Knightmare n Series Ideas

How might you change Knightmare if a new series were to be made?
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Beltane
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Knightmare n Series Ideas

Post by Beltane »

I’ve been enjoying the old episodes of Knightmare lately plus Geek Week, and want to watch the VR version too. In the meantime I got the creative itch and thought I’d come up with some ideas for a hypothetical series of Knightmare.

Note: I’m not looking at this as a project to be made into a real fan-series so I haven’t taken costs into consideration.

My favourites were series 1-3, because of the indoor, claustrophobic feel, the artwork, and the lack of a good vs. bad dynamic. Here’s my initial notes on Knightmare n:

1. showcase artists’ artwork of the different rooms. Use different artists, but plan the rooms / design the overlaying story / pick artists whose art looks similar enough to not be jarring, but to allow wiggle room for different areas to look distinct enough. E.g., a witch’s den may be fairly different in style to a set of ruins.
2. devise rooms where the dungeoneer is on their own and cannot rely on their team for guidance (team’s audio or visuals are shut off temporarily)
3. - invest in great music to boost the show’s atmospherics
4. worldbuild to work out the potential for different characters.
5. have a story arc that involves Treguard passing on the responsibility of dungeon master on to a successor. Conceptualise the role as closer to a dungeon equivalent of ‘harbour master’ than owner, as the dungeon seems too alive to really be owned, only managed.
6. have first series establish what Knightmare’s all about for fresh audiences. Let successor look a bit overwhelmed with it all as early Treguard seemed to be (well, he was the custodian to an eldritch location, after all, and was probably relieved to share a small part of the burden with other people, even if it was children who thought it was all just a game)
7. have second series begin to explore the ethics of sacrificing people to the dungeon. Include clues in the quests giving information on what the dungeon actually is, and whether there’s any way to communicate with it or tame it. Include successor giving up information about why dungeoneers are brought in, perhaps accidentally.
8. include story arc where it’s discovered why dungeoneers lose their Life Force so quickly. Is it feeding the dungeon? Is it the pure strain of visiting a different plain to their native one? Is it something else?
9. I’m not too big a fan of ‘here’s the son of ___ to take over’ so I’d choose to avoid having the son of Lord Fear being the new Big Bad. Instead, have Lord Fear die or otherwise disappear abruptly, leaving a power vacuum, leading to a brief period of a hodge-podge of evil characters carving out their own space but possibly not having the scope to do it.

I’ve got more information to post – characters, monsters, and locations – so I’ll post those up soon, and encourage anyone’s thoughts on what I’ve written in the meantime.
Beltane
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Re: Knightmare n Series Ideas

Post by Beltane »

It took me way longer than I'd hoped, but here's the first part: characters!

People tend to consume sci-fi and fantasy content for escapism, not to get pithy commentary on modern affairs. Therefore I want to make these characters as apolitical as possible.

I think it’s tricky to come up with characters that are entirely lacking in political charge, and I won’t claim the following suggestions are successful attempts to avoid being political in a variety of ways – neither do I claim to have tried to actively avoid making them politically correct. What I’m aiming for here is to create a sense of fantastical wonder, of otherworldliness that makes fantasy so appealing. The list below is my best effort at creating apolitical characters that Knightmare players could enjoy interacting with, and that watchers could enjoy by extension.

I’ll admit that, since Knightmare’s had two male jesters I’m fairly itching to suggest a female one, but that’s an example of adding politics to this list, so rather than deliberately choose a sex for each character I’m going to use an online randomiser and let that decide for me. E.g., at a quick glance, most jesters were male, but the occasional one was female. Of the list given of notable jesters on Wikipedia’s article, it looks like approx. 1 in 10 was female, so I set the randomiser to pick a number out of 10, with 1 being female, and 2-10 being male.

I'll also say here that I've made around 30 characters here, and they're divided into good, unaligned, and bad. Classic Knightmare seemed to have around 25% good-aligned characters, 15% unaligned, and 60% bad, so I've reflected that here.

Note: I’ve not included Treguard’s successor in the below list. Nor do we have a dragon, so I’m aware that there are two glaring gaps in the below. The below is more of a general population of the dungeon than a cast list per se.

Let’s start with the obvious character: the dungeon master!

Sir Escart
Sex: male
Age: 45

I like to imagine that Treguard didn’t fight for ownership of Knightmare Castle specifically. He either inherited it or was granted the cursed castle that other, better-networked, knights were spared. He always came across as introverted so I’m going to run with that.

Treguard seemed to oversee Knightmare Dungeon out of a combination of obligation (where else was he going to go?) and duty, so I think he’d pick a responsible, open-minded successor. It also seems pretty clear he never had children, so hand-picking his successor seems his best option.

Sir Escart was a new knight when he won the rights to Dunshelm. Treguard went out of his way to do some networking and get the right successor, and is pleased with his choice. Nevertheless, it took Sir Escart a while to decide to believe, and get to grips with, the various power struggles presented by the dungeon. By the time of this series he’s fully taken over and Treguard is nowhere to be seen, and he’s as comfortable as he can get in this role, but is every bit as aware of his limitations as Treguard was. Nevertheless he’s avuncular, has a dark sense of humour, and possesses a level of skill with magic.


Bad Characters

Hariel and Cresil
Sexes: both male
Ages: 45 (Hariel) and 60 (Cresil)

These two are a ‘shoulder angel and demon’, but full-sized, with Hariel being the angel (and preferring his name to be shortened to Hari) and Cresil being the demon. While it could be said that Hari is a good character, he’s more interested in bickering with Cresil than helping dungeoneers, and Cresil is satisfied with introducing chaos into the dungeoneer’s life by tying Hari up in said bickering. The main danger they present is wasting the dungeoneer’s time, as it’s usually easy enough to get reliable information from Hari.

Augusta (calling name “Serendipity”)
Sex: female
Age: 45

A sorceress who mostly uses level 3 as her territory. Genuinely dangerous but usually keeps to herself until the dungeoneer stumbles into her level. In level 2 rooms where there’s an abyss, pit, or long drop she may make the occasional threat.

Rux
Sex: male
Age: 26

A serial killer, medieval style. Takes advantage of Knightmare Dungeon being something of a Wild West, with inefficient policing (Treguard had little power over and above the sense of authority he was able to generate; Rux simply ignores it). He can be reasoned with if he can’t reach the dungeoneer, but it’s inadvisable to be noticed too much by him. He may stalk the dungeoneer.

Sir Bayle
Sex: male
Age: over 65

A retired knight, but quite prepared to kill off a dungeoneer if he feels like it, which he quite often does – he’s quite the bitter old man. It’s unknown whether his Lady is still around, but it’s implied he feels he has nothing to lose, which, along with his bitterness and battle prowess, makes a potentially deadly combination. The dungeoneer had better be ready to barter for their life.

Fust
Sex: male
Age: 20

Young and overly eager level guard. He’s sulky and angry, frustrated by the limitations of the dungeon and whatever lands he’s able to access beyond, and only plays fair because guarding unfairly would lead to him losing his job. Despite being ‘bad’ he’s often hired by some of the more powerful ‘good’ characters, hence his (albeit reluctant) moral compass. He may also be coerced by magic into only engaging via a fair set of rules, especially later in the series as he gets more resentful.

Tristan
Sex: male
Age: 55

An ex-dungeoneer who was never extracted from the dungeon after dying. He was an early dungeoneer and one of the very few adults sent in under this role. At some point in his quest he removed his helmet with his eyes open. This killed him within the dungeon but also ‘opened his eyes to the illusion of the dungeon’ – thereby locking him within it even as he died. Treguard was unable to bring him out, and it seemed that Knightmare Dungeon itself wasn’t prepared to let him go. He’s now in late middle age, institutionalised into Knightmare’s culture, and sorely jealous of new dungeoneers. He’s convinced himself that if he can kill a dungeoneer then he may be able to use their death to finally step out of the dungeon, and it’s only thanks to Treguard keeping a spell on him that he can’t. From time to time he finds ways to free himself, meaning a new and different spell must be cast on him. Usually it’s the dungeoneer who has to do this.

Yenny
Sex: female
Age: 45

A beggar. Impoverished and almost certainly homeless (a deadly thing in a world inhabited by goblins) she’s learned to be crafty about protecting herself. She breaks into places, sleeps under beds, steals to buy lodgings for the night, and does anything else she can. She’s well known for being a criminal so struggles to make ends meet honestly, and is prone to trying to steal the dungeoneers’ clue room rations. Sometimes she can be fended off with magic, something worth more than food, or by Treguard’s authority, but it doesn’t always work.

Vauna
Sex: female
Age: 30

Sci-fi stories have super-soldiers, and Vauna is the fantasy equivalent. She’s magically enhanced and works as hired muscle – sometimes. If she’s not currently being hired she’s likely to do anything from ignore the dungeoneer to work for them for a short time, for pay – trouble is, one measly gold or silver bar or a gem won’t go very far, and if the dungeoneer has Vauna fight someone they use up their pay, so the enemy they have her fight may turn Vauna onto them.

Rass, Blight, and Precious
Sexes: male, female, and female
Ages: 35 (Rass), 55 (Blight), and 25 (Precious)

A trio of the very few (mostly) ordinary humans who live in level 3. Life there is perilous, cold, and generally unhealthy. They’re too weak on all fronts to take the dungeoneer’s food so eat mould off the walls and slay the occasional small monster, such as cavernwights, for their meat. In fact, they no longer recognise ‘normal’ food as food, but are more likely to see the dungeoneer themselves as potential food. Their talk can be semi-sane but can also be nonsensical, and they seem fundamentally magical in some way – they turn their words into rhymes and chants. They can give information that they’ve heard, and offer spells.


Unaligned Characters

Alaura
Sex: female
Age: 35

Absent-minded professor type, and a nun by life choice. She ventures forth from her nunnery often enough that she can be encountered fairly often. She is knowledgeable about various things from medicine to the medieval sciences, and presents questions to test dungeoneers’ knowledge. It doesn’t particularly benefit her to give up objects or knowledge (passwords, etc.) for this, but then again, the wall monsters of the early series clearly did some sort of setting-up to prepare clue room tables, and this lady pretty much does the same. Quite often she’s on the look out for specific supplies so can be good to trade one clue object for something else.

Lisset
Sex: female
Age: 20

Lisset may or may not offer much. She does her own thing and seems to have a knack for avoiding being captured, and her overall good nature helps with this. She wants to know things about the world beyond so tends to ask. While it would be easy to lie to her, she sometimes asks successive dungeoneers the same question so she can test whether she’s being lied to. It’s up to the dungeoneers to handle that – convince her they’re the one telling the truth, or admit when they don’t know? Use her good will for themselves, or preserve it for as many dungeoneers follow who decide to preserve her good will? It’ll likely help if Sir Escart articulates all of this so the team can choose, and of course, Lisset’s attitude to dungeoneers will adjust throughout the series.


Good Characters

Quintain
Sex: male
Age: 19

Helpful but somewhat beleaguered as he’s always been the joke among his peers for being the poor kid who had to stand against a tree with an apple on his head. Nobody wants to be the target practice. But he’s morally committed to being better than his peers and the bitter person he could be, so he helps dungeoneers. He can occasionally show his darker side: if he has to put an arrow in someone he will do so, and this is generally presented as somewhat jarring to his usual vague air of comedy relief.

Merry
Sex: male
Age: 20

Genuinely friendly and helpful, and likely hired by the Powers That Be, or for extra interest, by someone else benign but powerful. Seems to be a product of this eldritch dungeon so comes across as a creature of myth much like Folly did, but not averse to earning a bit of extra by entertaining other people. Merry never did like to put all his eggs I one basket but is very much a Powers That Be guy.

Mrs. Thornworth
Sex: female
Age: 50

A well-liked shrew of a woman. While she couldn’t quite be described as a witch, she’s dabbled in the past and is on good terms with the local witches, covens and solo witches alike. Has a few darker connections – she hasn’t survived this long without saving her own skin a few times, but nowadays she happily passes under the radar. Her husband is never mentioned.

Orphia (calling name “Mary”)
Sex: female
Age: 55

A free agent and has decided for herself that she morally aligns with the Powers That Be more so than the Opposition. There’s not much more that can be said of her. She’s powerful enough, and disinclined to take power, wealth, or land, that the Opposition leaves her alone. Some might ask how she can be so secure without the above three tokens of security, so clearly her edge is in something else, but she has never, and will never, tell anybody what it is.


And that's all of them! What do you lot think?
Mashibinbin
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Re: Knightmare n Series Ideas

Post by Mashibinbin »

This looks intensely thought out and considered and would be ideal for a more mature rebooted Knightmare, the 'kidsies' of latter day would be too young for some of the intriguing complexities you have offered. :green:
Beltane
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Re: Knightmare n Series Ideas

Post by Beltane »

Mashibinbin wrote: 19 Apr 2022, 12:38 This looks intensely thought out and considered and would be ideal for a more mature rebooted Knightmare, the 'kidsies' of latter day would be too young for some of the intriguing complexities you have offered. :green:
Well hey, thank you! And yeah, I think this lot might suit mid to older teenagers, perhaps? Or even young adults.
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DragonsBeHere
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Re: Knightmare n Series Ideas

Post by DragonsBeHere »

As an older teenager myself, I think this sounds awesome. The characters seem pretty intriguing. I especially like the idea of leaning more into the dungeon as an entity, and the idea of trying to communicate or reason with it. The dungeon is dangerous enough as just a place, but it's always thrilling when the land around you consciously and actively wants you dead.
Who knows what lurks in uncharted waters...
Beltane
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Re: Knightmare n Series Ideas

Post by Beltane »

DragonsBeHere wrote: 26 Apr 2022, 17:12 As an older teenager myself, I think this sounds awesome. The characters seem pretty intriguing. I especially like the idea of leaning more into the dungeon as an entity, and the idea of trying to communicate or reason with it. The dungeon is dangerous enough as just a place, but it's always thrilling when the land around you consciously and actively wants you dead.
Thank you, this is really helpful!
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