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Neverwinter Nights 2: Judge & Jury Tackle Party Restrictions

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Fu’Miga

Well, well, well… what we have here may prove to be a historic event, Gatz, bacause I almost agree with you., Fu’Miga enters the room with an amazed expression and clapping a surprisingly slow round of applause.

I am all for the “let conflicting aligned characters party up together” and then “let us feast on the bones of the weak characters that couldn’t take the battle of conflicts in the party”. Sheesh! she takes her seat right in front of Gatzby. I’m sure characters like those two you mentioned will surely bring much joy and a dynamic look to a party, especially if they roleplay shouting to each other “PWZed” and “W00t”.

With a somewhat ironic grin she goes on in a creepy voice and performs an arm dance as if casting an eldritch spell, “Suxrz got the pha7 lewt” . Her grin gets wider in an almost silly way and her voice takes another tone, “Yah m8, owned!”. She starts laughing while remembering her bad times playing MMORPGS with those she called the “aliens from ROFLMAO”.

Now, now, Gatz deary. Wouldn’t you agree that if the party has novice to experienced roleplayers the conflicts would only be fun for a very short amount of time? Imagine them fighting over everything, every single judgement passed on anything they heard, saw or found. Imagine the frustration of the remaining players that want their share of the fun too (especially if the warlock and the paladin are experienced roleplayers). Wouldn’t they go try to look elsewhere (as you put it)?

But I won’t go deeper on this matter because I fear we may not be talking of the same issues. If you tell me an orc should be able to party up with a fairy… sure! But conflicting alignments are a very tough wounding strike to a party (specially, if they don’t know each other well as players) and an even tougher headache to a human DM. She leans back on her chair while nodding.

Gatzby

Okay, sure, I’ll concede that point… if you’re playing with idiots. Personally, I’ve never so much as seen, “pwnd,” uttered in any of my Neverwinter games, even with the general public involved. I view Neverwinter Nights as a fundamentally different gameplay environment than most MMORPGs. Sure, if you really want the pointless hack and slash and item-whoring, it’s there, but you’re inflicting that upon yourself. If you can’t agree that group restrictions are, on whole, a bad thing, look to your own house!

Petty arguments could be an issue, but not within the core elements of the Neverwinter experience. Most of the adventures take place exploring dungeons, solving riddles, finding secrets, and killing big nasties having received a primary quest. I find it hard to believe that someone would be fastidious enough with their roleplaying, no matter what level, to constantly argue who gets the +2 heavy crossbow, why left is the better choice, or if a creature should be left alive. Now, if someone was hoarding the goods or constantly getting the party killed, then an argument might start. However, imagine the opportunity for a player to argue for clemency for an enemy versus outright slaughter. Ah, I can taste the dilemma and it tastes good! I guess we’ll just have to hope for party PvP in Neverwinter Nights 2.

Perhaps we’ll never see eye to eye on this one, but who needs eyes when you’ve got a dagger and Blind Fight? Sleep lightly, my dear, sleep lightly.

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