Competition D:OS 2 Fundraiser: Design the Codex NPC!

[Shaewaroz]

The troll should not just be an inside joke, it should also be enjoyable character for the people who don't know anything about RPG Codex. So here are some ideas how The Codex Troll™ could become a meaningful and memorable character:

- Make him have a story arc. If he can be encountered multiple times, his character should change somehow based on the player interaction.
- Make him have a mission. Something he really wants to achieve. He could for instance tell about his dream project, a Book of Magick, that he's yet to finish, and that will bring back "The Golden Age". Player can then help him try to accomplish this goal. Trying to help the troll would however be extremely frustrating and annoying.
- Make his quest something that can be completed. The reward doesn't have to be anything significant, but the player will nonetheless feel a sense of closure and accomplishment.
- The encounter with the troll should give a reward of some kind. Maybe after multiple encounters the player could actually help the troll to finish writing The Book of Magick and learn the spell. The spell could be completely underwhelming (heal 1 hp, summon a tiny turtle) but have some completely over the top spell effects. This kind of story sticks with people - the unfortunate, annoying but also passionate troll who gave the player a completely useless spell and some good laughs. If the encounter with the troll gives no reward at all, no one will ever bother to interact with it.
- If the player pickpockets the troll, he will obtain "The Unfinished Grimoire", which only contain nonsensical scribble and is worth next to nothing.
- If the player attacks the troll, he will attempt to flee, complaining how battles used to be much better in the old days.
- The troll doesn't like how no one has any principles anymore; how knowledge is been dumbed down and how laws of the realm have been balanced not to offend anyone. He swears that once completed, his Book of Magick will change everything.
- After the Book of Magick is completed and the troll leans that his magnum opus was a complete failure, he first starts to blame the player for the failure. After awhile he however realizes that at least he finished the darn gam- I mean Book of Magick. He realizes that even though the spell is not perfect, there's inherent value in striving towards perfection and learning from one's mistakes. And thus the troll character act will come to an end and The Codex can finally experience, at least indirectly, what it might feel like if The Book of Magick was actually finished instead of been delayed to infinity.

 

[Gauldur's Bait]

It needs to wear a monocle.

 

[Grumpy Grognard]

Grog the Grognard

So long at the NPC derails every conversation/interrogation into a discussion about the nature of existence, the rules of the nard game, studies in pre-historic combat disciplines, snarky remarks about tradition versus new ideas, refusal to change their mind about anything and endless quoting people out of context to make comments they think are scathing, their characterisation should be accurate enough.

 

[Lockkaliber]

If its not too much work, it should have a weird and stalkerish relationship to Avellone designed companions/content.

 

[eXalted]

Grog the Grognard - always in a bad mood and yearning for the good ol' times while being completely oblivious that they will never ever happen. He dies in the basement turning completely schizophrenic living in his blissful memories of the past long gone.

 

[erickaqua]

Any design is okay as long as she has round tits, supple ass, and Udmurt hair. That should draw the crowd.

 

[Kz3r0]

Name: Dortmund.
A doppelganger mimicking the PC, in every new location the player encounters some NPCs saying that they already encountered someone like the player, if the player decides to investigate further should manage to encounter Dortmund that will always have the same gear and stats as the PC, a brief conversation ensues where Dortmund askn inane questions with no rights response or answer in a trollish way, a brief fight ensue, Dortmund is easily defeated and runs away leaving behind some consumable and, or some gold.
Dortmund also appears during boss fights helping the PC, his attacks have little effect tho, he can also help the player by taunting the PC causing some little boost to the PC stats.
If the player wants to get rid of Dortmund should accept his challenge to meet him at the Well of Wealth
[optional location, Larian can decide to develope it or not:
a well promising abundance if someone thows something in it, however everytime the well spits back worthless items or lesser versions of the items thowns in it, by insisting in thowing items in it the PC falls into the well and has to pass through a mini dungeon].
Encountering Dortmund at the Well of Wealth will trigger abrief battle, thougher than the others, when defeated Dortmund will fall into the Well that at that ppoint will crumble entrapping him forever.
The reward can be a special mirror, the bane of truth, that will cast a false image of the PC that will attract all enemy attacks for a limited number of turns, the mirror itself has a limited number of uses.

EDIT:
I must stress that the encounters with Dortmund happen only if the PC decides to search for him in any new location.
Dortmund appearing at boss battles should depend on the PC encountering him in some specific location or the number of times the PC met him.
here some of the possible answers Dortmund could have when asked who he is:
"To every action corresponds an equal and opposite reaction, you caused a bit of an uproar around here, I am your reaction."
"Never heaard of unforessen consequences?
I am one of those".
An alternative or complementary way to trigger dortmund appearances is by the player breaking a mirror in some specific location at the beginning of the game or having the PC's image refelected by the mirror of misfortune, an item easily found at the beginning or having the PC's image relfect on the surface of the cauldron of the witch[Possible encounter with said witch] ot the Lunar Lake[optional location].

 

[an Administrator]

Backstory of Altor:

His mother, Enemaa, died giving birth to him. But Altor managed to survive in the harsh world without parents, wandering around wilderness he eventually found the [settlement]. Strangely, people of the [settlement] were kind enough to accept a young troll among themselves. There, Altor became obsessed with watching the street actors performing, he spent nearly all he earned on street actors. But this hobby costed him a lot when he smashed the skull of a performer who didn't play his role correctly and people finally threw him out of the village. He stays in his old cave, near the [settlement], dreams about a journey to find the best actor in the realm.

Due to tragedies that happened to him in past, he is often aggressive. But his tone becomes even more aggressive when PC shows interests to Altor's favorite hobby. He asks you hard questions about the art of acting and if PC answer all of them correctly, he considers PC "a true fan" and then asks PC to find him the best actor of the whole realm. Also if there are more females in your party than males he occasionally throws negatives comments about how women are bad at acting.


He resides at the end of an optional dungeon near [settlement].

 

[Shin]

The only codex trope I can come up this early is having Grog (I presume he's going to be named that) talks a lot about source (maybe even is involved in a minor questline about it) but always comes back "WHAT IS SOURCE?", was the creation of the universe source? is alchemy actually source for newfags? etc etc

 

[Neanderthal]

Grog the Grognard: A dirty, hunched, smelly old Troll stands by the wayside, clad in an enveloping flashers mac an ragged, motheaten, unwashed clothes. He fidgets an grumbles ocassionally, scratching his thick curling beard, his arse or his crotch, then smelling or licking his fingers clean if he finds any crumbs. His fingers are yellowed an twisted from rolling up ciggies, and he always has a roll up behind his ear, which he'll retrieve, light an have a suck on every once in a while. A massive coughing fit follows, until he thumps his chest enough times to cough up a massive wedge of phlegm, which he'll tell to, "Get out an walk ya bastard!"

Grog makes his living by outfitting adventurers and claims to have seen em all, and survived since the good old days, when men were barechested an women wore chainmail bikinis. Most of the stuff he sells is outdated, iron rations, pole 10", 50" of hemp rope, climbing spikes, water bottles, winter blankets, mail bikini, loincloth etc. Ogles any women he sees, makes suggestive comments, "I've got a broadsword that'd fit your hand just right darlin!" "Do ya appreciate literature? Ave a look at me Shakin Spear then!" Winks an nudges any males in a womans company. When selling he opens his mac like rogue in Torchlight, revealin all crap he has dangling from various pockets an hooks.

Wonders who stopped time an why he can't find his bed or home anymore, blames Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Lizardmen, Undead or whatever the player happens to be, an says they oughta been wiped out like in good old days. No offense o course.

"Plate bloody armour, I once slaughtered an entire nation on Orcs while wearin nowt but a jockstrap, an weildin a Bohemian Earspoon. Tha soft lad!"
"Whys I been adventurin for so long? Get away from the missus!"
"By your age i'd conquered jewelled nations o Hysoria an wrencfhed a bloody crown from former kings blood drenched hand, course I had anger issues!"
"They said I were choen one, the Dover Soul, who could speak Draconic. Truth is it were a touch o wind."
"Is it just me or did Rivellon used to be a lot smaller?"
"The Baalpawn? Think I sold im some trousers."
"Course when I was a lad it were simple, grab your broadsword an set to slaughterin nearest endangered species, didn't need no Hexers or silver swords."
"Thing you gotta remember about Dragons is their other breath weapon, once knew a Thief sneakin round trying to get a backstab on an Elder Wyrm, one fart an Quickfingers were toasted like a crumpet."

 

[Akratus]

Don't make him a troll. Don't just use him to make references to shit we like.

Just make him an asshole who will say every possible negative thing about the main character and his party, and is way too fond of his own jokes. Then allow the player to tell him there are consequences to his actions, initiating combat.

 

[Goral]

So far I like Neanderthal's work the most, not only it's a great idea but it's also detailed and not some hazy, broad thought (most posts are basically "he's a troll who is XYZ", fill the gaps yourselves Larian).

He fidgets an grumbles ocassionally, scratching his thick curling beard, his arse or his crotch, then smelling or licking his fingers clean if he finds any crumbs.

https://twitter.com/islamlie2/status/798298191275978752

 

[Hoodoo]

Name: Grog

Personality: Always insulting, remembering the good old days when everything was better.

Quest: Retrieve an old Grimoire from an ancient scribe who has been writing it for 200 years. Supposedly it contains all the secrets to bring back the glory of the old days for the trolls. Grog says that the player will end up in a magical prison called Prosperium if this quest is not completed.

Like this one best. Can subtly squeeze in bunch of other codex memes by having the player have to track down other people and clues that relate to codex stuff ending in short dungeon crawl and an anticlimax.
Wonder what it would do to prospers head if he ew he was an a.i character in an rpg

 

[himmy]

It may be too silly by Larian's standards.

Hahaha! That's not a thing.

 

[Wayward Son]

I feel like we should just send all of these to Larian and let them pick and choose the details.

 

[Abu Antar]

What Grog should do is trash talk the player, but in an intelligent way. Make the MC feel worthless no matter what you say to him. He's such a downer that everyone in your party hurts themselves for 10% damage. The insults and all that should not be codex related.

 

[Gunnar]

The troll was once a human mage, but contracted a curse that slowly mutated him into the red skinned, diminutive, nasty and ill tempered creature he is today. He views his current condition as an improvement, reveling in his 'superiority', spurning all offers to help him break the curse. He is very useful to the party, for he has arcane knowledge lost to the world, but he has an angry, hateful personality.

Grog can produce poisonous barbs from his body to shoot at enemies and is very effective at taunting enemies into blind rages, disrupting spellcasters concentration. He has a natural regeneration and is immune to fire, poison and acid. He does not age.

He is a master of curses and is capable of placing a geas upon the player, forcing them to do what he wants.

 

[Xzylvador]

The Codex should be initially found as a book, containing mumblings about good old days and how everything is shit now. Should mention 'does not scale' and maybe have an odd weight or some mention about its weight when it's picked up/examined.
Only when you put the book on a scale, it transforms and a big fat red troll appears; insulting you, everything and everyone else and recalling how everything was better in the old days.
Start quest line: Restoring an old tome to bring back the old days when things were really magical (not that boring lame sourcery!).
It will require meeting the troll several times, he'll never be really thankful and only really whine and complain.
Upon completion he'll cast the spell; Vanish with a ridiculous effect and leaving a white mailbox behind instead.
Inside the mailbox is a reward for the player: a broken watch, crushed below a stone miniature bust figurine of a monocled man wearing a fedora*.
The stone figure can be used as a one time boost to a character's unarmed* skill.
The watch can be used as a rain spell or sold for some quick cash.

*:

Spoiler

I wonder if they could make a character model of me to go along with my portrait?

Spoiler

Clearly I win. Also, where's my reward for the previous D:OS2 contest damnit? My suggestion for portrait won!
Gimme mah monay

 

[LeStryfe79]

Codex troll should be used to implement a new game mechanic.

 

[deuxhero]

Perhaps Grog could mention how boring a compass makes traveling and that finding north by the stars and moss is superior?

 

[Immortal]

Have a dark black troll, standing in town smoking a pipe and staring off into the distance, when you approach the screen grows purple and you are given a long laborious narration about two female wizards who slay disgusting men with their spells.

 

[Shilandra]

So the troll wont be a woman then?

 

[deama]

His name is Orion IV, he is the 4th experiment of Dr.Bulkovich.
His red skin is the result of many experiments to change his DNA, mostly his brain structure.
Dr.Bulkovich succeeded, but Orion IV proved to be too smart, and eventually escaped.
A few years have passed, and Orion's brain is having some side effects.
He is having hallucinations, his dreams speak to him in languages he cannot understand anymore.
His dreams even extent to reality, they slowly deteriorate his vision of what is true.
In the darkest nights, shadows can be seen where none exist; lies turn into truths,
and friends turn into enemies.

You cannot save him, he is too far gone.
You can only help him find his past, make him remember of what happened,
and set his mind at peace for the river that he will float on into the far beyond.


Do we have to right a type of "main quest" for him or does Larian do that?

 

[Bubbles]

Do we have to right a type of "main quest" for him or does Larian do that?

Larian will do the quest design themselves.

 

[thesheeep]

Wait, they went from over the top silly to grimdark if we can't even have a somewhat silly character in?