Progress for 7/23/13

I've done a redesign of both the QSG and ICLD, using Trajan Pro as the new page and content header font, instead of the old stalwart League Gothic. A couple reasons for this:

• I wanted to tighten up the visual aesthetic. The fact that there are now only two fonts associated with the entire Refuge visual identity is a step forward. (I think)
• Trajan Pro is simply more attractive than League Gothic as a display font.

But I've come to a bit of an impasse in designing NPC stat charts. There are currently three different models, as you can see here. One and two are pretty similar, only different with the spacing. Two is obviously easier to read but takes up more space than the incredibly efficient one. Then there's three, which is much more visually pleasing and inviting than one and two (probably put together), but takes up more than twice the space. I'll keep looking for a middle ground.

In the meantime, progress of Mister 880 goes okay. I'll need to export the dialogue from the old Fallout: New Vegas quest to phrase some things I got right the first time, as well as to nail down the exact plot progression. But I expect the quest will be done by Thursday, just in time for Playtest II.

We'll see how everything goes. Until next time.

Noah

Progress for 7/17/13

I started working on one of the quests - "Fragged" - for the first Refuge RPG adventure, In the Cold Light of Day. A moderately short quest, it takes quite a bit of influence from Fallout: New Vegas's "I Put a Spell on You" and concerns the machinations of a captain at the Koch Military Base near Edgehill, the starting town on the adventure's first planet, Telren. The following is the preliminary sketch of the first half of the quest. Obviously, spoilers abound.

There are set to be about six sidequests in each of the three major sections of ICLD - one on Telren, one on Solari and one on Caal – each with their own medium-length "story quest" that ties the three locations together. These first six are "Haus of Gill Repute," "Hunting the Hunters," "Mister 880", "Fragged", "Return to Sender" and "Bootlegger". Several are mutually exclusive, but all have consequences that affect parts of the main story as time goes on.

This is the city of Edgehill, a run-down, godforsaken town near the Tennerine Desert on Telren. Home to a MOB supporting military operations in the Calaine Mountains to the east against the Tennerine Independence Army - a bloody war that's been being fought for almost a decade -, Edgehill is otherwise almost devoid of law and order. The local IFS Police office is overworked and understaffed, despite the attempts of the previously idealistic young sheriff attempting to dispell thirty years of corruption under the leadership of the previous sheriff.

Black market shops operate openly, most notably The Black Mark, operated by a man known only as Wagner, and violent street gangs rule the rest of town. The Third Street Hunters, most notable of these, are armed and defended by Cecil Gill, a criminal lawyer who forms one half of Solomon & Gill, Attorneys at Law and owner of the Gun Haus.

Edgehill is, in the words of a veneable Jedi Master, a wretched hive of scum and villany, with intrigue and betrayal lurking at every corner.

In the Cold Light of Day: Edgehill will be released for free alongside the Refuge Role-Playing Game Quick Start Guide as soon as possible.