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Desert of Desolation Series: I3 - Pharaoh
Participate in a tale of ancient prophesies, curses, gems of power, and imprisoned evil. Can you restore the land by breaking a Pharaoh's Curse and earn implements of power in the process? This is a faithful reproduction of the first module in the Desert of Desolation series, with some slight modifications due to limitations of the Aurora toolset. All the lore, texts, layouts, and encounters are as close as possible to the original PnP module.
This version is the new Special Edition release. The Special Edition is the culmination of 7 years work and has been fully updated for the v1.69 patch. Nearly 150 new placeables have been created for the series and there are also new creatures, new icons, new tile groups, new sounds, and a new tileset (most of it made specifically for the series by Hellfire). Much of the new content was intended for the sequel to this module (which was never completed), so you shouldn't expect to see it all used in Pharaoh.
Category: Classic PnP conversion
Setting: Greyhawk
Number of Players: 3 to 5 (Since most of the encounters are fixed and not scaled, staying within the range of recommended levels and party size is particularly important for game balance.)
Level Range: Starting level should be level 4 in multiplayer. New characters are given money and experience enough for a level 4 character upon module entry. Solo players should be level 6 or 7, depending on class. Multiclass characters should be at least level 4 in their primary class.
Classes: Balanced Party - Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, and Mage skills recommended in the party.
Alignments: Any alignment can complete the module in solo play, but in multiplayer the module cannot be completed without at least one 'good' or 'neutral' aligned character in the party.
Gameplay Length: You can expect 8 to 16 hours of gameplay, depending on how much you explore, which desert size you choose to play in, and how much roleplaying you do with others.
Notes:
All players need to read the Player Notes before attempting to play the module. The Player Notes explain where to install files, how to control the module's game-play systems, and how to use some of the module's unique items.
The person hosting the module needs to read the Server Notes (whether playing solo or multiplayer). The Server Notes contain important information about game settings that must be in place for the module to operate properly.
In-game tools for a DM, DM maps for all three desert layouts, and a DM guide to the module are included but no DM is required.
Awards: Hall of Fame, DMF Certified by the DM Friendly Initiative (DMFI)
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 pharaohse130.rar (2403) | 27 MB |
I always enjoyed this adventure. Thanks for posting.
Thanks. I'm glad you liked it.
The "Desert of Desolation" series (I3-I4-I5) was one of my favorites as DM, and formed the centerpiece of a three-year long campaign. That was thirty years ago. Now that I am back into Neverwinter Nights, I plan to play my own PC through the entire series. I remember these being pretty tough adventures even with a well balanced party of six. Are henchmen available, or could your mod be programmed for them? I haven't even unpacked the mod yet, so maybe I'm asking prematurly. Anyway, Thanks so much for the effort. I plan on starting play after I finish up the Neverwinter Nights campaign, so you'll have plenty of time to develop 'Oasis of the White Palm' before I can get into it (you are planning on finishing the rest of the series, aren't you? Please, please?
)
I remain,
Roger Dodger (professional thief/rogue)
Have always loved this one.
Exemplary adaptation of the classic P&P I3 adventure!! Most areas are built identical to the original maps, most if not all skills are/can be useful in certain situations, and . . ooooh boy, the quest updates and map options (everything is described on the PDF included with the mod download package) As players should do in a proper D&D campaign, you are 'forced' to pay attention to what's going on around you and take some notes of what you've done/seen to progress, which works wonders to how immersed the veterans of the game can feel on a PC adaptation.
I'm really struggling to note something even remotely negative about this module, just make sure you read the PDF included and you'll enjoy every single minute of this!! Thank you Moondrake for your wonderful work!!! 10/10 FOR SURE!!
Thanks so much for the comment. It's really nice to have someone give feedback after so long.
I'm curious... did you play the module solo or with a party? I don't think the module has ever gotten much group play, which was originally my target audience. At the time the module was begun (right after NwN was released) my objective was to make something that was like PnP, only with a computer doing all the heavy lifting. Lots of people built utilities later that added PnP options (like CRAP) but Pharaoh's systems were all developed by me early in the module's development. While I used some other people's work as a starting point, they all needed to be debugged and modified to meet my own needs and desires. It sounds like what is there was sufficient to give you some fun choices, and that's ultimately what I was hoping for. I've DM'd a few runs (which was mostly just observing and keeping everyone from aimlessly wandering off into the desert) and it always surprised me how little people experimented... like I've never seen anybody try to get fruityflies.
Greetings Moondrake, thank you again for your brilliant work!!! I originally played the module about when NWN EE came out on solo with a Cleric(+ Champion of Torm later).
I consider trying to DM (aka that observing and giving hints as you did) or maybe play the module multiplier with my old D&D team, but I don't expect this to happen anytime soon . .
Receiving the error "Missing custom talk table". I installed the Pharaoh-Oasis.tlk which came in the download. Any ideas?
That is the talk table the module expects. Check that you put it in the tlk folder, in the same location as your saves folder. If you are running Linux or Android, change the tlk file name to lower case (this is a general requirement for those platforms).
That worked! It's so weird that it has to be in two locations. It was already loaded with my Steam files. :-P I wonder if this is why I can't open certain mods with the toolset when I get a "cannot find hak file" message. Anyway... thanks a bunch, Proleric! :-)
Steam Workshop files don't work unless you are running the Steam client (and maybe not then, either). Moving the files to Documents appears to fix all such issues.
If it's not quite obvious, you need to put your haks, mods, etc. in the corresponding folders in DriveLetter:\Users\Censored\Documents\Neverwinter Nights where DriveLetter is the drive where your documents folder is situated (e.g. C) and Censored is where your windows user name goes.
TR
Never did the PnP route, although I am certainly old enough to have! This is a huge amount of trekking and following tracks for very infrequent encounters that are quite esoteric. I need more action, so am signing off. I am sure that this is a great module in its genre, just not my favorite.
This is why I put in the consideralble effort to provide three different sizes of desert. The smallest size has almost no desert trekking whatsoever. Look at the map for the small desert and you will immediately see this for yourself.
Yes, the encounters in the desert are "esoteric" by normal CRPG standards, but they are the encounters stipulated in the PnP module. I wouldn't even classify most of them as encounters so much as 'events' to add flavor.
I certainly don't expect everybody to like the module since it is very much aimed at those who are old PnP players. No module or game is ever going to appeal to everybody and this one, in particular, was targeted at a rather small group. I will say that it isn't appropriate to rate modules that you haven't played.
I gave it 8 stars for the parts of it that I did play. I bailed, but that doesn't mean that I cannot form an opinion on the work that went into a module, or how well it was brought to fruition. I think it was worth 8 stars. If I gave it one or two, as many seem to do in the Vault, then I can see that you would have some grounds for grousing...!
Good mod, shame the series doesn't seem to have been completed.
I built well over half of Oasis of the White Palm but ran into some serious game limitations in regard to animating objects. In order to see an object animate, you had to be within sight of the object's point of origin. This meant that things like the statue that moved down the hallway couldn't be seen if you weren't close enough to the statue's origin point. Likewise, the falling objects in the Pits of Everfall couldn't be seen unless you were close enough to their points of origin and the beams in the Light Web couldn't be seen if you walked too far away from the beam's origin point. Then my custom content creator started making stuff for Neverwinter Nights 2, which was MUCH easier to do and he didn't want to go back to wrestling with stuff in NwN. Lost Tomb of Martek could never have been built in NwN. The time flow puzzles and floating environments weren't ever going to be possible, so I had planned to have the climactic battle between the Efreet and the Djinn occur at the end of Oasis of the White Palm. I had some REALLY cool stuff built but sadly, nobody but me ever got to see it.