FRUA: Neverwinter Nights and Forgotten World: Rankings

The box cover of oNWN. Like many of today's games, you had the choice to buy a physical copy, or to download it painfully slowly on your dial-up. Source.

FRUA: Neverwinter Nights
2012 based on a 1991 game
Forgotten World
1998 based on a 1991 game

I'm not sure exactly when Forgotten World first went live, but its development is listed as starting in 1998, which was the year after AOL cancelled Neverwinter Nights.

I was pretty determined to make it through F:NWN, I really was, but after putting in about 100 hours on the two games combined, I'm not seeing enough that it is worth continuing. The original game itself was probably pretty cool in its day, I'll give it that. Forgotten World suffers from not having an active community anymore. As far as the other, the mechanics of the original didn't transfer too well to FRUA, and the port also suffers from numerous bugs. In the interest of wrapping them up and moving on down my list, here are their rankings.

The credits for oNWN. It is credited to Stormfront Studios, and has the same core design team as Gateway to the Savage Frontier. The FRUA port was done by the appropriately named GoldBoxFan. Source.

The startup screen for FW. We can see it was developed by Electronic Concepts; beyond that the designers don't seem to care to toot their horns too much.

Both games, as you probably already know, are meant to be resurrections of the first MMORPG, AOL's Neverwinter Nights. It was a wildly popular online game using the AD&D rules and SSI's Gold Box engine. The game launched in 1991, and lasted until 1997. It's reasons for being cancelled still seem to be a bit of a mystery, as the game was very popular, perhaps the busiest it had ever been, at the time of it's cancellation. This sudden end set a community adrift who wanted something to fill the void left behind.

The Forgotten World website was created as a place for this community to stay connected, and plans seemingly started immediately to recreate the game. The updated game, utilizing name changes to avoid lawsuits, launched in the early to mid 2000's. My understanding is that it was also very popular! Unfortunately, with so many more online-game opportunities available these days, the hype had died down to almost non-existent when I discovered Forgotten World in 2014. After playing for 40 or more hours, I had only encountered other players online twice.

Forgotten World: All are welcome!

The difficulty of the encounters seems to assume that most of the time you will have traveling companions to help you out. Enter FRUA; what seems like a perfect answer to the lack of players. The FRUA port allows the player to create a full party of six characters and experience the same encounters the online game had to offer! It turned out to be an imperfect solution however, as an important dynamic in the original is that if you wander into an area that is too difficult, when you are defeated, you awaken closer to the safe-haven of Neverwinter. In FRUA, you can get stuck in an area that is too tough to get out of (Like I did... where beholders were guarding an exit, and I didn't have a chance against them.)

Toast... toast...

In addition, the port, because of the design constraints of FRUA, also leaves out the element of random treasure, which was probably why I constantly seemed short of magic items and coins. Lastly, it's swimming with bugs. This isn't uncommon for fan made modules. In this case, it's pretty frustrating though, as most of the things I encountered would have been obvious on a SINGLE playthrough. All the author had to do was check their work, and most of these things would have been fixed. If you're going to put in hours and hours to port this massive game, why not put in the time to make sure it works?

I'm not talking about this type of bug.

These games by their nature don't stand to do too well in my rankings. I'm sure the original online NWN was a hoot, and if FW ever get's it's player base back, it will probably be a great experience as well. For now, they are not so much. 

That being said, while the straight port to FRUA didn't work, I feel it does have the potential for a good re-make. If it was overhauled with the single player experience in mind, as opposed to directly recreating the online one, I think it could be pretty cool.

Mechanics - Although at its heart it is the same engine that Gateway had, it's implementation is not quite as great here. I won't get into the minutiae; the interface isn't as smooth is all. FRUA is a bit of struggle-bus trying to recreate certain elements of the online game.

4. Gateway to the Savage Frontier

5. Final Fantasy 13-2

6. Final Fantasy 13

7. Forgotten World

8. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

This moment is still satisfying in any of these games.

Storyline - Since quests needed to be repeatable, and have an open world, by nature there isn't an overarching storyline. Well, I guess the invasion of the Luskans is sort of a story, but not like you'd get in a single player game. There are little individual stories for quests that can be charming. FW ranks higher because content was added to the original.

4. Final Fantasy 10-2

5. Final Fantasy 13

6. Final Fantasy 13-2

7. Forgotten World

8. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

Atmosphere - There were some decent attempts at atmosphere with phrases like "You feel the presence of old magic," and, "You smell fire in the distance." Luskan had even been built up so much that I was nervous as I entered and saw it's strange skies; almost like there was a volcano in the distance or something. I was soon let down by yet another hack-n-slash dungeon slog though.

4. Final Fantasy 13-2

5. Gateway to the Savage Frontier

6. Final Fantasy 10-2

7. Forgotten World

8. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

They had me for a second.

End Game - Not applicable here, as I both didn't finish the games, and they probably don't have an end game!

Difficulty - Now here's a category these two can sink their teeth into. These games are hard, no bones about it. Forgotten World is a little easier because of the aforementioned mechanic of transporting your hero closer to safety upon their death.

1. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

2. Forgotten World

3. Final Fantasy 13

4. Final Fantasy 10-2

5. Gateway to the Savage Frontier

Balance - These two are the anti-champions in the balance category. One second you're fighting wild boars, and then next square it's dracoliches. I really don't know what they were going for with how the encounters were set up. Surprise? Horror? Killing the will to live? Forgotten World has the distinction of being at the bottom because of its addition of randomized enemy hit points.

4. Final Fantasy 10-2

5. Final Fantasy 13-2

6. Final Fantasy 13

7. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

8. Forgotten World

At my level? Not a chance!

Music - Like most Gold Box games NWN has only one piece of music, and since FW has none, it's between NWN and Gateway. Gateway's tune has a mysterious quality I like, but Neverwinter's overtakes it with sheer epicness. Yes, I take this very seriously.

3. Final Fantasy 10-2

4. Final Fantasy 10

5. Lightning Returns: FF13

6. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

7. Gateway to the Savage Frontier

Art - Both games have functional artwork. Forgotten World's has been retouched in higher resolution and with more colors.

3. Final Fantasy 10

4. Final Fantasy 13-2

5. Gateway to the Savage Frontier

6. Final Fantasy 10-2

7. Forgotten World

8. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

Best Villain - I had yet to encounter many, if any, characters that could qualify as villains, so I'm reaching here. In F:NWN I encountered an evil wizard who had captured Willow Clovyr, the North's most skilled metal worker. I think I liked him just because he looked a little ridiculous. It's a unique look, he stands out.

This is all it takes to get best villain here at This Bard's Tales. Is that a turtleneck?

I really hadn't encountered any true villains in FW, so I'm going with a classic, the kobold! Kobolds are my favorite D&D monster. The only thing better than beating up on kobolds is when they surprise you with their cunning (ala Pool of Radiance). Kobolds are awesome; I'll try not to be biased here.

4. Gilgamesh (FF13-2)
5. Shuyin (FF10-2)
6. Broadhand (GttSF)
7. Evil Necromancer (F:NWN)
8. Kobold (FW)

Oh Kobold, you stole my heart... and my cat.

Worst Villain - In Forgotten World, there was some added content that was not in the original game. There was what, to me, appeared to be a Thieve's Guild you could enter with the right password. A man starts to say it, "Dra...", then is cut off by a dagger to the throat. I tried about thirty different words starting with dra, including doing them backwards because it was written on a mirror. No success; bummer.

In Luskan, I ran into this awesome curmudgeon of a pirate who just goes on a rant about how it aint like the ol' days anymore. I loved it.

4. Vaalgamon (GttSF)
5. Jihl Nabaat (FF13)
6. Caius Ballad (LR:FF13)
7. Angry Old Pirate (F:NWN)
8. Thieve's Guild Guard (FW)

"You kids don't understand what it's like to make a good, honest, living; killing and robbin' others!"

Best Ally - This one is easy for Forgotten World. The centaur who joins you in a fight is very majestic looking, and helps you out with tips as well. He's not so majestic in F:NWN. The sailor who was slowly being turned to stone, and perished dramatically, made an impression on me in that game.

4. Rikku (FF10-2)
5. Krevish (GttSF)
6. The Angel of Valhalla (LR:FF13)
7. Centaur (FW)
8. Stoned Guy (F:NWN)

Centaur: A Side by Side Comparison, FRUA: Neverwinter Nights.

Centaur: A Side by Side Comparison, Forgotten World.

Worst Ally - The worst ally winners are the men who you are likely to meet first in each game, the City's respective leaders; Lord Nasher and Father Bartholomew. Supposedly they offer quests, of which I didn't receive any. The rewards they offer of a few hundred coins or a couple gems are a pittance compared to the dangers you will have faced to recover such items as the're looking for.

4. Chocolina (FF13-2)
5. "Hope Estheim" (LR:FF13)
6. Jagaerda (GttSF)
7. Father Bartholomew (FW)
8. Lord Nasher (F:NWN)

Bart is ranked higher, because he actually gets a portrait in-game.

Best Enemy - There is a sheep shearing shop in both games. Upon entering, you are attacked by a wolf! I sort of fell in love with this guy. To keep things interesting, I'm going with the crocodiles in F: NWN. They were scary one-on-one, but funny with a party.

4. Angra Mainyu (FF10-2)
5. Jihl Nabaat (FF13-2)
6. Wolf in Sheep's Shop (FW)
7. Zhentil Fighter (GttSF)
8. Crocodile (F:NWN)

Worst Enemy - In F:NWN I dreaded fighting mammoths of all things. In the other Gold Box games I've encountered them, they weren't that threatening (Secret of the Silver Blades), but man did they beat the crap out of me in this one. If it was one, I would be okay, but they kept on coming! In larger numbers!

In Forgotten World, I'm giving the nod to the tree man. The're not all that threatening; more so annoying. They have a load of attacks from their branches and can grab on to you. They were so annoying because I fought a particular random battle with trees and thieves probably a hundred times or more.

4. Meonekton (LR:FF13)
5. Mammoth (F:NWN)
6. Guado (FF10)
7. Claret Dragon (FF10-2)
8. Tree Man (FW)

Just seeing a picture of this battle gets me on edge.

I really don't think I saw enough of these games to place them in the categories of mini-games and side quests, so I'm leaving those N/A for now.

Overall - Neither of these games is a hot prospect right now. Forgotten World just needs players, so it rates higher. F:NWN needs a complete bug check, and maybe more.

4. Final Fantasy 10-2
5. Final Fantasy 13-2
6. FInal Fantasy 13
7. Forgotten World
8. FRUA: Neverwinter Nights

I felt like I'd been hit by a feeblemind more than once while playing these games.

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5 Gil to Beans for correctly predicting the presence of a sea monster!

FRUA: Neverwinter Nights, Chapter 8: Release the (Baby) Kraken!

The stern of the Gallant Prince loomed above them as the party rowed into the large vessel's shadow. The quiet was broken by the sloshing of water, as black tentacles rose from the water to rock the already precarious boat! The party fought the beast with oars and swords, but as they neared the far pier, the boat was tipped, and Ranzo found himself in the water! August and Marcus feared their heavy armor would sink them to their deaths, so they remained in the boat. August began removing his magical chain mail hauberk as Adon dove into the water, his short sword in his teeth.

Somewhat worse for wear, Ranzo and Adon emerged from the water just as the rest of the party arrived with the boat. As the last of them crawled from the rocking boat on to the far dock, the tentacles gripped tight around the little boat, crushing it and dragging it to the depths below. The drawbridge was now their only option to return to Port Llast. "Never a dull day in this line of work is there? That's why I signed up, though." Ranzo quipped as he chuckled and began to wring out his clothing.

The Company found the nearest building they could find that seemed relatively safe, planning to set up a fire and dry themselves off after their ordeal. The building was an old ship repair shop, with a roof still perched on it, that they hoped would hide their fire somewhat from whatever creatures haunted this place.

I think I know who this is referencing, any guessers?

Being as they had recovered a horde of platinum coins and magic items in their recent quests, The Company had a healthy amount of food to prepare over their fire. There was hearty soup, and salted beef. Although dangerous, the life of the successful adventurer was not without its luxuries. Once they were all comfortable, Ranzo spoke a bit about his past. "This is why I'm doing this," he began, "I'd see a meal like this maybe once a year when I was a sailor on the Moonsea, and certainly not while we were on the water. It's worth tangling with a kraken for this," he paused as he took a sip of soup.

"That was no kraken," observed Marcus, the ranger, "My cousin's ship was taken down by a kraken up north, he said it was as big as Lord Nasher's castle. A single one of its tentacles could have crushed that little boat. More likely it was a squid."

"Perhaps it was a baby?" asked Ranzo.

They all had a good laugh at that, and traded tales into the night, thankfully being able to rest uninterrupted.

The next day they found an adversary who they could only assume was some sort of mastermind of the local trouble makers. He was having a meeting in a hidden room behind a shop whose sign said simply "fish." This harbor was littered with hidden rooms, probably because shady operations were the norm here.  Strangely enough, he was not a Luskan pirate. The man was a cleric cloaked in black, with the holy symbol of Bane, a black hand, about his neck. Flanking him were two warriors of the Zhentarim.

They proved little match for the The Company, however, all were worried these foes could be a sign of an even greater threat.  The presence of the Black Network here could mean there was an alliance between the Zhents and Luskan, a prospect that would be quite dire. There was only one way to find out, to push on towards the city of Luskan.

Avrilenne used her divine power as she waved her hand over their foes equipment to detect magic. Her eyes widened as almost all of it began to glow with various colored auras. They would need to return to Neverwinter, to put all those valuable items in safe keeping at the city's vault.

Look at all the loot! There are no +2 weapons though, so I still can't harm elementals.

As they had also now found all three switches and put them in their proper position; they crossed the drawbridge and made their way back to the City of Skilled Hands.

I wanted to picture what this thing might have looked like. Source.

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FRUA: Neverwinter Nights, Chapter 7: The Llast Spider Fighter

While exploring the tattered shell of the Gallant Prince, The Company had discovered a pile of brass buttons that seemed to have been dislodged from a uniform in battle. The man they had found, who had turned to stone in front of their eyes, had mentioned that he had seen the coat of arms of Luskan on the pirates who boarded the Prince. After examining the buttons, Aria Darkstar, the raven-haired sorceress observed, "I'm not completely sure, but this emblem is tugging at my memory, I bet its the Luskans. Perhaps we should take them to Lord Nasher to be sure?"

After a short discussion, it was agreed they would do so.

Lord Nasher was supposed to give a reward for finding the buttons, but it wasn't implemented correctly in the module.

Showing the buttons to Nasher's retainer, they were immediately granted audience. "This proves it," Nasher said, examining the items, "The pirates of Luskan are indeed the culprits in the looting of the Prince. You have done a great service to the North by defeating the monsters that had taken up residence in the Gallant Prince. I wonder, would you be willing to explore the rest of the harbor? It has been closed down for years and generally assumed abandoned, but it could make a suitable hideout for the Luskans. Once that area is safe, move north towards the city itself, and see if you can find anything that might help us combat this menace."

"Aye, it would be our honor, my lord," said August Star, bowing.

It was late evening when they arrived at the gate to the harbor, the chill bite of the ocean was in the air, and all was silent besides the gentle lapping of the harbor waves. "Why did we come here at night?" asked Avrilenne, "It looks like we're headed into a ghost town."

No one answered her.

Lord Nasher's instincts were correct, the "abandoned" harbor indeed had plenty of occupants. While exploring the abandoned buildings The Company was attacked by roaming bands of cockatrices and margoyles. The cockatrice, a combination of rooster and snake, would be humorous, if it were not for  their ability to turn the victims of their touch to stone! 

Avrilenne was stoned, but spontaneously healed with 1hp afterwords. A character can't die in random encounters, to emulate the original game.

There were two strange figures they encountered on the south shore of the harbor, who alluded to a group of three switches that would allow them to cross the water. The first was an orc, who sat with his sword across his lap. He was no typical orc, as he did not wish to dive into battle immediately and give up his life. He offered information about the switches for a piece of jewelry, but the party had only gems to offer. The orc declined.

A friendly orc! (F)ight (L)eave

The other was a woman, who asked them fervently to succeed where her protector had failed. She told them they must find three switches to allow them to "walk safely." Ranzo noticed the sound of footsteps behind them, which was followed by a dagger in the dark! He turned to see if the woman was alright, but she was gone. The thrower of the dagger was not to be found, all in all, it was a very eerie experience. "I believe she was a ghost," said Avrilenne, "thankfully not of the malevolent sort."

Continuing on after their encounter with the assumed ghostly visage, there was no time to relax, as they found out while exploring a long abandoned building labeled as "Colwyn's Fish Emporium." The place thankfully no longer smelled of fish, but it was covered wall to wall in thick, dusty, cobwebs. "Uggh.." Aria shuddered as they slowly cut their way through the webs, "I hate spiders."

"I don't mind them if the're not of the giant variety," answered Ranzo.

No sooner had he finished, then a group of large, hairy web spinners descended from the shadows all around them. Both Ranzo and Aria yelled in fright at their sudden appearance. Before the party could settle themselves, three of their number had been bitten by the monstrosities and fell unconcious from poison. It was only due to Aria's and Ranzo's covering the whole area in stinking clouds that they made it out alive. After setting up make-shift litters, it was time to head back to Tyr's temple, The Hall of Justice, in Neverwinter to cleanse their bodies of the deadly poison.

It looked something like this. Source.

Upon their return from that endeavor, they all promised to be a little more wary of spider webs. The last area the party found to explore on the southern side of the harbor held a drawbridge, which was currently useless to them, as it was in the "up" position. It didn't take a genius intelligence to realize lowering this bridge must be the function of the switches they had been told about. Although the bridge was impassable to them at the moment, there was a boat tied to a pier nearby. It was barely seaworthy. A substantial puddle in its center was a testament to its leaks. Lacking other options, the party reluctantly boarded it, and paddled through the shadow of the Gallant Prince to the north side of the harbor. The gentle waves were comforting, in this otherwise very dangerous place.  

  

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FRUA: Neverwinter Nights, Chapter 6: Hurts So Good?

Here I am, starting Neverwinter Nights with a new party again! This is my third time, possibly even fourth. This all comes about from my obsession with having the "perfect party." Every time I come up with a new party arrangement, I'm compelled to start from the beginning again, to "get it right this time." I know I'm not the only one who suffers from this affliction, as it gained a name in an old post at CRPG Addict. After getting distracted by digging through old posts on CRPG Addict, I can't seem to find that particular one. 10 Gil to the first to do so!

Aw, the ol' wolf in the sheep shearing shop.

My experience with Neverwinter Nights has been a love-hate relationship. I love the variety of tactics that come in to play with the encounters, and I get excited when I see the beginnings of a quest. The quests have yet to shake out to anything much though, and most of the encounters are brutally difficult.

I can't say what the original online experience was like, that is, besides my very limited time with the game. I remember getting killed constantly, which I understand now having played the game more. The chances of a single character surviving are very, very low. I know the game was wildly popular and crowded in it's day, so perhaps this was never really an issue. I do think the practice of "grind to max-level then start role-playing," as is the case with some modern MMOs, was prevalent though.

If Lord Nasher actually gives any missions, I haven't received one.

So, I think in the end I've been let down, as I expected a huge open-world Gold Box experience. The game does deliver this to an extent, but I don't understand why the combats are so difficult. Even with a full party I think I probably lose the set combats more than I win. Some encounters I had to play 10 or more times to pass. In a typical game, I would just move on to a different area, but everywhere outside of the confines of Neverwinter is just as difficult! Grinding near the city isn't an option because the easy encounters hand out pitiful experience.

He did eventually acknowledge an item I picked up!

I assume my own expectations are causing more than a bit of my distress though. After-all, how much can I fault the first MMORPG for being like an MMORPG? Just because it's a Gold Box game didn't save it from the pitfalls that come with that genre. 

I've also been operating under my own assumption that the encounters get harder as you move further from Neverwinter, but this is only partially true. While the overall difficulty does increase, I don't think you can "clear out" each section before moving on, like I have been, without ending up in some seriously difficult encounters. I've been taking the "lawnmower" approach to exploring. As I return to the game, I think I'll continue exploring that way, but I'm not going to expect to defeat every encounter before I move on to the next area. Some of the encounters have been well-nigh impossible at my level, and I only got by through the luck of the stinking cloud. Bulettes, I'm looking at you! Those "land-sharks" could down or kill my characters in one round. The good side of the difficulty is that it has stretched my tactics to their limits. As you know, I prefer balance to my challenges, though.

Just as I was about to give up on beating this set battle... three clouds disabled all four bulettes.

In Port Llast, I encountered a veritable army of goblins, but they were relatively easy to defeat with good tactics. Something I've been trying to remember to do more is to back into doors to use the terrain effectively. In my youth my tactic was either to charge or wait. With my age and wisdom (har har), I've learned that the best defensive position sometimes requires moving backwards from the starting deployment.

Neverwinter Nights tactics!

So far Neverwinter Nights has pretty much been a Gold Box combat simulator. This is certainly not without its rewards, but it doesn't easily fit into my vision for the blog. I'm going to keep at it though! Perhaps perseverance will yield more ways to get some role-playing involved. I do want to complete this game and get it off my list.

F:NWN does have its moments of immersion.

Speaking of the list, Forgotten World is tabled because of technical difficulties. Also, Although I was going to playthrough the original game "offline", I don't see that happening. Playing NWN with a single character requires more patience than I have. However, I have jumped into it to check some things in the FRUA port against the original.

For example, there are a few things in the Gallant Prince that seem to have not been programmed correctly. Exits not leading to the correct entrances is a simple way to put it. I loaded up oNWN to see what was really supposed to happen, and found that the area in question was not in that version! So, I'm just going to move on from Port Llast and it's harbor for the time being.

Using my GM powers to walk through the walls of the Gallant Prince, only to see that Port Llast harbor does not exist!

You'll find out soon how my new approach to Neverwinter Nights goes!

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FRUA: Neverwinter Nights, Chapter 5: Beginning Anew, Again

Sit down, make yourselves comfortable. Tonight I will spin you a tale of a place we've been many times before. That is, the great city of Neverwinter. Although the city is a safe haven for many folk, including the crafstmen it is known for, Neverwinter also always seems to be in a fair bit of trouble. This trouble is just what our intrepid party of adventurers seeks.

Once again this is not the Neverwinter I'm playing. Maybe in ten years? Source.

They grew up far to the east, in the besieged city of New Phlan. Their heroes were a small party, not unlike themselves, who came from nothing, but eventually overthrew the evil warlord who sought the dominance of Phlan, Tyranthraxus.

Spoiler alert! Actually, if you're reading my blog, I assume you know about this already. Source.

New Phlan was experiencing a time of prosperity and peace, hardly suitable for adventure, so our party moved west, to Neverwinter. News had traveled on the lips of merchants and refugees that the City of Skilled Hands was besieged on all sides by evil humanoids, pirates, and worse... dragons!

Our party, who had named themselves "The Company", was led by the paladin August Star. He was a patient man, especially for a holy paladin, who had begun losing his dark hair at a young age. His patron was Lathandar, the Lord of the Morning. 

Avrilenne was August's hard headed sister, a warrior cleric of Tyr, the god of justice.

Marcus Heartshield was a ranger. While he felt at home in the wilds, as a devoted follower of Chauntea he also cared dearly for civilization. However, he believes in striking a harmony between the order of civilization and the wilds of nature.

The suavest member of our party was certainly the swashbuckling elf Ranzo Ray. He was multi-talented, a former sailor who had tired of life at sea. In addition to his skills learned at sea, he learned magic as a youth among his people.

Adon Sapphire was a dwarf who grew up on the mean-streets of New Phlan's slums. His hard living has given him a number of skills, including those of a somewhat less than legal nature.

Last of all was Aria Darkstar, a mysterious woman with long, shining black hair. She was an often quiet magic-user. Although the others had known her long, they never could tell her motives.

I used Wizard's Character Name Generator to get some inspiration for the new names.

You may notice a similarity to our last heroes, but it is simply coincidence, before you is a whole new group of adventurers ready to test their mettle in Neverwinter.

They entered the gates of Neverwinter with a glint in their eyes, and payed their respects to Lord Nasher, as the guards suggested they do.

I believe it is a nod to Gateway that this game has a boat rental shop, but you can't use it! Renting boats plays a big part in Gateway to the Savage Frontier.

I won't bore you with the details of our new heros' cleaning out of the immediate surroundings of Neverwinter. Just like the adventurer's I've told you of before, they systemically searched the wharves and warehouses. Through sheer determination, they defeated both the menacing minotaur and troll of Southwall, hidden behind their secret doors.

They headed north to Windycliffs, where they faced their greatest challenges yet. Kraken spies led a trained mammoth. A harpy sang songs which could charm the listener into turning on their allies, and a banshee's screech could cause instant death to the listener! They braved all these hazards, and reaped piles of gold and gems as a reward.

The aftermath of one of the battles with the mammoth. I thought I was going to sneak away with Aria getting the 4,222 XP. However, Ranzo had been killed during the battle. Even if I had the coin to raise him, this game implements the pnp rules accurately; elves cannot be raised from the dead.

After their adventures in Windycliffs, they headed north, on to Port Llast. They had heard many rumors that the pirates of the north, from Luskan, were the source of many Neverwinter's troubles. Perhaps they could find out more in Port Llast. The talk of the town was the Gallant Prince, a ship that had left the harbor, and then returned most mysteriously, apparently absent of crew.

Nothing could guarantee more that the adventurers most certainly will check below decks! 

No one in The Company was at all surprised when they found that the tattered Prince was indeed occupied. It was not sailors they found though, but hellhounds, skeletons and zombies. The captain's quarters were ransacked, but they did find some clues on the upper levels of the ship.

Our party stepped onto some sort of levitation circle, raising them to a hidden mezzanine above the captain's room. They were immediately assaulted by humanoids with green, taught skin and loincloths. Avrilenne immediately recognized them as flesh hungry ghouls, and used the power of Try to turn the hungering dead away.

At the end of the passage was a disturbing sight, a man was there, chained up. He said he was the last of the sailors who had left on the ship. He was no ordinary prisoner, though, as he appeared to be very slowly transforming into stone.

"They... they... use magic to keep me like this," he began, "The pirates from Luskan, I saw their insignia. They brought with them hideous women, medusa... they, used their magic to make me like this. Then, the pirates..." he was then silenced as he turned to stone completely before their eyes.

A guy like this was on the Gallant Price in Gateway as well, another connection.

"This torture is inexcusable," said Avrilenne, "Justice must be brought to these pirates and their minions, in the name of Tyr."

Adon nodded,"Why not? We haven't any other leads." 

Original Neverwinter Nights - 1: Original, or Extra Tasty Crispy?

Neverwinter... that legendary city of Faerun, acting as a haven for adventurers on the edge of the Savage Frontier. A new would-be hero approached the palace of Lord Nasher, a former adventurer himself. This young half-elf had dubbed himself the "Knight of Neverwinter", but only time would tell if he could live up to his self appointed title.

The young man, standing tall with pride, his hand on the hilt of his short sword, entered the palace. The regal Nasher, being constantly approached by adventurers, would not be bothered to rise from his seat. "I am Lord Nasher. Welcome to Neverwinter my friend."

Our hero took a long, deep breath, then shouted "I am the Knight of Neverwinter, and I shall liberate this great city!"

Lord Nasher's eyes grew wide momentarily, but his response calm,"Uh, ok... go forth and explore new lands. Good bye." Nasher then turned away to resume a conversation with one of his assistants.

Satisfied with his entrance, our hero nodded, then ventured forth, to adventure!  

Note: To hopefully avoid confusion, I'll refer to the versions of Neverwinter Nights as Original Neverwinter Nights (oNWN), FRUA: Neverwinter Nights (F:NWN), and Forgotten World (FW).

This is not the Neverwinter Nights I'm playing, sorry if I got your hopes up.

While I was playing Final Fantasy 13, it was definitely in the back of my mind that I wanted to continue to intermix Gold Box game posts in with the FF stuff. It's been a while since I'd played any of these games, which always takes a second to reintegrate. I ended up having some technical difficulties with Forgotten World that will probably get ironed out, I'll talk about that in my next post on that game. 

While I play Forgotten World, and F:NWN, whenever I encounter something frustrating, I often think, "Was the original game really like this?" The only thing stopping me from playing the original is that the only version I've seen does not allow the player to save, necessitating a restart every time they open up the game. This "offline" version is available at what is probably the most comprehensive oNWN archive site, at Bladekeep.

Something I realized a little while back is that this offline version assumes the player is a GM, and thus contains debug powers, allowing you to teleport, edit your character, skip combat and all that jazz. It occurred to me that one might be able to "save" by screencapping their character than editing it on the next load. Turns out that is totally possible! (DOSBox save states would probably be even easier, but I'm comfortable with the version I'm using now.) So here I am, now playing no less than THREE iterations of Neverwinter Nights at one time! Given the nature of these games, that is "open world" and with relatively slow character progression, they are going to be games that I play for a long time, playing and posting periodically among my other stuff. I mean, I've put in 20-30 hours each on FW and F:NWN, and have barely scratched the surface of exploring the available areas. That sounds like a compliment, but really it's because at the lower levels you can barely survive anywhere. Obviously I still have hope for them though, because I'm still playing.

Here we go again!

After trying out a Ranger/Mage build in FW I've decided to go back to my original idea, the Cleric/Fighter/Mage. The Ranger overall survived much better, however, the lack of spells made it very hard to win tougher combats without the disabling abilities of the mage. This would all be fine once the build is complete, however, that means building a Ranger to level 10 and a mage to level 11 before your character is all that viable. I'm not willing to wait that long. The issues with the C/F/M are slow progression (Exp. is divided by 3) and low Hit Points (Also divided by three). However, the character is more "viable" as a solo while you're still building levels, in my opinion. As far as I know FW was gracious enough to throw out the humano-centric AD&D level limits, but being an official product, oNWN of course has them. That means my Half-Elf C/F/M will max out at levels 5/8/8 instead of 11/12/11. Bummer, but I weighed the options and decided it was still worth it.

You'll pay 20 gold for my spetum? Gross, man. I hope it's for science and not something sexual.

Oh! You mean this thing.

 

Not surprisingly since this is the official release of the game, I find it plays the smoothest, and seems the most balanced from an encounter and treasure standpoint. Each of the versions has their benefit though: oNWN has pro-polish, FW has online play, and F:NWN allows one person to control a whole party.

So far I've played this version for about 6 hours, I've only gotten my character's feet wet in the wharves. One good thing about these games is that, I'm not sure exactly why, but exploring and grinding in the same 16x16 square area for 6 hours doesn't get all that boring. It's a testament to the Gold Box games that this is true. With a game like this, it's also quite viable to watch let's plays or catch up on Netflix at the same time you're playing, which helps too.

Poor Bill, human trafficking is wrong.

 

There are a few things I've noticed so far about this version of the game. First off, turning undead causes them to flee. Some Gold Box games make them simply disappear, but the disadvantage to that is that you don't get experience for them. I prefer the disappearing for the high level games where the exp. isn't all that important, and the fleeing for the low level games. The "timer" from the original game is also intact. That is, if you take too long to make your move in combat a timer starts ticking down, and you "pass" when it reaches 0. This was in there to keep the game from bogging down during multiplayer, and it's presence here isn't a big deal. The game clock is also similarly not based on the player's moves and resting, which is different than most Gold Box games. FW uses a server clock based on actual time. Since oNWN is "offline" I'm not sure if it uses the player's computer's time, or simply it's own internal timer.

Guisarme, Bill's grandfather. That's all the pole-arm jokes I have... for now! 

As I've been exploring the wharves, I noticed after certain encounters I would get a "complete (number)" message after winning certain combats. I assume this is related to getting a reward from Lord Nasher for "clearing" a block, ala Pool of Radiance. I've found five of these combats, but have yet to get any new messages from Nasher. After trying a few things, such as not leaving the area until I'd won all the combats, and doing them in order, I hadn't made any progress. If you've read my posts on FF13, you know how much I love "trial and error" gameplay, so I decided to look for an FAQ or walkthrough. (For those of you who think that's cheating, I've come to terms with it like this: If I'm stuck on one thing for 1 or 2 hours and can't think of anything else to try, I'll look it up. Life's too short to fiddle too long with suspect game design.) I couldn't find anything specific to this quest unfortunately, but I did find a decent FAQ in an archive!

I made a joke about encountering these guys in F:NWN. They're not nearly as funny as a solo character.

 

For a while now I've been trying to figure out how encounters respawn in FW, which applies here as well. I figured some were keyed to the day/night cycle, and that they respawned by stepping on those squares. However, my science couldn't yield conclusive results. The FAQ spelled it out for me succinctly, different encounters have different requirements to respawn... Derr... why didn't I think of that? So, I figured out that while I'm going to be grinding anyway, I might as well figure out how each encounter works. That being said, I've just started this, and once again... nothing conclusive yet!

Sweat dripping from his brow, and his breath heavy, the Knight of Neverwinter grunted as he removed his trident from the neck of the now dead crocodile. This adventuring thing was a little tougher than he had at first imagined he though, but the challenge only strengthened his resolve to live up to his title. For more of our hero's adventures, come back soon... for This Bard's Tales!

Total Game Time: 5.5 hours 

(Oddly enough, I missed keeping track of my play time. By using decimals instead of minutes, I've made the bookkeeping more manageable, so it's back.)

         

Forgotten World - 6: Fighting Under the Influence

August was tucked behind a large ceder tree in the groves of Bastille. He was surrounded by the high-pitched yipping sounds of a swarm of kobolds. Feeling strangely over confident, he decided he needed a drink, reaching down to the flask of Bastille's famous ale at his belt. He wet his lips with the brew, then decided to go bottoms up, downing it all. "Ohsshat... that hitz me a lot faster... den I expacted," he slurred, stumbling out from his hiding place, to see an army of 100 kobolds! Unbeknownst to him at the time, only about 8 of them were real...

Now that I'm playing a single class ranger, I'm almost embarrassed how much easier the game is with a better class choice. It's by no means easy, but as far as I can remember my new character is handling things a lot better than my original one did.  I'm feeling the lack of instant stun spells like sleep and stinking cloud, but this is mitigated by my much improved melee abilities and greater hit points.

Last post I mentioned that I had encountered another player in the game and chatted with them for the first time. In a fortuitous happening, I played again the next night... and once again encountered another player! What are the chances?

Encountering another player on the 3D navigation map.

With my new character, I'm essentially looking for good places to "grind" to get back to the point where I can explore the areas I was in with my previous character. I've found the giant spiders to be one of the best opponents, as they are relatively easy (if they have poison in this game, it is very weak), and yield about 400xp. However, grinding can be a bit difficult because I'm not sure I have a hang on how the encounters re-spawn. I'm fairly sure the encounters are divided by day and night, just like they are in FRUA: Neverwinter Nights. Here's what I think happens in Forgotten World: You reset encounters by stepping on their square in the opposite part of the day. So, if you step on a night encounter square during the day, you will be able to fight that encounter again when night comes back around. I'm not 100% sure about this though, I haven't fully tested this theory.

Spider, he is our hero.

To follow up on my last post, remember I had equipped an ale? I was quite curious if I could use the ale for something. I quickly found I couldn't throw it, so I decided to "use" it, which alerted me I had drank one. Something quite peculiar happened then... the screen didn't refresh itself, and suddenly myself and my enemies where wandering around my inventory screen. This is most likely a bug, of course, but it was an inadvertently appropriate result for chugging ale!

August tips back one too many cold ones...

To summarize something else I've been holding onto, I think it's a nice touch how the game's skyline has a transitional period during sunrise and sunset instead of suddenly switching from day to night. Here are some screenshots to demonstrate.

A sunny day over the groves.

 

The last vestiges of sunlight over the groves.

The twinkling firmament over the groves.

I've laid down a lot of text in the last few days, so I'm going to call this post good here. Looking at my notes, I have just reached level 5, and hope I can now take down the minotaur in Southshire to get his magical battle axe. After I have a magical weapon, I'll move on to new areas.

Confident in his latest training, and having learned a valuable lesson about consuming alchohol during combat, August hoisted his long sword and shield, preparing to face the infamous minotaur of Southshire. To find out how he fares, come back again soon... to This Bard's Tales!

Play Time to Post: 7h 20m

Total Play Time: 34h 25m