[Mainline] A Dunefolk Campaign

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ghype
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[Mainline] A Dunefolk Campaign

Post by ghype »



Disclaimer: This thread is not to announce a finished campaign. It just serves as documentation of the development process.



First and foremost, welcome. As the title gives away, we are planning a dunefolk campaign for mainline. With our involvement in the Dunefolk Rework, I am pretty sure we can offer a lot for such a campaign.
One thing we want to do differently then then in our Dunefolk Rework, is to make the development process public so we can do this together - speaking to the dev team but also to the forum users. So let's do this!



Goals of the Campaign:

Aside of being fun and product of quality, it should introduce new players as good as possible to the their lore and background. On top of that, it should be also expand the already existing world and contribute to the world building.

Considering that there are some restructuring happening concerning the mainline campaigns (where ideally they are categorised into arcs), we are thinking that dunefolk could get his own arc. One single campaign is not enough to introduce a whole new faction, with different background and with new territory around them. This means that the there might be more than just a single dunefolk campaign one day. First we want to focus to get one right.



Story:

We already have two scripts for two possible campaigns (while start developing only one of them) which will be presented in the writers forum. The links will be provided at the end. There you can read them and let us know how they could be improved. Quick note that one of them is a rather short campaign focused on gameplay, world building and memorable characters (Story one) while the other is much longer which focuses on story, lore and character development (Story Two). The shorter one is already in development process to which Yumi contributes and supervised the development process till now.



Expanding The Great Continent:

Now this is were it gets interesting. Lore-wise it always hard to introduce a faction, and instead of trying to squeeze Dunefolk in the main timeline events of wesnoth, we should use opportunity to explore new parts of the Great Continent. There have been attempts of expanding Irdya in the past which I used as references fo what we will share with you guys in another thread. When we talk about new places, then we also have to talk about at what time Dunefolk where doing (whatever they were doing) in these new lands. While most of the Dunefolk lore is now agreed upon, the question of their background is not yet clear. Wether they originated from the Old Continent (if the Old Continent still exists after Yumis rework) or were an ever existing faction on the Great Continent. For that I created another thread to finalise their background and other questions that need to be answered.



Index Of Links:

Expanding The Great Contintent
Dunefolk Lore - Consolidation



Now to the Stories ... I will hide them not only because its a lot of content but also because of not revealing spoilers for those who want to be surprised. Ultimately it should just show that we actually have something to show for.



Story One



note: This campaign aims to be quicker play and is more rpg oriented. It focuses on 4 characters and their experiences on a treasure hunt. As it is focused on the 4 players only, it is a quiet personal campaign. As it the story also focuses on the development of these characters, I post also a small characterisation of the four units.


Characters


Main Character #1 - [name missing]

- unti type: soldier
- is quite positive person
- doesn't always believes in everything
- often acts on his feeling
- often doesn't worry about his own well-being
- always strives for his goal and never gives up
- he doesn't fear death, but also has strong will to live.
- he rarely is the smartest one, but he has a lot of experience in living on his own in the middle of hostile environments



Secondaty Character #1 - Khyreth

- code name: Skrimi
- unti type: skirmisher
- "desert guider"
- enjoys what she can and hides her darkness inside
- she really likes to travel and adventure but she could never abandon people that need her help
- she has many regrets and hates herself for what she does
- she tries to move forward step by step smiling and trying to keep herself sane hoping that someday someone will save her
- she is tough person, but she still has her girlish side that she can expose when she forgets about her worries


Secondary Character #2 - [name missing]

- code name: Verro
- unti type: rover
- He is friend of MC #1,
- MC #1 saved him from unjust execution after “offending” the son of a important local
- they were both deemed criminals until said important person was
executed for the abuse of power (MC #1 himself has some experience in running form law)
- strong but simple person
- likes to laugh about others but he isn't mocking them
- often acts like he knows everything and tries to teach others (he really shouldn't be doing this, it often fails but when he succeeds he feels oh so good about himself)


Secondary Character #3 - [name missing]

- code name: Eras
- unti type: herbalist
- is one smart person, but his ambitions went too far and he was expelled from city that he lived in
- his goal is to understand the world itself thus he seeks knowledge and sometimes performs dangerous experiments
- he tries to build on what is currently known but he also seeks lost knowledge as well as someone that could teach him more


SETTING:
I received a message today from my friend in village Arghraba, inviting me on an adventure out into the desert. Said he found some ruins possibly containing old artifacts, or better yet, treasure! Sands know I could use some extra gold around here. Only thing that worries me is that part of the desert is a bit dangerous, but... well I was never one to shy away from adventure. Maybe this ruin is worth checking out.

note: MC/MP = Main Character/Main Player = Soldier | Verros = development name = Rover | Eras = development name = Herbalist | Skrimi = development name = Skirmisher


SCENARIO 1
- MC, a soldier, finds himself in the middle of the city
- walks to the tavern to pick up his buddy Verro, the Rover
- on the way there, he notices various people on the street with an exclamation mark who say something when approaching
[Decision - optional]
One of them begs for x gold. The MC has to decide wether to give him the gold or not.
- there he invites him to join him to a quest of finding some artefact his friend int he desert talk him about, Verro agrees
- an experienced looking Mercenary, sitting next to them, overheard the the conversation and recommended a desert guide in the first tribe east from the city
- they gratefully thank the Mercenary and were about leave in order to prepare their journey by visiting local merchants and buying supplies and special crafts
- but on the way out a drunken mercenary stumbles over you.
- the mercenary attacks you. brawl starts in the tavern
- the last one surrenders when he sees that his fellows were defeated by MC and Verro, he offers you gold to leave him alone
[Decision]
MC either kills him or lets him go. Either way, a pile of gold remains on the ground.
[Decision]
MC either takes the gold for himself or leaves the gold for the Tavern owner to repay for the mess.
- they leave to find a known desert guide that lives in a tribe nearby


SCENARIO 2
- upon reaching the tribe, they encounter a stranger
- they ask the stranger where they could find "Skrimi, the guide"
- the Stranger reveals herself to be Skrimi who was about to leave the tribe for a hunt
- if they want Skrimi to come on the quest through the dessert, they have to wait for her to return from the hunt or tag along
- MC and Verro agree and and go hunt nearby wandering scoprions
- after the hunt, Skrimi joins the party and they continue their travels north to Eras hut


SCENARIO 3
- MC, Verro and Skrimi, they arrive at doorsteps of Era's Hut
- he is the one inviting them on the quest
- he is herbalist that is developing new herbs and medicines. It is the only reason why he would live in the middle of wasteland alone. Well ... there were other reasons too.
- He was searching for long lost ruins. and did manage to find them after recent sand storm uncovered parts of them [We should come up with a legend]
- But something was lurking inside ... the reason he needed brave fighters
- They prepare to leave and arrive the ruins after quiet some time traveling
- In front of the ruins was a small oasis where some an Orc with a couple of goblins seem to be resting
- They attack you and upon only one gobo remaining, the last one gets scared and offers to betrayal the remaining ones if you let him alive
[Decision]
If the the player decides to let the gobo live, he will join your party and show you a hidden chamber with a weaker artefact.
- After the combat is over, the group ventures into the ruins


SCENARIO 4
- venturing into ruins, they encounter all sorts of creatures such as bats, spiders ...
- if the gobo is alive, he will show very early the secret chamber
- more dangerous are then creatures inside are the booby traps
- if the gobo is alive, he can be used as cannon food
- along traversing the traps, they discover smaller monuments and smaller tablets indicating what this place used to be


SCENARIO 5
- finding a tomb for with petrified creatures
- creatures unpetrify and attack you
- you defeat them
- dialogue between group members
- suddenly, the skrimi ignites a smoke bomb and disappears together with most of the treasures


SCENARIO 6
- The group tries to search for here and catch here outside of the ruins, but they lost track of her
- After quiet some while, they arrived back the tribe where they initially met her
- Instead of her, they are meeting a Renegade Mercenary that subjugated this tribe together with some of his thugs
- It turns out that, they cruelly killed some of the tribesman and woman, one of which where Skrimi's mother and warned who ever doesn't follow their order, will meet the same fate. Everyone she loves and considers family is held hostage in this tribe. Thats how they forced Skrimi to lure strangers and travelers and steal their belongings.
- The Renegade order Skrimi to attack the group
- The MC shouts to Skrimi that this doesn't have to be that way. He tells her that together, they can overthrow the Renegades
- Skrimi, in a change of heart, decides to backstab the Renegade Mercenary and the others engage in combat
- After defeating the Renegades, Skrimi breaks down and cries (out of joy) while the MC tries to comfort her
- Suddenly, a Captain of the Empire rides into the tribe followed by 20 or 30 man and starts to ask questions about this blood bath
- He appears strangely familiar to the MC, it turns out it is the Captain that recommended them Skrimi.
- The captain comes close to the player and talks to him directly
- He tells him to leave this place and to go as north as he can. If he is ever sighted again in this area, he will make sure you will be slaughtered just as Skrimis mother was.
- The MC and the others prepare to leave while the Captains speaks loudly again to everyone.
- He claims that the MC are known Criminals and if they do not leave this place, they will be charged with murder and executed right away. He orders Skrimi to get the other Villagers back inside and move the dead bodies away.
- The MC starts to grasp what really is happening, and now has a choice:
[Decision]
He and the other move to the border of the map and leave everything behind. Knowing that the Captain is the actual reason for all of this bad and leaving Skrimi and the other villagers in his hands ...
OR
Attacking the captain and the others to at least get revenge, knowing he will die because they are outnumbered. At least he knows that he tried his best to prevent something like this to happen ever again, especially with what happened to Skrimi.
- If the player chooses to just leave, the campaign ends (just as planned)
- If the player to chooses to attack, the fight - at first - looks like a lost caused. However, after Skrimi joines the battle, the tribesman and woman get couragoues and pick up what ever weapon they can get their hands on and attack the Captain. Together, they do have a chance of winning.


EPILOGUE

[1]
The MC, Verro and Eras shocked by the situation, quickly leave the village, not knowing what will happen to the others. They are considered Criminals now, knowing they have not doing anything wrong. They are banished form all the bigger cities and the general southern part of the Empire. The group of people rest at Eras hut but then decide to leave everything behind to hunt some more treasures.

[2]
After rescuing the tribe by defeating the Captain and his Soldiers, the tribeman and woman consider the group heroes. But having killed a captain and some soldiers, they cannot stay here anymore. The whole tribe wanders north into the great desert. Led by Skrimi and the MC, they can survive in the desert without ever really being noticed by the Empire.

Story Two



note: This campaign aim to give away as much lore as possible. For that we have to deal with some politics as well. But making a Dunefolk vs Dunefolk Campaign was not our goal. Essential part of the dunefolk are their journeys and how they travers their surroundings. We made use of this as good as we could while following a major political plot.

SETTING:

This campaign features a Sickness, which was created by a subsect of the Secret Order of the Luminaries. They follow different philosophies and ended up creating the sickness using alchemy of the highest art with the goal to kill - yes - but not eradicate the dunefolk. Panic and social chaos is what they wanted and with them being the creator, only they would have the antidote which they then would offered to people to be the „saviors“ and push back the current political regime so they can take over control.
Reason for this sect to act in this aggressive way is that these group of people were the only ones pushing forward thinking to explore new techniques, some might not consider ethical, to make their alchemy not only more potent but to also grow the compendium of alchemy in unimaginable ways. But surely everyone was pushing these ideas away and there was no one willing to follow support these forbidden paths openly. Their suppression from the Luminaries and other political figures led to the creation of the this subsect, which really benefited from the big import / export the dunefolk empire was doing with other folks up north. They got their hands on rare and unheard of recipes from the deepest and darkest places of Irdya. Eventually, this group of people grew bigger over time and a leader rose who promised them that he knew how he could make their craft legal. These were the beginnings of the sects creating the plague - which this story is about.



note: MC/MP = Main Character/Main Player


Scenario 1
MC is a „monster hunter“ and goes around in the city to recruit his hunting party in different part of the city (world buirlding, unit lores). stops by at his friends place (apothecary) if he needs anything special alchemy supplies but he is in the progress to be raided by bandits who want to sell meds / potions on the black market, especially because of the upcoming plague.


Scenario 2
(After reporting the incident to the Paragon, MP is sent to investigate if there are any rumors about this plague in „criminal underworld“ of the capital in the sewer systems. There they find leads of some alchemy scrolls have been sold to a very high price to someone very shady on the black market of the merchant city. If some one knows about a the scrolls then there.


Scenario 3
They arrived to Merchant City, which suffered the most under the plague, and had to deal with upfront chaos. Groups of plunderers are raiding the city , taking advantage of the weaken villagers and lack of guards. After having dealt with them, MP finds out that they were hired to create further chaos. They didn’t want to at first, as they feared to become infected with he sickness but were offered by someone who did not reveal himself a lot of gold to do so anyway.
The Plot thickens. MP seeks out the local Luminaries to find out about more the situation.


Scenario 4 (talk only)
After having talked to the local luminaries, who thinks that is not an ordinary plague, maybe even man made. He has heard of the scrolls that got sold onto the black market. He assumes it was an ancient scroll for for deep east about diseases and how to control them. One that the luminaries were interested into get and preserve but had not enough funds to make the expeditions possible. Working on an antidote, he needs a certain component to find out if it really is what he thinks it is before he can attempt researching a cure. It’s the gland of a very rare creature from the oasis of the great desert.


Scenario 5
Not knowing how to traverse the Great Desert safely, the MP walks around the trading outpost to find some one to traverse them across the desert . Entering a tavern, and asking one or two many questions, a couple of drunken mercenaries get annoyed and attack the MP. A stranger joins the fight and helps the MP. It turns out he overheard the MP and seeing how the MP is fighting, he is willing to help her to traverse the Desert.


Scenario 6
Once in the Great Desert, you’ll never know what is waiting for you. The Strangers tells the MP that there are two routes they can use to get to the oasis the luminary sent them.
One that is faster is directly through great desert, which is notorious for the deadly sandstorms. The other goes through ground that recently many drakes use as hunting ground. All that ground is called the Valley of Wings. The player now has to choose a route.


Scenario 6a
Soon enough a dust storm is coming towards the MP and his group. But it quickly calms down again. After the dust got cleared, a Jinn suddenly stands in front of them and tells the MP that he shouldn’t have had trespassed his desert. The Jinn summons Dust Devils and casts spells to scare off the MP. With no time to turn back, the MP has to fight through them. Once defeated, the Jinn breaks out into a heavy Sandstorm. They find a cave entrance where they plan to wait out the Sandstorm.

Scenario 7a
After hours past and the Sandstorm has not yet stopped the MP decides to venture deeper into the cave and find an exit on the other side as they cannot loose any more time. A couple more hours past and they enter a big cavern which looks like a burial side. Suddenly too many soulless and walking corpses arise led by a skeleton warrior. After defeating all, they find out that this has been an ancient burial and was put under a spell by an powerful lich lord to protect the resting souls. Eventually they find an exit which leads them back on track to the oasis


Scenario 6b
Soon enough they stumble upon a hunting party of drakes that were hunting dustbooks. The drakes loose track of the dustbocks because of the MP, gets enraged and attack them. In order for the MP not to become the drakes next meal, they engage in battle and quickly move on to not face any other drakes. The Strangers mentiones the Valley of the Wings again, not because of the drakes, but because of what lays in front of them.


Scenario 7b
The mountains the MP now has to traverse is known to house giant flying creatures. Creatures even the drakes are wary to deal with. Rocs. There is no way around it. Going through the hills and then climbing up the mountain, there is no sign of them yet. Until suddenly a big pair of Rocs rise and dive attack the MP. After hunting down the Rocs they discover their nest and find an artefact inside that they protected. Climbing down the hill, they’re closing distance to the oasis.


Scenario 8 (talk only)
Arriving at the Oasis the some of the party members seem to get weaker. They have been infected with the plague and the symptoms only now show. (This scenarios mostly consists of the MP trying to console himself over the potential loss of his friends and party members. It serves character development before the big reveal)


Scenario 9
After following Oasis into a cave, they soon enough disturb the creatures they were looking for. These creatures are not to be joking and not an easy fight, but eventually they have to be taken down. Suddenly, after their defeat, a mysterious man comes form the other side and shouts on why they are here to slay the beasts. It turns out that the cave was a hide out of a group of man that were doing some sort of experiments with these creatures. They are members of secret order of the Luminary and are plotting to over-through the order and take over the politics using the plague they created. They reveal their plan to make sure the Paragon and oppositely members of the order die at the plague and only then revealing the cure. That way they appear as hero and are in control of the order and make the new Paragon their puppet. The man and his followers attack the MP to make sure none of them get out alive. After defeating them, the MP finds out more of the the plot. They have to quickly warn the others and get back tot he capital, if its not too late.


Scenario 10
While traveling back to the capital, the MP informs the luminaries that are still alive in the merchant city (who then joins the MP) and confront the leader of the subsect, which at that seemed to have taken control of the capital. He offered the antidote to the Paragon but it was too late and deceased, similar fate to most of the remaining Luminaries. He started offers the antidote to important people and sold it to the villagers to a modest price. The citizens believed in the good intentions and started to praise him. The Leader also hired an army of mercenary to help them distribute the anti dote and word of a cure. When he gets confronted by the MP, he claims the MP and his followers have created the poison. He claims that he has been seen trading with bandits and destroying evidence of their laboratories hidden in the dessert. While everybody believes the false leader and his false claims, the MP still find some allies int he capital with which the MP will take down the false leader, his sect member and the mercenary army.


Epilogue
After defeating, the plot gets revealed to the public, the misinformation gets covered up, and the remaining anti-dote is given for free and more was made with the help of the MP, his buddy Apothecary and the Luminary from the Merchant City. While not being a Luminary nor trained in the arts of alchemy, he gets accepted into the Order of the Luminary which for given circumstances now is being re-organised and becoming public. The Paragon was too young to have a new follower, so the Dunefolk Empire eagerly awaits its new Paragon to be chosen. With more transparence in the politics and the order of the Luminary, such a plague should never be able to occur again and the Dunefolk Empire starts re-organise and continues to flourish …

Last edited by ghype on April 15th, 2020, 8:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Celtic_Minstrel
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Re: [Mainline] A Dunefolk Campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

So, I'm not a fan of the first story for some reason. I'm not quite sure why, but something about it just grates on me. As a result, I'll focus my comments on the second story.

Before that, though, I have two general complaints.

If I recall correctly, "luminary" is one of the unit names, right? But in my opinion, it's boring to have an "Order of the Luminary". A more interesting, flavourful name is needed for the equivalent of the alchemist's guild. It could include "luminary" in its name, though.

The second complaint is the reference to a Dunefolk Empire. Has it been decided that dunefolk governance is functionally identical to wesfolk governance? (There's basically no difference between a "kingdom" and an "empire".) That strikes me as kinda boring. Why not choose a more interesting and varied governance structure? They could be a loose confederation of city-states, or a democratic republic akin to ancient Rome or Athens. In the former case, there would probably be one paragon per city; in the latter case, they would serve a role similar to a president or prime minister.

Now, onto the story itself…
Spoiler:
Author of The Black Cross of Aleron campaign and Default++ era.
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Re: [Mainline] A Dunefolk Campaign

Post by The_Gnat »

Having been not active for a while, I am very pleased to see the current developments. You have put together two really good campaign ideas (personally I prefer story 2 because of the development of lore, but I understand that this is not the only consideration when creating a campaign).

I am excited to see where everything has come and when I have time I will try to write more in depth comments! :)

For now I will just say great work! :D
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Re: [Mainline] A Dunefolk Campaign

Post by Edwylm »

The first one is a bit uninteresting.

If I could suggest a different story line it would be the MC would be a hired sword for merchants, could be a group he leads. could ease into the lore of 1 or 2 maps of them traveling and in one of the cities a Alchemist would look to hire their swords to go on a expedition to a ruin. In the ruin they released something that should have stayed sealed. the MC is the only one able to get away and the ruins they delved into sealed temporary. (what was sealed would be reason story 2 could explain the plague.)

And in story 2 not much to say but working with my story 1 suggestion you would encounter the old MC years later and that he is kinda gone mad (you will have to kill him.) having him be the one that set the coup would be kinda having more of a emotional impact if you were to cure him of his madness at the same time he dies...
(would be interesting that the plague would be people turning into zombies)

I would prefer to have a more rp and nomad kind of game play to explore the world. much like when you enter a city you be able to only recruit from there and then travel from place to place where you have limited recruits/recalls. this would last for a bit before getting into full on story. but eh what you have is good besides story number 1.
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Re: [Mainline] A Dunefolk Campaign

Post by ghype »


Celtic_Minstrel wrote: April 15th, 2020, 1:10 am So, I'm not a fan of the first story for some reason. I'm not quite sure why, but something about it just grates on me.
Initially I was opting for story two, which I co-wrote, but Yumi is being very supportive of the first Story, written by hejnewar. I then dwelve into the developing process and figured that, while this being a rather short it still offered a lot of lore possibilities. And due to the rpg elemts it somewhat felt refreshing too. However, I let Yumi and Hejne defend their position on their story as they came up with the vision for this campaing.
Celtic_Minstrel wrote: April 15th, 2020, 1:10 am ... But in my opinion, it's boring to have an "Order of the Luminary". A more interesting, flavourful name is needed for the equivalent of the alchemist's guild. It could include "luminary" in its name, though.

The second complaint is the reference to a Dunefolk Empire.
These are just terms I use to describe the situation. I will re-direct these questions to the Lore Thread as they indeed are terms that need to be rethought.




This section answers CM's comments on the story
Spoiler:

Edwylm wrote: April 15th, 2020, 4:45 am If I could suggest a different story line it would be the MC would be a hired sword for merchants, could be a group he leads. could ease into the lore of 1 or 2 maps of them traveling and in one of the cities a Alchemist would look to hire their swords to go on a expedition to a ruin. In the ruin they released something that should have stayed sealed. the MC is the only one able to get away and the ruins they delved into sealed temporary. (what was sealed would be reason story 2 could explain the plague.)
"releasing somethign that shoudl have stayed sealed" - that sounds like black magic or a curse. This would have heavy magic connotations. The if we were to talk about sicknesses and plagues would it not be more interesting to have them been organic? As dunefolks herbalists is the one thing that makes them different to other default factions. So they are not healing with magic but herbs. And an organic plague would really stress out the abilities of the apothecaries and herbalists while in a magical plague there wouldn't be much use for the apothecaries/herbalists.
Edwylm wrote: April 15th, 2020, 4:45 am And in story 2 not much to say but working with my story 1 suggestion you would encounter the old MC years later and that he is kinda gone mad (you will have to kill him.) having him be the one that set the coup would be kinda having more of a emotional impact if you were to cure him of his madness at the same time he dies...
(would be interesting that the plague would be people turning into zombies)
What ever story we have and how many, we will make sure that they are gonna be connected in one way or another. Turning people into zombies sounds too much like necromancy and black magic. We however thought of a status effect for the sickness , which could be like weaken the attack status or work like a weaker form of poison which however is contagious - meaning that there is a chance that adjacent units can get the sickness as well.
Edwylm wrote: April 15th, 2020, 4:45 am I would prefer to have a more rp and nomad kind of game play to explore the world. much like when you enter a city you be able to only recruit from there and then travel from place to place where you have limited recruits/recalls. this would last for a bit before getting into full on story. but eh what you have is good besides story number 1.
We actually went forth and back about concepts like these and we will have such things implemented in one way or another. Wether it is no-recruit like story 1 or you get only new recruits as the story progress or if you have only a limited amount of recruits ... we will have to see which fits the final story the best. Our focus it to first develop one and then let's see...

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Re: [Mainline] A Dunefolk Campaign

Post by Edwylm »

ghype wrote: April 15th, 2020, 10:14 am
"releasing somethign that shoudl have stayed sealed" - that sounds like black magic or a curse. This would have heavy magic connotations. The if we were to talk about sicknesses and plagues would it not be more interesting to have them been organic? As dunefolks herbalists is the one thing that makes them different to other default factions. So they are not healing with magic but herbs. And an organic plague would really stress out the abilities of the apothecaries and herbalists while in a magical plague there wouldn't be much use for the apothecaries/herbalists.
In all respect and what be the difference between creating a plague and black magic? To me the chances that the Dunefolk would have today's technology in making such things are near null. It is also hard to believe that who ever created the plague would also make the cure. (they be the first to get infected and die. Thus a spread right away no one would know what it is.)
Now if They were able to create a plague those that did would be viewed as using black magic or be a heretic on par with black magic. Black magic has control of "plagues" and thus why Dunefolk would probably prohibit anything that might be related to the known black magic abilities.

However I am not stating that its a magical plague. Look at the black death no one knew what was going on until later when they found a correlation between rats and those that fallen ill. But it was the fleas that was the cause as they were carriers. Another problem is resources to made treatments and antidotes If magic is not involved than 99% is that you are not going to control a plague and finding a cure/treatment will take many years.

But the treatment you need a steady supply and a easy way in making it if you are going to "heal all" if its a limited amount cure you know it be more chaos. Also it kinda prevents the same "plague" to happen again in the future.
There are many things to explain but I feel that the dunefolk would not allow such actions and view them as heretics if these people had the ability to make plagues. You need to explain the "plague" as there is so much that revolves around plagues. So much information needs to be cleared up.
ghype wrote: April 15th, 2020, 10:14 am What ever story we have and how many, we will make sure that they are gonna be connected in one way or another. Turning people into zombies sounds too much like necromancy and black magic. We however thought of a status effect for the sickness , which could be like weaken the attack status or work like a weaker form of poison which however is contagious - meaning that there is a chance that adjacent units can get the sickness as well.
its fine by me but is itr going to be a random chance of getting it or is it going to affect different units/races differently? just curious as illness affects different people differently and might not affect curtain people.


But the thought of a group of people go into the ruins to explore it for reasons such as trying to figure out what happened or to find lost research. But they find a creature that is or isn't affected by a illness or carries it(you don't need to state in the 1st story that its infected). (if its man made (without magic) you need test subjects...) The MC is the only one to live but is scared mentally possibly infected by it, making him go more crazy. (its not hard to create a illness that affects the mind without magic to explain it.)

2nd story could be the creature is roaming about but a group of people are taking advantage and misleading information. (for all i know they could be poisoning wells and food and calling it a "plague".) the new MC is hired to kill the creature but to also guard his healer friend that is looking to find some kind of cure or treatment. The healer could have heard that people are getting sick and dying as the illness spreads throughout the lands not hard to believe. Have him conduct research in the story it be cool with him explaining that its not magic behind it, or even a plague up to you on how you want him to conduct his research.

But remember to take my suggestions with salt i'm not right with everything and i might leave out details. Go with what you want I'm just pointing out some issues and giving suggestions.
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Celtic_Minstrel
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Re: [Mainline] A Dunefolk Campaign

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

Edwylm wrote: April 15th, 2020, 11:35 pm In all respect and what be the difference between creating a plague and black magic? To me the chances that the Dunefolk would have today's technology in making such things are near null. It is also hard to believe that who ever created the plague would also make the cure. (they be the first to get infected and die. Thus a spread right away no one would know what it is.)
Now if They were able to create a plague those that did would be viewed as using black magic or be a heretic on par with black magic. Black magic has control of "plagues" and thus why Dunefolk would probably prohibit anything that might be related to the known black magic abilities.
I think engineering a plague fits neatly into the domain of what you might call alchemy. If you're talking about an actual transmissible disease (either a bacterial or viral infection), that might be an edge case; but like you mentioned later in your post, a plague could also be caused by poison in the water, for example, and manufacturing poison is well within the alchemical domain.
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Edwylm
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Re: [Mainline] A Dunefolk Campaign

Post by Edwylm »

I would agree, alchemy is chemistry with a sprinkle of fantasy "magic". I would see issues of alchemists accidentally or by evil actions making a plague and wiping out a entire city. (there would be recordings of making "new plauges" but the creator would die from it themselves before creating a cure.) I would see the Dunefolk placing hard rules against such acts as it be too destructive. But I'm sure things will work out when writing the story.
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Re: [Mainline] A Dunefolk Campaign

Post by Hejnewar »

What can I say about intentions behind my campaign? Well, I intended to make short campaign that can be oneshoted (because I myself don't have much time to play), that is close to people not country, group or anything like that and that keeps people interested using emotions not events (because emotions are way more important for me than anything else when it comes to art). It was of course partially changed (I cant be too attached otherwise this campaign wouldn't happen at all) and it depends on writing a lot (don't worry I won't be the one to write dialogues so worst case scenario is not possible).
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Re: [Mainline] A Dunefolk Campaign

Post by ghype »

So many people were not sure about the 1st story or better said the presentation of the first story.
Yes, it is a different approach then your usual "defeat enemy" campaign as it would focus only on 4 characters (some more some less) and hence is a rather quicker play with it's 6 scenarios planned.

However, only because it is a shorter story (and the rpg elemts are not yet quiet clear - but I won't get too deep into that now because they might get dropped) it doesn't mean it will not offer content. It should be one that - aside of introducing the player to the dunefolk and their lore - also one that has memorable characters. This is achieved with character development.

PastaSaucey finished the dialogues for the first scenario to demonstrate how that campaign could look like in the end:

note: yes, it is a lot fo dialogues and It can be made less dense if wished. But keep in mind this is the first scenario with probably the most with dialogues and least combat and exploration


The_Underlands - 0.0.1 .rtf
(17.43 KiB) Downloaded 329 times


I hope this might convinces you.

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On a side note, since we all are quiet unsure about Dunefolk Origin. As I elaborate it further in the Lore thread, maybe we shouldn't make such a big deal out of dunefolks origin as it seems to be the one thin most players are still confused about them. Maybe we end up having a vague myth supporting the fact that dunefolk do not really know where they come from (or at least the vast majority do not know - if we want it that way).

The ruins explored in the scenario 4 and 5 of the first story (elaborated in the outlines) could contain scripts or hints or artefact that might clears up some theories about the chaotic events considering the catalytic events, which is the one ultimately reason why Dunefolk mistrust magic. The Lore thread provides a plausible origin which seems rather less interesting then the catalytic event. So if there was some "lore" contained in the scripts, then it should be about that catalytic event.

More about this is elaborated in the most recent post in the thread which I will link to it. But for better understanding I will post the catalytic event here as well.
Catalytic Event

2000 y ago - or more - (when the dunefolk were mostly only tribes) they had periodic conflict with another faction, which too have the same heritage as the dunefolks, the dunefolk called them the Athvari. The Athvari were used to occupy depths of mountains and caverns scattered in the drylands, where not only encountered dwarfs with time to time - but also discovered magical crystals similarly as the dwarfs. The Athvari remarked the power behing these crystal and embedded them initially only into their weapons and later learned to how to make the crystals emit their magical power and hence cast spells from the runes. The pure joy out of them was not enough for them, so they seeked to dominate other tribes with that newly won power. Greediness over come that Athvari tribes and they tried everything to gain the control over the territories of the remaining tribes. The dwarfs at that point have sealed all their tunnels reaching the Athvari to stay out of this conflict as good as they can. However, the terror the Athvari started spread was getting too big, when the Tribes started to defend themselves, together. One powerful tribe rallied all the remaining tribes against the Athvari tribes and only that way they could merely defend themselves. But it wasn't enough to defeat them. Eventually, the dwarfs too started to get involved in this conflict as they would fear that the Athvari might return and seek more of these crystal and would breach into the dwarven Clans to get them. An alliance between the dwarves and the duenfolk tribes against the Athvari ensured that something like this would not occur again. From that point on. The dwarves felt responsible for the runes and the power that hides in them and protected these artefact as good as they could until this are of rune magic eventually got lost over centuries. With the Athvari defeated, the dunefolk could start developing into what they are today. They realised that they can support each other and benefit far more a lot if they work together. That way the first dunefolk communities were formed, which developed into the cities we know of 2day.
So basically the ruins could be one of the Athvari cities and (while there are none of the Athvari left, there would be artefacts that elaborate and reference the war between the tribes (which also lead to the first Dunefolk cities). In the Epilogue, Habibula - the trained herbalist - could then bring the new insights to the Luminaries which makes him worthy to be "schooled" or accepted as a Luminary and might reappear in the following campaigns as such.


In summary:
My pitch is to not only make this campaign a mere treasure hunt , but the ruins they discover to have lore included that would be not only for the player helpful but also for dunefolk as well (lore wise). Yumi initially wasn't sure wether this topic about dunefolk's origin (which really is not about their origin but that catalytics event) should be handled about by such a small campaign. But I don't think we need a such a big campaign for referencing this. So we might as well use it here.
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Re: [Mainline] A Dunefolk Campaign

Post by PastaSaucey »

Hello!

Sorry for being so late to the discussion, but as you now know, I have volunteered to take the lead on writing the script for the fledgling campaign, as well as help with some of the world-building and lore ideas. The document that ghype posted is -- like he mentioned -- only the start of what's potentially a fun and meaningful introduction to the faction.

However, I am totally open to other ideas and am willing to explore them in depth. I think we have the potential to create an amazing campaign with a memorable story and engaging gameplay.

Most of all, I am excited about the changes being made to mainline wesnoth and am eager to start writing :D .
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Re: [Mainline] A Dunefolk Campaign

Post by LienRag »

I'm late to the party, but :
ghype wrote: April 23rd, 2020, 1:47 pm Maybe we end up having a vague myth supporting the fact that dunefolk do not really know where they come from (or at least the vast majority do not know - if we want it that way).
There is practically no correlation between a people not knowing its historical origin and a people "not knowing where it comes from" : i.e, nearly no people know where they actually come from after a few centuries but they all have origin myths nonetheless.


ghype wrote: April 23rd, 2020, 1:47 pm In the Epilogue, Habibula - the trained herbalist -
Habibullah means "loved by God". It's probably not a good idea to bring in the game names from a culture without bringing the origin of the name into that culture, and I believe it was agreed that Dunefolk should not be a direct stand-in for orientalist fantasies about the arabic world (even if there are obvious inspirations, but that's not the same)..
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