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Post by askhati on Mar 16, 2010 11:27:31 GMT
I have been thinking about this for some time now, and figured it would be a handy writing exercise. Using the work I have done thus far for my Lone Wolf board game - where you can play either a Kai lord or a Drakkar warrior - I want to use the Drakkar skill set to write a LW-esque adventure novel where the player is not a Kai warrior monk, but a Drakkar warrior instead.
The idea is to have the character spread across 18 books, in a way similar to that of LW: Books 1-6: Drakkar series Books 7-12: Death Knight series Books 13-18: Ziran series
I have skill sets for all three tiers, with enough similarities to the Kai sets to look familiar to the experienced player, but also with some important differences to differentiate between the monk-like Kai and the more bloodthirsty Drakkar.
The first adventure is called "A Trail of Blood" and revolves around you, a Drakkar ranger, heading out from your last "boot camp" in the Ogia/Blackshroud area to reinforce a small border garrison along the Eruan border. En route to the garrison, your squad is ambushed by some Eruan raiders/pathfinders operating out of Cetza (which is still in Eruan hands at the time), and your character then has to find their way back to the garrison and help beat off the Eruan attacks, sneak out on a nighttime revenge patrol, and do other Drakkar-like activities against the filthy pinkskin orgadakim.
My question is twofold: 1) would anyone be interested in seeing this happen? 2) would someone (singular or plural) be willing to help me research the areas and timelines involved? The first Drakkar adventure is set to play off several years before MS 5050, so that the character would have progressed to a full Death Knight by the time of the invasion of Sommerlund. Consequently, when the player visits some of the same areas that LW has visited before, he will be doing so many years before LW, with all the changes in politics and allegiances that goes with it.
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Post by jellyfish on Mar 16, 2010 13:31:52 GMT
Drakkarim are throwaway goons and military regulars, not really the heroic type.
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Post by askhati on Mar 16, 2010 13:43:14 GMT
...but would it not be great to be able to follow the life of a particularly heroic one? Fight border skirmish, go on enemy raids into human territories, plunder villages... Get selected to train as a Death Knight, become involved with the Xaghash and the Liganim and the Nadziranim and their schemes in the Darklands, betray and backstab your compatriots to advance your own position in the military... Study under the Nadziranim in Helgedad and become one of the dread Ziran, warrior-mages of great physical prowess as well as dark magics, undertake quests in the name of Naar and help spread his presence to the worlds of Aon and the Daziarn...
Also, it would allow a "behind the scenes" introduction of characters like Cadak, Wolf's Bane, Kekataag, Baron Shinzar, Zakhan Kimah, some of the Darklords, etc etc. The years that LW spends away from Sommerlund while chasing the last Lorestones through the Daziarn will be especially fertile times for adventures.
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Post by pi4t on Mar 16, 2010 18:07:25 GMT
I'd certainly be very interested, but am unlikely to know enough to help. How long will they be?
This reminds me of a thought I had of having a series of 50 reference adventures for Banedon to parallel the Kai series. Like the one in the magnamund companion.
Glad to hear the game's still in the works. How's it coming along?
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Post by Zipp on Mar 17, 2010 0:11:32 GMT
Didn't someone do this already? The Dark One series, or something?
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Post by askhati on Mar 17, 2010 7:04:44 GMT
No idea... Any pointers to work already done in that direction would be appreciated, could compare notes et al. Although I already have a pretty strong idea of what I'm aiming for, the main obstacle now would be finding the time to actually write it all down.
I propose to have my route planning finished by the weekend, and to start writing sections ASAP after that. I will try to have the rough draft of the route plan uploaded here, so that people can comment/crit on the layout.
For now, here is the skill set equivalences: - [Kai] - Drakkar - [Camouflage] - Concealment - [Hunting] - Scavenging - [Tracking] - Scouting - [Healing] - Triage - [Weaponskill] - Weapon Training - [Mindblast] - Mindspear - [Mindshield] - Mindveil - [Animal Control] - Beast Handling
Sixth Sense and Mind Over Matter have no Drakkar equivalences, and are instead replaced by Shieldbearing and Combat Mechanics, allowing the Drakkar to use heavier armour and crossbows respectively.
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Post by jellyfish on Mar 17, 2010 14:00:33 GMT
I'd recommend not spending so much time on the mechanics and just see if you can get some passages written.
Writing is hard work. You might not want to stick with it.
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Post by askhati on Mar 17, 2010 16:40:38 GMT
Ever the optimist, aren't you. I have enough writing experience in this area, time will be the only obstacle.
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Post by pi4t on Mar 17, 2010 17:55:19 GMT
The dark one series's set years after the LW books, and's about a darklord/drakkar combo
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Post by beowuuf on Mar 17, 2010 19:33:32 GMT
Much of the Lone Wolf story is exploring the world as doing the epic tale. Not sure about the momentum of a parallel drakkar story if it's tied so harshly to Lone Wolf's tale.
It would seem to be that only by interlacing the plot through the quiet areas of Lone wolf's tale, providing some build up to or backlash from the events in each Lone Wolf book would be the way to keep it going.
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Post by Taryn on Mar 17, 2010 22:03:10 GMT
The dark one series's set years after the LW books, and's about a darklord/drakkar combo There are still Darklords left? I thought they all died in Book 12.
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Post by johntfs on Mar 17, 2010 23:32:07 GMT
Depending on how you played it, Haakon could technically still be alive and Vashna is trapped at the bottom of the Maakengorge but could still potentially rise.
Beyond that, the Drakkar are still a collection of peoples. Just because the Darklords are gone doesn't mean they can't still have ambitions as witness The Darke Crusade.
For my part, I'm a little leery of a set of Drakkar adventures because Magnamund is such a dualistic world. It's so divided between Good and Evil. I don't want to get into a situation like:
With possession of the Vordak Gem on the line you and your opponent square off, each grabbing a squalling human infant, knowing that whoever eats the most baby meat in the time limit will win. Pick a number from 0 to 9 on the Random Number chart. Add 3 if you have Scavenging...
I think I'd be more interested in playing a Stornlands mercenary or maybe a Drakkar going to the light than anything else. Have the dude start in the Darklands and have to survive the vicious internal warfare, raid some other countries and kill their soldier, but have the chance to hold off from doing truly heinous acts of evil. Then, at the end, he defects, or just exiles himself. Hell, maybe he ends up joining the Kai or the Vakerous. Like that.
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Post by bittermind on Mar 18, 2010 8:21:43 GMT
There are still Darklords left? I thought they all died in Book 12. I suppose that any Darklords who were still in the Darklands would have survived the explosion of the Transfusor at the end of Book 12. It isn't likely though. These aren't exactly low-profile guys - surely survivors would have been noticed. Isn't Vashna really, officially dead? Ulnar killed him with the Sommerswerd. And in Book 4 - and maybe 16, I forget - it's pretty clear the guy's a ghost. AKA, dead.
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Post by askhati on Mar 18, 2010 9:24:46 GMT
I think Vashna might have been reserved for books 29 to 32.
As for baby-eating contests, I don't quite see the Drakkar like that. I imagine them more as SS/Nazi type guys - well-trained, fearless in combat, well-equipped... But prone to bad deeds when the officers go off the rails. I am keeping in mind the 'young adult' intended audience, so the darker elements will not be stressed. Raiding and pillaging, yes. Rapine and cannibalism, nope.
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Post by Oiseau on Mar 18, 2010 14:14:26 GMT
The dark one series's set years after the LW books, and's about a darklord/drakkar combo There are still Darklords left? I thought they all died in Book 12. Actually, in The Dark One series, there aren't any Darklords left. You play an ordinary Drakkar who was experimented on by the Nadziranim. They fused a shard of Naar's essence into your soul, granting you the power to rise as a new Darklord once you complete a quest which will forge your strength and prove your worth (seeking out a brand-new Helshezag found by the Kai in the Plane of Darkness and kept in a stronghold near the Monastery). Then, as a new Darklord, you lay waste to Magnamund until you grow so powerful the Gods agree to put a stop to this nonsense and unite against you. Yeah. ^_^
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