Shadows of Nightside ~ Blog

Or … How to talk like a Troll

So, you’re intrigued by the proposed languages in Shadows of Nightside (or in Freewaydog’s case, a little scared ) and want more information.

Ok
I can do that (or at least attempt to)
so read on…

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Being a Polyglot in SoN … or … What did that elf say?

Languages … the written and spoken word … communications.
Where would we be if we weren’t able to communicate with each other?

But have you ever wondered how everybody .. and I mean everybody … from the fish monger on the docks, to the dwarven blacksmith deep underground, to the backstabbing goblin … in a RPG can understand everyone else?

Well, even if you haven’t wondered that, I have.

Which is why this time around I’m going to talk about languages in the world of Nightside.

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As the old joke goes, “good artists borrow, great artists steal.”

When I need to create something, many times I outright thieve.

How, of course, is the subject of this blog.

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NPCs are a critical component to any MORPG, as they are the “people” your player may most often interact with. NPCs will act as vendors, opponents, wanderers who add a sense of population to a zone, quest-starters, etc…

And as such, it is the responsibility of the game designers to create NPCs with names and backgrounds deeper than say, Bob the Sword-Seller, or Grrr the bad Orc who kidnaps young Elves.
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The question new MMORPG projects must ask themselves, is how are they different from the other game available. More specifically, how are they different from the giant gorilla in the room. Namely, World of Warcraft (WoW).

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Quests, or structured-adventures if you will, provide the backbone for most player’s activity. A good quest will engage the player through various means.

A well thought out quest will advance the player’s mythological knowledge of the world their character inhabits. Furthermore, it will advance the players knowledge of the physical world, by having them travel far and wide to search for people and items in fulfillment of that quest.

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