Upcoming modules for NWN 2

[toot033]

I was out on game banshee and there was a posting from a company called Rogue Doa who are in the process of making of triology of modules for Neverwinter Nights 2. They will be set in the planescapes realm.
Here is the actual posting. I could not embed the link to the warcry site for a more en depth interview.

Posted on Tuesday, October 3 at 12:17 PM GMT -6

Warcry had the opportunity to chat with four members of Rogue Dao Studios, the team currently working on a trilogy of Neverwinter Nights 2 modules based in the Planescape setting.

Q: What are some of the story highlights of the trilogy?

A: The Planescape Trilogy is going to follow the path of all great trilogies. You can look forward to an immersive introduction to the multiverse, the explosive guts of the story, and that epic conclusion that changes not just the fictional world, but the way you look at fictional worlds. The overarching them of our story follows a mortal's descent into the belly of darkness, the tooth and nail struggle to escape, and the aftermath of bearing witness to the distorted world view of absolute evil. While our plot does broach upon the condition of a much larger setting, the real stage upon which the actions play out is the living, breathing soul of the character. We're hoping to realize a conceptualization of Planescape unlike any the Neverwinter Nights community has ever seen. The setting itself is a dense reinterpretation of the everyday struggles of ideas, ideals and existence, and we're going to great lengths to do justice in our visualization of what we can only describe as the D&D system's most intellectually rich and uniquely flavored game setting.

As for specifics... there will be Sigil, there will be the Hells and there will be places in between. I will say, there are a lot of ideas and locations on the table right now, and outside of the main plotline, there's no telling what's going to be added and what's going to end up on the cutting room floor. Let's be honest, we're probably not going to Bytopia... but you never know, there might be a Xaositect mole on the production staff, in which case you can probably expect the unexpected

[toot033]

Here is more detailfrom the war cry site
You have disseminated a very comprehensive press release to the major NWN 2 sites. What precipitated the formation of Rogue Dao Studios?

Montgomery: We've all had a great time building and maintaining persistent worlds under NWN1. I felt like we could apply all of the lessons we learned from that process to building single-player campaigns. The NWN1 PW environment was truly a groundbreaking thing. Being involved with that gave us the tools to build adventures and campaigns for NWN2 that are on the cutting edge in terms of socially-networked gaming.

How did the major “players” in Rogue Dao know one another? How were the studio’s members chosen?

Michael E.: Brothels. Sexual favors. The usual... Actually we've played NWN together for nearly 4 years on various persistent worlds (Menzoberranzan, Myth Drannor, and now Gatecrashers), and administrated and designed two of those servers throughout this time. Monty contacted us because he can rely on us and we flow as a team.

Cole: I'm not really sure what caused it, but Monty just told me "I want you to help make an NWN2 module" over MSN one day. I'm timid so I couldn't exactly say no. Most of us met either on Menzoberranzan, Myth Drannor, or Gatecrashers PW servers.

Jason: This I can answer to some degree. We all started together about 4 years ago developing the Hall of Fame PW “Myth Drannor”, which eventually ended up with 14,000 players logging in over three years, an average of three new players per day.

Several of our community members went off to become PW admins themselves, or content contributors. I’ve trained up at least 8 builders myself who went on to make areas which were simply amazing for other PWs. And I think that’s the REAL product of an Admin. Whether we separated on good or bad terms, they all had the chance in Myth Drannor to get their skills up to professional levels, and seeing the results (even if on another project) is the best feeling of all.

Montgomery: I liked Cole's answer best.


Please give our readers some personal background information and NWN-specific information about the Rogue Dao Studios staff members.

Michael E: I'm 26. East Coast USA. I do security and that's all I can tell you, or I'd have to kill you. I have extensive design, scripting, and custom content experience in NWN1 thanks to the countless hours I've spent on the toolset and various content editors since 2003 when we started Myth Drannor. Alas, I've restricted most of my work to the PWs I've worked on, and as such can't show any of it to you offhand. This work includes new classes, spells, data systems, graphics, and more.

Montgomery: Michael, Jason and Cole are the roleplayers, Kevin and I are powergamers.

Cole: I'm basically a sloth and don't do much of anything. I think Monty saw this, and wished to harness my laziness for something that requires such singular dedication. As far as NWN specific info on the staff members goes, most of us play on the Gatecrashers server, but I'm on and off of PWs right now.


Your press release indicated that the three projects in development are specifically for single player yet can be used as a DM’d campaign as well. How do you plan to implement these two seemingly opposed styles of play?

Montgomery: Making a module easy to use for a DM is about documentation and tools. If we provide the right level of documentation and the right set of tools on an in-game utility belt, then a DM will be able to run an even richer experience inside the module. Think of the documentation as the old-style hardcopy adventure book, and the DM tools as the DM screen, dice and other miscellany. We are also planning on reaching out to the DMFI team as we approach the testing phase to consult with them on how we can best offer this feature.

Cole: I think that the two styles aren't exactly exclusive from one another. It's sort've like a bunch of props and the DM being the stage director. The DM has a bunch of ready made areas, items and fleshed out NPCs in a powerful client which he or she can use to make changes on the fly. Sort've like if a DM was running Keep on the Borderlands or Temple of Elemental Evil, they could throw in a sidequest of their own making, using what was available in their manuals.

As a new player, perhaps unfamiliar with the Planescape environment, where can one look to learn more about the project setting?

Montgomery: I would recommend planewalker.com and mimir.net, if you are looking for free sources. You can also buy most of the old Planescape materials online at a variety of places. Finally, if you have any questions at all, come to our forums at roguedao.com and ask! We've got some of the most knowledgable Planescape buffs in the world working with us.

Michael E.: I'd recommend Planewalker.com and Mimir.net, but of course the original Planescape accessories, if you can find copies of those, are invaluable.


Cole: You can always check http://www.mimir.net or http://planewalker.com/index.php. I particularly like the encyclopedia section from planeWalker. You could always check out the Gatecrashers server at http://www.faefae.net/gatecrashers.com. It needs quite a few haks, but they're worth it. Unless you have 56k or lower. Then you should get a better connection.

What do you think is the major “selling” point of the Planescape Trilogy?

Michael E: I wish I could sound any less cliche'd, but presently all we really have is our design experience and an amazing storyline. When NWN2 is released, we will be able to start showing more 'substantial' results, in the form of both visual and audio content.

Montgomery: The player being in control of an epic story that plays out against one of the most mind-bending and stimulating roleplaying settings ever created.

Jason: The ability to meet and rub elbows with real, interactive NPCs based off of player characters, who have a life and personality all their own. And hey, it’s Planescape!

Cole: Another point to be excited about is that we will be one of the first modules to offer dwarven romance! I hope you like a small humanoid with a beard.

Michael E: ...

Please briefly describe the three modules in development and their accompanying development timelines?

Michael E: The Planescape Trilogy attempts to capture the essence and feel of the old Planescape setting by introducing players to an immersive, nonlinear storyline that stretches through the eldritch, mythical, and outright bizzare. It starts out as yet another hard day at work until the player characters make the mistake of meeting the wrong berks, at the wrong time. What starts out as a fiasco that centers around the self (the PC) in a general film-noir feel later becomes an epic fantasy revolving around one of the deepest darks of the multiverse, and the quest to unravel it's mystery.

Cole: We've yet to begin predevelopment on Inferno and Escotalogiaoeda or whatever it's called.

What are some of the unique features of each module? Will features from Purgatorio (the first module) carry over into Inferno and Eschatologia?

Michael E.: I think one of the most unique features we have planned is the NPC interaction. There will literally be near hundreds of lines of dialogue for each NPC involving their reactions to situations, commentary, discussions and plans relating to the main story or otherwise, and all are influenced by past actions on the PC's (or another NPC's!) behalf. All those can vastly affect the outcome of the story and it's development - they're as much a part of this as you are.

How long will each of the module campaigns run for the average player if they follow the main story arc?

Montgomery: We'll have a better answer to that after a few weeks of QA in November.

How much time can be added if a player completes all main and side quests?

Montgomery: We'll have a better answer to that after a few weeks of QA in November.

Will any unique classes, feats and/or skills be implemented?

Michael E.: I'll be more than glad to work on faction and setting-oriented classes if we're not under pressure of time. But let's have a look at NWN2 first and see if it fulfills our needs, shall we? We're hoping not to rely on custom-content in NWN2 as much as we did in NWN1 - the reason for which is that the latter was, after all, an incomplete package.

Would you consider the trilogy more of a "hack-n-slash" world or an RP world?

Michael E.: It's story-driven, mostly. I'm not a big fan of repeated monster-clicking; Oh, there will be hack-and-slash, for sure. And there will be extensive dialogue - So, I'd consider it a very thick-layered tale that needs to be replayed several times under different paths to be completely understood.

Jason: Definitely RP with hack n slash. There’s several situations which hacking through the badguys will not get you far, and several situations where smooth talking will not avail you.

Cole: We have bits for everyone. I'd say, based on our current list of a million charts, the main story is primarily roleplay with violent encounters strewn about. Sidequests are also primarily roleplay oriented, but we do have something planned for someone who just might want to go and slaughter things. Even this will have roleplay aspects though, and so it should!

What are some of the story highlights of the trilogy?

Ryan: The Planescape Trilogy is going to follow the path of all great trilogies. You can look forward to an immersive introduction to the multiverse, the explosive guts of the story, and that epic conclusion that changes not just the fictional world, but the way you look at fictional worlds. The overarching them of our story follows a mortal's descent into the belly of darkness, the tooth and nail struggle to escape, and the aftermath of bearing witness to the distorted world view of absolute evil. While our plot does broach upon the condition of a much larger setting, the real stage upon which the actions play out is the living, breathing soul of the character. We're hoping to realize a conceptualization of Planescape unlike any the Neverwinter Nights community has ever seen. The setting itself is a dense reinterpretation of the everyday struggles of ideas, ideals and existence, and we're going to great lengths to do justice in our visualization of what we can only describe as the D&D system's most intellectually rich and uniquely flavored game setting.

As for specifics... there will be Sigil, there will be the Hells and there will be places in between. I will say, there are a lot of ideas and locations on the table right now, and outside of the main plotline, there's no telling what's going to be added and what's going to end up on the cutting room floor. Let's be honest, we're probably not going to Bytopia... but you never know, there might be a Xaositect mole on the production staff, in which case you can probably expect the unexpected.

Cole: Have you seen Homeward Bound? (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107131/) Honestly though, the story is kick uhhh butt, can I say that? It's going to involve lots of uncovering mysteries and lore from all sorts of sources. There will be powerful artifacts and mysterious assailants. It's going to float your boat.

How are you developing the storyline for the three modules? Are they intertwined?

Michael E.: The storyline was constructed with all three parts in mind, as three chapters of the same story.

Who are the main writers for each of the modules or is the story a single story “cut” into three slices?

Michael E.: It will be a single story "cut" into three slices, as you put it. Well-timed cuts, I should think. Ryan (Ozrael) was selected as our head writer. He's a spectacular storyteller as evidenced by his work-in-progress, titled Adam Blue. Cole, Monty and I also flesh out large parts of the story and the four of us compromise the bulk of the story design team.

Cole: The big, head writer, the man with the stories in his brain box, is Roz. He's aloof and is sad that he had to cut his hair. Some day he's going to be driving convertibles with his long luxurious hair blowing in the wind. That's what he told me anyway. He's in charge of the entire plot. It would've been me if my hair were short.... and I could write.