Ok. This is a post that I use to clarify my own thoughts about it. I think I'm on the same page as the DM team, so that's cool. But I may also use that post as a friendly reminder to myself, from time to time.
Sorry, it will be a loooong post.
TL;DR: read only the orange bits. 
So. A little bit of context first. I played NWN in 2002-2003 when it has been released, then came back a few months ago. During that period of time, my tabletop/pen&paper roleplaying habits have changed a lot.
Now, fun fact. In France, a whole lot of roleplaying gamers despise dungeon crawling. Nevertheless, D&D is also one of the main RPG here. And it's aaaall about the roleplaying. You will never ever encounter a gamer that will say 'I want to create a powerful character'. Because he would be a "bad" gamer. It's all about the psychology and the roleplay. But in a Storytelling/White Wolf sense (meaning a GM has written a story and you, the players, re-enact it). I frankly don't know if they use D&D to "Storytell" fantasy adventures. Which would be broken and maybe that explains why they hate D&D so much. I have no idea why they don't use another game...
(But it's slowly changing... so that's cool
)
D&D is about exploring dungeons and killing dragons. That's it. It does that good. But it does only that.
Let me be clear: my -personal- taste (I insist on that, I'm not telling they are better or whatever), I'm not really into dungeon crawling but if someone offers me to play a dungeon crawling, I would be okay. Why not, right? But only if it's a dungeon crawling and -not- a Storytelling fantasy game where you tell me a story you've written with a game that is about dungeon crawling. Because it will suck. I've played for almost ten years, I know that for a fact.
NWN is a D&D game, true. But I think the point of this server is not about killing dragons and exploring dungeons. I've read that some players are here to immerse themselves into the Harry Potter universe. I can understand that, I respect that but I genuinely disagree. If you want to immerse yourself into the Harry Potter universe, go read the books; if you can't or don't want, go watch the movies. But don't play a game. Another fun fact: I've never read a Harry Potter book and never seen a single movie.
It is a
roleplaying server. And roleplaying games are about
telling stories. The Harry Potter universe is the setting, I totally agree, but you are not telling stories about a setting, right? We are telling stories about
characters.
Let me emphasize this:
we are
telling stories about
characters.
Each of these four words are important.
We. That means: you and me as players, and the DM. Now, in NWN, it's even truer because there is not always a DM available, so it's a game sometimes without DM, DM-less you may say. And if it's a GM-less game, that means
all of us are GM. That means we all have power over the narrative part of the game.
What I'm telling you in game is true; you may disagree, then I will change a little bit of what I've told you until we reach an agreement; but in the end of the day, I'm creating the world, its inhabitants, its plots, its stories.
And this is where the telling part comes in. We are telling stories. We are not re-enacting a story written down by someone else. Telling a story is
creating a story, much as a GM would do with improvisation.
Not the best part is, to tell good stories, I, as a player, need your help. To tell a good story, I need you to know what kind of story I want to tell.So, right here, some may say that's metagaming. And that's bad. Yeah, it's metagaming. We know that we play a game and we use information we have OOC to play the game. But it's good. Because you want me to know about all of your dirty secrets. What's the use of your ten-pages backstory if
you are the only one to know about it?
If -I- know it, if -you- (the player) tell me about it, I can make my character do some crazy things with your story. If I don't know, I just can't. I can't read your mind, sorry.
So, in another post, I will reveal all the backstory of my character (Eleonor Riverbanks) and what kind of stories I want to tell with her. So that you and I could create wonderful stories about it. I'll probably post that into my character bio. In the Roleplaying section. Yeah, sue me!
And I trust you, without any doubt, to be able to differentiate between what you know as a player and what your character knows. And to post here on this very forum, as a player, questions about it, in order to guide the way you will interact with my character, if needed be.
Also, if I'm not saying out loud what I want for my character, how could the DM possibly know?
It's not about the "what", it's about the "how"...
As a DM, you want the characters to be crazy awesome. But you want to push them hard to see when they break, what kind of things they are willing to do. What really defines them.
Stories are about change, a protagonist is someone who evolves during the course of the play. The antagonists are those who support this change. Yes, I'm telling you that you are my antagonists, guys
Not my enemies. But my antagonists. I'm playing a kid/teen and you are so much influential, you have no idea. The people that I meet defines her personality, influences her. In good or in bad, I don't care. But my character is not the same as in the beginning, alone in the welcome room, still undefined. She is a protagonist, I care about her and I'm enthusiastic about what will happen next -because I have no idea!-
And for me (I insist on that: for me), this is the theme of this server. It's not about the Harry Potter universe. It's about teens that are at a period of their life where they will evolve so much and be influence by others; and about who they will become in the end, what kind of person... The magical/fantasy part is just there to amplify the theme.
Now, we may sit here and talk about what the plans we (don't) have for the day, or eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. We can hang out, do some pillar-squatting. Talk about nothing that really matters. That's all fine from time to time. But in the long run, that's boring, right? There is no event, nothing happens.
First, we don't need DM to make event, do we? Yes, I'm limited with the NWN game engine because I'm not logged in as a DM. I can't create a dragon out of nowhere, I can't make a NPC talk, I can't teleport you. But I have a tool: my character; and my imagination which is useful to tell stories (and thankfully imagination is a wide rich thing). And I can tell you what happens: you won't see the dragon (except if a DM intervenes), but it is here. Because I say so and you agree. Now, what do we do? (Of course it's just an example: I won't make a dragon appear, because it's just lame and lazy
).
Stories are about conflicts. Conflicts are not just combat, no no no. Conflicts arise when something is at stakes, when there is a risk. When I can lose something. It can be my life, my honour, my pride, the necklace that my grandma gave me on her deathbed, your love, whatever. When I want something from you and you don't want to give that to me. It may be your lunchbox, your consideration or your friendship, whatever. It's about dilemmas and hard, meaningful choices. Do I really want that, -that- hard?
Fight me. Oppose me. Ally me. Betray me. Hurt me. Be friendly with me. Be harsh with me.
Because you are good. Because you're evil. Because you don't like me. Because, more precisely, you have a reason for that.
It sounds hard. But it's so simple. You just need to trust me as a player, because
I want to find out how awesome your character is and I want to help you telling a good story about your character. Just as you do about mine. But you have to tell me in the first place or I cannot help you...
It may be nothing, it may not be the best idea in the world. Doesn't matter. My character for example is not that hard to define. She's quite simple. But she is changing. And her story entertains me way much better than a complex story that I don't care about. It's because I'm involved. I care for her story. I don't know how it will end, but I'm curious.
Now, read my character bio when I'll update it to explain what Ellie is all about, what she is doing, what I envision for her. And how you can mess with that. Then come to me with even the simplest idea and we'll create a good story out if it, together. Let's just play to find out! And let's be awesome!
So yeah, sorry for this (is this a kind of a rant? I can't tell... I see that much more that as a stream of thoughts). Long time since I've been playing NWN; truth is, I had no idea how to RP in a videogame and a forum... The medium is different, right?
Yeah, I think I know how I'll be playing NWN on this server now. As a tabletop RPG. If you don't want that, if you don't want to be part of the awesomeness, well, avoid me! If you do, you're very welcome and, again, just tell me and we'll figure it out!
You've been warned!
