Zarathustra217: To read more about this event, go to the forums at www.nwnravenloft.com
Looking forward to seeing you all,

- The Ravenloft POTM community and staff.

Zarathustra217: Perceptive!

We are admittedly a bit old school, thus the tribute. But this isn't overly relevant to the above.

Zarathustra217: It's a bit silly to judge us on the hat tip to good old TSR .

Zarathustra217: You are very clearly making judgements, but you are obviously also just looking to make a bash at us here, so not sure why we bother. You made your point, we simply have different opionions on it's relevance and substantiality - it's moot discussing it any further. Let's just move on.

Now, I'll grant you, if that stuff does matter so much to you and strikes you as poor judgement rather than an innocent tongue-in-the-cheek statement - to the extend that you will pass the opportunity - you likely wouldn't fit in anyway. We are a friendly, open minded community. And I still hope that other people who aren't obsessive nitpicking insignificant details - but are more focused on actual substance - will consider giving it a chance. It's usually a huge success, and there'll be a lot of great people to meet and roleplay to be had.

Jonesy89: While I am interested in the concept, I can't help but think that the timing is... unfortunate. The event seems like it will be taking place over the holidays, which is somewhat of a problem as it all but excludes anyone who might be spending time with family, shopping, or whatnot. Can you provide more details as to the timing?

Zarathustra217: Hmm, what details are you looking for?

Even if people are understandably busy over the holidays, it's also the time where many people have time off work, studies etc. You don't have to partake from start to finish (I doubt anyone does) - it's no issue to just drop in one or two days to get a feel of it when you get the time. The event is active around the clock for those 14 days, with many DMs running things at different hours and even more players to roleplay with. The players are at these events are very creative at doing things on their own.

Zarathustra217: It's quite flexible and really up to what you want and have time to. Some do long all-night-sessions while others log in a few hours to let their characters interact with others and unfold their stories, usually over multiple shorter sessions. Some people focus mostly on going on adventure, while others focus on the more story-driven, atmospheric roleplay (you'd be surprised just how much can come out of simple player initiative.) There are certain factions that hire people for their cause, which (largely due to inter-faction conflicts), leads to very involving plots - but there's also the simple things such as local authorities wanting a certain criminal hunted down or collectors' looking for a certain item, etc. (such plots are created dynamically by the server itself).

And then there's the DM run plots, that can also be both small and epic: a simple encounter that takes an hour or continue for months (and everything there in between). Due to the nature of the global event, they'll be focused on smaller things during this period to allow as many as possible to experience this aspect too.

Oh - and not to mention the monstrous PCs, that really do a lot to make the world feel alive (and dangerous). Don't worry that it's power hungry griefers though - they are in many ways held to the same standards that DMs are, and only there to make it interesting for the other players (even if it makes it less safe for their characters).

All in all, it's a lot up to what you yourself want to make of it and what you want to contribute with yourself. It might be hard to imagine how it'll actually create something interesting before you've seen it, but truthfully, NWN as a medium for online roleplay is unmatched by anything else out there. So even if you can just find a few hours or are still sceptical, I very much encourage you to at least give it a chance.

Jonesy89: Ok, so the DMs will be running adventures; that sounds closest to what I am interested in. How long will they be and when are they scheduled for? Given the rather hectic nature of this time of year, I need to know exactly how much time I can anticipate to budget in my free time this, let alone determine if I even have the free time in the first place. Will multiple DMs be running the same adventure over different times to make it easier to play in a given adventure, or will DMs be running adventures unique to them? Will DM adventures be self contained, or will they try to incorporate them into a campaign that will last for the duration of the event?