Head hunting/player hunting.
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2026 1:31 am
I just had off 4 days so was playing as much as I could on Harrowport the current server I am enjoying. That was between oil changes running my wife to the doctors and all the other little chores wives have for their husbands.
I was playing in the evening and met up with someone with a fairly new character. I won't say the players name of course because he really didn't do anything wrong. He was 19 or 20th level. I was there with Arelush who is 33rd level. Stephanie a character of another regular player was there too. She's around about Arelush's level.
Now, the server party xp system is set up for a spread of 10 levels between characters. However, as I said in my review it's a really relaxed meant for fun server it's not set up for serious rp with all the rules involved. As you know I really like it. It's a place to bring friends, relax and fight monsters.
Well, this player mentioned he needed 2900 points to level. Stephanie and I said 'Ok we'll go with you to the Ettins. You take the lead and we'll sit back and support you. No party. Just helping the guy out get those last points for his level. Both Stephanie and I are archers We party up and whittle the Ettins down while the other guy (lets name him Sam) finishes them off for his xp.
No big deal right. When he leveled up, we party up with him and everyone's happy.
So, we come back to the camp. He starts talking to me about a server called Forgotten Realms Cormyr and how wonderful it is, and you should really see it. Obviously, he had no idea I review servers and such. Basically, He was headhunting for his own server.
Well, there is nothing wrong with that really, but it got me thinking. Yea it is a bit slimy but actually there is nothing wrong with it. It got me to thinking.
As the community at large shrinks, I expect to see more and more of this kind of thing. People going into other people's servers and head hunting for players. NWN is a 25-year-old game. It was once and still is considered one of the best if not the best game for its time.
What has made it so long lasting is that the players themselves can make persistent worlds and run it. You do not find that too often now with gaming companies looking more at profit margins and such. Still 25 years is a very long time for a game, and the community has shrunk from millions to a few thousand that play on NWN servers. I would be surprised if even 10,000 players play persistent worlds over a month.
As the community shrinks more and it will it sets up fierce competition for customers (players) So, I do expect more and more people going to servers to head hunt.
Now comes the problem. Stephanie wanted to give Sam some old items out of her inventory. This is a perfectly fine thing for the Harrowport server. Like I said it is a more laid-back server meant more for general fun than the heavy rp servers.
Sam started to really admonish her for it. Like it was a great sin to give someone else old items. He didn't get too out of hand as I was running some interference, but I noted it
I happen to know that Forgotten Realms Cormyr is a very heavy RP server. I was going to review it once upon a time and decided not to because after reading the rules I knew I would not do too good. I go to servers to write the stories of my pcs, and I have created generations of families of pcs. Forgotten Realms Cormyr definitely outlaws that kind of thing. So, I passed it over.
Still, I was sort of miffed at Sam. The reason is you can't come onto a server and try to dictate the rules of the server you come from to the server you are on. He should not have come to Harrowsport and dictated to Stephanie that it's a bad idea to give him a few of her own items. Harrowport is not Forgotten Realms Cormyr. Sam should have said something like, "No thank's I want to earn those items." Or something similar.
It eventually got worked out but, I felt bad for the player that played Stephanie. Sam stepped over the line with that.
The main point I want to make is if you go to another server do not expect the rules to be the same as the server you come from. Many, many have similar rules and there are some general rules like meta-gaming that are universal but do not assume or be pretentious about it. It's not right to push rules from your server onto another. Feel things out first and get to know both the written and unwritten rules of a place you are playing on.
I was playing in the evening and met up with someone with a fairly new character. I won't say the players name of course because he really didn't do anything wrong. He was 19 or 20th level. I was there with Arelush who is 33rd level. Stephanie a character of another regular player was there too. She's around about Arelush's level.
Now, the server party xp system is set up for a spread of 10 levels between characters. However, as I said in my review it's a really relaxed meant for fun server it's not set up for serious rp with all the rules involved. As you know I really like it. It's a place to bring friends, relax and fight monsters.
Well, this player mentioned he needed 2900 points to level. Stephanie and I said 'Ok we'll go with you to the Ettins. You take the lead and we'll sit back and support you. No party. Just helping the guy out get those last points for his level. Both Stephanie and I are archers We party up and whittle the Ettins down while the other guy (lets name him Sam) finishes them off for his xp.
No big deal right. When he leveled up, we party up with him and everyone's happy.
So, we come back to the camp. He starts talking to me about a server called Forgotten Realms Cormyr and how wonderful it is, and you should really see it. Obviously, he had no idea I review servers and such. Basically, He was headhunting for his own server.
Well, there is nothing wrong with that really, but it got me thinking. Yea it is a bit slimy but actually there is nothing wrong with it. It got me to thinking.
As the community at large shrinks, I expect to see more and more of this kind of thing. People going into other people's servers and head hunting for players. NWN is a 25-year-old game. It was once and still is considered one of the best if not the best game for its time.
What has made it so long lasting is that the players themselves can make persistent worlds and run it. You do not find that too often now with gaming companies looking more at profit margins and such. Still 25 years is a very long time for a game, and the community has shrunk from millions to a few thousand that play on NWN servers. I would be surprised if even 10,000 players play persistent worlds over a month.
As the community shrinks more and it will it sets up fierce competition for customers (players) So, I do expect more and more people going to servers to head hunt.
Now comes the problem. Stephanie wanted to give Sam some old items out of her inventory. This is a perfectly fine thing for the Harrowport server. Like I said it is a more laid-back server meant more for general fun than the heavy rp servers.
Sam started to really admonish her for it. Like it was a great sin to give someone else old items. He didn't get too out of hand as I was running some interference, but I noted it
I happen to know that Forgotten Realms Cormyr is a very heavy RP server. I was going to review it once upon a time and decided not to because after reading the rules I knew I would not do too good. I go to servers to write the stories of my pcs, and I have created generations of families of pcs. Forgotten Realms Cormyr definitely outlaws that kind of thing. So, I passed it over.
Still, I was sort of miffed at Sam. The reason is you can't come onto a server and try to dictate the rules of the server you come from to the server you are on. He should not have come to Harrowsport and dictated to Stephanie that it's a bad idea to give him a few of her own items. Harrowport is not Forgotten Realms Cormyr. Sam should have said something like, "No thank's I want to earn those items." Or something similar.
It eventually got worked out but, I felt bad for the player that played Stephanie. Sam stepped over the line with that.
The main point I want to make is if you go to another server do not expect the rules to be the same as the server you come from. Many, many have similar rules and there are some general rules like meta-gaming that are universal but do not assume or be pretentious about it. It's not right to push rules from your server onto another. Feel things out first and get to know both the written and unwritten rules of a place you are playing on.