Well, if you continue like this i would not need a background or a deity, i would not need a space for biography...
Ofcourse i need it.I need some kind of character sheet, so i could look at others or myself.We arent a 5 member party, so we can remember each other actions.I need some actual rules for my character...
Why wouldn't you need a background? Without Official game rules you will need a very detailed background. How do you think D&D got some of its gods? Many were created and played by players before there were rules about it.
Why wouldn't you need a background? Without Official game rules you will need a very detailed background. How do you think D&D got some of its gods? Many were created and played by players before there were rules about it.
I cant just make up things as i progress trough a game.
I cant have everything in my head.Even on Pen and paper you actualy NEED to write down your class, alignment, abillity score...everything.Because when is a save roll, spell to cast or anything related to your character, it will change acording to it...
Also..at a first post you say i dont need anything, at a second saying you need detailed background.make your mind.
Overall, it's not that Neverwinter is a bad game, and it seems decent enough for an MMO. It's that it has nothing to share with D&D game.
Fixed. Neverwinter Online is just a classic fantasy wow-clone theme park equip based and with gear grind. Just like a lot of them out there. It's only that some names and environments are taken from the Forgotten Realms settings of D&D. Nothing more.
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calaminthaMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
The issue is that people think that DnD=The Rules whereas it doesn't. At the end of the day DnD is what you make of it.
If you completely ignore the rules you could just as well claim to be playing Rolemaster, GURPS, RuneQuest or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. You are simply playing a role-playing game.
Fixed. Neverwinter Online is just a classic fantasy wow-clone theme park equip based and with gear grind. Just like a lot of them out there. It's only that some names and environments are taken from the Forgotten Realms settings of D&D. Nothing more.
How is it a WoW-clone when A) WoW took everything from other games and it doesnt play like WoW at all. Stupid statement.
And just FYI, the FAQ states this is NW:
Neverwinter is a free, action MMORPG based on the acclaimed Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Epic stories, action combat and classic roleplaying await those heroes courageous enough to enter the fantastic world of Neverwinter!
It never said anything about using D&D rules for it's mechanics. Also, the moment you read "action MMORPG" you should already know it's not D&D, as D&D plays like a turn-based game.
Also, instead of complaining about how you dont like it. Stop playing it. Plenty of us genuinely enjoy the game as it is. No need for dramaqueens.
How is it a WoW-clone when A) WoW took everything from other games and it doesnt play like WoW at all. Stupid statement.
You prefer Everquest clone? Ok, it's an Everquest clone.
- Gear based
- Instance farming
- Gear score
- Passive feat tree is just like a talent tree
- Combat wise, it's just like they have removed the tab to target enemy and now you must aim with the crosshair, plus lost of skills have autotarget and auto-facing, hitboxes are just plain enormous (try to target with a cleric, you'll see the crosshair turning red even when not aiming the mob character model, and when you cast the character move to put the mob in the center of the screen)
based on the acclaimed Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game.
No, it has nothing to do with the D&D rules, not even with the bad D&D 4th edition rules. Where are the great vastity of powers? Where is multiclass? Why are roles like striker, leader, and so on forced linked to a class when the in the rules is not in this way? And the equipment with "class required: X" what has to do with D&D?
NWO it's based on a Forgotten Realms environment, recreating places and giving them names taken from that campaign setting. But FR is just a setting, it's not D&D
If you completely ignore the rules you could just as well claim to be playing Rolemaster, GURPS, RuneQuest or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. You are simply playing a role-playing game.
Perhaps.
But we did have a great time in undergrad playing Shadowrun.... using the Rolemaster/Spacemaster rules. The setting was the important part there. /shrug
(It's been a long time, but I wonder how many of the things people are listing showed up in, say, the "gold box" D&D games. Or Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance. Or the arcade games. Sure, various interpretations of whatever the current ruleset was. No GMs. Very little, if anything, in the way of "roleplaying"... which has been true of the vast majority of digital RPGs over the years, but especially in the earliest days. Most of them were/are combat systems with a story.)
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vatashaMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero UsersPosts: 0Arc User
I cant just make up things as i progress trough a game.
I cant have everything in my head.Even on Pen and paper you actualy NEED to write down your class, alignment, abillity score...everything.Because when is a save roll, spell to cast or anything related to your character, it will change acording to it...
Also..at a first post you say i dont need anything, at a second saying you need detailed background.make your mind.
No, you don't need all of that. When I started playing it was called chain mail with like 16 monsters and basic basic classes and rules. Still had tons of fun. As the game progress more things where added however it was only to make it a bit more simple for people. Plus I said you don't need rules, not that you don't need anything. RP is about story telling not rules
But we did have a great time in undergrad playing Shadowrun.... using the Rolemaster/Spacemaster rules. The setting was the important part there. /shrug
(It's been a long time, but I wonder how many of the things people are listing showed up in, say, the "gold box" D&D games. Or Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance. Or the arcade games. Sure, various interpretations of whatever the current ruleset was. No GMs. Very little, if anything, in the way of "roleplaying"... which has been true of the vast majority of digital RPGs over the years, but especially in the earliest days. Most of them were/are combat systems with a story.)
That's actually a good point, and one that took up many forum posts and debates many years back for me lol. To me, NWN was a much better D&D game than Baldur's Gate and it pained me to see so many people petition BioWare to go back to making that kind of game. I liked BG, but felt it was far inferior to NWN for a D&D style game. Apparently they didn't agree and so we have the Dragon Age franchise. TBH, I would be happy with an Enhanced Edition NWN, ot better yet... if they released the source code! I'd absolutely love to see what the NWN community could do with THAT.
But we did have a great time in undergrad playing Shadowrun.... using the Rolemaster/Spacemaster rules. The setting was the important part there. /shrug
That's a completely different matter though and NWO is definitely a Forgotten Realms game. Campaign settings even used to have conversion rules for other game systems.
We've played a Middle-Earth campaign with AD&D rules before because our GM had tons of sourcebooks for it.
From the Wiki.. The drow were first mentioned in the Dungeons & Dragons game in the 1st Edition 1977 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual under the "Elf" entry, where it is stated that "The 'Black Elves,' or drow, are only legend."
Thanks for this. I haven't read that tome for a good 10 years! The red dragon was so cute on the cover!
From the Wiki.. The drow were first mentioned in the Dungeons & Dragons game in the 1st Edition 1977 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual under the "Elf" entry, where it is stated that "The 'Black Elves,' or drow, are only legend."
I still have all my old books from the old days, 1st and second edition and many Greyhawk campaign modules. The 1977 edition slightly predates me, but I believe the Drow were first introduced in the G series modules "Against the Giants". I have the 1981 reprints which includes the three original separate modules from 1978 written by Mr. Gygax himself. In the back of it they have the usual Monster Manual style listing for Drow with stats and description. They went on to play a much bigger role in the sequel D1-2 series "Descent Into the Depths of the Earth" and of course D3 "Vault of the Drow", culminating in Q1 "Queen of the Demonweb Pits". One of my favorite D&D campaigns.
The main problem is that NW is based on a different edition, 4e than its SP precedessors NWN and NWN 2.
That alone confuses (or in some cases angers) the players who had expected or hoped for some kind of NWN 3 MMO.
In addition D&D 4e is - although several years old - not generally accepted in the pnp community. Some love it, some hate it, some just don't care and keep playing "their" game, be it 1st ed or 3.5. So NW being 4e angers or frustrates another percentage of D&D fans who would have preferred 3.5 (or anything else).
So the big question for every single player is not "Are we playing D&D?" but instead "Are we playing the D&D that I like?"
But whatever the problem with parts of the playerbase is, can someone blame Cryptic for it? Yes, DEFINITELY YES!
Why?
-Because it was a deliberate marketing decision to call it NEVERWINTER and so make the connection to the old 3.5 franchise.
-Because it was a deliberate development decision to use 4e, which is conveniently designed as a pnp MMO.
And the catch with deliberate actions is, that one has to deal with all resulting consequences. If Cryptic gets a load of hate for their marketing and design decisions, well thats how the world works - by design.
In case you find my grammar or spelling weird ---> native german speaker
Now 4e was designed to roll out sanctioned DnD MMOs. So technically yes. But TSR/WOTC has established a very basic concept of what DnD is for decades. And while some things have changed (thaco/classes/proficiencies/savingthrows,etc.) The backbone of RP and character diversity has not. Along with many flagship rules such as armor class being hit or miss. So its a difficult question to answer. According to WOTC this is a legit DnD game. According to what I would say, at least 90% of the DnD community its not even close. So its really what you think. Above all DnD represents Role play, and a multitude of options. Is the focus of Neverwinter RP and options? No. Theres your answer.
How is it a WoW-clone when A) WoW took everything from other games and it doesnt play like WoW at all. Stupid statement.
And just FYI, the FAQ states this is NW:
Neverwinter is a free, action MMORPG based on the acclaimed Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Epic stories, action combat and classic roleplaying await those heroes courageous enough to enter the fantastic world of Neverwinter!
It never said anything about using D&D rules for it's mechanics. Also, the moment you read "action MMORPG" you should already know it's not D&D, as D&D plays like a turn-based game.
Also, instead of complaining about how you dont like it. Stop playing it. Plenty of us genuinely enjoy the game as it is. No need for dramaqueens.
Lets say I give in on your point of "It never said anything about using D&D rules for it's mechanics". Let's put aside the other people, who quote other sources saying it's oficially D&D rules 4e
But you quoted the FAQ saying:"Epic stories, action combat and classic roleplaying" so.....
......are you freaking kidding me??? WHERE is the epic story? and WHERE in Helms name is the classic roleplaying?
Are you sure your quotations actually help Cryptic?
In case you find my grammar or spelling weird ---> native german speaker
This game is based on the new edition of D&D and they have done away with most of the things you have mentioned.
Iam a member of a RP group that plays D&D once a month (with beer) and my DM bought all the books and after one session we went back to good old 2nd edition.
I mean you can't even play an evil dude anymore....I think they have made the 5th edition to please MMORPGers who play wow etc..
My brother and I still play AD&D from the 1970s over Skype. I highly recommend it.
The only reason 2nd edition AD&D came into existence was because Gary Gygax had been forced out of TSR in the mid-1980s, and the current leadership of TSR bowed to political pressure to remove references to Demons and Devils and Half-Orcs from the game--that is why 'Dieties & Demigods' became 'Legends & Lore'. The Christian Right (remember Tipper Gore? Labels on albums? Frank Zappa appearing before Congress?) pressured the Gygax-less TSR to change AD&D into a Christian-friendly game and they saw a way to make money by calling something 'Second edition' and thus editions of D&D were born. Keep in mind, no editions of AD&D existed before second edition. AD&D was not called "AD&D first edition". There was Basic, Expert, and Advanced, and no one played Basic and Expert.
The only true Dungeons and Dragons is AD&D by Gary Gygax. Anything second edition or later is some hybrid that some pencil-pushing money-maker created to try and steal money from people.
The current versions of D&D from Wizard's Coast are about making a pencil-and-paper RPG more like videogames, such as WoW. That is what you got with 4th edition D&D. It is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. If I want to play WoW, I will play WoW.
Neverwinter, the videogame, has nothing to do with Gary Gygax's AD&D. If you want to play AD&D, get the old books off eBay, read them, and get some dice and some friends. Have a beer for Mr. E. Gary Gygax while you're at it.
[QUOTE=thestoryteller01;4706822Why?
-Because it was a deliberate marketing decision to call it NEVERWINTER and so make the connection to the old 3.5 franchise.
-Because it was a deliberate development decision to use 4e, which is conveniently designed as a pnp MMO.
And the catch with deliberate actions is, that one has to deal with all resulting consequences. If Cryptic gets a load of hate for their marketing and design decisions, well thats how the world works - by design.[/QUOTE]
The decision wasn't made by Cryptic though, Atari handed off the license too Cryptic so they could make a Neverwinter game off the Cryptic Engine, the game was then moved with Cryptic to PWE (Atari tried to fight this hence the confusion over the future of the game shortly after Cryptic came under PWE) who decided that Cryptic should remake it as an MMO.
The decision to use the Neverwinter name was Atari's.
The decision to keep the Neverwinter name was PWEs.
The decision to make it 4e rather than 3.5e was WotCs.
Cryptic just make the game, the name, setting and the 4e rules are decisions made outside of Cryptic.
The decision wasn't made by Cryptic though, Atari handed off the license too Cryptic so they could make a Neverwinter game off the Cryptic Engine, the game was then moved with Cryptic to PWE (Atari tried to fight this hence the confusion over the future of the game shortly after Cryptic came under PWE) who decided that Cryptic should remake it as an MMO.
The decision to use the Neverwinter name was Atari's.
The decision to keep the Neverwinter name was PWEs.
The decision to make it 4e rather than 3.5e was WotCs.
Cryptic just make the game, the name, setting and the 4e rules are decisions made outside of Cryptic.
Well, better for Cryptic then, they can put all the blame on Atari, PWE and WoTC for these decisions if the game fails. Until then they can only send daily screenshots of the forums and ingame chatlogs to those 3
In case you find my grammar or spelling weird ---> native german speaker
Well, better for Cryptic then, they can put all the blame on Atari, PWE and WoTC for these decisions if the game fails. Until then they can only send daily screenshots of the forums and ingame chatlogs to those 3
I'm not saying that Cryptic has zero blame, but those decisions aren't made by Cryptic at all. The license was probably restricted to the Forgotten Realms of which Neverwinter is a large and important part or specified the Neverwinter name itself. And they would have lost the license had they not conformed to WotC's 4e requirements.
Basically if WotC say no and Cryptic ignore it, we can lose the game completely which did almost happen with STO when a new ship type was announced prematurely. We even had screenshots of the ship available but CBS said no and it ended up being pulled much to the complaints on the forums.
But programming errors that can't be attributed to 4e design rules or PWE's demands, that can be blamed on Cryptic.
I'm glad one nightmare I had from D&D will never show up here. During one game my character found an unknown scroll... and read it... without using any sort of identifying spell. Turned out the scroll was cursed. My character's entire body fell apart... literally. And worse, he would go on to live in that state. Basically he's unkillable in that state, but having your brain in one place, your eyes scattered about, and every part of your body all over the room for all eternity is just... nevermind.
*sings* "I like Gammera! He's so neat!!! He is full of turtle meat!!!"
"Hah! You are doomed! You're only armed with that pathetic excuse for a musical instrument!!!" *the Savage Beast moments before Lonnehart the Bard used music to soothe him... then beat him to death with his Fat Lute*
I'm glad one nightmare I had from D&D will never show up here. During one game my character found an unknown scroll... and read it... without using any sort of identifying spell. Turned out the scroll was cursed. My character's entire body fell apart... literally. And worse, he would go on to live in that state. Basically he's unkillable in that state, but having your brain in one place, your eyes scattered about, and every part of your body all over the room for all eternity is just... nevermind.
Good stuff. I would think that a Wish spell could bring your character back to normal existence. Maybe your DM would have the character's former allies embark on an epic Quest? Or simply hire a high-enough level Magic-User to Wish? I know some curses are irrevocable. However in AD&D the identification would have been no help...you have to read a scroll to Identify its contens, and once read, it is too late. Therein lies the risk and the reward!
I have been doing AD&D with my older brother over Skype and we were doing the old Temple of Elemental Evil ---> A series ---> G series ---> D series ---> Q1 storyline (we are currently in D2 and bored out of our minds) and we found a Tome. Now, some of these books are extremely dangerous to read, and you just have to take a risk. I could not decide, but finally I opted to read the book, and it was a beneficial one. Yippee! Had it been a book that caused damage to my character...oh, well.
The only Detect Curse spell in AD&D is from the Oriental Adventures book, and only that special class of Cleric could have it. Therein lies the danger of scrolls and tomes! I had a character die from a Cloak of Poisonousness, and we had to hire person with a Rod of Resurrection, and all the while we had a Druid in the party with Detect Poison, who just could have cast it on the magic items before we began Identifying them.... I learned that lesson, though!
I'm not saying that Cryptic has zero blame, but those decisions aren't made by Cryptic at all. The license was probably restricted to the Forgotten Realms of which Neverwinter is a large and important part or specified the Neverwinter name itself. And they would have lost the license had they not conformed to WotC's 4e requirements.
Basically if WotC say no and Cryptic ignore it, we can lose the game completely which did almost happen with STO when a new ship type was announced prematurely. We even had screenshots of the ship available but CBS said no and it ended up being pulled much to the complaints on the forums.
But programming errors that can't be attributed to 4e design rules or PWE's demands, that can be blamed on Cryptic.
Well, if the game fails, then Cryptic will probably wish they had considered backing out of the license under these conditions
In case you find my grammar or spelling weird ---> native german speaker
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ironzerg79Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,942Arc User
edited June 2013
There's nothing at all in this game that's stopping you from roleplaying. There's nothing stopping you from making YOUR choice of Deity matter. There's nothing stopping you from picking an alignment and playing that. There's nothing stopping you from roleplaying your choice of a subrace.
Everything you do at the tabletop is in your imagination. I don't know why that all of a sudden changes when you step into a video game.
Find a group of players and roleplay. Make your own foundry missions that reflect YOUR views on the world.
Or. Don't. Come to the forums and complain. Because we know one is always easier than the other.
Well if you are playing 4E, then the answer is no not really. If you are playing Neverwinter, which is a video game based on, and not a particularly faithful interpretation of the worst version of D&D, then the answer becomes hell to the **** no.
Thing is when I want to play D&D I get some buddies around and have a tabletop session when I want to play a rather fun fantasy mmo I play Neverwinter.
Thing is when I want to play D&D I get some buddies around and have a tabletop session when I want to play a rather fun fantasy mmo I play Neverwinter.
There's nothing at all in this game that's stopping you from roleplaying. There's nothing stopping you from making YOUR choice of Deity matter. There's nothing stopping you from picking an alignment and playing that. There's nothing stopping you from roleplaying your choice of a subrace.
You can do all that with every game, including shooters - and some people even do. So that is no valid argument.
I do. Every Saturday from 3 pm to dawn. Done that for over 30 years now with D&D (starting with the red box), DSA, Runequest, MERPG, CoC, Midgard, Gammaworld and DMed my own version of D&D (hell who hasn't ).
So where's your problem?
Comments
Why wouldn't you need a background? Without Official game rules you will need a very detailed background. How do you think D&D got some of its gods? Many were created and played by players before there were rules about it.
I cant just make up things as i progress trough a game.
I cant have everything in my head.Even on Pen and paper you actualy NEED to write down your class, alignment, abillity score...everything.Because when is a save roll, spell to cast or anything related to your character, it will change acording to it...
Also..at a first post you say i dont need anything, at a second saying you need detailed background.make your mind.
If you completely ignore the rules you could just as well claim to be playing Rolemaster, GURPS, RuneQuest or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. You are simply playing a role-playing game.
How is it a WoW-clone when A) WoW took everything from other games and it doesnt play like WoW at all. Stupid statement.
And just FYI, the FAQ states this is NW:
Neverwinter is a free, action MMORPG based on the acclaimed Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Epic stories, action combat and classic roleplaying await those heroes courageous enough to enter the fantastic world of Neverwinter!
It never said anything about using D&D rules for it's mechanics. Also, the moment you read "action MMORPG" you should already know it's not D&D, as D&D plays like a turn-based game.
Also, instead of complaining about how you dont like it. Stop playing it. Plenty of us genuinely enjoy the game as it is. No need for dramaqueens.
- Gear based
- Instance farming
- Gear score
- Passive feat tree is just like a talent tree
- Combat wise, it's just like they have removed the tab to target enemy and now you must aim with the crosshair, plus lost of skills have autotarget and auto-facing, hitboxes are just plain enormous (try to target with a cleric, you'll see the crosshair turning red even when not aiming the mob character model, and when you cast the character move to put the mob in the center of the screen)
No, it has nothing to do with the D&D rules, not even with the bad D&D 4th edition rules. Where are the great vastity of powers? Where is multiclass? Why are roles like striker, leader, and so on forced linked to a class when the in the rules is not in this way? And the equipment with "class required: X" what has to do with D&D?
NWO it's based on a Forgotten Realms environment, recreating places and giving them names taken from that campaign setting. But FR is just a setting, it's not D&D
Perhaps.
But we did have a great time in undergrad playing Shadowrun.... using the Rolemaster/Spacemaster rules. The setting was the important part there. /shrug
(It's been a long time, but I wonder how many of the things people are listing showed up in, say, the "gold box" D&D games. Or Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance. Or the arcade games. Sure, various interpretations of whatever the current ruleset was. No GMs. Very little, if anything, in the way of "roleplaying"... which has been true of the vast majority of digital RPGs over the years, but especially in the earliest days. Most of them were/are combat systems with a story.)
No, you don't need all of that. When I started playing it was called chain mail with like 16 monsters and basic basic classes and rules. Still had tons of fun. As the game progress more things where added however it was only to make it a bit more simple for people. Plus I said you don't need rules, not that you don't need anything. RP is about story telling not rules
That's actually a good point, and one that took up many forum posts and debates many years back for me lol. To me, NWN was a much better D&D game than Baldur's Gate and it pained me to see so many people petition BioWare to go back to making that kind of game. I liked BG, but felt it was far inferior to NWN for a D&D style game. Apparently they didn't agree and so we have the Dragon Age franchise. TBH, I would be happy with an Enhanced Edition NWN, ot better yet... if they released the source code! I'd absolutely love to see what the NWN community could do with THAT.
That's a completely different matter though and NWO is definitely a Forgotten Realms game. Campaign settings even used to have conversion rules for other game systems.
We've played a Middle-Earth campaign with AD&D rules before because our GM had tons of sourcebooks for it.
I still have all my old books from the old days, 1st and second edition and many Greyhawk campaign modules. The 1977 edition slightly predates me, but I believe the Drow were first introduced in the G series modules "Against the Giants". I have the 1981 reprints which includes the three original separate modules from 1978 written by Mr. Gygax himself. In the back of it they have the usual Monster Manual style listing for Drow with stats and description. They went on to play a much bigger role in the sequel D1-2 series "Descent Into the Depths of the Earth" and of course D3 "Vault of the Drow", culminating in Q1 "Queen of the Demonweb Pits". One of my favorite D&D campaigns.
This is an open beta. Start treating it like one.
That alone confuses (or in some cases angers) the players who had expected or hoped for some kind of NWN 3 MMO.
In addition D&D 4e is - although several years old - not generally accepted in the pnp community. Some love it, some hate it, some just don't care and keep playing "their" game, be it 1st ed or 3.5. So NW being 4e angers or frustrates another percentage of D&D fans who would have preferred 3.5 (or anything else).
So the big question for every single player is not "Are we playing D&D?" but instead "Are we playing the D&D that I like?"
But whatever the problem with parts of the playerbase is, can someone blame Cryptic for it? Yes, DEFINITELY YES!
Why?
-Because it was a deliberate marketing decision to call it NEVERWINTER and so make the connection to the old 3.5 franchise.
-Because it was a deliberate development decision to use 4e, which is conveniently designed as a pnp MMO.
And the catch with deliberate actions is, that one has to deal with all resulting consequences. If Cryptic gets a load of hate for their marketing and design decisions, well thats how the world works - by design.
Now 4e was designed to roll out sanctioned DnD MMOs. So technically yes. But TSR/WOTC has established a very basic concept of what DnD is for decades. And while some things have changed (thaco/classes/proficiencies/savingthrows,etc.) The backbone of RP and character diversity has not. Along with many flagship rules such as armor class being hit or miss. So its a difficult question to answer. According to WOTC this is a legit DnD game. According to what I would say, at least 90% of the DnD community its not even close. So its really what you think. Above all DnD represents Role play, and a multitude of options. Is the focus of Neverwinter RP and options? No. Theres your answer.
Lets say I give in on your point of "It never said anything about using D&D rules for it's mechanics". Let's put aside the other people, who quote other sources saying it's oficially D&D rules 4e
But you quoted the FAQ saying: "Epic stories, action combat and classic roleplaying" so.....
......are you freaking kidding me??? WHERE is the epic story? and WHERE in Helms name is the classic roleplaying?
Are you sure your quotations actually help Cryptic?
My brother and I still play AD&D from the 1970s over Skype. I highly recommend it.
The only reason 2nd edition AD&D came into existence was because Gary Gygax had been forced out of TSR in the mid-1980s, and the current leadership of TSR bowed to political pressure to remove references to Demons and Devils and Half-Orcs from the game--that is why 'Dieties & Demigods' became 'Legends & Lore'. The Christian Right (remember Tipper Gore? Labels on albums? Frank Zappa appearing before Congress?) pressured the Gygax-less TSR to change AD&D into a Christian-friendly game and they saw a way to make money by calling something 'Second edition' and thus editions of D&D were born. Keep in mind, no editions of AD&D existed before second edition. AD&D was not called "AD&D first edition". There was Basic, Expert, and Advanced, and no one played Basic and Expert.
The only true Dungeons and Dragons is AD&D by Gary Gygax. Anything second edition or later is some hybrid that some pencil-pushing money-maker created to try and steal money from people.
The current versions of D&D from Wizard's Coast are about making a pencil-and-paper RPG more like videogames, such as WoW. That is what you got with 4th edition D&D. It is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. If I want to play WoW, I will play WoW.
Neverwinter, the videogame, has nothing to do with Gary Gygax's AD&D. If you want to play AD&D, get the old books off eBay, read them, and get some dice and some friends. Have a beer for Mr. E. Gary Gygax while you're at it.
http://www.gygaxmemorialfund.org/
-Because it was a deliberate marketing decision to call it NEVERWINTER and so make the connection to the old 3.5 franchise.
-Because it was a deliberate development decision to use 4e, which is conveniently designed as a pnp MMO.
And the catch with deliberate actions is, that one has to deal with all resulting consequences. If Cryptic gets a load of hate for their marketing and design decisions, well thats how the world works - by design.[/QUOTE]
The decision wasn't made by Cryptic though, Atari handed off the license too Cryptic so they could make a Neverwinter game off the Cryptic Engine, the game was then moved with Cryptic to PWE (Atari tried to fight this hence the confusion over the future of the game shortly after Cryptic came under PWE) who decided that Cryptic should remake it as an MMO.
The decision to use the Neverwinter name was Atari's.
The decision to keep the Neverwinter name was PWEs.
The decision to make it 4e rather than 3.5e was WotCs.
Cryptic just make the game, the name, setting and the 4e rules are decisions made outside of Cryptic.
Well, better for Cryptic then, they can put all the blame on Atari, PWE and WoTC for these decisions if the game fails. Until then they can only send daily screenshots of the forums and ingame chatlogs to those 3
I'm not saying that Cryptic has zero blame, but those decisions aren't made by Cryptic at all. The license was probably restricted to the Forgotten Realms of which Neverwinter is a large and important part or specified the Neverwinter name itself. And they would have lost the license had they not conformed to WotC's 4e requirements.
Basically if WotC say no and Cryptic ignore it, we can lose the game completely which did almost happen with STO when a new ship type was announced prematurely. We even had screenshots of the ship available but CBS said no and it ended up being pulled much to the complaints on the forums.
But programming errors that can't be attributed to 4e design rules or PWE's demands, that can be blamed on Cryptic.
"Hah! You are doomed! You're only armed with that pathetic excuse for a musical instrument!!!" *the Savage Beast moments before Lonnehart the Bard used music to soothe him... then beat him to death with his Fat Lute*
Good stuff. I would think that a Wish spell could bring your character back to normal existence. Maybe your DM would have the character's former allies embark on an epic Quest? Or simply hire a high-enough level Magic-User to Wish? I know some curses are irrevocable. However in AD&D the identification would have been no help...you have to read a scroll to Identify its contens, and once read, it is too late. Therein lies the risk and the reward!
I have been doing AD&D with my older brother over Skype and we were doing the old Temple of Elemental Evil ---> A series ---> G series ---> D series ---> Q1 storyline (we are currently in D2 and bored out of our minds) and we found a Tome. Now, some of these books are extremely dangerous to read, and you just have to take a risk. I could not decide, but finally I opted to read the book, and it was a beneficial one. Yippee! Had it been a book that caused damage to my character...oh, well.
The only Detect Curse spell in AD&D is from the Oriental Adventures book, and only that special class of Cleric could have it. Therein lies the danger of scrolls and tomes! I had a character die from a Cloak of Poisonousness, and we had to hire person with a Rod of Resurrection, and all the while we had a Druid in the party with Detect Poison, who just could have cast it on the magic items before we began Identifying them.... I learned that lesson, though!
Well, if the game fails, then Cryptic will probably wish they had considered backing out of the license under these conditions
Everything you do at the tabletop is in your imagination. I don't know why that all of a sudden changes when you step into a video game.
Find a group of players and roleplay. Make your own foundry missions that reflect YOUR views on the world.
Or. Don't. Come to the forums and complain. Because we know one is always easier than the other.
Well if you are playing 4E, then the answer is no not really. If you are playing Neverwinter, which is a video game based on, and not a particularly faithful interpretation of the worst version of D&D, then the answer becomes hell to the **** no.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
Or the short answer to the OP's question...NO
You can do all that with every game, including shooters - and some people even do. So that is no valid argument.
You could sit in front of the black screen and close your eyes if imagination is all you need. Why play a game at all then???
I do. Every Saturday from 3 pm to dawn. Done that for over 30 years now with D&D (starting with the red box), DSA, Runequest, MERPG, CoC, Midgard, Gammaworld and DMed my own version of D&D (hell who hasn't ).
So where's your problem?
Working on it. Besides, I am not onknown in the NWN/NWN2 community for my work --Goggle nickname.
So again, where's your problem?
That my friend was a total carcrash.
If you don't like what I write, just freaking don't read it. Where's your problem, pal?