Dungeon Master Forum

I've had some ideas for a rather large custom adventure for RTC for quite some time but have yet to do anything about it, although I do have some proofs of concept littering my hard-drive.

Recently I've been thinking about how to make it interesting and unique. One of the things I want to do is to have lots of character specific interaction, both through 'speaking' and conditional triggers. But Zyx did that in Conflux.

Zyx also did a lot of other stuff in Conflux that I'd like to emulate.

So my questions are thus:

1) Is it necessary to always try and be unique when building a custom adventure?
2) As a player, do you mind if mechanics from one dungeon appear to be used in another one that's unrelated?
3) As a builder, do you mind if someone else 'borrows' your ideas?

I'd say not. There's nothing wrong with taking an existing enjoyed mechanic and put it in another dungeon, as long as its entegral to the dungeon, and not just a 'look what I can do too' thing

eg - having weather in another dungeon - nothing wrong with that, it's an interesting device. Having an outside level whose only feature is the weather would be a little dull though.

Similarly, that's why RTC hasa the character specific triggers now, it's a good feature.

I think it might be nice to say when you borrow someone's dungeon mechanics. Then again, it's amazing how many people have parallel ideas!

Recently I've been thinking about how to make it interesting and unique. One of the things I want to do is to have lots of character specific interaction, both through 'speaking' and conditional triggers. But Zyx did that in Conflux.

Lands of Lore did it before Zyx. Did Zyx write the exact lines you're going to use? If not, don't worry about it. Besides, there is no character interaction in Conflux that I know of in that, characters never reply when someone makes a comment. In fact, characters even comment out loud when they are alone in the party.

I don't know what else you were thinking of "borrowing" from Conflux but, if it's as general and vague as the example you have given, I'd say don't worry about it. Just do your thing. Zyx has said repeatedly that he hoped to inspire.

EOTB had this sort of incidental character talking aswell, which was fun and where my ideas of it came from

I think obsessing about being new will not yeild a good result for you, as feature creep versus what gets released by other people will kill your dungeon. Just release somethign you like

3) I don't mind.

It doesn't matter at all if it was already done or not, what's important is how it integrates and if you like what you're building/playing.

Gambit37 wrote:1) Is it necessary to always try and be unique when building a custom adventure?
2) As a player, do you mind if mechanics from one dungeon appear to be used in another one that's unrelated?
3) As a builder, do you mind if someone else 'borrows' your ideas?

1) It's the story that should be unique, the mechanics or even the game engine is only the tool to relate it.
2) Not at all. Especially if it is relevant to the story or the environment.
3) It's a compliment.
4) I don't know about CSB but you can protect your RTC and DSB mechanics and functions (recode/compile the actual engine for DMJava). If they are not, then the author is implying that it's ok to copy..... Just be polite and ask