Sheena's corner, A small thread to develop ideas Options

[Red Knight]

This thread will make more sense if you first have a look at Sheena's website and the diary in particular. I added also a dialogue preview and gallery section. It provides all the information I feel you need to know.

Sheena's lair

First, I'd like to say a few things about myself. What I do and who I am.
I am a humanitarian aid specialist and it takes me to secluded and remote corners of this world, places where hot water flowing from a tap, telephone lines, electricity are still slanderous rumors peddled by some people visiting from the west, or the north, and much to my dismayal I have to agree with them.
Anyway, my loneliness leaves me with a lot of free time during my evenings and week-ends, which serves me well developing an NPC for BG2 because there isn't much else entertainment available and I do enjoy writing, but the telephone line is at work and I can't really abuse it for the purpose of a hobby. I do abuse it mostly at lunch time, evening time and on a saturday morning and rarely more than 15 minutes at a time. If I have to respond, I'll prepare something off-line. If I want to read a lenghty thread, I'll download all pages at once and read them off-line, when I have the time. Bear in mind that I'm using taxpayer money from rich countries, maybe some of yours, so I really feel guilty and try not to overdo it. Well, if it is your dollar, pound, euro or yen, I shouldn't really feel bothered. I'm trying to pay you off with Sheena. Yes, I heard the: 'Well, she'd better be good then'. It is exactly the point of opening a thread meant to improve upon her personality and other aspects of this unique NPC.
I was very much tempted to ask Baronious for a dedicated forum but I've just explained you the reasons, I can't, so I'd like to keep this thread open, expressive, useful, ideally the place where people who liked playing Sheena can feed it's author with new ideas.

Sheena's personality. The current bottleneck explained:
Sheena is a young girl who lived a secluded life, unsure of herself because she dreads what other common races think of her, a half dragon, an abomination that has no right to exist. Therefore, her personality is reserved, cautious, restrained by her own fear of renewing with the prejudice she suffered. Except with evil characters, where she'll be agressive and confident enough to deal with them (Edwin, Korgan) but also in-game characters (mad cleric...).
All my troubles start now. Nearly 1500 lines of cautious dialogue lines are enough to convey the feeling that Sheena is a noble character (Mazzy - Keldorn) with a reserved demeanor towards everybody but careful nurturing has led to a romance with the PC. It is past time to reveal Sheena's true heart, the adorable young woman behind the veil of her fears. I want to open up her personality but slowly, like a delicate flower budding. What I recently wrote is either too Lolita (understand Viconia in a very very good mood - first LT in the diary) and completely unsuitable for Sheena or useless whining (understand Aerie- 2nd LT in my diary-I understand Avariels are located high in the mountains) that is leading me nowhere. I simply want to instill a more moving, sensual, confident person in her character without overdoing it. I've written five new love talks and not one of them fit her.

I'd also like to find again the kind of situation that led Sheena to literally give you her heart or declare her love in a genuine and naive way. If you have any idea of situations that would recreate what I lost, then please, I'd very much like to hear it. I used some of my own experiences to pull the romance story off, so maybe you could look into your own very good memories of a love situation you particularly found moving. I don't need to know it is your own life experience, simply sometimes real life stories can even be more astounding than any story an author can come up with. You can also contact me privately if you don't feel like posting: e-mail or PM me.


Quests+areas:
I have two new areas ex-IWD1. I've thought of using the Mad Cleric and Vinamar to start it off. Anybody who played Sheena think this is a good idea? It starts roughly in C6 like this.
Mad cleric: Ah! I finally found you my lady. I have been a faithful servant and accomplished the task you requested.
Sheena: You seem familiar but I can't recall your name. Have we met?
Mad cleric: Can't you remember, my Lady? Not so long ago, we met in the docks where you commanded me to start a church of Tiamat, queen and goddess of Dragons
The mad cleric serves the purpose of luring you into a trap set up by Vinamar in the cloud peak mountains but then why you would fully move after him remains a mystery and the reason it was not implemented.
I've also long thought of Sheena's abduction by Vinamar. He still has very good reasons to look for her if the mad cleric became a member of the cult of the dragon.
Which one would you like implemented?

If I was introducing Sheena's stepfather, what race do you imagine he would have? At one time, I thought to make him a firegiant but I don't have the animation and although it would have created the desired surprise effect, it is slightly stepping out of line.

Bodhi:
For a very good reason (the dragon heart ritual), she can not be abducted by Bodhi if romanced or do you think I should sacrifice some credibility in my own story to let Bodhi abduct Sheena?

TOB end:
All along (banter, romance) I hinted Sheena might become one day a full mature red dragon. Although, I am a bit unsure a half human half dragon could turn into one, I expanded on the fact that her own power of disguise is unatural. Should I go ahead writing it at the end of TOB (ascension installed) or do you think that will be too much fire power, even with ascension installed? I am aware she'd have incredible stats and retain her ability to cast all her spells, so that's a bit botthering and since I carefully avoided overpowering her, why do it in the end? Maybe a separate module would be more convenient?

This post has been edited by Red Knight: Mar 7 2006, 01:56 PM

[Red Knight]

Cobweb, thanks for writing the first in-depth comment about Sheena.

In many ways Sheena has the potential to breathe new life into what is now a pretty old but loveable and constantly replayable game.

You're the second person with a similar comment, but I'm not sure both of you share the same reasons, especially after reading your lenghty thread. :-)

terms of developing the relationship between the PC and Sheena I am minded of Raymond Feist's (Midkemia/ Riftwar/Kelewan novels) development of Ashen Shugar/ Thomas and his relationship with greater dragons. Whilst the dragon intially came across as a servant, the relationship between the two changed over time. Admittedly Thomas took an elven queen as wife but he always maintained a unique bond with the species. which allowed them both to maintain their guardianship of the world. The dragon's ability to transform into a beatiful human female allowed it to move freely amongst their kind and avoid detection and confrontation. .

I'd definitely like to read the books, and sort of immerse myself into the relationship to get more insight. Unfortunately, I cannot purchase the book for reasons listed in my first post.

The development of Sheena as a good character I imagine is mostly due to the influence of her stepfather. Sins of the father and all that?

I've always been more a believer in social factors than genetic ones. Although the latter plays a greater role when a child is left to his own device, social factors can circumvene some genetic defect such as agressiveness (maybe not the best example). Sheena's stepfather is a big figure for her, and acted as a role model.
Sheena - at the moment - is more: sin of the mother. :-) I think the father - daughter relationship never existed. Here's something I wrote in a PM yesterday: "Sheena is not quite sure that Firkraag is her father. He could have - after all - invented the whole story simply to use her. Red Dragons are cunning, devious, machiavelic, so who really knows if Sheena is his daughter? Several banters convey the same feeling that Sheena is not sure about who her father is (Adalon interjection). Perhaps Firkraag is really her father, but she does not want to come to terms with it or she'd still wish her father was someone else (like Tchazzar)."
It would be hard to write something about how Sheena perceives her late father.

The potential for great evil or great good in both is tremendous.

I have limited the romance to a good and neutral PC, and Sheena went through her own test of choosing between good and evil when she first met Firkraag. At least, it is my very strong belief, she passed the test successfully. I can't see circumstances wherein I could place both characters to reverse that trend. So to speak, I have more or less closed the door behind both of them to ever reach that level, and I've never envisaged an evil romance which will be expected by players once you walk that thin rope.Although, your comment is, from a hypothetical point of view, very true, I fail to see how to exploit it in a manner which wouldn't contradict what I already wrote.

The PC's choices with with the Slayer avatar at his disposal are identical to Sheena's if you choose to develop it in that way. For me it may be as well to give thought to the romance in this way. The struggle for them both to exert their own personalities so as to accept or discard their heritage can provide a unique bonding process which could even take them outside the destiny perceived by the gods.

Not quite. The PC is limited in the use of the slayer ability; he dies after some time. Sheena could remain a dragon with no consequences. At least it would be most player's understanding if I were making her a dragon. On the remainder part of that comment - the struggle, I have already more or less acted upon it. The next love talk will give you more insight on the struggle, Sheena's fears about the relationship... :-) I didn't want to give a full topic in one love talk to the struggle process, but rather snippets of conversations, here and there (asylum talk), which would randomly appear. Whether Sheena will accept her heritage or not, will be more of a TOB topic, rather than end of SOA. But you're right, it's evolution will have to show in SOA too. As for the PC, I don't see him able to discard his heritage before end of TOB because that's strongly intertwined in the general plot. It can only start in later TOB love talks when the pressure on his heritage is most palpable.

of course I have a slight predjudice for example about a whether a physical relationship between say a dwarf or a halfling and a dragon is a creditable achievement. (I feel a lot of old ribald jokes coming on). Is restricting the romance side to humans a bit too inhibiting?

At the moment, Sheena will romance any race, be it: dwarves, gnomes, half-orcs, halflings, elves or half elves... Perhaps I said she would romance humans only, but I checked the bcs and apparently left the romance open to any race.
I might close it down depending on how the romance turns out in the future version.

Sorry, I started off setting down some of my own thoughts and reactions to this great mod but I seemed to have rambled on a bit (a lot actually).

Everything was fine really, except for posting twice in the wrong thread. :-) Sheena does have her own forum here. I'll probaby have to revamp my site this week-end, and provide the link on the site to the forum. It wasn't your fault really.


Cheers,
R.K.