Neverwinter Lore

courtesy of Wizards of the Coast

So we are about nine days out until the official release of Neverwinter the new Dungeons and Dragons MMO. It's really quite an exciting time to be a Dungeons and Dragons fan with two mmos to choose from. Justin Olivetti over at massively has done a good job of highlighting some of the differences between the two game settings in what is sure to be a long running debate between fans of both games. Personally, I have decided to upgrade my rig just in time for summer break so I can have a chance at enjoying this great looking game.

Just like I did when DDO released their expansions a few months back with the Drow, I bring you some resources for info. on the new setting, though some long time fans may already be familiar with it, it is always cool to have some background on the game settings for the Dungeons and Dragons newbs and the rest of us who did not get a chance to spend a lot of time in the pen and paper game world of 4E.

For starters here is a link to an excerpt of the Neverwinter Campaign guide from the folks at Wizards of the Coast and provided by the good DDO community. It is an excellent resource for lore and backstory on Neverwinter, while it may not be a game guide for the mmo masses, those who are interested in the story will appreciate having it as a handy reference.  There is also some good info here from WoTC. Here is a link to the various factions that play in the game.

There is also this wiki page with info on the Forgotten Realms which I found helpful and finally the link to the official campaign guide to Neverwinter is a must have and a fountain of info, especially for the mmo players who will be messing around with the foundry.

Whether back story is important to you or not when you play Neverwinter, I hope you find these resources fun to wade through and provide the necessary background to refer to when the game finally drops later this month.

Academic Research mmorpg style

Will Wheaton's table top web show on Geek and Sundry has sparked interest in a lot of modern table top rpgs.

There's a lot going on this weekend. It's International table top gaming day, so all across this great land at hobby shops across the country people are currently engaged in their favorite board or rpg game. This blog is primarily about mmorpgs not table top gaming, but I bring it up because as descendants of RPGs, mmorpgs owe a great deal to their table-top heritage.

Today I have the misfortune of missing out, so instead of playing D&D, or fun games like Zombicide, Bloodsuckers, Clash of Cultures, and countless others, I am trying to work on my research paper for my theory class in graduate studies.

I have spent a great deal of time scouring the forums and trying to contact guild leaders to take part in my study, but thus far, the response has been less than spectacular. I figured, why not reach out through my blog? So if you are reading this post and you are a guild officer in a current mmorpg like Rift or World of Warcrat, or if you are the leader of a guild, it does not matter what game, please get in touch with me. You can respond to this blog post, or contact me via email at journalismdude@gmail.com

I appreciate any and all help, as there is a deadline involved and I am getting kind of antsy. If you happen to be one of the lucky ones who is either playing your favorite table top RPG today at your local hobby shop, or even at WonderCon in Anaheim, then oh how I envy you! Peace out!