Baldur's Gate PnP
So I got an idea to DM a 3.5e D&D campaign based upon BG1 and maybe BG2. I got four (possibly five) players for the game with my fiancée, Melonie, and her cousin, Julie, (whom is the possible player) being new to everything RPG like. Also of those four (possibly five), the other two players, Alec & Cole are my friends and we have played BG/EE/D&D for years. The last player, Kurt, just plays a lot of D&D but hasn’t played BG. My purpose of this discussion is for me to ask those of you with a lot more DM experience and/or BG experience to help me implement this correctly and make this a very good D&D campaign. If you are able to contribute, or just want to shoot some ideas, I'd be very grateful for it. Thank you.
Ok, so I'm dead set that my fiancée, Melonie, should be "Charname" since she's new to BG and D&D. All of the encounters, dialogues, items, story, aw man... just about everything, will be a new experience for her. However, I don’t want it to appear that she’s the star of the show and having the other people just sit there twiddling their thumbs. Is there a way I could implement all the events that happen to Charname and somehow make the other players seem ‘important’? Also with the possibility of my fiancée’s cousin, Julie, playing she could be the group’s ‘Imoen’ and find out about her abilities later on.
The elephant in the room would definitely be that I have two of my friends, Alec & Cole that have played BG quite a bit. I want them to participate in the game and yet also see the decisions Charname would make in her situations. How does she handle Silke? Will she say she’s Greywolf to get some free cash? Of course her alignment and how she plays her character will affect that, it’s a change of pace from just playing BG.
An idea just ran across my head. I could make Alec and Cole be like the ‘Khalid and Jaheria’ of the group. Being the ones that kind of subtlety push Charname in the right direction to Nashkal or ‘let’s not go to the farm north beyond FAI’. They obviously don’t have to be a stuttering fighter and an OMNIPRESENT AUTHORITY FIGURE!!!
The other big issue is what to do with Kurt, he's an experienced D&D veteran but lacks in BG knowledge. I don’t have a single idea yet, but hopefully someone here does.
This is about all I got so far. I’ve only been thinking about this for a day or two so more ideas could pop into my head. If you got a way to help me implement this grand game into a D&D campaign I would be grateful. Hell, I’ll even take some off-the-wall information like what level Tarnesh is or how much hp Gorion has. Even that could be useful. Thank you very much for your time. If people are interested (and if this idea takes off) I could post their story on here.
Ok, so I'm dead set that my fiancée, Melonie, should be "Charname" since she's new to BG and D&D. All of the encounters, dialogues, items, story, aw man... just about everything, will be a new experience for her. However, I don’t want it to appear that she’s the star of the show and having the other people just sit there twiddling their thumbs. Is there a way I could implement all the events that happen to Charname and somehow make the other players seem ‘important’? Also with the possibility of my fiancée’s cousin, Julie, playing she could be the group’s ‘Imoen’ and find out about her abilities later on.
The elephant in the room would definitely be that I have two of my friends, Alec & Cole that have played BG quite a bit. I want them to participate in the game and yet also see the decisions Charname would make in her situations. How does she handle Silke? Will she say she’s Greywolf to get some free cash? Of course her alignment and how she plays her character will affect that, it’s a change of pace from just playing BG.
An idea just ran across my head. I could make Alec and Cole be like the ‘Khalid and Jaheria’ of the group. Being the ones that kind of subtlety push Charname in the right direction to Nashkal or ‘let’s not go to the farm north beyond FAI’. They obviously don’t have to be a stuttering fighter and an OMNIPRESENT AUTHORITY FIGURE!!!
The other big issue is what to do with Kurt, he's an experienced D&D veteran but lacks in BG knowledge. I don’t have a single idea yet, but hopefully someone here does.
This is about all I got so far. I’ve only been thinking about this for a day or two so more ideas could pop into my head. If you got a way to help me implement this grand game into a D&D campaign I would be grateful. Hell, I’ll even take some off-the-wall information like what level Tarnesh is or how much hp Gorion has. Even that could be useful. Thank you very much for your time. If people are interested (and if this idea takes off) I could post their story on here.
3
Comments
It's a long read.
Right.
I'll basicly describe my experience with it. You can skip over some parts if you don't care about the whole thing, I'll try to highlight the things most relevant to your game in Bold.
When I found out none of my PnP mates had played Baldur's Gate (and after the much deserved flogging I gave them) I tried to look at a way to turn it into a PnP game since we'd just completed out previous one.
However, the start of the game already proved fairly restrictive since I had to have a Bhaalspawn.
-They had to start in Candlekeep and had to have grown up there
-They had to be fairly young (whereas they usually play older characters, like 35-40ish for humans, 90+ for dwarves, etc)
-I had to design their parents for them, limiting their selfmade background (a staple of any good character). This to prevent them from happily living with their parents. In hindsight, this could have been handwaved as I could've just said "you were adopted" later but it would've complicated things.
-They could not be of too weird a race. Drow in Candlekeep make no sense, especially if it's a Bhaalspawn (Ulraunt would never allow Gorion to bring in a child from an evil race who's also half evil god, it was a rough sell as it was).
Still, they agreed to it, I privately fleshed out the background of each character with the player over mail and in person so they all thought they were allowed something special. The roster ended up as the following:
Miga the Sorceress - I placed her with Gorion and made her the Bhaalspawn. It suited the character and since we used Pathfinder rules, I could make her Bloodline a custom made Bhaalspawn bloodline (as opposed to the usual Draconic or Arcane), giving her the Bhaalspawn powers like that. I designed the bloodline myself, pulling some powers from BG, some from the Faiths and Avatars book from 2nd Edition, which has Bhaal Specific powers (for example, starting at lvl3, she found she can change a hand into a blade of pure bone as a move action, acting as a short sword which gets stronger as she levels up. Bones and blood are important to Bhaal, making this a lore-appropriate choice). I copy/pasted the dreams from the game and adjusted them where neccessary, giving Miga one whenever she gains a new power (which coincidentally goes at the same rate as she'd get them plotwise). So far, we're about to hit the Bandit
Camp and she has NO idea wtf is going on with her freaky ass powers and nightmares.
Mahada the Barbarian - Barbarians in Candlekeep? We ruled it as "undisciplined fighter with anger issues". The problem with making one character a half god should be apparent; what do you do with the other players? Simple, we make this an epic fucking game and boost everyone. Mahada is originally from Mulhorand and the only other 'import' child. His parents were in a cult to Set and Mahada was supposed to be sacrificed in a ritual to bring their God into the real world. Instead, they ran off and took their child with them. He was tattood with arcane and divine heiroglyphs as a baby as part of the ritual which the monks of Candlekeep found interesting enough to keep the child, turning away his parents. This also means that he turned into a werecrocodile when he was angered. After his first transformation as a very young child, the monks fashioned magical shackles which are impossible to take off and inhibit his transformations. Mahada has no idea why, but at some point, these will fall off and he will regain his Werecrocodile powers. These will keep him in line with the Halfgod he will be travelling with and provide personal plot later on when the cult of Set will track him down now that he's no longer in an impenetrable castle fortress.
James the Dread Necromancer - The player really wanted to play a necromancer, despite being a sociopathic dwarf berserker before and a totallitairian slavedriver paladin after. I was leery but he seemed excited. It also seemed to make a good fit for a second Bhaalspawn, which also explains his Necromantic powers. Unfortunately, the player quit before we started. His storyline would be akin to Miga's (and thus the BG plot), though I planned to focus the earlier part on him (BG1) and the latter part on Miga (BG2) due to Irenicus naturally being more interested in a sorceress than a necromancer. He could have a better plot with Bodhi though...but alas, it did not come to pass, leaving me with one Bhaalspawn, which isn't a big deal, the plot works better with only one.
Gilgamesh the Cleric of Lathander - Gilgamesh's player was an assassin in a previous game and notorious troublemaker (along with the berserker/paladin player) so when he said he wanted to play a nonviolent healer, I was quite taken in. I tried to pawn the Oracle class from Pathfinder on him but he went with a cleric of Lathander. Also, he had a plan to conquer the world (nonviolently) to start an era of Good for All. I may have a had a few eyetwitched, but fuck it, I can work with that.
His plot will of course also require powerboosting, but his will be different from the others. He will gain the leadership feat soon and amass a following. If he plays it smart, he will have less personal power but much greater influence and standing than the other partymembers which he can use to fulful his personal goals. Conviniently, Beregost houses the largest Temple to Lathander for leagues around, starting his plot when he enters the town with a promotion to Dawn Seeker and a personal quest.
Gorion's reason for leaving required no changing, I added the other players with excuses (Mahada's adoptive father, the Candlekeep smith, asked him to look into the Iron problem they'd be having, Gilgamesh was summoned to the Temple of Lathander to take his official church vows before the High Cleric). They each had a (completely via mail) intro adventure in which they bought equipment (and Miga faced her first assassin and bonded with Tethtoril). I used the intro text from BG ("Nestled atop the cliffs that rise from the Sword Coast, the fortress of Candlekeep ...etc") in the first mails, gave them their plotpoints and went through a short "talk to people" adventure in which they bought equipment and ended up with Gorion.
From there, the PnP game started, they left Candlekeep at night, I described the armoured figure attacking them and was sure to describe the eastern looking cleric lady and four archers with red tunics over their armour with a black talon.
The group ran at Gorion's command, (Mahada raged and had to be restrained by the others) and wandered through the night. They decided not to go back to the scene of the battle (I'd described hearing explosions and screams for a few more minutes after they'd ran) and headed to the Friendly Arm Inn as best as they could (survival check to know where you're going), hitting the road at some point after fighting off Gibberlings and two hungry wolves.
They encountered Xzar and Montaron who offered them a healing potion and some advice before going south and the group headed north to the FAI where they got attacked by Tarnesh. Mahada made his willsave and smashed Tarnesh to pulp with his giant hammer (Miga did not and ran screaming into the inn).
Until this point, the game works perfectly fine with little changes needed aside from Character Creation tweaking. You don't have to adapt everything 1:1, so just making Tarnesh a lvl4 wizard with some spells prepared is good enough. Dialogue wise, you can basicly keep the first few lines and the general tone of the conversation without going off track ("You are Miga yes? I am here to meet you, I am your friend, please hold still." /begin casting).
They met Khalid and Jaheira who told them they knew Gorion, worried for him (since he wasn't confirmed dead yet, just 'missing') and Jaheira said she couldn't walk with her messed up leg that even her druid magic couldn't heal because of an attack on their lives by Zhent agents (who could those be?).
I basicly figured NPC's should just make appearances (like K&J and X&M) or give quests, not join up. It's the player's party, not the NPC's. Still, deleting them entirely would be a shame. Using the Zhent vs Harper plot allowed me to incapacitate Jaheira, explaining why she can't help the party more.
I always envisioned Bently Mirrorshades as a former partymember of Gorion. He took the Inn from a Bhaalist cult years before with his adventuring party, and Gorion saved you from a Bhaalist cult years before. It's close by Candlekeep, they have comparable ages, both known adventurers and it makes sense that Bently and Gelenna kept the keep and Gorion kept the child.
In the same group, I placed Scar from Baldur's Gate (which they don't know yet) and the Surgeon, brother of Daveaorn who roams the Sword Coast healing people. Slowly unwinding Gorion's past allows for some extra depth and provides a more personal history of the setting as well as some allies scattered about.
They talked to Bentley about Gorion, he divulged that they'd been in an adventuring party togehter (refusing to speak more about the painful past) and he said he'd memorise Locate Person for the follwing day. Miga had her first nightmare (given to her on a slip of paper for her to read) and woke up with her hand shaped like a boneblade. Bentley cast the spell, Gorion's body was located and guards were sent out to retrieve it. Unlike in BG, they could get Gorion resurrected (writing a problem for myself; Gelenna would of course do it for free) so I said the corpse had been mangled and desecrated with abyssal runes. I'm sure Tamoko knows a few Divine tricks, being a semi high level evil cleric. Considering her personality though, I assume it was Sarevok's idea.
Following Gilgamesh's quest they travelled to Beregost (killing an ogre with a belt fetish along the way) where he (now she, thank you ogre) took his (her) vows and was asked to speak to Marl at the Feldepost Inn to talk about his dead son. Apparently Marl was attacking any adventurer that walked in and he needed to accept his son's death and look for new beginnings (the lathander way). Gilgamesh talked him down (250 bonus xp) and then they ran into Garrick who offered them some work.
I've always liked Silke (her voicework is so extravagant!) so I expanded a bit. She told her tale of being accosted by brutes and asked the party to guard her at her house. Three dudes appeared with a sack of money, Silke demanded their heads, the party went "Err no?" and Silke cast Darkness and ran. The three men explained they were Black Lotus addicts and she was their dealer. They were scared good and swore never to use again. Garrick, having been presented as a bit dumb, was declared innocent though the town guard was asked to look into it as the party moved on. Silke will return at some point!
This is the fun part about making this PnP. You can change quests, add depth and preserve interesting characters. Making it exactly like BG is detrimental to your PnP gaming experience, it's railroading. Instead, play to its strengths. I placed an advertisement in the Town Square of Beregost; "Mercernaries wanted, enquire with Kagain at [adress]". The group decided they weren't mercenaries so they didn't respond. The same place also mentioned Bassilus and his 5000gp reward. On that note, I should flesh out HIS story, it makes no sense that a high level evil cleric with an undead swarm can just bandy about close to a Temple of Lathander. Likewise, the Temple of the Morning Lord is right next to Ulcaster which is full of monsters and undead but they never went there. This will raise questions that your players WILL ask, prepare for it.
Following Mahada's quest they travelled to Nashkel (the "go solve the Iron Crisis" plot was always a little oddly put in, making it Mahada's quest made it a lot easier to explain to the players).
I portrayed the guards at Nashkel as lazy and undisciplined. This for two reasons, their Commander, Brage, was missing so nobody was keeping them in check and this attitude also explained why they didn't go into the mines with a group of 20 men and clear it out. Nobody could order them.
Remember, in a PC game, everyone accepts NPC inaction. In PnP, it's a lot less likely. So you need to explain why other people don't fix adventurer problems (at least until lvl5ish when you're starting to get superhuman powers and the town guard isn't your match anymore).
They heard about Minsc who tore up the Inn when nobody would help him find Dynaheir and spoke to him in prison (where he was chained to the wall, what else would you do with a super strong barbarian who flips into rages whenever). Outside, they were accosted by Edwin who offered his side of the story, but they rebuked him (Miga made her Knowledge role to recognise him as a Red Wizard). They also ran into old and nearsighted Oublek who mistook Mahada for Greywolf (pick a character to resemble Graywolf who looks tough enough to be a creepy bountyhunter and model the later Greywolf after this character). They refused the money and heard about Brage and Prism.
After spending the night at the inn to rest, they were woken up by Berrun Ghastkill who heard adventurers were in town to dive into the mines. He offered them a sack of money and the town's grattitude. At this point, they also agreed to 'live the adventuring life', at least for the moment. Again, going on a monsterkiller spree makes sense in the game, not in PnP where the characters are most likely bookworms suddenly thrust into a world of monsters while having no home.
They headed into the mines, talked to some miners (remember to play them with lots of hacking coughs and severe depression from having a crap life in the dark) and headed down, down, down into the mines. Eventually they came across traps, kobolds, more traps, more kobolds, a ghoul with some treasure, two giant spiders, some kobold commando's (In the game, they just fire Fire Arrows. In PnP, make them real commando's, letting them sneak attack, jump off walls and use smokesticks and divide-and-conquer tactics. They're commando's for a reason).
They defeated them, headed into the domed structure and found an opulent room with a giant bed. Mulahey demanded to know why they were there and if they were his replacement but Gilgamesh's Holier-than-thou attitude gave them away. Kobolds quickly swarmed the room (from all sorts of hidey holes) and Mulahey buffed them up before charging into Melee himself. Two good hits from Mahada's hammer took him down and the kobolds retreated. The party looted the room, finding the letters in his chest (Use EEKeeper to find the letters in the game, copy/paste the text into Word, put in a letter background and use a font appropriate to the writer. Tazok's letters are, for example, in a large and brutish font, written in all caps. Daveorns are in fine cursive writing, befitting of a cultured mage. I also gave Tazok's letters a rough parchment background, whereas Daveorns have a proper paper scroll background. This helps shape the characters right from the beginning.) and moonblade. They discovered Xan tied up in a corner, unconcious. Woke him up, released him, gave him his blade and he told them he was a Greycloak from Evereska and was tasked with this DOOMED quest because he was chosen by the stupid sword. I gave the loot chest an extra scroll of teleport (The other scrolls were also Xan's but he said the party could have them) so he cast Teleport from the scroll and left.
The letters pointed them towards Beregost and Tranzig, so off they went, ignoring all sidequests. (Another difference between game and PnP, it makes sense in BG to do whatever the fuck you want before going on with the main quest. In PnP, they'll understand that when a letter says a character is in a place, he might move so they'll hurry much more. If they don't, punish them for loitering and move the contact. The world moves without the characters, it's not a video game They showed the mineral poison to Berrun Ghastkill, got a sack of gold and cheers from the town. Miga offered the idea that Thalantyr, Mighty Mage of Beregost could offer some insight so she would stop by while they were in Beregost.
In Beregost, they showed up at Tranzig's room and interrogated him, handing him over to the town guard (using Gilgamesh's relationship with the church as leverage since the guard works for the Church and the High Cleric is also mayor of Beregost). With the bandit camp location in hand, they're decided whether to do sidequests (Gnoll Fortress is at the top of the list) or push ahead with the main quest.
So far, I've given them oodles of sidequests so it doesn't feel like they MUST do it to advance any plot.
Also, in Nashkel, I completely forgot about Nimbul. I made a point of not including the assassin at the Red Sheaf Inn or the Nashkel Inn (they telt a little random and non-memorable) but I planned for Nimbul to be creepy as fuck. Alas, but he will come to them soon, in the night, like a proper Bard assassin.
So, general tips;
-Read the Sourcebooks. Get Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast or similar books. PDF will do. Read about the towns so they'll be more realistic than the 10-15 houses given by the game.
-Deviate from the game. Flesh out characters, remove some clutter, bring the important ones to life. Don't feel required to include everything. Characters like Safana, Ajantis or Shar-teel are cool but serve no purpose other than "here's an NPC" so they can get cut. Likewise, I intend to make Khalid and Jaheira return, following Harper Missions while Xzar and Montaron get in their way. It's a funny sideplot that I'm not really developing at the moment, but I will.
-Plan ahead. I've got a problem; how do I get the party to Spellhold if there's no Imoen. Solution, I'm adding Mahada's 'sister' to the mix soon (actually a cult member) who'll make a deal with Irenicus; she'll play bait (getting kidnapped by Irenicus) so the party will come rescue her. He'll make sure Mahada's giftwrapped and handed over to her when they do (Also known as the Boba Fett/Darth Vader deal). I need to plan this will ahead so prepare your stuff.
-Don't be afraid to overpower. The players that is. This is a game about a half god, make sure the rest doesn't feel left out and boost them too (in different ways).
-Don't forget that it's the God of Murder. As the taint grows, have the Bhaalspawn make willsaves at the sight of bloodshed and murder, tempt him or her with its power. Do your best to corrupt the character, like Bhaal's blood would. Don't just write a static storyline, plan ahead for when they fall, or when they resist the taint.
-Copy/paste like a bitch. Dreams from the game are online. Various editors allow you to get text right from the game. Item descriptions, cutscenes, steal it and modify it to suit your needs. Likewise, get a tablet or a laptop and plunder the internet for pictures so you can turn your screen and show the players (it's cheaper than printing). All the NPC's and most of the locations have fanart. Use it like your life depends on it. For example, the concept art from BG:EE for the Friendly Arm Inn and Candlekeep is vastly superior to the normal concept art.
For example:
http://www.gamer.ru/system/attached_images/images/000/559/427/original/candlekeep.jpg?1362491578 or http://images.onesite.com/community.wizards.com/user/alphastream1/large/e38382195fdc540dc98e7f20e5206a30.jpg?v=244800
and http://www.baldursgate.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/NatArtFAI_small.jpg (cut off or photoshop the top right corner out).
-Read this Let's Play http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/lets-play-baldurs-gate.177403/
It's the entire series in fair detail (and it's fun to read). This will refresh your memory as you're preparing your game.
Hope this giant wall of text helps.
I'm pretty sure there's an easier way (insert as background?) But this is how I do it.
It details not only Baldur's Gate but also Beregost, Nashkel, Candlekeep and basicly every place in the game.
Well I don't have a definite date yet for the first session, but it'll most likely be in November. The party has been created with the exception of one person who is very ill at the moment. I decided that giving them each a special power like you did would be for the best. I also decided that if the 'Charname' does in fact die then they will go into a coma like sense and will be a new class with stats, but will have the same memories and alignment.
Melonie (Wife) - Helga Bruiseknuckle the female Half-Orc Barbarian CG (possibly be 'Charname' since never played BG and kinda new to D&D)
Alec - (Unnamed Character) male Aasimar Monk LN (Debating on to make 'Charname'; has played both D&D and BG1 immensely)
Cole - Ethnar Valarion the male Half-Elf Scout CG (Don't think I'll make a 'Charname' out of him, D&D veteran but played little of BG1)
Kurt - Torin the male Dragonborn Cleric of Anhur CN (Liked the 4th edition race so I trimmed him down to not be so powerful. Never played BG1, but is a big D&D Veteran. I don't see a Dragonborn being a 'Charname', but it's possible.)
Julie - Assuming she gets feeling better she will be the 5th person, the party really needs a thief or mage so I'm thinking a bard is in order if she wants. The youngest of the party, she could be a good 'Imoen', but that's if she has a long enough attention span.
So far I have almost all of the sidequests and encounters that can take place at Candlekeep, Friendly Arm Inn, Beregost, High Hedge, Nashkel, Gnoll Stronghold, Nashkel Mines and everything inbetween. Assuming the party bee lines it there and doesn't take much time wandering around I got about 24hrs of straight play time done.
Xzar and Montaron will meet the party and then reunite after the Nashkel Mines. Khalid and Jahiera are retiring from adventuring due to Jahiera suffering a bum leg from an ogre (with a belt fetish) outside of the Inn. Garrick will hire the party for Silke, but will turn and flee when she attempts to flee as well. They will meet both of them again in Baldur's Gate.
Kagain will hire the party to retrieve some stolen goods that were ironically stolen from him from a bandit raid on a caravan. Minsc will hire the party to rescue his damsel in distress from the gnolls. While the party is waiting for Minsc to return from buying gear, they will be approached by Edwin to make sure Dynaheir is properly executed. The party must decide on who to side with.
That's about all I got so far, I'll update when I get more. Still ironing out what kind of abilities each character and 'Charname' will get. Let me know if you have any input. Thanks.
Or hell, you could go the entire first game without ever becoming involved with the Bhaalspawn until the very end, just exploring the various side-quests while the Bhaalspawn's group follows the main plot quests. Hear about the commotion at Sarevok's appointment to Duke and end up helping their party at Sarevok's last stand, which, now that there are two parties can be turned into a truly epic affair.
Your group becomes friends with the Bhaalspawn and their canon acquaintances, and also enjoys the hospitality of BG for helping bring down a usurper, until a couple months after you lose track of your new acquaintance and ultimately end up getting tipped off to the trouble of which they've become embroiled down in Amn and move to rescue them, making the journey south into it's own adventure. Eventually tracking down leads and Joining the shadow thieves' attack on Irenicus's lair, and freeing Imeon whom you recognize. And now you can have the Bhaalspawn join the party proper as an NPC and follow the story.
Before BG2 even begins proper you've had your series of related adventures that now lead quite naturally into them joining the group proper.
I never would have thought of that. And that's why I don't DM.
Had a few busy days, will give input tomorrow (I'll try to be a little bit more condensed than last time :-p)
Not everyone on the internet looks at a wall of text and posts tl;dr.
NAO!!!
I actually hadn't thought of the possibility of Charname dying. I always keep my to-hit rolls and damage rolls secret, just telling them if something hits and how much damage it does, so I should be able to keep Charname 'safe' from death (nobody said anything about not getting knocked to -8 though). Your plan also sounds good, but be prepared to having to explain it when the time comes.
"She has your previous character's memories for...reasons" is usually not acceptable.
Melonie (Wife) - Helga Bruiseknuckle the female Half-Orc Barbarian CG (possibly be 'Charname' since never played BG and kinda new to D&D)
Never played BG and even new to D&D are excellent for being the Bhaalspawn, it heightens the "wtf is going on" and "who the fuck is Bhaal? A god? Wait what?" moments. That she's your wife could be tricky, in my experience, boy/girlfriends or wives/husbands of the DM are often suspected of being 'the favorite'. If your group doesn't have a problem with her being the centre of attention for a good portion of the campaign, by all means, go for it.
Being a Barbarian, she'll probably miss the subtle part of 'murder' but you can change it to embrace the violent part. Small things, like not having her be winded after a rage if she's killed a sentient creature, later giving her a bigger strength boost if she attacks sentient enemies in her rage. Bhaal's power fuels her killing rage and when she learns of where this power comes from, her reaction should be a mix of "That's so cool!" and "Sweet monkeyballs, *that's* been giving me bonusses? Hells no!"
Alec - (Unnamed Character) male Aasimar Monk LN (Debating on to make 'Charname'; has played both D&D and BG1 immensely)
Having played BG1 immensely dampens the impact, he'll catch on the moment he gets a weird dream or whatever. The surprise is best kept for someone who has no idea what's going on. A LN Aasimar Monk can (depending on monk order) have a storyline delving into his heritage. Perhaps set up some challenges to see how devoted he is to his neutrality. As his power increases (level 10+), both fiendish and celestial powers might become interested in recruiting him for their side, with Celestials claiming their 'prodigal son' and the fiendish powers seeing an opportunity ripe for corruption.
Cole - Ethnar Valarion the male Half-Elf Scout CG (Don't think I'll make a 'Charname' out of him, D&D veteran but played little of BG1)
Seems a bit vanilla. Does the character have any particular intrests or motivations? Does the Valarion family have deep roots? I'm always a sucker for things from the far past coming back to bite current generations in the ass and elves have long memories.
Kurt - Torin the male Dragonborn Cleric of Anhur CN (Liked the 4th edition race so I trimmed him down to not be so powerful. Never played BG1, but is a big D&D Veteran. I don't see a Dragonborn being a 'Charname', but it's possible.)
I think a Dragonborn (possibly the only one?) cleric of an exotic war deity will be weird enough, also making him a half-god might be too much. How did he come to his religion and how do people percieve him? I mean, Dragonborn look fairly monstrous, do people flee in terror at the sight of him? How does he deal with that? Why a Mulhorandi deity of War? Did he grow up in Candlekeep along with the rest?
Also, consider that the party will work against starting a war. How does he feel about that? How does his god feel about that? Maybe later on, his god will demand recompense, for example by involving him in the monster uprisings in Amn (that Madulf and the monsters in the Umar Hills used to be a part of).
Julie - Assuming she gets feeling better she will be the 5th person, the party really needs a thief or mage so I'm thinking a bard is in order if she wants. The youngest of the party, she could be a good 'Imoen', but that's if she has a long enough attention span.
I don't think there's a 'need' to include an Imoen. When it comes to the Spellhold plot, best to use an NPC attached to one of the main characters (or you leave a player out for a bunch of sessions). The half elf (as far as I can tell for now) seems the best choice to attach this NPC to as he doesn't have a lot going on and eeeevery lady wants a half elf.
Bard is a very awesome class to play (if you know how to play them). Nimbul the assassin is originally a bard and in my last game he almost wiped the floor with the party due to a healthy combination of Enchantments and self-healing spells. Bardic lore also gives you an excuse to lore-dump all sorts of stuff whenever you can, which is always good for immersion (or 'immuuuuushun!' as my players call it).
Give her lots of forgotten books and ancient lore to work with and you'll be fine.
So far I have almost all of the sidequests and encounters that can take place at Candlekeep, Friendly Arm Inn, Beregost, High Hedge, Nashkel, Gnoll Stronghold, Nashkel Mines and everything inbetween. Assuming the party bee lines it there and doesn't take much time wandering around I got about 24hrs of straight play time done.
Always nice to have a lot prepared! I uh, kinda slacked and should really prepare for next week.
Xzar and Montaron will meet the party and then reunite after the Nashkel Mines. Khalid and Jahiera are retiring from adventuring due to Jahiera suffering a bum leg from an ogre (with a belt fetish) outside of the Inn. Garrick will hire the party for Silke, but will turn and flee when she attempts to flee as well. They will meet both of them again in Baldur's Gate.
Sounds good! I've placed Xzar and Montaron in the Bandit Camp, making a deal with the leaders there. Letting Garrick and Silke return makes sense, Baldur's Gate seems like a place where they would be likely to hide out, especially Silke.
Kagain will hire the party to retrieve some stolen goods that were ironically stolen from him from a bandit raid on a caravan. Minsc will hire the party to rescue his damsel in distress from the gnolls. While the party is waiting for Minsc to return from buying gear, they will be approached by Edwin to make sure Dynaheir is properly executed. The party must decide on who to side with.
Sounds good. Having Minsc accompany the party also allows you to yell stuff like "Go for the eyes Boo!" at the table, which is always a big plus. I personally left him in town because the previous game had a lot (too many in my opinion) NPC's helping the party out so they started feeling like the spotlight wasn't really on them. I'm going without this time.
As long as it's done in moderation, it should not be a problem.
Is there a way to extract images from the movies in BG:EE? Printscreen doesn't work and using the excellent pictures of the mine flooding or the bandit camp could be very useful.
It begins today! A lot has changed with the players and we're beginning a lot later than hoped, but we're playing, and that's what counts.
Wife - Still the same (Decided she'll be the bhaalspawn. Kurt would drastically fit the role better, but he's going through a situation with his ex-wife and 'who gets the kids when stage'. Seeing as how he might miss a few sessions here and there and could go to court for all I know, best left it to someone who'll always be there..... hopefully.
Kurt - Half-Elf Sorcerer. I told him a dragonborn cleric kinda wouldn't fit in a campaign setting featuring mostly civilized humanoids from the PHB. He reluctantly agreed mainly because of the next person to join our group.
My mother - Human Cleric of Torm. Yuuuuuuup. She played in the previous campaign stated above in the original post. She was also a cleric and it was her first time playing 3.5. The last time she played was a halfling rogue in AD&D 2nd edition. She grasped the concept slowly, but surely. Now we just need to add...
My baby sister - Halfling Rogue. She's 14 and is almost getting to be as nerdy as I am. She has a slight dyslexia problem and is starting to show signs of the "friends, boys, and defy parents" age, but if she's anything like the rest of the family, that'll last a month and then you go play an RPG for six months. :P She's handling the concept well, but her first character was probably the worst class you can be for a first time D&D player (Druid). She started the same time my Mom did and thoroughly enjoys the game if her attention span lasts long enough.
Cole - Still the same.
Removed:
Alec - Dwarven Cleric. He changed his character then the next day, he lost his job. He's been job hopping for awhile to find a decent one and I think he found one yesterday. However, he didn't reply to my text if he wanted to play so I assume he wants to wait awhile. No problem, there's plenty of NPC's he knows that he could replace if he wanted.
Julie - Half-Elf Rogue. Her illnesss is way in the past now and is going back to public schooling on Monday. While she enjoyed her time playing, being 16 and giving up every Sunday afternoon/evening to be around nerds rolling dice when you could be out underage drinking... ah, to each their own... She's a nice girl and at least she gave it her all. If she ever did come back, I'd obviously take her.
So the party will gather and venture forth here in 7 hours (4pm local time). I hope to update and tell their story after every session. Funny lines, battles, tragedies, reactions to NPCs, etc.
O, I got one for ya from last campaign. Party kills a medium sized dragon and wife (archer ranger) wants to skin the dragon for leather obviously, she didn't know the proper term to use and this was her sentence: "So, do we get to sodomize the dragon now!?!?!" lol ooooo God bless her! xD