Neverwinter Nights: The Blades of Netheril - A Guide to What to Play Beforehand
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At the moment, Luke Scull intends to release Doom of Icewind Dale, the first chapter of his ambitious The Blades of Netheril module for Neverwinter Nights, in a couple of months. And seeing how this module will serve as the continuation of the game's original campaign, you might want to have a character ready for when it goes live.
If that's the case, you should check out this recent Patreon post that tells us what we should play, and be familiar with, if we want to have the best experience with The Blades of Netheril. Here it is:
A question I'm often asked is, which campaigns and/or modules should I play before The Blades of Netheril in order to get the best experience? Rather than providing variations on the same answer, I decided I'd put together a quick guide and direct players here! :)
In short, the only campaign it is highly desirable the player have some familiarity with is the original Wailing Death campaign. This is the story millions of players will have experienced, in which the Hero of Neverwinter starts out at the Academy and goes on to save the city of Neverwinter and defeat the evil plans of the Old One, Morag. (They are never referred to as such during the campaign, but the Old Ones are in fact sarrukhs - an ancient reptilian race whose empires spanned the Realms many, many thousands of years ago.)
The Blades of Netheril, which will consist of seven chapters, continues the story of the Hero of Neverwinter. The player should import the character that finished the Wailing Death campaign into the first chapter, Doom of Icewind Dale. This character should be between levels 15-19 and will probably have an inventory of powerful items. The character will be deleveled to level 10 and item-stripped at the start of Doom of Icewind Dale. However, there will be ample opportunity to regain those levels during the adventure, and the player will eventually be able to reclaim all of the items they lost.
It is recommended that the player is familiar with the Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark expansions, as well as the Ossian Studios Premium Module, Tyrants of the Moonsea, which you can purchase here. The two expansions follow a different player character from their beginnings as an apprentice to the dwarven adventurer Drogan Droganson in the village of Hilltop, to the conqueror of Mephistopheles after braving the depths of Undermountain and the Nine Hells.
The hero of Tyrants of the Moonsea is a different player character entirely. I'll get to that in a bit.
The epic, seven-part narrative of The Blades of Netheril campaign ties together all of the stories, characters, and narrative threads from the Wailing Death campaign, the two expansions, and the Tyrants of the Moonsea Premium Module. It is assumed they all occur in the same version of the Forgotten Realms.
You'll see, then, why it's recommended to have at least some familiarity with the events of the expansions and Tyrants of the Moonsea Premium Module even though we're dealing with three different player characters.
That's not the quite the whole picture. Tyrants of the Moonsea was itself a pseudo-sequel to two Hall of Fame modules, Siege of Shadowdale and Crimson Tides of Tethyr. I've provided links to these two modules, which you can freely download from the Neverwinter Vault. I say "pseudo-sequels" because even though the level ranges match up for a PC starting at Siege (level 1 to 7), and moving on to Tides (level 8-14), and then Tyrants (level 15+), the stories are all self-contained. The one connecting feature is that they all feature malaugrym, and reference the legendary artifacts known as the Blades of Netheril.
Familiarity with Siege of Shadowdale and Crimson Tides of Tethyr is a nice bonus, but the events and characters of those modules will not feature heavily in The Blades of Netheril. Still, they are treated part of the same continuity. If you are interested in playing them, I'm planning Enhanced Edition updates later this year, so you may want to hold off until then. Doom of Icewind Dale itself makes no reference to either of the two modules, so you miss out on absolutely no lore by waiting for the Enhanced Editions.
To add one final wrinkle to this complex tapestry, the Ossian Studios Premium Module Darkness over Daggerford (available here) is also considered canon. A few of the events and characters will be referenced in The Blades of Netheril campaign - though, as with the two Hall of Fame modules, these are minimal. Since both Crimson Tides of Tethyr and Darkness over Daggerford cover the same level range, it is assumed the player character is different in both campaigns. Indeed, The Blades of Netheril will treat them as different heroes. It is possible during Tyrants of the Moonsea for the character to state that they were the Hero of Daggerford, but this won't be reflected in the upcoming campaign.
I hope that goes somewhat towards clearing things up! The tl;dr version is this:
The Wailing Death Campaign (OC) - Player should have played or be familiar with.
Shadows of Undentride/Hordes of the Underdark/Tyrants of the Moonsea - Player will ideally have some knowledge of.
Siege of Shadowdale/Crimson Tides of Tethyr/Darkness over Daggerford - Entirely optional but may enhance the experience.
Finally, if you've played Tyrants of the Moonsea or Darkness over Daggerford, may I ask you to drop a review on Steam or GoG.com? Healthy sales and interest in these two Premium Modules directly increase the funding available to The Blades of Netheril campaign.
Many thanks!
