Content Creation: Books/Tomes

Development of standard ALFA palettes (ABR)

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Kildahr
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Content Creation: Books/Tomes

Post by Kildahr »

Alright, Rusty gave me the go ahead to write up some tomes for NWN2, and my main question for ALFA is.............

What would you lot like to see covered? I've got about an hour or two a day I can spare for research and creation, but I gotta have the main topics ya'll want covered.

Here's what I've got so far for topics:

:arrow: Each of the knowledge areas for skills (Arcana, Architecture, Geography, History, Local (I'd need some info from the individual servers for this, if any teams want specific tomes for their servers), Nature, Nobility and royalty (again, I'd need to know if any servers are deviating from canon materials on this. If not, guess it could just be an outdated tome :wink:), Religions, the Planes.

:arrow: The history of major faerunian topics (Netherese, Illfarn, Dracorage, ect.)

:arrow: Stories (any ideas on this one? Perhaps some of these could be about dedicated PCs on the various servers in NWN1?)

:arrow: Poetry/Songs (Alright all you bards, you'll love this one I'm sure :wink: )

:arrow: Dragons (Yes, I love dragon related stories, so this one might be rather in depth *pulls out his sourcebooks*)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Any ideas for other topics? (Or any specific parts of topics?)

Go ahead and PM me if you've got questions, or go ahead and post here for more ideas.

:idea: Oh, and if anyone else is interested in helping out in this, I would welcome any additional help you could give.
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HEEGZ
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Post by HEEGZ »

I'd like anything covering military related history, politics, strategies, or battle tactics in the Realms. I don't have the inclination to write anything for the Citadel, but if you make them I'll use them. :wink:

- HEEGZ
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Post by Kildahr »

Noted. Mind if you send me the names of any PCS involved with the Citidal, so I can get some Non-Canon info on it?
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Post by HEEGZ »

My preference would be for info on Realms lore at large, not PC related stuff. Thanks. 8)

- HEEGZ
Ronan
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Post by Ronan »

You might considering adding Volo's Guides, I've got a few as cut/pastable PDFs.

I'd ditch Illefarn, its nearly unknown even to many scholars for a variety of reasons. Definitely nothing on the old, crown war kingdom of Illefarn (two empires bore the same name).

Creation of the Great Rift, and its settlement by gold dwarves would be nice.

Maybe something on the fall of Deep Shantar, and the current army from the Great Rift trying to reclaim it.

The Fall of Netheril/Karsus's Folly is well-known to Mystrans, maybe present it in mystran writing. Could have something on the nether scrolls themselves, probably more fiction than fact though.

Things surrounding Cormanthyr, the Weeping War, Year of Doom, standing stone and the start of Dalereckoning of years, etc. could be good. Certainly something on Myth Drannor's mythal if you do something on famous magic. Maybe fall of the Rule Tower as well.

Nothing on the crown wars, please. Nor the creator races, or anything so ancient. That stuff should be learned about from a DM IMO.

Books on each plane would be cool.

We may want to make sure we have more "current" events as well. How well known is Sammaster's latest stunt? May want to ask TCL there. Definitely have something on the elven return, the battles against the fey'ri, etc. Also, the return of the city of Shade, destruction of Tervale, and some sort of a description of the events that occured there. This stuff isn't in many sourcebooks because its new canon.
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Post by White Warlock »

Given permission from the authors, how about all those great stories in the ALFA Library from inhouse talent? Would be great to read those stories 'ingame,' rather than have to visit these horrid forums.
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Kildahr
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Post by Kildahr »

Alright, I've got quiet a few (about 11) Tomes typed up on Microsoft Word, but my toolset skills aren't quite up to date.

1.) Is there a screen to preview the appearance of the tomes while you're editing them, or do you have to create an example of each appearance, then run a module to see what they look like IG? (The normal preview only shows the 3D images, and would rather see if there is a quicker way.)

2.) This one is to Rusty: When I finish each set of Tomes (I'm doing them in sets of topics, right now I've got only some done on the majority of the planes from Player Guide to Faerun , and one on common strategies of well known canon mercenaries for HEEGZ's request) where do you want me to email the .zip to for you to approve?
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Post by Rusty »

Yah, email them off to me.
Thanks Kildahr.
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Post by Blackwill »

The Moonsea team would love to have regional books about history, religion and geography. If you need any detailed info, feel free to contact me.
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Ronan
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Post by Ronan »

As a side note, whomever makes the actual book items (and it may be me) will have to:
  • Create the items.
  • Create the text, formatted correctly.
  • Paste each item description in a blank NWN2 TLK file using a NWN TLK editor (I recommend TlkEdit, available on the vault) starting at line 20,000.
  • Point each book's description towards this TLK entry.
  • Upload the files to: ftp://alfatech:moonblade@ftp.alandfaraw ... ems/Books/
For TLK formatting information, see:
http://www.alandfaraway.org/docs/Technical/ACR2TLK

If you don't know how to do this, just upload the book descriptions and the tech admin or whomever can copy them over to the TLK. We do NOT want long books present outside of the TLK, because they will increase PC bic file size enormously.
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Post by ç i p h é r »

Kildahr, if you're still here, could you please post your work to the FTP? Rusty's been having connectivity issues and may or may not return any time soon.

Thanks.
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Kildahr
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Post by Kildahr »

Will do as soon as possible, in the process of moving at the moment........

(Sorry for the wait :oops:)

Using a computer at the nearest internet cafe until our stuff gets up and running, I'll try and get some of the txt files onto a USB device and upload them off this computer by tomorrow.

By the way, where did yo want me to post them? FTP........doesn't seem to ring any bells.

Edit: Also, I might not have NWN2 for another two or three days, then I'll try and transfer the files from MW to the toolset. Would it help you more if I just emailed the files somewhere or can it wait till my computer gets to my house and is unpacked?
Last edited by Kildahr on Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by ç i p h é r »

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Re: Content Creation: Books/Tomes

Post by Mayhem »

Kildahr wrote:
:arrow: Stories (any ideas on this one? Perhaps some of these could be about dedicated PCs on the various servers in NWN1?)
*points at the ALFA Library*
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Kildahr
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Re: Content Creation: Books/Tomes

Post by Kildahr »

Mayhem wrote:
Kildahr wrote:
:arrow: Stories (any ideas on this one? Perhaps some of these could be about dedicated PCs on the various servers in NWN1?)
*points at the ALFA Library*
Heh, thanks for the reminder........
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