FAQ

Version 3 September 2004

With the Troimoira's Fane Campaign now well under way, I've finally got around to getting the FAQ to reflect reality.

-DM Morgana

System Specs.

What will the server set-up be?
Primary server; 2.4 GHz Pentium 4, 1 Gb of RAM.

What type of line will be used?
512K downstream, 256K upstream ADSL.

The TF Campaign

Will the world be persistent?
The world will be used to run a persistent, consistent campaign, but the servers will not be 24/7. We will be offering an on-going campaign with a regular schedule. In effect, a P&P campaign transferred to the PC.

Who will be able to play?
Due to the enclosed and consistent nature of the campaign, you need to sign on as a TF player to be a part of the regular sessions. For guidelines on becoming a TF player, see the guidelines on "How do I become a Player?" below.

How many people will be playing at once?
The scheduled sessions usually attract a party of 6 - 8 players. We want to maintain a consistent high quality for the campaign, and believe that we can only really do that with a fairly small group of characters.

When will the servers be up?
We currently run scheduled sessions on a Saturday and Tuesday evening, every other week. Keep in mind that we are based in the UK, so that our evening session may only be variable for European players. Sessions usually begin at 8pm UK time.

We also make the Angleston module available occasionally purely for the purposes of trading and socialising.

What type of campaigns will you be running?
We plan to run a long-term campaign with a consistent theme, but with a wide variety of play styles. We hope to accommodate most common styles of play at some time during a campaign - i.e. dungeon bashes, social interaction, politics, wilderness adventure, investigation etc. The exact balance will ultimately be dictated by the tastes of the players involved.

The campaigns will definitely be party based, though we hope to be flexible enough to allow most characters to develop their individual interests. As the PCs evolve, we may even be able to offer the occasional individual scenario to allow a particular character to pursue a special interest. This last idea will again depend on just how time-consuming setting the system up is going to be.

How will you be handling the passing of time in the game world?
We would like to maintain a consistent calendar. It is likely that we will have to do this by advancing the date every time that a session is played. We will assume that characters are pursuing downtime activities in the days that pass between their sessions. If you have any specific downtime projects for your character, notify the DM by email.

Will TF be linked to other NWN worlds?
We don't plan to have any permanent portals to other worlds at the moment.

Characters

What range of characters will be allowed?
Any race and standard class permitted in the 3e rules will be allowable in Troimoira's Fane, although a few race/class combinations will be very rare. Keep in mind that the general character of a number of the races is rather different than in the standard D&D rules though, so be sure to check on the exact nature of the races in this setting before deciding what you want to play.

A few of the Prestige Classes made available in Shadows of Undretide and Hordes of the Underdark are not appropriate to the setting, so players are adviced to check on the status of any prestige class that they are interested in pursuing, before they invest too heavily in the idea.

Can I play an Evil character?
Yes, you can, but be ready to accept the consequences of your actions. If your character murders someone in cold blood, be ready to have the local guard, and a band of bounty hunters on your tail. If your victim was an Orc, Half-orc or Human, then you may have to face the "just" revenge of his family as well. If your character is caught stealing then he may well be fined, enslaved or hung.

How will D&D skills not present in NWN be handled?
The TF modules have been scripted with a Skill Gem that allows access to some of the D&D skills not implimented in the NWN engine. The system requires some maintaince from the player, but helps to add to the depth of the game world. Details of the Skill Gem system can be found in the Troimoira's Fane Play Guide.

Will Player vs. Player combat be allowed?
In-character conflict is permitted, though also keep in mind the issue of playing an evil character discussed above. Malicious PKing is clearly not acceptable, and it is covered in the "problem players" section below.

How will you be handling character death?
When a character in Troimoira's Fane dies, they pass into the Fugue plane, where they are stuck until someone restores them to life.

But there is clearly something odd going on in the realms of the dead, and sometimes you might learn something useful by looking around there.

How many characters can I have in the TF campaign?
Obviously you can only play one character at a time, but you may create up to two characters for the TF campaign. It will generally be up to you which character you bring to each session, although if a particular adventure requires a certain type of character (i.e. if I know that a Rogue would be a really good idea) I might drop a hint.

However, the second character is completely optional. If you only want to play a single character throughout the campaign, that's fine. This will inevitably lead to PCs of different levels adventuring together, but as long as the difference does not get too drastic, this should not be too much of a problem.

Will PCs be able to acquire or build castles, temples, inns etc..?
Yes, although they will have to work for them of course. PCs should even be able to design their own buildings and have them built from scratch, although that will take time and money. To work out just how expensive things are going to be, we will probably be relying on the "Stronghold Builder's Guidebook" for 3e (though we are going to have to multiple all the costs by 3x, as NWN does for all equipment).

What happens if my character is permanently killed, or just isn't working out as I hoped? Do I get another character?
I'm always happy to discuss your character with you, and this includes any problems you're having with it. I will treat each such case individually, but lay out a rough guide here.

If your character is permanently killed, you may create a new character immediately. This new character will probably start with exactly the same experience point total as the last character, unless; a) the original character dies by doing something particularly stupid, in which case the new character will have less exp., or; b) the original character died attempting something particularly heroic and self-sacrificing, in which case the new PC may have more exp. than the original.

If you wish to change character just because the original is not working out, I will probably allow the change to go through with little or no penalty, if you work with me to enact the change over (i.e. find a suitable way to retire the old character, and to bring in the new). If, however, you repeatedly change your character I may start applying an experience point penalty to the new character.

Players

How do I become a Player?
Firstly, read the web site and decide whether this is the world for you. Our campaign is aimed at players who are willing to make a long term commitment to a regular session.

Fill in and return our Player's Survey which can be found at http://www.validus.demon.co.uk/nw/downloads.htm

Keep in touch with the web site, and with us, by passing on any suggestions you have for the site itself, for your character, or for the world.

At the current time, the Troimoira's Fane campaign is full, and new players are joining a waiting list. In the event that players drop out in the course of the campaign, then the vacancy will be offered to the next player on the waiting list.

How will you deal with problem players?
Given that we will be running a low number of players, who we will hopefully get to know reasonably well before the campaign actually begins, we are not anticipating any major problems. However, anyone who's ever played in any multiple RPG environment, be it P&P or online CRPGs, knows that personalities do clash, and "the prat factor" is very difficult to eliminate completely. It is therefore wise to have a few ground rules in place before we all start playing together.

Any obvious hacking or cheating will result in an immediate ban.

Anti-social behaviour that disrupts the enjoyment of the game for others is unacceptable. This would include wanton, out of character PKing, abusing other players or the DM (note that abusing other Characters is quite acceptable, assuming that it is not too offensive), and gratuitous offensive language. On the first offence such anti social behaviour would usually be dealt with in game time. For instance a first offence of out of character PKing would result in the murderer character being tracked down by bounty hunters and killed (the victim of such a PK would be freely resurrected). If the player (not the character) persisted in anti social behaviour they would then be banned.