Looking for characters and story writer(s) - Mercenaries

[TheGreatRings]

You know, I suggest giving the player a second healer.

For battles on multiple fronts, or in case the first healer gets wounded.

[Neuromancer]

Quman, these are vibrant, variated, realistic characters. Exactly what I have been looking for. Thank you. Some completive questions:

Tess: Where is this monastic order located? Maybe in imperial city (protecting not only innocents, but also interests of imperials /or, got dissolved because it refused to mess with politics/), or is it working on multinational basis (travelling priests helping whoever needs the help)? Or monastery headquarters are/were located somewhere on the map...? And, does name "Tess" sounds good? I'am not very content about it.

Garret: So he cares for his family great deal and doesnt care about everything else..? What about his family, where do they live? Preferably far away from imperial city, to avoid repression from imperials... maybe living with dwarves around 8? Maybe Pelduras knows them...

Kara: Is she like "Dont mess with me, or else..!" (stylish, coldblooded)? How often does she express her "superior/inferior" attitude (every time there is opportunity, or she just doesnt care about it)? What are her weaknesses? Maybe she is fond of innocent people (Hailey..) or she contemns innocents and is admiring power (Wendala)? Is she friendly in her hearth too, or in real she is just cold [censored]? When she kills is it for the money or it must be also for good cause(she murdered her creditor despite of him demanding the money rightfully or she murdered him because he was bad person blackmailing others too..?)? Does she regret her acts ?

Hailey: Is she naive (I think in Hailey-Yveen combo Hailey is the one being naive... or Hailey is naive about the world and Yveen is naive about men..?)? Did someone in the past exploited her weakness (preferably not, so she is not fully aware of (censored) intentions)? Is there someone (except for Yveen) who "shows her the way" or vice versa (Wendala is relying on Hailey to recognize and to do the right thing....and Kara /which maybe enjoys her cheerful attitude/ is warning her from people who want to exploit her naivity?)?

Logan: He shares his bitterness for world with Tess, isnt he? Does he have something to live for? Is he pessimistic? Is Logan good name?

Luciana: This mage academy is in imperial city or elsewhere? Maybe in forests above 2... What are her opinions about dark magic (and Wendala)? What is her goal in life (probably she is figuring that out..)?

Yveen: Did she have some experiences with men (Maybe yes, when the renegades came)?

Wendala: What she said, can be just a cover, not only for others, but for her too. She doesnt want to acknowledge it, but in real, she is fascinated with dark magic. She likes the power, and enjoys manifests of power (maybe she admires Kara because to her she just sooo flawless and stylish...). But she realizes that hurting others is bad and she doesnt like it. On one hand fascination and power, on the other a bit of fear and uncertainity about dark magic. Maybe she can be influenced great deal with others opinions and actions (Kara, Hailey, or Luciana?) And maybe Yveen hates her because she is hurting animals (maybe Yveen is very fond of them).

I'll try to post some character suggestions later in the week if you like.

Too late, I'am afraid

From what was posted here about (censored), what about this?: As Quman suggested, mercenaries are protagonists and (censored) is hidden villain. I think he is very well informed (he knows about dark elves threat and also he knows how and where conjure portal...maybe he has scryer abilities), and has great organising and leadership abilities, but he is poor with sword, bow and magic too. Because of that he needs mercenaries. On the road he will acquire artifact at 5, and in the end he will use it to create portal (to do that, he will need innocent soul and some blood from several bodies). Player can choose whether to conjure the portal (and saving the rest of the party + some civilians) or not and face great dark army (has he chance to suceed?). Also, is it necessary to roll with the (censored) thing or his motives and name will be clear right from the start (I dont mean clear like "And also I will need to sacrifice Hailey" but like "dark elves are threatening us and i can conjure portal if you will help me")?

To the general nature of the world: Is the "blood and soul" idea for dark magic good enough?
How about elves? How long do they live?
I think dwarves can be left completely tolkien-like.
What about woses? Are they independent from elves? What about this idea: Forests are partially sentient organisms, they respond to the magic. As centuries pass, every magic (dark, or light, doesnt matter) released in forest is cumulating there. Elves are aware of this and are "releasing" this "trapped" magic away via rituals. In forests where elves are not present, this magic just keeps cumulating and that leads to the "awakening" of the forest. When you are in this forest, you can feel you are not welcomed there. If the magic level is high enough, some of the trees may awaken. In that case, you dont want to be there. So the woses are plain evil.
Dark drake cult? Are they fighting with dwarves? I think they are very honorable, their society based on principles and power chain. They despise other races, because in their eyes, they are just weak, corrupt and unworthy, without order.

Great Rings, Yveen can be leveled as second healer. It is players choice whether he wants more firepower (sorceress) or healer (druid).

[TheGreatRings]

Too late, I'am afraid

Ah well.

From what was posted here about (censored), what about this?: As Quman suggested, mercenaries are protagonists and (censored) is hidden villain. I think he is very well informed (he knows about dark elves threat and also he knows how and where conjure portal...maybe he has scryer abilities), and has great organising and leadership abilities, but he is poor with sword, bow and magic too. Because of that he needs mercenaries. On the road he will acquire artifact at 5, and in the end he will use it to create portal (to do that, he will need innocent soul and some blood from several bodies). Player can choose whether to conjure the portal (and saving the rest of the party + some civilians) or not and face great dark army (has he chance to suceed?).

A character who's a great leader but sucks at fighting makes an interesting character, but potentially a very annoying one to play.

I would like to give the player a chance to win without using the dark arts, because I am an idealist, and I like playing heroic characters. But I would consider making it very hard.

This could be one of those special achievements you talked about earlier.

Also, is it necessary to roll with the (censored) thing or his motives and name will be clear right from the start (I dont mean clear like "And also I will need to sacrifice Hailey" but like "dark elves are threatening us and i can conjure portal if you will help me")?

If the character is dark from the start, and the others know this, then that means every character is a villain. Not sure if you want that.

How about elves? How long do they live?

Go for genuine immortals.

Great Rings, Yveen can be leveled as second healer. It is players choice whether he wants more firepower (sorceress) or healer (druid).

Great.

More to come later.

[Neuromancer]

A character who's a great leader but sucks at fighting makes an interesting character, but potentially a very annoying one to play.

Not necessarily. First, he is the only one from the whole group with access to the leadership ability, which affects performance of the mercenaries great deal. Second, poor is still better than nothing and in many cases you need just one additional hit to kill some enemy unit. Third, in (nearly) every scenario, you have only 9 units available and placement of them becomes important. Surely there will be cases when you need to screen your injured unit, or to block some path etc.. just ideal for (censored).

I would like to give the player a chance to win without using the dark arts, because I am an idealist, and I like playing heroic characters. But I would consider making it very hard.
This could be one of those special achievements you talked about earlier.

Yes, it will surely enhance playing experience and players who like epic endings will be satisfied too (and I think these are majority of player pool).

...his motives and name will be clear right from the start (I dont mean clear like "And also I will need to sacrifice Hailey" but like "dark elves are threatening us and i can conjure portal if you will help me")?

If the character is dark from the start, and the others know this, then that means every character is a villain. Not sure if you want that.

They dont know that.

[Pewskeepski]

I think I'd be cool if the player didn't even know that (censored) is evil.

He could have a lust for opening the portal because he believes there's a better world/Reality out there. Maybe he discovers it somehow (Ancient scroll?) and want's to rule there if he can, but he needs help and he knows that he won't get any where if comes right out and says he's evil. Therefore, he gathers an army of mercenary's and leads them to the where the portal will be made. He hopes that, along the journey, his followers will look at him as a hero and follow him where ever he goes, and so he hopes to win there loyalty by the time he opens the portal.

[TheGreatRings]

Not necessarily. First, he is the only one from the whole group with access to the leadership ability, which affects performance of the mercenaries great deal.

Good idea.

Yes, it will surely enhance playing experience and players who like epic endings will be satisfied too (and I think these are majority of player pool).

Quite.

Regarding the final battle:

Make it big.

Make use of terrain to give the player interesting strategic possibilities. Create natural defensive positions such as river crossings, tunnels, etc.

Give the player unconventional ways to win.

The campaign Northern Rebirth is a good model for how to make epic battles.

They dont know that.

Okay.

[Quman]

Tess:

I imagined the monastic order being based in the empire, but not in the capital. The order's leader didn't support the emperor, and as tyrants tend to dislike dissenting voices (especially influential ones,) the emperor decided to bring the order to a nice, peaceful end. Naturally, if the head of the order disobeyed the emperor's decree, that would be a criminal action, and violent enforcement would be perfectly 'justified.'

The first name that comes to my mind for Tess is Ariane, but that's probably too similar to Aramis. You might change her name to something like Tabitha or Theresa. I'll think about it more and get back to you.

Garret:

He's lived a difficult life and doesn't want his son to end up like he did. He's not apathetic towards others, but taking care of his family is his top priority. As I said, he's more protective of his comrades (especially the ones he thinks of as women and children) than a common greedy thug should be, but he generally avoids letting his employers know that he cares about people since he doesn't want them to get the impression that he has any priorities that would conflict with completing his mission to the best of his abilities. He doesn't care whether or not people like him, so he lets everybody think all he cares about is money.

As for his family, yes I intended for them to live far away from the empire. Not necessarily with the dwarves, but certainly someplace safe. As for Pelduras knowing the family, I would only recommend that if there was a good excuse for it beyond shear coincidence. Garret would have sent his family away before becoming a mercenary, so the only excuse I can think of for Pelduras knowing the family is if Garret had hired a mercenary to take his family to safety when he first joined with the terrorists.

Kara:

I don't see her as being at all cold-hearted. She's tough, and she can buckle down and get things done, but at the end of the day she likes to keep things cheerful. Her friendliness is genuine, not an act. She doesn't feel a need to constantly assert herself, so her stubbornness won't come up too much as long as nobody acts too domineering towards her. Of course, she and Aramis will clash quite a bit if they're both recruited, but Aramis is probably the only party member to have any real problems with her.

Her most obvious weakness is her pride. She tends not to be very respectful (though most of the mercenaries don't demand a great deal of respect) and she really doesn't like to do anything she feels like somebody is forcing her to do. She sometimes overestimates her abilities, and she's very reluctant to ask for help when she's in trouble.

She doesn't particularly care how innocent a person is, nor is she drawn to power (she actually finds showoffs annoying.) She respects people that don't rely on others, and the people she respects the most are the ones that other people can depend on, such as Garret.

As for why she killed her creditor, it's somewhere between the two options you gave. Her motive for killing her creditor were purely selfish, but she wouldn't have done it if he wasn't an extortionist that she felt deserved to die.

Hailey:

I intentionally didn't make her naive because I wanted to make her a bit different from the usual character of her archetype. She's much more outgoing than her sister, and has more experience dealing with real people (as opposed to the poems and songs Yveen is familiar with.) She's very optimistic and doesn't always think things through, but she's much better at judging when a person is lying than her sister. Of course, she doesn't have any experiences that would prepare her for her employer to turn out to be an evil sorcerer intent on stealing her soul, but Hailey won't be duped by anything the average person wouldn't be duped by.

If you want me to make her more naive I can, but I kind of like the outgoing sister (who has real experience with people) being a better judge of character than the more introverted sister (who's more familiar with songs and poems that tend not to make charming gentlemen seem very dangerous.)

Logan:

He's pretty much given up hope on defeating the empire, but he still wants to do everything he can to hurt it. He's gotten to be pretty pessimistic after watching so many people run from their problems. The emperor isn't powerful enough to keep his entire empire in check if they all revolt, but everybody is too cowardly or apathetic to do anything. The emperor doesn't remain on his throne because he won, he just gets to keep his power because the other side never challenged him.

I'll give the name some thought and get back to you.

Luciana:

I imagine the academy being outside of the capital, but no more than a few days' journey away. The forest north of point 2 would be fine.

I would expect Luciana to be very cautious about dark magic. She won't make snap judgments, but dark magic is something to be very cautious about.

As for her goals in life... to be honest, I was running out of good ideas for motivation by the time I came to Luciana, so I made her father a general in the imperial army so I would have something else to work with. I'm sure I'll come up with more for her later.

Yveen:

I still imagine her being a virgin, if that's what you're asking. She's not the sort of elf that hangs out in public places, so she was very ill-prepared for human society. Fortunately she has a sister with more worldly experience. Either girl would have gotten into serious trouble if the other hadn't been there.

Wendala:

Wendala's profile was the toughest for me to come up with. It was hard for me to pin down exactly how dark you wanted her to be, so I wrote her profile in first person to make her exact motivations ambiguous. I personally don't like characters to get into dark magic without some degree of lust for power, so if you're happy with me writing in some darker motives under the surface I'll be perfectly content to comply.

I think Luciana, Yveen, and possibly Logan would have the most to say about Wendala's dark magic. None of the mercenaries, as I imagine them, seem like the sorts that would encourage her use of dark magic. Luciana might not actively discourage it, but she would advise extreme caution. Yveen would actively discourage it for obvious reasons. Logan would think she's an idiot for getting into dark magic, but as long as she's being an idiot he would encourage her to make good use of her power. The so-far nameless main character, of course, would subtly encourage her pursuit of dark magic, though never in a way that makes it obvious that he is involved with dark magic himself.

Speaking of our nameless main character, I'm going to start calling him Hazael until we have a proper name for him, since I'm getting kind of tired of not being able to call him by name.

[Neuromancer]

Make use of terrain to give the player interesting strategic possibilities. Create natural defensive positions such as river crossings, tunnels, etc.

Dont worry about that

Tess:

I imagined the monastic order being based in the empire, but not in the capital.

This orders former HQs (now probably in ruins) could be somewhere between A and 4... I will make some adjustments to the world map. Also, what could be the name of empire and Emperor, His Imperial Majesty?

The first name that comes to my mind for Tess is Ariane, but that's probably too similar to Aramis. You might change her name to something like Tabitha or Theresa. I'll think about it more and get back to you.

Theresa sounds better than Tess for sure, but I dont think its ideal name.

Garret:
As for his family, yes I intended for them to live far away from the empire. Not necessarily with the dwarves, but certainly someplace safe.

Maybe somewhere around 12... I think about cancelling the whole forest in that area (or make it not under control of the alliance, but some another clique). Alliance doesnt have sufficient manpower to control and maintain territory that big.

Hailey:
If you want me to make her more naive I can, but I kind of like the outgoing sister (who has real experience with people) being a better judge of character than the more introverted sister (who's more familiar with songs and poems that tend not to make charming gentlemen seem very dangerous.)

I'm not very fond of cliches, so Hailey being not naive is just fine for me too. But in that way, how exactly does Yveen watch out for her?

Wendala:
I personally don't like characters to get into dark magic without some degree of lust for power...

Exactly. Its not like "Im using dark magic as a tool and thats it". There is always temptation of power.

...so if you're happy with me writing in some darker motives under the surface I'll be perfectly content to comply.

Yes, I like dark.
I have one thought, but Im afraid it is very messy to implement: To the start, lets give some variable to the Wendala, lets say 0. This variable represents her control over dark magic. As campaign progresses, player will execute some actions, which will add or subtract from this variable (for example: Player will recruit Yveen, thats +1; in scenario X player will kill some civilians, -2; and so on). The more variable is negative, the more is Wendala under influence of dark power and vice versa. This will affect her battle stats, and, more importantly, her behavior. For example in scenario Y party is passing some dead bodies. If Wendala is under -3, she will say something like "These are ideal for reanimation", if she is 1 or higher, she will mourn then. If her score is negative enough, she will automatically join censored at the end... and so on. So, for every occasion there has to be two or more comments available and game will choose appropriate one.

Quman, would you like to write character mono/dialogues?

Anyway, I think we have sufficient basis for characters (except for footpad), and need to focus on the story, so I can knock together working prototype.

[Quman]

What could be the name of empire and Emperor, His Imperial Majesty?

I was about to suggest the name Bane for the emperor or one of his officers, but that name might actually suit Logan better. You probably don't want a mundane sounding name for the emperor, so I'm thinking of names like Emir, Salix, or Drahsil. Actually, Salix might work better as an empire name. Anyway, I'll give it more thought.

Theresa sounds better than Tess for sure, but I dont think its ideal name.

I don't know what kind of name you want for her, so I'm just going to throw out a few different types and see if you like any of them. Alba, Lilium, Camellia, Sharon, Glory, Rose, Rosales.

Maybe somewhere around 12... I think about cancelling the whole forest in that area (or make it not under control of the alliance, but some another clique). Alliance doesnt have sufficient manpower to control and maintain territory that big.

Chapter 12 could be one last stop on Hazael's mcguffin hunting quest. My idea is that in chapter 11 he learns the location of the artifact he's looking for (though he won't let on that he was looking for it,) and in chapter 12 the group fights the dark elves in the area in order to 'put a stop to their dark magic.' Naturally, Hazael will keep the obviously evil artifact in order to prevent the dark elves from using it again.

I'm not very fond of cliches, so Hailey being not naive is just fine for me too. But in that way, how exactly does Yveen watch out for her?

Have you ever known somebody who's really bad about thinking things through, like a teenager with a credit card for example? Hailey's not naive, but she's not very practical either. She tends to focus too much on the here and now, not considering future consequences. If it weren't for Yveen's responsibility, Hailey never would have lasted as long away from home as she has.

I have one thought, but Im afraid it is very messy to implement: To the start, lets give some variable to the Wendala, lets say 0. This variable represents her control over dark magic. As campaign progresses, player will execute some actions, which will add or subtract from this variable (for example: Player will recruit Yveen, thats +1; in scenario X player will kill some civilians, -2; and so on). The more variable is negative, the more is Wendala under influence of dark power and vice versa. This will affect her battle stats, and, more importantly, her behavior. For example in scenario Y party is passing some dead bodies. If Wendala is under -3, she will say something like "These are ideal for reanimation", if she is 1 or higher, she will mourn then. If her score is negative enough, she will automatically join censored at the end... and so on. So, for every occasion there has to be two or more comments available and game will choose appropriate one.

I'm planning on writing a bunch of alternate dialogue to account for multiple party combinations anyway, since I want the characters interacting with each other fairly realistically. A bit of alternate dialogue to account for Wendala's corruption wouldn't be too difficult.

Quman, would you like to write character mono/dialogues?

That's what I had in mind when I offered to help.

Now, time to respond to some of the earlier stuff I didn't have time to respond to earlier.

Player can choose whether to conjure the portal (and saving the rest of the party + some civilians) or not and face great dark army (has he chance to suceed?).

When I imagined Hazael as a secret villain, I was thinking the player would either end up playing as Tess and the others against Hazael in the final chapter, or be given a choice in whether to continue as Hazael or switch to Tess.

If the player chooses Hazael they have to assault the keep at point 14 without the aid of most of their mercenaries, but Hazael would be able to use his artifacts and magic to help him (possibly being able to summon some sort of evil creature, foreshadowed in mission 2.) The mercenaries that oppose him could show up during the mission to give him more trouble, but it may be better to avoid that so a player that knows what's coming doesn't have an incentive to underlevel them.

If the player chooses to control Tess (or if controlling Tess is the only option,) then mission 14 is an assault the keep after Hazael has already taken control and started the ritual.

I don't have a problem with the player instead getting the option to have Hazael change his mind at the end, I'm just proposing this alternative as a possibility. If we're really ambitious, we could try fitting all three options into the game, with Hazael's change of heart being the most difficult final mission with the most positive ending.

Also, is it necessary to roll with the (censored) thing or his motives and name will be clear right from the start (I dont mean clear like "And also I will need to sacrifice Hailey" but like "dark elves are threatening us and i can conjure portal if you will help me")?

I would give him an actual name (even if it's not his real name,) but keep his goals mysterious. I don't have too much against him revealing from the beginning that he has a plan to open a portal, but it'd be more fun to write Logan's reaction to Hazael's cowardice at the end of the campaign than the beginning.

EDIT: I finished Brenton's profile (Brent feels a bit modern to me, so I treat it as a nickname rather than a given name.)

Brenton:

Background: Brenton grew up in Specere (I should probably come up with a better name.) When the empire marched, Brenton was prepared to go out and meet them. Unfortunately (or not) for him, he was very unfamiliar with the empire's layout at the time. The elder, not wanting the boy to senselessly waste his life, sent him on a scouting mission in the wrong direction. When Brent returned the battle was over and the town was in ruins. Brent worked alongside the terrorists for a while, but left when he saw that the organization had become little more than common robbers. He now works as a mercenary, with a much better knowledge of geography.

Personality: While Brent is full of youthful courage and zeal, he has become rather cynical in recent years. He's still very optimistic, but that optimism doesn't prevent him from seeing all that's bad in the world. He no longer believes that good always triumphs, but he still holds firm in his belief that any evil can be vanquished.

[Neuromancer]

What could be the name of empire and Emperor, His Imperial Majesty?

I was about to suggest the name Bane for the emperor or one of his officers, but that name might actually suit Logan better. You probably don't want a mundane sounding name for the emperor, so I'm thinking of names like Emir, Salix, or Drahsil. Actually, Salix might work better as an empire name. Anyway, I'll give it more thought.

Salix sounds like name for some saurian. I think it is perfectly suited for saurian leader.
Bane instead of Logan? Works for me.
Emperor name... when you used word "mundane", it gave me this thought: maybe the emperor is so holy and untouchable nobody can ever name him directly. Its always "His Imperial Majesty", "His Holy Majesty" and so on.

Theresa sounds better than Tess for sure, but I dont think its ideal name.

I don't know what kind of name you want for her, so I'm just going to throw out a few different types and see if you like any of them. Alba, Lilium, Camellia, Sharon, Glory, Rose, Rosales.

Alba, Sharon, Theresa... I think Theresa is still the best. We can roll with Theresa, its nice name.

I'm not very fond of cliches, so Hailey being not naive is just fine for me too. But in that way, how exactly does Yveen watch out for her?

Have you ever known somebody who's really bad about thinking things through, like a teenager with a credit card for example? Hailey's not naive, but she's not very practical either. She tends to focus too much on the here and now, not considering future consequences. If it weren't for Yveen's responsibility, Hailey never would have lasted as long away from home as she has.

Now I get it.

Now, time to respond to some of the earlier stuff I didn't have time to respond to earlier.

Player can choose whether to conjure the portal (and saving the rest of the party + some civilians) or not and face great dark army (has he chance to suceed?).

When I imagined Hazael as a secret villain, I was thinking the player would either end up playing as Tess and the others against Hazael in the final chapter, or be given a choice in whether to continue as Hazael or switch to Tess.

If the player chooses Hazael they have to assault the keep at point 14 without the aid of most of their mercenaries, but Hazael would be able to use his artifacts and magic to help him (possibly being able to summon some sort of evil creature, foreshadowed in mission 2.) The mercenaries that oppose him could show up during the mission to give him more trouble, but it may be better to avoid that so a player that knows what's coming doesn't have an incentive to underlevel them.

If the player chooses to control Tess (or if controlling Tess is the only option,) then mission 14 is an assault the keep after Hazael has already taken control and started the ritual.

I don't have a problem with the player instead getting the option to have Hazael change his mind at the end, I'm just proposing this alternative as a possibility. If we're really ambitious, we could try fitting all three options into the game, with Hazael's change of heart being the most difficult final mission with the most positive ending.

I thought about the finale in this way: Censored and rest of the party are standing at the portal-suitable site.
Random party member: "What are you waiting for? Just conjure the portal! Only moments before the dark hordes will overwhelm us!"
Another party member: "No! We can fight them! We have the artifact, we can use it against them!"
At this point, censored will grab Hailey (Yveen...): "Everyone stand back! I will create this portal and no one will oppose me! Dont you get it? Only one soul and some blood and we can be safe! It is for greater good! Just think about how many people can be saved!" (of course, he cannot use soul of some random civilian... the soul has to be "experienced")
There will be a couple of choices player has to make, ending up with these possibilities:
1. As the censored holds Hailey, the rest of the party is reasoning to him, why it ought to be better use artifact power against the dark elves. Every party member may appeal to him using different reasoning (Bane: cowardice, Luciana: logic and reason, Pelduras: history will remember you as coward) <- maybe player can choose which party member/reasoning present to him. Of course, every reasoning has its own weight to the Censored (if player will choose Pelduras, censored will instantly reply with "history is written by winners" and so on... Uncorrupted Wendalas reasoning may be the most appealing one). There may be three checks (three times player will choose character/reasoning), if none to two will appeal, Hailey ends up dead, and events will continue as is written in 2. If player will pass all three checks, censored will give up and will join the rest of the party in epic battle against dark hordes (after his submission, player can choose whether to kill him or let him help).
2. Censored will sacrifice Hailey (this may be automatic, if corrupted Wendala is present: she will just walk to the Hailey and slit her throat). Yveen collapses on ground ("Hailey, NOOOOOO!"), Bane wants to shoot censored instantly, but Garret will thwart him (maybe his family is located in this settlement near the portal site and he sees a chance to save them) <- again it can be players' choice, or will just happen automatically, if Garret is present. There may be more "kill checks" -> if Bane is not present, some other party member may attempt to kill him and so on. So the censored ends up either dead, or succesfully escapes throught the portal ("So long, suckers!"). If he will be killed, corrupted Wendala may turn against the rest of the party (using the artifact and conjuring some monsters), or she can be convinced to use the power of the artifact against the dark hordes, or she will use it voluntarily (it will all depend on her corruption score).

Anyways, Id make it possible to defeat the hordes only if subordinated censored is present. Else it will be just long, agonizing, losing battle. The final scenario can be made as tower defense (player will be able to recruit civilians to help him hold the fortress/settlement).

EDIT: I finished Brenton's profile (Brent feels a bit modern to me, so I treat it as a nickname rather than a given name.)

Yes, Brent is just placeholder name.

I gave more thoughts to the world map, notably the obvious unlinearity/story problem. Basically, I came up with this: Scenarios 0 - 8 are unlinear (I will call them unlinear, but in real, there are 3 paths player can take, as is shown on updated world map), scenario 9 is semi-linear, and from 10 to the end it is completely linear.
Scenario 9 has approx. 60x30 hexes (red rectangle on the map). Althought player can enter it from three places, he can only exit to the 10. Actually, when player enters scenarios 8, 6 and 7, respectively, he will never be returned to the world map again. 9 is like second scenario from UtBS -> it is big, you have one objective (get to the northern corner of the map), but many ways to achieve it. For example, when player will enter map from 8, he can go to the west, and face wose ambushes (F is land where woses live -> as you can see, player is eventually forced by them to go to the 10), or he can go through the swamp, pass saurians and alliance fighting each other. When he will enter from 7, he will stumble right upon alliance HQs... from there, he can go towards the center of the map and meet saurians, or he may choose to march on eastern edge of the map, eventually meeting nagas at H...and so on, there are many possibillities, but the player will eventually end discharged out to the 10.
10, 11, 12 could be joined together, or be made as two, or three, or whatever-is-needed separate scenarios. Only thing we know for sure is there is this big dark forest to the west (with evil base of operations at I) and the place suitable to craft the portal is somewhere around 12 (it doesnt have to be keep, but I think some civilized place would be nice). Or the evil elves' HQs can be north of 12, or whatever suits the story best. It is uncharted territory, and the story is charting it.

Updated world map

World map legend

A - imperial city
B - abandoned ruins of the monastery order (name of this order?)
C - Ruins of (for now named) Specere
D - mage academy, that sand keep is, of course, placeholder
E - alliance HQs (not exactly, Im imagining alliance as quite decentralized organisation, but E could be the biggest settlement/outpost in the forest)
F - woses awakened in those places
G - saurians HQs
H - naga HQs (it will be probably placed more to the eastern edge of the map)
I - evil HQs

Scenario 7

We still dont know much about 7. One possibility is place 2 (dream scenario) instead of 7. Or maybe 7 could be mostly-talk scenario in "Valley of trials" theme. The party will travel through dangerous cliffs, and by the road will meet intelligent monsters. These monsters will test characters in many (intellectual) ways. Classical sphinx-themed monster could be there; another NPC will test party members (player's) knowledge about world; another can bring in some interesting philospohical (ethical...etc) issues; another one will question motives of each of characters (party members /and player/ will learn some interesting things about each other); and so on... when player will choose right, the monster will allow him to go forth, otherwise party will have to fight it.

Some more ideas

Qumans "blurb" post is perfectly suitable for ingame character descriptions (thats the description you get when you mouse over the type of unit pane)
Drakes, Nagas, Orcs, Saurians, Woses -> all of them speak in their respective native languages, right? When player will choose Normal difficulty (there will be Normal, Hard, and maybe Insane difficulty), when encountering these creatures, they will speak in gibberish (the party members /player/ only understand common language, of course). But, if the player will choose Hard difficulty, the game will reward him with translated strings of these creatures. Only exception to this rule I can think of is Yveen/Hailey in party when encountering woses: if player has them, he will understand them, else not.
Tactical advisor: This "feature" (or annoyance) will be available only in Normal difficulty. In certain situations, censored will hint player to the right tactics (for example in tollhouse /dwarves collecting toll/ scenario, I think he is necessary).
The last scenario (after epilogue): This will be credit roll/achievements scenario. It will look like ordinary scenario, but characters in there will be named after campaign collaborators. It may be stylised as some stage (campain creators onstage, minor collaborators in the crowd /everyone involved can choose his avatar, description, on so on.../). Player can move main actors around the map, and there can be place labeled "Meta achievements", another one "Scenarios Achievements" and so on... or instead (or in conjunction) of that there will be also characters of the story lined up: When you will approach them, they will each say something about themselves, for. ex.: "Hi, Im Wendala and you sent me to the path of darkness. My corruption has value -4. Maybe you would treat me differently next time?" or "Hi, Im Bane and if you have had recruited me, I would unveil great story about the rebels" or "Im Hailey and Im so happy you let me live!" and so on.

Edit: Some spelling mistakes.

[Neuromancer]

I think I'd be cool if the player didn't even know that (censored) is evil.

Yes, he will not know that.

He could have a lust for opening the portal because he believes there's a better world/Reality out there.

And guess how this new world is named? Yes, its Wesnoth But where to place him? Maybe the censored can later become lich-lord.

He hopes that, along the journey, his followers will look at him as a hero and follow him where ever he goes, and so he hopes to win there loyalty by the time he opens the portal.

Yes, he will certainly try out this loyality thing with Wendala, but others will follow him for different reasons.

[Quman]

Emperor name... when you used word "mundane", it gave me this thought: maybe the emperor is so holy and untouchable nobody can ever name him directly. Its always "His Imperial Majesty", "His Holy Majesty" and so on.

I wouldn't expect most of the mercenaries to be too reverent, but I suppose those mercenaries can come up with their own nicknames for the emperor. If his name is a secret to most of the populous, Luciana may be one of the few to know it.

I thought about the finale in this way: Censored and rest of the party are standing at the portal-suitable site.
Random party member: "What are you waiting for? Just conjure the portal! Only moments before the dark hordes will overwhelm us!"
Another party member: "No! We can fight them! We have the artifact, we can use it against them!"
At this point, censored will grab Hailey (Yveen...): "Everyone stand back! I will create this portal and no one will oppose me! Dont you get it? Only one soul and some blood and we can be safe! It is for greater good! Just think about how many people can be saved!" (of course, he cannot use soul of some random civilian... the soul has to be "experienced")
There will be a couple of choices player has to make, ending up with these possibilities:
1. As the censored holds Hailey, the rest of the party is reasoning to him, why it ought to be better use artifact power against the dark elves. Every party member may appeal to him using different reasoning (Bane: cowardice, Luciana: logic and reason, Pelduras: history will remember you as coward) <- maybe player can choose which party member/reasoning present to him. Of course, every reasoning has its own weight to the Censored (if player will choose Pelduras, censored will instantly reply with "history is written by winners" and so on... Uncorrupted Wendalas reasoning may be the most appealing one). There may be three checks (three times player will choose character/reasoning), if none to two will appeal, Hailey ends up dead, and events will continue as is written in 2. If player will pass all three checks, censored will give up and will join the rest of the party in epic battle against dark hordes (after his submission, player can choose whether to kill him or let him help).
2. Censored will sacrifice Hailey (this may be automatic, if corrupted Wendala is present: she will just walk to the Hailey and slit her throat). Yveen collapses on ground ("Hailey, NOOOOOO!"), Bane wants to shoot censored instantly, but Garret will thwart him (maybe his family is located in this settlement near the portal site and he sees a chance to save them) <- again it can be players' choice, or will just happen automatically, if Garret is present. There may be more "kill checks" -> if Bane is not present, some other party member may attempt to kill him and so on. So the censored ends up either dead, or succesfully escapes throught the portal ("So long, suckers!"). If he will be killed, corrupted Wendala may turn against the rest of the party (using the artifact and conjuring some monsters), or she can be convinced to use the power of the artifact against the dark hordes, or she will use it voluntarily (it will all depend on her corruption score).

Anyways, Id make it possible to defeat the hordes only if subordinated censored is present. Else it will be just long, agonizing, losing battle. The final scenario can be made as tower defense (player will be able to recruit civilians to help him hold the fortress/settlement).

Sounds good.

We still dont know much about 7. One possibility is place 2 (dream scenario) instead of 7. Or maybe 7 could be mostly-talk scenario in "Valley of trials" theme. The party will travel through dangerous cliffs, and by the road will meet intelligent monsters. These monsters will test characters in many (intellectual) ways. Classical sphinx-themed monster could be there; another NPC will test party members (player's) knowledge about world; another can bring in some interesting philospohical (ethical...etc) issues; another one will question motives of each of characters (party members /and player/ will learn some interesting things about each other); and so on... when player will choose right, the monster will allow him to go forth, otherwise party will have to fight it.

The riddle section sounds interesting, but having one less level to work on would make it that much easier to complete the project. I'd go ahead and plan for the riddle section to exist, but we should hold off on doing too much work on that particular mission in case we eventually decide we've bitten off more than we can chew. Being able to move over mission 2 without wasting too much work would be very convenient if we need to resort to something like that.

Qumans "blurb" post is perfectly suitable for ingame character descriptions (thats the description you get when you mouse over the type of unit pane)

I'd rather come up with new blurbs. The profiles I posted in this thread spoil some of the things that the player probably shouldn't know right away.

Drakes, Nagas, Orcs, Saurians, Woses -> all of them speak in their respective native languages, right? When player will choose Normal difficulty (there will be Normal, Hard, and maybe Insane difficulty), when encountering these creatures, they will speak in gibberish (the party members /player/ only understand common language, of course). But, if the player will choose Hard difficulty, the game will reward him with translated strings of these creatures. Only exception to this rule I can think of is Yveen/Hailey in party when encountering woses: if player has them, he will understand them, else not.

Sounds easy enough to implement, so I don't see any reason not to.

The last scenario (after epilogue): This will be credit roll/achievements scenario. It will look like ordinary scenario, but characters in there will be named after campaign collaborators. It may be stylised as some stage (campain creators onstage, minor collaborators in the crowd /everyone involved can choose his avatar, description, on so on.../). Player can move main actors around the map, and there can be place labeled "Meta achievements", another one "Scenarios Achievements" and so on... or instead (or in conjunction) of that there will be also characters of the story lined up: When you will approach them, they will each say something about themselves, for. ex.: "Hi, Im Wendala and you sent me to the path of darkness. My corruption has value -4. Maybe you would treat me differently next time?" or "Hi, Im Bane and if you have had recruited me, I would unveil great story about the rebels" or "Im Hailey and Im so happy you let me live!" and so on.

Sounds more fun than just watching the credits roll, but I'm going to wait until I've finished the rest of the game's script before I start working on dialogue for that stage. With 54 character combinations and 5 different possible paths to take through the first half of the campaign, I want to make sure I'll be able to handle all of the essentials before I get into bonus stuff.

[Neuromancer]

Sounds more fun than just watching the credits roll, but I'm going to wait until I've finished the rest of the game's script before I start working on dialogue for that stage. With 54 character combinations and 5 different possible paths to take through the first half of the campaign, I want to make sure I'll be able to handle all of the essentials before I get into bonus stuff.

I think in the same way. I posted the ideas in sake of comments on them and not forgetting them later.

I uploaded alpha version on 1.9 addon server. It was tested on 1.9.5 but should work on all 1.9 versions. Look for Mercenaries.
Please bear in mind the campaign is in condition I left it before starting this thread. It needs many thing redone, most notably complete dialogues rewriting.
Scenarios 0, 1, 2, 3, 8 are playable. You can also view maps for 5 and 9 in map folder.

[lii2]

Long time lurker here, looking for something simple to start me off.

Are you still looking for a person to create place names? If so, I could help do that. If you're interested, tell me a general theme for a place/places and I'll send you a list of two or three names per place.

[Neuromancer]

Long time lurker here, looking for something simple to start me off.

Are you still looking for a person to create place names? If so, I could help do that. If you're interested, tell me a general theme for a place/places and I'll send you a list of two or three names per place.

Id rather assign themes to culture/ethnic group, not to places. For example, big river is named differently by saurians, humans, and elves. You can start on human names, but I dont know which theme assign to them. Im from Slovakia, country with slavic background, and not familiar with celtic/welsh/english etc languages. I can only say I like the names used for characters (and these come from various cultures*). Whats your and Qumans opinion on this topic?

I think the story/characters background is centered around imperial/terrorist conflict more than needed. Id like to introduce some new faction, or expanding existing one (orcs most probably).
Orcs are living in mountains between 5 and D, and scarcily in forest between 1 and 2. Are they just dumb, aggresive creatures serving as nameless xp sources for protagonists (as they are in many, many campaigns)? What about stealing some lore from warcraft universe? In Warcraft, orcs are intelligent, peaceful, spiritual, shamanistic race roaming grasslands, organised in nomadic tribes. Then they are tainted by demons and become brutal savages. Similar thing can happen to them there, too. They live peacefully in those mountains, herding their sheep and goats/hunting some mountainous game (they may even had some trade relations with dwarves and humans), then some external force (maybe some cult secretly controlled by dark elves) corrupts them and wants to use them as army against civilization. Of course, one tribe remains uncorrupted and is escaping them (here is theme for another campaign ). We can alter background of one of the characters: he/she lived in village formerly in coexistence, eventually attacked by orcs.
Moreover, what kind of people live in forests around 7? Imperial influence is not very significant in these lands.

And one final thing: I think we advanced enough to introduce this project in the Scenario and Campaign develompment section. But in order to do that, we need a proper name for it. What are your suggestions?

*For example Luciana is name with spanish feel. I imagine her father comes from settlement located southwest of imperial city (there is sea and mediterranean climate, like in Spain -> Luciana may be slightly tanned)

Edit: What about changing Brentons attitude? Im not sure, but maybe one hireling with "slightly" chaotic evil alignment would spice things up a little.