Discord
Changelog
08-08-2015, 02:37 PM
While this idea isn't exactly one for a specific new quest reward item or something like that, I've often wondered if it would be feasible to generate random caves, ruins, monster lairs, and treasure troves in the landscape between cities out in Thay's many wilderness areas. These would be like one-shot, randomly populated things that players could happen onto "off the beaten path", and once the player(s) who stumbled upon them left the area their entrance was generated in, they would disappear.
Example One: Treasure Troves
This might be something as simple as a hollow log, or a small hole under a boulder filled with a sack of coin or an item or two. Or a single room cave with trap(s) and a chest at the far end.
Example Two: Monster Lairs
This could be a small cave with 1 - 3 chambers that is home to some randomly specified type of creature, like bears, or trolls, or a wyrmling or some other animal. There would be little to no loot, but it could add an opportunity for a bit of extra XP from cleaning out the lair's resident(s). As another option, it might contain one or two lootable corpses representing the residents latest victims with 'heirloom' items to be returned to the next of kin or something.
Example Three: Caves
Similar to Monster Lairs, only slightly larger with 2 - 5 chambers and populated with a mixture of creatures and/or traps/natural dangers. Perhaps these might feature an XP reward for simply exploring the deepest chamber without dying to the dangers found within.
Example Four: Ruins
Like Monster Lairs and Caves, but again larger still, featuring perhaps 4 - 10 chambers spread over two areas/levels. The first area would be randomly populated with creatures that moved in from the wilds over time to inhabit the ruins. The second area would be accessible trough some difficult path-obstacle like a chasm to be jumped over, a cave-in to be dug through, a narrow passage to be squirmed through, a secret door to be found, an underground river to be swam across, etc. Dangers in the second area would be higher-risk, but the rewards for exploring might be equally escalated. Being ruins, it could be a lost and long-forgotten temple, or a long-dead wizard's crypt or vault guarded by undead or constructs and/or deadly mundane/magical traps, and maybe a puzzle to be solved, or historical lore to be discovered. The odds of finding one of these places would likely be very-very low.
Anyhow, just a concept I thought might be doable and add more flavor to the land of Thay, especially for those who like to explore and find new and interesting places. It might even be possible to tie discovering one of these through NPC quest-givers, similar to how the "escort the slave to the portal in the wilderness" quests work. For the lairs, for example an NPC might offer a bounty on a specific creature(s) that have been attacking townsfolk recently, so they want the creatures tracked down and eliminated. For the Ruins, perhaps an NPC has heard of some local legend about them and wants the player(s) to find the ruins and retrieve proof they exist.
Example One: Treasure Troves
This might be something as simple as a hollow log, or a small hole under a boulder filled with a sack of coin or an item or two. Or a single room cave with trap(s) and a chest at the far end.
Example Two: Monster Lairs
This could be a small cave with 1 - 3 chambers that is home to some randomly specified type of creature, like bears, or trolls, or a wyrmling or some other animal. There would be little to no loot, but it could add an opportunity for a bit of extra XP from cleaning out the lair's resident(s). As another option, it might contain one or two lootable corpses representing the residents latest victims with 'heirloom' items to be returned to the next of kin or something.
Example Three: Caves
Similar to Monster Lairs, only slightly larger with 2 - 5 chambers and populated with a mixture of creatures and/or traps/natural dangers. Perhaps these might feature an XP reward for simply exploring the deepest chamber without dying to the dangers found within.
Example Four: Ruins
Like Monster Lairs and Caves, but again larger still, featuring perhaps 4 - 10 chambers spread over two areas/levels. The first area would be randomly populated with creatures that moved in from the wilds over time to inhabit the ruins. The second area would be accessible trough some difficult path-obstacle like a chasm to be jumped over, a cave-in to be dug through, a narrow passage to be squirmed through, a secret door to be found, an underground river to be swam across, etc. Dangers in the second area would be higher-risk, but the rewards for exploring might be equally escalated. Being ruins, it could be a lost and long-forgotten temple, or a long-dead wizard's crypt or vault guarded by undead or constructs and/or deadly mundane/magical traps, and maybe a puzzle to be solved, or historical lore to be discovered. The odds of finding one of these places would likely be very-very low.
Anyhow, just a concept I thought might be doable and add more flavor to the land of Thay, especially for those who like to explore and find new and interesting places. It might even be possible to tie discovering one of these through NPC quest-givers, similar to how the "escort the slave to the portal in the wilderness" quests work. For the lairs, for example an NPC might offer a bounty on a specific creature(s) that have been attacking townsfolk recently, so they want the creatures tracked down and eliminated. For the Ruins, perhaps an NPC has heard of some local legend about them and wants the player(s) to find the ruins and retrieve proof they exist.