1. Pleasing taste, some monsterism

Something that players of tabletop RPG's will notice is that games like Neverwinter Nights have much, much more combat. Mainly because battles in said RPG's take a lot longer to get through, and this is something that affects the novels I'm writing too. But not just in terms of quantity of fights either.

Basically, there are a good deal fewer monsterish races in the world as depicted in the novels. And by monsterish, I mean the usual orcs, goblins, gnolls etc. They're cookie-cutter RPG-fare, the typical born-evil races that you'd expect in a game.

Many other fantasy novels have those of course, but I wanted to steer away from that for my own work. I feel that there's enough contention and moral ambiguity in humanity that I don't need to throw generic evil races into the mix. Sure, there will still be elves, dwarves, dragons (plus some new monsters) etc, but you'll find the races of the world spend most of their time quarreling and fighting with one another than fending off the ubiquitious Hoard of Evil™

Also, most of the monsters that were in the NWN modules were in there for tactical and visual variation, not because my world is teeming with said evil hordes ;)

You won't be seeing any of this in the novels

Worst sidequest ever

2. Sidequests are for videogames

Video games, particularly RPG's, tend to fill out the game content with sidequests, but such concepts don't really work in the context of a novel. Sure, a few will fit in without being too obvious about it, but when lives of thousands of people are at stake, the heroes aren't going to stop and kill rats in someone's basement, if you know what I mean.

So, for the novels, things are much more streamlined in terms of plot, and the main plot of the whole series is tied together better than in the game. There is far more emphasis on character development and interaction than the usual 'fetch/kill quest' approach one finds in the modules (e.g. Nellise has a personality now!)

3. Integrated protagonists are sexy

The main character is Aiden Wainwright, and it's told from his perspective. Something fun that I can do with a novel that's much more challenging to do than the game, is to integrate the character's backstory into the main plot, so he's tied into events that are happening in a more personal way. Dragon Age did this pretty well, of course, but I never managed to wrap my head around how to do this with NWN.

Pictured: An example of a well integrated protagonist, who is also sexy.

I couldn't think of any pictures for this section, so please enjoy these fluffy kittens.

4. Renovations maketh the story

Most of the revisions to plot and content concern the first story, Nature Abhors a Vacuum. It was my first module, and more of an experiment than anything else. The plot grew organically from there, but some of the content was looking very arbitrary, so I felt it was time to revise it for the novel.

There are several sections to the Neverwinter Nights story that I added just for generic dungeon crawling, particularly in the Calespur ranges. I vaguely recall feeling that the module wasn't long enough, so I put in what was basically a massive freeform sidequest. That has been changed to some extent, based on a tabletop RPG session I ran a year or so back.

A story about an old dwarven city that had been abandoned was well developed in the modules, but I'm expounding upon that for the novel, much, much more. I don't want to spoil anything at this stage, but the events that take place there are more aligned with the main plot, and will carry over to the Stonegaard (name enhancement!) section in the second novel.

And I've already changed a few things about that series of events, too. Hunting down giants will be removed, because I've removed giants from the story as per point 1. There may be other antagonists involved, just not monsterriffic ones.

5. Dead is dead (except in one case)

'Raise dead' and its counterparts are spells that allow players to continue playing the game, after paying a price. This concept doesn't work well in a novel, as I don't want death to be treated so lightly. Death is absolute, and difficult to reverse, except in the case of extraplanar powers.

In addition to this, clerical powers in general are reduce in power, and clerics themselves are rarer. While the novices can do perform minor healing, those capable of curing disease and healing grievous wounds and much rarer. Yes, this makes Nellise one of the special ones, which those that travel with her are grateful for!

Oh, and that one exception? I won't spoil the book for you :)

This picture reminds me of the grim spectre of deaaaaathh!