Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Aspect of Sorrow wrote:* Lolthite RP, while significant, is not the majority of UD specific RP.

* WotSQ and Salvatore books is not authoritative nor all-encompassing in UD lore, despite acknowledging it is a large influence of drow character creations.

* Lolthite environs when introduced will still be subjected to the OOC rules.

I agree with you AoS. And The players rp'ing Lolthite should absolutely strive and abide by the Rules of the server to add to the rp experience for everybody.

Why I cited the R.A. Salvatore books wasn't to say "its law". But to emphisize the untapped potential of the Roleplay itself when put in the right environment.

I think Lisa still has the area Szith..maybe even in its previous version where it was a smaler outpost. That would be more than enough. A Lolthite area with the full rule of such a society. Theres has been for a long time now an outcry for giving us more to work with. And hopefully this Topic might be a push in the right direction on the whole issue.

After all, we are a small community, and hopefully, which I believe, in eccence, this server cares greatly for its community on more than one aspect.

instituting another deserve deverse base in the UD defeats the purpose in my opinion. adding a culturally opposing one seems much more interesting and purposeful. if we already had a menzo style city it would not make as much sense to create another that is similar. this would not fill in the gaps and only water down the gaps that the original had already filled.

edit: a blank space is better than a duplicate

I would like to add one more thing:

In my daily work irl I work as an IT project manager. The one of the greatest challanges for progress in an organization and for the PM for nearly any project is that we focus "first" on the bad issues and problems of the project before actually looking on the benefits. So instead of battling "no this is not lore appropiate, or this is not UD majority... Why not look at what this actually could bring?

An appropiate focus would be in my opinion to look at first:


(Edited to suit BGTSCC)

* Is this possible? And if it is what is required(Dev resources, server resources? Lore appropiate areas?)

* How big is this interest in creating such an area? How many players want this? (Create a few polls to look into the issue)

* If this area was created. How do we best teach new players, to this kind of rp, make the most of it while seeing to that the rules of the server is followed and that this implementation may add to the whole server and not just the drow.

Let's not highlight the obstacles from the beginning before looking into the benefits. What is the good that may come out of this? What do the community think? What do the administration think?

And then after we have done an analysis with the appropiate information involved. We look at the challanges. What are the prominent obstacles? What problems might we need to solve preliminary to the implementation to prevent any future problems arising.

And after this, you, of the administration of BGTSCC make your decision.

Make it a project. It doesn't need to be larger than life. Just a few corner pillars, with the neccecary information to see this from all angles

1. If it wasn't possible it wouldn't be done.
2. More than 1/3rd of the active playercount has been in the UD at it's highest peaks, revitalizing that isn't out of the question.
3. There's a narrative angle I'm taking with it, a half hour or so of a player's time when they're first introduced to the city the module will convey what is expected.

There are a lot of obstacles but the benefits have already been long defined, especially in communication I've had with the Cesspool group on Discord. Some of the newer features it'll introduce are easily transposed to other places in the module, benefiting both. There are several new concepts coming into the design alone that I'm borrowing from another PW I had started on, adding to the immersion value aided by a few on our media team (BloodRiot, Herisheft).

Aspect of Sorrow wrote:1. If it wasn't possible it wouldn't be done.
2. More than 1/3rd of the active playercount has been in the UD at it's highest peaks, revitalizing that isn't out of the question.
3. There's a narrative angle I'm taking with it, a half hour or so of a player's time when they're first introduced to the city the module will convey what is expected.

There are a lot of obstacles but the benefits have already been long defined, especially in communication I've had with the Cesspool group on Discord. Some of the newer features it'll introduce are easily transposed to other places in the module, benefiting both. There are several new concepts coming into the design alone that I'm borrowing from another PW I had started on, adding to the immersion value aided by a few on our media team (BloodRiot, Herisheft).

So to clarify: The City you wish to build is Eryndlyn?

A quote from the Wiki on events in Eryndlyn which would be events preliminary to this servers timeline:

Silence of Lolth

About the time of 1136 DR, Jaezred Chaulssin established a hidden fosterage[5] in the city under Tomphael Arkenrret[6] under the guise of minor nobility.[7] During the Silence of Lolth (1372-1373 DR) the members of Jaezred Chaulssin brought the worshipers of Vhaeraun and Ghaunadaur together and helped to unite them against the weakening worshipers of Lolth.[8][9] They decimated the followers of the Spider Queen drastically, leaving the western plateau in ruins.[10]

Trade:
Eryndlyn's merchants traveled far and even traded with surface merchants along the Sword Coast.[1]

Will this city not just be another copy of Sshamath? The Lolthites are weakend and soon to be decimated by war, and the city trades with the surface. This is just one source iv'e found but I still need to ask: How is this place any different from Sshamath?

My first impression when reading the tfr wiki page of Eryndlyn is that surfacers are welcome to trade and Lolthians are weakend and to be dispersed. The only difference would be that there are two factions of Vhaeraun and Ghaunadaur in power. Is this a correct asumption?

Link:
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Eryndlyn

We're in 1354 DR.

Valefort wrote:We're in 1354 DR.

Yes this is before the actual "Crash" of the Lolthites. But i framed it as a question to AoS.

- Does the city allow(In the city), and trade with surfacers?

- Does its preccence of Lolthites (In reference to "Already weakening") present a similiar preccence as that of Sshamath?

If any of these 2 are correct then we face the same problems as in Sshamath.

EDIT:
Or perhaps this have already been thought of. Hence there already is a viable solution in Endyryln that AoS have implemented. Such as a city with something similiar to the "Berlin wall" separating the three plataus. I do not know, hence Im asking =)

Players will be able to influence this and it's enforcement. The impacts will also show, depending on the rulings.

Darker_Thought wrote:

Valefort wrote:We're in 1354 DR.

Yes this is before the actual "Crash" of the Lolthites. But i framed it as a question to AoS.

- Does the city allow(In the city), and trade with surfacers?

- Does its preccence of Lolthites (In reference to "Already weakening") present a similiar preccence as that of Sshamath?

If any of these 2 are correct then we face the same problems as in Sshamath.

EDIT:
Or perhaps this have already been thought of. Hence there already is a viable solution in Endyryln that AoS have implemented. Such as a city with something similiar to the "Berlin wall" separating the three plataus. I do not know, hence Im asking =)

Aspect of Sorrow wrote: The following areas are chosen for preliminary removal / adjustment :

z_sshamath_south : Removal, ATs moved into z_sshamath proper. (~24 MB)
z_underdark_ulitharid : Removal, shop contents and osquip moved (~56 MB)
z_underdark_oghrann : Removal, spawn / contents moved (~42 MB)

Oghrann is an area that both surfacers and UD players can use, and is also one of the few epic areas for the UD. It would be a shame to see it go.

kleomenes wrote:Oghrann is an area that both surfacers and UD players can use, and is also one of the few epic areas for the UD. It would be a shame to see it go.

It was chosen in part for it's size on disk.

I like the idea of a dedicated outpost, in the least. Give Llolth players a base of operations that isn't tainted with pesky above landers.

I also like the idea of danger that it brings to other players, it grants a multitude of RP opportunity, UD in-fighting, faction back-stabbing, as well as a place for the overlanders brave enough to go to the Underdark a place to "avoid at all costs". If it increases the amount of players in the UD, thumbs up.

Concept wise, when someone says "Drow" to me, I automatically think "Lolth", which defaults to "men are worms" dominatrix types with blades, poison, leather, and a strange fascination with spiders. Kind of like an ex of mine.....minus the whole blue skin thing.

Aspect of Sorrow wrote:Players will be able to influence this and it's enforcement. The impacts will also show, depending on the rulings.

- So what is the Estimated time of implemintation for this area?

- Is there some sort of overlay of the Lolthian part?

- And if its still in the process of creation. Do you need any aid in creating it? (Drow lore wise, resources in the toolset etc.)

I'm not a fan at all of the plan to have a Lolthite-RP city. It's going to split an already tiny UD population; I think everything is best kept consolidated to Sshamath & surrounds but that's just my opinion.

If one must be added, then the svirf town should go and not Tfunke's awesome areas (esp. Illithid Hive). There are always going to be more Lolthite drow players than svirfs. The deep gnomes don't need their own town.

Tsidkenu wrote:I'm not a fan at all of the plan to have a Lolthite-RP city. It's going to split an already tiny UD population; I think everything is best kept consolidated to Sshamath & surrounds but that's just my opinion.

If one must be added, then the svirf town should go and not Tfunke's awesome areas (esp. Illithid Hive). There are always going to be more Lolthite drow players than svirfs. The deep gnomes don't need their own town.

+1

Although to increase UD population I think we really need some dedicated ud dms down there. Weekly events and possibly our own metaplot.
Just an idea.

I am not a fan of drow RP (have never created a drow character on the server), but I vote for Lolthite city. The reason is that surfacers are waaaaay too priveleged.

— Surfacers can freely walk everywhere, it is not uncommon thing to see a human grinding in the Underdark or shopping in Rockrun/Sshamath, some of them even tell your Underdark character to buzz off and don't bother them grinding (breaking the RP in a rude way).
— Underdarkers are allowed to be killed on sight everywhere south of Soubar. There are no surface towns they can visit except Soubar and Roaringshore, and even in those towns they are rarely seen due to agressive behaviour of surfacers.
— Absolutely all current DM events are run for surfacers. The main campaign is run for surfacers.
— The main Underdark race (drow) has ECL+2, the only races with zero ECL adjustment are half-drow and deep imaskari (who keep randomly falling on the floor lmao).
— Vast majority of surface races have no ECL adjustment.

And after that we wonder why the UD has so low population. Adding a city where those impudent surfacers will be considered KoS race is a wonderful idea, looking forward to it.