Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights (
NWN), produced by
BioWare and published by
Infogrames (now
Atari), is a third-person perspective
computer role-playing game that is based on
third edition Dungeons & Dragons and
Forgotten Realms rules (with minor changes). It was originally to be published by
Interplay Entertainment, but the publisher's financial difficulties forced the change. Infogrames released
Neverwinter Nights for
Windows on
June 18,
2002. BioWare released the freely downloadable
Neverwinter Nights Linux Client in June 2003.
MacSoft released a
Mac OS X port in August 2003.
The game is based in part on traditions started in the original
Neverwinter Nights online game, the first graphical Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (
MMORPG), which ran from 1991 to 1997 on
AOL.
The core release includes the game engine, a NWN scenario, and the Aurora toolkit (Windows only) for building custom content based on the same engine.
Play centers on the development of a character that becomes the ultimate hero of the story. In the original NWN scenario supplied with the game engine, the player is single-handedly responsible for defeating a powerful
cult; stopping an insatiable
plague; thwarting an attack on the city of
Neverwinter, and many other side
quests.
The first and final chapters of the story in the official campaign deal with the city of Neverwinter itself, but the lengthy mid-story requires the player to venture into the countryside and then northward to the city of
Luskan. Neverwinter is a city on the
Sword Coast of
Faerûn.
Gameplay
True to the game's
Dungeons & Dragons roots, the first thing a player must do is create a character. One can choose the character's gender, race, class, alignment, stats (strength, dexterity, etc.), abilities (skills, spells, feats, etc.), appearance, and name. There is a great deal of customization involved - one can be, for example, an outdoorsman (
Ranger class), healer (
Cleric class), and choose the skills and feats that would help them the most (a Ranger might want Animal Empathy, for example, while a Cleric would probably choose Combat Casting).
The actual game is rather lengthy (original NWN has three CDs, while the expansions each add one CD). Following a small prelude, there are four "chapters" in the original game, with each chapter consisting of a general storyline (the first chapter, for example, deals with a mysterious plague in the city of Neverwinter), and within each chapter, there are many quests, subquests, and mini-storylines. The game's actual mechanics are based on the
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition rule set – most important actions (fighting, persuasion, etc.) are based on a die or
dice roll. For example, when a fighter attacks, he might use a 1d6 short sword (meaning that one roll of a six-sided die determines the damage inflicted).
''See also:
List of Neverwinter Nights characters |
Adventurers around a campfire in the Avlis persistent world. |
The robust multiplayer component separates
Neverwinter Nights from previous
Dungeons & Dragons games, as there are many servers for players to choose from. Each server, depending on hardware and
bandwidth, can support up to 72 players or more in the same module. NWN game modules run as a variety of separate genres and themes, including
persistent worlds (which are similar to
MUDs), combat arenas (
player versus player modules), and simple social gatherings similar to a
chat room. The campaign included with the game can be played with friends, for example, or a team of builders can build a virtual world similar in scope and size to commercial
MMORPGs. The big difference is that BioWare insists these persistent worlds be free of charge.
Many persistent worlds are still actively run with updates and improvements. Servers can be linked together as well, allowing the creation of large multi-server worlds. Two early examples include
A Land Far Away and
Confederation of Planes and Planets.
Because
Neverwinter Nights lacks a global chat function aside from the supported
Gamespy, players typically join "pickup" games through the game's multiplayer interface, or schedule games in advance with friends. Matchmaking sites, such as
Neverwinter Connections, facilitate scheduling of games, and the experience is much like traditional Pen-and-Paper
roleplaying games. Persistent worlds do this work for them by inviting players to visit their website and continue to roleplay there.
Neverwinter Nights ships with the
Aurora toolset, which allows players to create custom
modules for
Neverwinter Nights. These modules may take the form of online
multiplayer worlds,
single player adventures, character trainers or
technology demos. Additionally, several third party utilities have further expanded the community's ability to create
custom content for the game. Custom content creators are known as
builders in the
Neverwinter Nights community.
The Aurora toolset allows builders to create map areas using a
tile system; the appearance and surface textures of the area are defined by the area's selected
tileset. Builders can overlay placeable objects onto areas, and use the built-in scripting language
NWScript to run
cut scenes, quests,
mini-games and conversations. NWScript is based on
C++.
Third party utilities allow builders to create custom content for most aspects of the game, ranging from new playable races and character classes to new tilesets, monsters and equipment. Custom content is added to the game in the form of
hakpaks. Builders have used the Aurora toolset in combination with hakpaks to create playing experiences beyond the scope of the original campaign. Despite the game's age, the
Neverwinter Nights custom content community remains active.
The Aurora toolset is not available for the Linux and Macintosh versions of
Neverwinter Nights. The
open source project
neveredit aims to port the toolset features to these platforms.
Throughout the game's life, a handful of
Neverwinter Nights custom content groups were formed, dedicated to the creation of high quality content and modules. The largest of these groups were the City of Doors Initiative (CODI) and DragonLance Adventures (DLA). The former's aim was the recreation of the
Planescape universe within
Neverwinter Nights, while the latter worked on modules in the
Dragonlance setting.
In terms of sheer user-created content, however, the major player is certainly the team that produced the Community Expansion Pack (CEP). Overseen by a small group of Neverwinter Nights builders, the CEP project was an enormous collection of player-made items, creatures and character appearances compiled into one giant add-on file ('hakpak'). Content was only added to the CEP after being tested and approved by the CEP team, giving rise to one of the most widely-used and higest-quality player-made enhancements ever created for Neverwinter Nights.
Due to the extreme success and popularity of the CEP, a sister-project was started several years after the CEP's release. Dubbed the Community Tileset Project, it is attempting to duplicate the CEP's success, but this time the focus was entirely on the tilesets used to create a basic Neverwinter Nights map. While progress has been slow, the team itself is still working together.
CommunityTilesetProjectAs of June 2006, some smaller custom content groups are inactive and the CODI team is defunct. DLA is still around but has dissociated itself from its "DragonLance Adventures" moniker.
Shadows of Undrentide (
SoU) — This expansion scenario pack was released in June 2003. It adds 5
prestige classes, 16 new creatures (two of them available as additional familiars), 3 new tilesets, and over 30 new feats and 50 new spells, as well as additional scripting abilities for those who use the Aurora toolkit. It features a story line concerning a student sent out to recover some stolen magical objects. The story begins in the
Silver Marches, eventually moving toward the desert of Anauroch and the old Netherese city of Undrentide.
Hordes of the Underdark (
HotU) — Released in December 2003, it expands the level-cap to level 40 (epic levels), and adds a number of spells and items appropriate to such characters, as well as adding further tilesets,
prestige classes, feats, and abilities, and compatibility with the Intel Pentium 4 Processor, which was unsupported in previous versions. The story continues where
Shadows of Undrentide ended, with a character of at least 12th level (if you start this expansion with a character below level 12, the game will level you up to 15), and leads into the vast subterranean world known as the
Underdark. The first chapter of the story takes place in the
Undermountain dungeon beneath the city of
Waterdeep. Released as
Die Horden des Unterreichs in Germany.
In March, 2004, an expansion known as the
Community Expansion Pack (
CEP) based on community material was released. This freely downloadable expansion was compiled by members of the
Neverwinter Nights community. It combines a selection of previously released custom content into one large hakpak.
BioWare had no involvement in creating content for the
CEP, but provided resources to help promote it. Players must add the
CEP to a module with the toolset to use
CEP content.
Though not actually expansion packs, Atari released subsequent editions of the game following its first release in 2002. These editions are
Neverwinter Nights: Gold, which combines the original game with the
Shadows of Undrentide expansion pack,
Neverwinter Nights: Platinum (called
Neverwinter Nights: Deluxe Edition or as the
Neverwinter Nights Deluxe: Special Edition- with extra bonus content- in Europe), which combined all three NWN products and came on a single
DVD-ROM or four
CD-ROMs, and
Neverwinter Nights: Diamond, which includes everything in the Platinum edition plus 3 premium modules.
As well, in early December, 2003, the Players Resource Consortium released the PRC, which is a group of hakpaks combined, which added classes, races, skills, and spells to the game. As of May 20'th, 2006, the PRC now has roughly three times the number of prestige classes the original game had. It also adds dozens of epic spells, and many normal spells that make better use of Bioware's Aurora engine. These include: Teleportation, Transposition, Mazes, Summoning Houses and more. As well, psionic powers have been included, which are essentially spells, but done with "power points", akin to the sorcerer class. This "expansion" can be found at nwn-prc.com, along with documentation. Much of the PRC pushes the engine in ways that the designers never intended, so caution is advised when making use of the hakpak.
Premium modules
In late 2004, BioWare launched its
online store and started selling what it called
premium modules as part of its digital distribution program. This initiative was spearheaded by BioWare's Live Team Lead Designer,
Rob Bartel. Though technically not expansions, these smaller-scale adventures introduce new storylines and gameplay. They often include new music and art that BioWare claims will be integrated into future
patches and updates to the core game. The most recent patch, 1.67, includes much of the art and music that can be found in the premium modules.
According to BioWare, the revenue generated is used to support their fan community and provide ongoing updates and improvements to the popular game. Unfortunately the modules that are sold for download require internet access to play even though they are
single player only. The modules in the Kingmaker expansion were stripped of this requirement but are only for Windows. The modules included with Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition do not require Internet access to play.
Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker — In November, 2004, BioWare announced their flagship premium module, which later received the
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences 'PC RPG of the Year' award. The player is called upon to defeat the evil at the Keep of Cyan, and win the throne.
Neverwinter Nights: ShadowGuard with free
Witch's Wake — At the same time as
Kingmaker's release, BioWare also offered a bundled pair of shorter premium modules which included
ShadowGuard, created by community member Ben McJunkin, and
Witch's Wake, a remastered version of Rob Bartel's popular story-oriented module by the same name. The remastered version added new subraces, music, and substantial voice-acting throughout.
Neverwinter Nights: Pirates of the Sword Coast — In June, 2005, BioWare announced the upcoming release of a new premium module. The story begins in the city of Neverwinter, and leads to a lengthy ship-bourne, swashbuckling-style adventure. Characters start at 5th level.
Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker (Premium Modules collection) — Atari released this CD-ROM expansion pack in September, 2005. It compiles the premium modules
Kingmaker,
Shadowguard and
Witch's Wake.
Neverwinter Nights: Infinite Dungeons — In May, 2006, Bioware released this premium module which takes place in
Undermountain below
Waterdeep. The main feature is randomly generated dungeons, which are suitable for all levels of adventurer. The module is designed for single and multiplayer gaming. With the exception of the ability to respawn one's character, ID is very similar to a
3-D roguelike.
*Several of the in-game portraits were modified in patches due to parts of them being copied from copyrighted sources. [
1]
*The
Red Cross symbol was removed from the Healer's Kit due to trademark complaints from Canadian Red Cross [
2]
*The Bioware and Baldur's Gate logos are visible on certain books in some bookshelves.
*Neverwinter Nights is used for educational purposes in West Nott's college in the UK to help IT designers understand the coding in the game.
A sequel to Neverwinter Nights,
Neverwinter Nights 2, is being developed by
Obsidian Entertainment, a company which has a long history of association with BioWare. According to BioWare, the change of developer is due to BioWare's business with other titles, such as
Mass Effect and
Dragon Age. The game is expected in October of 2006.
Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, a
role-playing game based in the
Star Wars universe, was also released by BioWare using a heavily modified version of the
Aurora engine of
Neverwinter Nights. The sequel,
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, also used this modified engine. Because of this, modders have been able to modify these games using some
Neverwinter Nights modding tools.
The Witcher
The Witcher, a
computer role-playing game currently in development by the
Polish company
CD Projekt, is based on the
Aurora engine of
Neverwinter Nights. Its development was highly publicized within the
NWN community.
*
E3 2002
Game Critics Awards: Best Role Playing Game
*
E3 2001
Game Critics Awards: Best Role Playing Game
*
E3 2000
Game Critics Awards: Best RPG, Best Online Multiplayer
*
Teeth-kicking nanny*
Official NWN website*
NWN Vault, the largest hub for user-created content.
;Reference and utility
*
NWNWiki*
NWN Lexicon Scripting Reference*
Neverwinter Nights Custom Content Guide*
Neveredit module editor for Linux and Macintosh*
DVD/CD Install Script for Linux;Notable custom content teams
*
Community Expansion Pack (CEP)
*
DLA (formerly DragonLance Adventures)
*
Player Resource Consortium (PRC)
*
Penultima, a series of modules for
Neverwinter Nights.
;General resources
*
Sorcerer's Place NWN coverage
