Re: Persistent World Basic Setting

So then we just have to decide what sort of Medieval we're going to do. You're talking about a 500 year stretch of history that covers the whole of Europe. We're going to have a lot to choose from, even if this is voted the way to go.

As far as that choice goes, I suppose that Medieval would be the easiest of the Alternate History options- simply because even the default toolset should allow a reasonable facsimile. D&D is based primariliy on Medieval stuff, after all.

Re: Persistent World Basic Setting

Considering that we dont have to get this world up and running within a week or two i think it would be better if we think about what a fun setting would be instead of what is currently in the toolset.
We already have some talented individuals who wants to help and with time we might be able to attract a few more... as darkhawk said we dont have to get this up and running right away...better to do it slow but good imo big_smile

Re: Persistent World Basic Setting

A possible idea for a setting has occured to me, based on the default Iron Heroes (a variant D&D 3rd Edition setting and ruleset) setting.

"Once, the world was ruled by mighty Mage-Lords. These godlike and near-immortal beings may or may not have been human, but their powers were almost limitless. They built great cities, summoned servant races from other realms or spawned them in their laboratories, made many powerful magical artifacts, ruled an empire that spanned worlds... And finally, for whatever inscrutable reasons, turned on each other in a war that lasted for generations and left the world a blasted ruin, with the Mage-Lords themselves dead or otherwise vanished.

It is from the ashes of this was that the present day is struggling to rise. Here and there, amidst the ruins of the glorious bygone age, handfuls of people are beginning to rebuild. Groups of vagabonds come together and try to make small islands of security and prosperity amidst the devastation. Intrepid bands of adventurers venture into the ruins, braving the warped and uncontrolled beasts to recover the treasures of bygone days. And a handful of scholars study the few fragments of the Arcane Arts that remain and dream of reclaming the power the Mage-Lords once wielded."

This setting has several advantages.

Firstly, it can use the standard D&D toolset, meaning no waiting for new models or having to make our own.

Secondly, it means we can design the world by increments and not have to worry about anything outside our current area of play. We simply build the initial settlement, then add bits as we go and assume people are slowly exploring outwards. There is no need to think of large countries which we can only see small parts of- what we see is what we have.

Thirdly, it gives a focus for the group as a whole inherent to the setting, which is equally suited to combat and RP. The standard D&D experience system gives XP for combat, so I assume that NWN2 has the same, which means combat wouldf have to come in at some point.

Finally, the fact that Magic is a "lost" art means that there can be a limit on the power of magic using characters placed on the setting, which is something that several people have expressed a preference for.

Opinions?

Re: Persistent World Basic Setting

I agree that a kind of "small" setting which we can expand upon would be a good idea...again lets start small but dont limit ourselves big_smile

nwn2 does indeed give xp based on combat.... but depending on the amount of players and GMs we got we should also consider giving xp for quests (gm made - right there...on the spot to help a story along or to simply help the RP along) and maybe even for roleplaying.
ie - 5 people thinks that person X has made some really good rp and should be awareded some xp...so the gms considers it and might award him some extra xp

I also agree on the whole "magic is lost" thingy... might even go so far as to say that it might be interresting to roleplay(/play some quests) to get to become a magic user in the first place

Re: Persistent World Basic Setting

Another method of limiting magic that I'd thought of- an RP based one- was to require apprenticeship. We have one or more GM-played high level alt characters as the established archmages of the setting. In order to become a magician, a player has to be accepted as an apprentice by one of these characters. Only an apprentice can advance in spellcasting levels. We could also have a High Priest and Acolyte parallel for Clerics. With the masters all being GM-run, this means that a spellcaster can be awarded a chunk of XP for RPing their lessons well.

Re: Persistent World Basic Setting

/me nods

i have been thinking about something like that as well. I think it would be an interresting way to do it

Re: Persistent World Basic Setting

Oluf wrote:

Considering that we dont have to get this world up and running within a week or two i think it would be better if we think about what a fun setting would be instead of what is currently in the toolset.
We already have some talented individuals who wants to help and with time we might be able to attract a few more... as darkhawk said we dont have to get this up and running right away...better to do it slow but good imo big_smile

Having some experience with NWN modules, I tend to disagree. First, you should know that good modellers are very hard to get a hold of and they're usually busy with professional work. This isn't just my opinion - it's pretty much a fact of the world these days. Also, it takes some experience and work to get a model scaled properly in complexity to work well in a game like NWN2. Basically, what I'm saying is that this is a lot of work we're expecting someone we don't even know yet to just suddenly turn up and do for us. My experience is that having a design hinged on something like this is a very bad idea, because it tends to kill the project.

That said, I don't know if you read my post in the custom content thread, but there is likely to be a considerable mass of custom content available in a few months. Most of that is very likely to be fantasy-focussed of course, which is why I think making a sci-fi world is a bit overambitious.


As for the discussion around magic and such, it's interesting, and I have some thoughts and experiences to add to it, but I'd like to keep that for a separate thread. As I said before, this thread was intended as a first broach of topic so that we can home in on what kind of world we want to make.
I'd say alternative history is the choice. Does anyone disagree with that?

[Edit: model, not module.]

Last edited by Ahnion (2006-11-11 20:37:17)

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Re: Persistent World Basic Setting

well...it will depend completely on the setting.

Write up something specific and i will say if i disagree or not tongue

I think it wont be that hard to attract some people who can help us out IF we show what we can do ourselves. Of couse they wont turn up and start to make this great PM world for us if we dont have anything to show at all... but if we put some work into it ourselves i dont think it will be a problem actually.

Re: Persistent World Basic Setting

Tantavalist wrote:

Thirdly, it gives a focus for the group as a whole inherent to the setting, which is equally suited to combat and RP. The standard D&D experience system gives XP for combat, so I assume that NWN2 has the same, which means combat wouldf have to come in at some point.

If you want, you can always turn off combat XP (in NWN you can tweak the amout of XP gained from combat  - in Narfell they disallowed combat XP after a certain level for those without the RP token).

At a point in my life I spent a lot of time trying to come up with the perfect MMORPG setting. Here's what I thought of:

1) Settlers in a new world. This would have the same advantages of expansion and focus as Tantavalist's plan. In addition you could explain the new characters popping up regularly by ships carrying new settlers from the old world. The downside is that using medieval imagery in a setting based on the era of great voyages is a bit off.

2) Dream. The point of this idea is to explain the tendency of the player character to vanish from the gameworld on logout. In a shared dream everyone would pop in and out based on their sleep rythms (Darkhawk's character would obviously have been bitten by a tsetse fly).  Also the differences between dream me and real me might be interesting to explore in your RP.

3) We're in a dream. The opposite of the previous idea where humans find out they're in some kind of a matrix thing and are released from it at random intervals (malfunctions in synch with login and logout times). The original idea had a "matrix" based on technology but it could just as well be based on magic.

(Just some ideas. Still not have NWN2...)

Re: Persistent World Basic Setting

Kryigerof wrote:

1) Settlers in a new world. This would have the same advantages of expansion and focus as Tantavalist's plan. In addition you could explain the new characters popping up regularly by ships carrying new settlers from the old world. The downside is that using medieval imagery in a setting based on the era of great voyages is a bit off.

This is only strictly the case in a historically accurate setting. The addition of magic makes several things possible with technology lower than was used in the real world. In the case of the Great Voyages era, this was triggered by the development of accurate navigation tools. Magical divination could easily substitute for the Sextant and Magnetic Compass, thus allowing the voyages of discovery and the wave of European- or Pseudo-European- colonisation.  And the colony might not even be on the same planet, or plane of existance. Perhaps a large gate or other artifact capable of reaching another dimension is the mechanism for transport to the colony, rather than sailing ships.

With NWN2 being in the Forgotten Realms by default... How likely is it that there will be a Maztica set of models produced? That might make an interesting addition to a New World colonisation setting.

Re: Persistent World Basic Setting

Deportation. Australia.

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Re: Persistent World Basic Setting

Ahnion wrote:

Deportation. Australia.

Wow... that moved me! I really like this, though I'm not really sure how was things back then, but I'm sure they had different "colonies" for convicts and later for goldhunters. Start with the arrival of the First Fleet, and making a little colony with convicts, and other stuff slowly discovering the surroundings. Magic would be possible in different ways, one is the idea mentioned before (alternate history, magic instead of navigation tools) or in the shape of aboriginals. Storyline could be the confrontation of the 2 civilization, war or peace, borders or cooperation and politics-scheming stuff... tongue
Really, I already see the little seashore settlement with wooden plank walls... hmmm... smile

Re: Persistent World Basic Setting

Though admittedly I'm more inspired by a city-scenario, but what the hell.

In any event, we need to get this discussion structured up. Let's move it to a separate thread and make the suggestions a bit more coherent.

I'm going to take it for given that we're going with alternate history. If anyone has issues with that, now is the time to take them up, because ladies and gentlemen, we are moving along. wink

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Re: Persistent World Basic Setting

As i have already said... write up some more specifics and i will say if i agree or not tongue