675 replies to this topic

[andysks]

Hi everyone, with the release of my work coming closer and closer I felt the need to introduce myself a bit on this forum, so that you know who you're dealing with.

Name is Andy, and I have been a fan and player of D&D for more than half of my life. When I was 12 my parents got me the beginners package to the game, with some maps, and adventure and a basic Players Handbook. When I read it I showed it to a couple of good friends, and the journey began.

15 years later, and after many difficulties in playing p&p because... life is life , I found the NWN2 toolset, and I had a new goal in my gaming life. Make a campaign no matter what.
The first task, was to learn the Toolset... which wasn't easy. I read tons of guides and soon I got comfortabel with the controls and how everything works. The most difficult thing for me though, was scripting. I never in my life had anything to do  with it, so I couldn't even understand what a string is... what local int is and so on. But, I guess you learn by practise and experience. But first things first.

When I was a DM for my friends, I spent hours making my own maps, with their own lore, history and adventures. I never used campaign settings. So a little before my p&p group got disbanded, I bought the Manual of the Planes... and I got fascinated. I read it numerous times and learned every plane trate almost by heart. I wrote a script for an epic campaign that would use plane travel and very long storyline... and this time I was determined I'd take it easy on my friends, because I really wanted it to end . It never even started... And a little bit after came the compensation with all the Infinity Engine games, which game me something to live the dream of an epic D&D campaign.

So when I found the NWN2 Toolset, I knew what I want to do. Transfer this script I had, for NWN2. It would take years, I knew. But I don't care. I have to make it.
And here I am, 2 years of work. Countless hours on the Toolset. 100.000 words of dialgue and going, but soon, the first part of the Camapign which will be a part of series will be released.
It is going to have hand drawn intro scenes, companions with character and their own quests, a world map that I made and you will feel free to explore, and of course extraplanar travels( sadly not in the first part since you start from level 1). It is planned to go to epic levels, but the number of chapters is not defined yet.

Before I close, I have to state that, I've been working in this first chapter for two years, but I made the most progress since I joined this forums. The community's help is golden...

So that's that. Soon I will post some screenshots and more information about the Campaign, and feel free to discuss if you feel like it. It will make me happy .

Andy.

[bealzebub]

Well met and welcome aboard Andy.

[andysks]

Well met bealzebub and thank you .
Iveforgotmypassword, I'm quite positive too to be honest. Day after day I get more comfortable with scripting, and I find hak paks and plugins from the community which I didn't know when I began.

[manageri]

Sounds interesting, especially with high level mods being kinda rare.

[andysks]

When you say that alter 2da what exactly do you mean? I really don't use so many of them. In one module for example(The heaviest) I have deepsewer from RWS City hak and the walkmesh helper of course which I don't know how much it qualifies as hak, it's really light.

[kamal_]

First one is the hardest.

[andysks]

Tell me about it. With a very quick and sloppy calculation, the first one took around 2 years, and the next one I'm expecting less than one... of course now I also have a big database of scripts and prefabs and so on .

[andysks]

Hmm, how do I upload a screenshot in this forums? Can I just drag and drop it where I write?

[kamal_]

andysks wrote...

Hmm, how do I upload a screenshot in this forums? Can I just drag and drop it where I write?

Example, you can quote it and look at the code underneath

250x150http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Arkur0fkYgs/TSe_wxvriuI/AAAAAAAAA-U/btGNYOc41_c/s1600/city3.JPG[/img]

[andysks]

Thanks a lot kamal. Screenshots will come in the next days. But before that I want to say some things about the Campaign itself.

• The World

The kingdom I made up is called Helandrith, and it's your standard D&D world. It is pretty big, so in the first part of the story that I will release you will explore some cities and sights, but you will not go towards the eastern kingdoms or west. In other words you will be mostly along the central Helandrith. All races are living in Helandrith, although more than 50% is humans. Elven tribes live in forests and are quite hostile and xenophobic towards strangers, and dwarves come from the east. You will be able to play all, and in the course of the story someone will explain why you are a dwarf, or elf or whatever except human, because most of the inhabitants are humans. There is an Emperor for the whole Helandrith, but each race has it's own chieftain, and every village has an Elder or Mayor or a Jarl. Of course there are cities with a more tyrannic system or cities with no authorities at all, as well cities that the money is the law.

• The Story

There was a big war in Helandrith a long time ago, where all inhabitant races allied against a common evil. After that, the Central Empire with a new emperor in the capital named Cor'Duer, started rebuilding and not many major events happened since then. Until now, that you are sent for a simple task, only to find out that you have beed misleaded and tricked. You are chased... and try to find out why. On the same time, monsters and animals grow uneasy whenever you are close, and it all has to do with who, or what exactly are you. And how you are connected somehow to the past and the great war.

• Religion

Religion is quite important, but I am not using the Faerun Pantheon, but the standard D&D one. Pelor, Nerull, Obad Hai and the rest. I am using it as it was in the 3rd edition, meaning that some Gods that are supposed dead right now, might be alive in my world. But there are a lot of books and history tellers around, so you can read a bit if you are a lore freak like me.
Also, alignment plays a big part. You can start as you like... evil or good or neutral... it doesn't matter. But by the end of the first chapter, you will have so many dialogue options that might change your alignent. Also, I have some moral and "real-life" issues sometimes like : Why exactly are you looting these graves? Or kill a creature that begged you not to?
All these will matter in the end, since there will be one ending, but depending on your actions and alignment, it will be for different reasons.

• Classes and Party

I chose the companion way, and not party creation, since there is a story about you and you are supposed to start alone. The Party can have 5 or 6 members(Still a bit undecided), and each one of them with their own quests and opinnions. So far I don't have a Fighter companion, so maybe a Fighter would be a good choice. I tried it though with a Ceric and a Paladin as well and it worked, since there is not so much hack and slash... or at least unnecessary. There are fights of course, but it's not the main event.

[Tchos]

andysks wrote...
I am not using the Faerun Pantheon, but the standard D&D one. Pelor, Nerull, Obad Hai and the rest.

That's the World of Greyhawk, right?  Gygax's original campaign setting?  I know what I know of it and those gods mainly through the Temple of Elemental Evil.  I'm certainly not married to the Forgotten Realms, myself, (though it's probably the one with which I'm most familiar), so I'll look forward to learning more about Greyhawk through your module.

[Frosty44]

I'll look forward to playing your campaign when it's done - it sounds very interesting.

[andysks]

Iveforgotmypassword  :This is so true. I got the main history and lore writen down, but more stuff come as I build, so I write a book, place it in a library and voila. Plus it gives so much freedom to kill whichever god you like or stuff like that... no restrictions

Tchos : Yes, to my knowledge this is the setting of Gygax's campaign setting. I only use the pantheon though, for I never played Greyhawk except ToEE, so I didn't wanna mess up the setting or have a lot of reading to do before building. I only use this, because this is how I learned and played D&D and therefore It's the system I'm the most familiar with. One more thing is that, when I read the Manual of the Planes, it mentions so many of this Pantheon have their domains in the Outer Planes, so it is a good setting. All I know from Faerun gods is their names... I don't know where Talos or Lathander live or why they are gods and so on. I would mess this thing so much I think .

Frosty: I hope you'll like it, thanks for posting .

[andysks]

So here are some screenshots of some work in progress. Most of the areas need to be polished, but I wanted to share anyway.

This ones are only some of the lore and history options that you'll have if you want to learn more about the world and so on. Most of the time, they don't give quest, but rather only share knowledge that might explain things later or give you a better idea of how things work.

A library with plenty of books to read.
http://i1284.photobu...zps3cf7e684.jpg
Or a teacher that you can join her lectures.
http://i1284.photobu...zps7fc8fc27.jpg
Or simply a loremaster interested in sharing knowledge.
http://i1284.photobu...zps69865c9a.jpg

This one is one of the Taverns that you can visit, take quests, hear rumors or gt some rest.
http://i1284.photobu...zps05fb304f.jpg

This is a place in the mountains with a glacier.
http://i1284.photobu...zpsa10bf2e8.jpg

Taking about lore, if you read or pay some attention in dialogues or books, they might help you later so that you don't do the "pick something randomly and reload if it's false :)"
http://i1284.photobu...zps19cb9483.jpg

A place where ancient heroes rest.
http://i1284.photobu...zpsce8ac43d.jpg

And this ones are of one of the last areas, the Royal Gardens, which is completely not finished. I just wanted to share some of it as it's getting done.
http://i1284.photobu...zps0500638e.jpg
http://i1284.photobu...zpsda95d50a.jpg

Edit: I'm sorry you have to click on the links but I really cannot understand how to post a picture in this forum...

Edited by andysks, 04 September 2013 - 08:42 AM.

[Tchos]

Those links cannot be clicked either, but must be copied and pasted into the browser bar.  To make links that can be clicked, you need to use the standard form, and not the Quick Reply box, and use the button to insert a link.

Like this:
http://i1284.photobu...zps3cf7e684.jpg

To make the actual image appear, you surround it with IMG tags, like this.




Edit: I found some clear instructions here.

Edited by Tchos, 04 September 2013 - 03:40 PM.

[andysks]

Hi everyone that might be interested in this campaign . I just wanna throw a little update. I made a To Do list with what I believe is still needed until completion and it goes like this.

• One crucial convo doesn't work as intended, and it gave me quite a headache the last couple of days( why fake spells interrupt dialogue I will never get).
• A couple of area transitions were forgotten.
• A couple of side quests need completion as well, meaning an NPC creation and a couple of minor convos.
• General atmosphere in the main city, put down some cats, some more citizens and so on.
• One last area, which will not be used, but I will only take screenshots to use for the epilogue( I have to give credit to Tchos about that, I think he knows what I'm talking about).
• World Map needs rework. I made it in a hurry because I wanted to check it in game. Layout is fine, I just need to add some forests, roads and some written stuff like mountain names or sea names even if players will not explore all of it in the first chapter.

After all this, I will playtest a couple of days, and after fixing some stuff which I will probably not like... like static cameras and stuff, I might need some playtesting from the community, provided anyone is interested at all .

Edit: Did I just say a milion times "stuff"?

Edited by andysks, 21 September 2013 - 12:34 AM.

[andysks]

I use this already with NPCs and I was planning to do it with cats as well . I also have WPs, but I prefer some mix on the pattern.
Small update: A friend called me today, and he said he'll come in the night with his microphone so that we do some voice overs. I'm so exited, I hope they'll sound good!

[PJ156]

Always happy to play test Andy.

PJ

[andysks]

I think you deserve the title of official community playtester PJ .

[Arkalezth]

I may be able to playtest too... but it sounds like it's going to be a while until then, so I'll confirm it to you when the time comes.