Diary of an NWN FiendA Gamer's LifespansThis page will mostly be reviews and shout-outs to all the great players and worlds I've met along the way. I have tried to play diversely and widely with what time I have available. The fact that the highest character I have on any persistent world is about level 10 testifies to the fact that I am spread rather thin. The thing is, I always want to see as much as I can, get a feel for what is really out there. And there are many places to explore. I feel I have just scratched the surface. There is enough background to chronicle and illustrate anyhow, if only for my own reminiscing, so here goes. I started playing NWN late in the game.The truth is I probably didn't have a computer to run it when it first came out. And I didn't play computer games much, but I am an old time PnP DM and player, and NWN literally just popped into my life (I found it abandoned with a fried computer in an alley one day). So it seemed like something to investigate, and I did. I played the Official campaign for a little while, and with friends. It was kind of fun. I learned the game, got back into the D&D fantasy setting again. The really cool thing was my beloved, AmuzedApathy, liked NWN. We had been looking for something we both liked playing for a long time, and this filled the hole nicely. Discovering the mutiplayer aspect of user-built worlds was a delight. I started on Adventure Island, which nowadays has closed shop, but has recently been resurrected by another person, I believe. Adventure Island was a good-times, action-based high-fantasy world that didn't concern itself too much with role-playing.. There was a lot to see and explore, and it had the very nifty UOAbigal's Crafting system installed. My girlfriend loved Adventure Island, and eventually earned two epic characters there. I made a few quirky characters but I needed more role-playing to be satisfied. So then I tried Mythos. I may be wrong, but I think Mythos is sadly gone now too. I didn't play on Mythos long, and I am not really sure why. I had fun when I did. The players I met where friendly and interesting to play with. I just didn't jive with it for whatever reason. Maybe it was just that I realized how different it was from Adventure Island - who knew what other kinds of places there where? I had PW wanderlust... Next I played on The Fold: The World of Nailæon. Good times on the Fold, and for quite some time, even though I maybe made it to level 11. I had an escaped slave, a Fighter there. And a rambunctious, sinister little Halfling by the name of Fixivies. AmuzedApathy and I joined DDucko's campaign, which ran for a few months. We were a bunch of treasure-seekers who never quite made it to the end prize, but had good times (and RP) along the way. I found the role-playing skills of Rhane, Treadore, Gryphyn and Melwhilian (and others) to be outstanding while on the Fold. I suppose it was on this world that I realized what potential the game really had. The thing with the Fold was, there where not a lot of players, the server was often empty, and I got the sense that the developers where more looking on to NWN2 than doing more with it. So when our campaign broke up, I hit the road again... I ended up in Ravenloft: Prisonsers of the Mist before long, and I just loved this server. I was always a fan of Ravenloft, and RPotM does a standup job of adapting the fantasy gothic horror millieu to NWN. I never became a regular enough player to drop any names here, but I had some fun and harrowing adventures there. One unique aspect of this server was you could not Party with others, and so did not have the 'sixth sense' of knowing your party-member's health and whereabouts. This server also gave XP for role-playing, using some sort of automated script. I thought that was neat. AmuzedApathy didn't share my passion for Ravenloft, and the admin had habit of doing server wipes of the characters, so I eventually moved on (but not without looking back with some regret). You see, at the same time, I was playing on Vives. I found Vives after reading an excellent review of it on the Vault, which was pretty accurate. Vives had some of the most stunningly built areas I had ever seen at the time. I remember two features I enjoyed here were the lush descriptions of areas upon entering them, and receiving XP for exploring. I created a Good Human Ranger by name of Promis Anlies. Great players, active forums... Keep in mind, all along I was trying to find the perfect balance of role-play and action for a world to really delve into with my beloved. You see AmuzedApathy liked the more action side of things, and I liked role-play. She leaned more towards easy-goingness and I towards stricter rulesets (to a degree). I sincerely hoped Vives was that world, but she never found time to explore it much. Add to that that it had a lot of lag at the time, and I was eventually searching out new pastures. For some time, I had heard about something called CoPaP, or the Confederation of Planes and Planets, which was a bunch of worlds linked together under one system. This one required a player application, and it took me awhile to get around to applying, since there were so many places to just go and play, the passworded part of it seemed kind of superfluous. But once I finally got around to playing on Avlis, the primary CoPaP world, I was happy that I did. Avlis has a large, creative, dedicated player and builder base, and I have had lots of fun there, and still do. Avlis really gave me a sense of the scope of NWN. On Avlis, I mostly play Annabel Froile, a human bard that would just as soon slit your throat as sing for you some days, and Tralala, a good-natured Wemic Druid. Although I have met many players and characters on Avlis, the ones that stand out the most in memory are:Shannon D'Rithia, Gaklah the Stone and Elong Singalong ... oh and Kieran (who was so much fun he was banned). Avlis was teh shit because AmuzedApathy really got the addiction there, and finally we had found some common ground - a combination of our shifting tastes and just finding new vistas. Avlis is the right blend of good role-play and good fun. In fact, AA is a pretty serious player on Avlis with her Kili Paltic Goretharite Dwarf. This is where she can be found, as often as not. At this point I could see I had a problem with consistently playing anywhere, so I gave up all the non-CoPaP worlds when I had to do a OS reinstall. I figured the time invested in the various CoPaP worlds building characters wouldn't be 'wasted,' since they could move around. In a sense, this was right, although I haven't moved any characters around yet. I think the Abyss404 has changed hands a few times, and there are parts of it that are a little unfinished. The new team are committed to bringing it together, and the Abyss404's plans of linking to a new project called Ariochus - a pocket plane of Hell - will probably revive interest in this odd gem, especially if Abyss404 ever really gets linked to the other CoPaP worlds. Linking to Hades via CoPaP is Hala, which is every bit as beautifully built as I remember Vives, and with much of the player energy of Avlis. On Hala, I have a Chaotic Good Ghostwise Halfling Barabarian there named Pagan Fallenleaf. I see myself spending more time there in the future. Hala has a truly magical, otherworldly feel, and I like Pagan a lot. So many worlds... so little time. I have skipped the ones that were too terrible to be mentioned, and I have tried to dwell on the positive aspects of each place, because they are all very much a labor of love and dreams. Much like a string of ex-lovers, these NWN fantasy worlds twinkle in my imagination and memory, sometimes carrying the sense of loss from having moved on. But it has been necessary to move on to survey the dreamscape, because more than anything I wish to tell my own story and build my own world, and that is what Gnostica is. Each PW has contributed something to my own vision as a builder and what Gnostica will be like, and just about every player I have interacted with has has inspired me as a potential audience.
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