[spoiler]Finding out I was a son of bhaal and brother to Saverok through a note in Gorion's room. There wasn't any big reveal or "I am your brother" moment, just a note. It was like "Oh yeah you're a bhaalspawn and bro to a crazy psychopath. Did I forget to tell you?"[/spoiler ]
"Where is Dynaheir!!! WHERE?? I don't want Minsc snapping on me again!" *looks it up online, first time I eve did that*
My roomate at the time couldn't figure out how to get past the Duchal Palace fight without getting pwned by Flaming Fist. I looked that up for him online too, and he was like "Oh, are you ****ing kidding me?!?"
Much later, someone else was doing the game and was asking me questions about it. But he had attacked the gatewarden for not letting him back into Candlekeep, so when he went to go back there......well....let's say he had to start over.
Finally, there is my online friend Squee, who when doing BG1 for the first time, didn't understand at first why he couldn't just sleep on the floor in the inn, until I explained it to him. He also took a long time to figure out how to navigate the map to get to Beregost....
Setting up everything perfectly for the Deadly-Doggies in Temple Map [BG1]...Kivan stealthing, carefully drawing out [w/Ajantis] the first couple of Worgs and a Dread Wolf without triggering the VWs...Yay!!
Then going into Inventory to load magic arrows for Kivan, Charname and Imoen. Check!
Return to game only to discover that my last command to Khalid had been to attack Dread Wolf. DW had eaten dust several yards ahead of Ajantis's forward position. Auto-pause. Inventory. Return to game [unpaused].
Ooops!! 2 Vampire Wolves, another Dread Wolf and 2 Worgs. And I had been so careful!!
[Now, of course, if I get half-way through a challenging encounter and need to change horses before the final push, I make sure to retreat some distance before going into Inventory]
That is what interests me...a carefully planned strategy/tactic that fails ridiculously because of flawed execution at my keyboard out in the so-called Real World...and, oh-no, Khalid is chowdered!!
I just remembered one. As a kid I loved to pause the game(this was vanilla, obviously) and have xan and Edwin both cast armor at the same time, because it played the two sound loops at once and it sounded cool. (Ooh cad nip nah! oooo000OOO ciam ma!) The armor is one of the two incantations I remember along with the heal spell (aquai Im matat matay...)
Finding the Charisma and Constitution tome, then figure out that i can import them in multiplayer to boost my stats.
STR - XX DEX - XX CON - 25 INT - XX WIS - XX CHA - 25
That's on my lawful good fighter, the same guy who killed Firebeard by running up and down the stairs with a crossbow several times until he gained level 4.
I fondly remember during my first run through the game playing very late into the night and being quite ready to go to bed. But instead I became transfixed by the music in the Nashkel temple of Helm, with priest there saying "Ah, intrepid adventurers at our door," and just taking the music in and kind of soaking up the experience. It kind of registered for me that I had stumbled onto something kind of special with Baldur's Gate (not to make more of it than it is, you know what I mean), and I kind of savored the moment.
I fondly remember during my first run through the game playing very late into the night and being quite ready to go to bed. But instead I became transfixed by the music in the Nashkel temple of Helm, with priest there saying "Ah, intrepid adventurers at our door," and just taking the music in and kind of soaking up the experience. It kind of registered for me that I had stumbled onto something kind of special with Baldur's Gate (not to make more of it than it is, you know what I mean), and I kind of savored the moment.
I STILL get like that. The temple with the male singing voices too . . . I think it's the one east of Beregost.
Here's an experience maybe no one else has had, but . . . the sound of children laughing in Beregost? I have heard that effect in several movies and t.v. shows and even Masterpiece Theater over the past decade and I always recognize it immediately. It's my own personal Wilhelm Scream.
The Town Drunk of Beregost. "Aahaheh, I bet this idiot thinks he's a lich. Might as well gaslight him and... Huh, no, he didn't turn into a lich. Lame!"
So, uhm, the final battle music in Baldur's Gate can be just a little jarring, because it goes from the slow and steady main theme to "CHORDS"! And knowing what you're up against. I mean, damn, I was panicking in the back of my head for a little bit, there. I was twenty-one when I first beat the game, and I'd gotten over my absolute terror at the prospect of facing Dead Hand from The Legend of Zelda, but a far-less detailed image and jarring music dropped all the terror back on me.
A very old memory suddenly resurfaced - was I the only person who wondered who and where is this Agni Mani person looking for their lost necklace?
I had to search in the game's files to be sure, but I was starting to disbelief that when I found it a second time and that it was in the random loot tables.
The game can be full of surprises, like when you have a character scripted to use ranged attacks, equipped with various types of arrows, runs out of one set of arrows and defaults to the next set, arrows of detonation, in the middle of a "hot" fight. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition ... or that. I'll never forget it. Note to self ...
[spoiler]Finding out I was a son of bhaal and brother to Saverok through a note in Gorion's room. There wasn't any big reveal or "I am your brother" moment, just a note. It was like "Oh yeah you're a bhaalspawn and bro to a crazy psychopath. Did I forget to tell you?"[/spoiler ]
I didn't know that saving Daxus from the Red Wizards would lead to the attack on Neera's Wild Mage encampment, though in retrospect this was not that surprising. I hadn't finished all the subquests in the encampment, including returning the hair band to Mereth. Only after fighting through the Red Wizard enclave and after dozens of quicksaves did I find the enslaved wild mages. I rescued those which were still alive, though many lay dead in their cells. I looked up to see if they were able to be saved, only to find that certain subquests or interactions prevented their untimely demises. Mereth was nowhere to be found in the enclave or thereafter, and apparently the mother of Kirik, Amanis Khal, would have lived despite her grief had I returned Mereth's hair band.
Now, Amanis lay dead, Kirik is gone and without a living parent, and Mereth has disappeared entirely. All I have left to show for this failure is an erased journal entry, the hair band I never returned, and more regret than I had ever felt in a game—even more than when I had to kill old Quallo's Carrion Crawler just so I could receive an annoying talking blade (even though Quallo was possessed).
I didn't expect a game to elicit stronger feelings of regret than those I felt regarding actual events.
- Discovering that halberds are in 'spears' proficiency and not 'axes'. - Never using spells apart from few (healing, magic missle etc.), because the descriptions were to confusing. - Seeing cleric class as the most powerful (fighter + mage). - Searching for the entrance to the Gnoll Stronghold ("There HAS to be a way to get inside!"). - Searching for days for the Ankheg armor in Nashkel (a friend of mine told me that it is under some trees).
I still remember the first time I saw the game, my friend's older brother was playing it around spring/summer of 1999 (I was 11). His Charname was using Edwin portrait and he was in Nashkel mines at that time. The game looked gorgeous to me, the atmosphere - the bridge above lava inside the mines, the sound was just impressive. I remember that he was rearrainging his party, he left Jaheira for Branwen or vice versa. I won't ever forget that moment.
I also remember my first experience of playing the game myself. Of course I made a cleric with 18 strength and medicore everything else. I don't know why, but I choose the chaotic evil alignment (it sounded cool I guess), even though I didn't have an evil party member. My weapon of choice was flail, which I like to this day - I've even made myself one in real life. My friend was helping me a bit to understand the game. He told me where I could find a magical flail (Icharyd in Ulcaster and farmlands north form the Friendly Arms inn). Oh my, the fight against Icharyd with 1 lvl party and no magical weapons that was so painful. I gave up and tried to go for the other in the farmlands. Yup, I was smashed by an Ankheg.
Oh the joy of the first playthrough. I even managed to get to the Cloakwood mines where Hareishan with a group of guards stomped my 3 lvl party. Those were the days.
When I first played: I tried to play the vanilla game on a 133 MHz processor (I think that's how much it had...anyway, lower than the specs). It took hours of lag to get through Candlekeep.
I am really in doubt if my first experience with BG was being killed by a wolf or being killed as soon as I tried to enter the Friendly Inn, that turns out wasn't so friendly after all, but it certainly involved being killed...
Looking at the screen in disbelief after my first encounter with a swordspider. It just moves extremely fast and has so many attacks and its poison is extremely toxic.
Clicking on Imoen to take her turn getting re-supplied in Thunderhammer Smithy in Beregost and purely by mistake clicking on her weapon to put her in attack mode. She fired on Taalrum and a few short rounds later the whole crew had been demolished. At least it proved my Party had some real firepower even though I kept Charname out of the fray, shrieking in disbelief!!!
Comments
"Where is Dynaheir!!! WHERE?? I don't want Minsc snapping on me again!" *looks it up online, first time I eve did that*
My roomate at the time couldn't figure out how to get past the Duchal Palace fight without getting pwned by Flaming Fist. I looked that up for him online too, and he was like "Oh, are you ****ing kidding me?!?"
Much later, someone else was doing the game and was asking me questions about it. But he had attacked the gatewarden for not letting him back into Candlekeep, so when he went to go back there......well....let's say he had to start over.
Finally, there is my online friend Squee, who when doing BG1 for the first time, didn't understand at first why he couldn't just sleep on the floor in the inn, until I explained it to him. He also took a long time to figure out how to navigate the map to get to Beregost....
Then going into Inventory to load magic arrows for Kivan, Charname and Imoen. Check!
Return to game only to discover that my last command to Khalid had been to attack Dread Wolf. DW had eaten dust several yards ahead of Ajantis's forward position. Auto-pause. Inventory. Return to game [unpaused].
Ooops!! 2 Vampire Wolves, another Dread Wolf and 2 Worgs. And I had been so careful!!
[Now, of course, if I get half-way through a challenging encounter and need to change horses before the final push, I make sure to retreat some distance before going into Inventory]
That is what interests me...a carefully planned strategy/tactic that fails ridiculously because of flawed execution at my keyboard out in the so-called Real World...and, oh-no, Khalid is chowdered!!
That was a joke.
I have yet to finish BG2 (let alone TOB) in the last decade. (Finished BG1 twice, though! Yeay!)
I just remembered one. As a kid I loved to pause the game(this was vanilla, obviously) and have xan and Edwin both cast armor at the same time, because it played the two sound loops at once and it sounded cool. (Ooh cad nip nah! oooo000OOO ciam ma!) The armor is one of the two incantations I remember along with the heal spell (aquai Im matat matay...)
STR - XX
DEX - XX
CON - 25
INT - XX
WIS - XX
CHA - 25
That's on my lawful good fighter, the same guy who killed Firebeard by running up and down the stairs with a crossbow several times until he gained level 4.
Here's an experience maybe no one else has had, but . . . the sound of children laughing in Beregost? I have heard that effect in several movies and t.v. shows and even Masterpiece Theater over the past decade and I always recognize it immediately. It's my own personal Wilhelm Scream.
The Town Drunk of Beregost. "Aahaheh, I bet this idiot thinks he's a lich. Might as well gaslight him and... Huh, no, he didn't turn into a lich. Lame!"
So, uhm, the final battle music in Baldur's Gate can be just a little jarring, because it goes from the slow and steady main theme to "CHORDS"! And knowing what you're up against. I mean, damn, I was panicking in the back of my head for a little bit, there.
Learning 2 Play after learning 2 D&D
Thinking Fighter was the best class because it was at the top of the list.
Finding the ability to create a party via messing with the multiplayer.
Now, Amanis lay dead, Kirik is gone and without a living parent, and Mereth has disappeared entirely. All I have left to show for this failure is an erased journal entry, the hair band I never returned, and more regret than I had ever felt in a game—even more than when I had to kill old Quallo's Carrion Crawler just so I could receive an annoying talking blade (even though Quallo was possessed).
I didn't expect a game to elicit stronger feelings of regret than those I felt regarding actual events.
- Never using spells apart from few (healing, magic missle etc.), because the descriptions were to confusing.
- Seeing cleric class as the most powerful (fighter + mage).
- Searching for the entrance to the Gnoll Stronghold ("There HAS to be a way to get inside!").
- Searching for days for the Ankheg armor in Nashkel (a friend of mine told me that it is under some trees).
I still remember the first time I saw the game, my friend's older brother was playing it around spring/summer of 1999 (I was 11). His Charname was using Edwin portrait and he was in Nashkel mines at that time. The game looked gorgeous to me, the atmosphere - the bridge above lava inside the mines, the sound was just impressive. I remember that he was rearrainging his party, he left Jaheira for Branwen or vice versa. I won't ever forget that moment.
I also remember my first experience of playing the game myself. Of course I made a cleric with 18 strength and medicore everything else. I don't know why, but I choose the chaotic evil alignment (it sounded cool I guess), even though I didn't have an evil party member. My weapon of choice was flail, which I like to this day - I've even made myself one in real life. My friend was helping me a bit to understand the game. He told me where I could find a magical flail (Icharyd in Ulcaster and farmlands north form the Friendly Arms inn). Oh my, the fight against Icharyd with 1 lvl party and no magical weapons that was so painful. I gave up and tried to go for the other in the farmlands. Yup, I was smashed by an Ankheg.
Oh the joy of the first playthrough. I even managed to get to the Cloakwood mines where Hareishan with a group of guards stomped my 3 lvl party. Those were the days.
While all the other music was beautiful, this one gave me chills the first time it played:
To this day it causes me to crank the volume when it starts!
Quicksaving and attempting to steal from a merchant over and over until successful.
Getting all OCD and forcing myself to uncover every tiny bit of fog on the map - even if I have to backtrack for just a smidgen.