Late to the party: Neverwinter Nights Uno

Pajama_Man

So for such a long period of time I have neglected picking up Bioware's original Neverwinter Nights and now kicking myself in the balls for it! This game is amazing. But anyways I just picked up the Daimond collection and wondering what are some of the modules and user addons should I pick up?

Some questions:
1. Are any of the premium modules worth the price? Wyvern Crown Cormyr?

2. Are contents in modules (IE Wyvern Crown Cormyr's horses/flowy capes) accesable through other campaign or are they only accesable through an "edited" versions of those campaigns?

3. Structure wise how are modules incorparated into the game? Are they pretty much stand alone games/content?

Thanks a bunch!

Hevach

The modules are basically standalone games, but when you finish any module or campaign, your character is exported, and you can use it when you start another one.

Though after a while, going into modules balanced for levels 1-5 with a level 27 character starts to get old.

As for how good they are, I haven't played any of the ones except those that came with the diamond edition, but I've heard a lot of good things about Pirates of the Sword Coast.

Edit: Forgot one of your questions: All items carry over between modules, but some of them stop working. The Stone of Recall from the main campaign doesn't work anywhere else, and likewise with the Portable Door and Djini bottle from SoU and HoU. Anything that isn't actually in your inventory won't carry forward.

Fiaryn

I wouldn't bother with the premium modules. Instead, go to NWVault.ign.com. There are some REALLY good modules there, in particular I'd suggest the Aielund and MTS series. They are fan-fucking-tastic. They're especially good for playing with one or two friends if you can.

Wonder_Hippie

I loved NWN. What little of it it allowed me to love, that is. I have an incessant problem with crashing with this game for some strange reason, and no amount of updates or fixes had worked. When Diamond came out, I grabbed that for all the extra stuff and figured I might was well try it again with all the updates I got too frustrated to download. Nope, still crashes on me, and I'm updating to 1.68 now to see if that unfucks it, but I don't hold too much hope. So, I'm curious, am I alone in this plight?

HarshLanguage

I will respectfully disagree with Fiaryn and say the premium modules ARE worth it, with the possible exception of Infinite Dungeons. However, be sure to first grab from NWVault the cancelled premium modules... Darkness over Daggerford and Tyrants of the Moonsea (aka AL3; its author rejiggered it into his existing trilogy after cancellation). Daggerford is an especially good module, harkening back to older-school RPGs.

The premiums (Witches Wake/Shadowguard, Kingmaker, PotSC) aren't particularly long, but they are extremely well-polished and add some nice innovative touches to the base game. However, I haven't bought WCC yet, so no opinion on that. Infinite Dungeons is different... it is a randomly-generated never ending dungeon crawl with masses of crazy loot. Totally different than pretty much everything else. I didn't particularly care for it. FYI, sometimes they have sales on the premiums.

Oh, and for some quick fun, Bioware released 3 mini-modules as tech showcases. Extremely short, but nice if you just want to play around with new characters. Google "The Dark Rangers Treasure," "To Heir is Human," and "The Winds of Eremor."

As for modules at NWVault, try the "Paladin Trilogy," which is 2 modules called Midnight and Twilight. (The fact that there is no third module is a sad fact of NWN history, but the author Rick Burton went to work for Bioware.) Also try Lord of Terror, a Diablo remake that is a nice dungeon crawl. Also AL1 Siege of Shadowdale and AL2 Crimson Tides of Tethyr. Really, just hit the module Hall of Fame and start DLing.

@Wonder_Hippie: NWN is one of the most stable games I play. Sorry I can't help.

Oh and Pajama_Man, in case noone has warned you... the original NWN campaign is rather bland compared to SoU and HotU, which are great. If you don't have a lot of time, skip the OC start playing a new character in SoU and take that char into HotU. (There's some nice Paladin-only bonuses in SoU if you like that class, BTW.)

citizen059

Also try out this wonderful series by Adam Miller:

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modules.Detail&id=4273

It's a single download for his trilogy, the Shadowlords / Dreamcatcher / Demon campaigns. The idea is to start with Shadowlords and a level 1 character and take him/her/it all the way through.

The file is roughly 150mb, but it's totally worth it.

Vic

Why isn't there anything like this for NWN2 yet? >:3

mrcheesypants

I bought NWN a few months ago and I just couldn't get into it. I guess I'm not that much of a D&D fan but after the first four levels where you get the regents to cure the plague I just felt "meh" about it. I felt that there was something I missed because I kept on grinding everything and died a lot. Was I playing the game right or can someone teach me how to properly dungeon crawl?

citizen059

Well, it goes without saying that NWN2 hasn't been around as long.

I also hear that the NWN2 toolset is much, much harder to use and/or learn, so building new content is moving at a slower pace because builders have to learn an entirely new program.

Fiaryn

mrcheesypants wrote: »

I bought NWN a few months ago and I just couldn't get into it. I guess I'm not that much of a D&D fan but after the first four levels where you get the regents to cure the plague I just felt "meh" about it. I felt that there was something I missed because I kept on grinding everything and died a lot. Was I playing the game right or can someone teach me how to properly dungeon crawl?

No no, the big problem is that you were playing the original campaign. Which sucks horribly. It's hard for ANYONE to get much enjoyment out of that.

Noray

mrcheesypants wrote: »

I bought NWN a few months ago and I just couldn't get into it. I guess I'm not that much of a D&D fan but after the first four levels where you get the regents to cure the plague I just felt "meh" about it. I felt that there was something I missed because I kept on grinding everything and died a lot. Was I playing the game right or can someone teach me how to properly dungeon crawl?

Yeah same here, pretty much. I wanted to get out of that hellishly boring city but I couldn't, and I kept dying and not knowing where to go, so I quit. This was a few weeks ago, I picked the game up for way cheap thinking I'd give it a try. Maybe I'll try that 150mb campaign of the Shadowlords thing. Is it recommended even if I didn't enjoy the standard campaign?

Fiaryn

Both the original campaign and Shadows of Undrentide have pretty "meh" campaigns. It's only really Hordes of the Underdark that introduced a genuinely fun one.

citizen059

Noray wrote: »

mrcheesypants wrote: »

I bought NWN a few months ago and I just couldn't get into it. I guess I'm not that much of a D&D fan but after the first four levels where you get the regents to cure the plague I just felt "meh" about it. I felt that there was something I missed because I kept on grinding everything and died a lot. Was I playing the game right or can someone teach me how to properly dungeon crawl?

Yeah same here, pretty much. I wanted to get out of that hellishly boring city but I couldn't, and I kept dying and not knowing where to go, so I quit. This was a few weeks ago, I picked the game up for way cheap thinking I'd give it a try. Maybe I'll try that 150mb campaign of the Shadowlords thing. Is it recommended even if I didn't enjoy the standard campaign?

I'd recommend it, sure.

I'd also recommend playing through at least one of the original campaigns first though. Maybe start with Shadows, and take your character all the way through it. If you like your character, take him/her through Hordes. HotU was the best of the three official campaigns, but it's intended to be played by the character you played SoU with.

The main reason I recommend this is so you get an idea of how the game works and plays.

It just allows you to better appreciate the work done by the community in their own mods. I'd say someone who plays Shadowlords through Demon would enjoy it, but if they've already experienced regular NwN through at least one campaign, then they'd be able to look at it in a different light and say "wow, I had no idea NwN could do that".

HappylilElf

Vic wrote: »

Why isn't there anything like this for NWN2 yet? >:3

Primarily because the NWN2 is much more complicated to use than the NWN1 toolset. It also doesn't help that there are still some pretty serious bugs that are still being worked out.

Pajama_Man

Thanks for the your response and aswers!

More questions...

If I skip the OC will I miss out on anything super important? Story? Items?

Is the CEP2.0 etc pretty much resource packs for modual makers?

Thanks again.

Fiaryn

Pajama_Man wrote: »

Thanks for the your response and aswers!
If I skip the OC will I miss out on anything super important? Story? Items?

This depends, if you're skipping the original campaign to go to Undrentide, no, if you skip Undrentide to go to Underdark, a little, but the story will be summed up in your journal and the items will be made up for plenty.

deowolf

Another vote for doing the Shadows story and jumping to the Underdark expansion. Skip the OC. All the DLC is pretty good, with Pirates being one of the most innovative of the modules.

PMAvers

...damnit, I was expecting this thread to involve a NWN mod that let your characters sit around and play Uno.

HarshLanguage

You won't miss anything plot-wise if you skip the OC. (Not a spoiler: You save Neverwinter from a great evil!) Not items-wise either. I mean, at the end of the OC your character would be level 19 or so and appropriately equipped, but there's nothing you can't get (or get better than) in other modules. If you want to jump into a module that doesn't start at lvl 1, and also doesn't equip you well enough for your level, then grab a mod called "Novice to Epic Character Maker", which lets you completely customize a character's level, feats/skills, gold, armor, and items. Resist the urge to cheese up your char though! ;-)

I think SoU was a great campaign, I wouldn't skip it if you plan to do HotU. You character will carry over, though your items will be reset (and you'll be provided with new ones).

The CEP is a resource pack that mod makers can use for their modules, yes. This means that you have to have it installed for CEP-based modules to work.

The PRC is more like an NWN fan add-on DIY kit, with lots of new classes, feats, etc added on. You shouldn't need that at this point.

DisruptorX2

Noray wrote: »

mrcheesypants wrote: »

I bought NWN a few months ago and I just couldn't get into it. I guess I'm not that much of a D&D fan but after the first four levels where you get the regents to cure the plague I just felt "meh" about it. I felt that there was something I missed because I kept on grinding everything and died a lot. Was I playing the game right or can someone teach me how to properly dungeon crawl?

Yeah same here, pretty much. I wanted to get out of that hellishly boring city but I couldn't, and I kept dying and not knowing where to go, so I quit. This was a few weeks ago, I picked the game up for way cheap thinking I'd give it a try. Maybe I'll try that 150mb campaign of the Shadowlords thing. Is it recommended even if I didn't enjoy the standard campaign?

The standard campaign of NWN is generally regarded as boring, tedious, and lame.

Custom campaigns and multiplayer are superior, but honestly, its an old game now, and the graphics were awful even when it was new. They are positively eye raping now. Controls and camera angles are frustrating, too.

HarshLanguage

DisruptorX2 wrote: »

Noray wrote: »

mrcheesypants wrote: »

I bought NWN a few months ago and I just couldn't get into it. I guess I'm not that much of a D&D fan but after the first four levels where you get the regents to cure the plague I just felt "meh" about it. I felt that there was something I missed because I kept on grinding everything and died a lot. Was I playing the game right or can someone teach me how to properly dungeon crawl?

Yeah same here, pretty much. I wanted to get out of that hellishly boring city but I couldn't, and I kept dying and not knowing where to go, so I quit. This was a few weeks ago, I picked the game up for way cheap thinking I'd give it a try. Maybe I'll try that 150mb campaign of the Shadowlords thing. Is it recommended even if I didn't enjoy the standard campaign?

The standard campaign of NWN is generally regarded as boring, tedious, and lame.

Custom campaigns and multiplayer are superior, but honestly, its an old game now, and the graphics were awful even when it was new. They are positively eye raping now. Controls and camera angles are frustrating, too.

But it's D&D. Good graphics not required. Seriously, while the graphics are dated, it's the sort of game that starts to feel second-nature as you play it. It clicks, and then you're enjoying the adventure and not worrying about polys and textures. And if you can appreciate the underlying D&D mechanics, they are there for you to see.

I remember one rather negative review of NWN2 that basically said that because you can see the D&D rules happening it's a bad RPG compared to modern ones like Oblivion. Talk about missing the point! NWN is the same. (Oh, and that review was quickly retracted.)

DisruptorX2

HarshLanguage wrote: »

But it's D&D. Good graphics not required. Seriously, while the graphics are dated, it's the sort of game that starts to feel second-nature as you play it. It clicks, and then you're enjoying the adventure and not worrying about polys and textures. And if you can appreciate the underlying D&D mechanics, they are there for you to see.

I remember one rather negative review of NWN2 that basically said that because you can see the D&D rules happening it's a bad RPG compared to modern ones like Oblivion. Talk about missing the point! NWN is the same. (Oh, and that review was quickly retracted.)

True, graphics are not everything, but man are they ugly. Especially compared to previous 2d D&D games. I could play BG II forver, but NWN makes me retch. Its so unappealing, and the weird controls and poor camera further screams "don't play me".

I'm enjoying 2, though, for what it is.