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The earth is shaking; sinkholes erupted throughout the countryside, walls have fell and the foundation of castles shook. And this is in a region not known for earthquakes, and no one has taken any precaution. The losses are devastating, and there don’t seem to be an end to the sudden quakes. The adventurers, if experience enough, would be asked to find out the cause of the troubles. If they are relatively unexperienced, they may be drawn into it somehow, perhaps when they fall through one of the crevices.

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It’s the middle of spring, where farmers ought to til the land in peace, and the skies clear and calm, as it usually was. However, since two weeks again, there has been report of a storm that seems to be travelling across the land. Wherever it goes, hail thick as eggs rain down, and lightning bolts frayed the ground. Villages have been devastated and even the walls of towers and keeps are in need of repair.

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Among many ruins, old cities, shrines and sometimes, even just in the middle of a field, one could spy the remains of a runic circle, about 2 metres in diameter. Those are actually teleportation portals in the days of yore; with a keystone, one could open a portal at any of those runic circle, which would directly lead to another one which the keystone is attuned to. Needless to say, powerful magic was used to construct the keystones and the portals.

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A gust of wind swept through a small village, shaking the windows, stirring the hay and rustling the leaves of the trees. The next day the villagers awoke, feeling a little queer and out of place. Something felt wrong. It took a while before a young child asked her mommy. “Mommy, where is my shadow??” All the villagers cast no shadows at all, whether be it in the full glare of the sun, or by the other man-made light.

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Over at the RPG Bloggers Network there is a lively discussion on experience points and the rewarding of it therefore. One interesting debate is going on about the murdering of villians and why do it and why not (the article points out that recurring villains are hard to introduce and it’s not necessary the fault of XP system why players want to kill them)

My point of view? The experience points mechanic is the most potent of all Meta Plot. Yes, the experience points system is a Meta Plot too. How so? For it also influences how your players think in game. Remember the Meta Plot being able to guide players’ decisions, restrict their actions and so on? The experience points mechanic is a double whammy – for besides just guiding players’ decision, it also rewards them immediately with tangible stuff for their characters.

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A moment again, there was just a vast expanse of empty lands. Then there was the sound of a silent boom, and a large walled city manifested right into where it was once just natural landscape. The origin of the city is unknown, and no one could identify the emblems on its flags; everything about it is unfamiliar.

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Last time I mentioned that magic is often used as a clutch to explain all sort of plot devices and the week series of daily (okay, almost daily) plot seeds have nothing to do with magic whatsoever. So for this two weeks, I am going to try the other extreme. Really smashing epic high level of magic.

Do note that when it comes to magic, the magic level could be high, but uncommon throughout the world. So we’re not talking about having every town their own resident cleric and Deckard Cain, but rather stuff like an entire city popping out from nowhere and the adventurers got to figure out how to deal with it. In fact, that would be the very first upcoming seed…

Brigands attacking merchants caravans and wagons are one thing, having them to entirely disappear without a trace is another. It seems that after the attacks, any attempts to track the brigands and the trail of the stolen caravans or wagons is futile. The tracks can be followed for a while, then suddenly they abruptly disappeared, as if the brigands just vanished into the thin air.

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It is the most anticipated game concert event for me – Video Games Live. It started in 2005 and began to tour the various states in USA, and it was a matter of time before it came to Singapore too on 19th July 2009. Recently, for this country with the nickname of “the little red dot”, there has been a series of concerts – PLAY, one for Final Fantasy and some time back, the Eminence Ensemble performed at the Victoria Concert Hall. So how does the legendary VGL @ Singapore matches up?

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Welcome to part 6 of 101 forms of a dungeon. My apologies that it has taken so long; starting a new work and doing numerous freelances as well as a sudden new-found love for Star Trek: Voyager is sapping up my time. It is getting harder to come up with new ideas, especially when I have to make sure that none of them are repeats:

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