Guild Wars 2

My wife and I are creating a story and trading cards as a reward system for our daughter that has Autism Spectrum Disorder. She is 8 has difficulties with staying on task in school. We have tried various reward systems in the past with mixed success. This attempt is specifically designed around her interests (reading fantasy stories and collecting things).

The idea is to write a story and create trading cards of the characters, locations, items (fiery dragon sword!) from the story. Each day she will receive a reward if she earns enough stickers from her teacher. The reward will either be another chapter of the story (about 1-2 pages per chapter) or another card from the most recent chapter.

I played GW2 from release for awhile then didn’t play for a few years. I have been getting back into it. We are both somewhere between atrocious and abominable artists so we are using GW2 characters and screen captures as the artwork and trading cards.

I am looking for some help on a couple of items.

1. The story is set in a world stuck in eternal winter. What are some cool locations that I could take some screen grabs from in the Shiverpeaks for the trading cards and/or can help give some inspiration for story points? I did world completion years ago and I don’t really remember most of the locations.

2. My daughter loves fairies and horses/unicorns. I don’t think those exist at all anywhere. Am I mistaken? It would be nice to do some screen grabs of some fairies or something similar. If only she loved dolyaks…

3. I was thinking of using the Claw of Jormag as the main adversary in the book (Dragon+Winter). I was also thinking of using an Icebrood Seer as one of the major adversaries. I wasn’t able to find a female looking icebrood that could work for another major adversary. Does anyone have any recommendations for enemies or character models of unique or interesting looking ice characters? I was considering a female Elementalist using Frost Aura or something as well.

4. As I mentioned, my daughter loves unicorns and I just recently realized that The Dreamer exists. I am now going to try to work on getting The Dreamer to have as part of the story and as a trading card. What is the best path to follow to work on a legendary? I don’t have much gold so I am probably going to save what I have to buy The Lover. I assume just farming high level areas for the T6 mats?

Thank you for any guidance anyone can provide. I really appreciate it!

Hmmm. A couple of things I can suggest.

1) one cool screenshot I can think of is the face in the mountain in Timberline Falls.

3) for a person with a frost aura there are a couple of options to get a picture of

• a picture of the Wintersday shoulders piece (Winter’s Presence): has snow falling around the char, maybe with white armor (picture below shows a sylvari female with dungeon armor, the snowflakes around her are from the shoulders and a gemstore backpiece that looks like fairy wings. She is holding a staff with a Glittering skin (Black Lion weapon skin). The back piece can be used with the second suggestion below also).

• the new ice encasement outfit, dyed white and with a white aura. The pictures below show part of the armor as black. That’s only to show dye sections and can be dyed another color. (The outfit cannot be combined with the winter’s presence shoulders but can be combined with the fairy wings). The face mask can be toggled off. If that’s showing too much skin there’s the male version. It’s worn by female asura and female Charr as well as male chars.

(One could be the heroine of the story and the other could be the villain)

• winter’s heart infusion https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=giqyR2yMhJ8
  Turns the skin pale and has a frost aura coming off. (More subtle. The frost aura would be hard to see in a static picture). The infusion can be combined with either the Winter’s presence shoulders and the outfit.

There is also the new Frostforged Weapon skins. They have a frost aura coming off them.
Dulfy: Frostforged weapon skins gallery

The Crystalline wings backpack and glider are pretty cool.

Look through the outfits. There are a bunch with unusual or fancy looks you can’t get anywhere else in game. If you’re not familiar with all of them you should be able to go to your hero panel or your bank to the outfit section and preview them on your chars. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Outfit

Bitterfrost has some awesome locations. Including the huge tundra trees and the ice lake, which really has a great feel to it especially when you swim under the icebergs etc.

Snowden should have some especially cold, yet natural scenery (ie not icebrood structures). It also has some snow weather effects iirc. My favourite section is the west shore of the southern lake.

There are no unicorns or horses visible in game, but you could get a kind person to screenshot the Dreamer in action as it fires an actual unicorn. The Dreamer will likely to take you months of hard grind, so it could be an easier option.

If you open to it, GW1 had some great locations not currently in GW2. The Eye of the North is quite a sight for starters from the outside. I’m sure I could venture into GW1 and provide some screenshots.

When you mentioned unicorns, my first thought was the Dreamer, I don’t know if you could write it into the story you plan, but making it a quest for the heroine to find a bow associated with unicorns that could be used to take out the final enemy might also give you time to get some screen shots of it ready. I don’t know if you have considered letting your daughter help design a character on GW2 then you play it for her and use it in the story taking the screen shots of her character as it progresses through your story. If she has helped design the heroine it might give her more of a connection to what happens to her in the story.

For actually getting the Dreamer, I have been (vaguely) working on it for the last year or so. I haven’t concentrated on it but I have been stashing things away regularly for it. Two things to mention, when creating the mystic clovers in the forge there is a good chance you will get T6 mats instead, so I would start concentrating on getting those forged then fill in the blanks on the T6 items. Laurels are also a good place to get T6 items, the heaviest crafting bag will give 3 T6 items for 1 laurel, make sure you log in each day to build up the laurels and when you get the month end reward chose the laurel option.

As for screen shots, Timberline Falls has some of the best scenery in the game in my opinion. There is also a view point in Wayfarer foothills just out side Hoelbrak where you look across to sculptures of the spirit beasts that might be wotth trying to get if it fits with your ideas.

Instead of trying to get shots of the mobs for the bad guys you might find that playing with the different character options could give you a creepy appearing bad guy that you control. I have a sylvari done using a makeover kit and she looks distinctly alien in my opinion, so something like that might work.

kcotterill.5396:

My wife and I are creating a story and trading cards as a reward system for our daughter that has Autism Spectrum Disorder. She is 8 has difficulties with staying on task in school. We have tried various reward systems in the past with mixed success. This attempt is specifically designed around her interests (reading fantasy stories and collecting things).

The idea is to write a story and create trading cards of the characters, locations, items (fiery dragon sword!) from the story. Each day she will receive a reward if she earns enough stickers from her teacher. The reward will either be another chapter of the story (about 1-2 pages per chapter) or another card from the most recent chapter.

I played GW2 from release for awhile then didn’t play for a few years. I have been getting back into it. We are both somewhere between atrocious and abominable artists so we are using GW2 characters and screen captures as the artwork and trading cards.

I am looking for some help on a couple of items.

1. The story is set in a world stuck in eternal winter. What are some cool locations that I could take some screen grabs from in the Shiverpeaks for the trading cards and/or can help give some inspiration for story points? I did world completion years ago and I don’t really remember most of the locations.

2. My daughter loves fairies and horses/unicorns. I don’t think those exist at all anywhere. Am I mistaken? It would be nice to do some screen grabs of some fairies or something similar. If only she loved dolyaks…

3. I was thinking of using the Claw of Jormag as the main adversary in the book (Dragon+Winter). I was also thinking of using an Icebrood Seer as one of the major adversaries. I wasn’t able to find a female looking icebrood that could work for another major adversary. Does anyone have any recommendations for enemies or character models of unique or interesting looking ice characters? I was considering a female Elementalist using Frost Aura or something as well.

4. As I mentioned, my daughter loves unicorns and I just recently realized that The Dreamer exists. I am now going to try to work on getting The Dreamer to have as part of the story and as a trading card. What is the best path to follow to work on a legendary? I don’t have much gold so I am probably going to save what I have to buy The Lover. I assume just farming high level areas for the T6 mats?

Thank you for any guidance anyone can provide. I really appreciate it!

Your love and effort for your daughter as a parent makes me want to hug you!
You’re such a good parent <3

Wow, thank you all so much. These are some great ideas. I will do some scouting through the suggested areas.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

1) one cool screenshot I can think of is the face in the mountain in Timberline Falls.

That is a great idea, I will make sure to find a way to fit this in.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Look through the outfits. There are a bunch with unusual or fancy looks you can’t get anywhere else in game.

I glanced through the outfits previously, but I think I missed some of these. They look really cool. Not sure I can justify the cost though (speech therapy takes priority).

Randulf.7614:

Bitterfrost has some awesome locations. Including the huge tundra trees and the ice lake, which really has a great feel to it especially when you swim under the icebergs etc.

Snowden should have some especially cold, yet natural scenery (ie not icebrood structures). It also has some snow weather effects iirc. My favourite section is the west shore of the southern lake.

These sound like exactly what I am interested in. Thank you very much! I was planning the end of book one to be on an ice lake, so I will definitely check these out.

Oenanthe.6549:

When you mentioned unicorns, my first thought was the Dreamer, I don’t know if you could write it into the story you plan, but making it a quest for the heroine to find a bow associated with unicorns that could be used to take out the final enemy might also give you time to get some screen shots of it ready.

I was thinking the same thing with the Dreamer. There are two main characters, one that uses a bow and one with a sword. I am using the fiery dragon sword and I was thinking the Dreamer. I can hold off on having the character get it to buy some time to get it in game but if I don’t get it in time, then I will go with an alternative.

I will also check out wayfarer, that sounds like something that would be full of potential.

I was originally planning on having the characters in the same shot with the enemies, but you are right, it might be easier to use characters and then photoshopping them together into a scene as needed.

DreamyAbaddon.3265:

Your love and effort for your daughter as a parent makes me want to hug you!
You’re such a good parent <3

Hugs are always welcome! It is probably cliche, but my kids have made me a better person, so I want to give them whatever I can so they can succeed. Having two daughters with Autism (the second isn’t into the same things) is definitely challenging, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

Again, thank you all for the ideas and support. It really does mean a lot to us!

This is one of the sweetest things I have ever seen. Your children are clearly very loved. You rock, awesome parents!

RoseofGilead.8907:

This is one of the sweetest things I have ever seen. Your children are clearly very loved. You rock, awesome parents!

Thanks! That is very kind of you to say. We just finished the “Reward Track” book tonight which has her “Daily Quest Log” and the placeholder for the earned trading cards. Making progress!

Isn’t there a unicorn finisher? In fact I am quite positive I have been killed by it several times. Not sure if its for sale right now in gem store but it is very colorful.

I also applaud the parenting. Good luck with your daughter’s story.

This is a fantastic idea!

If you want a snowstorm, there is at least one spot in Dredgehaunt Cliffs that has a perpetual blizzard with lightning effects in it. It’s not very big, and I’d have to run around to find it, but it could make for a good screenshot for your purposes.

There is a unicorn finisher indeed; a giant rainbow curves from your victim and a unicorn runs off up the rainbow. You could either arrange with a friend to go to a custom snowy pvp arena (if there is such a thing) so as to get a snowy backdrop for using it, or go find some toxic krait alliance seed pods (which are all in green areas I think) and finish the Toxic Sylvari there. If it’s in the store, anyway.

There is an area in Frostgorge with (I think) permanent snowfall. It’s around the Slough of Despond waypoint..

Edit: it’s when you approach that area from the east by way of the path leading from the Jormag fight area, before you reach that small Kodan fort.

The dredgehaunt snowfall area that Donari mentioned, iirc it’s around the heart, Assist Daphne and the Leaning Grade point of interest. I’ve heard it’s tied to an event though so it might not be there all the times.

First of all I have to say it’s a great idea to create such a story ^^

And second, there are no official fairies and female icebrood in the game, but you can be creative with armor mix-n-match. I actually have a character with an ‘ice witch’ theme.

I also have The Dreamer, and since it might take you a while to get yours, here are some screens with a fairy-looking character. And the ice witch that perhaps could work for the villainess in your story?

I could take more screenshots later if you want, would love to help.

for your point 2 (with the fairies) you might find some players characters costumized fairy-like, you could ask to take screenshots.
and for your point 4 : best to go chest farming in the silverwastes or tarir- multiloot, and open the bags on a level 52- 55 character, it gives more t6 mats than at 80, also I would salvage the items (except rare and exotic ones).
Check the professions you need to make the dreamer on the wiki.
If you got any more questions you could pm me (here or in-game, no problems).
Always willed to help with anything

Again, I can’t say enough about how helpful you all are. Tomorrow is the first day back to school, so we gave her the story today to get started with. She got the Prologue and her first character card as an example. She was pretty excited and read the Prologue and asked my wife to read it to her right after. Then she was asking questions like “what card is next?” “what is Chapter 1 about?” etc. She also picked the Prologue as the story for us to read to her before bed and she wants to read it to her class tomorrow. My wife and I were pretty excited she was so happy.

Here is a picture of the outside of the books and the inside as well. Isla’s Journal is for my other daughter.

I love it, and I’m glad your daughter is loving it, too. Keep up the great work!

Sorry that this is a bit out of topic. But since you’re doing this for your daughter, I am wondering if there is any ASD related guild on the game?