Legends: New Module is Here From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1992 03:12:22 +0000 The North Island Campaign module is here. If you asked for it and haven't received it yet, you'll presumably be getting it in the next day or two. I'm impressed: They've really being paying attention to players' comments. A lot more information is given up front (factional goals, locations of major guilds, race-influence interactions, and more). Many of the imbalances of the game have been modified: Statuses can no longer be afflicted upon soldiers -- only bought with mana or spell points; soldiers can't have INV of more than 3 regardless; monsters are much less reasonable about working for their captors -- that sort of thing. They state that the maxiumum chance of influencing a character with any prestige is 30%. I wonder if this is true in the other modules as well. It certainly suggests that spreading the prestige around a bit can do wonders to protect your less loyal characters. Priests have become far more attractive in this module -- especially at higher levels -- as most of them get fifth-level group spells. The extreme case is the Universal Faith (#3), which gets seven 5th-level spells: Remove Mark (34), Sphere of the Masses (35), Rites of Abolishment (84), Word of Closing (134), Remove Enchanted Status (185), Remove Lycanthrope Status (252), and Cure Black Plague (288). The only 6th-level spells given to priest are Commune (300) for religion #1 and the rather nifty Rite of the Higher Order (89) for religion #10. Some of the factional goals are murderously tough. There are also ways to *leave* a faction. The simplest of these is to simply quit -- in which case you lose 3 prestige points, 6 influence points, and automatically join the Lords of Chaos, which isn't a faction, but an individual victory condition. (Basically, you win by becoming the most powerful player in the game.) *All* the factional goals look awfully difficult, but the introduction claims that they should be achievable in three years' hard playing. One quickly notes that there are many items or locations needed by more than one faction. A definite effort will be made, according to the module, to vary details from game to game so as to minimize the advantage of having played the module before. Also, people will be discouraged from taking a new setup in a game they've been playing. Some simplifications have been made to the combat system, and some of the more useless weapon choices have been dropped. Looks promising. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com Watership Down: You've read the book. You've seen the movie. Now eat the stew! Up