Custom System that requires players to maintain a certain number of Death Tokens. They can quest or purchase more.
Setting
Custom
Alignments
Good - Neutral Only
Races
All Currently
Classes
All Base Classes - Custom PRC classes
LevelRange
1-20 - Experience gain is quest based thus the number of quests you complete is equally as important as level.
NumberServers
1
Application Reqs
None
House Rules
Extensive Customization including a Feat system that allows you to obtain class feats by completing quests.
Language
English
Scope
Large
Tricks Traps
Medium
RolePlay
Light
DM Needed
No DM Required
Magic Level
Low to Moderate
Treasure
Moderate
Experience Rewards
Moderate
Vault Type
Server
PvP
No PvP
Connection
DSL
Content Rating
Mature
NumberAreas
100-500
Description
For eons the Blood God has languished in his cell, imprisoned within a mountain on the mortal plane for crimes against his brother gods. His oozing essence seeps into the ground, and trickles into a small pool outside. An elven traveler drinks from the pool. He is wracked by dreams of violence and power.
Soon there are others, a whole congregation of worshippers for the imprisoned Blood God, and the Church of the Shroud is born. Mighty kingdoms fall before the Elders of the Shroud, and their dominion extends over all the realms of men.
Yet there is strife within the very heart of the church. The Elders praise their divine lord in public, but make no efforts to free him, seeking instead to make themselves gods in his place. Ancient prophecies have long predicted his release, but who listens to ancient prophecies any more in this age of corruption and debauchery?
The Shroud World NWN2 server was born of a proud tradition, our long-running NWN1 server was one of the very first Persistent Worlds to go live, and the campaign upon which Shroud World is based dates back to the late 1970s. Over the years, we have provided an entertaining and challenging experience to thousands of would-be heroes. We strive to continue that tradition with this new project.
This time around, we took the deeply detailed Shroud World storyline and moved it forward fifty years. We wanted old Shrouders to feel instantly at home in the new world but we did not want to simply rehash our NWN1 world. The timeline change allows us to give new life to our old tales and strike out on some completely new paths.
For those new to Shroud World, the game-play has some stark differences from what you experienced playing in the single player game. Most progression is driven by quest completion and this impacts nearly every aspect of the character; from level advancement to how NPCs will interact with you. We will soon be adding an advanced character progression system which will allow players to purchase new feats using rewards they have obtained through questing.
We chose to establish the quest system as the foundation of our world in order to offer a number of benefits to the players. Since quest completion is the primary source of experience, character classes that are less focused on brute force can often find other ways to resolve many of the quests and gain experience points. The quest system also allows us to better integrate the storyline into the day-to-day happenings of the player. The creative and humorous works of our lead writer, Rheumy Filcher, give the players a reason actually to read the dialogue of the NPCs. And finally, one of our primary goals is for players to have plenty to things to do when they log on: this is made possible by the hundreds of quests available to PCs.
When we sat down to outline what we wanted to do with Shroud World, we came up with some pretty straight forward design criteria. I think those criteria are important to present because they are what best defines the world for the new player.
Simple put, our design goals are:
* A Friendly Place to Play � As a builder, I certainly get enjoyment out of watching players interact with my creations. But more importantly, Shroud World is a place where I have established real friendships and shared a comradery of people who enjoy the online gaming hobby. We believe the players are the most important part of the game world and we strive as hard to build our community as we do to develop a quality world.
* An Engaging and Entertaining Story � We are a PW Story server so it would only seem right that we offer an evolving storyline that grips the player. We drive the player to immerse himself in the events that are happening around him. While Shroud World is a dark and forbidding place, many of the quests have a humorous bent. We are also building a single epic storyline that directly impacts the character through quest chapters. Our goal is to continually build on this major storyline by adding new chapters with every major update.
* Redefining Adventure � As players progress, they will eventually want to take part in what we called �Adventures�. Adventures are far more involved than the dozens of dungeons the player might quest in, these Adventures are multi-area mini-campaigns designed for small groups. Each adventure has a distinct storyline and quest series that leads the player through a gauntlet of puzzles, traps, and maniacally designed Boss encounters.
We have created a number of systems to help realise these goals. Some of these systems are:
� Custom Quest GUI � We have developed an interface that allows the player to see his quest information at a glance. Because a player might have dozens of ongoing quests at any one time, we need a way to display that information in a clean and world-specific format. This custom GUI allows the player to see open quests, closed quests, a list of his recently obtained quests. It also gives access to other tools like a display of online players, use of Heed�s PC tools, a �Looking for Group� toggle and more.
� Fame and Faction System � Shroud World has numerous factions with which the player can interact. The fame system tracks what deeds the player has accomplish for specific factions. The higher one's fame, the more quests that become available and the player may enjoy other benefits such as new merchants or other bonuses. The Faction system determines how one faction of creatures views the player. Through quests and other means, the player can improve (or harm) his faction so that a once hostile faction will look upon him favorably. The inherent design of the system means that assisting one faction will reduce faction with another. Choose your friends and your enemies wisely.
� Advanced Progression System (APS) � Our soon-to-be-implemented custom feat system integrates character development into the quest system. By obtaining tokens through quests, you can purchase special custom feats. Some feats are class specific and other feats are more generic in nature. APS allows us to give player new paths of character development; Sorcerers can become summoning specialists or focus on necromancy, for example. We expect this system to be a huge boon to our world as it allows us to extend a set of controllable abilities to players to that help alleviate some of the issues associated with using a PnP ruleset in a PW. Our goal is to make every class fun to play, able to adventure in solo mode reasonably well, and bring value to a party. The APS system allows us to accomplish this more easily.
� Class Guilds � Players can join class-related guilds (mages, monks, paladins, warriors, thieves and priests) and progress upwards through the ranks via quests. Once we have the initial 20 quests completed for each of the 6 guilds, players will be able compete with other players to a obtain leadership role (based on their guild fame) and gain some special abilities.
So what type of player would enjoy Shroud World?
Questing, puzzle-solving, and a focus on tactics and strategy would have to be some of the key attributes of a Shroud World player. We consider ourselves to be roleplay-lite; we do not enforce any strict rules in that regards but we do support it. Shroud World is a player versus environment PW, pitting the forces of good against a forbidding world where evil holds the upper hand. Old alliances have been broken, and new ones forged, as the mortal plane is thrown into turmoil by a civil war within the ranks of the Church of the Shroud.
And the Blood God? Well, someone seems to have opened his cage. There are no safe places left any more.
Files required to play on Shroudworld can be found in the Download section of Shroudworld.com
I like the quest based XP system and the story is very good. You can solo or be in a party, which means you can play when you want and not have to worry about coordinating with other people.
Posted by Emma91589158 at on02/06/08
An absolutely amazing gameworld, I don't know when I last had so fun playing a game, but it for sure was a very long time ago. ShroudWorld is so rich in every aspect - the stories, the abundance of quests, humour, versatility, places to go, friendly players to meet, interesting npcs. I'm full of admiration and gratitude to the people who have created all this for us to enjoy. I will sure play in ShroudWorld for a very long time to come!
Posted by Latimer at on02/04/08
I've currently gotten to level 5 with a rogue - not an optimal class for this world at all. However, it does make thigs to be a bit more of a challenge playing a rogue. Otherwise, I see nothing but sword-wielding casters running about. My only gripe would be that the world is set up to favor melee' classes. I don't recall even one trap I had to disarm.
Posted by Ion at on01/24/08
Ok..so I went back to Shroudworld after writing my thesis. I created an entirely new character. I'm using a fire genasi fighter..i'm almost lvl 4 and i must say that begining again with a melee class has deffinately made things much easier..not so easy as to say its unbalanced - but easy enough to get things accomplished - even when facing tough challenges..and theres been quite a few for me. I recommend to anyone new joining this server..that its a safe bet to begin playing as a melee class - the world can seem a bit confusing at first, but playing as a melee class provides you the durability to last long enough to see how much this world offers. For instance, the custom quest system. This system is prolly the most stand out thing about this server. When you become familiar with it, you can see that a large focus of Shroudworld is based around it - almost entirely it seems at the point i'm currently at. The quests are slightly unique when it comes to how they flesh out - they're not always the same old stuff, but some of them are; though not enough to derail an appreciative player. Its all about questing - and having fun of course, but questing has some unique incentives in Shroudworld. Upon completing a quest, theres a chance you will recieve whats called a "quest point." These quest points can be redeemed at a temple, along with a gold amount, for extra feats that are unique only to Shroudworld. You recieve the points by chance - but i've been told that the amount you can aquire is basically infinite - as in, you can get as many feats as you want as long as you have the quest points and gold to do so. I myself have completed 18 quests and have yet to recieve a quest point. I've been told that each character has a 10% chance to recieve one - so i figure i should have at least one maybe two at this point..but i'm not stressing it because the extra feats are deffinately a treasure and they shouldnt be so easy to aquire. So this incentive causes you to explore Shroudworld step by step and quest by quest - but you never feel forced to do so..even though questing has its grinds, it feels natural and freeform. Not only are there custom feats, but also some custom skills..the fighter has some really cool ones.. I've also taken the chance to talk to some people in the community..as everyone else has said here - they've all been not only very helpfull, but happily willing to help..hopefully if i become a veteran here, i will get the chance to help some new players along as well.. I'm changing my vote to a 9.5 because i dont want to come back and change it again later - as i begin to see more and more of this world. I figure as it stands right now, i want to give it a solid 8 - based on the unique quest system & the cohesiveness of the world..but since i havent experienced much yet - i have no idea whats to come, though looking at things so far i believe whatever happens in the future will be pretty damn cool - and to me thats worth another point and a half.. My only arguement now is the fact that i registered on the website forum for this world but my user name and password doesnt work..i requested a copy of my info from the site but have yet to receive an email containing it. this is kinda crappy because i would deffinately like to get involved there.. other than that all i can say is that this is a good world..i dont want to get into much of anything else concerning it because i dont want to ruin the fun of exploration & adventure for anyone..because you really can feel a solid sense of adventure here.. nice job..i will deffinately continue to play.. -ion
Posted by frodowasaparanoidgnome at 02:57:14 Voted10.00
My best suggestion for lvl1 chars is to put on a few levels before you attempt to solo any dungeons or melee content, as there are plenty of quests that don't require combat to pack on a few. Just about everyone is friendly and willing to help out, so you can always send a tell to ask how something is supposed to work, since as Ion says, it's not always intuitive at first. Last, but not least, check the PRC thread in the SW forums before planning for a PRC, as they are not quite yet in-game; ETA is fairly soon though I believe, as a number of the PRC access quests are going in currently.
Posted by Ion at on01/24/08
I played here for maybe around 6 hours. it started out well, looked as if it had some promise - then slowly went down hill from there. before playing, i also spent a few hours on the website for this world studying its lore, custom content and what its all about in Shroudworld. after reading around on the website and looking at the custom PRCs here, i decided to start as a rogue and work my way towards being a Methbein Trickster - which was an accomplishment that was far off in the distance..but its good to have a plan. i'm giving this a 5 because the quest system is pretty innovative IMO..what i saw design wise wasnt any more spectacular than anything out of the OC..so i cant really give extra points for that. the custom UI here is also well done. BUT, once you get into the guts of the game things start to become a bit confusing - not that everything should be simple - but a bit more direction to the quests would be appreciated. two quests that i spent some time one were completely rediculous. the first being that i was to collect tokens in a dungeon right outside the starting point for the world. upon entering the dungeon, i looked around for the tokens..found a few then left because a messege was informing me that grave robbers had already been there and there wasnt anyting left to search..so i left and re-entered. upon re-entering - everything appeared the same until i entered the lower level once again. upon entering the lower level suddenly there were skells everywhere..killing me at just about every turn. theres no way my lvl 1 pc was ever going to be able to complete that quest. so i moved on to other things, and thought i should just come back later.. from there i completed a few more quests..and ended up reaching lvl 2 and CC as a bard since i needed bard lvls to become the Trickster later on. this seemed to work ok when it came to fighting enemies in the area - the i encountered the 2nd rediculous quest. this quest involved searching for a miners kin. i got to the 3rd part of the quest - then things become extremely confusing. at this stage i was told to find an emergency escape route from the mines..upon doing so, the quest info doesnt change nor does the quest giver provide any extra information after doing so. so i assumed that finding this emergency exit which leads to a mine below was somehow supposed to lead me to the miners kin or thier corpses, but none of that info is provided - so i just used my wits and searched around the mine. after searching there for prolly 2 hours i found nothing but death and empty rooms..i honestly searched every particle of stone down there and found nothing..not only that - there are miner corpses everywhere and once you touch them they turn into zombies..ok, so i know to avoid them now..but am i really supposed to avoid them? are one of them or two of them the miners kin?..i dont know, no info is ever provided for this..so i can either avoid them and find nothing or touch every single one i see and most likely be killed trying to find something. this doesnt make much sense, since upon reviewing the quest info it only says to look for the emergency exit..and says nothing about venturing into the mine below at all.. maybe i will play again, start over as a melee pc and try to find some direction before i get into playing a more "carefull" class type. a rogue type pc is deffinately not going to do well to start off here not knowing what the hell is going on and not being given any direction what so ever.. it "appears" as if this world can be good at the later lvls..but like many other servers out there, it seemingly caters to melee classes to get through..and then once you descover the inner workings of the game..you can restart as a more complex pc because you know what to expect and can easily strategize how to deal with complex situations.. but for now this only gets a 5 from me. its nice to see all the great comments on this world, but from my standpoint there is much to be worked on here..i honestly am getting sick of having to start every server i play on as melee class.. i didnt talk to any of the people here..so i'm not going to judge the player base, but there does seem to be a veteran crowd on this server..as i was playing the same people were always around - with the highest count being around 10 or so people. i'm sure they are good people - but i didnt spend time talking to them..as with most, i like to watch things unfold a bit before i start socializing because the world itself may be more treacherous than the people within it..and if i'm not going to stick around..why socialize?.. but like i said, i might try a melee pc later, but for now i have to work on my thesis.. -ion
Posted by louballic2 at on01/16/08
Best fun since face to face gaming. Different choices lead differnt way eg low level wizard with invisibilty helped me - mighty warrior to do quest against giants - was no way i was going to fight those - "Here just let me help you with those goblins so we both can get the arceologists approval". Alwys something around the corner to do. And if you want to stuff up you can. BUT there is DM's who fix accidents. :)
Posted by CrnaOvca at on01/08/08
Well I have been playing it for almost 2 months now and can only say it is really good. I haven't tried any other PWs but from the descriptions they do not sound as fun. It is not perfect, there are different bugs but considering the amount of content compared to the number of people working on it, that is only normal. As was mentioned the quests system is great, fun and makes you always want to do more. I found myself playing this whole day, everyday :) Also since it is a lower magic world, spellcasters really get to shine in under lvl 15 areas, but the problem that shows itself here is that they get weaker in high level ones. Almost anyone has huge HP, evasion and/or SR. Then some get immunity to certain elements and your blaster caster :) gets weak. On the other hand pure non-spellcasters are even weaker in some of these high lvl areas. This makes you look for parties instead of soloing. Which is a good thing (and a bad if there are not a lot of players around) since most quests are more fun when you do then with someone else although they suffer from problems like needing to do them more then once depending on the number of players in the group. Anyway grouping is rewarded with extra XP you would not get usually. I must say this is the first D&D game (after BG2) where I felt like my spellcaster (wizard more specifically) is more then an one trick pony. The biggest reason for not giving 10 is some (to me) strange design decisions of the development team, but since this server is still work in progress these things may change and I even believe my score might rise in the future. If you like PvP then you will be disapointed (although you can kill other players accidentally). Oh yea, custom APS feats, custom quest journal, teleporting system for wizards and similar but weaker for other classes and other small things like that are just a confirmation that this PW goes almost into the Genuinely Groundbreaking category (which I think people who gives scores to other PW overlook; they should ask themselves: What really inovative thing has this server brought?) Best praise I can leave at the end is what I told Segal: If Obsidian took this PW and made it a bit more personal with voice for many of them more key NPCs this would have made a much better OC then the current one.
Posted by King at 10:05:10 Voted10.00
I just thought I'd mention that the update to patch 1.11 has now taken place.
Posted by Se at on12/20/07
I voted too soon. Changing my 9 to 9.75....this is one top of the line PW. _________________________ I'm a man but I can change, if I have to, I guess.
10 - A Masterpiece, Genuinely Groundbreaking 9 - Outstanding, a Must Have 8 - Excellent, Recommended to Anyone 7 - Very Good, Deserves a Look 6 - Good, Qualified Recommendation 5 - Fair, Solid yet Unremarkable 4 - Some Merit, Requires Improvements 3 - Poor Execution, Potential Unrealized 2 - Very Little Appeal 1 - Not Recommended to Anyone
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