How to Build an Exile Town 1. Decide on the purpose of the town in the scenario. 2. Sketch the basic town layout on paper. 3. Decide and record any necessary characters that must live in the town. 4. If any of them require personalities, decide and record which characters have which personalities on some paper for future reference. 5. Choose a spot in the outdoors for the town, and draw it in. 6. Choose a number for the town, create it, and immediately go to the outdoors map and match the town space with the town number (so it can be entered). 7. Select ÒTown DetailÓ from the ÔTownÕ menu and decide on the townÕs name and the other basic options. [N.B. ÒTown DifficultyÓ determines the noise heard on entering as well, so always set this value to 0 or 1 for friendly towns]. 8. Roughly sketch the town in the editor first, sticking to the plan as much as possible (the trick is to make it good in the plan, not waste time in the editor). 9. Select ÒSet Town BoundariesÓ from the ÔTownÕ menu and decide on the size of the town within itÕs pre-defined limits. [N.B. If you want an exit pathway, always leave at least three spaces at that edge of the town that the player canÕt enter, or else the player will see grass beyond the edge, which looks very dodgy]. 10. Set the four town entrance positions (N,S,E,W). They are all separate ÒPlace EntranceÓ buttons in the button grid. They can all be in the same space if you like. 11. Put in the detail, e.g. fountains, furniture, pathways, lights, etc. while sticking to a common decor pattern throughout (usually). It may take some time to make sure that this part looks right, but it will be worth it later. 12. Once you are happy with the detail, add in random terrain features firstly by selecting ÒFrill Up TerrainÓ from the ÔTownÕ menu and then by using the ÒChange Terrain RandomlyÓ button for more extensive random effects. [N.B. start with 2% and work up from there; mistakes can be corrected by changing the randomly created terrain back to the original kind 100% of the time]. 13. Use the bottom two rows of ÒSpecial EffectsÓ buttons to add in blood, bones, barrels, barriers and more... donÕt overuse this feature or the level will become cluttered. 14. Use the ÒCreate Room RectangleÓ button to label various rectangles in the town with descriptions that appear on-screen then the player is in these rectangles. These can be seriously descriptive, but it may be better to exploit their comic potential instead. Also use the ÒEdit SignÓ button to do similar things. Again, best used for comedy. [N.B. You can use ÒEdit Area DescriptionsÓ from the ÔTownÕ menu to change the area descriptions once set]. 15. Put in and edit the items using the five ÒItemÓ menus, the three ÒEdit ItemÓ buttons in the button grid and also using the three ÒRandom ItemsÓ options from the ÔTownÕ menu. Keep in mind that items donÕt only hang around in chests - consider putting them on tables, in crates and on bookshelves as well. Remember to decide which are the heroes property and which must be stolen. [N.B. donÕt make the heroes have to steal things from hostile towns - it just slows things down and annoys the playerÕs moral conscience]. 16. Place the monsters using the four ÒMonsterÓ menus. At first just get them in the right place; donÕt edit them yet. Make sure you havenÕt put in too many or too little - balance is the key. 17. Use the three ÒEdit MonsterÓ buttons to tweak the arrangement and get the basic monster options sorted out. At this stage link the personality numbers to any monsters that require them from the basic monster editing window. Don't type the personalities yet! 18. Put in the four wandering monster start points (using the ÒWandering Monster Arrival PointsÓ button) and then set the wandering monster stats in the ÒTown Wandering MonsterÓ option in the ÔTownÕ menu. 19. Next put in the basic special encounters, those being the ones that are unrelated to monsters or dialogue. These include: descriptions; traps; item related specials (e.g. treasure) and stairways or teleporters. Use the ÒSpecial EncountersÓ buttons and menu options to do this. 20. Next set the monster related specials along with the advanced monster settings together. Many bugs can occur here, so watch it! Use the ÒSpecial EncountersÓ buttons and menu options and the ÒAdvanced Monster SettingsÓ window for this. 21. Write any ÒDialogueÓ that the townÕs personalities might have. This is the best opportunity for humour, so use it. Alongside this create any ÒDialogue SpecialsÓ that you need in your conversation (e.g. missions). Beware, as bugs are common here. 22. Now comes the hard part. Set up all the long chain, inter-related, UNIQUE SPECIALS that have profound impacts on the whole scenario - e.g. a unique fight scene or a unique artefact pickup. [N.B. These are really very hard to make well and almost infinitely variable in content and execution. Remember that all good scenarios have at least a few of these, and also that they have the most bugs of anything in the whole scenario making process. So - good luck]. 23. Select ÒAdvanced Town DetailsÓ from the ÔTownÕ menu and edit these properties to your satisfaction. 24. Select ÒSet Town Event TimersÓ from the ÔTownÕ menu if you are using these in the town at all. [N.B. These are best used in conjunction with unique specials to create original and time-dependant effects.] 25. Record absolutely everything you think you might forget about this town somewhere safe (e.g. a hard-backed file). It helps if you have a hard copy of these notes for quick reference while bug checking. 26. CHECK FOR BUGS. Write them down on paper and then go and fix them. Keep doing this until there arenÕt any bugs left at all, anywhere. Et voila! You have a town... By Nick Acevski