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Guild Profile: Knightsbridge PW

Profile by Jay Watamaniuk, Jan 8 2003

In September 2002, BioWare opened the Neverwinter Nights Guilds and Registry system to Neverwinter Nights game owners. Since then over 800 guilds are now active and over 16,000 people have registered as members. The guilds range from roleplaying and gaming-based guilds to those exploring specific areas of the Neverwinter experience such as scripting, building or dungeon mastering. This week: Knightsbridge PW!

Guild Name: Knightsbridge PW Membership: 120+ Activity (week of Jan 8 2003): Top 6 Guild Owner: Irv Drost is head of operations – Gamerguy2k5, PhatDad, Solace Project are administrators Founded: Wednesday, 25 Sept 2002 Are you Accepting New Members?: Yes

1. Can you give us some background on the development of your guild?

Since the humble beginnings of the Knightsbridge PW, the builders and DMs have wanted a site for the players to meet, role-play, and exchange ideas besides e-mail. However, creating a web site would have taken the small staff away from the .mod and the small group of players. When BioWare released the guild and registry system it was a dream come true for us. We initially set up the guild to ease communication between what we call "PERMA" PC’s, or the people who played on the server all the time – who had made it their home. It grew to include a role-play section that continues the stories off server. In order for players and guild members to really be able to have the ability to add depth to their characters, we knew we were going to have to come up with a place for them to post stories off server.

2. Can you tell us more about your guild and what sort of gamer it would appeal to?

Knightsbridge PW is dedicated to role-playing. The Lands of Knightsbridge .mod is written off of a 10 year PnP campaign it contains an incredible amount of history and plenty of depth. The guild acts as a catalyst for the in game "acts" that take place as the world continues to evolve. Most Persistent worlds continuously transform. You do have your standard quests, but if the players begin to play for any length of time, they entrench themselves in the story line and become involved in the guild. They begin to witness the true story of that world.

I have seen guilds that are social, some for builders, and some for specific locations in the world. The guild system has been great overall for the NWN communities. Our guild has been specifically story driven for the Lands of Knightsbridge .mod because of its complexity and involvement. The hard-core storyteller- those that wish to develop a great story and play along in ours- is the type of gamer we hope to attract.

4. How do you see your guild developing over time?

That depends...

One thing about Neverwinter Nights is that is has the same staying power as standard D&D because of the tools BioWare provides. Now building quality .mods takes a bit more time than PnP. So, if the players have the patience, the guild should develop and increase with quality players as the story grows. Do I see players leaving? Possibly. Only because some players may find that the story may not be to there liking, or that an action server is what they prefer, but that is why there are so many servers running.

The players are a HUGE part of what supports a role-playing PW in the guild. I always stress the good ‘ole "big fish in a small pond" saying. We only have about 75-150 hits on our server a day, but the quality of role-playing is great.

5. What is different about playing with a guild than simply playing a multiplayer game or even the single player game?

Different? The difference is amazing! Before we had the guild system, communication was almost impossible - a smattering of e-mails, IM messages, in game shots to a small group of players who happen to be on at the time, events to those who were lucky enough to be there. The guild system allows us to address and effectively plan everything we need now- if we can keep all of our stuff together, and get everything on time ;) (related to events and .mod expansions).

As far as single player goes… Well, to me D&D has always been somewhat of a social thing. NWN is working on crossing the boarders between computer game and true role-playing game with the toolset and the DM interface. Granted a CRPG isn’t the place to incorporate something like HCR, where actual time standards are out of the DMs hands, but it may be able to be incorporated properly in the future. Some people seem to be O.K. with it right now. This is another reason I am glad for the huge variety of servers out there.

6. How has BioWare's NWN Guilds and Registry system helped in developing your guild?

‘Gamer’ started the guild as soon as he found out about it. He said "As soon as I saw Guilds and Registry was open to the Public, I jumped at the chance to create a Knightsbridge PW Guild". I originally had plans for a web page upon creation of the Knightsbridge .mod, but decided to spend my time working on the development of the .mod itself. The Guild and Registry system took care of the need for a web page for us. Although we now have a web page located at www.landsofknightsbridge.org, we will always use the Guild and Registry system because it takes into account so many things we require such forums, a calendar, and news items. Finally, it created a central meeting spot for all members.

7. What has been one of the difficulties in keeping a guild active?

It takes attention. When I first started the mod I was building 90% DMing 10%, now I am managing the guild (Players/Builders/Dm) 50%, building 30%, and DMing 20%. Thank God I have a growing building/DMing team on the server. Half my time spent on NWN is devoted to guild activities – It is difficult at times but when it is time to play or build the stories and events are incredibly more gratifying than just plunging into an unorganized game. You also need to remember that out of your total number of guild member there are those that are extremely active (posting), active on the server but not in the forums, and inactive. So every time a new member joins you talk to them to get a feel for where they will fit into the guild.

8. What suggestions would you have for people thinking about creating a guild in the NWN universe?

MEMBERS!

Did I say that loud enough?

M-E-M-B-E-R-S

Now that I have screamed it, let me explain. If you are thinking about creating a guild, you have to realize that you will need members to survive. You will need like-minded members. People will join your guild in this social atmosphere because they want to talk about, play, build, script, and DO what you want to DO. One problem that I see is that on the common boards people go out recruiting with these cookie cutter "JOIN MY GUILD!" posts without really reading what the member is looking for. There are hundreds of variations of play. Not only that, there are guilds based on building, scripting and locations as well, so be considerate of whom you post to.

With guild management, everyone has a place. I stated earlier that our guild is set up to enhance the game play of our persistent role-play world. With this in mind think about 81 different personalities all surviving in one place (funny, I think we do this in real life in the work place – or school), some are players, some are builders, some are young, some are old (no comments from the peanut gallery on that one please). We have several DMs with different play styles – different players that may prefer a specific DM – different players that may prefer a particular builder’s style. Regardless, my point is that even if you do not agree with everything one person has to say in your guild it is possible they have a place. Several of the players have greatly enhanced the .mod by giving input and helping us correct bugs. Builders have signed on to increase the production and size of the mod so we can eventually move to server vault. Even builders from other worlds have helped out with scripts (thanks Malini).

With that said, I need to mention the names of some or our most active members – they deserve the credit for the guild – they ARE the guild:

Gamerguy2k5, Solace Project, Kallandar, PhatDad, widowmakermage, Jacob, Ajacis, Fearsome Five, Aiken Drum, Anaril Mei’mana, Arch_Magius, belithan, Burn, Caladorn, Da Missus, dewthedrew87, didau, DragonRaider, Ericist, Glengarry_fencible, Ironman2k, Kirdor, Killroy, Llarian, llestina, Lokedoke, Meanderquest 0.o, morback83, PALADIN5, RGE, Sawblade, Sebat, Shadow Falcon, Strief, Subharadar, thissuck, Tanrithel, Velkyn17 – dang if I missed some of you active ones I am sorry.

I would like to list all 81 but... don’t think it would make it into the interview. Editor’s note- Probably not :)

9. Do you have any advice for NWN fans that want to join a guild?

I had one player on the server ask me, "What benefit would a guild have for me?"

I was flabbergasted! But, it was just because he didn’t know the perks.

If you want to join a guild you need to ask yourself, what do I really want to do in this group of people? Do I want to find people for multiplayer games? Am I interested in just the playing aspect of the game? Do I care whether they are in my local area? Once you evaluate your needs for a guild then you can begin you search for people that have similar interests and play styles (or build styles). I would look for people with a personal touch that get involved with the guild. Don’t expect to join a guild and the moderator to do a personal chat with you all the time, you have to contribute to the forums and you will really benefit. Overall I have found the guild system to be a really beneficial to our PW and players.

10. What is the strangest thing ever to happen in a guild game?

This is a good one…. There are so many –

Well here are a couple:

I was on the server in an intense Role-Playing moment. I had a player join the server and suddenly begin singing old Queen Tunes. I like Queen, but when you are in the middle of "An evil lich lives in the place with no name…." And suddenly you hear "I WANT TO RIDE MY BYCICLE I WANT TO RIDE MY BIKE" it becomes a little unnerving. "so take this globe to seek out the tomb for you answers lie within", "I WANT TO RIDE IT DAY AND NIIIIIGGGHHHT". He calmed down after the Knightsbridge guard asked him to stop disturbing the peace.

One time while testing a new area that we were to incorporate in the Future, we noticed a hilarious spelling error that involved a Dryad. She said...

"No, I will stay here and protect me tree" We left the spelling error in and joked around about the pirate druid gnomes of Ravenwood coming in to influence here speech patterns. It was really late and it evolved from there into ARRRR MATEY ME TREE – and a bunch of gnomes yelling about their lake in the forest and killing pixies. To this day we talk about the gnome pirates of the forest.