History VideoGame / NeverwinterNights

** And Daelan is [[CowboyBebop Spike]] [[Creator/StevenBlum Spiegel]].

** Aribeth is [[CowboyBebop Faye]] [[WendeeLee Valentine]].
** And Daelan is [[CowboyBebop Spike]] [[StevenBlum Spiegel]].

** Played straight with Volkarion, the djinn merchant. He ''horribly'' rips you off on the items you sell to him, and if you comparison shop with other merchants you can usually get one and a half times what he offers for the same item, if not much more.[[hottip:*:In Chapter 3, the devil merchant in Cania will pay up to 50,000 gold for an item, assuming it's actually worth up to that much. Volkarion won't go any higher than 15,000. That's hundreds of thousands of gold he's scamming you out of.]]

*** Volkarion's horrible prices he gives you is somewhat justified in-game, because you can literally summon him whenever and wherever you are. Inventory full? Summon Volkarion, sell loot, continue looting.

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: In ''The Bastard of Kosigan'', the real mastermind behind the whole plot happens to be [[spoiler:Alexandra de Velan, your childhood sweetheart, who also happens to appear to die near the end of the second module]].

** In ''Neverwinter Nights 2'', a later expansion even gave XP for opening locks and disabling traps.

* PayingForTheActionScene: The 'Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion ''Mask of the Betrayer'', has a tavern where the owner will fine you if you start a bar fight and/or vandalise any of the furniture.

* {{Protagonist Without A Past}}: The player character is given no backstory prior to coming to Neverwinter. This is in contrast with [[NeverwinterNights2 the sequel]] (and almost all other Bioware games), in which the protagonist's past is notably significant to the plot.

Since this takes place after the Wailing Death, they've all presumably traveled with the Hero of Neverwinter and were roughly his equals in terms of levels an

* AbortedArc: In the original campaign, there's a character named Yari the Knife right before the final battle in Act 1. He's locked in a cell in the basement of the DiscOneFinalDungeon. If you release him, he immediately runs away (without any means of stopping him) while shouting ''very'' cryptic things. He's never brought up in the game ever again. Can be seen [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TRMF7AqB6U here at 3:38.]]

* RandomlyGeneratedLoot: The game itself doesn't feature it, but it's possible to add in a scripted module.

* ColorCodedStones: The game has gemstones which all follow the stock-standard colors mentioned in the description.
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:Aribeth's ring, which you need to hold onto for the entire game to turn her back to good in the end of the first game.]] Unless you have a female PC, in which case [[spoiler:you can never get the ring and can therefore turn her through dialogue alone.]]
* ClownCarGrave

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Character’s health status goes like this: Green = uninjured, Yellow = barely injured, Orange = injured, Red = near dead.

* WithThisHerring: You get more money from random looting than you do from Aribeth for ''saving the freakin' city''.

* WithThisHerring: Compared to the original game, averted. At the beginning of the game [[BagOfSpilling you have your items and equipment stolen]] by a thief, and the innkeeper gives you free access to the inn's armory to re-equip yourself before you set out. The stuff in there isn't great, but he ''does'' have a fairly wide selection of equipment so most any class will be ready to go after a visit. As well, though you sadly don't get to collect on it in-game, the reward he put up for the quest you signed up for is 100,000 gold pieces - a huge fortune for anyone but an epic-level adventurer spending all his cash on high-level magic items.

* WithThisHerring: Averted. At the beginning of the game [[BagOfSpilling you have your items and equipment stolen]] by a thief, and the innkeeper gives you free access to the inn's armory to re-equip yourself before you set out. The stuff in there isn't great, but he ''does'' have a fairly wide selection of equipment so most any class will be ready to go after a visit. As well, though you sadly don't get to collect on it in-game, the reward he put up for the quest you signed up for is 100,000 gold pieces - a huge fortune for anyone but an epic-level adventurer spending all his cash on high-level magic items.

The first RPG by {{BioWare}} to be made completely in 3D, and their first game based on the third edition of ''DungeonsAndDragons''.

There are several things that ''NWN'' is known for. The first is the official campaign, which takes place in the ForgottenRealms universe, or, more precisely, the Sword Coast, in and around the titular city of Neverwinter.

The campaign was occasionally criticized for being relatively dull and repetitive, as well as being a departure from the rich, detailed worlds of the ''BaldursGate'' series. The area where ''NWN'' really found its niche was third-party content: the Aurora Toolset, an unorthodox example of a development kit included in the basic game installation, allowed users to easily create their own modules and campaigns, eventually giving rise to a vast modding community with very ambitious projects.

Three expansion packs were released; ''Shadows of Undrentide'' and ''Hordes of the Underdark'' [[AuthorsSavingThrow stepped away from the original campaign and focused on character development, roleplaying, and the intricate storylines Bioware is renowned for]].

In addition, Bioware released a number of "premium modules" as paid DLC. Short self-contained, adventures, many of which were created by community members hired by Bioware, the premium modules became deeper and more complex as designers familiarized themselves with the engine and new tools were developed. The first three, ''Witch's Wake'', ''Shadowguard'' and ''Kingmaker'', were compiled into the third expansion, ''Kingmaker''. Three more were made: ''Pirates of the Sword Coast'', ''Infinite Dungeons'' and ''Wyvern Crown of Cormyr''. While the modules themselves were well received, they required a constant connection to the internet as DRM; the modules in ''Kingmaker'' do not have this feature. When the premium module initiative ended, several projects were left hanging, though ''Darkness Over Daggerford'' and "Crimson Tides of Tethyr'' were released for free later. In 2009 Bioware stopped selling the premium modules.

The Aurora graphics engine, which debuted with ''NWN'', proved to be successful and enduring, and various heavily modified versions of the engine continue to be used to this day, most notably the Odyssey engine in the ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' series and the Electron engine in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2''. The main engine with modified graphics is also being used in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'', though CDProjekt has revealed they were less than fond of the engine, claiming it responsible for many of the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading technical flaws]] present, leading to them developing their own engine from scratch for the sequel.

* PardonMyKlingon: "Takasi! Oh, excuse my Elven!"

The campaign was occasionally criticized for being dull and repetitive, as well as being a departure from the rich, detailed worlds of the ''BaldursGate'' series. The area where ''NWN'' really found its niche was third-party content: the Aurora Toolset, an unorthodox example of a development kit included in the basic game installation, allowed users to easily create their own modules and campaigns, eventually giving rise to a vast modding community with very ambitious projects.