In 1981, I was 11 years old and in the 6th grade. One afternoon, I went to a classmate�s house after school. In the middle of his dinning room table was a mighty castle. It was about 2�x 2� and made entirely out of glued together sugar cubes. �Wow� I exclaimed! �What�s this?� My friend�s older brother smiled and asked �Have you ever played Dungeons & Dragons?� �Soon, we were whiling away the small town hours, delving into the depths of the earth and conquering the barrier peaks.
Baltron�s Beacon harkens back to those days. It's not a globe spanning epic, or a ground breaking saga. It�s just a short dungeon crawl, 1985 style.
A strangely delivered advertisement has led you to a sage named Demetrios. He needs a rare component to complete a desperately needed potion. The journy to retrieve it will take you through a large, unexplored swamp to a ruined keep, the former headquarters of a vile cult that once claimed the lives of many innocent youths.
You cautiously accept the mission. But who knows what monsters lurk in the vast marsh? Are the old ruins occupied, perhaps by things even more dangerous than the previousl residents? Beware, for the eerie green light shining upward from the central tower, the beacon that guides your way, may attract others as well. To succeed, you must penetrate the keep and find a unique Black Flame worshipped by the old cult. Could those evil ones be lurking about still? You will know soon...
To solve the mysteries of Baltron's Beacon, you must excel in handling wilderness, building ruins, dungeons, traps, puzzels, and monsters.
Player- Single or multi-player.
Level- 5-7. New players leveled to 6. finish at 8 or 9.
Game play- Hack and slash. Don�t look for any mushy romances, or intellectual orations.
Play time- About 6 hours.
Companions- There are 4 possible companions, any 3 selectable at a time. Fighter, rogue, wizard, and Cleric.
Resting- You and EACH companion gets one rest every 8 game hours. Use them wisely. (switch characters before resting.)
Crafting- Standard OC crafting is used.
Death- Companions will revive to 1 hp after the fight. The main PC will have to be revived, so make sure you have some heal kits or a cleric. If the whole party dies, it�s reload time, so save often.
SoZ and MotB are required to play.
The .hak version of;
Heed's PC Tools- Link Interior Floor Texture Pack 01- Link are also required. Please down load them.
installation;
Place .mod file into your mydocuments/nwn2/modules folder
place .hak files into your mydocuments/nwn2/hak folder
place .tlk file into your mydocuments/nwn2/tlk folder
I made a walkthrough for folks having trouble with the swamp areas;
Link
This was a fun romp through an old memory, (without the very cruel DM we had back then). You certainly did a very good job of keeping the feel of an actual PnP session throughout the entire adventure. There's nothing I can add that hasn't already been said by others earlier. I would've liked to have given this a higher score, but the frustrating swamp, combined with the few minor glitches stated earlier prevents me from doing so. If the companions are given some type of a comment like, "Hey ... we went this way already are you sure you want to keep going in circles?" or something to make the swamp less confusing, appropriate voices given to different entities and the floating placeables get addressed, I would be happy to raise my vote. All in all, a wonderful experience, (if not a little taxing in the swamp) I'd certainly recommend this to all. _________________________ Help is good when asked for, Better when needed. Gaming Parents Studios
Posted by bealzebubba at 2011-05-0112:31:16
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'll make an update soon and address what I can. Sorry about the voices, I do most of my building in a chaotic livingroom with a hyper 4 year old hanging on my leg. Between the TV, the phone, the screaming, and the yelling, I can't hear what I'm working on, so I play with the sound off. I'll fix them in my next update and pay more attention on my next project. -bealzebub
Posted by TheatrePenguin at on04/30/11
Nicely done, overall. I would tend to agree with most of what Darant had t say by way of feed back, although I was nuts enough to approach the black dragon--with caution, mind you--and had a pretty neat battle that we managed to get through. It would have been nice to have the little Hobbit theif have a female voice instead of the bland male one, and I agree with what someone else said about more fleshed out people in the village and pub, especially with voices, etc. I actually remember playing this one as a kid when it was first out. I didn't remember much of it, so this was all new. I did have some moments when I could have done without all that swamp! Like I said, good job overall, albiet a bit sort after all was said and done.
Posted by darant at on04/26/11
Overall a great module that starts a little slow and underdeveloped but ends with one of the most outstanding areas at the end. The keep is a DD marvel, and a must see for every hardcore player. You're very drawn in at the end. Heavy, hard combat--just the way I like it.
Posted by darant at on04/26/11
Comments intended for author: *SPOILERS* I had a great time playing your module bubba--overall it was very engrossing. My critique is as follows. I think Labalna would serve the adventure better if it were a little more fleshed out with character--especially since the end areas are so great. This would give a flavor of the quality yet to come and not contrast so much. Everyone has the same voice and you can't even order an ale from the bartender. The swamp is very well done with some great areas, including a creature I didn't have the balls to talk to--it didn't seem like a great idea to walk up to an evil dragon for some chit-chat. The areas did seem confusing. It appeared the transitions didn't always lead to the same places and possibly the areas repeated. It made it hard to map with memory. I suppose you did this on purpose to provide the atmosphere of getting lost in vast swamps. The entire keep, inside and out, was absolutely amazingly well designed. Truly one of the best, most thrilling scenarios I've ever adventured in. I was drawn into the fantasy spookiness the second I entered. Excellent enemies. The wisps in the well was astounding. However, spawns were the one issue. The crawlers, trolls and stalkers really shouldn't be respawning inside--it detracted from the mood. Other than this, the keep felt like real, classic DD--mission accomplished. I'm not sure I found/finished every area--I never found anywhere where I could use the password but nonetheless I finished the quest. Hardcore enemies in the tower and keep, and I survived it all playing solo, without pausing, never dying and finished at level 8.
Posted by NWN at on04/24/11
Who's the 'tard doing the spam?
Posted by ç at 2011-04-2018:47:26
One of the most captivating (and nostalgic) intro's I've read. Might give this one a whirl if time permits. :) _________________________ A Game Of Thrones - A Song of Ice and Fire NWN2 Persistent World
Posted by bealzebubba at 2011-04-1809:24:27
darant- thanks for the input. I'll address some issues on the next update.
Posted by darant at on04/26/11
Comments intended for author: *Spoilers* I've played through the keep's gate tower up to this point. The ruined keep complex looks amazing--well done! And the enemies within were incredibly tough, especially since I'm playing solo--and surviving thus far, though just barely after that battle. A few things I think really need some polish to advance this module. (1) The respawning encounters are a little excessive and starting to become exhausting. I understand them in parts of the swamp, but when the trolls are rapidly respawning outside the keep it's too much. (2) In the ground floor of the tower there are two clones, both named Larry. As a matter of fact it seems many of the creatures/people in the game are cloned. They look the same with the same voices, and are equipped identically dropping the same loot. I understand it's a lot of work, but it takes away from the realism of the adventure. (3) Everyone has the same voice in the Inn, even the women have the same male 'tavern brute' soundset. (4) I do think the companions provided are a little weak and poorly equipped. I spent what gold I brought in to buff them up but it wasn't enough. In every tough encounter I spent most of my time trying to heal them, or get them to drink their own potions when they were seriously wounded. Granted I never pause during combat, nor do I respawn dead companions (though I'll use raise dead/resurrection scrolls) so I understand I make it more difficult for myself. But they seem to be somewhat uncontrollable: attacking when I tell them to stand their ground, rushing ahead when instructed to guard. I gave up on them after the lizard chief killed them all. I beat him solo after we softened him up--man what a monster!
Posted by darant at on04/26/11
I'm a few hours in--thought I'd give a few comments to provide feedback. No bugs found so far. The swamp looks awesome, very creepy. The dwarf companion looks very cool as well. At 25hp the mage is too weak though, I think a higher constitution would help. If one enemy sneaks past the other characters armored wall he's toast. I also think the respawns are unnecessary--or at the very least they repeat too quickly. The bullywugs look great, this is the first time I've seen them--I always thought they were one of the coolest swamp denizens.
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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