We’re off and running with the first game based on The School for Heroes, Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. In the first 24 hours, over 1200 of our generous fans got behind the project and pledged over $80,000. We are looking for a minimum goal of $400,000 to be able to develop and launch the full game. Please visit our Kickstarter page (linked above as the game title) and consider backing the project. Most importantly, tell your friends to visit us and spread the word.

Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption is the University-level version of the School for Heroes. Players will take on the role of Shawn O’Conner, a new student in the school. Yes, Hero-U has Rogues, not just Disbarred Bards. Shawn didn’t exactly enroll in Hero-U. He was sent there after getting caught in a botched thieving operation. As Shawn, you get to decide whether you want to keep trying to be a Thief, or if you want to work a lot harder to become a Rogue Hero. You will also get a chance to unravel the mysteries of your past and determine the course of your future.

Game-play-wise, we are treating this as an RPG with adventure and puzzle game aspects. Of course, the story and characters are critical, but we also want this to be a true role-playing game experience. We are creating a new tactical combat system and using a map-like top-down 2D interface to facilitate use of tactics and strategy. We also plan to have beautiful painted backdrops for key conversations and other important scenes.

We hope you will like what we’re doing as we move on to the next stage of the school’s development. Please visit the project and share it with your friends.

Similar Posts:

• Heroes, Rogues, and Thieves
• Power to the People – Changing the Game

That article focused on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and other crowdfunding sites. People who felt they had little voice can now make themselves heard by supporting projects they care about.

This time, I want to follow up by writing about our favorite topic – Heroes – from the “power of we” viewpoint. We tend to think of Heroes as remote – Superman or Batman, isolated forces for good. Or maybe someone like a soldier who rescues a comrade, or a fireman rushing into the collapsing World Trade Center. The Heroes are all out there somewhere while we sit at home watching or reading about their exploits.

Not Alone

But wait a minute. How alone are those Heroes, anyway? Superman is pretty unique – He was sent to Earth from Krypton as a baby, and somehow being under our yellow sun gave him superpowers. But did he fight evil alone? Hardly. First he was saved from Krypton by his father and other scientists. Were they not the real Heroes, sacrificing their lives for the sake of one baby? Why didn’t one of them get in the rocket instead?

And down on Earth, that superbaby was found and cared for by Martha and Jonathan Kent. They made many sacrifices to survive an as-yet morally ambiguous baby who kept knocking holes in the wall and endangering everyone around him. More importantly, they taught young Clark Kent ethical and moral principles that guided the rest of his life. I’d argue that the Kents were the real superheroes in those stories! Superman was the tool forged by them to fight evil.

Those soldiers and firemen I mentioned? Do you really think they work alone? Sure, in their moment of reported glory, each of them went above and beyond the call of duty. But before that, they committed to duty, learned to work as a team, trained with their fellows, and at every stage received equipment, money, and support from their organization. Soldiers fight as a team or they die alone. Firemen specialize – Some running hoses, others climbing ladders, some running into buildings to rescue trapped people. Without the whole team, an individual fireman is (ahem) toast.

Batman mostly works as a loner… If you don’t count Robin, and Alfred, and Commissioner Gordon. Or the inherited wealth he uses to support his profligate crime-fighting lifestyle.

We Can All Be Heroes

But at the same time, one of the strengths of the Batman legend is that he does not have superpowers. He started out as an ordinary person and – with a lot of help from his friends – forged himself into a Hero. We would all like to believe that, if we work hard enough, we can be Heroes too.

And we can!

Where do soldiers, firemen, policemen, philanthropists, charity volunteers, and other real-life heroes come from? They all start out as ordinary people – some rich, some poor, most middle-class – and they commit to higher goals. They set their sights on noble goals, join a team, and work their tails off to gain the skills they need to succeed.

You and I and each of us can do the same. It takes commitment, follow-through, and the “power of we”.

A World of Heroes

Imagine a world full of heroes. It starts out as one or two individuals saying, “Things aren’t right. Someone should do something about that. I guess it’s up to me.”

Then they get together and realize that two people working together can accomplish more than two individuals alone. So they talk to others and share what they’ve learned. Pretty soon, someone else stands up and say, “You know, if they could do it, maybe so can I.” And then there are three.

And four. And a dozen. Slowly the word spreads, and more people join the cause. They aren’t all Heroes at first, but when they commit to doing good, they’ve taken the first step to becoming Heroes themselves.

And maybe you and I read, and listen, and say, “These people need help. How can they take on all the world’s troubles themselves?” And each of us has a choice – We can sit back, and keep complaining, and do nothing. Or we can take those first small steps ourselves. We can commit to joining the movement, doing Good whenever we can, and working towards becoming Heroes ourselves.

Because there is no Superman, or Batman, in our world. And there’s only one Chuck Norris. But there are a lot of ordinary people working to do good deeds, one small task at a time. Every time someone does Good – even it’s not a big, scary, Heroic action – it makes our world a little better.

The Power of We

Every time *you* do good, you make the world *and yourself* a little better. You become part of the hidden team, the people who care, the people who would rather be Heroes than lie back and ignore the evil around them.

That’s what “the power of We” is all about. A whole lot of people who take a stand and strive to do things that matter… That can be the difference from a world that suffocates under its own pollution, starves to death because it has exhausted its natural resources, or lives in fear under the iron hand of despotic rulers. We won’t stand for that world; we can’t allow it.

And that means we all – each one of us as individuals and many of us working together – must become Heroes. The world needs more Heroes, and if you and I do not heed the call, who will answer for us? It’s up to us and the Power of We.Similar Posts:

• How Lawful Are You?
• Hero: Origins
• Be Extraordinary

It’s not easy being a Dark Master.

It requires a delicate balance. If you piss off the neighboring rulers, they declare war on you. Terrorize the locals too much? They call for a Hero to take you out. Not oppressive or scary enough? The peasants revolt and slaughter your monsters. Don’t get too soft, or they start calling you “Nice Master” and expect you to be the Godparent to their kids. Like I said, it’s delicate.

The old Dark Master was nasty, but he had strong self-preservation instincts and good PR. He was rumored to be a mysterious Wizard of the “subtle and quick to anger” variety. Although he was a Vampire, The Dark Master never lunched on the locals. He fed only upon travelling merchant caravans. He called them his “Meals on Wheels.”

Despite all that care, Katrina managed to lure a Hero into slaying her Master. With the Dark Master gone, Katrina simply took over his place, title, and reputation.

Silly Wizard

Then one day, a brash young Wizard who called himself Ad Avis came to call upon the Dark Master. Katrina met him, but Ad Avis insisted that he was a great Wizard and had no interest in dealing with maidservants or mistresses.

Needless to say, Katrina was not impressed with Ad Avis. For a “great Wizard,” his powers of observation were lacking, and his manners were worse. So after teaching Ad Avis a valuable lesson that gurrls can be Wizards, too (by trashing him in a magical battle), Katrina bound Ad Avis to her will with her Vampiric Charm. Ad Avis would either be useful to her as a servant, or he would pay for his arrogance the next time Katrina needed a meal.

As it turned out, Ad Avis actually had some useful knowledge about summoning demons. Katrina had read about a Dark One called Avoozl, who had the power to shroud the lands with eternal night. If Katrina could summon and control Avoozl, then she would never fear daylight again.

Even as a servant, Ad Avis was arrogant and annoying. He despised women in general and Katrina in particular. He treated Katrina’s servants like they were, well, monsters. Although he was always subserviently polite to Katrina when she was around him, she knew that Ad Avis would love to drive a stake through her heart.

Unfortunately for Ad Avis, destroying Katrina would also destroy the vampiric bonds he shared with her. As a Vampire’s personal servant, he did not age and he had the same ability to charm mortals as a Vampire had. So while Ad Avis hated Katrina, he loved power too much to give in to his resentment and fury towards her.

Eventually, Katrina soon grew tired of Ad Avis’s snide superiority and sarcasm and sent him back to his homeland of Raseir. Good riddance!

Moving to Mordavia

Continuing her research, Katrina learned of the land of Mordavia. The Dark One’s cult had come very close to unleashing Avoozl upon the world. So she brought her monstrous servants to Mordavia and took over the abandoned Borgov Castle.

From the Borgov library, Katrina read about the Cult of Avoozl and the role that Erana had played in banishing the Dark One from the land.

Mordavia was a haunted land, marked by death and dark rituals. The villagers were mostly frightened fools huddled in their walled town. Some sort of spell emanating from Erana’s staff protected the town. To her annoyance, Katrina couldn’t even enter it. She had to use her crystal ball to spy on the town.

Innocence Lost

One day, she saw a lonely child named Tanya playing in the garden that grew around Erana’s staff. The child was singing a lullaby to a faded ragdoll. Katrina watched as Tanya cradled the ragdoll and said plaintively, “I wish we had a friend.” Something about the child’s innocence touched Katrina’s heart.

She sent one of her servants to a distant city to bring back a fine china doll. Then she ordered Toby, her most trusted monster, to hide the doll in the garden for Tanya to find.

Toby was monstrous, but he was not evil, so Erana’s spell did not affect him. He easily climbed the town wall and hid the doll. While Katrina slept in her coffin, Toby waited in the gate tower to see what would happen.

When Tanya found the doll, she was delighted. She had never seen anything as beautiful as this doll before. Tanya danced merrily with the doll, and even Toby smiled to see Tanya so happy. For days and nights, Toby and Katrina watched Tanya’s joyful fun with the doll.

Then Tanya’s mother saw Tanya playing with this strange doll. Bella took the doll away from Tanya. Bella was afraid that the doll was magical and dangerous since it had clearly enchanted Tanya. Even though Tanya begged for the doll, her mother kept it hidden.

Bella made Tanya stay in the inn so that Tanya would be safe. Tanya cried to herself as she looked out the open window at the garden where she loved to play.

Toby felt sorry for Tanya and tried to comfort her. He climbed up to the roof and sang her a growling lullaby through the window. When Tanya saw Toby, she wasn’t afraid of the big, hairy monster who smiled back at her. She somehow knew that he was the one who had given her the doll. She knew that he was the friend she had wished for at Erana’s Staff.

Leave No Child Behind

When Katrina found out that Tanya’s mother had taken the doll, she was angry. Katrina was even angrier at the idea that Tanya could no longer go outside to play in the sunshine. Tanya’s cruel mother did not deserve such a lovely daughter. If Katrina had a daughter like Tanya, she would give her child all the toys and gifts in the world just to make her smile.

Then Katrina got an idea. Tanya was a lonely prisoner, locked away from the daylight just as Katrina was. Katrina could make Tanya happy again. Tanya would become Katrina’s darling daughter and never have to be afraid again.

So Katrina had Toby “rescue” Tanya from the inn. Katrina had a way to make sure that Tanya would never have to fear the dark or bad things again. Katrina made Tanya her very own Vampire daughter. Together they could be happy forever, afraid of nothing but sunlight.

Katrina had an answer to that too. All she needed was to summon and control Avoozl. Once eternal darkness came to Mordavia, Katrina and Tanya could go anywhere any time of the day or night.

Of course, there was a slight complication in the form of Ad Avis, who was only mostly gone. Katrina had sent him to Raseir and thought she had seen the last of him. That suited Ad Avis as well.

Living on the Raseir’s Edge

For a while, everything in Raseir went as planned. Ad Avis had taken over the city. He brought law and order to the land and put women in their place – harems. He had all the information he needed to bind the Djinn Iblis to his command.

All Ad Avis needed now was someone gullible enough to enter the Forbidden City and retrieve the statue of Iblis. Sure enough, a hero arrived right on schedule. He made it through the Forbidden City as the prophecy had foretold. Ad Avis took the statue and left the hero trapped in the ruined city.

But Ad Avis underestimated his victim. Not only did the hero escape, but he interrupted the summoning ritual for Iblis. Ad Avis was furious. All those years of being Katrina’s slave, all those years of research, all his plans for world domination destroyed by one stupid hero.

Oh, and it got worse when the hero defeated Ad Avis and sent him falling to his doom from the tower of Raseir. It’s a sad day when you can’t even trust a hero to stay in the ancient ruins and die.

Mordavian Plights

With his dying breath, Ad Avis called out to Katrina through the magical bonds of Vampire and servant. She had no choice but to summon him to her side and return him from his death as a fully-fledged Vampire. Oh well, maybe he could help out with the ritual of summoning Avoozl.

Except that he couldn’t. The final secrets of the ritual were hidden in the old monastery in town. As Vampires, they couldn’t get past Erana’s spell to reach the monastery. They were also barred from the Dark One’s Cave. They needed some gullible fool who would do those things for them..

Ad Avis knew exactly who to use…

(To Be Continued)

Illustration by Pam Thien

Similar Posts:

• Shady Ladies of Shadows of Darkness
• Women of Glory 4: Daughter of Darkness
• The Fiery Females of Quest for Glory 2

Tonight is the first of three formal debates between the two main candidates – current President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney. I strongly urge everyone – whether you are eligible to vote or just want to understand what is happening in American politics – to watch the debates and apply what you learn to making an informed decision. Tonight’s debate will air at 9:00 pm Eastern time (8:00 Central, 7:00 Mountain, 6:00 Pacific).

In my mind, too many political decisions today are based on “sound bites” and stereotypes. Democracy only works well if voters are informed and make choices based on what is important to them. This election may be the clearest choice we’ve had in decades, and it’s essential that each of us understands why we are picking a particular candidate.

It’s a Party!

The United States has a strong two-party system. In most cases, we choose either the Republican or the Democratic candidate. Occasionally a third party candidate has managed to receive enough votes to influence the election, but rarely does one win election to a major office.

Currently, the Democratic Party has a “liberal” orientation. They are more likely to support social items such as health care, education, and individual freedom. Many Democrats believe that protecting the environment is important, and they are willing to put restrictions on businesses to reduce pollution and other social harm. The major criticism of Democrats is that they are willing to spend freely on social programs and are willing to increase taxes – particularly from higher income individuals and corporations – to pay for these programs. President Obama is a Democrat.

The Republican Party has a more “conservative” agenda. They believe that taxes should be low, and that the government should reduce spending on social programs. They think that poor people should work to become wealthier rather than get help from the government. Republicans believe that strengthening businesses help individuals, so they support tax breaks and other incentives that help businesses earn higher profits. They also dislike any laws (such as pollution controls) that make it more difficult to run a business.

Many Republicans also have strong ties to religious groups. As a result, they hold conservative attitudes about “traditional marriage”, and tend to be more restrictive about personal freedom than Democrats. Republicans are often criticized for repressing minorities, spending tax money on war and victimless crimes, and for valuing their religious principles above the political needs of the country. Governor Romney is the Republican candidate.

Clear Choices

Vote for Barack Obama if you believe:

• Everyone deserves love and equal protection under the law for their relationships.
• Women have the right to choose whether they have children.
• We need safe air and water, even if it adds time and expense to running a business.
• Sometimes people need help, and the government should provide it.
• It’s ok to tax wealthy people at a higher rate to help fund government programs.
• People should work together in a spirit of compromise, regardless of their beliefs.

Vote for Mitt Romney if you believe:

• Marriage is strictly for one man and one woman. Any other relationship is improper and should not be protected by law.
• Birth control and abortion are immoral and should be illegal.
• Businesses drive our economy. Restrictions on business – for any reason – hurt everyone.
• Government handouts are addictive. If people won’t work, they should find private charity or starve.
• Wealthy people create jobs and deserve what they have. Taxation is government-sanctioned theft.
• Compromise is giving in. People who disagree with me are wrong.

Indecent Proposal

Of course, we will have many other choices to make at the polls besides choosing a President. All Congressional seats are up for election, along with one-third of Senate seats. We will be voting for state and local candidates, and in many cases for changes to state or local laws (“propositions”). In my case, I will be voting for candidates for four political offices and for or against eleven ballot propositions.

Vote for the Candidate of Your Choice… Vote for the Issues of Your Choice … But Vote!

In 2012, there is a very clear distinction between the political parties and their candidates. It is more important than ever to study the issues and vote for the candidates and issues that you believe will have the strongest positive impact on our lives. Watch the debates, read up, decide, and above all – Vote! Your vote matters.Similar Posts:

None Found

Then he felt himself magically drawn across dimensions to an eerie and dark cave that felt nasty. It didn’t take a Paladin’s sense evil to know that this was a very bad place to be. After a long while of exploring this weird place and avoiding unpleasant ways of dying, the hero finally made his way outside.

The outside of the cave wasn’t much more pleasant than the inside. It was cold and foggy. There was a sense of looming danger to this area. The hero got the distinct impression that he was not in Kansas anymore.

Then a young woman walked out of the shadows toward him. She welcomed him to Mordavia. She seemed surprised and almost relieved to find the hero here.

She called herself Katrina.

Before the hero could ask her, “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?,” she headed back into the forest and was lost in the mists. The hero might suspect that this sweet young thing was more than she seemed, but for the moment he was confused, bemused, and a bit amused by her. He could only hope that he would get to meet her again sometime.

Out of the Darkness

Katrina was indeed surprised and relieved to see the hero alive. She hated it when a magical spell went awry. Her magic had summoned the hero to Mordavia where the hero was supposed to arrive in the Borgov castle. Instead, the power of the Dark One’s cave interfered.
The hero was either very lucky or very skilled to come out of that cave alive.

Either way, Katrina knew that the hero would be very useful to her.

For once, Ad Avis had given her good advice when he suggested that she summon his murderer here. This was not a matter of petty vengeance. This would have world-altering consequences.

And the hero seemed just gullible enough to do the job for which Katrina brought him here..

A Shadowy Past

Katrina grew up in the city of Slava in the kingdom of Vakia. She was the daughter of a Knight’s mistress. Katrina grew up on the edge of poverty, never knowing if her father would continue to support her and her mother from month to month. She hated to see fear on her mother’s face when the knight did not show up to pay her bills.

However, when the knight did visit, Katrina soon realized that her father was as charmed by Katrina as he was by her mother. Katrina learned how to wrap him around her finger with just a smile, a hug, and “I love you, Daddy.” Her father wasn’t the only one. All the older men in the neighborhood enjoyed her friendly smile and cheerful greetings. Sometimes, the old men would give her an apple to share with her mother.

For Katrina learned from her mother – You do whatever it takes to keep from being helpless and hungry.

When Katrina was thirteen, her mother became ill. The knight had not been to see them in months and there was very little money left for food. Their landlord was threatening to evict them for back rent. Katrina cared for her sick mother, but there was no money to buy her medicine. There was nothing Katrina could do to save her mother. She could only watch her mother die.

Then Katrina wiped the tears from her face. She brushed her hair and put on her mother’s best dress. She kissed her mother’s cheek, put two of her remaining coins on her mother’s eyes to pay for the ferryman, and then Katrina walked away, never to return.

You do whatever it takes…

The Wizardess of WIT

Katrina had a series of ‘boyfriends.’ These were older men who were thrilled to have a sweet young thing to flirt and cuddle with. One of these older men was a Wizard. He was surprised when Katrina showed an interest in his magic. He was even more surprised that she had a talent for magic. Soon, she learned all that he could teach her.

Katrina saw magic as a means of taking control of her own life. No longer would she be dependent upon others for food and shelter. She had the power to take charge of her life. She would never be helpless or hungry again – or so she hoped.

When she applied for the Wizard’s Institute for Technocery, the Wizard Council did their best to discourage her. They set the hardest of tests before her. They explained that Wizard magic was a man’s skill. She should go off to learn how to be a healer. Healing was woman’s magic.
(Yes, Erana had been there before, but she wasn’t quite human. Nor was Erana a seductive young woman who seemed determined to have her own way.)

Katrina did not let the old fools in the council keep her from the chance to learn more magic. She excelled in her classes. Most Wizards and TA’s were delighted to have someone lovely in their classrooms who actually listened to their lectures and learned their lessons. It was a novel experience for them.

Katrina spent her nights in the library learning about magic that the Wizards didn’t teach at WIT. There were some spells that were considered too dark, dangerous and unpredictable for sensible Wizards to ever learn. Katrina believed that magic was neither dark nor light. It was all a matter of how the magic was used.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Then came a demonic invasion of Russ caused by an unfortunate former graduate of WIT. To avoid the bad publicity towards Wizards and the institute, the Council sent graduate students to deal with the demons.

Unfortunately, these demons had the ability to possess Wizards. The situation was getting steadily worse.

Katrina offered to go and stop the demons. She had studied the old books and even older spells. She wanted a chance to prove that she was a true Wizard.

The council had a long conference about sending her. On one hand, it seemed wrong to send a woman to do a Wizard’s job. On the other hand, it would get rid of this troublemaker. There were far too many besotted Wizards at the Institute with her around. Besides, she was making the other students jealous because she was the teachers’ pet and got good grades just by blinking her eyelashes. Or so they assumed; it did not occur to most students that one could actually succeed by studying and practicing magic.

So the Council decided to send Katrina off to deal with the demons. It never occurred to them that she might succeed.

However, succeed Katrina did. Using a variation of the ‘Thermonuclear Blast’ spell (one that did not involve suicide as a major component of the spell), she destroyed the demons and the portal. She also disintegrated all of the possessed Wizards and grad students. She felt this was a fair trade-off. They knew the job was difficult when they took it.

Horrified that Katrina had accomplished what much greater Wizards could not do, and that she used ‘forbidden’ magic to do so, the Wizard Council banished her from the Institute.

Katrina was furious that WIT wouldn’t even acknowledge that she had just saved a land and WIT’s precious reputation. However, it didn’t really matter. She had learned about as much as she wanted to from the Institute. It was time to find a new, more powerful teacher.

So Katrina went off to seek the legendary Dark Master.

Dark Mastery

The Dark Master was a former Wizard at the Institute many decades before Katrina’s time. He had the reputation of being very learned and powerful. It was rumored that he had found the secret of agelessness.

Katrina thought it would be easy to become apprentice to an elderly old gentleman. She had charmed every other teacher and would do the same to him.

What she did not know was that the Dark Master was no gentleman. Nor was he alive. He had managed to conceal the fact that he was a Vampire from all of the Wizards. He had no need for an apprentice.

But he did have a need for a Vampire slave.

The Dark Master delighted in the cruelty of turning Katrina into a Vampire and forcing her to do his bidding.

Katrina hated him and hated being helpless to disobey him. She hated the fact that she had to return to her grave before dawn. She hated the fact that she was totally defenseless in the light of day. Being a Vampire sucked.

Katrina was a servant of the Dark Master for many years until, one night, she seduced a naïve young man. She easily convinced him to stake her evil Vampire master, something Katrina could not do herself. Pity that the hero perished in the process…

Katrina became the new Dark Master.

For all her magic and power, Katrina still had to fear the dawn. She feared that one day some fool would find her coffin during the day and destroy her while she was helpless.

There had to be some way to stop the day from dawning. There had to be some way to end this helplessness.

You do whatever it takes. If there are consequences – and there always are – you deal with them later.

Katrina’s story is a bit more complex than Erana’s. In the next article of this series, we’ll see the Dark Master in action.

Similar Posts:

• Women of Glory 4: Dark Mistress
• Shady Ladies of Shadows of Darkness
• Egg-Centricities

If you use a fixed mindset, you believe that you are good or bad at certain things. Sometimes that seems positive – Maybe your parents congratulate you on getting an “A” by telling you how smart you are.

It’s great to have confidence, but you might fall into the trap of thinking that everything will be just as easy. You can become lazy about studying and improving your skills. And then you fail at something, and all your confidence disappears. If you succeeded because you were smart, then you must have failed because you’re stupid. So you give up, work even less, and keep failing.

With a “growth mindset”, you see yourself as in a constant state of change. If you succeed at a task, it isn’t because you were destined to succeed. It’s because you prepared yourself by working hard, studying, and practicing for that task. If you fail, it means you need to work harder, study more, and prepare better.

People who take a growth mindset don’t think of themselves as geniuses or natural athletes. They just know that they can do amazing things if they work hard enough. It’s a much more resilient attitude, and most successful people believe in a growth mindset.

Not So Smart

For years, I had people call me a genius. The label has always felt wrong to me. I have always known there are lots of people smarter than me, more skilled than me at any particular subject, and so on. I used to describe my work as “sporadically brilliant”, and have always been frustrated that I can’t come up with great ideas all the time or with any degree of consistency.

That’s because what I really have isn’t genius. It’s the willingness to keep trying when I fail, to try new things, and to let my imagination wander until an idea comes to me. My wife calls me “easily distracted” and I’m often accused of daydreaming, being indecisive, and lacking focus. The strange thing is that all those accusations are correct, and that that flaw is my greatest strength!

When my mind wanders, it’s because the “obvious” answer to a question doesn’t feel quite right. Game design takes both organized, careful work and the leaps of imagination that come letting my mind roam. If I was always focused and “in the moment”, I’d be doing some other work.

Being creative is about taking risks and often getting them wrong. That means trying new ideas, getting many of them wrong, then trying some more.

Growth Is Life

If you want more from your life, adopt the growth mindset. Don’t allow yourself to become too satisfied with the status quo – Keep working to get better and to learn new things. At the same time, try not to beat yourself up over mistakes or failures – Treat each one as a Valuable Learning Experience, and another opportunity to get better and learn new things.

There is always more out there; keep looking for it!Similar Posts:

• Personal Best
• Do Extraordinary Things
• Be Extraordinary

The Quest for Glory series starts out with these questions, “Who was Erana? Why did she make this place of peace here in Spielburg? What happened to her?” Some of the people in the valley think she is dead. Erasmus the Wizard seems a little envious of her talents when he criticizes the fact that Erana’s magic protects the town from harm, but that she missed the alleyway. The sorceress Zara dismisses her magic as minor. The questions remained unanswerable in So You Want to be a Hero.

It took three more games to tell Erana’s story. Even as the game series ended, there were still questions unanswered about her. So now, it is time to tell the tale of a woman caught between two worlds who shared her loving soul everywhere she went on Gloriana and maybe, just maybe, was loved in return.

Magical Beginnings

Long ago, before the game series starts, Spielburg was a flourishing valley of farms and trade. It was also a powerful nexus for magic. Faerie Folk journeyed to this valley to draw upon its magic to create items of power.

A lovely young woman named Elaina from one of the nearby villages discovered that she had a talent for magic, but her parents tried to discourage her from learning to be a spellcaster. “Magic only leads to a life of loneliness and solitude,” they said. “Do you want to live like the old Healer in the woods? Everyone comes to her for favors, and nobody really likes her.. Better you should marry a nice boy, settle down, have children, and forget this foolish magic stuff.”

But Elaina could not deny the magic she felt in her very being. One night, she wrote a long, tearful farewell letter to her family and ran away from home. She sought out the Healer in the woods and asked to become her apprentice. There Elaina’s magical talents developed and grew.

So powerful was her magical ability that she attracted the attention of an Elf Lord who had come to the valley to recharge his magical staff. He soon seduced Elaina, but Elaina stole his heart as well. So while his duty to his people and his Queen kept him away most of the time, he returned whenever he could to Spielburg and his beloved Elaina.

Then Elaina bore him a daughter and named her “Erana.”

The Half-Blood Princess

Erana was a very loving child. Her skin was the golden color of late afternoon sunshine on the Autumn fields. Her hair was a mixture of her father’s honey curls and her mother’s auburn tresses. She was petite in frame and Faerie-like in face.

She also inherited both her parents’ exceptional magical talents.

The people of Spielburg feared this Half-Elf changeling. The Faerie Folk who traveled to the valley disdained and ignored the Half-Blood human. Erana’s friends were the animals of the forest and her playgrounds were the forests and fields. She loved to explore the wild places and to dance with the pixies. She was the sunshine in her mother’s and the healer’s lives.

As Erana grew up, her father visited the valley whenever he could. He delighted in his joyful daughter and his human lover. Then one day he was called to fight in the war between the Faerie and the Dark Ones in the distant land of Mordavia. He perished in the final battle that sealed off the cave of Avoozl.

Elaina and Erana had no idea what had happened to him. All they knew was that he didn’t return to them.

Faerie Trials

One day, an Elf Queen and her entourage entered the Spielburg valley seeking magic. She found Erana playing in a field surrounded by Pixies. The child showed great potential for power. What a waste! So the Queen had Erana kidnapped and carried off to the Faerie lands beyond the world.

For several years, Erana served the Queen and studied Faerie magic. She was treated as a slave by the Faerie Folk. However, by listening to their tales, Erana learned of her father’s sad fate. He had not forgotten or abandoned them. In his final moments, he called out Elaina’s name.

Finally, Erana became powerful enough with spells and knowledge to cross the world gate and return to Gloriana.

Spielburg Spells

When she returned to Spielburg, Erana discovered that decades had passed while she was gone. The Healer’s House was abandoned. In the weed patch that had once been a garden, she found the cobwebbed gravestones of her mother and the healer.

In her grief, she created Erana’s Peace as a memorial to her mother and her father’s love for one another. Because the villagers of Spielburg had given her mother the respect of a gravestone, Erana also cast a spell to protect the town.

Then she began a restless journey to find a new place that she could find home.

Wizard’s World

She was invited to join the Wizard’s Institute of Technocery. She soon learned that the Wizards there were more interested in studying her magic and the Faerie folk than they were in teaching her. She was treated like an exotic creature in captivity. It was clear to Erana that WIT would never be a home to her. It was an academic temple removed from society to worship the study of magic. So after a few years of learning the basics of Wizardry, she returned to her wanderings through Gloriana.

Trail to Tarna

For a while, she made a home for herself in remote Fricana. The savannas and jungles had a wild beauty all their own. Here she could forget the sorrow of her past and practice her spells of magical peace. Here she created a staff made from the Heart of the World. Here she made a sanctuary where all creatures could drink peacefully.

But the Simbani people feared her for her magic. The city of Tarna forbade magic. Even the loveliness of the landscape could not console her loneliness.

For decades she traveled the world creating little pockets of peace and beauty wherever she went.

Mordavian Nightmares

Then one day, Erana’s journey took her to Mordavia to visit the site of her father’s death. She discovered that a cult had been working to open the gates of Avoozl and release the Dark One into the world. The cult had almost reopened what Erana’s father died to close.

She met the Paladin Piotyr as he fought to stop the cult. Together, they forced their way into the cave of the Dark One. The High Priest had already completed the ritual to open the portal between Gloriana and the Chaos Realm. The chaotic magic thus released transformed the High Priest into a loathsome monster. In madness and agony, the monster attacked Piotyr as Erana tried to close the ever-widening entrance between worlds.

The Dark One, Avoozl, fed upon magic and souls. Gloriana was a banquet hall too long denied to the starving Dark One. Avoozl fed upon the souls of the cultists. It could sense the power of Piotyr’s holy wrath and Erana’s magic, and it hungered for their souls.

Avoozl had fought the Faerie before and knew how to counteract Faerie magic. Wizard and Paladin magic, on the other hand, were very different. The combination of all three types of magic was too powerful. Erana and Piotyr drove Avoozl back to its own plane of existence.

As the gate was almost closed, Avoozl reached out one of its tentacles in furious desperation and pulled Erana across into the Chaos Realm.

Erana had a choice – She could stop the Ritual of Closing, try to free herself, and start the ritual over; or she could complete the spell and remain trapped in Avoozl’s lair. She could see Avoozl reaching through the gate with another tentacle of Avoozl to capture Piotyr.

Erana made her decision. She completed the ritual, sealing herself away in the Chaos Realm where Avoozl slowly devoured her soul. She was trapped in the agony of endless death in a realm where time has no meaning. Each second was like an eternity…

Until a Hero was summoned to Mordavia by a very different woman. The Hero reopened the gate between worlds, freeing Erana’s soul, and then sealed off the gate forever. Erana’s soul could at last find peace.

And thus ends the tragic tale of Erana.

Coda

Or perhaps the story doesn’t end there.

Perhaps the Hero can call her from beyond the grave to help save the world once again.

We’ll learn more about that in Quest for Glory 5.

[Okay, so in the last article, I said that I was writing about both Katrina and Erana this time... turns out there was just too much to write. Would you really want me to give these two ladies less than they were due?]Similar Posts:

None Found

Halloween is my favorite season of the year. While I’m not a big horror fan, I do love the spooky, eerie, creepiness of a well-told ghost story. I grew up reading Poe, Saki, Lovecraft, and Stoker. We were inspired by films like Dracula and Frankenstein. Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks and “Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein” showed us how funny horror can be.

I wanted Shadows of Darkness to be full of tricks and treats just like Halloween.

However, when I started to write this series about the women of Quest for Glory, I had thought that Shadows of Darkness would be pretty far down on the list when it came to having strong women. After all, it only really had one woman, and she was the villain.

Silly me. No, now that I think about it, the game really is about two very strong women. Or possibly about three… or four… And it tells the story of several more.

I had thought that Shadows of Darkness was all about Halloween.

It’s really a story of love and redemption.

Damsels in Distress Yet Again

There are many damsels in distress in this game. There are many men in distress, too. There’s even a Domovoi in distress. You could say the entire game is about people living in the shadows of fear and hopelessness. It’s up to the Hero to bring some light into this world.

Anna is a ghost who doesn’t know that she is dead. The Hero has to reunite her with her beloved Nikolai to free both their souls.

The shopkeeper misses her missing husband. The Hero has to listen to her and her husband complaining about one another. Then the Hero helps them realize that they still love each another.

And that’s just part of the story…

The lady in the lake is spending her afterlife avenging herself for the wrong that someone else did to her.

The innkeeper’s wife is in distress because everyone believes that her daughter is dead, but she is unwilling to accept that her child is gone forever.

A small child misses her mommy and daddy.

A loving and powerful Wizard is trapped in the chaos between worlds.

All in all, Mordavia really isn’t a very happy place to be.

The Hunger Game

The one powerful female in the game who isn’t in distress is Baba Yaga. She came here to get away from the embarrassment of being turned into a frog by her own spell.

However, when the Hero comes walking into her hut again after all the grief he caused her, she doesn’t just serve the Hero with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. She talks to him a little before she decides to serve her vengeance cold with some eye scream. She chooses instead to make a deal with him, which involves something suitably yummy to her admittedly eclectic taste.

It’s clear that the way to Baba’s heart is through her stomach.

Leader of the Pack

The Gypsy Leader, Magda, doesn’t need rescuing, but her son does. Gypsy Davy is accused by the superstitious villagers of being a werewolf and eating Igor, the gravedigger. Once the Hero rescues Igor from his untimely grave and thus proves that Gypsy Davy is innocent, the Gypsies will accept the Hero as a friend.

Foolish villagers – the Gypsies aren’t Werewolves. Werewolves are cursed. The Gypsies are Shapechangers. They don’t have to wait for a full moon to turn into a wolf. These shapechangers do not turn into mindless beasts. They have no interest in eating dirty, smelly gravediggers.

They also have a matriarchy ruled by an Alpha female who can tell the future with tarot cards.

Magda is nobody’s bitch.

Lady in the Lake

Many of the creatures who populate Mordavia were pulled from Slavic Folklore. The Rusalka is one such creature.

The Rusalka, Elyssa, doesn’t pull men to their watery graves because she hates men. Elyssa became a Rusalka because that’s the sort of curse you get stuck with when your untrue lover drowns you in a magical lake because you didn’t put out.

Any Hero can befriend Elyssa, but only the Paladin can set her soul free by breaking the bond between her spirit and that of her murderer. Then the Paladin has to show her what it means to be kind and loving by kissing her cold, clay lips. Only then can the curse be broken and Elyssa’s soul go to her rest.

Faerie Dust

The Magic User is the Hero who meets the Faerie Queen. She’s come to Mordavia in order to claim the staff of Erana that protects the town. However, she is thwarted because it will take a great sacrifice to take the staff. Unfortunately, none of her minions is willing to make the sacrifice so that the Faerie Queen can take Erana’s staff.

So the Faerie Queen does what most villainesses in QfG do – She gets the Hero to claim the staff for her.

We’ve met Faeries in the very first game of the series. Zara showed the same sort of arrogance and disdain for humans that the Faerie Queen shows here.

The Faerie Queen doesn’t care who gets sacrificed or betrayed so that she can get what she wants. She’s too arrogant and powerful to let the Hero keep the staff. She intends to deceive and kill the Magic-User to get Erana’s Staff.

The Faerie Queen, like so many other villains, is too full of her own sense of power and importance to think for a moment that a mere human could defeat her.

The Magic-User proves just how wrong she was. Being the one actually wielding the powerful magical staff of Erana doesn’t hurt.

Child of Darkness

Tanya is the real victim of this story. Love is the cause of her plight and love is her savior. She was a loving child who was overprotected by her loving mother. She was imprisoned in the inn to protect her from unknown dangers.

Somehow, Tanya attracted the attention of the Dark Master, Katrina. Katrina had her pet monster Toby rescue/kidnap Tanya from the inn. Then Katrina gave Tanya the gift of eternal youth – through death and “rebirth” as a Vampire. Katrina adopted Tanya as the daughter she had always wanted. Katrina and Toby truly loved Tanya in their own ways.

But Tanya never forgot her human mommy and daddy.

It’s up to the Hero to rescue Tanya from the castle. It is Toby, though, who allows himself to be sacrificed to bring Tanya back to life. It is Toby’s love for Tanya that saves her from Undeath.

Yes, Tanya is restored to her loving parents.

However, the Hero deeply hurt Katrina by doing so. She considers him responsible for Toby’s death and the loss of Katrina’s “adopted daughter”, Tanya.

Love Bites

So yes, Shadows of Darkness is where Slavic Folklore meets H.P. Lovecraft. It’s about Vampires, Ghosts, Undead, and Mad Scientists. It’s about deceit, betrayal, and death. It’s about superstition and prejudice.

But most of all, Shadows of Darkness is about Love – The love of Power and the power of Love.

There are two more women who are at the very center of Shadows of Darkness. I will write more about Katrina and Erana next week.Similar Posts:

• Women of Glory 4: Dark Mistress
• Women of Glory 4: Daughter of Darkness
• Women of Glory 3 – Warrior Women of Tarna

You see, I have a dark secret. I’m a recovering game addict. It isn’t safe to let certain types of games in my house. I have a sneaking suspicion that “certain type” might be any game I find fun. Or that I can “zone out” with – Solitaire, I’m talking to you.

I’m not quite sure when my addiction first surfaced. I spent my childhood playing board games, and my teenage years behind a chess board. But I also rode my bike, read a lot, and even watched TV. Games were just a part of my life.

The Gateway Game – Bridging the Gap

Now chess is a well-known gateway drug. For me, chess led to bridge, a card game even more addictive. Stories abound of promising students who dropped out of school to “study” bridge. I began spending evenings at the bridge club, often followed by long sessions at the pub to discuss the deals we just played.

I often spent even later nights haunting the computer facilities at UCSB. That was partly because the turnaround time was better at night, but it was also so that I could play. UCSB had a PLATO terminal linked to the University of Illinois, and I devoted many nights to playing Spasim, Empire, Airfight, DND, Moonwar, and others. I even tried my hand at writing a couple of game “lessons”.

Addiction or dedication? You decide. Programming was a game to me too. Somehow I managed to graduate with a degree in mathematics, although it was really a thinly-veiled computer science degree.

Dragged Into the Dungeon

My first job out of school involved a lot of travel. I installed and customized software for banks in Chicago, New York, and Minneapolis. My game- and turnaround-driven University habits served me well, as the banks were much happier to have their software maintained at night while their normal operations were closed.

But temptation awaited in the streets of Chicago. It was there that I innocently responded to an announcement about a new type of game, a “role-playing” game called Dungeons & Dragons. D&D was completely different from any game I had ever played, because each game was a story-telling collaboration between the dungeon master and the players. The combination of creative play and the random rewards from rolling dice captured my imagination. I soon became involved with two weekly campaigns, and played every chance I could get.

You could say that most of my life since University came out of that first encounter with paper role-playing games.

Con Artistry

When I returned to Los Angeles, my Mom showed me an advertisement for a nearby science fiction convention. I read a lot of fantasy and science fiction stories, but it was the mention of “gaming” that caught my eye. I’d heard that people frequently played D&D at SF Cons. I knew I had found a new home when I heard other people in the registration line talking about their characters and their exploits. They were not impressed that I had a fourth level Cleric.

I soon started up my own D&D campaign, and one of the players introduced me to some other games in town. Soon I was pulling all-nighters at CalTech every Friday and Sunday. At least once, I drove directly from the game to work Monday morning.

I became so obsessed with D&D that I wrote to TSR to tell them about a database program I had created to help dungeon masters generate “random but appropriate” encounters and treasure. I told TSR that D&D had taken over my life and they owed me a job.

You can imagine how well they responded to that!

Addiction? Um, yeah, no longer a question. I had to quit my programming job when they refused to let me become a part-time employee so that I would have more time for gaming.

D&D led me to conventions, and writing my own game scenarios, both of which led to meeting Lori. I’m not sure whether she was an addict at the time, but she loved playing D&D and later spent more time at it than I did.

Rolled Doubles, Move Again

I moved up to San Jose partly because Lori wanted to be closer to relatives in San Francisco, and partly because it was the center of the burgeoning computer and video gaming universe. I didn’t find a game job there, but we made lots of friends with other gamers and played D&D several nights a week.

Some other nights I “worked late”, which mostly meant playing Rogue on the office mainframe. Or Wizardry on an Apple II. Or Dungeon Master on the Atari ST I was using to develop desktop publishing software.

My gaming and Con connections led to the next move. A gaming friend did animation work for Sierra. When she found out that Ken Williams was looking for a “champion tournament-level dungeon master” to create a new role-playing game for Sierra, Carolly thought of us and introduced us to Ken. Sierra had published Ultima II, but Lord British decided to start his own company for the sequels.

Here was my chance to turn my gaming addiction into actual paying work! The pay was horrible (I took a 40% cut from what I was making in San Jose), but these were games! I abandoned the desktop publishing project, and Lori and I moved to Oakhurst.

There was one strange thing about working for Sierra – Almost nobody there played games. I had little choice but to actually do work. Well, actually I was already in the habit of working 50 hour weeks as a programmer – That was the norm in San Jose as well as in Oakhurst. There just weren’t many distractions to keep me from doing it. Except maybe for bowling, or bridge, or raising a two-year-old. Piece of cake compared to playing D&D until the sun comes up.

Heroes and Anti-Heroes

Ironically, the most game-free period of my live was the first six years I spent making games at Sierra. It makes sense – programming and designing games is a lot like playing them. The only difference is that the rewards for good play and the penalties for bad play hit harder.

On the other hand, work and play often get confused in game companies. I’ve worked on a few projects where productivity came to a halt because most of the team members spent more time playing games that making them. Surprisingly, I’m not usually one of those – To me, making games is more entertaining than playing them. Game addiction was not involved when Sierra laid off half the staff and cancelled Lori’s and my contract after QG4.

During my “Sierra sabbatical” period between Quest for Glory IV and Quest for Glory V, Heroes of Might and Magic came into my life. Playing it until 3 or 4 a.m. on work nights probably contributed to losing a job in the Bay Area, but that turned out ok – It gave me the chance to return to Sierra and help finish Quest for Glory 5: Dragonfire.

I put my stack of HoMM games in a box, wrote “Pure Evil – Do Not Touch!” on it, and handed the box to a friend to store away from my sight. It was painful therapy, but it worked… for a while.

WoW – Where Did My Time Go?

After a little life disruption known as 9/11/2001, I moved on with my life and got a job creating an online poker site. The only gaming I did there was playing poker on our competitors’ sites – research, you know. I even got good enough at it that I started winning more money than I lost.

Along came World of Warcraft. The game launched in November of 2004. Every morning I could hear my boss and co-workers talking about their latest exploits on Azeroth. The game sounded like a lot of fun, but I knew that I was a game-oholic and must not try this clearly addictive game.

I actually stayed away until a fan introduced us to WoW – She had said, “This game is a lot like Quest for Glory.” Um, ok, guess we should find out what’s new in gaming.

Actually, I hated WoW at first. I’ve always had a problem with motion sickness and can’t play most first-person shooter games. WoW was just as bad – I could play for maybe ten or fifteen minutes, then it would take me an hour for the room to stop spinning. Lori played a little, and had a good time.

I felt a little left out, but it was a relief that I wasn’t going to become addicted to this game. I could get my work done and stay productive.

Then I upgraded my computer and graphics card. Suddenly the game graphics stopped being choppy. I could play and not get sick. Um, yay?

Little by little, I started spending a few hours a week in World of Warcraft. As my characters gained levels and I joined a raiding guild, WoW started eating more and more of my time. When I wasn’t playing, I was off on the Web reading strategy articles and watching videos. It isn’t easy competing with a bunch of 20-somethings when you’re 50. Ten hours a week turned into thirty, forty, and more. I was spending more time playing WoW than working.

Cold Turkey

Seven-and-a-half years later, and the Hero-U project beginning to accelerate, I finally recognized the writing on the screen for what it was. I could not continue my life as a citizen of Azeroth at the same time as following the more-than-full-time lifestyle of a game developer. On Aug. 30, 2012 I visited the World of Warcraft for the last time, and on Sept. 1, my account expired for the last time.

I look back fondly on my many memories of Azeroth, the friends I made, the bosses I conquered, and the achievements I accomplished. But they’re just memories now – I have no desire to drink from that bottle again. Thank goodness!

My name is Corey Cole. I’m a game-oholic. I’ve been clean for two weeks now. Unless you count bridge or bowling or surfing the Internet.

Ok, so maybe I’ll never be completely clean.

But one thing I can say for sure – I will never stop having fun. And I will put all my love of games into the Hero-U game. Hero-U will be fun. I know that from experience.

Similar Posts:

None Found

Quest for Glory 3:Wages of War was not part of our original plans for the series. After ‘Trial by Fire’ was released, Corey and I moved on to educational games – Castle of Dr. Brain and Mixed-Up Fairy Tales. This meant that our next Quest for Glory game would not be released until two years after Trial, a long time to wait for the next chapter of a saga.

We knew that ‘Shadows of Darkness’ would be dark and grim compared to the other games. If we were going to have new fans playing the game, we didn’t want them to think that the series was about Vampires, Werewolves, and the end of the world as we know it.

So when our friend Ellen Guon (Beeman) mentioned that we should tell Rakeesh the Paladin Liontaur and Uhura the warrior’s story, we said, “That’s a great idea!”

Glorious Glory

“Trial by Fire” was one of the last 16 color, typing-interfaced games that Sierra published. It was also created under the most stressful, unpleasant working conditions we experienced at Sierra On-Line. “Wages of War,” on the other hand, was completely different. Now we were full color and we had a dream team of talented artists under the direction of Andy Hoyos. Sierra had mellowed from the authoritarian administration and was treating employees like people again.

QfG3 is one of the most beautiful games in the series. Tarna is a magnificent city that might have been built if Babylonians and Egyptians joined together to build a home for the majestic Liontaurs. The jungle scenes are lush and open. The Heart of the World is a tree of huge scale and majesty. The character portraits were realistic and showed off each character’s personality. You could easily feel like you were not so much playing a computer game as exploring the veldts and jungles of Africa.

Fricana Females

Your character goes to the land of Fricana out of friendship for Rakeesh and for Uhura. In Tarna, you meet Rakeesh’s wife, Kreesha. You learn that Fricana is martialing for war after an attack upon a peace treaty mission. Worse, Rakeesh’s daughter was a leader of that mission and she never returned.

Liontaur society is based on that of the lion. The leader of the city is Rajah, the brother of Rakeesh. However, all of the ruling council members are female. Most of the Liontaurs you meet in the game are female. In lion society, the women do all of the work. The males sit around and have lovely female courtesans feeding them zebras.

Corey is considering a race change to Liontaur.

Simbani Beauties

From Tarna, you journey to the Simbani village. This society was based around the Masai people of Africa. Here Uhura is your friend and advisor. She is once again both a Warrior and a mother. Uhura refused to give up one role for the other. She wanted to live her life as she chose, not as her society chose for her. She had to leave the Simbani for that choice.

But now Uhura has returned to her home, and the Simbani tribe have welcomed her and her son back.

In the Simbani village, you also meet Johari. She is a Leopardman who was captured by the Simbani as she attempted to recover her tribe’s Drum of Magic.

It’s true that Johari needa rescuing from her cage. It’s also true that she haa no say one way or another about becoming the Hero’s bride once he pays the bride price for her. But Johari isn’t your typical damsel in distress (“DiD”). And while Simbani custom might say that Johari has been sold into marriage, Johari refuses to accept what the Simbani dictated. She runs away from the village as soon as the opportunity arose.

However, she doesn’t run away from the Hero – or at least not for very long. Nor has she given up on the idea of returning the Drum of Magic to her people. Johari wants the Hero to help her get the Drum back and stop the war between her people and the Simbani.

In many ways, Johari is the most heroic of all the women in the QfG series. She’s willing to put aside her differences with the Hero and the Simbani and actively work to bring peace. She is willing to work with her people’s enemies, the Liontaurs and the Simbani, to help the Hero stop the war and prevent the demons from invading Fricana.

Johari even gives the Hero his first kiss. Unless, of course, you count Amelia the healer in Spielburg. But most people try to forget that one.

Liontaur Lady

There is another female who needs rescuing in this game, but she’s not your typical “DiD” either. Reeshaka is the daughter of Rakeesh and Kreesha. Once you break the demon’s possession of her body, she’s ready to fight at your side. Like her father, Reeshaka is a great warrior.

In the battle against the Demons, Uhura, Johari, and Reeshaka help save the day with Kreesha’s magical assistance. Of the four friends that stand with the hero in the final battle, two are female and one is… a monkey.

Clearly, the hero has a way with women. He attracts the strong, brave ones.

Women’s Wages

Wages of War has the strongest and most dynamic female characters of the series, other than Elsa von Spielburg. They all play their part to save the world rather than waiting for the hero to do all the dirty work.

In QfG3: Wages of War, the Hero stops a war between the Liontaurs, Simbani, and the Leopardmen caused by the deceitful Demons. He sends an apothecary off on a journey to find the love of his life and restore her humanity. He cures the enchantments that hold two women – Johari and Reeshaka – in bondage. He learns how to make friends and influence people. He stops the demons from spreading war across all of Fricana.

But he never could have succeeded without the help of the women he met along the way.

Sigh – but it still had a sexist harem scene. What can I say? Some people have a thing about sexy cat-women.

Similar Posts:

• The Fiery Females of Quest for Glory 2
• Shady Ladies of Shadows of Darkness
• Being A Warrior