Suggestions for new dungeons etc.

[zhazz]

There's a lot of areas still to choose from when looking at the World Map for the orginal Baldur's Gate game.

The following link has an interactive version of the below image: https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/World_Map

Places of note could be:

• Valley of the Tombs
• Isle of Balduran
• Carnival (Nashkel equivalent of the Farmlands?)

[Snarfy]

How about adding in the Gnoll Stronghold, which is supposed to be near Nashkel?

The area might even already be in the game files. I seem to recall it being used as the Troll Claws East several years ago, except populated by Trolls and Ogres. I believe the Ogre Fort, which is now in the Troll Claws West, used to be the interior of the stronghold in the Troll Claws East. Or am I misremembering things from 6 years ago?

You are not mis-remembering, that map was great, and damn near spot on in design to represent the gnoll stronghold from the original BG(apart from it geographically being in the wrong hemisphere altogether)... right down to the bridge, and all the side-paths, but minus the caves.



I vaguely recall gnolls and spiders being outside it(?), and some other sort of creepy crawly, uhhh ... I totally forgot there were trolls inside, but the interior was definitely the same as the current Ogre fort. There was also a cool rope you could climb up and down, for whatever reason I didn't like it being removed at the time, and I can't remember why it was yoinked other than it barely saw any visitors. Gorgeous map though.

[c2k]

the building design of the gnoll stronghold was used as the Elder Ogre Stronghold in the part of the Trollclaws that was removed, so it does exist on someone's computer.

EDIT: In hindsight, Trollclaws East might have used the entire Gnoll Stronghold map.

[gedweyignasia]

Let’s not ask of the Devs to make Areas that are attempts to replace the Dungeon Master. DMs are a necessary part of the D&D experience, and a essential requirement to a living, permanent world.

This is a really important point, and it touches on a critical issue that a lot of people overlook. Area builders aren't campaign writers. Our job is to facilitate player-directed RP by creating an evocative environment in which they can tell their story. We give a place flavor, history, and inhabitants, but we can't provide an adventure; it wouldn't make sense when players revisited the area. Players (or DMs) create their own adventure in the sandbox we design.

A lot of scripting and dev work goes into an Area that contains a detailed “story” and challenge to complete the adventure in said Area...likely to never be repeated!

This is another important point. It's really hard to design a mystery, puzzle, story, etc which a player will find interesting after they've already solved it once. (Trust me, I've spent untold hours bashing my head against the desk trying to invent that kind of thing.) If we're going to put something into an area, it needs to be something that provides a lasting contribution to RP in that area. One-off puzzles are fun, but really belong more to the DM realm, where they can better facilitate outside-the-box solutions and quickly implement new ideas. Doing that on the building/scripting side is really slow; we can't keep up with players in this department.

Balance between investment and actual use must be considered. There are already plenty of Areas on the Server that are challenging, have required Skill checks or necessary combos to “complete” the Area, and they are hardly used.

We try to create things we think people will like. The skill challenges and such are usually intended to encourage people to complete something as a group. Unfortunately, there's little motivation to enter such hard-to-access areas, since the rewards don't justify the effort. We could prune some low-hanging fruit to push people to explore the less-visited dungeons more, but that would likely prove unpopular with the playerbase, and they're really the ones we're here for.

What I then would suggest is more Areas that are beautiful but basic, and are maps that DMs can fill out with mobs and treasure, then place a portal in a public Area so that Players can enjoy these “setups” from time to time and generate more RP off the random experience.

This is a really key point. We need "safe" places for RP. Filling every nook and cranny with monsters and chests does a disservice to the playerbase, because it imposes a specific purpose on that area. A lot of players (and area builders!) sometimes forget that our job is to carve out a place for people to RP, not to tell them how to use it. I give a little talk about how area design can affect players' RP in this thread, and towards the end I talk a little bit about how the more you do to an area, the more you restrict players' choices.

Monsters really lock down an area, both to players and to DMs. As a player, you can't have a picnic on a beach if there are trolls spawning there. As a DM, you can't have players solve the problem of devils crawling out of a portal in the woods if orcs showing up to mingle with your devils.


Remember, areas are environments, not adventures. It's the player's job to create the "what" and "why" of the story.