The Rise of a Hero

[Thandien]

I've been thinking up an idea for a short (around three-map) campaign to create as my first real Warcraft III project. It'll be an RPG in which one plays a single hero (one might gain control of a few extra in Act II). The hero won't have any special abilities, but will grow through the campaign, and I intend for him to be able to pick up visible weapons / shields. The story does not happen in any predefined universe. This is what I've got so far:

~ Act I - Bandits! ~
[Backstory] A small region, surrounded by practically unscalable mountains, has found itself terrorized by a group of ruthless bandits. The local lord, who commands a personal force quite capable of dealing with such a problem, refuses to do anything about it. Traveling to other regions for help is not possible, as the bandits have taken over all routes out. The people of the region are mostly simple farmers, and are overwhelmed by the bandits' organized attacks.

The hero, a young man of eighteen years, has all his life longed to see the outside world. He has access to his late father's small collection of literature. Being lucky enough to know how to read, he has read his share of adventurous journeys, fights with evil and discoveries of new, fantastic worlds. He has trained with a wooden sword, and inherited some simple armour from his grandfather, who was known as a skilled soldier.

With the recent bandit attacks, the hero feels the need to do something. Despite his mother's warnings, he sets out to deal with the problem, one way or another. Having no real weapon of his own, he decides to travel to the neighboring village's blacksmith. Plot unfolds.

---

It's not all that epic, but I think that's suitable for a first project. I intend to work on this a lot, so it comes out fine-tuned and looking good. I've decided on a loose plot for the two acts that follow Act I, and decided on some stuff that happens later in Act I, but I won't spoil that.
Act II will have our hero journey to the land's capital to heed the king's summons. Act III will be a tale of retribution. And that's all I'll say about those ones.

So, what do you think? It's not all that large-scale, but is however envisioned to be a fun, playable campaign. It will be a challenge to put together, but I have no doubt that I will be able to finish it.

 

[Direfury]

Later on, if your hero becomes all 'epic', i'd love to help with the plot.

 

[Thandien]

Thanks for that.

Some things I'd like to add:
I've been thinking about having various zones spread throughout the map where the hero can strike up a tent and rest, healing him completely. These areas could also serve as save-points (I remember seeing a map in which this was done, one could only save in specific regions or the save-file was corrupted some-how).

Of course, I will not make the save-points too few and far between, and there should not be many cases in which one can die.

 

[Belgarath]

To keep the environment looking nice, as I think an RPG / campaign like this would need, I'd use a corner in the map and arrange fights there. Only example of that is VGsatomi's Inuyasha map. But not that enemies just pop out of the grass and yell at you, I think you should have it that they have 1 damage or something, just to show where they are.
But the whole plot actually sounds really nice, for being simple.

 

[HorizonTal]

I have noticed that there aren't default warcraft models which are humans under 30 years old! you'll have to import a younger model...

 

[Thandien]

That's true, I plan on using this as an opportunity to better myself in as many aspects of map-making as I can. Meaning, I intend to make/edit my own models and skins for the map. I'm thinking of basing the hero on the level one rogue wizard creep.