No Time to Work on the Module

It's been well over a week since I really worked on the module, and I may not be able to work on it again before the weekend after this one. I have a four day weekend starting tomorrow, but I'll be away for much of it and I have a lot to do. This is just a hectic time of year, and I'll probably be putting in OT at work, which means that by the time I get home, I won't be in the mood to work on the module.

As it is, I'm also feeling discouraged by the project. When I last left off, I had run into two problems that kept me from finishing the village. The first is that the trigger I set up in case the PC tries to leave the village with only one kid in two isn't working the way it should. It does make the kid initiate the conversation, but he doesn't run off at the end unless you talk to him a second time. Also, I decided that, instead of having the kids be henchmen, I'd have them follow the PC in the same way the mule does, since I got all of that to work. So I copied all the scripts I needed and tweaked them and put them where they should go. After a lot of mistakes, I finally got Jocen to follow the PC. However, I can't do the same for Crissa, and I have no idea why, as I've checked and rechecked the scripts to make sure they're ok. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the custom script in her heartbeat event is somehow messing things up, but I have yet to test that theory. I haven't even tried getting them both to follow the PC, or having one or both of them follow while the mule is also following. I'm really sick of working on this part of the module and frustrated that this has become so difficult to accomplish.

I've also been thinking a lot about the design and feel of the module. I just finished playing Saleron's Gambit Chapter 1, and I was really blown away. The module is practically a case study in how to bring a setting to life, and how to do a low-magic, low-gold, low-xp setting. These are all things I've been going for, except for low-xp, and now I'm reconsidering that aspect of it as well. I’m thinking of taking out the magic potions that appear early in the game, and reducing the amount of xp players get for kills. I don’t want it to go quite as low as Saleron’s Gambit, but I think it may be a bit high at the moment; I think I’m aiming to have the PC reach 3rd level by the end, depending on how long it ends up being. I may revise the areas to make them a bit more gloomy, as I don’t quite feel like the game is capturing the feel of tension I’m trying to instill. I also may copy the descriptive techniques from Saleron’s Gambit as well, although I don’t know how well they’ll translate over, since in that game the PC is surrounded by people he’s known all his life, whereas in my game, the PC is travelling through unfamiliar territory.

Part of the problem with setting the mood is that most of the module is supposed to be sort of tense and gritty, hence the low treasure/magic/xp. However, the forest area has a much more fairy tale feel, which is at odds with the realistic feel I’m trying to produce in the rest of the module. I’ve been wavering between which feel to go with for the whole module, but haven’t been able to decide. I think I might try to make the forest sinister and more foreboding, and try to achieve a dark fairy tale kind of feel. That’ll probably mean heavily revising the riddle challenge with the faeries at the end. On the one hand, I was never thrilled with this, as I don’t care for puzzles and riddles myself. However, I like the idea I had for the PC to potentially acquire different items along the way, which can be traded to make up for getting a wrong answer.