"Neverwinter Nights" is set in the fantasy world of the "Forgotten Realms" campaign setting, with the game mechanics based on the "Dungeons & Dragons" 3rd edition rules. The game engine was designed around an Internet-based model for running a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), which would allow end users to host game servers. Up to 64 players could connect to a single server. The intent was to create a potentially infinite massively multiplayer game framework. This game was named after the original "Neverwinter Nights" online game, the first graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), which operated from 1991 to 1997 on AOL.