Players will be tasked with necessary missions as well, such as scouting, aiding guards, and recovering supplies. Overmeyer talked about an orc tribe, Many Arrows, that the guilds will have to fend off. Instead, guilds will have to conquer the area and fight off various critters that also want to call the place home. While a zone is given to each guild for free, a keep isn’t just handed to them. I’ve never been silent about the fact that I think working for something gives you a greater sense of accomplishment, and guilds will definitely have the chance to feel accomplished when they secure their strongholds. “It’s our chance to expand on that original system.” In the game, the system will be introduced to players via story and cutscenes.īeyond the history of Strongholds, Overmeyer said PWE “wanted to provide really cool challenges for guilds and collaborative advancement in the game - something for the whole guild to tackle.” “For the seventh module we’re taking from the pages of the original D&D manuals and bringing to to the digital space,” he said. “In later books and modules,” he told me,”the cost for things for strongholds like houses, towers, holdings, and keeps and such, as well as maintaining the lands, became a part of the rule set.” That carried over into the second edition, which added rules for the large combat system. Overmeyer explained that the idea of players earning and holding keeps was introduced in the very first D&D books. Luckily, strongholds have a deep history in Dungeons & Dragons. And the stronghold has plenty of functionality, which will bring guilds together to do more than just sit on a bar stool and tell stories.Īs much as I love housing, sometimes you want a feature to fit into a game instead of just be thrown in just for the sake of it. It may not have the extent of decorative personalization that I prefer, but there’s a bit of available in the form of what building amenities are added.

(When a dev can actually get lost for a moment during the tour, you know it’s spacious!) Even more than that, Overmeyer noted that the zone was built for expansion, and players will see dark areas on the edges of the map where the zone will expand in the future.Īs a self-proclaimed connoisseur of housing, I was impressed by Neverwinter’s first foray into the feature. I toured the zone with Overmeyer and Community Manager Alex Monney, and I can tell you that even the trailer doesn’t do the scope of the area justice. Just how massive is massive? When Executive Producer Rob Overmeyer states that the area is easily three times larger than Neverwinter’s largest zone, he’s not exaggerating! That’s because on August 11th, every guild - no matter how large or small - will get their own massive zone to adventure and build a base of operations in when the game’s seventh free expansion, aptly named Strongholds, releases. It’s a good time to be a guild in Neverwinter.

Neverwinter stronghold building order