@Liberelli makes a good point. I forgot to mention it... Since we decided it was okay to recruit NPCs, perhaps we should have Imoen in the party, given she's kinda central to the game, and BG 2 would be a bit awkward RP wise if we pretended she didn't exist.
I guess 2 of the players can control 2 characters (NPC + custom). I just tried a MP game with a real life friend earlier today, new to the game, and even controlling 3 isn't so bad as we divided up frontline and backline roles.
I'm assuming you will play starting with BGEE, which goes over beamdog servers (although you have an option to set it manually on TCP/IP, but that would require setting up a hamachi network). I'm interested in accompanying you through BGEE, so I'm offering my services, so to speak. I do not own BG2EE so I will be accompanying you half way, though, since it seems your voyage will be lengthy, things might change over time.
I own, and have played, all the vanilla Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 including related expansions when I was *young*.
I'm fine with playing any class that fits well with party dynamic. (Mayhaps a Dwarven Defender?) My timezone is GMT+1. I'm also flexible with time so it won't be a problem on my part.
The game can be played without a thief in a party, though you'll have to mitigate traps via clerical protective spells, and, concerning locked chests and doors, if bashing them will not work, with the arcane spell ¨Knock¨....Though having a thief with hide in shadows and move silently would help in getting preemptive advantage in hostile encounters.
Are you okay with the RP and non-powergaming arrangements we have agreed previously? You can have a look at the bios and stats we have all posted to have an idea of the kinda of stats we expect amongst party members.
If you are happy with that arrangement, I am keen to get things moving along asap.
Are you guys okay for this Friday evening? Say 7.30pm UK time? Let's use Skype for the first session, I tried Beamdog servers, and it works fine on my Steam install, so hopefully we won't need to worry about hamachi, which I do have installed, but only tried once.
I won't be free on Friday evening - but I am available at the same time tomorrow if it isn't too short notice - otherwise I'm usually free most days apart from Saturdays
I already reviewed your stats and, accordingly, aimed at making an ¨unimposing¨ character. Already have an idea for a bio and why he ended up in Candlekeep.
I personally see no problem for people starting out in Candlekeep since Candlekeep accepts visitors and provides accommodations to travelers who accept the rules it is governed by (unless a roguish individual sneaks up the walls during the night). The assassins, one hiding in the priest quarters and the other in the bunkhouse clearly meant as a resting place for travelers passing by, have surely acquired access within mostly legal means. Only the protagonist has spent a life time in the 'Keep, the rest are visitors seeking valuable information they need in exchange for a valuable information (or a unique book, or scroll) they possess.
Name: Donathal Shielddigger (I wanted an unimposing name so I kept rolling a dwarven name generator until I was satisfied. You'd be suprised how many names are shown that are already used in BG's and in Tolkien books. I also wanted to avoid bombastic names such as Giantkiller, Dragonhammer, Foeslayer that kept constantly popping by.... )
Stats: (A random roll that does not hamper character game-wise and possibly contradict, yet to make, biography. So things like a minimum strength of 15 was considered as I could possibly equip a tower shield, a minimum of 9 intelligence so as to not be illiterate lore wise. There is a slim chance that an illiterate would be granted access to Candlekeep and so on... )
Alignment: Lawful Neutral (Since favored dwarven deities I plan to keep mentioning in dialogues to come will be Moradin and Clangeddin, who are, respectively, LG and LN)
Starting equipment:
Helmet Splint Mail War hammer Small shield
I have skype installed and will use it, however I might not be using a microphone on my end. I might prefer to type in the in-game chat.
hmmm... it sounds interesting that you guys need a thief, and I happen to greatly enjoy the fighter/thief. I am open much of the time, but it is also likely for things to change suddenly at times, like I just got a job for the next two days. I also remember the thread asking for Europeans and didn't offer as I live on US east coast. Also wouldn't have been good for voice communication but it sounds like you guys are going to use text. If you have any idea on what days and how long you guys want to do it, I might be able to decide. I am currently out of work other than the occasional hardwood job with dad, and I am but a senior in high school so I have that on week days, but I get out early due to extra hours that I decided to take for myself.
I will just make this here just in case:
no name yet (don't know good half elf names, and don't want to use Brandon unless that is good) fighter/thief multi neutral good
str 14 dex 18 con 15 int 11 wis 10 chr 10 (higher if party leader perhaps)
i think it is only natural to go 18 dex for a thief, if that is a no then probably still 17 or 16. str and con are somewhat down, but str could be compensated with an item, while the con will only provide 1 extra hp unless he gets the tome. half elf is not nearly as good a thief as full elf in the first place, so he is missing potential there. would likely start with focus on shorts swords for backstabbing and either maces to deal with golems and such or bow to return to the backline when low on health. maybe move to two handed weapon approaching TOB as backstabbing immune enemies become common, and you have no paladin for carsomyr (or not. That would take some explaining as to how a thief is wielding it) alternatively I had a paladin I've always wanted to make if you would rather not have imoen also thief. Won't type a bio yet as I am unsure
edit: if you use skype i might need to sit out unfortunately. it would depend on if you are ok with that one guy talking with text. i just thought i would offer as I have never done BG multiplayer, and I like thieves anyway. also i was busy typing this and after a page refresh i see you got another offer
edit again: the time would actually be good even with me on east coast if I could play. as i said i got hours off so I would be home by that time (2:30 over here), and it would be around 2-3 hours before we usually get dinner so that depends on how long the session is
edit once again: does skype have a push to talk button? i mostly just didn't want background noise, if any, to annoy others. or maybe i could mute my mic when i don't talk. it isn't that I have a bad mic, but that, obviously, I am not out of the house yet and could end up in a conversation away from the group.
I believe that the number of players set is more of a guide line. Experience in game is awarded individually for finished quests and the xp is only divided among party members when it is gained from monster kills.
Personally, I am not against more players though we also need to take into consideration all the prolonged pauses that might happen with more people.
Though old npc characters that join in Baldur's Gate barely even comment. They weren't transferable from BG I to BG II vanilla since they were redone both artistically and mechanically.
I suggest live players for start. If anyone one quits or does not show up in the game at anytime, picking up NPCs at that point is good enough because they will scale to the current party level, not start on level 1.
Alright cool, sounds like we got a full party. I like your Dwarf, and it's good to have a capable tank in the party Do u wanna send me a quick bio or how/why he decided to join Kang and Gorion as they left Candlekeep? (Friend of Gorion's perhaps? Hired bodyguard?) I could always make something up for the opening intro story, you've provided a fair amount of flavour for Donathal already.
Are you and @Liberelli okay for 7.30 pm tomorrow evening then?
I think it would be handy to at least use Skype to get in touch with each other so we can get things setup. Thus can you all please PM me your Skype name/email so I can add all of you to make contact when we do this. For actual gaming, I've only Mumble when it's more than 2 players, but I don't have my own server, and I'm not sure how my friends would feel if I took over theirs with a BG group lol.
Personally, perhaps cos I've been recording an LP, I've gotten used to reading out loud a lot of ingame conversation, and figured it would be easier to roleplay that way. I've never tried the ingame chat, but if you guys are more comfortable with that, I'm happy to try it that way.
I have no problem with @ChildofBhaal599 joining the party. I still prefer to keep Imoen in the party, cos of her role in the plot, so I guess we can use 5 custom characters + Imoen.
The biography is still in mental sketches because I actually thought I have loads of time to fully flesh it out before everything starts rolling.
I've planned to do the biography tomorrow morning but if you need the time to properly prepare an introduction I can PM you the guiding ideas of my character today.
I didn't put much thought between immediate interaction between the protagonist and the relevant npcs but by starting out in Candlekeep Gorion sure looks like a person who might ¨find¨ what my character is looking for.
It could very much end up like:
Gorion - ¨I know where you can find what your looking for but I'm sorry... My ward and I must leave in this stormy night immediately.¨
Gorion and his ward go off screen.
Donathal - ¨Wait, you blasted tall...errrr....squishies! You aren't leaving without me until you tell me what I want!¨
Donathal stuntly waggles of screen following Gorion and his ward.
So, yeah. A ¨hired¨ bodyguard would make sense.
I'll PM my skype soon.
I rarely had opportunity for live voice acting, much less regularly talking on English. Although I would like to, I'm sure I'm absolutely dreadful. Not even a prompter would help. I also suffer a strange case of jitters. Besides English isn't really my first language although I tend to use it a lot. I have had a few occasions to talk to, from relatives to friends, from Australia to Canada and it took me a few seconds longer then I expected to acclimate to the accent and the pronunciation.
Concerning thieving classes (Bards included).... Bards automatically spend their all skill points on stealing. So a fighter thief, and Imoen, if included into the party, should spread their skills accordingly.
@Heindrich1988 with both me and Imoen it will free up Imoen to dual class to mage at the least perhaps i could put points in open locks quick while she gets full detect traps then duals, which is what i did. the wilderness had plenty of xp to regain her levels, especially because no non powergamer would go straight to basilisk wilderness for that quick xp
after that she could do the traps while I do the locks and focus on getting stealth up for backstabs. still deciding where to go with proficiencies, however. bow could be handy with a thief's dexterity, and with @sonarch being a frontliner it free me up to retreat after backstabs for the bow. may also be heard in BG1 doing the EE npc quests with 5 player characters and Imoen, unless we drop her for a moment when we can do the quests.
still need to find a good half elf name for roleplay. i always use Brandon as it is my name, but I doubt it is a half elf name. I should look this up.
so a bio using charname to fill in his name:
friend of Imoen
Charname was born and raised in candlekeep. Been there longer than even Kang, and was to be taught swordsmanship and become a watcher when he fully matured. However, one day came young Imoen. The playful thief brought charname into her games, playing a distraction while he came around and took the valuable. The two were certainly in a lot of trouble with the nobles who came by candlekeep, but they just thought that they were all so snooty and didn't need the money anyway. No matter how many times the guards scolded him, he just continued to have fun in his thieving ways. charname has put together his swordsmanship with his silent thief nature to be quite and assassin when the adventure across the sword coast began. yet even in his thieving ways, he still had a good heart, much like Imoen. he would not steal from the poor, but the rich nobles are another thing. he always believed in justice more than even a reward though, however what he saw as justice may not be so to the law. he does good in ways that he thinks are best, even if the authorities do not agree. he'll follow Kang and Imoen to the end, as a friend he will not let them go alone.
I suck at writing bios so lets make it short and simple, he learned how to fight from the watchers, but Imoen brough him into her games and he learned stealth. he is a bit of a robin hood and likes to target nobles (he is a thief, gotta have some background, but it doesn't mean i need to rob nobles in game) he may be a thief but he is good and thinks evil should be vanquished. he does justice his way however, whether that be the lawful way or the chaotic way. he follows on the journey as Imoen leaves to find Kang, as he cannot leave them both to leave without him.
i did a bit of reading, and half elves are often given elven names when raised by humans, and human names when raised by elves. seems like I should find an elven name maybe, though he could have a human name like my own.
Anyways... I got some ideas about your Charname's origin/backstory that I think would create an interesting dynamic and fit well with everything else so far, I'll PM it to you in a bit and see if you like it.
Shaping up nicely guys I think Skype is a good idea to set up a game and ground rules and once we're comfortable with the basics we can do most of the roleplaying with either voice or text chat. I prefer text as I usually need to think about what I say if I'm in character and typing allows me to edit and tailor my responses more effectively. However I'm also open to using Skype for non roleplaying matters or something along those lines.
EDIT: Turns out I'm free this Saturday in the end if it suits people's schedules better.
Anyways... I got some ideas about your Charname's origin/backstory that I think would create an interesting dynamic and fit well with everything else so far, I'll PM it to you in a bit and see if you like it.
i read it and you are so much more immaginitive! i enjoyed the tale, and it kept well to what i said, but i wasn't so sure about the uncivilized aspects. well, mostly the fact that he was made out to be a hunter more than a thief, so it sounds better for a ranger. but then i did get around to thinking from your tale that monks don't much have children so it would be hard to imagine being born there, though i liked the EE explanation for being a fighter (trained by the keepers) and I liked the idea of being Imoen's sidekick, as another good aligned thief. well, the more sneaky, non pink sidekick
hmm.... ideas! At least your story is making me think a bit
i like the way that you developed a kind of romantic relationship with Imoen. I think I will keep it to add extra incentive for myself in things like BG2. however, I want to place my bio away from the forest and have him be a bit more civil. some of this may even be a bit inspired by rasaad i'll admit. also wanted to not make us dislike each other as much as it seemed, as I doubt he would like to follow one he hated. The way I wrote this we are both people who, in the end, want to practice what we enjoy and see the great open world. Though I don't desire to leave until later, a year or 2 before the beginning.
During one of father Brandon's regular trips to Baldur's Gate he met a mysterious half elven boy. Poor Maeglin was a young homeless boy in the city, making his way through life as one would expect. When father Brandon became the half elf's target, the monk caught him in the act, and as he realized this child was without a home and parents, he took him with to candlekeep, where he might have a chance in life away from thieving.
Brandon, like other half elves, was looked upon with suspicion. The elven tribe of his mother would not even let the half human in, and in Baldur's Gate they became the target of criminals. As they were caught in an alley, young Maeglin's mother bought the child time to escape, but when he returned he found her dead. It was on this day that he was left alone in the world for real, abandoned by his human father, denied by his mother's tribe. He was left on the streets making his way through life off of others' coin, until he met the monk.
Upon arrival at candlekeep he met two other children who were recent arrivals, the only friends he would have his age in his new home. He took a rather fondness to the girl Imoen, who let him in on her mischief. There was something fun about it, and seeing all the gold to be had by the traveling nobles that occasionally visited the great library fortress that was now his home. Father Brandon was furious at this, as he had hope to take the child away from the life of crime. He ordered the watchers to train him so as to take him away from such ideas, but even with their training he was stealthy and could always sneak away to have more fun with Imoen and what they considered a game.
Father Brandon unfortunately would not see the habit change, as he passed away a year after he brought Maeglin to the fortress. Maeglin gave up on his ways for a time, saddened by his loss and that he had rebeled against Brandon's rules to his death. He began to take the practice more serious, as he thought the monk would have wanted. However, one day Maeglin visited the library where he read of ancient heroes, from rogues to warriors to mages, and came to the realization that even a rogue may be a good guy. He gained a sudden interest in such stories, and continued his games with Imoen as practice, but he would only target the rich nobles, too snobbish and loaded with money for their own good. These tales of heroes had inspired him to harness these skills for a greater good, that one day he might leave candlekeep on his own again so that he may defeat such villains as those who killed his mother and other innoscents. He would be one amongst them, in the shadows with them, preparing to strike.
In all of these shenannigans the child grew a fondness for the girl he has spent so much time with. He wasn't so sure if Imoen had any feelings in return, and he was rather too shy to ask himself. However, even as he had this dream of leaving the fortress to rid the world of evil, the though of Imoen always held him to Candlekeep. Maeglin just couldn't bare to leave without the girl that he thought he loved so much. He found himself actually a bit jealous when she spent time with the other child Kang, not knowing if there could be something there. He knew Kang had always recieved special treatment from the monks and some of the visitors, and he just didn't understand. However, he did maintain a certain distant friendship with the magic child. He didn't exactly have many other people his age in the first place.
Here on the day that the story begins, he was with Imoen when she told him of a letter she found of Gorion's. It showed that Kang may be in danger, and that they were planning on leaving the keep. The two agreed to silently follow the two, out of a curiousity of what was to happen and Maeglin himself had to satisfy his desire to leave the library behind. After a terrible series of events, they find themselves following Kang, as with the death of Gorion they are all now stuck outside of candlekeep without a tome of great value. Maybe Maeglin will get to achieve his dream as they embark on this adventure. Maybe he will even find the men responsible for his mother's death.
btw, are we going to use custom portraits? if we want to use custom portraits we will each need to upload the portrait for the others to download or else the other players will not be able to see it. I like this picture for fighter/thieves as they can wear helmets and I use dark colors, so it fits my character perfectly. I will put it here if we intend to use them, but if not I will like end of using Kivan's. Also, I was hoping when we start you could change my in game model to an elf thief. I want him to look like an elf rather than a fighter
i am now free from civilization. completed that one game both culturally and diplomatically as I am not an achievement hunter who would go through a whole game for one so might as well get them both done easy. i do not know if I will be going on the hardwood flooring job tomorrow, as I was told it will likely be done before I can get there. If everybody decides on tomorrow I might explain, even though I know I could use the money. I am not desperate though, being a good saver, so I might do so to not hold the others. It sounds like it is not in my way tomorrow though, so I am not too worried.
I've been mulling about keeping my biography a secret and just sending it to @Heindrich1988 or just posting it in this thread. On one hand knowing ones biography out of character might lead to entertaining situations of decently prepared feigned ignorance and serve as a guideline as to no go off the beaten track, on the other hand it my ruin the value of a surprise and impromptu improvisations.
I've decided to post my biography here concluding that those who don't want to ¨get spoiled¨, or who want to learn it in-game can easily choose to ignore this wall of cursive text.
Donathal Shielddigger belonged to a race of shield dwarves whose clan name was Loadbeard. He lead a sheltered life, as much as ¨sheltered¨ could be applied in a dwarven case. This means that Donathal never actually visited the ¨surface world¨, preferring to stay in his clan's deep underground dwarven hold doing inventory while other more experienced members of his clan did the trading with the outside world. His meticulousness and dedication to following the rules, keeping count of supplies and checking the structural stability of his underground retreat, as well as mapping all the passageways on a daily basis earned him the title of ¨overseer¨ amongst his peers.
One day, on one of his inspections of the upper mines, the earth shook and there was a cave in. Poor Donathal thought that he was buried alive. Now, in moments of doubt, Donathal would always turn to his religious teachings. ¨Moradin, the Soul Forger created the dwarves from iron and mithril on the forge of the fires at the center of the Earth.¨: he remembered ¨I shan't be stopped by mere dirt!¨. So, with his trusty shield he dug and he dug. The time went on and he lost all sense of direction when suddenly he made an opening and fresh, sweet air poured in. His joy turned quickly to horror, however, as he passed through it and looked up. ¨WHERE is the CEILING?!¨: he cried out. Above him he was greeted by a sparkling starry sky.
Now our story would have ended then and there if Donathal had any experience navigating the surface world, but this weird cycle of light and dark kept confusing and disorienting him. This led him to always pick the wrong road, and much to his dismay, bringing him further and further from his clan. He was lost. He concluded that it is best to ask directions at this point. He was wary on how to communicate with this excessively tall beings. Tall, no doubt, because of a lack of a ceiling to keep them the PROPER size. He remembered what Moradin taught when dealing with other races: ¨Dwarves should regard NO race as greater than themselves!¨. So he acted arrogant and sometimes rude to the strangers passing by. However this did not help to find his way back to clan Loadbeard. Those people who genuinely wanted to help never even heard of a dwarven clan named Loadbeard. He was beginning to lose hope when a traveler pointed out: ¨You should visited Candlekeep! The greatest library in all the Realms! Surely, they might find what you're lookin' for!¨.
So a lost dwarf went to find directions to his lost clan in the halls of Candlekeep...
@ChildofBhaal599 I'll be using on of the new dwarven portraits from BGEE. I don't think you can really edit models in BGEE, at least not in the Vanilla version, because the game lacks an in-game dungeon or game master, which could be present in games like the NWN series. I suppose their might be some mods for that, but I fear that would over complicate matters...
edit: I add your *.bmp portrait to my ¨Portraits¨ folder.
Baldur's Gate was originally designed as a purely singleplayer experience with multiplayer being but an after thought.
@sonarch if @heindrich1988 doesn't know eekeeper I was hoping to get the save after session to change that. Just that of course and he could check. It just really bothers me personally as a thief, and I was glad 2EE changed imoen's model back to a thief. It is a small thing that goes far for me.
@ChildofBhaal599 Thanks for the bio... I do have EEkeeper and I know how to change portraits for NPCs... however, I have no idea how to change pictures for MP games. Did u wanna change Imoen's sprite? I have even less clue how to do that if it's what you mean.
On the topic of writing for the playthrough, my understanding was that I would do a write-up (After Action Report style) after each session, so that our journey has a single coherent narrative and writing style. For example this is an AAR I did for Shogun 2 Total War. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?476585-Tales-of-the-Chosokabe It's really old and some of the pics and links don't work anymore, but you get an idea of what I hope to achieve. (Though I probably won't bother with pics for BG, cos I don't regard it a very visual game).
If you guys prefer something more informal, where everybody contributes, or perhaps we assign one writer at the end of each session, then I'm happy with that too.
@SquareTin@Sonarch@ChildofBhaal599 I'm guessing everyone is okay for 7.30pm (in about 4 hours). Let's all just meet up on Skype first so we can get things like portraits arranged. I haven't got all of ur skype addys yet. Please PM them to me so I can add everyone and then u can add each other when we're all in a conference call.
@Liberelli has not been online for a few days, so it might be a bit short notice for him. But I've read his bio and he always planned to join after Candlekeep, so I don't think it's a major issue. He can always join the rest of the party and just edit in the average xp that we got.
@ChildofBhaal599 Thanks for the bio... I do have EEkeeper and I know how to change portraits for NPCs... however, I have no idea how to change pictures for MP games. Did u wanna change Imoen's sprite? I have even less clue how to do that if it's what you mean.
On the topic of writing for the playthrough, my understanding was that I would do a write-up (After Action Report style) after each session, so that our journey has a single coherent narrative and writing style. For example this is an AAR I did for Shogun 2 Total War. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?476585-Tales-of-the-Chosokabe It's really old and some of the pics and links don't work anymore, but you get an idea of what I hope to achieve. (Though I probably won't bother with pics for BG, cos I don't regard it a very visual game).
If you guys prefer something more informal, where everybody contributes, or perhaps we assign one writer at the end of each session, then I'm happy with that too.
@SquareTin@Sonarch@ChildofBhaal599 I'm guessing everyone is okay for 7.30pm (in about 4 hours). Let's all just meet up on Skype first so we can get things like portraits arranged. I haven't got all of ur skype addys yet. Please PM them to me so I can add everyone and then u can add each other when we're all in a conference call.
@Liberelli has not been online for a few days, so it might be a bit short notice for him. But I've read his bio and he always planned to join after Candlekeep, so I don't think it's a major issue. He can always join the rest of the party and just edit in the average xp that we got.
i wanted to change my character's sprite, not Imoen. As a fighter/thief my character will look like a fighter, but I want him to look like a thief. In EEKEEPER I believe it is the 2nd or 3rd tab where there is a thing for the model. I wanted it changed to elf thief. It isn't too important and if you don't want to do it right away I am ok with it being done after the first session, but I hope to have it changed around the beginning. When I mentioned Imoen I was speaking of BG2EE changing her model. In vanilla she didn't look like a thief, in fact she barely resembled Imoen. In BG2EE she is a pink, hooded thief sprite, as she should be
I will need to get skype in order when I get home. I do not exactly remember my name, and it needs to be downloaded to the computer I will be using. Unfortunately that means you will not get it until about an hour before we begin, so hopefully you are on to get it before we start.
Pictures in an mp game I believe use a picture in your folder with the same file name as what the player is using, otherwise it shows nothing. I don't know if we are using customs or vanillas but if we use customs we need to share them for others to download and put in their portraits.
are we writing it out ahead of time? I thought we were merely going to go with it as we felt and roleplay our character according to the bio? i don't care either way I suppose, but I rather like it informal and just make it as we play. maybe if we keep track of our journey we will write down what happened after the session?
also what are the plans with side quests? surely we will not do evil things unless good reason so I am not saying we will be totally completionist, but what is our stance on this. for roleplaying sake, I usually don't let my character get clues to the bandit camp so as to roleplay that I go to all of the wilderness searching for it, starting at nashkel going up. It works perfectly for me and I end up last where I meet the bandits. for TOTSC content I do it after candlekeep because my character realizes he needs more power to take on sarevok and as a wanted man wants to wait for the heat to die down a bit. In BG2 I then pretend that the price for help to get Imoen is higher in game (and SCS allowed me to have that in my current game) so that I go through all of the quests in chapter 2 because he also needs gear, and then rescue Imoen. It helps my roleplaying sense greatly to twist things a little to make urgent things a little more out of reach so it is not out of character to wait. in BG2 we could use the empty Imoen slot for quest NPCs too.
Alright, as long as you tell everyone how it's done, we can change your character's sprite, I guess it does make more sense. In fact I really don't like how the human male looks. It just doesn't look appropriate for a non-warrior type, or a fast-but-small warrior. Maybe I'll change my Kensai (for my single player game) to an elven sprite when I work out how.
As for the write up, of course we do it after each session, and I will just write something based on whatever has happened. I have no real pre-determined plot, and what we do will be driven by RP based discussions and choices.
And yes, we should all post our custom portraits on this thread and download them before the game unless you are happy to use the defaults from the game, or have totally faceless companions
Alright, as long as you tell everyone how it's done, we can change your character's sprite, I guess it does make more sense. In fact I really don't like how the human male looks. It just doesn't look appropriate for a non-warrior type, or a fast-but-small warrior. Maybe I'll change my Kensai (for my single player game) to an elven sprite when I work out how.
As for the write up, of course we do it after each session, and I will just write something based on whatever has happened. I have no real pre-determined plot, and what we do will be driven by RP based discussions and choices.
And yes, we should all post our custom portraits on this thread and download them before the game unless you are happy to use the defaults from the game, or have totally faceless companions
it will only require the owner of the save file, meaning you, to change my sprite. unless you were to put the save file on this forum for me to download, edit the sprite, and give back. also as a half elf i already use elf sprites, so i won't use a human sprite anyway. i just want to change to thief
i got confused by your write up when you first mentioned it. it sounded more like you wanted to make a script lol just seemed a little too much like I couldn't make a decision on the spot. yes if you desire you could write up our adventures in the forum.
if others don't want to bother I am always willing to use Kivan's portrait, just so you all know. but if we want to use customs we will need each others. it is almost a shame i didn't go for the paladin as I have a dark souls picture just sitting here waiting to be used for a portrait, but we have enough frontlining with dwarven defender and cleric.
@SquareTin I've added your portrait to my ¨Portraits¨ folder.
@heindrich1988 Superb writing. The journal ¨user¨ in game might really help since it should track in-game dates. I might jump in into writing a summary a bit later on, but not soon. Due to certain real life events I've become quite rusty at all manner of creative works, so for now give me time to get use to all this a bit.
I'll be on skype soon enough, an hour or less before we start, but I can't guarantee my undivided attention.
@squaretin since we have both shared our portraits how would you like to start up a quick portrait test to see if we got this right? I think this is supposed to work, but it would be good to check in the hour before. I will start updating the game and if you want start up a test run for portraits (obviously not the actual game as @heindrich1988 will need to host that)
@liberelli will you be joining us? we need to know soon.
Comments
Any plans or estimates on when we wanna start this?
I guess 2 of the players can control 2 characters (NPC + custom). I just tried a MP game with a real life friend earlier today, new to the game, and even controlling 3 isn't so bad as we divided up frontline and backline roles.
@SquareTin what do u think?
I own, and have played, all the vanilla Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 including related expansions when I was *young*.
I'm fine with playing any class that fits well with party dynamic. (Mayhaps a Dwarven Defender?) My timezone is GMT+1. I'm also flexible with time so it won't be a problem on my part.
The game can be played without a thief in a party, though you'll have to mitigate traps via clerical protective spells, and, concerning locked chests and doors, if bashing them will not work, with the arcane spell ¨Knock¨....Though having a thief with hide in shadows and move silently would help in getting preemptive advantage in hostile encounters.
Hey! A Dwarf Defender would be awesome.
Are you okay with the RP and non-powergaming arrangements we have agreed previously? You can have a look at the bios and stats we have all posted to have an idea of the kinda of stats we expect amongst party members.
If you are happy with that arrangement, I am keen to get things moving along asap.
@SquareTin
@Liberelli
Are you guys okay for this Friday evening? Say 7.30pm UK time? Let's use Skype for the first session, I tried Beamdog servers, and it works fine on my Steam install, so hopefully we won't need to worry about hamachi, which I do have installed, but only tried once.
I personally see no problem for people starting out in Candlekeep since Candlekeep accepts visitors and provides accommodations to travelers who accept the rules it is governed by (unless a roguish individual sneaks up the walls during the night). The assassins, one hiding in the priest quarters and the other in the bunkhouse clearly meant as a resting place for travelers passing by, have surely acquired access within mostly legal means. Only the protagonist has spent a life time in the 'Keep, the rest are visitors seeking valuable information they need in exchange for a valuable information (or a unique book, or scroll) they possess.
Name: Donathal Shielddigger (I wanted an unimposing name so I kept rolling a dwarven name generator until I was satisfied. You'd be suprised how many names are shown that are already used in BG's and in Tolkien books. I also wanted to avoid bombastic names such as Giantkiller, Dragonhammer, Foeslayer that kept constantly popping by.... )
Stats: (A random roll that does not hamper character game-wise and possibly contradict, yet to make, biography. So things like a minimum strength of 15 was considered as I could possibly equip a tower shield, a minimum of 9 intelligence so as to not be illiterate lore wise. There is a slim chance that an illiterate would be granted access to Candlekeep and so on... )
Strength- 17
Dexterity- 15
Constitution- 17
Intelligence- 14
Wisdom- 12
Charisma- 9
Alignment: Lawful Neutral (Since favored dwarven deities I plan to keep mentioning in dialogues to come will be Moradin and Clangeddin, who are, respectively, LG and LN)
Starting equipment:
Helmet
Splint Mail
War hammer
Small shield
I have skype installed and will use it, however I might not be using a microphone on my end. I might prefer to type in the in-game chat.
I
I will just make this here just in case:
no name yet (don't know good half elf names, and don't want to use Brandon unless that is good)
fighter/thief multi
neutral good
str 14
dex 18
con 15
int 11
wis 10
chr 10 (higher if party leader perhaps)
i think it is only natural to go 18 dex for a thief, if that is a no then probably still 17 or 16. str and con are somewhat down, but str could be compensated with an item, while the con will only provide 1 extra hp unless he gets the tome. half elf is not nearly as good a thief as full elf in the first place, so he is missing potential there. would likely start with focus on shorts swords for backstabbing and either maces to deal with golems and such or bow to return to the backline when low on health. maybe move to two handed weapon approaching TOB as backstabbing immune enemies become common, and you have no paladin for carsomyr (or not. That would take some explaining as to how a thief is wielding it) alternatively I had a paladin I've always wanted to make if you would rather not have imoen also thief. Won't type a bio yet as I am unsure
edit: if you use skype i might need to sit out unfortunately. it would depend on if you are ok with that one guy talking with text. i just thought i would offer as I have never done BG multiplayer, and I like thieves anyway. also i was busy typing this and after a page refresh i see you got another offer
edit again: the time would actually be good even with me on east coast if I could play. as i said i got hours off so I would be home by that time (2:30 over here), and it would be around 2-3 hours before we usually get dinner so that depends on how long the session is
edit once again: does skype have a push to talk button? i mostly just didn't want background noise, if any, to annoy others. or maybe i could mute my mic when i don't talk. it isn't that I have a bad mic, but that, obviously, I am not out of the house yet and could end up in a conversation away from the group.
Personally, I am not against more players though we also need to take into consideration all the prolonged pauses that might happen with more people.
Though old npc characters that join in Baldur's Gate barely even comment. They weren't transferable from BG I to BG II vanilla since they were redone both artistically and mechanically.
I suggest live players for start. If anyone one quits or does not show up in the game at anytime, picking up NPCs at that point is good enough because they will scale to the current party level, not start on level 1.
Skype has a push to talk option.
Alright cool, sounds like we got a full party. I like your Dwarf, and it's good to have a capable tank in the party
Are you and @Liberelli okay for 7.30 pm tomorrow evening then?
I think it would be handy to at least use Skype to get in touch with each other so we can get things setup. Thus can you all please PM me your Skype name/email so I can add all of you to make contact when we do this. For actual gaming, I've only Mumble when it's more than 2 players, but I don't have my own server, and I'm not sure how my friends would feel if I took over theirs with a BG group lol.
Personally, perhaps cos I've been recording an LP, I've gotten used to reading out loud a lot of ingame conversation, and figured it would be easier to roleplay that way. I've never tried the ingame chat, but if you guys are more comfortable with that, I'm happy to try it that way.
I have no problem with @ChildofBhaal599 joining the party. I still prefer to keep Imoen in the party, cos of her role in the plot, so I guess we can use 5 custom characters + Imoen.
7:30 pm incidentally turns up to be pretty great.
The biography is still in mental sketches because I actually thought I have loads of time to fully flesh it out before everything starts rolling.
I've planned to do the biography tomorrow morning but if you need the time to properly prepare an introduction I can PM you the guiding ideas of my character today.
I didn't put much thought between immediate interaction between the protagonist and the relevant npcs but by starting out in Candlekeep Gorion sure looks like a person who might ¨find¨ what my character is looking for.
It could very much end up like:
Gorion - ¨I know where you can find what your looking for but I'm sorry... My ward and I must leave in this stormy night immediately.¨
Gorion and his ward go off screen.
Donathal - ¨Wait, you blasted tall...errrr....squishies! You aren't leaving without me until you tell me what I want!¨
Donathal stuntly waggles of screen following Gorion and his ward.
So, yeah. A ¨hired¨ bodyguard would make sense.
I'll PM my skype soon.
I rarely had opportunity for live voice acting, much less regularly talking on English. Although I would like to, I'm sure I'm absolutely dreadful. Not even a prompter would help. I also suffer a strange case of jitters. Besides English isn't really my first language although I tend to use it a lot. I have had a few occasions to talk to, from relatives to friends, from Australia to Canada and it took me a few seconds longer then I expected to acclimate to the accent and the pronunciation.
Concerning thieving classes (Bards included)....
Bards automatically spend their all skill points on stealing.
So a fighter thief, and Imoen, if included into the party, should spread their skills accordingly.
after that she could do the traps while I do the locks and focus on getting stealth up for backstabs. still deciding where to go with proficiencies, however. bow could be handy with a thief's dexterity, and with @sonarch being a frontliner it free me up to retreat after backstabs for the bow. may also be heard in BG1 doing the EE npc quests with 5 player characters and Imoen, unless we drop her for a moment when we can do the quests.
still need to find a good half elf name for roleplay. i always use Brandon as it is my name, but I doubt it is a half elf name. I should look this up.
so a bio using charname to fill in his name:
friend of Imoen
Charname was born and raised in candlekeep. Been there longer than even Kang, and was to be taught swordsmanship and become a watcher when he fully matured. However, one day came young Imoen. The playful thief brought charname into her games, playing a distraction while he came around and took the valuable. The two were certainly in a lot of trouble with the nobles who came by candlekeep, but they just thought that they were all so snooty and didn't need the money anyway. No matter how many times the guards scolded him, he just continued to have fun in his thieving ways. charname has put together his swordsmanship with his silent thief nature to be quite and assassin when the adventure across the sword coast began. yet even in his thieving ways, he still had a good heart, much like Imoen. he would not steal from the poor, but the rich nobles are another thing. he always believed in justice more than even a reward though, however what he saw as justice may not be so to the law. he does good in ways that he thinks are best, even if the authorities do not agree. he'll follow Kang and Imoen to the end, as a friend he will not let them go alone.
I suck at writing bios so lets make it short and simple, he learned how to fight from the watchers, but Imoen brough him into her games and he learned stealth. he is a bit of a robin hood and likes to target nobles (he is a thief, gotta have some background, but it doesn't mean i need to rob nobles in game) he may be a thief but he is good and thinks evil should be vanquished. he does justice his way however, whether that be the lawful way or the chaotic way. he follows on the journey as Imoen leaves to find Kang, as he cannot leave them both to leave without him.
Why not use this thing to generate an elven name?
http://www.chriswetherell.com/elf/index.php
Apparently Brandon translates as Maeglin
Anyways... I got some ideas about your Charname's origin/backstory that I think would create an interesting dynamic and fit well with everything else so far, I'll PM it to you in a bit and see if you like it.
EDIT: Turns out I'm free this Saturday in the end if it suits people's schedules better.
hmm.... ideas! At least your story is making me think a bit
i like the way that you developed a kind of romantic relationship with Imoen. I think I will keep it to add extra incentive for myself in things like BG2. however, I want to place my bio away from the forest and have him be a bit more civil. some of this may even be a bit inspired by rasaad i'll admit. also wanted to not make us dislike each other as much as it seemed, as I doubt he would like to follow one he hated. The way I wrote this we are both people who, in the end, want to practice what we enjoy and see the great open world. Though I don't desire to leave until later, a year or 2 before the beginning.
During one of father Brandon's regular trips to Baldur's Gate he met a mysterious half elven boy. Poor Maeglin was a young homeless boy in the city, making his way through life as one would expect. When father Brandon became the half elf's target, the monk caught him in the act, and as he realized this child was without a home and parents, he took him with to candlekeep, where he might have a chance in life away from thieving.
Brandon, like other half elves, was looked upon with suspicion. The elven tribe of his mother would not even let the half human in, and in Baldur's Gate they became the target of criminals. As they were caught in an alley, young Maeglin's mother bought the child time to escape, but when he returned he found her dead. It was on this day that he was left alone in the world for real, abandoned by his human father, denied by his mother's tribe. He was left on the streets making his way through life off of others' coin, until he met the monk.
Upon arrival at candlekeep he met two other children who were recent arrivals, the only friends he would have his age in his new home. He took a rather fondness to the girl Imoen, who let him in on her mischief. There was something fun about it, and seeing all the gold to be had by the traveling nobles that occasionally visited the great library fortress that was now his home. Father Brandon was furious at this, as he had hope to take the child away from the life of crime. He ordered the watchers to train him so as to take him away from such ideas, but even with their training he was stealthy and could always sneak away to have more fun with Imoen and what they considered a game.
Father Brandon unfortunately would not see the habit change, as he passed away a year after he brought Maeglin to the fortress. Maeglin gave up on his ways for a time, saddened by his loss and that he had rebeled against Brandon's rules to his death. He began to take the practice more serious, as he thought the monk would have wanted. However, one day Maeglin visited the library where he read of ancient heroes, from rogues to warriors to mages, and came to the realization that even a rogue may be a good guy. He gained a sudden interest in such stories, and continued his games with Imoen as practice, but he would only target the rich nobles, too snobbish and loaded with money for their own good. These tales of heroes had inspired him to harness these skills for a greater good, that one day he might leave candlekeep on his own again so that he may defeat such villains as those who killed his mother and other innoscents. He would be one amongst them, in the shadows with them, preparing to strike.
In all of these shenannigans the child grew a fondness for the girl he has spent so much time with. He wasn't so sure if Imoen had any feelings in return, and he was rather too shy to ask himself. However, even as he had this dream of leaving the fortress to rid the world of evil, the though of Imoen always held him to Candlekeep. Maeglin just couldn't bare to leave without the girl that he thought he loved so much. He found himself actually a bit jealous when she spent time with the other child Kang, not knowing if there could be something there. He knew Kang had always recieved special treatment from the monks and some of the visitors, and he just didn't understand. However, he did maintain a certain distant friendship with the magic child. He didn't exactly have many other people his age in the first place.
Here on the day that the story begins, he was with Imoen when she told him of a letter she found of Gorion's. It showed that Kang may be in danger, and that they were planning on leaving the keep. The two agreed to silently follow the two, out of a curiousity of what was to happen and Maeglin himself had to satisfy his desire to leave the library behind. After a terrible series of events, they find themselves following Kang, as with the death of Gorion they are all now stuck outside of candlekeep without a tome of great value. Maybe Maeglin will get to achieve his dream as they embark on this adventure. Maybe he will even find the men responsible for his mother's death.
btw, are we going to use custom portraits? if we want to use custom portraits we will each need to upload the portrait for the others to download or else the other players will not be able to see it. I like this picture for fighter/thieves as they can wear helmets and I use dark colors, so it fits my character perfectly. I will put it here if we intend to use them, but if not I will like end of using Kivan's. Also, I was hoping when we start you could change my in game model to an elf thief. I want him to look like an elf rather than a fighter
anyway, the portrait:
I've decided to post my biography here concluding that those who don't want to ¨get spoiled¨, or who want to learn it in-game can easily choose to ignore this wall of cursive text.
Donathal Shielddigger belonged to a race of shield dwarves whose clan name was Loadbeard. He lead a sheltered life, as much as ¨sheltered¨ could be applied in a dwarven case. This means that Donathal never actually visited the ¨surface world¨, preferring to stay in his clan's deep underground dwarven hold doing inventory while other more experienced members of his clan did the trading with the outside world. His meticulousness and dedication to following the rules, keeping count of supplies and checking the structural stability of his underground retreat, as well as mapping all the passageways on a daily basis earned him the title of ¨overseer¨ amongst his peers.
One day, on one of his inspections of the upper mines, the earth shook and there was a cave in. Poor Donathal thought that he was buried alive. Now, in moments of doubt, Donathal would always turn to his religious teachings. ¨Moradin, the Soul Forger created the dwarves from iron and mithril on the forge of the fires at the center of the Earth.¨: he remembered ¨I shan't be stopped by mere dirt!¨. So, with his trusty shield he dug and he dug. The time went on and he lost all sense of direction when suddenly he made an opening and fresh, sweet air poured in. His joy turned quickly to horror, however, as he passed through it and looked up. ¨WHERE is the CEILING?!¨: he cried out. Above him he was greeted by a sparkling starry sky.
Now our story would have ended then and there if Donathal had any experience navigating the surface world, but this weird cycle of light and dark kept confusing and disorienting him. This led him to always pick the wrong road, and much to his dismay, bringing him further and further from his clan. He was lost. He concluded that it is best to ask directions at this point. He was wary on how to communicate with this excessively tall beings. Tall, no doubt, because of a lack of a ceiling to keep them the PROPER size. He remembered what Moradin taught when dealing with other races: ¨Dwarves should regard NO race as greater than themselves!¨. So he acted arrogant and sometimes rude to the strangers passing by. However this did not help to find his way back to clan Loadbeard. Those people who genuinely wanted to help never even heard of a dwarven clan named Loadbeard. He was beginning to lose hope when a traveler pointed out: ¨You should visited Candlekeep! The greatest library in all the Realms! Surely, they might find what you're lookin' for!¨.
So a lost dwarf went to find directions to his lost clan in the halls of Candlekeep...
@ChildofBhaal599
I'll be using on of the new dwarven portraits from BGEE. I don't think you can really edit models in BGEE, at least not in the Vanilla version, because the game lacks an in-game dungeon or game master, which could be present in games like the NWN series. I suppose their might be some mods for that, but I fear that would over complicate matters...
edit: I add your *.bmp portrait to my ¨Portraits¨ folder.
Baldur's Gate was originally designed as a purely singleplayer experience with multiplayer being but an after thought.
Thanks for the bio... I do have EEkeeper and I know how to change portraits for NPCs... however, I have no idea how to change pictures for MP games. Did u wanna change Imoen's sprite? I have even less clue how to do that if it's what you mean.
On the topic of writing for the playthrough, my understanding was that I would do a write-up (After Action Report style) after each session, so that our journey has a single coherent narrative and writing style. For example this is an AAR I did for Shogun 2 Total War.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?476585-Tales-of-the-Chosokabe
It's really old and some of the pics and links don't work anymore, but you get an idea of what I hope to achieve. (Though I probably won't bother with pics for BG, cos I don't regard it a very visual game).
If you guys prefer something more informal, where everybody contributes, or perhaps we assign one writer at the end of each session, then I'm happy with that too.
@SquareTin @Sonarch @ChildofBhaal599
I'm guessing everyone is okay for 7.30pm (in about 4 hours). Let's all just meet up on Skype first so we can get things like portraits arranged. I haven't got all of ur skype addys yet. Please PM them to me so I can add everyone and then u can add each other when we're all in a conference call.
@Liberelli has not been online for a few days, so it might be a bit short notice for him. But I've read his bio and he always planned to join after Candlekeep, so I don't think it's a major issue. He can always join the rest of the party and just edit in the average xp that we got.
I will need to get skype in order when I get home. I do not exactly remember my name, and it needs to be downloaded to the computer I will be using. Unfortunately that means you will not get it until about an hour before we begin, so hopefully you are on to get it before we start.
Pictures in an mp game I believe use a picture in your folder with the same file name as what the player is using, otherwise it shows nothing. I don't know if we are using customs or vanillas but if we use customs we need to share them for others to download and put in their portraits.
are we writing it out ahead of time? I thought we were merely going to go with it as we felt and roleplay our character according to the bio? i don't care either way I suppose, but I rather like it informal and just make it as we play. maybe if we keep track of our journey we will write down what happened after the session?
also what are the plans with side quests? surely we will not do evil things unless good reason so I am not saying we will be totally completionist, but what is our stance on this. for roleplaying sake, I usually don't let my character get clues to the bandit camp so as to roleplay that I go to all of the wilderness searching for it, starting at nashkel going up. It works perfectly for me and I end up last where I meet the bandits. for TOTSC content I do it after candlekeep because my character realizes he needs more power to take on sarevok and as a wanted man wants to wait for the heat to die down a bit. In BG2 I then pretend that the price for help to get Imoen is higher in game (and SCS allowed me to have that in my current game) so that I go through all of the quests in chapter 2 because he also needs gear, and then rescue Imoen. It helps my roleplaying sense greatly to twist things a little to make urgent things a little more out of reach so it is not out of character to wait. in BG2 we could use the empty Imoen slot for quest NPCs too.
Alright, as long as you tell everyone how it's done, we can change your character's sprite, I guess it does make more sense. In fact I really don't like how the human male looks. It just doesn't look appropriate for a non-warrior type, or a fast-but-small warrior. Maybe I'll change my Kensai (for my single player game) to an elven sprite when I work out how.
As for the write up, of course we do it after each session, and I will just write something based on whatever has happened. I have no real pre-determined plot, and what we do will be driven by RP based discussions and choices.
And yes, we should all post our custom portraits on this thread and download them before the game unless you are happy to use the defaults from the game, or have totally faceless companions
i got confused by your write up when you first mentioned it. it sounded more like you wanted to make a script lol just seemed a little too much like I couldn't make a decision on the spot. yes if you desire you could write up our adventures in the forum.
if others don't want to bother I am always willing to use Kivan's portrait, just so you all know. but if we want to use customs we will need each others. it is almost a shame i didn't go for the paladin as I have a dark souls picture just sitting here waiting to be used for a portrait, but we have enough frontlining with dwarven defender and cleric.
I've added your portrait to my ¨Portraits¨ folder.
@heindrich1988
Superb writing. The journal ¨user¨ in game might really help since it should track in-game dates. I might jump in into writing a summary a bit later on, but not soon. Due to certain real life events I've become quite rusty at all manner of creative works, so for now give me time to get use to all this a bit.
I'll be on skype soon enough, an hour or less before we start, but I can't guarantee my undivided attention.
@liberelli will you be joining us? we need to know soon.
Let me know when it's updated and I'll set up a game for a quick test