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Dalor Darden
Great Reader
USA
4211 Posts |
 Posted - 13 Nov 2014 : 03:17:52
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OK...I'm sick at home and decided to jump into this game...
I'm excited to see what you have in the Tales of the Moonsea! |
The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me! |
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Dalor Darden
Great Reader
USA
4211 Posts |
Posted - 13 Nov 2014 : 03:29:23
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Ummm...when I go to http://www.talesofmoonsea.info I get a German Website that has nothing to do with the game?
EDIT: sorry for posting the link Mods of Doom...but I just wanted to draw attention to what I was getting. |
The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me! |
Edited by - Dalor Darden on 13 Nov 2014 03:43:08 |
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Mapolq
Senior Scribe
Brazil
466 Posts |
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Mapolq
Senior Scribe
Brazil
466 Posts |
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Mapolq
Senior Scribe
Brazil
466 Posts |
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Mapolq
Senior Scribe
Brazil
466 Posts |
Posted - 26 Jan 2016 : 19:06:13
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Hello, everyone. I'm sending my usual piece about Tales of Moonsea and the NWN2 community, which is very much alive despite what many people assume...
For this one, I'll copy a text written by one of our DMs (Harluk). It is intended mostly for people who are already a part of the community, since that is where we get most of our "recruits" nowadays, but if you are confused about anything, you can ask me or read the previous posts in this thread.
The idea of the post is to give a description of what is the "feel" of our server. He wrote it in our forum for newcomers, and I think he got it quite right, which is why I'm reposting it here as well.
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I've seen an influx of people from other PWs recently checking out Tales of Moonsea in order to see if it might be a good fit for them.
"Fit" is a really good term for this -- there are a number of PWs out there that I really, really admire, but where I will never play, because my preferred flavor of play is a bit different from what they offer -- I'm not their "target audience." It may surprise many players to find out the degree to which the better PW developers connive and cooperate behind the curtain, too, in order to improve the experience for everybody. We're mostly not actually competing for players, but hoping to retain the ones for which we're a good fit.
So how do I know if ToM is my flavor of fun? What's the basic vibe of Tales of Moonsea?
Harluk's Opinion: Tales of Moonsea is a mashup between Casablanca, the Old West, and HP Lovecraft.
Casablanca: Phlan is a small and not particularly powerful town sandwiched by much more powerful cities. Its political weakness and status as mostly-neutral ground means that it's filled with all kinds of conniving, scheming, back-stabbing, and intrigue.
The Old West: The Northwest Moonsea is a cold and mostly lawless frontier, bordering Vaasa and The Great Grey Land of Thar, which are cold and completely lawless frontiers. Phlan's economy is mostly based on the export of raw materials and mineral extraction. It's not a small mining town, but several of them figure strongly into the plot(s). There's a huge frontier, but what happens in this small town ON the frontier makes a big difference, as does a character's informal status as "townie" versus "country guy" vs "anonymous drifter."
HP Lovecraft: Lovecraft and RE Howard were both huge influences on early DnD. Since its early days, Tales of Moonsea has had a running undercurrent of horror and cosmic horror where the PCs occasionally bump elbows with things that are WAY out of their league and have to deal with that. Power Ratios matter. Sometimes PCs are the Local Hot Stuff Who Can Dictate Events, and sometimes they're the guys who have to scramble to survive it.
exemplum gratia: "Alien" is a horror movie. "Aliens" is an adventure movie. Because it's a lot different taking on xenomorphs when you're a Spaceship Mechanic than when you're a Space Marine.
You generally don't have to be involved with horror or survival-drama plots if you don't want to, but be aware that even if your PC becomes A Force To Be Reckoned With, there's always a Bigger Fish out there somewhere, and if your PC tries to solo Zhentil Keep, his buddies will miss him.
So What's it like to play here?
--<There's more than one "Plot." So everybody is A protagonist; nobody is THE protagonist>--
Everybody, including the NPCs, has a reason for being and will react to given events, often in unexpected ways. We are less tolerant of players trying to "god-mod" NPCs for that reason, and more tolerant of those trying figure out what's up with them and work with them.
("God Modding" is when a player basically invents NPCs or attempts to dictate NPCs actions and motivations and have other players or the DM staff accomodate it. Feel free to have a background and to have background NPCs, but understand that just because you have created a PC and told us that she is the High Priestess of Swiss Cheese, does not automatically mean that the Temple of Swiss Cheese is going to be sending her an army of mice this week.)
And seriously, just like the real world, Tales of Moonsea has a bazillion plots going on at any given time. At last review I think I counted 18 active NPC factions. Feel free to get involved with any, many, or none of them.
--<ToM is low(ish) level>--
So long as you're not stuck alone by yourself, it is very easy to get a PC up into the level 7-9 range. Higher than that is difficult both to gain and to hold onto (respawning carries an xp penalty), and is considerably more rare. 11th level is our effective "soft cap," and once you're up in the 10-11 level range most of your xp will come from events and spinning plots.
Unless you absolutely require a given level to become The Awesome due to spell or feat reasons, however, there is absolutely no reason why you have to wait to make level 8 (or whatever) in order to start trying to influence things and have an impact, particularly if your PC is trying to do something for which raw power ratios aren't a factor.
--<ToM is ambitious!>--
...often times beyond the Real-Life scope of the devs. We have guys cranking on various systems and areas and then running out of real-life hours to complete them. At any given time we have probably two systems and a half-dozen areas we're trying to squeeze out time to work on without also being real-life fails as employees, parents, spouses, etcetera.
--<ToM is a "high trust" playing environment.>--
We have very little trouble with players engaging in unfair activity, cheating, or exploits here (and encourage players to report exploits as discovered). A great deal of that is because we assume that players are adults and treat them accordingly.
--<ToM is small.>--
We'd be thrilled if we had 15 players logging in every night. But we'd also be recruiting like mad for DM staff. Tales of Moonsea has never been a server posting big numbers, and we're good with that. We have less of a "log into a big PW" feel and more of a "longterm PnP group" vibe.
--<ToM is deadly serious about DMing.>--
As part of that "PnP Group Vibe," we try to keep a ratio of one DM for every four active players. Yes, this IS unusually high, and it's very much on purpose. Our DMs also play characters (and bend over backwards to avoid conflicts of interest; wanna see who's had the most characters permed on ToM? It's always guys on the DM staff, and that's intentional. We give our characters a lot less slack when they screw up, specifically so that non-DMs never have to worry about whether their characters are safe to oppose a DM's character).
Unless the server is empty due to time-zone issues, Tales of Moonsea will almost always have a DM logged in. Though they may be on a player character at a given time, they are very happy to help out and to hop on the DM client either for rescues or to support player ideas.
--<ToM allows players to shape the setting; but you'll have to work to do it>--
Many players are "casual." They want to log in, go on quests, do a little roleplay, maybe do a lot of "campfire" or "relationship" RP, then log out. ToM is totally cool with that. (Though we prefer you keep the "relationship" part to Rated For Teens, please.)
We have a number of players, on the other hand, who are plot-spinners, and whose actions have shaped the server and its plots in dramatic ways. If you want to achieve X, you absolutely can! If you earn it. And if you're Team Ketchup, the players on Team Mustard may decide to work against your X, too, or else to do things that spin off it in weird ways. It's a game-world, not a wish-fulfillment factory, so just declaring that you're Joe-Bob The Awesome doesn't make it so.
The server is a living setting, and when a character does something to change the context of that setting, you can expect NPCs to take notice. Some of those NPCs will help. Some will giggle and golf-clap. Others will fight you tooth and nail, and not be shy about employing dirty underhanded tricks to do so.
--<The Setting Is A Context: Which means it changes with player action.>--
PC does "The Thing!"
The Thing changes the Context.
PCs and NPCs react to the change in Context.
PC/NPC reactions create Plots.
Which change The Context in which PCs will do "The Thing!"
--<Sometimes your character gets permed.>--
We're not a "hardcore" or "permadeath server" in the mechanical sense. We try really hard to give players "outs" for their characters, but again, Game World, not Wish-Fulfillment Factory. If you're staring death in the face and choose to do The Thing Which Totally Guarantees That You Die, the DM staff will respect the integrity of your play and allow that PC to croak for good.
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That's it - it should give you a very good idea of what we're all about on ToM, at least if you're familiar with how Persistent Worlds work (if you aren't, feel free to ask me). As always, check the links in my signature! |
Never sleep under the jackfruit tree.
Tales of Moonsea - A Neverwinter Nights 2 Persistent World. Check out our website at http://www.talesofmoonsea.com and our video trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am304WqOAAo&feature=youtu.be, as well as our thread here at Candlekeep: http://www.forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12955
My campaign thread: http://www.forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16447 |
Edited by - Mapolq on 26 Jan 2016 19:17:38 |
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The Arcanamach
Master of Realmslore
1882 Posts |
Posted - 16 Jun 2016 : 04:38:50
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| Is Tales of the Moonsea no longer available to play in? |
I have a dream that one day, all game worlds will exist as one. |
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Mapolq
Senior Scribe
Brazil
466 Posts |
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The Arcanamach
Master of Realmslore
1882 Posts |
Posted - 19 Jun 2016 : 01:13:47
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| Ah thanks Mapolq |
I have a dream that one day, all game worlds will exist as one. |
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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore
Australia
6680 Posts |
Posted - 19 Jun 2016 : 08:58:17
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I must be some sort of moron. Notwithstanding that I have a MAC, I have downloaded the PC Parallels tool. For the life of me though, I can't find a way to play this game! There's no game download, the website keeps sending me round in circles and I can't find the actual site/page/link that lets me download the bloody game. Ridiculous.
Of course I'm talking about this page: https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter
Your peristent world might be something else entirely. Sigh.
-- George Krashos |
"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus |
Edited by - George Krashos on 19 Jun 2016 09:01:22 |
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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore
Australia
6680 Posts |
Posted - 19 Jun 2016 : 09:20:13
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It now appears that you can't run this game using Parallels. Oh well.
-- George Krashos |
"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus |
Edited by - George Krashos on 19 Jun 2016 09:20:27 |
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Mapolq
Senior Scribe
Brazil
466 Posts |
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Tales of Moonsea NWN2 Persistent World
