Crazy idea, wonder if its possible ?

Twotricks · February 2018

So we know Beamdog acquired the rights to NWN game and engine. I guess its open-ended license to do with it what they please?

So the plan is to strip the game bare completely and allow unprecedented access to the code. This would mean things like rules will also be open. So for example mods would be possible where new races or classes will easily be added. Or some existing classes would be changed, or even some feats and skills changed. Right ?

So lets move to the CRAZY part:

Would this not potentially open the possiblity to move NWN from 3rd Ed D&D to 5th Edition D&D ?

When you look at it the differences are not so big after all ...

Now how would this be done - By community ? But than it would have to be based on OSD ruleset ( which is ok )

But even better is Beamdog going to WOtC - and oppening dialogue with them. God knows that for all succes WOtC had in last years with 5th edition, their succes on digital field leaves a LOT to be desired. They need a winner. And what better WINNER than all time tested D&D megahit that is NWN ?

And lets not forget that WOtC opened up to work with Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and are experimenting with their own digital licence Beyond.

I think Beamdog should open discussion about this. And if they need to open Kickstarter in order to let the numbers talk and convince WOtC. I am sure it would be overnight pledge sucess.

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Lastly why 5e and not 3e ?

There is nothing wrong with 3e ( well actually 3.5e , 3e is broken mess ) I love it. But 5e is much closer to Original D&D feel. Its easier to get into and promotes less of Power play/ munchkinism. There is almost no disagreement today that its simply better ( again nothing wrong with 3.5 I love it dearly )

And most of all, its recent - and its very popular. Surely to bring even more people back to the game

Mordaedil · February 2018

Well, it'd take forever to make.

Twotricks · February 2018

Mordaedil said:
Well, it'd take forever to make.

Yes. Perhaps it can be some future expansion or something like that

FreshLemonBun · February 2018

I think you're making some assumptions that turn out not to be the case. For example 5e is a dramatic departure from the classic D&D experience, reducing options, speeding up play, exponentially increased survival chance, no importance of alignment and removal of class restrictions. Another seems to be the assumption that 5e doesn't have broken features.

I think you'll find that 5e allows a decent amount of broken characters and there's extensive discussion of broken features such as the banishment spell. The popularity of 5e stems from other factors as well as how quick it is to play and understand.

There's also the point that combat without theater of the mind can get highly repetitive in 5e. As Mike Mearls even explains with his motivation for his alternative initiative system, his players always repeated the optimal decision with the regular system. He also brings it up several times, for example in his last subclass creation discussion he emphasizes that players want more or less no more than 4 options in combat because they want to keep the game moving. So taking that into consideration I think there is still a big question mark on whether or not 5e will make a good video game especially one that is supposed to still be engaging even 10 years later. Obviously you will lose the theater of the mind aspect which means only the mechanics remain.

That said I think you should be able to craft other rulesets with NWN but there are some problems for example gaining ability points every 4 levels and a feat every 3 levels. In 5e these things are tied in with your class progression and you have the choice of 2 ability increases or a feat. You also need to be able to cap out the linear ability progression at 20.

So I don't know whether it will be fun or engaging or not at all, but it would be nice to have the character creation and level up process unhardcoded to try different rule systems.

Twotricks · February 2018

@FreshLemonBun

You do make good points. Still I am sure there would be much interest for this "conversion". Possibly more interest than game set in 3.5 ED ... which lets face it is not perfect for video games either. Perhaps - and gasp , i dont believe im saying this - dreaded 4ed would be best, since it was made with "video games" in mind.

That being said. 5e based game would bring lot of new people and lot of new interest. And some simplicity is maybe not bad thing ? 3.5 is too complicated even in NWN form, and even for experts like us ( sorry im assuming )

If 5th ED version would be offered as expansion. So we would be able to have PWs set in 5th ed ruleset, and others in 3.5. Would that not be just wonderful ?

raz651 · February 2018

You also forget about the 3rd feature of NWN, that being the DM mode, where a live DM can run a game with a set of players. Having the 5e ruleset would facilitate playing a live 5e game in NWN, and that would be fun. (at least it would be for me.)

FreshLemonBun · February 2018

I'm not sure 4e would be good either, it was made with a more MMO style in mind where everyone has powers that have different cooldowns effectively. 3.5 failed because it was a pretty deep combat grid simulator that took a lot of time and breaks to look up specific rules to run it properly.

It's honestly an interesting debate whether a video game should be more or less complex than a table top game. I can see why a table top game benefits from some necessary simplification to keep things moving, on the other hand the computer can do all the heavy lifting in a video game.

I agree that different sets of rule implementations would be good to see, as well as entirely custom rule sets. Some OSR conversions would be interesting to see too, I think it's Dungeon Crawl Classics which has a very intricate magic system with many random side effects.

Crazy idea, wonder if its possible ?

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