-Added Ghost Light Placeables to the second level to make the halls not so dull.
-Changed title color of boss items to blue.
-Lowered AC of boss.
-Added some flavor scripts to add to the mood of the keep.
Added Note: This module lacks story because it is a test module. I planned nothing , simply opened the toolset and started seeing what I could do. The only "story" of this mod is that your character, for purposes unkown, has been traveling along this road and comes across this fortress and decides to explore it.
I enjoyed making this short module and learning the new toolset and glad to see that some people have enjoyed the short dungeon I managed to create. That said, I will not be updating this module anymore as I am now focusing on starting my true story-driven module.
"The road you have traveled has brought you to a forboding and desolate region known as the Deadlands. As you follow the single path through the mountains you come upon a massive keep known as Shadow Keep. The region around it is filled with undead and yet you feel something calling to you within the dark walls of the stronghold."
Shadow Keep is a small hack and slash dungeon crawl designed to take a level 1 character to level 3 and get a couple magical items to take with them on their next adventure all in about 15-30 minutes.
It's a short adventure I made while learning the toolset and decided to release it to the community due to the lack of modules here right now.
Tested with a bard, fighter, paladin, cleric, and warlock.
Posted by MikeLM9215 at 2008-10-01 08:13:23 Voted 5.75 on 10/01/08
Kind of confusing, but a decent beginning mod. Was too hard for beginning level. But respawn is free. Under the new voting system I must give you this. _________________________ The road to Ravenloft is paved with good intentions.
Posted by ActorOfVeil at 2008-08-09 14:52:24 Voted 3.25 on 08/09/08
I can see why many people have given higher votes. In those distant times when the vault was filled with character builders - and only two of them were worth of downloading - this little module was certainly welcome. But now...although the areas are quite well desinged the lack of story - and ambition - bothers. Hack & slash is not an excuse to leave it out.
But the world certainly needs these modules. Shadow Keep is a good way to kill time when people don't want anything that requires thinking. ALthough a piece of advice for any beginner module author who happens to read this: Be patient, ambitious and gutsy. _________________________ A good module author is PAG: Patient, Ambitious and Gutsy.
Unbalanced and unplayable with average level one character.
BTW to explore the fortress you need to be alive to get in. If you manage to dodge pass the monsters far too strong for your character you will only find a locked door. Playing with the toolset is one thing but it does not mean that the results of all these failed experiments need to be on the vault at least IMHO.
Posted by nightclimb at 2007-08-21 14:31:44 Voted 5.75 on 08/21/07
Nice No plotter. I didn't spot any bugs.
Posted by msnevil1 at 2007-06-14 17:25:17 Voted 7.50 on 06/14/07
For a test module, It seems better then some of the other "full" mods. No story, but the author stated that.
Fun, with a nice intro background. Overall, +2 items seem to over powered for lvl 3 players. But then again the end Boss seems overtly hard as well. So I guess its balanced within the mod.
Posted by Alazander at 2007-06-03 12:52:31 Voted 5.00 on 06/03/07
A decent little dungeon crawl that shows some promise for the author's future modules.
Posted by Gregore at 2007-03-17 07:01:09 Voted 7.00 on 03/17/07
A fun little module. I played this with a friend (multiplayer). Even though its for singe player it seemed to play pretty smooth.
We need to see more of these simple little modules. Everyone gets caught up with these sweeping epics....they do us little good if they take 2 years to make. The is a shortage of simple low level modules to get characters up a couple levels and this fits the bill.
The music was well placed and I liked the burnt out houses and dead adventureres. A little more tweaking would really spruce up this module. Get rid of the shop keeper in the Keep, put in some more generic armour and weapons and cut out some of the magic equipment that is overpowered. Also....This module needs a DEATH SCRIPT!!!!! Surely there is one out there somewhere. We played with a Wizard and a Fighter and finally resorted to just dieing so we would respawn with full HP and all spells memorized (that is pretty sucky!!)
Overall we played it for several hours and really had a hoot.
Posted by sad_eyed at 2007-02-09 17:51:12 Voted 6.50 on 02/09/07
A simple, but fun little Hack'n'Slasher. No more, no less.
Posted by Irisis at 2007-01-24 09:43:57 Voted 7.00 on 01/24/07
Nice work! I enjoyed the maze. It would be even more interesting if there respawns one zombie or skeleton after each teleportation. The Boss was tough, I was scared when he triggered my trap and it did nothing to him.
Posted by jsgx3 at 2007-01-17 06:06:00 Voted 7.50 on 01/17/07
I rated it a bit higher than most by accepting it for what it is, a great little starter dungeon/hack n slash. Some great little twists like the DM and maze affair. Store was a bit strange, but welcomed as I used an overpowered cleric who had a lot of stuff to unload, lol. Anyway, nice job for just 'opening the toolset and making a dungeon. Yikes, I've worked for several hours with the toolset and have nothing to show for it. _________________________ JS
Posted by Oldtimer at 2007-01-04 01:50:13 Voted 6.75
Tried this again with a lev 2 character - finished at lev 3 a few hundred XP short of lev 4, with no deaths/respawns - yes it is too easy for a lev 2 start. On reflection does seem to be balanced correctly for a lev 1 so long as you get to lev 3 for the final boss [first time I was using a lev 1 drow fighter so never got to lev 2!].
Only concern is it does feel a bit of a 'Monty Haul' job at the end. Started with only basic gear but finished up decked out in +2 gear plus those cool, but possibly overpowered, custom blue items from the boss. I suspect a few people might feel this amount of gear on a level 3 character is a bit over-the-top...
Still good fun, but maybe toning down the end gear would be an idea. Really like those custom reward items but perhaps would be better if they were a bit less powerful?
Posted by evilbadman at 2007-01-02 18:18:36 Voted 5.75 on 01/02/07
Nice first try at a module. I hope to see more Dialog and encounters in your next Module. _________________________ If you don't like the game, why do you post in the
forums?
Posted by Yetiboy at 2007-01-01 17:30:08 Voted 9.00 on 01/01/07
Fast paced action and little dialog is what makes RPG's fun. I like to get right to the point when playing a game. This was great. I look forward to more modules like this.
Thanks!!!
Posted by cobracommander at 2006-12-31 12:14:21 Voted 6.50 on 12/31/06
Maybe consider throwing a decent simple weapon in the module.
Had problems w/o martial weapon skill.
Other way, well done.
Posted by Qkrch at 2006-12-30 07:31:03 Voted 3.00 on 12/30/06
Very poor, no dialogues... no plot.... _________________________ The Ancient NWN Spanish Community Link
Academy for Modding Excellence Link
The Everfire Forge, a weapon for your hero Link
Posted by kiriandunbir at 2006-12-27 12:36:47 Voted 6.50 on 12/27/06
A good small mod. Well done.
Perhaps too much stuff for a low level mod.
Posted by Algrim at 2006-12-24 14:36:41 Voted 6.50 on 12/24/06
A nice, solid little hack-and-slash adventure. I would have liked a bit more story but it's definitely worth checking out and I'm looking forward to more of your work.
Posted by sirthad at 2006-12-19 01:21:47 Voted 8.75 on 12/19/06
This was the most Invintive and Fun one ive played yet Loved the DM :)
Posted by davez at 2006-12-17 19:48:27 Voted 6.00 on 12/17/06
The landscape was beautifully rendered and I actually liked the ghouls just standing there, waiting for you to come close before they attack. It kind of reminds me of a Dali painting.
On the other hand, the inside of the keep had really disappointed me. It happens to be very plain and kind of blah. You really need to work on it and make it more interesting to look at. This is my recommendation for improvments on your module. later
Posted by maerduin at 2006-12-17 18:49:56 Voted 6.75 on 12/17/06
This is a short and fun module. Aesthetically it's stripped-down, dark, and stark, which works. It does not purport to be anything beside what the creator states it is, a simple, hack-n-slash affair. That said, it's fun to play and streamlined, and of all the early NWN2 offerings, this is easily my favorite so far (not that there are tons to choose from!). It seems to have been best balanced for a fighter. _________________________ Maerduin's Blog Link
Posted by Dragonmack at 2006-12-15 21:08:59 Voted 5.50 on 12/15/06
Nice Hak n slash. No bugs found. Only issues were some of the enemies would just stand there and only attack one at a time and the layout of keep was mostly winding corridors and hardly any rooms. Loved the outdoors, although would have liked to have seen some crafting ingredients for holy water and an alchemy bench since this is a mostly undead module.Good for what it is, some quick xp and a way to get a few nice items early on.
Posted by Dorateen at 2006-12-15 07:26:04 Voted 7.00 on 12/15/06
Very well done! This reminded me a lot of a good, solid low-level PnP session. I liked the teleportation "maze" on the first floor of the keep. The Lesser Shadows were appropriately nasty, and the end fight with the boss was great!
Looking forward to more of your work.
Posted by Berliad at 2006-12-13 21:50:46 Voted 6.00 on 12/13/06
This was a fun, challenging little hack 'n slash romp, just like what was advertised. After playing the OC for the past month, it feels so good to be able to focus on a single, low-level character in battle...just like old times. :) My paladin did well for herself, though she did rely on rest to keep healthy--healing pots are not abundant, which gives every successful hit from a foe an added sense of tension. For such a low-level module, the variety of foes (mostly undead) that you face is nice, and I felt threatened, though still capable, throughout the module. So kudos on getting the balance worked out so well. I also appreciated that you made the keep a bit more interesting than your generic hallway/rooms set up that you often see in this sort of dungeon crawl.
A few minor points. First, the lesser shadows (nice effect by the way) don't seem to have the unarmed fighting feat, as I kept getting an attack of opportunity when fighting them. They might have been too tough, of course, if they did have that feat. Second, the utility of this module as a "starter" module is hampered a bit by the "monty haul" nature of the items you receive. By module's end, my paladin had magical gear in every equipment slot and had gotten her AC up to 27. I will, unfortunately, probably need ditch everything and re-equip to use her in another module. Otherwise she'll be way too powerful.
Still, I had a fine time playing this. It's a great little effort, and I can see how you were able to learn most of the major functions of the toolset while creating it. Looking forward to your next work! :) -B
Posted by A_Archer at 2006-12-13 20:19:00 Voted 6.00 on 12/13/06
Good mod for what it is. I played as a rogue and it was a little tough but fun. I'm glad to see some mods starting to come out. Keep up the good work
Posted by doganpc at 2006-12-13 15:19:32 Voted 6.50 on 12/13/06
Out of the early released modules, this one was the best.
A tad difficult with my gnome bard (lots of running away to a previous area to heal), would assume other weak low level classes would be similar (wizards especially). Other than that, the module can easily be integrated into something larger and fleshed out even further. Heck it makes me want to break out the toolset and play around, inspiring :)
Posted by Nihlar at 2006-12-12 03:23:14 Voted 6.50 on 12/12/06
Even though it's a straight forward HnS module it was fun to play. Nice outdoor areas with lots of atmosphere that promesed a horrorsome(?) castle. The indoor wasn't as much thrilling but with balanced encounters.
I played through the module in 55 minutes with a level 1 sorcer. It wasn't easy with almost no magical items to loot - but I suspect it was more challenging and fun than with a brute fighter.
The lack of story and tricks/traps, not the gameplay lenght, lower my vote from 7.5 to 6.5. Looking forward to play your future work.
Almost forgot - It seems that my sorcers familiar don't regonize the monsters as hostile. Don't know if it's the module or a "NWN2 feature" _________________________ ZORK - Rediscovering the Great Underground Empire
a re-make of the classic ZORK I, for Neverwinter Nights 2 Amraphael's House of Curious Things
My NWN2-blog
_________________________
If you download it, vote for it!
Posted by CorvusViridis at 2006-12-12 03:11:06 Voted 8.50 on 12/12/06
Played a warlock and had lots of fun! It's great that there's modules out for people who don't want to play the OC twice. Keep going, Coldfrost!
I was uploading the new version but it was taking forever so I went to bed. When I checked the next morning it was finished and showed the new version as uploaded but I guess it lost the file. I will be fixing this and the new version should be up soon.
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