Neverwinter Mods July 22nd, 2002 Being sick is no fun. I've spent much of the last week fighting off what seems to be a particularly nasty sinus infection, and as much fun as a constant regimen of Tylenol Sinus and antibiotics is, it's wearing thin. As if I need more excuses, though, it's given me plenty of time to play...yes, you guessed it, Neverwinter Nights. Another week or so of play has given me more appreciation for it. I hear the complaints that Bioware made a lot of "house rule" changes to the 3rd Edition ruleset. I've heard that there were some fairly serious omissions to the toolset and some fairly high profile creatures missing from the game, such as the Beholder. I'm even hearing that Dungeon Siege's editor, while much more complex than Bioware's, is a lot more powerful. Doesn't matter. As someone who isn't very interested in creating his own content but playing what others have produced, I've been very happy, and for the most part, pleasantly surprised at the creative output of the NWN community. I'm even enjoying the single player campaign more now, though I think changing to a different character type helped a lot with that. So, in honor of the long delayed game that was definately worth the wait, I present to you some of the more notable Neverwinter Nights campaigns, scripts, and other miscellaneous additions to the game. Note that I'm covering only a small portion of what's been released for the game so far - there's no way to keep up with all of this. Most of this stuff comes courtesy of Neverwinter Vault. While I don't like the Vault network, to this point it seems to be the best NWN resource I've seen yet. The Vault as the best source of info available...something's wrong, I think.

Recent Updates [ Current ] [ 07/15/02 ] [ 07/04/02 ] [ 06/26/02 ] [ 06/17/02 ] Archives E-mail Cameron There's something amusing about an evil druid with a group of pet spiders, isn't there?

Notable Modules

The first one I'll mention is probably still my favorite module to date - The Spires of Ravenloft. An adaptation of one of the more popular pen-and-paper (hereby referred to as PnP) modules, Ravenloft was the second module I completely played through with friends, and is probably still the best overall module I've sampled. There's some challenging encounters for a lower level party, a pretty good variety of places to explore, and the castle itself is very fun. I think my favorite highlight was inadvertantly setting off a trap that teleported my character into a prison cell in one of the castle towers - and having to break my way out of jail and run past a half a castle's worth of undead creatures to rejoin my party. If you've got some friends who want to play a NWN campaign and you have 3 or 4 hours to spend, you could do much, much worse than this.

Next up, we have the Halls of Advanced Training. On one level, this is a powergamer's dream mod - you can boost your character to any level, give them as much gold as you want, and buy any piece of loot available normally in the game. For those of you who can resist the temptation, however, this mod is more than a twink's wet dream. There's two very useful things you can do with it. The first is character planning. Have a class concept you want to try out to see if it'll be any good - say, a multi-class ranger/bard? Give it a few levels, try a skill/feat plan, give yourself appropriate (I said appropriate - with the stuff you can give yourself here, you could probably make any build work) equipment, and go test it out. The other use is to quickly obtain level-appropriate characters for any mod you want to play. Rather than ruling out a campaign because it's too high/low level for your character, just make a new one! Re-rolling takes little time at all, then you can run the mod, boost yourself to the proper level, and go play. Granted, if you're playing on a server that uses server-saved characters, you'll have to get the admin to run the mod first, but it's better than the alternative. Just don't abuse this mod and complain things are too easy - but rather, use it as a quick way to make the character you want to make so you can go and play what you want. Think of it as an enabler. I've made so many different characters in the 2 weeks I've had this game that I've lost track - not because I dislike any of them, but because I can decide what I want to play and then make it. If only MMORPGs were so flexible.

Next up we have Elminster's Package. Yes, Elminster's Package. Elminster being one of those legendary D&D characters (kind of like Drizzt, without the "elves are kool!" trendiness factor). Granted, I haven't played with Elminster's Package yet, but the name just... Oh, forget it.

Next up is another one of my favorite mods - The World is Square - Chap. 1. While I'm sure there a ton of these kinds of conversions planned - hell, our very own Josh Gregory is working on another such project - this one's out, and it's really good. Basically, it's a conversion of the original Final Fantasy to Neverwinter Nights. Granted, it's only complete up through the Temple of Fiends, but I have to say that things work pretty well. Interesting touches abound, like how the classes overlap (you can be a Barbarian, Fighter, OR Paladin and be considered a "Fighter" - and equipment is limited strongly by class, so while Clerics/White Mages could theoretically equip heavy armor, you won't find any that they are able to wear in this mod). The original music - remixed - has been imported into the game, and for the most part sounds really good (the Corneria music is somewhat scratchy). Items such as Heal and Pure potions are back (though you can thankfully buy them in batches of 10), and Garland's just as much of a wimp as ever. The NPCs have their usual one-line statments, with obnoxious capitalization ("This door can only be opened by the mystic KEY.") There's even a reason to use a Thief in the first half of the game now, thanks to a few scattered traps. I've played through it solo and with a party (using Seanbaby's FF1 character names - I was KIK! the black belt), and it's a lot of fun. Tons of nostalgic appeal. If the rest is as well done as the first chapter, this is going to be a great, great mod. Highly recommended. I'm looking forward to Chapter 2.

In the "bad idea" category, we have this Phantasy Star Online mod. Well, "Phantasy Star Medieval". The concept really doesn't mesh well with me. Let's take all the futuristic Phantasy Star tech - and, uh, take it out. I haven't tried it, but it looks like the designers basically decided that more monsters = more fun. With that design philosophy, I think I can safely pass.

You knew it had to happen.

In the "hormonal gamer" category, we bring two nudity/sex themed mods to your attention. There's the Jiggly Breasts mod, which gives all the player-choosable races, well, jiggly breasts. Apparently the new version even allows customizable nipple color. I suppose if you wanted to come up with some sort of Smurf orgy mod, this would be a good start. Couple this with a few different simulated sex mods, and...well, you draw your own conclusions. I'm not going to link either of these, though I'm sure if you want horny blue nippled gnome wenches in your mods, you can find them. I'll just paste a quote in one of the comment threads on the mods: I like it. The only thing that's kinda weird is that I seemed to be doing her with all my armor on with my axe still slung over my shoulder! Well, there you have it.

Fun Scripts and Models

Since there's some features lacking in the current NWN implementation, scripters and modellers have stepped up to the plate (when they're not working on the proper level of breast bounce, anyway). For starters, if you plan on playing single player or using a henchman in any of your games, you need the updated henchmen AI scripts. With those you can get your henchmen to actually be effective in battle, and give them better equipment. It makes a world of difference, and makes your henchmen good for more than trap detectors. From one of the Bioware devs directly comes a kobold model. I'm surprised that kobolds weren't in the original release, but here they are. I've heard that it's a huge pain to get this working at the moment, but apparently an easy to use model import utility is one of Bioware's top priorities, and when that's up and running, it should be a lot easier to add more creatures to the game - whether kobolds, gnolls, beholders, or simply re-skinned versions of existing critters. Another Bioware developer script - since updated by a community member - adds hidden trap doors, climbing ropes, and secret doors. Again, such details seem pretty standard but apparently didn't make the game for release, so having these things being developed both by Bioware and the community will allow a lot more variety and versatility for mod-makers. On a similar note, there's also a script for a pit trap. Another fairly simple yet useful addition to the game. Sadistic developers could probably combine the pit with a spike trap, acid, or similarly unpleasant combination of effects. For those of you who want more armor types to add to your game, here's a pack with 537 different sets of armor. Yow. I'd link directly to the homepage but it doesn't seem to be up right now - a link's available on the Vault. For those of you who love random wildlife encounters, here's a fishing script, now with random bear attacks. Looks to be pretty customizable for those of you who want to add Breath of Fire style armors and such to catch. Lastly, in the "cool ideas" file comes a beta version of a wild magic and null magic script. The null magic would allow mod-makers to create areas where no magic is allowed. Similarly, the wild magic areas mean that random spell effects can occur when a mage casts a spell. One of the Baldur's Gate 2 classes I never did get to play with was the Wild Mage, where you never know quite what'll happen when you cast a spell. It seems like this is a good start, and you know that hilarity will ensue the first time a fireball splits and rebounds onto the caster.

Hardcore Rules

Finally, in an attempt to make NWN more closely follow the actual 3rd Edition ruleset, we have the Hardcore Ruleset. The HCR includes things like more limited resting, sub-races (very, very cool), modified death/unconsciousness rules, and so forth. I can't begin to summarize all the changes - and more are being made all the time, so go read the manual. While this is more on a server/module basis, HCR servers could be a lot of fun to play, and would certainly limit the kamikaze playstyle that is fairly viable currently in NWN. I'll have to check it out much more closely.

Closing Thoughts Since I'm still feeling under the weather and I don't believe there's been any critical news with any of the MMORPGs out there, I think I'll cut this column short. If you're considering buying Neverwinter Nights, I highly recommend it. Just remember that it was designed to be a multiplayer experience, so don't write it off after a few hours of the (largely mediocre) official single-player campaign. Until next time, have fun. Feel free to send any letters or recommendations for good NWN mods, I'll check them out. - Cameron (tortolia@rpgfan.com)