Sigil: City of Doors

[*Shyntree]

Welcome!

For all clueless who've stumbled into this forum without hearing the chant of it, well... suppose I'd better light you up. So here's the dark of it.


Sigil: City of Doors is a persistant online world for Neverwinter Nights 2, set in the Planescape campaign setting for Dungeons and Dragons. Though the mod is centered on the city of Sigil and its various Wards (districts), it will include numerous and various areas that players can travel to and from, that are in other planes. Such as the Beastlands, Pandemonium, the Elemental Plane of Fire, etc.

As envisaged, it is/will be a primarily roleplay/social server, though with ample room for combat and adventure for those who seek it. A more complete description will come when... well. To be blunt, when the mod itself is more complete.

At the moment, Sigil: City of Doors is in development. We are building areas and scripting and planning and doing a lot of work behind the scenes making this mod. At the moment we cannot give an expected ETA of when, or even to be totally frank, IF it will be released - this is, for a few of us, our first attempt at making an online game world - but updates will come as we get a clearer idea.

This project was essentially envisaged, started and organised by cryptc, with Mr Otyugh and I (Shyntree) being the other two... prime movers, so to speak, in making this mod.




For those interested in the mod, either as players or builders or really in any capacity whatsoever, drop us a line. Either in public over this forum, which is at the moment pretty new, or drop either me (Shyntree), cryptc, or Mr Otyugh a line via PM.

[*Mr_Otyugh]

We are still here, although the public part of forums might appear silent and empty, there is conversation going in DM/builder/scripter side still. Currently we are hoping to get alpha/beta version of server up in next few months, but admittably it might get postponed, depends how much possible problems we might encounter.


The following item/NPC/area/scripting choices are not limited to the following ideas, but they are something we are looking for, but are not critical.

Or if none of these seems interesting enough, but feel like doing something, then feel free to drop a message on forums or PM to me (Mr_Otyugh) or cryptc.


If however anyone feels like creating items or item sets, then feel free to send them to otyugh3000@yahoo.com some guidelines for item creation would be:
(Preferably clear "classification" line in the item properties, it'll make it easier to find them. Both uti and erfs of the items work. tags/resource names should be something like ps_<itemtype>_<short description> like as example ps_longsword_wyrmslayer)

Item limits
Numerical bonuses:

- The maximum numerical bonus on an item will be +5, with the exception of some very rare items with other drawbacks, and some cases of bonuses that are not very game breaking (e.g. +10 to Parry skill).  Another exception is items with bonus to specific race/alignment where that bonus might be somewhat higher than +5 in some cases. - Resistance to elements should be limited to 15. [/li]

Immunities:

- No immunity items allowed, with exception of some items with immunity to specific spell, or very minor immunities (disease, fear, poison).  Generally replace immunities with saving throw bonuses to the type, or even generally based on the item.  +5 is reasonable save bonus to replace an immunity. [/li]

Arcane Spell Failure:

- No armor should have its arcane spell failure reduced to 0%.  This does not apply to shields, where even mundane mithral shields might reach 0%. [/li]

Combat powers:

- Combat feats and other offensively geared powers may only be put on weapons.  This goes for combat feats (power attack, feint, manyshot etc) and bonus to class abilities that are combat related (extra smiting, sacred vengeance, etc).  Gloves may in some cases hold combat powers too, especially those involving proficiencies and unarmed damage. [/li]

Class-like powers and unique spell like powers:

- Items that grant special features that mimic that of a class should in most cases be put on an armor or gloves slot.  Spell like powers that are powerful or rare should only be put on armor to prevent quick swapping in battle to gain a spell. [/li]

Damage bonuses:

- Elemental damage bonuses on a weapon should never exceed 3d6 in amount, and even then only if there is little or no other powers on the weapon and it does not have room for more enchants.  Damage bonus outside of fire, cold, acid, electricity, sonic should be limited to 1d4 maximum, and even then be very rare. [/li]

Bonus in inventory:

- Only extremely rarely should an item give a bonus while in inventory, and usually it should be limited to a minor skill bonus or non-combat related spell. [/li]

Haste:

- There will be absolutely no permahaste items (an exception to the "every rule has an exception" rule, since this rule has no exception) [/li]

Vorpal:

- No vorpal weapons, and only rarely slaying weapons and these limited to small niches of monsters. [/li]

Skill bonuses:

- Move silently and Tumble only on boots - Hide only on cloaks and armor - Listen and Spot only on helms - No perform bonuses - The rest generally only on gloves [/li]

It can be non-combat items as well.. be it drinks (planescape IC lorewise viable if I may ask) or food, perfumes, lore books...


Or if anyone would like making some more personalized NPCs with conversation, maybe some planescape lore about sigil or just casual conversation, then feel free to send those as well.
(Creature and conversation erfs can be sent to otyugh3000@yahoo.com)


For those that might feel like scripting, here are some possible ideas if you feel like looking into it: (none of these are crusial, but would be interesting addition)
- Random NPC conversation: when you click NPC it says single random line from like say.. 20 different lines (you don't need to worry about the message in the lines). Mostly designed for commoners to make them more personalized than say only same word or two or nothing.
- Summoning bag... if you put item1 and item2 in it and cast spell on the bag like say... gate or planar binding, you'll summon monsterX, preferably in manner that there can be multiple recipies. This would be more of additional and more ritualistic summoning for possibly creating something more powerful than normal summoning.
- Poison potions... if you drink them, you get affected by poison, either with or without DC. (more of RP item)



Area design/creation... Here's listed few if someone feels like giving a shot on making certain areas: (Some lore attached about the areas right below to assist with the vision/point of the structures) These will be made eventually anyway, but they aren't crusial areas.
- Shattered Temple interior (Athar headquarters, should have both private and public sides.)

Not a lot of bashes are liing up to visit the AtharÂ’s headquarters. Sure, the Clueless tramped all over the place back when the Lost still gave tours that included a look into the Astral, hut those that donÂ’t have faction business there generally avoid the whole area on account of its bad omens. After all, thereÂ’s a reason itÂ’s ruined. Looks like a cataclysm - some say the LadyÂ’s wrath - razed not only the Shattered Temple, but the entire surrounding neighborhood in a blocks-wide area.
    Folks still live just at the edge of the devastation, though; visitors there come upon freshly cobbled streets and tightly clustered houses, shops and inns. The beams and stones of these buildings look old, hobbed from the tattered r e m a in the area, but the construction seems new and tidy enough. Heading toward the temple, a body might bote the Soused Duck on the right, with copper tubs of periwinkle at its door. This tavern and the Generous Coin mercantile next door popped up long ago to serve faction members.
    The bustle and hubbub of the Cage fades as a body approaches the temple. A breeze whispers through coarse grasses littered with tumbled stone and splintered wood. Some of Sigil’s poor wander here and there, gathering up loose stones and beams from the surrounding falling-down buildings. The sods look more than a little uneasy, and they don’t linger. The tilted skeleton of the Shattered Temple looms above these and other, lesser ruins. Razorvine curtains its ragged walls, listing buttresses, and cracked towers. The Lost have shored up the remains of the crumbling sanctuary, hut they like the ravaged mood of the place. They gain comfort from this mute witness to the fact that powers can die - as did Aoskar, the near-forgotten god of portals once worshiped here when the place was still called the Great Temple of Doors. (‘Course, sages’ll tell a body that the destroyed husk driftins in the Astral, like Aoskar, are neither dead nor alive, but linger somewhere in between. - Ed.)
    At the end of a nameless Lower Ward street off Brandy Lane stands a decrepit outbuilding made of worn, mosscovered stones. Two guards bearing the Athar’s insignia watch the enhance [and similar faction guards wait at three other crumbling guardhouses at the edge of terraces around the temple’s perimeter). They’ll likely seem surprised at a visitor’s approach at first, then recover enough to remember to put their hands to their weapons and demand to know the berk‘s business. If they’re in a good mood, one of the guards’ll summon a guide from the temple, signaling with a shrill line of notes from a little reed pipe. One of the regular guides, Caylean, is a lad with intense dark eyes, a thin face, and a grin that accords strangely with his lethal, wiry frame. (The temple still offers tours, but they don’t letfolks peek into the Astral anymore, as that portal closed several years ago. - Ed.) [more info available, if necessary - ask]

- Great Foundry interior (Believers of the Source headquarters, should have both private and public sides.)

Clueless catching sight of the Great Foundry for the first time look like real leatherheads. Their eyes get as big as fried vrock eggs, and they swivel their heads around like they're mounted on mop sticks trying to take everything in. This Foundry ain't the village smithy. The Godsmen make their headquarters in the heart of the Lower Ward. It's a grimy section of Sigil, with narrow, twisting streets and crooked, soot-covered shops and houses. The sods here look pale, bent, and furtive, most of them artisans intent on hoarding craft secrets. Visitors asking locals the way to the Great Foundry will likely get no answer. Only bubbers too long on nearby Alehouse Row'd have a hard time seeing the stacks of the metalworks belching smoke above the roof lme. The Great Foundry's two 10-foot- wide main gates never fail to impress a basher. The wrought-iron frame's as tall as most neighboring inns and houses, and each gate swings on hinges as thick as a smith's thigh!
    The guards here look as intimidating too. ('course, they don't give cutters in Godsmen colors any trouble. - Ed.) And a glance at the jagged massive metal- orks (called just the foundry) nestled in its semicircle of stacks tells a body that a powerful faction indeed runs the place.
    The Great Foundry's main yard looks dismal and dirty - a gravel expanse surrounded by dingy walls and humped with piles of rubble and unsmelted ores. The roaring of fires and ringing of forges grows deafening after just a few minutes. Still, the imposing mass of the metal-works reaching toward the s b lends grandeur to its sodden surroundings. This brick edifice looms a full 10 stories tall. Huge, iron-mullioned windows flood its interior with light. Equally huge portals allow wains full of ore to roll right inside. Spending time inside this foundry building makes a body start to think Baator'd be a nice place to cool off.
    Fiery-mawed furnaces the size of barns seem to yawn everywhere one looks. Pulleys bigger than the hashers working them boom like giant hemlocks. Crucibles large enough for an ogre's bath brim full of molten metal. Namers scurry about in the sweltering heat, bringing drinking water to the metal men. Some don't last long - seems they decide they don't have a taste for dodging drops of boiling steel in air hotter than an oven. The sheet-works, bar-works, and mold-works are all just smaller versions of the huge and complex metalworks. Few smithies, prime or planar, can prepare a body to work the liquid metal at the Great Foundry. A basher touring these facilities might spy a small tiefling woman chasing down some animal that's found its way into the 'works. She moves at breakneck pace and always manages to capture whatever bird or critter she hunts, calming it with a few soothing words. 'Course, she never acts soothing or calm amund people. [more info available, if necessary - ask]

- The Gate House interior (Bleak Cabal headquarters, should have both private and public sides.)

Located on a slight hill on the very edge of the Hive War in Sigil, the massive Gatehouse lies at the end of a curving, elevated road called the Bedlam Run. Once known as the Bedlam Blight, the buildingÂ’s original function was to house the contagious. Five hundred years ago, the Bleakers took over the asylum, renaming it the Gatehouse (berks in the Hive swear thatÂ’s because the building sits at the edge of the Lady of PainÂ’s Mazes). Since they arrived, the territory surrounding the buildingÂ’s deteriorated even further, despite the positive influence the factionÂ’s had on the ward.
    The central part of the Gatehouse is a tall, semicimular, roofless tower with numerous sprawling wings attached to it. The Bleakers admit to adapting their faction symbol from a design inlaid in the tiled floor of the tower. (Who or what the tiled pattern represented has been lost in the millennia; the Gatehouse is an ancient structure, even by planar standards. The Madmen derive a certain ironic serenity from using an empty symbol in a world where nothing means anything. - Ed.) The entry to the building looks like nothing more than a giant portcullis, hut the steel bars are folly 5 feet in diameter. Scholars have long speculated on what the former inhabitants could’ve wanted so desperately to keep out. The size of the gate makes it impossible to move. However, the gaps between the bars are 15 feet apart, Wide enough to allow thronging poor and the lost inside.

During the last hundred years or so, the Gatehouse has been opened up to the indigent Outside the headquarters, sods without a coin to their name line the street, wait* Â’ , ing for their turn to enter. TheyÂ’re looking for a hot meal and a bed for a few days before having to return to their slums, and they canusually fmd it in the Almshouse wing of the asylum. But the Gatehouse also holds an orphanage and several different wings for those whose minds have snapped. Many sad parents wait in line with children they can no longer care for, ready to hand them over to the orphanage, and just as many tearful children wait to commit their aging, addle-coved parents to a mental health wing. Sad fact is, most of the folks who wait patiently to enter the doors are mentally ill.
    Some seek treabnent on their own; others are brought hy caretakers as a last resort The Cabal hies to accommodate everyone, hut it can only let in 50 sods each day, regardless of which wing they’re directed to. The rest must wait outside, the line of those ’ seeking admittance snaking down the Bedlam Run and hack into the Hive. Some parties wait weeks before finally getting inside the tower. Even if a body only wants to ask a Bleaker a few questions, waiting in line is the only way most sods ever get into the Gatehouse. An impatient berk could swap places in line with someone who’s been waiing longer - for the right price. Faction members and friendly high-ups get in without having to wait. A sham cutter’ll realize that the constant If stream of desperate bodies outside the  Gatehouse atracts knights of  the cross-trade faster than razorvine brings the dabus. Many berks who need muscle for shadyjobs here and there just flash a hit of jink, and a dozen hungry sods from the he’ll scramble to sign up. And there’s plenty of peelers looking to cheat a dimwitted body out of his last copper piece. Most of the criminals who prey on the folks in line come from the Gatehouse Night Market, an underworld bazaar a few blocks deeper into the Hive where the right price11 buy secrets, stolen property, or even slaves. [more info available, if necessary - ask]

- Armory interior (Doomguard headquarters, should have both private and public sides)

[more info available, if necessary - please ask]

- Mortuary interior (Dustmen headquarters, look above)

[more info available, if necessary - please ask]

- City Court interior (Fraternity of Order headquarters, look above)

[more info available, if necessary - please ask]

- Prison interior (Mercykillers headquarters, look above)

[more info available, if necessary - please ask]

[*cryptc]

Another area I'd like is a tunnel complex in the plane of Pandemonium. Lots of winding tunnels, some open caverns, a focus on insanity and some wind noise effects everywhere. And having some smaller areas inbetween the larger ones where rest is allowed, turning off resting in the bigger tunnels.

Other than that I'm pretty open to the design of it :)

[*Soeverein]

I would be interested in starting out by trying my hand at building the prison/Mercykillers HQ.

I have some information on it from online Planescape sources and I could always look in my old PS books (I think they describe the prison also, don't they?)

But if you have any additional lore, always welcome.

(edit: I guess I'll have to wait with building until SoZ arrives for me. I ordered it already, but won't have it until end of this week at the earliest.)

[*Mr_Otyugh]

Howdy Soeverein,

Here's some info about prison from Factols Manifesto.

The Prison

The PrisonÂ’s located in The LadyÂ’s Ward, the richest and most powerful in all of Sigil. ItÂ’s a forbidding (and foreboding) structure fully seven stories high. Unlike a lot of SigilÂ’s architecture, thereÂ’s nothing very graceful or soaring about its roofline. Systematically placed gnard towers are the only enlivening feature of the roof. The effectÂ’s somewhat dampened by searchlights that sweep the area constantly, day and night. (The searchlights consist of translucent gems on which continual light spells have been cast, with the resultant glow magnified through treated glass. - Ed.) Armed Mercykillen patrol the roofs walkways at all hours; they lead packs of Aoskian hounds that bay the moment they scent a prisoner outside his cell. The walls are state-gray stones, completely regnlar and symmetrically placed. The structureÂ’s built on a ten-block square area of land, and from the outside it looks like a solid building. However, the PrisonÂ’s actually built around an open square, where some of the prisoners are allowed to take exercise and others are forced to perform drills or work details. ItÂ’s a bleak courtyard - treeless, sbrubless, grassless, and generally devoid of any possible aesthetic relief.

All thatÂ’s in the square is a single wide pathway cutting across the center; only Mercykillers are allowed to walk on the path. All inmates must walk on the dirt, which can be a lot trickier than it sounds when SigilÂ’s brown, oily rains turn the yard into a greasy pit. As grim and miserable as the square is, the interior of the PrisonÂ’s worse. Save for a portion of the first floor thatÂ’s devoted to business offices, the factalÂ’s quarters, and the like, the remainder of the prison aboveground is entirely given over to cells. All seven floors surrounding the square contains cells that house anywhere from one to four prisoners at a time, depending on how fast the Guvners can try the sods. Each cell is a tiny area, no more than 5 feet wide by 10 feet long, and perhaps only half have windows. ('Course, no one but a pixie could escape through these windows - and the pixies are held in a special cell just for them. - Ed.) All told, the Prison can hold up to 24,000 inmates at a time.

Though the cells are bitter and terrible, there’s still a place that’s even worse: the underground portion of the Prison known as the Cellars. Down there are mess balls, bathing rooms, and work rooms - all grim places the inmates must visit daily. And down there are also the Sentencing Rooms, where death or torture is meted out. It’s even said that the Cellars are filled with “forgotten” cells that house an additional 8,000 prisoners. Inmates live in terror of being called to the Cellars, because they never know if it’s to mend some overalls or to have their fingers lopped off for shoplifting.

Factol Nilesia has instituted some new procedures regarding sentencing, but the Mercykiller guards keep prisoners in the dark as much as possible. Nevertheless, word can't be entirely concealed in a place the size of the Prison. It's plain that a few lucky sods - a very few - have actually been set free. Others've been sent off to powers only know where. Few sods hope for the rumored pardons the factol's passing out - hope only their suffering that much worse.

The Mercykillers have always cated off "special" prisoners to Petitioner's Square, a public place where jeering crowds can watch a berk get hung, beheaded, or eaten. But most of the inmates met their deaths in the deepest, quietest corner of the Cellars. By the time sods learned where the execution chamber was, they were already standing in line.

Now, though, Factol Nilesia's mandated that the inmates be put to death in the open square inside the Prisons four walls. During her first month in office, she had a tremendous gallows built in one corner of the square, directly above a heavily guarded pit said to lead to the Cellars. Deaders get dragged underground and sent through portals to a special area in the Mortuary that handles executed prisoners.

The daily hangings are mandatory viewving for prisoners. Each day, inmates from one floor of the Prison file out to the square. Under heavy guard, they're forced to witness the hangings of fellow inmates whose crimes fall under the death punishment in the new sentencing procedures. Nilesia feels the example will help them avoid making similar mistakes in the future.

Visiting the Prison

Most folks who enter the Prison don't come back out again - at least, not till their sentences have ended. But some cutters actually volunteer to set foot inside. Mercykillers visiting Sigil are strongly encouraged to work a guard detail in the Prison every other fortnight. Those Mercykillers assigned to guard duty have the run of the Prison, including the Cellars. (Other factions are another matter entirely; under no circumstances will outsders be allowed to "help" patrol) Likewise, Mercykiller priests may enter the Prison once a fortnight to address the spiritual needs of the inmates. The priests enjoy free access to the Prison, save for the cellars.

Sometimes comrades of berks who've been locked away come to see their friends or petition on their behalf. In the past, they would have been turned away, but Factol Nilesia's instituted a few new policies.

All visitors with business at the prison are allowed to enter via the main door. They're taken to a large, dismal waiting area, sparsely furnished with wooden chairs and patrolled by armed guards. Factol Nilesia, surprisingly, attends to most visitors herself. Of course, she's surrounded by a number of body guards and attendants, most of whom do the actual work. The catol's available at any time of the day or night for short audience. She'll listen to pleas about wrongly incacerated family members and friends; if there's any proof, she'll study the case and get back to the party involved.

Though of course we won't need room enough for 24k inmates in the PW <,<

[*Soeverein]

Though of course we won't need room enough for 24k inmates in the PW <,<

:lol:

Yeah, obviously.

I'll try to create the illusion of a huge prison, while keeping the actual area size relatively small.

Are there any recommendations regarding that btw ... how big you want the areas to be in toolset size?

[*Mr_Otyugh]

Well generally I'd say 20x20 areas as maximum, bigger than that seems to be hard to keep smoothly running, though 16x16 is pretty good already as sizeable and able to put plenty content without becoming overly heavy for most computers.

No real set size what we want the prison to be though, if that's what you mean. But better keep it 20x20 or below anyhow. So you can use size that seems to fit best for you, be it smaller or larger area.

[*cryptc]

Just make it look really cruel, since the Barracks has been made and looks very imposing and scary, so it will be a challenge to make the prison look scarier hehe

[*Renierius]

Woah, this is really interesting..

Never seen anything like this before, not a thing!

I also really like the concept of RP being the main focus, which should be great.

I haven't gotten NWN2 for a long time, so I'm pretty new to the building bit..

But I might be able to create some simple things, I guess..

Like some interiors or items, if wanted.

Anyway, if there's anything I could do to help then I probably would, since I really do like the idea.

And if not building things then I might still be able to help with other things.

[*cryptc]

Welcome :)

If you feel like it, we could use some house interiors for Sigil, pretty much freedom to design them as you like, although mostly small ones I think is good idea.

Just keep us posted on your progress sometime, or stop by our chat now and then :)