How do you want to die?

[Venture]

Why wouldn't our balanced group work?

This module wasn't just "hard," but literally seemed to me, back in the day, specifically designed to permanently kill off a few members of a party. I chose not to run our pen and paper party through it because I knew with no uncertainty that there would be multiple irrevocable deaths of some cherished characters. So don't say I didn't warn you if you're rolling up a new character in a few weeks, and putting an urn of ashes on your mantle . . .

Also, as I've been writing this, I've been trying to make sure I'm looking at only the lethalness of the mod, and not being affected by my concerns for future playbalance - call me a control freak, but I do have a concern that a mod geared for those levels, and that is that difficult, has the potential to unbalance things for the future. I don't remember Tomb of Horror well enough to remember if it was "Monty Haul" or anything like that. So, I guess I have 2 concerns - the first is that it could permanently kill a couple characters, which would be a shame. The second is the other extreme - it could have some uber loot that could unbalance the campaign.

Putting aside my concerns regarding balance, I think I can safely say that if I was a player who had grown attached to a character over the last 1-3 years, I wouldn't want to play that character in this mod for fear of losing him for good. The pen and paper version really was that lethal.

Finally, if I can weasle my way in as a player, that would be fun. I've always wanted to try the Slavers series (played it pen and paper years ago), but the Ghost Tower looks fun as well.

[Tunari]

Putting aside my concerns regarding balance, I think I can safely say that if I was a player who had grown attached to a character over the last 1-3 years, I wouldn't want to play that character in this mod for fear of losing him for good. The pen and paper version really was that lethal.

Just so I am understanding. If for ex. Asia had a permanent death in this mod. To finish THIS mod I would need to roll a new character. But she is not permanently dead for future games and mods right. Unless we are tieing this mod into Naeldor somehow like you did with the mod we just played. You see what I mean. We can play our characters in this mod as a stand alone game so too speak. Or as a stand alone "party" I should say. It is still our characters, we know each other are familiar with each other, but it doesn't "have" to be tied into the future of Naeldor. Unless none of us died and we want it tied in.

Tunari

[Tunari]

Putting aside my concerns regarding balance, I think I can safely say that if I was a player who had grown attached to a character over the last 1-3 years, I wouldn't want to play that character in this mod for fear of losing him for good. The pen and paper version really was that lethal.

Just so I am understanding. If for ex. Asia had a permanent death in this mod. To finish THIS mod I would need to roll a new character. But she is not permanently dead for future games and mods right. Unless we are tieing this mod into Naeldor somehow like you did with the mod we just played. You see what I mean. We can play our characters in this mod as a stand alone game so too speak. Or as a stand alone "party" I should say. It is still our characters, we know each other are familiar with each other, but it doesn't "have" to be tied into the future of Naeldor. Unless none of us died and we want it tied in.

Tunari

Of course, if it is a permamnet death no way around it, I cannot risk my favorite character on it. Will have to opt for a different mod.

[Venture]

Well, it depends. I think that if you want any experience you get to carry over after the mod to future mods, then it should be perma-death for future mods too. That is, benefits and detriments all carry forward. But, if you want to just try your characters, and revert back to their pre-mod state when it is done, that might work. Actually, that might work better, since the mod is higher than your level anyway, and might require a level up. Of course, this assumes we do that mod anyway. It is really up to Bedeo, and what he thinks would be the most fun/easiest for him to do.

[Tunari]

Well, if we are going to play a bunch of Epic level mods for the next few months, I would like to do with our characters by leveling up. If so, maybe we can play some of the Epic mods that don't have the permanent death feature.

[Venture]

I think if we're going to level up, we'd have to save a pre-leveled copy of the character to revert to later if we head back into "normal" campaign play. That's something I could do on my end. Of course, this could all be moot, as two of the modules that I think are under consideration aren't epic levels, and may even be lower levels.

[Tunari]

If you could keep our current version levels on your server for future use, that would be good yes.

Is it still Summer of this year that NWN2 is due out? Hypothetically, it could be such a great toolset and awesome possibilites, that you'd continue Naeldor in NWN2. And that way you'd have our current level characters for reference. Assume it's a complete different system, so we'd be making new versions of our current level characters in NWN2.

[Venture]

I haven't thought about plans for NWN2 in great detail, other than to sketch out some plot ideas. I anticipate I will want to carry Naeldor over to NWN2, but I'll probably want to see what I think when I get into the toolset. The info and screens of the toolset that have been released so far are absolutely amazing, so I am hopeful. The major drawback is that Lindalas is on a Mac, and NWN2 is not coming out for Mac. I'm still hoping someone has a PC he can use, and that he can swallow his brand loyalty one evening a week. I feel I've gone as far as I can with the current toolset. I am hoping that the new toolset reinvigorates me. Also, Bigbluepaw and I talked about 2 months ago about starting up a campaign or two when NWN2 is released (although there will be a lead time needed, I am sure). That was just a couple of conversations, though, so don't read too much into it.

Regarding whether we'd reroll the current characters in NWN2, put that in the "to be determined" column. NWN2 is only going to level 20, and with some of the differences, I think we will need to give some serious thought to starting new characters, with the current characters perhaps becoming famous NPCs. Anyway, just some thoughts.

Obsidian did let slip in an interview recently that the target release date is in late June.

[Tunari]

NWN2 is only going to level 20, and with some of the differences, I think we will need to give some serious thought to starting new characters, with the current characters perhaps becoming famous NPCs.

I can be up for a new character for NWN2 certainly, but I would opt for some higher mods for our current characters until we play NWN2. Really want to get Asia to level 18-20 at least. Even if it means leveling up instead of playing to reach that level, I still want to get there before this group of characters goes away. After 2-3 years of playing...we have to end these characters on a high note at epic levels with epic battles.

[Bedeo]

Personally, if we did a Naeldor campaign with NWN2, I'd like to start with new chars, lower levels are often most challenging. Doesn't it use v3.5 rulesets, which are I've heard, quite a bit different in terms of character balance?

As for current play, I agree with Venture, if you expected to keep loot and exp from tomb of horrors into naeldor, then you'd have to play it through and risk losing it.

From a DM point of view, I've no idea what TOH is like, is it simply a dungeon hack, where I'll be forced to take control of the mobs and fight you to entertain myself, or is it somewhat RP?

[Tunari]

As for current play, I agree with Venture, if you expected to keep loot and exp from tomb of horrors into naeldor, then you'd have to play it through and risk losing it.

That goes back to "if" these mods are going to tie into Naeldor. We might just be playing various mods for the next 4-6 months until NWN2 comes out and then V will decide the future of Naeldor in NWN2, but we would be playing that with different characters anyway.

Now, during the next months we can use our current characters with higher levles, but probably won't be tied into Naeldor I think.

So, these next few moths is sort of the last hurrah for our current characters at any level.

[lindalas]

I'd like to continue with our current characters even if it means risking them forever in ToH (or something like it). If we're going with a lower level mod such as Slavelords we'll have to make new characters anyway which is also true for NWN2 (with or without me). What was my point? Don't know... let's play!

[Miguel]

ToH on pnp was definitely an unreasonable deathtrap, I would want to use disposable character copies.

Kind of reminds me of that mediocre movie "Cube"

"Whoops, sorry, your character has been cut into small cubes. Perhaps if you take them back to the flame trap chamber you could make stir-fry."

[TymeSage]

I played Tomb Of Horrors 2 years ago with Sparky on NWC and I can tell you there is no way Zastaph will enter this major death trap. he is way too intelligent for that.

[Bedeo]

Zap, were you still going to DM with me, at least at the start? COuld use the help probably.....