Neverwinter Nights.

[Rowne]

This is a thread for Neverwinter Nights-related discussion.  I created it because an ongoing discussion in this thread had left the place feeling a bit hijacked and I didn't like that.

So if anyone has anything to say about Neverwinter Nights, either directly or in relation to, it can be said here or asked here, even ... since I'm a bit of a resident expert when it comes to that game.

[Supercheese]

What d'ya think of Neverwinter Nights 2? I watched the trailer, looked awesome, etc. Scheduled to come out in, like, 6 weeks or something.

Never played NWN 1...

[Rowne]

For parts of this review to make sense, I'd recommend tracking down a review of Neverwinter Nights (the first game) that explains the module system.  I can find one if you'd like.

----

I'm supremely excited, a lot of the stuff they've mentioned sounds very promising  and they have a number of exciting ideas.

One of my favourites is that they're setting up a central 'area' instead of just the chatroom in NWN1.  In this area people will be able to open shop, start Guilds and even obtain housing, as far as I've read at numerous sources.  In other words, it'll be a case of folks having the option to sit around and chat akin to an MMO if they want before setting out on their multiplayer (non-massively) adventures.

I can't help but think that with this hub system, they were perhaps a bit influenced by the success of Guild Wars.  Not that that's a bad thing, mind you.  It'd be interesting to wander over from one's Guild building to the local dispatch office to get 'ferried off' to the module of their choice.  I'm not sure how they'll pull it off but I'm very intrigued by the prospect and I want to see it in action.  Will this be one of those things that sounds good on paper but is bad in execution?  I don't know, it'll be an adventure finding out.

The crux of it though is the modability and here's where I'm a bit worried.  They're promising a highly developed campaign and if that's the case, they might not give the toolkit and the client modability the love it deserves, thus leaving the game of a different breed to the original NWN.  They have promised that this wouldn't be the case too but I'd want to see something before getting my hopes too high.  If they can achieve all their promises though, they have a winner on their hands.

They claim that their main quest will have more involving NPCs and characters than the first game, wherein the player will be able to build upon ties both emotional and otherwise with the people in their party and those they meet, thus creating a backstory with each character that will evolvingly change how that character reacts to both the player and the World around them.  This would be a bit of a jump for RPG AI as usually henchies are, quite frankly, as thick as poop.  If they fulfil this promise, could you imagine that kind of power in the hands of modders?  I salivate at the prospect.

That's about all I know of it, in all.  Again, it seems like a lot of interesting promises but there's a big differences between promises and hype and actually delivering on those promises, so I'm eager to see the demo and the first mods before I commit to a purchase but optimistically, it is looking good.

----

I'll help out by explaining a few of the mechanics of modules.

Basically, with a module, a modder gets a blank slate.  They can create any kind of World they choose.  NWN shipped with a lot of custom tiles that they didn't use in the main campaign as I remember and even more in the expansion packs.  Further resource packs were created by players and this lead to a lot of different mods set in very varied locations.  From snowy winterlands, to Indian desert paradises and even space.

A module can basically use the core NWN rules and functionality but they can do anything they want with it.  If they want an up and up roleplaying game or hack and slash, they can.  Eye of the Beholder and a number of older RPGs were recreated as NWN modules, even Ultima IV was successfully recreated.  The thing is though, it goes beyond that, so far beyond.  There's a very complex scripting system in place that allows a modder to do just about anything they can imagine.  Anything from a thriller tale with a very point'n click feel to a murder mystery, romance with loads of character interaction, managing towns or just about anything that could realistically be imagined in a very broad-ended RPG.  That's why Neverwinter Nights has always excited me.

Modders can take wild stories and with the scripting that lets them do just about anything, they can make these ideas work.  They can force the characters and the players to do whatever they need to do, same for the environment.

Even more exciting was when this was taken online with a small group of players.  If one had a good GM, it would be much like a good game of D&D.  Imagine if you will, wandering into a Dragon's Lair and instead of just slaying the Dragon, the Dragon could talk to you ... real-time.  The GM would be doing this, of course.  The Dragon might choose to eat you, you might convince it not to, it might give you quests, pointless or real, it might promise you treasures or goodness knows what else.

One of my fondest memories is that once, I was playing a very silly module with a group of D&D fellows that was set in a very Discworld-like Universe.  There were these mechanical golems guarding the doors to a steampunk-ish factory we needed to get into.  Normally we'd have to apply for jobs and get in as repairmen and do a bunch of tasks to get in or something like that but instead of following what we were supposed to do, I spurted out some random nonsense.

I told the mechanoids that my party and I were stinking rich foreign investors, that we were very foolish with our money and that we wanted to invest large amounts of it in their company by buying stocks.  The GM was so impressed by this act of insanity that the mechanoids managed to book us an appointment to meet with the Managing Director.

It's very dynamic.  In fact, if you can imagine what a game of Dungeons and Dragons would be like online, this is it and all the dynamic elements within.

That's what made it such a joy to play for me.

When you go into a module, online or off, it's always so different, you can never really know what to expect either from the creator of the module or the GM running your game.