New Players

[Garage Trashcan]

EST Evenings are the most active times, though during the day there might be a couple people on.

You can easily get to level 8 in a day or two, if you want to rush it, then you start needing steadily increasing amounts of RP XP from the "XP Fairy" or given by DMs in events. There's also a couple of scripted quests which reward a small amount, usually somewhere between 200-400. These can assist you in getting to level 10 decently quick, as they're worth a full day's worth of Fairy XP (I believe it caps at 300 per day?)
The formula here is that at level 8, you require 1000XP RP XP, and each subsequent level requires an additional 1000. So 9 = 2k, 10=3k and so on. This might seem ridiculous at first, especially if you're used to faster or unlocked leveling, but it's really not that bad. It's not unheard of to hit 20 in 6-8 months if you're active in a lot of events, though you're encouraged to take your time and enjoy the ride.

CD ends up being a decently "high magic" server once you get to level 16+, and has only become moreso over the years in attempts to give the loot pool more flavor and feel more unique. Heck, some of the newer level 6+ items I've seen are really unique and strong. Between adventuring and the pawn shop that other players sell their loot to, you shouldn't have too much of a problem getting useful gear for your character.

Gold eventually becomes inconsequential if you adventure a lot. There are a couple characters (Granted, old ones) that have over 20 million, granted this is an exception rather than a rule. Most of my characters sit around 400-500k if I was very active while playing them. My only epic character floats between 1-2million, based on how active I am and if I buy a massive stack of healing potions or not. But heck, I remember feeling rich when I started and had 20k.

I don't know jack about the elves, other than it seems they go from very, very active to only moderately active. That isn't to say that there's not a large elven playerbase. More often than not they've been one of the most populous races on the server. One thing to keep in mind is that Bladesinger is a "special" PRC and therefore requires approval to play. This is as simple as applying and linking your character's biography and as long as your character isn't doing things completely ridiculous and un-elven, you're good. Darvins and cherrycoke2l are the two players I can think of with Bladesinger characters. They'd be your in-game resource for training and, if not a DM NPCing for you.

As for the RP, I'd say the server falls under "medium" in RP. There's no survival, worrying about shelter and food (that isn't to say you can't play like that if you want, though!), and leveling and progressing is fairly relaxed. Death has a penalty to it, but it's more to prevent rushing back to where you died, just to die again, than to actively discourage risk-taking. You can still "examine" enemies to see how strong they are in relation to you to gauge if you should just leave instead of engage. Sometimes you wander into dangerous areas, but exploring the server in general is quite fun. It's decently large and with new additions, I can no longer say I've got it memorized. A lot of the interacting you'll probably end up doing with other players is social RP, just passing the time. Inside jokes, pranks, friendships, grudges, are all great ways to make your character come alive and make their relationships more real.

90-95% of the playerbase is really friendly! (the rest are just grumpy.) So if you're in-game and have any questions to ask, don't be afraid to send a tell and ask for help.

[valiea987]

There are a few elves. One of my main character's IC best friend is a Bladesinger. Though I believe for that prestige class, to start into it your character needs to be trained by a bladesinger, so you'll need to hook up with one of them around.

And welcome! I'm Surri, I play a Doomguide, and if you need anything just send me a message. I know next to nothing about elf RP, but my Doomguide is interested in elves so in that way I am patching up my ignorance of that part of the lore.

[Atomic Twinkie]

Good evening, morning, afternoon, and a very good greeting to you.

I am one of the many players of the elven community (even though I'm not majorly part of said elven community). The community here for elves and non-elves is pretty great, and everyone in general are pretty cool people. Very welcoming, especially to new players!

We do have a few non-US players, and they do tend towards being mostly US or EU orientated, though I know we've had some players from places such as NZ/Australia. Everyone's already answered what most of the people's playtimes are, so hopefully you can find time to RP with people, and most people are also comfortable with having an arranged time to RP that's comfortable for both parties!

If you ever need any help, don't hesitate to ask, we're all pretty happy to help!

Have fun!

[Deleted]

Nov 19, 2015 8:58:53 GMT -5 Edge said:

Nov 19, 2015 6:52:00 GMT -5 Ryoko Honda said:

Is there way too give items custom descriptions?

No, this is not something we have available for players. We do have tailoring models that allow characters to design clothing and armor and a text entry command ( /rentorso ) that allows such items to be renamed for easy organization and recognition in your inventory, but description editing is not included.

Custom, roleplay-only items can be requested in the appropriate forum (Miscellaneous Requests), and characters using the item creation feats and mage-forges can request appearance changes and description edits for the items they make there as well. But changing the appearances and descriptions of common loot treasure and similar items is not usually something we do.

Also, note that the rename torso function is for non-magical items only.  If it has a colored name, don't rename it.

[Deleted]

Nov 19, 2015 2:17:57 GMT -5 Ryoko Honda said:

My RP partner and I are searching for new community options we came across Cormy & Dalelands. I'm interested in hear some reviews and opinions from you the community. My RP partner and I play a pair of Elves. A Sun Elf Bladesinger, and Elf Knight. We are pretty invested in our storyline over on Amia. Though we aren't too happy with that server so we've found this server.

How is the elf community? or elf factions?

What are the best times to play? 

Is the player base mostly US? 

What year is it in forgotten realms? 

Okay, now that I have a bit more time, I can answer some of these questions.  Most of them have already been addressed, so I'll chime in on the elven culture/faction.

Elves make up a good percentage of our non-ECL races.  We have every type of character, from forlorn (disconnected from elven culture) to bladesingers and elven nobility.  As a faction, the elves are rarely called on to work together and largely inactive.  That said, there is an elven faction (The Moonshadows) that are designed to be comparable to the Purple Dragons of Cormyr.  IC contacts are Rhea Seleben (my loremistress), Jaylithel (onivel), and Aaliya (theshobit).  There are several key events that have happened in our elven community, such as a "recent" (4 years ago?) invasion by a Drow Matron that destroyed Sshrenshen.  As a result, the previous more open attitude of Velethuil has become guarded and more conservative due to events.

Velethuil is a relatively small village.  The lower areas are public, but the upper treetop areas are residences that require an elven escort to be entered.  The town is governed by two elders and a priestess, who are advised by a council of elders and elven nobles.

Of particular note, there is a mythal around Velethuil that prevents drow-blooded characters from willingly entering the town.

Elves are also common in nearby Highmoon.

We support the bladesinger prestige class, but require a special application for it due to its importance an influence in the elven community.  You will need both an IC mentor and the OOC application.  Also, said applications tend to wait a period of a few months for new players (so that the staff/admins can get to know you better before deciding on the application).  In these cases, after the application is approved, the character may request a relevel to take the class (if they levelled in another class in the interim during the application process).

So does anyone know. If the Elven Cursade happen already? Is Myth Drannor part of the mod?

The elven crusade has not happened.  Whether or not this event will happen is still a matter of discussion among the staff/admins.  Myth Drannor is not part of the mod and will not be in the foreseeable future.

[Ryoko Honda]

We support the bladesinger prestige class, but require a special application for it due to its importance an influence in the elven community.  You will need both an IC mentor and the OOC application.  Also, said applications tend to wait a period of a few months for new players (so that the staff/admins can get to know you better before deciding on the application).  In these cases, after the application is approved, the character may request a relevel to take the class (if they levelled in another class in the interim during the application process).

Alright. Thank you for your answers. This helps  I completely understand the care in the prestige class and the story lore. Me and my Rp partner will have to take all this into consideration. We have character concepts in mind. Alot of our back lore is based around the cursade and being involved as bladesinger already that just don't' exist here or are special restrictions by admins. At this junction it would be question of starting from scratch or not. But not at place we are at right now. Maybe in the future but who's to say.

It was really nice getting chance to meet you all. I'm excited to hear that there are still RP Communities that are strong in NWN1. Thank you very much for your time.

If I could trouble you for one more question-

What are the log in names of the players behind Bladesingers on this server?

[Darvins]

Nov 19, 2015 19:32:38 GMT -5 Ryoko Honda said:

We support the bladesinger prestige class, but require a special application for it due to its importance an influence in the elven community.  You will need both an IC mentor and the OOC application.  Also, said applications tend to wait a period of a few months for new players (so that the staff/admins can get to know you better before deciding on the application).  In these cases, after the application is approved, the character may request a relevel to take the class (if they levelled in another class in the interim during the application process).

Alright. Thank you for your answers. This helps  I completely understand the care in the prestige class and the story lore. Me and my Rp partner will have to take all this into consideration. We have character concepts in mind. Alot of our back lore is based around the cursade and being involved as bladesinger already that just don't' exist here or are special restrictions by admins. At this junction it would be question of starting from scratch or not. But not at place we are at right now. Maybe in the future but who's to say.

It was really nice getting chance to meet you all. I'm excited to hear that there are still RP Communities that are strong in NWN1. Thank you very much for your time.

If I could trouble you for one more question-

What are the log in names of the players behind Bladesingers on this server?

I have one that really should be retired but I can't quite give up on him, so if you get stuck on looking for someone give me a nudge. Log in Darvins, usually on either the Human Wizard Rogue, the Wild Elf nearly naked Druid or the suspicously robed Elven woman. If you do run into problems matching times with a Bladesinger as I said feel free to nudge me in game. (that is Erliza, Iyanna or Valar)

[Deleted]

blessedcurse is my login name (although I run around with a few others) I should be back playing a little more after the US Thanksgiving holiday.

I play Kerynar Orbryn (level 14 - 8 of them bladesinger levels) who could take on a student. I would not take on more than one as that would run counter to bladesinger's generally only training one student at a time.

I would say most of the Cormanthor proper is north of the mod. But there is a pretty significant importance to Semberholme. There could be unexplored or hidden danger/magic/lore there, etc. which the remaining elves could need protection from. Other DM events have certainly alluded to that.

[Darvins]

I would add server history wise not helping the Velethuil isolationist slide is the fact that the Elder who would have resisted it died in the final battle against the Matron, and while he died a hero, well he's still dead leaving the Elders far more conservative than they might otherwise have been.

[Ryoko Honda]

Nov 19, 2015 21:06:34 GMT -5  @blessedcursenwn said:

I play Kerynar Orbryn (level 14 - 8 of them bladesinger levels) who could take on a student. I would not take on more than one as that would run counter to bladesinger's generally only training one student at a time.

Yes. I understand that whole one student at a time thing. It would only be my character training. The others ware just part of a Elf House we belong too.

[Fire Wraith]

Just as a side note - while Myth Drannor itself is not a regular part of the server module, we try to take a very expansive view of the Forgotten Realms, and have a second "Events" server for the purpose of running DM events that can take place elsewhere, whether that's a trip to Waterdeep, an expedition to Myth Drannor, or really anywhere we want, either using a large slate of generic areas repurposed for the occasion, or specially importing custom-made ones. The idea behind this is to let us cover the entirety of anywhere we might want, while taking into account the limits of what we can cram into an NWN module or two.

Also, generally speaking we're quite willing to help with arranging things for peoples' storylines - so, just for example, if someone couldn't get a bladesinger sponsor/teacher played by someone, for whatever reason, such as schedule conflicts, we'd figure something out to get around that, such as a DM creating an NPC if need be, rather than leave someone stuck/out in the cold, et cetera.

Lastly, feel free to ask questions at any time, here, via PM, or through tells in game, and we'll be more than happy to help. (I'm usually a good one to pester for this)

[Fire Wraith]

And to add to what Bella said as far as the Timeline goes, we haven't stuck to the official timeline, since we started playing before some of these events came out, and we wanted to let the community (players and DM/Storytellers alike) tell their own stories, and have their own ability to shape the world, rather than feeling chained to only what happened in the Novels/etc - though that doesn't mean we can't or won't use aspects from those things (and we certainly have in the past).

Also, another bladesinger player would be Wittle Dreamer.

Finally, I should emphasize that our goal here is to help people play the kinds of characters they want, and to tell the sorts of stories we want. We do try and keep oversight over things, whether that be special RP focus classes like Bladesinger, unusual subraces, or such - not because we want to restrict them, but because we want to make sure that there's a certain level of quality and understanding of what it means to play that. And to that end, if someone wants to try something, but is unfamiliar, then we'll do our best to help them do so, whether it's by learning more about the class/etc, pointing out things that they may not realize would be an issue, etc, so that it doesn't wind up becoming a problem for them and/or other players.

[Fire Wraith]

I keep thinking of one more thing to add. >.>

As far as items go, magic levels go up to +5, with custom scripted item level limits (so you'd need to be level 20 to use a +5 item, for instance), and the overall level cap is at 30, in rough keeping with the Forgotten Realms setting. There is item customization and enchanting, though much of the customization comes from DMs (in terms of item names and descriptions), and one of our favorite rewards for story development tends to be personalized DM-reward items, which have RP and sentimental value in addition to any magical stats.

Also, there's actual functioning elven chainmail, like so:


They're suitably rare, of course, and elf-only as you'd expect, but they're out there, with their proper weight, dex modifier, et cetera.

[Ryoko Honda]

Thank you so much FireWraith for such a detail information. Chainmail looks great too!

[Fire Wraith]

Sure thing.

Also, part of the reason we haven't incorporated the Crusade yet isn't because we don't ever intend to, but partly because we'd want to let the various elven players have a role in any events surrounding that. The module itself expands to encompass a large chunk of the southern part of the Cormanthor (i.e., the Semberholme part of it), and as such they'd likely not just let it go ignored.

So really, if players are interested and a DM/DMs want to run a story arc for it, we'd be all for it, even if it might not take exactly the same route (and possibly would feature players in more of a starring role, naturally).