"Detlef Sierck, the self-proclaimed greatest playwright in the world, has declared that his next production will be a recreation of the end of the Great Enchanter Drachenfels - to be staged at the very site of his death, the Fortress of Drachenfels itself. But the castle's dark walls still hide a terrible and deadly secret which may make the first night of Detlef's masterpiece the last of his life."

22/7/2002
Hey, ok we got a second release of the maps in progress. A grand total of 2! maps :). coldark has added his current work on the Tower of Terror at the moment.

Grab it from downloads in the links section. Then come to the forums and tell us what you think :)

Ok, Ok, so were starting to get somwhere :). We still want to hear from anyone who would like to help, scripters / plotters / mappers / idea-throwers / joke makers etc.. etc..

We already have Two of the towers being worked on, there are 4 more and we are starting to look at what issues and problems we are likely to encounter as we decide on what to implement.

On our Forums, (Get there through the links page) we have a space for open discussion about the project and what it has released so far; you can download what have released and try it out if you like..

If you think you would like to help, contact me at
Drachenfelsnwn@users.sourceforge.net

A side note, one aim of this project is to utilize SourceFORGE resources to organise and control the development of the module and scripts. It is hoped this will create some semblance of quality control about the project. This does require that every member working on the project creates a free SourceFORGE account and generates themselves a .Unix name.. This Unix name is how you will be added to the developer list, and how access to the site is controlled.

Part of the goal we have is to generate a re-usable body of scripting knowledge that we can return to the community at large. For example, generating .plug-in. scripts so people can use the .Living Castle. ideas in their own work. I believe this is where sourceforge may become very usefull.

The project is split into three major .Milestones.. These have been defined as;

• Building Castle Drachenfels
• Implementing .The Living Castle.
• Plot, Plot and more Plot

This is the work that everything else will build upon, and the section that currently has the largest body of completed work. This project area deals with mapping and populating the Drachenfels Castle.The aim is to create a castle environment, with additions made to the original sourcebook to flesh out the experience. Creativness and Experimentation are good watch words here.

.Populating. in this sense doesn.t mean adding the characters yet . that comes under Plot, Plot and more Plot. It means adding the placeables and doing lighting effects etc.. to create an intense, evil atmosphere.

Also included here is the placement and testing of the base triggered encounters and traps.

This area deals with the scripting and design choices to be made when bringing Castle Drachenfels to life. The Castle effects the player in various ways as the players move through it. The aim here is to script and implement these effects and consequences upon the players.

This is where the plotlines are decided upon, plot characters and items created, and scripting dealing with plot encounters is put into place and tested.

Ok, that.s all a bit clinical, but I.m a technical guy not a designer/arty guy. We need designer / arty peeps.

Well, that's the gist of it. Keep your sockets open, and watch this space.