[MUD-Dev2] [ANNOUNCE] MetaPlace

[Matt Chatterley]

On 28/09/2007, Dana V. Baldwin <dbaldwin at playnet.com> wrote:
>
> Matt Chatterley wrote:
> [Snip my own post]
>
> I've been recently on the Fiest kick again myself and your post reminded
> me of a hub world I built for NWN where the different NPCs would send
> the group on the server on an adventure (launching a module on the
> server) and they could talk to an NPC in the new module that I custom
> placed to bring them back.
>
> Certainly nothing extraordinary there but it made for a very fun and
> quick persistent style world for the guys on my server.
>
> I should think that Aerea (I can never spell that thing Raf!) will be
> rife with similar things much the way that other VWs have portal areas.
> Hosting a portal area with an RSS feed and some community tools for
> rating the destinations might make for a wonderful utility world for
> other avatars. A BoingBoing (or Digg for that matter) for the "Web 3.d"
> or whatever we care to call virtual web worlds this week.
>
> I think I've found my second project.
>
> Now to wait on that alpha invitation (I know you're listening!).


Very cool idea within the NWN framework. Generally the "hall of worlds" is
one of the semi-cliches in the fantasy/sci-fi genre - allowing the content
author (applies to all types of media) to use different themes within their
"main theme" - your "main theme" might be high fantasy with elves, goblins
and fireballs - but through the mystic "Path to all Places" you can send
characters into the middle of the hi-tech war between the Spoogles and the
Selgoops, should you wish.

I do recall a comical interlude between serious D&D campaigns where my party
found a strange egg-shaped device with a small metal spike (with a hoop on
the end) stuck through the top, amongst a cache of other strange items.
Fortunately the thief ran away after the fighter pulled out the spike, and
we followed him. The DM was generous on the timer ;)

When well executed, it's a great mechanism, but it can become trite if
overused in story flow, I feel. Feist built his stories (at least the ones
I'm familiar with!) around the idea of travel to other places, but was
careful to focus on only one or two - the story was centered in Midkemia (or
Kelewan), but used other places as hooks to move the story on and give the
reader occasional mind-candy.

Something which might be fun to recreate in a series of interlinked worlds
would be something akin to the Inn in his Hall of Worlds, perhaps - it would
be a good excuse to set up a "casino" VW too! ;)

--Matt