Persistent World Setting
Obviously, before we start building our own (staggeringly wonderful) persistent world in NWN2, we need to decide on what the hell we should build. I have taken it upon myself to sum up the basic settings and I'll list them as alternatives. If you have more, just add to the list! The idea here is to first decide on what kind of setting we want, so that we can unite on that before we discuss the details of that setting. I have ideas about most of these possibilties, but I'll keep them to myself until we've chosen one.
[death]• Conventional Forgotten Realms Setting.[/death]
The name says it all, really. The whole shebang that NWN2 is really set for. Easiest to do, but, in my not-too-humble opinion, boring and cliché.
[death]• Alternate History Medieval Setting[/death]
Alternate history is always fun, and not too horribly far from fantasy if we aim at a medieval scenario. Usually, alternate history involves some sort of magic and religion. A lot can be done here without losing touch with the gritty depth of reality. This would involve some pretty serious hacking into the NWN2 system and a lot of scripting; that is, besides the creation of the world itself, intellectually speaking.
[death]• Alternate World[/death]
Essentially, a different world, inhabited by humanoids. I have several ideas that could work here, and I'm sure you do as well. There is some challenge in making a world like this feel real, but it is undoubtedly possible. Fundamentally this requires the same as the previous alternative, though probably more of it.
[death]• Realistic Medieval Setting[/death]
There's really not much to say about this one. It speaks for itself. Medieval setting with peasants, feudal system, kings and so on. This could be created with fairly simple methods, and could be very interesting, but it would take a lot of research from everyone who wants to play.
[death]• Science Fiction[/death]
Obviously, while many of the Seedlings prefer sci-fi scenarios, it will be very difficult to create one in NWN2, since it will require a completely new set of models and tilesets. If someone is good enough at modelling and willing to spend inordinate amounts of time on this project, I would happily go with this choice, but unless we have one (or preferrably more) really talented modeller, I can't see it happening.
For myself, I'd probably go with the Alternate History setting. It's something that would be easy to build around and still evocative enough for inspiration.
What do you think? What else could we do? What would work best with the possibilities and desires we have?