The Third Sign is book written by Gregory A. Wilson brought to you in Neverwinter Nights 2 module-forum by Alex �Hugie� Hugon. The module was a contracted work intended to promote the release of the novel, which will be published by Five Star Press in June 2009 and available for purchase at Amazon.com or at your local bookstore. The primary motivation behind this teaser project is to immerse you in the world of Klune and inspire you to purchase the book when it is published.
Note that as a module conversion, TTS is, by nature, rather linear at points. You are expected to use the provided pregenerated character, Calen Gollnet (the novel�s protagonist). The focus of this project was on creating an interactive novel � on bringing the book to life in 3-d. If you are looking for a hack-n-slash or roleplay-heavy module, this may not be what you are looking for. The focus of The Third Sign module was on immersion through atmosphere, narrative, and plot-furthering cutscenes.
Features: - Professional-quality writing (both overall story and dialogue)
- Polished area design
- A pre-generated character
- New music composed expressly for The Third Sign
- Voice acting for major characters
- Substantial skill-use
- Anywhere from 1-2 hours of gameplay
- Sidequests with multiple resolutions
- Innovative scripting and visual-effect work
------
Installation:
- Extract tts.rar using WinRAR, or similar compression software, to anywhere on your computer.
- Place tts.hak in your My Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/hak directory.
- Place the three .bmu files in your My Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/music directory.
- Place TTS1.mod in your My Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/modules directory.
- Place the �The Third Sign Campaign� folder inside you�re my Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/campaign directory.
- Place the �calengollnet1.bic� file in your My Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/localvault directory.
Now, assuming you are patched to version 1.22 and have both Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir official expansions installed, you�re ready to go! To start the game, fire up NWN2, click New Game, New Campaign, The Third Sign Campaign, then select Calen Gollnet as your character and enjoy!
Credits & Thanks:
Many thanks to Indira Lightfoot and Wyrin D�njargo for their contributions to the project, as well as to Greg, of course, for writing The Third Sign and for selecting me to undertake the conversion! Thanks too to Greg for his own voice acting, and to his friends and family who contributed their voices and musical/compositional talents.
Additonal thanks to the Neverwinter Podcast team for interviewing Greg and me (see Links), and to Ossian Studios.
Links:
- The Third Sign Game Blog: Link - The Thid Sign Book Site: Link - Neverwinter Nights Podcast Interview: Link
*** IMPORTANT ***
If, in "Klune Anor: South Gate," while escaping the city under siege, you experience any strange behavior -- ie., you don't see any NPC's, clicking on objects or to move does not seem to function, and/or your PC plays the running animation even when you stop navigating -- try saving and re-loading. Also, make sure your override is empty! ***
Same issue as Blatob. When fleeing after the attack left click doesn't work. I can move to the area transition with WASD but I cannot activate it. Trying to load a previous savegame crashed the game. Got there a second time and encountered the same problem.
I never found any garlic, and I don't have any idea about beer quest. The main problem is the part where I have to navigate to the south gate. I can't use the mouse to steer the PC, only WASD keys. When I finaly get to the transition point, I can't leave the map. I don't know if this is supposed to happened, or the mod is, for some reason, broken. By the way, my override folder is empty, so there shouldn't be any conflict with some of the previuos mods I played.
Posted by khazar_khum at 2009-05-22 05:33:08 Voted 8.75 on 05/22/09
I like the concept of using a module for a teaser to a novel. It definitely leaves you wanting to know more. Scoring it is tough. As a module it is frustratingly short but that is what makes it an excellent teaser. I would certainly like to see this expanded.
Hm. Interesting concept, though now that I think of it, it's kind of obvious to at least try such a way of advertising out - many RPG-players are usually lovers of good fantasy (or SciFi) novels, too.
Well, I'll give it a try, and ignore the critique for now :)
P.S.: Hugie, you might remember me from the comment-section for your Moonshadows (first 3 to 5 pages or so) - finally managed to find my password again ;) And I'm eager to vote on one of your modules again :)
Sorry you felt that way, fardoche, but thanks for the feedback nonetheless. There's been a lot of positive feedback and reviews of the book elsewhere, so I hope everyone will read the material and make up their own minds. Thanks!
So I went to read the free chapters to judge whether my initial impression was wrong. Unfortunately it wasn't.
SPOILERS follow (but trust me it won't ruin your life).
So the Aragorn-guy/hero/mentor is, just like Aragorn, a grey-eyed, stern, pale-faced and sorta ageless green cloaked ranger. Guess how G. Wilson named him? ARvan EleRON (Groan).
And as I said before, the Elminar (Elves) could not be more plain vanilla, uninspired Tolkien plagiarism. It's true that over the years, I did read some Tolkien imitations, but none less creative.
And BTW, guess what Aragorn-guy keeps in his house: what dyou know, a sorta mithril chainmail. Will the humble hero eventually get it to save the world from Sauron the Deceiver (sorry, Ek'thon the Destroyer) and be subsequently saved from an otherwise mortal wound caused by an evil weapon (say, a wicked Axe wielded by a Shadow Ghast?) Stay tuned. (Or don't, that's my humble counsel - unless you're 11 yo and have never read anything else...)
Well I feel bad being so harsh... but it needed to be said, bluntly. Look, I loved all of Hugie's work in NWN1-2, but... this piece of fantasy is so unoriginal that it makes me want to read R. Jordan again (but don't!) Want something good to read? Try George RR Martin or Stephen Erikson. Or, in science-fiction, I can't recommend Iain M. Banks strongly enough.
Actually, after a bit of thought I'd like to add that the writing in the mod may not be indicative of the writing in the book and I am willing to suspend judgement until I see a sample chapter of the book. Writing for a mod is much like writing a screenplay which is vastly different than writing a novel. The author may in fact have a stellar novel that he did not know how to translate into a screenplay like format.
I have gotten to the city under attack scene thus far and I have to say I am a bit disappointed with the writing. The naive moralizing is actually fine since it's from a single person's perspective whose character may in fact be a naive moralizer. My issue is the inconsistency of the so called philospher/scholar's view with what he is saying. In one breath he chastises his kid for stealing fruit to feed them and in the very next statement this pillar of intellectual debate and scholarly philosophy contradicts himself by saying that even unlawful and evil individuals have a place in the pattern. Well where is this understanding with his kid? Or the understanding of his kids role in the pattern of the dream? In addition, the opening cut scene with the farmer is insipid at best. I will not even get into the idea that he has full grown corn crop that he needs to harvest and yet only sprouts of tomatoes. It causes this so called farmer to come off as a dolt and the whole scene extremely two dimensional. If this is what passes for professional quality writing then I am saddened by it. I will with hold voting for now until I have completed more of the story in hopes that the writing improves.
I just finished TSS, and though I liked it, I don't really think it qualifies as a vote-able module, since it stops just when it gets going, and won't be developed further. As a teaser for the book, I suppose it would work if I was into reading books like this. However, I WOULD buy the game if there was one ;-0
Try clicking on the box of fruit on the ground next to Irsek to move on the plot -- no pickpocketing involved. Thanks for the heads-up on the ale quest. _________________________ Alex "Hugie" Hugon
Writer - Ossian Studios NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate - NWN2's first Adventure Pack Moonshadows - An Action-Packed, Story-Driven Adventure in the Forgotten Realms [Development Blog] The Third Sign - A Novel-to-NWN2-Module conversion of Gregory A. Wilson's book [Purchase from Amazon]
Well, somewhat amused so far at the beginning, but non-plussed. Talked to pretty much every character, did a couple of diddly quests, and can't move on. Presumably, I should be able to pick-pocket the fruit seller, but can't.
A rather bad bug: If you talk to Rheah first, the ale quest, such as it is, is broken.
in razorwood, the area around the waterfall is difficult to navigate (character gets stuck in the floor) with a few shrubs near the roots of a tree not being reachable (being blocked by the roots) _________________________ I do not have a superman complex; for I am God, not Superman!
when talking to frelan there are three options:
1. Listen frelen... (not effect)
3. But what about you? what about my family? What about the city... (5 points towards evil)
What exactly is evil about that? _________________________ I do not have a superman complex; for I am God, not Superman!
1. when I find porkchop, he takes ALL my garlic instead of just one clove (I had two because i bought one clove, and then I found one in the casket)
2. When talking to the silk merchant uncle, there is an explosion and he runs off and says "here take this"... but he doesn't actually give me anything
3. After he says here take this the game loads a different zone, and every time it starts that zone its "broken" in SOZ 1.22 latest hotfix, mouseclicks don't actually do anything. At this point I can save, exist to main menu, and then load that save to progress (loading directly without existing to main menu causes NWN2 to crash every time) _________________________ I do not have a superman complex; for I am God, not Superman!
Hi, Alex,
Got to this one sooner than I expected. I have run into some trouble, though. I got the "Escape-area-not-working" bug and reloaded as suggested. You intimated that the sidequest, which I assume is the hysteric woman, is working. However, I was unable to find a door to go through. I think I checked every door, but they only open and close, no transition appears when you open one. Got killed a lot of times trying to find it and no luck. Where is the door to rescue the kid?
Interesting and congrats on getting out another title. Does this mean you've figued out another way to make a buck making modules other than comissioned work by the license holder?
I'll take a play through when I get done with the ones currently in my play queue (though playing time is pretty short these days due to rl).
As the author, I'm extremely pleased with Alex's work, and want to publicly thank him again for his efforts. Fardoche, sorry you don't care for the story, but thanks for playing through the teaser nonetheless. Hope everyone else enjoyed themselves enough to check out the rest by reading the full book! :)
PS: je suis demi-francais, alors si vous voulez ecrire en francais, je pourrais vous comprendre sans problemes. :) _________________________ Alex "Hugie" Hugon
Writer - Ossian Studios NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate - NWN2's first Adventure Pack Moonshadows - An Action-Packed, Story-Driven Adventure in the Forgotten Realms [Development Blog] The Third Sign - A Novel-to-NWN2-Module conversion of Gregory A. Wilson's book [Purchase from Amazon]
Lore of Old: try saving at the start of that area and then reloading. It'll fix the issues and make the area behave as intended.
fardoche: thanks for playing! You encountered the weird behavior bug in the escape-from-siege-city sequence; if you save and reload, all will behave as intended (people in the streets, sidequest working, transition working, etc.). Feedback appreciate. :) _________________________ Alex "Hugie" Hugon
Writer - Ossian Studios NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate - NWN2's first Adventure Pack Moonshadows - An Action-Packed, Story-Driven Adventure in the Forgotten Realms [Development Blog] The Third Sign - A Novel-to-NWN2-Module conversion of Gregory A. Wilson's book [Purchase from Amazon]
Hey Hugie. Like your work, as always! But I'm not sure how I should rate the module.. Being so short and without much, I think I'll be withholding my vote, for the moment.
SPOiLeRISH StuFF
-The VO is ok, but the main problem with it is the shifting volume. Farmer at the start and Captain of the guard at the end are hard to hear...
-Spelling erreur at uncle's place: ...quality of thise materials...
-Encountered the bug after leaving uncle's place. Saved, re-loaded, then crashed. Re-loaded again and I was ok...
-Streets are awfully empty while fleeing the city
-"Women in Hysterics" still in Hysterics after resolving her quest.
-In Razorwood, felines were canines. They were also uber wimps. Also, my character was still making saves against fire (and not reflex, or whatnot). And I don't know why we should get XP for successful saving throws, but hey, why not.
STRONG SPOiLERS (STORY)
As for the story, well, I must say I was disappointed. The first part is naive moralizing (Thou shall not steal... fruit?)
But the worst part was surely the ranger's story of the beginning of the world... shamelessly ripped from the Silmarillon. Elves are El-somethings and they sing and are sad about mankind's fate and then they leave this world, etc etc. Plain vanilla Tolkien fantasy that we have heard a thousand times before... only now the copy is even closer to the original!
Maybe it's because I'm a huge fantasy book reader... but I can't believe any Tolkien fan could read this story (told by that Aragorn-guy) and not roll his or her eyes. I'm sorry to say that... It would be ok in a free, fan-made module, but not in a commercial novel!!! (Although T Brooks made a lot of money ripping off Tolkien, the small chunks we have been given here is much worse, in my humble opinion.)
Anyway, criticisms are directed at M. Wilson, not at Alex.
END RANT
That said, I'm still eagerly awaiting Moonshadows 2!!!
Yes it does. Though I came to an area (the burning village) where I had to use WASD to walk around. clicking didn't work. When I arrived at the transition it just didn't ... well transit.
I'm currently downloading, so I wont vote yet. However since Hugie made it, and its based on a novel, I would give anyone the recommendation to give it a try. _________________________ Level Designer - Ossian Studios NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate - NWN2's only Adventure Pack
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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