D&D...
 

Does anyone know of a D&D style game (elves, swords, dwarfs ect...) for the PC that lets you play pretty much freeform? I liked Bioware's Baldur's gate series, but I hated the fact that I was "going" somewhere, I was playing to get somewhere and end the game, I wanted to continue playing, and adventuring, but alas, all good things must ome to an end. I am told Neverwinter Nights it sort of like this, but I haven't played it. So if anyone knows a game like this, let me know. Thanks!
~Crack

Neverwinter Nights my good sir is what you want.

When you get it make sure to update it straight away NWN was really buggy when it was released, I myself have never played it. But it is all based off the D&D system so yeah have fun :D

Neverwinter Nights.. or there is another one, with no preset character classes.. Now its going to bug me..

I think NWN was pretty much a play it through and end the game type of thing. I mean, it didn't have much actual freeform adventuring at all. Don't get me wrong, I liked it. But it was pretty much a follow the story to the end. You might want to look into an online game if you are looking for freeform.

I agree with the point about NWN having a story, but the way they designed it, and the editor they made, you can pick up hundreds of modules with individual adventures, and you can caryr your character through them..

Lost, you're thinking of Dungeon Seige. It is simply a Dungeon Crawler.. Hack'N'Slash. Don't get me wrong, its a great game, but its a lot more linear than you'd think.

The best game is D&D using IRC with a roll bot, AIM using //roll-DiceX-SidesY, or MSN and trust people to not lie about their dice rolls. ;)

Neverwinter Nights has a world & game builder with it.
You can use it to build most anything you want.
And as mentioned before you can get custom modules from elsewhere,
including game duplicates of the old pen & paper modules. :)

I feel bad turning someone onto a game as addicting as Everquest, but 1) like the name stipulates Its a never ending quest 2) its based alot of Middle Earth stuff.

No, thats not the one Im thinking about.. Myt friend bought the game Im thinking about but it wouldnt run on his system because it was really really graphic intensive. It came out at the same time as NWN.. You can pick several different races, you have hundreds of skills, and you pretty much make up the spells..

For the life of me I can't remember the name.. Its really bugging me too

nwn is great for buliding your char

dontlike the changgle level of the story change it

a must have any one who loves dandd

be warned its is very graphic intestive and sound intestive

takes alot out of your system

You might be thinking about Morrowind.

Still, NWN is great for free-form if you take the time to go online and find a group and GM. With the world builder functionality, you can run the computer game in a manner very similar to how you would run a regular PnP game.

Otherwise, you need to check out online games. No stand-alone game is going to have the content necessary for true freeform play.

Morrowind, like Moonduck said. Its damn good rpg. And if you in the mood for D&D stuff, even though its not neccessarily free form, the Balders Gate series is the peak of badassness.

*scratches head* I don't quite understand why people are recommending NWN when he's looking for a freeform RPG. Maybe I have a different definition of freeform.

The sidequests of NWN are pretty lacking, nothing too involving or interesting (neither was the main story for that matter). And you couldn't really play the game in any way you wanted... I mean, playing the game once through (thoroughly), and you've seen pretty much everything. Having a different type of character doesn't change the game too much. Also, the world of NWN is pretty small and claustrobic. I always felt I was looking down on my character, who was sitting on a gameboard, and I was moving him around from above (you can say the same for BG, but for some reason it's more noticable in NWN). I guess that pays homage to tabletop games, but I think it hurts the imersion aspect... Add this all together and you have what I'd call a pretty straight forward RPG, one that isn't freeform at all. You pretty much just play the game, follow the directions for the quests you get, and eventually the game ends.

That's not to say I don't like NWN. I do, but the thing that keeps my coming back is the character building aspects. Its fun, there's a slew of good types of characters you can be, and the gameplay/action is done well.

Contrast that with Morrowind. There's SO much you can do, most of which has nothing to do with the main story. Join guilds, get better at random skills (say, alchemy or bartering or whatever), own some property, collect random shit that you think looks cool (and there's a lot of it)... the list goes on. That's what I'd call freeform.

But it suffers where NWN shines: character creation, balance, graphics (the technical aspects, not design/style), gameplay, interface. I can't really talk about the story, because I've never gotten around to actually beating Morrowind ;)

Morrowind is cool, and its more free form than NWN. I like the gameplay of NWN though, Morrowind gets kind of monotonous. Im not a big RPG person either though.

Thanks Guys, You have given me a couple of good choices!
~Crack

the editor is why we recommoned nwn you can make your own game or download other peoples ideas

Exactly, some servers on NwN run games where there is no fighting and the server is all story based. The editor of NwN is amazing. If you've ever sat down and worked with the Auroa toolset, you'd know that the NwN lets you do almost anything that you can think of. It just takes a lot of time and work to do it some of the more active trigger events and things...

Once your done with Morrowind your done. The game is over. True there are lots of extras in the game but at some point you're going to be finished, end of story. NwN allows people to create an infinite about of stories and games of all sizes. That's the beauty of NwN.

NWN is the best D&D type game I've ever played. It's not a freeform CRPG like Morrowind, which gets very boring after awhile. But the user created modules give a HUGE replay value. There are hundreds of modules you can play. Pretty cool.

The answer is so simple, it has eluded gamers for over a decade...

...pen and paper games. Computer games have been trying to emulate them from Day 1, but really never will be able to. Get a group of 6 or 7 or 8 people together, find someone creative to GM it, and go to town.

I PnP once a week, and I consider that game time more valuable than all the rest of my relatively mindless PC RPG play.

Very few people where I live now do any pen and paper gaming, which is why I need a fix. Thanks!
~Crack

Neverwinter Nights' is a good choice, not to mention 'Temple of Elemental Evil'. Though be sure to d/l the patches to ToEE. It's got teh bugs.

No such D&D CRPG exists unfortunately. If you're a fan of tactical combat though I recommend picking up Temple of Elemental Evil like Gothmog suggested. It's the most faithful D&D game yet and the combat is very fun. Too bad it has so many bugs and the storyline is kind of blah.

Neverwinter Nights Gold edition..comes with the expansion and a couple of Dev designed add-ons.


Also,if you would like to play a game..maybe on a LAN...I cannot stress how good of a multiplayer game Baldur's Gate II makes.The single player of course is awesome too..but controlling more than 3 characters never really floated my boat.


Baldur's Gate II
Neverwinter Nights/NWN Gold edition
Icewind Dale (Didnt really like it at all..but some people do)

You can't say Baldurs Gate without mentioning Planescape:Torment. Even though it's very similiar to BG, it's the funniest RPG you'll ever play =D

NWN just released another expansion pack... "Hordes of the Underdark" with epic levels (level 40+). I haven't picked it up yet, but I'm sure I will this weekend.

there was a team working on Discworld modules for NWN. anyone got a progress update? I'm a huge BIS fan, but NWN never really did it for me. The original game was too easy and repetitive. But for the Discworld, I'll reinstall it with pleasure.

Angband.

Old school, baby.

Heh,I heard about that and thought about buying it.(Then I realized I never played the first expansion :P).


The only reason I bought the expansion:Blackguards

Epic levels sound neat though.