Thief fan missions and campaigns

[duskvile]

There's new mission from Master of Dromed: Raising Corpses.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Thanks for the heads-up, gave it a spin today.

Master of Dromed, for those who don't recall, has released three FMs prior to this one: "A Tough Night" (which is tough to play) "A Walk in the Forest" (which is a blast to play) and "A Visit to the Baron" (which is strange to play). Meaning that one can never be certain precisely what to expect, or if it's any good.

Fortunately "Raising Corpses" doesn't faff about. Garrett is going to rob a Hammerite-faction called The Order of Hermits of Saint Gramal The Pisserites. (You'll quickly learn why I call them that.) They've literally gone to ground, with a large underground factory on top of a large underground city on top of... something, because the underground city is almost taken over by the undead.

Despite the promising venture this mission is not vertical, though gradual descent is required to find all the objectives. While meeting the loot objective doesn't sound so bad, the real amount of loot is close to three times that amount, and I do believe this FM broke the record for 'most secrets in an FM'... and even though I dug my nose in deep I ended up only finding half of them. Oddly enough all the secrets I found were of the 'find-the-hidden-lever-to-unlock-the-secret-compartment'-type. (Guess Master of Dromed took some offense to his last FM having virtually no secrets, despite having plenty of opportunity for them.)

Throw in the sheer sprawling size of the place, the somewhat confusing map, the unkillable robots, and the pain-inducing juggling of boulders on ropes, and you've got something that's not exactly special, but will keep you going for a while.

Rating: 7.5/10. Does what it says on the tin.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Revisited a couple of old "classics" as I have them marked as such, but couldn't quite recall why, at least in the case of the former.

"The Saint of Redmound" has Garrett breaking into a Hammerite church to recover a skull of a dead saint, as well as clean out the place in the process, especially a downstairs laboratory which may house some secrets.

This is an old FM, and it has aged poorly. Architecture is barebones and simple, the soundscape is leaky, a massive amount of keys need to be hunted down, Hammerites are (in)conveniently placed and at first sight the whole ordeal appears to be on-rails. But looks can be deceiving. In truth there are almost always multiple paths of entry/travel (most of which can be used to dispose of the (in)conveniently placed guards) and readables are on-point... and that's before we get to the surprises. When rose-tinted glasses are applied and set to 2001 (the year of release) it becomes easy to see why people like this FM: The author is still grasping DromEd here, but harbors a mind that can think multidimensionally and outside of the box.

Rating: 6/10. It deserves its place in Fan Mission-history and is worth a play - just be mindful of its age. The author goes on to do better and greater things.

That is best displayed by the other FM I played: "Returning a Favor" which is a sequel of sorts. Garrett scored maps of Redmound thanks to a Hammerite priest, but now that same priest is in trouble; a murder has been committed and he's the prime suspect. He asks Garrett to clear his name by finding the real murderer at a Hammerite power station.

It's smaller in scale than "Redmound" and actually more restraining in movement, but still manages to offer some options. I'm more bothered by the greater emphasis on keys, and the addition of scripted events that spawn in new Hammerites, among other things. While I generally don't like that, it's done within acceptable means here, such as a loudly-slammed door announcing an arrival. The clear winner here is the 'whodunnit' at the middle of it all and the cast of characters involved with it, written with a heavy emphasis on readables, but still written brilliantly... but most importantly is how the player gets involved in it all. (You never see Hercule Poirot skulking in the shadows and sneaking among the rafters, do you?)

Again, if the rose-tinted glasses are set to 2004 one easily sees how this was well-regarded then, but to us in the Now it hasn't aged as badly as "Redmound" and somehow feels small and tight. Also this one needs to be played sparingly, so that the mystery remains.

Rating: 7/10. A fun dive into a little mystery. The author goes on to do even better and greater things.

And that's when we get to the author - Maria Ström, a.k.a. Morrgan. She went on to make "The Greyfeather Gems", of which Part 2 (Rodamil) scored a 9.5-rating from me, and also "All For a Night's Sleep", which scored a 10-rating from me. But then she stopped making FMs, and that was that.

A textbook example of how people get better at their work if given time.

 

[Beastro]

Rogue's Lair:

Overall very good. Nice, large map that doesn't drag on. It's perfect for integrating a makeshift hideout in repurposed ruins which made me ponder about how the mission was designed.

I very much get the feeling it was designed first as a ruin from the viewpoint of a lived in area, then the thieve's additions were fitted into it. At least, that's the feeling it gives off and it doesn't come off as backward designed with the ruin's architecture shorehorning in little twists the designer wanted in from the start. The result of this makes the hideout very spread out and stuff is stored in unexpected places, but it makes sense given that it's being repurposed and slowly converted to the thieves whims. In this regard it's a major improvement on the Lost City map in T2.

My only major criticism is the transition from gambling den to thieve's hideout. A well in a deadend underground hallway completely different from the rest of the den leads down into a courtyard pool is the only thing too contrived to me. The well doesn't fit in the gambling den and a small courtyard pool is not going to be something that would be feeding it. They really should have put in an underground stream going into the pool at the very least.

With that said, the transition is shocking and makes full use of the underground in display. I spent a good minute taking in the view and processing what had happened.

The only other quibble that I have is the secret area reward. You get a shadow sword that drains your breath when unsheathed. I like how you get it, it's a nice, short haunted statue gimmick, but this isn't a mission where this kind of reward is useful given the ubiquitous "no killing" rule on expert (who plays FMs on easy outside of a desire to kill anyway?). I got it at the end of the mission but wouldn't have done anything with it anyway if I hadn't of.

Even more, the breath draining mechanic is odd. The animation time it takes you to unsheath it eats up a good 1/4 of your bar which makes me wonder what utility it would have in a fight.