Whats your Profession?

One thing I always thought was missing from NWN and especially persistent worlds was the Profession Skill. I thought part of actually being in a world that was around 24/7 was that you had to somehow make a living during those times when you were not out adventuring. In fact some "adventurers" could be considered no more than a professional who gets tangled up in the world around them.

As characters we already have at our disposal a myriad of skills, features and class abilities, which allow us to create marvelous items or perform amazing tasks. All of these "actions" have been carefully designed as part of the system so that you can use them to interact with the world in a fair and structured way which allows for competition and challenge. What isn't generally covered by this however are the actions which are generally considered less notable as those the class uses all the time, and in fact often these actions are simply taken for granted as being common.

With NWN, these actions are generally the result of executing scripts that are triggered either through placeables or via dialog options. Within these actions there may be skill tests or ability checks which are considered to indicate how successful a person is at the task, but they never take into account the experience a person may have at performing that action or how often they have performed it in the past.

Profession Skill = Experienced at Actions
Essentially if we formalize all of the mundane "actions" that can be performed within the world, things which we often take for granted like foraging or mining ore from a rock, skinning an animal or even trying to haggle for a better price, we can easily see that having a specific profession would give you an advantage with a sub-set of those actions simply due to the fact that they perform those actions often while going about their business. Thus a guard is more skilled at keeping an eye out for trouble, a blacksmith can smelt metal, and a sailor can judge the direction they are travelling.

Whats more, but the Craft Skills may also have a certain subset of actions which they often use in the crafting of items. Wouldn't it therefore make sense that if one could craft metal that they would also be in a profession like being a blacksmith? The two are not mutually exclusive and while the difference has always been stated as one produces an item and the other does not, what is performed in both can have a high level of synergy. While one does not need to know how to smelt metal to be a crafter of weapons, it is a handy thing to be able to do and thus they would invest time in learning a trade that gives them such abilities.

By assigning actions to specific professions we now make the profession a useful part of a character's being, and while it may only be something they did before they became an adventurer, those abilities may find good use when they are roaming the world, or it may provide a bit of extra money when you are resting up from a bad injury.

Differentiating Craft from Profession
Of course this may blur the line between craft and profession even more, especially when actions may belong to one or more of them, and certain professions seem to be directly related to a specific craft, but the reality is that a profession is more than just a craft, and while you may end up making something at the end of it, what you make and how good it is falls completely under the banner of "craft", while the way you go about doing it, and the additional steps inbetween that lead up to it are considered to fall under the banner of "profession".

Take Alchemy as a craft vs Apothecary as a profession. Both of them deal with alchemical and magical concoctions and liquids, and yet while they overlap they also diverge. An apothecary does not necessarily have to make their own potions or chemicals, they simply have to know how to recognize them, how to manipulate them and anything else that is required to deal with them, while leaving the actual making of the items up to the crafter. The alchemist on the other hand would naturally have a fair knowledge of chemicals and processes to be able to create such items, but generally could only recognize such components when they are sitting in front of him in a bottle that is clearly marked. Not all alchemists would know where to find certain materials and certainly wouldn't know what a white powder was just by studying it. Thus the Apothecary becomes the identifier and processor of materials, while the Alchemist is the user of those materials for the creation of items. Of course being both is a bonus, not only do you know what to do with them, but you also know where to find them and how to prepare them, thus rounding out the complete life cycle from beginning to end... but how many alchemists actually have time to gather their own materials?

Use of Abilities/Skills/Feats
The other interesting aspect of these "actions" is that they still require structure and the use of skill checks, ability checks and feats, etc. Thus while being of a certain profession may give you an advantage because you have many ranks in that profession, being able to substitute that level of experience with some impressive abilities is also possible. In this way the career professional can keep pace with the adventuring dabbler, one having reached mastery through dedication to the task at hand, while the other has excelled at doing what they do and pulling it all together when the need arises.

Professions place the character in the world
One of the things I like most about the way professions will be handled is that it actually puts the character into the world. It gives them something to do beyond just adventuring which more often than not will lead them into better places. The world is full of people going about their business, eeking out a living and plying their trade. Sometimes I think adventurers forget that they were once simple people too, that they had a day job, they worked to put food on the table and they were actually quite good at what they did before wanderlust took them and they found more enjoyment from brushing cobwebs out of their eyes than from tilling a field or trading furs with a merchant.

Crafters, Merchants and Hunters OH MY!

One aspect of "True Persistence" is the ability to have player-controlled merchant stores. These stores are controlled and run by players and allow them to stock items which can be sold to other players or purchased by NPCs via the Economy and Loot & Treasure Sub-systems. While most Persistent Worlds either ignore this functionality or create a very limited and restrictive form of it, the Tabula Rasa NWN2 PW Template will not only embrace it, but also turn it into a viable aspect of role-playing which has not been done to this extent previously from what I can tell.

The Crafter's Perspective

While not getting into the specifics of crafting, the crafter is the first part of this economic cycle. Components are either collected, extracted, created, or purchased and then used to craft useful items. These items are created because the crafter perceives a "demand" for them. At this point there is nothing stopping the crafter from entering into direct negotiations with a customer to purchase the item, however this can become time consuming and ultimately "hit and miss" for the crafter who is more interested in spending time in the workshop honing his skills than he is roaming around the city looking for potential customers (Something the local guards would not take kindly to without a license).

This is where the second phase of the cycle comes in, and a crafter can approach a merchant or store and attempt to set up a trade deal to supply items in return for gold. This is good for the crafter because it provides a consistent place through which to sell their items and gives an instant injection of funds to be used for other crafts, while leaving the merchant to have an outlay of cash and to wait the time necessary to sell the item.

There is of course nothing stopping a crafter from obtaining his own store or business (Providing there is a need for it, the city approves the request, and the crafter has the funds to set it up and keep it going) and selling his items directly to customers, but this is a bigger undertaking which requires him to pay for someone to manage the store while he is off crafting and requires him to split his time between crafting and managing. Thus the crafter has to weigh up the benefits of bypassing the merchants profit margin, with the detriments of having a higher running cost and management need.

The Merchant Perspective

If crafting isn't your thing, but you have a good eye for goods and a knack for business, then you may choose instead to become a merchant. As a merchant you have basically purchased a business and have a license to trade through a store or shop. You are free to put whatever items you want in the store and these can be obtained by any means that are available to you.

It could mean that your store is a "General Store" where all of your looted items can be sold, or a "Rarity Store" where only rare and unique items are sold, a bookstore, or just about any purpose you can think of. You are not however restricted to stocking the store yourself, and you may either seek other adventurers, offering to purchase their trinkets and baubles, you may enter into agreements with crafters to supply you with crafted items, or you can instruct the manager/assistant of your store to put up a notice board of items that you are prepared to buy.

This last options allows you to set up a list of items (Including quantity and price) which you are interested in obtaining, and have the shop itself manage the collection of those items. Once your quantities are reached, the store will no longer accept that item and new items can be added at any time. Special arrangements can also be made with hunters to maintain their loyalty to your shop and encourage them to supply you instead of your competition, or any common adventurer that is browsing your business may find that they just happen to have something you want.

There are several interesting features which are available to all merchants, which are designed to allow them to create their own economic strategies in order to compete with other merchants. The ability to configure and run every aspect of the business is available through a web interface which interfaces directly with the database and reduces the need for the server to handle a large amount of processing that it simply does not need to do.

Firstly, the merchant has available to them 3 separate stores, which can each be configured differently and have different mark ups to allow the merchant to arrange their goods effectively. Each of these stores can be named as the merchant sees fit and the name should generally reflect the purpose it will be used for. Whether this is for Premium products, or a clearance bin, or a reduced markup for best selling items, this gives the merchant enough flexibility to sell the items at the right price, while allowing customers more options in buying items or trying to find the best deal.

Secondly, merchants are able to hire staff to run the store as well as set up security to protect the items from theft or robbery, both while the store is open and to protect the stock at night when the store is closed. This provides another aspect to role-playing which pits the intelligence and resourcefulness of the merchants against that of local thieves. A range of options will be available, from trying to use deception or concealment, brute force, dangerous traps, or by paying off the local thieves guild to leave you alone. There will however be rules in place to stop griefing or exploitation from occurring, but security should be considered a necessary cost of running a store and any merchant who ignores it, does so at their own peril.

Thirdly, merchants are able to set up arrangements with various other people, from crafters to supply items, hunters to supply components, and even customers to give them a discount for repeated business. Arrangements can also be made for specific guilds or groups as well as racial types. These options allow merchants to market their items to customers in a variety of ways.

Lastly, merchants may establish trade agreements with merchants at other locations based on the need for certain goods in these places. These then require transportation to deliver those goods which in itself generates a quest that other players may undertake as part of their adventuring.

The Hunter Perspective

While it is perfectly natural for an adventurer to make their way in the world to seek fame and fortune, more often than not adventurers head out into the world to put their skills to good use in retrieving items that are valued or sequestered by other. This then makes them "Hunters" who see a profit in hard to get supplies or components which are dangerous to come across (Usually because some poor creature has to die to provide it). This becomes quite a lucrative lifestyle which fits in nicely with the roaming nature of some adventurers, allowing them to travel and seek adventure, while knowing someone needs the items you are bringing back and will pay handsomely for your services in retrieving it.

Of course there is nothing stopping the hunter from trying to sell such items himself, but again he faces the same problems as the crafter in getting a reliable and consistent means of turning their hard earned gains into gold in order to fund the next trip. As with the crafter, there is nothing stopping the hunter from setting up their own business and trying to cut out the middle man by selling their items directly to the public, but the same problems occur again in having to split your time between managing the business and being out in the world chasing down the stock and not being able to pass on instructions to your staff back home.

Thus it becomes more reasonable for the hunter to either work freelance and browse the merchants and crafters looking someone who wants their goods, or to set up trade agreements with them based on a mutually beneficial set of terms. This could include a discount to the store which allows them to purchase items to take with them on the hunt, to an agreed price for the number of items that are brought back.

Economic Strategy and Counter Strategy

All of this functionality is designed in line with the Template Philosophies and is built specifically to entertain a different style of play for those who want viable alternatives to combat that still provide a richness of options and role-playing opportunities as well as interaction between players in a less aggressive and confrontational way. With the tools at the players discretion, they are able to set up a strategy for maximizing their profits and cornering the market in the area they have chosen to specialize in. Other players may counter these strategies with ones of their own, and thus competition is created and the end customer is rewarded with a large range of items available for the best possible price given the supply and demand of such items.

This not only interacts with the economy and trade of the world, but it provides an additional source for adventurers to find things to do, as well as give them an interaction which is not controlled by the computer and thus static and structured.

How many characters per player?

There seems to be this trend on persistent worlds where you are allow you to create an unlimited number of characters. By even allowing 2 characters per player on the same persistent world you automatically open yourself up to forms of cheating like muling or transferring. Rules are put in place to try and prevent this kind of cheating, but none of them are truly effective.

So it begs the question as to why any server would allow multiple characters, what unfulfilled need is being propped up by this decision, and why this trend has developed when it seems to be completely opposite to the way in which normal role-playing games have been played.

The original concept

I like to always take Pen and Paper role-playing as a baseline, even when trying to migrate its philosophies into a computer environment, so the best place to start as to why this trend may have developed is here. With PnP you always had just one character (I will consider being part of multiple groups or DMs making the decision to allow multiple characters as exceptions to the norm), and you kept this character and developed them over a series of adventures. You grew attached to your character as they progressed and the thought of even wanting to have a second or third or twentieth character to choose from (especially in the same game world) just seems absurd.

Action and Consequence

So what would cause a person to lose enough interest in their character and the adventure they are on, that they feel the need to supplement their experience with multiple other characters? The only thing I can come up with is that the translation from PnP to an online Persistent World somehow reduces either the interest a person has for their character, or the adventure they are on is not compelling enough to make them want to see their character through it. This may either be the direct result of the system itself (ie classes in NWN are essentially just ability containers, practically none of the social or related implications of belonging to a class are ever put into the games), or indirectly by the contents of the persistent world and the way it has been designed.

Firstly, adventures in PnP are tailored to the party, to the point where you know that each character is capable of completing the adventure otherwise what is the point playing? On a Persistent World however, the world exists first, and the characters come later. One is not based or tailored on the other and thus it is quite easy for the world to put in place barriers that only certain classes or power levels are able to get through. In this instance, the only choice a player has is to create different characters for different parts of the game world, tailoring each of them for the specific areas where a particular ability or power level is the only thing between life and death.

As is often the case, having too much at your disposal at one time devalues everything, because there is no difficulty in obtaining each choice, and in fact any choice is void of consequences as you can pick from anything at all times. This holds true for multiple characters, as there is nothing stopping a player from creating a whole range of characters at once. What is the value of picking a wizard or a drow when all options are always available. If instead the player had to make a choice about which character to create, and this choice was something they were stuck with until that character died, then they put all of their focus on the one character and the decision brings value to that character.

Sadly this has a secondary consequence in creating characters which are not well rounded, but instead custom built for one task and one task alone. This cycle then self-perpetuates, forcing the developers of the persistent world to beef up the monsters because custom builds are tearing them to shreds easily, which forces more players to create these custom builds, which forces the developers to respond again. Now you end up with a never ending pattern where the only losers are those who have actually created a fully fledged character in their own right, as they can no longer survive in any of these specialty areas due to the super-boosting they have received because of a select few.

Problems eliminated

As was briefly mentioned in the opening, the ability to have multiple characters per player in the same world instantly creates a whole host of problems and makes it possible for a variety of negative actions which all have to be countered or griefing and cheating will run rife.

Muling

With only one character active at a time, you can no longer use one character to be a glorified holder of items. Its impossible to write a script to prevent this without building in some serious overheads in the module (like the name of who owned/dropped every item). This problem is automatically nullified now.

Transferring

This involves building one character up and then transferring the resources of that character to a freshly created character who wouldn't have access to these resources normally. Allowing this basically forces monster development to create more powerful monsters, otherwise those who cheat in this way have the advantage of being able to overcome monsters that characters without this advantage would never get. This in turn indirectly leads more people to do it and a vicious cycle is started again. As before, this problem is automatically nullified.

Uber Griefing

When multiple characters are allowed, a player who wishes to grief others (or seek revenge for being griefed) will naturally want to use the most powerful character to commit the crime, otherwise they risk not being successful in disrupting other peoples enjoyments. Eliminating this automatically eliminates the ability to grief in this way.

Reversing this trend

So it seems logical that by reversing these problems and stopping these cycles it would alleviate the reasons behind players either want to or needing to create additional characters and return things to the way they used to be with PnP.

Value Added Classes and Races

All too often people choose classes and races for their abilities and how they blend with the abilities of other classes they have already chosen. What should be a decision based on "What kind of character do I want them to be", is reduced to "what are the uber-abilities I want and how do I pick classes to get them". NWN indirectly promotes this philosophy by making classes primarily about their abilities and neglecting the social or related aspects of being a member of that class, as well as allowing players to select classes regardless of whether it makes sense or not (penalizing them a few XP at worst).

To alleviate this classes are no longer something that you simply select when levelling up and instantly gaining all of the required abilities, nor are they something you can pick on a whim. The only class you are able to do this with is your starting class where any required training is considered to have been done prior to you starting your adventuring life at level 1. Gaining levels from this point onward now has additional requirements on top of the pre-requisites which confirms that you have the knowledge necessary to gain the level of the class you require. You are still free to join any class that is available to you, but only if you have done the ground work first. This means that progressing your character is now something you do throughout your adventure, not just during the levelling screen, and as a result an additional interface is provided to show you the progress towards your desired next level, as well as what classes are available for them to multi-class in (some combinations are simply not allowed due to not being appropriate like Paladins and Rogues)

In addition to this, certain classes have social aspects which form part of their definition. Clerics obviously must belong to a church, monks belong to an order, to become a shadow dancer you will probably have to join a guild that has a shadow branch who can teach you those specialist abilities. Some classes may find it beneficial to be part of a group or guild, such as a wizard who joins a guild in order to gain access to the guilds resources. Certain classes like Paladins or Divine Champions pride themselves on their professions and outwardly display who they are to the world. They are recognized as such and people may react differently to them as a result. Thus choosing a class is more than simply choosing what package of abilities you want, it brings with it some form of presence in the world and connects them to various aspects in the world which are used to generate future adventure for them.

The idea here is also that certain features of the persistent world are only available to members of certain races or classes, as well as the ability to select certain races and classes being restricted via Character Points. Classes and races therefore bring with them unique play possibilities which help in keeping things fresh and less "repetitive" between characters.

Variety is the spice of life

Another problem often comes by the lower levels being very boring to progress through, and there only being a finite number of epic level adventures to complete which are build specific due to the uber cycle we have discussed previously. Thus players see less value in individual characters because they do not reflect a concept or a personality they want to play, but are instead a "tool" that is used to overcome a specific obstacle. Now they are considered a tool, you want to have a variety of tools that you can use in specific situations... after all you only use the right tool for the job.

By making the journey through levels more interesting, with more non-combat options, and goals other than simply gaining experience and gold, it shouldn't matter to the player what character, class or level they are playing because the enjoyment gained is just as high for all combinations and levels. By shifting the focus in this way, its the interaction with the persistent world, its variety and its depth which keeps people coming back, not getting their 12th character to epic so they can put them on the shelf and start a new one.

Increasing Difficulty without creating Uber-Creatures

Classes are not the only ones who suffer from not being connected to the world, monsters are also turned into nothing more than a collection of combat abilities and thrown at the characters with a certain CR which serves no other purpose than indicating how much XP to dish out. With this being the case, monsters simply gain more abilities and counters to characters uber-abilities instead of actually making them more difficult to overcome. What this does is simply make the monster only beatable by a custom build that is made for no other reason than to overcome them. What is the point of even having feats like devastating critical if every major monster in the world is immune to critical hits? Or immune to Missile Storm or the bigby spells? Isn't it better to make the acquiring of those uber-abilities more difficult than nerfing them by making anything of consequence immune to their effects?

So monsters too bring with them more than just their abilities and powers. They have an intelligence and use certain tactics, and they use them because those tactics are suited to their nature and have allowed them to survive for so long in the world. Why would a dragon who has been seriously injured stay on the ground and continue to fight in a melee when they could simply fly away to lick their wounds? Why would a wizard who has the ability to teleport put themselves in harms way unless they have to? The CR (and thus the reward) of the monster should not strictly relate to the difficulty in beating it in combat directly, but also in the difficulty of actually overcoming the tactics that it generally uses to protect itself. Major monsters usually have their own followers, underlings or minions, and having to overcome a horde of these before even getting to take on the antagonist should all be part of how challenging they are.

By making monsters "smarter" rather than "harder", it doesn't come down to the one with the greater power or the right combination of abilities that wins, and opens it up for a greater variety of characters and classes to be able to overcome.

Countering Character Loss

Of course by increasing the value and attachment a player has to a character, we are also increasing the potential for loss and suffering when a character actually does die. This is another reason why various other mechanics that have already been discussed are put in place. Things like Escaping Death and gaining Character Points for retiring characters are all there to counter any negative reaction caused by restricting players from only having one active character.

In addition to this, a character who has died and passed to the afterlife, or one who has reached the maximum level and been retired still have the opportunity to be played by the character even while they have an active character. This of course is by invitation only, or in special circumstances where a deity has sent a dead character back to the world of the living to perform a specific task.

A Brief introduction to Death and Dying

Just to keep things rolling I wanted to give a very brief introduction to the Death Sub-System and more importantly how it functions in conjunction with the "Escaping Death" rules. The easiest way of showing how it works is to give you a work flow of what happens when you reach 0 Hit Points.

Character Points and the "gamer" in all of us

While its wonderful to focus on role-playing and immerse yourself in the character and the world, something I have always been mindful of is the fact that this is still a game, and as such there is still a need to satisfy the basic needs of a gamer as they play the module. Philosophically speaking, satisfaction from playing a game generally comes from two related areas: Advancement and accumulation. When you think about it, just about every game that is played can be reduced to these two very primal concepts for deriving enjoyment.

Advancement

In its simplest form, the further you get through a game the more you enjoy it. After all, the aim of most games is to overcome obstacles and journey through the game until you complete it. Whether this is by advancing through the levels, taking part in new or more difficult challenges, completing the story, or levelling up your character, we get a sense of enjoyment by somehow making progress and we continue to play the game because we have this sense of moving forward. Of course anything which can be enjoyed, can also cause frustration, hurt or disappointment when things go wrong. When advancement stops or even goes backwards it isn't fun, and when a lot of time and/or effort has gone into reaching the point you have, it is understandable that some sense of loss or grief is felt when this happens.

For CRPGs I think this concept becomes even more critical. The focus is placed so firmly on the character, their advancement in level and their progress through the game world that any setback or loss strikes a major blow. The loss of a character who dies means advancement has completely stopped and all is lost. The though of having to go through the long process of rebuilding a character from scratch, starting at 1st level and struggling is a bitter pill to swallow. Even if resurrection is used there is still a loss of experience which must be regained in order to get back to the level you were at previously.

Accumulation

In a way, accumulation is a form of advancement, however it is measured in a different way. Whether its a high score, or gold coins, or an abundance of equipment, the more that is accumulated the more one either feels as if they have advanced or has the means to advance as a result. This accumulation may then be traded for other items, which may again offer avenues for advancement that were not previously available.

As before however, this is also vulnerable to causing hurt or disappointment when that which you have accumulated is lost. Its one thing to choose to give something away, another to have it taken away from you. If the loss seems harsh or steep then the grief caused by this can sometimes feel real, as if you have actually lost something you owned.

Perhaps this has been fostered by years of playing arcade games that have an ever increasing score, or perhaps its just the modern world mentality of being happier the more you have, but ultimately any loss like this is palpable.

For CRPGs this is also a critical concept, which focuses primarily on the equipment and gold that a character has. For this reason most persistent worlds have rules against stealing other peoples items, and it has long been considered that once you have your hands on an item, it remains with you unless you choose to give it away. This mentality reinforces the loss that is felt if ever an item is taken against the players will or is lost as a result of the player dying or becoming unconscious. Waking to find every item you have taken may even be enough to cause some players to stop playing altogether.

How does the Template combat this?

With the template I wanted to take a different approach. Instead of pandering to this pre-established concept of advancement and accumulation I wanted to turn things on their head. I wanted to find a way in which the "in-game" reality wasn't so harshly changed by the "meta-game" need for gamers to enjoy playing the game. After all, I don't think that the workings of the game world itself should have to be moulded to fit into the needs of a gamer, especially when the template is so finely focused on the role-playing aspect. There still had to be rewards however, rewards that gave the sense of advancement and accumulation without forcing the game itself to change as a result.

The first step in doing this comes from looking at the psychology of enjoyment and loss, in the context of these two factors. In order to feel either enjoyment we must have something invested in what we are doing. If the character has no meaning to us then advancement has no meaning either. It is because of this investment however that we also have the ability to feel loss. As we are invested in the character, anything which detracts from them or stops them makes us suffer as a result. So to alleviate the loss without threatening the investment we need to try and shift the value that is invested or have some kind of reward to compensate for any loss that is suffered. By doing this any loss is minimized or offset and enjoyment can continue.

Loss of Equipment or Accumulation

To minimize the loss of equipment or gold the general focus needs to be shifted away from the equipment and placed back on the character. All too often in Persistent Worlds and CRPGs in general is the "Monty haul" syndrome. In these situations it becomes less and less about the character and more and more about what equipment they have and how good it is. This is personified by the fact that advancement to new areas or to combat new opponents is generally only possible through the use of bigger and better equipment. The final nail in the coffin is struck by having uber-items that come with a multitude of properties which basically gives a huge advantage to the person who has it over someone who doesn't. Here an impossible value has been placed on the equipment while the poor character is completely forgotten.

The template alleviates this by redirecting the focus back to the character. The Item Sub-system is designed to keep items in check and make them beneficial to the character without making them absolutely essential. The expanded set of skills, feats, spells and abilities the character has available to them means that equipment plays a smaller role in template modules than it does elsewhere. By doing this, the loss of any given item or any amount of gold is minimized by the fact that the true value is in the character. While it may have been nice to have that item, the fact it is gone isn't the end of the world because it isn't the "be-all-and-end-all-uber-item" which turns you from a weak peon to a superhero. While the item is lost, the character still has their home, their business, their ability to earn money, other equipment they have stored in a safe place, their knowledge and skills and the power within themselves to continue to explore the world.

The intention is for characters to go out into the world and adventure "lightly", taking with them only the things they need for the journey and leaving everything else safely kept behind lock and key. Keeping the character light means that at the very worst, if everything was lost to them that they could still function and regain useful items as they scrabble to regain composure.

Escaping Death Principle

Of course by shifting the focus as we have, we are placing more value on the character themselves, which in turn would increase the sense of loss felt if the character were to die. Of course we could be like every other persistent world that automatically resurrects you when you die, smacks you on the hand, takes some of your gold, sets you back a few experience points and sends you on your way, but what enjoyment would be in the game if we did that? The suspension of disbelief is driven home and the real game world has now been shaped to suit the desires of the gamer, not the joys of a role-player. Now the "game" has intruded so much upon the real world that we are reinforcing the concepts of advancement and accumulation.

The solution has to be something we can believe in, something that is realistic, and yet still holds risk and the
possibility of loss otherwise why would we fear it? It is at this point that movies come to mind, how the hero somehow manages to always find a way to survive. No matter what the odds, or how bleak things look, somehow they manage to escape death at the last minute. Even when it looks like they are dead, we discover to our joy and amazement that they are only near death and that by some miracle they have managed to cling to the world of the living. While we may scoff a little at the implausibility of the odds in escaping death so often, we cannot deny that it "is" technically possible, and if anyone is likely to do it, it would be the heroes or villains of the day that could manage it.

This is where I have developed the "Escaping Death Principle" as part of the Death Sub-system. This principle basically states that when a character dies, they are considered to have "escaped death" in some way. Whether this means they wake up under a mass of bodies, mistaken for someone who is dead, dragged back to the lair of the creature awaiting to be their dinner, or taken prisoner by their enemy and thrown in a jail cell, they are not quite dead. There is a vast amount of randomness here however, and there is the possibility that they may wake up without any of their possessions. Thus the element of risk is kept, the feeling of believability remains, but the loss of a character is kept to a minimum.

Whats more, this principle opens up the possibility for role-play and adds richness to the game world by making even death a doorway to possibilities. You could awaken to find yourself the captive of a rogue who was passing by, who seeks "compensation" for nursing you back to health, or you could find yourself being kept for "material" to construct a flesh golem by an evil wizard, or you may even find yourself waking up in a nearby church, resurrected by the local priest whom you now owe a favour too.

The ability to escape death is not endless however. If there wasn't at least some point at which death becomes
permanent then any risk is only fleeting and people would at no point truly feel the weight of life the way they should in a game. It is far easier to be resurrected or returned to life via magic, at least knowing you have all your equipment than leaving it up to the fates to decide what happens. But there is only so many times the fates will step in and help you. This is where the concept of Character Points comes in.

Character Points

Finally I have reached the topic that has gotten you to read this far. What are they? What do they do? How do you use them? Where exactly is the character pointing???

Character points are a purely "meta-gaming" concept. They have absolutely no existence in the game world, nor are they accumulated for game world reasons. Instead character points are used to satisfy the needs of the gamer in the real world, and to provide that sense of accumulation and an avenue through which they can advance.

At the end of the day we have still effectively put the focus on the character, and the eventual loss of that character (as all characters must one day die) will hurt no matter what. Thus in order to reduce that loss and to provide an avenue for future advancement, the character point becomes the reward. So the focus is finally shifted back onto the player in the form of character points, and their accumulation of them. The player then has the option to spend these character points where they see fit, providing them with avenues to advance or accumulate more. So no longer is the whole purpose about getting your character to the highest level possible, but about the players experience over time with various characters, all enhanced through the gaining and spending of character points.

Spending Points

During character creation, only certain races and classes will be available for "free". These represent the most common races and classes in the game world. All others will have a character point cost associated with them. Whenever a character finally dies, the loss is diminished by allowing the player to choose from more races and classes with the character points they have. Whats more, but the player can also choose background options with character points that may provide them a greater advancement than they had with their previous character. This could mean starting with higher wealth, a house, established friends or allies, be in a respected position or some other benefit that can only be gained through character points. Not only does this reward those who have spent a lot of time on the server, building characters and role-playing well, but it also puts value into various races and classes by making them harder to obtain unless you have already "put in the hard yards". In this respect it increases the reward of advancement and accumulation without providing any negatives.

When a player dies, they are taken to Limbo where they are caught between worlds, still attached to their corporeal forms in some way. During this period, party members can resurrect them or bring them back from the dead. If however they are not brought back then the player must decide what to do. They can either allow their spirit to disconnect from the body, ending the life of their character, or they can spend a character point and instead "Escape Death" in some miraculous way. Thus as long as they have character points they are able to come back from the dead. No longer will there be magical auto-resurrection, no longer will there be an infinite number of times they can come back. This provides the sense of value in the lives of the characters by having perma-death a real possibility, while not being too harsh in making their life so fragile and easy to snuff out.

There may be other times throughout the game where character points can be spent. All of these will be considered major situations where a great loss could result. To protect against that loss character points are spent to show the favour of the gods or some unbelievable level of luck which allowed them to prevail.

Gaining Points

So how do you actually gain points? The process all starts when you enter the server for the first time. You are given a modest amount of character points which you can either choose to spend straight away on race/class selection, or you could "save" to build up for a future character. You may even spend some of them on some background options for your character. It is recommended that the very first character you make is made without spending any points. Not only does this you the most points for the following character, but it allows you to experience the template at its lowest level. As repeating the process of starting new characters becomes tedious and repetitive, having character points to spend means that you open up a greater choice of races, classes and background options which vary the advancement of your new characters enough to make it interesting.

When a character dies for good, you are awarded a number of character points to compensate for their loss. The number of points you gain is based on how well you role-played that character and the level of advancement they achieved during their life. Thus the death of a high level character would grant the player more points because the loss is considered more pronounced. In any case, the player will be awarded more points than what a starting player would receive, thus increasing the feeling of advancement and accumulation.

It is also possible for a player to "retire" a character instead. Once a character has reached the highest level
possible, and the player wants to start a new character, then their current one can be retired. In doing so they are granted "half" of the character points they would if they died, but in return they can be used every now and then for special events or high level adventures. This allows players the chance to keep their old heroes while not making it open season and allowing them to create hundreds of characters that are all played concurrently.

Points are also gained from good role-playing. They could be granted by a DM who has witnessed an event where the player role-played well, or the template itself may offer them as a result of certain actions being taken. A lawful good paladin who sacrifices his life to close the portal to hell and save the world is given a character point reward for their heroism, a character who takes action that fits their alignment or abilities but causes them some form of loss would be rewarded character points in compensation. The point being that any loss which is made for role-playing reasons above "gaming" reasons is offset by rewarding them accordingly

Persistence Offline

Something else I wanted to bring up, especially in the context of a Persistent World, is why the only method of
interacting with the world is through the NWN client itself. Surely if the world is to be truly persistent then the lives of the characters are still active when people are not connected to the server? Isn't this the time when the D&D manuals say you should used for the more mundane parts of life like polishing your sword, oiling your armour, or carrying out that "profession" skill that you have to earn money?

Yet for most persistent worlds, when you log out of your session your character effectively disappears from the world without a trace, and leaves absolutely nothing behind. Can it truly be considered a persistent world with this being the case? How does a player feel as if their character's have actual lives when persistence only counts while they are there?

Concept of True Persistence

To tackle this problem you first need to understand that all characters have a place in the world. They came from somewhere, they live somewhere and when they are not adventuring they need to be somewhere. As I said earlier, the purpose of the template and the target audience is not the same as your usual Persistent World. Here I am not targeting a world that has thousands of players in it, or a place where people can drop in and out of a server for a few hours every few weeks and pick up where they left off. The purpose of this template was is for a high quality role-playing experience where there are fewer players who interacted with the world on a greater level. The intention therefore being that each server is set up to handle a specific part of the game world, allowing for a richer experience on each server.

To meet this goal, every character in the game has a physical place in the world, somewhere they either live or a room at the local inn. They may own property, or businesses, or even a house or estate. When a player ends their session and they are in a civilized location it is assumed that this reflects the characters "down time". The time that they spend offline is considered an abstraction of mundane tasks that they would not do while they are online. This could include researching libraries, honing skills, working professions, and recovering from injuries.

Player vs Player Interaction

This of course raises the question of how characters interact with other characters when their player is not online. I am hoping that the ability to clone a character will be at a mature enough state (as it was in the Hordes of the Underdark expansion for NWN 1) to present players with an AI controlled version of their character which others can interact with. The intention is for the clones to have mundane lives which show them using their down time in the manner they have specifically indicated. This could mean finding them studying at the library or working at their store, or on the furnace crafting weapons.

Player vs Player Problem

Of course having their items exposed in the game world, and clones of them walking around without the player being there opens up the whole issue of players trying to harass or exploit other players. On large persistent worlds with hundreds of players (especially those who care very little for role-playing) this is indeed a large problem, however the focus of the template is done specifically to discourage this kind of play and it is hoped that the audience is mature enough to both understand and deal with the possibilities that arise from true persistence.

1. Those using the server will be focused on role-playing, not just the facade of role-playing to cover their tracks
2. The entire way in which everything from equipment to monsters are handled reduces the focus on the need for items and makes it more about the characters themselves
3. The "Character vs Character Sub-system" will implement both in-game and meta-gaming rules to reduce problems
4. It is understood that worlds that use the template have been designed to be more open and accessible and that this kind of interaction should be welcomed instead of seen as being a detractor

So what does this effectively mean? It means that players are encouraged to both take appropriate measures to protect what is theirs, as well as initiate appropriate role-playing which may involve taking things from other players. It shouldn't be taken lightly however, as most civilized areas will not hesitate to quickly crack down on theft or unruly behaviour inside their walls and it wont be long before those who engage in it too often are considered outlaws and are no longer able to move freely about town without being harassed by the local militia.

At the end of the day, gross mis-matches of skill or levels, where one player could easily overcome anything a lower level had in place is stopped before it starts via meta-gaming rules. Those who choose to break those rules are punished for doing so, and anyone who chooses to make their characters entire career about seeking out and targeting other characters will soon find themselves severely penalized. While some may find this unfair, this is not, nor has ever intended to be an "open for all" type of persistent world. The way in which several systems are structured, those who seek to power level, power game, or who want to avoid role-playing will quickly become bored with the way the world works and lose interest, while those who truly wish to experience the world and explore the role-playing potential of it will find it refreshing and engaging and not even notice the restrictions that are in place as a result.

Web-Based Interface

One thing I want to stand out with any Persistent World that is created with the template, is the fact that you can interact with the world at any time and at any place. Just because you are not sitting in front of your graphically powerful computer playing the NWN client shouldn't mean that you cannot in some way interact with the game world. The fact that the persistence part of the world is all managed by an external database means that a web interface can be created to allow you access to those things which make sense to be controlled when your offline.

One important feature that I do want to put into the web interface is that the interface reflects your character as closely as possible. This means that some options or screens may be available to you because of your race or class, they could be available because you have taken certain feats, they may be attached to a skill you have or a spell you have researched. The interface may even be specifically adjusted to your characters intelligence and wisdom, providing more complex mechanisms or abilities the better their faculties are.

Thus a very intelligent store owner is able to finely control his store as well as get a detailed analysis of the stock and the sales (reflecting his keen mind and ability to understand all of this), while the dumb orc barely has enough options to go to the local tavern or watch the ducks. A wise person may have options to try and glean information out of books they read, a charismatic person may have options to gather as much information as possible, etc. All too often characters are created with unrealistic attributes that utilize the intelligence of the player to overcome the limitations. This will hopefully be eliminated with this kind of interface.

Professions / Crafting

This is where things like professions come in handy, as they constitute what you do when your not out adventuring. The same is also said for crafters, both of whom have to keep their businesses running when they are not out adventuring. If you own a business, then part of the web interface will provide you a means to control that business when you are offline. This allows you to manage and tweak aspects of it as well as receive and send messages to other players who have made requests.

Thus a crafter could queue up several items they wish to make (or have been requested to make by other players), set up what items they need in stock and how much they are willing to pay for them. As crafting will not be a "quick fix" where players are able to craft several items instantly, this then becomes an important feature for those wishing to become crafters and frees up the sever itself from having to control the entire crafting process.

By handling professions and crafting in this manner, it is now possible to implement the TRUE D&D rules which cover these facets of a character, as well as allowing your character to have a life outside of adventuring.

Store Owners

Those who own stores will be able to view the current stock, adjust markups, change what they require from suppliers, hire staff, give other characters discounts, update marketing strategies or give instructions to their workers via their own interface.

Common Adventurers

For those who don't own businesses, their "down time" becomes more about how they allocate their time when not adventuring. Certain classes like Clerics or Wizards may want to devote a lot of their time to praying or reading musty tomes, while others may want to put some practice into using weapons, honing their skills, meditation or one of their disciplines. Others still may choose to repair their equipment or simply get some well earned rest and recover from injuries they have sustained recently. This is also a good time to do those things you don't get a chance to do, like help the needy, or build your reputation as a performer or statesman.

Local News

Time marches on and you can have a look at the calendar and find out roughly what is happening in the world such as the local gossip or recent events to keep up to date with things your character would know if they were indeed having a bit of "down time" and had overheard these things by being there.

Dynamic Random Encounters

The random encounter has always been part of a staple role-playing diet. Its purpose was to throw something different into the mix at a time when there was nothing specifically planned going on, allowing the DM a way to add something extra to the storyline at a moments notice. This was done via a random encounter table which required you to make a d100 check and then use the encounter that matched the rolled value. Sometimes a specific encounter may have covered several percentage points on this chart, indicating that it was far more likely to come up than others. There were also caveats on some of the encounters that once they had occurred, they were no longer available and you had to re-roll if they accidentally came up again.

Looking at the concept behind the random encounter table we can see that the original intent was something along the lines of "At this location, these kinds of creatures and these pre-determined scenarios may be encountered in this frequency". When ever a check was made the DM knew that the encounter was statistically appropriate for the location they were in. Often it would require a lot of creativity and thought to create such a list, requiring the DM to draw from several sources to make it feel realistic for whatever part of the world they were in.

First they would consider what the local flora and fauna was for the area in question, adding wildlife from their natural habitat. This allowed different localities to have a distinctly different flavour as adventurers could tell how a land was changing based on how the creatures they faced were different. Every creature in the monster manual is given a terrain to which it is considered common and this was used to structure the encounter tables. From there the DM would consider what was currently happening in the world around them, were there any nearby villages or population centres that would have an effect on random encounters. Thus if there was a nearby goblin village you might throw a few goblin patrols into the table, or a group of local bandits who were in the area. Last but not least a DM would try to come up with some creative people and situations that might add some colour and variety to what was otherwise a long journey across faceless terrain. These often required coming up with an NPC, a situation and a reason for being there, and presented an opportunity for the characters to actually role-play instead of fight, and were usually one shot encounters that would only happen the once.

The random encounter table that was created as a result was a specific snapshot in time that would provide encounters for the brief period of time the players were actually in that area.

Translation to Neverwinter Nights

The translation of this concept to Neverwinter Nights was very static and limited. The Encounter object only represented simple monster spawning, and while you were able to control when the encounter could be fired, the fact that it had the ability to be reset coupled with the inability to alter its location or the list of monsters in the encounter dynamically made it very static. Whats worse, too many encounters placed in an area caused huge overheads and lag as a result. This of course was still sufficient for being used in a run-once module where most encounters were snapshots in time that were only triggered once and allowed for areas of the module to be "cleared" as you progressed further into the storyline.

The non-monster spawn types of random encounters were not even catered for and required the designer to specifically script them into the module at a pre-determined point, which again made it incredibly static and very predictable. Again on the surface in a run-once module it would have appeared as if everything was ok, but play the module more than once and everything was essentially the same with very little variation the next time around.

Translation to a Persistent World

Unfortunately having already suffered in the translation to Neverwinter Nights, it becomes detrimental and unworkable for a persistent world environment. What was always intended as being a snapshot in time that characters only passed over once or twice, now becomes something constantly and repeatedly crossed hundreds of thousands of times. In a world that is always alive, it's predictability makes it nothing more than a "bonus round" for earning experience points. So much so that players map out a series of points where these types of encounters occur and repetitively follow the circuit farming experience from them. They can do this all day and night without fail and no matter how many creatures are killed, it is a never ending supply of opponents for them to beef up on. Whats more, as loot tables are also based on random chance, with rare loot drops being given the lowest percentage changes, repetitively farming over and over again means that eventually you are going to hit the jackpot and bring into existence powerful items that should not be there.
This then becomes a self-fulfilling trap where those who do not do this are penalized by having to follow the laws of averages, while those who embrace the loophole are given an unlimited supply of experience and loot as a result.

What needs to be eliminated

In order to fix random encounters for a persistent world environment you obviously need to eliminate those detrimental factors which have inadvertently been introduced. Clearly the use of the encounter object itself is the first problem. The very fact that it slows down the server, creates unwanted lag and even causes compiling of the module to grind to a halt is evidence enough for its execution.

The solution that takes its place must must also eliminate the predictability of where encounters are located. While it was unpractical to try and create and maintain several encounter objects in the same area, the same limitations don't apply to a custom system, and thus an area can be designed with multiple encounter locations in order to reduce predictability. As these locations are all tied into the same random encounter system, instead of having their own completely autonomous triggering mechanism it also means that you can control the encounters that happen in the area as a whole.

The next thing that obviously must be eliminated is the inexhaustibly of them. Without a fixed creature list we now have the ability to add and remove creatures from the table as we wish, allowing us to either show a changing list over time, or to add/remove creatures based on how frequently they have been encountered. The creation of items out of nothing is also eliminated by the loot and treasure sub-system which draws from the database.

What we end up with is a system that is no longer specific to an actual location, immune to being "farmed", relates to the world around you and changes over time to reflect what is going on. During quiet times the random encounters may be fewer and more mundane, while in times of war they may automatically include more war parties, they could contain undead when a nearby cemetery is infested, and smatterings of highly detailed role-playing encounters can occur throughout based on statistical probability of them happening.

Back to basics

So how then can we restructure the random encounter table in a way to support this?

To start we go back to the way in which the random encounter table was originally created by DMs. The idea is to replicate how it was done previously, but draw from various sub-systems in the template where appropriate and keep in mind that it is no longer a snapshot in time.

The most obvious place to start is of course the natural fauna of a chosen area. This is the most basic of the random encounters and allows you to decide for each area what the breakdown of creatures are. These can be considered the "renewable" resources for random encounters as their numbers are replenished by the natural eco-system. This could of course change over time and the designers of the persistent world will have the ability to adjust this list dynamically when the world is running without the need to re-compile the module as you would with a standard encounter object. This of course doesn't stop you from randomly dropping "once-off" encounters into the list such as a green dragon that has taken up residence, or a more unusual creature that just happens to be in the area now.

Secondly, interaction with the quest sub-system allows for random encounters to be attached to quests. If a goblin tribe has taken up residence in a cave, then it stands to reason that the surrounding areas would now have a greater chance of goblin patrols. Start to take out too many patrols and they may step them up to something more. This also leads the characters into quests for the surrounding areas. Imagine encountering undead in a forest, which eventually leads you to the local cemetery that has recently been infested with undead.

Lastly, there are always things going on in the world, random happenings from people who live nearby or NPCs that exist in the world. This could include everything from a supporting level NPC who often scouts the woods during certain times of the day, encountering NPC adventuring parties who are in the area, or even coming across minions of the major villains who have schemes going on at the time.

In essence we have now restored the original purpose of the random encounter, tied it in with various sub-systems that allow it to be altered dynamically or even automatically, and made it feasible in a persistent environment.

How it works

Obviously if we are replacing the existing encounter object, we need to replace it with something. In keeping in line with the philosophy of the template, the module itself will only contain enough mechanics to make things happen, while the actual specifics are handled behind the scenes by a separate simulator and accessed via the NXNX interface. Special area triggers can be placed all around the area, and identified as random encounter points. Instead of being generic however the size of the area as well as the features that exist in the area can be mapped out. This may include ambush points where smarter enemies may spring from during the encounter, choke points that may be blocked or camp areas where something may be set up. The purpose here is to litter the world with as many encounter points as possible, as these do not take up a great deal of resources, and the specifics of the encounter point are recorded by the database. The random encounter list is then matched to the possible encounter points and whenever a player approaches, a determination can be made for whether an encounter is to take place and the encounter point can be properly configured before they arrive. In this way the designer can be incredibly detailed about how they design encounter areas and leave everything up to the system to work out when the time comes.

The end result is an area which feels as if it is real, with encounters that are not predictable, that can happen in a variety of locations, and can even be smart in the way they are portrayed. They could be chance encounters with the local wildlife, or highly specialized encounters with NPCs that lead the players into new adventures. Now the focus has been completely removed from simple circuit farming, and the joy is restored by making those who explore and look around get rewarded for their efforts more than those looking for a quick fix.