Server Proposal: 030 Northdark

[Sandermann]

Enjoy!

http://www.alandfaraway.org/forums/view ... 23&t=45340

[Sandermann]

The Northdark comprises the lands below the north-west corner of Faerun containing some of the most famous and powerful settlements in the underdark. Traders of all races come to the secretive cavern of Mantol Derith to exchange goods, slaves and information, powerful Drow matrons scheme for power and the favour of the spider queen in Menzoberranzan, city of spiders, dour Duergar hammer iron and adamantite into items of immense power in the forge city of Graklstugh and adventurers from both above and below the surface delve into the depths in search of fortune and excitement.

We propose to make this most thrilling and alien of settings available to players of ALFA. With a focus on opening the underdark for surface adventurers to explore as well as providing an environment for races native to the underdark to play in.



The Team

I'm pleased to announce that as well as myself, Paazin, Nuran and SSM have offered their services to the community.

Focus

The map above shows a scaled version of the underdark covered by the Northdark server alongside the parallel surface regions. Of course we don't intend to build all of this region. Our focus will be intially on the region surrounding the Darklake with the settlements of Mantol Derith, Menzoberranzan and Graklstugh with adventuring locations surrounding.

We intend to provide content that allows already extant characters to venture into the realms below as well as a home for drow, duergar and other underdark character races. Our initial build will focus on areas where races can mix rather than on race specific regions, though it is our intention to expand the realms of the drow and duergar after initial launch.

Areas

Our initial build will include the following areas

Mantol Derith: Centered around a large open cavern Mantol Derith is a trading settlement on the shores of the darklake. Strong magic protects Mantol Derith from violence and divinations, no one who sheds blood within its central cavern survives more than a dayas the blood they shed turns against them. Access to the cavern is by password only and this will be scripted into the module.
Four factions maintain permanent holdings within Mantol Derith. Svirfneblin survivors form the ruins of Blingdenstone, Drow merchants from Menzoberranzan, Duergar from Graklstugh and human Zhentarim merchants.
Mantol Derith will serve as the safest and fastest access to the rest of the server, provided the character has discovered the password that allows entry to the cavern or is accompanying one who does.

Menzoberranzan: Initially we intend to present Menzoberranzans Bazaar and Many-Folk districts. The city is ruled by powerful drow Matriarchs and any traveller there is fair game in their schemes and plots, but these areas are the most cosmopolitan and accepting of outsiders.

Graklstugh:A mighty duergar forge-city, Graklstugh is only slightly less dangerous for outsiders than Menzoberranzan. Again we intend to intially build only its merchant quarter, the only part of the city that permits access to non-duergar

Link areas: The three areas above will be linked by a system of caves and caverns, we do not intend to use an overland (or underland) map. The safe routes through these caverns will be changeable, with rockfalls and burrowing creatures opening and closing passages periodically.

Adventure areas: Aside from the "link" areas we will provide at least three large dungeon/cavern systems that serve as adventuring areas. While dangerous encounters can be found anywhere in the underdark, these locales will provide the most challenge and the most reward to successful adventurers. Clearly distinct from travel areas this will hopefully make it less likely a character will accidentally wander into something they cant handle. Though this is a little meta, we feel that in a perma death environment it provides a fair balance between risk and fun.

Creatures
We will create a palette of unique and unusual creatures (appearance types allowing) that are blanaced and have thoroughly tested challenge rating values. It is our aim to have animal and vermin spawns handled by an automated spawn system similar to the dynamic population spawn system developed for use on the Baldurs Gate server. As well as this DMs will seed areas with unique spawns manually, meaning the server will have a wholly unpredictable and more intelligent distribution of creatures. We feel this will add a level of danger and uncertainty that will heighten the tension and risk of adventuring. This will also reduce resource load on the server as it will not be running nearly as many spawn scripts as would be the case with a scripted, waypoint based spawn system. It will also allow us to more accurately monitor player activity and adjust the behaviour of creatures accordingly.


The team is aware of conceerns over player density. That is why our plan is to aim to cater for a mainly transient population of adventurers who pass thorugh the underdark looking for fame and riches. We will of course be delighted to see resident players of underdark races on the server and will cater fully for them, but we do not want to focus an inordiante amount of attention onto a very small number of PCs. We want Northdark to be for everyone, not just a handful of drow or duergar with everyone else essentially an outsider. We hope this aim can be taken in the light it is intended and not as any kind of disparigment upon players who wish to play drow or duergar.

Please make your comments and leave your ideas, we are still in planning stages and we are open to new ideas.

Many thanks
The 030 Northdark team

[Swift]

This server will be even more awesome should it come to pass that ALFA allows 1 Surface and 1 Underdark character per player, as this will give two underdark servers for those that choose to take that option.

[Veilan]

This server will be even more awesome should it come to pass that ALFA allows 1 Surface and 1 Underdark character per player, as this will give two underdark servers for those that choose to take that option.