A Land Far Away (abbreviated as ALFA) recreates the Forgotten Realms in digital form, playable via Bioware's Neverwinter Nights computer roleplaying game and its expansions, Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark.

A Land Far Away is one of many groups in the Neverwinter Nights community that maintains persistent world servers, and is one of the examples of how Servers can be linked together — allowing for the creation of large multi-server worlds.

ALFA servers dot the map of Faerûn—both above ground and in the shadows of the Underdark. Each server represents a distinct area of the continent of Faerûn, from Icewind Dale in the frozen north to the Pirate Isles in the Sea of Fallen Stars. Each server is linked to those nearest it by a portal system so that player characters may cross the dangerous marches of one server to its border and travel far away, if travel be in their nature.

To play on an ALFA server, a player must apply and be accepted to ALFA.

History

Origin

ALFA was the brainchild of Jon (Kellith) Atkison and Don (Darpaek) Ritchie, in November of 1999, soon after the concept of Neverwinter Nights was revealed to the public. Their idea was to create a closed society of exemplary role-players and re-create the world of Faerûn in what would be the first virtual true recreation of classic pen-and-paper (PnP) Dungeons and Dragons™ gaming. Part of their procedure was to require an application by each prospective member which was considered and judged for entry. The original hardware and software on which the old Alandfaraway.NET was based, was owned by Steven (Albereth Stargazer) Quartermain in Washington State. He also hosted the IRC chatroom.

Pre-Quake Tension

ALFA grew and attracted many talented role-players. However, with growth came divisivness. There were various incidents that culminated in Jon's forcing Don to step down from player acceptance and eventually leave the community. Soon after, Jon himself felt overwhelmed by the stress of having to deal with the daily drama that was produced by the community. He felt that his original vision for the project had faded. In late 2001, Jon left as well.

Quake

The leadership of ALFA was then assumed by Major William Bill (Mandos) Marcellino (USMC) and Steven Quartermain. However, the inherent difficulties caused by a semi-monarchical system of governance over a mushrooming player base, combined with the actions of various agents provocateurs resulted in the event called "the Quake"; a veritable schism in the ranks of ALFA after which the leadership of that time departed.

Post-Quake

The immediate result of this "quake" was to enact a completely new system of governance, one based on representation of the various interests in ALFA, complete with a system of elections and recalls. Currently ALFA has hundreds of members, with a significant portion of them on line at any time.

Neverwinter Nights 2

With the impending release of the next version of Neverwinter Nights, the members of ALFA have been working industriously to learn from their experiences and create an even better virtual world.

References

External links

NWN2 Wiki

ALFA web site