Introducing: Verbobonc Tales

WHAT IS IT?

• A series of minor NPCs and their stories set in Verbobonc. It's best described in the words of Co8 member Marceror, whose idea it pretty much was:
  
  

WHO WILL DO IT?

• YOU, the people of Co8!

WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO?

• Invent a character. Give him or her a story and a location. Come up with a scenario. Write a dialogue file that tells that story through interaction with that NPC.

BUT I CAN'T WRITE DIALOGUE FILES!

• That's okay. If you can, that would be great, but if you can't, as long as you can write the specific lines of text that are to be said and indicate which conditions they should be said under and what other lines of text they should lead to, I will put it into useable form for you.

SO ALL I NEED TO DO IS SAY "THERE'S THIS GUY, HE'S VERY COOL, MAKE HIM SAY SOME COOL AND FUNNY SHIT?"

• No. You need to supply me with what he is going to say specifically. I'm not going to 'flesh out' any characters for you. What I will do is make your character conform to ToEE's dialogue and scripts system if need be.

HOW COMPLICATED CAN THESE NPCs BE? I WANT TO MAKE HUNDREDS OF DIFFERENT OUTCOMES AND HAVE THEM AFFECT THE ENTIRE COURSE OF THE GAME.

• That's not allowed. They should be one-shot types, pretty much. You walk into their house/business/whatever and they provide a little entertainment to liven up the game and make Verbobonc seem like a real city full of real people. They are not there to be major plot points and rival St. Cuthbert for influence.

BUT I WANT TO MAKE A QUEST!

• Okay, but if you do, it should contain no more than one twist (go here or there, talk to such and such) and should be fairly easily solveable. No months later outcomes. Under no circumstances should they amount to anything more than the Hommlet Fedex quests, but they should be more entertaining and less inane than those. I believe you can do it.

THAT'S NOT FAIR - I WANT EPIC!

• Then write it and script it yourself.

IS MY NPC/MOD GUARANTEED TO MAKE THE CUT?

• No. As much as I'd like you to have fun, we can't accept the 'everybody's a winner' ethos with this stuff. Frankly, if you NPC and/or story are poor and not written as indicated above, they will be rejected. If they're good or at least pretty good and the above conditions are met, chances are they will go in.

IS IT FIRST COME FIRST SERVE?

• Pretty much. There is not an unlimited supply of locations in Verbobonc, so assuming we get a lot of acceptable submissions, at some point they will have to be cut off.

CAN WE DISCUSS IDEAS HERE?

• Yes, have at it. But note that what I'd prefer is that your mod/NPC be minor and limited in scope, so I don't foresee much need for complex planning. If I see discussions branch off into large, wide-scope territory, I will be saddened.
  
  Also, if you take the initiative to author a mod, YOU OWN IT. Don't let anybody tell you what or what not to do if you don't want that, and don't presume to tell others what or what not to do if they don't want that input. I will defend you in this regard if necessary, but you should stand up for yourself as well.
  
  Note than in my experience with this stuff (which has become quite vast over the years), I've found that solo authorship is the best route. You don't have to answer to anybody aesthetically, which means you don't get bogged down time-wise while you hash things out. And nothing submitted here should be game-changing anyway. But, if you want to partner up, that's fine too. Just be forewarned that that has the potential to send you down the road of no return, whereas if you go solo, you're much more likely to come out on the other side one day.

BUT WE HAVE TO ANSWER TO YOU, EH?

• Yes. Somebody's got to be the ax man. If there were none, things would go off the rails very fast. But I will be kind and fair and as non-intrusive as possible.

I WANT TO MAKE A NEW MAP.

• In the interest of aesthetic standards, no. Some might make good maps, some might make poor maps, but most likely both kinds will not be ToEE quality and style maps. Rather than create a clusterf*ck wherein we have to try to determine such values, we're simply not going to entertain the notion at all. There are plenty of empty maps in Verbobonc ... use those. Likewise with soundtracks: there will be no music playing to your tales other than the familiar strains of the Verbobonc theme.

WHAT IF I WANT MY NPC TO BE A CLEVER, TONGUE-IN-CHEEK RIP OFF OF A CHARACTER FROM LORD OF THE RINGS, BALDUR'S GATE, OR BATMAN?

• Don't do that. Most of you are creative enough to come up with original characters, and we don't do intellectual property theft here anyway. Most importantly, no one thinks that's funny or cute in the first place.

BUT I THINK IT WOULD BE FUNNY!

• No, it wouldn't. Special tip: when you think something's funny, it probably isn't, or at least it's not as funny as you think it is. Because of this, it's always best to go un-funny and let funny creep in in small doses. An "I get no respect!" NPC would not be funny; a straight man NPC who has unfortunate events befall him could potentially be kind of humorous. Don't overplay it.

WHAT ABOUT TEH DRAH-MAH?

• Drama is safer, but don't overdo that either. No one wants another sad sack two dimensional Black Jay to mope over.

WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL, ANYWAY? WHY ARE WE EVEN DOING THIS?

• Because right now, Verbobonc is a big town full of major players and anonymous citizens, but no one else. We need to fill in that middle ground that gives flavor to city/village locations in CRPGs and have Verbo transform from a quasi-ghost-town into a real city.

WHEN DOES THIS HAVE TO BE DONE BY?

• There's no real deadline. I'd envision this being included in Co8 v8 one day, maybe sooner if people get them done sooner. Adding a few in with each subsequent release (7.1, 7.2, etc.) would actually be kind of cool.

HOW WILL THIS PROCESS WORK?

• You present your ideas and files here. No secret meetings and submissions via PM or anything like that. It begins and ends in this thread. If you think you've got something so great that no one should see it here, put it here anyway. It's not that big a deal.

HOW DO I LEARN MORE?

• Just ask here!

SO WHAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE?

• Have fun, and don't take anything I said above too seriously ... it's just good general counsel to go by. If you think you've got what it takes and you can deliver, have at it. Let's put the Troika Hommlet Fedexians to shame! :thumbsup:

Cheers!

 

For sure. Just not a skull-crushing mace +5.

 

That sounds good. Maybe a particularly average one at that.

What emo said, although that doesn't mean you couldn't have a rumor-monger or something like that. Rumors don't work so great in NC though because they're dependant on story states, and there's not much room for new ones. You could make an NPC who just has various tales or rumors to tell, but they wouldn't be entered into the rumor system in your log book.

On the other hand, you could have a broker who tells you where to go for specific services, best prices, etc. Uncle O is moreso big time info.

Sure, although it's possible something else might go on down there befoe it's all said and done.

 

@krunch, are you suggesting a joinable NPC? That's not really what we're looking for here but I'd consider it.

@WS, that had better be one charming lizardman.

 

I neglected to mention it above but I'll handle all portraits as well (otherwise people will invariably want to put Minsc in there or whatever). But I would just do it similar to what you suggest anyway so no worries.

Look for anything called 'item creation' in the mes and rules subfolders.

I think we can do that. :thumbsup:

[edit]

@krunch, if you're serious about this joinable NPC, I think you should start a new separate thread wherein you put forth your case. This thread is for 'Verbobonc Tales' NPCs.