Open Season on Leg | enD

In a forum post by Leg, he made it very clear that he wants to be able to PK lowbies without penalty. So let's give what he wants. Open Season on Leg.

Legs post: it did not copy/paste well:

"just an idea, love it hate it, it up to you a system where an account is in ONE guild, every character made from lvl 1 is in that guild (unless u want to keep different characters at different alignments, then this whole idea kinda blows) makeing all characters watever thier alignment restrictions are, the alignment of the chosen guild. guilds imo should be able to use all of the games 'lamer' areas, disarming pickpocketing hunting of lowbies (without penalties) as freely as they want considering thier alignment (there will always bee a good evil and neutral guild, usualy more neutral but thats un avoidable really) e.g in a 'war' for the good to surpress the evil and the other way, should those guilds be able to try halt how fast thier opponents create more characters? and how powerful the items the characters use are? feel free to add to or ignore this, a comment of any kind is always apreciated *edit* rofl, will try go into this more when i aint so wasted :\"

Big Jak Attack

Here’s the story of what happened with Nephthys Ellow lvl 17-18 (Halfling Rogue) vs. Jakle lvl 21 - 22, (shades wiz/monk, with disarm)

1.) I’m XP’ing in the beholder caves, minding my own business as usual.
2.) Jakle walks up and says “invite”. And being the wonderful person that I am, I oblige.
3.) Jakle ends up being higher level than me, my xp drops from 800 per kill to 600. I politly ‘leave’ the party, I do not boot the person.
4.) Jakle aks “why?” I explain, he says “ok, I won’t take all the spawns”. Im thinking, whatever.
5.) Simon hears a loud noise on the roof of his house and stupidly leaves his rogue standing un-manned to go investigate.
6.) Simon returns to see his rogue surrounded by many beholders and Jakle bashing it.
7.) Simon quickly realizes Nephthys has NO WEAPONS. And immediately runs for the weapon shop.
8.) Jakle sends Simon a “tell”. “To be honest, I didn’t want to share, and I needed the money”
9.) Witty banter ensuses.
10.) Deimonos logs in 2 minutes after this has happened with the same lvl range char as Simon, they party and start XP’ing.
11.) Jakle sends a ‘Shout’. “Which shop buy for the highest price?” Yep, he’s gonna go and sell my weapons for money. He was wondering if there’s a shop behind a locked door in Newport.
12.) Jakle private messages Deimonos asking if he can pick locks, lol, Deimonos using his quick-wit lures Jakle back into the beholder caves where we are waiting for him.
13.) Nephthys & Margo (Deims cleric) start bashing Jakle. Jakle starts running like a bitch. Nephthys literally chases Jakle through most of UD yelling “Run Bitch!”
14.) Jakle escapes due to his great speed and hides up in mountain slide (I think)
15.) Margo the cleric makes her way up to mountain slide and finishes him off. LoL, nice job.

Jakle had said before most of that had happened that he was an old BadLands player from 3 years ago and that he planned on “Taking it all back”. Good luck, my friend. Good luck.

After getting bashed he wanted to be friends and even offered to return my Kukri.

I had to then let him know that the Kukri held no sentimental value to me.

The True Essence Of Lameness

So, after Darian got jumped by many.. I was grouped with mango, blade and tron.
We got some lvls.. wait, I was actually grouped with Simon.. and we got jumped by jakle the shades monk20/wiz2.. that guy was hilarious..

After Simon logged off, I joined Merin.. (A-Rock) and we went to lurids---sheelo.. since we had a big group we had to go back and forth for glands..

When me and blade reached lvl 28 (tron was 30+), Simon relogged and after seing him in ud sanctuary, he popped right in front of us on north face. Being a polite person that I am, I said greetings, but by accident I stepped on his head and the little thing was gone :(
Then, 12blahblahragnarok12, the tough guy comes one slope up and we all know what's going to happen.
He casts a Hellball on us, then goes straight to me and deved my char in one hit. I didn't see what happened to the others, I just joined the fun.

Cain, after a long time in torpor, wakes up to have some quality time bashing tough guys wannabe.
He goes to Sheelo and sees some traces of dead polar bears along the way to polar cap. He follows and not long after he sees the "Damned" killing some bears.
So the igms spam begins. After taking some and lagging everything from bears and igms, he tried to hide near the wall, to block Cain's view, which stops the igms flow. He tried to spam heal himself, but he knows it will not be enough, so he tries to swing his sword at Cain, but he can't even hit a flat-footed con based mage. Fearing that his end is near, he tried to run to the cave entrance, dying while running away, like all tough guys do..

After I heard simon telling me Jakle wanted us to be buds and lvl up together.. I just thought it was too damn sad.. the guy disarmed Simon twice, tried to pk us once or twice, and after seing that he couldn't handle us, he tried to make amends..
12--ragnarok--12 is a total different matter. I even heard he was bitching to the online DM at that moment. Which is kinda fun. The guy bashes a lowbie and that's fine. When you do the same to him, he cries. Why is it common with all those guys? Guess it's just not as fun when the lowbie you kill has many legendary chars and can probably choose which one to kick your ass.
Ahh and all that in just one day.. good and fun Thursday.. lol
I may make him my shado251988. Call me Deurack.. :)

Game Master Doug Is Hard But Fair.

Fear of Girls.

More shirts!

I was thinking of making a onesie or toddler sized clothing, but only Dano and a few others would fit in them.

Darian Is Easy.

Coming Soon (If You're Lucky)

For the ladies.




Anyone interested? If so, I'll pursue some different things.

Player Etiquette (Guilds)

Here's my random question for the day, is it okay for one player to have his/hers various PC's in different Guilds. One can see the obvious advantages and exploits doing this has to offer.

Your thoughts?

Love and Balance

The following was sent to me in a PM (Private Message) by Leg enD. Leg is not new to BadLands, just BadLands RPG. I know of Gnoff as an NPC in BadLands, did not know Gnoff was also a real Person. But quite a few of the Bosses and/or high-level NPCs were named after the original members that started building BadLands as a group. Stride is one we all know as a BOSS. It is a lot of reading, but I found it interesting and will pass it on without any edits.

Qwildurn


From: Leg enD
To: Qwildurn
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 9:20 pm
Subject: some light reading, ignore if your not interested, its long here's the reply i got after asking a long time badlands player (longer than even me) what he thought about dodgy/badlands X. it also imo sums up ideal balance as the person who wrote it... really knows thier shit.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
It's taken me a little bit to get back to you on the whole Badlands and Balance thing...

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
People never seemed to understand what a multi-faceted thing PvP balance was, the ideas that resided in it, the concepts that went with it, and the math involved in it.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
I wanted to make a post detailing that on the still flopping Badlands X forums, but have no real active account... you see.. people see balance as a singular issue, they look at one issue troubling them, and to them, at that second, that is balance... but in reality, it's like looking at a scratch on one side of a gem covered in other sides, and wondering what, if anything, you can do to it without shattering the gem in question.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
what I'm saying is... it's like looking at a tree-chart that all flows into balance... actions players can / are allowed to take affect balance (locks, pick pocket, disarm, so called griefing).

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
weapons affect balance (I cannot count the number of times I have had to argue with someone why, exactly, 2d6 is better than 1d12, or why 2d4 is better than 1d10 for that matter, despite the upward of two damage potential.), and you can have your boss rapier if you intelligently accomodate for it by creating things that are less used that people can build for (someone is always going to use a crafted rapier/kukri/scimitar, the critical hit range is just too worth it).

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
spells affect balance, how you nerf heal should be proportional to how IGMs is nerfed, how acid sheeth is nerfed in relation to elemental shield / death ward, the spells you disable and the spells you enable.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
: items affect balance, what statistics you can gain for your character, what you can merge into shape shifts, the variety of maxed stats you can make if you're willing to sacrifice things, the bonuses to skills you can find if you combine items properly.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
There's a slew of other things that affect balance as well... Classes, skill points, traps, basic character progression, money (to an extent), how fast one could feasibly level (no xp transfers is generally a rule of thumb) alignment restrictions, and lack of subraces (to create the potential to add towards one stat IS unbalanced, as it's not accomodated for in the original design, I.e. a character with the ability to gain +2 wisdom while still making the race playable and implimentable, no matter what detriment you give them, will always be a great DC cleric / druid, or a wonderful zen archer.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
but these things don't just affect THEMSELVES, and that's what people miss out on. They influence EACH OTHER. Your powerful items are indeed useful so long as dwarven defenders are still viable class selections. Your maximised IGMs can do 120 unerring damage as long as a player can potentially and feasably break the mage's damage reduction in some way shape or form, you can have characters that potentially heal for 390 hit points if you accomodate for it with character ability traits like stunning fist or devistating critical hit, you can get rid of healkits if you are willing to modify acid sheeth slightly.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
and these choices should be left up to someone who has spent a great deal of time studying and learning from how they all coincide, someone who will not feasibly lose sight of the bigger picture, despite the fact that they still play and experience the game.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
not simply one person, as we learned from leaf, but a staff of people all similarly educated, with slight differences in class selection, potential building strategies, and module affecting skills that they bring to the table.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
there need not be a public relations officer if this is done right, because players should play and be happy... sure it may suck to get trumped by the mage on path of the beaten, but the ten people who made it possible obviously thought of a way (or in the case of a mage, several dozen) to kill that mage and many more.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
simple lack of inginuity and resourcefulness isn't an excuse for the clamour that the Badlands 3000 staff constantly recieved. While we tried to finalize balance, we got earfuls of complaints from everyone from Sweetly / Dhast, to Highv, about how we could reel in more players, when we lost sight of what our ten people had been elected to do... there were no propaganda machines here, our ten man staff was no office of immigrations, it was a government of balance.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
why should the people who are focusing so hard on the balanced side of the server be the ones responsible for bringing in players... in the past, that was the job of OTHER players. When I played and was not a DM, I went from server to server, sometimes using less subtle methods, but sometimes simply playing there for an evening, making a variety of friends, and then bidding them farewell as I left to return to my intriguing home.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
Players who played DeX obviously came here steadily as a result of players who played here who USED to play on DeX. We know DEX players played here, because DEX shortly after changed its crafting system and spell balance to imitate ours. It has since strayed, yes... but there were obviously people there... now there were no DEX members on the staff, with the possible exception of Gein, (a lot of ex DEX members though) and yet they still came here in droves, because their fellow PLAYERS told them about it.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
there's nothing we can change here that will bring in players if those players don't know what we did... changing things to attract a fanbase is futile. A techno artist does not become a country singer in order to bring in droves of rednecks. They enjoy their noteriety in their field, despite the fact that it may be significantly smaller (Small circles of people vs the entire south)

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
and yet people clamoured like mad for the changes they got with Badlands X... Dodgy was the Barrack Obama of Badlands... he came forward, no experience, said "Let's have change", implimented the change, and now he's closing the doors.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
Sure, his charisma and people's desperation made for a lot of suckers... but it's obvious that some change is not good change. Sometimes the old standby needs a tad bit of tweaking to be worthwhile again, but a solid system that malfunctions is better than a new system that doesn't start.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
Badlands is the exact same way... and yet people still don't see it. People like Highv still advocate that people should be allowed to say exactly what gets changed... but sometimes you get an ignorent majority, and then you're on thin ice... And when that ice cracks, Badlands X happens.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
I've already got deli signed on for hosting badlands roughly once a week so that the older players who actually understand all of these things can have a place to go... People served a great deal of time and effort into the server with actual knowlege, only to be put down and scoffed at by hyper-critical people who, rather than learn the game, would have it handed to them.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
Over the time I've played Badlands, there were so few people who were non staff members that I still respected, that it disheartened me. I respected people who had a drive to learn the game, and the humility to admit that even if they'd been playing it for five years, they still didn't know what they were doing.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
Dodgy was one of those people, but he felt that rather than listen to wisdom, changes could be implimented to the system that he saw fit... Unfortunately, I think we can all agree Dodgy's system was more than a little broken. If someone says they have played other servers, and did not like them, and need to play badlands, why do those same people advocate the addition of things that would make badlands no more than one of those very servers we were just talking about? Subraces, additional classes, etc. have so little bearing on the world at large.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
What matters isn't what you offer, it's how you offer it. Badlands had a nice 60 players when DEX was no more. DEX came back, and its balance sucks. It offers by far the most terrible PVP experience I've ever born witness to, and yet it draws a crowd, because it has members that do just that, draw a crowd. Badlands was once the place that noobs stepped into and came out as hardcore PVPers, but that age died a long time ago. If you're looking for a game or a server with a ton of people, simply put, play world of warcraft... but if you're looking for a balanced hand at being able to create a wide variety of characters, you need to get over some of the more boring parts of the game.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
People bitch and moan about leveling, they say they have fifty characters, but what's important is making the experience worthwhile. Strid and I have never once complained that leveling is boring. Each new character is an adventure that we usually share together, from level 1 to level 40, and we do it because we make the world our own. Vampires and Driders hold a special place for me when leveling, because I remember a great deal of things happening in those areas. What's important isn't what you offer, it's how you offer it. You can sell a blind man oranges, if you can just convince him that they're sweet apples.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
I enjoy leveling because it's the unique experience. If you think about it, the ability to combine character races, classes, and abilities, are what adds for so much diversity to the game, and sets it apart from world of warcraft. If you're in it for players, WoW has it hands down... if you're in it for that diversity, stop complaining about what it takes to get there... Those millions of combinations can't be available and still be something else. The people balancing that give birth to that which makes NWN what it is, an excersize in diversity, the ability to build characters endlessly, make thousands of them over the course of years, and still have new ideas and new potentials. As time goes on, it only gets more challenging, but it gets easier to learn to... Databases exist that can take a lot of the work out of learning. To make the game fun, you have to embrace what makes it what it is, and that's balanced diversity, not a large player base.

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
If you're willing to read all that insight, bravo to you. If you're willing to copy paste it to forums, a round of applause for you. I'll grant you I still have access to reading them through other accounts, but I'll not be posting there again. I rarely post in places where vast amounts of experience and opinion are not rewarded

Gonff "Measure in Love" says:
Until we talk again Leg, take care, and best of luck in everything you do.

Stupid Question Of The Day.

If you're a high level PC, will the treasure chests in the lowbie areas still randomly generate blank scrolls, bone wands, and History of Newport books?

New BadLands Forums

A player that goes by "Legend" or "Leg" as you may have seen has created an offical forum for all things BadLands RPG. Go check it out and start posting!

I also added a permanent link in the "Neverwinter Links" section of this blog.

BadLands Forums

Badlands Revelations

"And I saw, and behold, a pale horse: and he that sat upon him, his name was Death; and Hades followed with him. And there was given unto them authority over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with famine, and with death, and by the wild beasts of the earth."
The Arcane Brotherhood, though possessed of a few mighty sorcerers and those with the Blood of the Magi, are rarely seen in the Badlands. Perhaps it's because they travel the planes and dimensions seeking absolute power, leaving them little time to make brief returns to the Prime Material Plane. Whatever the reason, they have noticed a changing pattern in the Badlands: The prisoners are running the prison; the impure and feint of heart run roughshod over the few remaining lesser nobles. This incursion by half-breeds and serfs has spread like a plague from Newport to Sheelo. Hellie Layne has convened the Council of Elders in Newport to deal with the uprising of the peasantry. With far laying interests throughout the known Universe, the Arcane Brotherhood cannot hope to punish and remove the "Shadow Blades" and "free blads" from their reign of terror without help from the Arcane's ages old enemy- the Death Dealers.

Okay, enough of my RPG mode. There's been some discussion of this over the past few weeks, but I'd like to see something become official. "Blades" and "blads" are seriously out of control. I suggest either an Arcane/Dealers allegiance, or dissolving one (or both) and starting fresh. Perhaps Thanatos can become reborn. Whatever the case, Simon and I can't deal with these scrotes by ourselves. I now open it up to comments from the audience...

Badlands Lives Up To Its Reputation

Recently a number of nasty pvp interactions have been going on. And we all love it.
Try to remember the basic code most people follow.
1. Accept defeat with some dignity.
2. Heal kit spamming and spawn running is considered most embarrassing.
3. If you need allies , rely on friends or guild members. Don't cry ( see rule 1)
4. Try to fight someone about your own level or you will be hunted soon after.
5. Enjoy it .... and remember its a game.

Personally I got owned more than I like. So if you think you had a good start to the weekend , I will settle the score.

Random PvP Tip Of The Day.

NEVER start shit with a fellow BadLander and then leave your character standing with its thumb in its butt in a full PvP area, while you, the player, are AFK (Away From Keyboard).

The other person WILL kill you. You've all been officially warned. :P

Random Money Tip For Noobs.

So you've managed to earn a few levels on BadLands RPG and you're still willing to keep battling your way through new and exciting lands, but in all your excitment you've managed to run out of money early on making it impossible to upgrade your gear to make life easier. "What ever shall I do!?" you ask, well thats easy, remember all those treasure chests, crates, & coffins early in the game? Yeah, the ones you didn't feel like checking because you were to busy hacking enemies to pieces. Those things are full of useful itmes! REALLY!? yep, they are.

One being gems that you sell for GOLD! cool! The next important thing you may not realize are those pesky blank scrolls, bone wands, and History of Newport books. What good is all that garbage? You don't even have scribe scroll or craft wand skills, and you definatly HATE history. Well, forget about yourself for once stupid! There's a good chance that your local high level mage or other PC would be VERY interested in buying those from you, so make sure you stuff your inventory full and cash in, then when you hit lvl 21 you can upgrade all your junk and become a BadLands Badass!

Subraces txt file

I have a request for Q:
Would it be possible to update the DAR subraces text on your website with the latest subrace listing on the Badlands?

The Real Evil

This is an image of the older factions of evil that once haunted Badlands. Lovely , yes? All Shadow Blades pretenders better prepare nappies and tell their mommas to get a safety blankie ready.
The factions of Arcane Brotherhood and Death Dealers will soon undergo a diabolical transformation that makes these three hotties beg for more.
No longer will Shadow Blades own all the outposts , new recruits and guild dominance.
Soon the sisters will eat all those naughty little children left out in Badlands.
Words of Uthlari Rendflesh, the stocky one with the eyeshadow :)

BadassLands RPG

Ok, so basically Q, Deimonos, Darian and some others have been very busy updating and expanding BadLands RPG for your gaming enjoyment. With this being said I suggest to you, the player, old and new to make a brand new toon and fully re-explore the module. I've already found myself trying to take the easy way out by bugging the DM's for easy clues as to where all the new areas and shit are, well thats bullshit. Ya gotta put forth a little effort on the side of the player and man up and go exploring, the best way to do this is to build a new toon from scratch. I myself have taken some of my high level chars into the new areas but it doesnt do them justice because the characters level is to high to fully enjoy the new places. I said earlier this week that I wasn't going to make any toons until all of my current ones were finished, but it might not work out that way. There's to much new content to just sit by and not see it all. So with that being said, kick back, grab yourself a beer and start bashing enemies for gods sake! :P

The Version 94 Update

There are a few things that should be explained in better detail about this update.

1. The New Favored Class System.
2. The changes in the Player Death System.
3. Some areas / bosses were imported from BadLands 2083

1) The New Favored Class System allows sub-races to use Favored Classes like Cleric and Paladin. It is not complex at all. The server simply gives out extra XP so Bioware can take away. You get the correct XP for your build. It is not retro-active. Older characters will still use the old system. Only new builds will get the new Favored Class System.

2) The changes in the Player Death System are complicated and and involved. The server has always had trouble keeping track of who killed who and what killed what. Most critical was the PVP deaths. The fix was to set player death to a more traditional style DND death where your not dead until -10 hit points. I actually liked it better when it was life or death and no in-between. In resolving that issue, the players were sometimes left in state of not being able to die or respawn.

I have now addressed that with this structure:

• Any hit points between zero and -10 is unconscious and bleeding to death.
• If you have a high Constitution, you will slowly heal. (Obtainable at build time.)
• If you have a low constitution, you will slowly die.
• If you have an in-between constitution, the server will roll the dice to see if you live or die.
• If you have regeneration, from any means, you will slowly heal.
• Any player may heal you with normal means to prevent your death.

I have made a noob quest just for the purpose of getting you some regen as early as possible. The Ink Monkey in the Tattoo Parlor will offer you a quest. You can't do it after level 15 and it can only be done once per character. She is a talkative girl and rambles on a lot. The first few players that tried the quest did not understand what she said, so I will explain.

She lost her Ink Gun while running away from a big-ass skeleton. The Ink Gun is in a random place. Each time it gets found, it will appear in a different spot. There is a 20 minute mean time between quests. That means after it is found, the quest won't be available to other players for 20 minutes.

3) The Skeleton King was imported from Leaf Stone's BadLands 2083 and it's drop is not set as a quest yet. The Theaters have been imported from 2083 and are DM run only until we get the import bugs worked out. The area under Newport Sewers was imported and the secret door works now. Brawn Crumple was imported and is in / near the Lower Mines. Qwana Hole was imported and is in / near The Tunnel. I am hosting BadLands 2083 for Leaf Stone and have his permission to "steal" from him.

Any questions, comments, complaint about this update can be said here. Player thoughts are the best source of expansion ideas. And I am working on a Lich Sub-Race Quest. Hopefully that will be included in the 95 update.

Qwildurn Bluemoon

Meph's Story of the Underworld of BadLands

The Dwarfs of Badlands, as told by Meph

retold by Glint Eastwood

The history of Dwarfs in Badlands is long. There have been native "beards" for as long as anyone can recall. Dwarven history remained slow with each sub-race governing an aspect of a mountain chain for untold generations. The Wild Dwarf Clans roamed the Mountain Slide. The Duergar empire grew under the mountains, rich from trade and slavery. The nomadic Arctic Dwarfs could be found upon Sheelo. Gold Dwarfs dotted the faces of the mountains and Deep Dwarfs hid in the darkness of the Underdark.

But all things changed.....
The coming of migration lead to swift power changes. The Wild Dwarfs were forced to retreat back in the face of expansion and are on the brink of extinction. The Duergar ranks swelled and spawned another sub-race when Meph's cult induced half-devil breeding to create Derrzagons. The Gold Dwarfs split into a group that fought migration and a group that hid. The few surviving losers of the migration that remained in Badlands are Gold Dwarfs. The hidden Clans begged for Divine Intervention and hid in the mountains as a new offshoot called Urdunnir. Azers appeared as Mind Flayer Thralls guarding the Illithidreum.

The Deep Dwarfs began to feel the pressure exerted from the growing Underdark enemies and sharing space with two Dwarven competitors - the fleeing Urdunnir and the recently appearing Azers. The Derro also appeared and tried to instigate feuds within Duergar society. But the Derrzagon assassins ended the Derro mischief this time.

New migrated Dwarfs soon emerged from the mainland. Finally, a Thrall crossbreed used by Fell Mages and Illithids called the Dwark began to surface at Underdark markets. For the Dwarven nations, things had evolved very quickly. Soon the pre-eminent Dwarf race was the migrated Dwarf and the Duergar (who lost none of their influence). The Wild, Gold, Deep and Arctic Clans shrank in the face of new threats.

posted by Qwildurn for Darian the Bold

True Adventures to New and Exciting Lands

The Southern Plains and The Grinder Gnomes of BadLands
by Glint Eastwood

The Southern Plains of BadLands are little known to the civilized world. (As if there is anything civilized about BadLands.) The mountains separating the Southern Plains from Dozo are un-navigateable. Few have been commissioned to seek out a route there. Most have never returned. In recent months, after The Terrific Storm, a new path has opened allowing passage up and over the Silver Mountains. Being a High Plains Drifter, I felt compelled to adventure into the knew unknown. Now I have returned with stories that mesmerize the young and befuddle the old. I had to use every bit of my Ranger training and my ability to hide in plain sight to survive the Eastern Plains as well as the Silver Mountain. But it was my charismatic Bard and lore skills that paid off well in the end.

High atop the Silver Mountains, on one of it's many peaks I met a powerful Bard named Blackmore. Blackmore was so sad he refused to bath or eat until his favored harp could be returned. Using my Ranger tracking skills, I found and snuck up on a band of Goblins. I was amazed at how powerful these Goblins were. But I killed a few and was able to hide from the rest. My ability to vanish into nothingness seemed to confuse them. The leader strummed the stolen harp and sparks and thunder shook the hills. I was able to slit their throats while they were stunned. I grabbed the harp along with other trinkets and returned it to Blackmore. After doing a few others tasks for the Great Bard, Blackmore rewarded me with a song of inspiration that gave me the extra edge to continue on through the hardships ahead.

In the Eastern Plains I met up with a nomadic band of Gnomes, the Chromatic Gnomes of the Plains. The Chromatics claim to have used their superior intellect to make a logical switch in genetic breeding. Their philosophy is to use their charisma as a base for magic freeing their greater intelligence for more important things, like inventing new things and understanding history. The Chromatics are mostly Bards and Sorcerers.

On the Blackfoot Islands, in the steep canyons, are Grinder Gnomes. The arrogant Humans of Newport insist on calling the Grinders Gnomes "Wild Gnomes", call them what you will, it does not make their brute savagery any bit less intimidating. The Newport culturists insist that Wild Gnomes never evolved from the Savage Years. According to the Chromatics, the Grinders of the Blackfoot Islands, were on a pilgrimage from the mainland to an mystical and secret place. After being shipwrecked on a string of small islands, the Grinders devolved from wizards, clerics and tinkers into savage Barbarians and Druids. Grinders use natural weapons like spears, clubs and rocks along with a mighty rage to stun and fear their enemies. Being able to transform to look like the enemy is a good defense. Then just walk up and silently slit their throats or listen to their plans.

I'm not one to travel beneath the crust under my feet, I leave that to Dwarfs and rats. I did meet up with a lone Dwarf named Meph and shared his mead. His tale is another story for another time.

Glint Eastwood, High Plains Drifter

Update Teaser

I just want to say that we are working on new stuff for BadLands RPG.

Deimonos is doing the majority of the updates now. He has built some more new areas, including a new Outpost. D has built some new quests, mostly for low-levels. There are some new sub-races added, and a few existing have been spruced up. ("Spruce" is a strong and light tree used in the building of early airplanes.) I will let Deimons elaborate on his work.

I am doing what I'm good at, building scripts. I added a new "Favored Class System". I can't actually change Biowares Favored Class structure, it's hard-coded. What this new system does is give out extra XP so Bioware can take it away. The system makes two sets of calculations, to see what Bioware will do and what WE want to do, then adds or subtracts the correct amount of XP. We can set Paladin or Blackguard as a favored class now.

I am currently working on a new, Quest driven, Lich Sub-race. In short, you need to be chaotic/evil and have 20 levels Wizard plus 10 levels Pale Master. Then you need to find some quest items. Becoming a Lich is more than just looking like a Lich. To become a true Lich you must sell your soul to the devil. At which time you die so you can become Undead.

Setting a player to be treated like an undead is no easy task. I have changed some spells like heal/harm to treat a Lich Player like undead. Heal hurts undead while Harm helps undead. Just like Fireball is an AOE spell that tries to hurt everything in its wake, including it's caster, I changed healing circle so that it tries to heal all living and harm all undead. Yes, if a Lich cast a heal spell he might kill himself. LMAO

I am overwhelmed with the total amount of spell scripts that need to be changed. Monster spells, Pulse / Bolt and the like. Turn Undead is sort of working now. Planer Turning needs to be addressed along with Resurrection / Slay Living.

As always, we pre-test everything before it becomes public. Nobody likes a bugged server. And we are in the pre-test stages now.

Qwildurn

Respawn Question

Has there been a change made to the respawn stone/menu making it so that you cant spawn back into an area with a .... what are they called...the thing you claim a territory with? I killed the Medusa tonight and went to claim the territory and ran over some traps which killed me and gave me a good laugh (nicely done, whoever you are) but then it wouldnt let me spawn back into the room. I checked the spawn info and it had no record of my last death.

If that is a change that was made to prevent the theft of territories, I'm all for it. If that is a bug that prevented me from claiming a territory, I'm less for it :)

Nice to be back slaughtering bosses again. Hoping to slaughter some people again soon...in the game that is. I'm probably done with janitors for a while. The cops are getting too close.

Cain 0, Noobs 1

Click on the pic and see for yourselves... rofl!