I'm only in Chapter 1 and so far I'm finding the story to be very underwhelming. However I like how the game plays thus far and I've heard great things about the expansions and community modules.

Since I really don't have time to play through everything the game has to offer I am thinking of abandoning the campaign in favor of other modules.

Does anyone else feel this way about the campaign story? Since I'm only in Chapter 1 I'm open to suggestions to persevere if it's worth it. :P

Quite common opinion, and the one I share as well, is that OC = the weakest part of NWN. Better start will SoU or HotU if you want to go with original content, or with one of user-made modules, like Tales of Arterra.

The OC is thoroughly mediocre by any standard, and that's probably being generous. SoU and HotU were a fair bit better, and many of the community made modules are absolutely outstanding. If you're finding you're not really getting into the OC then I'd definitely recommend skipping it and either going through SoU followed by HotU, or just jumping directly into some community made modules (a good starting point would be this thread).

I think I'll start with SoU then. But it looks like the game has a fantastic community, I'll have to take a look at the modules.

Been playing this game for like 8 years now...but what is this original campaign everyone keeps talking about? :-P

**irony alert**

lol!

I've been playing the OC recently.....ok, ok...i WAS. It's........OK...

I liked the original campaign, didn't love it but there was a lot of good stuff in it. 2nd chapter is the best one. That said, doing SoU -> HotU is probably a lot more satisfying experience.

But there's a knack to character building, and the chances of creating a satisfying character for playthrough of both extensions on a first attempt.. is somewhat slim.

That's what character creator modules are for. Quite handy for modifying existing chars, unless someone is very touchy about breaking immersion ;)

There were rumors going around when the game was released that, since the effort had been concentrated on the multi-player aspects, the OC was essentially a last minute addition ("Hey - what about people who want to play the game in single-player mode ?!?!")

As noted, the two expansions are better, and there are some excellent community modules.

That can't be right, it does take a good while to create even small modules and OC is not small. I can believe the henchmen were a last minute addition to make the campaign more single-playable.

Its definately a single player game most and firstmost.

For any SP fanatic it might look like its a multiplayer game even if they only add the ABILITY to play multiplayer but it still isn't.

They DID spend a lot of time getting the MP to work...probably a lot more than thoose 10% of the buyers that used MP at all (probably a bit higher nowdays).

So that was the big deal for the economics at Bioware at that time. That they had spent maybe 30% of their time on making something work that only 10% used finally. (Just guessing at the 30% here but something like that.)

Still....people need to remember that this is a SP game with added MP ability. Not the other way around.

Persistent Worlds where even deemed impossible for a long time and most of the patching was devoted to fixing MP and PW problems...

===========

Bioware isn't exactly famous for MP games (except NWN). They spent their whole time after NWN ONLY making SP games.

Yeah I know that they made a new office in Texas and that they are making an MMO now but it still hasn't been released and the bulk of their game is really SP..trust me.

The OC sucks. SoU is better, but it's still weak. Multiplayer is NWNs strong suit, so try to get in on a DMed campaign at the neverwinter connections multiplayer website. And if you're looking for a good SP experience give Adam Millers epic Shadowlords/Dreamcatcher/Demon trilogy a try.

The original campaign wasn't my cup of tea, either. If you're not enjoying it, I'd certainly say skip it and try the expansions, premium modules, and user-made content to see what really engages you.

Yeah, the OC is weak. I liked it many years ago when I played through. But I just tried it out again and... it's weak. Still, it's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. I still have some fond memories of it. What the hell, it's part of the package you bought... try it out. Can't hurt.

SoU is much better. Slow to start, and too easy to start as well, even for a magic user. But I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Never got to HotU, but I will this time around. Some player made modules are good, but read the reviews... some are horrible and some are just not for your particular liking.

Kezardin is quite correct. Obviously, it wasn't created in two weeks but NWN was originally designed as a platform for people to create their own MP DnD adventures in to play with their friends. The marketing appeared and said we can't sell it without an SP game. From that point, and it's success, the expansions and premium modules were born.

I wish I could link you to the discussion in which this was explained by BW devs, but the old forums are closed aftr a hak attempt soooooo.

And yes, the OC is the weakest thing about the whole NWN experience. SoU and HotU improve dramatically, and many community modules and PWs are simply amazing.

Have fun :)