Lessons from Shattered Gates from Slaughtergarde development

Hi

SGoS was my first completed printed Adventure implementation on ToEE and T+ engine. I did it mostly for myself (yeah, I said it). To proof I can do it. Also for anyone interested in combat adventure.

First conclusion from module development is that I have zero competence in dialog creation. Thank God grand master @Shiningted stepped in and gave his incredible performance. Dialogs he crafted are incredible. Thank you a lot @Shiningted !!!

Next that Level Scaling is needed very much. And not because of some erratic "fairness" - that's silly. But because I truly think that good balance, e.g. - having several easy encounters and a few challenging grants the best game satisfaction there is.

Resting should be rare commodity and return after sleep should be penalized in some ways. Welcoming party patrol or full respawn without experience feels reasonable to me.

Loot should be as designed in D&D Dungeon Master per Level but for 4 PC only. Meaning 5 PC would have less money and experience.

Monsters should be tougher for their CR than as designed in Monster Manual. In fact one of the reasons to create this Adventure was to check if CR is balanced in MM. My conclusion - it is not. Monsters need more AC, more HP, and more attack. Damage should stay as is, maybe increased a little.

Level design should have places of much bigger difficulty to have a Player need to come back later.

At any given time there should always be clear active quest. Or to have some NPC to ask, or simply use Commune spell or Augury. Also talking to dead foe NPC is nice idea.

World lore should be accessible via Books (with dialog maybe).

For example the first quest in the SGoS is to restore stolen Barrel of Spice from goblin bandits. So first sub-quest would be "Find stolen Barrel of Spice" which would end when Barrel would be received. Then new quest would be spawned: "Return Barrel of Spice to XYZ". Also during browsing of the dungeon one quest would be "Find out more about mysterious ruins in the town" and other "Find out more about mysterious map found in XYZ dungeon in the town".

In other words - narration is needed.

NPCs need voice and emotions to have impact on a Player. Unfortunately it is incredibly difficult task.

Sometimes reward should be postponed in time. Meaning - choices matter.

Some dialog options should decrease NPC attitudes substantially. So avoidance of such is needed. E.G. - it is sometimes smarter not to tell, than to tell.

Blunt direct attack on a Castle should result into incredibly difficult task. Smart approach should be searched.

Give Rogue something to do in a settlement - steal and rob. But guards should ask you about it and you either repay or bluff.

 

Thanks.

Being a DM and content creator is tough work. Something I could never do.

As you pointed out, working as a team with others is great help. Especially working with the great guys here.

On a side note:

I always play with the sound turned off, so this is by far the lowest thing on my "must have list", but even the dialog text has its own voice and emotion, too.

 

Yes, you are right.

I should also mention @Sitra Achara, who patiently reviewed and approved quite a few changes to T+, created module based T+ configuration for new Adventures, rewrote skills draw and more. And also directly impacted the Adventure by creating a Dragon mesh. Thank you Sir!!

@_doug_ did many great things as well, especially expanding features in T+ helping me with difficult areas and giving practical opinions.

And you @FDR4PREZ did great job of taking time and effort to QA the game and report it to us. Thanks to you the Adventure has much less bugs.

Thank you guys!!!

 

It's a real treat seeing all the new modding activity, bringing new life to this dinosaur engine. Even @dolio has recently activated his contingency, soon bringing Enervation and Energy Drain to a Temple near you