Nine Swords: The Game

By Waspstar

Back in October, I decide to make some homebrew SWL content because ‘no new content’ was a common complaint.

I checked out several options and settled on trying to make a standalone Nine Swords game in Unity.

I’ve spent the past four months playing with mechanics, and working out what’s feasible and what isn’t [for me]. Alongside that, I’ve written a main story that works within the project’s limitations.

What I don’t have is a bunch of nice screenshots—most art and visuals will come later.

Below is one shot, at least: the functioning mission / dialogue systems within the 3D world.

Here’s a Q&A for the curious:

Q: What type of game would it be?
A: Close to SWL in the way it plays. A third-person, story-driven single player, with missions, NPCs, and combat elements. Choices will have consequences.

Q: Will it be a full length game?
A: No. If all goes to plan, this will be ‘Episode One’, with further instalments if it’s any good, if people want more, and if I can find the time and energy (it takes a lot).

Q: Will it feature characters from SWL?
A: I won’t be directly using any Funcom intellectual property.

Q: What about the story?
A: The main story follows the protagonist’s search for the truth about her husband’s death / murder. His association with Nine Swords leads her to a sinister coastal village in England, a paranormal hotspot.

Q: How will it tie in with SWL?
A: The focus is Nine Swords. But I also hope to have loot caches that require input codes based on info found within SWL.

Q: When will it be finished?
A: Can you hear me laughing? The aim is end of October, to roughly coincide with 9S tenth anniversary. I’ll do my best. As with anything, real life could decide otherwise.

Note from Kate: Noone tell Waspstar that our Anniversary is in June, he might get anxious!

Q: How can I get involved?
A: I would love the game to be something that many of us had a hand in making. Here are some ideas; you may have more:

• Are you an artist — any style, any level? There’ll be lots of places to put your work in the game — everything from flyers, framed pictures on a walls, signs, character portraits, and art for cutscenes.
• Would you like to write your own side mission, maybe set by your in-character? It would need to run alongside the main story, and be within my technical abilities. But why not?
• Voice acting. I ditched the plan for full voice acting because it puts restrictions on the number of characters and dialogue branching. But if you’d like to leave a recorded message to be found in game, we can do that.
• Think up a puzzle.
• There will be collectable lore. Write a couple, if you like. About your character’s history, or anything else that fits.
• Texts are found at various places in the game. These could be notes, letters, or entire short stories with a SWL / Nine Swords feel.

Here’s a shot of the current in-game note screen:

Since I started this project, a good thing has happened.

Some of our new Swords, along with existing stalwarts, have upped the activity at peak times. It turns out that regular activity and fun company is what we *really* needed.

And so, for the best reasons possible, trying to make new content isn’t as important as it seemed to be back last Oct.

Nonetheless, I hope this Nine Swords game makes it to the finish line as one way of marking an amazing ten-year legacy. If you’re interested in being involved, drop me a note on the forum.

~ Wasp

Scheduling & Running PvE Events

By Katelin

If anyone in our cabal stood up and said they didn't like PvE.. I would be pretty shocked. I mean, other than our ability to stand in Agartha and chat for hours in cabal without actually doing anything, PvE is definitely up there in our top things to do.

Some food for thought on teaming:

There is so much going on, but there can always be more.

• If you see the same person scheduling ALL THE TIME - give them a day off! Step up and create the team even if the other person is tanking it!
• New people from the cabal joining the team? Give them some tips in cabal chat before you start.
• Headed to do a stack of regionals? Take a "Summon FATE" with you so that our members with low inventory space can sell their stuff part way through the run. Summon FATE can be purchased for 3,000 MoF from the Cache Locksmith 
• Check which Mod's can help you / your team 
• Short on time but really want to make sure you get a team - schedule the event on our calendar, and post a sign up sheet in our Noticeboard forum. 

Whatever your level, experience and role - you can always find something to set up for yourself and others in the cabal. Sometimes you have to get a bit creative to try to help everyone join in, sometimes you have to accept that game mechanics put restrictions in place. 

If you want to organise something but need help getting started, feel free to use our Event Requests forum area! 

The Secret World in the Real World: Ghost Ships and Cursed Crew

By Waspstar

In the best Lovecraftian tradition, one of Kingsmouth’s key stories tells of the return of the ship the Lady Margaret and the mysterious fog it brought with it. The surviving crew metamorphosed and suffered a zombifying malady. [SPOILER ALERT: they enjoyed a less than sunny retirement].

[The Fog, a Debra Hill production / StudioCanal, 1980]

Although the plots vary, The Fog fits the bill as one likely inspiration for SWL’s Lady Margaret. We have the ship, the cursed or metamorphosed crew, and the fog itself that heralds the arrival of malevolent supernatural entities just as the Soloman Island fog brings the Draug. The era of the film, released in 1980, also fits with film references elsewhere in Kingsmouth, such as homages to The Shining (1980).

The Fog is just one example of these tropes in popular culture.

We find one or both elements in everything from Pirates of Caribbean, 'X-Files', and 'Supernatural', to games such as The Secret of Monkey Island, Resident Evil Revelations, Cryostasis, and The Return of the Obra Dinn. I’m sure you can think of many others!

[The Return of the Obra Dinn, 3909 LLC, 2018]

But ghost ships and cursed crews aren’t a modern invention. Examples recorded in text and literature date back to at least the eighteenth century in works such as Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1797). Folklore and oral traditions tell tales of ghost ships and cursed crews that stretch back further still. The most famous of these cases, such as that of the Mary Celeste and the Flying Dutchman, have passed into collective cultural mythology.

Now I’ll tell you about a real-world legend of a cursed crew hardly known outside of its country of origin: the story of the Llanddona witches.

This legend tells of the arrival by boat of a mysterious group of men and women at Llanddona, on the Welsh coast, long, long ago. Despite a fierce storm, the boat managed the miraculous feat of safely reaching its destination without sails, oars, or a rudder to steer. Who on earth would set out to sea without such things?

[Victorian-era Postcard of Llanddona beach below]:

Before long, the boat’s sinister crew set up home on the outskirts of the village. Locals soon came to fear them and their terrifying displays of supernatural power. The witches placed curses on streams, rivers, and wells where their victims bathed and drew water. Livestock fell ill or failed to produce milk. No one dared cross the witches from the boat. Eventually, the locals sent for a wizard to help them but magical misdirection saw to it that he never reached the village.

Although the witches’ power waned over successive generations, fear of them in the real world persisted in the community for hundreds of years, at least until the late 19th century. Some people still commemorate the legend today.

There are many variations on the Llanddona witches legend. Whether they present accurate accounts is open to speculation. But what gives this version an edge is that it includes factual details. People in that region, at the time of the events, lived in constant dread of raiders arriving by sea from Ireland. And so strangers arriving by boat, as in the legend, would indeed prompt suspicion and fear.

More chilling is the historical fact about the fate of some people accused of witchcraft in Ireland. Unlike those in Kingsmouth, who conducted witch-trials themselves, some accusers in Ireland did not want the risk of vengeance. They decided to leave the suspected witches’ fate in the hands of the gods. To do this, they loaded the accused into boats and cast them adrift on the sea. The boats would be without sails, oars, or a rudder to steer.

References

HistoryPoints.org (n.d.), ‘Site of witches’ landing, Llanddone’, available at
https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=site-of-witches-landing-llanddona

Carpenter, J. (2020) quoted in ‘How John Carpenter’s The Fog went from disaster to cult horror classic on its 40th anniversary’, available at
https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/how-john-carpenters-the-fog-went-from-disaster-to-cult-horror-classic-on-its-40th

Carradice, P. (2011), ‘The Llanddona Witches’. Available at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/waleshistory/2011/08/the_llanddona_witches.html

Issue 60 of The Sword's Edge...

Issue 60 of our cabal newsletter will be released on the 9th May 2022 - see you then!