Somewhere in the Forgotten Realms... place wherever you feel appropriate.
Gameplay Length
The duration ranges widely from 1 to 3 hours depending upon your actions.
Number Players
1
Language
English
Level Range
4 - 6
Races
Any
Tricks & Traps
Medium
Roleplay
Heavy
Hack & Slash
Medium
Classes
Designed for fighters, wizards, and rogues. Playable by any warrior class.
Scope
Small
DMNeeded
No DM Required
Single or Multiplayer
Single Player
Max Character Level
Any
Max # Players
01
Min # Players
01
Min Character Level
04
Content Rating
Teen
Alignments
Any
Gameplay Hours
02
Description
Introduction:
As an adventurer, you have had your fair share of experiences. The greatest lesson learned is that you are little more than a small fish in a rather large pond. This realization weighs heavily on your mind.
You believe that the greatness you desire is obtainable only through the possession of two things: time and guidance. Time is available to all, but guidance is more difficult to obtain. The solution was found in a non-descript tavern. There, an encounter with mysterious rangers armed you with knowledge of a powerful wizard, a former adventurer, who is willing to take under his wing those he deems worthy.
Little is known of this man, Davion. For a brief time, it seemed all the sword coast was whispering his name. As the years past, the people all but forgot the brief time of chaos he ended. His legend survives through a select few. "Who is this man?" "What is the nature of his talents?" "How will you convince him to guide you?" You have taken it upon yourself to answer these questions. You must learn to be a shark, not merely a fish in a pond.
Game Description:
The game consists of a short adventure or two, easily finished in a few sittings. It was designed with the hope of immersing players in the setting. As a result, the game is heavy in dialogue, though much of it is completely optional (if you don't care to read everyone's back-story, don't ask them for it!). Additionally, every non-monster character has a routine governed by the time of day. Do not be surprised to find them asleep at night or roaming about during the day.
An emphasis was also placed on roleplay. To this end, there are a variety of dialogue options to suit different personalities and there are multiple routes towards completion of the module. If you want to be a devious thief, go for it! If you want to be a selfish mage, give it a try! If you want to be a crazed murderer, go ahead (but, you'll likely die very quickly this way). Still, "good" players will get to see more of the mod than "bad."
There's plenty of combat and effort was made to add uniqueness to every encounter. Many creatures have a weakness, whether to a particular type of damage or a vulnerability to something in the environment. As a consequence, some fights are likely to be too tough until you are properly armed with either items or knowledge or both (Don't be afraid to run... escape is often an excellent option!).
Posted by Mirgalen at 2010-11-27 05:01:27 Voted 3.50 on 11/27/10
I did not wait for the author's update and tried this. Too bad. It reminded of "Myst" which is a adventure/puzzle game where when you start you don't even know your goal IIRC.
I will try again and re-vote would the author fix the following:
1. DaveFritz is correct some kind of walkthrough or hint file is needed
2. Make things easier for say an evil rogue is one thing but do not make it impossible for a good sorcerer or restrict the class/alignment possible.
3. Too easy to be killed by "traps" or other effects (average damage vs HP of the player character). Also if not implemented there should be away to surrender to the master in the training arena (instead of getting killed).
4. NPC conversations should be fixed or expanded. I found two NPCs with wings who do not talk. No NPC around or book/journal related to them. I found a bit of a clue in the comments below but there was nothing in the module that would imply that at some point you needed to get a special item that would enable your character to fly. My guess is the item behind the "wall of force" may be what is needed but in that case perhaps indicate that it is equipped with a pair of wings. Also not that mages will often ignore and armor stand unless they see a robe or something.
With the above item fixed this could be a quite enjoyable and unique adventure.
3-4: It is clear the author tried to make something interesting, but still fell short. With more work it might be worth the download.
I've knocked the cobwebs off this module, started playing again, and noticed a number of issues that need fixin'. I'm planning to update the whole module to 1.69, so for anyone who stumbles on to this page, you might want to wait a bit for the new and improved version.
Thanks for playing! Sorry to hear you're not enjoying. If it helps, all of the objects/events you've mentioned are optional. The possible exception is the notes from study, which give a vital clue as to how to complete the evil route. I'll have to re-read the text, but it was never intended to lead to conversations. The note was placed to encourage players to seek-out equipment for robbing Davion's treasure room.
*SPOILERS*
The only artifact that must be inteteracted with in the tower is the hanging orb, in the room with all the other strange artifacts. It suggests something has happened outside the tower, go check it out.
You must converse at least once with Pather, Frah, Farmer, and Loison (might be able to skip Loison) to complete the game. Pather or Frah must be spoken too at least twice if going the good route (the initial introduction and the conversation after your adventure with Possum and Waide).
The rest of the game is pretty darn linear... more typical of a NWN module. Best of luck!
Hello, mremustard,
I'm finding this mod VERY FRUSTRATING!!! Please provide a walkthrough or a LOT more clues for those of us who don't think along your lines. I have had no sense of direction from the hints you do provide, Most of my progrewss has come very slowly and after much trial and error, and WAY too many reloads.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS
For example, I have the Notes from the Study. They say go and talk to people about them and yet no one has a conversation option to ask about them. They have had different conversations, but nothing to ask about the notes. I found how to do the Chair of Divination but that was pure trial and error, with no real clues and didn't seem to advance anything. I think I could kill the demon in the Phylactery, but I have no reason to and it would not make sense in terms of the game to do so without a reason. The guy in the dojo is way to tough to take on right now and the dwarf also seems to have no particular reason at the moment.
At the moment, I feel like I'm just stumbling about blindly.
Thanks for voting, Kenrae! Not sure why the new combat animations weren't available... I might try a different approach with the next update. I've started work on a sequel... I've decided the tower's seting should be the Silver Marches and I plan to feature Sundabar.
Posted by Kenrae at 2007-01-02 01:17:38 Voted 9.25 on 01/02/07
I've liked this mod. The NPC interactions are good, the world and the characters feel alive. And it's good to play something slow paced for a change.
The new animations did't appear for me, I didn't have any new "class ability" with my explorer/rogue.
The flying should trigger automatically when you walk to where Possum and Waide took-off. In other areas, invisible launch points should become higlighted when holding tab. Glad you enjoyed the animations!
Posted by ava chodon at 2006-12-02 00:40:40 Voted 9.75 on 12/02/06
I love the animations, I can't wait for your next module with more areas, quests or some romance involve for both genders.
Oh yes! I got the armor with the wings. I did activate it but I can't seem to fly? How am I going to go about it?
Ava _________________________ nil
Glad you had you fun! I definitely need to make a dispel scroll work on the stand. Milk, catnip isn't a bad idea either!
Armor issue: I started development with one set of haks and switched midway through. I suspect this led to the weird visuals. Lesson learned, though... I'll be much more careful with switching haks in the future (i.e., be sure to delete absolutely everything dependent on them or not switch at all).
Also, some armor in the Adventurer's Gear by Rosietreats only works with humans... I realized this only recently as I heavily favor humans/half-elves myself (I'll have to add restrictions by race).
Resting restrictions based on time since last rest didn't make sense to me at all. It kinda works if you get full hp back, but since I prevent that... The limitation also really hurts poor magic-users. Why shouldn't they get to stop and memorize spells whenever they please (in safe areas)?
Thanks for voting!
Posted by Maddyanne at 2006-10-25 09:13:21 Voted 9.25 on 10/25/06
Fun. I liked the interaction with NPCs. Would have really liked to be able to find some milk or a bit of catnip maybe.
There were enough ways to make time pass--thank you for not instituting limitations on how quickly the PC can rest again---that you didn't feel as though you were standing around waiting for nightfall.
Some of the armor was missing bits, so that you could walk around as a floating head if you wanted to. There were some spelling mistakes, but not so many as to knock a person out of the story.
Generally, I wanted more story development because I really enjoyed what was there.
One thing--When you talk to the armor stand, it asks if you want to cast dispel magic and if you don't have the spell prepared, it says so and that's it. Casting dispel magic from a scroll has no effect and wastes the scroll. It's a pity, if the PC is a bard or sorcerer who might not want to use one of their scarce spell slots for that spell, not to get the robe.
I played a rogue/bard and this module made good use of that skill set. The fights were not too easy. I was glad Davion's loot was there.
I will add some floating text to let you know you've been traveling, though I might wait for more changes before making yet another version available. Thanks for posting!
Posted by Maddyanne at 2006-10-24 15:29:49 Voted 9.25 on 10/25/06
No problems once I get to the tower. Thanks again.
Maddyanne _________________________ Madeleine
Posted by Maddyanne at 2006-10-24 14:56:00 Voted 9.25 on 10/25/06
That was where I was getting tired so quickly. I suppose it's to give the PC a sense of the distance traveled. Perhaps there could be information on the trigger line about that rather then just "You are getting tired."
I didn't think I'd traveled far, I just worried about lack of stores and my provisions running out if things kept up like that.
Thank you very much for your prompt response. I'll start again and let you know how it goes.
Shouldn't hurt anything to take it out, but you'll have edit a number of scripts to remove it. I can post instructions, but it sounds to me like there's a script bug I should fix. Unless traveling from MreGrove to The Path to TD or The to TD to the Tower Davion, after resting there should be 28 minutes (real time) before tiring occurs (24 + 4*ConstMod). In my play throughs, I only rested two to three times per game (when thief or figther). I'll take a look, thanks for letting me know!
Posted by Maddyanne at 2006-10-24 07:35:40 Voted 9.25 on 10/25/06
Can I comment out the resting system without messing up the game? My rogue, with a constitution of 12, gets tired messages just a minute or two after resting.
The newest version of the module should be up soon, so I thought I'd outline the changes made (and there are many!).
- Creatures and items should have much nicer balance.
- The story should progress much more smoothly.
- A new tiring system has been implemented (without healing when resting, what's the motivation for sleeping... recovery from exhaustion!).
- A new quest for evil players and significant changes to how their game progresses.
- New items and dialogue
Thanks again to SpymasterGend and PrincessLilly for their feedback... SpymasterGend's inparticular helped shape this update.
I agreee that several of the fights that should be tough aren't. I've increased the difficulty of the following: Saman, Ruby Golem, and Shryne. Let me know if these changes would satisify, but keep in mind it's kinda tough balancing the game for straight rogues and mages as well as fighters. Throwing uber-items into the mix (which I just had to do... what kinda of super-adventurer isn't loaded with loot?) adds to the difficulty of balancing. My approach was that the game should be fairly easy *if* you steal the goodies.
On a related note, for those that want a tougher challenge, play as a goody-goody or don't take rogue as a class. Or, be a bit evil and challenge a couple of arrogant wizards (but be sure to be properly equiped).
I have recently tried to add some guidance into Pather's dialogue- hopefully giving strong hints as to what you should be doing and easing the sense of "what the heck should I do?" My intention was to get players to NOT think in terms of what the module expects and wants. I was hoping to give a sense of open-endedness (even though the plot is linear), but maybe it just gave a sense of frustration.
Issues 1 and 3 are easily fixed- thanks for letting me know!
As for the delay in placing characters were they belong- I've been wrestling with that one since I started building (months ago). I've seen solutions such as fading-to-black upon entering an area, but I found it annoying adding to the delay between areas. I hear good things about the day/night cycle in "Trouble in Silverwood" though...
With regards to PC interaction with the world, I had intended to have much more. But, the module seems a bit short for things such as blacksmith lessons to be really meaningful. However, the sequel I decide to go ahead with (I can't help it, I'm addicted to building) will be much bigger and definitly more along the lines of what you're thinking.
Thanks for the great feedback and your vote!
Posted by SpymasterGend at 2006-10-04 22:37:11 Voted 9.25 on 10/04/06
Enjoyed the mod overall, but disliked the lack of direction. Lack of direction makes sense from a story standpoint, just not to my taste. Journal entries and mappoints not a problem, as it's not that big or complex, and you can annotate yourself. Combine that with the lack of direction and the merchant's out-of-mod flavor, though, and you're left feeling a bit like: what does the mod designer want me to do now (instead of losing yourself in the story).
The Tower NPCs have nice little schedules, and each has a backstory, which is great, but the PC doesn't seem to really interact with that much. New conversation at dinner, playing chess, taking smithing lessons: this is the kind of thing I'm picturing here.
Three technical things worth fixing (apart from the "permamaent" wings):
Fighter/rogue had little trouble with any of the fights, and they were exceedingly easy after getting into Davion's equipment collection.
Three technical things worth fixing (apart from the "permamaent" wings):
1) I believe I revisited the clawball after completing that quest, and I believe the effect was to set my iBall variable back to 1 from 2; thus I never launched the finale (remedied with DebugMode).
2) Often the NPC schedules seemed slow to deploy--that is, I'd enter the Great Hall, for example, and Frah would take a few momemnts to disappear if she was supposed to be elsewhere; my PC is not the fastest, but still.
3) With Davion at the end in the Hidden Grove, you can drop any of "his" items you like prior to conversing (get the ending you want) and then pick them up in mid-conversation.
Ha! I played the heck out of it a decade ago. I especially enjoyed the various PC games, from Battletech: Crescent Hawk's Inception to Mechwarrior 3. To be honest, I did make the connection when I named the module's title character!
Thanks for the vote and the feedback! I'd intended for the module to be much longer, but I got a little burned-out and wanted to go ahead and release what I'd done. Maybe a sequel...
Posted by PrincessLily at 2006-09-27 15:16:49 Voted 10.00 on 09/27/06
Likes:
Routines, NPCs with character, conversation options, detailed areas, and little suprises like the kitty who comes out at night, a certain wizards angry reaction, and a fun custom item.
Dislikes:
Too short. I think the routines would benefit from a bigger game, one where you get the sense of time and day-to-day living.
Some tough fights. Might be a plus to some, but I got a little tired of re-loading.
I'll check tonight for any issues/bugs that might be causing the inactivity. In the meantime, maybe explore the Study a little more thoroughly? Or, if that's been done, try checking outside at the end of the path. Thanks for posting!
khazord,
Glad you worked it out. With the next update, I might try to streamline installation. Have fun!
I have been toying with this module since a few days and well, it's a much alive module, interesting, with a couple of minor quests here and there... but now I seem out of tasks to do and this so famous hero «Davion» has not arrived yet... and while feeding a stirge for the smith can be fun and so is spying what the characters do at different time of the day and eating my breakfeast, I'm starting to wonder when something is going to happen.
Hello everybody! I have updated the module now, should play cleaner and smoother. Plus, it features those awesome Alternate Combat Animations! The files needed are included in the new zip file EXCEPT for the Adventurer's Gear. It was too big to zip with others and not exceed 25 MB, plus I don't mind driving Rosietreat's download count up, even if just a bit!
Site
at 2010-11-27 05:01:27
at 2006-10-25 09:13:21
