Blood & Gold: What is it?

So what is this thing I am working on? Blood & Gold is a module for Neverwinter Nights 2 set in and around the small frontier town of Deadsnows. Deadsnows is conveniently located on the northern slopes of the Nether Mountains in a land known as the Silver Marches--think small gold mining town that is often cut off from all traces of civilization during the long, cold winters. It is a land filled with many dangers, including harsh summer squalls, spring snow blizzards, deadly avalanches, and unhealthy inhabitants such as dire bears, orc brigands, and worse creatures.

Once a small outpost built on the ruins of a keep of a human lord who dreamed of establishing a kingdom here, Deadsnows is now a booming mining town. It all started in the spring of 1372 DR when a hunter discovered gold in one of the mountain streams he often traversed. Soon after, word spread and prospectors descended upon the small town in large numbers. In many ways, I imagine Deadsnows as having the vibe of an old American West gold mining town full of dangerous outlaws and bloodthirsty natives prowling the hills.

I am aiming to make this a very free flowing type of game where the player has control over what he will do and see, and the plot revolves around these choices. It will use an overland map similar to the one in Obsidian’s SoZ expansion pack and the player will be able to create his own party—if he chooses. I will also include several companions that can be used to fill out the group.

Another feature I am proud of is the use of several opening plot hooks from which the player can pick. The player can choose to either be a courier from Silverymoon with a message for Lady Icespear, nominal ruler of Deadsnows, or he can be on a personal quest to answer a plea for help from an old friend. There are other hooks as well, each leading to a different opening and possibly with larger plot consequences later in the game. You can even play the game as a blood thirsty mercenary who kills everything in sight.

While the focus will be on exploration, I also want to include one or two good dungeon crawls with strong story lines. In fact, the original inspiration for the campaign was a longish dungeon crawl that I was planning with the provisional title of “The Chaos Horn.” In deciding where to set it, I ran across the Blood & Gold scenario as outlined in Wizard of the Coast’s Silver Marches supplement. The idea I was working on seemed like a perfect fit, so I blended the two together and came up the current form of the game—a longer and more ambitious project.

Well, I guess that is enough for today. I will try to post some more screen shots in my next post and give some idea of progress.

Sample Shots from Upcoming Module: Blood & Gold

So why don't I start this whole blogging thing with some posts from a module for Neverwinter Nights 2 that I am working on called Blood & Gold (that's just a provisional title). 

Now ain't that purty

And here is one more of the same area.  Note the way I did the multi-leveled stream using placed effects.  I'm not sure if it works entirely, but it looks good enough to me.

Now that's a better close up of the stream effect I am going after.

In case you are wondering, this module is roughly based on a scenario published in Wizards of The Coast's Silver Marches supplement by the same name.  Originally, I was working on a separate idea for a long dungeon crawl type thingy, but saw that I could fit my original idea into the above mentioned scenario.

I can't promise I will actually finish this module, but it is what I am working on at the moment.

I'll post more details about features and such in future posts.