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Player's Guide

Posts regarding the servers of Nordock
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Lliira
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Player's Guide

Post by Lliira »

Land of Nordock
Player's Guide
Written by Marc "richterm" Richter

Updated October 31, 2002 - Part 1

So you want to travel in the land of Nordock, eh? It's a dangerous place, full of mystery, monsters and a dark shadow that seeks to overcome the land. To the brave adventure comes fame, glory and riches. Or perhaps just the chance to live another day...

Nordock is a Persistent World. This means that many people can play it at once and all these players can work together, go off on their own or even fight one another. Rather than a linear adventure, the world operates more like an open-ended MUD or a massive online game like Everquest.

This open-ended nature may confuse the new visitor, so this guide is offered to attempt to shed some light.

A few things first:

• Nordock is meant to be run as a dedicated server. You can certainly load the module as a single player game, but will miss out on the fun of adventuring with others. On a more practical note, some of the monsters and quests cannot be completed by a single person.
• If you are hosting the module, I highly recommend turning OFF both Item Level Restrictions and Enforce Legal Characters. Otherwise, some things may break.
• I don't recommend local vault, unless it is on a private LAN with folk you know and trust.

For additional help setting up the module, please feel free to visit http://www.nordock.net/ and come to the Nordock Public Release forum.

(Note that nordock.net has been offline since at least 2013. Also, you can only load the Public Release as single-player. The version that we have up here is not downloadable.)
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Re: Player's Guide

Post by Lliira »

Land of Nordock
Player's Guide
Written by Marc "richterm" Richter

Updated October 31, 2002 - Part 2


Ok, enough of that. What does a player need to know?

Well, first off, there are 3 distinct "player factions" in the land....Drow, Duergar and everyone else. All three factions dislike each other. NPCs of the opposing factions MAY try to kill you. So if you're a cute little Halfling, don't go strolling around the Drowsections of the Underdark. All 3 factions have their own start and respawn areas...you may play a Drow and never see a human (well, that's unlikely, but possible)

To play as a Drow, create an Elf character and type Drow in the subrace field.
To play as a Duergar, create a Dwarf character and type Duergar in the subrace field.

Other 3rd edition subraces are supported based on the Hard Core Ruleset subrace system. This information can be found at http://nwn.darkemud.com/~darke/HC/index.htm

Once you have created your character, you will appear in the Entrance. This is a special neutral area. You will be stripped of gear and gold and given a somewhat random starting amount. The Newbie store will automatically appear. Don't close it, as you have one chance to shop.

Spend wisely, but here are some good things to buy:

• A simple suit of armor or at least some clothes, for goodness sake!
• One melee weapon
• One missile weapon and ammo
• One skinning knife (VERY IMPORTANT)
• Several flasks of oil (VERY IMPORTANT)
• Thieves tools, if you are a rogue.

Your character will be given 1 food ration and a bedroll. These are needed to rest. With the bedroll, you can rest every 4 game hours. Without it, you can only rest every 24 hours. You need food every time you rest...you can either buy food or get it from hunting (thus the skinning knife and oil)

Once you are done shopping, take a moment to read any signs that your host may have put up.

Click on the Server Guide statue and he will start talking to you about the land. Feel free to ask him questions and try to soak up some information. Once ready, tell him to send you in!

You will be sent to your start location....Benzor, the Underdark (for Drow) or the Duergar caverns (for Duergar). Once there, the adventure is up to you!

(Note that you are not given any food here - purchase a few to start with. Also, the HCR website is no longer online. -Lliira)
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Re: Player's Guide

Post by Lliira »

Land of Nordock
Player's Guide
Written by Marc "richterm" Richter

Updated October 31, 2002 - Part 3

Some hints...

• There are boats or teleporters in many places. These can be used to safely travel vast distances, for a fee. Some locations are only accessible this way.
• You get your starting area mapped out for you, with some map pins pointing out key locations. Explore a bit, the home areas are quite safe.
• You can hire a cohort from certain NPCs. For instance, Captain Tucker in Benzor. Cohorts are henchmen that use a better AI than the official campaign. They are no charge for a level 1 character. They take no experience from you, so take advantage of their availability.
• If you die, you are sent to the Fugue Plane. Your equipment stays with you. You can wait for help or talk to the Guardian. He will respawn you for a hefty gold and XP penalty. Raise Dead cost less XP and Resurrection the least XP of all.
• If you die, you will end up with a soul fragment in your inventory. This can be removed by paying a fee at the proper temple (usually the same place you respawn). When this item is in your possession, you will gain much less experience.
• You can use the banks in the various cities to store your gold. This gold is never taken as a respawn penalty.

Resting

Nordock uses a limited resting system, to provide a more realistic world. The rules are very simple:
• A character may rest once every four hours if they have a bedroll. Otherwise, only every 24 hours. (1 hour = 2 real life minutes)
• A character may rest in certain Inns for a fee. This allows them to bypass the rest timer.
• A character (unless in an Inn) always needs food to rest

Food can be purchased at many stores and bars. It can be found on monsters. You can also hunt for your food. Many animals in the world are "skinnable", such as bats, deer, badgers, various cats and bears. If you kill one of these animals and then equip your skinning knife, clicking on the corpse will cause you to skin the critter. You will gain some hide (for the tanning skill) and some raw meat.

Raw meat needs to be cooked to be turned into food. There are ovens in certain places (the tanning ovens cannot be used to cook) but the most common way to cook is with a campfire. Merely "use" a flask of oil and then select a spot on the ground to make the fire. You can then use each piece of raw meat on the fire to cook it. The fire will not last forever, so it's best to build up a small supply of meat to cook.
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Re: Player's Guide

Post by Lliira »

Land of Nordock
Player's Guide
Written by Marc "richterm" Richter

Updated October 31, 2002 - Part 4

Tradeskills

Nordock uses the most excellent Ambrosia Tradeskill System. While not a mandatory thing for characters to do, tradeskills allow players to craft armor, weapons and other items. The main quest will require certain special crafted items, so someone is going to need to spend some time at the anvil.

Trade skills are "learned by doing". First, visit a trade skill master and pay for basic training. He or she will provide you with basic instruction and recipe books. From this point, you must seek out the raw materials for your trade and build your skills by using the tools and recipes to practice.

Traps

Nordock uses the Hard Core Rogue rules. This means a few things:
• Most traps have a regular detect DC, but have a disarm DC of over 100. This is to force Rogues to use the Hard Core Thieves Tools. A roll is always made, rather than the automatic "Take 20" that rogues would normally get.
• Most locks as well have a high disarm, requiring the use of the Hard Core Thieves Tools.
• Master quality thieves tools give a higher chance to disarm/lock pick.

Quests

There are many quests in the land. However, the Journal is not used. I'm an old school gamer, crusty in my ways, and I think that the Journal sometimes provides too much hand holding. Sorry.

That should be enough to get you started. Included with the Public Release of Nordock is now a map of the land. It's not very detailed, but give the traveler some idea of where things are.

(I found this out on the internet, thought it might be useful to brand new players here. -Lliira)
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Re: Player's Guide

Post by SirPalamor »

If you create an invalid subrace the newby store closes on you. You enter the world neked. :oops:
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Re: Player's Guide

Post by raradra »

SirPalamor wrote:If you create an invalid subrace the newby store closes on you. You enter the world neked. :oops:
Better to start over if this happens :)
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Re: Player's Guide

Post by Beard »

Valikars gateway has those imps that fly in place, they can reopen the store if you have only 1 xp gained.
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Re: Player's Guide

Post by Lliira »

Please note that the links listed in Marc's original document are no longer valid. They are 14 years old. :shock:
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Re: Player's Guide

Post by raradra »

Lliira wrote:They are 14 years old. :shock:
Anyone else feel old?
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Re: Player's Guide

Post by Lliira »

Yes. >.<
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