To help you learn how to use the Toolset we will be creating our own module, called 'The Fortress of Rockgate' (hereafter known as 'TFR'). It is a grand, exciting adventure that will thrill your senses and challenge you as you've never been challenged before. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll forget it's just a game!
Oh, all right, I'm lying. TFR is actually fairly cheesy and predictable, but it will give you some valuable practice in how to build a module. It contains a little bit of everything that can be done with the Toolset, and will serve as a great reference for you when you have completed the tutorial and are hard at work designing your own world.
A word of warning the entire tutorial is full of screenshots to help you understand more easily. Although compressed, these images will likely take some time to load over dialup. We've tried to break up the tutorial into segments and subsegments that will reduce the perceived load time, but some areas are just plain complicated and will require lots of screenshots.
Starting the Aurora Toolset is easy. Just double-click on the main Neverwinter Nights icon, and the Toolset is the second option on the list:
Once selected, the Toolset application will load. Unless you've been playing around with the Toolset prior to working with this tutorial, you should see a screen that looks similar to this:
By default, the Toolset will walk you through a series of short wizards to get you started, and this is the first screen. The options are fairly self explanatory. You can either choose to create a new module, open an existing one (a list of all your created modules will appear in the list so that you can highlight one), or you can choose to start the Toolset normally. That means that you won't be taken through the initial wizards, and it will be up to you to use the options available on the main Toolset screen to create a new module or open an existing one.
There is also a checkbox, 'Show this screen at startup', that controls whether this wizard is run each time you load the Toolset. Leave it on for now. Later on, when you are more comfortable with the workings of the Toolset, you can turn it off if you wish.
To begin with, we should select the 'Create a new Module' option, and press the 'Okay' button.
Now, the Module Creation Wizard will start. The first screen consists of a welcome message and then instructs you to press 'Next' to continue. Go ahead and do so.
The next screen of the wizard prompts you to enter a name for your new module:
Don't worry about the ellipsis button ('...') right now. It controls some language options that we won't be using. Just enter 'The Fortress of Rockgate', and press 'Next'.
The wizard brings up the 'Create Area' screen:
Every module you create must have at least one area. We don't have an area yet, so the 'Current areas' list is empty, and the 'Next' button is disabled. In order to create a new area, launch the Area Wizard by pressing the 'Area Wizard' button. Later on, we'll be able to create more areas using the Area Wizard, but the startup wizard just walks you through creation of the first one.
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