Since 2013, free-to-play MMORPGNeverwinterhas offered fans of theDungeons & DragonsForgotten Realms setting a vast and ever-growing world filled with the sort of quality storytelling expected of such a legendary franchise. Over the years, the game has added dozens of additional modules that introduce new campaigns featuring iconic regions to explore and a rich cast of characters to interact with.
Game Rant sat down withNeverwinter’s Lead Content Designer Elliot Minner and Art Director Chris Frenton about the game’s upcoming 25th module. This module is particularly special, as theNeverwinterteam worked with renownedD&Dauthor R.A. Salvatore and his son Geno Salvatore to bring the Drow metropolis of Menzoberranzan to life.The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
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Q: Neverwinter is unique for an MMO in that it can bring in D&D authors to collaborate on new campaigns. What prompted these collaborations with the Salvatores in particular?
Minner:One of the things we knew early on was we wanted to do an Underdark block that started with M24. And the moment we knew we wanted togo to the Underdark, we got the ball rolling on working with the Salvatores. There’s a book series that’s ongoing and in the works, and we saw an opportunity to tie in with that.
We’ve worked with them in the past on the Dwarven King, some other Underdark stuff with Bruenor, and the Companions of the Hall, so this was a nice way to work with them directly and build out a story that tells our kind of story – Neverwinter the game’s stories – but also ties into the book stories that he’s telling with his new series.
Frenton:Like Elliot said, we worked with him in the past and when we were going to Underdark we were just like, “Hey, reach out again, see if he’s interested.” He was, which is cool. It was really cool to call him and meet him. I’ve been in a few interviews with him earlier on as we were talking about the project, and it was just really cool.
Q: Menzoberranzan was made famous through the R.A. Salvatore trilogy. Are there any special landmarks or Easter eggs that familiar readers should look out for?
Minner:Yeah, definitely. More than Easter eggs, you’re going to interact with some characters that are important in the books, especially in the storylines of the upcoming stuff where you’re in Menzo, and you’re working with people that are tied to that story. It’s an interim thing between the books, but I think for people that are invested in that plot, they’ll go “Oh, yeah, that guy!” It’s cool that you get to hang out with them, work with them, and do quests with them.
Menzo is a big place, but we wanted to pick a few districts of the city and dial in on the stories of those districts. We were able to bring a couple of districts to life, and those districts generally come up in the various storytelling of Menzo as well. So there’ll be some common people and places that you’ll recognize.
Q: This is the first time Menzoberranzan has been depicted in a game since 1994. What sort of references did you use to achieve the city’s visual style?
Frenton:We took a lot of reference from the Sleep Sound video narratedby Benedict Cumberbatch, which was the newest representation of Menzoberranzan, and we took that as a starting point. Around the time that we started this, the trailer for theDNDmovie was released and there was an Underdark city in there as well.
We took our cues from those and went with the underground metropolis look and that was where most of that came from. We definitely looked at a lot of textual descriptions from the books and stuff like that, but it was mostly from those.
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Q: What has the process been like collaborating with the Salvatores on these modules? Is there anything they were very particular about?
Minner:That one was fun, we actually evolved with the process over time because we worked with them for M24 and then again for the Menzo module. For the first module, we kind of just threw it to them to build the outline and framework. Then, we came in and tried to fit the content and questing into that. In some ways that was great, but at the same time, one of the challenges we identified was that there are lots of little things where we need to make things a certain way because that’s how the quests work. We need certain content cues for the steps of a quest since that’s how we do them in Neverwinter.
Once we identified some of those elements, we made a new narrative framework thing that will help us collaborate with people in general in the future. We gave them a boot camp on “this is how Neverwinter content works, and these are the pieces of it.” Then we made a full script sheet outlining the gameplay flow of M25. Then they gave us all the quest dialogue and interesting callouts, lore, commentary, and that sort of thing.
So we basically really broke down all the elements, and then they filled them all in. We did more of the structure forModule 25, but they gave us all of that richness. They were able to give us more because we were really clear on all the stuff we wanted to see, versus us having to fill in the gaps.
Q: For new or returning players, could you break down what’s been going on narratively surrounding this two-part campaign?
Minner:So here’s a quick recap of M24. Basically, you start learning about these two primary factions, which are the Lolth Loyalists who areloyal to Lolth– they picked a good name. Then there are the Blaspheme, which have basically fallen out of the graces of Lolth. Many were Driders who then were turned back into Drow. Those two factions are basically in constant conflict, the loyalists want to get rid of all the Blaspheme. So you came in and started working with the Blaspheme looking for important characters that work with them, and you end up saving Braelin Janquay as kind of part of the first M24 arc.
And then with M25, you’re going to be moving into the city proper and start working with Jarlaxel, who has a secret base in the outskirts and caves of Menzoberranzan. You’re gonna head off to the Whispering Post, where you’ll help his Bregan D’aerthe mercenaries and the Blaspheme as you again keep facing off against those Loyalists because the Loyalists control the city and oppress the general populace. So you help the people, save captured Blaspheme, all that kind of stuff, and then try to push back the Loyalists in the city as the conflict brews.
Q: In our last Neverwinter interview, Randy Mosiondz mentioned how this module aims to “dive deeper into the heart of Drow culture.” What do you think was especially important for this depiction? What defines Drow culture?
Minner:It’s changing. Wizards of the Coast is working on refining how they do some of those kinds of depictions. In general, what we decided to focus on was the class conflict where the main Drow of the city are living in the nicer section, and then there’s the lower city, the Braeryn District, the slums; it’s called the “Stenchstreets.” That’s where basically everyone that the city gave up on ends up.
We wanted to make a nice contrast with that, where you’re trying to help all of those downtrodden people of all fantasy races. There are Half-Orcs and Deurgaralong with Drowthat were dishonored and removed from their house and that sort of thing. Then there’s the main fancy Drow up in the nice Duthcloim district, and they’re the ones that are working with the loyalists. They like the status quo that’s going on, and we’re upsetting that status quo in the city.
Q: The first module took place between books 1 and 2, and this one was between books 2 and 3. How did you go about developing a narrative that fits within these gaps? Did the Salvatores already have ideas for what was going on in this span of time?
Minner:There are definitely some general frameworks and outlining, and there’s some back and forth there. For M25, we were able to drive the initial framework with some early outlining like, “How does this aspect of it sound?” and then we flushed it out into a full questline.
In general, there are similar characters and similar threads and similar factions, but 24 and 25 can kind of stand on their own. They are each within this moment in between those books. So it’s less like, “you got to play all the modules and read all the books to get the plot,” it’s that you get more of a chance to engage with these characters that you recognize in the context of our game versus in the books.
Q: Fans are probably looking forward to finally meeting Drizzt in module 25. Are there any other characters you’re excited for fans to encounter this time?
Minner:Yes, so I think two of the nice ones from the books are both Voselly and Aleandra. They’re Blaspheme. They’re kind of running the show in Menzo and you work with them quite a bit to kind of help the Blaspheme in that conflict with the loyalists.
Frenton:I read the first two books, and my favorite character by far was Voselly. I was kind of hinting, like, “Hey, we should bring in Voselly” I don’t know if that had anything to do with us actually. Putting him in, but definitely from the beginning was like, “I’d love to get Voselly.” So I’m really excited to get those characters that only exist in the books currently and bring those into the game straight out of the gate. I’m glad we were able to get them in.
Minner:Yeah, and that kind of thing is nice because we were able to give them depictions because we’re just working from text descriptions and now they’re fully realized characters.
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Q: How will players be interacting with these characters in the module?
Minner:They’re primary quest-givers. You’re going to show up in the Whispering Post and, as I mentioned, they’re kind of running the show in terms of the Blaspheme. The Blaspheme are holding out in that location with Jarlaxel because it’s technically a Bregan D’aerthe hideout, but he’s helping the Blaspheme in secret because doesn’t want the loyalists to win and take over. So they’re basically going to be sending you off on a lot of those early tasks as you get a foothold, help the Blaspheme, push back the Loyalists, and try to make things better in the city.
Q: Northdark Reaches came with a new adventure zone, new repeatable instances, and a Temple of the Spider rework. In terms of gameplay, what are some of the highlights from this module?
Minner:We’re doing an adventure zone campaign again, like normal, and we’re also doing a new trial. It’s going to be pretty cool. The trial deals with some of that underdog story, but it also tries to highlight thehistory of Neverwinterto some degree. We have our anniversary coming up, and we did some cool stuff, some nods to past fights that I think players will appreciate.
But as far as the zone goes, we made a massive new adventure zone. We really wanted to do the parts of the city we could justice. Within that zone, we’re doing some interesting new dynamics that we didn’t do in previous zones. Since it was a city, we wanted to figure out what urban looked like. We actually brought back some tech from Champions, City of Heroes, that kind of thing, so there’s civilian stuff. We’ve got tons of Drow and common folk walking the streets and some like main areas, and then all the baddies and fighting is off to the sides and the alleys and the dark corners.
With that dynamic between the safe streets and the dangerous alleys, we also made this new lockdown mechanic where, as players are fighting through the zone, the Loyalists are getting pissed off. Once players have done enough thesesuper powerful Driderhouse captains show up and start patrolling those main streets. Those streets are no longer safe. Now the whole zone is going to need to get together to take those guys down, and it gives you really nice rewards if you do so. We really liked the vibe of that. It’s a city, but it’s a dangerous city because that’s really the core of what Menzo is.
Q: This module concludes a two-part story. Is that the end of the road for these characters, or will they continue to have a presence in the future?
Minner:I mean, the big thing is that nothing just ends. This is a massive living world, right? So anything’s possible. We could return in the future. In general, we’re still working through our Underdark block. I can’t really say more, but we always come back to places and work with the characters again and explore those stories more over time.
Frenton:I want to verify we get Voselly in as many different places as we can in the future.
Q: You mentionedNeverwinter’s anniversary coming up. Can you talk about how you’ll be celebrating the occasion?
Minner:We definitely don’t want to spoil anything, but we did attempt to do something pretty cool this time around. There’s going to be a high-profile character and a really nice reward if you come and show up to the 10th anniversary.
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Q: What are some of the challenges involved in creating Menzoberranzan’s urban environment as opposed to more typical fantasy settings?
Minner:One of the main things was that with most of our adventure zones, you show up and basically the whole thing is dangerous. There’s a little safe area and then everywhere else are bad guys out to get you. And in our case, we’re depicting a Menzoberranzan in conflict, but it’s a Menzoberranzan that is still a functioning city, not a battleground. We wanted to make those places that felt safe, and then the places that felt dangerous. That contrast I think really helped sell the city’s feel. On the level design side, we also wanted to try to be a bit more urban and there’s a bit more of a city block and grid kind of feeling in the layout versus just organic rolling hills.
Frenton:Like Elliot said, we definitely wanted that urban feel, so we did some different things than we would normally do as far as the process of how we built it. We built it a little bit more modularly than we would have with other cities. We had to do that to get the feeling right so that you’ve got the streets, and you’ve got the back alleyways and everything like that.
We also attempt to put in enough visual differences so that you can tell the differences in the district, so it’s not really necessarily a hard line. We have walls and gates and stuff, but we do really push how it’s higher-class at the Duthcloim district, and then it gets lower-class in the Braeryn area.
Q: What has been each of your personal favorite parts of working on these modules?
Frenton:For this one, it was actually just the chance to even just go into Menzoberranzan. That and being able to work on something that was related toworking with R.A. Salvatore. There are a few things in my history when I started playing Dungeons and Dragons way back in the day, and one of them was reading that whole first trilogy in like, a weekend. So just being able to go, “I got to work with R.A. Salvatore to bring this city that I’ve always felt was very interesting.” Just to be able to work on that and bring that into a game.
As you said, there’s not a lot of representation. When we were trying to gather references, there weren’t a lot of “down on the street” shots, right? We had a lot of stuff in the distance, but actually being there in the alleyways and in the streets is really cool to think about what that would look like.
Minner:For my end, I think what I enjoyed most was the challenge of depicting the city and really trying to push the dynamics of a zone for us because I think it’s a really cool zone. I think it’s one of the better zones we’ve ever done, and there’s a lot of special stuff going on there that I think is going to hold up. Even if people go back to the zone a while later to go grab some cosmetics or something, some weapon skin that didn’t drop before, it’s still going to be fun, and it’s still going to feel good to go there. We’re always looking for new ways to bring gameplay loops and interesting flow to a zone, and I think we did that with this one.
Q: Any closing words for our readers before we wrap up?
Minner:It’s about to come out on March 28! Come play soon.
Frenton: Get the full experience: read the book, play the game, then go back andread the bookand then play the game again.
Minner:We were able to stick in teasers for the latest book that I believe is still not out yet. There are teasers in our module for that. We were able to just request, like, ”Hey, Salvatore, please give us five teasers and we will stick them in little places.” I’m not going to say anything about them, but if you’re looking for them, you’ll find them.
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Neverwinteris free-to-play on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles.
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