Running Neverwinter Nights on tabletop [3.P]

[questionmark693]

Like the title says, I'm going to be running NWN 1 on tabletop in 3.P. I am looking for existing campagin journals of anybody who has attempted this, and so far only yielded one result that only goes thru the tutorial of the game itself, so the first two or three sessions. Does anybody have experience with this or resources for me?

[Jack_Simth]

Like the title says, I'm going to be running NWN 1 on tabletop in 3.P. I am looking for existing campagin journals of anybody who has attempted this, and so far only yielded one result that only goes thru the tutorial of the game itself, so the first two or three sessions. Does anybody have experience with this or resources for me?

Hmm. Well, you can of course get the game (https://www.gog.com/game/neverwinter_nights_diamond_edition) (which comes with an editor, which works on the main quests), and there are plenty (http://www.gamebanshee.com/neverwinternights/nwnwalkthrough.php) of (http://www.ign.com/wikis/neverwinter-nights/Walkthrough) walkthroughs (https://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/188666-neverwinter-nights/faqs) online (http://www.gamespot.com/articles/neverwinter-nights-walkthrough/1100-2874239/) to help you get familiar with the material, characters, and expected paths. Of course, expect your players to diverge at the earliest possibility - that's kind of the point of having a human DM. To be able to handle that, though, you'll want to have a good grasp of the personalities of the various NPC's in the game.

[questionmark693]

Thanks for the advice! I've actually beaten the games several times, and started to make adjustments to the base storyline to help it survive contact with my players. For instance, the final boss Morag is now an Elder Evil with signs and everything, so the quest can't be ignored..

[Fizban]

For some reason all I ever hear about the NWN/NWN2 campaigns is that they're garbage, so I doubt you'll find any write-ups for running them in tabletop (which would probably violate copyright anyway). Assuming your players are willing to follow the modules it shouldn't be too hard to set up encounters at the appropriate pace. Most of the NWN gameplay is grinding through tons of much lower-level mooks, which most tables don't seem to like doing, so you'll want to take that into account: each leg of the campaign is going to have much less fighting if you stay closer to standard CR.

[Mordaedil]

All the relevant pages are blocked from work here, so I can't find a direct link, but Google NWN OC original document for a better overview of what was their original plan, which makes for a much more interesting campaign than what was present in the game itself.

Even Trent Oster, the main developer behind the OC has gone on twitter saying if he had a choice, he'd write a completely different campaign and he has a big book of changes he'd do to the game if he gets the chance.

I dunno what is holding it back, but he apparently has attempted to do an Enhanced Edition version of the game, but for some reason, can't.

[sleepyphoenixx]

The official NWN campaign is more accurately described as a long demo for the toolset imo.
It's just not that good even given the limitations of the game engine compared to pnp. There's tons of user-made modules that are orders of magnitude better if you're looking for campaign inspiration.

Shadows of Undrentide is better. I could see that as a pretty interesting campaign with a few tweaks (mostly encounters, as Fizban said there's a lot of trash-mooks that really don't work in the pnp format).

Hordes of the Underdark is pretty much pure hack & slash dungeoncrawling with very little in the way of relevant plot. Could be fun for a group that's into that kind of thing, but there's nothing that would really set a HotU campaign apart from any other "generic megadungeon" campaign.

The problem is that if any of your players actually played those campaigns (and still remember them) it'll ruin a lot of the fun for them.

[Zanos]

For some reason all I ever hear about the NWN/NWN2 campaigns is that they're garbage, so I doubt you'll find any write-ups for running them in tabletop (which would probably violate copyright anyway). Assuming your players are willing to follow the modules it shouldn't be too hard to set up encounters at the appropriate pace. Most of the NWN gameplay is grinding through tons of much lower-level mooks, which most tables don't seem to like doing, so you'll want to take that into account: each leg of the campaign is going to have much less fighting if you stay closer to standard CR.
The NWN2 campaign is sort of like a really weird 50 hour meta joke about RPGs. The companions are a drunken dwarf who loves to fight, a fiery tiefling kleptomanic, a tree hugging elf, an arrogant sarcastic wizard, a pyromanic sorceress, a spoony bard, a stick in the mud paladin, and then some others who are kind of spoilers. Also, the villain is literally "The King of Shadows." I enjoyed the game, but you kind of have to accept that it's a goofy cliche-fest. The epic expansion was a lot more serious and is probably one of the best cRPG stories, though.

The only thing I remember from the first NWN1 game is YOU MUST SAVE THE WATERDAHEVIAN CREATURES.


Shadows of Undrentide is better. I could see that as a pretty interesting campaign with a few tweaks (mostly encounters, as Fizban said there's a lot of trash-mooks that really don't work in the pnp format).
Yeah, PnP combat is much slower. So if you run it "as is" you're gonna spend a lot of time killing wolves and zombies at levels where they can't actually threaten you anymore.