Ideas for a ruined cahtedral FM

[Sir Taffsalot]

As a regular attendee of the Whitby Gothic Weekend in England for many years, one of the things I always wanted to do when I started learning how to use DR was to recreate the Whitby Abbey that sits on top of a large hill and overlooks the town of Whitby. Every thing I create in DR has a story behind it except this. I just built it because I could. I would like to turn it in to an FM since I've actually built it now. I would quite like to do a horror FM seeing as the Vengeance series will have no horror in it. If anyone has ideas they would like to donate then please do. Also is the TDM setting old enough to warrant having a ruined cathedral in it?

 

[jaxa]

Also is the TDM setting old enough to warrant having a ruined cathedral in it?

 

Sure it is.

 

http://www.thedarkmod.com/missiondetails/?id=37

http://thief.wikia.com/wiki/OM_T1_The_Haunted_Cathedral

[Sir Taffsalot]

Those buildings were abandoned though and the structures were pretty much intact. Whitby Abbey is ruined after many years of ageing. Maybe in the story it could have been destroyed by a fire?

[jaxa]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitby_Abbey

 

"The second monastery lasted until it was destroyed by Henry VIII in 1540 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The abbey buildings fell into ruins, and were mined for stone, but remained a prominent landmark for sailors and helped inspire Bram Stoker's Dracula.^[5] The ruins are now owned and maintained by English Heritage."

 

If the TDM setting is around 1700-1800, it shouldn't be unusual to see a ruined monastery somewhere as long as some kind of explanation is given.

[Obsttorte]

but what should the player do there if only some walls are left?

Edited October 12, 2012 by Obsttorte

[jaxa]

but what should the player do there if only some walls are left?

 

Probably go underground, into caves, or explore a forest. With pagans or bandits, if not undead around.

 

Or wandering into the cathedral ruins could cause a "timeshift" into a past or ghostly version of the cathedral with walls and other buildings intact.

Edited October 12, 2012 by jaxa

[Sir Taffsalot]

but what should the player do there if only some walls are left?

 

There won't be much AI around the cathedral due to perfomance. As it's a skeleton of a cathedral I can't put any visportals in the archways or anything. I also want to put foilage and dirt decals on the walls so that's going to eat up performance. Like I said, it wasn't built for the purpose of an FM. It is possible to mantle to the top so maybe I can put an item that the player needs to get somewhere on top. As for AI maybe I can create a tomb underneath or some living quarters ala The Haunted Cathedral from T1 for them.

[Obsttorte]

something like an acrobatic focused mission as the Swing

[Sotha]

Some ideas, free of charge.

 

 

Two thieves (player and an NPC), escaping the local guard, notice that the pursuers avoid an old ruin and give up the pursuit for some reason. The thieves make camp into the ruins and plan to continue as soon as first light appears to the horizon. During the night, the other thief disappears mysteriously and the player thief follows the trail, which vanishes in a clearing in the middle of the ruin. The player decides to find out what happened to his friend.

 

Turns out there is a hidden portal that leads below the ground, a complex cellar level of the ruin.

 

Plot twists:

Undead tomb, of which revenant inhabitants made a snack out of the friend. Go loot the place and optionally get the friend's mutilated corpse out because of respect.

A bunch of weirdo cultists have captured her for strange activities, rescue the damsel in distress. (Additional twist, it turns out she was the leader of the cult.)

The friend actually KNEW there was a hidden tomb in the ruins and LED the player there, waited for the player to fall asleep so she could ransack the tomb herself for valuables. (Either she succeeded or died in the tomb. If she succeeded, the player might want to have an optional objective to teaching her a lesson about crossing the player.)

 

It might be interesting mission. The mission would start with the player awakening noticing the other missing. Some small puzzle discovering the entrance. Maybe the player needs to combine some evidence around the top-level of the ruins to gain access to the levels below? Then the tomb/dungeon would be anything you have time to map. A small place with few monsters/guards. Or a large and complex area with multi-level dungeon areas.

 

 

[Sir Taffsalot]

Thanks for that Sotha. If I do use your idea then I will credit you for the story. I probably wont start on it until Vengeance part 2 is finished which I haven't even started on yet.