The player of the character 'George Kurd' has been banned for trolling, sexually harassing players, and initiating PvP without following server rules.
~BR
~BR
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#2
General Discussion / Ask Us Anything
Feb 01, 2026, 08:56 PM
Hello everyone!
These are some general notes about the Ask Us Anything we did on February 1, 2026. These notes are NOT word for word. This is a rough transcription that I put together while we actively answered things. I will apologize for the shitty formatting:
How do NPCs/the setting treat Alyrae with the pineapples?
- Not many have actually ever reacted.
- Silly antics get a giggle but often get shadowed over for more serious responses.
(Side tangent that we do try to keep a separation between silly parts of the setting and serious, with suspension of disbelief being core to where that distinction should be. Killing Varyxia 5x a week = no bueno. Saying you killed 'a dragon' more or less fine.)
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Has it been hard to tweak/balancing or changing feats or classes knowing how sometimes the players can react?
- We always consider player feedback and reactions in pretty much all balance changes, because it's sometimes not worth the arguments or fighting that might come afterwards after a particular buff or nerf.
- Example given about the XP system. Daily ticks had players leave because they thought levelling was going to slow down.
- A hard note was given that no balance changes are permanent, we change things if they don't work.
- Players originally were upset about fairy ticks because they felt like event XP was getting devalued.
- Recap of the history of Swordmage and that it was entirely super overtuned on going into the server, people upset with the nerf bat. SM used to be able to take on level 15 content at sub-level-7.
- Buffing is a lot easier than nerfing, because nerfing means a lot of relevels across the entire playerbase every single time.
- - sub note: Fury demands to be called Doctor for a week after his dissertation is done.
- Note from Pope: Is the balance team in agreement on things? Answer: Almost never. We argue all the time about like every single detail.
- - sub note: No automated relevels because scripts break things, characters have troubles and problems that really, really need a DM there to handle if there's a problem.
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Is there anything in the works that would let players spend their marks? Aside from houses, casters have epic spells, but that's limited. Martials don't really have anything.
- 'The gold spell' potentially being added, you can spend money and do damage.
- Martial epic feat project - This is difficult from trying to not power creep the server more, but we're looking into an epic spell alternative type of system, but it's hard to balance without just adding even more damage across the board. Maneuvers like in the Epic Level Handbook. Will not cost a feat slot, but will cost MM and research time.
- Adding gold sinks is difficult since the economy is one-sided in that you can farm it infinitely.
-'Build a pet?' system suggested, gold sink to maybe be able to customize a little baby summon creature.
- Potential crafting system in the future, but again, needs a lot of mechanical consideration and balance. This is a very long term project for the future. Fury has a minor idea for some mundane ish craftables for things like different elemental grenades or buff items, but doesn't want to completely ruin scrolls.
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Are we adding Alchemist or any other PRCs soon?
- Vince has maybe an idea for alchemist, but it's going to need a crapton of planning and balance work, and we'd basically be making it maybe like an INT based warlock in functionality and play.
- SP works in short bursts of inspiration, doesn't have any plans at the moment.
- Fury has an idea for a CON-based class.
- Vince also wants to make Inquisitor.
- Shaman is a maybe, more of an innate/CHA based druid. (No Spirit Shaman)
- Nok might want a Knight class, at some point, with a proper Challenge.
What classes would you add if you didn't have to worry about the game or what's possible in the engine? - Kineticist, Psychic, (Joke about fixing Coup De Gras and removing the level limit.)
- - Sub topic: Are there feats we could add? - Some, but a lot of them have to do with things that are hardcoded in the game engine, or it's NWN and something we can't do in the game.
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What is something the Developers want to add be it class or item etc?
SP : I want to add things to break up the repetitive nature of the times between bigger plots and server things. Might be weekly/daily dungeon quests, etc.
Vince: Randomized areas or mobs/modifiers, something like heroic or mythic dungeons in WoW or other MMOs.
- Possible infinite dive with increasing difficulty and rewards.
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Are there any plans to curb or put a halt to the increasing amount of catcalling / sexual harassment RP that has been on the rise?
- We do try to handle it if we can, but we don't see it all the time. Upper staff isn't topside all the time. PLEASE send in reports or let the upper staff know if there is something.
- If you don't see a public response, it's because we've tried to handle it in private to keep any victims' privacy in the front.
- If you are uncomfortable dealing with something, we're happy to be intermediaries or to pass on wishes for no-contact, low-contact, or setting boundaries.
- Biggest concern is player comfort and consent. If people aren't having fun, then it should be dealt with.
- We'll never complain about something being reported.
- From Fury: Haven't ever seen retaliatory action for reporting anything since they joined the server. Nobody's going to get after you for 'How dare you report ME?!'
- From Fire: Example about Lurker. Newer player put in complaints about them. Nobody else had been until we started actually looking/asking after that, and apparently there was a widespread pattern of problematic activity, because it was assumed that they were friends with staff.
- From Fury: We often only hear about people coming back to the server after a problem has left, but it'd be really nice to know about the problem before they drive people off in the first place.
- From Nibbles: Rest assured, none of you are my friends, and I will turn on any of the staff who are being problematic. (Half joking.)
Vince: I have banned my friends from the server
- General note that we don't care what players do in private as long as it's between consenting adults.
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Regarding "characterization based in harmful racial stereotypes" being "strictly prohibited on this server;" what is considered a harmful racial stereotype? One can see the obvious, such as "this group is prone to [insert generally negative behavior]" or "these people do/don't do [insert behavior]," but is it not considered a harmful racial stereotype to have, say, a character from the eastern continent be, say, obsessed with honor to the detriment of all else, or a brogue character that speaks as if their education is severely lacking?
"There have been recent announcements (citing specifically from Nibbles and Lady Bug) addressing inappropriate or disrespectful behavior. For players who weren't present or directly involved, it can be difficult to understand what kinds of actions led to those messages and to be absolutely clear on what to avoid doing. Could you share an example for clarity?"
- N: The short answer is that we don't want people to feel uncomfortable, and especially not over things that are out of their control. When dealing with stereotypes, these are things that have been and continue to be weaponized, so when you come into a video game where it's not 1:1 analog, and those same descriptions are being used, it feels as if there is a targeted use of it without a need or purpose. Similar to the LGBTQ announcement, we'd seen an uptick of people that had opinions that were less-kind to those who might follow 'alternative lifestyles' and we aren't going to stand for it. It's not political, it's just a moral stance that we aren't going to allow hate to be spread. If it's racial, sexual, or gender stereotype that has been used in a harmful way, we don't like that. Ultimately, if people in those spheres feel harmed, then we need to address those. If you want to avoid it, spend a little time thinking about how others might feel. If you don't have experience or knowledge, accept a little bit of responsibility and try to do better the next time. Do your best. We'll get along fine if you try. However, if you stick your heels in and don't see any issue when we do, then there's going to be a conversation about this not being the space for you.
This goes for sexism and several other -isms. Trans people definitely exist in the realms, for example, sex changing magic is pretty regular and normal. Sexuality is pretty fluid and widely accepted. Not all relationships are a nuclear family, polyamory is pretty regular, just like worshipping multiple deities. Some characters might believe in one thing, but it shouldn't be translated OOCly. There are other places to play if you feel that those things don't belong.
- Fury: Kara-Turan characters getting an accent or being described in an insensitive way is the most common. (See swapping Ls and Rs.) - Nico asked "On that note I have a question what guidelines "how to" for races that are known for xenophobia such as drow? Hell even Sun Elves culturally are described as xenophiopic. Is it taken as not canon? I stay away from it by default but I dont know what the rule of thumb is?" - Fantasy racism is fine, it has setting relevance and importance. It's when OOC problems bleed into the game that there are issues. Final Girl pointed out "I'd point out that being like 'their DARK SKIN is emblematic of their EVIL' is SUPER not cool." - This is true. Drow are not evil because they're dark of skin. They're evil because their society has made them incredibly competitive and ruthless, often uncaring of others.
- SP: Substituting RL languages for in game languages is also a really jarring issue. Most things in Maztica as far as the rework have to do with breaking up RL analogues in the lore and making it less problematic.
- Fire: This is why we added in things like the regional languages. People using Tolkien Elven instead of in game Elven, which doesn't really work in FR and it made things incredibly difficult for players that didn't have Erdu memorized, which is othering and not great. (Notes later after Nibbles' bit on isms) The Realms are full of all sorts, and we try to be really welcoming to most all sorts. Remember the paradox of tolerance. TSR tamped it down for the official lore and releases, but Greenwood and the other authors are accepting of different lifestyles being normative. There -is- some degree of having to do heteronormative decorum involving nobility in the Realms, but that's mostly because of heredity and inheritance and that kind of thing.
- Nok: Don't use RL slurs. Don't pull RL stuff into the game. Come up with fresh fantasy things about what people do, not what they are. If you need swear words or insults in the realms that are common, Greenwood has made a list (several of them) in our approved Elmister Presents The Forgotten Realms books. (Book note by Fire) The line is where you start making people feel bad for what they are.
Top note from SwordSaint:
SwordoSainto, Fist of Goose
— 5:35 PM
Exotic is a weapon proficiency, not a way to describe people
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"I've noticed that admins rarely participate in regular gameplay alongside the wider community. Do you think this approach can create a sense of distance between players and the administration?"
- We do play, it just tends to be odd hours. FW is on Evaelyn a lot. Nok plays like 2-8 AM CST often, and doesn't sit around the Square much. Vince does dungeons early pacific time. We do all agree that it's important to keep playing with everyone when we can.
- FW: We set it up a long time ago that we wanted to guarantee that everyone on staff -has- to be a player first. We don't have separation between staff and players because that makes different classes of players, which just doesn't work.
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Is there any plans to look at ECL races in their performance as primary casters? Be it a feat able to be chosen or the likes to help in some manner.
- Not really at the moment.
- The races tend to get an easier time maxing out their casting stat, so we aren't highly interested in allowing them to exceed ECL 0 casters via HD.
- On the whole this has been balanced to even out mostly around level 30, +/- 3% or something.
Follow up from Nico: "I have a question; I am a huge fan of the spells and the effects you all have added (looking at you spell that allows me to make a house to rest in) Are there plans for more spells /changes to effects visuals etc"
SP: No plans, but try to tweak things up when we get the idea for them. The main thing to understand as far as dev goes, for new content, is that it's very rare a system is planned for a long time before going in. Like, I don't really have much of a backlog. It's more that I work in bursts of manic ADHD hyperfocus, so uh, just get me ideas and they may make it in.
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"How do you feel Cormyr & the Dalelands has evolved over the past year?"
- Fury: There are a lot more of you. Though that's mostly been a last month or two thing.
- FW: There have been staff departures that have mixed things up a lot. We've had some trouble tying up plot threads from that, and had difficulty trying to get organized and back on track. We are in a better place, between all of Spacepope's dev work and in terms of getting things sorted. There haven't been too many heavy plots going on, which is unfortunate. (Fury apologizes.)
- SP: We did have a lot of new people, and it's looking hopeful in the future for more plots. <Plug for joining the aDM team here.>
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"What changes are you most proud of?"
- Nok: The wiki. Everyone came together to do a ton of work and put it together and its now the best source of info on any server remaining in NWN. Getting apps on a set schedule has been a game changer, big thanks to Nibbles and Ladybug for helping keep it steady.
- Vince: Hate that we lost all the old changelogs from old forums. Shoutout to all of the editing tools that Pope put together. Very proud and happy with warlock and the fact that it exists and is in a good place and out of the dev document, after 8 years+, it languished because it was going to be kludgy and SP found great ways to do things. Similarly, the swordmage rework.
- SP: Updating all the spell entries for the spells so they're all correct, because everything was off and wrong in little ways. The forum was still wrong in a lot of ways. It's kind of hard to choose, but proud of all the changes and seeing everyone enjoy everything.
- Nibbles: Spell scaling. It just made playing a blaster caster feel good.
- Fury: The nerfing of my own character. Nerfs will continue until gishes are not dominant.
NOTE: Not having to do LETO work is incredible.
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"With the benefit of hindsight, is there anything you would approach differently now?"
Nok - Should have banned a few people a lot faster, been more active on dealing with problems.
Noting some about thanks to Fox, SP, Ray.
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"Where do you feel the server is most constrained right now?"
- Nok: Constraint is in the number of DMs, their energy, and how many plots they can run. There's burnout and RL stuff and imposter syndrome and all sorts.
- FW: In agreement, there's a lot of burnout and other problems that can drive people to not want to run anything, and that's the biggest driver of engagement and story for the server.
- Fury: Nothing kills enthusiasm quite as much as having to get after people for rules breaks or other problems.
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"In what areas do you feel the team's intentions are most often misunderstood?"
- Nerfs, balance changes.
- Bans
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"What part of the server and work still excites the team the most?"
- Nok: Server plots
- Fury: Agree, but also crafting system
- Ray: While pope is doing serious work, Ray is doing things that don't matter and ways for players to blow themselves up. Non-combat related, non-quest, things outside of those realms that will induce some roleplaying. Looking forward to giving some extra fun out to players.
- SP: Super excited about Ray's stuff coming out, it's really impressive.
- Nibbles: A lot of different things. One, hopefully, cooking up a big plot, haven't said much about it. Don't want to tease and not deliver, as well as a dungeon and something that has been requested, a document and how-to on creating custom content on the server. Help with how to make things in Blender, how to import and how to do exporting, robes, cloaks, et cetera. (Nibbles hates cloaks. USE POPE'S PLUGINS.)
- Vince: Mostly enjoyed making dungeons. Wanting to get back to making more dungeons as time permits. (Noted working on a history post for the server, how we got where we are, 20 years along the server's path, what we learned, et cetera.)
- FW: What the players are trying to do with getting stuff going with Yulash especially. It was a pet project to expand into Cormanthor and Yulash. It's great seeing the Banite group, Furies group, mercenaries, everyone trying to get involved.
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What do you think could help encourage more player-run events? As an example as I came from PoTM, the majority of events are driven by players rather than DMs. ^^
- Nok: Think about what people are going to do RL. Explore together, do competitions, go visit a town as a mercantile company to get better deals on goods, start a cult.
- Fury: The tools being added, for example, the camping gear. Placeables and other things (credit to Ray.)
- Vince: It can help to write a background, even if its basic or your character is a local or whatever.
- SP: There's also mentor/student RP, teaching classes, doing studies on various creatures or places. EX inventors forum that Rubi started. The fighting pit. The DMs can't do much to lead player events, it has to come from the players.
- Nibbles: You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it run an event.
- FW: It's not just being open to conflict, but the other problem is that not everyone wants that conflict. There's inherent imbalances and it tends to make a lot of PvP unfun. So a lot of player events in the form like other servers (PotM, Arelith), where PvP is core, we can't really do that much.
Red Mage mentioned: "I really liked Runai's lectures and even the old plots Cherrycoke ran as a DM. I still talk about the gnomish "captives" in highmoon making clockwork stuff. It's been pretty pivotal to my gnomes to explain their innate desire of freedom and aversion to any sort "captivity(or darker)"."
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Are there any plans for large-scale server events, like wars or other sorts of incursions that may shift what enemies populate the overworld, or open up new dungeons and quests?
Also, are there any plans for expansion to the overworld map, or is it considered to be feature complete at this time?
- Nok: Most certainly adding in a few areas here and there, and doing a lot of server plots. Lot of stuff in the pipe, like Factions of Old (perhaps in two parts.) Probably not going to be doing Cormyr-based big plots for a while.
- Fury/FW: Probably going to expand Evereska more and flesh it out. Depending on how Unmartyred goes, and builder participation, we might add Teshendale or Teshwave, which might add in a unique version of server canon depending on how the plot turns out. There are also spells or some other things that might be added or changed depending on how the plot goes. MAYBE playable race expansion. Perhaps another server plot after Unmartyed that centers around a dungeon that needs to be cleaned out.
- Vince: Expanding the desert and connecting to Evereska is a definite potential. Probably not doing sweeping changes to overland mobs, though we will update or add more dungeons. Dungeons are a lot of work, so probably not going to clean them out or remove them.
Nibbles: A plan for Semberdale and Yulash bigger plot/events.
Honorable note: Edge and others working on other dungeons out in the dales and perhaps Misty might add more things out in the world.
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What aspect of the server does upper staff think has the most room for improvement, and what are some ideas to do so?
- Nok: Being decisive and acting more quickly. Think that just has to come with practice.
- Nibbles: Communication is a skill that needs active practice. Should always be worth practicing and talking between staff and players pretty much all the time.
- SP: Rebalancing and doing a pass-over of old content, especially old dungeons that don't feel worth running. That's the current big project right now.
- Fury: A lot of older content and things need brought up to current standards. Note that Misty is going through ALL the loot list. Also wanted to add in a lot of inter-group communication between various factions in Unmartyred and whatnot.
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Each DMs/ Devs fav NPC or Dungeon Boss?
- Fury: Asylum, Boss: Faeriophax, (honorable mention to the former doctor), Formerly Manynests (May still be if not Milil.) Lykor. Honorable mentions Erixitl *spelling may be wrong*, and The Vagabond King. Plot: The Thirteenth Heart, Coinflip
- Nok: Tower of Ruin, end boss on Well of Dragons, NPC? Hard question. Brorrin (Honorable mention to the Multicolored Knight.)
- Vince: Tower of Ruin (original story involved a creature stealing locks of hair), favorite boss: Hags(3), NPC: Dance of Pales' Bisby
- Nibbles: Asylum (references, details) but planned dungeon randomizer, Dungeon NPC: Asbaron, NPC: Puck
- FW: NPC: Tiddlfaranian, Liesel Hawkfeather (Silvery killed the original, Liesel's uncle Torvath.), Claudiane the Empress of Winter, Boss: Umbra Obscura, Event NPCs: A lot of the nobles that Blackheart and Ladybug made for the various noble events. Dungeon: Tilverton Ruins. Favorite plot: HWC, Coinflip. Honorable Mention: Rykka quest, refugees in the east district of Arabel.
- SP: Hard to pick something.
These are some general notes about the Ask Us Anything we did on February 1, 2026. These notes are NOT word for word. This is a rough transcription that I put together while we actively answered things. I will apologize for the shitty formatting:
How do NPCs/the setting treat Alyrae with the pineapples?
- Not many have actually ever reacted.
- Silly antics get a giggle but often get shadowed over for more serious responses.
(Side tangent that we do try to keep a separation between silly parts of the setting and serious, with suspension of disbelief being core to where that distinction should be. Killing Varyxia 5x a week = no bueno. Saying you killed 'a dragon' more or less fine.)
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Has it been hard to tweak/balancing or changing feats or classes knowing how sometimes the players can react?
- We always consider player feedback and reactions in pretty much all balance changes, because it's sometimes not worth the arguments or fighting that might come afterwards after a particular buff or nerf.
- Example given about the XP system. Daily ticks had players leave because they thought levelling was going to slow down.
- A hard note was given that no balance changes are permanent, we change things if they don't work.
- Players originally were upset about fairy ticks because they felt like event XP was getting devalued.
- Recap of the history of Swordmage and that it was entirely super overtuned on going into the server, people upset with the nerf bat. SM used to be able to take on level 15 content at sub-level-7.
- Buffing is a lot easier than nerfing, because nerfing means a lot of relevels across the entire playerbase every single time.
- - sub note: Fury demands to be called Doctor for a week after his dissertation is done.
- Note from Pope: Is the balance team in agreement on things? Answer: Almost never. We argue all the time about like every single detail.
- - sub note: No automated relevels because scripts break things, characters have troubles and problems that really, really need a DM there to handle if there's a problem.
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Is there anything in the works that would let players spend their marks? Aside from houses, casters have epic spells, but that's limited. Martials don't really have anything.
- 'The gold spell' potentially being added, you can spend money and do damage.
- Martial epic feat project - This is difficult from trying to not power creep the server more, but we're looking into an epic spell alternative type of system, but it's hard to balance without just adding even more damage across the board. Maneuvers like in the Epic Level Handbook. Will not cost a feat slot, but will cost MM and research time.
- Adding gold sinks is difficult since the economy is one-sided in that you can farm it infinitely.
-'Build a pet?' system suggested, gold sink to maybe be able to customize a little baby summon creature.
- Potential crafting system in the future, but again, needs a lot of mechanical consideration and balance. This is a very long term project for the future. Fury has a minor idea for some mundane ish craftables for things like different elemental grenades or buff items, but doesn't want to completely ruin scrolls.
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Are we adding Alchemist or any other PRCs soon?
- Vince has maybe an idea for alchemist, but it's going to need a crapton of planning and balance work, and we'd basically be making it maybe like an INT based warlock in functionality and play.
- SP works in short bursts of inspiration, doesn't have any plans at the moment.
- Fury has an idea for a CON-based class.
- Vince also wants to make Inquisitor.
- Shaman is a maybe, more of an innate/CHA based druid. (No Spirit Shaman)
- Nok might want a Knight class, at some point, with a proper Challenge.
What classes would you add if you didn't have to worry about the game or what's possible in the engine? - Kineticist, Psychic, (Joke about fixing Coup De Gras and removing the level limit.)
- - Sub topic: Are there feats we could add? - Some, but a lot of them have to do with things that are hardcoded in the game engine, or it's NWN and something we can't do in the game.
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What is something the Developers want to add be it class or item etc?
SP : I want to add things to break up the repetitive nature of the times between bigger plots and server things. Might be weekly/daily dungeon quests, etc.
Vince: Randomized areas or mobs/modifiers, something like heroic or mythic dungeons in WoW or other MMOs.
- Possible infinite dive with increasing difficulty and rewards.
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Are there any plans to curb or put a halt to the increasing amount of catcalling / sexual harassment RP that has been on the rise?
- We do try to handle it if we can, but we don't see it all the time. Upper staff isn't topside all the time. PLEASE send in reports or let the upper staff know if there is something.
- If you don't see a public response, it's because we've tried to handle it in private to keep any victims' privacy in the front.
- If you are uncomfortable dealing with something, we're happy to be intermediaries or to pass on wishes for no-contact, low-contact, or setting boundaries.
- Biggest concern is player comfort and consent. If people aren't having fun, then it should be dealt with.
- We'll never complain about something being reported.
- From Fury: Haven't ever seen retaliatory action for reporting anything since they joined the server. Nobody's going to get after you for 'How dare you report ME?!'
- From Fire: Example about Lurker. Newer player put in complaints about them. Nobody else had been until we started actually looking/asking after that, and apparently there was a widespread pattern of problematic activity, because it was assumed that they were friends with staff.
- From Fury: We often only hear about people coming back to the server after a problem has left, but it'd be really nice to know about the problem before they drive people off in the first place.
- From Nibbles: Rest assured, none of you are my friends, and I will turn on any of the staff who are being problematic. (Half joking.)
Vince: I have banned my friends from the server
- General note that we don't care what players do in private as long as it's between consenting adults.
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Regarding "characterization based in harmful racial stereotypes" being "strictly prohibited on this server;" what is considered a harmful racial stereotype? One can see the obvious, such as "this group is prone to [insert generally negative behavior]" or "these people do/don't do [insert behavior]," but is it not considered a harmful racial stereotype to have, say, a character from the eastern continent be, say, obsessed with honor to the detriment of all else, or a brogue character that speaks as if their education is severely lacking?
"There have been recent announcements (citing specifically from Nibbles and Lady Bug) addressing inappropriate or disrespectful behavior. For players who weren't present or directly involved, it can be difficult to understand what kinds of actions led to those messages and to be absolutely clear on what to avoid doing. Could you share an example for clarity?"
- N: The short answer is that we don't want people to feel uncomfortable, and especially not over things that are out of their control. When dealing with stereotypes, these are things that have been and continue to be weaponized, so when you come into a video game where it's not 1:1 analog, and those same descriptions are being used, it feels as if there is a targeted use of it without a need or purpose. Similar to the LGBTQ announcement, we'd seen an uptick of people that had opinions that were less-kind to those who might follow 'alternative lifestyles' and we aren't going to stand for it. It's not political, it's just a moral stance that we aren't going to allow hate to be spread. If it's racial, sexual, or gender stereotype that has been used in a harmful way, we don't like that. Ultimately, if people in those spheres feel harmed, then we need to address those. If you want to avoid it, spend a little time thinking about how others might feel. If you don't have experience or knowledge, accept a little bit of responsibility and try to do better the next time. Do your best. We'll get along fine if you try. However, if you stick your heels in and don't see any issue when we do, then there's going to be a conversation about this not being the space for you.
This goes for sexism and several other -isms. Trans people definitely exist in the realms, for example, sex changing magic is pretty regular and normal. Sexuality is pretty fluid and widely accepted. Not all relationships are a nuclear family, polyamory is pretty regular, just like worshipping multiple deities. Some characters might believe in one thing, but it shouldn't be translated OOCly. There are other places to play if you feel that those things don't belong.
- Fury: Kara-Turan characters getting an accent or being described in an insensitive way is the most common. (See swapping Ls and Rs.) - Nico asked "On that note I have a question what guidelines "how to" for races that are known for xenophobia such as drow? Hell even Sun Elves culturally are described as xenophiopic. Is it taken as not canon? I stay away from it by default but I dont know what the rule of thumb is?" - Fantasy racism is fine, it has setting relevance and importance. It's when OOC problems bleed into the game that there are issues. Final Girl pointed out "I'd point out that being like 'their DARK SKIN is emblematic of their EVIL' is SUPER not cool." - This is true. Drow are not evil because they're dark of skin. They're evil because their society has made them incredibly competitive and ruthless, often uncaring of others.
- SP: Substituting RL languages for in game languages is also a really jarring issue. Most things in Maztica as far as the rework have to do with breaking up RL analogues in the lore and making it less problematic.
- Fire: This is why we added in things like the regional languages. People using Tolkien Elven instead of in game Elven, which doesn't really work in FR and it made things incredibly difficult for players that didn't have Erdu memorized, which is othering and not great. (Notes later after Nibbles' bit on isms) The Realms are full of all sorts, and we try to be really welcoming to most all sorts. Remember the paradox of tolerance. TSR tamped it down for the official lore and releases, but Greenwood and the other authors are accepting of different lifestyles being normative. There -is- some degree of having to do heteronormative decorum involving nobility in the Realms, but that's mostly because of heredity and inheritance and that kind of thing.
- Nok: Don't use RL slurs. Don't pull RL stuff into the game. Come up with fresh fantasy things about what people do, not what they are. If you need swear words or insults in the realms that are common, Greenwood has made a list (several of them) in our approved Elmister Presents The Forgotten Realms books. (Book note by Fire) The line is where you start making people feel bad for what they are.
Top note from SwordSaint:
SwordoSainto, Fist of Goose
— 5:35 PM
Exotic is a weapon proficiency, not a way to describe people
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"I've noticed that admins rarely participate in regular gameplay alongside the wider community. Do you think this approach can create a sense of distance between players and the administration?"
- We do play, it just tends to be odd hours. FW is on Evaelyn a lot. Nok plays like 2-8 AM CST often, and doesn't sit around the Square much. Vince does dungeons early pacific time. We do all agree that it's important to keep playing with everyone when we can.
- FW: We set it up a long time ago that we wanted to guarantee that everyone on staff -has- to be a player first. We don't have separation between staff and players because that makes different classes of players, which just doesn't work.
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Is there any plans to look at ECL races in their performance as primary casters? Be it a feat able to be chosen or the likes to help in some manner.
- Not really at the moment.
- The races tend to get an easier time maxing out their casting stat, so we aren't highly interested in allowing them to exceed ECL 0 casters via HD.
- On the whole this has been balanced to even out mostly around level 30, +/- 3% or something.
Follow up from Nico: "I have a question; I am a huge fan of the spells and the effects you all have added (looking at you spell that allows me to make a house to rest in) Are there plans for more spells /changes to effects visuals etc"
SP: No plans, but try to tweak things up when we get the idea for them. The main thing to understand as far as dev goes, for new content, is that it's very rare a system is planned for a long time before going in. Like, I don't really have much of a backlog. It's more that I work in bursts of manic ADHD hyperfocus, so uh, just get me ideas and they may make it in.
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"How do you feel Cormyr & the Dalelands has evolved over the past year?"
- Fury: There are a lot more of you. Though that's mostly been a last month or two thing.
- FW: There have been staff departures that have mixed things up a lot. We've had some trouble tying up plot threads from that, and had difficulty trying to get organized and back on track. We are in a better place, between all of Spacepope's dev work and in terms of getting things sorted. There haven't been too many heavy plots going on, which is unfortunate. (Fury apologizes.)
- SP: We did have a lot of new people, and it's looking hopeful in the future for more plots. <Plug for joining the aDM team here.>
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"What changes are you most proud of?"
- Nok: The wiki. Everyone came together to do a ton of work and put it together and its now the best source of info on any server remaining in NWN. Getting apps on a set schedule has been a game changer, big thanks to Nibbles and Ladybug for helping keep it steady.
- Vince: Hate that we lost all the old changelogs from old forums. Shoutout to all of the editing tools that Pope put together. Very proud and happy with warlock and the fact that it exists and is in a good place and out of the dev document, after 8 years+, it languished because it was going to be kludgy and SP found great ways to do things. Similarly, the swordmage rework.
- SP: Updating all the spell entries for the spells so they're all correct, because everything was off and wrong in little ways. The forum was still wrong in a lot of ways. It's kind of hard to choose, but proud of all the changes and seeing everyone enjoy everything.
- Nibbles: Spell scaling. It just made playing a blaster caster feel good.
- Fury: The nerfing of my own character. Nerfs will continue until gishes are not dominant.
NOTE: Not having to do LETO work is incredible.
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"With the benefit of hindsight, is there anything you would approach differently now?"
Nok - Should have banned a few people a lot faster, been more active on dealing with problems.
Noting some about thanks to Fox, SP, Ray.
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"Where do you feel the server is most constrained right now?"
- Nok: Constraint is in the number of DMs, their energy, and how many plots they can run. There's burnout and RL stuff and imposter syndrome and all sorts.
- FW: In agreement, there's a lot of burnout and other problems that can drive people to not want to run anything, and that's the biggest driver of engagement and story for the server.
- Fury: Nothing kills enthusiasm quite as much as having to get after people for rules breaks or other problems.
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"In what areas do you feel the team's intentions are most often misunderstood?"
- Nerfs, balance changes.
- Bans
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"What part of the server and work still excites the team the most?"
- Nok: Server plots
- Fury: Agree, but also crafting system
- Ray: While pope is doing serious work, Ray is doing things that don't matter and ways for players to blow themselves up. Non-combat related, non-quest, things outside of those realms that will induce some roleplaying. Looking forward to giving some extra fun out to players.
- SP: Super excited about Ray's stuff coming out, it's really impressive.
- Nibbles: A lot of different things. One, hopefully, cooking up a big plot, haven't said much about it. Don't want to tease and not deliver, as well as a dungeon and something that has been requested, a document and how-to on creating custom content on the server. Help with how to make things in Blender, how to import and how to do exporting, robes, cloaks, et cetera. (Nibbles hates cloaks. USE POPE'S PLUGINS.)
- Vince: Mostly enjoyed making dungeons. Wanting to get back to making more dungeons as time permits. (Noted working on a history post for the server, how we got where we are, 20 years along the server's path, what we learned, et cetera.)
- FW: What the players are trying to do with getting stuff going with Yulash especially. It was a pet project to expand into Cormanthor and Yulash. It's great seeing the Banite group, Furies group, mercenaries, everyone trying to get involved.
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What do you think could help encourage more player-run events? As an example as I came from PoTM, the majority of events are driven by players rather than DMs. ^^
- Nok: Think about what people are going to do RL. Explore together, do competitions, go visit a town as a mercantile company to get better deals on goods, start a cult.
- Fury: The tools being added, for example, the camping gear. Placeables and other things (credit to Ray.)
- Vince: It can help to write a background, even if its basic or your character is a local or whatever.
- SP: There's also mentor/student RP, teaching classes, doing studies on various creatures or places. EX inventors forum that Rubi started. The fighting pit. The DMs can't do much to lead player events, it has to come from the players.
- Nibbles: You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it run an event.
- FW: It's not just being open to conflict, but the other problem is that not everyone wants that conflict. There's inherent imbalances and it tends to make a lot of PvP unfun. So a lot of player events in the form like other servers (PotM, Arelith), where PvP is core, we can't really do that much.
Red Mage mentioned: "I really liked Runai's lectures and even the old plots Cherrycoke ran as a DM. I still talk about the gnomish "captives" in highmoon making clockwork stuff. It's been pretty pivotal to my gnomes to explain their innate desire of freedom and aversion to any sort "captivity(or darker)"."
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Are there any plans for large-scale server events, like wars or other sorts of incursions that may shift what enemies populate the overworld, or open up new dungeons and quests?
Also, are there any plans for expansion to the overworld map, or is it considered to be feature complete at this time?
- Nok: Most certainly adding in a few areas here and there, and doing a lot of server plots. Lot of stuff in the pipe, like Factions of Old (perhaps in two parts.) Probably not going to be doing Cormyr-based big plots for a while.
- Fury/FW: Probably going to expand Evereska more and flesh it out. Depending on how Unmartyred goes, and builder participation, we might add Teshendale or Teshwave, which might add in a unique version of server canon depending on how the plot turns out. There are also spells or some other things that might be added or changed depending on how the plot goes. MAYBE playable race expansion. Perhaps another server plot after Unmartyed that centers around a dungeon that needs to be cleaned out.
- Vince: Expanding the desert and connecting to Evereska is a definite potential. Probably not doing sweeping changes to overland mobs, though we will update or add more dungeons. Dungeons are a lot of work, so probably not going to clean them out or remove them.
Nibbles: A plan for Semberdale and Yulash bigger plot/events.
Honorable note: Edge and others working on other dungeons out in the dales and perhaps Misty might add more things out in the world.
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What aspect of the server does upper staff think has the most room for improvement, and what are some ideas to do so?
- Nok: Being decisive and acting more quickly. Think that just has to come with practice.
- Nibbles: Communication is a skill that needs active practice. Should always be worth practicing and talking between staff and players pretty much all the time.
- SP: Rebalancing and doing a pass-over of old content, especially old dungeons that don't feel worth running. That's the current big project right now.
- Fury: A lot of older content and things need brought up to current standards. Note that Misty is going through ALL the loot list. Also wanted to add in a lot of inter-group communication between various factions in Unmartyred and whatnot.
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Each DMs/ Devs fav NPC or Dungeon Boss?
- Fury: Asylum, Boss: Faeriophax, (honorable mention to the former doctor), Formerly Manynests (May still be if not Milil.) Lykor. Honorable mentions Erixitl *spelling may be wrong*, and The Vagabond King. Plot: The Thirteenth Heart, Coinflip
- Nok: Tower of Ruin, end boss on Well of Dragons, NPC? Hard question. Brorrin (Honorable mention to the Multicolored Knight.)
- Vince: Tower of Ruin (original story involved a creature stealing locks of hair), favorite boss: Hags(3), NPC: Dance of Pales' Bisby
- Nibbles: Asylum (references, details) but planned dungeon randomizer, Dungeon NPC: Asbaron, NPC: Puck
- FW: NPC: Tiddlfaranian, Liesel Hawkfeather (Silvery killed the original, Liesel's uncle Torvath.), Claudiane the Empress of Winter, Boss: Umbra Obscura, Event NPCs: A lot of the nobles that Blackheart and Ladybug made for the various noble events. Dungeon: Tilverton Ruins. Favorite plot: HWC, Coinflip. Honorable Mention: Rykka quest, refugees in the east district of Arabel.
- SP: Hard to pick something.
#3
General Discussion / Some Notes on My Time As An Admin
Sep 12, 2025, 06:28 PM
This post has been a long time coming.
I'm writing this more as a journal post than an official Admin post, because it's not a combined message of all of the admins or upper staff. Most of them don't know what I'm writing and might not share any opinions or outlooks on any part of this post.
I'd like to propose this as a review of my time as an Admin on CD. Or, if you'd prefer, my time as a DM, sDM, and then Admin, because I've been here a long time.
Twelve years, in fact, and 7 of them as a DM in some form or other. I started on CD in November of 2013. My father passed away in April of 2014. I remember this, clearly, because it sucked and it was more or less a turning point in my life and my memory gets crappy for about 2 years afterwards because I was dealing mostly with paperwork involving the estate and living alone back in my childhood home and taking care of the dogs. I became an aDM around January of 2018, not too long after I finally finished the probate and estate stuff. I got made DM around 4/15/2018, after a few small plots and Arya's help teaching me the client, along with Dismus, Bella, Lady, et al.
I got made sDM in late 2019, around August. The reason I'm mentioning this here is that my memory is bad and I had to actually go look things up because it's easy for me to lose track of dates and get my years wrong. Some of this post may be out of synch, but that's more because I am human and I have a whole host of faults more than any intentional deception. I became admin in January/February of 2023, after Fox left.
Though I have run a number of plots in the past, I've been burned out on running more and fighting against imposter syndrome every time I've tried for the past several months, on top of just being kept busy by both real life, sDM/admin things, and just general mental hangups. This is something that I need to fix and get over, and probably the sooner the better, because it doesn't do to just sit around and not pull my weight. I have a plan in my head and a general writeup for a fey based plot, as well as some ideas written up for a second round of The Factions of Old, which is my fiend plotline. Some of you might remember this. A lot of you don't, because I haven't run all that many full, public plots since the server went over to Enhanced Edition. That is a shame on my part and I would like to apologize mostly to my fellow DMs that I haven't been doing as much as I should.
Now that the present has been addressed, I'd like to jump back to the past a ways and write about how I started out. My first plot was a tale of vengeance and redemption. I had a sorcerer character who had fallen in love with an Eilistraeean half-drow woman in a little village out in the Semberdale. The villagers, being distrustful of Drow, claimed she was a witch. When that didn't chase her off, they killed her. This awoke terrible power in the sorcerer, who basically burned the entire place down. The inspiration was the song Wildfire by Sonata Arctica. Many of my plots are based around inspiration from music, and this was the first. I had built a mirrored area where one side was perfectly normal and idyllic. The other side, utter ruin and destruction. My players would investigate one half until they found something out of place, and the illusion would break to show them the real world. The plot ended with the party killing the sorcerer. They found him in a tomb with his beloved, and they actually tried to raise/resurrect both. The sorcerer was beyond caring and refused to come back, though the Eilistraeean woman did. I left off a thread of her walking away from the village, to try to piece back together her life, and never followed up on it. This seems to have been a pattern with a lot of my projects both in-game and out of game.
A lot of my early time on the server was marred by my own actions and activities. I knew how to break the game, I'd been playing it just about every single day since 2002. I saw people that were so far ahead of me and my characters and getting away with things that I thought it'd be perfectly fine to do the same. A bit of item muling here, a bit of corner-sneaking there, who was it harming? Eventually this got me into trouble to where I lost every single item on every single character, and had multiple DMs put me on their shit lists, more or less. A lot of people thought that I was a total ass both in game and out, which is entirely fair. I've never been particularly great at reading people, though I'd like to think that as the years pass, things have gotten a bit better.
There was a lot of concerns about actually joining staff. Several of the DMs back then thought that I'd only DM stuff for 2-4 different players, and nobody else, and use the position to bolster my own characters into taking the leading role in All The Plots. Thankfully, I think I can say that hasn't happened overly much. I don't even look at the announced quests section of the forums anymore because I don't want to take spots from people who might have earned or wanted them more. Sign ups are kept to plots with direct invitations or open invitations, if that. I will admit to taking Kimbell's role a bit too seriously/far, but I've also tried rather hard not to try to put undue influence on her by my being a DM - That is, I don't run plots for the Red Wizards, because I don't want there to be favoritism considered towards the faction that my own character is a part of.
Arya was kind enough to take me under her wing and show me the ropes to DMing. She got me through my first few plots and I had a lot of fun running them. During that summer, most of the DM staff were busy with real life things and it let me run a lot of different events with a lot of different people, such as the plot I ran for a party that was originally meant for Calabask's character just after he got banned. There were other events right around when Swordmage was introduced, and a lot of fun stories and anecdotes that live in my head regularly. As I'm writing this, I'm realizing just how little I've actually ended up doing and that I should try a lot harder to actually get back into active plotting, even if it's going to be hard to manage with other obligations. Running plots is fun. Telling stories is fun. Getting to see characters flourish is a core part of D\&D, if not the core part of the game, and I'm realizing that I don't get to see it nearly as much as I used to while sitting behind a metaphorical desk dealing with paperwork, approvals, and other decisions that need making and implementing.
When I became an sDM, I had a great amount of fun helping the other apprentice dungeon masters learn the tools. I enjoy teaching, I used to do so at Blue Rock Elementary in New York. The biggest subject was poetry and writing. I've either taught or helped teach almost all active staff at some point with some part of their orientation or other, or helped supervise their earlier events, or helped refine their processes through quest approvals. This hasn't been the case nearly as much the past two years, but I try to help when the other sDMs need it or aren't available. They've all been an incredible help. All of the staff has. We could not keep this community going without volunteers, both players and aDMs/DMs/sDMs. Those of you that keep things active, drive roleplay, drum up interest, and push for more plots and events? You're what keeps CD what it is, what it has been, and what it will be. This place would be a graveyard without everyone that puts their hours in to make interesting tidbits for others to follow.
However, all of that pushing and imagination and driving roleplay takes a lot of time and energy and devotion. We're all humans, and many of us with various neurodivergent quirks that make regular socialization hard. Note: This is NOT a condemnation or calling anyone out. We're a bunch of nerdy people playing a game of math rocks and imagination. It's not a far stretch to realize that a lot of us have trouble with social cues. Text is an imperfect medium. We get on each other's nerves once in a while. We make mistakes, miscommunications, missteps, and often pass one another like ships in the night. Back then, and now, too, I'm sure that a lot of people will find me a brash jackass who doesn't take anyone else into consideration about anything. This isn't looking for empathy, sympathy, agreement or disagreement. It's simply a fact of life. My old orchestra teacher used to say that you had 10% of people who hated you, 10% of people who loved you, and 80% of people who couldn't give two shits. Over the years we've had tens of thousands of cases of players not getting along for various reasons. People come and go from the community pretty regularly, for both serious and mundane reasons.
Many of those reasons have to do with how the community is run, from the top, and who is allowed to have a say in various administrative bureaucracy-type decisions. Because we're all volunteers, and players, we (I say this as the royal 'we', not any admin or sDM or DM or anyone in particular) fuck up. All the time. We make decisions based on half-truths and information that we don't fully understand, or with things that are intentionally misleading. We make decisions with biases based on our individual histories and interactions with people. We make decisions based on hearsay. We make decisions based on rumors, or feelings, or whether or not we've had enough vitamin D that day.
That rambling has led to what I would think of as my own worst times as a DM in the past few years. I'd like to dive into them, because there's two that stick out. 'The Underdark Situation', and the leaving of Melody/Blackheart. I'll cover them both in time here, but to start with, I'll cover TUS because it's more relevant to my becoming an admin on the server. Back in the start of 2023, we had a couple of players get in trouble for breaking the mature content rules. (Notably, the 'rule 10' that we used to have.) At the time, the admins had asked me as an sDM to look into it, because my 'other job' is running a learning and discussion group for kink and alternative lifestyle people. Think a library of experiences and how-to guides on relationships, negotiation, how to tell your parents/friends that you're not heteronormative, that kind of thing. We're up to ~600,000 people after several rounds of user purges for inactive accounts. Mind, that's not important except to say that I've had experience in moderating content that gives 'normal' people the squicks on the regular. So it wasn't any huge surprise that the admins threw the information to me, I looked it over, and gave an 'expert' opinion that the players in question had more or less gotten the okay from each other and everyone involved, and that it was 'technically' within the rules-as-written, or RAW, at the time. My recommendation at the time was to fix the rules, slap the players on the wrist, and move on, since they weren't broadcasting their activities or forcing it on anyone unwilling. Since nobody was directly being harmed, I figured that should have been the end of it. However, privacy was still violated and there were hard feelings abound as well as some departures from the server.
Fast forward 2-3 months and something similar happens, again. The activity that we told the aforementioned players not to do was repeated. However, it was in the Blue Draykn's old build, which had the 'leaky' doors. How did we find out about it? An anonymous player, who left the discord right after, stood around for 40+ minutes listening in and then posted screenshots publicly into the General channel. This was an IMMENSE breach of not just privacy, but also triggered/disturbed a large number of players, both because of the content and the fact that it was posted in public with no spoiler tags, no warning, and nothing to prepare them. So on one hand we had a rules break, which we had already talked to the players about, and on the other, a massive breach of privacy and what seemed like a targeted, carefully crafted incident. Notably, the first incident was followed by a voice chat in which the players were told that the roleplay was problematic and in no uncertain terms not allowed on the server. However, because it was combined with the notice of breach of privacy, I personally think that the message was either not communicated directly enough or that it wasn't understood well enough. This is why I will no longer ever be giving admin rulings or the like in voice, only in text medium. Either way, the admin team (with me still being freshly added, having never been an admin for a NWN server before) was put into a hell of a bind with half of the playerbase calling for a straight ban due to conduct/content, and the other half saying the breach of privacy was the bigger issue.
The admin team at the time decided to try to appease both groups, and this was my own personal fuckup. The instigating player in question was removed from the DM staff, and the others involved told in no uncertain terms (in text that time) that the problematic activity was to never happen again on the server, including denying an application of theirs to a character that could have tangentially been connected to the mere appearance of breaking rule 10. We also set rapidly to searching out all areas on the server with 'leaks' and trying to fix them up as best we could, which is why I spent 30 hours rebuilding the Blue Draykn from the ground up. Half measures rarely ever work, and we still lost yet even more players to our apparent inaction, or not harsh enough punishment. In hindsight, we probably should have just issued a ban from the very first and cut off the hydra's head. However, that doesn't exactly change history, does it? I still don't really know who made the post, as it was likely a burner account and I couldn't find much about the character they were on in game, either. The server still hasn't *really* recovered from that, either. We've simply moved on, which has its own benefits and drawbacks. We lost a good fifth of the DM team either because of the whole mess, or shortly after with it being a contributing factor. But we've also gained more volunteers since then, and the server has moved on with clearer, better (in my opinion) written rules, better policies for dealing with those situations, and lessons learned.
Since then, there have been rumors flying around that Fox was somehow doing a bunch of silly things behind the scenes during this period using her tech know-how to harm the server. (Anyone remember that we had a spam of like 2,000+ forum posts of goatse? So many that the automated delete function couldn't handle them all?) To this, I can unequivocally say, no. None of that is true. Fox is a rather wonderful person from every experience I've ever had with her. She left for her own reasons, which I cannot in good conscience share, and I ask none of you to pester her about it because its her own business and she'll tell you if she wants to. She also helped us, immensely, with getting the server in a place where it could continue without her. Someone would never do that only to turn around and start attacking players. I'd also like to take this moment to thank Spacepope and Raysiel for stepping in and helping out with dev work. Without them, we'd be nowhere near as well set as we are now. We'd have far less progress and be less of a server without them and all the other volunteers.
The first goal of any community tends to be whatever it was designed to do. In our case, that means roleplay and fun. Our first goal is always to keep the roleplay going and the story working together in a way that everyone can find some facet that they enjoy. The second tends to be to either retain or grow a group population. Considering that Neverwinter Nights as a game is over 20 years old, this has mostly shifted towards retention more than recruitment. A lot of our decisions and direction for the server has to be geared towards making the largest number of players happy enough to keep playing in order to keep the roleplay going and the story progressing forward. A lot of the time, this works just fine. It means that we add features that player request. We run stories that players find fun. We streamline processes and get rid of inefficiencies where we can, while trying to keep everything more or less consistent. However, this also comes back to bite us in the ass a lot of the time. It makes us gun-shy of actually taking big steps. We have to worry, constantly, about how a person leaving is going to drag their friends along and how its going to affect the ongoing story. Very rarely does anyone step out of the server in a vacuum. They take with them their characters, their ongoing plots, the stories untold, their friendships and history. The above incident had enough players leave that we'll likely never fully recover, because a lot of what was lost just can't be replaced. Some of it shouldn't be. Which leads me into the other series of issues that we've faced recently.
That being the lead-up into the server plot 'ATAE', and a number of back-end issues that most of you haven't heard of or had any experience with. To fully explain what happened and why, there needs to be a bit of explaining as to the DM team and how things work on the back end. Essentially, we are a paperwork machine. Why is this? Because people leave. Whether they mean to or not, they take a lot of information with them when they go, whether it's by choice or because real life has its demands. We have a simple rule and setup to get around this. Every DM has their own thread in the "DM Chronicles \& Notes" section of the forums which most players don't have access to see. Every DM MUST log their events, who was in them, how long they took, and a summary of what went on with those events. This is so that anyone that comes afterwards can at least get a general idea of what happened in your plot and where things were headed. We also have a set of instructions and rules to get various parts of your plot approved of - Notably, anything that's going to have a significant effect and impact on the server needs to be approved by the admins. This means anything that kills off a noble NPC, anything that destroys a town, countries going to war. The stuff that would have a paragraph in a source book also gets a nod from the upper staff. This is so that we can coordinate server changes, balance what DMs want to do, and who gets to do what with which NPC. It wouldn't do to have Vangerdahaast playing cards with the castle hounds at the same time he's saving the world from a far realm threat. (Or maybe it would, that might be a fun plot. Thanks, brain.)
When we approve big, server-level plots, there's a lot that goes into them. We have to account for all the different things players might like to do. We have to keep in communication so that we know what's on the table and what endings are possible. DMs can't, of course, prepare for any and every little possibility. It takes time and effort to create areas, NPCs, plotlines, and work everything together to where consequence and action meets in a way that is satisfactory for a good yarn. Anyone can say what they will about any others, but I will say that the 'HWC' plot was very well organized and had a lot of player agency. A lot of DMs have also run other similar events that have had a lot of different ways they could have gone. The various 'Runelord' plots come to mind, as well as a number of others that I don't want to get into because I don't want DMs to feel left out if they're reading this. I do NOT want anyone thinking that this journaling of my thoughts is to rag on anyone in particular or insult their abilities as a storywriter. I did, however, want to explain some about the problems that evolved surrounding server plots, Melody, and why they left the team and server. They are/were a good storyteller and did a good job crafting some of these intricate, high-intensity plots with all their different possibilities.
The problems that led to their leaving were a sort of amalgamation of a lot of different facets. They might tell you different than I am here, and I'm certain they likely will at some point, as I know that they have lurking accounts both in the Discord and on the forums. These are my internal thoughts and impressions, and I am no psychic or illithid to be able to pull someone else's impressions out of them. Somewhere between HWC and ATAE, I believe, they started feeling like (Or it accelerated) they were being persecuted by the rest of the staff for a number of reasons, punished and argued against and unappreciated for all of their efforts to craft good stories. From the position of upper staff, I can espouse that some of the frustrations were mutual, if from different causes and different results. We try to stick to treating everyone the same. If you can apply for a character on CD, anyone else can apply for that character. If you can have your character do something on CD, anyone else's character should be able to do the same. If you can get a reward, everyone else should be able to get that reward as well. Seems simple enough, right? It's harder in practice than reality sometimes, because life is never particularly simple. People aren't simple. People have different levels of activity, different opinions of their own efforts, and different opinions of what's fair or not.
ATAE was one of those plots where, I believe, the admin team has failed to live up to what they should have. From the approval onwards, there were issues. We certainly aren't going to be doing any more 'kill off this character temporarily so people can't complain about why they aren't a part of this plot' shenanigans. The original plan had the plot smaller in scale. 'We' (again, the royal, I wasn't on the admin team then) had suggested that it be expanded and expounded upon to involve more players and characters rather than involve the relatively few regulars that would have been taken in for the original idea. It was ambitious, as large as HWC if not more so, and had far more reaching implications for our writing of the Realms. However, when it actually got to running, there were a plethora of player issues as there are with almost all large scale plots. Some teams had a lot of really important, impactful character development and story involvement. Some teams barely had any involvement at all. Some had player infighting, some had a lack of impetus, some were so active and gung-ho that they blindsided their DMs with difficulties in keeping up.
The problem that I saw as upper staff was inconsistency. When there are some groups changing the world, actively, and others who barely feel connected, something probably should be done to try to address those differences. Before anyone claims that I'm trying to throw this all at the running DM and say that Melody's style was bad, it wasn't on its own. We, as admins, should have taken the player criticisms and addressed them more firmly in order to make sure that people feeling under-utilized during quests got more 'air time'. This could have been done by getting more involvement of other DMs, taking on more of the event load ourselves, or seeing if we could find some new part of the story that they could fit in better. It should have been more of a collaborative thing. Again, though, hindsight is 20-20 and we can't exactly change the past. There were a number of things that were a part of the plot that either never got through the approval process, or should have been and never were, such as various characters being empowered as the avatars of various deities. Such a momentous bit of divine magic should be rare and special. As such, how do you be fair about letting some characters take part in that and not others? Do you decide by who has more hours played? More events? On one hand, you don't want favoritism. On the other, if a DM isn't going to have their friends take part in their stories, then why are they DMing? Where is the line and how do you define it? Do you allow it at all? With certain rules? How do you figure that stuff out if it's just *done* without those considerations beforehand?
So we butted heads about that sort of thing, repeatedly. We'd get complaints, try to address them, and it was stifling quest progress and various bits of the story that they wanted to tell. We kept having issues with things that were approved or not, some players getting vastly different treatment than others, and through all of this we had to fight, constantly, to get things logged and recorded. We still don't have records, even now, of a large number of plots run over the course of that quest. Not who was in them, not how long they took, no summaries. It can be a pain, sometimes, to stop what you're doing and write out everything that should have been obvious for anyone paying attention. Running an event is hard work. Sometimes when you're done, especially if you're running multiple events a day, you just don't want to have to sit and do boring paperwork. Yet it has to be done for things to work smoothly. We require it of all the other DMs. Yet we tried to be lenient and let it go, because such a big plot took a lot of time and energy and effort. This is another of those lessons that we have had to learn the hard way - If a DM isn't doing what everyone else has to, it's not fair to anyone to let it go on. (And why I need to get back into running plots more regularly, we do have a 'would like' minimum of one event per month for everyone else. This gets set to the wayside if we have other pressing projects like dungeon building, dev work, etc.)
In the end, the culmination of having to nag them constantly to follow the things that every other DM did and does seems to have been quite the burden. Scheduling often ran over others' plots, booking characters for the same time slot without communication. Logging. One of the final straws, though, was something that the admins actually disagreed about rather heavily internally. That is to say, we had a lot of long discussions about how we could reward long-standing characters and those that have put a lot into the server. We'd already implemented hereditary nobility, the epic reputation system, and DM items for DMs that ran far more plots than they were in themselves. We still, to this day, disagree some about how much is too much, and that's okay. We don't have to agree on everything, as long as we can work together. The proposal that was given to us by Melody was basically a super-special, one-per-player(not character) super item that went above and beyond tier 6 in properties, dubbed the 'artifact system'. Basically a best-item-possible thing that could only go to specific players and characters- Generally, those level 30s that were sole characters of people who didn't play alts, ever. Now, there is something to be said about rewarding people for sticking with a concept and a story and giving the server some longevity with in-character personalities who can keep setting lore and event tales alive. However, the admins were split enough on the concept that we went to upper staff and as a majority we(the royal, again), decided not to go forward with it. MAYBE it was going to be discussed as adding additional roleplay properties, or something like an extra bane type, but we weren't comfortable with giving a clearly-superior item to some certain chosen players and not others, because that felt like it would be straying way too far into the field of favoritism. We still are looking for other ways to reward dedication and playing, though, so if anyone has any ideas that sidestep those issues, we're all ears.
Somewhere between the rejection of that idea and having to revisit how we allow a lot of things during quests, organization of large plots, and requests, it seems to have driven them off. Of course, none of us were happy with that particular outcome, but it also came with a feeling of somewhat relief for me personally. I don't like conflict. I put things off because I don't like dealing with them and I don't like change. The server lost something when Melody and BH left, because they were good storytellers and good DMs for the most part. We aren't going to get that back. I can't really throw shade at them for feeling the way they did or do, because I understand exactly what led to that and we can't always see every side of all the different issues we face in life. However, I do wish to throw a little shade on some actions since then, that have driven more players off of CD. That, I can't condone. If you don't like the server, that's fine. Not everyone does or has to. If you don't and leave, we'll simply wish you well and hope you find somewhere else you'll have more fun. However, it has come to my attention that they've been sitting in various chats and trying to draw people away from the server even now, weeks/months after they've left. This has been done through very careful, deliberate chats with logs of what seems like every interaction on CD, often with important bits cut out, or their own statements edited/removed while leaving others' intact. This has even included keeping recorded audio files from people who did not consent to being recorded. I can forgive things done towards me or administrative flubs and frustrations. I find it a lot harder to forgive deliberately manipulating people using falsified evidence. This, funny enough, also came about with an incident that springs to mind. Unflattering things were said about a player's character (saying that they were doing a Galadriel impression badly), and screenshots of it got out to that player, along with some information as to why they weren't yet being considered for epic reputation. We looked into it because we do have DM rules about leaking DM chat without cause, but apparently that wasn't good enough. A bounty, of real life U.S. Dollars (four hundred of those at that), for a witch hunt to start looking for whoever spread Melody's own words. One of the smarter admin decisions we've had was to not allow that to continue.
That all being said, I'm still not going to cast any insults or call any names, merely mention why they've left from my perspective and my side of things and a tame version of what I've seen/been involved with. I am not blameless in any of this business. The proper course of action would have been anything *but* my inaction. We've had a number of good, even great, storytellers over the time of the server. With that come all the benefits and pitfalls of humanity and the human condition. None of us are perfect. I will say that Melody and Blackheart were good storytellers and did a lot of impressive things for the server that we're *still* studying and trying to learn from to train the aDMs better. I will also wish them luck with their RL endeavors to be published and successful, and that they find more fun elsewhere. Likewise, Fox was a wonderful, creative DM and I'll be lucky to ever run across her or more people like her. I will miss the fun that was had, but sometimes its for the best to move on.
The lessons I've learned since joining the admin team have usually come at some cost to the server. However, hopefully they'll be handy in the future.
To summarize:
* I've fucked up repeatedly in waffling on taking action when server rules have been in question.
* I have let things slide when I shouldn't have, out of an abundance of caution and not wanting to rock the boat.
* The future should involve running more plots, getting into being an actual dungeon master again, not just a pencil pusher.
* Reiterating with the DM team that we all follow the same playbook. No more playing nice with not logging things or going off the wall without approvals.
* More work is due in clarifying rules/wtv wherever there's questions. If we get the same question more than three times, it should be rewritten better.
* The list here isn't exhaustive. I'll probably think of something to add later and come back to add it in, or just keep it to myself because this is too long already.
This rambling post has gotten to be about thirty three thousand characters at this point, so I'm going to try to cut it off here. My time on CD has been wonderfully nice at times, and downright foul in others. Yet I'd say overall that it has been a rewarding journey. You, reading this, and the rest of the playerbase keep making it worthwhile to log in. The DM team that spends a lot of time volunteering and taking work off my shoulders have been wonderful. We aren't perfect, and a number of the things we have done to try to keep the server going have backfired in one way or another. But we'll keep trying as long as there's fun to be had and people willing to spin a good tale. If you have questions, please ask and we'll try to answer.
See you, Space Cowboy.
I'm writing this more as a journal post than an official Admin post, because it's not a combined message of all of the admins or upper staff. Most of them don't know what I'm writing and might not share any opinions or outlooks on any part of this post.
I'd like to propose this as a review of my time as an Admin on CD. Or, if you'd prefer, my time as a DM, sDM, and then Admin, because I've been here a long time.
Twelve years, in fact, and 7 of them as a DM in some form or other. I started on CD in November of 2013. My father passed away in April of 2014. I remember this, clearly, because it sucked and it was more or less a turning point in my life and my memory gets crappy for about 2 years afterwards because I was dealing mostly with paperwork involving the estate and living alone back in my childhood home and taking care of the dogs. I became an aDM around January of 2018, not too long after I finally finished the probate and estate stuff. I got made DM around 4/15/2018, after a few small plots and Arya's help teaching me the client, along with Dismus, Bella, Lady, et al.
I got made sDM in late 2019, around August. The reason I'm mentioning this here is that my memory is bad and I had to actually go look things up because it's easy for me to lose track of dates and get my years wrong. Some of this post may be out of synch, but that's more because I am human and I have a whole host of faults more than any intentional deception. I became admin in January/February of 2023, after Fox left.
Though I have run a number of plots in the past, I've been burned out on running more and fighting against imposter syndrome every time I've tried for the past several months, on top of just being kept busy by both real life, sDM/admin things, and just general mental hangups. This is something that I need to fix and get over, and probably the sooner the better, because it doesn't do to just sit around and not pull my weight. I have a plan in my head and a general writeup for a fey based plot, as well as some ideas written up for a second round of The Factions of Old, which is my fiend plotline. Some of you might remember this. A lot of you don't, because I haven't run all that many full, public plots since the server went over to Enhanced Edition. That is a shame on my part and I would like to apologize mostly to my fellow DMs that I haven't been doing as much as I should.
Now that the present has been addressed, I'd like to jump back to the past a ways and write about how I started out. My first plot was a tale of vengeance and redemption. I had a sorcerer character who had fallen in love with an Eilistraeean half-drow woman in a little village out in the Semberdale. The villagers, being distrustful of Drow, claimed she was a witch. When that didn't chase her off, they killed her. This awoke terrible power in the sorcerer, who basically burned the entire place down. The inspiration was the song Wildfire by Sonata Arctica. Many of my plots are based around inspiration from music, and this was the first. I had built a mirrored area where one side was perfectly normal and idyllic. The other side, utter ruin and destruction. My players would investigate one half until they found something out of place, and the illusion would break to show them the real world. The plot ended with the party killing the sorcerer. They found him in a tomb with his beloved, and they actually tried to raise/resurrect both. The sorcerer was beyond caring and refused to come back, though the Eilistraeean woman did. I left off a thread of her walking away from the village, to try to piece back together her life, and never followed up on it. This seems to have been a pattern with a lot of my projects both in-game and out of game.
A lot of my early time on the server was marred by my own actions and activities. I knew how to break the game, I'd been playing it just about every single day since 2002. I saw people that were so far ahead of me and my characters and getting away with things that I thought it'd be perfectly fine to do the same. A bit of item muling here, a bit of corner-sneaking there, who was it harming? Eventually this got me into trouble to where I lost every single item on every single character, and had multiple DMs put me on their shit lists, more or less. A lot of people thought that I was a total ass both in game and out, which is entirely fair. I've never been particularly great at reading people, though I'd like to think that as the years pass, things have gotten a bit better.
There was a lot of concerns about actually joining staff. Several of the DMs back then thought that I'd only DM stuff for 2-4 different players, and nobody else, and use the position to bolster my own characters into taking the leading role in All The Plots. Thankfully, I think I can say that hasn't happened overly much. I don't even look at the announced quests section of the forums anymore because I don't want to take spots from people who might have earned or wanted them more. Sign ups are kept to plots with direct invitations or open invitations, if that. I will admit to taking Kimbell's role a bit too seriously/far, but I've also tried rather hard not to try to put undue influence on her by my being a DM - That is, I don't run plots for the Red Wizards, because I don't want there to be favoritism considered towards the faction that my own character is a part of.
Arya was kind enough to take me under her wing and show me the ropes to DMing. She got me through my first few plots and I had a lot of fun running them. During that summer, most of the DM staff were busy with real life things and it let me run a lot of different events with a lot of different people, such as the plot I ran for a party that was originally meant for Calabask's character just after he got banned. There were other events right around when Swordmage was introduced, and a lot of fun stories and anecdotes that live in my head regularly. As I'm writing this, I'm realizing just how little I've actually ended up doing and that I should try a lot harder to actually get back into active plotting, even if it's going to be hard to manage with other obligations. Running plots is fun. Telling stories is fun. Getting to see characters flourish is a core part of D\&D, if not the core part of the game, and I'm realizing that I don't get to see it nearly as much as I used to while sitting behind a metaphorical desk dealing with paperwork, approvals, and other decisions that need making and implementing.
When I became an sDM, I had a great amount of fun helping the other apprentice dungeon masters learn the tools. I enjoy teaching, I used to do so at Blue Rock Elementary in New York. The biggest subject was poetry and writing. I've either taught or helped teach almost all active staff at some point with some part of their orientation or other, or helped supervise their earlier events, or helped refine their processes through quest approvals. This hasn't been the case nearly as much the past two years, but I try to help when the other sDMs need it or aren't available. They've all been an incredible help. All of the staff has. We could not keep this community going without volunteers, both players and aDMs/DMs/sDMs. Those of you that keep things active, drive roleplay, drum up interest, and push for more plots and events? You're what keeps CD what it is, what it has been, and what it will be. This place would be a graveyard without everyone that puts their hours in to make interesting tidbits for others to follow.
However, all of that pushing and imagination and driving roleplay takes a lot of time and energy and devotion. We're all humans, and many of us with various neurodivergent quirks that make regular socialization hard. Note: This is NOT a condemnation or calling anyone out. We're a bunch of nerdy people playing a game of math rocks and imagination. It's not a far stretch to realize that a lot of us have trouble with social cues. Text is an imperfect medium. We get on each other's nerves once in a while. We make mistakes, miscommunications, missteps, and often pass one another like ships in the night. Back then, and now, too, I'm sure that a lot of people will find me a brash jackass who doesn't take anyone else into consideration about anything. This isn't looking for empathy, sympathy, agreement or disagreement. It's simply a fact of life. My old orchestra teacher used to say that you had 10% of people who hated you, 10% of people who loved you, and 80% of people who couldn't give two shits. Over the years we've had tens of thousands of cases of players not getting along for various reasons. People come and go from the community pretty regularly, for both serious and mundane reasons.
Many of those reasons have to do with how the community is run, from the top, and who is allowed to have a say in various administrative bureaucracy-type decisions. Because we're all volunteers, and players, we (I say this as the royal 'we', not any admin or sDM or DM or anyone in particular) fuck up. All the time. We make decisions based on half-truths and information that we don't fully understand, or with things that are intentionally misleading. We make decisions with biases based on our individual histories and interactions with people. We make decisions based on hearsay. We make decisions based on rumors, or feelings, or whether or not we've had enough vitamin D that day.
That rambling has led to what I would think of as my own worst times as a DM in the past few years. I'd like to dive into them, because there's two that stick out. 'The Underdark Situation', and the leaving of Melody/Blackheart. I'll cover them both in time here, but to start with, I'll cover TUS because it's more relevant to my becoming an admin on the server. Back in the start of 2023, we had a couple of players get in trouble for breaking the mature content rules. (Notably, the 'rule 10' that we used to have.) At the time, the admins had asked me as an sDM to look into it, because my 'other job' is running a learning and discussion group for kink and alternative lifestyle people. Think a library of experiences and how-to guides on relationships, negotiation, how to tell your parents/friends that you're not heteronormative, that kind of thing. We're up to ~600,000 people after several rounds of user purges for inactive accounts. Mind, that's not important except to say that I've had experience in moderating content that gives 'normal' people the squicks on the regular. So it wasn't any huge surprise that the admins threw the information to me, I looked it over, and gave an 'expert' opinion that the players in question had more or less gotten the okay from each other and everyone involved, and that it was 'technically' within the rules-as-written, or RAW, at the time. My recommendation at the time was to fix the rules, slap the players on the wrist, and move on, since they weren't broadcasting their activities or forcing it on anyone unwilling. Since nobody was directly being harmed, I figured that should have been the end of it. However, privacy was still violated and there were hard feelings abound as well as some departures from the server.
Fast forward 2-3 months and something similar happens, again. The activity that we told the aforementioned players not to do was repeated. However, it was in the Blue Draykn's old build, which had the 'leaky' doors. How did we find out about it? An anonymous player, who left the discord right after, stood around for 40+ minutes listening in and then posted screenshots publicly into the General channel. This was an IMMENSE breach of not just privacy, but also triggered/disturbed a large number of players, both because of the content and the fact that it was posted in public with no spoiler tags, no warning, and nothing to prepare them. So on one hand we had a rules break, which we had already talked to the players about, and on the other, a massive breach of privacy and what seemed like a targeted, carefully crafted incident. Notably, the first incident was followed by a voice chat in which the players were told that the roleplay was problematic and in no uncertain terms not allowed on the server. However, because it was combined with the notice of breach of privacy, I personally think that the message was either not communicated directly enough or that it wasn't understood well enough. This is why I will no longer ever be giving admin rulings or the like in voice, only in text medium. Either way, the admin team (with me still being freshly added, having never been an admin for a NWN server before) was put into a hell of a bind with half of the playerbase calling for a straight ban due to conduct/content, and the other half saying the breach of privacy was the bigger issue.
The admin team at the time decided to try to appease both groups, and this was my own personal fuckup. The instigating player in question was removed from the DM staff, and the others involved told in no uncertain terms (in text that time) that the problematic activity was to never happen again on the server, including denying an application of theirs to a character that could have tangentially been connected to the mere appearance of breaking rule 10. We also set rapidly to searching out all areas on the server with 'leaks' and trying to fix them up as best we could, which is why I spent 30 hours rebuilding the Blue Draykn from the ground up. Half measures rarely ever work, and we still lost yet even more players to our apparent inaction, or not harsh enough punishment. In hindsight, we probably should have just issued a ban from the very first and cut off the hydra's head. However, that doesn't exactly change history, does it? I still don't really know who made the post, as it was likely a burner account and I couldn't find much about the character they were on in game, either. The server still hasn't *really* recovered from that, either. We've simply moved on, which has its own benefits and drawbacks. We lost a good fifth of the DM team either because of the whole mess, or shortly after with it being a contributing factor. But we've also gained more volunteers since then, and the server has moved on with clearer, better (in my opinion) written rules, better policies for dealing with those situations, and lessons learned.
Since then, there have been rumors flying around that Fox was somehow doing a bunch of silly things behind the scenes during this period using her tech know-how to harm the server. (Anyone remember that we had a spam of like 2,000+ forum posts of goatse? So many that the automated delete function couldn't handle them all?) To this, I can unequivocally say, no. None of that is true. Fox is a rather wonderful person from every experience I've ever had with her. She left for her own reasons, which I cannot in good conscience share, and I ask none of you to pester her about it because its her own business and she'll tell you if she wants to. She also helped us, immensely, with getting the server in a place where it could continue without her. Someone would never do that only to turn around and start attacking players. I'd also like to take this moment to thank Spacepope and Raysiel for stepping in and helping out with dev work. Without them, we'd be nowhere near as well set as we are now. We'd have far less progress and be less of a server without them and all the other volunteers.
The first goal of any community tends to be whatever it was designed to do. In our case, that means roleplay and fun. Our first goal is always to keep the roleplay going and the story working together in a way that everyone can find some facet that they enjoy. The second tends to be to either retain or grow a group population. Considering that Neverwinter Nights as a game is over 20 years old, this has mostly shifted towards retention more than recruitment. A lot of our decisions and direction for the server has to be geared towards making the largest number of players happy enough to keep playing in order to keep the roleplay going and the story progressing forward. A lot of the time, this works just fine. It means that we add features that player request. We run stories that players find fun. We streamline processes and get rid of inefficiencies where we can, while trying to keep everything more or less consistent. However, this also comes back to bite us in the ass a lot of the time. It makes us gun-shy of actually taking big steps. We have to worry, constantly, about how a person leaving is going to drag their friends along and how its going to affect the ongoing story. Very rarely does anyone step out of the server in a vacuum. They take with them their characters, their ongoing plots, the stories untold, their friendships and history. The above incident had enough players leave that we'll likely never fully recover, because a lot of what was lost just can't be replaced. Some of it shouldn't be. Which leads me into the other series of issues that we've faced recently.
That being the lead-up into the server plot 'ATAE', and a number of back-end issues that most of you haven't heard of or had any experience with. To fully explain what happened and why, there needs to be a bit of explaining as to the DM team and how things work on the back end. Essentially, we are a paperwork machine. Why is this? Because people leave. Whether they mean to or not, they take a lot of information with them when they go, whether it's by choice or because real life has its demands. We have a simple rule and setup to get around this. Every DM has their own thread in the "DM Chronicles \& Notes" section of the forums which most players don't have access to see. Every DM MUST log their events, who was in them, how long they took, and a summary of what went on with those events. This is so that anyone that comes afterwards can at least get a general idea of what happened in your plot and where things were headed. We also have a set of instructions and rules to get various parts of your plot approved of - Notably, anything that's going to have a significant effect and impact on the server needs to be approved by the admins. This means anything that kills off a noble NPC, anything that destroys a town, countries going to war. The stuff that would have a paragraph in a source book also gets a nod from the upper staff. This is so that we can coordinate server changes, balance what DMs want to do, and who gets to do what with which NPC. It wouldn't do to have Vangerdahaast playing cards with the castle hounds at the same time he's saving the world from a far realm threat. (Or maybe it would, that might be a fun plot. Thanks, brain.)
When we approve big, server-level plots, there's a lot that goes into them. We have to account for all the different things players might like to do. We have to keep in communication so that we know what's on the table and what endings are possible. DMs can't, of course, prepare for any and every little possibility. It takes time and effort to create areas, NPCs, plotlines, and work everything together to where consequence and action meets in a way that is satisfactory for a good yarn. Anyone can say what they will about any others, but I will say that the 'HWC' plot was very well organized and had a lot of player agency. A lot of DMs have also run other similar events that have had a lot of different ways they could have gone. The various 'Runelord' plots come to mind, as well as a number of others that I don't want to get into because I don't want DMs to feel left out if they're reading this. I do NOT want anyone thinking that this journaling of my thoughts is to rag on anyone in particular or insult their abilities as a storywriter. I did, however, want to explain some about the problems that evolved surrounding server plots, Melody, and why they left the team and server. They are/were a good storyteller and did a good job crafting some of these intricate, high-intensity plots with all their different possibilities.
The problems that led to their leaving were a sort of amalgamation of a lot of different facets. They might tell you different than I am here, and I'm certain they likely will at some point, as I know that they have lurking accounts both in the Discord and on the forums. These are my internal thoughts and impressions, and I am no psychic or illithid to be able to pull someone else's impressions out of them. Somewhere between HWC and ATAE, I believe, they started feeling like (Or it accelerated) they were being persecuted by the rest of the staff for a number of reasons, punished and argued against and unappreciated for all of their efforts to craft good stories. From the position of upper staff, I can espouse that some of the frustrations were mutual, if from different causes and different results. We try to stick to treating everyone the same. If you can apply for a character on CD, anyone else can apply for that character. If you can have your character do something on CD, anyone else's character should be able to do the same. If you can get a reward, everyone else should be able to get that reward as well. Seems simple enough, right? It's harder in practice than reality sometimes, because life is never particularly simple. People aren't simple. People have different levels of activity, different opinions of their own efforts, and different opinions of what's fair or not.
ATAE was one of those plots where, I believe, the admin team has failed to live up to what they should have. From the approval onwards, there were issues. We certainly aren't going to be doing any more 'kill off this character temporarily so people can't complain about why they aren't a part of this plot' shenanigans. The original plan had the plot smaller in scale. 'We' (again, the royal, I wasn't on the admin team then) had suggested that it be expanded and expounded upon to involve more players and characters rather than involve the relatively few regulars that would have been taken in for the original idea. It was ambitious, as large as HWC if not more so, and had far more reaching implications for our writing of the Realms. However, when it actually got to running, there were a plethora of player issues as there are with almost all large scale plots. Some teams had a lot of really important, impactful character development and story involvement. Some teams barely had any involvement at all. Some had player infighting, some had a lack of impetus, some were so active and gung-ho that they blindsided their DMs with difficulties in keeping up.
The problem that I saw as upper staff was inconsistency. When there are some groups changing the world, actively, and others who barely feel connected, something probably should be done to try to address those differences. Before anyone claims that I'm trying to throw this all at the running DM and say that Melody's style was bad, it wasn't on its own. We, as admins, should have taken the player criticisms and addressed them more firmly in order to make sure that people feeling under-utilized during quests got more 'air time'. This could have been done by getting more involvement of other DMs, taking on more of the event load ourselves, or seeing if we could find some new part of the story that they could fit in better. It should have been more of a collaborative thing. Again, though, hindsight is 20-20 and we can't exactly change the past. There were a number of things that were a part of the plot that either never got through the approval process, or should have been and never were, such as various characters being empowered as the avatars of various deities. Such a momentous bit of divine magic should be rare and special. As such, how do you be fair about letting some characters take part in that and not others? Do you decide by who has more hours played? More events? On one hand, you don't want favoritism. On the other, if a DM isn't going to have their friends take part in their stories, then why are they DMing? Where is the line and how do you define it? Do you allow it at all? With certain rules? How do you figure that stuff out if it's just *done* without those considerations beforehand?
So we butted heads about that sort of thing, repeatedly. We'd get complaints, try to address them, and it was stifling quest progress and various bits of the story that they wanted to tell. We kept having issues with things that were approved or not, some players getting vastly different treatment than others, and through all of this we had to fight, constantly, to get things logged and recorded. We still don't have records, even now, of a large number of plots run over the course of that quest. Not who was in them, not how long they took, no summaries. It can be a pain, sometimes, to stop what you're doing and write out everything that should have been obvious for anyone paying attention. Running an event is hard work. Sometimes when you're done, especially if you're running multiple events a day, you just don't want to have to sit and do boring paperwork. Yet it has to be done for things to work smoothly. We require it of all the other DMs. Yet we tried to be lenient and let it go, because such a big plot took a lot of time and energy and effort. This is another of those lessons that we have had to learn the hard way - If a DM isn't doing what everyone else has to, it's not fair to anyone to let it go on. (And why I need to get back into running plots more regularly, we do have a 'would like' minimum of one event per month for everyone else. This gets set to the wayside if we have other pressing projects like dungeon building, dev work, etc.)
In the end, the culmination of having to nag them constantly to follow the things that every other DM did and does seems to have been quite the burden. Scheduling often ran over others' plots, booking characters for the same time slot without communication. Logging. One of the final straws, though, was something that the admins actually disagreed about rather heavily internally. That is to say, we had a lot of long discussions about how we could reward long-standing characters and those that have put a lot into the server. We'd already implemented hereditary nobility, the epic reputation system, and DM items for DMs that ran far more plots than they were in themselves. We still, to this day, disagree some about how much is too much, and that's okay. We don't have to agree on everything, as long as we can work together. The proposal that was given to us by Melody was basically a super-special, one-per-player(not character) super item that went above and beyond tier 6 in properties, dubbed the 'artifact system'. Basically a best-item-possible thing that could only go to specific players and characters- Generally, those level 30s that were sole characters of people who didn't play alts, ever. Now, there is something to be said about rewarding people for sticking with a concept and a story and giving the server some longevity with in-character personalities who can keep setting lore and event tales alive. However, the admins were split enough on the concept that we went to upper staff and as a majority we(the royal, again), decided not to go forward with it. MAYBE it was going to be discussed as adding additional roleplay properties, or something like an extra bane type, but we weren't comfortable with giving a clearly-superior item to some certain chosen players and not others, because that felt like it would be straying way too far into the field of favoritism. We still are looking for other ways to reward dedication and playing, though, so if anyone has any ideas that sidestep those issues, we're all ears.
Somewhere between the rejection of that idea and having to revisit how we allow a lot of things during quests, organization of large plots, and requests, it seems to have driven them off. Of course, none of us were happy with that particular outcome, but it also came with a feeling of somewhat relief for me personally. I don't like conflict. I put things off because I don't like dealing with them and I don't like change. The server lost something when Melody and BH left, because they were good storytellers and good DMs for the most part. We aren't going to get that back. I can't really throw shade at them for feeling the way they did or do, because I understand exactly what led to that and we can't always see every side of all the different issues we face in life. However, I do wish to throw a little shade on some actions since then, that have driven more players off of CD. That, I can't condone. If you don't like the server, that's fine. Not everyone does or has to. If you don't and leave, we'll simply wish you well and hope you find somewhere else you'll have more fun. However, it has come to my attention that they've been sitting in various chats and trying to draw people away from the server even now, weeks/months after they've left. This has been done through very careful, deliberate chats with logs of what seems like every interaction on CD, often with important bits cut out, or their own statements edited/removed while leaving others' intact. This has even included keeping recorded audio files from people who did not consent to being recorded. I can forgive things done towards me or administrative flubs and frustrations. I find it a lot harder to forgive deliberately manipulating people using falsified evidence. This, funny enough, also came about with an incident that springs to mind. Unflattering things were said about a player's character (saying that they were doing a Galadriel impression badly), and screenshots of it got out to that player, along with some information as to why they weren't yet being considered for epic reputation. We looked into it because we do have DM rules about leaking DM chat without cause, but apparently that wasn't good enough. A bounty, of real life U.S. Dollars (four hundred of those at that), for a witch hunt to start looking for whoever spread Melody's own words. One of the smarter admin decisions we've had was to not allow that to continue.
That all being said, I'm still not going to cast any insults or call any names, merely mention why they've left from my perspective and my side of things and a tame version of what I've seen/been involved with. I am not blameless in any of this business. The proper course of action would have been anything *but* my inaction. We've had a number of good, even great, storytellers over the time of the server. With that come all the benefits and pitfalls of humanity and the human condition. None of us are perfect. I will say that Melody and Blackheart were good storytellers and did a lot of impressive things for the server that we're *still* studying and trying to learn from to train the aDMs better. I will also wish them luck with their RL endeavors to be published and successful, and that they find more fun elsewhere. Likewise, Fox was a wonderful, creative DM and I'll be lucky to ever run across her or more people like her. I will miss the fun that was had, but sometimes its for the best to move on.
The lessons I've learned since joining the admin team have usually come at some cost to the server. However, hopefully they'll be handy in the future.
To summarize:
* I've fucked up repeatedly in waffling on taking action when server rules have been in question.
* I have let things slide when I shouldn't have, out of an abundance of caution and not wanting to rock the boat.
* The future should involve running more plots, getting into being an actual dungeon master again, not just a pencil pusher.
* Reiterating with the DM team that we all follow the same playbook. No more playing nice with not logging things or going off the wall without approvals.
* More work is due in clarifying rules/wtv wherever there's questions. If we get the same question more than three times, it should be rewritten better.
* The list here isn't exhaustive. I'll probably think of something to add later and come back to add it in, or just keep it to myself because this is too long already.
This rambling post has gotten to be about thirty three thousand characters at this point, so I'm going to try to cut it off here. My time on CD has been wonderfully nice at times, and downright foul in others. Yet I'd say overall that it has been a rewarding journey. You, reading this, and the rest of the playerbase keep making it worthwhile to log in. The DM team that spends a lot of time volunteering and taking work off my shoulders have been wonderful. We aren't perfect, and a number of the things we have done to try to keep the server going have backfired in one way or another. But we'll keep trying as long as there's fun to be had and people willing to spin a good tale. If you have questions, please ask and we'll try to answer.
See you, Space Cowboy.
#4
Admin Announcements / Re: Transparency - Player Bans
Jul 29, 2025, 07:58 AM
Etainethedragon has been banned from the discord for repeatedly insulting the entire playerbase at large and basically making it their stated mission to troll or upset other players.
~BR
~BR
#5
Admin Announcements / Re: Transparency - Player Bans
May 31, 2025, 09:50 AM
Meryl Ball has been banned from the discord as an alias of Marionette/Whisper1 and being generally a troll there as well. (This is more of an updated ban rather than a new one.)
~BR
~BR
#6
Admin Announcements / Re: Transparency - Player Bans
Mar 21, 2025, 07:28 PM
Whisper1 - Delista Bendon, Elrith Imytholyn, Kriestiel Farideh, among others, is banned from the server.
The reasoning includes disrespect for the setting, causing incredible disruptions, refusing to heed or understand the warning given by archiving/deleting their other character, and ignoring NPCs/importance of setting.
~BR
The reasoning includes disrespect for the setting, causing incredible disruptions, refusing to heed or understand the warning given by archiving/deleting their other character, and ignoring NPCs/importance of setting.
~BR
#7
Admin Announcements / Re: Transparency - Player Bans
Feb 17, 2025, 05:57 PM
EmberEffigy has been banned twice since the last announcement for ban dodging, or attempting to.
Ara Nerug (Alquist) has also been banned for breaking the mature content rules. Specifically, talking about sensitive topics in public areas following repeated warnings and talkings-to about inappropriate public content.
~BR
Ara Nerug (Alquist) has also been banned for breaking the mature content rules. Specifically, talking about sensitive topics in public areas following repeated warnings and talkings-to about inappropriate public content.
~BR
#8
Admin Announcements / Re: Transparency - Player Bans
Dec 08, 2024, 02:11 AM
Kai Osprey has been banned from the server for breaking rule 2, what used to be our mature content rules.
The player had been warned more than once in the past about mentioning SA or other highly sensitive topics in public without giving others a chance to avoid it or not be involved. Today's repeat performance and ignoring of that warning has crossed over the line as far as breaking this core rule for the server. We do not allow characters to threaten one another with SA, and no, we don't care about what your character sheet says under alignment. Due to the repetitious nature of breaking our rules and the past history of skirting them, we have decided to remove the problem.
If you have any questions about this choice or wish to argue against it, please do feel free to DM any of the admins on the forums or over Discord.
~BR
The player had been warned more than once in the past about mentioning SA or other highly sensitive topics in public without giving others a chance to avoid it or not be involved. Today's repeat performance and ignoring of that warning has crossed over the line as far as breaking this core rule for the server. We do not allow characters to threaten one another with SA, and no, we don't care about what your character sheet says under alignment. Due to the repetitious nature of breaking our rules and the past history of skirting them, we have decided to remove the problem.
If you have any questions about this choice or wish to argue against it, please do feel free to DM any of the admins on the forums or over Discord.
~BR
#9
Admin Announcements / Re: Transparency - Player Bans
Oct 28, 2024, 11:16 PM
Piper, also known as "MinxXy" or "Moxxie" has been banned from the server for multiple reasons.
The biggest two of these are ban evasion on Discord (having also been Kabran,) and identity theft of a real person, to the point where we have had to consider the legal ramifications of their stealing pictures and other personal identifying information, including posting their stolen pictures on the Discord.
While this would usually be let go with a warning, they have shown in their history on the server for 4+ years to continually duck out as soon as they've done something wrong enough to warrant a talking-to, only to come back as a new identity. This is not a problem for typical players. We don't really care what name you choose to use, nor what you do. The problem comes when that leniency is used to bypass any sort of consequences, only to repeat the exact same behavior upon changing their name and coming back. This newest iteration is their fourth different account on the server, and we haven't seen their behavior change at all since the first.
Due to their repeated use of changing identities in order to escape bans or other reactions to their mistakes, we are banning all CD keys and accounts that are registered to their same IP address, and will continue to do so if they pop up yet again.
~BR
The biggest two of these are ban evasion on Discord (having also been Kabran,) and identity theft of a real person, to the point where we have had to consider the legal ramifications of their stealing pictures and other personal identifying information, including posting their stolen pictures on the Discord.
While this would usually be let go with a warning, they have shown in their history on the server for 4+ years to continually duck out as soon as they've done something wrong enough to warrant a talking-to, only to come back as a new identity. This is not a problem for typical players. We don't really care what name you choose to use, nor what you do. The problem comes when that leniency is used to bypass any sort of consequences, only to repeat the exact same behavior upon changing their name and coming back. This newest iteration is their fourth different account on the server, and we haven't seen their behavior change at all since the first.
Due to their repeated use of changing identities in order to escape bans or other reactions to their mistakes, we are banning all CD keys and accounts that are registered to their same IP address, and will continue to do so if they pop up yet again.
~BR
#10
General Discussion / Re: New Rates for DMing on CD
Apr 01, 2024, 07:58 AMQuote from: Nymera on Apr 01, 2024, 07:51 AMWill there be an optional subscription for those of us who prefer to be scammed monthly and consistently?
Of course! You can sign up to our Cormyr Collectibles of the Month club, where you can gather 1 randomly generated MS Paint drawing of a character that hasn't been played for at least 12 years! Along with them, you'll be granted the opportunity to invest in our NFT system of trading cards based on real-life gerbils in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting!
The cost is a mere $45.95 per month, plus tax, fees, and all applicable legal penalties.
~BR
#11
General Discussion / New Rates for DMing on CD
Apr 01, 2024, 05:06 AM
Hello, everyone!
As you are well aware, inflation is rampant across the world and everyone is getting their cut of the pie. We on CD have certain costs, too, so we've decided to start monetizing this 22 year old game in order to make it more appealing for the DM team to DM for everyone in the way they have for free for more than two decades now.
In that vein, we are going to be selling CormyrBux, our new premium currency!
500 CormyrCoins will run you about $9.99 US, but only if paid for in hay pennies.
1500 CormyrCoins will cost $22.95 but only for those users that live in Hell, Michigan. For everyone else it will be $42.06(9)
1 CormyrBux is 10,224 CormyrCoins.
Per hour of event, 5 CormyrBux must be paid by the party.
We offer payment plans with an easy amortization rate of 33.3333~%, compounded every 13.37 minutes, with loan terms of 30 to 50 years.
Join us now over on CormyrShop.Sadaharu.Sophie'sSupplies.org to get your very own CormyrBux today! We also offer plushies for in-game consumption, DM speed boost tokens, lodestones (prank your friends!) and DM click-kill target tokens! All you have to do is stick the small 'Kick me' sign on someone's back and we'll take care of the rest.
Shop smart, shop Wicket's Surplus Awoos today!
~The Illustrious Staff
As you are well aware, inflation is rampant across the world and everyone is getting their cut of the pie. We on CD have certain costs, too, so we've decided to start monetizing this 22 year old game in order to make it more appealing for the DM team to DM for everyone in the way they have for free for more than two decades now.
In that vein, we are going to be selling CormyrBux, our new premium currency!
500 CormyrCoins will run you about $9.99 US, but only if paid for in hay pennies.
1500 CormyrCoins will cost $22.95 but only for those users that live in Hell, Michigan. For everyone else it will be $42.06(9)
1 CormyrBux is 10,224 CormyrCoins.
Per hour of event, 5 CormyrBux must be paid by the party.
We offer payment plans with an easy amortization rate of 33.3333~%, compounded every 13.37 minutes, with loan terms of 30 to 50 years.
Join us now over on CormyrShop.Sadaharu.Sophie'sSupplies.org to get your very own CormyrBux today! We also offer plushies for in-game consumption, DM speed boost tokens, lodestones (prank your friends!) and DM click-kill target tokens! All you have to do is stick the small 'Kick me' sign on someone's back and we'll take care of the rest.
Shop smart, shop Wicket's Surplus Awoos today!
~The Illustrious Staff
#12
Admin Announcements / Complaint, Compliment, or Criticism Form
Mar 06, 2023, 02:00 AMIt has come to our attention that we never specified any particular format for giving feedback on aDM quests, or DM quests in general! If you have feedback, please feel free to copy the form below and send it in to the sDMs/admins. They'll pass along relevant information on where to improve, and what players really enjoy, without attaching a particular name to said feedback! In this way, we hope to help the DM team improve without fostering any hard feelings between players or their storytellers. You do not have to use this form, it is merely provided for convenience.
We thank all players in advance for submitting any kind of feedback!
Person submitting:
aDM or DM Involved:
Quest Title:
Event Pros:
Event Cons:
Overall Feedback/Additional Information:
aDM or DM Involved:
Quest Title:
Event Pros:
Event Cons:
Overall Feedback/Additional Information:
We thank all players in advance for submitting any kind of feedback!
#14
Suggestions Archive / Forest gnome as a playable race
Jul 21, 2022, 10:52 PMDo you have a source in 3.0-3.5e books or supplements for this template?
~BR
~BR
#15
ServerQuestions / Rule Clarification about "Muling", please?
Jul 05, 2022, 06:37 AMBasically, it comes down to: Is it fair for you to gear up one of your own characters using metagamed knowledge?
Is it fair if you go dungeon on one character, and your other character mystically knows, instantly, that one of character A's party members has an item that they just happen to want?
Is it fair if you drop an item on the ground in a random hidden spot on the server, and your other character just happens to run across it 5 minutes later?
The answer to above being 'no'.
Is it fair for a player to sell things to a neutral shop, where anyone else can buy it? Yes.
Is it fair for a merchant player to forget where the items they sold came from, or from whom? Yes.
We don't penalize on an item that might pass from one character to another over the course of months/years. We do penalize someone that's using metagame knowledge outside of their character's wheelhouse(With or without cooperation from others) in order to gain an advantage unfairly, or to gear themselves up outside of the normal course of adventuring.
It's one thing to trade items around. It's another entirely to use one of your characters to benefit an alt directly, with or without your friends being a middleman.
~BR
Is it fair if you go dungeon on one character, and your other character mystically knows, instantly, that one of character A's party members has an item that they just happen to want?
Is it fair if you drop an item on the ground in a random hidden spot on the server, and your other character just happens to run across it 5 minutes later?
The answer to above being 'no'.
Is it fair for a player to sell things to a neutral shop, where anyone else can buy it? Yes.
Is it fair for a merchant player to forget where the items they sold came from, or from whom? Yes.
We don't penalize on an item that might pass from one character to another over the course of months/years. We do penalize someone that's using metagame knowledge outside of their character's wheelhouse(With or without cooperation from others) in order to gain an advantage unfairly, or to gear themselves up outside of the normal course of adventuring.
It's one thing to trade items around. It's another entirely to use one of your characters to benefit an alt directly, with or without your friends being a middleman.
~BR