11 replies to this topic

[Linaze]

This is an idea of an npc mod that will include the NPC Sabrina, with her own custom bard kit and her special quest. Before you read the stats please note that she will be a rather weak NPC, not saying underpowered, more an NPC that takes some skills to play and not simply spamming spell sequencers loaded with tons of spells, or just using your +5 carsomyr to slice and dice all foes in seconds. With this I suspect noone will whine on lack of power, and post other critics, :wacko:for comments and critics are always welcome in my threads (you won't make me cry for saying something bad about my idéa).


Name: Sabrina Zodirak
Race: Human
Class and Kit: Bard >>> Seducer - This bard are common mainly among female prostitutes and have learned seducing dances and are good at charm and domination spells. Their strength is not in themselves, but controlling enemies like marionettes against each other is the strength of the Seducer.
Stats:
Strength - 10
Dexterity - 14
Constitution - 12
Intelligence - 13
Wisdom - 10
Charisma - 17
Alignment: Neutral Evil - Uses her natural beauty to charm men in order to gain money for a young woman's needs. Dosen't really care about what is going on in the world, as long as she got it good, and never once bothered helping anyone without getting something out of it as well.
Weapon Profiencies: Good with dual wield daggers and/or short swords.
Details: Sabrina is a prostitute and can be found on the second floor of the Five Flagons inn, in one of the empty rooms, offering her services as fast as you enter the room. If you agree to her offer, you will be given the opportunity to have her in your party. Her personality is special, and cares little for what you do. You can take advantage of her services quite often, simply talk to her, and she will have several special options, but also regular talk is availiable as well. She is romanceable, yes, but it is a hard romance that takes alot of time and patience.

Biography: When you ask Sabrina about her past, she remains silent for a while, until she tells you that she grew up with her family, the wealthy and snobby Zodirak. She tells you that her family cared for little nothing more than fashion and gossip of any kind. Sabrina wasn't willing to become like the rest of her blood, and ran away from home at young age, and learned the way of a prostitute quickly, as that was her only way to make gold, quickly and easily. Sabrina looks away from you and tells you that she never want's to speak of this again.

Last Words: I would like your suggestions on the mod, as well as your opinion on the already existing. Also tell me anything weird or not-understandable that I have written.
Thanks in advance, modders of Spellholdstudios!

Edited by Linaze, 26 February 2008 - 01:37 PM.

[theacefes]

I would first and foremost recommend a proofreader to look over your dialogues.

[Tempest]

First of all, welcome to the modding community!

Before you get too heavily involved writing, I'd check the Overused Ideas section of the wiki, of which I feel the need to quote the first rule:

1) Hot, Sexy characters, male or female. If you want to create a straight, gay or bisexual character fine, if you want a romance-able character, cool, but there should be more to the character than the contents of his/her robes and his/her plans for them.

As a prostitute, it's understandable that Sabrina would have a much more sensual side than many npc's, but I strongly recommend writing her as a character first, sex toy second. There are also several other ideas listed there that I'd look over-the notes about a character's backstory for one.

As you've currently described her, one thing that jumps out at me is her lack of reason to join Charname and adventure-if she is relatively happy in her job, why would she abandon it for adventuring, which is not a pleasant, fun, or remotely safe activity.

Lastly, I'd recommend moving her from the Five Flagons and putting her somewhere, if not outright seedier, then less respectable. There are a number of other inns that don't have much going on, such as the Crooked Crane or Sea's Bounty.

Best of luck to you and your mod!

[Zyraen]

This reminds me of a time me and a friend bounced an idea about having an NPC (albeit a male) around for nothing more than steamy sex scenes. They would be randomly generated each time, so you get quite a variety. The services come free, and could be usable on resting or by initiating a talk with the NPC (similar to a Flirt) that will result in service (and the party resting)

It actually started out from a gripe about action texts and we were talking like, if they wanted to write porn just go ahead and write it, why bother with a romance.

[cmorgan]

There are some online materials dealing with a Cortesan Kit for PnP which would be a start for tweaking class/kit/uniqueness combo (google is your friend).

Like Tempest mentioned, usually the character has to be stronger than the "action" for there to actually be any "fire". The difference between text based dialogue and games like Oblivion/The Elder Scrolls series is that visuals won't come across. Which leaves you with alot of very tough writing. (The only thing harder than writing something dealing with personal issues like this is writing comedy. Either one is very, very difficult to do.)

If you are strongly tied to your idea, I would play once through BG2 and try Romantic Encounters, to see a wide variety of approaches to bringing more adult themes (not all are adult, but all have the adult notions of romantic attraction, and several have adult [mild erotic] content) into BG2. It will also give you a wide variety of writing approaches to "breaking through" to communicate the feelings/ideas.

[Kulyok]

Yep, visit Romantic Encounters for all things erotic: we're accepting submissions, so if you'd like to start small, it might be your best bet. Aaand there's Flirt Pack, too - I recommend at least browsing the files.

Edited by Kulyok, 27 February 2008 - 03:24 AM.

[berelinde]

That's the problem with an NPC that sets out from the get-go to be "sexy." All the discussion focuses on the "sex" aspect, and the rest of the NPC is forgotten.

I like the flavor of her evil. It seems like it's supportable through writing. By this, I mean that writing for a selfish, self-serving, callous, scheming NPC motivated by self-interest might produce a complex, entertaining NPC. When I read about NPCs that are eeeevil simply for the sake of evil itself, I have the unfortunate tendency to predict that either the challenge of writing for an NPC that embraces evil like a paladin embraces goodness might be too much for even a good writer to pull off credibly or that the writer has some maturity issues to resolve. After all, a paladin thinks "For the greater good!" and devotes himself to all that is right. Flip that last sentence around, substituting evil for good and wrong for right, and it no longer makes sense.

Sure, there are people that *do* think that way, but it's often just youthful rebellion. Though thinking about it, that might make for an interesting NPC, too. Angsty teenage adventurer, set out to show the world just how bad he/she is out of some perverse idea that it's cool, somehow. Sorry. This tangential speculation is brought to you courtesy of eight years as a youth cousellor for a volunteer rescue squad. The fact that such individuals would join a volunteer rescue squad in the first place might say something.

But back to *her* evil. It's real, it's believable. Handled adroitly, it might produce a fine NPC, if you can get past the sex issue. Callous indifference is a very real evil. A selfish, beautiful woman using all the charms at her disposal to get her way is far too believable.

There's a drawback there, though. It only works on those who are sexually attracted to her. Those that are not are likely to be hostile toward her. They might even undermine her plans or actions. Could make for some interesting party dynamics.

• Aerie: She'd be likely to hate her. She'd be one of those working against her, likely as not.
  
• Anomen: He'd be a lost cause. He just doesn't have the strength of character to resist her charms completely. This might cause problems in his relationship with a female PC.
  
• Cernd: I don't think he'd really understand what she was about, but I don't think he'd let himself be ruled by his hormones to any great extent.
  
• Edwin: She's bright, and she's beautiful, and she's uninhibited sexually. He'd likely be all over her. She might have to beat him off with a stick.
  
• Haer'Dalis: He'd be amused.
  
• Imoen: She wouldn't like her, that's for sure. Imoen tends to go along with whatever the PC says, though, so I don't know how activeley she would persue her dislike, if the PC supported her.
  
• Jaheira: Hatred at first sight. Jaheira would likely resent her deeply, and might well be jealous of her presence in the party, whether Jaheira was romancing the PC or not.
  
• Jan: He'd probably treat her as a joke, like he does with everyone else.
  
• Keldorn: He'd likely be immune to her charms because he's too wise in the ways of the world to fall for her seduction. He would probably consider her a destructive force in the party, though.
  
• Korgan: He'd not believe her flattery, but he'd enjoy it anyway. Korgan would probably have a lot of fun seeing how far he could push her before she rejects him.
  
• Mazzy: Mazzy would give her no end of grief. She'd be the one passing out pitchforks and torches. Not only would Mazzy not be swayed by her beauty, she'd see her for what she really was. There is no way Mazzy would stand for her extended presence in the party.
  
• Minsc: He'd be fooled by her again and again. Boo might try to talk some sense into him, though.
  
• Nalia: Seething hatred in the cards, here. But Nalia's a talker, not a doer. I don't know if she'd go any further than complain.
  
• Sarevok: He might actually take advantage of her, for his own ends, giving her just enough encouragement to carry on, but never really allowing her to gain mastery over him. Sarevok is both smarter and wiser than she is.
  
• Valygar: He'd be likely to perceive that she is Trouble with a capital T and stay well clear of her. She wouldn't get far with Valygar. After all, he was raised among nobility, even if he rejected it. He's seen manipulation before, and remembers what it looked like.
  
• Viconia: A natural rival. There would likely be a great deal of competition here. After all, Viconia is accustomed to being the sexy one. She wouldn't surrender that title without a fight. And romance conflicts? Bitter and bloody.
  
• Yoshimo: He'd be swayed by her, at least to some extent. He isn't wise enough to resist her, but he is intelligent enough not to let it get too far.

And yes, I can definitely see how this would be a difficult romance both to write and to play. Successfully navigating it past snares and pitfalls would be a nightmare.

Edit: forgot Mazzy.

Edited by berelinde, 27 February 2008 - 09:17 AM.

[Miloch]

I like this idea. And I don't see anything about the character being "sexy" or even primarily motivated by sex in the original post. She's a prostitute; she's motivated by money. And she doesn't seem particularly happy with or willing to talk much about her situation. It has some good writing opportunities that hopefully would make it more than just another flirt/erotic mod.

[minotaur_in_maze]

Yep, visit Romantic Encounters for all things erotic: we're accepting submissions, so if you'd like to start small, it might be your best bet. Aaand there's Flirt Pack, too - I recommend at least browsing the files.

Is it possible to browse those (or any NPC related) mod of late without running into the incomprehensible TRAfing system of coding? (I think I will edit my next comment about TRAfing. Just as a public service...)

Wondering.


As far as the mod concept here. Not bad, though I agree she ought to have a good reason to join <CHARNAME> (Perhaps wanting the chance to be impregnated and maybe be blessed with the possibility of an ever-more-deluted Bhalspawn / Or getting in bad with a very powerfull "customer" for such and such reason.)

Just a thot.

It might be though that she is more than meets the eye herself?


MiM

[Kulyok]

It's possible to de-traify the text. I don't remember the exact command now, but I posted it in Domi's Kivan forum not so long ago; look in the pinned threads.

I'd still recommend you to come up with something of your own, however: it's always a pleasure to read(and play!) something truly new. For me, at least.

[jcompton]

If you can't follow the TRA files, the easiest thing to do is simply install the mod and browse the dialogue with InfExp or whatever.

[Azkyroth]

If you can't follow the TRA files, the easiest thing to do is simply install the mod and browse the dialogue with InfExp or whatever.

This page explains briefly how to knit TRA and D files back together. Use a text search for "untraify" and it will take you to that section.