Dark Fragments anyone?
Matthew T. Linehan
Listen up fellow adventurers, I think this plot addition could be
quite fun:
Gather round my fellow adventurers and I will tell you of an evil most
foul…
As is well know in these parts, a long time ago a hero did come to our
land and shatter the Gem of Immortality. Thus ridding our world of the
vile Wizard Mondain but the action didst splinter our world. Even now
our liege Lord British works to unite the shards through the eight
virtues to make Socoria whole once more, but a greater evil hast come
to light.
Many of the shards were too small to contain the whole of Socoria. Yet
did Mondains evil magic bind the land. The magic did convolute and
fold in upon itself to give rise to world fragments. Indeed Dark
Fragments for the vile nature of the magic involved was far more in
tune with the forces of darkness than light!
These Dark Fragments of Socoria are incomplete, corrupt, and evil by
nature. They be populated by the most vile of creatures. Indeed in
many of the Dark Fragments echoes of Mondain himself live on as
un-dead litches most vile. The many litchs Mondain have continued to
study their black art, and many have become aware of each other.
Even now the forces of Darkness seek to unite the Dark Fragments into
a single, complete Dark Shard! This must not be allowed to transpire
for the rise of a Dark Shard wouldst certainly prevent the unification
of the many shards of Socoria. A Dark Shard could never be made to
resonate with the eight virtues!
The Time Lord himself didst come to our liege and bid him to rally the
best among us to destroy the Dark Fragments utterly. The Time Lord did
reveal to our liege the secret of the Dark Gate. Tis a most difficult
magic. A group of four or more adventures must form a circle. One of
the group must cast Dark Gate at the center of the circle while the
remaining party members concentrate on stabilizing the vary ether
itself. Upon successfully opening a Dark Gate all present must enter
with hast lest the spell be broken and the gateway collapse. None else
may pass for the gateway is tuned to the vary essence of the spell
casters themselves.
Within each Dark Fragment, the Time Lord hast placed the necessary
artifacts to destroy it utterly. However the forces of Darkness are
aware of the attack from beyond the blackness, and have prepared for
our arrival. It is up to you my noble adventurers to defeat the
minions of evil, discover the arcane methods of Dark Shard destruction
provided by the Time Lord, and to end said vile corruption of nature.
The magics of the Dark Gate are quite arcane indeed. For once a party
has entered a Dark Fragment none else may enter. Thou ist alone in thy
journey and thou must make haste. Thy Magic will only last but one
Socorian day, fail thy quest and thou will find thy self and thy
comrades returned to thy shard of origin. Succeed, and the fragment
shall be destroyed and ye shall return a hero. Take heed for there are
no healers present within the Dark Fragments lest ye take your own!
Mark, Recall, and Gate magic’s fail utterly.
Go ye now! Destroy the vile Dark Fragments and return ye here and
stand before me a true Avatar, a hero of Socoria!
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This would be quite a large expansion to the UO universe, but at least
it would not require a tremendous amount of map work since each of the
Dark Fragments would mostly be a cut, paste, and modify operation from
the current map. I think I would prefer this concept to a new
continent.
Another advantage is that at least in some part this system would help
with several of the problems that have been vexing UO since Beta.
Consider the following:
1) Since Dark Fragments are only inhabited by NPC’s and those you
bring along with ya, you don’t have to worry about PK’s lying in wait,
and even better, they can’t follow you into the fragment. The only way
a PK could be a problem is if ya brought the blackard with you.
Mayhaps this way we can begin to trust one another again. I do so
hate running from all strangers simply because they might be a PK.
2) Under the current dungeon / wilderness system it’s very hard to
create a world that is appropriately difficult for both newbies and
grand masters. I suggest that the Dark Fragment servers only spawn
monsters in a fragment when a party first arrives. The algorithm
should scale both the quantity and the difficulty level of monsters
biased on the size and experience level of the party arriving and a
random scaling adjustment ranging from 0.75 (easy) to 1.5 (Very Hard).
3) By using about 128 base maps, a random monster theme generator,
and a random quest generator, the number of "fragments" could seem all
most infinite. The GM’s could humor themselves by devising devilish
new quest to fill the table with, and they would not be ruined by
having 1500 warriors show up for the event! I still submit that it is
all but impossible for GM’s to create enough quests in the current
world to keep people interested. This on the other hand is a
possibility.
Consider the following possibilities.
1) A party enters a Dark Gate, and finds themselves in Britain, at
least it looks like Britain, except it is populated by specters and
skeletons. The party begins killing the vial beast and finds notes
from Mondain himself ordering his minions to locate and return eight
gems with haste. With continued exploration the party realizes that
they must locate the eight gems, defeat the litch Mondain who sits
upon Lord Britishes very throne, and place the gems upon Mondains
corps to end this fragment.
2) A party enters a Dark Gate and finds themselves in Trinsic, but
something is amiss, the town is filled with ghosts and zombies, mere
shadows of the normal towns people. Exploration of the fragment
reveals that the Time Lord has placed a mystic orb in the town meeting
hall. Destroying the mystic orb will end the shard. Only one problem,
the orb is being guarded by evil clones of the party members. Careful,
is that a monster, or your buddy? They must defeat there own twins to
prevail!
And now for the required disclaimer, for I have noticed that creative
companies such as OSI must always be weary of using user suggestions
since said users will sometimes try and sue the benefiting company for
stealing an original idea. Most Foul!
I Matthew T. Linehan hear by grant OSI full and free right to use my
plot concept of the "Dark Fragments" either in part or entirety as
they see fit. I’m willing to wave my rights to this concept in
writhing if need be. My only wish is to see UO fulfill it’s destiny as
the worlds best RPG ever devised. If by making this suggestion to OSI
I help achieve that end, I’m a happy camper!
Peace
Matt
ThomWilson
I think this is an excllent idea and I'm surprised no one else has responded to
it! I see several good things to recommend it:
1) Gives higher level characters something more challenging to do, leaving room
in Brittania proper for newbies to flourish
2) Gives the UO team a chance to reimplement their finely balanced ecologies on
a smaller scale. I can't imagine that the ecologies in Brittania now are
anything like realistic.
3) Gives us a reprieve from what I consider the worst feature of UO: you can't
choose who you play with. I dont know any other game I've ever played where,
if I didnt like the way someone played, I couldn't just refuse to play with
them anymore. This addresses pking obviously, but also the more subtle things
that sap away at one's enjoyment of the game: characters with ridiculous names,
a total lack of role-playing, etc. It would be nice to take a break from that
and get into an adventure with my friends.
I quote the previous post below (clipped for your reading enjoyment) cause I
wonder if anyone saw it? I'd be interested in hearing what everyone thinks.
--Thomas
Anderin the elf, Chesapeake shard
on 1/7/98 2:08 PM, MLin...@ix.netcom.com (Matthew T. Linehan) wrote:
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Consider the following possibilities.
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Peace
Matt
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