Eyes of Eilistraee: Let the setting do the talking

One of the design principals I try and follow in building neverwinter nights modules is the "show don't tell" approach to delivering the back story. In a lot of cases it's much more interesting for a player to learn something through some kind of interaction, even if the player is largely passive, than to force them to read an in-game book or character journal for the same information.

As a result of this approach, I'm constantly trying to find engaging ways of delivering plot related information whether it be ambient or critical, so that players feel that they are discovering my story rather than being spoon fed.

Last night, whilst updating one of the cavern areas close to the village of Barrow Vale, I was struggling to come up with a back story that covered the history of the cavern's current and previous inhabitants. After rejecting one particular back story, I started to think about the history of the people of Barrow Vale and their relationship with werewolves. After a bit of tinkering around, I came up with the premise that the caverns were the retreat of werewolves who'd been driven out of the tribe when the human members had decided to settle down and build Barrow Vale. Over time, the werewolves had waned in power (for various reasons) and other inhabitants had taken root in the caverns - making their own distinctive changes in an area once inhabited by lycanthropes. With a “layered” history I used lycanthrope habitation as a background theme for the design of the area then overlaid the influence of the cavern’s newer inhabitants with appropriate terrain features and placeables.

This link between the people of the village and the caverns gives me an opportunity to plant plot elements in the caverns that relate to the back story for the module. I think this will raise the areas above your standard "stone dungeon" variant and create a more interesting atmosphere (with appropriate placeables, secrets etc) and provide the opportunity for the player to explore the history of Barrow Vale should they wish to do so.

Last note: Apologies for a lack of screenshots. They are coming I promise.


eR