The Known Lands is a NWN2 persistent world that has been live since 2007. We are a stable and very active PW with a dedicated base of players and a phenomenal team of DMs, builders, and scripters.
Forums: http://www.knownlands.com/
THE BACKGROUND LORE:
Sages say the collection of islands, called by their inhabitants simply The Known Lands, is in its Third Age of existence. In the three thousand years since whatever cataclysmic event destroyed the Second Age – a time
period whose knowledge is all but lost – the various sentient races have built nations and civilizations. It is a time of peace and prosperity.
Alas, though peace reigns over much of The Known Lands, it is not a time of tranquility. In the past fifty years, The
Known Lands has been shocked with the realization that below their islands exists a subterranean world at least as large as their own – the Underdark. Twice from this Underdark have come forth a hitherto unknown race… the drow. Two massive attacks by the drow have all but destroyed the citadel homelands of the dwarves, leaving that once-proud race decimated and beaten. The last was but a score of years ago....
Now the Known Lands struggles with the repercussions of a dwarven-created plague gone awry, the 'Culling' of the halflings in their own land, and strange and unknown forces that have brought new challenges to the peoples of the world. Many strange and unique societies and organizations have sprung up, from the shadowy to the enlightened. Many parts of The Known Lands remain unexplored, though legends of wild barbarian elves and halflings, strange draconic followers, people who sail the endless oceans, never stepping off their ships, all abound in taverns and marketplaces of The Known Lands. What new heroes will arise to explore and discover the truth to these tales?
HOW THE WORLD RUNS:
The Known Lands is a 'home grown' world that has been developed around the PW structure. Our ultimate goal with this project is to make a PW that is roleplay focused with the feel of a ‘pen and paper’ (PnP) game. In order to get that PnP feel, we have added a feature that is the most similar to traditional PnP. This is the use of adventuring parties in the world (described below).
ADVENTURING PARTIES:
When you apply to play in the Known Lands, you have the option to request joining a party. If you decide to do this, you will give us some times that you can make on a weekly basis. We will match these times to existing groups that needs PCs to find a party for you.
-Each party is employed by a DM run NPC. Your new PC will be hired and added to the party.
-Every week, parties meet for a DM run session, usually taking about 3 hours.
- Each party will have one DM who will run plots for this group. Picture this like a regular, weekly PnP session.
-These parties are where the most important, world altering activities occur. Expect many extensive plot lines to be run for the parties. In the time that this server has been up, adventuring parties have helped with the birth of a new god, the ruin of a nation, and many other events of epic proportions.
Aside from the adventuring parties - as a PW that is up 24-7 we have a great many automated quests for you to enjoy whenever you log on. We are proud to say we have many highly experienced and talented builders and coders that have made a variety of quests to suit and challenge characters. To add further fun challenges as well as a greater degree of the unexpected, we have a quality staff of creative DMs who run events when they are on.
We currently have eleven adventuring parties active in the world, consisting of 4-10 players each. There are 14 active DMs, over 70 active characters, over 200 areas and over 50 static quests to explore!
APPLICATION PROCESS:
We are an application only PW, which can seem daunting at first. Because the world has unique lore and a mature player base we strive to make sure that new players understand what they're joining and can create a
character they will want to keep going with, as well as knowing that they will find the world a good fit.
- We recommend taking a look at the lore on our forums or wiki. The lore is extensive and can seem daunting, but you certainly don't need to know all of it to write up an application.
- For applications we need basic information (race, class, where your PC comes from, etc) but are also very interested in background stories and general personality (ie how will this character respond to things happening around them). It is not uncommon for tidbits in a character's app to be used randomly by DMs to enrich the gameplay or sometimes even as the basis for a whole adventure or campaign.
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Once applications are received they are reviewed by the whole team, so it may take a few days before you hear from us, don't worry, this is not a bad sign! Sometimes an applicant will be asked for additional information before they are approved.
- If you have any questions about the application procedure feel free to contact any of the TKL team!
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
1.) Character Interaction/RP: This is arguably one of the strongest points of TKL. The RP is phenomenal while at the same time loose enough that one never feels suffocated. The RP is very organic - you RP because the world is immersive and the characters around you are interesting, not because of any strict rules.
2.) Personal DM attention: This is pretty much guaranteed if you sign up for a weekly group. Even outside
of weekly groups DMs run FFAs and other events in which they love giving individual attention. It is not uncommon for adventures to be based around a character's history or major life changes (like attaining a PrC).
3.) Scripting and Area Design: We have a huge (and ever growing) number of areas. Strategic use of the Worldmap allows convenient travel to more distant areas without losing the feeling that this is a big place. There are numerous custom scripts from our extensive crafting system to an elaborate custom music system for bards
(TKL Performer), card playing, to custom companions and familiars.
4.) Death : TKL uses a semi-permadeath system. The idea is to make dying have real consequences but gentle enough to allow good fun for the player. There is a bleeding system which gives you a chance to recover. If a character actually dies they must be resurrected and will suffer the loss of one point of CON (correctable with magical boosts) and one death added to their counter. Theoretically the 'permadeath' kicks in if your death counter exceeds your original CON - although this has not yet occurred in three years since the server went live. There are also more lenient death rules (ie guaranteed recovery from bleeding) for new characters who are level three or lower.
5.) Level Progression/XP: There is an XP cap of 1000/week on non-DM XP. The cap is intended to create a more level playing field for everyone, including those who can only log on for limited periods of time. The current highest level characters are around 22nd level. There is no cap on DM-awarded XP.
6.) Available Magic: Moderate-high. There are numerous magic users in the world and with the crafting system a certain amount of magical items (wands, enchanted items, magical ammunition, etc). There is a limit on the level of enchantments available in general circulation (loot drops and merchants), skilled crafters can make enchantments of higher caliber, but the highest levels are limited to DM-bestowed gifts.
7.) Available Loot: Moderate-high. There are limitations to the power of individual items, but no limit to the amount of gold, gems and lower level magical items one can find. Money is not meant to be an incentive in this game (ie Grinding for cash is unnecessary).
8.) Community: The TKL boards are a very active place. There is continual ongoing communication both IC and OOC. The boards are used for role-play, group and character development, updates, reporting and dealing with bugs/glitches/etc. Feel free to check out the public area of our boards http://www.knownlands.com where some of the custom features and other aspects of the world are available in more detail!
9.) Non-DM activities: An important aspect of any PW is how 'alive' it feels when there isn't a DM on or an active session. There is most often someone online when you log in, we have players in North American, UK, Australia and Japan so many time zones are covered. There are some times of day when there may be few people online - even then there are plentiful static quests of all levels of complexity to try.
10.) General player profile: Our player base is mature and respectful, with many folks who have families and full time jobs. The adventuring group system ensures that even those with limited time can have a great experience on our server. The application system ensures that people who join are likely to find the world a good fit for their gaming needs.
11) Custom Content: We make use of a lot of what's offered on the Vault, as well as some content of our own devising (TKL Card Game, TKL Performer, etc.). Now that our core systems are mature, recently we have been adding a lot of fun, flavor stuff such as new PrCs, feats, and PC races.
We are constantly striving to improve TKL and make it a more interesting, diverse, and engaging experience for players old and new. The fact that we have players and characters that have been going strong since the server went live (over three years ago) is perhaps the strongest testament to this PW.
If you are interested in PnP style gaming and a roleplay-rich environment be sure to check us out!!
Modifié par Deider, 19 décembre 2010 - 09:50 .
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