MerricB said:
Setting is absolutely irrelevant to this.
All right, we'll go with that.
The setting is irrelevant. Let's face it, with the material out there, we've got setting covered all we need to.
World of Warcraft is not successful because it's set in the Warcraft universe: it's successful because it is a really good game.
And that's what we'd need. A
really good game with the D&D label on it, not a stinker that will stick in people's minds as being awful.
--snip--
Are there guilds?
You can use:
- Class based guilds.
- Alignment based guilds.
- Diety based guilds.
- Location based builds.
All of those on the server side. PC's can hear about it from:
A crier. A town guard. A tavern owner.
We add the CoH/V "contacts" into the mix, that'll help.
You can get missions from the guilds or contacts.
This is definately a necessity. Despite what people claim, politics, in a fantasy game, can make or break it.
You need villian factions, rival good guy groups, etc. You have to let player's feel they are making a difference in the world without ruining the experience for the rest of the players.
Speech, obviously.
Then emotes.
Trade items, money.
Team up.
Sidekick/exemplar one another.
Duels (when agreed upon)
Auctions.
With NPC's.
Swim/climb/etc. (Flying is a must. Trust me, if you've never done a nose dive and pulled up right before hitting the ground and weaved through city streets, you really should)
How can they get better at what they do?
Levelling up. It's D&D, let's stick to the Core Rules.
BUT, we may need to bring back the old 2E "creating things == XP" bit.
Adventures. (IE: Door missions)
Exploration. (Gain XP for finding locations they've never seen)
Interact with NPC's, either for good or ill.
Advance the standing of thier Guild in Rankings. (The higher the guild ranking, the more of a price decrease for items bought through the above guilds. Player created guilds wouldn't gain all the benifits, or have to be handled slightly differently)
Create items.
The more I think about this, using the systems in place, much less the X-Box 360 or the PS-3, the more I can think of that can be done.
NeverWinter Nights 2 is already in production. If handled right, this could blow WoW clean out of the water.
If you added the ability to travel to 3rd Party servers (you'd need a script to check what you earned to prevent the "Plane of Magical Lewt!" syndrome) where there were community created areas/locations/adventures/dungeons, you'd have ever fragging modder out there shorting his box out with drool.
.
