Neverwinter Nights 2 Designer Diary #4 - The Coolest Things in Neverwinter Nights 2
Lead designer Josh Sawyer introduces us to his favorite features (like arson) in Neverwinter Nights 2, the sequel to 2002's acclaimed fantasy role-playing game.
Get a briefing on Neverwinter Nights 2 from creative director Chris Avellone.
Role-playing games such as Neverwinter Nights 2 immerse you into another world, and another life. You can take on the role of a warrior, thief, magician, and more, as you pursue a great quest, usually to defeat evil. With Neverwinter Nights 2, however, the focus is on improving the role-playing experience, as you can do lots of activities that you weren't able to do in the original game, like engaging in a little arson on the side for fun. It sounds a bit twisted, but that's how lead designer Josh Sawyer likes it. And in his designer diary, Sawyer tells us what he loves about the game. Neverwinter Nights 2 is scheduled to ship around the end of the month.
10 Things to Do in Neverwinter 2
By Josh SawyerLead Designer, Obsidian Entertainment
When developing a game, it's important for the developers to play the game. This might seem obvious, but it's easy to lose sight of the fact that we're making something that other people are going to use. We're making entertainment appliances, and a user's experience goes beyond what can be imagined, expressed in an area document, or visualized in an editor. It's a series of moments made up of their interactions and reactions to what the game gives them. It can't be expressed as some sort of abstracted arithmetic, despite the fact that it's composed of things that can be easily listed and understood: accessibility, curiosity, wonder, fear, anger, excitement, disappointment, satisfaction, pacing, frustration, amusement, and so on.
To understand why anyone would pick our game up or put it down, I set out on a three-week adventure through the highs and lows of the Neverwinter Nights 2 official campaign. There were, in fact, some lows. But, guess what, this article is meant to entice you to buy the game, so we'll skip the lows and go right to the highs. You should rest assured, though, as Obsidian's bug-fixing gnomes have constructed an antibug golem to automagically fix any and all problems I experienced during the course of my play-through. With that in mind, please join me as I recount my top 10 coolest things in the Neverwinter Nights 2 official campaign.
1. Cool Tutorial - I never get tired of playing our tutorial. Actually, that's a lie. I've played our tutorial about 30 times, and when I start it up now, I long for the sweet release of death. However, I do not want to murder everyone involved in the creation of our tutorial after 30 sessions! That means that if you play through it once or five times, you'll love it! Seriously, it's a lot of fun. You get to help a child engage in theft, and you can expose the fraudulent flimflams of an old man and his pig. What else can you ask for? You might be asking, "But can I beat up some jerks with clubs?" You got it, pal.
2. Role-Playing - When I made my character, Sass Afrass, I gave her the tale-teller background trait. I decided to role-play this by "bluffing" (lying) any time I had the [LIE] or [BLUFF] options in dialogue, regardless of how terrible the results of failure might be. I had a lot of opportunity to do this! Also, I had a lot of opportunity to fail my bluff checks because I didn't put many points into bluff. Often, people got mad at me and attacked me with magic missiles, and my character slowly started telling the truth. I think my character learned a little something about honesty and I learned a little something about life!
3. Guyven of the Road - Who is this dude? Why is he hiding in the grass all over the Sword Coast? What secrets does he know? These are mysteries you can solve if you find this discrete halfling during your travels. Then again, maybe you aren't a cool enough explorer to be Guyven's pal. Find him, before it's too late!
4. Death's Herald +5, Hellbane +3, and Fiendbreaker +4 - I bet these sound like the names of magic items I found in the game. You'd be wrong, my friend! These are magic items I crafted in the game from adamantine ingots and fire beetle glands and a bunch of garnets. Crafting in our game takes a long time, but when you can make a flaming frost cold iron greatsword +3, it's pretty much worth it. Given Dungeon & Dragons 3.5's damage-reduction rules, it's nice to be able to have a full toolset, so to speak. "Sorry, Ms. Werewolf, you're taking the express train to shocking frost alchemical silver greatsword +4 town!" And colors/italics/boldface? Yeah, you can type those in the name field when you enchant items. I tried to make a rainbow staff to celebrate the diversity of my party, but the field wasn't long enough.
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