But evil stirs once more, this time in the fetid depths of the Mere of Dead Men. The swamp lies near West Harbor, the village where you grew up. When you were an infant, the King of Shadows and his legions fought the Neverwinter army there, destroying the town in the process. Your mother died protecting you; all you can remember of the event is a sharp pain in your chest and her anguished screams.

A dark scar in the village green reminds West Harbor’s inhabitants that their rebuilt homes could someday be under siege again. People whisper that a man named Ammon Jerro was really the King of Shadows. They assume he’s now dead, but no one really knows what happened during the battle because none of the combatants survived.

Two Magic-Users Enter, One Magic-User Leaves. Spellcasters square off.

Meanwhile, you’re busy preparing for the annual Harvest Festival and assisting your foster parent, the elf Daeghun Farlong, with various tasks. Suddenly, your mundane life is interrupted by an attack: several gaunt, skeletal humanoids known as the Githyanki attack West Harbor. You help the local militia defeat them, but Daeghun knows that this is merely the prelude to a new war. He sends you on a dangerous mission that turns into an epic quest revealing what really happened in West Harbor’s past.

“We added a lot of dastardly deeds and devious twists and turns for evil players in the story.”

- Tony Evans, game designer

When Critters Attack. These spiders are just a warm-up for more deadly enemies.

A Classic Tale

“Neverwinter Night 2’s story is a classic tale of great evil threatening the lands and heroes rising up to conquer that evil,” explains game designer Tony Evans. You’ll need 50 hours or more to complete the game’s sprawling narrative, which includes many side quests and other activities. You’ll even find your character placed on trial at one point, accused of a horrific crime that he didn’t commit, and later you’ll take command of Crossroad Keep, a fortress serving as your home base for later quests.

During your journey, you recruit up to three non-player characters (NPCs) to help you. The presence of certain ones triggers specific side quests, and your interactions with them dictates their loyalty to you, a status level that makes a major difference when you find the odds against you in a battle. How you treat other characters you meet also nudges the story in certain directions, potentially turning you into a villain, rather than the hero.

Shafts of Light. A curious encounter.

“I like to play as an evil warlock,” confides Evans. “We added a lot of dastardly deeds and devious twists and turns for evil players in the story. I highly recommend playing the game through to the end as an evil character. In my opinion, it makes the game even more fun.”

Pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons requires several people to play, and you can join a digital version of that dynamic in the game’s multiplayer option. Connect to one of the available online worlds and create a new character, or use one you made for the single-player campaign.

“[The] story is a classic tale of great evil threatening the lands and heroes rising up to conquer that evil”

- Tony Evans, game designer

(Note that some servers may not allow you to do the latter, or may restrict characters to certain races and/or classes.) Depending on the game world’s settings, you may be able to fight other human-controlled characters as you experience a new adventure.

Welcome to the Sandbox

The Neverwinter Nights 2 story takes place in Faerûn, an area of a D&D world known as the Forgotten Realms. (To learn more about the Realms, please see “Building Worlds”.) Evans likens the planet to “an immense sandbox to play in. Every land within the Realms has its own history, style, background, and memorable characters.”

Spelunking, D&D Style. It never hurts to resort to magic.

The designer reveals that “some of the characters, quests, and themes in Neverwinter Nights 2 borrow elements from Planescape: Torment,” a previous role-playing videogame set in another D&D world. Like its digitally-conceived predecessors, Neverwinter Nights 2 uses official D&D rules — in this case, the latest version, 3.5. Evans points out: “The richness of D&D’s settings and the complexity of its rules set fuel the imaginations of many who either want to tell a fantasy story or take part in one.”

This is Our Turf. There goes the neighborhood.

In the case of Neverwinter Nights 2, the richness of the Forgotten Realms and the complexity of D&D’s rules come together to inform a story where you must leave no area unexplored, no conversation unuttered, if you want to experience all of its nuances. For an example, take Evans’ favorite character, Ammon Jerro. “He’s a complex man,” the designer observes, “misunderstood by almost everyone, but he always strives for the greater good, no matter the cost.”

You’ll need to understand the motivations of Jerro and all the other major NPCs in the game, if you want to steer the Forgotten Realms down a new path in its history, even if that path is a dark one.

If you liked this game, check out:

• Dungeon Siege
• EverQuest
• Legion Arena
• Legion Arena: Cult of Mithras
• Neverwinter Nights
• World of Warcraft
• World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade