"the scent of you like fertile fields"

[BobTokyo]

Note: This thread has been split from the topic The Haer'Dalis Romance mod, an introduction. This is just to keep the introduction clean and easy to find; feel free to continue the discussion if there's anything to add.

 

JPS

 

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Coolness.

 

But are you sure you can't include dialog options for INT, WIS and CHA under 7 characters? Haer is a CN Tiefling, he'd romance anything, and the humor possibilities are huge.

 

Haer: "Your strong grey teeth like bones of earth, your thick white brows like clouds above the plains, the scent of you like fertile fields, thou art all fair my love!"

CHARNAME (INT:4, CHA:4): "Urgh. Fnurgle? Braaap."

Haer: "Yes my love! Fnurgle!"

[Meira]

Haer is a CN Tiefling, he'd romance anything,

I'm not sure that I agree with that...

[BobTokyo]

Haer is a CN Tiefling, he'd romance anything,

I'm not sure that I agree with that...

What is Beauty to a child of the planes?

[JPS]

Coolness.

 

But are you sure you can't include dialog options for INT, WIS and CHA under 7 characters? Haer is a CN Tiefling, he'd romance anything, and the humor possibilities are huge.

 

Haer: "Your strong grey teeth like bones of earth, your thick white brows like clouds above the plains, the scent of you like fertile fields, thou art all fair my love!"

CHARNAME (INT:4, CHA:4): "Urgh. Fnurgle? Braaap."

Haer: "Yes my love! Fnurgle!"

Well, I decided not to have the romance require certain stats, as a part of the general plan of not forcing the player to play a certain kind of character, but I might reconsider when it comes to how Haer'Dalis will react to the character's stats.

 

I have a couple of dialogues where the stats matter already – some choices will only appear if the character's intelligence or wisdom is high enough, and I'm planning a flirt that only takes place if the PC is stronger than Haer'Dalis – but the thing you're suggesting would basically require low-intelligence versions of all lovetalks, and that's not a thing I'm going to start doing without a very good reason for it. And I'm not that interested in making fun of ugly and stupid people, now that I think about it.

 

But "the scent of you like fertile fields" is too good a line to just dump without at least trying to find another use for it...

[BobTokyo]

But "the scent of you like fertile fields" is too good a line to just dump without at least trying to find another use for it... 

 

In all seriousness, one of the things I liked most about Haer was his alien-ness. He's not a Prime, and there's no reason he would see things in quite the same way Primes do. A few of his lovetalks could include compliments that might seem more than a little off from CHARNAME's point of view.

 

Understood as far as not wanting to make fun of low CHA and INT characters is concerned.

[JPS]

But "the scent of you like fertile fields" is too good a line to just dump without at least trying to find another use for it... 

 

In all seriousness, one of the things I liked most about Haer was his alien-ness. He's not a Prime, and there's no reason he would see things in quite the same way Primes do. A few of his lovetalks could include compliments that might seem more than a little off from CHARNAME's point of view.

 

Understood as far as not wanting to make fun of low CHA and INT characters is concerned.

Yes, I'm very much trying to get the dialogues to subtly show that he's not human (which under these circumstances should be taken to mean "he's not human, elf, dwarf, gnome, halfling, etc., etc. and damnation to D&D for including all those races and ruining my sentences (and 'he's not human' was a subtle reference to a Patti Smith song and all) and may an infernal rock hyrax gnaw on its bones for all eternity or at least a week". Yes, I have been told that I should try to cut down on my parentheses).

 

The problem (and I mean that in a good way) is that the game developers went a bit overboard with the alien-ness and made him extra-planar and a tiefling and a Doomguard, so I have to be careful not to overdo it. As he's written, I think the tiefling part is not really showing at all, and I'd like to bring that forwards a bit. Showing that he's attracted by somewhat unusual features (he's got demon blood in him, after all, and demons presumably find other demons attractive) might be one way to do that. But I also want to avoid the "if it moves I can f**k it" approach, fun as it might be...

[BobTokyo]

Yes, I'm very much trying to get the dialogues to subtly show that he's not human (which under these circumstances should be taken to mean "he's not human, elf, dwarf, gnome, halfling, etc., etc. and damnation to D&D for including all those races and ruining my sentences (and 'he's not human' was a subtle reference to a Patti Smith song and all) and may an infernal rock hyrax gnaw on its bones for all eternity or at least a week". Yes, I have been told that I should try to cut down on my parentheses).

 

The problem (and I mean that in a good way) is that the game developers went a bit overboard with the alien-ness and made him extra-planar and a tiefling and a Doomguard, so I have to be careful not to overdo it. As he's written, I think the tiefling part is not really showing at all, and I'd like to bring that forwards a bit. Showing that he's attracted by somewhat unusual features (he's got demon blood in him, after all, and demons presumably find other demons attractive) might be one way to do that. But I also want to avoid the "if it moves I can f**k it" approach, fun as it might be...

I'm guessing there will be some discussions of his own demonic ancestors as compared to CHARNAME's relationship with Bhaal?

 

I never minded the Extra-Planar Tiefling Doomguard bit, but I always wished that what it meant would be further explored. I agree that the Tiefling aspect kind of fell by the wayside.

[JPS]

I'm guessing there will be some discussions of his own demonic ancestors as compared to CHARNAME's relationship with Bhaal?

 

I never minded the Extra-Planar Tiefling Doomguard bit, but I always wished that what it meant would be further explored. I agree that the Tiefling aspect kind of fell by the wayside.

Well, both the "tiefling" part and the "Doomguard" part more or less make the "extra-planar" part necessary, and "tiefling" and "Doomguard" work well together, too, so it's not really too much as it's actually written in the game. It's just that looking at these things out of context makes at least me think of those horrible "my character is a half-dragon-vampire from another world, and he has a magical sword and he's actually Gandalf in disguise" things that are far too common among some D&D players (yes, that's prejudice. But I play D&D too from time to time, so it should be all right ).

 

So while I do want to bring out the tiefling in him, I don't want to spoil Bioware's good work when it comes to keeping him a reasonable character. I'm also thinking aloud here, so if something I say doesn't make any sense at all, it's probably a thought that managed to escape before it was finished.

 

And yes, comparing family trees will happen quite early in the relationship.

[BobTokyo]

I'm guessing there will be some discussions of his own demonic ancestors as compared to CHARNAME's relationship with Bhaal?

 

I never minded the Extra-Planar Tiefling Doomguard bit, but I always wished that what it meant would be further explored. I agree that the Tiefling aspect kind of fell by the wayside.

Well, both the "tiefling" part and the "Doomguard" part more or less make the "extra-planar" part necessary, and "tiefling" and "Doomguard" work well together, too, so it's not really too much as it's actually written in the game. It's just that looking at these things out of context makes at least me think of those horrible "my character is a half-dragon-vampire from another world, and he has a magical sword and he's actually Gandalf in disguise" things that are far too common among some D&D players (yes, that's prejudice. But I play D&D too from time to time, so it should be all right ).

 

So while I do want to bring out the tiefling in him, I don't want to spoil Bioware's good work when it comes to keeping him a reasonable character. I'm also thinking aloud here, so if something I say doesn't make any sense at all, it's probably a thought that managed to escape before it was finished.

 

And yes, comparing family trees will happen quite early in the relationship.

Cool! Haer'dalis' father was Gandalf in disguise!

 

 

Very much looking forward to the mod.