A Tragedy in Tragidor

I think.

Well balanced but not for the henchies (they easily die). A well built story.

Decent enough

7/10, with some goodwill

+ I liked that all the people in the module had individual names and almost everyone had their own dialogue as well, it made the place feel alive, and what could be more fitting for a story about a town?

+ a few really nice story-telling ideas, particulary at the end (e.g. regarding how the epilogue is told)

+ three merchants in town, next to each other, not scattered all over the place, so you won't waste your time with excessive shopping tours

+ no empty houses to enter, no pointless areas

+ about three side quests, and some optional areas to discover

+/- the plot in itself was nothing special and the title of the module prevents any big surprises, but some elements still made it a little different from the rest in the end

+/- combat balance was alright, but most battles weren't that interesting

- it's an old module and it shows: only one companion at a time, but if you try to let a second companion join, the module does not tell you that that's not possible by design, it acts as if it worked, only NWN spits out the message "You may only have 1 henchman at a time"; also, very limited control over companions, no access to their inventory

- companion and summons are often left behind when using in-area transitions

- monsters often spawn close to the party, and not seldom behind it; in some areas there are insane amount of spawning (and possibly respawning?) monsters

- journal entries are rarely updated to guide you on what to do; some of what I did, I just did because it seemed like the only way left to advance the story, not because someone told me to or because it appeared to make much sense

- unless I overlooked something, noone in town sells ranged weapons;  and the magical weapons you find are mostly blades, not blunt weapons for clerics etc. (my cleric took Martial Weapons feat to counteract that)

- secret passages are rather hard to spot (they require you to get close to the spot and then look for a small area transition, and searching for the right spots is tedious when so many places on the maps look the same and you have no clear indications on where they might be)

- my biggest complaint and one of my pet peeves: areas beyond town are huge, often much too large compared to what's in them, and there is a lot of backtracking involved, but no fast travel system, no stone of recall, no shortcuts, which means you spend a lot of the time just running across maps with nothing else happening. And I'm not exaggerating here when I say some of the journeys across maps from point A to point B took up to five minutes (!). In a single play NWN module with nothing else to do on the way that's just not fun, but very, very boring.

I played this a good while ago, but for some reason did not leave a review. It is okay, the hench interface is limited and therefore makes babysitting necessary. Story is okay I suppose. Areas were too large and intricate for my liking, but that is the style here. All seemed to work and that is a major thing. Try it out.

i agree with all of Mr. Leroux positive comments.  i didn't find the monster spawning bad at all, just enough to make things fun.  i liked the secret area method used here, it was a nice change from crawling next to walls hoping a door appears. yeah, some areas are real big, and backtracking was a slog, but at least you didn't have to traverse many separate areas, and overall it really wasn't too much trouble. i started with a PC who had a shortbow, and i picked up a nice longbow somhewhere along the way, so archery is possible. excellent characters and conversations made it immersive and enjoyable, epilogue was great.  no bugs encountered, all quests i was given got done.  i should have probably used the "lite" version as my old laptop slowed a bit near end.  i enjoyed this mod and recommend it.

Not a ton of opporunities for role playing per se. I played this twice: once with a paladin and once with a CE ranger/assassin, and not many opportunities for them to behave differently. 

BUT, the story is really good. It suits the low-mid level of the characters. You're a caravan guard who falls, more by chance than anything else, into something bigger. The machinations of the primary antagonist make sense too, once you figure it all out. 

As other people have mentioned, the NPCs have backstories that are interesting enough to make them feel like real actors, and their side quests suit them well.

Do you have to run around empty areas a lot? Yeah, but the minor annoyance of that doesn't detract from a solid story and engrossing adventure.

Really good and atmospheric adventure. People in Tragidor village are interesting, and many have good dialogue. Really heroic, and moving deeds done with the towns  lumberjacks.

Nice mobs of low level enemies. Started this with Level 5 Warrior, with basic +1 gear and ended up level 7. There are lots of powerful artifacts, armor, and good weapons available whey you vanquish enemies.

Helping you are: Thief, Barbarian, and (later on) Cleric companion. My warrior's  "Great Cleave" feat and +1 tower shield were REALLY  useful here.. There is way to circle mobs of enemies, gather better equipment, and meet the huge mobs with your own terms. But actually..

I chose to bash head on to them with reckless bravado. That delivered some nice, tough fights! At first I went through portal without the cleric.. but played that part again checking back to town, and got the cleric. Area beside portal was much easier with her.

Highly recommended module! Must play it again someday with Evocation Mage..