Adapting the Scepter of Fire storyline to another Universe

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Andrettin
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Adapting the Scepter of Fire storyline to another Universe

Post by Andrettin »

Hello,

I am currently working on a GPL game on the Stratagus engine (RTS), and I am working on adapting the Scepter of Fire storyline into my fantasy universe.

The premise of the universe is the following: instead of there being a single, large world with all the usual fantasy races (Elves, Dwarves, etc.), these races inhabit multiple worlds: the Dwarves live in the world of Nidavellir, the Elves in that of Alfheim, and so forth, and they will only gain knowledge of one another in the future, once they achieve spacefaring capability. The idea is beginning by telling the history of each world in its pre-spacefaring days.

At first, I considering adapting a story from Norse mythology in which Dwarves figured prominently, but unfortunately, the myths I found would only be suitable for single scenarios, but not an entire campaign. And then, since Wesnoth lore is GPLed, I began thinking about adapting Scepter of Fire for my purposes, and it seems to me to be a good fit (and Knalga itself works well as a region of Nidavellir), although I still have adapt some elements, specially the parts of the story which deal with other races, since Nidavellir, as I am building it, has no Humans, Elves, Trolls, Ogres or Orcs (although I will probably place Gnomes and Goblins in it). As far as fauna goes, Nidavellir has Giant Spiders (which I placed in this world because of their Wesnoth description, which mentions them as living in Knalga) and Gryphons, which makes it easier to adapt the story, in the sense that Krawg and his gryphons don't need to be replaced.

The part played by the Elves now belongs to dwarvish bandits, and that of Humans is now played by a southern dwarvish lord (I have called the southern Dwarvish realm "Lyr", but I will probably drop that name). Although replacing the Elves with bandits worked well, replacing Haldric and the other humans with Dwarves has created some logical issues - why would a Dwarf lord need to go to another group of Dwarves to get quality smithing? Perhaps the southern dwarvish lord's realm has good smiths, but no runesmiths. Another possibility would be to replace Haldric with a gnomish monarch, but I'm not sure if Gnomes could play that part well.

So far, I have adapted the first two scenarios, and below are the briefings for each; feedback is appreciated.

Scenario 1 Briefing
Spoiler:
Scenario 2 Briefing
Spoiler:
Thoughts?
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Sapient
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Re: Adapting the Scepter of Fire storyline to another Univer

Post by Sapient »

Andrettin wrote: Thoughts?
It's hard to take a world-building project seriously that's not even willing to come up with its own lore. You must be suffering some serious writer's block if you thought this was a good idea.
http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/User:Sapient... "Looks like your skills saved us again. Uh, well at least, they saved Soarin's apple pie."
Andrettin
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Re: Adapting the Scepter of Fire storyline to another Univer

Post by Andrettin »

Sapient wrote: It's hard to take a world-building project seriously that's not even willing to come up with its own lore. You must be suffering some serious writer's block if you thought this was a good idea.
Thanks for the comment, but I'm not interested in opinions on whether or not this is a good idea - what I asked for was thoughts on how best to realize this. Furthermore, making assumptions on whether I have "writer's block" and saying the project is not serious is hardly friendly or polite. If this is the kind of comment you have to offer, please no longer post in this thread.

I want to adapt Wesnoth lore because it is high quality - better to take what is tried and true, and which a community has put good amount of effort in improving, than create something from scratch which would be of lower quality.
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johndh
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Re: Adapting the Scepter of Fire storyline to another Univer

Post by johndh »

Without really knowing the role of gnomes, goblins, etc., on this world, it's a bit hard to say what would and wouldn't work in your universe. It's a little like adapting it to a sci-fi setting and asking if it would work with Sckrijarko and Hrrmdrrpr characters, when we have no idea what those are or how they relate to the dwarves in question. For the humans, it seems like the replacement should be a group that is familiar with the Knalgans' reputation as skilled craftsmen, but doesn't have strong ties to them. For the elves, some group with a long history of animosity, if not outright war.

@Sapient: that's not really in the spirit of freedom and open source, is it? It's here to be shared, adapted, remixed, and built upon. :?
It's spelled "definitely", not "definately". "Defiantly" is a different word entirely.
Andrettin
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Re: Adapting the Scepter of Fire storyline to another Univer

Post by Andrettin »

johndh wrote:Without really knowing the role of gnomes, goblins, etc., on this world, it's a bit hard to say what would and wouldn't work in your universe. It's a little like adapting it to a sci-fi setting and asking if it would work with Sckrijarko and Hrrmdrrpr characters, when we have no idea what those are or how they relate to the dwarves in question. For the humans, it seems like the replacement should be a group that is familiar with the Knalgans' reputation as skilled craftsmen, but doesn't have strong ties to them. For the elves, some group with a long history of animosity, if not outright war.

@Sapient: that's not really in the spirit of freedom and open source, is it? It's here to be shared, adapted, remixed, and built upon. :?
Hello johndh,

Thanks for your comments! The goblins of this universe have a similar culture and social organization to the goblins of Wesnoth, the major difference being the lack of relationship with orcs. An important characteristic is that they have very poor understanding with most dwarves (as well as gnomes), and frequently clash with them for territory (like dwarves, they live underground). The goblins are not "evil" per se, though - they are antagonists to dwarves mainly because there is a long history of enmity, and they believe dwarves have taken land which is rightfully theirs.

The gnomes differ from the dwarves culturally mostly in that they focus less on metallurgy and more on engineering and architecture; while the dwarves put greater focus on practical craftsmanship, the gnomes are more inclined to deal with design. Furthermore, the gnomes have an easier time living in more outdoorish terrain such as hills and sometimes even plains. A gnome would be about as short as a dwarf, but as robust, and thus not physically as strong.

What you say about what would be appropriate to replace humans and elves with seems to me to make a lot of sense. Taking those aspects into consideration, it seems to me that the gnomes would be most appropriate to take the role. Although often gnomes are depicted in fantasy as not being very heroic, I don't see any reason why a particular gnome couldn't be a vigorous monarch, interested in the crafting of an artifact which could help protect his people (and perhaps the gnomes' physical frailty could precisely be a reason for him to seek to enhance their prowess through the Scepter - or, alternatively, he could be having legitimacy issues and the artifact could serve as a strong symbol of his power, helping him legitimize his rule).

The elves could be replaced by an overland-dwelling goblin tribe which had a history of animosity with the Knalgans' (and, for instance, the land which the gnomish monarch would traverse could have been goblin territory in ancient times, and is now controlled by dwarves - making it seem justified for the goblins to ask for a toll when a large shipment of precious metals pass through, since they would believe that the road's territory is rightfully theirs). Alternatively, they could be (hill?) dwarven bandits like I mentioned earlier, which I suppose could work well too.
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Sapient
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Re: Adapting the Scepter of Fire storyline to another Univer

Post by Sapient »

johndh wrote: @Sapient: that's not really in the spirit of freedom and open source, is it? It's here to be shared, adapted, remixed, and built upon. :?
While I could say a lot to defend my post and the ideas contained therein, I will refrain from doing so because the originator of this thread has requested it of me. Therefore since I am constrained from answering in this thread, it is impolite to publicly question my motivations and intentions here where I am unable to offer a rebuttal. Suffice it to say, I stand by my original statement, although I regret any offence it may have caused.
http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/User:Sapient... "Looks like your skills saved us again. Uh, well at least, they saved Soarin's apple pie."
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Turuk
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Re: Adapting the Scepter of Fire storyline to another Univer

Post by Turuk »

Moved to the appropriate forum since it's not actually writing for Wesnoth, but for the game you might someday build.
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Andrettin
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Re: Adapting the Scepter of Fire storyline to another Univer

Post by Andrettin »

I have made much progress in game's development. Here are a couple of screenshots with how it looks so far:
Image
Image
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