Elven Academy

Today I uploaded module B3: The Seelie Court. This module took several months to create. It features about 140 location root nodes and 150 dialogue root nodes.

The solo adventure module introduces some new characters, such as Puck and spymaster Peasblossom, as well as several High Moths from the Seelie Court.  It also introduces the Wild Court. This module is intended to be my best effort at a diplomacy module. So there are consequence for your behavior, your decisions, and the quality of clothes and perfume you are wearing.

I wish this module could have been longer, but it’s already quite large by my current standards: at least 50% larger than the previous modules in chapter B, with good music and animations.

I really pushed to get this done before the end of the year. The Spanish translation alone took me about 3 weeks of spare time. Why did I push? I really want to get into the next outdoor adventure, which is unlocked by finishing module B3.  I have a lot of spicy ideas for the Unseelie and Wild Courts as well.

So now I’m off to actually visit relatives and relax and have a good time. Here are the rest of the patch notes for other fixes and things I accomplished this year.  B3 surely has some bugs and glitches left in it.  I’ll be back to further playtest as time permits.  As always I’d love to hear any feedback here or on Twitter.

General Patch Notes:

Released module B3: The Seelie Court.
Fixed a bug related to module save flags giving false positives.
Added a dice rolling animation for challenge rolls. I’ve tried to do this twice before, and failed. Third time is a charm. Understanding sine waves and PI is a must for these curving animation paths. Turns out high school math was good for something.
Updated the game rules for the personal attribute correspondences to four elements plus light and dark enchantments.
Fixed a major bug with dice roll results that were using the recently added shorthand function.
Changed Pi Society reputation, which wasn’t used, to Wild Court reputation, which … might be used.
Added code so NPC’s can parse and react to the player’s gear.
Added code to game that can react to player’s class, worked on improving use of “tags”.
Removed challenge roll bonuses for weapon quality and type. After the patch that added spell schools for each of the main attributes, this bonus was no longer working properly, and no longer made sense.
Changed Spanish word for goblin from duende to ‘trasgo’ throughout.

Module specific fixes:

A0: Fixed typos in Spanish.

A1: Reduced starting points slightly. Fixed a game breaking bug when pressing space bar during a splash transition. Removed “bonuses due to divine origins” from character creation A1. All modules need to be viewed to ensure stats are still calibrated acceptably.
A2: added new skip option
A3: Fixed a few bugs and issues, expanded dialogues for Leonie as a companion. Leonie now greets you more properly. Fixed some missing translations.

B1: minor edits and text corrections
B2: a new music track from David Fesliyan, a few edits

D1, D2: Fixed a few minor typos and errors. I still want to re-do the combats, add a second level, an improve the art.

Gift Shop: Tested, tried to fix an error.

Tarot Training: Fixed HTML errors.
Added animations to Leonie, i.e. eye blinking.
Added a new facial expression for Leonie and a few new dialogue options.
Increased Psychic skill gain from a high quiz score.
There may still be a bug with affection gain with Leonie, but I was unable to reproduce it by cheating, and was not willing to train Tarot for another half hour to do it the long way.

Here is a list of 100 quest ideas. I spent about six hours googling existing lists of side quests and ideas, then I edited, revised, and added some of my own. I didn’t copy and paste a single idea without some improvements (except the 20 ChatGPT templates at the end.)

There aren’t many silly quests involving mysterious pink cows, angry chickens, etc. because that isn’t my style. (In fact, some quest lists I found online were kind of bad, which is why I’m posting this.) There also aren’t any quests intentionally copy-pasted from existing video games.

As a fantasy fiction writer, I was advised that ‘side quests’ should connect into the ‘main quest’ (aka storyline) in some way, at least to develop important characters and setting. In an interactive game, the main character is most important. So it’s good to choose side quests that allow the main character to develop and roleplay, i.e. as a druid, as a ranger, as a wizard, etc.

The best ideas here are ‘subversion of tropes,’ so just doing that is a way to find good ideas.

The quests are loosely divided into three tiers. That doesn’t mean Tier Three is bad, maybe less useful to my current project. I consulted ChatGPT for 20 generic quest archetypes at the end, and also to pad out Tier Three to reach 100 total quests in this list.

I will be using this list, editing, and adding to it. I hope you also find it useful, better than the existing lists I could find, and certainly better than AI. Good luck, have fun, and happy Game Mastering!

Tier One:

1. A wealthy person, faction, or competing adventuring group wants to hire one group member on a permanent basis, and offers a better deal than the current adventuring party.
2. A wealthy and/or powerful person with a grudge from the past has posted a bounty for the capture or death of one group member.
3. A royal has been assassinated. Find clues and find the mystery for a reward.
4. The group needs to beseech the help of an evil faction in order to achieve greater aims.
5. A gang of female thieves (or equivalent) is extorting money from a male merchant or royal.
6. A very rare reagent or monster organ is needed by a wizard for a particular powerful spell.
7. A bard needs a fabled magical instrument, which was stolen by an evil witch, along with his tongue, or maybe something else.
8. A cowardly fighter wants you to retrieve a powerful sword/item to make him more powerful, makes excuses why he can’t go.
9. A magic mirror or secret portal reveals the dark secrets of the person who uses it, or maybe the person it’s pointed at.
10. A public execution or unjust imprisonment is occurring due to prejudice and hate by otherwise good people.
11. A wizard is possessed by a demon or devil they summoned. They must be captured alive and exorcised.
12. The party, or a member of the party, is framed for something they didn’t do. But why?
13. A son/daughter of a nobleman is in love with a scoundrel or member of a lesser/unliked race.
14. A string of noblemen have turned up missing. A few of them reputedly visited the same brothel. Or this an intentional red herring by the real culprit?
15. A lord/lady of the realm is seeking a new wife/husband, has heard of the exploits and/or lineage of one or more of the group, and sends formal invitation(s) to attend his/her party of candidates.
16. A young girl is accused of an assassination, but it was actually her possessed/demonic doll.
17. Two lovers have become separated due to one being arrested or lost at sea, use divination to help them find each other, with a possibly unforeseen twist when they are found.
18. A sacred shrine or other building is on fire. Use water magic to douse the flames and be a hero, while attracting the ire of a fire elemental, evil entity, or other arsonist.
19. A gnome inventor needs rare components and/or schematics from the goblins, but they are terrified to try to obtain them on their own.
20. An evil lord chooses someone’s beautiful young daughter to be his new wife. The parents want to hire the group to kidnap the daughter, in hopes it will either lure the evil lord out of the castle to be killed, or at least persuade the lord to choose someone else.

Tier Two:

1. A powerful chaotic wizard is building a deadly dungeon. They need help procuring deadly monsters or traps, which you realize will brutally murder innocent low-level adventurers.
2. A highly conservative anti-drinking/drugs/sex/race/anything religious group wants you to sabotage and ruin a local business or person, which isn’t doing anything technically law-breaking.
3. A librarian wants a priceless tome returned from the wizard who won’t give it back.
4. Someone wants to hire the group to kidnap a princess, instead of rescuing one.
5. A vigilante group is killing a repressed minority.
6. A creature or group of creatures has moved into a place, using it as a base to maraud countryside.
7. Whole party is captured somehow, must find a way to escape.
8. A bar room brawl, which includes another group of adventurers. To the victors go the spoils, and maybe a map to a nearby hidden lair, dungeon, gold mine, or lost dwarven stronghold.
9. A member of the party somehow earns ownership of a slave. This causes conflict.
10. Mysterious earthquakes in a nearby region, investigate the cause.
11. An ‘evil’ faction turns out to be just misunderstood.
12. A ship or something wrecked, depositing a huge treasure. Race to get it.
13. A dragon is rumored to no longer be guarding its hoard. Race to get it.
14. A group of bandits is making travellers pay a toll.
15. The group is afflicted with a curse of discord, which turns them chaotic or evil.
16. The group is afflicted with a curse that turns them into monsters that are killed on sight.
17. The group defeats thieves who have stolen something that blackmails a local corrupt noble.
18. A noble hires the group to find blackmail material on another noble.
19. Fire destroyed a special village inn or landmark. Lift the spirits of the people by helping them gather the resources to rebuild.
20. An artist is cursed when his paintings keep coming to life, or predicting death. Solve the mystery.

Tier Three:

1. A princess has been kidnapped and held for ransom … one too many times.
2. The group finds a wounded angel that needs help getting home, before being captured by devils.
3. An evil character is in love with someone good, and wants to be better.
4. One of the group turns out to be a doppelganger. Where is your companion?
5. A circus has come to town, with strange creatures, exotic people, and…?
6. A new party member has a secret past that catches up with him/her, and hopes the group will lay their lives on the line to take care of this problem.
7. Group rescues a damsel, but she’s actually an assassin/thief pretending to be innocent.
8. Salesperson-like promises of gold and glory in a nearby kingdom leads to an ambush and/or a trap.
9. Bounty hunting a goodhearted pirate, vegan troll, evil princess, or other character that defies tropes.
10. Two of the group members have somehow changed bodies.
11. A local lord is trying to build a new road. A powerful landowner, a retired adventurer, or a group of elves or druids is strongly opposed, with escalating stakes and violence.
12. A group member has inherited a long-abandoned estate with an odd groundskeeper or housekeeper, secrets.
13. A cult is trying to revive its lost god.
14. Retrieve an old artifact from a shipwreck at the bottom of the sea.
15. A nobleman hires the group to let his son/daughter tag along to see the world.
16. Deliver a ransom to kidnappers.
17. A mysterious egg is found. Is it hatchable?
18. A curse, or cursed object, is found, group must find a way to get rid of it ASAP.
19. Everyone in a town has gone missing, no one knows why.
20. Someone was kidnapped by something. Rescue them.
21. The group finds a gladiator arena, can participate.
22. An evil faction or aggressive warlord is corrupting small towns before expanding to an assault on the capital. He wants something, maybe marriage to the local lord’s daughter.
23. Chanting or singing is heard in nearby ruins or glade.
24. Someone in the group is afflicted with lycanthropy.
25. Undead are attacking a nearby village, controlled by an evil mastermind.
26. A new cult has arrived in the area, and is recruiting members. Are they up to no good? An established faction wants you to ‘find’ evidence they are no good, and either convince them to leave, or kill them.
27. A mad wizard or cleric is selling potions that have terrible side effects, refuses to stop, and is trying to silence those who call him out.
28. Someone wants the group to find a stolen or missing precious, with payment on receipt of the item. Maybe they are counting on the item’s power to help them avoid paying.
29. You are racing another adventuring group to the treasure, but the other group falls into a disaster. Will you let them die? Or will you help them?
30. The plague scenario. Find the cure, or burn the whole place to the ground, risk getting sick to help the sick, or whatever. (If a group member is out, maybe they got sick.)
31. The pop-culture reference quest. Recreate a popular story with abundant references.
32. A farmer is clearing land to plant crops to feed the growing human village. Local nature spirits or elves aren’t pleased. Take a side and/or mediate.
33. The adventuring group has an opportunity to build their own stronghold. The effort requires various side quests.
34. A group member wants to join a religion, holy order, or assassin’s guild, but needs to complete a difficult quest for entry, and could use some help.
35. A group member is in a guild, church, or other organization who needs them to complete a very important quest, and to bring friends.
36. A legendary but eccentric chef went missing. Find out where they went and what happened, and they might reward you with a secret recipe.
37. A group member is a member of a vulnerable minority. As a relatively wealthy and capable member, they are in a unique position to help defend their people against persecution, and find diplomatic solutions.
38. Hostage crisis. Rescue the princess by negotiation and tact, rather than covert assault.
39. Mediator. Prevent a war by negotiating with both sides. Evade an assassination attempt by those who want a war to occur.
40. A highly publicized wedding of peace is arranged between two usually opposed factions. Escort the bride along a treacherous road, along with a precious dowry.

ChatGPT-Generated Generic Quest Templates

Here’s a list of good generic quests for an adventure game:

1. Retrieve the Lost Artifact: The player must venture into dangerous dungeons and overcome obstacles to find and recover a powerful artifact.
2. Rescue the Captive: The player must locate and rescue a kidnapped character, navigating through enemy territory and facing off against formidable foes.
3. Solve the Mystery: The player becomes a detective and must investigate a puzzling crime or a series of mysterious events, collecting clues, interviewing suspects, and piecing together the truth.
4. Protect the Village: The player is tasked with defending a vulnerable village from imminent danger, such as an invading army, monsters, or a natural disaster.
5. Explore the Forbidden Land: The player embarks on a perilous journey to explore a forbidden and uncharted territory, facing unknown creatures, solving puzzles, and uncovering ancient secrets.
6. Retrieve the Stolen Treasure: The player must track down and recover a valuable treasure stolen by cunning thieves, leading to a pursuit across various locations and encounters with clever adversaries.
7. Defeat the Evil Overlord: The player’s ultimate goal is to defeat an evil overlord who threatens to plunge the world into darkness, assembling a team, gathering powerful artifacts, and engaging in epic battles.
8. Master the Elements: The player must undergo training and trials to master the powers of the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) and bring balance to a troubled world.
9. Seek the Legendary Weapon: The player embarks on a quest to locate a legendary weapon with immense power, journeying through treacherous terrains, deciphering ancient riddles, and facing formidable guardians.
10. Uncover the Ancient Civilization: The player explores ancient ruins and forgotten cities, deciphering ancient texts, solving puzzles, and discovering the history and secrets of a long-lost civilization.
11. Aid the Wise Sage: The player is tasked with finding and assisting a wise sage who holds crucial knowledge or a solution to a pressing problem, overcoming obstacles and proving their worth.
12. Lift the Curse: The player must break a curse that plagues a person, a village, or even an entire kingdom, embarking on a quest to find the source of the curse and finding a way to undo its effects.
13. Restore the Sacred Relics: The player sets out on a quest to recover stolen or scattered sacred relics, each with unique powers, and return them to their rightful place, unlocking their potential along the way.
14. Help the Lost Spirit: The player encounters a wandering spirit trapped between worlds and must aid them in finding peace, venturing into ethereal realms and solving ethereal puzzles.
15. Expose the Conspiracy: The player becomes entangled in a web of political intrigue and must uncover a conspiracy threatening the stability of a kingdom, gathering evidence, interrogating suspects, and navigating dangerous political waters.
16. Ascend to Godhood: The player embarks on a journey to ascend to godhood, undertaking divine trials, amassing followers, and making choices that shape their path to divinity.
17. Collect the Elemental Crystals: The player must search for and collect a set of elemental crystals scattered across the world, each imbued with unique powers, to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.
18. Protect the Last of a Species: The player is entrusted with the protection and preservation of the last surviving member of a rare and endangered species, shielding them from hunters or poachers.
19. Save the Dying World: The player must find a way to heal a dying world, whether through restoring natural resources, bringing harmony to warring factions, or finding a mythical artifact with the power to rejuvenate the land.
20. Reclaim the Lost Kingdom: The player’s mission is to reclaim a lost kingdom that has fallen into the hands of an oppressive regime or monstrous creatures, rallying allies, and engaging in epic battles to restore peace and justice.

Feel free to customize these quests to fit your specific game’s setting and mechanics.

I’m returning to work on the game after some months hiatus, after several completed oil paintings, and during a deep sense of ennui with everything that has engaged my free time lately.

Generally my oil paintings look worse after I let them sit and come back to them with objective eyes.  The Elven Academy game is the same, but what else can we do but trudge on with our mediocrity, and with the belief that people out there will appreciate and enjoy our work someday.

It appears this game was a bit of a mess when I left. So I’ve fixed some glaring issues right away. Patch notes are below.

The new content is just a completed Spanish translation of module B2, and a new library book on the origins of Impressionism.  But now that these bugs are fixed and things are mostly up to date, I can work on the real new content, the module in progress, which is B3.

B3 is a diplomacy-focused module set in the Seelie Court. The module will use the reputation gains you’ve made in factions along the way, as well as your diplomacy skills. I am very happy with the meaningful choices you make in B2, involving who you side with, the deals you make, etc. and I hope to expand on this theme in B3.

After B3 will come, at long last, a sea voyage adventure. This adventure is inspired by the Tunnels and Trolls module Sea of Mystery, which I enjoyed when I was a kid. But Tunnels and Trolls modules were never big enough, and Sea of Mystery was no exception. So a big motivation in my game is to push further and farther.

I expect B3: The Seelie Court to take months to complete, but a new big, grand adventure format (as opposed to more linear storytelling of B3), is the carrot on the stick. I hope to see you in the Seelie Court soonish, and then on to the life of a seafarer. Here are the patch notes:

General:

Fixed a major bug preventing most item purchases in the game. This bug was caused by a scope issue, which was caused by revising core code to use the relatively recent javascript ‘let’ keyword for variable definition. (‘If’ statements count as a block for purpose of block scope…)

I believe I fixed a bug causing most adventure modules to falsely declare that you’ve already completed them.

Added a new library book on impressionism, and translated module B2 to Spanish. Greatly increased stat gains for reading library books, whereas they have always been too brutally stingy, especially for the modern day…

Fixed a bug on UI display of affection sometimes showing undefined after affection is gained.

A1:

Fixed dialogue with Roxanne to accurately reflect ‘dark game’ choice made.
Fixed wardrobe gender issue in your room.
Fixed a typo.
Fixed some missing translations.

A3:

Various edits, additional poetry for Connor, a few more dialogue options.
Fixed a bug where the Sea God’s blessing was hurting you, not healing you.

A7:

Three new sound tracks for important scenes.
Fixed various bugs, added some conversation options.

B2:

Fixed many small bugs, incorrect nomenclature, translated remainder of text into Spanish.
Fixed broken ending.
Fixed a missing graphic and a few non-preloaded conversation images (needs more).

Library:

Greatly increased stat gains from reading library books. There will always be some gain for 75% or better on the quiz questions. It is now relatively easy to grind out a few attribute points by memorizing the quiz answers and completing books repeatedly, but the max attribute gains from library books are now capped at 15.

Updated the library hub to includes an arts section, completed and translated a book on 19th century painting. (Fin de Siecle pre-impressionist and early impressionist period.)

Fixed missing and garbled text in the English Poetry book.
Fixed a lot of missing translations in the hub.
Fixed some minor typos in the Dating book, added some image preloads.
Fixed broken Spanish accents (HTML Charset) throughout pirates lore book.
Fixed bug in Fungus book.

Happy New Year! This evening I’ve uploaded module C3: Town of Terror: the Return. This is the third ‘outdoor adventure’ in Elven Academy.

In this module, you return to the seaside port town of Queen’s Bay with Alex and another companion. He has some issues to work out. He also wants to drag you into a secret spying mission. This module features more zombies and more romance than any other project so far, so what’s not to like?

Module B1 has a bit more romance with succubi and other children of the Dark Lord, but added together with companion romance, C3 has the most. The number of combats might also be a bit more than the previous champion, module D2. These combats are a bit more boring, though.

I’m not thrilled at all with my current RNG combat system, featuring rounds and attrition to hit points. It’s a coding clown fiesta. I’m strongly thinking about changing to scripted combat encounters, which are more exciting and unique, although not as replayable or interesting in terms of figuring out what works.

This module took at least the last six months to complete. It was a stupid and insane amount of weekend warrior work – from designing, writing, coding, creating all the art, translating into Spanish, and debugging. Throw in some music. And there are still probably a few bugs hiding in there somewhere.

This module was supposed to be an epic adventure, and filesize-wise it actually is. I believe it’s twice as large as any other module created to date.

The reason for the length wasn’t the size of the adventure though. It turned into a character-based story centered on Alex. That’s great, but it meant the focus wasn’t on sword and sorcery fantasy adventure, and D&D-like scenarios to solve.

So I still have a major itch to create a “mega-dungeon”. I will try again next time, after planning a bit better, and probably after completing B3: The Seelie Court. I feel like the most epic adventure has to be more on rails. C3: Town of Terror is a depressingly modest spiderweb with a few breadcrumb trails to nudge the adventurer towards the more intense story beats.

I enjoy writing dialog, but I tend to do so at the expense of other things. Anyway, off to yet another creative project (an oil painting), which is sitting waiting for me. Here is a direct link to module C3.

Note that if you are a level one/first year student, casting these combat spells will be fairly difficult. Luckily there is another, even more effective way available to handle these zombies. Actually, a lot of rolls in this module will be difficult. So.

Here is a level three (female chaotic heritage) code you can use, if you want: NAN100-OMHLLI-LFIFFK-AAABAC-18-15-12070C0000401-AEAAAA-AAEAAAAAAA-RAACAAAAAA-IAAAAAAAAA-ODMIVC-WWEIUL-YUGKAK-8535332222522343-0AUL4AAY000000000000000000000-000000000

Feel free to leave feedback here or on Twitter (link in sidebar.) Thanks for visiting.

Thank you to whomsoever purchased a few of my books.

Please note that the first book is Down Where The Blue Violet Beauties Bloom. The book Inside The Dark Heart Of The Garden is actually book three. I need to fix my link or something, because my Smashwords profile page lists the books in the reverse order, based on when they were uploaded. They should be read in the opposite order, from bottom to top.

I was assuming people were buying “Dark Heart” because it is the most sexy-looking and has incubi, but it could also be the misleading order the books are listed. I don’t know, but it needs to be fixed.

So, about the game project. I’ve completed another full playthrough of current content, and I fixed a lot of typos and bugs. Some of those bugs only showed up when played in Spanish, or with a male character, or in Darkgame mode for example. This is a big challenge of QA for the game.

So I decided to go ahead and upload those fixes.

I was pleased that gear seemed to be working well, without noticeable glitches. A total gear handling overhaul was considered, and it’s something that might happen in the future.

I noticed that Chapter A results in some fairly high character stats. I am considering reducing stat gains after the player reaches the second Chapter B, nudging the somewhat experienced player, with some gear to select from, to start considering their gear loadout for adventures. Or I’ll need to tweak the stat gains a bit from the beginning.

The only actual content added here is a new library book: Elven Dating: Using the Modern Arts of Psychology For Success. That should be found in the in-game library under a new Psychology category.

I am still working on Outdoor Adventure C3: Return to the Town of Terror. I considered pushing for a Halloween release, but I’ve been focused on oil painting instead, while writing down my game dev ideas for when I have time.

General patch notes:

Created a formal story and character arc tracker spreadsheet, because the different stories and timelines are getting a bit complicated.

Added mouseover tooltips to the six gear slots in the character sheets. You can now see the stat breakdowns on individual pieces of gear. Ease of managing items and gearing still could use a lot of improvement.

Added C and M hotkeys for opening character sheet and map. Space bar chooses first dialogue option.

A1: Revised and reduced wordy paragraphs yet again. Added missing translations. Fixed a missing graphic.
A2: Minor typo corrections, bits of added dialog, clarifications.
A3: fixed a wand issue for female Dandelion, fixed a game-breaking conversation bug.
A4: Cut and added more paragraph breaks to wordy paragraphs. Developed character goals and motivations for Connor and Jeanie.
A5: Spanish translation corrections.
A6: Spanish translation corrections.
A7: Minor edits and typo corrections.

C1: Spent hours fixing a dizzying array of Spanish translation failures, including text variables mislabeled and therefore missing, paragraph reductions, and paragraph breaks added, which were never previously done.
C2: Translation editing and proofreading, fixed missing translations. More paragraph breaks, reduced cringiness of over-enthusiastic dialog.

D1: Spanish editing and proofreading. Fixes to egregious game-breaking bugs at the final recap conversation. Fixed broken save progress at end. This could still be polished more, including adding health bars for the monsters.

D2: fixed some typos in generated combat text. Fixed spelling of ‘liege’, and the translation to ‘señor’. Fixed broken save code. Fixed display errors of combat spell icons in Spanish first language modes.

The site went down this morning, and apparently there was a corrupted file. I’ve re-uploaded the core JS/HTML files, and this seems to have fixed the issue. If strange issues continue, then I will have to investigate the possibility that the site is being hacked.

For now I will assume the hosting and server performance is sketchy. I also uploaded the new class portraits that were missing.

I am currently plodding along on outdoor adventure C3: Return to the Town of Terror. In this adventure, you return to Queen’s Bay with Alex, and possibly Jeanie or Nimwee. You can test your spells against sea zombies that rise from the sea during a full moon, and earn bounties for each one you find and kill.

Town of Terror is meant to be a full-size late-night town adventure, with drinking, gambling, whoring, pirates and an evil plot from a well-known nemesis in the game. It’s also your chance to get to know and romance Alex if you so desire, or a succubus if that is your persuasion.

It will once again be my best module. I am also very intent on making it by far the largest adventure module. Since the main companion is Alex, a character who is very conflicted between the dark side and trying to be a whiter wizard, a major theme in the module is ethical choices.

So module C3 is a good exercise on this design topic. It will also offer the most opportunities of any module (so far) to be ethically neutral and hedonistic.

I’m still doing a lot of oil painting, but I’m sort of close to reaching my annual painting goal, so hopefully I will have time to focus more on Elven Academy in the near future. I thought that adding a completion/achievement panel would be inspiring to me (to fill it in with content), but perhaps the development perspective (in terms of overall progress) has actually been demoralizing.

This patch mainly adds B2: The Queen’s Gambit. It also adds a completion panel to the game, so you can quickly see what you’ve completed with your current character. It adds other interface improvements, like character class images, ability to press -enter- to advance the dialogues, and create your character by assigning points (i.e. a third option).

There are also lots of bug fixes and proofreading. This was three weeks of free-time work since I returned to the game, although B2 was substantially finished earlier this year. B2 is about as large as B1, plus offers a substantial branching path if you are more neutral/darkside inclined.  I’d like to improve this branch, since it’s really the first of its kind.

I’m feeling a little burned out already, but I’ve been working hard because I want to start a new module. My options are B3: a diplomacy module, C3: a pirate outdoor adventure, or D3: another dungeon. This patch introduces Outdoor Adventures to the adventure selection, as well as to the new tracker panel.

I’ll playtest on the server this weekend to look for any missing assets or other issues. Thanks for visiting.

Patch Notes:

A third character creation option is now available in module A1. You may now choose assign your own points, or randomize, or play through the full module.

Ora now asks a few organic questions about you in order to determine your character class, instead of awkwardly asking you to pick from an overwhelming list.

The six character classes now have tarot cards assigned to them, which now appear in the character sheet.

You can now press -enter- to auto-choose the first option in any dialog.

Botany Hike with Jeanie and Bird Walk with Connor now count as the first two “Outdoor Adventures” for tracking on the completion panel. Any more dedicated future romance content will be in the form of “Interludes”, and not tracked for completion or character progress.

New module cover art for Botany and Bird modules. Edited modules to correct file paths, write to savecode, which was broken, etc.

Dialog speaker mood text will now flash a highlight when their mood changes. (Will not be active yet in older modules due to referencing a newer version of the mood update function.)

Savecode manual load should now be fixed; there was an error in regular expression check.

On the other hand, the savecode was re-structured however to do the new completion panel, so old save codes will need to start a new game. Unless you want to manually edit your current save code to have 29 alphanumeric in segment 15, and an additional segment 16. Game support docs show how to hack your save code. “NAA100-FFFHFG-FFFFFH-AAAAAA-0-0-00190A0000000-AAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAAA-5222222222222222-00000000000000000000000000000-000000000“;

A completion/achieve panel for story modules and dungeons is added to the interface. This replaces the in-game console record panel, which was kind of useless. The prior save roll etc. output to this panel is now in the browser console.

Some translations fixed in the gift shop. On review, I found the gift shop needs upgrades, but isn’t hopelessly bad. I backed off of developing a new all-purpose shop panel on the main interface for now.

Fixed a few errors and links in game rules.
Fixed settings panel height.
Fixed issue with quest/review panel button.

A1: proofread Spanish.
A2: fixed discrepancy in Chary’s dorm room location
A3: proofread Spanish translation, more cuts on long paragraphs, fixed progress counter?
A4: fixed a conversation bug
A5: proofread Spanish. That translation was frankly terrible. Fixed a few other issues.
A6: proofread Spanish. Added night sounds to the Moon Tower parlor. Fixed broken Morrigan portraits.
A7: fixed typos.

B2: The Queen’s Gambit (El Gambito de la Reina) is now live on the server. It is playable to the end, but it is currently being playtested, and still needs translations of most dialogues.

C1: Fixed typos, made edits to bring Botany Hike up to current code and styling standards, fixed music, added new bird music. Improved lesbian conversations.

C2: This was just a clown fiesta. Sorry about that. Fixed many egregious typos and bugs, fixed title, tried to fix some terrible dialogue, made edits to bring Bird Walk up to current code and styling standards, fixed music, added new bird music. Improved gay dialogue a bit. Apparently this module was rushed and never tested.

I’ve taken a few months off to work on paintings, but I’m ready to return to game developing. The first step is to find out where I’m at, then sort through pages and pages of existing notes, ideas, lists of bugs, and to-do documents.

The main sticking point seems to be the overall plot for Book B. The first chapter of Book B is on the live server. The second chapter is 75% completed.

I feel the second book needs to focus on the player character’s development, especially in relation to heritage. Spoiler: it has an unsurprising derivation, i.e. OH – you’re actually the child of the all-powerful XYZ.

Is there any way to put a twist or surprise on this trope?

I suppose I could research existing stories that featured superpowered children (Baldur’s Gate comes to mind) and see how other writers handled the situation. (I have a terrible memory for stories and plots.)

I see a few people are actually checking out the game lately, so thanks. It’s a big motivation. If you have any suggestions or ideas to add, please do so on this post.

Here is my current to-do list after distilling down all of my old notes. I’m sure I’m missing some important things, and some very important things are currently listed as lower priority. I ended up resisting last year’s plans for a game download due to fear of piracy, basically. I don’t want to deal with that.

In fact, I’ve been thinking lately of a long-term plan of trying to sell my game or partner with someone who knows how to sell games and can manage distribution for me.

High Priority:

Finish module B2: The Queen’s Gambit (Yule Festival, it’s maybe 75% done).
Firm up entire plot for Book B.
Module B3: untitled Sea Voyage to the Unseelie Court, also develop assets in tandem for a pirating adventure module.
Do the diplomacy skills actually increase with use??
Romance T2 – after the first chapter is over.

Lower Priority:

***Writing/Concept/Story***

What about reversed tarot cards in the Tarot Training module?
Add quote to A2: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
― Plato
Complete a few new library books possibly re: oil painting, Tonalism and French painting at the end of the 19th century, and/or Fin De Siecle, Belle Epoque, Victorian periods in England and France.
Work at the gift shop.
Enable option to drain companions vampirically to heal yourself.
Add a module choices (save code) review journal to your room. “I chose not to rescue the fairy.” “I slept with the Unseelie Fey.” Etc.
Need an official spell list with spell difficulties?
More weirdness in A1-A3

***Graphics And UI***

Chary still needs a crying face? (A7)
Still no Alex doll in drawer nail patch? (A7)
Do class portraits.
Gift shop items need item ports.
“Status” on character sheet could more clearly say “Base” to indicate bonus is additive.
Constantine’s Coat is missing an outfit graphic (44f and 44m)
Leonie needs upset mood portrait. (In A6 dialog 97 and elsewhere.)
Fretzel needs upset mood portrait (A6).
Panterah better sexport. (B1)
Show figures in the world more, like in an isometric game or comic book. Makes them seem real.
Chary profile party port hair fix?
A7 panterah port could be painted better, and have succubus styling?
A7 could animate the little demon when chary goes down, loc 67

***Systems/Mechanics/Balance***

Re-examine save roll bonus for staff.
Re-examine starting stats, still too high after addition of classes
Companion roll is luck + a modifier on how good the companion is?
Doing attrib gains wrong? More gain for failing?
Examine use of Hell’s Court rep, change hell’s court rep to something else?

***Coding***

Gift shop items need checks to see if already owned.
Update companion (and all NPC) adjectives to include strengths and weaknesses.
Dreams of desire for a succubus or incubus, or other addiction mechanic to home module.
Room Chair is missing in many modules
Leonie’s hearts (only Leonie) don’t seem to be updating visually on the speaker panel??
Dump jQuery.
Fix dialogues to enable more attitude changes.
Give affect with pi society for d2.
A7 quests 1 and 2 aren’t completing?
D1 needs an endMod func and modFlags?

***Sound/Music***

Sound effects for sitting at vanity and opening closet, etc.
Gift shop and other shops need sound.
More fanfare for gaining a ‘level’?
Need a dungeon theme songs and sound effects for d1 and d2.
Coin sound. And a default path to look for a sound? if it’s missing or something?
Use the recently added choir music,. and also backup music and sound folder
Affordable violin background music throughout? Cheaper than learning the violin?

***Testing/QA***

Playtest all existing modules for equal support for the three class roleplay boxes
Playtest on Firefox, etc.

***Style Guide Percolators***

Use more comic book influence in the art style – dramatic lights and darks, creative third-person perspectives.
Always need more fairies and comedy.
Show the evil, not tell about it.
Have native Spanish speakers in the game with the languages reversed.
Develop more for situations needing specific skills and clothing/gear.
More fairy hijinks.
More fun.
Being a Serpent needs to mean rebelling more.
Being good means feeling good about your actions.
More evil clowns and evil dolls.
More fighting good people who are wrong.
More creative corruption.
Connor – more poem quotes.
Sexy time with the weirdest Fey?
Menstrual blood, virgin blood, alabaster, etc. Ritual components.
It’s a relief to be around normal humans sometimes – Jeanie.
Need more elf atmosphere, a tolkein promise.
Use CONST, recall ASI = automatic semicolon insertion.

Tonight I’ve uploaded a new update for Elven Academy. This includes completed, translated, and playtested versions of module B1: Down The Rabbit Hole, and D2: The Geomancer’s Deathtrap.

These two modules took me most of 2021 to create. They contain my best writing yet, especially Down The Rabbit Hole. In this first module of Book 2, you return for more deliveries as a rabbit in the Peacock Queen’s domain.

This time you actually get to play through several deliveries, meeting various guests of the Queen. My favorite is probably the pair of elves who call themselves “sages of the fifth grade” from Avalon, who actually test your wits using standard questions at the level of “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader.”

I’m also making better use of save flags now, so your choices in B1 may come back to haunt you a bit in chapter B2: The Queen’s Gambit, which I am currently working on. This is a holiday/Yule-themed module.

I’m starting to make better use of my character templates in B2 to provide a good array of choices for the character. I’m also working hard on this module to present more ethical/moral decisions. I hope to go back to earlier modules to add more ethical/moral decisions. This really isn’t as easy as it looks.

As a reminder, my roleplay templates are Charming Good Mage/Bard, Neutral Ranger/Druid, and Cunning/Jaded Sorc/Necromancer. I know, I should have been doing this a long time ago. Each of these templates has a set of favored attributes that are used for saving rolls for respective choices as well.

On a personal note, I’m also still working diligently on oil painting, and also very depressed during the holidays. I feel I’m therefore doing acceptably well to not neglect my elf-ness in real life. I just received in the mail the book Middle English Romances, a Norton Critical Edition. I’m hoping to do some literature reading/research over the holiday days as well. This is the sort of thing Connor (in the game) is supposed to love and be a student of, so I need to research this genre so I can write him better.

I’ve abandoned playing video games lately due to finger pain, as well as my attempts to learn the violin.

Here are the full patch notes for this game update. I playtested the update just a bit on the live server and filled in some missing graphics files. There seems to be some server caching issues now on the JS files that I had to tweak, but hoping they will be cleared up tomorrow.

Patch Notes General:

Uploaded finished/updated versions of B1: Down The Rabbit Hole, and D2: The Geomancer’s Deathtrap. They still probably need more playtesting, especially in Spanish. But they should be playable to the end. D2 is a more difficult dungeon involving a number of combats, and might be quite a challenge for a weak new witch or wizard.

It appears the Spanish text still has a lot of typos and incorrect grammar throughout the game modules due to the fact that I test in English for speed and expediency. I spent some time reading through the Spanish translations and making corrections.

Restored health cost to casting spells, and enabled checks to disallow a spellcast that will zero your health pool.

Added a skip button to the intermezzo/aside/scene timeskip splash page. Skipping past skips … who has time to sit through time passage in 2021.

A1: Spanish playthrough, fixed so many embarrassing grammar errors and typos. Improved attribute telegraphing, improved dark side dialogue.

A2: Spanish playthrough, more cuts to bloated paragraphs, improved dark side dialogue.
The Divination spells are now based on Fortune attribute for Divination school, not Enchantment.
Added some poetry for Connor.
Added some roleplay coded options.
Added sound to Baralto’s Garden
Fix bug enabling becoming Connor’s girlfriend/boyfriend.

A3: Glumskayah is back to being a she-devil instead of prior change to a succubus. She will take a lower profile in Book 2 and be replaced by a succubus. Needs to attend trial for her executions of army incubi, which is seen as possibly overreaching her power by the patriarchal Hell’s Court. Her mission on the island was to set everything up, deal with all legal issues, and eliminate any opposition. With that mission accomplished, she will allow someone else to be the face of Hell’s Court.
Added some poetry for Connor.
Added references to a buried treasure on the island.

A5: Fixed various Glumskayah graphics to show an antique backpiece that silhouettes her head.

A7: Added ambient sounds to Glumskayah’s dungeon, added some module save flags. The fact that I can’t find much in this module to save as a flag for later reveals some weakness.
Added some options to flirt, to be kind, and to be rebellious.
Added some choices and fixed bugs to companion affection gains (and losses.)
Generally more work to make the module more fun and less passive.
Explained why Glumskayah trips when chasing you out of her dungeon.
Bug fixes.

B1: Additional options, Spanish edits, new music, new quest.
Fixed filepath bug preventing module completion and exit.
Fixed a few dialog inconsistencies.

D1: fixed several issues with death checking while taking damage, updated death screen.
D2: Completed the module. This is the largest and best module yet. Translated (2.5 days of work in itself.) Added new scenarios, completed the story satisfactorily. Playtested.

I used to be fascinated by romance in fantasy RPG’s. I played through Baldur’s Gate 2 multiple times to experience the different romance arcs with Aerie, Jaheira, and Viconia. I’m happy that Baldur’s Gate 3 is continuing in that tradition.

I recruited Fall From Grace in Planescape: Torment just for her backstory and attractiveness. I completed romance stories in Skyrim and Dragon Age.

I was very disappointed when SWTOR pulled romance out of their game at launch. I was disappointed more recently that Planescape: Tides offered no romance arcs, especially since the lead writer was an erotica writer.

I was also disappointed that a real romance arc was not offered in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, especially since The Witcher has such legendary writing in this regard.

Recently I’ve considered taking my game project in a more R-rated direction, so I researched the Book of Erotic Fantasy. It is a very old D&D supplement under the OGL v1.0a. Here are my notes and reactions from the reading. Another, more exhaustive treatment is found here.

Basically, most of this text just doesn’t merit a deep analysis from where I’m at, so let’s look mostly at the gems.

Review of the Book of Erotic Fantasy

The BoEF is broken into seven chapters: Love, Sex, and Roleplaying, Rules, Skills, and Feats, Base and Prestige Classes, Magic, Items, and Adventures and Organizations.

Most of the book consists of lists of spells, classes, creatures, and magical items for your adventure campaign. There is a list of 100 “Adventure Ideas”, but a lot of these ideas boil down to just “something happened”. The something is often: “it happened, good to know”, or “someone is raping and must be stopped.”

A few ideas were cute and doable, however, like the band of halflings that challenge the adventurers to a game of sexual endurance.

Humor was one of the main takeaways from this elder tome. Sex has always gone hand in hand with humor, and therein lies its most valuable asset, since we do play these games to have fun. So why isn’t sex more prominent in RPG’s? Here is my take on the problems.

• Sex and romance offer poor gameplay. (Roll dice to see whether you have an orgasm, etc. is just lame.)
• It doesn’t advance the main story.
• It often doesn’t develop character unless done very well.
• If used as a final reward to a story arc, it loses its ability to advance a story arc.

If we don’t boil sex down to just a reward, like banging the prince after you save him, then there are good reasons to have it: develop a character (NPC or PC), and advance a plot. Romantic titillation and roleplay in themselves are also valid, but not as powerful.

The BoEF touches on these issues in a few actually insightful paragraphs sprinkled into the text. Plot, character, and humor. I was disappointed in the “adventure ideas”, so I wrote some of my own, broken down into the categories where sex can actually be best used. Here are my starter lists that I brainstormed in an hour.

Ideas to develop a non-player character. The NPC:

• Reveals something about the racial sexual customs in an interracial experience, possibly amusing.
• Reveals poor character, i.e. implies it’s free, but now wants money, has a boss to threaten the PC with.
• Reveals they are surprisingly the opposite personality in bed.
• Reveals they are deeply vulnerable in some way, emotionally needy for some reason.
• Reveals they have secrets on the pillow, i.e. this was the point of seducing the PC.
• Reveals tattoos that tell a story about past deeds, exploits, beliefs, mottos.
• Reveals tattoos or marks that indicate of a gang, a cult, physical abuse, sex work.
• Reveals a prosthetic limb, an implant, a welded cuff or a collar suggesting wounds or an owner.
• Reveals deformities, fur, or other evidence of non-human crossbreeding in family.
• Reveals they are a shapeshifter or have an enchanted form, i.e. a dragon or someone really hideous.
• Reveals they have a husband/wife/someone else really jealous.
• Reveals they have a fetish, must have something specific to become aroused.
• Reveals they have an STD. Sexual transmitted diseases are just not fun, unless you’re using them just to whimsically punish a player for fun. It could be used as a consequence of a failed saving roll, however.
• Reveals they are conflicted about sex, they were trying to be chaste, etc.
• Reveals they were a virgin, and now you’re in big trouble with someone or something.

Ideas to develop the player character. The PC:

• Is allowed an actual love romance that leads to a long term relationship.
• Is then allowed to recruit a henchman or henchwoman that provides perks in a relationship, or even bring them along on adventures.
• Is allowed to feel powerful.
• Is allowed to feel powerful by submitting.
• Is allowed to be a prostitute for money, themselves.
• Is allowed to use character skills in new and creative ways, if the sex scene is gameplayed.
• In forming a relationship, creates conflict in terms of faithfulness, promises, and infidelity.
• Offers a roleplay path to retiring a character to the married life in a castle, and possibly children which can form a new adventuring party.

Ideas to advance a plot through the NPC. The NPC:

• Sleeps with the PC, but then falls more for another member of the party.
• Is trying to use sex because they want something from the PC.
• Is using the PC as an alibi for something.
• Actually dies in the PC’s arms, leading to accusations of murder, or demonic possession.
• Incapacitates the PC to steal a map, a book, treasure, horse, sword, etc.
• Reveals a quest on the pillow. PC can offer help, or can try to get to the treasure first.
• Insists that according to their cultural laws, they are now married to the PC (Firefly, etc.)
• Reveals a life-threatening situation they are in, and their desperation for help.
• Is trying to persuade the PC to join a cult, sex club, etc.. This leads to quests.

In many of these cases, the primary question becomes: what does the NPC want? If you establish powerful wants on the part of the NPC who the PC is having sex with, good writing naturally flows from it. This is hard though, and I’ve failed at this to some extent.

It may also help to ask, if the NPC is a possible romantic interest, then who or what are the attracted to, and why? This can also reveal a lot of character.

A big sticking point to incorporating all of these ideas is the gender-locked nature of the gameplay. To incorporate romantic encounters at important points in your plot, you would almost need to have a gender locked protagonist.

Or you would have to “cheat” and change the gender of the NPC to the opposite of your PC, and then assume the PC is straight. What a mess. Maybe that in itself is a big reason why romance isn’t used much in a meaningful way in RPG’s, and why the Witcher franchise seems to stand so tall in this capacity. (I haven’t played the Witcher games personally due to not liking to play male protagonists.)

The BoEF also touched on the idea of “ratings”. I’ve been grappling with that lately myself. Here are the proposed ratings, which are the American scale of course:

PG-13 – Deals with mature subjects including sex, but without explicit scenes or descriptions. Love, flirting, and seduction are all acceptable, but the actual sex occurs offstage.

R – Nudity and sexual situations are common, although level of detail stops at gratuitous details that could be described as pornographic.

Other useful points from the Book of Erotic Fantasy:

BDSM is now mainstream, not a fetish or taboo. Clubs have BDSM nights, it’s a fixture in the fashion industry. Love between Human and non-human (Vampires and Werewolves) is also mainstream.

Assigning an alignment to a type of lover is interesting to help a player to play their character.

Assigning an alignment to an entire society is also useful. The alignment becomes a sort of shorthand for thinking about sex norms in different societies and regions of the game setting.

Not so useful points:

Some things in the book are just silly. A “masterwork” condom, for example.

I also wasn’t a huge fan of the photos, but they’re OK. Consistent, quality artwork throughout would have been very expensive and time-consuming most likely.

Tantrist, Kundalini. I strongly disagree with using real-world Earth terms like this in a D&D setting. These come from Hindu and Tibetan religions. Maybe the authors were trying to be non-specific in terms of campaign setting, but this is just worse.

I skimmed the ‘bestiary’ in the BoEF, which did not really interest me, as my campaign setting is well-developed, for better or worse. Some interesting entries, however, were the half-devil, half-giant, and pleasure golem.

That’s about all for my reactions and notes on this thick, lengthy tome of erotic treasures. It’s well-worth a perusal, and I find myself curious about trying to design some erotic gameplay. The sections of the book dedicated to gameplay, like the mini-scenario at the end, seemed very short of practical examples.

The book lists play-testers in the credits page. I’d like to hear their feedback. Because honestly a lot of this could boil down to the vanilla D&D rules, but spiced up with adventures in brothels. And how do you ‘succeed’ at a sexual encounter? How would this work?

1. Simply getting the NPC naked and/or into a compromising situation is enough to complete many character developments or plot advancements.

2. Physical success (Agility, Toughness, Romance (techniques), Engineering (toys, ropes, who knows)): pleased your lover X times, resulting in advancement or quest success.

3. Emotional success: (Empathy, Psychic) need to achieve some kind of intimacy to solve the puzzle and advance. Physical skills don’t matter.

4. The opposite of #1, the NPC getting the PC naked and into a compromising situation is enough to slip the PC a pill or wake up tied to the bed, etc. and move the plot forward.

If your plot hinges on this encounter, the design concept of “Failure with Consequences” might be useful. You moved the plot and achieved your goals, but failure on your rolls means the success is only partial, or you received no extra reward or treasure, or something bad happened, but you still moved forward on a technicality.

That’s all for my reactions to this book. Good luck, and happy gaming.