Layonara has its origins in the land of pen and paper Dungeons & Dragons yet its popularity grew exponentially when in 2002, the world creator Leanthar began hosting a persistent world through the use of the Neverwinter Nights (NWN) game engine by Bioware.
At its peak around 2004 to 2007, Layonara had 5 separate servers hosting hundreds of active users. Now the technology may be outdated but the stories continue to be written and the world revolves.
Layonara itself is free to play but one needs to purchase Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition as a client. The client is around $15 and can be purchased from gog.com , on Steam or at Beamdog .Before you choose to purchase NWN if you don't already have it, we recommend you visit the Forums and see if Layonara is the place for you. Layonara requires that you have your character submission approved before entering our game world and you may find our restrictions are not for you.
We recommend you start with a simple character to understand a bit more about Layonara then develop one you wish to truly flesh out.
Once you have browsed the forum and feel like Layonara is the place for you it's time to catch up on the rules and submit your character for approval. In the meantime you will need to purchase Neverwinter Nights if you don't already have it and then download the custom content for Layonara (haks).
Once your character is approved (this sometimes may take some back and forth with our approvers) you will be given instructions for connecting to the Layonara server and the beginning of writing your story.