elemental. I showed it captain of the guard (in the castle) but he were not interested with it. After that I went to the city to finishe quest but there were no dialogi option with those merchants (maby becouse captain of the guard took the book?)
-I told the bishop about those merchants (as I sad - I could start dialogue with "invisible" bishop). When I arrived to their hause there were some graphic bug ("blank picture" or something like that).

The much more annoing problem are disappearing arrows. I can't catch when it becomes (after loading game? after new area transition?) The whole stack of arrows (equiped by ranger) turns into just one arrow. From that moment I can shoot infinitely until I find another stack of arrows -> in this moment those new stack replaces my "magical returning arrow of bug". I lost a ton of arrows and stones due to this bug (and there are no more supplies in shop).

No problem, I will look into these. In the case of the merchant/bishop quest, the goal is to get the book that suggests a conspiracy. The most you can do with it is show to the captain, for a little extra dialogue. Something else would happen to the merchants if you decide to tell Thespar about their plot. Otherwise, I have not developed anything further with them yet. It does sound like I have some repeating trigger issues to fix, and a missing picture to add.

The arrow bug is an odd one. In my test playthroughs, I have seen it happen once. It could be related to something on loading a save game. That will take some deeper digging to find out what happened. Ammunition is limited in shops, but there are more shops to find, and enemies who use ranged weapons should always drop a stack of arrows or bolts after combat.

edit: OK, I fond the missing picture, that was when you did return to the merchants after telling the bishop. It was an old file name, which I needed to change, causing the "blank" image to show up. I also had to rename the trigger on the repeating dialogue, so that it would be called correctly and disabled. Just want to do some more testing.

Thanks!