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[Raonar]

Corker wrote...

I outlined my Hell Chapter! Woooo! The end is in sight!

Y'all who write mixed DAO/DA2 fic, especially with Anders in it: how do you handle the spells?

What do you mean how do you handle the spells? How we somehow compromise between the DAO system and the (severely shortened) DA2 one? Or how we describe them?

Keep in mind that DA2 itself shows MAJOR inconsistencies. Anders can apparently heal the party from afar, and of any injuries, during the heat of battle... but takes a helluva long time to heal whatever that kid in in his clinic had, when you first meet him.

Modifié par Raonar, 03 juin 2012 - 12:27 .

[Corker]

Not so much the descriptions, the potential canonical inconsistencies. e.g., Anders can learn Entropy spells in DAA but not DA2; up to four glyphs in DAA but only two in DA2; Heroic Aura becomes an entirely different spell (and a missile defense spell goes away entirely, to be replaced by generic shield spell), Earthquake went away, etc.

It was to my advantage not to let him have Mass Paralysis or Mana Clash (a spirit school that didn't make it to DA2), and the two glyphs I used were coincidentally the ones that survive to DA2, but if I were using the guy for more than a chapter, I'd want some sort of system to work it all out.

[Raonar]

Corker wrote...

Not so much the descriptions, the potential canonical inconsistencies. e.g., Anders can learn Entropy spells in DAA but not DA2; up to four glyphs in DAA but only two in DA2; Heroic Aura becomes an entirely different spell (and a missile defense spell goes away entirely, to be replaced by generic shield spell), Earthquake went away, etc.

It was to my advantage not to let him have Mass Paralysis or Mana Clash (a spirit school that didn't make it to DA2), and the two glyphs I used were coincidentally the ones that survive to DA2, but if I were using the guy for more than a chapter, I'd want some sort of system to work it all out.

I think the problem stems from the fact that it's never actually explained WHAT spells are and HOW they get cast. Characters seem to do just up and flic their wrists, except for the really powerful, AoE ones. At the same time, Wynne says in DAO that the Templars made sure the mages cast their spells "just so", whatever that means.

I honestly didn't take into acount the spell "systems" at all, so to speak. I went by the idea of "casting by intent" and personal inclinations. For instance, I made Wynne a healer with some mind-bending spirit spells. it helps if she can put her patients to sleep, right? I also gave her some ice manipulation abilities. It was weird when she joined me in the circle tower and I realized she did not, in fact, have Winter's Grasp as usable spell, even though she'd employed it on a rage demon just one minute earlier. Plus, since she has a spirit in her, and it's assumed that Spirit knows its way around Fade connections, mana clash should be available to her by default

The solution to your dilemma is simple: let DA2 mages be, well, MAGES. Magic depends on imagination, which means that Anders will definitely have more than three or four tricks up his sleeve.

As for an actual system-like way of thinking, think this: Mages don't need to be spirit healers to learn the basic heal spell. In other words, you're not calling a benign spirit to mend bone/flesh when you use it. As in, the MAGE knows what he's mending. So, I suppose it should work the other way around, right? Harm by touch/wave of the magic wand? I guess that would give Anders substitutes to spirit spells. Instead of waking nightmare, he coud harm the balance centers in the ears. Instead of earthquake, he could use his healing/harming magic to mess up their leg motor control.

Stuff like that, I guess.

[Rinshikai10]

Just want to give you all a heads up, due to some tech issue my username Rinshikai is now Rinshikai10.

[Corker]

Prompt: Pulse-pounding excitement (in combat)!

An excerpt from Hell Chapter!  Context: Mahariel, Ariane, Finn and Fenris confront Anders, post-boom.  570 words.

---------------------

“I should have killed you when first you violated Kristoff’s corpse, spirit,” the Warden growled, unsheathing her elven knives.

“Wait!” Finn cried. “Anders, it’s Finn, Florian, Flora, from the Tower, do you remember? We trained as spirit healers under Senior Enchanter Wynne together!”

“Pointless.” Fenris brushed past him, and Finn caught the elf’s arm. “Wait! Maybe there’s a way we can -”

The Tevinter looked back at him with disbelief, raising one hand to cuff him away. Violet-white light flashed from above; his brands alight, Fenris let go of Finn, staggering slightly as the arcane bolt hit him. “Of course I remember you, Finn,” Anders said.

“Wonderful! Then - ”

“That’s why you’re not all on fire,” Anders continued. “I wanted to give you a chance. The Circle never chafed you, but you must be intelligent enough to see how its policies of oppression must end. The boil must be lanced. Stand with us.”

Finn’s head swiveled to stare at the impaled templars across the hall. “Anders, this is madness!”

Anders sighed and lifted his staff. Quietly, as if speaking to himself, he said, “The right to shoot lightning at fools...”

Ariane’s invocation of Elgar’nan cut off abruptly as lightning forked down from above. Finn’s world went white with pain for a moment, then cleared; he’d barely gasped a breath when another strike hit him. Vashti and Ariane both were stumbling, trying to climb the stairs toward Anders but seizing every few moments. The fireball would be next, surely. Except... where was Fenris?

Finn caught a moment’s glimpse of the elf running up the stairs, huge blade hoisted in two hands. Lightning flashed down its length, then - crackled, sparked over his skin, following the network of lyrium straight down to the ground. Reaching the top, he swung and -

Everything went white again, and when he sagged against the stairwell, panting, he saw Anders, dodging, wave his hand. A wall of ice materialized, expertly trapping Fenris’s blade within it. He abandoned it without a moment’s hesitation. “I need no weapon to finish you!”

Finn flinched, expecting another lightning strike, but the tempest was over. Vashti and Ariane were already flying up the stairs; he followed, robes hitched up to his knees. He couldn’t help if he couldn’t see. Anders completed another incantation, and he nearly staggered when he recognized it.

At the top of the stairs, Vashti charged, her two dar’missu at the ready. Fenris had pulled up short, gone defensive - Finn knew exactly why. “Ariane, cleanse him!”

The allan’isa hesitated a bare moment - Finn knew she wanted to call down the fury of the gods on the abomination, it seemed to make the most sense - but to his relief, she listened. Dirthamen, the Dalish god of secrets, could untie the knots of magic - including the very nasty Spirit spell that was otherwise going to make Fenris explode in a mass of bone and guts.

The lines of a repulsion glyph glowed white on the floor under Anders, and Vashti came tumbling back towards them. Finn whirled, tracing the contours of the glyph of neutralization in his mind and trying to ignore the sick feeling in his stomach. Because even though Anders’ staff was on the floor, and his arm was dripping blood, his other arm still came down and -

And then Finn was burning.

-----------------------------

So... yeah.  It's got that blow-by-blow, round-by-round, who-does-what structure that's usually contra-indicated.

In a one-on-one fight, I think it's simple enough to back out of exactly what's going on (parry high, feint left, strike right, etc) and go to more gripping generalities (The duke's parries were almost lazy, as if moving to intercept Grim's blade was beneath him).  Should I have done that for a many-on-one? Spoken of "spells flying" without hitting the game mechanics?  Used Anders' 'spirt helper' to justify enough (vaguely specified) powers to hold off four attackers?

I know I needed to hit the mechanics to get the chapter written; without referencing the spells to give me some structure as to what the mages could and couldn't do, I would have been stuck forever.  But once I had a sense of what was happening, should I have erased the mechanical specifics from the text?

Modifié par Corker, 04 juin 2012 - 06:15 .

[Rinshikai10]

I have a challenge for all those who have a warden Cousland, and know who Iona is.

Challenge:
In five hundred words or less. Have warden Cousland trying to console Amethyne (Iona's daughter) after telling her that bad men took her mama away her.

Modifié par Rinshikai10, 06 juin 2012 - 11:38 .

[Rinshikai10]

I have a new short story completed, would anyone like to give me a review?

[Tryynity]

Rinshikai10 wrote...

I have a new short story completed, would anyone like to give me a review?

Sure, post a link and I will get to it.

Modifié par Tryynity, 12 juin 2012 - 11:51 .

[Rinshikai10]

http://www.fanfictio...10432/1/Changes

[TEWR]

Popping in here today to say that I liked that excerpt Corker! And I may start paying attention to this thread again in order to get some valuable insight on writing.

Corker wrote...

allan’isa

What does this mean? I assume it's a fanon Elven word, but what's the intended meaning for it?

[Corker]

Ahaha, I should have edited that.Yeah , that's my fanon. I gave Ariane a templar spec when I played Witch Hunt and then, when I started writing with her, decided that the Dalish had independently developed a similar skillset. Dalish mage-protector = allan'isa.  Came out of a blog post yonder.

It's not derived from any of the elven words in game; if I'd done that, it probably would have had 'era' in it somewhere (I think that's 'dream,' so it's not a far stretch to make it be 'dreamer, one who walks the Beyond.'  I call Spellweaver a dar'missera, a dreamer's blade, in another fic.)  It's just supposed to sound elfy and cool. 

Modifié par Corker, 13 juin 2012 - 11:03 .

[Rinshikai10]

Tryynity wrote...

Rinshikai10 wrote...

I have a new short story completed, would anyone like to give me a review?

Sure, post a link and I will get to it.

Thank you for the review Tryynity. 

[Muirin]

AmbraAlhambra wrote...

Oh and Muirin - I critted your story! Sooooo sorry it took me so long to get to it!

Thanks for the crit Ambra. I've been offline for ages, so have just read your comments. Much appreciated, and never too late to comment.

As an aside, I was hiking in the back country in Denali, AK, these last weeks,  which really made me think about how it really would be, walking across Denerim in armor with a heavy pack and all!

Muirin

[Muirin]

Corker wrote...

Prompt: Pulse-pounding excitement (in combat)!
-----------------------------

In a one-on-one fight, I think it's simple enough to back out of exactly what's going on (parry high, feint left, strike right, etc) and go to more gripping generalities (The duke's parries were almost lazy, as if moving to intercept Grim's blade was beneath him).  Should I have done that for a many-on-one? Spoken of "spells flying" without hitting the game mechanics?  Used Anders' 'spirt helper' to justify enough (vaguely specified) powers to hold off four attackers?

I know I needed to hit the mechanics to get the chapter written; without referencing the spells to give me some structure as to what the mages could and couldn't do, I would have been stuck forever.  But once I had a sense of what was happening, should I have erased the mechanical specifics from the text?

Hi Corker, I enoyed reading this and it does work with the balance you have.

I agree, though, that the level of detail for the mechanics of the spells is a tough issue for combat. I haven't ever read a stripped-down fast-and-furious spell combat scene for DA. I think it could work well, and that the ensuing confusion (character and reader) would add to the sense of immersion for the reader.   I haven't managed to write such a scene myself yet, but I'd like to be able to pull it off .

I didn't deliberately avoid it for this, just somehow the simpler physical combat came to mind when I wrote my piece.
As you say, the physical fighting is much easier to strip down, not just one-on-one but even multiple interactions. For me it's the spell casting that really slows the pace of my text so if anyone out there has a super-lean piece of spell combat to share, I'm sure we'd all love to read it.

Muirin

[TEWR]

Corker wrote...

Ahaha, I should have edited that.Yeah , that's my fanon. I gave Ariane a templar spec when I played Witch Hunt and then, when I started writing with her, decided that the Dalish had independently developed a similar skillset. Dalish mage-protector = allan'isa.  Came out of a blog post yonder.

It's not derived from any of the elven words in game; if I'd done that, it probably would have had 'era' in it somewhere (I think that's 'dream,' so it's not a far stretch to make it be 'dreamer, one who walks the Beyond.'  I call Spellweaver a dar'missera, a dreamer's blade, in another fic.)  It's just supposed to sound elfy and cool. 

LOL well it does certainly sound elfy and awesome.

It's actually a great concept. One I actually have been wondering about for my DAII fanfic. I'm gonna have to study up on the Elven language a bit on the wiki, as my DAO fanfic is at the Dalish Elf Origin chapter and I've been meaning to put an original spin on it.

[Rinshikai10]

Does anyone know how tklivory is doing? I have not seen them on the board for a while now.

[Tryynity]

No me either - he/she has been rather quiet of late. Probably just a new game, I hope so anyway.

[Rinshikai10]

Same, I was hoping that they would add my story to the pile, but I never got a response. Once again thank you for the review Tryynity. It was helpful

[Corker]

The 'said' wars, in comic strip format. XD

[Rinshikai10]

That is cool Corker.

[thesnowtigress]

Time to resurrect this thread. I almost forgot my password, dang it's been a long time.

So... what's everyone up to? Here's a question to get things going a little bit:

If you were part of the writing team of Dragon Age 3, what type of companion character would you write (you can go all out here with names and stuff, even a brief history) - it can be a completely new character or an existing one. And secondly, if you really want to rack your brain, where would you take the story (setting, plot, general themes, etc.)?

I'm going to think about this and come back later. Have fun!

[Raonar]

Honestly? A Kal Sharok dwarf mage. I suspect very strongly that Sandal is a dwarven "mage" of that sort. The codex in DAO says that Kal Sharok had to do some very questionable things in order to survive, and cannibalism is too obvious a train of thought. So, I am guessing they did something like what the dwarves of old did. Whatever they used to make those lyrium idols from DA2 (which I strongly suspect are packed with souls, how ELSE could Meridith have moved statues if not by infusing subservient souls with them?).

So, a dwarf from Kal Sharok that was forced/agreed to eat lyrium in order to gain strong magical powers. Much like that golem from Golems of Amgarrak SOMEHOW performed magic. Although he'd have to possess a bit more mental coherence than Sandal himself in order to work as a companion.

[Corker]

Where would I take the story if I were on the Bioware team:

Mage/templar war. That seems like where they're obviously going. But for a change of direction, I'd make the protagonist be a Tevinter (human or elven). The Imperium is watching events unfold with interest, and would surely *love* to topple the Orlesian Empire, replace the White Divine with their own, and generally resume being top dog in Thedas.

But they can't just throw armies at the situation, or the qunari will be all up in their port cities in a hot minute. So the Archon, or an ambitious High Magister, or someone similar in the Duncan role, picks their most capable apprentice/assistant to go and make sure the war goes the way it ought to - for the mages. (If the PC does not play a mage, this will require some finesse, but I think it could be done. Blah blah, the unenlightened fear mages, so we choose you, blah, your skill with stealth/sword will be useful in this situation, blah blah, fool the templars, et cetera.)

You'd start with 2-3 Tevinter companions and pick up the rest as you go. Gameplay would take place mostly in Tevinter and Orlais, and would showcase the major advantages and disadvantages of each empire.

Endgame decision would be four options:

1. Perform your assigned duty and arrange for Tevinter aid, in exchange for Tevinter influence, to ensure that the Orlesian Empire is toppled and the Chantry's power broken.

2. Turn coat and inform the Orlesians about the Tevinter plot.

3. Fight with the Thedan mages, but ignore your superiors' plans. You will have only your personal power to contribute to the cause, not the support they could have provided. You will also probably lose all or most of your Tevinter companions. (Since this will likely be the most popular heroic option, it needs to have some serious complications. Endings 1 and 2 may get you power and wealth; this one will not.)

4. Run away to Rivain. (This ends the game immediately and gives you some epilogue slides.)

[Rinshikai10]

I guess if I was on the writing team, I would have to create a Anders soldier. A man/woman who has spent the bulk of their lives fighting darkspawn in a wasteland. Now traveling through the southern lands at the request of their king, to asses the problem with chantry.