jade_sabre | Fanfic Dump! (Reply)

Actually, this is just a long list (mostly for

loquaciousquark's benefit, since she's the only one who's ~~shown any interest~~ got half an idea of what I'm talking about) of Neverwinter Nights 2 fanfiction that I like. Some of it's better than others, but there's a surprisingly large (proportionally speaking) amount of good fanfiction (at least that I read--and I didn't read half the stories simply because they weren't what I was looking for at the time) in the NWN 2 section (which is a subsection of the NWN section, under "Games" in the directory, that mostly takes up the most recent four pages).

Anyway a lot of it is very well-written, and there's at least one that actually follows the game's storyline if you want to have an idea of what's happening. Part of the problem, though, with trying to recommend this stuff to people that don't know the game is that what makes some of this so good is the way it really captures the companions, and so far I haven't seen a satisfactory summary of them online. For example, in my last post on this subject, I summarized the githzerai, Zhjaeve: "Zhjaeve--githzerai (extraplanar alien-type being) lawful neutral cleric of who-knows-what. annoyingly knowledgable and aloof." Which gets to the heart of who she is, but you're missing out on hearing her calm, ever-placid voice saying "Know that it is the Kalach-cha who must do this," and having to put up with her being the only source of information related to the game's main plot for an entire act. Or Shandra. How you have to put up with Shandra, who is apparently supposed to be a sympathetic character (granted, first time through I was playing with a gnome bard who didn't get anyone, although if she was human she might have liked Shandra a little better, and anyway if she was human she would have fallen madly in love with Sir Nevalle SO THERE GAME-STORY-LINE WRITERS), though all she ever does is berate you for getting her into trouble which she could have avoided if she had just listened to you in the first place. And then she doesn't believe you when you say you're from West Harbor (little village in the middle of nowhere): "Oh no way! Heroes come from castles and are always nobility and--" *faced with the reality of the burned-down ruins of West Harbor, and the PC's evident anguish* "--oh, you really are a peasant. Huh. Tough luck about your home being burned down and everything, and aw man why do you keep taking me places where I die hell no I'm not leaving your side I'll just...die!"

*headdesks*

(It's rather like the trouble of giving y'all something to read from the Epic. For example, this one-shot is [if I do say so myself] really, really good, in so many ways, but the way it's good with the characters is only understood if y'all know the characters, and while I think it does a pretty good job of setting them up so that you can understand it, only my three friends from high school and I know them well enough to be totally in love with them and understand all the little things that make them act the way they do. I guess it's like being a fan of anything, really. Granted, it is possible to see two episodes of a TV show and read fanfiction and come to love the characters through sheer osmosis [Kakasaku, anyone?], but with a computer game that has a limited audience...or a non-published novel with no audience...it's just harder, you know?)

Anyway, um, fanfic. Here we go:

Fortune, by someone with a real lame pen name--It picks up at the end of Act I (which isn't really that important anyway) and follows the adventures of Evelyn, a fighter with the Flirt history feat (meaning you're very diplomatic but totally phail at intimidation people), through the game's main storyline. An excellent display of the joys of NWN fanfic writing, taking events from the game and making them more realistic, while also giving the PC dimension and character development and struggles and it's very well-written and I just love it to pieces. (Also, she's one of those people who can draw well too. gamorgeous fanart, even if she does make Casavir about ten years younger than he's supposed to be.)
Status: Unfinished, but that's because the author had to take a month-long hiatus that should be ending soon. 14 or so chapters so far (and they're long chapters--it took me a couple of days of snatching time to read this one *sighs happily*).

Afterwards, by Moczo--huge major spoilers for the end of the game, as it takes place directly after it. It starts out semi-serious but devolves into an incredibly funny dissection of the logical flaws of the game, especially focusing on the relationships between the companions. Oh, the companions. This one is definitely hilarious if you've played the game, and maybe not as much if you haven't, but...I had to include it. Because it is flipping hilarious. (“Two giant chunks of rock later and I have finally escaped the conversation loops!” ...see, that line is much funnier if you know that you meet Khelgar within the first five quests of the game, and that by the end of Act III, when you go to talk to him, your few dialogue options include "Who are you again?")
Status: Complete

The Smell of Destiny, by DarthAmmonite--A Sand (elven LN wizard--lawyer and reluctant spy for Neverwinter, with a droll, dry, biting sense of sarcasm) romance. No, I'm serious. Also, it's one of THE MOST AWESOME FANFICS EVER. I mean, Sand in the game is kind of slithery and slimy, but this author keeps all of those characteristics while making him lovable at the same time. Inner monologues provide great amusement, and the whole thing has a very light but lovable tone. It's adorable. I can't stop loving it.
Status: Not complete, and not updated since February. *tear*

A Burning Question, by Sings-off-key--a one-shot, humorous even if you don't even know the characters from sheer circumstance, about Bishop's alleged pimp abilities and HO SHOOT THERE'S A HUGE SPIDER CRAWLING DOWN MY DOG'S CHAIR OMG IT JUST WENT UNDER THE BED AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
Er.
Status: Complete

(Don't get me wrong, I love spiders. Just...not near me?)

Bishop Takes Knight, by RiikiTikiTavi--a post-game-ending one-shot (of five thousand words! *weeps for joy*) involving Bishop and the PC. The writing is awesome, and the characterization of Bishop here just kills me. I give up; I stop writing; this wins. (There's another one that wins, but I can't find it. I mean aside from Fortune, which is awesome. Did I mention how much I love Fortune?) I cannot get over how very Bishop-y this particular portrayal of him is. It's just...spot-on awesome. Well-written and everything. (My one quibble with it is that the author, in his/her A/N, says "No MiSTing." I nearly didn't read the story because of that, because you'd think the only people who would put a note like that would be the ones who are afraid of getting MiSTed. But this author's a far cry from that. Still, I haven't managed to leave a review because 1) putting "OMGAWESOME*FLAIL*" into more coherent words is hard and 2) there's that damn "No MiSTing" thing.) Anyway, I highly, highly, highly recommend this.
Status: Complete.

I've read some others, but these five are the ones I would really recommend. I've tried to read more Bishop-centric ones than ones that are Bishop/PC, as I'm writing my own Bishop/PC (another one-shot coming soonish?) and it's terribly distracting to have fifty different versions of him running around in your head (as it is to have three versions of your PC running in your head, really Laura, settle down now). OH MY GOD THERE'S A SEQUEL TO "BISHOP TAKES KNIGHT" *foams at the mouth and runs to read*

Cheers, all!

Edit: Sequel to "Bishop Takes Knight" is not as good as the original, alas! And the site that has the entire fic intact (that is to say, with the smut that fanfic.net finds so objectionable though somehow SilverShine's work is still up but that's cause she's brilliant) is down! I read not-as-good fic and didn't even get to brush up on my how-to-write-smut skills! *sadface*