Module Changes

Many players wish to pursue various forms of module changes as a goal. For example, they may wish to to permanently defeat their in-module antagonists, permanently strengthen the position of their settlement, fundamentally alter the island, and so on.

These kinds of events do sometimes happen on Thain. They have happened before, and will again. If you play long enough, there is an excellent chance you will be involved in such events. However, we recommend against seeking such module change as an OOC goal, especially for newer characters. You will often do far better by finding ways to play and develop the setting as it is, rather than seeking to change everything about it.

Example: You are playing Alister the Paladin, who despises undead. The Lord of the Tombs is a powerful undead NPC within the module. As your IC and OOC goal, it might seem natural to try to destroy the Lord of the Tombs and purify the graveyards – but this is unlikely to work. After all, purifying the graveyards would only leave an empty graveyard behind, which would be for the next set of players and heroes who also wish to enjoy the module.

A better approach would be to play the graveyards as they’re written – Alister could use the player eventing tools to create individual undead NPCs within the graveyard, villains he and his allies must take down. He could play out undead attacks on his settlement to show how dangerous the undead are and show how they push Alister’s character to his limits. You will do far better if your events are structured around playing within the setting as a dangerous place, rather than altering it at a whim.

If you intend to try to alter the module with your character goals, always bear the following in mind:

Builders on Thain have an enormous number of projects, and are not obligated to take on yours. Most builds are inspired by in-game roleplay in one way or another, but no amount of in-game RP or number of events run will guarantee you any builder support. Our builders are volunteers, not service-employees, and they work on the projects that inspire them the most. There is no obligation to build a module change for you no matter how much you might want one.
Module changes must always put the module first. Your character might individually want to destroy the Lord of the Tombs, but the Lord is a popular dungeon and a powerful NPC and many players would lose out on content if he disappeared. If builders remove the Lord tomorrow, the first question any builder is going to ask is what more interesting challenge might go in his place.
Module changes are best when they introduce problems and conflicts in addition to only solving old ones. It may seem appealing to problem-solve your way through the setting as a PC, but the setting needs to stay an interesting place for the next group. No one wants to play in a module where every conflict is already resolved.
Module changes must fit into the story Thain tells. A temple of a Forgotten Realms god, an adventuring academy, a spaceship, or a city of good-aligned monsters are all examples of module features that would not be a good fit for our setting, no matter how much roleplay might be done around building them.

We encourage players to roleplay their desires and inspirations in-game. Builders are inspired by the strongest and most interesting in-game RP, and if you roleplay consistently around a settlement we’ll certainly be watching your ideas when the time to build on that settlement comes around. But tying your enjoyment in-game to a particular module change being achieved is almost always a recipe for disappointment. We encourage players to take the setting as it is, and to use the player-housing, placeable, and instancing systems to create the specific scenes and environments your character may need.

If you are interested in building on Thain yourself and feel that you have the experience required to do it, feel free to contact Kira on Discord!