Does this thread belong here?, pieces of quest Options

[ghastley]

Most of the threads in this forum are naturally about "my character's adventures in a TES world", and the rest are meta-threads about writing them.

I'm coming from a completely different direction, or maybe not. I'm trying to create quest mods for Oblivion with a whole lot of NPC's who have linked stories, and I need all the help I can get with those. It's not entirely a different problem from writing the support cast in a regular FF, but it does leave out the central character, who will be the player, and I don't want to write that one.

I like to build a character in Oblivion and play it for a while before making an NPC from it, as this helps to give me some idea of how a pure mage thinks, or an archer, or an axe-wielding Orc, and I can make the NPC more credible that way. I'm currently playing a stereotypical big dumb blonde Nord called Hidy Heidi, who aspires to joining the Imperial Mountain Riders and patrolling the Jerrals on a white bear. I started her off trying to use poisoned daggers and stealth, but found that it's not too viable at low levels, because the damage she could inflict was never enough for a one-hit kill, and using a dagger put her too close for comfort in the remainder of the encounter. So she switched to a Claymore to better use her Blade skill, although she still tries a sneak attack with a dagger first, some of the time. She'd probably use the Claymore if she got a bear to ride, so maybe it's for the best.

This experience now has to be distilled down to some dialog for the NPC in-game, and that of her colleagues, and that's the sort of thing I'd want to post here for criticism and advice. And the content of books, notes, journal entries for the quests. Many of you have experience of rewriting bits of lore for your narratives, or fitting a new piece into the incomplete jigsaw puzzle Betheda provided, so I know it will help me if it works.

Heidi is intended to become part of this mod, of which only the first two quests have been released as a beta. I have another dozen or so in development, including an arc of quests that happen after the player is both CoC and Madgod, based on the idea of Dagon taking revenge on the player by opening gates in his/her new realm.

[SubRosa]

Neat combination of an oblivion gate with Order pylons (or whatever they are called)! I imagine it leads to wherever Jygallag went to after the new Prince of Madness defeated him?

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Mar 18 2011, 01:32 AM

[ghastley]

Neat combination of an oblivion gate with Order pylons (or whatever they are called)! I imagine it leads to wherever Jygallag went to after the new Prince of Madness defeated him?

Well sealed like that it no longer leads anywhere., but the idea is that when Dagon opens gates in SI to get some revenge on the CoC/Madgod, you don't simply close them, you answer in kind with a bit of Ordering of his Deadlands. You've either taken over both sides of Sheogorath, or at least gained the Priests' ability to spread the taint of Order, in this case by replacing the Sigil Stone with a Heart of Order. That's Heidi's genius idea, so I need her there to suggest it.

This gate is just in a test cell, but there will be one in Dementia, and another in Mania that will be sealed in this way. I still have gaps in the overall plot, and a number of new bits of Ordered Deadlands to make, so it will be some time before it all comes together. The transitions between Oblivion and SI are causing problems with followers and their dialog, but I'm gradually getting them ironed out.

[SubRosa]

Neat combination of an oblivion gate with Order pylons (or whatever they are called)! I imagine it leads to wherever Jygallag went to after the new Prince of Madness defeated him?

Well sealed like that it no longer leads anywhere., but the idea is that when Dagon opens gates in SI to get some revenge on the CoC/Madgod, you don't simply close them, you answer in kind with a bit of Ordering of his Deadlands. You've either taken over both sides of Sheogorath, or at least gained the Priests' ability to spread the taint of Order, in this case by replacing the Sigil Stone with a Heart of Order. That's Heidi's genius idea, so I need her there to suggest it.

This gate is just in a test cell, but there will be one in Dementia, and another in Mania that will be sealed in this way. I still have gaps in the overall plot, and a number of new bits of Ordered Deadlands to make, so it will be some time before it all comes together. The transitions between Oblivion and SI are causing problems with followers and their dialog, but I'm gradually getting them ironed out.

The Ordered Deadlands! I love it! Have you thought about turning Dremora into Priests of Order?