Over the weekend I was part of a streamed discussion for Tamriel Rebuilt, a game mod for the game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. The streaming session was put together and hosted by Zaric Zhakaron. I’m Kevaar, a Lead Developer of the mod who specializes in quest development and lore.
In rough order of appearance, left to right and top to bottom, we have: Ozzel, Lucy, Blakkthorne and/or Sunflower, Crom, Yotingo, Alelsa, Bleekshril, Gobdruid, Friend, Shiften, Tandralyne, Krampus, Sortiara, Razorfist, Alunetien, Arrowkeys, Joystick, Casals, Tyrdan, RAV, Allardel, Jacob, and Bealeida.
As part of learning about the economy for my own business ventures, I decided to make a study of what World of Warcraft players call “playing the Auction House”, in which they try to make profits solely by reselling goods bought from other players instead of going out and obtaining these goods directly from the game world. In February, I ran two characters on two different servers to dip my toes into the world of buying and re-selling. My preliminary findings left me with many more questions about the Auction House economy, and so the study continued!
In the month of March, my study followed six characters, each with a different marketing scheme for selling their goods. These characters remained on the combined server of Cenarion Circle and Sisters of Elune, a relatively small North American RP server, as well as one of the oldest. I will summarize some of my findings below. Continue reading “Playing the Auction House: March Data”
The beginning and finishing of a new fanfiction short story, The Trials.
Preparation and writing of my first published work, which is due to come out sometime in late May or early June.
And perhaps most excitingly, the addition of a drawing tablet to my tools of trade, which gave me inspiration to start a web comic as well as sketch some other characters from my stories. I’ve even received a commission to do more!
February In Summary
As I didn’t post an update covering the rest of February, I figure it’s worth mentioning some of the work done here, as well. The end of February saw:
The re-posting of most of my short stories and lore articles for the Elder Scrolls universe.
The beginning of the fanfiction series Son of Silvermoon, which has also been continued into March.
The Future?
I have my irons in many fires now, but in April, I hope to focus on these goals:
Continuing my Auction House research, including posting the latest findings from the data I took throughout March and the end of February.
A restructuring of the site that will be more conducive to organizing series, whether those series belong to the web comic or my fiction.
And of course, more web comics! The posting of these will continue on my DeviantArt account as well as here.
I may also start doing more Special Editions that show the processes that go into my artwork, as well deleted scenes from my fiction. This will probably always be on a case-to-case basis rather than a scheduled thing, but if there’s ever a question burning in your mind about my work, please leave a comment!
Sad news today. I just received word that Neverwinter will be closing down its Foundry for good.
Neverwinter is an MMORPG set in Dungeons & Dragons’ Forgotten Realms setting, using a version of the 4th Edition D&D ruleset. It had an editor named the Foundry that gave players the ability to create their own quests and dungeons, complete with branching dialogue, monsters, simple puzzles, and (pre-generated) quest rewards, for other players to play through and critique.
Though it had its flaws, for me and many others, it was the main draw of the game. I won’t forget adventures like faithful renditions of Drizzt’s battle with the Many Arrows orcs, doing my in-character introduction for my roleplay guild <Order of the Broken Path>, knocking over mountains of crates just for the heck of it, evenings spent in specially created taverns chatting with other roleplayers, and even a quirky quest about saving a village from hallucinatory cheese.
Some of the aforementioned adventures were brought to you by one of these Foundry Authors. I’m the drow on the far right. From left to right: Theolus “Foundry Apprentice” of The Broken Path, Tony Chianti “Foundry Neophyte” of Infernal Paragons, Eixelebrat “Foundry Grandmaster” of NWLC Alpha, Ian Darksword “Foundry Stalwart” of Noble Misfits, Irras Locksheon “Moonstar Agent” of The Court of Bones, Claudia Helder “Foundry Grandmaster” of Jagged Daggers, Rendis Redhair “Foundry Neophyte” of Elite Mercenaria, Thia Duskwalker “Foundry Graduate” of Order of the Raven, CruelBanana “The Blue” of Reborn Immortals, Nedryn Zauth “Foundry Apprentice” of Order of the Silent Shroud (Photo credit to Locksheon.)
I myself created a small campaign following the story of a drow who had fled the Underdark after his daughter had been turned into an evil priestess of Lloth. He surfaced somewhere in the Anarouch Desert, met a sharp-tongued wood elf who reluctantly befriended him, and eventually found faith in Amaunator (Lathander), the god of the sun and truth. The campaign is still available until April 11th on Neverwinter. If you care to give it a look-up, it is called the Fox’s Den; author is @kevaar. Please note, given the current status of the Foundry, some bugs may exist that I can no longer control.
I’m just a little choked up it’ll all be gone soon, really. Over the next few weeks I’ll be salvaging what I can, perhaps to retool for a pen and paper module. Or perhaps greater things lie in store? The community of Foundry authors, while small, has been wonderful, and we’re considering refocusing our creative efforts into making a community based on creating quests and perhaps even our own indie RPG. It’s too early to tell yet.
In the meantime, it was good while it lasted. We’ll miss you, Foundry. Should you resurface in some form, whether in this game or another, don’t be a stranger, hey?
Here’s to our next adventure!
(Photo credit to JayAgeDee.)
In my efforts to start up a small bookselling business on Amazon, I ran a little experiment on the World of Warcraft economy. As described in my February Update post, I determined I would start with a small amount of ingame currency, then proceed to play the Auction House to see how much of a profit I could make with it. This was to simulate the real world market of buying items used and trying to sell them up for a profit.
It’s now one month into the study and I’ve decided to post my findings thus far.
Avaliet is a large volcanic island off the western coast of the Shey Lands.
This is a teaser to an RPG supplement I will be putting out later this year (2019). It describes the large island of Avaliet and some of its notable cities and landmarks. Continue reading “RPG Teaser: Avaliet”
Akor’mari (singular: akor’mar) are the cave-dwellers of the ‘mar races, and can be found in most inhabitable parts of the underground Reaches. On the Surface, they are rare… This is to the relief of most other races, who throughout history have suffered the attacks of the akor’mari and term them one of the greatest evils of the known world.
This is a teaser for one of the races being added by the new RPG setting I will be putting out later this year (2019). Being only a preview, some details may change upon publication. Continue reading “RPG Teaser: The Akor’mari”
Though I am still waiting back on the verdict from the latest publisher I am trying Hottest Day on, I have another squee to share in the meantime. I have been extended a contract to start work on some RPG supplements to be posted later this year on DriveThruRPG!
If you haven’t heard of them, DriveThruRPG is a website specializing in posting supplements for RPG systems like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and Vampire: The Masquerade. Both official rulebooks and supplements as well as those written by third party professionals can be found here. Though there is some self-interest in my suggesting you go poke at the site, it’s also a nifty place to find inspiration for your next RPG adventure.
We are also looking at getting it posted onto Open Gaming Store. Open Gaming Store is similar to DriveThruRPG, though its audience is slightly smaller and does not carry some of the bigger-name brands. That said, many of their indie rule sets are still compatible with Pathfinder, 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, and other popular game systems.
Finally, if we can figure out Amazon’s archaic rules, a hardcopy (as in literal book!) will be released there, as well.
I am treating this as my first big break into the industry and am really quite excited! The world of my novels-in-the-making will soon be available to play with your favorite RPG system! To give you a teaser (and there is self-interest in this preview as well), I’ll be posting the descriptions of the akor’mari race (as the race featured in Hottest Day...whenever that sees the light of day) as well as some locations from the island of Avaliet. Enjoy!
Even the term “corkbulb” would have one thinking it is what it sounds like: a root made of a cork-like substance, that could assumably be used in place of wood. Alas, it is not quite so, and the uses of this fine root in Morrowind are often mistaken by horticultural novices.
