Greetings YeoldeFog,
I have admired the screenies on your other thread (here) on these boards, and really like your style. I used to play, build, code and DM in NWN 1 for many years, and am currently considering a comeback to the one and only game that has really captivated me for many years.
I would really like to join an ambitious team that starts from scratch.
From a player's perspective I liked rough settings with HCR or similar systems - systems where death mattered and was something to be truly avoided at all costs. I play for the story and immersion, for the cooperative roleplay and story-weaving and for the trill of adventure - and I fail to get excited if there is no risk involved with my actions and decisions. I also feel that concepts like in-character friendships, bravery, loyalty, emnity, adventure are meaningless if all that happens when things go awry is for me to have to hit the respawn button.
From a builders and DMs perspective I tried to focus my efforts on providing the basis for player-driven roleplay and adventures. While it is awesome and rewarding to actively drive plots and breathe life into a world as a DM, it is more important to foster and support player interaction I think. By dropping bits and stuff here and there, by supporting players in their plots and doings, and by creating a virtual surrounding that is welcoming and inspiring to players to bring their avatars and tales alive by themselves.
So, um... how far advanced are your thoughts on the mechanics behind the server you are planning? I am especially curious about...
- Have you already settled on a death system? What happens when a PC dies? Would you be interested on some creative input there?
(Long ago I have thought up something, that I dubbed "variable death system" - which offers different consequences for dying depending on the context and luck, e.g. ( a ) get dragged to an inn, with your possessions mostly intact ( b ) get eaten by the wolves that killed you (tough luck!) ( c ) get imprisoned by the goblins that you tried to raid with the possibility that other players rescue you and recover your possessions, etc...
(my idea is very detailed and taking the possibilites of NWN code into account. I'll be glad to share more details).
- What are the plans to keep players busy while no DMs are on? Factions? I always thought that different factions / allegiances, each with custom items and locations are a great way to give players a reason to interact - across in-game cultural boundaries.
What can I offer?
- scripting/little utilities and ideas: I am not a programmer and all my attempts to get huge and complex scripting systems to cooperate never got finished, but I have devised a few small utilities like a "DMs custom music wand" to play music for athmosphere during DM-interactioned stuff, a "DMs custom ambient sound wand" to play sounds that fit the happenings, droppable transitions, to get players from A to B during events without having to port them manually, musicians in an inn, that play custom musics when properly seduced to do so and such little gimmicks. My most ambitious projects were a quest-system to ease and standardize quests a bit and to allow them to be shared by PCs and my variable death system, but I never finished them completely.
- Creativity in building and DMing - I think I devised many nice, moody and athmospheric areas with the generic (NWN + SoU + HotU) tiles plus CEP. A lot can be done when they are used creatively and with the proper attention to details and lighting. With all the nice new content that got developed by the community I am sure great stuff can be done. I am also confident that I can fit into the athmosphere as you paint it in the nice screenies in your other thread.
- Website and forum experience: Again I am not a programmer, but I can read and write HTML5 and CSS3, create responsive websites down to the old iPhone 3 (portrait - 320px wide) meddle with forums, tweak php on wordpress installations and I enjoy thinking and writing about the general setting and athmosphere.
- Quests, NPC and little things that add flavour: I highly doubt you will want your PW drowned in static quests, but I believe that all servers benefit from small little scripted things and quests that give players something to do while on their own, from NPC descriptions and dialogues, from little things that happen and add flavour all over the world. These things I enjoy thoroughly - not as a means to rocket a player from level 1 to 20 in a matter of weeks, nor to get a player to dizzying riches, but instead to breathe life into the world and to give players a reason to explore, to talk about, to show each other, etc...
A fresh start, making use of what NWN 1 has become by now sounds really tempting to me. I am looking forward to hear your thoughts.
Best of luck with your project, regardless of how you react to this cats advancement,
S_Cat
