Cool NWN2 mods that are, uh... cool and stuff.

[Starwars]

So, since NWN2 has been out for a while now and the library of mods have been growing slowly but surely (with the most promising ones still in production), I figure we could do with another of these threads. What mods do you like so far? Here are my picks.

 

Harp & Crysanthemum: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2M...tail&id=206

 

This is just good all around. Somewhat limiting in roleplay, neutral and good only (though there are some rather nice dialogue options still) and a linear story are about the only things I can fault this mod for. But it doesn't matter much because it's pulled off really well. The writing is great, and the area design is drop-dead gorgeous. It feels heavily steeped in FR lore (I'm not that into it so I don't really know to tell the truth, heh), and feels balanced overall. Add some of the authors custom music to that, and you've got a really good mod. This is my favourite so far, highly recommended.

The author also started working on a sequel.

 

Asphyxia: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2M...tail&id=255

 

A pretty new mod which have gotten nice ratings. I can't judge this entire mod since I haven't finished it yet. I will say that I found the entire opening area very well done (felt rather Torment-ish), the atmosphere is really tense. Once you get out of this area, I felt the mod sort of lost focus (a bit to humorous here and there) though but it might only be me. I still plan to finish this one, the writing was extraordinary.

 

Moonshadows, chapter 1: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2M...tail&id=185

 

This is done by NWN veteran modder Hugie. A bit lacking in roleplaying for my personal tastes, but it still kept me interested to the very end. It feels like a great classic D&D adventure, and starts off kinda light-hearted. The story really picked up near the end though, and to be honest I can't wait until chapter 2 is released. A really fun adventure.

 

Dark Avenger, chapter 1: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2M...comment_page=11

A rather story-heavy module, and well-written except for the odd spelling error here and there. The story initially reminded me of Torment, in that you want to find out what happened to your character in your past life. You're sent back to take revenge on those who wronged you, but it's up to you to decide what your motivations are. Pretty nice feature in this mod is that you unlock bits of your past through "flashback dialogue options", where you can decide upon what kind of person you where when you were alive. I don't think it affects all that much, but it makes it easier to bond with your character, and some of the options are quite inventive.

 

Conan Chronicles, part 1 http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2M...tail&id=176

 

This is the most recent mod I played through, and it was a lot of fun. I'm not really into Conan, but this mod pulled me right in. The atmosphere is excellent, and the gameplay feels rather inventive somehow. It doesn't feel like your standard RPG. A nice touch is the custom races. It's also one of few mods (possibly the only one in NWN2 thus far) where I felt it was worth it to play a Rogue, and actually try to avoid enemies every once in a while.

 

There are more, but those'll do for now.

Edited May 6, 2008 by Starwars

[GreasyDogMeat]

-Harp & Crysanthenum is excellent, except for the rather sudden ending where little is explained. Hopefully part two will clear things up.

 

-Haven't tried Asphyxia yet, but it looks interesting. Set in Icewind Dale which is a + for me.

 

-I enjoyed Moonshadows just like Harp. Excellent mod despite lacking companions.

 

I'm currently playing the Dark Waters series. The scripting is amazing. Features a ship system straight out of Sid Meier's Pirates! and a card game similar to Magic: The Gathering (atleast I think thats what its based on as I've only read a small bit about the card game). It has some annoyances though. I REALLY hate the humor in the DW series. Almost every line in the mod is a lame come back. I frankly wanted to turn on my companions after a while and I've been taking every possible line of dialog to try and insult them and tell them to shut up.

 

I also really enjoyed Pool of Radiance remastered, based the first 'real' D&D video game ever made.

[Starwars]

The Dark Waters mods are really the odd man out. I was also quite amazed at what Adam Miller did for the second part especially, and the fact that most of it actually works quite well without feeling clunky is an even bigger achievement.

Still, the very "core" of the mod didn't really grip me. It was a fun trip, and really cool to see what could be done with the toolset, but the mod(s) never really grabbed me. I also think it's a bit to obvious in some places.. I mean, there's no denying that the ship system is ripped straight from Pirates for example. And I read he's working on a Guitar Hero-ish minigame called Lute Hero. I mean, it's really impressive, but they're to close to the original ideas.

The world also has some clumsy echoes to our world, like the whole God business and black people with overdone Jamaican accents etc...

 

But yeah, I definetely had fun playing them still. They're definetely different.

 

Haven't played Pool of Radiance yet, should give that a go.

[samm]

I really liked the first Chapter of PORR, it just felt very... solid, like a not overly original, but perfectly made game. But then along came MotB, and thus I can't tell anything about the other Chapters.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I've just downloaded them all, now to play them.

[Kelverin]

I would recommend these to anyone, both pen and paper recreations

 

Tomb of Horrors Revisited

 

Tomoachan

[GreasyDogMeat]

Tomoachan is awesome. Takes a classic module and adds an actual story to it with an Indiana Jones like beginning. I generally don't like it when someone converts a P&P module with no extra story. Many of the classics were purposefully left as bare bones dungeon romps to allow the DM to add their own twists and story-arc, so direct adaptions often feel stale (See Keep on the Borderlands, which was ironically done by the same author as Tomoachan. Believe he learned heavily from Keep and amped up Tomoachan).

 

I played a bit of Tomb of Horrors, but haven't gotten around to finishing it yet.

[Starwars]

I've been playing a bit of Winds of Change which takes place in the Warhammer universe. I'm not very familiar with Warhammer, but it was pretty easy to get into. Battles are freaking hard, but quite fun. The atmosphere is wonderful. Bad things are that it's very linear, and you rarely get any dialogue options (though there skill checks here and there with a lot of exp to be gained if you succeed). The author will make the sequel a lot more open and generally more ambitious.

 

Still, I like it quite a bit.

[Starwars]

Doubleposting but meh.

 

Finished Tomoachan and had a lot of fun with it! I'm not normally a fan P&P mods remade for singleplayer cRPGing, but with the authors changes this worked really well. And I must I still got that feel of old school P&P module playing despite his updates, and it made me miss my P&P group. The writing and stuff could've been tighter, but I definetely enjoyed this mod. Lots of fun.

[Kelverin]

Finished Tomoachan and had a lot of fun with it! I'm not normally a fan P&P mods remade for singleplayer cRPGing, but with the authors changes this worked really well. And I must I still got that feel of old school P&P module playing despite his updates, and it made me miss my P&P group. The writing and stuff could've been tighter, but I definetely enjoyed this mod. Lots of fun.

See I am the exact opposite, the original modules that I have played are seriously lacking....I much prefer a remake of a p&p writen by professionals.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Maybe I'm misreading something, but it sounds like you two, actually, us three are in 100% agreement.

[Kelverin]

but it sounds like you two, actually, us three are in 100% agreement.

Where is the fun in that, I want to argue!

[Kelverin]

but it sounds like you two, actually, us three are in 100% agreement.

Where is the fun in that, I want to argue!

[Moatilliatta]

So anyone of you guys that know of any mods that have non-traditional stories and especially non-traditional narratives in them? I do like the regular mods and I will play them at some point but the kind of mods that I outlined above are the ones that interest me the most.

For NWN I personally liked Beneath for its different way of doing things and I would be looking for some similar experiences in NWN2.

[samm]

Yeah, Asylum is pretty unusual in gameplay, visuals and writing, but very intriguing. Thanks to a bug, I wasn't able to play though the module. This should be fixed by now however.

[Moatilliatta]

Thanks for the tip. It's a Hall of Fame mod and as such I would have found it as soon as I find the time to start going through mods, much appreciated though.

[Starwars]

I haven't tried the Asylum mods yet (there are two I think so far), but they certainly seem unusual. I should play them.

 

For anyone looking to try some different gameplay, Dark Waters 2 has a ton of custom stuff. While it's not my cup of tea, I'm pretty amazed at what the author managed to accomplish in the toolset.

[Xard]

Could someone help me with Tomoachan?

 

I've downloaded and istalled it numerous times with many different versions over the months but none of them work. When I enter the unpacking module screen nothing happens and eventually game freezes and crashes

[RangerSG]

I'll add "The Subtlety of Thay" to this list. A very interesting story with lots of room for different PC personalities. The tendancy towards "neutral" align shifts was the only whacky thing in the game design. But very clean, and a very good story.

 

I've made my Dark Waters rant, I won't repeat it.

 

The Conan mod is actually an NWN1 remake. JohnMCA was one of the more underrated NWN1 modders.

[Starwars]

So, what's been going on in the NWN2 modding land? Not terribly much the last two months or so as many modders have taken temoporary breaks from their own projects to work on a Halloween mod, in which the modders will create their own house (complete with whatever they want to put there, small quests, trick or treats etc). This stuff will then be stuffed into a single mod which is being created by the people at Bouncyrock (who are working on an upcoming Ravenloft mod).

Should be fun stuff, though to be frank I'd rather them work on their own mods, but eh. I know it can be good to take a break and work on something else for a while.

 

However, some cool stuff have still been released!

 

We have the third Conan Chronicles mod out. The Thing in the Crypt: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2M...tail&id=300

I actually took the time to play through all the Conan mods and I really enjoyed them, especially part 2. Highly recommended.

 

We have an old NWN1 favourite making a return. A Hunt through the Dark Remastered, from the same people who brought you the Pool of Radiance Remastered mod: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2M...tail&id=301

This is on my to-play list, as I never tried the NWN1 version for some reason.

 

There is a new Ravenloft mod out (the first for NWN2 I believe) called Ravenloft: Dreamscape. http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2M...tail&id=304

I actually tried this one out briefly, but had to put it down due to lack of time at the moment. Seemed interesting at the start, though not entirerely something to my taste. Getting good reviews though, I'll likely give it another go.

 

The Halls of Hamhock: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2M...tail&id=291

Another mod which I had to put down due to lack of time. The vault score is quite low for some reason (there were some problems with the party system at first I think), but from what I saw it should be higher than it is. This seemed to be quite a hardcore D&D mod from what I've gathered.

 

Traveller: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2M...tail&id=293

Haven't tried it. Made by the same guy who created Corruption of Kiahoro, which was a fun adventure (worth a try certainly). This one seems pretty good as well!

 

Legacy of the Dragon: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2M...tail&id=309

Don't know much about this one, released just the other day I believe. Good feedback so far.

 

And finally, what could be the biggest mod so far for NWN2 (probably is if we take Chapter 1 into account as well), Chapter 2 of Subtlety of Thay was released just a few minutes ago. http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2M...tail&id=310

That will probably be my next NWN2 mod to play. Note that you can download a package of Chapter 1 and 2 from the link above (appearantly stuff you do in Chapter 1 affects Chapter 2, so might wanna replay the first Chapter).

[SteveThaiBinh]

So, what's been going on in the NWN2 modding land? Not terribly much the last two months or so as many modders have taken temoporary breaks from their own projects to work on a Halloween mod, in which the modders will create their own house (complete with whatever they want to put there, small quests, trick or treats etc). This stuff will then be stuffed into a single mod which is being created by the people at Bouncyrock

I was hoping modders would do this for the OC, and fill up some of those empty houses in Neverwinter. Don't know if it ever happened...