Hi everyone, I'm whitekite. Nice to meet you.

I've wanted to make something like this for a while. I want to make a NWN module that is basically a multiplayer campaign, but the key details are controlled by a GM. The catch is, the GM will be playing alongside the rest of the players, secretly altering the course of the campaign. Of course everyone will know who the GM is in advance, but who knows what kind of mayhem he'll stir up?

The scenario is your typically zombie apocalypse. Some people are at an inn and suddenly there's like a million zombies EVERYWHERE. Get set, go!

It will play more like a video game than a standard NWN module.

Here's the brainstorming I've done so far. Skip to the very bottom of the post if you don't feel like reading a crapload of stuff.

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Something’s amiss at the Weeping Willow Inn
This is a role-playing scenario in which an unlikely cast of characters gets pitted in a battle for their lives against an endless onslaught of zombies. They must use their wits to overcome any immediate dangers and eventually find a permanent escape from the hell that their lives are about to become. I hope to make several ways that the scenario can be completed. One of them is TPK, but hopefully it is not so difficult that this happens. Unless you are really stupid.

This is not DnD. I borrowed many names from DnD, but I have modified the mechanics in such a way that the DnD rules are more or less irrelevant.

I suck at finishing things. I reserve the right to give up on this at any time.

Setting
It’s just another evening at the Weeping Willow Inn. The lobby is bustling as always with various travelers swapping stories and sharing drinks at the counter, traveling artists performing in hopes for getting some coin from the inn’s customers, and worn-out hunters just taking a break from the exhaustion of everyday life. As the sun sets, an unfamiliar moaning is heard in the distance.

Mechanics
I will explain some things.

100% accuracy
Besides rolls of 1, all attacks will land. There is no AC. There is only damage reduction and regeneration.

Role-based damage
A sword in the hands of a warrior might do 40 damage per hit. A sword in the hands of a GM might do 10 damage per hit. It will not be significantly based on the weapon’s base damage.

Hit points
Around 100-200 zombies and 500-800 for players. I haven’t really decided yet. I’d rather player health be super high so that the immediate threat of death is not very high during combat, but over time you will get worn out and have to find some way to retreat and recover yourself.

Quantity of zombies
Zombies will die fast. But there will be a LOT OF THEM. This is part role-playing and part KILL THEM ALL KILL THEM ALL-playing. You will probably have to play somewhat strategically.

Fire
Almost everyone will have some way to do fire damage. If you don’t have a specific ability, you can use a torch. If you hit a zombie with fire, it will ignite. Ignited zombies can ignite other zombies. Ignited zombies can ignite trees and other props. Ignited zombies deal additional fire damage to players. Ignited props can damage the players. Have fun giving into your deepest desires.

Player-based plot progression
The GM will both be participating as one of the characters and advancing the plot. He will do this through the use of a variety of items I will give him. He will be able to discretely spawn encounters or natural disasters without the “activates item’s special power” bullshit.

Death
When you reach 0 hit points, you are “knocked out” or “unconscious,” not dead. This is mainly an IC thing, as you are functionally dead. I just don’t like explaining how you raise people from the dead.

Magic
There is no magic.

Experience
There are no experience points.

Resting
There is no resting. There will be ways to speed up regeneration, though, like starting a campfire in a safe zone or whatever.

Characters
As I want to control the dynamics of the scenario’s combat as well as put some kind of continuity in the setting, each player will not create their own character. Instead, they will choose from a cast of preformed characters that I have created. This is mostly to give me control over character roles and abilities.

I’ve given each character a name and a vague occupation. Names are tentative, as I came up with most of them on the spot. The background is mainly to explain why they have the skills that they do, but obviously as this is a role-playing scenario you are free to modify your background as you see fit.

Each “role” has a male and female version. Their statistics and abilities are more or less identical, as the male/female versions are for flavor only.

Game Master
The purpose of the GM is primarily to facilitate the timely progression of the scenario. As the scenario is time-sensitive, and each group is likely to have their own individual pacing, the GM is there to ensure the group has a heart-pounding experience without being too overwhelmed by the onslaught of undead.
Male GM: Olaf, the barkeep
Female GM: Sandra, the waitress
GM abilities:
Regeneration aura: Years of providing hospitality to weary travelers has granted the GM an aura that makes those around him relieved and comfortable. As long as the GM is conscious, all nearby conscious party members heal +2 health/round.
Resuscitate: After dealing with countless drunkards, awakening someone who has been knocked unconscious by zombies is a trivial task. Revive fallen party member with 1 health. Unlimited uses.
Adrenaline rush: The GM can give the entire party a boost to movement speed for 60 seconds. Unlimited uses, but this is mainly for really hairy situations.
Advance plot: The GM will have the ability to control the spawn time of zombies as well as various natural disasters. This is out of character.

Warrior
The warrior is the group’s frontline defense, being able to take hits like nobody’s business. Good with all melee weapons, including any exotic ones the group may stumble upon. Bad with bows. Good damage output, but can only focus on a small amount of targets at a time. Great for blocking doorways.
Male warrior: Omar, the ex-soldier
Female warrior: Catherine, the town guard
Warrior abilities:
Damage reduction: As a battle-hardened veteran, the warrior is able to shrug off the pain from weaker attacks. Damage reduction 3/-.
Regeneration: The warrior heals +1 health/round. This stacks with the GM’s regeneration aura.
Melee weapon focus: When wielding any melee weapon, the warrior gains a bonus to damage as well as the ability to slightly damage nearby targets on each attack.
Just a flesh wound!: Even when struck down, if you have the will to fight, you can go on! When the warrior’s health is reduced to 0 or less, he has a 50% chance to revive with 10% of his health restored.

Hunter
The hunter is the group’s archer. He is also experienced in combat, so he is still proficient with melee weapons, but not to the extent of the warrior. The hunter is able to utilize the various arrows the group finds such as flaming arrows, which will light zombies on fire.
Male hunter: Elk, the hunter
Female hunter: Nari, the huntress
Hunter abilities:
Damage reduction: Like the warrior, the hunter is battle-hardened. Damage reduction 1/-.
Regeneration: The hunter heals +1 health/round. This stacks with the GM’s regeneration aura.
Ranged weapon focus: The hunter’s arrows deal additional damage.
Set traps: The hunter is able to ensnare his enemies by setting a trap. Requires trap tools.

Performer
The performer, while not having good tanking or damage abilities, proves invaluable to a group with his inspiring aura, greatly boosting the effectiveness of the warrior and hunter.
Male performer: Jarvis, the traveling bard
Female performer: Rizette, the traveling dancer
Performer abilities:
Inspiring aura: The performer is able to inspire confidence in his allies. Nearby allies gain bonus damage and an additional attack.
Lucky bastard: It’s time for the sidekick to shine! The performer has a 10% chance to get a headshot when using a sling, instantly killing the target.

Alchemist
The alchemist is a master of potion concoction and use, being able to utilize the raw materials the group may come across to create various potions that either improve the abilities of the imbiber or create devastating effects when thrown.
Male alchemist: Matthias, the apothecary
Female alchemist: Senna, the chemist
Alchemist abilities:
Create potion: The alchemist can create potions at a workbench.
Healing potion: Heals the drinker for 50% of his health.
Greater healing potion: Fully heals the drinker.
Invisibility potion: The drinker becomes invisible for 1 minute. Good for scouting or escaping.
Stoneskin potion: Bestows 20/- damage reduction for 500 damage or 5 minutes.
Volatile flask: Explodes for 100 fire damage and lights zombies on fire.
Acid flask: Explodes for 50 acid damage and causes targets to take double damage from physical attacks.
Oil flask: Drenches area in oil, making targets more vulnerable to fire. Deals 50 fire damage to targets that are already burning.
Bucket of water: Soaks a target, putting out any current fires and reducing further damage from fire. Why would you ever want to do that?
Wake-me-up: It smells like a combination of pig sweat and horse urine. Revives an unconscious ally with 20% health.

Engineer
The engineer hails from a strange foreign land where machines are commonplace. Utilizes various mechanical devices. Differs from the alchemist in that the engineer starts the scenario completely equipped instead of gradually finding materials, but the devices are limited and cannot be replenished over the course of the scenario.
Male engineer: Archie, the eccentric
Female engineer: Lassie, the crazy
Engineer abilities:
Land mine: Explode for 150 fire damage when triggered. Lights zombies on fire. Limited quantity.
Cherry bombs: Explode for 100 fire damage. Lights zombies on fire. Limited quantity.
Lightning gun: Electrocutes a line of targets for 100 electrical damage. Deals double damage during rain or against soaked targets. Limited charges.
Lightning rod: Plants a lightning rod that attracts lightning bolts during the rain. Lightning bolts instantly destroy zombies. Limited quantity.
Ice grenade: Explodes for 20 cold damage and freezes zombies. Frozen targets will thaw from fire or shatter from a melee strike. Limited quantity.
Taser: Electrocutes a nearby enemy for minor damage. Deals double damage during rain or against soaked targets. Unlimited.

Notes
You may notice that some characters seem pretty deficient in combat. The idea is that the combat-capable characters kill stuff while the others look for ways to advance the plot. We’ll see if that actually happens, or if the performer just keeps trying to get headshots.

Also, all this stuff is subject to change. I haven’t even started working on this yet.

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Okay, so I'm not looking for help because I'm perfectly capable of doing all this myself. Rather, I'm wondering if there's anyone interested in playing this with me when it's finished. There's no point if the campaign never gets played, and I don't exactly have a bunch of friends chilling out around campus with Neverwinter Nights 1. So basically if I can get enough people here who are interested in messing around with zombies, I'll start working on it. Otherwise I won't waste my time.

Also feedback.

ZOMBIES

Oh... I have a suggestion if you want to randomize spells without making multiple NPCs...

Make a wizard that has like 3-4 of every spell available at his level, then when you spawn him, use a script to decrease the number of spells for everything you don't want him to have. eg. you can have a level 10 wizard that has like 3 uses each of fireball, lightning bolt, slow, scintillating sphere, acid breath, neg energy burst. This is way over the normal limit, but I believe that if you go ahead and ignore the warning that the toolset gives you, the game will automatically just give the NPC extra spell slots. When you spawn him, you can randomly choose like 2 spells to keep and then repeatedly DecrementRemainingSpellUses on everything else.

The script would probably end up being pretty lengthy, but it should have a much greater potential for customization.

righties unite

For years now, Bull's Strength was the only one that did this because the spell stacked with the blackguard feat - the part where the buff erases previous casts completely was a modification by us. I think all feats stacked with their spell versions, but there were so few harper scouts (they got the other feats) that we didn't bother.

I wasn't aware if the greater spells stacked with the normal versions, but I was under the impression they actually never did.

I thought that guy standing in front of the warehouse is supposed to give a quest for the key now? I didn't try it yet, but I could have sworn I read that somewhere.

Bolts
2d6 electrical damage
1d10 sonic damage
25% DC 14 daze

Basically they add almost 10 more damage than 1d6 versions, the daze is pretty useless but hikes up the item value as well. Currently they cost like 650k per stack of 20 (yes, only 20). Ripoff.

Even if they were reverted to their base value, I bet it would be like 30k for a full stack (just a guess, haven't actually checked). They'd be usable then but still a ripoff. Maybe if they were arrows...

I don't think you'll be able to handle this with 1 script, but what you might be able to do is have a series of what I call "switch" scripts (there's probably another name for them) that can be universal to the module. You can also use a universal variable storage placeable nearby to store commands via local ints, strings, etc. In either case you'll still need at least as many scripts as you have dialogue options per conversation level to distinguish them.

The "switch" scripts just set variables depending on what you click, and the final script decodes it all. You can put these scripts either on "actions taken" or "text appears when", but make sure you take care with the latter- the script fires BEFORE you click that dialogue option, and the dialogue option only even appears if you return TRUE.

This method can get messy and is only really useful when you have a TON of possible combinations because it essentially exponentially reduces the number of scripts required (I used it for the item property wand and it's still kind of buggy).

The second option is probably easier to implement. Just put an invisible object or waypoint (not sure if waypoints can store variables but I think so) near the portal. Store something like string "command" as "teleport" or soemthing. Store something like "location" as the tag of the waypoint destination. Make some scripts that, when clicked, search for a specific waypoint or object, decode the "command" variable, then use any additional variables stored to finish its job. You will need at least as many scripts as dialogue options with nearly identical content - the only thing that changes is the waypoint it looks for.

This method just makes it so if you have 2 portals that do the same thing but go different places, instead of having 8 scripts, you only have 4. If you have 3, instead of having 12 scripts, you still only have 4. It only works if each dialogue option has a SPECIFIC action associated with it. You can also tool the scripts to do other things besides teleport, but you have to remember to update all of them. You can use includes to eliminate copy and pasting, but you will still have to recompile all the scripts when you change it.


These are my lameass ways of dealing with one of the toolset's biggest faults. They probably won't really help deal with the specific situation at hand, but they should help with anything you build AFTER that. The latter would be much more useful if an entire module is built using that principle so you don't need a new script every time you have a new portal.

Oh, I finally figured out that avatar of yours.

On topic, this is pretty convenient that the forums can already do it lol.