Monthly Archives: January 2015

Character Profiles: Podric

Not written by Podric’s player

PodricName: Podric, alternatively spelled as Poddric. No family name.
Race: Human
Gender: male
Age: 23
Class: Mage (fire)
Professions: enchanting, tailoring
Religion: Holy Light
Alignment (per D&D): True Neutral
Traits (per CK2): quick, slothful, shy, honest, content, kind, just

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Of walking tumors and oddball lizards

VerroakArtAvatarPeople sometimes throw nicknames around all willy-nilly. I’m not one of those people usually. I’ll just call people by their name, if I remember it, or more likely by “hey, you gnome”. Well, either way I don’t do what some people do. I don’t call a shaman “Sparkles” just because he’s shown some shock spells around me, nor do I call them “Waldo” just because they have an extremely unfashionable sweater in red-white stripes. But sometimes, a nickname is so fitting I will repeat it. Take Ughul, a sick-looking saurok also known as “the Cancer”. Not only saying Ughul is extremely weird when you have a beak, calling him the Cancer really fits. I mean, look at the guy. He’s got this… ugly, cancerous looking thing on his chin and neck, and some kind of growths all over his body. And for a while, I thought that was enough to call him that. Until I saw something even more fitting for that name.

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Game Design Exercise: Farahlon Alliance Storyline

Farahlon

We’re back in our Farahlon Game Design Exercise! After taking a foray into designing dungeons, which is probably closer to actual hard design, we’re returning into a more lore-like environment. I have alluded previously to the larger Alliance and Horde storylines taking place in Farahlon, but other than small glimpses of it, we didn’t know exactly who and how acts in this new environment. Well, as we’re drawing closer to the end of this particular exercise, we’re going to finally finish those storylines – though we mostly know the very end (Uraga’s demise in the Bladewind Fort instance). But this will be like watching Revenge of the Sith – we know how it ends, but it’s the journey that matters!

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Spaced out

Orkan-100I cannot pretend I understand what’s going on between my uncle and that ogre, Lunk. Apparently the ogre is popular in some circles for some zany adventures he goes on and the unusual for his race pacifism. In my timeline I never heard of him so I assume he was dead. It’s a brutal world out there and someone who refuses to kill likely did not survive for long. Well, this version of Lunk survives and even thrives, to a certain degree. I even saw two alter egos he donned – the eloquent “Professor Lunk” and “Fel-Breaker Lunk” who was still the same but with special powers. And despite all of that, he likes to constantly try his luck and dare even more ridiculous things every day. One of his obsessions is about going to the White Lady (to which he refers very eloquently as “the moon”), and for that purpose, he recently went off-world to Darfell.

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Character Profiles: Mehrzad

Name: Mehrzad Arashpoor
Race: Djinn
Gender: male
Age: 28
Class: Shaman (restoration)
Professions: Herbalism, alchemy
Religion: Al’Akiri elementalism (in theory)
Alignment (per D&D): Neutral Good
Traits (per CK2): twin, scholar, diligent, gregarious, honest, kind, charitable, patient, chaste, arbitrary

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Game Design Exercise: Sky City of the Apexis

Do not fear, even though this post does not have “Farahlon” in the title, it doesn’t mean I abandoned or finished that project, or even that this post isn’t part of the series. Indeed, this is a continuation of the previous post which talked about the dungeon associated with the Farahlon patch – this time we’re dealing with the culmination of its storylines and content, that is the Sky City of the Apexis raid, which I don’t doubt players would dub SCA or SCotA. It’s meant as an Ulduar-style raid, with multiple wings and a total of twelve bosses, with each wing having its own separate environment. And don’t worry – although I’m myself not a raiding person, I know what makes them tick in most people. So I’d probably hate playing this myself.

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Brain and Slime Fixation

(Official report from the away mission)

YuGwai-New-100We were informed of the issues Duke Carcon of the Eastern Marches of Ivarind has a long time ago. In fact, yesterday’s mission was attempted once before, but due to an astronomical occurrence, we were prevented from completing it. Our official objective was to report to Duke Carcon and follow his directions to a dwelling of the Cult of the Star Gods and to destroy it and kill the forces within. I was accompanied by the following employees of the Tower: Gornn, Mehrzad, Zovaar the Fallen and Frlngath the Unbroken. Unfortunately, upon crossing over we found that things were again not as we intended. However, this time, instead of landing on the wrong planet we found that we were simply too late. Within minutes from our landing in Duke’s castle, we saw hostile forces engaging the inhabitants.

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Character Profiles: Gornn & Ling

GornnNLing

Look, I told them to make a pose. It’s not my fault what pose they did.

Name: Gornn (and Ling)
Race: Gronn (and Gronnling)
Gender: male (male)
Age: About 150 years (About 10 years)
Class: Not applicable
Professions: None (None)
Religion: None (None)
Alignment (per D&D): True neutral (True neutral)
Traits (per CK2): strong, slow, patient, honest, proud, brave, content (strong, slow, wroth)

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Game Design Exercise: Farahlon’s associated dungeons

Farahlon

Greetings again. This time we really did return before whole patches managed to release and you might have noticed, our concept map of Farahlon changed a bit. Mostly, you can find new names for some of the previously unnamed areas, but two new locations have been added as well – Mok’nathal Village on Ara’s island and a raid icon for the Sky City of the Apexis. Today’s post will delve into the three dungeons that are added with my imaginary Farahlon patch, and mostly concentrates on the story featured in those dungeons, with a general idea of boss abilities. The raid will be the subject of a whole other post, as it’s meant to represent a whole large tier – with about 12 bosses total. So let’s delve into the three dungeons and what they have in store.

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Of angry draenei and frozen penguins

VerroakArtAvatarIt’s rare to see an angry draenei. I don’t mean they’re rare, it’s just rare to see them, because they’re usually angry when no one can see them. They like to pretend they’re above our petty emotions, but they’re just as much subject to them as everyone else. They’re just very… conceited about their emotional state and hide it under layers of seeming self-control. But sometimes, you can actually find one that appears openly angry and even pursues a personal agenda. I talked to one of those some time ago. His name is Zovaar, and he traveled in time attempting to bring back his family. He apparently used to be a paladin but got broken and went with some krokul into this temporal escapade. Imagine my surprise when this (lesser) enemy of the Timewalkers shows up on my doorstep.

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