In the Badlands catacombs, you have the option of making a deal with a vampire. The question is, 'should you?' It will either work in your favor or against you.
- This past week I spent most of my time backtracking and filling in some gaps in what I've already built.
- The upcoming week will be spent mostly concentrating on the Magalia Mage Academy quest.
Download the Gladiatrix module from the NWN Vault
Since it has been 10 weeks, I am curious about something. How much time to you have to work on your module each week? Personally, I don't really have much time for video games, much less work on a module. Just curious.
ReplyDeleteOh, wow, this takes way too much time, but I somehow manage to fit it in. I wake up early so I usually spend a half hour to an hour working on it in the mornings. I come home from work on my lunch break and that's another half hour I fit in. I watch very little TV, so I usually fit in another hour in the evenings, maybe even two if I have nothing going on. A few hours on the weekends as well. If I were to add it all up, maybe 15 hours a week on average? I know that sounds like a ridiculous amount of time, but I still manage to have a social life lol. Where other people are watching TV, I'm doing something like this. My mind has to constantly be creating. If I weren't creating this, I'd be creating something else or playing piano.
DeleteWill the benefits you could gain from the vampire deal depend on your alignment or previous/future choices?
ReplyDeleteI haven't really planned on that. It's more of a decision point for the character. Basically the vampire is looking for help. The player will need to weigh the options on whether it is beneficial to help the vampire or not.
DeleteMadam,
ReplyDeleteare companions going to be influenced by PC's actions here or act as spectators only? Given the fact this is a decision point, one can assume (for example) that cleric chick is not going to be overly happy with letting the vampire live ("unlive"?).
Looks like you aren't using any non-CEP hand mods (eg. Kurairyu's) since the vampiress still has those fists of doom... and how is she FLYING in that cramped corridor?
The companions will be adding their commentary on any decision you make. You'll find that this group in particular has very differing points of view on matters.
DeleteI guess she is quite agile to be able to fly through those corridors :)
Madam,
Deleteunderstood, but I was more concerned wheter player's choices have impact on their general behavior and attitude towards PC. In example, anyone considering themselves "good" or "righteous" wouldn't want to be a sidekick of a serial killer or opportunistic thief (unless they have their reasons), or in the very least they would find the whole situation unnerving.
She could be the most agile vampire in the (nether)world but it won't make space to spread and wave those huge wings, not to mention hovering in place. It's like a pigeon trying to fly in an air vent. In any case - thanks to her, this is going to be a cleanest dungeon in the whole module :^) Let's just hope those characters will have time to appreciate it before asphyxiating because of dust clouds!
Well, the general assumption is that the player is working for the Shroud's cause, which her companions support for various reasons. There are more freedoms and dark choices that can be made in this module, but within the confines of the story. It just wouldn't make sense to the story if the character came out wanting to be a mass murderer and started doing random killings on the street. It would probably mess the module up because everyone would want to attack you. Eventually your character may have the option to abandon the cause of the Shroud, but there are a series of missions that she'll have to go through before reaching that point. If you wanted to play an evil character, you could do that in this module, but it's something your character would have options to develop into. It won't be a "killing things for the fun of it" role. That's silly to me. If she chooses to kill something or do something evil, it will be for a reason and some sort of personal gain. She will be faced with moral dilemmas, which will cause her to question the path she's on. That's the angle I'm going for with this module. The cleric may not like her making a deal with a vampire, but the cleric is also teamed up with your character for her own cause, which is important.
DeleteThe only vampire woman I could find has wings and NWN only gives me one corridor size. The angle of the screenshot makes the corridor look smaller than it is. It's not going to be an exact science, but I don't think it's inconceivable for a humanoid to be able to fly underground.
Madam,
DeleteQuestioning own actions sounds good. However, the "mass murderer" was just an example of player's behavior which may directly contradict someone else's moral system. Wheter it is selfishness, ignorance to misery of others, killing them for personal gain or just for the sake of bloodshed would make little difference to them. I'd be surprised if a good/lawful-aligned NPC aware of PC's real wrongdoings would (still) want to be her follower/friend/lover/etc or - when somehow forced into the situation (like that cleric) - to not become suspicious or uncooperative.
For example: if PC has killed somebody for evil reason before and now has a chance to commit another murder, it's much more immersive if a companion tries to stop them by recalling the past event rather than acting like it never happened. He/she could even turn hostile if pushed beyond limits of their conscience.
Killing random commoners is naturally stupid and OOC but may be easily turned into punishment for trigger-happy or clumsy players. Perhaps if a guard spots you whacking an innocent bystander or doing anything unlawful he should try to apprehend you somehow and impose a fine or book a night in jail. If he bought the farm (and body is discovered) the whole area would start to fill up with infinite regiment of hostile militia. By keeping main quest-related objects out of plain sight, you could leave those unfortunate players some possibilities to avoid game breaking by sneaking around.
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Low-oxygen, dusty areas such as dungeons quickly wear down flying organisms (especially as large as humans), which would need to constantly flap their wings in order to maintain altitude (no air currents nor enough space to glide/soar there) but since she's undead, perhaps she levitates with magic and wings are only for vampiric fashion? It's just that ceiling being too close to her head. If it was a bit higher it would give her a solid reason to fly in there or even an advantage over walking creatures.
Wait, so this vampiress is actually a whole model? Now that would explain why she is still having those fists of doom. Why not build a "fake" vampire from pale-skinned woman with bat wings instead? Also, doesn't CEP2 add any new underground tilesets?
I think that's a great way to build choices for an RPG. An ambiguous dilemma that has is not cut up into good and evil. Will certain choices in the module allow us to affect our companions alignment at all?
Delete@Anonymous
DeleteI think if I get too wrapped up in minor details that have little bearing on the story then I would never finish the module. It would be impossible for me to account for every possible character action or every scientific anomaly, but I am trying to create a much more immersive experience than the last module and include more character choice.
@jabajack
The actions you take will greatly affect your own alignment but not your companions. They all have very distinct alignments and behave accordingly.
Madam,
Deleteof course trying to wrap up every little detail is beyond possibility and reason, but remember that the story is made of these too. Or perhaps the whole enjoyment it is driven by them, since players tend to live through the campaign on a local rather than global scale.
There is no need to account for every possible action but showing that NPCs are aware and pay attention to how the story unfolds yelds a lot of role-playing value. The same goes with the vampiress: it doesn't matter wheter she can fly freely in the corridor or not, but the more believable it looks and feels (read: easier to explain with common sense) the better overall experience is.
I'd imagine the vampire flies due to magical not muscle means, and the wings are just for balance and possibly thrust.
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity, is the vampire a creation of the sourge? like the other mythical monsters that they are creating for there armies?
One of the things I liked about your setting was the premise that the scourge was creating monsters from myths. But that seems to have been a little diluted with the PC encountering monsters which seem natural, like the ogre, minotuar, giants, etc. May be worth doing a little bit of a list of 'real monsters', so we know what creatures exist in your setting naturally and which are abnormal when we come across them.
Anything that is undead is the result of Scourge activity. They have woken the dead and are using them to build their army. Also, any magical creatures on the surface world such as golems, elementals etc are designs of the Scourge as well as more fantastical creatures such as dragons. Underdark creatures aren't the result of the Scourge. On the surface world, standard humanoid races like goblins, ogres, minotaur etc aren't Scourge designs.
DeleteThanks for the explanation.
ReplyDeleteThat case may be nice later in the adventure to have to visit some of these humanoid races in an attempt to recruit them to aid in the battle against the scourge - especially if the scourge has expanded their army. Maybe let the PC chose which races to approach (ie an evil pc may visit the minotaurs or ogres, whilst a good pc may chose to visit the elves or dwarves).
To save writting, could pair up a good and evil race together for each mission where the PC choses which side to aid. eg, the minotaurs and elves would be one mission where the PC would fly to the region in there flying ship and approach one side or the other. The deal to get them on your side would be to help them drive the other side off the island, by either defending or attacking a pivital watch tower.
You know, after typing that, I'm got a feeling I already said this before. If so, than pay the above no mind.
It seems that all the companions that follow the PC are humans or humanoid but will she get any animals as companions to mix things up a bit. Also they won't have dialog or much back story so it would be simpler. Maybe someone gave it you when it was an infant and it grows up as the story progresses or you find it trapped and you help it (or give birth to it seeing how that happened to somebody in the game on that island). Although that reminds me of the dog in Gantz that consistently tried to lick girl's vagina and hump her.
ReplyDeleteAnother idea is that the PC could transform into one of the creatures to help them like Avatar because the creatures would have a secret secluded community that are xenophobic. Or they can teach her to transform after helping them like a wolf, dragon etc.
There are two artifacts that I've put in the module so far that have the ability to summon creatures. I don't want to give anything away, but one of the artifacts should quite interesting, yet difficult to come by.
DeleteThere is a bit of a character transformation later in the module, but more of a disguise. I do like the idea of a full creature transformation, though. I'll have to see if I have room to fit something like that in.
A non-human companion would be fun I think. It was one of the things I liked in dragonage was having a hound as a companion. One option could be a werewolf. Something like:
ReplyDeleteA failed experiment of the scourge that the PC finds in one of there bases and has the option to rescue them, only to find out later that they transform into a beast at night.
Could use the worg for the 'wolf' form which would be pretty sweet.
Your project sounds more and more promising. I can't wait!
ReplyDelete