Combat, Dramatic, Forest Adventure, Puzzles, Twisted / Dark
Scope
Small
Content
Mature
TricksTraps
Medium
Roleplay
Medium
HackSlash
Medium
LevelMin
06
LevelMax
07
Gameplay Hours
02
Patch
1.10
NWN2Game
NWN2:MotB
Description
README FOR �THE BIRTHDAY,� 1.03 (REQUIRES MASK OF THE BETRAYER)
OVERVIEW: This is a mod written for Obsidian�s first NWN2 contest (theme: �Grimm�s Fairy Tales�). It is a medium-magic, high-wonder adventure, as befits a story adapted from a fairy tale. But which one? You'll have to find out!
SYNOPSIS (no spoilers): Today is a festive day in the small village called Schafberg. A talented foundling, raised by a shepherd and his wife on a nearby farm, has come of age, and now the young paragon's adoptive parents have brought their ward to town to speak to the Matron. Before Schafberg can rightly celebrate the birthday, a coming-of-age tradition known as "the birthday errand" must be honored, and the Matron reveals what that errand is to be.
BEFORE YOU PLAY:
1. Unzip birthday.rar to your desktop. You should end up with a folder containing five items�two copies of this readme (readme.txt and .doc), the module (The Birthday.mod), a campaign folder ("The Birthday"), and one file for the .hak folder (birthday.hak).
2. Make certain that you have the most recent patch for the game; this module also requires NWN2�s expansion, Mask of the Betrayer.
3. Put the Birthday.mod in your NWN2 modules folder, located in My Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/modules. Do NOT put the file in Program Files/Atari/Neverwinter Nights 2/modules.
4. Put birthday.hak in your .hak folder, located in My Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/hak.
5. Put �The Birthday� campaign folder in in your Campaigns Folder, located in My Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/Campaigns.
WHEN YOU PLAY:
1. Start a new campaign (*not* a new module). Choose �The Birthday� from the list that appears.
2. Create a new character. It is important that you choose this option, as using an old character will not take advantage of the deities override.
IMPORTANT NOTES AND TIPS:
-This mod looks (and runs) best with SHADOWS OFF.
-*There is NO RESTING.* You can get all the benefits of resting by talking to Matron Holz when you are in town.
-*There is NO CRAFTING.* When assigning weapon feats, think �fairy tale.�
-This mod uses the OC�s DEATH SYSTEM (NO RESPAWNING). Make sure you Quicksave (hit F12) often.
-You will occasionally hear the sound of drums. This is an indication that you have gained experience for something or other that you have done.
-This is a SOLO MOD. Melee characters will find it easier; magic-users will find it challenging but do-able (see below). You will level up to sixth level (or the ECL equivalent) upon ending the first conversation. When you are building your character, keep in mind that you are building someone who ought to be able to solo.
-If your FIRST level is sorcerer, wizard, or warlock, you will find magical item(s) in your inventory that were added to balance the mod for solo magic-users.
-You may notice that the fairies in the game do not have standard D&D fairy attributes (i.e, are not "fey creatures" per se). This was a design choice. I know it makes me less cool.
Changes 1.01
-Made resting not allowed in the forest. Thanks geethree!
-Made Sieben unkillable by stray fireballs.
Changes 1.02
-Tried to improve conversation stability.
Changes 1.03
-Added conversations to NPCs in areas where convos sometimes failed to trigger; improved stability of area transition convos
-Gave Mother Goat a new model (thanks MotB!)
-Anchored a floating tree
-Added support for the spirit shaman and favored soul classes
-The game now automatically exports the PC at endgame (if you don�t die, of course)
-Enhanced Mother Goat�s combat abilities and techniques
-Removed a superfluous comma
-Converted override folder materials into a single .hak
-Made �The Birthday� into a campaign (for some reason the new MotB races were not integrating properly in a module format)
An absolutely outstanding module, the best mini that I have seen. The attention to detail is astounding, even better than in Harp. The little farming hamlet was a jewel, and the background scenery made me want to just go out and wander through it while enjoying the sights. The forest really captured the feel and mood of the story. It looked just like my imagining of places like Hurtgen or the Black Forest from childhood. Unlike some, I found the giant trees to be perfect for an enchanted forest that had been the subject of all my character's childhood nightmares. Since my quest was to go to very home of my childhood boogeyman... er boogeygoat, the feeling of having a hard time finding my way really fit the story. I played through twice. Once as a LG F/6 and once as a NG R/6. The Fighter dutifully completed the quest as given, and was terribly surprised by the twist at the end. The Ranger showed compassion along the way, and was equally surprised by the different ending to this grim tale. Both endings were complete and tied off the story admirably. Why do I rate this so high? Maerduin has an unsurpassed artist's eye when building a world. Everything is beautiful and leaves you wanting even more. His storytelling is unsurpassed and rarely equalled. In a module much shorter than I normally like, he managed to work in all the inmportant aspects of D&D. There were rewards for various skill checks. There were options for playing my roles. There was good combat for either Tanking or using Finesse styles. Why not a perfect 10? Just two minor quibbles. The lack of a journal made completing the one side-quest irksome, and the rest restrictions meant that once I lost my wolf AC I was on my own. The second point would make me extremely wary about playing a caster of any kind. If either of these were corrected, I would adjust my vote accordingly. Even without this, I consider Birthday to be a module that I will keep and replay any time I have a couple hours to kill.
Posted by PaulBlay at on11/02/10
Very nice module - and the fighting was just fine for a non-fighter (I played rogue / warlock and it was almost too tough). Actually I think the Fighter / Non-fighter divide is just too large in later versions of D&D. If I had the time I'd like to produce a hak to rebalance them. :-)
Posted by Sumguy at on03/22/10
This mod has a lot going for it. If I had to pick one thing it would be the beautiful landscapes ... well, and the good writing ... also, it has the got the highest concentration of fairy tales per square metre ... ok ok ... if I had to pick three. Anyway, the only reason not to give it a straight 10 is the short length and the combat which is too easy for a fighter.
Posted by quothraven at on08/05/09
Yes; this fully and completely deserves a "Masterpiece" score. While reading the comments on H&C, I heard this mod mentioned and decided to try it out. I'm so glad I did! It was short, sweet, and sometimes a little scary! :3 A ranger works really well with this mod, as a note -- the animal companion really comes in handy when fighting swarms of redcaps. The story was great! Things didn't turn out like I expected them to, even though I read the book that was one of the treasures and thought I knew everything. Still, there was just enough of a twist to make things interesting and non-cliche! I noticed that there were opportunities for different endings; that's great too! The way you tied in both the macabre, twisted aspect of fairy tales. Come to think of it, this reminded me of the movie Brothers Grimm. A lot. The settings were gorgeous, and I really enjoyed the fact that the father's name was Eumaeus and he was a shepherd (hurrah for The Odyssey?). FANTASTIC mod, overall. Absolutely everyone should play this one.
Posted by Manne at on06/21/09
Great little story and good fun! :)
Posted by chalkolitlover at 2009-03-2013:21:28
I'm not getting the initial dialogue either. I have SoZ installed, which might be the problem.
Posted by tr0j at on03/19/09
Outstanding. We could do very well to have more modules like this.
Posted by Luonnotar at on01/26/09
Great mod! _________________________ ::RAWR::
Posted by Moira at on12/14/08
I managed to work my character around the problem of gaining no beginning levels: exported the character right away, trained it in a trainer module and imported it back. So, bugs I run into: the parents don't talk to my character at all, and the missing journal entries. I score this module high first and foremost because it's so wonderfully written. It's a good short story in the literary sense; a self contained, well-paced and intriguing narrative. Thus the short length isn't a con, it's a feature. I found the module wonderfully atmospheric and true to the spirit of the stories Grimm. I enjoyed the details such as the descriptions of the fairy tale objects and the naming of the seven children. What this module sets out to do, it does with near perfection.
Posted by Moira at on12/14/08
I was really looking forward to playing The Birthday (especially being a huge fan of H&C!) but unfortunately I couldn't get it to work. The problem is that the character doesn't gain levels, money and/or gear at the beginning. I'm assuming that the problem is actually in not being able to talk to the parents when the mod starts. Neither of them has dialogue initiated when I click talk on them. Other characters in the village seem to work just fine. I created a character from scratch and have the latest patch (to MotB) installed. Since I didn't try the module before updating to the latest patches, I don't know if something in them may have broken the module (v. 1.03).
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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