any, though half-orc would clash slightly with the module's themes
Tricks & Traps
Light
Roleplay
Medium
Hack & Slash
Medium
Classes
designed for a combat worthy PC, spellcasters may find it tough going
Scope
Medium
DMNeeded
No DM Required
Single or Multiplayer
Single Player
Max Character Level
08
Max # Players
01
Min # Players
01
Min Character Level
06
Content Rating
Teen
Alignments
a PC of ustanding moral character, good or neutral
Description
It was the dirty end of Autumn when the call went out. Sellswords and mercenaries from across the Northlands travelled to the small town of Amplehill in the foothills of the Spine of the World mountains. Their task was simple and the money was good, no orc or goblin was to be left alive in the High Vales by the time of the Mid-Winter festival, by order of Duke Dawnoff of Amplehill. But that was only the beginning... Of Kings and Desperate Men; a medium sized, cinematic module of dark secrets and betrayal, set against the background of a mercenary campaign in the cold North. Featuring- Custom creatures, fetid dungeons, 24,000 words of dialogue, dark secrets, daring rescues, foul murders, crimes of passion, mystic visions, acts of vengance and betrayal, the most under-rated tileset reskin on Neverwinter Vault, labyrinthine scripting, brooding darkness, cannibalism, tragic ghosts, broken oaths, fearsome foes, stalwart allies and much, much more...
Great mod! Very interesting premise of no true good or bad.
Posted by Eowien_Theile at on11/13/05
The storyline was stellar. The town quests were better than the typical "rat stomp" and helped move the story forward. The plot twists do build slowly but inexorably to the climax. I personally liked the intimate voice of the walkthrough. Jules' "voice" is very welcoming! As others have already noted, the quality of the storytelling was lessened due to spelling errors. My PC was female, but in cases where gender is mentioned, I was usually referred to as male. Other dialog missteps include the conversation with Asharak. I would not have played this game without the guidance of "Underrated and Underdownloaded Mods". Thanks Berliad!
Posted by Armin at on11/04/05
A very nice story with a great atmosphere, however the story really tells itself pretty much without the player's intervention. A bit very low on choices and options and very linear, even for a story-driven mod. One thing that puts a severe dent into the immersion factor and kinda counters the excellent writing is that the dialogue contains too many flukes and mistakes. I keep being adressed as "Sir" and "Lord" (I played a woman), I'm called a human (played a dwarf) and have to report that I "put people to the sword" (monk... unarmed specialist.. sigh ;) Fights are extremely easy and straightforward and several areas are way too large with basically nothing in them. Still, all in all a nice and entertaining mod for a rainy evening. _________________________ With magic, you can turn a frog into a prince... With science, you can turn a frog into a Ph.D.... ... and still keep the frog you started with.
Posted by Slygar at on11/03/05
A spectacular mod that only loses points (from me) due to poor spelling/grammar at many points
Posted by rep628 at on08/22/05
The best module I have played yet! Very, very enjoyable. No compaints, no bugs, very smooth start to finish. I look forward to seeing another module from you.
Posted by Berliad at 16:38:37 Voted9.50
I just noticed that "the body" is not cleared from your inventory at the end of this module. Just started another mod with my paladin, and discovered the poor man in my magic pouch. Had to dump him unceremoniously in a room at the inn. :) _________________________ My NWN Blog FRW Character Creator
Posted by Tai_Chi at on08/19/05
Strong and intriguing storyline. Total lack of interactivity. You kill. They tell. You only need a brain to understand the plot.
Posted by Tai_Chi at on08/19/05
I played v1.4 of this module on v1.66 of NWN. I had no dificulty with regard to the game bug. I started with a monk of 6th level, and the combat wasn't too hard nor too easy with Very Difficult Game Option though I had to reload couple times. I pretty much enjoyed its strong and intriguing story, but I found little or no interactivity in it. In this module, what players can do is just killing villains, and I couldn't report to the authorities when I found a dead body in town. One of the best part of NWN is that we can get so much more than just combat, I think. That's why we have persuade skill and such.
Posted by Green at on08/15/05
Very nice module with great atmosphere.
Posted by Berliad at 12:01:26 Voted9.50
(I posted this "review" with my vote, but I am including it here to provide feedback to the author. Thanks for a great mod!) Of Kings and Desperate Men was a surprisingly good module and is clearly among the most underrated modules on the vault. I began the mod with my lv 7 paladin, who was fresh from Chris Huntoon?s excellent mini-series, A Halo of Flies/Shadow from a Soul on Fire. The story is that Amplehill has put out a call for adventurers to help it deal with a new Orcish threat near its borders. The module begins with a very creepy encounter with some sort of vagrant on the road, but you soon find yourself in Amplehill, playing a small role as a mercenary soldier in the employ of Duke Dawnoff. The town itself has been taken over by mercenaries. Some of the merc?s include a rather notorious group of bandits who, while powerful, have begun kidnapping locals or throwing them out of their houses. It?s a pretty nasty place to live. You can play two roles at the beginning of this module. First, you certainly can work in the employ of the Duke, assisting them in dealing with the orcish threat (which is much more complex a situation than it sounds). Second, you can try to right some of the wrongs that the mercenaries have imposed on the townspeople. Eventually, however, these two roles come to head in a very unexpected way. I won?t spoil anything, but I will say that this module has a terrific, exciting second half and a thrilling ending. This module does an excellent job with mood. Pop-up text is used extensively to give a nice sense of atmosphere, and this is continued later in the module with your henchman?s occasional comments as you move along (he was definitely a highlight). The rolling hills tileset was very nice and made the environment feel far more like a hillside than original rural tileset. The CEP is also used well, with CEP monsters and items making frequent and welcome appearances throughout the module. Overall, there was great detail in this module all the way through. Combat seemed well balanced, if perhaps a bit easy for my lv 7 paladin. Difficulty actually increased a little bit once I got a henchman, because he wasn?t quite as durable as my character. Still, I found it enjoyable and very well varied ? lots of fun stuff to kill. The medium HS label is appropriate here?some stretches are a bit combat light, while others are a bit intensive. I never got bored with combat, which I often do in the ?heavy? combat modules. The only real problems I had with this module were the frequent typographical errors in the dialog. I *highly* recommend that the author makes use of NWN Spellchecker (by Hans Olsen) to search for and correct all the typos. I can deal with a few, but they were quite frequent. For example, ?afraid? is spelled at least two different ways in this mod, both of which are incorrect: affraid, and affeared (which I realize may be an effort to make the language sound a bit more archaeic?but it?s not a word). This would be so easy to fix, and would vastly improve the overall sense of polish to the module. There were a few other consistency ?errors? I found as well, and I?m relaying those to the author. Overall, though, this module is really outstanding, and again is vastly underrated. I very much look forward to playing his future works! ?B A few specific comments for the author (includes spoilers!): * The smith guy was very creepy and was placed very well in the mood to put you back into the sense of unease one feels at the very beginning. * The barkeeper still tells you to talk to Bains, even after you rescue his daughter. Seems like that should be modified, just like Thel?s speech was modified. * The Drow Sniper that appears in the forest prior to entering the caves really needs a great deal more explanation. What the heck is a DROW doing up top, screaming ?for the spider queen!? as he attacks you? * Many of the shopkeepers had absolutely no voice greeting, which felt really odd. * The sounds on the fire spirits near the end were a bit annoying and loud. Maybe if they were about 1/3 as frequent, they?d be a nice touch. * I think it?d be nice if there was a better mechanism used to separate dialog from your narration. You used ellipses (?), but I find using quotes to indicate spoken dialog or []?s to denote narration feels a bit more natural to the reader. * In Thel?s dialog, there is a spot in my response to her (I think) that says ?it?s only just that a man stands up.? My character was a woman. _________________________ My NWN Blog FRW Character Creator
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