Looking for a campaign writer

[Limabean]

Hey there,

I'm starting up a new campaign, and i'm looking for someone to help with the writing side of the project. In previous projects i've found myself wasting lots of time writing and rewriting dialogue/story in a mad pursuit of perfection. This time around, i'd rather spend that time coding so I figured i'd look for a partner.

I have a campaign outline already written up. It's a drake campaign, and I plan to make extensive use of the FANTASTIC new fire dragon sprite recently finished by eternal

Spoiler:

Legacy of Embers

1. The Patrol
Protagonist leads a group of drakes patrolling the boundary of their tribal lands. a group of orcs appear, seeking new lands. The protagonist defeats them.

2. The Messenger
The tribe sees a number of drakes scouts approaching. However, they are ambushed and trapped by orcs, apparently the same faction as those in scenario 1. The protagonist and others rescue the drake scouts. Their leader, a sky drake, has an important message for the tribe's chieftan. There is an unprecedented gathering of drakes deeper in the mountains and it is important that all tribes send a delegation. The chieftan agrees to come, and brings along his best warriors, including the protagonist.

3. The Rescue
Partway through their journey, the drakes come upon the aftermath of a battle between another group of drakes and the same orc tribe that had been attacking in previous scenarios. Two drake survivors approach, explain that they had been attacked on their way to the gathering, and show the protagonist to the nearby orc fortress. There are a number of drake captives and, as well as most of the orc army and its Sovereign. Protagonist vows to rescue the captives and slay the sovereign for all the trouble he has caused. They also soon learn that there is a human nobleman (master at arms) advising, and also paying, the orc leader. The human is also the reason they are taking prisoners.
Protagonist kills the orc leader and rescues one of the captives, but the human escapes with his guards and the rest of the prisoners.

4. The Gathering of Drakes (all talking)
Protagonist and comapny finally reach the location of the gathering. There are a number of tribes there, but fewer than they had expected. They learn that many old allies have died out over the years, and most surviving tribes are small in number.
The purpose of the meeting is revealed: a dragon has emerged, and he is responsible for gathering them together. Dragons are considered the founders of the drake race, and are sometimes worshipped as godsby the drakes. They had not been seen in many centuries, so most of the drakes are understandably shocked.
The dragon wants to unite the tribes, and wage war to reclaim the great swaths of territory that had been lost to "lesser" species (orcs, humans, elves, dwarves, and everything else). The drakes are emboldened by the great dragon in their midst, and support this idea.
Later, the dragon meets privately with protagonist and his tribe. He hears their story of the encounter with the orcs and does not seem surprised by the presence of the human. He explains that he has heard similar stories from other tribes, as well as of attacks by entirely human armies. There is a powerful (and wealthy) faction of humans that, for some unknown reason, desires captive drakes. They will pay orcs to venture into the deeper mountains, and also have an army to capture drakes that stray too close to human territory. The dragon, impressed by the protagonist's exploits, makes him a general and tasks him with the destruction of this threat. He directs the protagonist towards a newly founded frontier city where the humans seem to be based. Dragon also sends along personal representative to help make decisions.

5. Allies of Conveniance
The human city is located on the edge of the dread swamp. Seeing a potential strategic advantage, the protagonist searches the surrounding area for saurian allies. He finds them and enlists their aid by defending them from undead and human outlaws/poachers.

6. City of Embers
Well guarded human city. Part of it is still on the swamp. Saurian allies sneak in and wait for the signal to burst out of the swamp (and behind the enemy lines). Dragon arrives to aid with the assault (controlled by player. When the human army is defeated, the dragon gives the order to burn everything. Protagonist first objects, but eventually follows the order. There is a huge massacre and all the civilians are killed. The bodies are burned along with the city buildings, leaving nothing but glowing embers. The dragon leaves in a hurry, to deal with other things. The protagonist discovers that the drake captives have all been brought to the underground lair of a powerful Great Mage. They prepare to enter the lair...

7. The Mage of Fire
They discover that the mage has been using the "inner flames" of captured drakes to greatly increase his fiery power. There are few captives still alive. The protagonist attacks the mage's last remaining soldiers and then kills the mage himself

8. Destitute Foes
During the return to the dragon's lair, the drakes come accross a ragged band of elves. The are refugees from Wesmere forest, heading for the ford of Abez and Glyn's forest. An unstoppable fire, apparently started and spread by the dragon after he left the human city, has apparently ruined much of wesmere. The elves attack the drakes in anger. When the protagonist defeats them, the dragon's representative orders him to slaughter them. <Player can choose whether or not to follow the order>

9. The Return
They return to the dragon's base to find that he has moved. They are led to him, only to find that he is about to begin another assault (that should all be explained in pre-scenario story). He greedily eyes the spacious caverns of and valuable horde of a powerful nation of dwarves. Dragon enlists protagonist in the attack on the dwarves.
10. Plain of Fire
After the dragon has settled into his new lair, scouts report that a great army is coming to face them. The dragon gathers the whole host of drakes and goes to meet his enemies on the on the open plains near the ford of abez, where they will have nowhere to hide from aerial assault. Elves from Wesmere, Dwarves, and the king of Wesnoth have joined forces to stop the dragon's attacks. The last remnants of the Mage's followers have also hired orcish mercenaries and joined the battle. By now, the protagonist has realized that the dragon is bloodthirsty and without honor. Player will choose to either fight to the death protecting the dragon, or allow it to die.

As writer, you'll have plenty of freedom to change that plan around as you see fit. Add scenarios in, remove them, change them around, get creative with characters etc etc. I do want to stick with the overarching plot (dragon emerges, unites drakes, makes war) but all the details are open for revision.
You don't need to be a really good writer, you just need to enjoy it more than I do and have some time to spend.

Also, if anyone wants to comment on the above plot, feel free.

[Reepurr]

Oh yeah, sure dragons are A, still alive at this time, and B, sentient.
Drakes are the descendants of dragons. At the time they evolved, all the dragons began dying out, one by one. Sure, this could be the last Ancient Dragon, but still, it's a bit fishy.

Dragons are also fairly primitive, not very good at understanding or having a talk with other races.
Wrong: Discussing things with drakes.
Right: Trying to set everything on fire.

If someone objects to that though, with suitable evidence, I'll change my mind about it, but until then, I'm steadfast in my decision.

[StDrake]

I fail to notice any "this time" in the overview, note that mainline campaigns feature both drakes and a whole big 2 dragons, both sentient. The "discussing" part will need to be made proper for a big dragons "I don't give a .." attitude standards, but it's not impossible.

[AI]

Reepurr: you're pretty much entirely wrong.

[Limabean]

Well,i'm not sure what period i'll place this campaign in, but there are two cases of sentient talking dragons in the mainline campaigns. They are rare, but there is nothing to suggest that they are "extinct." the other dragons were very minor characters and only a few lines in the respective scenarios, but they do demonstrate a few characteristics that i'll probably emulate:

Examples from the Sceptre of Fire and The Rise of Wesnoth
Aggression.

Ah, fresh meat!

Arrogance.

I am Khrakrahs, greatest dragon of all time! Haldric killed Shek'kahan my brother, but he was weaker than me, and you will not find me so easy to defeat. Now get out of my volcano!

It is unwise to trifle with dragons, boy!

Greed.

That pretty metal rock is mine! Get away from it!

and plain evilness.

Who dares disturb Shek'kahan the Terrible?

Maybe i'll even make my dragon another part of that same dragon family. It's not really any harder to write dialogue for an evil dragon than it is for an evil lich or orc.

[Reepurr]

There are dragons in ML?
Shows how much I know.

I was about to do the first scenario, but there's no map, no actual description of the characters (possible loyal units, orcish warlord's name...) so I was forced to abandon my work. Could you flesh it out a bit more?

[Limabean]

well, the first level is very simple, mostly just an intro to characters. Right now I've just put the main character and an orcish warrior in opposing castles. Orcs have entered drake territory and the main character is there to punish them. The setting is pretty mountainous and there's a river in the middle of the map. You can make up any other characters (loyal units, enemies, etc) you want, add a mini-plot, choose names, whatever. If you want to write it, it's all up you

However, the whole writer/coder partnership isn't going to work by just talking about it on the forum. Ideally, if someone would commit to writing for the whole campaign, I would send playable scenarios via pm, the writer could try them out, see the setting, characters, situation, etc., and decide what to have the characters say.

[Midnight_Carnival]

Why do people only ask questions like this when I'm really busy and generally unavailible.

If you're still in need of assistance after about May or so, I'll help if I can.

[Virgeist]

[deleted]

[Quman]

Do you still need a writer for this? I'm a bit new to the Wesnoth setting, but I am into writing and I have good spelling and grammar.

[Limabean]

Do you still need a writer for this? I'm a bit new to the Wesnoth setting, but I am into writing and I have good spelling and grammar.

As a matter of fact I am still in need of a writer. i'll send you over the completed scenarios in a pm so you can play through them.

[Wofi]

In the description for drakes in game, it's war band, not tribe. Just saying.