The Tales of Sima Jin - Black Pits 'Blind' Let's Play
Heindrich
Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
Hi all!
I am back! (Wait... he was away? Oh... never noticed. :P)
Following on from my first ever completed Let's Play of my first blind playthrough of BG 2 Vanilla, I've taken a break and tweaked with my setup a little. Now I am ready to begin a new Let's Play series, and it's going to be a mostly blind playthrough of the Black Pits 1 and 2!
I say 'mostly blind', because I am not a noobie to Baldur's Gate anymore, with a full saga playthrough under my belt, and I've also tried the first few battles on my Ipad... but apart from that, I have no idea what I shall face in the Black Pits!
The Black Pits does not lend itself very well to roleplaying, so I shan't be too worried about roleplaying, but as always, where applicable, my decisions will be driven by RP factors as opposed to metagaming ones.
What I look forward to the most in this Playthrough is the starring cast in my party, which is composed of characters of personal significance in my 'gaming/entertainment' life, and I shall introduce them in turn in the subsequent posts to follow.
For now, some handy links, which I'll add to as I progress in the playthrough...
INTRODUCTION
Part 1 - Introductions
Part 2 - Party Introductions
Part 3 - Party Introductions 2
Part 4 - First Blood (Gibberlings)
TIER 1
Part 5 - Tier 1, Battles 1 and 2
Part 6 - Tier 1, Battles 3 and 4
Part 7 - Tier 1, Battle 5
Part 8 - (Replays) Tier 1, Battles 1,2,3 & 4
Part 9 - Tier 1, Battles 5
TIER 2
Part 10 - Tier 2, Shopping Spree
Part 11 - Tier 2, Battles 6 & 7
Part 12 - Tier 2, Battle 7
Part 13 - Tier 2, Battle 8
Part 14 - Tier 2, Battle 9
Part 15 - Tier 2, Battle 10
TIER 3
Part 16 - Tier 3, Shopping Spree
Part 17 - Tier 3, Battle 11
Part 18 - Tier 2 Replays (Battles 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10)
Part 19 - Tier 3, Other Prisoners
Part 20 - Tier 3, Battle 12
Part 21 - Tier 3, Battle 13
Part 22 - Tier 3, Battle 14
Part 23 - Tier 3, Final Preparations
Part 24 - Tier 3, Battle 15
I am back! (Wait... he was away? Oh... never noticed. :P)
Following on from my first ever completed Let's Play of my first blind playthrough of BG 2 Vanilla, I've taken a break and tweaked with my setup a little. Now I am ready to begin a new Let's Play series, and it's going to be a mostly blind playthrough of the Black Pits 1 and 2!
I say 'mostly blind', because I am not a noobie to Baldur's Gate anymore, with a full saga playthrough under my belt, and I've also tried the first few battles on my Ipad... but apart from that, I have no idea what I shall face in the Black Pits!
The Black Pits does not lend itself very well to roleplaying, so I shan't be too worried about roleplaying, but as always, where applicable, my decisions will be driven by RP factors as opposed to metagaming ones.
What I look forward to the most in this Playthrough is the starring cast in my party, which is composed of characters of personal significance in my 'gaming/entertainment' life, and I shall introduce them in turn in the subsequent posts to follow.
For now, some handy links, which I'll add to as I progress in the playthrough...
INTRODUCTION
Part 1 - Introductions
Part 2 - Party Introductions
Part 3 - Party Introductions 2
Part 4 - First Blood (Gibberlings)
TIER 1
Part 5 - Tier 1, Battles 1 and 2
Part 6 - Tier 1, Battles 3 and 4
Part 7 - Tier 1, Battle 5
Part 8 - (Replays) Tier 1, Battles 1,2,3 & 4
Part 9 - Tier 1, Battles 5
TIER 2
Part 10 - Tier 2, Shopping Spree
Part 11 - Tier 2, Battles 6 & 7
Part 12 - Tier 2, Battle 7
Part 13 - Tier 2, Battle 8
Part 14 - Tier 2, Battle 9
Part 15 - Tier 2, Battle 10
TIER 3
Part 16 - Tier 3, Shopping Spree
Part 17 - Tier 3, Battle 11
Part 18 - Tier 2 Replays (Battles 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10)
Part 19 - Tier 3, Other Prisoners
Part 20 - Tier 3, Battle 12
Part 21 - Tier 3, Battle 13
Part 22 - Tier 3, Battle 14
Part 23 - Tier 3, Final Preparations
Part 24 - Tier 3, Battle 15
Post edited by Metalloman on
6
Comments
First up we have Lilly Black, the party leader and honoured guest on my Youtube Channel!
Who is Skie? Never heard of her... :P
I've never had Skie in my party, and after all the hours I've spent watching Tord's LPs, I equate this portrait with Lilly Black, which seems ideal for her character.
She is of course the star of the Misadventures of Lilly Black, a collection of excellent Let's Play series by Tord, from the Youtube Channel, "mynameisnotlilly".
Given that Tord and Lilly are the inspiration for my own channel dedicated to Sima Jin, I decided that the Black Pits was an ideal opportunity to honour Tord and Lilly with the role of party leader. I had also planned Lilly to be the party leader so that she could summon her trademark familiar, Duke the Imp. Unfortunately whatever magic that Baeloth used to transport Lilly to the Black Pits also denied her the power to summon Duke.
I found out after I started that familiars are not enabled for the Black Pits.
The stats I used for Lilly are identical to what Tord rolled for her at the very beginning of her epic saga in Baldur's Gate Vanilla (1 and 2).
Race: Elf
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Class: Mage
Str: 8
Dex: 15
Con: 11
Int: 17
Wis: 10
Cha: 16
Proficiencies:
Dagger +
Further Details
I hope Tord doesn't mind me using Lilly in my LP. I have tried to contact him via Youtube, but he does not appear to be active anymore. It is certainly done with the intention to pay homage and respect, rather than 'hi-jack' his brainchild and project. To truly experience the character of Lilly Black, I strongly encourage you to check out Tord's channel, as my LP is not in any way a substitute for that.
In that respect, I will not roleplay Lilly too much because she is Tord's character, and I do not want to 'put words in her mouth', so to speak, and distort somebody else's creation.
Furthermore, my channel is the Tales of Sima Jin, and thus whatever roleplay I do, will mostly be done from Jin's perspective.
Next we have Lilly's bodyguard, Heindrich Lowen.
Heindrich is the first character I played in the first RPG game I played, which was Advanced Heroquest, a table-top game similar to D&D, based on the Warhammer Fantasy setting.
I was about 10 years old at the time, and apparently not creative to come up with anything of my own, so I just used the example party provided in the rulebook, which consisted of a Human warrior (Heinrich Lowen), an old Wizard, a Wood Elf and a Dwarf. Given the rest of the company, I identified the most with the archetypal European warrior clad in plate mail, and ended up using Heinrich as my name in all sorts of games and online as usernames. At some point I made a typo and added a 'd' to the name... a typo that has stuck.
Details
Race: Human
Alignment: Lawful Good
Class: Cavalier
Str: 17
Dex: 12
Con: 17
Int: 10
Wis: 12
Cha: 14
Proficiencies:
Bastard Sword ++
Two Handed Sword +
Mace +
Further Details
You might notice that Heindrich's Charisma is below legal requirement for a Paladin. This was done intentionally via EEkeeper to represent the fact that he is not technically a paladin. I think of him as just a warrior, not necessarily a religious templar or paladin. In addition in the original Advanced Heroquest, Heinrich is depicted as a brave and capable warrior, but not the party leader, which was the Wizard, 'Magnus the Bright'.
However, I did not want to worry about dual-classing a standard fighter in addition to dual-classing a Kensai (Jin), and a pure vanilla fighter becomes rather obsolete at high levels in BP 2. Thus, on the advice of forum members, I settled on making Heindrich a Cavalier, which should ensure that he would be useful and relevant throughout the playthrough.
I don't think an illegal Charisma will have any consequences game mechanics wise, but do let me know if that assumption is false.
Jin of course is the star of my Youtube Channel, as well as the protagonist of the first ever Let’s Play series that I’ve completed with Baldur’s Gate 2 Vanilla.
This portrait was very kindly created by @Isandir from a photograph of myself. His work in my opinion surpasses the quality of the original Bioware portraits, and yet somehow do not look out of place next to them.
I am so very grateful that he has allowed me to experience even greater immersion in these wonderful games!
I've rebooted him as a Kensai=>Mage, because his character is very much inspired by the Chinese Wuxia genre, which is basically the Chinese version of Western fantasy, and instead of elves and wizards, you got martial artists whose techniques are so advanced that they appear magical in nature. The heroes and villains of Wuxia also almost never wear armour, and so Kensai=>Mage is almost perfect for capturing their martial and magical abilities, as well as their typical avoidance of armoured protection, as they rely on superhuman techniques and evasion to avoid injury.
Details
Race: Human
Alignment: Lawful Good
Class: Kensai*
Str: 15
Dex: 17
Con: 15
Int: 17
Wis: 12
Cha: 12
*Intention to dual-class into Mage.
Proficiencies:
Long Sword ++
Singe Weapon Style ++
Further Details
The character of Sima Jin (司馬進) was created for a novel that I have vague ambitions of writing. I have already created a fairly detailed setting, as well as profiles for most of the key characters, including Jin, but never quite got around to seriously writing the story that I want to tell. What I do have however is a ready-made character that I strongly identify and relate with, and that I can use for all sorts of roleplaying games.
Sima (司馬) is Jin’s surname. Chinese people put their family names ahead of their given names, which reflects the importance of the family unit in traditional Confucian culture. Sima vaguely means 'horsemaster', and was a fairly common surname in ancient times. The Sima Clan were ultimately the victors of the famous Three Kingdoms period, which you might have heard of from the Dynasty Warriors games or movies like the Red Cliffs. Jin (進) is the Chinese word for advance or improve, and reflects his parents’ hopes that he’d overcome the illness that nearly claimed his life as an infant (in my novel).
In the Aber-Toril setting, there is not a lot of detailed lore about Shou Lung, which is clearly supposed to be based on Medieval China, and so I have taken liberties to just base Jin's character on a Wuxia setting, rather than the limited information about Kara-Tur, which is mostly focused on Japan-inspired Samurai and Ninja. For this reason I made a point of making Jin wield long swords (劍), as opposed to katana.
Kang is a character that I created for a full saga roleplay-focused multiplayer game of Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition that I have been playing with a few other forumites, which I am having great fun with.
Again the portrait is a courtesy of @Isandir, who created it for a character called Vihane, for the Dark Side of the Sword Coast mod. He even kindly helped to remove the scars from the original picture so that it would fit better for my character.
Personality wise, the power and prestige of being a naturally gifted spellcaster, or sorcerer, has clearly gone to Kang's head. He is vain, arrogant, confident and yet sometimes cowardly. He can be selfish, petty and vengeful. In some ways, he represents an exaggeration of Jin’s worst attributes, or what he could become in different circumstances. Kang is, for want of a better, a bit of douche, as my multiplayer partners will attest to. XD
Details
Race: Human
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Class: Sorcerer
Str: 12
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 18
Wis: 12
Cha: 16
Proficiency:
Quarterstaff +
Further Details
Kang (康) obviously shares the same surname as Jin, and his name '康' means 'health', which seems a reasonable name for a second child to a father whose first son suffered from serious illness in infancy.
Kang fulfils the role of the more successful, popular and charismatic sibling that is one of the defining features of Jin in my original novel. Incidentally it also highlights that although I relate to Jin and share some of his attitudes and views (I created him!), and his portrait is based off my photo, he was created for a very different setting to the real world, and so his character is quite different to me as well. For a start, I am a single child, so I have no inferiority complex with regards to a sibling. XD
I had also initially intended to use a more oriental portrait for Kang, but I loved @Isandir's Vihane portrait too much, and I thought the similarity in their robes nicely marks the sibling relationship between the Sima brothers. Thus I decided to explain this as Kang being Jin's younger half-brother, born to a Faerunian woman his father met after their arrival in Thesk, as refugees fleeing the Tuigan invasion of 1359 DR, which seems to be a common explanation for Shou characters to be seen in Faerun.
'Little Dragon' is my translation for one of the most iconic characters in Jin Yong's epic Wuxia series.
She is described as an impossibly beautiful and enchanting young maiden, who lived in a tomb, or more accurately a cave network, the home of her obscure Tomb Sect sisterhood, for most of her early life, more or less secluded from the rest of civilisation. Her story is one of love against the odds, as her relationship with her disciple drew the ire of Confucian traditions and the mainstream sects like the Daoist Priesthood.
@CrevsDaak very kindly helped me to recreate this character in a Forgotten Realms setting as a modded Kensai/Druid multi-class with a few extra innate abilities (More details can be found in spoiler box below.) and @vierrae very kindly agreed to create the above portrait for her, so many thanks to both of you!
Details
Race: Half-Elf
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Class: Kensai/Druid
Str: 14
Dex: 18
Con: 10
Int: 12
Wis: 12
Cha: 15
Proficiency:
Scimitar +
Darts +
Single Weapon Style ++
Further Details
A short clip of "Little Dragon" in action in the 2006 TV Series based on the "Return of the Condor Heroes".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFHnBJjRJWY
Regarding her ability stats and implementation in the Baldur's Gate system...
The most obvious question is given that she is described as "so beautiful that it transcended mortal beauty, and people mistook her for a 'goddess/fairy' (仙女), why isn’t her Charisma higher? Well, as I’ve become more familiar with the D&D system, I’ve learnt that Charisma is far more than just physical attractiveness and being beautiful or handsome. Instead it reflects a character’s ability to lead and influence others, whether through seduction, intimidation or a silver tongue. In Jin Yong’s "Return of the Condor Heroes", she is very much depicted as somebody who is totally naïve and more likely to be manipulated herself than using her charms to manipulate/influence others.
Her Wisdom score is also low given that it is supposed to be a primary attribute for a Druid. This is because I could not justify giving her high Wisdom given how sheltered she was and ignorant of the complexities and norms of society, which caused her all sorts of problems when she first left the Tomb Sect caves and ventured into the civilised world. For example she had no concept of money, nor any idea that her romantic relationship with her disciple was consider abhorrent in traditional Confucian society.
Her Constitution is very low to represent that not only is she a fairly slight woman, compared to the likes of Minsc and Heindrich, she also suffered serious internal injuries whilst trying to master the Jade Maiden Heart Manual, which left her physically fragile for most of the storyline.
As is typical with Wuxia characters, she does not wear armour, but instead wears iconic all-white robes that she uses both offensively and defensively. She is iconic for being able to train and control swarms of magical jade bees to attack her enemies, added to the fact that she lived in seclusion in the wilderness, I thought that making her a Kensai/Druid multi-class would best represent her abilities. Obviously this is an illegal multi-class combination, and so I am extremely grateful to CrevsDaak who helped me to create a mod specifically for her, which in addition to making her a Kensai/Druid, also added a number of extra innate abilities as she levels up, to represent some of her skills, and to compensate for spells lost due to low Wisdom.
Extra Abilities
lv1:
+ Hold Person: She uses her robes pretty regularly to disarm and restrain enemies.
+ Slow Poison: The Tomb Sect uses poisons offensively, though Little Dragon is not depicted as being particularly fond of such tactics, which is regarded as dishonourable amongst mainstream Sects like the Shaolin and the Daoists. The Tomb Sect does however appear to hold the secret to many antidotes, which she carries in small bamboo/wooden containers.
lv4: (15,000 xp)
+ Poison Weapon: When things get desperate, she does use poisons, particularly on her needles. (Sadly Druids cannot use darts, which is a shame.)
+ Blur: This seems ideal to represent some of her defensive techniques like depicted in the clip.
lv5: (25,000 xp)
+ Summon Insects: Ideally she would use Jade Bees to attack her enemies, but she can make do with wild bees as well when her Jade Bees are unavailable for whatever reason.
+ Offensive Spin: This seems ideal to represent her higher level offensive combat techniques.
lv9: (180,000xp)
+ Insect Plague: This represents her iconic Jade Bees.
lv14: (3,000,000 xp)
+ Creeping Doom: This represents a bigger swarm of her iconic Jade Bees!
Ideally I'd like her to use long swords as depicted, but druids have a very limited weapon selection, and scimitars look close enough to function as a proxy, which I guess is also handy in that it gives her a slightly different range of weapons compared to Jin.
Obviously she was human in Jin Yong’s works, as there are no elves in his Wuxia setting, however, she is described as an almost ageless, divine individual, and so I’ve decided to represent that by making her a Half-Elf in a Forgotten Realms setting. Her alignment is actually pretty interesting... I like to look at the Lawful to Chaotic and Good to Evil scales independently.
On the Lawful to Chaotic scale, she is a bit of a paradox. She is an honourable individual who tries to keep her promises and abides by the rules of her martial sect, which are certainly lawful attributes. However, when she is confronted by mainstream sects about her relationship with her disciple, she shows little willingness to surrender to the norms of tradition and society, and is quite willing to rebel against the status quo of more established sects like the Daoists and the Buddhists, who are the moral compass of Medieval China. In the end, I consider her grand story to be basically a love story, in defiance of the traditional order, and thus I decided to make her the only Chaotic character in the party, even though she is not by any means Chaotic in a random or crazy sense.
In terms of Good to Evil, a case can be made for Neutral to Good. Her story takes place in the midst of the Mongol invasions of China, and unlike some other heroes in the saga, she shows little interest in the grand politics of the time, and does not proactively seek to defend the Chinese Song Empire, whether from external enemies, or internal threats like corrupt officialdom. Her limited interventions were entirely driven by selfish reasons to protect and help specific individuals that she that she loved and cared about, and not some greater altruism for wider society, which persecuted her and her lover because of their rejection of Confucian traditions.
However, I've decided to make her Good, because she repeatedly demonstrates her capacity to love and willingness to forgive at least some of those who wronged her. I feel that she is inherently a compassionate, virtuous and altruistic individual, and probably would have cared more for wider society beyond the individuals she cared about, if she had been treated better by society in return.
Takeo is the protagonist of the "Tales of the Otori" by Lian Hearn, an excellent fantasy series set in Medieval Japan, and the inspiration for me to write stories of my own, and thus the indirect inspiration for the creation of Sima Jin.
The portrait was cropped from a beautiful work of art by Peter Tikos, the Assassin of the Silver Flame.
Takeo is special because he is descended from the Tribe, who are basically 'super-ninja', people with all sorts of abilities like invisibility, split images of themselves, moving silently, detecting other invisible individuals, super hearing and other skills. As the adopted son of a samurai lord, Takeo also receives instruction in traditional samurai weapons like katana and bow, and thus I have decided to implement the character as some sort of multi-class Fighter/Thief.
Once more @CrevsDaak very generously helped me to mod Takeo as a Fighter/Shadow Dancer multi-class, with a few extra innate abilities (details to follow).
Details
Race: Half-Elf
Alignment: Neutral Good
Class: Fighter/Shadow Dancer
Str: 14
Dex: 18
Con: 12
Int: 15
Wis: 10
Cha: 15
Proficiency:
Katana +
Long Bow +
Single Weapon Style ++
Further Details
So I have three characters of Shou origins, who I clearly wanted to keep away from the Samurai/Ninja stereotype for East Asian fantasy characters. However, Otori Takeo is both a ninja and a samurai! XD
Did you know that there are two countries in Aber-Toril representing both China and Japan? Shou Lung represents a highly glorified and idealistic version of Chinese history, where the empire is extremely powerful and successful, run by a meritocratic Civil Service, which is far more efficient than the governments of Faerun. This is based on Medieval China's real Civil Service, which truly was well ahead of its time, but of course, the system was not ideal or immune to corruption, furthermore the obsession with Confucian tradition and dogma the Civil Service examinations encouraged is (in my opinion) partly to blame for China's subsquent economic stagnation, as alternate schools of thought were criticised as heretical or 'anti-social', and could not receive acceptance amongst the ruling elites.
T'u Lung meanwhile represents the worst of Chinese history. The periods of anarchy, strife, breakdown of society and rampant official corruption. Unlike Shou Lung, which sounds like a nice place to live (compared to the rest of Aber-Toril's human nations), T'u Lung sounds like a hell-hole. I am not entirely sure, but I guess T'u Lung might also be an analogy for separatist forces that are traditionally strong in Southern China, where people sometimes resented the domination of dynasties typically based in Northern China. Though making such a nation so corrupt and inferior to Shou Lung would be insulting to any such political movements, so I suspect this is coincidental, rather than intentional.
The two nations representing Japan are Wa and Kozakura, which also represent different phases of Japanese history. Wa is similar to the Tokugawa Shogunate which was relatively stable and centralised, organised in a feudal system with the Shogun exercising absolute power via Samurai lords, and the Emperor more or less just the figure-head, rather than the absolute ruler like in China (who governs through the Civil Service).
Kozakura represents the more violent and anarchic periods of Japanese history, most notably Sengoku Jidai, the Warring States period, when Japan was divided into dozens of warring samurai clans. However, unlike with the Shou Lung and T'u Lung, there does not appear to be an obvious comparison between the standard of living in Wa and Kozakura, though I'd imagine endemic warfare cannot be good for farmers in Kozakura. ^.^
Otori Takeo's story takes place in an anarchic version of Japanese history, and thus it is natural to imagine that in the Forgotten Realms setting, he is a young Kozakuran lord, far from home in search of something to help his clan in the vicious power struggles of his homeland.
Fighter/Shadow Dancer is almost ideal to capture the fact that he is trained both in the deadly arts of the Tribe, and also traditional samurai training as the heir to the Otori samurai clan, as it will give me the option to wear light armour or heavy armour, depending on circumstances, though I will never allow him to wear anything heavier than Splint Mail, to represent his choice of either ninja light armour or samurai armour. The fact that he can never achieve grandmastery is fine as well since Takeo was never an exceptional swordsman, and relied on his Tribe skills to defeat stronger and more skilled opponents.
When wearing light armour, Move Silently and Hide in Plain Sight can be used to proxy Takeo's invisibility skills, and Detect Invisibility can proxy his... well detecting illusions/invisibility skills that saved his adoptive father's life from a Tribe assassin.
He has a few extra abilities to depict his other Tribe skills:
lv1:
+ Command: Takeo has an innate mastery of the Tribe skill known as the Kikuta Gaze, which can put an animal or human being to sleep. Command seems almost ideal for this.
lv4: (10,000 xp)
+ Poison Weapon: I don't recall Takeo using poison in the story, but he was a trained assassin of the Tribe, and poisons are certainly part of the Tribe's arsenal.
lv13: (1,320,000 xp)
+ Mislead: Actually Takeo only survived the attack on his village at the very beginning of the story when he managed to evade an attack by somehow splitting his image, or rather leaving behind an image of himself as he dodge and ran away. It is almost exactly the same as the Mislead Arcane spell. However because the spell is normally a high level mage spell, Takeo will not get to use it until fairly high level as well. This is okay since it did take a fair amount of Tribe training before Takeo could use this ability at will.
lv20: (4,400,000 xp)
+ Simulacrum: I imagine this to be a more advanced version of Takeo's split image ability, in a more magically charged setting compared to Tales of the Otori.
I don't think I would like the Black Pits style of play, so I've never even thought about starting a run in it. Watching your videos could change my mind, if it looks fun. I thank you for showcasing the add-on game, so that those of us who might not otherwise play it can see it and possibly change our minds to try our own runs.
Since you're using Lilly Black for your party leader, and giving credit to Tord for your inspiration, might I suggest that you watch Tord's Neverwinter Nights series? He's only done the first act of NWN, and two premium add-ons released by Bioware, before he had to quit and focus on a real life job that he got. But, he's at the apex of his mastery of the LP art in this series. Also, I think you might enjoy NWN for its roleplay value, when you get done with BG.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0ie3WJ7Hdk
EDIT: Oh, also, if you get really into the custom six-character party style of play, you should totally consider playing Icewind Dale as well. Icewind Dale is like Black Pits with extensive dialogue, story, and roleplay, although only your party leader speaks, while your party mates only have characterization through their voice sets. (The voice sets are really good, though, and lend themselves to a lot of head canon story creation.)
Hey man, thank you for your support and encouragement as always.
From what I have experienced of the Black Pits thus far, it is just a sequence of arena battles, which would be boring if I had to play it for a long time. However, it seems to be a quick game (judging by how fast I am levelling up), and it's great for a quick gaming session and some tactical battles.
I actually think the Black Pits would be a great way for beginners to get used to the combat system in Baldur's Gate, so they can enhance their skill level before tackling the main campaign, and still doing so totally blind.
I have actually already checked out some of Tord's NWN stuff, including the entirety of his Shadowguard LP, wich was magnificent, and the opening videos of the main game, which I stopped because I did not want to be spoiled. And I agree, his NWN stuff is truly Tord at the apex of his abilities.
However, having attempt to try something slightly more ambitious with my tutorial videos and the Black Pits introduction, I can totally see how Tord might've spent 30 times the amount of time on each video compared to the length of the video, as he claimed in one of his videos. Recording anything to that level of quality is like trying to write a novel in a game. It's spectacular, but also a LOT of work, and likely beyond my talents, even if I tried to dedicate the necessary time and effort to it.
Furthermore, as I explained in Lilly's "Further Details" spoiler box (which I have added for all characters in the last few hours), I don't want to roleplay from her perspective, and so beyond the intro video, my Black Pits LP will probably be mostly just a series of battles.
I have a huge amount of respect for what Tord pulled off with NWN, but frankly, I am not surprised he gave up in the end... Unless he could be paid to do it fulltime (which I think he totally deserves), then it is way too much effort to persist for any seriously long game.
But, I brought it up just to strongly encourage you to try Neverwinter Nights at some point.
Meanwhile, will you be posting all of your Black Pits videos here in this thread, or only the highlights, as before? That is, should we go to your YouTube channel if we want to watch the whole thing, or just keep checking here in this thread? Also, do you have a preference about whether to comment here or on YouTube?
I guess the least we could do would be to click "Like" on YouTube and to vote you up, there, though.
If you love BG as much as you seem to, you should seriously try Neverwinter Nights and Icewind Dale sometime soon.
Yeah I think it is a travesty that the likes of Pewpewdie has millions of subscribers, and a true master like Tord never got the viewership to become a full-time Youtuber. There are some games like NWN which I would probably enjoy watching his LPs more than playing myself! ^.^
I actually bought almost all the D&D games from GoG when they were on sale, including NWN 1+2 , IWD 1+2 and PST. But truth be told, although I look forward to IWD, the other two don't appeal to me very much on first glance. For NWN it's the 3D game style, which seems unwieldy compared to Infinity Engine isometric games. For PST, it's the setting... and the UI (and game in general) looks really ugly in my opinion.
That said, I do intend to give those games all a chance at some stage, but I am catching up on a lot of Bioware/D&D at the moment, and I tend to play games fairly slowly, especially if recording an LP. Plus my gaming time is a bit divided at the moment... In addition to my Black Pits playthrough...
I've been making good progress in the roleplaying BG EE multiplayer game, where we've just escaped from Candle Keep catacombs and fled to Ulgoth's Beard. (Durlag's Tower next time O.o). I have also made a start on the Mass Effect series, which looks promising, (though I won't be recording that at all.)
Finally the heroics of the real life Liverpool FC (a team I have supported since 2000), has inspired me to try to replicate their challenges in Football Manager 2014. So far... failing misrably... it's a weird feeling knowing that my team is doing better in real life than in my computer game.
I wrote the last post in a bit of a rush and forgot to actually answer your questions! XD
Even though Black Pits is much shorter, I don't think that I'll share everything here, as it could get pretty spammy if I continue all the way to BP 2 (which is my intention), though naturally I'll share a much greater proportion of gameplay compared to BG 2, where I skipped some pretty important stuff from the 'highlights'.
As for comments/feedback, I really don't mind where you do it. I guess if you are referring to a specific point in a video, a Youtube comment is easier to check, but I have no preference, and certainly there is no need for any positive feedback! I appreciate your support and encouragement all the same.
In the city Phsant far to the East of the Sword Coast, in the Celestial Dragon Inn and Teahouse, a group of strangers are about to be thrust together into the bleak realities of the Black Pits and a desperate struggle for survival...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVwK5pjY8dw
Part 2 - Party Introductions
I introduce and explain the origins and personal significance of characters featured in this Let's Play, including Lilly Black, Heindrich Lowen, Sima Jin and Sima Kang.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOs4jfTCueE
Part 3 - Party Introductions 2
I explain the origins and personal significance of the two modded characters, Little Dragon and Otori Takeo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCO2ijpvrts
Part 4 - First Blood (Gibberlings)
The accidental company, which Lilly takes leadership of without invitation nor objection, realises that there would be no quick escape from the Black Pits. In order to survive, they would have to work together as a team and defeat whatever horrors Baeloth throws at them.
Lilly uses her natural charms, magically enhanced, to make her gold go as far as possible, and equips the party with basic weapons and armour.
The company then proceeds to face their first challenges in the Black Pits...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTMeu9hbVRo
Part 5 - Bort the Hobgoblin and Company
Having battled through relatively easy challenges thus far, Jin, Lilly and company are thrust into battle against an opposing team of gladiators, led by a fearsome Gnoll...
Having barely survived that encounter, the group next face a large group of elite Hob Goblins...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C75LRt0-ayQ
It's on the Youtube channel, but I thought linking everything here might be a bit spammy...
Edit: Though actually... Black Pits is only 6 hours, according to the Beamdog website, so perhaps it would make more sense to link the entire series, rather than just the 'highlights', like I did with my BG 2 (150 hrs!) LP.
The more we read and watch non min-maxed characters the better. @Heindrich 's job is top notch... as always;) You inspire me to roleplay my own characters more.
I haven't got very far just yet... I wanted to just relax with the Mass Effect games, recording an LP takes effort, even though I enjoy it. A sci-fi adventure doesn't quite fit the theme of my channel.
@bengoshi
Thanks for your support.
The biggest enjoyment I get out of games is to create interesting stories, even it's not an RPG. I wish I was a better storyteller though... ah well, workin' on it. XD
Battle 3: How to Raise the Dead and Influence People.
Battle 4: Gauntlet of Ogres.
Jin, Lilly and company continue to fight for survival in Baeloth's Black Pits. First he tests their arcane knowledge and skill with a powerful necromancer, and then their martial prowess against a tribe of ogres...
I noticed the structure of the battles later on, and at this stage of the recording, I thought I was already in Tier 2, cos I assumed that the Gibberlings were Tier 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7tm8e7Xqi4
Part 7 - Tier 1, Battle 5
Battle 5: The Margarine of Evil.
Having defeated the arcane might of his necromancer and the brawn of his ogres, Baeloth pits the heroes against a collection of powerful individuals packing plenty of sword and sorcery.
I noticed the structure of the battles later on, and at this stage of the recording, I thought I was already in Tier 2, cos I assumed that the Gibberlings were Tier 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmXQGsFNIKY
Looks like you had some good fights, and some tough fights. Any thoughts? I managed to get through without repeating any fights, but it was quite hard- my party wasn't min-maxed, either (and I had SCS installed on top of it), so we were against tougher opponents then we could take. What do you think about the difficulty?
Battle 1: The Plan-B Team.
Battle 2: Bad Hobs and Boomsticks.
Battle 3: How to Raise the Dead and Influence People.
Battle 4: Gauntlet of Ogres.
I begin to notice the structure of the battles, and establish a new 'standard practise' of replaying every battle of a tier once, but only after reaching the end of that tier.
The hope is to achieve the best balance for difficulty, and not just arbitrarily replay battles as many times as I want to, which makes gold irrelevant and destroys any sense of challenge.
My understanding of the tier system is still wrong at this stage of the recording, I thought I was already in Tier 2, cos I assumed that the Gibberlings were Tier 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rVtYFuC6og&feature=youtu.be
Part 9 - Tier 1, Battle 5
Battle 5: The Margarine of Evil.
Better prepared and equipped, Jin, Lilly and company once more take on the "The Margarine of Evil."*
Actually, for roleplay purposes, battles that I lose never happened! I include all my losses for the sake of being faithful to the 'blind playthrough' concept, but I can't imagine Baeloth would bother resurrecting a fallen group of gladiators. XD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlrL6MkwgXo
I'll answer your difficulty question on the other thread where I asked about "are you meant to repeat battles".
As for the modded singleplayer game... I am making decent progress with the multiplayer playthrough, and once that's done, then I am free to mod BG:EE to heart's content. Currently my group have just cleared lv1 of Durlag's Tower. So, we're getting there... a few more weeks. :P @Delvarian
You are probably right, but I'm a bit OCD about every story having a proper beginning, middle and end, so naturally started with BP 1.
It shouldn't take very long anyway... well, not compared to a full saga playthrough.
With the windfall from their victory over the "Margarine of Evil", the company equip themselves as well as possible from the merchants servicing the gladiators of the Black Pits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4ZuU_tGctw
Part 11 - Tier 2, Battles 6 & 7
Tier 2 -
Battle 6: Bugged
Battle 7: Unfriendly Neighbourhood Spiderman
Tier 1 -
Battle 5 (Replay): The Margarine of Evil.
Better equipped and more experienced for their exploits in the Black Pits, Lilly, Jin and company tackle the next group of challenges Baeloth throws at them, with a distinctly insect theme...
I finally realise the structure of the tiers in the Black Pits! From this point onwards, barring unforeseen complications, my battles should follow the pattern that I established here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyZO8RPEakM
Tier 2
Battle 7: Unfriendly Neighbourhood Spiderman
Baeloth's insect theme continues as the company are pitted against a druid and his swarm of vicious giant spiders.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtZ5Ug1p0X8
Part 13 - Tier 2, Battle 8
Tier 2
Battle 8: Thicket of Thieves
Baeloth demonstrates typical Drow contempt for fighting fair as the company are forced to battle against a band of rogues, who were given time to prepare the arena with all manner of treacherous traps beforehand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APDCqdISmsw
Tier 2
Battle 9: Gift of the Ogre Mage
The company faces an ogre mage in the arena... as well as five mysterious portals through which all manner of horrors pour forth to overwhelm them. Their only hope is to destroy the portals as quickly as possible...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YChWx0vOh-w
Part 15 - Tier 2, Battle 10
Tier 2
Battle 10: Red Shirt Wizards
Baeloth, keen to end the defiant refusal of Lilly and the company to just die as intended, pits them against another successful and powerful group, led by a Red Wizard of Thay and her apprentice and retinue.
I discover later that the female mage is the leader of the group.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAUQgNWvT7s
Tier 3
With Najim's latest gift of gold for defeating the Red Wizards of Thay, the company equip themselves as best as possible from the merchants servicing the gladiators of the Black Pits, in preparation for surely ever more dangerous foes to come as Baeloth attempts to ensure their demise in his arena.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhKEv-Asr-U
Part 17 - Tier 3, Battle 11
Tier 3
Battle 11: Swamped
The company are once more thrust into battle in the arena, this time against vicious trolls and monstrous slimes...
Intended to do the repeat battles first, but mis-clicked...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIVMGLhuUIw