Campaign Size

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I'm afraid that for economy's sake you'll pretty much have to go with the smaller city. If you try to do everything in the most detailed way possible, you'll quickly find that the task has grown impossibly huge. The immersive feel is more fun to play, IMO, but too hard on you.

There's nothing wrong with using portals, as long as it integrates into the story. If a powerful mage wants your PC's to do something for him in a faraway place, it's not unlikely that he'll be in enough of a hurry that he'll portal them there.

 

Good point Capstone. Nothing wrong with portals, they're all over Planescape. And in TotSC, Shandalar teleports you to that ice island to retrieve his cloak...

But at the same time, I see the need for taking one area and really developing it. Like an onion that you peel to get to the inside layers, as you get further along in the adventure you realize there was something more there then what you first saw...

 

I've been wondering if a really long campaign would also be a realistic one. Not everyone would be compelled to run around Faerun for a year or so just to help save the world. Or would they? Should I include a personal motive for the player - ie. his life or a friend's life is in danger - or would I overdo it this way?
And btw, how long would you like a module - meaning a seperate plot within the overall campaign - to last?

 

That, of course, depends on the character's motivations. Some will, some won't. I think there's nothing wrong with personalizing a campaign, but it may be hard to do it in such a way that it applies to any player with any background.

As for module length, I can't say for sure. I tend not to pay much attention to time when I'm playing. But you should try not to get out of hand; you want your players to be able to feel that they've accomplished something when they finish a session. Thirty hours might be a good goal.

 

Problem with personalizing is people are gonna die. A lot. So, either you make resurrection very common and easy (not very realistic IMHO, but depends on your style) or you make your plotlines independant of who's following them.

Cities. I've been playing around with this and I'm averaging ~ 1500 people per 32x32 tile city area. That means Baldurs Gate needs 28 x 32x32 and Athkatla needs 78 x 32x32 to render in full. Thats a lot of RAM!
In BG1 the Bio boffins did the city in the equivalent of 2 x 32x32. (1 BG 'area' = 16x16.)

 

What about Waterdeep? It's a little bigger that Athkatla so about 320 16x16 areas. I am planning to make it about 40 16x16 areas,1\8
its normal size. Is it OK or should it be like 80 16x16?

Secondly, I'd like to ask you about the idea of running the campaign using 'timeblocks'. What I mean is that time won't progress at the game's rate (1 day = 4h of game) but using scripts. For example, a certain day will end only if the PCs have spoken to a specific person about sth or have completed a quest. This may take the characters more or less than the standard 4h but in the campaign it will count as one whole day.

This method will help me keep better track of time and have adventures based on a certain time of year or holiday. However, I don't know if it can be done or if it will be as enjoyable. If anyone has played Gabriel Knight 3 they'll know how I want the system to work and the drawbacks it has when applied to RPGs.



[This message has been edited by Lady of the Lake (edited December 28, 2001).]

 

Cities - you dont have to do them in full, you can do them BG2 style, put in the bits you want and miss out the 'boring' bits by linking them together with 'portals' which will be invisible to players. ie you leave the harbour and arrive at Blackstaffs Tower.

Time can be under DM control. You can even decide that it will always be night when they visit the graveyard and always day when they visit the Inn.

 

Im either gonna make a campaign in the Underdark or Maztica

 

Can you creat area's that are not in Faerun? Say like creat a really, really big castle and then go adventuring on the net. I kind of has this idea were I make a castle and leave to take on the adventures of Faerun then let other adventurs in to try to take my things but only get traped. It's an idea that I've used in a paper DnD game and worked very well, but is it posable on NWN?

 

Of course you can. And, like Dr Who's Tardis it can be MUCH bigger on the inside that it appears from the outside. Plus. you can script internal staircases and teleports.
Durlags Tower? Watcher's Keep?

 

Ok now I'm defently going to buy NWN. It comes out a week before my birthday so I'm set. So after I build it can I load it on to the net to share with other people and then go play with my fighter and battle monsters and then come back to put my treasure in my castel?

One more thing, can I make it so only my char. can access area's that I've built as a DM and put my treasure away for some one to try to steal?

[This message has been edited by DragonRider SkyWard (edited January 13, 2002).]

 

Judging by the official boards you can pretty much script anything, and you could just lock the door and give it a script or something that makes it impossible to pick.

By the way, do you have some contacts at bioware or their publisher, cause last I checked they wouldn't even say that it would be released in 2002....

 

Ok so if it's impossible to pick how does my char. get in to put the treasure that every one else has in their with out having to go through the castle? I'm I just thinking up some thats impossable or I'm I on to something.

I cheaked out amazon.com it's says that it will be released May 1.

 

All right then, "when it's done". I'm going to keep up high hopes though that it comes out soon. I've read to much on it and I'm now waiting, waiting(I'm going to hold my breath till I can play it!) waiting...

 

You're a newcommer, DRS, some of us have been waiting for 3 YEARS!

As for your other question, easy peasey. You could give yourself a key that opens the castle/room/chest etc. Then set the lockpick and spell levels so high that no-one can pick it or knock it.

 

3 YEARS!!!!!!! Holy cow! Wow! You've all got to be the most pacerent people I know. I mean d***. And theirs still no release date or even a target time zone? I hope it's soon cuz I've got a great idea that you've heard some of and I'm really wanting to share it with the world I just didn't know how or what to use intell I found NWN. Thankyou all for the help you gave me in answering my questions. I just have one more, who is going to host NWN on the net and do you know yet if it's going to cost anything?

 

Sounds great.