You are a novice adventurer looking for work in the bustling city of Calimport. A chance meeting in a tavern may provide more than you bargained for, leading to a dangerous journey through desert and dungeon.
The beginning (hopefully) of an epic series, this module should also be playable on its own. Features innovative systems for resting, respawning, pickpocketing and other game elements. Combines challenging combat with many opportunities for roleplaying and character interaction.
Version History (see readme for fuller details on changes made):
12/9/08: v. 1.02 released. Combat made slightly easier among other tweaks.
6/8/09: v. 1.03 released. Corrections to a few minor errors.
2/16/10: v. 1.04 released. Minor corrections.
Thanks for the vote and comments, Magical Master. I will message you back with a more detailed response.
Posted by Magical Master at 2013-04-16 18:15:42 Voted 9.75 on 04/16/13
Messaging author with some additional feedback, but some general thoughts:
Pros:
- Fun storyline
- Lots of little details paying attention to class, skills, saves, and more
- Interesting playstyle, focuses on managing consumables instead of gear, though frustrating at times due to limited duration buffs, lack of resting, wanting to explore thoroughly, and not knowing how much longer consumables need to last
Cons:
- spike in difficulty in several places on encounters that did not seem to be intended to be that difficult, largely due to sheer amount of damage mobs could do per hit, meaning the difficulty was very much RNGish, even at level 3-4
- rest limitations, experience penalty for summons/animal companions/familiars (along with a lot of mobs near the end having some damage reduction) meant my druid played as a weaker fighter, full plate plus tower shield and just meleeing stuff (animal companion couldn't scratch a lot of things and would get killed with "low" AC (default AC) plus a single Barkskin buff. Hopefully improves in part 2
Other concerns like failings of respawn system (just reloaded) and alignment shifts, but don't think it's worth taking off for that (would probably rate slightly lower, 9.25 or 9.5, except for vote inflation)
Thanks for all the commentary on the module, Darpaek. I am glad you found it fun.
The respawn system is there for a variety of reasons, some plot-related, but in part to allow players to deal with getting killed in a way that does not involve meta-gaming. Though I suppose the typical gamer these days is so accustomed to simply reloading that for most that is not really much of a consideration. I have on occasion toyed with the idea of substantially reworking Bioware's Henchman AI (which is indeed terrible) but so far have decided that it would be too much additional work on top of everything else I am doing. In any case, part of the challenge of this module is supposed to be trying to cope with a henchman who tends to be something of an incompetent bungler (a concept for which the default AI is quite suitable).
The main conversations with the henchman that you missed would have been triggered by simply talking to her and selecting either the "Let's stop and talk a moment" or "How is everything?" options, which you apparently neglected to do. Being neutral would have also have foreclosed a few henchman-related things since players who are good or evil get a few opportunities to shift her alignment in their direction (which since she is already neutral would not work so well for a neutral player).
As for alignment shifts, as I stated in the readme and elsewhere, I do not think it is possible to devise any system that would be entirely uncontroversial. I am typically using "greed" as shorthand for "willing to violate ethical norms for no better reason than one's own selfish benefit." As for stealing being considered evil, that does tend to go against D&D conventions, but I would not have thought it all that shocking, given that to the best of my knowledge every major religion in the world and a lot of non-religious philosophies condemn stealing as wrong (in other words, on that point it is not just Lutherans one needs to worry about - though I suppose Communists would approve of theft, at least in a manner of speaking). At any rate I have discussed the reasoning for this and some other alignment-related issues at length in previous posts, so anyone who really cares can scroll back and read some them.
On to some of the role-play matters you mention. If you prefer non-linearity, you might like Chapter Two a lot more. Also I certainly agree that there is more to role-play than henchman interaction (I was only talking about that at all because the previous commenter brought it up), and would include, among other things, some of those you mention. However, in what is the first and shortest chapter of a long series, it is hard to provide consequences to a player's decisions that are all that earth-shaking (or Faerun shaking?). There are however choices to be made, and consequences of various sorts for them, some not immediately obvious. One very important choice is that of the character played (class, alignment, etc.) which will affect many things both in this module and in the larger series. There are, as you complain, some (not sure about "most") conversations with limited choices, but this was precisely because in these cases there were no options it was practical to provide that would have any real effect on anything, so I saved some dialogue writing time by not cluttering them with ultimately meaningless pseudo-options (possibly still an error - I do that less in Chapter Two).
As for the "heaviness" or lack thereof of the role-playing, I take a rating of "heavy" to mean "more than the average" and am a bit surprised that anyone would find that claim, in this case, to be even doubtful. You and the previous commenter seem to be reacting as if I were claiming to have made the single most role-playing intensive module ever, which I am not. If you had said "I wish you had even more/better role-playing" or "the RP could have been better if you had done this" or "Module X had more/better role-playing" that might have been reasonable enough. But when you say "it is not heavy" I can only respond "By comparison to what? Where is this huge mass of role-play heavy modules that I have somehow not heard of, that puts mine below the average?" That is not a rhetorical question to defend my rating, I am genuinely curious what standard of comparison you are employing to provoke such a comment. And since I tend to like playing RP-heavy modules, I would be interested in hearing about any I might not know about.
Posted by Darpaek at 2013-04-08 14:30:38 Voted 7.50 on 04/08/13
I'm with the last guy. I don't understand the Roleplay: Heavy either. I should have mentioned this in my last post. You can argue the semantics of what "Roleplay" means, but I think it's more than just a lot of henchman interaction. This module was extremely linear - which isn't necessarily a bad thing for story telling - but I think a big part of "Roleplay" includes choices, meaningful consequences, and an impact on the game world beyond "I conquered the dungeon." Also, most dialogues only gave the player a single choice and whenever you were given a dialogue choice it usually meant "dreaded random alignment shift time". I found myself trying to "play my alignment", most of the time being terribly wrong as per the alignment shifts, instead of "playing my character" and letting my choices dictate the character I would become.
Posted by Darpaek at 2013-04-08 14:12:25 Voted 7.50 on 04/08/13
This was fun.
I like the PnP feel, but you ruined the hardcoreness with a respawn system. I didn't think it was a hard as other comments suggested, but I played through with a fighter. I could see it being obviously more difficult for spellcaster classes. You might want to retool the henchman to a different class if the player loads your your mod with a spellcaster class. You probably also want to retool your henchman's AI to jive with your hardcore system so that she doesn't blow all her spells immediately, especially since it seems fairly obvious she's supposed to be an archer. Also, having her run away from melee would be helpful. She also casts things from items like negative energy ray and stinking cloud on undead.
It looks like I missed a lot of henchman interaction, too. I don't remember ever having a conversation with her about her father assassinating her mother but it was eluded to in the ending. I also see other comments such as her complaining about her feet, etc. You probably have banters attached to floor triggers. You might want to put your banter triggers on an area's OnEnter or have the floor trigger teleport the henchman to the player and then initiate the banter conversation. Since she was obviously intended as missile support, I had her on long distance plus she doesn't follow particularly well. As such, I didn't see much, if any, henchman banter unless they were part of a larger conversation.
Traps. Yeah. I don't think I saw a single trap she was actually able to disarm. Frustrating. NWN isn't quite adaptable enough for the ten foot pole of PnP.
The statue/eye puzzle. I had to look at the walkthru. Even after being told the solution, I still don't get it. Especially when every other puzzle in the game was sign posted.
The areas looked nice, but you'd be better served using some of the custom content from the last decade or so of others' NWN modding. There's better desert, city, cave, dungeon tilesets out there. Visuals are pretty low on my list of priorities, but they're important to other players.
Alignment shifts. Huh? Half of them didn't make sense. As an amalgam of random alignment shifts though, the system worked. I started True Neutral and I ended True Neutral. As a convention, most NWN modders and players have agreed that stealing is usually chaotic, not evil. I do like the idea of stealing from someone poor being evil, though. But greed is only evil if you're a Communist or a Lutheran.
Thanks for voting, Runeweaver. I am glad you enjoyed it.
Your suggestion that the module might not quite merit a "heavy" role-playing designation makes me extremely curious about what you are comparing it to (or perhaps how you are defining "role-playing," a notoriously ambiguous term). To be sure one can always desire more of anything (there is more I would have liked to put in my modules myself, but there are only so many hours in a day), but I have played a good number of NWN modules over the years and I do not think I could come up with a list of even as few as ten modules or series of modules (among the thousands on the vault) that have even comparable, never mind greater, amounts of role-playing options and (relative to the size of the module) henchman interaction as I do here. Is there some great role-playing series out there I somehow might not have heard about?
As far as alignment issues go, I have said before that a game system cannot allow for every nuance of circumstance and intention of arguable ethical relevance. This means that it will necessarily deal with such issues in a way that is a bit simplistic, and that inevitably some people will disagree with. I am sure many players will at least occasionally have disagreements about the appropriateness of a particular shift - I do not see any way I can really avoid this. Though since most people criticize me for being far too rigorous and harsh in handing out evil shifts it is a bit refreshing to have someone criticize me for the opposite error. As for the specific case you mention I thought it would be excessive to give out an evil shift for what is to all intents and purposes killing in self-defense (even drunk, those bandits would be quite deadly if they realized who you were), though I can see how some might find it dishonorable to deal with them by the specific method provided, or unnecessary to kill them at all, and I probably should have included a few more conversational role-playing options in that particular case for the benefit of those who do (see above about the limited number of hours in a day). It is possible, however, to simply ignore those particular bandits, or (though it would be a difficult fight) attack them openly, if you feel either would be a more appropriate action for your character.
Posted by Runeweaver at 2013-03-13 07:58:36 Voted 8.75 on 03/13/13
Quite enjoyable, though I'm not *quite* sure it merits the "heavy" tag with regards to role-playing. And some extra interaction/banter with the henchman (-woman?) would be nice (comments when entering a new area, etc.).
Also quite challenging � I'm not so sure I would have enjoyed it playing a non-rogue (traps FTW!).
(Another � albeit minor � issue: some of the alignment shifts seem weird. Especially given the fact that you can "deal" with a set of drunken bandits without taking an 'evil' shift whatsoever.)
And now I'm off to continue this saga... _________________________ 2 + 2 = 5 for sufficiently large values of 2
Posted by Mirgalen at 2013-02-12 06:35:34 Voted 3.50 on 02/11/13
Thanks rogueknight333.
After playing further with the same character all the way down to lvl 4 where I gave up. I had about 5 minutes of fun using god mode and cows from hell as I had no intention to continue playing.
Being among the veterans (D&D, AD&D DM/Player) here, I can say that your module felt like playing 1E Ravenloft or worse Tomb of Horror with a lvl 1 character. I don't play console games or things like EQ/Diablo and I play as if death is permanent (like in PnP) with Hardcore Settings and "fog of war"(more realistic). There is a fine line bewteen strategy/tactics and metagaming. I don't like to be forced to use metagaming just to survive enconters with too high CR or to drink potions like water mid-combat. As many people who tried D&D a long time ago, my reference is Heroic Fantasy novels and movies which is quite far from "you got 3 lives to complete this level" or characters who are called "build(s)"...
Thanks for your kind words. I was indeed trying to make a module that integrated story, role-playing and challenging combat and did well by all of them, and it is good to hear that there are players for whom I succeeded. A note on finding the rest restrictions frustrating: it is possible I overdid the restrictions a bit in this module (I felt I really needed to make clear to players that my modules do not follow what seems to be the now standard console-gamish procedure where everything can be regenerated after an encounter and there is no need for long-term strategic resource management), but if you decline to make use of the respawn system (which is certainly your choice) you will find the resting restrictions even more onerous than I intended (you can rest freely in the respawning area). The respawn system is there, and integrated into the storyline, for a reason.
I hope you enjoy Chapter Two as well.
@Mirgalen
Thanks for giving your thoughts on my module. If you go into this module expecting difficulty comparable to the average NWN module, or expecting something like the console-gamish RPGs being made these days that involve more clicking than thinking, then you will find the type of challenge I provide disconcerting. The combat is intended to be difficult and to require a tactical approach, and, to further role-playing, an approach that encourages the use of tactics appropriate to a player's class (e.g., if your character is not built to be a melee tank, running head-on into melee combat will likely turn out badly). I have tested all encounters with a wide range of characters, however, and there are viable tactics for all. A rogue, for example, among other tricks, can win almost every fight handily by setting traps, though for reasons of economy you might not want to resort to that in every case. Rogues are supposed to be sneaky and cunning! Don't fight fair if you're playing one. Alternatively if you are playing a rogue/fighter and want to emphasize the fighter side by going head-to-head with monsters, you might want to set aside some of the usual roguish gear and equip yourself with heavy armor and a shield: you will not win melee encounters if you go about them half-heartedly.
It is true the rewards tend to be somewhat stingy. This is to encourage strategy and long-term planning in the use of resources, something that having access to completely unlimited healing potions (for example) would tend to undermine. They do however get more generous later on. I think the Swordflight modules are somewhat "low-magic" compared to the NWN average, but only slightly so, and you will actually end Chapter One reasonably well-equipped for a character of c. Lvl. 5.
To be sure, there is a fine line between challenging and frustrating, and it is impossible to design a module to be the former without some people finding it to be the latter. I myself tend to find the combat in a more typical NWN module tediously easy, and I also recall that some of the games and modules that I ultimately found most memorable and enjoyable were initially somewhat frustrating, and these experiences no doubt influenced my approach. One cannot please everyone, and those who just want to play for the story or role-playing or whatever also have the option of playing through with an over-leveled character (as you actually propose doing) or relying on DebugMode to get them out of difficulties (not ideal, of course, but easier options than those who find a module too easy have at their disposal for fixing matters). All that said, you are certainly not alone in finding the difficulty in this module excessive, so if it is not your cup of tea, then fair enough.
Posted by Doorintosummer at 2013-02-11 10:38:26 Voted 9.75 on 02/11/13
A superb module, instantly entering my all time favorites list along with (IMO) absolute classics like 'The Peasant', the Francis 'Eye Of The Beholder' and 'Castle Of The Winds - A Quest For Vengeance.' A terrific challenge on Core Rules, perfectly walking that line between frustration and 'YES! I GOT you you sonofa--', well written (one of the rare RP heavy mods I found a pleasure to play) with an excellent implementation of skills and alignment choices in that area. Great henchman, intriguing re-spawn system (though I never used it, I'm a hardcore reload gamer), and basically just a plethora of care and imagination shown in almost every detail. Subtracted the quarter point because I found the rest restriction a little frustrating at points, but I can't deny that it added to the challenge. I'm at-this-moment downloading Chapter 2 and its related HAKs and looking forward to an even longer and meatier adventure. I've been playing NWN since 2003 and modules like this are the reason that I've gotten a decade of enjoyment from this amazing game. Thanks so much for sharing your hard work and obvious talent with us all, rogueknight!
In appreciation,
-George
Posted by Mirgalen at 2013-02-11 02:43:49 Voted 3.50 on 02/11/13
Very poorly balanced and not really fun for that very reason. Also the rewards (e.g. XP and items found) are not adequate given the risks. It's a pity that the author neglected to address these issues when he updated this otherwise promising story. My prince of Persia (rogue/fighter) is unable to beat some of the spiders which is no surprise at this lvl. I may retry with a well equipped lvl 4-5 and see how it goes. I welcome challenging modules but this one is tedious and frustrating IMHO.
Thank you for the vote, JohnL. I hope Chapter Two lives up to your expectations.
Posted by JohnL at 2012-11-30 03:30:53 Voted 10.00 on 11/30/12
A great and very colourful adventure - have just started the sequel and expect it to be an "11". Liked the puzzles, although it took ages to find the last eye (my fault), hated the spiders (arachnophobic), and found the mummies to be really challenging. _________________________ JohnL
For those coming to this page from the updated modules list, note that I have simply updated the description to include a link to Chapter Two. The module file itself has not been altered since the v. 1.04 update in February of 2010.
Thank you for the vote and comments, Bard Simpson. I hope you also enjoy Chapter Two.
Posted by Bard Simpson at 2012-10-03 17:03:14 Voted 10.00 on 10/03/12
First and foremost, this is a wonderful module! I enjoyed it greatly and found several refreshing aspects -- the challenge (both from combat and from rest restrictions), the variety of skills usage, the alignment shifts (yes, I rather liked the "reminders" to play in character), and the well-crafted dialogue and story.
I suppose I hedged my bet by playing a ranger (no crippling spell shortage due to rest restrictions) and by carefully selecting skills (not just for making a powerful character, but an interesting one), but I found the story and atmosphere delightful and the combat not overly-difficult. There were tough battles, yet it really tended to just require a bit more thought to succeed (and a good supply of healing). I loved the options based on class or abilities and found the variety of viable approaches to problems to be most engaging.
Bravo, rogueknight333! I am now joyously off to enter chapter two!
Thanks for the votes and praise, Kamiryn and Lactruss.
Posted by Kamiryn at 2012-07-20 06:18:54 Voted 9.25 on 07/20/12
Great module. Started as rogue(1) and ended as rogue(3)/cleric(2). Challenging but not too difficult - traps und turn undead really helped. Looking forward playing part II.
Posted by Lactruss at 2012-06-15 09:41:50 Voted 9.75 on 06/15/12
This module is prefect for me. You start as a novice andventurer and shape your journey. No destiny stuff for a player. Great roleplay and good riddles. I played as a sorcerer and it was a bit difficult but still amazing.
Posted by ericdoman at 2012-04-30 11:27:28 Voted 9.25
After playing through CH 2 with the rg/ftr (COT) from part one, tried again with a cleric. Bottled it a little and went down as a lvl 3 cleric and again found it tough. Finished as a 5tl lvl cleric. Previous character started as a 1/1 rg/ftr and finished as a 3/2 rg/ftr. Not much of a difference with xp totals as well. Other favourite classes are bard/ftr/AA and monks so we shall see in the future. Anyways off to play CH2 gaian with the cleric. Who will most likely become a COT in the future. Cheers
Sorry you do not seem to like my module. I did my best to provide an immersive role-playing experience but obviously my ability to do so will sometimes founder both on people's differing tastes and the limitations of my own competence.
I am not certain what you are talking about when you say that enemies "always spawn directly in front of you," since outside of a few special cases they do not do anything of the sort. The best guess I can make is that this is your (rather confusing) way of describing combats that are triggered at the end of conversations. It is indeed harder to employ stealth in those particular fights (most of which are optional). One must be prepared to adapt one's tactics to a variety of different types of challenges. In any case, in most encounters it is perfectly possible to employ stealth-based tactics, if desired (though of course one might get unlucky and be spotted sometimes - that is how D&D rules work. One must also watch for enemies who employ stealth themselves, as a few do, and thus might appear to come from nowhere).
A number of people took issue with some of the alignment shifts when this module was initially released, and there is some discussion of the reasoning behind them that those interested can find by scrolling back to some of the earlier comments. I shall provide a few explanations here as well, since I suspect you are not the only player who will have some concerns on that score. The short answers to those who dislike the way alignment shifts are handled are:
1) If alignment is going to be a part of play at all, there has to be some sort of ethical standard imposed, and it would be impossible to find any standard that everyone would completely agree with. If you do not agree with the standard chosen, remember that this is a game, not a philosophical treatise that is trying to be the last word on disputed ethical questions, and treat it with the seriousness it deserves.
2) Again, this is a game, so the systems for dealing with alignment are necessarily going to be somewhat simplistic, and unable to deal with every nuance of circumstance and motivation, any more than, analogously, "hit points" are going to be a perfectly realistic way of reflecting the effects of injury. For the sake of simplicity, if the apparent motive and practical result of taking things from people who never did one any harm is to enrich the character, it will be assumed that the character is motivated by avarice (i.e., behavior most consistent with a neutral evil motivation) and alignment shifts will be given accordingly.
A final word about "Robin Hood" type characters who rob from the rich and give to the poor (or something like that), since people trying to play that type of character seem those most likely to dislike the ethical system: I myself do not find that concept terribly realistic, since in the real world when rich people lose money they will generally recover the loss by raising prices on their customers, lowering wages on their employees, reducing their philanthropic donations, and the like (i.e., when the rich are robbed, it is not only, or even primarily, the rich who suffer as a result), and since this is my module it somewhat reflects my attitudes on that question (see above about the impossibility of choosing a standard everyone agrees with). That said, since this is fantasy, in Chapter Two I have made it a bit easier to play that type of character if desired. In the second chapter you will still get shifted to evil for stealing (in most cases), but will also be able to find a Temple of Ilmater at which you can make charitable donations that (if large enough) shift one's alignment back towards good, for the benefit of those stealing from what are arguably justifiable motives. You will have to donate quite a lot of gold to make up for the alignment consequences of regular thievery, but if one is as much of a noble "Robin Hood" as claimed, that should not be a problem.
I agree with you that using standard tilesets to represent a somewhat exotic city like Calimport is not ideal (though keep in mind that it is a large and old city, and no doubt different sections of it can be expected to show off widely differing architectural styles), but in this module the exterior of the city is represented only in a single small area. It did not seem economical to me to require players to download a large hak-pak just for the sake of that one small part of the module.
It is too early to rate this module, because I only played half an hour or so.
But some things already annoyed me. First thing is the way enemies spawn. They always spawn directly in front of you, without any warning. That is not only totally unrealistic, it is also a big problem for a rogue relying highly on stealth (like my character). Most enemies can spot my character when he stands directly in front of them, because his hiding skill is only 4 at level 1. Would they spawn earlier, I could see them and sneak attack or even avoid them completely. So playing rogue seems no good idea.
Next thing are the very common alignment shifts. Many of them are just nonsense! My character is chaotic good, follower of Tymora and an anarchistic rogue type of guy. Why is his alignment shifted to evil, if he steels a couple of coins from a rich man? To me this seems more of a reason to shift towards chaotic. Same thing with denying to do a quest because the reward is only 75 gold. Just because someone wants to be paid accordingly for hard and dangerous work does not make him evil. I am not going to start a discussion if stealing can be justified, but I am pretty sure most people will understand if I say guys like Robin Hood are unlawful, but not evil. They would never kill without a good reason for example. Or steal something the owner really need to survive. So they follow an ethic code and they do not take what they want. They care. So the shifting system is a good idea to enforce role-play, but the implementation is poor.
The third is something different. I guess you cannot blame the author for this, but it goes against my sense of style. Calimport/Calimshan is a setting influenced strongly by Arabic middle age. The buildings in the module look like buildings on the sword coast or in the western heartlands. The reason is, that there is no fitting tile-set, I guess. But it something I just not like, especially if you are going to have a heavy role-play module.
Combat that can be handled with some preparation and strategy, but that would be rough otherwise, was pretty much the level of difficulty I was aiming for. I was also trying to break people of the habit of relying on rest to as much as they are likely to have become accustomed to in other modules, but it is not impossible the restrictions are just a bit too extreme.
You are no doubt correct that it would have added to the module to make some of the standard commoner types a bit less generic. Alas, even I have a few limits to the time I can put in to work on these, so while I try to address them all some details still get a bit more attention than others.
Posted by shuurai at 2012-04-16 23:01:39 Voted 9.25 on 04/16/12
Solid module with a cool story, and I liked the little twist at the end. Nice area design, and some clever puzzles that actually fit the plot - which is a nice change. There is a ton of attention to detail, with a lot of class-specific things to do.
Combat has some rough moments, but nothing that can't be handled with some preparation and strategy. One gripe in the area of combat is that safe rest opportunities are a bit sparse for such a low-level adventure. The random encounters when you try to rest in unsafe areas can be a bit overwhelming.
Couple of nit-picky things... in a lot of cases there are groups of NPCs that look and dress exactly alike, and say exactly the same things. It stood out more than usual in this module because the author put so much detail into other things. A little bit of variety would really add to the immersion in my opinion.
Overall, this is a great little mod. Definitely worth a play - and probably a couple of replays - and so far the sequel is looking to be even better.
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