{"id":117,"date":"2026-09-27T02:26:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T02:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coolrpg.us\/?p=117"},"modified":"2026-09-28T12:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T12:59:13","slug":"gold-in-the-hills-our-first-real-quest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coolrpg.us\/?p=117","title":{"rendered":"Gold in the Hills: Our First Real Quest"},"content":{"rendered":"

A character is only the beginning. Once your hero steps out of the Hall of Transference, the Western Lands open up \u2014 and they need things to do<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This week was about building the adventure layer: real quests with real stakes, companions you can recruit, and fixing a combat bug so fundamental it was silently breaking every fight in the game.<\/p>\n

\n

We’ve wired up the game’s first proper quest, adapted from “Gold in the Hills”<\/strong> by Ray Allen (from Basic Fantasy’s Adventure Anthology One<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The hook:<\/strong> Gold nuggets have been turning up in the hands of the Black Fangs goblin tribe. They lair in an old dwarven mine \u2014 and a fresh vein may have opened after a recent earthquake. But most who go poking around that mine don’t come back.<\/p>\n

You’ll hear about it from Dusty Rennick<\/strong>, a grizzled prospector nursing an ale in The Toothless Dragon Tavern<\/strong>. He’ll point you toward the mine, warn you about the prospectors who never returned, and ask only that you remember old Dusty if you strike it rich.<\/p>\n

\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

What’s in the mine<\/h3>\n

The dungeon itself is a proper little delve:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Sleeping goblin guards<\/strong> at the entrance \u2014 sneak past or wake them and eat a volley of arrows<\/li>\n
  • The Pit of Protection<\/strong>, a dwarven defensive trap with a hidden disarm lever<\/li>\n
  • A Tentacle Worm<\/strong> that’s made a home in the broken mine elevator<\/li>\n
  • A damaged dwarven mining automaton<\/strong> you might be able to repair (if you speak Dwarvish) \u2014 though its cracked drill arm has a nasty habit of exploding<\/li>\n
  • And at the bottom, Chief Xikek “the Loud”<\/strong> himself, with his bodyguard and shaman, guarding a trapped chest full of gold nuggets<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    It’s a faithful adaptation of the published module, rebuilt for our engine.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Companions: Building Your Party<\/h2>\n

    You’re not alone out there. Scattered through Morgansfort’s taverns and inns are adventurers looking for work \u2014 and you can recruit them.<\/p>\n

    Right now you can meet Barthal<\/strong> the Rogue in the Toothless Dragon and Apoqulis<\/strong> the Cleric, each ready to join your cause. More are on the way. Each companion is a fully-statted actor with their own class, and once recruited you can swap your active party at any inn.<\/p>\n

    The recruitment mechanism is built on RPG Maker’s party system, proven and working \u2014 so expanding the roster is now just a matter of writing good characters.<\/p>\n

    \n

    \"\"The Bug That Broke Every Battle<\/h2>\n

    Here’s a humbling one. Players reported that overworld orcs “do no damage \u2014 just a terrify attack.” They were right, and it was much worse than it sounded.<\/p>\n

    Digging into the database, we found the truth: not a single one of the game’s 238 enemies had a basic Attack action.<\/strong> In RPG Maker MZ, an enemy only uses the actions explicitly listed in its data \u2014 there’s no implicit default attack. Dozens of enemies (Orcs, Ogres, Gnolls, every Golem, Basilisks, Medusas) had only<\/em> a utility skill like Frightening Presence or Petrifying Gaze \u2014 abilities with zero damage output. They’d cast their scary debuff, round after round, and never actually hurt you.<\/p>\n

    The fix was surgical: add a basic Attack to every enemy missing a damaging action. Now all 238 enemies can actually fight. Combat works again.<\/p>\n

    This is why playtesting matters.<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n

    What’s built<\/h2>\n
      \n
    • Full BFRPG database<\/strong> \u2014 4 classes, 238 monsters (124 with bespoke combat behaviour), 77 spells, 16 states, 69 items, 45 weapons, 14 armors. Every weapon, armor, item and skill has an icon.<\/li>\n
    • Card-based character creation<\/strong> \u2014 gender \u2192 race \u2192 class cards, 3d6 character sheet, point allocation, rerolls (docs\/CHARACTER_CREATION_SYSTEM.md<\/code>). Ability scores are stored in variables 20\u2013<\/span><\/span>25.<\/li>\n
    • Playable path<\/strong> \u2014 character creation \u2192 Hall of Transference \u2192 Gold in the Hills \u2192 Morgansfort.<\/li>\n
    • Morgansfort<\/strong> \u2014 all 25 module locations with named NPCs, real Trader shop, Iron Helm Inn.<\/li>\n
    • Party recruitment (M5, closed 2026-09-26)<\/strong> \u2014 max 4 (you + 3). Meet a companion and talk to them first; they offer to join if there’s room, otherwise they wait for you at any inn. Party changes happen only<\/strong> at an innkeeper (Manage Party<\/em>); your own character can’t be swapped out. 8 companions. docs\/party-recruitment.md<\/code> \u00b7 plugin Xinle_PartyRecruitment<\/code>.<\/li>\n
    • Mana, spell costs, regeneration, potions (M5, closed 2026-09-26)<\/strong> \u2014 Magic-User mana from INT, Cleric from WIS (level \u00d7<\/span><\/span> (score + BFRPG modifier)); spells cost 5 MP per spell level; everyone regains 1% \u00d7<\/span><\/span> CON of Max HP per minute, casters 0.5% \u00d7<\/span><\/span> INT\/WIS of Max MP per minute \u2014 never in battle<\/strong>; the clock pauses in menus, conversations and events; Healing and Mana potions in Small\/Medium\/Large. docs\/spell-mana-regen.md<\/code> \u00b7 plugin Xinle_ManaAndRegen<\/code>.<\/li>\n
    • Equipment<\/strong> \u2014 Weapon, Shield, Head, Body, Neck, Ring, Ring (second ring slot via Xinle_EquipSlots<\/code>); BFRPG class restrictions enforced.<\/li>\n
    • IconSet<\/strong> \u2014 2,016 icons (stock + Clockwork Raven packs + map markers + horses), capped at 4,096 px for Android. Ranges: docs\/iconset-ranges.json<\/code>; rebuild: scripts\/build_iconset.py<\/code>.<\/li>\n
    • Battle layout<\/strong> \u2014 enemies auto-arranged on the left ground line, party on the right (docs\/battle-formation.md<\/code>, Xinle_BattleFormation<\/code>; [manual]<\/code> in a troop name keeps editor positions).<\/li>\n
    • Magic Garments vendor<\/strong> (Morgansfort) \u2014 Cloth Armor, Cloth Armor +1\/+2 (armors #15\/#16), Leather +1, Shield +1, Circlet +1, Ring of Protection +1, Ring of Fire Resistance.<\/li>\n
    • Compass\/minimap<\/strong> \u2014 class player icon + 102 POI markers (docs\/compass-poi-icons.md<\/code>).<\/li>\n
    • Android release groundwork (AdMob\/IAP plugins, APK guide) \u2014 external accounts still pending (M3).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      A character is only the beginning. Once your hero steps out of the Hall of Transference, the Western Lands open up \u2014 and they need things to do. This week was about building the adventure layer: real quests with real stakes, companions you can recruit, and fixing a combat bug so fundamental it was silently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-design"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/coolrpg.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/01_dragon_shield_current.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coolrpg.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coolrpg.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coolrpg.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coolrpg.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coolrpg.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/coolrpg.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124,"href":"https:\/\/coolrpg.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coolrpg.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coolrpg.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coolrpg.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coolrpg.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}