Game Design Exercise: Farahlon Horde Storyline

And we return again to designing Farahlon, for the last time. But fear not, this is not the end of me trying to pretend I’m designing World of Warcraft. Because I still have too much time on my hands, I will return in about a week with a new project – Emerald Dream expansion! Yes, it’s a potentially much bigger project, which is also why we will probably go into less detail with specific design parts, or with every small storyline present in the expansion. But until that happens, let’s return to Farahlon and see what the Horde is doing while Alliance is busy being all heroic saving the draenei towns and protecting monasteries from ravenous looters.

Game Design Exercise: Farahlon Alliance Storyline

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!

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.

Game Design Exercise: Open Objectives in Farahlon

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I told you more than once that I wasn’t abandoning the project – just delaying it until further notice. Of course, that notice took a bit longer than expected, but we’re back. The thing that propelled me to come back the most was constant hits I’m receiving on the Farahlon articles, as well as my other ideas that I want to develop in these posts. So stay tuned. Meanwhile, Farahlon!

The Founding of Veil Krasha

Now after all these people went to Draenor and saw that warped little alternate, they think that our Draenor used to be just like this. Well, you’re squawking wrong. For example, you can find hardly any arakkoa outside of the Spires of Arak, and I come from Farahlon, which you lot didn’t even go to. I mean, I’ve even heard some rumors it doesn’t exist over there. And that’s nonsense again, you can’t have geological differences between different timelines, not without Deathwing to mess the land up for laughs. So people say, how did your family come to Farahlon? How did this Veil Krasha even exist? Well, I’m no Reshad, but let me tell you a story.

Character Profiles: Tarakan Krasha

by enipnion

 

Name: Tarakan Krasha
Race: (Outcast) Arakkoa
Gender: Prefers not to specify ((male))
Age: 67 (as of this posting)
Class: Hunter
Professions: skinning, leatherworking, cooking, fishing, first aid
Religion: deistic
Alignment (per D&D): True Neutral
Traits (per CK2): Quick, shy, content, patient, temperate, diligent, brave

Game Design Exercise: Farahlon Side Stories

I know it’s been some time since I’ve done this, but most of that time, I had better stuff to write. As in, in-character pieces about events actually happening in the Tower of Krasha. We got some new people involved in my particular circle, and I concentrated on that for the time being. But now, I return with the piece I promised two weeks ago, side stories of Farahlon. Most of these you won’t even get a breadcrumb for and you’ll have to stumble upon the right NPC in the wild. Doing these stories is not essential to your story or game progression, but they reward with some cool bits, including lore, battle pets and followers.

Game Design Exercise: Introduction to Farahlon

Last time, I presented to you all a general overview of what my design of Farahlon would look like, including a handy map presenting most major points of interest. I promised to go into details about the specific points later, and here I am. In this part, I’m going to present the storyline that introduces you to Farahlon. There isn’t much in terms of very unique gameplay in this specific part, so that will have to wait for the next parts.

Game Design Exercise: Farahlon

Recently, we were told in a developer interview that Farahlon may never come, or at least not in Warlords of Draenor (which lowers the possibility of it ever appearing by itself). Not only that, it was also suggested it might be retconned to have been Ashran all along, which is a total disaster from lore perspective. Although it has been since reported the retcon will not happen, the thought that it was even a possibility remains frightening. And you know I’d love to see Farahlon in-game, so the news was rather shocking to me. I thought, if they don’t see a place for it in game, I’ll show them how to do it – I’ll design Farahlon myself, basing it on the way rest of WoD is designed. (Also, usually when I get to making something, Blizzard then announces they’re doing it, so that helped too)

The Penguin, The Mage and The Terrible Weather

I hate snow. I absolutely despise snow. Farahlon was not seeing snow often, and I was lucky with that. I guess the destruction of Draenor had one positive outcome: the heat made it no longer snow anywhere in Outland. But now that I haven’t seen snow for decades and have to survive it again in my old age, I’m curling up in shock. Have I ever said snow reminds me of death? Because it does. Winter is when everything dies. Everything that reminds me of life disappears or flies away, or outright dies. And then everything gets coated with this hideous, white, cold substance. That’s what cold is: death. Snow is dead water. I hate snow. Of course, the darkfire-squawked penguin loves it!