Fan Mission: Robbing the Notary by GreyPilgrim (2026/01/23)

[GreyPilgrim]

Robbing the Notary

This is my very first FM, made over the course of an extended holiday week to get familiar with DarkRadiant.
I've slightly cleaned it up afterwards with the very helpful feedback from the beta testers.
It's a very short and simple mansion heist (10-ish minutes completion time).
Enjoy, and I hope to deliver more substantial missions soon!

Download link:

V 1.0: Google Drive

Beta Testers

Ralkarn, Niko, Frost_Salamander, Cambridge Spy, thebigh, chumbucket91, wesp5, and bergante.
Thank you to each and every one of you!

Special Thanks

Springheel01 for his New Mapper's Workshop video series which definitely sped up a lot of the learning.

 

[Amadeus]

Congrats on the release! I think I know what I'll be playing tonight

[kin]

Congratulations on the release. It is an aristotechnic mission. It has all the core gameplay components of the original series compressed in a small mission.

[nbohr1more]

Congrats on the release!

The mission is now available in the mission database.  

[joebarnin]

Congrats! A nice little mission. I've always felt that starting with a small mission is the right move - rather than trying to build something grandiose and giving up in frustration. Good work! Now, on to something semi-grandiose 

[STRUNK]

I think you started with the story and made the gameplay and  map to fit.
The map is realy decent for a week into DR but the gameplay and story already exellent I think.

Unlike joebarnin, I would say: Next up a 6 mission campaign masterpiece!! XD

I started playing and was into the story from the time I went into the kitchen untill the end, so: Well done!


 

[thebigh]

Congratulations on the release! This one was fun to test and fun to play.

[GreyPilgrim]

1 hour ago, STRUNK said:

I think you started with the story and made the gameplay and  map to fit.

It's the inverse! I started with a single room I just wanted to decorate (the one with the fireplace on the top floor).
Iirc I only started thinking about context and story on day 3.

Thank you all for playing and the enthousiasm! It's definitely encouraging me to keep going after this one.

[Tarhiel]

Congrats on your first release!

Neat little mission, pleasant to paly form beginning to the end.
I have one plea maybe: 
 

Spoiler

Could you maybe add another optional objective, where, after you learn that he didn´t pay your cousin enough AND is secretly peeking at her (i.e. when you read her and his journals) you actually add some money to her stash?

That was the only thing I was missing story wise  

 

Edited January 24 by Tarhiel

[datiswous]

5 hours ago, STRUNK said:

Unlike joebarnin, I would say: Next up a 6 mission campaign masterpiece!! XD

Just make one mission at a time. You can always combine them later into a campaign if you want.

Edited January 24 by datiswous

[Cambridge Spy]

Unfortunately, I got the bug where the lights that are supposed to shine on the signs in the entrance hallway don't work. They did work on my pre-recording prep run, though.

 

[thebigh]

I get that issue in maybe one playthrough in four. Couldn't figure out what causes it, even opening the map up in DR.

[datiswous]

It's nicer than I expected I have to say. The text in the diary is very nice.

Spoiler

I think I did not find the secret room.

It does have some ai issues. It might partly be an engine problem. 

For example:

• When you get noticed by lady, lady screams help and runs even upstairs, but guard doesn't react to that. Guard only react to seeing/hearing you.
• Lady ai tries to flee even into the path that you are in. If you are standing in front of a door, she will open it and you are pushed aside by the door itself. If this doesn't work somehow, she stays stuck in front of the door, until you open it yourself.

Edited January 24 by datiswous

[GreyPilgrim]

17 hours ago, Cambridge Spy said:

Unfortunately, I got the bug where the lights that are supposed to shine on the signs in the entrance hallway don't work. They did work on my pre-recording prep run, though.

It's so damn inconsistent... Guess I'll just have to accept this bug for now, unless someone has an idea on how to effectively debug this.
I'd be happy to hear it! 

6 hours ago, datiswous said:

It's nicer than I expected I have to say. The text in the diary is very nice.

  Reveal hidden contents

I think I did not find the secret room.

It does have some ai issues. It might partly be an engine problem. 

For example:

• When you get noticed by lady, lady screams help and runs even upstairs, but guard doesn't react to that. Guard only react to seeing/hearing you.
• Lady ai tries to flee even into the path that you are in. If you are standing in front of a door, she will open it and you are pushed aside by the door itself. If this doesn't work somehow, she stays stuck in front of the door, until you open it yourself.

Read Sally's diary carefully, there's a hint to its location...

Spoiler

Second floor, room with the fireplace.

As for the AI, I didn't mess with it for now beyond the basic setup. Sometimes Sally does get the guard to come check things out but that's not a guarantee it seems. Something to research, because it definitely makes sense to happen!

21 hours ago, Tarhiel said:

I have one plea maybe: 

  Hide contents

Could you maybe add another optional objective, where, after you learn that he didn´t pay your cousin enough AND is secretly peeking at her (i.e. when you read her and his journals) you actually add some money to her stash?

That was the only thing I was missing story wise  

 

Hehe, that's kind of a fun idea actually!

 

[High John]

Enjoyed.

Very minor comments on rooms, just to provide feedback.
a)  Rooms generally well sized (often these are oversized, for no good reason).
b)  Stairs were excessively wide.
c)  Kitchen possibly oversized.  Though if the stairs were less wide, the kitchen would then be smaller(!)
d)  The kitchen ceiling is the same wooden panelling you use throughout.  It should probably be something more basic, being back-of-house.

And finally a comment on the safe combination.  I found:

Spoiler

1)  The Customer ID document, and
2)  The crumpled note in the wastepaper basket, re the combination.

But even if I hadn't found the second item, I would have

Spoiler

tried the 3-digit Customer ID, since it looks like a safe combination.

So the second item isn't really necessary.

Spoiler

Maybe it would be better if the Customer ID were a 5-digit number, and the crumpled note told you to use Digits 2, 3, 4 for the Combination (say).

 

Edited January 24 by High John

[hightide]

quite nice, and impressive for a first mission!

I also had the foyer lights bug, they appear to be on (lit texture on the lights) but don't actually project.

glad the guard is unobservant, I saw the switch and thought 

Spoiler

I will fire an arrow at it - oh no, I don't have arrows! but I just slipped around the corner and bonked him

in addition I found an issue with the books on bookcases - the textures were misaligned, so the tops and bottoms ran across the middles of the books!

[Xolvix]

I liked it, pretty cool for a first mission. Sad to say I also got the foyer lights bug, but I figure it's something which should be solvable even if it requires a different light implementation. Can't think of many other things to say except that (and I get it's needed for gameplay) Sally must really be bored if she insists on checking an empty (as far as she knows) dining room on a regular basis.  Maybe give her a chair in the kitchen or something just to break up the actions she takes.

Edited January 25 by Xolvix

[irisx]

Nice little mission, I particularly liked the backstory that is revealed through the readables. The lighting and decoration of the rooms were very good too for such a small mission.

The foyer lights were off during my first play, did work though during the second run. Weird...

[sullium]

This is nicely done, good work! I enjoyed playing through it, the light switch scenario with the guard was fun!

I did have a gameplay issue though: several areas of the floor that are covered by carpet/rugs still sound like tile, wood, or stone when stepped on.

You can see this happening in Cambridge Spy's video above: at 5:18 he visibly steps on the dining room rug, but it sounds like he steps on tile. Later, at 6:24, he steps on the other half of the same rug and it properly sounds like carpet. 8:45, 9:09, 11:14 show more spots where some or all of the carpet doesn't affect footstep sounds as expected, which mirrors what I experienced when playing. Every now and then I've seen other missions have this issue with individual rugs, admittedly I don't know the right way to handle this myself.

As for those little lights in the foyer, they didn't work for my first playthrough, but after restarting multiple times in a row I haven't reproduced the issue again. If I reload a quick save I made on that first playthrough then I can see they are still not casting light in that case.

And one more very minor thing: I worry the light switch button on the first floor of the foyer doesn't "stand out" as well as it should. The "Private" sign has another small gray thing (the light for the sign) centered under it that's purely decorative, so the small gray thing centered above it doesn't initially read as something useful. Maybe the button should be closer to the stairs instead?

Those points aside, once again good job, it's a solid little mission!

Edited January 25 by sullium

[Cambridge Spy]

4 hours ago, sullium said:

This is nicely done, good work! I enjoyed playing through it, the light switch scenario with the guard was fun!

I did have a gameplay issue though: several areas of the floor that are covered by carpet/rugs still sound like tile, wood, or stone when stepped on.

You can see this happening in Cambridge Spy's video above: at 5:18 he visibly steps on the dining room rug, but it sounds like he steps on tile. Later, at 6:24, he steps on the other half of the same rug and it properly sounds like carpet. 8:45, 9:09, 11:14 show more spots where some or all of the carpet doesn't affect footstep sounds as expected, which mirrors what I experienced when playing. Every now and then I've seen other missions have this issue with individual rugs, admittedly I don't know the right way to handle this myself.

As for those little lights in the foyer, they didn't work for my first playthrough, but after restarting multiple times in a row I haven't reproduced the issue again. If I reload a quick save I made on that first playthrough then I can see they are still not casting light in that case.

And one more very minor thing: I worry the light switch button on the first floor of the foyer doesn't "stand out" as well as it should. The "Private" sign has another small gray thing (the light for the sign) centered under it that's purely decorative, so the small gray thing centered above it doesn't initially read as something useful. Maybe the button should be closer to the stairs instead?

Those points aside, once again good job, it's a solid little mission!

I actually observed Sally hearing me stepping on carpet as if I was still on tiles in my first time checking out the mission, maybe I should have pointed that out during testing. I thought others would notice and do it instead, guess not.

[Kamil]

Congrats on the first release, and fingers crossed for more in the future! 

I was thinking about returning to TDM for some time to check out a couple of recent things. I'll be happy to check this one as an appetiser.

[taffernicus]

welp i missed another new fm (this & including the bikerdude one), will certainly download and play this 

in the past few days ive been gathering inspiration from certain FMs to motivate me to experiment in DR

Edited January 26 by taffernicus

[grodenglaive]

Solid first mission, congrats! No bugs in my playthrough.

[jaxa]

I played it a few weeks ago to test out a new install fast and enjoyed it.

Spoiler

Not sure I understood where the guy was disappearing to. But I got most of the loot when I played.

 

[TheUnbeholden]

Very good.  But short. I welcome these kinds of easier, quick FM's. Good work.