Dragon War FQ

[Quentin Boone]

So, this has been mentioned a couple of times in the podcast and has been discussed in detail on various occasions in the chat. I think it's time to put the idea to the community more officially.

First, some background: This started as Kroom and Lye discussing a dragon-hunting thread, which piqued my interest in relation to plans for my character; we got a little carried away and the idea grew exponentially.

Here are some of the details that have been discussed:

Nothing here is set in stone yet, so feel free to voice your opinions and ideas. I'll keep updating this post so that things that are agreed on or discussed will be easily accessible for people to see.

Background:
The war in Eiskalt disturbed a 'tribe' of dragons from their slumber and they've woken up extremely pissed off. In their rage, they start a rampage, attacking everything and everyone they can.

Location:
A couple of ideas have been mooted in terms of the location. Either a specific region of Althanas, or Althanas-wide. Personally, I like the idea of these dragons wreaking havok throughout the entire world. It's been suggested that an FQ should really only be in a single region, but who doesn't want to break from convention every now and then?!

The Dragons:
The 'tribe' will be a large one, depending on the scale of the FQ (obviously, if it's Althanas-wide, there'll be a lot more), enough so that they pose a real threat. There will be Ancients (which are basically uber-dragons-of-doom) as well as younger dragons and even a few infants and 'kids'. Rather than solely being the traditional fire-breathing variety, it's been suggested that there are also elemental dragons: ice, poison, etc, in the mix to give a bit of variety.
I also think it would be better to have the dragons be (at least partly) intelligent, which would give people the opportunity to NPC them with a bit more character than just savage uber beasts.

Outcome/End Game:
The instinctual thing is to just kill all the dragons and reap the rewards (dragonscale armour, anyone? ). But I'd like to suggest another idea: What if the dragons win? Whether the FQ's just a single region or Althanas-wide, I think it would be awesome if there ends up being some kind of dragon-rule; the FQ can still reach a conclusion and we can still get rewards, but it would allow for some really significant long-term effects that can change the landscape of the world and give plenty of post-FQ stuff centred around the dragons. Maybe they even end up being benevolent leaders, rather than the tyrannical overlords I initially envisaged.

FQ Management:
BlackAndBlueEyes suggested in the podcast that the FQ could be community-run. Reasons for this include less 'red tape' and more freedom for those involved. I like this idea and think it will be a great way for members of the community to band together to craft something truly epic.

Other management points:
* Maintenance of an OOC timeline that lets everyone know what's happening in the FQ and where.

Timeline:
While we could easily liquid-time this and get started right away, the general consensus seems to be to wait until the clan war has actually finished before we start this. That makes sense as we don't really want one event killing another.

NB: For those of you who might not know, an FQ (Featured Quest) is an organized quest that incorporates a large number of players across multiple threads.

So, what do people think to the idea? I know there's been a lot of positive feedback in chat, but would also like to hear from those that don't come into chat. Let's get some dialogue going and maybe we can get some concrete plans formulated.

[Ashla]

Cool idea!

[Dein]

Wow, Great idea.

But really, I think this would be a cool way for everyone to work together and have characters to meet under strange circumstance. If this really happens me and my multitude of alts are down to kill some dragons!

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I've made my opinions on the matter known in the podcast--and since I can't remember what they were, I'll ask everyone to just listen to the last three episodes or something.

But I'd be willing to help co-ordinate efforts in Salvar, as that's where I plan on having Maddy do her thing over the course of the invasion.

[Warpath]

Flint is definitely going to run into some dragons in Salvar if we do the worldwide thing. I'm cool with the Eiskalt idea, too, but I think if we're going to call it an FQ it ought to be a worldwide crisis. Especially if it's going to be all unofficial-like.

[Otto]

We should get Flint's mum to help out. And her dogs, too, obviously.

I'm in! I really like this idea. News of the dragons and their exploits is going to travel pretty far, though, and should have some powerful consequences. Perhaps we'll need an information thread detailing just which parts of the world have been ravaged by the beasts, as it occurs? That way, people can fit relevant effects into canon (example: maybe someone sets out on a ship to reach Ettermire, but finds a dragon's attack has set off a gunpowder store and burnt/exploded the docks to the ground).

[Marduk the Black]

I would so be in...on the side of the dragons.

[Flames of Hyperion]

I'd throw all of my characters behind this - in fact, I was going to try to build up to it a little in Nanashi's next Clan War thread.

I thoroughly agree with Otto's suggestion of an overall information / timeline thread to keep track of what's happening (what quests are occurring) in what region and when. To elaborate on his example, somebody submits that in the first week of the Dragon War in Alerar an attack burns the Ettermire docks to the ground. Building on this now-established canon, another quest by a different group of players set in the second week of the War might then make reference to frantic efforts to get a makeshift quay built to replace it.

[Hysteria]

This may be a silly question, but what are we doing with said dragons? Capture/Kill/Pacify/Harvest/Train?

[Quentin Boone]

Awesome, folks! Glad for some feedback and show of interest.

Completely agree with a thread that chronicles what's going on, and I'd say it's probably an absolute necessity.

Warpath: Well, according to Sei, FQ's tend to be limited to a single region, with 'Main Quests' being Althanas-wide. Honestly, it just sounds like semantics to me, and if needs be, we can just reterm it a main quest if people really want this to be world-wide.

A few questions for people, though:

-- Should the dragons just be developed as site-wide NPCs? If so, how do we manage that? Make profiles for the different types of dragons? If not, who do we get to write them? How do we decide who?
-- I suppose there should be a poll, so... Do you think the FQ should be limited to a single region or be an Althanas-wide crisis? If a single region, which region?
-- How should we actually manage the FQ? I've never been involved in one, but I've been told it's a bit like a DnD session with a game master 'dictating' the plot. How should this be done? Decide an over-arching plot before we start and let the community manage itself from there, or do we get a 'committee' to oversee things? If a committee, how do we decide on them?
-- I saw that the Xem'Xund (or whatever his name was) FQ had its own sub-forum for its duration, is this something we'll need? If so, can we have one, admins?

Dein: I completely agree about it getting people to work together. Think it should make for some interesting allegiances: The Order and the IK have just waged war with each other and now they're gonna have to (probably) work together to stop the dragon threat. Will definitely be some very interesting dynamics.


I have also updated the first post to make it better presented, and will keep updating it so that it can act as an overview of what's been discussed. I've added the idea that the dragons should be intelligent, and also an idea about the outcome/end game of the FQ. Let me know what you think.