FRUA: Neverwinter Nights - 1

Today I will regale you with a tale of a world parallel to that of the Forgotten World. Our heroes are young adventurers who have come to seek fortune and fame in the great city of Neverwinter, jewel of the Savage Frontier.

This is grabbed from the original game

Our adventurers include Kylie Tor, a human ranger, Ahriman a human paladin, Lilith, human cleric, and Augustar, human mage. They had come forth from the more arid southern lands.

 They arrived mid night, standing before the abode of the Lord of Neverwinter, who the guards at the gate to the city had recommended they pay a visit to.

Lord Nasher was even less helpful than the curt Lord Bartholomew.

"We were a bit distraught that Lord Nasher was so short with us, especially after we had been asked to seek him out. However, it was late into the night, perhaps that was the reason for his demeanor. We headed into the bustling town square, which was still quite busy even at this ungodsly hour. Feeling practically naked without a sword at my belt, we immediately took to the supplier and inn that were located in the town square. They were thankfully open."

Neverwinter Square

"We took our time purchasing basic equipment. I attempted to wield a trident, as I'd heard they were an underrated weapon. I found it too heavy to wield in one hand, and therefore decided to go with a tried and true long sword. We all purchased slings as well, even our wizard Augustar found he could use one effectively after a quick lesson."

"The square, as I mentioned, was quite busy. There were townsfolk, a man playing a guitar, merchants, and all manner of adventurer looking folk from the length and breadth of the Realms. Apparently we looked a little conspicuous because we were approached by a somewhat seedy, barefooted fellow with hairy tufts on his feet. A halfling. I immediately clutched my coin purse. Lilith whispered in my ear 'Relax, not all halflings are thieves.' The little fellow bowed and introduced himself, 'Good eve to you adventurers, my name is Milkbottom, a rogue of sorts.' I glared at Lilith. 'Perhaps' he continued,'I can give you some tips?'"

"He gave us a quick rundown of the services available in Neverwinter, and suggested we start looking for 'adventure' (said with a glint in his eye) at the wharves to the East of the square. This area had only recently been overrun by evil humanoids and other ne'er do wells. After a long chat with him, and an introduction to his companion Alianna, we had warmed up to him a bit, and decided he was trustworthy. Not too surprisingly, after all this set-up Milkbottom asked if the two of them might accompany us. We conferred amongst ourselves for a bit, and eventually decided we could use their help. Our party now numbers six."

Compared to Forgotten World, survival is much easier in this module because of the benefit of having a full party. Also, Forgotten World randomizes the enemies HP, which is a cool feature. However, the same enemies that have 4hp in NWN may have 8-15 in FW which can make it tough!

Treasure from two orcs in FW

 FW has the enemies overloaded with coins with little to spend it on, and NWN has them completely the opposite, generally with a few platinum pieces each. A balance would have been nice, as in FW money has rarely been a concern at all, while in NWN many times I've reached enough XP for a level up and not had the cash on hand. I suppose, between the two I prefer the latter though.

 When money in a game is overflowing, it makes the motions of spending it seem more like busy work than a game. One would assume the same couldn't be said about real life, but then, who knows? Perhaps if we had an unlimited supply of money, life would lose some of it's luster, everything seeming like it took little effort. Or, I guess a better example would be imagine you had a ton of money, but nothing to spend it on.

Whether you have a ton of coin, or very little, may you always enjoy This Bard's Tales!

Forgotten World - 1

 Our first hero is a young half-elf named August Star, raised on a farm by his human mother and elfin father. Although he was expected to stay on the farm and eventually inherit it, he was bred with the independence of his father, and followed his heart to adventure. He is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, being able to sword fight, channel divine power, and cast magical spells.

I didn't start with 43 Hp, I grabbed this later.

Noun

1.

rectory - an official residence provided by a church for its parson or vicar or rector.

Noun

1.

rectory - an official residence provided by a church for its parson or vicar or rector.

 "A fresh new adventurer, I arrived in the city of Bastille armed with only my short sword at my side. Night had fallen by the the time I arrived. I was directed to the 'Rectory of Father Bartholomew' who I presume is the leader of this city. He had little to say other than to welcome me, and bid me adventure into the surrounding lands. He is probably quite busy what with all the adventurers pouring into town these days."

Thanks dude.

 Forgotten World is an indie online game, acting as a remake of the "first MMORPG", AOL's Neverwinter Nights (Not to be confused with Bioware's NWN, or the recently released D&D "Neverwinter". Nostalgia is cool and all, but I'm afraid there's going to be 10 different games with the same name soon.). In general, it plays just like the original, with the same maps and encounters, with the names changed to protect the innocent. This means it recreates the MMORPG experience using the Gold Box engine, with a server multiple folks can be on at the same time. That's pretty cool!
 The website for the game is here:http://www.forgottenworld.com/Default.aspx

Oh no! An orc.

 The game hasn't been all that active recently, so I encourage people to check it out. It would be great to have some companions to adventure with. It can be a little tough to get started. I'm sure especially so if one is not familiar with the Gold Box and/or AD&D.

 All that being said, leave a comment if you are interested in playing and I will do my best to adventure with you!

 The most important piece of information I had to find out was that the game can be SPED UP by holding almost any key. If you don't know this, combat will seem like a big time drag! Of note as well is the stats are the same as AD&D, in the same order as the GB games, just with different names. "DL" Is AC, but on a rising scale with AC 10=DL 0. The class name changes are obvious. I have read that there are no demi-human level limits, but I haven't confirmed this in game yet. Also, be aware the game tops out at level 11.

 "Heading into the town square, I noticed an inn and an equipment shop that were thankfully still open, even at this late hour. Using the small bag of coins I had saved up, I purchased a suit of banded mail, a shield, sling, and hefted a well-balanced trident."

The town square. There is a large archive of community generated content, and one day I may look through it to try to find the significance of "Lollipop's tree house."

 I know a long sword would be the typical weapon here, but somewhere I read a page of tips for NWN saying a trident is the best single-handed weapon. A trident does 2-7 against medium opponents and 3-12 against large ones. While a long sword does 1-8 and 1-12. After giving this a little thought, I tended to agree. However, in some of the games a trident is a two-handed weapon, which makes it a clear loser to the one-handed long sword.
 
 "Not knowing exactly where to start, I meandered around the town square a bit. It was still relatively busy. I got the impression Bastille is a city that never sleeps. After small talk with a few folks, I chatted with a halfling fellow who told me 'Good man, I'd say find your fortunes at the harbor, it is the area of town most recently overrun by orcs, kobolds and the lot.' I thanked him, and headed to the East gate to take a look at this harbor."

 I remembered from the little I got to actually play NWN that the harbor (wharves in the original, I believe) was the easiest place to start. Being a huge Gold Box fan, I was beside myself with joy when my family decided to get AOL, having known about NWN for awhile. I would wait in the queue, often for an hour, only to get killed within minutes. My family was always impatient for me to get off the line since we had dial-up. Then, to my great distress NWN was cancelled only a month or so later. I wouldn't be surprised if my total time in-game was about an hour. So, imagine my happiness when I found Forgotten world!

No boat rentals in Bastille so far.

Alongside Forgotten World, I'll also be playing the FRUA (Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures) module of Neverwinter Nights. I'm hoping it will be fun to compare the two. Also, FRUA will allow the use of a full party, which may improve survivability in some cases.

Return again soon friends, for more of This Bard's Tales!

Here We Go!

A charming fellow in a wide-brimmed red hat strums a few chords on his six-string and begins to spin a tale...

 Hello there friend, I'm throwing in with all the other blogs inspired by the great one, The Crpg Addict. However, there will be differences! I'm going to focus a lot on composing (hopefully) entertaining descriptions, or "tales", of events in the game and embellishments I come up with. Essentially, to enhance my game experience, I want to put some extra "RP" in "role-playing game."

I was going to put a pic of the Wizard Works collection here, but I saw this first, and I really like it. http://neoartcore.deviantart.com/art/Wizard-304045273

  As with countless others out there, I've had in the back of my mind for YEARS (Essentially since I purchased the WIZWORKS CD in... '95 or something) that I wanted to complete all 9 Gold Box games, using partys created in the first game of each series and transferred through. I've started numerous times. I've even made it from Pool of Radiance to Pools of Darkness twice before burning out. I've made it to the last boss of Dark Queen of Krynn once (maybe twice?) before getting distracted by something else. I've yet to complete the last game in each series. I wouldn't be surprised if I've played through POR 10 times now. That one never gets old though, it's just that good! So, a big part of this blog is to enhance the experience of playing these games, to make it a little more imaginative and less of a slog fest by the time I get to Pools and DQK.

I've definitely played FF II (US) and FF IV of various versions at least 10 times. Has not gotten old.

  Now, I wouldn't stop there,  because my imagination knows no bounds. I have ALSO had in the back of my mind to complete all of the Final Fantasy games in order with 100% completion... so, we're going to do that, too! Along with some storyline, analysis, and especially a look at themes, items, spells and monsters throughout. Over the years I've dropped the 100% completion requirement, because that's like a lifetime of playing pretty much.

  From there it's Infinity Engine, Elder Scrolls, Ultima, Dark Souls, Sakura Wars, Seiken Densetsu... who knows! Oh yeah, I'm afraid I'm going to forget to do Hillsfar, so I need to just say it a lot. Hillsfar, Hillsfar... Hillsfar.

  I don't want this to be a chore, so I'm not setting up any lists or timelines. I may spin tales about any games I'm playing, including non-rpgs and even pen and paper games.  I'm going to jump around as I see fit to keep things fresh. I'm actually starting with TWO remakes of the original Neverwinter Nights!

So sit back, grab your favorite beverage, and enjoy THIS Bard's Tales!