Dear developers of Solasta.
I am writing to you because I think that you can listen and also have an open ear for new ideas. Why is this so important to me I think that you have to break with some things to reach others. What is an adventure?- it is not so easy to answer this question. For a small child an adventure is to study a caterpillar outside in the yard. For a thousand roleplayers I could get 751 different answers. But many will be similar and can be summarized in three groups : The first would like to actually just beat up monsters and make a lot of variety and loot , the next group wants a good tactical combat on varied maps with lots of loot connected by a story and some puzzles .The third group puts the story more in the foreground .The first group is currently well served, games which are distinguished as hack and slash there are enough since Diablo. To the second group I count the Divinity series. While it was fun at the beginning to rush from battlefield to battlefield, I was already bored after Prison Island, why? It was always the same battlefield with puzzles or without difficult to very difficult a little story new battlefield.The characters are optimized in the 2nd run through but I did not feel like belonging to it. Following I am talking in general I have no idea about D and D.
How to change this ?
Let's start with the party. If we were playing alone, without a group, we would only be responsible for ourselves. In a real role-playing game it is like that, everyone plays his character but only for a small section. of the big story ( he does not always have to be the all-changing main hero ) and there we have to go . Each person has three moral values one for himself, one for his goals and one for the group and the world. What do I mean? Every man has principles an example neat hardworking just , just cruel , hard etc . This is often already covered with now but own goals are added . The old wizard who joined the group to protect the young beginner from himself and when he is able to look for a cozy village to grow old, the thief who apparently supports the group but is just waiting for the opportunity to steal the leader's sacred amulet. Then there is the great link that holds the group together. A common task, a love. After fulfilling such a great task, some members may then leave the group. Love can override the morals of a character in love. He can be bound more firmly to the group or leave if he chooses someone else.
outside in love. Unrequited love can turn into envy and resentment or eternal friendship (hope). Left behind characters could be rejoined by a meeting place or visited.Why can not you start alone and then times four members are there then go again and new ones are added. Besides, for me the greatest heroes are those who are there for the people. It does not have to degenerate into a grind. (Three women go with water buckets from the well into the village. Says the first my son is the strongest no one can take it up with him, says the second mine can sing the most beautiful poems and songs, ask both the third and yours: he is actually nothing special. Suddenly the earth shakes and the son of the first wife rolls by laughing and somersaulting. Then you hear the son of the second wife passing by singing beautifully like the nightingale. The third son comes and speaks: "Mother, give me the heavy buckets, I'll carry them home". (Russian little story).
What annoys me again and again (has already decreased) lightly dressed adventurers who run around in areas without protection, where you would never voluntarily move so. An example is a lightly dressed druid in the snowy mountains at minus 20 degrees Celsius. This could be remedied with a temperature card, which means that the lightly dressed southerner only gets a cold when it is too cold. If it gets colder and he puts on nothing, it is a flu or he starts to freeze and his morale goes to zero he gets homesick or must be left with a healer. It also goes the other way around the Nordic barbarian wrapped in furs or the iron-shod knight get a heat stroke in the savannah, in the jungle or the desert. Also there could be natural insurmountable obstacles (I think of the weather spire of the Lord of the Rings to name an example). There is no shame in having to turn back sometimes. The weather could also change known places. The bridge which still stood in the fall is now washed away by the snowmelt. In general, the world should change depending on the story. If an evil lord is defeated, the gallows on the road disappear, if an evil spirit is released, perhaps no more flowers grow.
Another issue is loot. Not every enemy should have loot with them, it makes them more valuable.
Furthermore, some heroes should not accept loot. A paladin might refuse anything that contradicts his god or the order he belongs to.... (a cursed gem, armor better than his but not blessed by his god. A knight who has sworn to serve the poor and gives his booty to the first beggar or peasant etc.).
Traveling and resting is also such a story . There are often no things next to the battlefields . It could be much more interesting if an explorer, a merchant or a bard travels with us. They all have other goals and could entertain us while we protect them, but would certainly be pleased if we discovered something interesting that would be of no use to us, but of great use to them. They might be able to help us if we meet them again (for example if we have to go to the mayor of a town and are not let in). Poor people could also repair broken cartwheels for free. It could also be a hostile creature to seek shelter at our campfire. One possibility here would be to get into conversation with him and learn more about his customs. Possibly we gain an ally for some time or the poor guy thanks us with a little something ( supplies ) which is of much use to us but not too valuable. It could also incite our thief to steal an artifact from a temple which is then desecrated. Not only will half the world hunt us down (temple guards, police, outlaws, enemies) we will have to take the artifact to another temple (consulting a seer beforehand who will tell us how to fix the mess) and have it consecrated before we can bring it back.
Another NPC character, the bard, could make eyes at one of our main heroines. This could result in her falling in love and running away with him, or he could become a permanent companion (invisible behind the troop) who always appears in emergency situations and helps us. It is also possible to have a bard who is offended (because we chased him away because of his bad singing) and who now moves ahead of us and ruins our reputation in the surrounding areas.
The grid system of the pen and paper templates is constantly being improved, and that's a good thing. I see that you already have your own ideas on how to implement them.
You want to enlist the support of an envoy who is known to be humorous and witty, but also a little lazy. He gives us the following task on his property with house: cover the roof, mend the fence and build the well. We solve the task by covering the roof like a table, mending the fence with his laundry and building the well instead of digging it.
In any case, you should avoid the heaping occurrence of the same things because otherwise you create grind.also participation in festivals, hunting trips and sporting events would be a possibility.
With this I close for today and thank you for reading through.
J.O.