Player focused Northdark Content

[JaydeMoon]

How about making Elves KOS in Drow Cities, and dwarves KOS in duergar cities, with perhaps a check for a token of some kind (or spell effect?) to allow a way around this.

Doesn't account for slaves.

[Blindhamsterman]

Doesn't account for slaves.

sure it would, give the slaves the token I mentioned

[JaydeMoon]

Would it?

WOULD IT?!?

[Thangorn]

If you can get yourself into Mantol Derith it would be good to have factional static content for at least the four MD merchant factions - Drow, Duergar, Svirf & Surfacer.

Other underdark factions from canon that could operate in Mantol Derith and surrounds(outside of drow noble houses): Bregan D'aerthe (Drow), Jaezred Chaulssin (Drow), House Steelshadow (Duergar), Keepers of the Flame (Duergar), The Council of Savants (Derro/Duergar), The Unseen (a consortium of shapechangers, thieves, illusionists, and assassins that operates under the influence of Illithids). They are the ones I can think of that are close enough to have to some fun with. Then of course if there is a Zhent led community then there are the east(Banite) and west(Cyricite) Zhentarim factions to play around with.

If there was interest in factions, it would be good to have some factional support on some level. Can't see too many religious factions getting much of a foothold in Mantol Derith but it doesnt sound like thats going to be a hub so much as an intrigue focussed adventuring destination. It would be interesting to see some other power divisions at play though.

[Spider Jones]

I'm liking the idea of a focus on Mantol Derith, but I find myself wondering about Skullport... If Skullport is coming up on live as well, I wouldn't mind seeing a more Underdark race focused NU server since Skullport could fill a similar niche to Mantol Derith fairly well as far as a hodge podge of races interacting. That said, I am more interested as a player is that sort of mixed racial environment. Just food for thought I suppose...

[Sandermann]

We are using Mantol as the hub in beta mainly because it won't be the hub in live, as beta is for testing we are only opening the Mantol Derith "zone" as this will allow us to test all the scripted systems in place on the server. Its the only place on the server that all of them will be in use in one location - in other words simply a technical decision.

Spider: I see where you're coming from. Hopefully, as thangorn said, Mantol wil be more of an "intrigue adventuring location". It is similar to Skullport, but the fact that entry to it (though not really its existence) is a guarded secret means in live not all PCs will be able to enter - to enter you have to actually know the password, and any PC using the password to enter will be logged in a database so we can check how far the password has spread.

Thangorn:By it nature the UD is factional, its the best way to survive. We'd like to keep the politcal factions on the periphery of play as much as possible. Of course if PC wants to get deeply involved then they can, but we won't use the factions to drive play or plot hooks. Mainly because crossing a faction is a death sentence and for us to remain truly IC would lead to what could appear "deus ex machina" conclusions to plots as no party of PCs is ever going to have similar power levels to one of the factions you mentioned. We going to include most of the canon factions we can track down though.

Vendrin: Given the way opinion is going we will probably put houses in in the future, but we are not going to allow extraordianry PC apps that place a PC as a noble to bergin with. If a PC wants to join a house then they will have to do it the hard way buy going through the ranks. Given the low number of resident PCs we expect, we'd also like to avoid having all the drow in one palce, all the duergar in another, etc.

[Heero]

This all sounds really good.

[Vendrin]

Vendrin: Given the way opinion is going we will probably put houses in in the future, but we are not going to allow extraordianry PC apps that place a PC as a noble to bergin with. If a PC wants to join a house then they will have to do it the hard way buy going through the ranks. Given the low number of resident PCs we expect, we'd also like to avoid having all the drow in one palce, all the duergar in another, etc.

Disappointing. And you know what might help with low number of resident pcs? I think there is the proposal going on that you seem kind of against that might help increase number of resident pcs.

Honestly not thrilled about one of my favorite FR spots being turned into a vacation spot for surfacers.

But then again, bittervet here.

[Sandermann]

Less "vacation spot for surfacers" more "following the source books not the fan fiction".

Drow and Duergar will be catered for, as I've said all along, the cities will be there with enough content to support Drow or Duergar PCs. But we are not going to focus our efforts on 2 out of 18 subraces we allow in play.

If a player wants to attain power and influence with their PC they will have to earn it, not get it by default by writing it into their PCs background.

As far as I know extraordinary PC apps are because the PC begins play with ECL levels and there for is more powerful than a starting PC of a non-ECL race.

[Veilan]

Heh.. anyone who knows Sand knows that his servers are not going to be a vacation resort, ever.

From everything I read, I think this is going to be a great spot to have adventures and engaging, thrilling and challenging plots in.

Sand is the man to strike a sensible balance, and provide enjoyment whether you seek a challenge as a drow wanting to be a player in politics, or a "surfacer" hunting treasure. His point is about "challenge" and "earning" though, which makes it so much more satisfactory if you manage to succeed.

I'm honestly quite thrilled about the server.

Cheers,