The Blades of Netheril - Unofficial Sequel to Neverwinter Nights announced

Fantasy author and Ossian Studios lead designer Luke Scull continues the story of Neverwinter Nights with The Blades of Netheril:

Announcing The Blades of Netheril - an unofficial sequel to the Neverwinter Nights original campaign

Fantasy author and Ossian Studios lead designer Luke Scull is thrilled to announce The Blades of Netheril, an unofficial sequel to the Neverwinter Nights original campaign! The story is a direct continuation of the Wailing Death storyline. Cast out in disgrace and erased from Neverwinter's history, the hero is thrust into a struggle between ancient powers that could ultimately rewrite the fate of Faerûn. Familiar faces will return alongside new allies and enemies as the player embarks on an epic quest that is both world-changing and deeply personal.

The Blades of Netheril will be split into three chapters each approaching an expansion in scope. Each chapter will include:

• 20+ hours of gameplay
• A fully narrated intro cinematic
• Deadly new monsters to fight
• New portraits and a gorgeous world map
• New music
• The level of quality one would expect from an official campaign or premium module

The first chapter begins in Skullport, also known as the Port of Shadows--a city of slavers, monsters and villains festering far below Waterdeep. Waking up in a dark cell with no memory of they how they came to be there, the hero will discover a dark conspiracy that spans the breadth of the Forgotten Realms.

As well as acting as a direct sequel to the original campaign, The Blades of Netheril will serve as a sequel to Shadows of Undrentide, Hordes of the Underdark, and Luke's previous AL series of modules.

The first chapter of the Blades of Netheril is targeting a release date of June 18th, 2022--exactly 20 years after Neverwinter Nights was originally released on Microsoft Windows. Subsequent chapters will follow six to 12 months later.

The Blades of Netheril is currently planned to be available free for owners of Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition on Windows/Mac OS X, while other versions may follow later. Multiplayer is planned but may be added post-release.

For regular updates on The Blades of Netheril, subscribe to Luke Scull's Patreon. You can also visit his website at www.lukescull.com and follow him on twitter @Luke_Scull.

About Luke Scull:

Luke Scull was the lead designer and writer of NWNEE: Tyrants of the Moonsea, NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate, The Shadow Sun, and the Gemmell award nominated The Grim Company trilogy of novels. He also created the classic NWN Hall of Fame modules Siege of Shadowdale and Crimson Tides of Tethyr and is a veritable depository of Forgotten Realms lore. The Blades of Netheril is his personal project and has no affiliation with Ossian Studios.

More information.

While I've played countless NWN modules, I've never actually managed to finish the original Official Campaign. It really dragged on and I didn't find the story very interesting (certainly not enough to put up with the all the trash encounters).

Still, this is interesting news. Sounds like a helluva lot of work though and I wonder if he'll actually finish all three parts.

Something to be looking forward to, there can't be too much NWN

Nice and it's someone from Ossian Studios who made a few good mods already. I remember Ossian Studios releasing their own RPG but it was for Android phones.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
Something to be looking forward to, there can't be too much NWN

Yap there can be only one or two since I still play NWN 2 also. I'm still waiting for another RPG game that allows players to make their own campaign, and not made in Unity.

As no developer of RPGs made in Unity is mods friendly. Yes they can be modded but there are no tools to make your own campaign as it will be to time consuming.

Solasta released the DM tools but it doesn't compare to NWN.

Yes, please!

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
I'm still waiting for another RPG game that allows players to make their own campaign, and not made in Unity.

As no developer of RPGs made in Unity is mods friendly. Yes they can be modded but there are no tools to make your own campaign as it will be to time consuming.

Solasta released the DM tools but it doesn't compare to NWN.

No, it doesn't compare. It seems that either it's an indie with a simpler game like Solasta, or an AAA for which it would be very complex to create a campaign, like Baldur's Gate 3. Hit games back then like Quake or NWN could get a good campaign from anyone willing to spend some time, now it's another level.

I wouldn't have thought the continuation of the NWN original campaign is something people are crying out for, but this guy sounds quite interesting. He's had some grimdark fantasy novels published that have been quite well-received. I don't tend to like fantasy novels, but maybe that bodes well.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
No, it doesn't compare. It seems that either it's an indie with a simpler game like Solasta, or an AAA for which it would be very complex to create a campaign, like Baldur's Gate 3. Hit games back then like Quake or NWN could get a good campaign from anyone willing to spend some time, now it's another level.

BG 3 should have the tools necessary as Swen is using the same engine as Original Sin. It just seems not enough modders are interested in making OS:1&2 campaigns.

Originally Posted by Ripper
I wouldn't have thought the continuation of the NWN original campaign is something people are crying out for, but this guy sounds quite interesting. He's had some grimdark fantasy novels published that have been quite well-received. I don't tend to like fantasy novels, but maybe that bodes well.

Thank the enhanced edition with it's new graphic upgrades and income stream.

Atrai tried to the same for NWN 1&2 but killed the program, and modders hated it because of the terms. One of them being no romance and it to be PG13 at best.

Free? That's generous, I look forward to it.

Says it's sequel to the OC, the expansions and the AL series. Interesting. The OC gets you to the mid to late teens whereas the others get you up into the 30's IIRC. Wonder how that's going to work. Wait and see I spose.

Originally Posted by KaosWarMonk
Says it's sequel to the OC, the expansions and the AL series. Interesting. The OC gets you to the mid to late teens whereas the others get you up into the 30's IIRC. Wonder how that's going to work. Wait and see I spose.

It sounds like he's going the amnesiac hero route, so I assume we'll start at level 1.

The first chapter begins in Skullport, also known as the Port of Shadows--a city of slavers, monsters and villains festering far below Waterdeep. Waking up in a dark cell with no memory of they how they came to be there, the hero will discover a dark conspiracy that spans the breadth of the Forgotten Realms.

Originally Posted by KaosWarMonk
Free? That's generous, I look forward to it.

Says it's sequel to the OC, the expansions and the AL series. Interesting. The OC gets you to the mid to late teens whereas the others get you up into the 30's IIRC. Wonder how that's going to work. Wait and see I spose.

Well, he's started a Patreon page for the project, but with a rather humble goal of $346 / month. And he says that's just to pay for for essential assets, he's obviously not going to live off of that anyway.

The way I interpreted the description is that Blades of Netheril is a sequel to those modules in the sense that it takes place after them. So it will likely make some references to events in those modules, perhaps feature some NPCs from them, but not necessarily involve the player character. It's called a "direct sequel" to the OC, so perhaps you're supposed to import a character that completed the OC.

I played a ton of NWN modules, but none of this guy's work was among them except for Mysteries of Westgate, which I got bored of fairly quickly. It's an interesting, appealing idea, bringing this back for a new story, but I'm not immediately sold on whether the resulting product would be worthwhile.

Yeah, the price is certainly right, I'll at least stick a toe in and see what it's like, for sure.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
BG 3 should have the tools necessary as Swen is using the same engine as Original Sin. It just seems not enough modders are interested in making OS:1&2 campaigns.

Yup from what I reckon we're only two people who are actively making original campaigns in the OS: 2 editor. Me and a guy called Reavers. Besides that there's a guy who is making an un-official expansion for the base game, but I don't know if he is still actively working on it. There are other modders who are making non-campaign content though

You can find my campaign mod at Steam's workshop.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil…?id=1241234737

The first chapter of the mod is currently about an hour long, and I'm working on more content for the first chapter.
I do plan to eventually "convert" the mod into BG 3 once its editor becomes available.

Sorry for derailing the thread.

Never really liked NWN that much nor the main campaign but still this sounds interesting. Honestly I would be more happy if he was using the infinity engine.

After Baldurs Gate 1 & 2, I was pretty disappointed in NWN 1 & 2.

Nod Saxon1974, I'm right there with you. Even during the testing phase we were pushing for them to do so much more with NWN, yet very little was heeded. It's too bad, those games really could have been so much more. They are nice and fun, yet barely compare to the Baldur games, at least for me.

This looks amazing. A new free module for NWN EE? Sign me up. I actually loved both the NWN and NWN 2 campaigns but I know I was in the minority for "loving" those games - though Mask of the Betrayer still gets good reviews from what I remember.

Of course what everyone loved about NWN wasn't so much the OC as the amazing world of fan-written modules and persistent servers. That is still the case for me, and they've made it easier than ever to play some really interesting modules right from the main menu with no fiddling, downloading, etc. That's kind of cool. I can fiddle with things just fine but there's so much out there that just… works… it's nice to have things made easy and available like that.