Neverwinter has been going strong for around a decade at this point and each year the Dungeons and Dragons MMO continues to build and grow. This week was another milestone, as the game added its 24th module, Northdark Reaches.
Northdark Reaches is a return to the Underdark and the second major collaboration between Neverwinter and R.A. Salvatore and Geno Salvatore. This module ties directly into the events of the pair's Way of the Drow series of novels and actually covers events that take place between the first two books.
To celebrate the launch of Northdark Reaches, The Best War Games recently sat down with Neverwinter's Narrative Director, Winter Mullenix and Principal Lead Game Designer, Randy Mosiondz to talk about the Salvatore collaboration, the modernization of the Underdark, and which novel characters were the most exciting to transform into MMO NPCs...
The Best War Games: Let's start with a bit of canon/lore discussion around how setting this module in the events between Starlight Enclave and Glacier's Edge fit into your larger Neverwinter narrative? How did you handle placing it in your own game timeline as well as where it fits in the timeline of the novels.
Randy: Sure, in general we've been trying to keep current with Wizards releases over the years. Back when we first started Neverwinter around 10 years ago, it was set in the fourth edition timeline, when the city was recovering from the spell plague. But then as fifth edition was released we kind of fast forwarded a bit so all of our module releases line up roughly with the Wizards timeline. It's obviously tough with MMO games because players can jump around and do things out of order, but typically we follow pretty closely. The events that have been occurring in fifth edition have been roughly year-to-year in terms of the Forgotten Realms timeline (The Dalereckoning). R.A. Salvatore has also been trying to sync up the events of the novels, as well. So the Neverwinter timeline, the Wizards timeline, and the novel timelines all sort of sync up.
The Best War Games: A lot to keep track of!
Randy: Right. And we don't typically mention specific dates, but we try to keep it generalized.
The Best War Games: So, it's been quite a number of years since Neverwinter first collaborated with Salvatore, how did this team up come together?
Randy: One of the things we wanted to do is return to the Underdark. It was back in our 8th module release that we did our first collaboration with the Salvatores. And the Underdark is a big place and it's a big part of the Forgotten Realms, so let's go back and see what else we can do there. That's when we started talking about, the last time we went to the Underdark we worked with the Salvatores, so we started thinking it might be the right time to connect with them again. So we reached out to see if they were available, they're pretty busy touring and writing books, but they managed to fit in time for us and it's been great. It's been months of collaboration with them and Winter has been doing a great time working on the storyline with them.
The Best War Games: Speaking of the Underdark, what are the Neverwinter team's ideas about the best way to present a modern take on Drow and the Underdark?
Randy: From my perspective, we like a lot of the updates that they've been doing with the Drow. Treating them more like people and less like an evil race that is irredeemable and are easy to kill. We want to make them real characters with real motivation and stories behind them. We're still an action gameplay focused game with narrative interweaved between all of that, so we need to setup reasons why you're doing things, and I think the narrative we brought to the Drow does a great job of that. We drop you into the middle of a Drow civil war. There are Drow who want to escape from Lolth and fight against her cause. And that's where players come in as heroes and assist in that.
Winter: Based upon all the changes that Wizards of the Coast made and R.A. Salvatore made we kind of went back and started updated out materials. We went back and rereleased Rothe Valley. We updated all of the dialogue, all of the VO, and we updated it a bit. Because the Drow are just as nuanced a people as any other race in the Forgotten Realms and it's important to represent that properly. We took pains to make sure that we are updating everything we can as we go and continue working forward with the Underdark. When I was writing with the Salvatores we always kept that in the forefront of our minds. This more nuanced portrayal. If you look back at the Drow, there's always been a struggle. You've always had Eilistraee and Lolth, but it usually fell to the wayside of us versus them. I feel like they've finally really broken out of that and really gotten to a cool place where it feels like a fantasy all of its own, as opposed to the story of a few specific drow. It feels like the drow are a huge sprawling world filled with just as much diversity, chaos, and beauty as the rest.
Randy: Yeah, and I think Drizzt has always resonated as a hero amongst the fans and people have wanted to know more about Drow culture over the years. They developed the whole city of Menzoberranzan as a focal point. It's basically evolved away from a single lone hero who was rejecting the evil ways of his people to a situation where he's not alone in this. There are many others like Drizzt who want to escape from this situation that they're in and the story line explores that.
Winter: And that's part of the beauty of the civil war in Starlight Enclave.
The Best War Games: So you mention Drizzt and Menzoberranzan, so I have to ask. The Salvatores have come up with some of the best, most iconic character and location names in DnD history. Did they give you a pronunciation guide though?
Winter: We do get some guides, but I feel like there is a base unification pass that's always happening. When you have a world that's so expansive it's impossible to keep track of everything. And when it's a fantastical world in your head, it's not your day-to-day life, ya know? It doesn't really come naturally most of the time and sometimes we do have to get refreshers before going to VO.
Randy: Right, that's typically our process. Since our license is with Wizards, we can go to them and ask 'What's the official Wizards pronunciation of this word?' And they usually have the final say since they are the people in charge of the property.
The Best War Games: Well that's a nice number to have on speed dial, I'm sure.
Randy: It's great. We have a great working relationship with Wizards and we meet every week and talk about what's in development and they give us a heads up about some of the stuff they're working on so we can start planning future modules.
The Best War Games: Were there any characters from the Way of the Drow series that the team was most excited to bring to life as NPCs in Neverwinter who don't already exist within the game world?
Randy: Yes. There were favorites that were called out by different members of the team. I like Minolin Fey she's a great character and like one of the first people you talk to when you get to the Northdark Reaches. Great character and voiced really well. I enjoy starting off with her and solving some of the early mystery of missing people with her.
Winter: Oh, gosh. I liked writing for all of them. They're nuanced characters and that's one of the things I really loved about them. Saribel Xorlarrin Do'Urden, she's always got this chip on her shoulder, and how do you portray that very succinctly in an action game? I always enjoy finding ways to work that nuance in. Minolin Fey, I just love her. She, to me, speaks of the intrigue that Menzo represents. And Braelin Janquay similarly really fits into that theme of the intrigue and the mystery and the secrets. And I really enjoyed that slow reveal, without spoilers, there's some dialogue with Minolin Fey, where it's like 'Does she mean what she's saying?' And then later she'll reveal more and it all comes together. It's that sort of nuanced speech that we worked with the Salvatores on that was key to delivering these characters. As for visuals, I do know that people loved working on Minolin Fey. Her hair is amazing, she's shorter than a lot of the other drow, so they got to do something a little different with her. And it was just brilliant all around.
The Best War Games: The novels deal with some of the most popular characters in DnD lore. How do you balance massive scale story with the story of the player - an individual hero in the world of Neverwinter. Keeping things player-focused but surrounded by these titans of DnD?
Randy: Yeah, we've been working with this idea for all of Neverwinter's history. We want to place the players at the forefront of the action. We don't want to minimize their contributions in the larger scheme of things. We find of do a lot of framing where the player is as big and important as these other key narrative characters. They're assisting in whatever problem is happening. It's all about providing a narrative structure within the game that allows players to step into that role and be the big problem solvers and be the heroes that they want to be. Making them feel crucial and important and like they're saving the day.
Winter: I tend to focus on all stories, regardless of genre, via the ladder of abstraction. S.I. Hayakawa developed this concept that you have the most concrete concept at the bottom and this is where you point of view stands. And at the top you have the more thematic concepts in general. So when you go down the ladder for Neverwinter, the point of view is from the player and the other characters are above that. They are established, they have broader impact. So, I always think of it from that perspective. How does the player perceive those character actions? How do they weave in between those events? Using that core tenant in general has just been huge for me as a writer and it's hugely applicable to video games. Every genre and every title is different. For Neverwinter, it is more so the broader impact of the world. It taps into the idea that everybody can be a hero and everybody can have a huge impact. We try to really lean into that and make sure that these big, titanic characters are respected and portrayed respectfully, but viewed appropriately from the perspective of the player.
Randy: Our players are like peers. They're hero-tier and that's why the characters look to the players for help with their problems.
The Best War Games: What was the creative process like and how was the process different from a narrative perspective with the Salvatores involved?
Winter: Well first after we established that we were going to be doing this and they agreed to it, I read the books. I went through them with a fine tooth comb and did some analytical exercises on the side and said... Ok what can we do logically as a team? I consulted with Randy and thought what can we conceivably achieve in this period of time? Are we going to be able to achieve this huge frozen north or are we going to be able to achieve the demon pits or whatever... Trying to figure out our scope. Then from there I continued referencing the material in both books and saying what would be compelling in the middle? What would people want to know about the between time? And what might not be shown in the time-lapse? Because there's always a bit of a time-lapse between the books. That's just the nature of writing. So I came up with an outline of what I thought would be compelling as a reader and as a writer and I submitted that to the Salvatores. They picked what they liked, what they didn't like, and what they wanted to adjust. Then we worked together to ensure everything fit to scope while also making sure we landed on the notes that they wanted to land on. It was more important to me that we tell their story and I just wanted to provide a good scaffolding. They had an idea of what we could reasonably accomplish within a number of months. From there we hand it off and they give the dialogue back to me, I give it to the team, the team implemented it, and we got feedback, analyzed it to figure out what worked and what didin't work and then we adjusted it. I wrote a lot of the side material and it all came together to shine a light on the events between book 1 and book 2. I love that it's our story, but it's really at the end of the day the Salvatore's vision. I absolutely love that and it was a really fun experience.
Randy: I think we really evolved our narrative collaboration process over time too. Back when we worked with them on module 8 we came up with a rough framework and it was a very instanced focused storyline. With the upcoming one we had to shift more towards a mix of instanced gameplay and zone gameplay and sometimes it was difficult trying to work within that same type of framework. One of the things that came out of that, that we evolved for our next module, the one we're currently in development of, is the way we did the collaboration between the narrative team and the gameplay team. Winter was a big help in that process. That evolution of the process worked a lot better the second time around. It bridged the gap and let the writers be writers and the game developers be game developers and have good meshing back and forth. That was good and if we work with the Salvatores again, maybe in another eight years or something...
The Best War Games: Hopefully sooner next time!
Randy: Hopefully, yeah!
Winter: I have to give a lot of credit to the other designers on the team when it comes to that process. Elliot and Ryan and Noah helped me a lot. I have a lot of familiarity with both video game publishing and book and music publishing so I was able to look at it from that perspective and see what wasn't going to make sense. How do we bridge these gaps? I got together with them and talked about what a standard format outline for a narrative looks like in various formats. And I asked them what information would help them make design decisions. And then we came together to create a new collaborative process and that has made our next module an even smoother experience and any future collaborations will be much smoother as a result. It was just great that we have so many diverse perspectives on the team to really... Grok it. For lack of a better term. Really makes something that can be groked by all sides.
The Best War Games: The Underdark is very different from the last zone players were working in during the Dragonbone Vale content. Are there any module-specific mechanics or anything else being introduced to add to that atmosphere or make this module really feel like the Underdark?
Randy: There are a lot of elements... We wanted to lean into what makes the Underdark the Underdark. The are director and his team did a great job in bringing the visuals to life in the Underdark. We've done the Underdark before so we wanted to stick to some of those themes, but there are a lot of other elements. The Underdark is huge. It's pretty much underneath all of the continent of Faerun. We're just in the Northdark area that we've been focusing on in the past and in upcoming modules. We leaned heavily into the visuals and we have some thematic elements that kind of show through in a lot of the quests and heroic encounters that play into the Underdark themes. The presence of the different types of funguses of the Underdark. Working with the Myconids as part of the quest lines and how they've been caught up in the middle of this evolving war within the drow. And they're myconids! They're not happy about being involved in that. We lean into a lot of those sorts of themes and as we go into modulle 25 development, we're really leaning more into a lot of the evolving themes and touching more into the drow war elements and the warfare that's happening. I don't want to spoil too much M25 stuff, but it's neat to see how it starts off in Northdark Reaches and then evolves into the next region.
The Best War Games: That sort of large scale war and battle can be one of the hardest things to pull off in an MMO, where players are just one individual. It'll be exciting to see how you tackle it.
Winter: It is exciting! There will be lots of surprises.
Randy: And of course a lot of stuff for this development is figuring out how we can convey a sense of warfare. As battles are occurring. In Northdark Reaches (M24), it really is the ramp coming up to that and then it's going to get more involved as the next module gets released. It's really just falling in between. So this module is between book 1 and book 2 and then module 25 will be between book 2 and book 3. So, read the books! And you'll get a good sense of what we're doing. You don't really have to, this is self-contained stuff between the books, but you'll get a lot more out of it if you do. Then you'll see the events that lead into these situations.
Winter: I completely agree. I think one thing that's also important is that we didn't just take inspiration from R.A. Salvatore books. We actually looked at a lot of older books too. We looked at Out of the Abyss from 2015. We looked at older source material, as well. We looked at all of these pieces of connective tissue. God, that sounds gross! All that connective tissue that makes the Underdark the Dark and we said. Ok, all of this was inspired by R.A. Salvatore, how we can connect these pieces and make them compelling? And that's how you end up with characters like Rumpadump who actually was just a little sporling in Out of the Abyss, but when you meet him in Northdark Reaches he's a little older. Still every bit as awkward though. And he kind of serves as your introduction to the more visceral nature of the myconids. We also decided to go with a brand new area. The Northdark Reaches is a region technically on the edge of Ched Nasad, so I was like, ok what if we went a little higher or a little lower of what we know of the Northdark? What if we went to an area that we didn't really know. And then the art team just got really creative. They really started bringing that Underdark flavor in and we ended up with regions like the lake of the carion king. So we get to really delve into the fact that the myconids are also a people and that they have a culture and it's unique and completely based on this cycle of life. Meanwhile they are stuck in between the Lolthian loyalists and the blaspheme. And they're just trying to eat dead things and want everyone to chill. They really bring a lot more flavor and lend a different perspective to the broader concepts. We've got the drow perspective, the myconid perspective, and we've got the player perspective. All perceiving the Underdark in their own right and sharing that knowledge with each other. And it's all there in the lore entries and the dialogues. And that's how, in a fantasy game, you bring it all together and provide that feeling of immersion. And that was important to Randy and me. That we really look at some of those older books as well.
The Best War Games: Wow, Out of the Abyss! Haven't thought about that book in forever. That's a great one. Were there any cool ideas that you or the Salvatores came to the table with that got left on the cutting room floor that didn't quite work out this time?
Winter: Countless ideas. When you're writing fiction your boundaries are ever-expanding. You don't have to worry about the confines of the game engine, a scope plan, a capacity plan. So there were just so many that we threw at each other and that we loved that they were sticking to the wall but we just had to take them down. There were so many more places we wanted to go and explore. And I don't want to say too much because some of that did become part of the next module. But there were lots of things and characters we wanted to explore, but we also had to think about who and what was available at this point in time. Where is Drizzt right now? Where is Catti-brie?
Randy: Yeah, some of the characters are just off doing other things based on the timelines of the novels. So we'll just have to include them in the next module and swap out some of the cast as the story evolves. I think having that change over of voices and perspectives is great.
Winter: It's a like a Salvatore book, where it's not always following the same characters. So it fits perfectly.
The Best War Games: Did the Salvatores have any specific quest ideas that you were excited about?
Winter: They did. We came to them with a limitation of what characters we could do and they came to us with what characters they would like to portray. And from there we went back and forth a bit. The designers would be like, I really like this concept but what if we did this instead to be more compelling in action gameplay? Took that to the Salvatores and they're like "Oh, that gives me an idea!" So there was a lot of collaboration. And the Salvatores were just champions when it comes to their flexibility and their willingness to explore their own world. So many authors are very rigid about their worlds. But R.A. And Geno really lean into the fantasy and they really lean into the epic sprawling world full of life and let us explore together. I loved that.
The Best War Games: Were there any iconic monsters, weapons, or anything like that plucked directly from the novels that appear in Northdark Reaches?
Randy: Yes...
The Best War Games: I'm sure there's only so much you can say without spoiling.
Randy: I don't want to spoil too much but of course drow are going to be a big factor. There's the whole conflict between the blaspheme and the Lolth loyalists. That's kind of one of the main tenants of the conflict. Let's just say that there were some Driders who are not driders anymore.... And there are driders that have been in that stage for a long time that are no longer driders. And there's a conflict brewing between them so you're going to end up fighting a lot of drow, a lot of driders. There are some key points around a drow prison where they keep a lot of the people that they want to interrogate. And players have to go in and free some of them and there are certain elements there. Drow have other allies too that you'll be faced with. And there's the background plot about the myconid enemies and the corruption happening there. And a rather large and important character that is behind all of that. And they've become mixed up in drow affairs as well. You'll have to play to discover more!
Winter: The only thing I would add to that is that this really explores the splash damage that happens from something as profound as a brewing civil war. So you do get a lot of diversity in terms of the enemies. As for iconic items, I don't want to give any spoilers, but I will say that players will have an opportunity to explore a power that they probably never thought they would.
The Best War Games: Well that's a good teaser... This module introduces the game's first persistent Underdark Adventure Zone. Could you break down what that means for anyone new to Neverwinter?
Randy: When we did some of our Underdark storylines before, we mainly had a hub and then instances. A lot of the gameplay was instanced gameplay instead of a static adventure area, which is more typical to Neverwinter. So we still have some instances, but we really wanted to do have world where players could come and explore this together. So we have a number of different neighborhoods with themes associated with them and players can explore those as they work through the storyline. The art team really did a great job bringing these areas to life. When you first come in some of the visuals are just really strong. It feels like a lush and vibrant place. People think Underdark is just caves and gray and it's not that, it's a whole underground world full of things to explore. There's an underground culture in the Underdark and all kinds of ecosystems that are there. This module really shows off the vibrancy that can exist in the Underdark. It's not just gray caves, it's a living, breathing world underground. I think you'll see that as you dig into the module.
Winter: Major props to Christopher Fenton and our environment artists. They just killed it. Honestly, when you think about the Underdark and look at the old concept art it's gorgeous as concept art, but when you're in a gameplay space some of that style presents challenges. Those strong purple values can make things very samey. So where else do you find bioluminescent and light sources? Where else do you find color? Because in a world that is tinged purple, everything can become that gray. But here we've got that bright luminesce mushrooms and amazing fungal forests. We have waterfalls and lakes and make. It's just full of wonder. It's like everything you would expect on the surface turned on its head.
The Best War Games: How could a free to play player brand new to Neverwinter experience this module whenever it drops?
Randy: When you come into Neverwinter we've really streamlined the initial experience so you don't have to go through all of the content in order to get to the latest module. So we've got the 1-20 leveling, which is a lot faster now. And it includes a lot of tutorializing on how to play Neverwinter. So once you get to level 20 you have a good idea about how to play your class and how to play the game. And one of the things we're doing to promote the newer zones is having a window where if you come within three weeks of launch and if you have a 20th level character you can go right into the zone and start playing there. Essentially you get to bypass all of the item level requirements that would normally be in place. So you don't get squished automatically. You can get into the zone and start playing with a lot of other players and experience it right off the bat. It's a really quick on ramp for new players.
Winter: And I should add that the story is accessible in and of itself. So if you do meet those requirements, you don't have to read the books to understand the story - it's self-contained. That said, it does have connections ot the stories that are much more gratifying for the lore lovers if they read the books. They'll catch a lot more of what's going on. Nobody needs to fear about being out of the loop. You will get it.
The Best War Games: So the ideal lore lover experience would be read the first novel, play Northdark Reaches, read the second novel, play module 25 when it releases, and then read the third novel?
Winter: I would say - read the first book, play Northdark Reaches, read the second book, replay the module with the context of book two, and then move forward.
The Best War Games: So, we've talked about the next module a couple of times. Part 2 of this two-part set. Any other hints you want to drop about that?
Randy: We're really taking a dive into the heart of drow culture with it. And like the ongoing story between the blaspheme and Lolth loyalysts so, where that leads... I think there could be some speculation, so I'll leave that to the fans.
Winter: I will say that we will explore some unexpected things and aside from that... People will have to wait until next year for more details.
Neverwinter is free-to-play on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles. Northdark Reaches launches on November 8, 2022 on PC.