The Dungeon Master Friendly Initiative (DMFI) was created to support gaming led by Dungeon Masters (DMs) in Neverwinter Nights, Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition (NWN:EE) and Neverwinter Nights 2. Its mission:
- Promote the development and training of DMs of all skill levels. The self-teach tutorial modules DMFI 101: So You Want To Be A DM for NWN-1.69, DMFI 101: Enhanced Edition for NWN:EE, and DM 101 for NWN2 are available for download at Neverwinter Vault.
- Develop and make available to the entire NWN community tools for DMs and players such as the DMFI Wands & Widgets 1.09 for NWN and the DMFI Tools for NWN2.
- Encourage DM-friendly module creation by reviewing and certifying both NWN modules and NWN2 modules on Neverwinter Vault. In addition, the DMFI Multiplayer Starter Mod for NWN:EE contains the DMFI Wands and Widgets pre-installed, along with multiple resting, death and other script systems that save time for builders of new campaigns and multiplayer modules. All features are fully documented and additional resource links and tips for building MP mods are included in the linked Neverwinter Vault download package.
The DMFI was one of the earliest Neverwinter Nights Bioware guilds to be established (#20) and was active from 2002 until around 2010, disappearing after the Bioware Social forums were closed. The organization was subsequently revived in November 2018.
The DMFI was originally structured around its three mission areas:
1) The Design Team - for developing and publishing community scripting and building tools such as the Wands and Widgets package.
2) DM Training - team membership in this area was not formalized, while in practice contributions have been organized by the DMFI Guild Coordinator.
3) Review Team - DMFI members can volunteer to review mods that have been submitted by their authors for feedback. This includes providing commentary on module documentation, in-game functionality, and general observations related to the DMing experience. Mods that have achieved the necessary minimums for documentation and functionality are added to the official DMFI-Certified module list at Neverwinter Vault. The primary requirement to join the Review Team is to be a validated DM, for example having completed DMing at least one module on Neverwinter Connections. The DMFI Coordinator also served as final quality control for the process, to make sure feedback is provided constructively.
The DMFI is a NWN community service organization. For the revived DMFI, prospective volunteers are welcome to express their interest in any of the three teams to which they believe they can meaningfully contribute.
Wands and Widgets[]
The most well-known product of the DMFI is the Wands and Widgets script package for NWN / NWN:EE, which has been used as the foundation for the DM and player tools developed internally by a large number of persistent worlds, as well as remaining the standard community multiplayer tools package for independent developers. The latest version is 1.09 by tsunami282, who updated the work done by hahnsoo, Demetrious and other long-time DMFI Design Team members after the NWN 1.69 patch was released.
External links[]
- DMFI forum topic (hosted at the Neverwinter Connections site)