Recently, a video game download site (Direct 2 Drive) offered Neverwinter Nights 2 for the bargain price of 5 bucks. My friends and I had been enthusiastic about an update to the first generation classic, since independent developers might release free content in the form of multiplayer modules. Sadly, the price was always too high, and the reviews too negative. After attempting to play the main storyline of NWN2, I can say with conviction that I'm glad we waited for the bargain price. In a regular D&D game, you don't have to worry about bad camera angles and monsters that can shoot arrows through solid walls. Best of all, you can say, "take a hike" to every annoying henchman that you meet along the way. I think I could sell a module where your PCs get to shoot ballistae at the entire roster of egregious Neverwinter henchies. Looking back, my favorite D&D video games are the arcade ones made by CAPCOM, where your traditional team blasts (side-scrolls?) through Mystara with extreme prejudice and CLOUDKILL.

Here is a sketch I did of some of our characters from an old NWN1 game. The dagger-wielding guy used the hilarious "maniacal villain" voice...