Likely 25-40 hours, depending upon player skill and interest in side quests and crafting.
Number Players
1
Language
English
Level Range
1-16
Races
Any
Tricks & Traps
Medium
Roleplay
Medium
Hack & Slash
Heavy
Classes
Cleric
Scope
Large
DMNeeded
No DM Required
Single or Multiplayer
Single Player
Max Character Level
16
Max # Players
01
Min # Players
01
Min Character Level
01
Content Rating
Adult
Alignments
Any, alignment is set to true neutral at start, however, the PC's decisions have a definitive impact on the outcome of the story.
Gameplay Hours
25
Description
You awaken from a nightmare to find that you have total memory loss and are sleeping in an abandoned crypt. Mystery and intrigue develop as you seek out clues regarding your identity, recent activities, and a string of missing person reports. Amnesia and flashbacks plague you as you gather evidence that increasingly implicate you in criminal activity and the occult. Time is running out and you are low on aspirin.
Deja Vu offers 25+ hours of solo play designed for a first level cleric of any alignment.
We developed a unique crafting system with a range of recipes for blacksmithing and alchemy. A mortar and pestle will allow you to use foraged herbs and flowers to brew potions and create healer's kits. You can create magical shards from precious gems and other rare components to upgrade your armor and weapons through blacksmithing.
In addition, the primary henchman has custom commands allowing for flexibility in strategic play.
Thanks for the quick answer. ***spoilers*** actually I hadjust misread the description of the ring and missed the part about being able to breathe in hostile environments. I had understood that it would gain power only after having gone in the elemental planes, and not before. My mistake. Once you wear the ring it is OK. About the sharks I just meant that I avoided attacking them not to lose time but they do attack me. And I didn't have any problem with the salamanders, lack of air was killing me not them. ***/spoilers***
Posted by dvyombie at 2013-01-2121:07:10
Dunhallym, Thank you for the compliments. Congratulations on getting so far into the adventure -- you are getting close to the end. Here are some spoilers regarding your questions: *** SPOILERS *** In the main room of Trial of Elements (the temple with 4 doors leading to each of the planes), there is a pedestal illuminated by a shaft of light. On this pedestal there should be an ancient ring that has a bit of lore in the description tab if you examine it. Essentially, wizards back in the Aresh'Ta Empire used rings like this one to travel between the elemental planes due to some unique magical properties including being able to breathe in hazardous environments (e.g. underwater and in the ash choked planes of fire). The ring was also enchanted to absorb elemental energy. This second function eventually led to damage resistance versus whatever elemental power the ring had been exposed to during its travels (e.g. fire, cold, acid, electrical damage). So, make sure to wear this ring before entering any of the elemental planes and you should be alright. As for the fire temple, this fight is tricky for a few reasons. 1) the salamanders keep spawning until you figure out the puzzle. 2) the bodies remain after death but only a *few* are loot-able. 3) piles of slain salamanders can make it difficult to access the 4 braziers surrounding the center dais. The solution is to loot the scales from slain salamanders and place one of these scales into an unlit brazier. Once you put a scale in a brazier, the brazier will become unusable but will start burning and no more salamanders will spawn in at the corresponding, closest spawn point (i.e. the crystal post about 10 meters away). The drop rate is about 1 in 10 so just hang in there, keep checking the bodies for scales, and try to keep them away from the middle dais where the braziers are so they don't block your view. Another tip is to cast blade barrier right at or just in front of one of the 4 salamander spawn points. That should kill one quickly while you and KT focus on killing the others. If it gets really rough, try memming your best Summon Creature spell or even several of them. An earth, water, or air elemental can be very powerful especially if buffed with the Virtue cantrip that I modified to give extra temporary HPs as well as Bull's Strength, Endurance, and Mass Haste from the Forge-able boots (err, have you found the forge?). Sorry if all of these suggestions are superfluous, I just really enjoyed scripting that particular sequence. We crashed our alien PCs several times before we got the spawn loops and object checks written correctly. As for the plane of water, you should be alright with the ring which will allow you to breathe while you move ahead. I'm curious what you mean about ignoring the shark? There was a bug for a bit when some mobs decided to not use their on perception scripts and so they just sat there until attacked. Is that happening? Otherwise, the first pillar has some inscriptions on it to read and will complete a full heal on you and KT if you touch it (i.e. click on it and wait a moment while the animation and VFX play). The successive pillars will offer you aid as well in different ways. Hopefully that will help you get through to the first altar. If you are still stuck, please write back and tell me more details about how far you make it and what is the cause of your death(s). Again, make sure you have the ring with you before entering the elemental planes. After each plane, check the ring to see if anything has changed in terms of its properties since it should have been awarded damage resistance to the kind of energy from the plane you just visited. *** END SPOILERS *** Good luck to you and please let us know if you have more questions! -Dan Johanna
Posted by Dunhallym at on02/07/13
Hi. This is a great module, one of the bests I've played, and I'm nearing its completion. But I'm stuck with the Trial of elements. While air and earth were quite easy, I'm stuck with water and fire. ***spoiler*** In water, I managed to go to the first pilar, but I don't see what I can do with it or even if there is something to do with it, and I died before I could go much further, even when I pay no mind to the shark. Is there some object I missed that allows you to breath under water or some spell? In fire, I come to the temple, and used all of the braziers, then I dies before I managed to kill all salamanders (several tries) and I don't see what I can do. Is there something to put in the braziers? Thanks in advance. ***/spoilers***
Posted by dvyombie at 2013-01-1912:25:32
Spell Singer, Thank you very much for taking the time to write such a detailed and comprehensive review of Deja Vu. It is clear to me that you have both experience and enthusiasm for sharing ideas with others to create more interesting and compelling worlds. It is wonderful for both Johanna and I to read the kind words and generally positive comments as well as the constructive feedback that you have offered here. This entire endeavor is a learning process for both of us. DV was actually 8 years in the making, so I for one, am thrilled that it actually came to see the light of day! We are very, very late to the party, so-to-speak, and wondered if anyone would even be around to play DV. This is to say nothing of how great it is to learn from other writers and players as they make recommendations and point out areas for improvement. We enjoy hearing the suggestions and reactions of players who have been willing to give this adventure a try and invite more feedback from others. Quick story: As a kid, like so many of us, I poured endlessly over my increasingly battered and well-loved 1st edition ADD books; dreaming of my own worlds and gradually developing my own house rules as I grew into an adult who still flips through the delicate remnants of those same books. And so I have become wildly out of compliance with the latest version of DD and am quite happy about it. Similarly, I customized liberally in DV when I hoped to improve some functionality or offer something new. Some of these changes work and some do not. For example, the crafting system certainly introduces the potential for unbalanced play. We hope to improve this in the future but struggled during development to strike a balance between giving knowledgeable and experienced players such as yourself an appropriately challenging experience while also taking care not to overwhelm casual gamers or new players with tasks that would ultimately discourage them or prevent them from reaching the end of the game. Frankly, I think we were surprised when the crafting system ended up being functional at all and cannot tell you how much we agonized over the play balance and timing of it. The central question being, "how do you allow for a crafting system that will enrich the player's experience and still maintain balance in a world that will host adventurers who either do not take note of the system or are otherwise not interested in that aspect of play?" In the end, we likely erred on the side of making the adventure possible for all players to finish because the story was what we really wanted to tell. Which brings me to a request I have for you. Please reload one of your saves at the end of DV just before the final scenes. Once you cross the broken bridge, exit the cutscenes and conversations immediately, save the game, and then chose alternative endings. A variant of the "Good" ending gives the player the most full explanation of "How" and "Why" all of this came to be in the first place, and is, we hope, an unconventional and touching denouement of all the endings. And yes, as you suggested, the "Evil" path does offer additional perspectives that elucidate the motives and histories of the NPCs and PC. We wrote the varied endings so the player could put the pieces together and realize that, strangely enough, DV is, in the end, a love story. Thank you once again for the time and effort you put into giving us your suggestions and balanced review. Good on you sir for sharing your experiences with us. It means a lot to both of us that you, or anyone, would not only persevere to the ending but then still care enough to let us know how this adventure was for you. We wish you well in your future adventures! Take care, -Dan Johanna p.s. - To everyone: please take note that we just posted an updated version of Deja Vu that incorporates much of the feedback posted here by you guys in the comments section.
Posted by Spell at on01/19/13
I am using the NWN2 type of vote here. The 9 means I really enjoyed the module but due to subject matter it may not appeal to everyone. The use of spell effects and cutscenes was very well done. It is a story module and has no ability to go "freeform," which may not appeal to people who dislike "linearity." It has a good and evil path though and my suspicion is that it does have multiple endings. Well done background and lore, with a lot of care and attention to detail in the areas. I found a number of nice little touches to areas. It is generally possible to figure out your way forward without too much difficulty. A few rather disconcerting modern-ism in the conversations kind of pull you out of the immersion. About the only noticable issue was the see saw difficulty, it was extremely tense at the start of the module but a breeze by the end. The crafting system is fun but does allow for an extremely powerful endgame PC. *Spoilers (specific comments)* I must admit I never thought of attacking the hole I just found the sole spot where they could only come at me 2 at a time, since 6 to 1 was a death sentence. A few other things I noticed: One was that things which should not be subject to sneak attacks or critical hits were. I don't know if this just bioware's orginal skin errors...I reworked a great many of their skins for a PW one time, but it certainly drops the difficulty of fights. The one thing about doing the good playthrough (ending up lawful good) is that you have no idea why the whole thing got started. I have to admit it is a good motivator for a second playthrough on the evil side though. After the trial of time I was supposed to get +1 strength but it never showed up. Neither so far as I could tell did the bonus strength from resting (never noticed it on my character sheet anyway). The crafting is quite possibly unbalanced I have to admit. It is certainly fun and clearly a lot of work went into it (I assume there must be differences for good and evil) but it allows you to make seriously powerful gear. It also sort of locks you into the hammer as a weapon (baring use of extended greater magic weapon and darkfire). The gear is probably not so extreme (I had +6 strength, +4 constitution, +4 wisdom, +4 charisma, +3 AC armour, +5 AC shield) but I have to admit the end of the module was pretty much a walk in the park...the last battle I don't think I got hit and in the trial of creation only the iron golem did any significant damage (had to use some healing on that fight). This is a tough call as it depends on what you consider a character of that level should have... that K.T.'s armour and weapons upgraded as you went along was a nice touch. The battle in Fairfields is a tad disconcerting the first time you encounter it. I didn't expect the continous respawn and so it made battle rationing of spells and items a bit harder. Once you figure out what is happening and especially recall the wands you have it becomes less frustrating. But again once you get your first batch of crafted stuff the difficulty of things just nose dives. I'm not so fond of being forced into a mode of play where I rest every short while and that area does that. Overall though it was a damn fine module I have to say.
Posted by dvyombie at 2013-01-1819:58:09
Hi everyone, We just uploaded an updated version of Deja Vu (v1.1) which incorporated many of your suggestions. We also added a few screenshots and are open to uploading any screenshots you might have from your journey through DV. Email us at dknels@gmail.com with your picture. Thank you for the feedback and support. Happy adventuring! -Dan Johanna
Posted by dvyombie at 2013-01-1512:11:56
Spell Singer, Thanks for posting your feedback thus far. I'll look up that conversation and the skill check. * Spoilers * The fight at the bottom of the well is scripted to spawn extra bugs until you destroy their hole (with an upper limit). Sometimes this fight is tough and extra so on hardcore. I can take a look at it. The cook is actually supposed to stick around the safehouse just in case the PC needs a reminder about what to do next. Same thing for the forge, there are 2 sequences that occur when you forge an item. The first is the long cutscene and the second is a shorter version. The longer version still occurs rarely by randomly generated chance and this is the one with the attack on the forge which is intended to simulate the physical act of hammering on the forge. I was going to require the PC to weild the hammer of Jes'La but that whole section was already complicated and needed to be cut back a bit. The forge has a ton of hps and should be alright. If it breaks in anyone's game, I could add an on hb script to the area to check if it is a valid object and if not, create one from resref at the proper location. Something like that. I do appreciate your report though, it's good to consider these things. And yes, that one journal entry is still popping up. It looks like I'm in for another play test to try to isolate it. * End Spoilers * Anyway, thanks for giving DV a try and good luck with your adventure! -Dan
Posted by Spell at on01/19/13
Another 2 bugs: sometimes (and I don't know what triggers it) while trying to forge something the character will attack the anvil during the process. It seems to happen if you make a mistake setting up the forge or if you go quickly but I'm not sure if this is just coincidence. What happens is that the sequence starts with your character working the anvil rather than it saying "time passes with a fade to black." The attack on the anvil then occurs when the screen fades to black. I don't know if it is possible to destroy the anvil so this may not be a problem. I have a blank journal entry for "dancing shadows." Not sure when it was supposed to have triggered but I assume during the fight to get to the end of the ancient cave sequence.
Posted by Spell at on01/19/13
I am enjoying the module (not finished yet) but have found a bug: When answering K.T. after reading the bandit leaders letter instead of making a persuade check an intimdate check was made when I selected the persuade option. Two further comments: The cook in the safehouse gets blocked by the drape door and doesn't leave. The fight at the bottom of the well should be re-examined as I had to turn the difficulty way down. The 6 bugs that spawn in have very high checks for their disease, and once you fail it makes each sucessive failure easier as it drops you constitution. I died several times as the fail drops my remaining hitpoints below zero. You have to make so many checks, not to mention are subject to so many 20's that it is impossible to win the fight on hardcore.
Posted by acamantor at on01/02/13
Very good module. The plot get you hooked leaving you anxious to see what comes next. In the old times it'd climbed up into the HoF quite quickly.
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