GDE: Dream of Creation, Arakkoa starting experience

Call it build 7.0.0.21600

Welcome back to Game Design Exercise. The first thing you might notice is I decided to shorten the title. “Game Design Exercise” was taking up a lot of precious character space, so I decided to shorten it in case I ever need a particularly long title for one of the sections. The second thing you might notice is that the map posted this time is different from the previous one. I continue working on it and although most of the additions are things I hid from public view (because they spoil future content before it’s ready) there are some zone shape and size changes. They stem from me noticing that Ravenwood and Thornbranch are definitely too small. Most starting zones aren’t much smaller than regular end-game zones, so I thought I wouldn’t be able to realistically squish in a full 1-13 experience in those areas. They are now bigger, partially at the cost of the oversized Verdant Plains.

Another thing I wanted to talk about before the break is a concern that was raised on Twitter recently. Dream of Creation is adopting several fey creatures from Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy sources and one of those creatures is called a hag. They’re ugly troll-like creatures that undeniably bear some resemblance to a caricature of an old woman, and the term likely comes from there. To me, a person with a certain fantasy gaming experience, hags were just a normal thing that didn’t raise any red light. I was however told that the term is considered offensive. I mean, it’s obvious calling a real person “hag” is an offense, but a person was concerned that using it as a name of a fantasy creature is offensive as well, regardless of the term’s past in the genre. Personally, I don’t see it, but if enough people see it as a valid concern, I will adopt it. So, what do you think? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments below.

So, I invite you to read my take on arakkoa starting experience for Dream of Creation, an Emerald Dream expansion. They are arakkoa from the main timeline, so they continue storylines from the Burning Crusade and only influences from Warlords of Draenor are clarifications about the common past of both timelines and references – such as WoD characters showing up here in their main timeline incarnations. Enjoy!

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.

Things we’re lacking in Twitter RP – WoD edition

Here I am, back with my personal wishlist of things I feel we’re missing from our Twitter RP community on Twitter. The old list has been set to private for some time now, because it was starting to get really outdated. Not only many of the characters I wished for already appeared, but with Warlords of Draenor out, new priorities appeared. There are some important and cool characters that would be great to see on played out on Twitter. Like the previous one, it’s mostly a list of my personal preferences – if you feel there are other characters that you can do well and would be beneficial to our current RP environment, go ahead and create accounts for them!

While it may be tempting for some of RP old-timers to create those accounts, I think it would be best to let some new blood in, and don’t hog all the good characters for ourselves!

• Reshad– a character intentionally designed to resemble Lorewalker Cho, he has however a much smaller role. He is a great storyteller with an interesting personality, and an outcast from the new timeline from Warlords of Draenor. Personally, I’d love to see more of his and Percy’s adventures, but Darkscryer Raastok, who appears to be the outcasts’ leader in WoD, would be a great addition as well.
• Terokk– with Warlords of Draenor, this character, once cursed as a tyrant, is given a new lease of life. It turns out he wasn’t so bad after all and the players have already helped him to regain his sanity. Although he isn’t truly alive, he is a spirit watching over the outcasts, which can apparently switch between a cursed and winged form. With everything we learned about him in WoD, he’d be a great addition.
• Fel-Sage Rhaze– Now, calm down, I know it’s not a canon character. In fact, it’s a character I invented for my Farahlon Game Design Exercise posts, to explain a new Shadow Council-aligned faction of arakkoa. Rhaze, implied to have been the founder of tBC’s Veil Rhaze, would be a former Sethekk turned into a vrock, a fel-corrupted arakkoa, and served Gul’dan in face of the great blow the adventurers dealt to the Sethekk.
• Azuka Bladefury- Probably the only warlord missing from Twitter, and the only female warlord we know of, Azuka is certainly a promising character. Which is why she’ll likely die quickly, but let’s have her with us as long as we can, shall we?
• Sunwalker Dezco  – A carry-over from the previous list, I would still like to see him on Twitter. Dezco is similarly to Baine a guy with heart in the right place, but he’s also kinda dumb, being infamous among the fanbase for “using babies as armor”. This could be played in fun ways, and the kind of personality Dezco exhibits would fill a certain niche in the current community.
• Thaelin Darkanvil– Thaelin is character prominent now in Warlords of Draenor. For a long time, he merely stood in the Searing Gorge as a member of the Thorium Brotherhood, but he has now joined the forces Moira sent to Draenor in the name of Ironforge. Although he doesn’t have much personality beyond “dwarf”, he could still be a fun character to play with.
• Bodyguards– Tormmok is already there, but the other bodyguards, like Leorahj or Vivianne, seem to have quite a lot of personality when you interact with them on the field of battle. It can even go beyond bodyguards and to other followers. Maybe we can see Pleasure-Bot 8000! Or Kimzy Pinchwhistle! Or Image of Archmage Vargoth! The possibilities are endless! Well, as endless as the number of followers.
• Sal’salabim – One of the most unique denizes of Shattrath City, I greatly enjoyed the one quest he gave me. A hard-drinking demon who left the Burning Legion and lives like a small-time thug sounds a pretty cool and unusual character concept. I think I’d enjoy Sal’salabim on Twitter. He has some past history with Verroak too.
• Darius Crowley  – A controversial figure in Gilneas because he basically handed his kingdom over to the Horde, he nevertheless remains a very prominent and unique character. His Twitter handle would HAVE TO be “LordBoxhead” or a variation thereof.
• Theldurin the Lost – In a pinch, Lucien Tosselwrench or Martek the Exiled would do. One of these crazy gag characters that could be pretty funny on Twitter. Also, he could have ties to me, Lunk, and Myzrael. Also, I would love to learn if he finally punched that dragon in the face.
• Myzrael – Also known as “Theradras’s hot sister”, she was a bit confusing back in vanilla. Now, in Cataclysm, she appears uncorrupted in Deepholm commenting on her release in the original events of Arathi Highlands. Whether she came coupled with a Theradras account, she could be the source of endless jokes about sister-sister rivalry, especially one between a “hotter” and “uglier” sister.
• Or’kaos the Isane – Also known as “Or’kaos the Pointless”. Added in the game as the original culmination of the Netherwing questline, Or’kaos’ role in it has been since replaced by another quest. He, however, is left in the game with no purpose, just wandering around his little floating island with no way out, which is probably why he’s insane. Probably was once a fel orc transformed into a nether drakonid for his service to the Illidari.

Like the previous list, I will try to update this one with new additions when they become relevant. If you have ideas for cool characters that I omitted and that you’d want someone to do, message me in any way and I’ll add them here if I agree.