Designing one's module - thoughts?

I've been finishing up the beginning area of my module and was wandering: "What are all the quests to get from the beginning to the end?"

I've spent much time pondering this. I know roughly where I want to be at the end, the shape of the world and the path the player takes along it. I know I want to reveal more information of what is going on, ala Arcanum, but what specifically the player does in the path is beyond me.

*Spoilers Ahead for Arcanum*

Arcanum does it like this:

1) Player in crash site, meets a guy.
2) Guy tells player to go to some town to find out more what's going on.
2-1) Player trusts guy enough to go with him there.
3) In town, player is told they must go to a big city.
3-1) Already trusting now, so go to the city.
4) Before they can go, they must unblock the gate by some means
4-1)) There are also several side quests in town.

5) Go to big town to find out more of ring
6) P Skyler (can't remember spelling) quest, go through dungeon.
6-1) Learn about owner at the end.
7) Must go to bates. Before allowed to talk, do a loyalty quest.
8) Go to black mountain mines - dungeon crawl till you get to talk to a guy. He gives more info

9) etc...

How do you guys figure out both quest objectives and ways to make them believable in your story? I've only played a couple of mods and they were dungeon crawls with a minimum amount of story. Curious to see what people who are really fleshing out a tale have done.

 

Long time no see, I just got back from vacation so Ill be working on the amtut video tutorial a bit more.

As for your question about designing a module, It takes alot of thinking and planning ahead. It sounds like you have the main skeleton of the story down (map and main plot). Try asking yourself where do you want the player to go, what do you want them to see? What kind of challenges and puzzles do you want to add? Then try and fit those into that blank area between start and end.

 

Good to see you back!

I've been doing much of what you said, and I've got a little bit done.

When I started this module I knew basically what I wanted equipment, monster and skill wise, but I wasn't sure how to translate that into specific quests and link together to form the mainplot.

I haven't figured out how to do weapon prototypes yet, but this is basically my overall plan:

1) The player must be able to get through the entire game by either:
- Fighting or;
- Talking
-- Perusaion attempts (where player meets the skill requirement)
grant XP (have got this working )
-- Requirements include more than persuasion rank:
Also reaction in some case. This means both the beauty stat
and force good reaction fate power are relevant
Still to put in reaction requirements into a conversation yet.

2) There must be at least 3 types of armour which scale up several versions:
- Tech armour with schematics
- Dinner suits clothes for men, women, small races, large races

3) There must be at least 2-3 different scaling up weapons
- Hammer which has most DPS but bad at swarms
- Sword or similar which is fast but worse agains big guys (like golems)

4) An overworld map (done)

5) Random battles (done, but only 1 custom creature so far)
- Talk past creeps between core locations (done)
- Also needs custom inventories

6) 2 Main quest paths
- One for fighting, one for talking
- There is currently 2 land path between the islands and a small alternative one I am ponders whether to turn into islands or remove altogether.
- I know I want the player to go from one island to the next and the final object is on the last island the player visits

7) Monster/treasure locals (got a couple so far)
- Want many

8) Side quests for talking/fighting
- Ideally later I want at least 1 big one for each
- I have 2 starting mini quests

Ideally I'd like to add:

1) 3 Custom guns which scale up
- Shotguns (massive damage, short range)
- A mini gun (better DPS than shortgun, short range but massive ammo consumption).
- Rifles/Pistols (better range but worse DPS)
- Sniper rifles (anti big monster, massive range damage, but slow like hammer)

2) Have chests/etc that get unlocked grant a 1 time XP bonus

3) Maybe have the sneak skill do the same as #2 (sneak past random encounters via dialogue option to level up?)


P.s.

For any who know how good guns are in game or what stat adjustments they need, please let me know. If I get around to it I want guns to be a relevant way of doing this.

 

I would try and incorporate stealth and thievery as a valid means to complete main game missions - if that wasn't what you meant already when you said "Maybe have the sneak skill do the same as #2 (sneak past random encounters via dialogue option to level up?)". Ways I can think of to manage this are having locked doors at either end of a shortcut through a main quest area so you would have to pick them to get through, or have an area open but filled with enough deadly traps that you need the flow spektrometer/sense hidden/spot traps to get through. Also you could have notes of guards that reveal main quest points - circumventing the need to talk to them or fight them you good enough at pick pocketing. Something to consider anyway.

As for making a story believable it's important to have an incentive for your character to progress the story regardless of their motives or alignment. In Arcanum people are trying to kill you, so that's quite a driving force for any character to want to uncover more of the mystery that is the main quest. No one ever wants to feel like a roleplaying game "Well if my character thought along these lines, there's no way he'd even bother with the main quest so now I playing against type to further the game".

I guess more broadly providing people with as many options as possible during a quest is important, or rewarding them for attention to detail (they find a hidden item that adds an extra twist to the plot for example). In terms of narrative - things like red herrings, betrayals, having different factions to side with along the way the way to give more choice and variance is always fun. Try and make all main location have their own distinctive feel to them as well; Stillwater, Tulla, the Wheel Clan and Quintarra couldn't feel more different to each other and that helps the game feel more organic rather than each new location you go to feeling very similar to the last.

I guess these things are all pretty obvious so sorry if it seems slightly condescending. Also I know nothing about modding, so I can't really help in that department either. I guess something that might help if you really want a good story is to pick up a PnP roleplaying book as all of them have advice for a game master/dungeon master/story teller or whatever you want to call it to make their stories as compelling as possible. I like the Wolrd of Darkness series myself, but I'm sure anything would help.

 

"I would try and incorporate stealth and thievery as a valid means to complete main game missions"

I plan too, but given just how enormously time consuming the core quest will be (total world size 700x700, playing area like a 1/3 that) I'm making sure I have 2 different ways of doing it so I can get it complete with choice.
I'll do stealth after I've done the other stuff if my brains aren't totally melted

The "make play have believable reason" is something I've thought a fair amount about, but definitely must think more. Might add some dialogue so make the quest seem more important.

The "own feel" too places is something I've sort of been doing unintentionally but will do more intentionally now

My ultimate goal is to have as much choice as possible, but I'll stick to a small core to get the game playable to the end and winnable. Then I'll add in as much as I can. I just don't want to loose steam before I get it done.