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On the Rift Shift

Though the source hunters defeated the void dragon fifteen years ago, time and space had already decayed immensely before the wicked beast was banished. Various planes of existence once separate began merging with ours. Those of most likeness to ours seem most connected to our own universe. Sanctuary and The Forgotten Realms seem most connected to ours. However, the first documented case is of a gentleman named Brian æ³¥hruin Turner who hails from a land called Earth, of which he described numerous strange things, including cars, computers, airplanes, science, and other highly complex, mechanical things that we can hardly imagine. Dhruin is more disturbed by our world than us by his, though he has since adapted and we obliged his wish to join an adventuring school since we seemed to have learned as much as we could from him.

The rifts operate in numerous fashions. In some cases, sailors from other realms claimed to have gone off course and drifted into the deep sea, only to arrive in Cyseal, Port Elensar, or elsewhere in Rivellon. Dhruin claims to have gone to sleep and had an incredible lucid dream where breached some kind of icy barrier, and woke up in Hiberheim, only to be captured by the mad King Boreas. Thus far, no one appears to have fallen asleep here in Rivellon and woken in another realm, though obviously this is difficult to verify.

On land, some ancient waypoints and rifts in both Rivellon and other lands seem to have shifted their attunement from their old paths to new locations, sometimes extremely dangerous, while other rifts have spontaneously arrived in previously riftless locations. What is curious is that it is far easier to arrive in Rivellon through any of these means than it is to leave it, though that has not stopped interdimensional traders from establishing various difficult routes. Riftsmen, sailors and traders who consistently travel these different rifts, have noted that the actual time and the perceived time of travel differ greatly. Also, the winds seem to tend to blow towards Rivellon, so it takes longer to keave Rivellon than it does to enter it. For example, famed rift sailor Jor Highfell logged 247 days of perceived travel from Cyseal to Neverwinter and back, while only 13 days had passed in Rivellon during his absence. Different individuals seem to experience travel at different rates. Children and women seem to experience time slower then men, hence older rift è­šå½³n are most common and there are few women. Perplexedly, traveling by land rift is perceived instantaneously but the actual delay between stepping into a rift and arriving at the exit can be years!

From my own astronomical observations, I have noticed constellations have changed, with stars appearing closer together and the night sky shining significantly brighter than 20 years ago when I first studied at the Institute of Magic, Space, and Time. The prospect of a collision of realms is I believe a real one, but with a likelihood and possible effects I have no knowledge of.

Your puzzled loremaster,
Theondrus Featherheart

Dynamic characters with extensive dialogues and personalities, clever jokes. Inevitably there will be citizens and guards that say the same thing, but other then them, I want plenty of unique characters: including you! I'd like many chances for people to roleplay their character, establish history, develop an alignment, etc. I'd especially like to make 3-4 interesting companions with their own opinions and agendas and quests.


Professional, detailed and cool looking terrain with lots of variety, secrets, and background lore. Every statue will have at least a sentence of explanation. Towns and buildings will for the most part actually make sense, though of course they won't be perfectly realistic either.


Sidequests galore. The main quest will essentially build out of many detailed sidequests with significantly different endings, which means every play through will be different.


Grey morality with delayed consequences. I don't want easy choices, and I want some choices to have effects much later than when the choice was made. For example, the very beginning is a fork in the road. A demon, Carth, will tell you about the two paths, and will tell you about a curious ring kept by a rabid dog on the right path, and a weak man to the left. Many players will be enticed by the ring and will go right first, but this will have at least two consequences: the man, Vell, on the left path will be hurt by another demon residing in his cellar while you try to kill the dog for the ring. Second, the player will equip the ring and discover that it's cursed and gives a negative status effect and cannot be unequipped (reduced willpower or something in addition to relatively powerful early game stats like +1 speed, +1 perception, and the ability to cast self-invisibility.) Was going right for the ring the wrong thing to do?

But if you go left for the man, and return to right path after helping the man, the ring will be gone and the dogs will be dead. You might find the ring on an adventurer in the town (via pickpocket, killing him, or charming/intim/reasoning him out of it). Vell tells you about the ring so you'll know what to expect as well (though he won't know where the ring is). You'll also be able to recruit Vell later if you help him out, and he might offer you some useful tidbits.


Your moral choices will develop an alignment like the one used in Neverwinter Nights and D&D, with the axes of good and evil and chaos and lawfulness. The alignment you choose will do a lot to determine how the main quest plays out.

Balanced distribution of static and random loot. I'd like to find a nice balance of unique items and random loot. I want the unique items to be interesting, to have a history (in books or discovered in other ways), and to offer niche effects while being less powerful overall than some random loot items. Say you have a powerful chest piece with high armor, resists, and +2/3 strength but it slows your movement speed significantly and your speed by 1. It's going to be tough to decide if you want to use it unless you have ways to compensate for the drawbacks. I want to toy with potential stats on random loot, so that it's possible (but unlikely) to find a staff with +loremaster, for example (which is impossible now). I'd also like to see spell modifiers on both random loot and unique loot, like ? more arrow shot with barrage or small fireball has a larger radius and 2 turns less in cooldown. I'd also like to make some new spells for all levels (a mass teleport would be awesome).


No filler combat, only important fights. I want this loot to actually feel important by making combat encounters difficult and unique. Almost every fight (except maybe the first couple ones since your character is so weak) should have a boss or miniboss (a unique character) and good loot and experience to boot. Each battle should require tactics and push you to the limits, but not drag on forever. Relative to the main game, I think I want enemies to do more damage, have a greater variety of spells, have specific tactics, but have less health.

As far as pacing, I think the players should get to level 4 or 5 fairly quickly, but then level a little slower because I think 5-12 is sort of the sweet spot for power and limitation; you won't get killed by an angry chicken, but you're not eating ogres for lunch either. You won't have 4 or 5 skill specializations unless that's all you spend your points on, but that might not be the best idea because I want every ability to feel important...


Abilities, talents, traits = personality. I want skills to open up ways to complete quests. For example, having 1 lucky charm when you talk to Vell, a compulsive gambler, might let you open his demonic chest (basically a portal to a demonic realm) in a gamble that a useful object rather than a demon will come out of it. If you try to use the chest without his permission, he'll attack you and you'll be forced to kill him, which could have ramifications later on. Having the Zombie talent and Pet Pal lets you talk to a zombie dog. And I definitely want a lot more opportunities than the main game to use charisma and other skills (like barter, politician talent) to get better quest rewards, avoid fights, and solve quests in alternate ways. Say if you have the spiritual trait you'll be able to say certain things to a monk, so it's not just a one-way road from your actions → your character, but your character traits also affects how people react to you.


Variation and a breathing world. Hopefully all of this points to non-linearity and replayability, a world that to some extent feels alive. Ideally enemies will scale with you and have stronger gear if you wait a long time to kill them. I won't to avoid the sense that a zone is for beginners, another for mid-range characters, etc. Let's say you start by going on the right path and get the cursed ring, and the demon in Vell's basement hurts Vell. Later on, the demon might attack Aeril and kill someone (unless you save them). The demon will be stronger than if you had killed him in Vell's cellar.


A serious but also humorous tone. I found the story of the main game a kind of exaggerated epicness, that you're these source hunters that used to be gods or something. I didn't ask to be a God. I want NPCs to mock you repeatedly saying you aren't special and that you'll most likely die in a cave somewhere. Some people and lore will be kind of ridiculous and outlandish, but I also want some NPCs to talk like they're not just a character in a video game saying snarky stuff, but like they did terrible things for the greater good but aren't sure if they made the right decision and are wallowing in a palpable self-doubt. The story will have its epic aspects I hope, but I hope to integrate it more naturally.


Balanced economy. Ideally the economy will be a little better balanced than the original game, where it was pretty easy (in my opinion) to get enough gold to buy almost anything. I don't want 50 paintings lying around for the taking, and those that are around will be worth much less. I'd also like to have a few black market dealers who are the only ones who buy stolen goods. I also want stealing to have consequences even if you aren't caught.