Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module

Between updating my Battle of the Builds module and creating a new utility program for NWN2 players called Peek-a-BIC , my progress in the Faithless module has been slow. A few days ago, I managed to get my groove back when I resumed work on an interior area that had temporarily taken a backseat. When I started working on it, this particular area disgusted me. I mean that quite literally. There was something about how the area looked that almost induced in me a gag reflex. Perhaps it had something to do with the greenish brown muck on the floor that, when coupled with the darkness of the place, made me think of sewers. That wouldn't have been so bad if I had been designing a sewer area, but it's actually supposed to be some bad guy's fortress. The fact that I was using the crypt tileset explains why the place looked filthy. The area would have looked more like a fortress if I had used the castle tileset instead, but I liked the chains hanging from the rafters that only the...

There's something to be said about being interviewed at the Neverwinter Nights Podcast. I was recently contacted by Henry Solberg, a talented musician who heard my interview, and he offered to compose some original music for "Faithless." Did I accept his offer? You bet I did! Within a few days, he has already composed three very good songs. One of them is Kaelyn's theme song, and the other two are slightly different versions of a composition entitled "City of Souls." These aren't the final versions yet because they need to be extended by several minutes for use in the game. Nevertheless, the quality of these songs is unmistakable. Henry succeeds in capturing the "avian" aspect of the Dove in "Kaelyn's Theme," and both versions of his "City of Souls" are hauntingly beautiful. Henry has generously granted permission to share his music with the general public. Needless to say, Henry Solberg has the sole copyright to these f...

Michele from the Neverwinter Nights Podcast interviewed me regarding a number of things, including my Battle of the Builds module and the new one that I'm currently working on, Faithless. She also gave me a chance to air my views on game design and story writing. Now everyone can hear just how bland my voice is at Episode 57 of the NWN Podcast .

I was all set to create a battlefield area for "Faithless" when I realized that I had no idea how large my area was supposed to be. I need to make several battlefields for my module, but I did not know what the minimum dimensions are and how many NPC soldiers the NWN2 engine can handle without slowing down too much. To give me some inkling of these figures, I decided that making an initial set of AI scripts for relatively large scale battles was in order. Instead of writing my scripts in the NWN2 Electron Toolset, I chose to create them in the NWN1 Aurora Toolset first. Scripting and testing in NWN1 is much faster than in NWN2. I figured that porting my NWN1 scripts to NWN2 later would be a simple matter. After two days, I got an initial set of scripts working. To test the scripts, I pitted an army of 38 dwarves against a total of 41 enemies -- 28 orcs, 11 half-orcs, and 2 hill giants. All of the foot soldiers on both sides were level 3, and most of their commanders were leve...

To help me understand my characters better, I find it fun and useful to write back stories for the more important NPCs in my module. Character backgrounds are often excellent inspiration for side quests. For this post, I've decided to spotlight Queen Christine of Damara, wife of King Gareth Dragonsbane. A submissive woman this lady is not. Even though she only has a small role to play in "Faithless," her strong character warrants a separate writeup on her. Despite appearances, nothing that I write or show in this blog is a spoiler. Most of the information presented below may be read in the four TSR modules regarding the Bloodstone War; namely, Bloodstone Pass , The Mines of Bloodstone , The Bloodstone Wars , and The Throne of Bloodstone . A small part of this writeup is actually my conjecture on why some of the characters behaved the way they did. I believe that readers may discern the actual realms lore from my conjecture based on how I phrase some of the information. Th...

Dirtywick's comment on my last blog post made me realize that there are novels set in the Coldlands that I was not aware of. I'll need to read the Sellsword Trilogy to ensure that I keep within the known lore of the realms. To keep my story organized, I wrote a brief timeline of the events that lead up to "Faithless." Much of this is based on the official chronology given by your friendly neighborhood Wizards of the Coast, but I also found a very impressive timeline elsewhere. The events of Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2, including their expansions, are not placed in any precise time period, however, so the year in which "Faithless" occurs is equally fuzzy. Not all events in the history of the realms are listed here, of course. Only the ones that are meaningful to "Faithless" are here. All dates in the following chronology are in Dalereckoning (DR). circa -25,000 DR - Death of the god Ulutiu resulting in the formation of the Great Glacier; end of t...

Thirty game years ago, a war was fought in Bloodstone Pass between the monster armies of Zhengyi the Witch King and the civilized forces of the Barony of Bloodstone. At the forefront of the war was Sir Gareth Dragonsbane, who was to become the next baron of Bloodstone and eventually king of Damara. When the war ended, Lord Gareth built two massive walls at either end of Bloodstone Pass. The southern wall was called Damara Gate, and the northern wall, Vaasa Gate. Like its southern counterpart, Vaasa Gate is more than just a wall. It is a well-manned fortress that stretches from one steep mountain face to another. The Gate hosts a thriving market where civilized folk from either side of the wall may trade. Its interior chambers serve as stock rooms and living quarters not only for the soldiers stationed there but also for adventurers on monster hunts. The most detailed description of Vaasa Gate that I could find was from the Forgotten Realms supplement The Bloodstone Lands by R.A. Salva...