Your Dream CoA
-
Prompted by solarfall's thread on dream concept, what is your dream CoA?!
If you could create/recreate the module as any idea you wanted, what would you be looking for on it? LIke the vision for the module/story, level ranges, the theme of the things, what would be cool, or what would you be looking for?
Like, my ideal NWN would be this:
The World Tree of Omphalos: Omphalos is a small village, on the branches of the world tree. A small community of dreamers, drifters, adventurers who travel along the branches of the world tree that connect to new worlds and lands.
The world would be a little higher magic, but still manageable--like more subraces available in the plane-touched area (think Planescape races)--level ranges 8-13 or so--the setting is modular outside the Omphalos branch/hub where the main town is, but portals can open to any world from Dark Sun and Krynn to homebrew ideas, so new areas and regions can come and go whenever.
The DMs would be more there for flavoring the world, switching up scripted/AI monster routines a bit, and pushing the plot in response to player ideas (very few plots "plotted out" with key NPCs and more players develop/do a thing or react to a thing, and the DM follows them where they want to go).
Players would have more power and authority, likely even a LoL style justice system for problem people and situations. Though if a player clique/group came to be too dominant, the admin team (maybe even not all DMs, but rather a DM/player council) could step in to help resolve it.
More tools for players like player housing, player shops, guidelines for players who maybe want to build/add things to the module that get community approval. Etc.
I always feel like we could do so much more with NWN than most places really do--the power of this game is still underestimated.
-
I love this idea Moloch it sounds cool and a fresh start. I also like the idea of subraces being more accessable and a touch higher magic level. Even with a setting like this I would still have no issue starting at lvl one. Due to previous conversations though I might suggest lvls to start at 3-5 and capping out at say 13 anything above that would be dm granted perhaps.
-
@valkyrie This is just pie in the sky stuff, so I'm not really worrying too much about how it would work. My style of thinking is usually just 'what would my dream/best case scenario look like". Its a cool mind exercise to just generate ideas and brain-storm.
I mean if a cool idea/suggestion came out of this that could apply to CoA; I'm sure someone could make a suggestion separately. This is just a general discussion thread for kicks.
-
Arabel as a frontier town, the world outside decimated by some horrible plague / event - players have to reach the outside settlements etc, real post apocalyptic / Lovecraftian stuff with a large goal / metaplot in the background tying the server together and giving it meaning.
Same as Moloch really on the other bits - higher magic, with players given "sandbox" factions like the current set up with the slums gangs. Free to do what you want with some guidance / nudging by the DMs
-
After hearing a suggestion yesterday I say Arabel gets transported somewhere else mysteriously or gets stuck between an alternate reality where things did not go down as we remember. Still Arabel but a fresh start and unknown.
-
More focus on governmental structures, and especially the tension between feudal politics and mercantilism. High intrigue and dynamic governmental forms.
Still in the FR, but an FR that actually makes sense from a civic perspective.
-
Hardcastles dream - A feudal Cormyr
I am a huge fan of the human intrigue. Cormyr becomes fragmented, rules by High Lords like Game of Thrones, with lesser nobles serving under them. Rival nobles fight and bicker amongst themselves, good and evil become blurred, as good must do questionable acts to win, and evil must do "good" to be accepted. Noble houses with dark secrets, mystery and plots upon plots to be solved. The DMs would create a world with actual secret lore to be uncovered, with a metaplot of nobles fighting for power, and needing PCs to win the day.
-
Due to the long historically evil nature of Arabel's leaders and citizens, the city is transported to Ravenloft where it ruled by a vampire noble and his house of bloodsuckers.
Gothic horror, intrigue, monsters, and Arabel is the only safe haven of humanity.
Adventurers must plot to protect Arabel, expand its influence, fight the vampire noble's evil rule.
One can dream...
-
I'd break from Arabel personally. A hub / spoke system, as has been done in many different games (Planescape Torment for example) works really well in keeping a setting fresh.
You have your central hub, with its history, politics, whatever, a set of areas associated with this hub. Spokes allow you to travel to any number of adventure / plot scenarios, and this allows for an extremely flexible system that never gets old, because ICly, it can be switched up anytime while making total sense.
Moloch's idea is one implementation of this idea, but there can be many more:
- A demiplane with portals that open up to different worlds or planes; People can play anything they want and it'll make sense.
- Sigil is a great implementation of this concept
- Ravenloft follows this model. Characters who enter ravenloft can come from any world or plane.
This is what I'd like to see, since location fatigue will never be an issue; New locations and adventures, and many different types of adventures (some of which may make no sense in the current setting) are possible.
-
@star-s-end Yes, I even talked once about doing a 'Castle Perilous' thing where the whole setting was a castle floating in the Astral Realm calling adventurers to it to test their skills and abilities and teach lessons.
Years, and years back, I had this idea called Project Omricon where there would just be a single city left in the known world with all other lands around it having fallen to an invasion by illithids who seized control of Cormyr/Sembia and the infernal undead summoned from Narfel and Thay who were the last force able to stand against the illithids. This last city was the only green lands and beacon of hope in the world and survived only because it was in the middle of the two opposing forces now and its heroes managed to always find some way to survive.
That idea apparently got picked up for another server idea by a former player, whose server didn't go very far, but their idea/take on it went somewhere else and that server is still around and going strong. So a good idea can do amazing things as people play with it and experiment with it.
-
My dream NWN PW RP server is where no one whines, I guess I am a hypocrite for whining about it LOL.
-
I'd love to see a return to strong factions, where the majority of players are in factions because of how accessible they are, like, going into V6, we get FOUR base factions with no pre-existing relationships and no rivals in the other factions, just their goals to get into, and a basic personality as to why you'd want to join, and who would.
I feel that'd make the conflict that could arise out of it a lot more powerful because its not just something you HAVE to do, but something that's developed and simmered maybe even over a few disagreements here and there. Faction A and Faction B could be at odds because of the different way they might be approaching a city-wide event, but then because Faction C is friends with Faction A, when decisions are being made and favours are called in, it matters that Faction A has bothered at all to branch out and draw those lines in the sand prior. This leads to high tension conflict that gets people invested, over people hating each other because they "have to". People have lots of goals to go for, and because of how the factions are set up, you can join for a multitude of different reasons, to further your own station, or pursue your own goals, or even just because you like their uniform (I know I LOVED the Stark Wyvern getup, and that was half the reason I wanted to be MG back in the day).
-
I change my answer to Vagabonds. That does sound lovely.
-
@vagabond3103 That really seems to have failed in v5 when we had a variety of efforts at strong factions.
What would make this work in your mind because people seem very resistant to strong "DM factions" and mostly seem to prefer to have more emphasis on player factions.
-
Pretty much the opposite of everyone else.
I'd want a frontier town on a large island with an ultra low magic setting. The populace would be fearful of magic, there would only be two mages and two apprentices at a time, these would be app only. One mage would be a power hungry maniac of some kind and the other would be more neutral.
Criminals would be harshly dealt with, and even goodly adventurers would be distrusted as outsiders.
Factions would be based on the two wizards a group of bandits with their own camp, and the local council of Lords who rule the island.
-
@mrmoloch Strong factions are fine, just as long as they aren't these monolithic uber groups that aren't going anywhere, ever.
I just want the place to feel alive and organic, however that is achieved!
-
If I'm honest, Moloch, I'm very unsure. I just remember people talking about the Mages Guild, City Watch, Old Town and Red-Hart days and the idea kind of sprung from there. I'd say that maybe they don't need to be headed by a DM, but maybe by applying players, like with the SPAs, though that would be difficult to co-ordinate.
-
Personal opinion:
Many of the factions we've had in v5 have had some conceptual and implementation issues. More DM factions definitely guide the server storyline while giving as much or as little onus to PCs as they desire.
It would certainly be a boon. It might not be panacea (it's just one aspect of storytelling), but it'd definitely help.
-
I dream of one day becoming a dragon, not just a whelp or wyrmling but a young adult or adult dragon. I know it is unlikely to happen. I also know the mechanics are in there for this to be possible though the mechanics where set for a higher level.
anyway, that's what I dream about for CoA, and who knows, maybe one day, it will happen. -
Since the idea hasn't been suggested on this forum yet, thomas put forward a very cool idea on IRC.
Michifer lures the local adventuring populace to the World Serpent Inn.
We all end up there, where he reveals the Metropolis and the Portals of Destiny.
The Metropolis is a city beneath the hub (The world serpent) where every player now exists to strive since it is a pocket plane so anything is possible
The Portals of Destiny include different planes of all sorts including Cormyr, Thay, Chult, and many other different sorts of portals to all kinds of different and interesting areas with things to do.
This enables EVERY POSSIBLE CONCEPT to join in on the fun, because anything can exist in the Metropolis and anything is possible in The Metropolis, due to it being a pocket plane.Note: Edited for Olouth