Layonara

Layonara began as a campaign setting for Dungeons and Dragons created by Dan Scott (known on the web as Leanthar) in 1986. When it was first created, Layonara was a setting for pencil and paper Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.

Since then, Layonara has garnered a large fanbase, especially with its move online with the Neverwinter Nights persistent world Layonara Online (often referred to as Layonara, or even just "Layo.") It uses both expansion packs for Neverwinter Nights.

The world has grown over the many years and is now in it's third version on Neverwinter Nights. They have begun to shift away from Dungeon and Dragons lore and fully into their own.

Articles and References of Note
Layonara has been interviewed twice on Bioware's official publication, Bioware Wednesday.


 * First Layonara Interview with Bioware
 * Second Layonara Interview with Bioware

Gameplay
As a persistent world, Layonara's gameplay expands the normal gameplay of Neverwinter Nights by allowing players to change the environment around them in a persistent way, i.e. the players affect the world around them. It uses several elements usually exclusive to pen and paper roleplaying games. Roleplay is highly encouraged and as wel as interaction with GameMasters.

History
Layonara has passed through many stages of development since its inception as a NWN persistent world five years ago. The first version attempted to represent the setting in the online game world in a very detailed, "zoomed in" way. The local geography was very thoroughly represented and game areas were almost contiguous in their coverage of the physical area of the setting. This level of detail allowed for only two of the continents and a small number of the islands that exist in the setting to be represented in the online game world. The second version of Layonara Online was less detailed than Version One.

Version Three continues to use NWN with the addition of new tilesets and areas, specialized creatures. Many if not all of the classes and PrCs have been updated to be compatable with Layonara's unique lore.

Layonara's future
Though the world continues in it's current incarnation, a project is underway to bring Layonara onto it's own platform and away from Neverwinter Night's aging system. The project has been nicknamed Layonara MMO but does not have an official title. The goal has been stated to bring the pen and paper gaming experience over into the MMO project, crafting a system that is fully compatable with the lore of Layonara. There is no release date at this time.