So a lot of new updates since the last blog, which was last updated coincidentally when we started work on these new ideas in late September.
Wrapping up Winterfront Campaign
We were all very excited by the direction of Arabel: Winterfront's storyline. The idea was a mystical storm surrounding the city, cutting Arabel off from the outside world and a change to do some epic feeling events with existential danger for the city. But you can't keep that 'existential threat' going forever, it led to some big changes in settlements and old familiar areas destroyed for good but eventually the heroes found a way to resolve the danger.
The best part for the DM team was that the idea on how to resolve the crisis was really a player driven idea, it wasn't what we had planned for at all. Though, I can't lie and say I'm kind of happy you all didn't follow the storyline that was going to result in the destruction of Arabel itself, the rebuilding of the entire city was going to be soooo hard but it was a possibility for sure after the outcome of a few events in November.
Introducing Arabel: Nocturne
But now we're on to a new storyline, we're maybe even more excited by the prospects of Arabel: Nocturne. The Underdark is probably a favorite setting for almost all of us, its bizarre and creepy. So the new storyline, while keeping Arabel the center of the story, is going to focus heavily on the Underdark.
We've built since November a large number of new Underdark areas, over 30 new monsters to populate it. Behind the design were two aspects that thrilled me. One, we got to reuse the ideas from our original Underdark areas created over a decade ago by Strawman, and two, we leaned way into the weird and creepy nature of the Underdark. The lower it goes, the stranger it should get down there.
So with the new storyline, we're reintroducing underdark races for player applications; this includes drow, duergar, and svirneblin. Full details on their powers/stats will come up soon, they're adjusted a little for our setting.
We're not stopping there, two new quests can be found in the Underdark already, and two more new quests for the Underdark are in Beta testing stages right now.
So what else?
Crafting
The new ANCS (Arbitrarily Named Crafting System) is rolling out. Blacksmithing is done, leatherworking and carving are getting organized to go in, and alchemy and wondrous item crafting is coming down the pipe.
18 New or Updated Quests
Since September we've added 8 new quests: Azer's Caves, Bronzeworks, Mother of Monsters, Hell Farm, the Leviathan, Chitines, Haunted Painting, Underground Vault.
And updates to 10 quests: Graveyard Ops, Hullack Hall, King's Forest Bandits, Maela's Monsters, Pride of Arabel, Raging Elementals, Saprophyte Infestation, Sirine's Sister, Silence of the Lambs, and Wrath of Hateful Child
Area Updates
With the receding of the Storm (do note receding, not ending - it takes time for power that immense to dissipate after all) we've been able to do some rebuilds of existing areas with an eye toward making them more content packed and fun to explore.
The Hullack Forest has been rebuilt, with plans for another area to be added to it soon.
The entire Moonsea Ride has been rebuilt, three areas of road that just led to a big desert didn't really fill us all with excitement, so now there is just one area of road that'll be a little quicker to walk through to get to an entirely rebuild Stonelands area (keeping some of the fun and amazing dungeons out there though). The two quests that were in the Rhimebound City, that has mysteriously disappeared, were repurposed for the Stonelands; so there's more to do there now.
And more!
We'll continue the effort to revamp and rebuild areas to make it quicker to get from point A to B, putting quests closer together but still leaving plenty of space to explore and lore/history to uncover.
And honestly, that's not even scratching the tip of the iceberg for what we have planned and going on! So we're looking for your input, ideas, and suggestions to help us keep motivated in bringing you the best NWN experience we can provide.
If there's something you want to hear about, let us know.
