Since many of you play or have tried some of the PW, what's the the multiplayer like so I can have an idea?

What kind of questing do some of the worlds offer (eg. Baldur's Gate, Amia, RoT etc.)? Is it more like NWN or BG single-player quests which are fun?

What server would you recommend me if I like going on adventures and my focus is either on fun dungeons with puzzles and various things to solve (and different ways of going through and/or solving the dungeon) like in tabletop D&D, or in interesting worlds where's lots to explore and ongoing events where I can engage in what's happening in the world like in some FR books (eg. engaging in a city's politics and guilds which are in warfare with each other, solving mysteries by talking to various characters and PCs and advancing our agenda etc.) Is there any world which offers both?

The latter probably won't be as big and active as I'd like due to servers' usual player participation I presume as today the biggest server had about 55 people and the rest had about 10 people or less with the exception of the Baldur's Gate PW which had about 17. Is there by chance any other online game which would offer that, a world where you can engage in various activities that directly affect the world so it would feel like a real D&D session? Most MMOs are themeparks so I wouldn't even mind an older game that would fulfill such criteria, if such a game comes to mind.

I haven't played multiplayer in a few years, though I've always been wanting to get back into it. The multiplayer is actually quite good and can suck hours upon hours of your time if you let it. The imagination that can go into a persistent world is really only limited by those who create it.

There are a lot of worlds I have not earnestly tried. I can't speak of Baldur's Gate, or RoT, as I've never tried them. I briefly tried Amia before, and was fairly impressed (I never stuck with it because I was DM'ing and committed to another PW at the time). If I were you, I'd give Amia a try, though it's worthwhile to "shop" around the other PWs as well and see which one works best for you.

Most persistent worlds offer both of what you ask for: places to explore such as new cities, dungeons, and so forth. Those with active DMs who tend to just "drop in" can offer improvised quests that require a bit of problem solving, and may have a bit of political intrigue in it. On servers where people generally roleplay every action they do, you will tend to encounter some DMs with brilliant storytelling abilities. What is it like? Basically, a PW consists of a world that lets you roam either solo or with some friends. Most have premade dungeons that you can spend a bit of time whacking away at monsters. If a DM is running a quest, he/she would jump in, and talk to you through NPCs and such, and to some degree, manipulate the world for your enjoyment. He/she might even give you rewards for completing some quests.

Don't let the amount of people on a server fool you from it's quality. I've played in servers where maybe 2-3 people are active. I've played in in servers that see anywhere from 10-20 at a time. And of course, those big-rig servers that you mention with 50+ players. I tend to enjoy servers with smaller player bases, as DMs can generally focus on you a lot more, and your decisions can have a larger impact on the world.

If you want a world that you can really impact like a D&D game though, it's best to look for a small group of people and an active DM who knows how to use the toolset, and jump in on some weekly sessions. I can't think of any other game other than NWN for this. I used to play in these groups all the time, and it's loads of fun because every week, the world changes based on your actions. I'm not sure if people still run these much. It does take a bit of time on the part of the DM to set the world up, but wow it's worth it, and the players you play with become your friends.

It depends greatly on what your main interest is in:For RP servers you can find all the things you're looking for, within reason and to varying degrees. The best part about these servers is that everyone is involved in playing as a character in an ever-changing storyline. The best ones I've played on had DMs who were actively moving their own plots forward and also helping players with their own plots. Of course there is always the opportunity to band together with other players and go off on adventures, regardless of what else is going on in the world.

Servers I recommend:

Forgotten Realms: Cormyr
Arelith (all 3 but you start out on the Cordor server)
Ravenloft:Prisoners of the Mist

I just started on Arelith and in BGTSCC and I can tell you that the gameplay can be somewhat slow, and it might get lonely sometimes when you're trying to grind quests for experience. I haven't ventured out in to dungeons much but they can be pretty dangerous for low-level characters.

The roleplaying is good, everybody sticks with their characters on the servers I've played so far, so that can be a source for fun gaming. I can see the potential in the roleplay, but I've yet to find a group to run around with, since low level characters are not as survivable as higher level characters. Folks that have played for a long time have it easier when forming parties since their characters are tougher in general.

If you want to form a party for example on Arelith, I'm down for it (or anyone else who wants to, I'm GMT +2 time zone). Having a constant party to roleplay with will boost the experience gain for one, and surviving will be easier.

The best experience is, in my opinion, a scheduled game where a small group gets together with a DM and plays. You get stories that you can actually affect, you can emote doing anything you want and you can have a lot of interesting dialogue and puzzles.

Otherwise, I find myself engaged with a server for a little while as I learn its lore and explore around and meet new people. But more often than not, there's little to no DM-interaction and I end up bored.

As people have said it entirely depends on the server and what experience you want.

I tried Amia for a bit but got tired of it. Most people wanted to do stuff with max levels but on the flip side leveling took forever -- hours of just mindlessly grinding mobs. Not interesting or engaging quests. And the few quests that did exist were often horrible. One of them was the following (I kid you not): "Adventurer, there's rumored to be a dread pirate who makes his base in the region. Please find him and put an end to him."

You literally have no idea where you start looking and there's no way to gather information to try to track him down via investigating or rumors or whatever -- it's literally "go out and randomly search the nearby areas of which there are dozens."

It undoubtedly varies, but the content on PWs I've seen tended to be... less engaging than single-player modules. By a rather long margin, when you compare them to the top single-player stuff like Stefan Gagne. That pirate quest MagicalMaster mentions seems fairly representative.

The fact alone that these PW quests are repeatable for every new player tends to make them either very generic (We have a wolf problem, go kill 20 wolves!) or very weird in execution. ("I saved the land by defeating the great dragon!" "Yeah, I did that last week. Pretty tough guy, that great dragon. Let's go help Johnny here defeat him again.")

I've seen some that were great for exploration, though, with really interesting areas to explore, secrets to find, etc.

The big draw though, on the more RP centric worlds, is the plots the players and DMs come up with on top of the framework of the PW module. These can be political, or about PVP, or more typical 'find the McGuffin' stuff, but if they're improvised with DM support or have players working against eachother it can all become very fascinating and unpredictable. It's fun in a way completely different from the good single-player modules, which tell you (great) stories. The stories on PWs tend to be not as great, but instead of being told, you're participating in them much more actively.

On the downside, I've found that the ratio of playtime/memorable stories tends to be quite low. A lot of time spent walking around or fighting the same goblin spawn for the dozenth time compared to every memorable encounter. On the upside, some of those encounters were very memorable indeed.

If you're looking for a NWN2 PW with lots of content I'd suggest RoT. Tons of areas, and plenty of quests (with a main storyline and sidequests).

Varies widely.

Numbers vary, even by hour of day and day of week. Features vary even more widely.

Our server supports flying, swimming, climbing, jumping, swinging, squeezing thru tight spaces, and more. We've added over 100 custom spells - mostly classics from D&D like Wish, Liveoak, Wall of Ice, Blink, Fumble, etc.). PC Crafting allows for creation of unique items. Each CLASS is enhanced here to be more like D&D; rangers track, rogues use windows, etc..

Visit anytime (be sure to run the tutorial Area, aka Noob U. for demos on swim, fly, etc.).

IP 96.31.77.127

I only play multiplayer. I run my own module and persistent world under nwnlist.com NWN1/ PWStory Reconstructed Nordock is what it is called

The best kind of play is with a group, playing a campaign, run weekly by a DM.

Next best is PW play in a campaign with a DM running the adventure.

PW play with just other PCs, can get a bit emo. It tends to be very contrived and usually shoved in your face.
Good role players let things flow. A lot of players have a whole story which they've lovingly crafted and can't wait to push the whole of it out in five minutes of play.

Don't get me wrong. A lot of players with well worked out stories, who are actively role playing is good; though, when it's the best is when you find some players who have story reasons for making decisions, and it comes out naturally why.

I'm with you, backstory should be there but need not be vomited out at the start of the show like some recap of last week's television episode. We are BIG on PC backstory here. We've even gone to such measures as to build tools to let backstory impact game play (our Immersion Tool or 'IT'). I recommend any RPer to check it out.

BTW, if anyone wants to run weekly games for their gaming group - we do accept new DMs and the DM tools here are excellent.

See http://playnwn.com for details.