Hello! I'd just like to share a thought I've had for a bit now, this is mostly a suggestion to the rest of the player base, since we all of course choose where our characters go on our own.
The singular gathering place of the Square in Arabel is quite nice, and certainly convenient. However, lately I've been feeling that A) sometimes it gets WAY too crowded, and I can't follow a singe conversation to save my life. And B) it gets harder for me to suspend disbelief the longer I spend with characters just milling about in this one little patch of grass and trees and flowerbeds (not to mention boring after awhile; don't get me wrong, the area is quite well done, my sincere compliments to whoever designed it, but there are definitely prettier zones in the module, and staring at any one, relatively mundane thing for too long eventually gets boring) when there's an entire beautiful module to explore.
I often have my characters roam around solo on tasks they'd logically be doing anyway, elsewhere in the module. The rangers go on patrols in the wilderness, the priestesses spend time praying in their temples or shrines, etc, etc... And, I must say, when I do, all the other zones very often have a lonely, empty feel to them simply because everyone tends to congregate in the square or nearby. This seems a shame, to be frank, because there's so many other beautifully-designed zones in the module. It also just...doesn't feel very natural, nor does it help the world feel very 'alive.' Npcs being around in these other zones helps, but you can't really interact with them unless a passing DM just so happens to take pity on you, which is rare.
So, my proposal to my fellow players is this: find other areas to congregate too. Don't abandon the square, but don't rely on it exclusively for running into other people. Park your characters in places it makes logical sense for them to be. Send them about what might be their natural IC routine in other areas -before- you go to the square. In particular, consider that the module is called "Cormyr *and the Dalelands*", and yet, the only main gathering place is in Cormyr. What about the dales? Or, more accurately, the primarily-accessible one in this particular module: Deepingdale. If your characters happen to live there, why not sit around somewhere in Hgihmoon for a bit sometimes? You might just get bored eventually and go to the square anyway, but you might also run into someone for more organic, interesting rp that doesn't rely on "we all walked into the Square in Arabel" as a premise, which from a storytelling perspective is right up there with the "we all walked into a tavern" cookie-cutter beginning to far too many D&D campaigns. If more people try this for a few minutes when they log in, overtime, other gathering spots might form organically. They could be secondary to the Square, of course, because I do recognize the value of a single, central meeting area that everyone visits at least from time to time, but I'm also rather fond of the idea of more organic, natural-feeling rp that takes place all over the module, planned or otherwise, and I feel there must be some kind of happy medium we could achieve if enough people gave it a try.
I'd also like to remind you all that you can change your bind point so that you don't always spawn in the Seraph (aka right by the Square) on a server reset! There's an item in your inventory for it. "CD bind stone," I believe. You can't bind just anywhere, but I think you can do so at any Inn in the game, and I'm willing to guess a lot of players (especially newer ones) don't know about this. Binding yourself to an inn near wherever your character lives/works/etc would certainly be a start towards facilitating organic rp all over the map.
These, of course, are just my thoughts on the matter. I'd love to open a dialogue and see what the rest of you think of this thought. Please do reply if you have thoughts, whether in favor, against, or expanding upon this idea. <3