X-From_: williams@concentric.net Sat Feb 20 17:22:56 1999 X-Sender: williams@pop3.concentric.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999 18:20:23 -0600 To: b l a d e s@ spiderwebsoftware . com (Note spaces added to thwart spammers. Remove spaces for valid email address.) From: Williams Subject: BOE Article: The Teleport Spell The Teleport Spell Not all scenarios work if the player is allowed to return to the beginning town with Word of Recall. For example, if a player is making a journey accross an island chain, doing a good deed at every port before moving on, teleporting back to the beginning could be disasterous! I've seen at least one scenario say in the readme, "Do not use Word of Recall in this scenario." Fortunately, there's a solution. In fact, it can be used in several very interesting ways. You see, Word of Recall is affected by the Variable Town Entry setting. In the above example, it would be easy to make it so that, as soon as the player arrives in the port, an SDF is upgraded to make entering the starter town (now far away and forgotten over the deep blue yonder) equivalent instead to entering this new port. Bingo! (For those of you who do not know how to use Variable Town Entry, read the docs.) One word of warning: Be sure to have a "change outdoor location" node somewhere where the party is sure to trigger it. It wouldn't do for them to leave the new port only to find themselves outside the starter town! Incidentally, Word of Recall will put the party at the same coordinates as where they originally started in the first town. Be sure it's an empty space! So, how can this be used? First, you can ruin the home-town to your heart's content, and the party will arrive right in the middle of the ruins. Second, you can take the party to the localized home-town instead of the starter town, as described in the example above. Third, you can even work it into the plot so that the party teleports to a town they've never been to before! Yes, folks, your high-level priest knows a teleport spell that can take you anywhere - even into the middle of an ambush. Remember, if you're going to make a lvl 7 priest spell essential to your plot, be sure the party can find it and that the scenario is high enough level that they would HAVE a lvl 7 priest. Fourth, if you want to trap the party in some outdoor section, you could make it stick them someplace very, very bad if they try to use the spell. The possibilities are unlimited. To make a more powerful teleport spell, create a special item which triggers a dialog which lets you select which town you want to teleport to. Done thus, the party now has another option besides a boat or a horse. Anyway, hopefully I've shown here that, if properly accounted for, Word of Recall is not an annoying spell that makes the scenario unfinishable, but is actually a powerful teleport spell which can be worked into the plot. Evan Williams