I am a christian gamer. I am also a christian webmaster and own a large christian website. I am also ordained. I decided to create a christian Neverwinter Nights module based on Bible imagery. Here is some info about the mod:

http://www.kingdom-gospel.com/temple.html

I have designed and published an interactive 3D Temple of the Old Testament, based upon the Tabernacle of Moses. This format is in what is called a module or mod. The mod is for computer game called Neverwinter Nights or NWN. (I will be using the abbreviations as I continue on this page). Whether you hate or love computer role-playing games, what is unique with this game system, is that you can create your own mod's or games.

This feature is so nice, there are 2 projects I know of where schools have used NWN as an education tool.

By creating your own mod, you can control everything that is placed in the game. As such, I have created a Biblical environment which has NO fantasy elements such as magic or monsters. Of coarse a person is limited by the computer graphic models to use in the game. As such, some models are not accurate to what the Bible gives. Fortunately NWN has been around awhile and because of this flexibility many computer artists and modelers have created numerous custom content to be used. Unfortunately the more content you use, the bigger the resources for the mod. Revolution uses alot of custom content for example. Some extra content has to be added via hakpaks or haks. This is not like other computer game hacks where a person breaks into the code to allow people to copy and play the game for free or changing the graphics illegally. Bioware, the company that made NWN, has made hakpak compatibility, where you can load in custom content just by using the games tools. In fact they encourage this and have given out awards for such content.

I have chosen minimal custom content to make the mod and corresponding hak as small as possible while giving satisfactory Biblical imagery to the appearances needed. You can see pictures below of such examples. If I were a modeler or computer programmer/scripter I could make an impressive realistic temple that could look almost exactly like the pattern God gave Moses, unfortunately I don't have those skills. If someone out there has such skills and wants to make such models for me, I would gladly use them for another mod.

I am not setting you up for a disappointment however, as I am very pleased with the final outcome. It gets the job done. I have taken the time to make the quality as good as possible to represent the excellence God desires His people to give the world and to His church. This is no shoddy work. I have spent about a year of experience creating mods for NWN and thus have experience to make a mod of quality. Of coarse there are many out there who can do better than me, based on their computer skills or the amount of time they spent in fantasy gaming. That is not my focus or calling and as such I think I can put my other skills into the task at hand to give a New Testament look at the Old Testament Temple imagery. While those with modeling skills may not have the gifts needed to put together a Biblical tool such as this.

NWN may be the best vehicle for such an endeavor that I know of, for what I wanted to do. There is other such vehicles for other similar works. For example you can download a 3D Tabernacle of Moses which you can explore here (free):

http://www.fluvannacc.com/vrtab.html

They also have an online version and I think even a chat room version. But there are no lessons involved, only looking at the imagery itself. And the imagery is much more accurate than the one I have created. But you can move around inside the 3D environment. There is another such project, the old one is no longer working and they are working on a new one. You can check out their webpage and work here (but the program is not up and running yet):

http://www.ebibleteacher.com/3DTaber/3DTab.html

I also recommend their links page which has many Tabernacle links to pictures, animations, and movies, some for free and some for purchase:

http://www.ebibleteacher.com/3DTaber/3DTaberLinks.html

Bioware is about to release NWN2 (this was written spring of 2006), this will slow down NWN future projects, but some predict, because of the flexibility of NWN, it will continue to get support from the community as well as from Bioware, and some are reluctant to believe NWN2 will be any better. The benefit of this is you can get NWN cheap, especially used copies. Whether you go to Ebay or a local used media store. However, to use my original mod, you will also have to have both expansions for NWN: Hordes of the Underdark (HOU) & Shadows of Undrentide (SOU). Again, these expansions give commercial fantasy mods, but also give new tileset terrain, useable for making mods as well as other newer features, thus they are redeemable and don't have to be used for fantasy entertainment. However, as of the new update, I now have a no-expansion version available for download as well. There are other expansions, in particular one called Kingmaker, I believe, but that is solely a commercial mod and adds no more content for mod builders. These 2 expansions can be purchased together in 1 package with NWN if you buy the NWN Diamond Edition. It contains everything you need. Be aware though there are many DVD copies of this, and it won't work unless you have a DVD player for your computer. I think, but am unsure, that there also are CD versions of the Diamond Edition. Look for this format if it is a concern before you purchase a copy.

There is also a Gold Edition, but this is only basic NWN with SOU. You could buy that and then purchase an edition of HOU separately. Or you can purchase all 3 separately like I did, and I got the expansions used real cheap, less than $10 each. One locally the other on Ebay.

You will then need to install all these onto your computer, and probably need to update the game via the patching process through your internet connection (this is free and just fixes errors in the game and adds more content).

Remember, I also have a no-expansion version, and thus you only need basic NWN to run it. But you can run both versions with the expansion installed.

The following is the readme file I created for my mod called The Temple Pattern:

temple pattern readme.doc

The Temple Pattern

a NeverWinter Night's module made by Doma, webmaster of www.kingdom-gospel.com

This module involves a series of quests to study the Old Testament Temple patterns via New Testament understanding.

A small hakpak is needed for this mod, named sheep2.hak. This hakpak is just a merger of someone else's custom content of sheep and a Pillar of Light creature I made from Bioware's shaft of white light. This was not any modeling work by me, I simply followed a tutorial in how to make objects into usable models for new creatures. You need to place the sheep2.hak here: C:\NeverwinterNights\NWN\hak or wherever your hak folder is for your NWN's game. Then you must place the TemplePattern.mod here: C:\NeverwinterNights\NWN\modules or wherever your modules folder is in your NeverWinter Nights folder.

To play the mod, no level, class, or any other restriction is needed. A level one character of any race, class, or alignment can play. Or any level can play as well. To start the game simply start NWN, hit Play, New, Other Modules, (scroll to:) Temple Pattern, Load, (then choose:) Create New Character or Select Premade Character.

If you choose Create New Character, you must then follow the instructions to make it, hit Ok, then click Play. If you choose Select Premade Character, you must scroll to a character you want, click on it, and hit Play.

To begin your adventure speak to the very first person you see in the game, a priest holding a staff. You are free to explore if you want, but you will not get the quests until you see that particular priest first and follow his instructions.

One note on doing quests. The priests and other NPC’s may ask you for items. After you get the items, you only need the item(s) in your inventory. Simply follow the conversation nodes to give the item to the NPC, the NPC will take the item from your inventory. You do not need to “hand” any items in, they will take the item if you have it. You cannot complete a quest without having the quest items in your inventory and the series of quests is progressive, therefore you must do them in order to complete the module adventure. The journal may be auto activated to help with the more complex quests. Simply access it to see what quest you have been given, not all quests have journal entries.

Some of the conversations are a little long. Make sure you scroll down the text to read all the conversation. There isn’t anything extremely long.

Feel free to contact me about any game bugs you find.

www.kingdom-gospel.com/contact.html

Thanks,
Doma
webmaster of www.kingdom-gospel.com