Frayed Knights: Cartographic Incompetence & Dirk's Interview
Frayed Knights, the indie RPG that refuses to take itself too seriously, continues development.

This week, amidst massive changes to the website (to be unveiled this weekend, I hope), I sacrificed sleep and sanity to work on the automap.

The automap was pretty much just as big a pain in the butt as I predicted. It's still buggy and missing some functionality right now, but it works.

I'm handling it by pre-processing maps of all areas the player will visit, align it properly along the X and Y axis, sett the scale and origin properly, and functionally remove the "fog of war" tiles that obscure it as the player explores. Oh, and save that information out with the save and load game functions - we don't want the player to have to re-explore the territory. It may be automatic for the player, but there's nothing automatic about my process!

The above picture is more of a proof-of-concept than anything resembling the final version. For this stage of development, I am using a screen capture grabbed directly out of Torque Constructor and touched up in Gimp to give it more of an antique look. Eventually, I want to go for more of a hand-drawn look for the maps.

Shawn Boyles is working on the title screen art for Frayed Knights. It's coming along really, really well. I laughed when I saw the pencil sketch today. I may be biased, but I think it'll be the best title screen ever. It should be done within about a week or so --- we're trying to have it done by the 30th (the demo at the Utah Indie Game Developer's meeting).

An Interview with Dirk
When I was starting design work on Frayed Knights and trying to work out some of the dialog, I performed an exercise I'd heard about for combating writer's block. That suggestion was to conduct an imaginary interview with your characters. This is not supposed to be anything that really happened in the game... none of this is to be considered canon or final, or even necessarily fully "in-character". It was never intended for publication. But it helped me get some insight into my characters' attitudes, and their (often incorrect) perceptions of each other. And Dirk's exaggerated perception of how the team perceives him.

I thought one or two of you might enjoy it. If you do, let me know, and I'll post the interviews with the other three characters.

Q: First of all, tell us about yourself!
A: My name is Dirk C. Kuldare. I am a rogue extraordinaire. Master of pulling off the impossible!

Q: What does the “C” stand for?
A: Chance.

Q: Your middle name is “Chance?”
A: Yes. My parents took one. And then there was me.

Q: So why did your parents name you after a bladed weapon?
A: Because of my Grandfather.

Q: Your grandfather’s name was Dirk?
A: No, he held one to my father’s back during the wedding ceremony after my mother became pregnant.

Q: So what is it you do right now?
A: Currently I’m affiliated with a highly successful and motivated group of treasure-hunters.

Q: The “Frayed Knights?”
A: Don’t call us that when Arianna is around. She’ll feed you your own esophagus.

Q: Okay, I’ll be careful. So what makes the Frayed… I mean, your team so successful.
A: I don’t mean to brag, but I see myself as sort of the backbone of the team. I have an eye for treasure. And I’m not as nervous as most rogues. I mean, your average treasure-hunting rogue is like a scared old lady. If they wanted a life of safety, they should have become scribes or farmers.

Q: Treasure-hunting is something of a life of danger, isn’t it?
A: Absolutely! That’s me. A good rogue accepts a life of danger. The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward, right?

Q: Do your fellow teammates subscribe to that philosophy?
A: Of course! Usually. I mean, they have no problem going toe-to-toe against some nasty threats that would send groups twice our size packing. Arianna’s not afraid of anything. Chloe – she loves nothing more than a good tussle and a chance to work her magic. And Benjamin – man! I think that guy has icewater running through his veins! Nothing phases him.

Q: Why don’t you tell us a little bit about your teammates. Let’s start with Arianna.
A: She’s a babe!

Q: Would you care to elaborate on that?
A: I’d better not.

Q: Why is that?
A: It’s a touchy subject. See, she’s a warrior. But she’s a woman. And she’s part elven, so that makes her kind of… well, small, for a warrior. And since she’s part elven, she ages slower. So she’s actually like sixty years old or something. So she’s really a little old lady who looks like a babe. Man, that's weird. Wait a minute... can I just change all that to "no comment?"

Q: We'll see. But she fights well?
A: Oh, she’s awesome in a scrap! That’s the thing. But people don’t believe that by looking at her. And if they don’t take her seriously, they learn their lesson too late. She has a really, really mean temper.

Q: Okay. How about Chloe?
A: Chloe is… mysterious.

Q: How so?
A: It’s like she’s on this whole ‘nother plane of existence or something. All the time. Like her spirit and her body are always separate. She sees things really differently. I just can’t quite understand her. Sometimes I’m not sure she’s entirely human. Oh, and she’s a babe, also. I don’t think she’ll get mad at me saying that.

Q: She’s a sorceress, isn’t she?
A: Oh, yeah. She loves big explosions. It’s really kind of scary. You give her the chance to blow something up, and she just goes crazy. I mean, I’ve actually heard her GIGGLE as she casts fireballs.

Q: Like she enjoys the violence?
A: But she doesn’t, that’s the thing! That’s what creeps me out. Outside of combat she’s all about flowers and cute, fluffy bunnies. You wouldn’t think she had a destructive bone in her body.
Q: Okay, how about Benjamin?
A: He’s a nature priest.

Q: So how did he get involved in the team?
A: I don’t know, man. He’s got motivations all of his own. He’s even more mysterious than Chloe, sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if he’s not just subtly manipulating our entire group, so we’re all doing his bidding without realizing it.
Q: Doesn’t that concern you that he might be using you?
A: Not really. I mean, I’m having fun, and I’m making money. And he’s a great cook. And fun to talk to. So if he's up to something, well, I just hope he lets me in on it!

Q: So which of your exploits are you most proud of?
A: Any one we get away with.

But this last one was a lot of fun. We encountered a nasty little situation with a combination of a Nesting Lancer – a class “C” ambush predator – hiding on the ceiling above your standard ten-foot pit trap with rusty spikes on the bottom hidden by a weight-triggered trap door. The Lancer would grab its victims before the trap door had slammed shut again. The end result was that the lid of the trap was covered with the remains of past victims – which tipped everyone off at once. The thing is, people would notice the pit, think they’d discovered the only threat, and then get themselves skewered by the lancer as they made their way along the side. Then if there was more than one party member, they’d panic, and possibly fall into the pit as they tried to escape the lancer. I’m the one who spotted the lancer, because the bones on the top and side of the pit didn’t make any sense to me.

I probably saved the entire team.

Q: Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and your team?
A: We’re the best. No job is too difficult, no monster is too fearsome, and no treasure is too large!


(Vaguely) related failures to communicate:
* Frayed Knights: Learning the Lingo
* Frayed Knights: Overheard at the Gaming Table
* What Makes a Great RPG - The Story
* Stop the Long-Winded Intros!

Want To Discuss It On The Forum? No? I Can't Blame You. But Here It Is Anyway!

Labels: Frayed Knights, Roleplaying Games

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