Neverwinter Nights, released by BioWare in the early 2000s, had one of the largest and most vibrant modding communities in the last decade. The game was based on the third edition of Dungeons and Dragons and it had a powerful toolset that was very easy to use. This helped players to create their own stories or adapt old D&D modules that can be played even today.

The release of NWN: Enhanced Edition by Beamdog gave this community a breath of fresh air. Modders got new tools and a few new projects were released, both as premium and fanmade modules.

In 2018, a canceled premium module called Darkness of Daggerford was upgraded and sold. It was originally supposed to be released commercially in 2006, but it was canceled and launched for free.

This paved the way for the release of Tyrants of the Moonsea, another canceled premium module. This one is a high-level adventure that lasts around 20 hours. It takes the player from level 15 to around 20 or 22, depending on how many side quests are finished. If you like the Forgotten Realms setting and you want to explore the Moonsea, this module may be perfect for you.

Alazander’s Forgotten Realms Trilogy

Just like Darkness Over Daggerford, Tyrants of the Moonsea was originally launched back in 2006. It was envisioned by Luke Scull, known as Alazander in the community, who was considered one of the greatest modders in the scene.

In 2002, while most modders were still trying to learn the ropes and how to use the system, he already published his first story: The Siege of Shadowdale. It was a pretty short module based around Elmister’s city in the Dales. The famous wizard even made an appearance on the mod.

Alazander got even more popular with The Crimson Tides of Tethyr, his second story. The module was far more comprehensive than its predecessor and it had a thrilling story about a war in Tethyr. The story-based mod had several plot twists and a gripping story.

With this level of fame, he was hired by BioWare back in 2005 to create a premium module. It would be the third part of his series: Tyrants of the Moonsea. Unfortunately, Atari, which was behind the premium module program, decided to pull the plug before the mod was finished. The project was incomplete, but it was released for free anyway. Now, Ossian Studios has remade the game to finish the story and improve the quality of the content.

A Story Set In The Moonsea

Tyrants of the Moonsea is an adventure across the whole Moonsea region, where life is very harsh. It’s a terrible land in the Northern part of Faêrun that is plagued by one of the largest criminal groups of Faêrun, the Zhentarim. The few cities free from the influence of the Zhentarim are not better off, though. Most of them are controlled by other evil tyrants.

When the protagonist arrives in the region escorting a merchant, the situation gets even worse. A strange cult is using demons to attack cities and roads and it seems that a conflict between the Zhentarim and Hilllsfar, a city ruled by the evil wizard Maalthiir, may be inevitable. The presence of the cultists is creating mistrust among the rulers of these lands and the current situation is tense.

Soon, the protagonist is joined by a colorful cast of characters: a wizard who is the bastard son of a Waterdeep lord, an amnesiac undead rogue and a mysterious knight who hails from Mulmaster. Guided by an elven Harper, the player’s mission is to discover what is happening in the region and how to prevent the massacre from getting worse.

The player will visit small towns such as the Zhentarim-controlled Voonlar and voyage across the Moonsea to visit major locations like Hillsfar, Zhentil Keep, Elventree, Mulmaster, the Cormanthor Forest, Thar, and others. The only iconic place which was left out of the game is Phlan, the city in which the famous Pool of Radiance game is set, which is kind of a shame.

Travelling happens via a world map. It’s pretty similar to Darkness Over Daggerford’s map and it helps a lot to create the sensation that the player is truly traveling in the Moonsea.

Overall, the story is really good. It has engaging plot twists, great characters and an amazing atmosphere. Not all characters are what they seem at first and the player will meet several interesting figures. Some of the coolest characters are an orc who believes that he is an elf and an animated sword who hates mages, for example.

Companions don’t have a lot of banter, unfortunately, but most of them have some depth. Four of them are directly linked to the story and one is linked to a side quest and can be missed.

The aspect in which Tyrants of the Moonsea greatly shines is the lore. Playing it is just like strolling across the Moonsea as it is described in official books. The module creator certainly read a lot of AD&D books. Several obscure figures and places from old books are referenced during the story. Old AD&D tabletop players will feel at home.

A lot of effort was put into creating this world. The research of the lore was very well done and the Moonsea truly feels alive. Also, every detail makes sense. If you find a lot of spiders in a dungeon, there’s a nest nearby. If you happen to find a beholder in the sewers of the city, there is also a good explanation for that.

It’s refreshing to see how well the game handles this aspect of the worldbuilding. Several other modules use generic enemies as cannon fodder without any consideration about the local fauna or why is that monster there. This attention to detail makes the world feel alive.

The module shines is in how beautiful the world is. This is probably one of the best-looking NWN modules out there. The elven city of Elventree, for example, is stunning, considering the limits of the engine. Some cities are somewhat similar, but most of them have their unique appearance and plenty of interesting areas.

Unfortunately, several locations often seem too empty. The beauty and style of the module are undeniable, but the number of empty useless houses is very high. Tyrants of the Moonsea is immersive, but the content is too thin for the size of the areas.

Questing Across the Moonsea

Story and worldbuilding are the strongest points of Tyrants of the Moonsea. When it comes to quest design, however, the result is a mixed bag.

The main quest is divided into two parts. The first half is pretty straightforward and somewhat linear. This is when the game works best, mostly because it has a great story.

In the second half, the player can use a ship to visit several cities in the Moonsea. The game gets more open, which is good, but more complicated in a bad way. The writing maintains its quality, but the newly found freedom does not seem to work very well all the time. Some quests are clearly meant to be done after others, but there is no indication of what you should be doing first.

While quest design is never very complex, the player is expected to pay attention at all times and investigate everywhere. Some quests have pretty obvious goals, but others are much more elusive.

Unfortunately, the design seems to lack some consistency in this department. For instance, when the player needs to find a rope, it is not too hard to know that you should visit the nearest shop and just buy one. When the goal is to enter a party which is being organized by the Red Wizards of Thay, however, it can be harder. The answer is not in the city, as it would seem at first, but with a red wizard in another town that the player probably visited several hours before. There’s no direct link or direction, so it’s doesn’t seem very fair.

Another example involves finding a monster and killing it in a randomized ruin in Zhentil Keep. The monster can only be harmed by a specific attack, but the only way to discover that is by reading a seemingly unimportant book in the city. Not even the quest giver talks about it, so it looked like the monster never died because of a bug when I first played.

It would be easy to dismiss this example as nitpicking, though, were it not for the game’s worst design decision, a specific quest that needs to be completed to finish the main story.

Spoilers ahead, so skip the paragraph if you don’t want to read them. The endgame involves invading a fortress. The player hears people talking about how it cannot be breached but is never properly told how to enter. The game lets the invasion begin, which is in a very remote location, and then the door simply can’t be opened. The player is stuck there and needs to go back, just before the apex of the story. This problem can be solved by giving a bunch of items to an artificer in another city, so he can create a golem. After that, the golem can be used to breach the wall. The main problem is that this seems like a bad side quest at first. A simple fetch quest which involves visiting most of the shopkeepers in the Moonsea to buy stuff. It’s very annoying. End of the spoilers.

Aside from the quests, several little moments do not necessarily have a point but can be fun. They include digging a random corpse with cool armor loot, finding a naked couple in a noble’s house who will run as soon as you “free” them, a genie in a bottle, a cameo from Alanzader himself, or a wife that is pretty upset that her husband regularly visits the temple of a sadomasochistic god. Another fun activity is to play at the casino in Mulmaster.

A nice touch is that actions can change the character’s alignment. By constantly invading houses and breaking people’s chests, the character will move towards a Chaotic alignment. This is interesting for roleplaying purposes, as a Monk or a Paladin could stop being Lawful by invading too many houses.

Alignment can also be changed via dialogue. Unfortunately, it could have more options. Most of the time, there is a clear option that will give Good points, while the other will give Evil points and that’s it. Not a huge space for roleplaying during conversations.

Choice and consequence are existent, but not prominent. It is not something super important during the campaign, but prior actions are referenced more than once.

Cracking Skulls in the Moonsea

Combat in Tyrants of the Moonsea is generally very easy. By starting at level 15, the player has plenty of resources from the start. While some bosses may be challenging in the beginning, most combat is filled with inconsequential trash mobs. The only noteworthy early boss is a lich who uses instadeath magic and can be a pain, but he’s part of a side quest.

Most fights are not especially complex, but the adventure does have some creative moments. One of them is the final fight in Hillsfar’s Arena, in which the player has to fight a golem that cannot be hit by magic or magical weapons.

Healing is also very easy, as most places allow the player to rest. Some locations don’t allow resting, but they are generally near other locations that permit that. While ambushes can happen, they are not very common.

I used a Fighter/Bard/Red Dragon Disciple build. Spellcasters may face a tough time in the beginning but will be fine soon, as companions are available most of the time.

Importing a character from The Crimson Tides of Tethyr is not recommended. With so many items and gold, the combat will be a cakewalk. Items are generally powerful and easy to find, but money is not so easy to come by. Companions can also be equipped, which will help to raise their Armor Class during the journey.

Merchants in the module have a limited amount of gold to buy magic paraphernalia from you. Unfortunately, they generally run out of gold pretty quickly, so unless the player wants to keep buying other items from them, they won’t buy many items. Most of them also only pay up to a certain amount of gold for an item. While no merchant in Voonlar will pay more than 5,000 gold pieces for anything, the ones at the end of the game will pay up to 20,000 gold per item.

The main problem is that they never seem to get their money back (or do it so slowly that I never actually perceived), so the only way is to move forward and find more merchants. There are over 20 of them, at least.

If there are plenty of items and gold to be found, the same can’t be said for experience. Quests can give big XP rewards, but most fights do not. I clearly remember defeating a dragon early in the module and only earning 175 XP (with two other members in my group). I needed over 15,000 XP to level up. This makes most of the combat useless for leveling up.

Verdict

Tyrants of the Moonsea is a good NWN module. Its design flaws prevent it from being an excellent game, but it has a great story. If you liked Alazander’s previous module The Crimson Tides of Tethyr, you’ll like this one, too.

This is a very story-focused quest with hardcore Forgotten Realms lore and a very coherent story. If that’s your cup of tea, you’ll enjoy it. That said, all the problems are real. Some areas feel empty, the second half of the game is not as good as the first one and it still feels slightly unfinished in some parts. It is fair to say that the quality of the product is above average when compared to most modules, but remember that this is no Aielund Saga.