THis is my first ever attempt at a module (in either NWN1 or NWN2). Its based on an old 1981 basic Dungeons and Dragons module by Tom Moldvay, who is credited with writing some of the classic original modules. I've kept a lot of the introductory text and tried to stay fairly close to the original. Some liberties have been taken where my skills in scripting/designing were lacking. I've also fleshed out certain areas, and included some NPCs from when I originally played this module in pen-and-paper- D&D
PLEASE NOTE: This module was due to be completed in a weeks time. However an error crept into some of the final areas which meant that they can no longer be opened in the toolset. However, they are sill playable in the game. It has meant that there are some unfinished/unpolished parts that do not function correctly and I am unable to alter. However, none of this is game breaking. Therefore, I thought I would release the module anyway; at least for comments, and especially as I know the community is keen for more mods whilst we all await some of the bigger projects
The module contains new creatures and items. You PC will be exported at the end (with different endings for good and evil actions). The flavour text has the module set in Mystara - now an out-of-print setting for D&D. I have kept references to this, but retained Forgotten Realms deities for simplicity
Update 7/3/07 -
*Updated conversations
*Implemented OC death script
*(Hopefully) reduced risk of Cathandramus conversation being interrupted.
Posted by Ander Gent at 2011-06-07 13:18:37 Voted 8.00 on 06/07/11
Had a fun time running through this. 1 thing that annoyed me though was near the beginning when i got close to the red areas and it went into the campaign convos, my people would chase after the creatures running in and then they would die themselves... Not game breaking and kind of funny when they talk about staying away from it and then go running straight in.
Posted by Malak Darkhunter at 2010-12-19 20:13:51 Voted 8.00 on 12/19/10
Really nice job on the game, areas were detailed, nice cutscenes, I really felt like i was in a castle. Never got bored once, you really captured a spooky almost haunted sort of atmosphere in the game.
Posted by Filgrind at 2010-05-02 11:45:22 Voted 7.00 on 05/02/10
Well, I finished the mod rapidly without exploring the whole 2nd lvl and without confronting the bosses with the ruby sword. So I'm a little deceived. Tahnks for your job nevertheless
Posted by Jess_ at 2010-01-06 02:09:18 Voted 8.00 on 01/06/10
I play this transcription solo with my 3rd lvl figher Dwarf. Only difficulty was against the 2 vilaints with the ruby sword. Strange when I change my way and find the eye, they were no more hostile. Some typos but no real bug encountered.
Posted by MikeLM9215 at 2009-08-30 08:19:34 Voted 7.50 on 08/30/09
Interesting interpretation of a TSR classic, I mostly enjoyed this. Though avoiding the mist was not easy and caused problems. _________________________ The road to Ravenloft is paved with good intentions.
Posted by diophant at 2009-07-22 05:41:36 Voted 4.25 on 07/22/09
First of all, I must say that I haven't played the PnP. Actually, I never played any PnP so far.
The mod started promising. A well-made cutscene tells you a story of what happened, and some mystery lies ahead. You start in a tavern and can adjust the game difficulty by giving yourself some experience or gold to buy equipment from a well-equipped shop. You meet 5 NPCs which you can use as henchmen, all with their own personality. Then, the journey begins. You face some encounters, then you enter the palace. From now on, it is mainly straightforward hack and slash. The rooms are filled with different groups of monsters, and the only reason that you meet exactly this type of monsters is that the palace is infested by evil. The fights are not very challenging, and you don't need any tactical decisions. Due to the low level of your party, you clean off a few rooms, rest, and then go on. Roleplaying is reduced to a minimum, I remember to events there a little bit of roleplaying was involved. Finally, you find the source of the evil, and there is one fight which doesn't differ much from those before. Congratulations, now you have saved the kingdom, and you are rewarded appropriately.
Pros:
- If you like Hack'n'Slash, you can use this mod to level your character up to level 4, and continue with it in other mods. I prefer this over using a Hero builder mod.
- The initial cutscene is well done.
- Despite a few typos, I couldn't notice any bugs.
Cons:
- Almost no roleplaying at all. You just enter rooms with more or less random monsters, and fight them. This gets tiredsome after a while.
- A little bit too easy for my taste.
Posted by Spasmoid at 2009-03-20 02:50:07 Voted 9.75 on 03/20/09
Great implementation of a classic old module.
Posted by IMFunkZ at 2008-12-14 11:25:47 Voted 10.00 on 12/14/08
An excellent remake of a classic module, and yes I dug out the original to compare to! Very well done, only a few typos and bugs that I found but none that spoiled the gameplay. The NPC's dialogue and interactive puzzles were well done, I thoroughly enjoyed playing!
Posted by zert at 2008-11-24 02:18:13 Voted 7.00 on 11/24/08
Enjoyable classic module. For me the most fun was the interaction of all the Npc henchmen and their cute interplay. You did a cool job on their dialogues. I took the whole gang and their little side and snide comments gave me some smiles.
Posted by foil at 2008-10-26 08:17:21 Voted 7.00 on 10/26/08
Woops, I forgot to vote on this and its one of the first modules I played. Gotta support the classic conversions! Was entertaining and true to D&D modules of past days. Nothing I recall, from quite a while ago, that caused any problems with game flow. Was fun and the palace really had an old D&D feel to it. Its hard to vote these type of modules in the hall of fame range of 8+ because the original content you draw from isn't in that range to begin with. That doesn't mean they aren't valuable additions to the NWN2 community and that the work in giving us a nostalgic play ground to play in isn't very much appreciated. In the group of classic conversions, this is a 9. Nice work and keep the classics coming.
Posted by Gwydion669 at 2008-10-04 00:38:28 Voted 7.50 on 10/04/08
One of the most annoying, atrocious, and nonsensical floorplans around. In other words, a faithful recreation of the original module from the days when TSR designed both dungeons and interiors with a chart and random die rolls. ;-)
As a PnP conversion, I shall apply no blame to Wyrin. He/she/it (don't look at me, I don't know) did good work and thankfully still does.
One of the early, first, real NWN2 modules ... I would have given it a 9.5 if I had voted for it when it first came out (or even first played it). After all this time, it still holds up relatively well and stands out as an excellent first module for an author. �Palace� shows that a first mod can make it obvious that excellent work will come from an author in the future after further refinement of their craft (if they only manage to make that second one).
I loved the henchmen (especially the baker), but they didn't have much to say after the introductions. Loved the scene with the bunny wabbit (I'm twisted, yes ... but it got the point across). Rooms actually had �stuff� in them (at times to the point of being overcrowded) ... a rarity in early modules.
The only real problem are faulty/finicky triggers and scripts in the latter parts of the module ... which Wyrin has already explained. The garden planter has empty convo options which have to be escaped out of, and the �big fight� is tricky to initiate. I had to reload 3 times and found the best way was to quickly run halfway to the man coming towards your character and wait (don't click on him) for him to close the remaining distance and initiate the dialog. If those could somehow be fixed, I'd give this mod at least an 8.5. As it stands (and forgiving the faithful adaption of the floorplan), it still is an enjoyable module and an excellent preview of the author's later work.
Posted by devadoris at 2008-09-14 15:14:01 Voted 7.00 on 09/14/08
Despite its minor flaws (described above), I enjoyed this module. I didn't play the PnP version but I found back the athmosphere and the maze-like dungeons of the heroic times.
spoiler
The next quest for my character will be to remove the pendant ; I hope it's possible to do it in-game (by a Remove Curse for instance) without using the console.
Posted by helmo1977 at 2008-09-12 02:35:28 Voted 6.50 on 09/12/08
Good adaption of the module. Not much roleplaying and the combats were not very challenging (except the final one), but I remember the module and was exactly like that. To spend a few hours enjoying NWN 2 without much pretensions.
Posted by Winwood at 2008-07-09 05:02:20 Voted 7.00 on 07/05/08
@emperorjd - thanks for playing. The loss of spellcasting might be due to an evil cursed item that I kept in from the original module - this reduces wisdom so would stop clerics casting spells
The finale happens i nthe throne room on the second floor
Thanks for playing! _________________________ Wyrin
Posted by emperorjd at 2008-03-26 12:51:21 Voted 8.00 on 03/26/08
Pros:
Just tested this module and very impressed with many of the cinematic sequences.
Loved the death effect of the red aura.
Character intorductions were great.
Difficulty is reasonable.
Cons:
No Journal
No pushpins on map for rooms
?:
Are clerics supposed to lose their casting ability after a particular encounter? Not exactly sure when this happened, but couldnt access my memorized spells.
Recommended Improvements to module:
Secret Doors but from what I read you know this.
The sword room encounter. I think you siad this is bugged.
Gated door on west side by rubble opens but cannot enter.
Can items be made indestructible that need to be interacted with? I'm not sure if I was so supposed to break the blackboard.
I went into every accessible room I could discover with a level 18 cleric. I am not sure what I was missing to move forward in the adventure. Will test again to try and complete.
Since it was a conversion can't give full points for imagination/crativity.
Posted by ericdoman at 2008-03-13 14:26:31 Voted 8.00 on 03/09/08
Wyrin
Just wondering as you are based in UK. Do you play a persistent online NWN2 game or any recommendations of a UK based game.
@ ericdoman - thanks for playing. Sadly, due to the area corruption before this was fully finished, I never had the chance to go back in and sort out the balance - but hoped there was enough here for people to enjoy.
Thanks for the feedback tho! _________________________ Wyrin
Posted by ericdoman at 2008-03-09 04:27:24 Voted 8.00 on 03/09/08
Firstly enjoyed the mod. The vote is based on it was apnp coversion so no imagination on your behalf.
Combats were challenging for a 4 party group (bard, ftr, clr, wiz), should have taken down the rogue but I am not 100% if that may affect xp.
Finished at 4th lvl
I can vaguely remember the game having dmed it a long time ago and played an NWN1 version.
Combats with main bosses you might have to look into that one, actually it was easy, too easy. Both were right on top of group and both moved into combat and started casting spells. I play hardcore and so attcks of opportunity on them. The wizard died in seconds.
Equipment at store should be looked into. There is no way we could buy some of the stuff
Items you win receive for completing quest and defeating some creature, unbelieavably powerful for 4th lvl fighters.
My suggestin and I do not know if this is possible is change the game to 5th or 6th lvl at beginning (could even be higher) and revamp the monsters likewise. Hopefully you would gain 2 levels at end
OR maybe just reduce items power. Maybe a +1 dagger with +1 magic dam vs evil eg.
Many thanks for the vote. Sadly the bits of polish lacking that you mentioned were due to my lack of motivation once the corrupted areas sank in. But glad you enjoyed it, and the party is based on a pen-and-paper party is actually played the palace of the silver princess with, so I'd hoped they'd balance well! _________________________ Wyrin
Posted by enoa4 at 2007-09-24 16:25:45 Voted 8.50 on 09/24/07
Excellent module! There are a few very minor issues, but nothing major. It would be nice to see a journal, but I know the PnP module well enough to keep my eye on the goal.
The areas look fantastic and the use of sound is quite good too.
I loved the availability of a full featured party. Fantastic, I didn't realize how much I missed that. Kudos for including them. I always like a well balanced party with an extra fighter or paladin, perfect in my book.
I didn't quite finish it. I remember what I have to do at the end, but not exactly where to do it. I didn't find the eye either. It looks like I explored everything but clearly not. I may take a stab at looking again, but I didn't feel like walking back through every nook and crany a 2nd or 3rd time looking for the one door I missed. Not a critique just a lack of patience on my part.
I think this deserves a higher rating that it shows. _________________________ ENoa4 http://enoa4rpg.blogspot.com
@GreasyDogMeat - thanks for the vote and comments - I was gutted that this module got corrupted bfore i could finish it properly. I play in a Mystara pen-and-paper campaign so keen to see how your work turns out. Thanks! _________________________ Wyrin
Posted by GreasyDogMeat at 2007-09-11 20:30:42 Voted 7.00 on 09/11/07
Overall a good remake. It was nice to compare the original Silver Princess maps and see it was almost spot on and it was fun to run into all the classic encounters.
-I enjoyed the NPCs and they offered interesting input.
-I enjoyed references to various places of Mystara. I'm working on my own Mystara module myself and it was very nice to hear about the various locations.
-Excellent use of resources to create creatures and encounters from the pnp module.
-Good looking areas. Rooms were, for the most part, immediatly recognizable (kitchens, bedrooms etc.) I like modules like this, exploring a large mansion/dungeon where every room holds a secret or encounter.
Unfortunatly, the mod is unpolished in a few areas.
-The ground floor is overly large. I was getting a frame rate in the single didgets in a few spots. Some of the areas could have been sectioned off into a new area, for instance the cave sections.
-A journal entry about your overall goal would have been very handy. I played about half the module one day, came back the next and didn't really remember what my overall goal was. It took me about 30+ minutes to eventually find the eye and complete the module.
-Some spelling errors and some sections of wall missing.
10 - A Masterpiece, Genuinely Groundbreaking 9 - Outstanding, a Must Have 8 - Excellent, Recommended to Anyone 7 - Very Good, Deserves a Look 6 - Good, Qualified Recommendation 5 - Fair, Solid yet Unremarkable 4 - Some Merit, Requires Improvements 3 - Poor Execution, Potential Unrealized 2 - Very Little Appeal 1 - Not Recommended to Anyone
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