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Adventure Selection screen updates

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Adventure Selection screen updates

Unread postby icycalm » 05 Jan 2021 06:06

I've done quite a bit of work on this today, and I think a new thread devoted to these updates is warranted at this point.

The Adventure Selection screens can be found on the Battlegrounds site, right beneath the overworld: https://akbattlegrounds.net

They are categorized by setting, one for each setting. All of the settings are currently locked except Pathfinder, where the three groups currently are.

Unfortunately, in the first draft of these screens, I included a lot of spoilers in the adventure descriptions, primarily to show people how cool the content is, so they would sign up. Now that they have signed up, and we've started playing, I really need to get rid of the spoilers, and I've just done this for the three currently selected campaigns: Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, and War for the Crown. All of them feature only an intriguing one-sentence description now, and that's it.

In addition, I've been working on my extremely complex unlocking mechanics, that you won't find in any other D&D edition or DM world. This is basically a Civ-style tech tree via which all of the thousands of D&D products will be related to each other for unlocking purposes. Now understand that we're talking about HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of pages. So there's just no way I can produce this tree right from the start. No one else alive can either, and I am certainly the best person for this job. So this aspect of the UE and Battlegrounds will remain a work in progress forever, and we'll also have to unlock or relock stuff after the fact, on occasion, to account for new information as I discover it.

That said, at least as far as the Varisia and Taldor regions are concerned, where the current three campaigns are taking place, I've made quite a bit of progress recently, and especially today. So you'll find lots of new material has been added for unlocking in those regions (such as the Harrow Deck accessory in Curse of the Crimson Throne, which has in fact already been unlocked and it's the first unlocking done on Battlegrounds), and also some material has been removed (most notably the campaign Return of the Runelords, which it turns out has another campaign or two as prerequisite(s), and will therefore only reappear once/if those have been cleared).

So here's what the three current campaign unlockables look like right now:

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Another little detail is the ACTIVE status I've put in each campaign, with the respective group's name.

Now I am trying to figure out what is the best way to PRESENT the stuff that's ALREADY been unlocked, i.e. the Harrow Deck for the time being (and also the default unlocks of the PF Core Rulebook and the Gazetteer). Do I simply post this stuff in the group threads, or make a new thread, or what? I'll figure this out soon.

Please note that lots of spoilers remain in the Adventure Selection screens in all the other selectable adventures and campaigns, so don't click on them any more. Let them fade from your memory, and eventually I will sanitize everything and it'll be safe for you to click around again. For the time being I've done so for the current three campaigns, and you're certainly welcome to click on those as much as you want. I'll keep you posted in this thread when I add (or remove) unlockables from them.
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icycalm
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Unread postby icycalm » 15 Jan 2021 06:30

I've been doing my research for the Azlanti campaign and adding unlockables to it as I find them:

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So far we have two new standalone adventures, plus a "location", if you remember my explanation of Location Quests [ > ]. This is the first appearance of a Location Quest in an Adventure Selection screen.

By the way, I realize those titles are spoilery to an extent when they are revealed so far in advance of the actual unlocking, so I am considering reworking how I unveil them. I know it would be cool to suddenly unlock something with no warning, whose title you've never heard before. But for the time being, I like putting the titles there because it helps me keep organized what stuff is related to what. If I wanted to keep them hidden from you, I'd have to start another map just for myself, or use a text document, which wouldn't be as useful for me in a visual organization sort of way. So for now, we'll keep doing this. I think when the screens are full of unlocked and completed or failed adventures, I won't feel such a need to enrich the maps by unveiling stuff way in advance of its unlocking.
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icycalm
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Unread postby icycalm » 27 Jan 2021 05:49

First off, I added a new campaign to the Pathfinder screen: Tyrant's Grasp, the 24th and last Pathfinder First Edition campaign. That doesn't mean that I've added all the 23 previous ones (there are nine remaining, and I'll be adding them soon). I have a Patreon article going up in a bit where I explain in detail why I added this campaign right now, so wait for that.

And then the other thing I did was replace some art for some campaigns with posters I found on Paizo's site. You've already seen the ones for Rise of the Runelords and Skull & Shackles, and now we also have the following up:

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And finally I have a poster for Kingmaker's Second Edition adaptation, though we will probably be playing the First Edition one, but adding and backporting the Second Edition's extra content. I'll explain why and how elsewhere.

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Note that this doesn't mean that I've updated the text of all these entries, just the images. I'll let you know when all the text has been updated too.
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Unread postby icycalm » 17 Sep 2021 08:02

Check the two new campaigns: https://akbattlegrounds.net

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You can see some juicy details and artwork by clicking on the pulsing dots, plus two new kickass theme tracks added to the soundtrack.

The artwork is temporary (one of them is low-res and merely a mockup, and the other is the cover of the associated rulebook because there's no official image for that campaign yet). The details on the Western-themed campaign are more solid, whereas for the undead one I just made up the description based on the handful of things Erik Mona said and forum gossip, and the starting location is also a guess.

Can't wait to get high-res final artwork for both products.

Please note that the Quest for the Frozen Flame campaign, way up north, also has low-res mockup artwork. Unfortunately, the two or three latest campaigns will always be like that, because of how Paizo releases details and artwork.
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Re: Adventure Selection screen updates

Unread postby icycalm » 22 Nov 2021 02:41

Btw, I recently updated the images of several of the PF campaigns. About a quarter of them in fact. I am not going to list all of the changes, you can go click around if you're interested. I'll just post the most striking new image, from the Council of Thieves campaign in Cheliax:

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Pretty stunning imo.

The mask is from an opera performance in the campaign that's famous among people in the Paizo forums for its excellence.

What's interesting is that I don't think this is official artwork. It looks nothing like Paizo's style. I think it's fanart. I wish every campaign had fanart at this level. Then the campaign selection screen would have unique artwork compared to the how the campaigns will appear on the overworld.

If I get rich at some point, I will commission unique art for a ton of shit from renowned illustrators. Until then I'll be scouring Google for the best art to adorn the Battlegrounds with.
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