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[Tiberius209]

2 Flamerule, 1374

To the High Prefect of the Temple of Tyr in Longsaddle,


Greetings in the name of The Maimed God! With much trepidation, I write to you for aid. I am the last of my family, the ruling dynasty of Navatranaasu, located in the Vale of the Miracle in the Greypeaks near the source of the Delimbiyr. We have placed our faith in Tyr since the town's founding by our illustrious ancestor, Alred VanGhaunt, who earned great honor and fame against the demonic host at the Battle of Phlanon's Moor. Yet we have been enthralled by a curse for generations, and my town is now in ruins and my family threatened with extinction. Times are beyond desperate, and we can brook no further delay.

I have written several times to the major Tyrran enclaves requesting assistance but have thus far heard nothing. We are good Tyrrans and are brothers and sisters in the church. We are one with you in the favor of The Maimed God! In the entire church, is there not even one hero you can send to our aid? Is there no one who hears the anguish of their comrades? Has Tyr abandoned us to our misery?

In the name of Tyr I beg you to help us, for if you do not, darkness will prevail and the Light of The Just One will be extinguished from these parts forever.

Yours in Tyr,
Jellica VanGhaunt

Announcing the imminent release of my three-act campaign, The Maimed God's Saga.  Current projections are a release on August 20th - 8 days.

Details:

class restricted to Priest of Tyr
Starting Level: 6th
Length: 15 - 18 hours, depending on play style
Companions: 1 ranger, but different depending on PC's gender

200,000 words of dialog (yes, that's right)
32 new and exclusive pieces of music by StrangeCat Productions
3 new movies
Copious use of community custom content including new load screens, placeables, and creatures
Heavily story-driven; H&S moderate at times, light at others; tricks and traps light

See the opening movie here.
Listen to examples of the campaign music here, here, and here.
The character creation guide can be downloaded here.
My blog with all announcements and 3+ years of development news is here.

[Eguintir Eligard]

Sounds wicked cool in the intro. Can the product back it up ?



I will find out for myself.

[Gilradthegreat]

What's the expected end level? While its good to see this isn't another mod starting at level 1, those late teens are still rather empty looking at all the available mods.



Also, does this support Kaedrin's PrC pack?

[Tiberius209]

Ending level is exected to be 10th.

No need to support Kaedrin because it's a class-specific campaign, similar to many of the series from NWN1 (i.e. Kale's Rangers, Way of the Open Hand, A Bard's Tale, Tale of a Mage, the Paladin Twilight Series, etc.)  That was my first design goal for the campaign.

The second design goal for this adventure was to write a realistic and organically evolving romance.  That is why you have only a single companion that is gender-specific.  Each of the two choices for companion has an entirely different personality and has over 30,000 words of total dialog devoted to them alone.

Also, a big note to all...  If you like "phat lewt," you will not like this campaign.  At all.

This is a low-power, low loot campaign.  You will gain about four levels in 15-18 hours.  The protagonist, your companion, and the enemies you will face will almost all be using normal weapons.  There is a magic weapon available for the PC that comes late in the game in a special encounter.  The exact nature of that weapon is determined by script, so you should get something you can use.  Please read the Character Creation Guide referenced in my first post for hints about making a character you will enjoy playing with.

I would describe the overall tone of the campaign as gothic, although not nearly to the extent of, say, Misery Stone.  You're out of the way in a small, poor town that's beset by a curse, but there are moments of humor interspersed throughout.

Since it is important that players buy into this philosophy in order to have any fun at all, I'll provide many links to those interested in researching my style.  So here goes.

For an idea of what I mean by low-power and low-loot, please see the now copious reviews of my NWN1 series, Saleron's Gambit, part 1 of which can be found here.  You can easily use that link to get to parts 2 through 5 to read comments about my further episodes as I gained experience.

Here's my HoF interview for Saleron's Gambit, which also includes some information about my style as well as some now-dated notes about The Maimed God's Saga (TMGS.)

Here's my NWN Nights Podcast interview about Saleron's Gambit, but the end also features quite a bit about TMGS.

Finally, read here, here, here, and here for a four part designers' retrospective about my time on the development team for Mysteries of Westgate.  This will outline some of my design philosophy for a NWN2 product that's already out there.

Modifié par Tiberius209, 12 août 2010 - 06:52 .

[Haplose]

Well I really like the frame you have outlined. Also the very high care to detail...

Definately looking forward to playing this!

[WyrinDnjargo]

Been looking forward to this

just rereading the character guide - how come paladins aren't a valid option for a tyrran church? Just wondered if this was something deliberately left out

[Alazander]

Eguintir Eligard wrote...

Sounds wicked cool in the intro. Can the product back it up ?

I will find out for myself.

I did the initial beta for this bad boy, and yes, it can back it up. Even at that stage, I'd have put it up right up there with Trinity. Everyone still interested in NWN2 should download this.

Modifié par Alazander, 12 août 2010 - 09:33 .

[Tiberius209]

WyrinDnjargo wrote...

Been looking forward to this
just rereading the character guide - how come paladins aren't a valid option for a tyrran church? Just wondered if this was something deliberately left out

Yes, paladins were deliberately left out.  Beyond a doubt, they would work in the story as far as character motivation goes, but there's a very specific campaign-related reason I removed them: namely, their ability to automatically Detect Evil would make the story difficult to tell at multiple times.  I could, of course, ignore that ability, but inevitably I'd get the complaints that it didn't make sense for them not to know certain things up front.  Beyond that, I get into spoilers.

If you want to use a paladin anyway and just ignore the above, be aware that I didn't test certain scripting on paladins and so I'm sure unusual bugs will pop up now and again.  Also, people will still refer to you as a "priest," as I didn't feel the need to use tokens to determine the player's class.

[Tiberius209]

Alazander wrote...

Eguintir Eligard wrote...

Sounds wicked cool in the intro. Can the product back it up ?

I will find out for myself.

I did the initial beta for this bad boy, and yes, it can back it up. Even at that stage, I'd have put it up right up there with Trinity. Everyone still interested in NWN2 should download this.

High praise from one of the NWN titans.  Thank you.

[dwarven_dervish]

Awesome!



Having followed the development of this since it was announced on the blog, I'm very excited to see one of these long hauls finally coming into fruition.

[nicethugbert]

NEAT! A cleric module!

[Eguintir Eligard]

Not that this will stop me from playing a game but what is with people making modules for mid (lets say level 6 and beyond) levels and making people use garbage weapons. I mean ya nwn2 was a joke for over looting but it seems everybody is going off the deep end and being too ridiculous giving you nothing. Surely there is a middle (like a BG1 amount of magic items)?

I know others have talked about using mundane weapons for like half their game in my blog party and I gotta say there's a reason its make believe (non magic is boring):

Modifié par Eguintir Eligard, 15 août 2010 - 02:46 .

[Tiberius209]

Eguintir Eligard wrote...

Not that this will stop me from playing a game but what is with people making modules for mid (lets say level 6 and beyond) levels and making people use garbage weapons. I mean ya nwn2 was a joke for over looting but it seems everybody is going off the deep end and being too ridiculous giving you nothing. Surely there is a middle (like a BG1 amount of magic items)?

I know others have talked about using mundane weapons for like half their game in my blog party and I gotta say there's a reason its make believe (non magic is boring):

While I understand your point, my loot scale predates NWN2 by quite a ways (see my NWN1 series) and was actually influenced by my PNP days in the 80s.  It's no recent fad for me.  I just basically have a fundamental philosophy that magical items should be a rarity akin to artifacts that should be irrevocably linked to their user in the same way that mentioning Excalibur brings to mind King Arthur.  Beyond that, I've seen more otherwise-interesting user-made modules destroyed by unbalanced battles resulting from too much loot rather than too little.  Obviously, I could design to a different scale, as I did with Mysteries of Westgate, but my own personal project will be to my vision.

Yes, it's make-believe, but that doesn't mean all make-believe is the same.  Your character still has all their divine spells and abilities and many enemies will be spell-casters too.  And that's before we throw in talk of monsters, curses, a pantheon of gods, etc.  As for loot, I don't have a problem with any loot scale other people use in their campaigns so long as I know ahead of time and the enemies I face will be using the same scale.  Everyone knows what to expect now.

[MasterChanger]

The news of this upcoming release is very exciting! Reading about this offering and watching the video gives me confidence that this project will be totally in line with everything I've played from any of the Ossian folks: not so much a campaign as an unforgettable experience that epitomizes everything that's right with the particular game (NWN1 or NWN2).

While I was just railing against clerics being too easy an answer in NWN2, I think this adventure will be very interesting in that it sets clerics very much within their proper context: in relationship with their deity, with their fellow clergy, and with their faith. That looks to be very interesting.

I also really commend you for the soundscape that will be involved. To me, this is such an important story element.

And lastly, regarding loot, I personally am totally on board with you, Tiberius. The whole point is that the power of this particular character will emanate from their faith and Tyr's power. A random nameless +1 shield with no lore behind it would add absolutely nothing to that feeling.

Modifié par MasterChanger, 16 août 2010 - 01:26 .

[Haplose]

I am also of the opinion that too many mods get boring and uninteresting too play because of unbalanced loot they bring to the table.

I prefer to rely on character strength (and in this case divine strength), rather then relying on munchkin equipment.

I wholeheartedly support your philosophy, Tiberius.

[Quixal]

This looks fantastic. I eagerly await release.



Also, I fully support the use of low end gear and making magic items something special when you find them (special in terms of flavour rather than necessarily sheer power, as well).

[nicethugbert]

I find it hard to take a strong stance in favor of one loot schema or another because I see it as a matter of setting up your sources and sinks for items to match your objectives.



Since a cleric is a walking magic item shop, making magic items rare emphasizes that. Since this is a cleric module then it gives another dimension to explore in playing a cleric. Should the cleric buff himself or his party? Should he go str based to increase his own melee prowess or should he go wis based for the extra buffs for party members or fire power to support party members or for extra non-combat spells and high wis bonus for use in accessing more cleric specific content?



Keeping the magic items rare may reward exploring other cleric builds other than the usual battle cleric. This would be aided by making content dependent on the clerics domains.

[StrangeCat Productions]

Eguintir Eligard wrote...

Sounds wicked cool in the intro. Can the product back it up ?

I will find out for myself.

Thanks Man!   Hope the music helps bring the player deeper into the world and story.

[daveyd]

Even though Clerics aren't my favorite class, I really like that it's going to be a class (&alignment) specific campaign! It makes it seem a lot more like a real RPG because otherwise your character inevitably finds herself doing stuff that is "out of character" . For example, try playing a paladin in BG2 (it's hard to imagine a by the book PL ever agreeing to work with the Shadow Thieves.. even if it is to save a friend).

I also support the low magic loot.  When you're practically tripping over +1 stuff everywhere, it ruins the whole economy...  Appraise becomes a worthless skill because you have so much stuff to sell, and gold rewards feels less meaningful when you find everything you want in a treasure chest.  It just makes magical stuff seem more magical when it's rare.

In the CCG Tiberius noted that one of Tyr's domains (retribution) isn't available in NWN2. I'd argue that the Destruction domain is a suitable alternative. Even though its associated with evil gods in official D&D, in NWN 2 it gives you "Smite infidel" (which is basically Smite Evil / Smite Neutral if you follow Tyr) which I think is similar to the retribution power... at least, it certainly seems like something the god of justice would grant. Another possible alternative would be the "Fury" domain (it even was called the War domain before MOTB came out). Besides, none of the domains follow official D&D 3.5 that closely anyway. All that matters to me is if it's believable that a good cleric would have those powers.

Modifié par daveyd, 17 août 2010 - 03:44 .

[Eguintir Eligard]

I think the last few replies are putting words in either Tiberius's mouth or mine, depending on who you are replying to.

Tiberius says:
The protagonist, your companion, and the enemies you will face will almost all be using normal weapons.

I take that and his ensuing description that there will be no magic items unless you do a very specific late quest to mean "no loot'.  So if you are supporting low loot as you have said, you are actually not supporting his philosophy. So am a little confused  when people come by and say "I agree with Tiberius, I support low loot" when he just said there will be none, effectively. So what are we talking about? Were the posts not fully read?

But clarification made, I'd like this thread to re-focus on just making this a thread about a module that should be good for one or many reasons. I am curious how accurate the time frame of 8 days is still?

Little too close to back to school time

Modifié par Eguintir Eligard, 17 août 2010 - 07:19 .

[Haplose]

That is called nitpicking, I believe.

[daveyd]

On the blog Tiberius just announced he submitted it to the vault last night which is 1 day ahead of schedule. So it may even be a day "early" depending on how quickly they make it available to download.

According to his CCG you start out with a holy symbol which gives +1 deflection AC and there will be a chance to acquire a Tyrian plate mail and shield (not clear if these are magical or just masterwork type). While while he did say you won't get a magic weapon until fairly late in the mod, you still get one. Sounds like low loot to me.

Modifié par daveyd, 17 août 2010 - 12:48 .

[Eguintir Eligard]

What is this CCG I dont know what that means? That sounds a little more palatable Dave.

Strangecat I take it is the music man? Got any links to your works?

No haplose its called reading. Or maybe pedantic. There is a difference between little and none. For example if you were tied to a train track do you want the train to move with a little speed or none at all?

Being a priest seems to be a lost opportunity I found playing bioware games from BG on; not that you can't do it but you always have too many companions with that ability so you either cant use some of the best ones or you can with a weird party balance. Like nwn2 Motb (4 comps, 2 are healers) or BG2 with Jaheira. Also out of everyone I talk to I think Im the only one who ever players a cleric and usually its a bad idea in a module. This angle alone is selling to an underserved market.

There's gotta be some fun in being all holy when you respond in dialogs, definitely novel to me.

Modifié par Eguintir Eligard, 17 août 2010 - 01:36 .

[nicethugbert]

Tiberius209 wrote...
No need to support Kaedrin because it's a class-specific campaign, similar to many of the series from NWN1 (i.e. Kale's Rangers, Way of the Open Hand, A Bard's Tale, Tale of a Mage, the Paladin Twilight Series, etc.)  That was my first design goal for the campaign.

I would still like to use Kaedrin's with this for the bug fixes and cleric spells/feats.

[Tiberius209]

As daveyd mentioned, all files are now in the hands of the Vault.  I would think the campaign would be available in about 2-3 days.

Eguintir, StrangeCat is the music man.  The bottom of my very first post has three links to entries in my blog that link to a total of four of the pieces that will be heard in this campaign.  There are 28 others in the campaign itself and two beyond that that are heard in the starting and ending movies.  The four linked pieces highlight some of the major themes, including Tyr's theme, the Doom March, one of the love themes, and the orc theme.

nicethugbert, I guess I didn't know that Kaedrin added more than just extra classes.  Regardless, I didn't put it in, and I'm not delaying release for the months of extra testing it would take before I would feel comfortable with it.

To all regarding loot, to be clear, magic itself is not rare in my vision of Faerun.  Wizards are not part of some underground organization, and people go to priests for healing all the time... in cities.  However, this adventure takes place on the frontier (for the most part) where such resources are far more scarce.  Magical wards, portals, and curses are all found in this module.  You have the ability to brew your own potions and so forth.  In general, one-use items are reasonably plentiful given the remote location.

However, permanent magic items are much rarer.  You do not have the proverbial +1 sword in the barrel outside every blacksmith.  In fact, there are no +1 swords, period.  No gnome is sitting around minting a line of swords called "+1 swords."  Any such magical item has a history, a unique name, and a purpose, and to acquire it, you must first take it from its previous owner.  As a member of the Tyrran clergy, you have a standard holy symbol that grants a +1 AC bonus and allows the casting of "Light" at will.  This will be advantageous because some of my dungeons are really dark.

In addition to the afore-mentioned weapon and holy symbol and not counting expendable items, magical loot in this campaign includes a ring that's a major artifact, some boots and gloves that are minor, and some ammunition.  Then there are poisonous items, a few masterwork items, and some special material items (such as cold iron, alchemical silver, etc.).  So there will be some magical equipment, but these will be specialized "spoils of war" as opposed to a vast collection of items that are effectively a jumble of stats you play with to max your character.

Think about your stats, your feats, and your skills because most of your character's power comes from these.  I have gone out of my way to make dozens, maybe hundreds, of skill checks, feat checks, attribute checks and so forth, so all sorts of builds will have things catered to their character.  As you all may know, clerics have spells to make any weapon and armor temporarily magical, and these will defintiely come in handy for many battles.  In general, I think a lot of cleric spells people have long since considered "useless" will have a bit more use in this module.  I hope people enjoy rethinking the class.

Modifié par Tiberius209, 17 août 2010 - 03:31 .