No News Is Good News?

Post by **Shir'le E. Illios** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 5:03 pm

Right. With E3 done we can finally move on to business as usual and focus back on this site.

As such what I wanted to ask you is: what to do with the [url=http://www.eilistraee.com/chosen/news.php:1wqk9jze]news section[/url:1wqk9jze] of the site?

When I first created the site the news section had the purpose of listing news about the site and any updates I made, list news about Neverwinter Nights which was still in development at the time, and news about the Forgotten Realms, drow and Eilistraee as coming from WotC.

But the website rarely updates (that’s my fault, but beyond slacking horribly on the wiki there isn’t much that needs changing), Neverwinter Nights has long since finished and most of us probably moved on since then, and WotC has dropped our community so badly that some of us (like myself) have decided to boycott any of their future products. And either way there’s not much to report anymore now that they’ve killed Eilistraee anyway.

So the question then becomes, what do we do with the news section? Because right now there rarely is any news to post.

I can see the following as suggestions, though if you have other ideas I’d like to hear them.

[list:1wqk9jze][*:1wqk9jze]Keep the news as it is. This is definitely the easiest option and it means that no news will continue to get posted. Maybe now and again if something small happens, but otherwise nothing. In general this doesn’t have to be an issue, except that I fear that people new to the site might look at the news, see it hasn’t updated in months, and leave thinking there’s no activity at all.
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[*:1wqk9jze]Remove the news section. We could also just remove the news section altogether. Though this creates a slight imbalance with the link buttons at the top, I could replace the “news” button with one to the wiki (though that means I’d actually need to have the wiki going… bah, there’s never an easy solution

). Not my favoured solution.
[/*

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[*:1wqk9jze]Pick something else to report news on. This of course means that we’d need something else to report on. Here in general is the problem that since I’m likely the one doing the reporting (though I could appoint someone else as a news poster quite easily) it needs to be something that I’m involved in already as I have little desire to pick up something else to track just so I can report news. For instance, I don’t follow Pathfinder at all and thus can’t report on that. But perhaps I could report on roleplaying computer games, particularly PC games, in general since I tend to be fairly on-top of gaming news (as you might’ve noticed from the E3 coverage).

This would likely include things like Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic (though I’ve also got [url=http://moonendor.blogspot.com/:1wqk9jze]my blog[/url:1wqk9jze] for that), various other RPGs and MMOs still in development, etc. Of course there are already plenty of other news sites for games out there and it wouldn’t really have anything to do with the drow/Eilistraee theme of the site. Of course I could post things with an "how can we bring Eilistraee there" approach, but that often wouldn't work or seem contrived.[/*

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As you can see I’m having a bit of an identity crisis with the site. After being so violently cut loose from the Forgotten Realms and, mostly due to my own fault, our own efforts on keeping Eilistraee going haven’t really increased I’m wondering a bit what to do. I’m happy to let things continue as they are, if all of you are as well, but it’s clear that things aren’t quite what they used to be.

I’ve always said that I prefer a smaller community over a large one, but I can understand if some of you might be getting a bit disillusioned with the fairly slow pace around here. And there never being any news to report doesn’t really help with that.

So what are the things that you would like to see on the news reports? Or are you happy the way things are?

Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

Talwyn Aureliano · Post by **Talwyn Aureliano** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:08 am

I think keep things as they are for now.

The fact that WotC have nerfed D&D with their crap version 4E, and that they effectively buggered the realms along with Eilistraee makes it difficult to keep a setting vibrant and active.

Yet we still have people who pop by, occasionally sign up as members so that proves there is still enough interest out there in the wider world about Eilistraee.

For my part, how about introducing a gaming news thread? One that discusses things like new game releases, old games, board games, RPG's, MMO's etc.

You could fold any relevant news about Eilistraee into the Theology section, which I think might be better being transformed into a section that discusses more than just theology. It should encompass drow life, rituals, customs, history, culture and anything else relevant to the topic. There should be a number of sticky topics on each major topic which hold all the petinent information on that subject. The information should be sourced from cannon material first off, then other sources.

In a way we need to cut & paste or at least paraphrase the information from the original drow source book, 2ed Drow of the Underdark by Ed Greenwood. To me that is the quintisential tome of knowledge. Also any novel, including the ones about Drizzt [yes I know we all hate him but it's still relevent!

] plus any campaigns or modules/adventures that feature drow. And of course a drow Art site. I've been collecting drow art because I'm a member of DeviantArts so I could post a link to my collection but ultimately it would be nice to host on the wiki a selection of the very best works of drow depicting drow etc.

That's my 2 coppers pieces

Talwyn Aureliano · Post by **Talwyn Aureliano** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 8:07 am

Just thinking further about things:

since we have decided collectively that the events in the last Smedman book never happenned, how about creating a new timeline/alternative history that encompasses a stalemate between Lloth & Eilistraee or if not that then perhaps a reversal of roles/power with Eilistraee becoming the dominate drow deity.

Some ideas:

1 - Lloth is defeated but not killed outright leaving Eilistraee to join with the Seldarine and begin a campaign to retake the underdark from Lloth's influence.

2 - The events that occur with the other gods, like the death of Mystra by the hands of Cyric which caused the spellplague are somehow averted or at least muted. Personally, [the death of Mystra etc] that was the other travesty that WotC shat out and asked the fans to swallow - not me!

3 - Envisage/create a timeline/history of events for say 10 years from Lloths fall. With this we will be able to present the fans with a viable campaign alternative.

The only problem I see here is potential legal/copywrite issues with WotC over their IP on the realms. I think we will be able to get away with it as this is a non profit website and as such, does not threaten their financial rights to the realms.

If the fans want to use/come and view this site because of the superior content, then perhaps those dickheads in WotC may finally realise that their reboot of D&D was a complete clusterfuck.

Anyway, WotC will probably not even notice what we do here so...

[img:1nm5suo0]http://images.veer.com/IMG/PIMG/CBP/CBP0016169_P.JPG[/img:1nm5suo0]

to them!

Argoth · Post by **Argoth** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:05 am

In my opinion one of the easiest (and preferred by me) solutions is placing a "temporarily closed" tag on the news section, so that people won't go about thinking why there haven't been any activity in this section. When the wiki's set up, you could replace the news button with the wiki one, take down the news section and place it somewhere, in some form of archive. It could be a testimony (ok, the word ain't accurate, but you know what I mean) of the ones that left this site and never returned.

Post by **Shir'le E. Illios** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 10:17 am

[quote="Talwyn Aureliano":269hl6it]For my part, how about introducing a gaming news thread? One that discusses things like new game releases, old games, board games, RPG's, MMO's etc.[/quote:269hl6it]
The computer games (CRPGs and MMOs and such) part of this is easy enough for me to do since I closely follow that already anyway. And if someone closely follows various P&P RPG and board games and such I'll happily give them access to post news items as well.

[quote="Talwyn Aureliano":269hl6it]You could fold any relevant news about Eilistraee into the Theology section, which I think might be better being transformed into a section that discusses more than just theology. It should encompass drow life, rituals, customs, history, culture and anything else relevant to the topic. There should be a number of sticky topics on each major topic which hold all the petinent information on that subject. The information should be sourced from cannon material first off, then other sources.[/quote:269hl6it]
I like the idea of turning Theological Debate into a more general Lore Debate forum, including things like drow life, rituals and all that as well.

As for the stickies, that's what the wiki is intended for. All that information that you'd see in those stickies is supposed to be on the wiki. Which, for the record, can already be fully used (even if articles are posted in the 'wrong place' they should be easy enough to move and all that). But yes, I know that I've been terribly slacking with the wiki. I really should set up a general framework with placeholder pages to give people a place to get started.

[quote="Talwyn Aureliano":269hl6it]1 - Lloth is defeated but not killed outright leaving Eilistraee to join with the Seldarine and begin a campaign to retake the underdark from Lloth's influence.[/quote:269hl6it]
I'm not sure that's a good idea. Part of the draw of Eilistraee is this underground movement working against a superior force, outcast from pretty much everywhere. The aim is to work for this solution.

[quote="Talwyn Aureliano":269hl6it]2 - The events that occur with the other gods, like the death of Mystra by the hands of Cyric which caused the spellplague are somehow averted or at least muted. Personally, [the death of Mystra etc] that was the other travesty that WotC shat out and asked the fans to swallow - not me!

[/quote:269hl6it]
I think that with The Lady Penitent we're pretty much ignoring everything 4E, so that includes the death of Mystra and the merging of the two realms and all that nonsense.

Anyway, I do think that it is good to come up with some campaign ideas for where to go next. I think we have decided that we [i:269hl6it]are[/i:269hl6it] taking the War of the Spider Queen series, so we could base it on what to do after that. Things like, now that Lolth is a greater deity (or whatever) what to do? What happened to Eilistraee's realm in the Demonweb Pits now that that's become dislodged from the Abyss? Perhaps there's some way to rescue The Lady Penitent (and perhaps that's a way to break Lolth's increased power and knock her down a peg again). Etc, etc.

And we could, of course, also invent our own storyline. Perhaps there's something that Eilistraee has been planning for the last few centuries that's now coming to fruition, but enemies are gathering to stop it so it's more precarious now than ever. Can our heroes work to aid our goddess see her enigmatic plans through? This might even tie into the previous somehow.

Or we could take something more low-key. Though I've given up on the NWN2 server the background for that could still serve to make an interesting story. What would happen if a group of Eilistraeen drow aim to build a city in the southern jungles? What challenges would they face and how would they overcome them?

More general, another reason for the wiki is to actually write down such campaign ideas in more detail and give people lots of options for their campaigns. From "living in a Lolthian drow city as an Eilistraeen drow, trying to survive" to "working to kill Lolth herself and free the drow of her evil influence"; all these could be interesting campaign ideas.

But yeah, I really, really need to get working on the wiki.

Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

Alaric Darkrose · Post by **Alaric Darkrose** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 3:21 am

Honestly, I like the idea of keeping up to date on computer games in general, seeing as FR seems to have been blown off by WotC in terms of video games.

EDIT: Storyline idea:

As Shirle suggested, maybe Eilistraee planned this. Why else would she go into a life or death game with her mother? Perhaps she lefts a few artifacts scattered throughout the Realms, knowing that they would be found and people would do research on them. In short, until it's RP'd, she's "flying under the radar," so to speak?

Post by **Shir'le E. Illios** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 9:46 am

Just to bring this back up again... I was wondering if I'm on the right track with the news now.

Been focusing mostly on single-player games and then mostly BioWare RPGs. It's a bit of a... reporting on things that interest me.

I could expand more into MMOs as well, and/or into roleplaying games that interest me less, and/or into non-roleplaying games that interest me. But it's a bit dependent on what you want. And I want to prevent turning the news section into my own games blog, so to speak.

It might feel a bit like a Dragon Age news site at the moment, though that's mostly because Dragon Age is fairly close to Neverwinter Nights on a number of point (fantasy setting, toolset included, etc; no multiplayer at all though).

Oh, and I doubt I'll be reporting much on Star Wars: The Old Republic, because I already [url=http://moonendor.blogspot.com/:1h8v2k3q]have a site[/url:1h8v2k3q] for that.

But let me know whether I'm going in the right direction or not.

Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

Argoth · Post by **Argoth** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 8:59 am

I think so. I wouldn't have a clue on most of those games if weren't for your updates. If think it can be as it is. I mean, anyone can come in and post something important that's going on and that's more or less connected to us. But then again, I take changes really badly

Talwyn Aureliano · Post by **Talwyn Aureliano** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 7:47 am

I agree with Argoth.

I get most of my game news via The Escapist online magazine but your posts are also very informative as well Shir'le. You should write for them

It is useful to know what CRPG's are coming out and which ones will be MMO's and worth playing. Perhaps someone might create a server on a new system that reflects what we are keeping alive here. I recalled silke_rahn mention she plays on a NWN2 server that has a drow and Eilistraeens in it. If I wasn't doing all sorts of other things, I'd be tempted to check it out.

What I think will be useful as if people find anything pertinent to Eilistraee or drow, like references or snippets of info from places like Candlekeep.com, or updates from Paizo, even WotC and what other shyte they have come up with for 4E.

Mousestalker · Post by **Mousestalker** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 1:06 pm

Golly.

I've been reading the Dragon Age threads with a great deal of interest. So any news about that game would be nice. I especially appreciate it when it's from a chaotic good Drow point of view (the outcasts of the outcasts).

Converting Theology into Lore would be a nice change, as there would still be room for any theological content should any arise.

I think our major problem is that WoTC took the wind out of our (collective) sails. This is a wonderful community and a great resource. Hasbro and all its minions suck.

Rixxen Bladedleaf · Post by **Rixxen Bladedleaf** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 8:41 pm

Don't worry about WotC, hell even my two PnP groups are getting tired of there BS to the point to where they want me to break out my old World of Darkness books (some people think DnD is bad with rules).

As for the News I like what you're doing with it. It seems that most of us are looking forward to ME2, Dragon Age, TOR, and what I still think is Jade Empire 2(it's unnamed at the moment). This community came about because of RPG's I say keep it that way. Tho I know I'm going to be glared at, but if you find anything about Two Worlds 2 *holds up a mirror* I'd at least read it. I liked the first one when it worked. Oh and Diablo 3 and Borderlands, all three are action RPG's but look quite good.

Post by **Shir'le E. Illios** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 10:10 am

[quote="Rixxen Bladedleaf":1go2dms4]and what I still think is Jade Empire 2(it's unnamed at the moment).[/quote:1go2dms4]
I'm not sure, I seem to recall them saying that it's something different and unexpected. With some of their latest articles I'm almost expecting some kind of RPG that doesn't use combat as its main gameplay mechanic, but perhaps that's just wishful thinking on my part.

[quote="Rixxen Bladedleaf":1go2dms4]This community came about because of RPG's I say keep it that way.[/quote:1go2dms4]
Oh, definitely.

[quote="Rixxen Bladedleaf":1go2dms4]Tho I know I'm going to be glared at, but if you find anything about Two Worlds 2 *holds up a mirror* I'd at least read it. I liked the first one when it worked. Oh and Diablo 3 and Borderlands, all three are action RPG's but look quite good.[/quote:1go2dms4]
Haven't heard much of Two Worlds 2 (in fact I think this is the first time I heard of it), but I'll let you know when I hear something. Diablo 3 hasn't had much news for a long while now. The expectation is though that at the next BlizzCon (which is in a couple of weeks) they'll unveil the fourth class. And Borderlands last I heard they claimed something like FPS and RPG went and made a baby, or something. Haven't looked that much into it, seems a bit like Left 4 Dead (i.e. co-op gameplay) with some RPG elements.

Anyway, I'll keep going on this track then.

Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

Rixxen Bladedleaf · Post by **Rixxen Bladedleaf** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 1:57 am

Somewhat, Borderlands is supposed to be like Deus Ex, oh and Deus Ex 3 is being made too. But anyway, Two Worlds 2 is supposed to be seen from the last protagonists sisters PoV this time. I wish they'd make STALKER a little more RPGish ,if nothing more than ways to improve your speed, health and Strength without using the artifacts.

Rixxen Bladedleaf · Post by **Rixxen Bladedleaf** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:28 am

I know this isn't news to some, but Game Con is no more per se, it's going to be Game Con Online and held in Colene last I heard.

Oh and can you believe it? Blizzard has pushed back Star Craft 2, I can't believe these people, oh well it's their first time pushing back a game, I'll be okay...

Argoth · Post by **Argoth** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:12 pm

The thing with Blizzard is they don't give people games that are faulty, unfinished etc. If they delay releasing a game, it's for good reasons.