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Bloodright - The Blood Royal
Submitted by:
Submitted by Migrate Wizard on 2014-07-05 02:58.
Last modified:
2016-05-16 15:01
Version:
3.01
Old Vault Category:
modules
Old Vault ID:
4298
Game:
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| Title | Bloodright: The Blood Royal |
| Author | Scott Kurkul |
| Submitted / Updated | 10-01-2005 / 02-08-2010 |
| Category | City Adventure |
| Expansions | HOTU-1.69 |
| Setting | The adventure takes place in the city of Deornhal and its environs. This is a setting of my own creation. |
| Gameplay Length | The module is mostly non-linear; the player will have to find his or her own way, and therefore is not required to complete all side quests. However, if you do complete each and every quest, the module length can run about 40 hours. |
| Number Players | One |
| Language | English |
| Level Range | The module should take players from level 1 to as high as level 12 (and possibly higher). |
| Races | Human only |
| Tricks & Traps | Medium |
| Roleplay | Medium |
| Hack & Slash | Medium |
| Classes | Any of the classes may be played, although players may not begin as either a monk or barbarian (This is merely for story purposes--you may multiclass to these later on if you so desire). |
| Scope | Large |
| DMNeeded | No DM Required |
| Single or Multiplayer | Single Player |
| Max Character Level | 01 |
| Max # Players | 01 |
| Min # Players | 01 |
| Min Character Level | 01 |
| Content Rating | Teen |
| Alignments | All alignments are supported, although there may not quite be as many evil paths as there are good and neutral. |
| Gameplay Hours | 40 |
| Description | |
| As your mother lay on her deathbed, breathing in her last ragged gasps, she at last told you the identity of the father you'd never known--King Aelfrecht of Elondria. Pressing his old signet ring into your hand and whispering a final entreaty to go to the capital of Deornhal and seek out Faelred, your mother passed on into the next life, leaving you alone and adrift in a world that had suddenly become strange. Now your travels have brought you to the great city of Deornhal, commercial hub and seat of power for the kingdom of Elondria. Yet tragedy has befallen the nation as King Aelfrecht lies dying from an unknown disease. Without his guiding hand, the veneer of stability surrounding the city has crumbled away, revealing the rotted foundation beneath. Turmoil now reigns supreme in Deornhal as factions large and small battle for control while awaiting the king's demise. Some move openly to oppose the rightful government, while others cloak their actions in shadow and secrecy. Who will you join in this roiling miasma of deceit and treachery--and what will be your destiny? A single-player adventure for first level human characters. This adventure is mostly nonlinear, although there are hints and suggestions to guide you along the major quest path. You can follow these suggestions, or wander around the city to discover things at your own pace. Note: You will need to download the Bloodright Music HAK, the Bloodright HAK, the Bloodright Opening Movie, and the Bloodright End Movies files in order to play this module. Note that this module no longer requires the CEP to be installed. ** This is update version 3.01 | |
Files:
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 bloodright_-_the_blood_royal.rar (0) | 78.08 MB |
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One of the best modules for NWN and one of the best RPGs I've played in the last years. The fact that it was made by a single person is pretty mindblowing, considering its nonlinearity, the amount of choices and consequences and multiple, extensive class-specific questlines (rogues in particular, with two different conflicting guilds with their own quests). I also loved how some of the quests interweave with the (great and very original) main plot.
Too bad the sequel has been canned, as far as I know.
I know Scott did start work on the second part but I suspect that thing called Real Life raised it's ugly head. Shame really as I was looking ofrward to seeing part 2 as well.
How the fricking hell do you defeat th OP roof guy? seriously even on easy he is extremely strong, attackin like 5 times each round or something.
habdreas323,
I seldom win that fight on the first round either, with some Ranger/Cleric in my PC builds I will try and get some summoned help to take those extra swings but have to catch him with something that will stun/hold/slow him for a bit to win.
Richard
I encountered an issue in Lillian's Quest. Journal says I should show it to her, but when I talk to her, the conversation starts to loop on that specific subject. Talked to her many times and it's the exact convo. I can't give her the necklace and finish the quest. In fact, I can't change her tactics and stuff since it loops on that conversation. What should I do?
EDIT:
Unable to determine the problem and what I should do, I just ignored it and completed the module.
Giving an 8/10 since I encountered some problems
-Unable to finish Lillian's Quest (said in my other comment)
-Unable to finish Kumiko's Quest becuase it cannot be found on where it was supposed to be ( I really don't know why this occured)
*As a completionist, I am sad to see quests undone :P
The pace of the story was really good and being non-linear was a plus, and the way the story progressed and stayed on track the whole time (Sudden plot twists and things that are happening which seem to be out of place making you say "WTH IS GOING ON HERE!?") made me like it even more. Enjoyed every second I was playing this module. The opening and ending cinematics telling us what happened before and after the story took place was great.
For me, the only thing missing was additional details on the ending. Like what happened to the Major Guilds in the City (Nightdancers, Unseen Brotherhood, Sworn Bros, etc.) after the decisions you have made, the NPC you are romancing (Come on, what happened to my Lillian after everything?) and many more. Well, I love it when I get to know the aftermath on everything major that's why.
Overall, I really like this module. HoF Worthy, and definitely a must play.
Sequel plz? It's never too late for a sequel. :)
Well, that depends on Scott Kurkul if he decides to continue with the supposed sequel. And if he considered my recommendations, now that is a module I'll really enjoy and will be on top of my anticipated ones. :D
When I opened the module in the toolset to add my plethora of personal haks, there is no cep resource in it.
An intricate story of tangled rivalry for the crown in a very large city. The gameworld is original, sustained and credible - truly medieval. Deserves to be much better known!
At first, I approached it as a systematic dungeon crawl, which was probably a mistake. There's a lot of repetitive, easy combat for petty treasures if you go that way. Better to look for work and follow the quests, which are much more exciting. It's so non-linear that I didn't do everything. No matter. By the end, I didn't even need to use all of the evidence I'd collected against my noble rivals to win the throne.
Some petty gripes. As usual, no one objects when you loot their home, but in this case they will even buy their own property back! There are over 60 merchants, all selling fairly low level items (the magic forge is pretty cool, though). It's melee oriented - companions don't go ranged, and there are few opportunities for the player, either.
A couple of glitches towards the end. In the penultimate battle, the ambassador didn't go hostile, so (contrary to instructions) I killed him to get his document. I don't know whether that's important. After the final battle, in which I killed the arch-villain, their neutral clone was still standing, but that didn't prevent me from entering the endgame.
Overall, a really great achievement.
I agree with all who has said that it's incredible that such a big, complex and beautiful game was made by a single talented modder. And this is exactly why I could easily overlook some little flaws, like a couple of minor bugs and the disproportionate number of merchants (seriously, there was no need of 60 different shops in a game like this, no matter how big the city was!)
I confirm that Lilian's quest is bugged and it's a pity because she was one of the two available romance for male players, which leaves you with only one option (Emma).
Be careful if you are a completionist because with the wrong choices you won't be able to access some portions of the game and it will be impossible to complete some quests. I suggest you to read the walktorugh, or if you do not want spoilers, you may want to plan a multiclass melee/cleric/wizard character.
A well deserved 10/10
One of my favorites as well, Lillian's romance will stall after killing Gelymnn and having heard from her about her story in three additions. I see where the variable is supposed to be advanced but "LilliansStory" stays at 3. Use "SetVarInt LilliansStory 4" from the console in the debug mode and target the PC to restore at least the normal conversation options. The rest of the romance might need a bit more help but I'm not there just yet. The Great Park bear needs help too, if the PC has a level of Ranger or Druid the dire bear will change to the non-hostile commoner faction on perceiving the PC. The problem is that the assigned conversation is for the guard outside the cave instead of "br_bear" which gives the nature lover new options. This would have to be switched out in the toolset before starting the module with an intent of one of those classes due to the instanced methods of saves. I believe I have played that quest in an earlier version since I like the Ranger class, but another option would be to remove the on perception script that changes the bear's faction so he can be dealt with if your dice rolls allow.
A court intrigue! Sounds encouraging -- and it's astonishing even some seasoned NWN travellers have not heard of this module before. Thanks for remarks on possible bugs; they are helpful in adjusting gameplay
Despite of some bugs, its a great mod. The story deserves a 10
Indeed, there are some bugs: for example Evie's would-be murderers do not appear at all ("Witness to a Murder") before I bring her to the guards, or sometimes area scripts do not trigger etc. I wonder why it is the case, and will this break the main quest at some point. I have CEP (yes it IS required) and other files installed properly, so I suppose mediocre scripting might be the case. Anyway, the climate so far is very nice.
A very good module. Good story, great writing, and some fun battles (though some of the fight became repetitive with fighting the same goups over and over). I loved the intrigue and intertwined stories,
I hooked up with two fun henchmen and ehy where great to talk to (though a bit buggy in combat).
One major isue is the size of the areas (the twn). It simply took too long to walk around. Most of them could have been half size, and still contained the amount of shops, doors, houses etc it needed. Go was I glad when I got a haste item.
Other than that it was great.
Have you visited mapmaker in Wolfsgate? He can sell you a fast-travelling device called A MAP which totally limits running around:) You can also buy map of single districts, but their use is not advised as due to some bug there is long delay before proceeding to district.
GENERAL REVIEW: 9/10
This module, or the game, is great, one of the best on the Vault, which is an achievement considering the fact it is an early (2005) module. For the fans of courtly intrigue and medieval modules that balance roleplaying and action it should score 10/10 and is a must play. For the rest, and compared to Aielund Saga or Dance with Rogues, it is 9/10, as it is lacking some minor things but still deserves to be widely played. It took me more than 30 hours to complete all questlines and side-quests.
Anyway, starting from the fabulous plot, non-linearity, well written dialogue, plot twists, believable henchmen with interesting personalities (apart from Kumiko and maybe Maynard), through interesting combat and items, up to fast-traveling (Mapmaker in Wolfsgate!) and a decent walkthrough this module is a must. In fact I still cannot understand why I have never bumped into it in the course of my last 2 years of interest in the best NWN modules (my shortlist here, Lilura’s exhaustive list here). Certainly, it has some weaknesses like some (non-gamebreaking) bugs, monotonous city tileset (although alleyways make it a bit better), not too much custom graphic boons and only a few pieces of custom music. Maybe someone could update it so it could make use of newer city tilesets? Anyway congratulations, Scott Kurkul, whoever you are.
This game really shines as to recreating a court intrigue and the image of a city, which makes its dirt surface after law enforcement becomes weakened; the former is best hinted at in the walkthrough:
"Throughout the module, there will be various occasions when actions you perform and quests you complete will tip the balance of power in the city from one of Aelfrecht’s offspring to the other"
--- and this is precisely what is fascinating here. How could it be that a fifth-in-line can become a king? Answering this question is an essence of the story
Below you’ll find some advice on playing and some spoilers as well
HOW TO BEAT THE MAX OUT OF THE GAME STORYWISE?
-- QUESTLINES. Use Falred's favour wisely. Unless you are a wizard, in the throne room consider using Faelred's recommendation to unlock (Lady Osanna) wizard questline or the other questline that will noe be aligned with your class... this will allow fighters, clerics or rogues access a questline, which is normally available only to suitable builds (my build was cleric with single ranger and rogue level (which counted as 4 build types: cleric, fighter, nature-supporter, rogue type, thus allowing for undertaking all questlines (3) and sidequests in the module with this choice; apart from this, such choice fits storywise: you used to live on farmland, so basic ranger and rogue skills are conceivable, just as the cleric/wizard long-term orientation ("ways of the court" you mother is reportedly taught you).
-- HENCHMEN. Read, at least scan, "henchmen" section in the walkthrough, to bring all henchies' quests to fruition you must be at least level 6-7 (at this level you get access to the last of their three hench-quest conversations that unlock final encounters). What is more, some henchmen-specific side-quests are tied to side-quests that you can normally undertake without henchmen in tow, so it is easy to miss an opportunity for quest's progress. Those timing-sensitive henchmen seem to be 4 out of 6: paladin Emma (take her for exploration of Great Park crypt), Brother Cedric (make him visit the temple girl and take him to Bastard Son quest offered by the king's brother), Maynard (you should take him to Havillonian hideout), Lorwin (you must listen to all instalments of his story and meet his friend at King's Point before the end of Sworn Bros questline). Optionally, it is also good to take Lillian for rogue or at least Gellyman-related quests. In case of Kumiko, don't bother, just give her the book she needs.
-- Beware of click-fest in conversations -- if you go too fast through dialogues, in-game variables might not be updated and your quest will be screwed.
-- Explore and knock at all the doors, some quests could be only received like this.
-- Save often, in case a script (e.g. henhchmen dialogue) misfires; use mouse instead of keyboard for movement to minimize the probability of something escaping your attention.
-- You could reach level 14 by the end if you do all the quests, so consider this when designing your build.
LOGICS OF SUCCESSION, OR ASCENSION RELATED ISSUES [SOME SPOILERS!]
In case you’re not a noble, or at least a member of the gentry, here’s some explanation as to the rules of succession that will allow you satiate your interest in Elondrian affairs. In Elondria, each royal child may challenge the other if they gather evidence against them, so it is best you leave the completion of the quests accepted from Rodigar, Mirele and Kendrick in the throne room (i.e. handing the evidence to them, performing irreversible deed that may benefit someone), to the moment just by the end of the game before Rooftop battle in Havillonian Hideout (however, you should do Adalfred quest Bastard Son before). The same applies to delaying talking to nobles in the throne room to win their favour. This will allow you to choose who should be empowered and who should not be empowered once you see the plot progression. So if you're completionist, try all possible options.
Some info on logics of succession: /1/ If you help Rodigar, you give him evidence to "block" succession of Kendrick. /2/ If you help Mirelle, you "block" sucession of Rodigar. /3/ If you help Kendrick, you "block" succession of Mirelle. Even without blocking anyone a candidate could lose a vote, but if you manage to “eliminate” all of them, you make it possible for someone of thinner bloodcline (that means you) to become a king.
---- Other quests that have impact on succession are at least the following:
-"Daughter in Distress (City watch questline) - you eliminate Rodigar's supporter Vorliss or make him vote for you, if such opportunity emerges; alternatively you eliminate him and help Morgryn whou could also vote for you for your help
- "Wolf in the Fold" (Hostenos temple) - you can either empower Mirelle's or Rodrigar's supporter; I reckon in gratitude each of them could vote for you if they cannot for their favored candidate.
- “ Revenge is a Forged Letter” – allows for eliminating Rodigar’s supporter.
[Non-quest] Giving money to some lords/counts in the Throne Room in exchange for support of a selected candidate, there is also a document on 2nd floor that may be used to harass Nimella (3 of them total).
-Apparently all class specific questlines could count as well, as temple leaders, mage leader, the leader of the city watch have a vote; by helping them you (probabl)y make them inclined to vote for you in case the three heirs will be proved unfitting.
In my first gameplay, before performing children's quests giving money to nobles and doing other succession advantage related quests Rodigar lost (obviously he must be unpopular judging by dubious nature of people that support him; "what have we done!") and Mirella won unless I challenged her to win (as I did all profession-related (4) questlines, I got 4+ additional votes).
PS. The story on how someone you would not suspect manipulates from behind the scenes is worthy of a book. From this perspective, the Kendrick's ending is a memorable irony of fate! :)
PLAYING ADVICE
- The module is suitable for warrior/mages who want to wear leather or small shield (-10% Spell Failure upgrade available on Alderment’s Square). The walkthrough also list other items that offer such option (mage’s chainmail in mage’s tower) but I haven’t found them where they were supposed to be.
- Gather all henchmen in one place near fast-travel point, e.g. by the fountain in Administration District, this makes life easier should you need them.
- Hardest lock is DC=33, so 1 level of rogue every 5 or 6 levels is ok to deal with all locks'n'traps, given +2,+4 and even +6 items are available; it pays off to be a rogue: in general you get experience for locks, but you don’t get it when someone else opens it or when you use knock spell.
- Valdemar in Pennytown should buy almost everything at good price after you help him (in my case, with Appraise 4 he was go-to man except for the gems (seaside jeweller) and weapons (Wolfsgate smith).
- HASTE items: apart from a scimitar which costs ridiculous 63K or more gold; haste boots are available right away for ca 13K in Riverside mage shop (but part of alignment must be neutral), or later from the shops that become available after you get admitted to a guild (e.g. Nightdancers); in general, more of the good stuff (like Strength+3 belt or regular Bots of Speed in case of Sworn Bros) are available after doing all their initiation quests.
- Miriam Braddoch (item upgrader in Alderment’s Square) can generally perform upgrade 3 times. Anyway, you can bypass weapon upgrade limit by wielding other weapon/armor when asking for her help. Although in normal conditions it is cheating and I would discourage you to do so, it can be done for esthetical/role-playing reasons; for example, as cleric/rogue I created a mace that was equal in power to Harlaw's Fang that I already had in possession; and chain hauberk that fully mirrored other chainmail I had, but was really bad-looking.
SOME OF THE BEST WEAPONS TO GET
- Harlaw’s Fang (short sword): Enhancement Bonus +1, Damage Bonus (1d6 Piercing), Damage Bonus (1d6 Slashing). Located in the Queen Spider’s lair in the Boar’s Gate Sewers, available apparently right from the start, e.g. with invisibility potion. It can be further upgraded three times to give a blast.
- Illisa’s Spirit, class dependent form, found in Illisa sarcophagus in the Ancient Crypt, Level 2 and self-upgrading on conversation if you do some good deed;
- Wagging Tongue (morning star): Enhancement Bonus +2, Damage Bonus (1d4 Sonic), Damage Bonus (1d4 Bludgeoning). Found on Ahearn (Last Drop Tavern, Riverside).
- Custom made/custom upgraded weapons and armor (you can enhance items by yourself: in my case Brother Cedric with a Masterwork long Club looked like Little John from Robin Hood!)
- There is also Sword of Narromae to be bought in Ad.Square and upgraded by submerging it into a water in a noble’s house of curiosities that – as only item in the game - gets +4 enhancement against evil (but is not upgradeable by Miriam).
BUGS I ENCOUNTERED:
- In "For want of a memory" the ending of the quest is bugged if you choose to tell Elinor what happened yourself. She does not offer any relevant dialogue option, with only conclusive option being convincing Desperate Man to tell her truth herself;
- "Old knight's tale" is bugged - the knight does not appear in the murderer's house if prodded to do so; to finish the quest you'd better suggest you'll go to see the murderer in the knight's stead.
- "Rampaging Beast" - bug with the bear, which speaks like... sergeant :) Something to do with wrong conversation options, it probably should be br_bear instead of br_brennan. The only option to finish the quest is to kill the bear;
- "Battle for Seaside" - journal does not update after the battle, leaving this quest unfinished (to ID:4 stage); also, sometimes the dialogue script, when you leave the building with the baddies, does not update;
Lillian's romance - bugged, as somebody has written above. At some point she looped and every time I clicked on her she launched post-Gellyman dialogue. Only removing her from the team via right click helped to reset this.
MINOR PROBLEMS/INCONSEQUENCES
- Henchmen sometimes get stuck which may ruin the on-the-way dialogue scripts triggered in various areas around the city (and indoors as well). So if you experience that suddenly your movement stops, one henchmen is teleported to you, but the other is not, then it is very probably this other was to tell you something. Best thing then is to reload and make sure both henchmen are following you; you can spot the sensitive areas by pressing “~” and writing DebugMode 1 (DebugMode 0 to turn it off);
- some non-essential items assumed to be there according to the walkthrough do not appear (Gellyman never drops Natalia's Mantle, in the same vein Grinning Man never dropped a better sword). On the other hand I found Natalia's Belt which is weird because walkthrough says Natalia's set has three parts, without mentioning the belt.
- Some journal entries do not follow from the dialogues: e.g. after I tell the Unseen to form a spy ring, next time in Nightdancers HQ they meet me and tell about the Seaside problems; but the journal says they came around as I made them scan the city for threats to the kingdom, which is not exactly true, as the dialogue was much shorter and vague as to the goals of their spying.
- Pirate's cove - using rope down does not work and you have to march all the way back;
- Henchmen related bugs - Cedric does not disappear when taken over by his old fellow mercenary, Lillian does not fight against you if you choose to fight with Alard, the same with bard in analogous situation... I flag these bugs as minor, as most players would not like these situations to occur anyway.
- Fast traveling with bastard Kaithin or other non-henchmen followers does not work (they are left behind)
- Emma mentions your visit in the house of 3 orphans even though she was not there at that time (it happens on ending Grieving Parents quest, which by the way, is nor marked as completed when you finish it);
- Walkthrough is great but lacking some sections, e.g. on Adalment square, and there are item-related inaccuracies;
- Sometimes dialogue scripts to dot trigger (e.g. you get journal entry but no dialogue), reload needed.
- It is a pity a regular player can easily miss some great quests due to omitting them.. or maybe it is an advantage? J
- Ambassador Eborad does not attack
- Finally, you can steal without penalty which I find as a drawback - no thrills like in ADWR module, just march in everywhere and take the loot with no consequences. This could be addressed with dedicated scripts (like people spotting you and guards appearing to arrest you); What is more, you are far from being encouraged NOT TO kill during sneaky missions (good loot, experience, no plot related penalties if you do the things the hard way).
Still says missing a HAK File upon loading.. completely disapointed and yes every file described on this page has been downloaded and CORRECTLY put in its proper directory file.. .
Which hak is missing? (See log).
I found it. I took too many 'dummy' vitamins this morning. I was missing NWNalleyways 1.1 ver.
I would have given it 10 stars but it is just too complex for me. Too many quests and doors and merchants etc. Very hard to keep track of what to do next, indeed I was doing a number of side quests at one time, with little advances made. Without the walk through there is no chance of figuring out all the various adventures that are contained herein, and that is a negative for modules as far as I am concerned.
An amazing opus that much have taken an extreme amount of time, effort and talent to pull off, but I think less might have been more. At least for me...
Played this again and had much the same feeling of too much stuffed in this bag! I lost track of so many quests and finally just went with the main one. I really had trouble finding the tavern where they were supposed to meet, the Last Drop I believe it is called, in Riverside. Knowing the location would have helped a lot! I did use the town map and it sped things up, if you remember where to go for certain quests that is! Probably left 4-5 undone, and I did not hire all the henchpersons available or search out every nook and cranny! The stores were a bit frustrating although some had the nice equipment that I needed, and of course the upgrade smith was very welcome indeed. I cheat in enough gold to buy nice gear and finance these upgrades without scrimping and scraping!
I went in as a Ranger in order to use Animal Empathy on the critter in the Park. It worked and was dominated, but then what? I saw no way forward towing the monster around so went back with a reload and killed it instead. Then I was stuck with a Ranger PC even though I then switched to Fighter I was not able to get points in Parry(!) for some unknown reason and also could not Use Exotic Weapons even though I was allowed to Specialize in Two Bladed Swords! Still were red and I could not use them! Weird feats and such, way too many listed, without any real explanation as to what they were for!
The roof didn't go as planned and I ended up having to force attack the ambassador, as he just sat there in a blue state. Still, was able to find his stuff. I backed the Princess for the succession, seemed the best choice to me anyway.
Still, a well done module and a happy ending! My mom would have been proud!
Nice except for Lilian's bug and kumiko's book not apearing. second character finished almost EVERYTHING before talking to Falred
This is one of my favorites too, play a couple of time every year. Take a peek at one of the "ReadMe for Bloodright" files for an overview and companion information. I have never played with the male companions, fighter, cleric and bard, since Lillian (rogue) and Emma (paladin) are far and away my favorite pair for my usual ranger/something PC.
In this mod there are even specific romance options for both genders, therefore there's no problem at all if you choose a female character.
That should be fine IIRC.
This was a very well written module with great quests, dialogue, and companions; many principle characters had different idiolects as well, which isn't easy to pull off in writing, to really set them apart. My only real complaints are that the area design is....big. Much too big. Thankfully, you can get a cheap map at the mapmaker in Wolfsgate (buy the one for the entire city) that allows quick travel between districts. My recommendation is that you get this ASAP because otherwise you're going to do a lot of running back and forth.
I played a female paladin with the two romanceable male companions in tow, Lorwin (fighter) and Maynard (bard). I ending up choosing Lorwin to better suit my paladin character but both were great with nice companion quests and banter between them.
All in all, a great module with great writing and likely replayability.
This was one of my favorite mods ever. The plot was interesting, setting sufficiently detailed, and side quests abundant without being excessive. I especially liked that the dialogue options at pivotal points included just what I hoped for my character to say and do.
This is truly an amazing work of art! There were only 3 or 4 bugs I could find within this massive and very immersive module. On the whole the scriptoing was great and contributed to the fun-factor. The level of loot was spot on for me and custom magic items were fabulous. The writing in the module was tremendous. The main story, individual quests, and conversations were in my humble opinion the best NWN has to offer. My absolute favorite aspect of this top 5 favorite module for me was the henchmen. Everything from backstories to the interaction with each other and the PC is awesome.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Scott Kurkul for creating this masterpiece! I am rating this a 10 not because it was flawlessly without bugs but for the level of enjoyment I experieced playing it.
Just trying to play all of this is a daunting, herculean task. And then realzing I have to replay at least once to change the story a little,, (since so much of it is reactive to choices you made, instead of the usual railroad.) I can not even begin to immagine how much work went into building and playtesting this.. It just boggles the mind!!!.
There's a bit of spit and polish missing, but it doesn't detract from the experience at all.
I played quiet some modules in the past months and this is definitely one of the better modules on the vault.
Bloodright has I think what most of the players want from a module:
-it has decent length
-you start at the first level
-any class and alignemnt is welcome to play
-both sexes are choosable
You need to be human but otherwise the character creation is rich and varied.
There were things I didn't like though and I share it to give a proper picture on the module.
The module has a very slow start. You solve your first "mission" after which they tell you: "we don't need you here, go away. Find a job and forget everything why you came here, here is 100GB"
Then until for quite some time the module becomes an aimless sandbox without any direction (mild spoilers: you need to progress with the faction quests).
The game has an insane amount of side content but the actual story can be finished in only some hours.
The late game becomes tedious because of the bad encounter design. It repeats the one in NWN1 and 2 vanilla so in every corner there is a big group of buffed up trashmobs who obliterate you if you don't buff yourself up beforhand. Except that this module offers limited rest so you buff up, fight then bactrack to the resting place, rinse and repeat. It becomes very tiring, fortunately it is true when you are on higher levels (the enemies scale to your level).
Honestly some of these things were almost totally offputting to me. I was glad to finish it though as the positives outweight the negatives:
Story: while the actual story is short and starts out slowly it is actually a different and original one compared to a lot of other modules. Finally something more unique and grounded compared to the same old killing the world threatening deamon stuff.
Side quests and roleplaying: here comes the bread and butter of this module. Bloodright offers a huge number of side quests which are well thought out, well written, sometimes created with different pathts to take and in some cases offer even some choice and consequence. I was very pleasently suprised how good they are.
There are faction questlines which help to move forward the story. The nice thing is that if you multiclass you can finish more of them (there is rogue, warrior and mage), which means extra money, loot and xp. Altough they have the same outcome it is nice to expand the content if you multiclass.
I liked also the writing pretty much, I never felt a dull moment when reading the texts.
The module is polished, there are only some bugs but in general it is more very much playable and finishable.
A so-so feature of the game is the lore and world building. It is an original world created by the author. It is rich, well-written and well-though out. And actually it grew on me. That being said it lacked originality to me. It wanted to be grounded and more low fantasy, but I don't know I just didn't feel it distinct and it felt more like high fantasy to me. The author could have stick with classic dnd setting and give it some extra bells and whistles like in Swordflight. But it actually grew on me so it is not bad.
The ending is satisfiying altough it is unfortunate that the planned 2nd part was never made.
Alltogether it is a fine module, worth playing and it is definitely one of the better ones in the vault.
EDIT to clear out
mistakeshappy accidents.Okay. Looking into the readme certain quests can only be completed with a given class. The penalty for respawn is walking back... how about we make 100%completion rate?
Henchmen quests: they start at level 2 and progress twice after a few level ups. One could hire them all at level 2, starting their quests and returning to them at higher level to finish.
Romances: 4 romances, 2 per gender, 1 per PC. Make not that Lillian's romance is broken.
Classes:
Now an obligatory class is rogue due to rogue-only quest. Thouse scoundrels!
According to other readme sections, it is enough to have Lillian as hench instead, but have not checked it.
So it seems the second class you have to pick is either ranger or druid (due to animal empathy quest). I wonder if you can pick this quest with gloves of animal handling? (If they are even available)
Roleplay wise you are minor noble.. it would explain the mish-mash of classes as going through versatile education?
I do not think any of those are anywhere close to powerbuilds.
For XP puprposes one should keep 2 classes in close levels.
Barbarian and monks are not welcome :-/
Presitge classes are no-no.
Druid / Fighter / Rogue will be my PC. With Rog as 1 level only.
There's a word for that - serendipity.
TR
despite the many bugs, i quite liked this one. over all, a fun module w/a well-written, engaging story and lots to do.
kudos :
- very nice cutscenes and movies
- really enjoyed the cat fights betw emma and lillian
- excellent non-linear story development
- great npc character development
- good balance of rest & excitement, tension and relaxation
- wonderful selection of intrigue-wrought choices to make. fun for the whole family of alignments.
gripes :
- cookie-cutter npc's often w/same voicesets, same bodies, etc.
- henchmen interjections are clumsy [in the middle of combat area, for example]
- finding stacks of gold as random treasure in the impoverished street urchins' home was a bit... 'immersion-breaking'
- option to ask again about other 'jobs' than those outside [mage/cleric/fighter] never available again w/faelred cv, even though the only way to get info about other possibilities is to ask about -them- rather than the mage/cleric/fighter quests.
- harbinger's cove, watchtower - disappointed that i didn't have the option to take her to jail. a LG paladin would never let a veteran pirate go free, but wouldn't necessarily kill her on the spot either if she agreed to answer for her crimes.
- can't say i can appreciate the 'romance' aspect of the emma relationship. only 2 hours into the game and she confessed, then... NOTHING thereafter, ever again...
BUGS
- missing 2 doors s/e riverside
- cutscene in bar in admin district doesn't return control to player once the fight starts
- conversation bug - martin & sera ['godsway:home'] tell me about their deceased daughter. the journal entry says sth about them being delighted that i've suggested they take in someone named 'benjin' and his two siblings ?! who are they ? [edit - from a quest i took well after this moment]
- the above quest, 'grieving parents', can't close. it's involved in the other quest, 'an act of desperation', and needs to be closed w/it, but it's never closed.
- the name of maynard's shield is 'is there an inn nearby?'
- conv bug - elinor hollywell conv doesn't ask about freymund even after we've found out about him, because the flag variable is set on the main protagonist, who is deleted after the previous conversation
- journal bug - blank journal entry 'br_lady' for lady-killer quest
- conv bug - parnel mixes up hanya edelton and kasandera
- conv bug - took evie to city watch hq, osric conv doesn't recognise she is with me.
- conv bug - olvin groundskeeper conv - 'since there are domani in the park...' loops to same.
- telling a hench to part ways really doesn't; the hench re-appears when the pc is respawned
- respawn causes previously-dropped henchman to rejoin
- conv bug for professor reynauld - conv mentions i may know who killed student, but i haven't talked to reynauld about it yet.
- conv bug - ladykiller quest - talking to osric, conv option for the ring is also displayed at same time as option for knowing who the killer is.
- wolfsgate sewers - room before grey brotherhood marked as 'safe' but won't allow resting
- kumiko a/i - she attacks melee even when the only weapon she has is an equipped ranged weapon
- entering vorliss' home, although vorliss isn't hostile, the guards are, and attack
- we come in killing all the unseen brotherhood and yet the guildmaster and bodyguards are still friendly. furthermore, the conv options don't include a 'i'm here to kill you'.
- journal bug - journal entry says i should show lillian the necklace, but when i put it on her, nothing happens. when i put it in her inventory nothing happens. same with the book of poetry. when i start a conv w/her, her dialogue acts as though she's already seen the necklace and the book, and goes on from there. i eventually had to fire her, rehire her, and say i wanted to talk to her before she noticed the necklace. even then, she never took it -- the module destroyed it instead.
- conv bug - faelred mentions muriel being dead before he's told of her death.
- ILR not respected [quest breaking] - use of lvl.18 item [given at char.lvl.8] absolutely required to complete 'lichyard' quest.
- harbinger's cove, watchtower - climbing down the rope... doesn't.
- conv bug - after killing greyard and talking to lorwin: 'but enough about all this, we need to do something about greyard before he can do any more harm.'
- after lorwin accepts the position of captain of the sworn brothers, he nevertheless continues to tag along
- wolfgate, rooftop - ambassador didn't go hostile, but didn't respond to talking either.
- journal bug - kumiko's quest doesn't end. although i give her the book and the correct conversation ensues, the journal entry remains on 'perhaps if i give her the book...'
- passed all the tests to be in the temple of ulgard, but shop still unavailable to me. [because i'd already done the undead quest?]
- argh!! character wasn't exported at the end!
This was one of the best modules I have ever played and I have played... well... maybe all of them? In 2021 this one still holds up. I cannot wait to play it again with a totally different character class and alignment and see what happens.
Excellent, excellent job!!
Great module. Wish more were as finely crafted as this. The major issue with it is journal enties can go fubar if you don't do things in a certain way. Hell, one of them goes fubar as soon as the quest starts. Nothing game-breaking though. The setting, storyline and characters are generic, predictable and uninspired, but well executed. The ending movie is far too long, and I wish it had actually been turned into a sequel instead. High replayability and solid level-scaling combat.
This excellent module is now available on the Community Module Browser. It has had a graphical update, the PRC added to it & several bugs fixed.
Manage -> Add -> https://nwn.ee/prc
Could you add some documentation on the bugs you fixed? I'm working on a comprehensive patch for this old favourite too. but would like to preserve the original version independent of PRC etc.
Crashes on loading game save after came in the Lichyard crypt level 2. Playing on EE. Is it compatible only with diamond edition?
Nope. Made 3 runs of it in EE. If it only crashed there, hope you have a previous save file for testing.
Ive got some old auto-save. I have once corrupted a game because I joined three hendmen at once (with a dialog with a henchman previously disbanded). Also, to be precise - game grashes on loading but only after I was in a game. So first load works as intented but any second load (only for this module) crashes the game. So I thought maybe some areas were corrupted. Hmn, I like this module so far.
That's really strange. Fortunately, you've discarded the area itself as the problem. In my case, I played it solo once, once with 2 henchmen only, and once with all of them at the same time. Had no similar issues. Must be something on your end. Added content, perhaps, either via patch, override or development folder?
So far I am enjoying the module. Wish I could play it in Enhanced Edition. Also, A Want for Memory is unable to be finished. I cannot tell Elinor about her husband.
Edited after I finished the first playthrough. While I greatly enjoyed the module, I felt that it was left unfinished. There are many bugs within the game that make it difficult to play at tines but in the end I was left wanting for more.
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