NWCon II is coming April 16-18! Last year's NWCon was such a huge success that we thought we needed to bring everybody together again and celebrate Neverwinter! Phil Elmore (aka eliandi), Danebo, and J'Dai Voisin are getting everything set up for three days of multiplayer madness and expert panel discussions. What it this NWCon II you ask? Well look no further for the answers as we grill Phil for the latest scoop.

Want to read more about NWCon II?

NWCon II Website

The second NWCon has arrived and is in full swing. How has the fan response been this time around?

We have had an outstanding response from people wanting to step up and help us put this on. The seminar schedule reads like a Who's Who of the NWN community, and several people have posted they will be debuting new mods just for NWCon. The thing about NWN is the game is so malleable using the toolset, DM client, and custom content, it means something completely different to each person in the NWN community. NWCon is a rare opportunity to draw everyone together and share ideas.

Was there anything you wanted to tweak this time around after the experience of the first NWCon?

The length! The 1st NWCon ran 10 days, with only a few events a day. Many of us were exhausted after NWCon I, and we received a lot of feedback that the Con lost momentum by the end. So this time we are going to a 3 day Con. A TIGHTLY packed 3 day Con, with event after event. Our goal is to make it more like a "gaming con" where you basically book as much of the weekend you can to attend and really immerse yourself in NWN. So tell your family and boss you are away for the weekend, and lock yourself in your computer room with plenty of chips and beverages to keep you going!

Why, oh why, did you want to have another NWCon?

The excitement of meeting so many people. At the last NWCon, I DMed several people who had never played NWN online before who are now active players. I helped a couple of new DMs get started. And I chatted with many of the members of the community, both new and highly respected.

Now that's all about me, but these experiences were also related to me by many others. And they kept asking---when is the next NWCon?

What are some things that you are looking forward to seeing at the Con?

I'm really excited about a number of the Seminars. Things like "Story Design and Out of Game Posts", and "Empowering the Players Within Your PW", and "Custom Content" with panelists Soopaman, Lisa, GL, Eligio. Den of Assassins should all be interesting and give attendees some different ideas and perspectives on NWN.

I'm also interested in making this seem much more like a local gaming con where people are immersed and engaged in NWN for several days.

Finally, as a roleplayer, I'm always intrigued by ideas "outside-the-box". For example, I plan to DM a session or three of Dungajin's, "Labyrinth of The Goblin King," where the PCs are all orcs. I have already mentioned in the previous blurb about Forrestwolf's plan to run a Firefly-based mod, and I expect more surprises to come as we get into the con itself.

What do you think of these large scale projects such as City of Doors, Dragonlance Adventures, and d20 modern, and their effect on the multiplayer community?

To me, it's the future lifeblood. Not just these projects, but CEP and a number of the smaller projects. For example, I can easily see myself building, DMing, and playing d20 Modern adventures 5 years from now using NWN (hmm, maybe I will DM d20 modern for NWCon X :) ). As long as creative artists are adding to the game, it will stay fresh and interesting. With broadband technology expanding rapidly and hard drives expanding, soon the hak size limits will be less burdensome, and more people will be able to enjoy the outstanding community work. And then there's the potential of Bioware DD as both icing on the cake and a catalyst for new ideas, projects, and community growth.

Do you have any advice for people who want get involved with playing NWN online and are not sure where to start?

There are all sorts of NWN players. The broadest slice you can do is persistent vs. session. Some love the 24x7 life of a persistent World (PW), and some love the focus of a 3-4hr dedicated session. From there you can further categorize along the "Player vs. Player (PvP) combat" vs. "Action" vs. "Roleplay" continuum. Think about what type of game you think you will like the best and begin from there. You can always try other things later. For example, I am a DM of a heavily roleplay-focused, long-term campaign; but I play on one roleplay PW and another Team-v-Team PvP Arena PW. There is nothing locking a person into a single style of NWN multiplayer play like there are in some games.

For those who like 24x7 communities, I would suggest looking at the posts on the BioWare Guild's forum, and looking at the PW postings at NWVault. In my experience, the PWs most engaging to me were active both on the server and in the forums (some use BioWare forums, others do not). Without a dedicated, energized community, a PW tends to wither. Try a few and pick the one where you feel most at home.

For those who prefer scheduled sessions, then I recommend Neverwinter Connections. NWC allows game scheduling to bring people together. People use the service to schedule multiplayer events, PW events, and DMed events. Its clock setting feature makes it easy to keep track of time differences across the world (which is why NWCon uses it). And its forum and IRC systems allow good communication among the community members.

The first NWCon set the record for the highest multiplayer numbers in the history of Neverwinter Nights. I have no real question here but I wanted to make that really excellent statement to you. Thoughts?

Woot! And that is without counting all the people we had engaged in discussing NWN 'live" using IRC (we had like 250+ people at some of the events). Well, we want to break that record with NWCon II, so we are inviting each and every person in the NWN community to join the fun. DMs and multiplayer game hosts are encouraged to schedule as many slots as they want. PWs are free to host special NWCon events. And everyone should stop by the IRC chats.