Greetings! ( Seeking advice from any congenial Loremasters and/or Fanatics )

Lord_Rattlebottom_IV

Hello Everyone

I hope this day finds you well. While I am officially known as Lord Rattlebottom IV, it is a long and rather stuffy title, therefore please feel free to address me as LRB4, or alternatively, "You Pompous Git".

Introductions aside, I have a humble request.

I am about to play Baldur's gate for the first time. Very exciting. I regret that I must admit that my knowledge of the lore of Dungeons and Dragons lies somewhere between Pathetic and Embarrassing.

I am aiming to correct this abhorrent character flaw of mine, and so am beseeching the community for advice of how I should first set about educating myself.

Imagine yourself as you were before you dived into this world and had the opportunity to learn about it all over again, how would you go about this? What resources, novels, posts, etc. would u recommend (in what order) to read that would enable an ignorant buffoon such as I to gain a meaningful understanding of this exciting world.

I am a blank canvas, or rather, a large, useless lump of clay. Mold me into a grand adventurer and have my everlasting gratitude.

Cheers!

Garrik

Best advice I could give you dude is read like there's no tomorrow when Either getting into this game or indeed Playing DND with pen and paper.When I first started DND years and years A week before I had my first game I got a copy of the 2nd edition Players handbook and studied it from top to bottom so that by the time I hit my first game I had good solid knowledge so that I didn't feel like a fish out of water,and then by the time this game came around I could jump straight into it with no worries.I know that doesn't sound the greatest of advice but it worked for me..read,read,and then some more dude.

Lord_Rattlebottom_IV

Read, read, and then read some more is ALWAYS sound advice my friend. Thank you for your help I will get down to reading and researching.

I would love to also get into playing with pen and paper too. None of my friends were into it and I'm in a small town so there's no meeting place for like minded individuals to interact. Maybe I'll find some friends here to get together with someday and rock the pen, paper and dice. But first things first, find the handbook.

Garrik

Well I'm moving to the states soon so I'll be looking into finding a like minded group there,I think it can boil down to a few things if you are looking at getting into the pen and paper side of thing's the 5th edition DND has been released and by all accounts it's pretty good but our group mainly play 3.5 rules very easy to understand and you will be able to rhyme it off in no time dude.

dockaboomski

I would second that reading the 2nd edition Player's Handbook will give you a wealth of knowledge, some of which may not be needed for the game.
My recommendation would be to play the tutorial, and anything you are unclear on, look up in the PH.
Welcome to Baldur's Gate.

Lord_Rattlebottom_IV

Another helpful soul! Thank you, Dockaboomski. It is decided then, I shall traverse the game with the 2nd Ed. Handbook at my side. Fun and learning, Huzzah!

Garrik

You'll enjoy reading the second edition handbook dude,sheesh memories are flooding back now remembering the first time I read that book.

dreamrider

First he's got to FIND one! ;-) 3, 3.5, and...shudder...4 are not going to help much.

wubble

I was around 4/5 years old when i first played BG, I had no idea what i was doing aside from +items were better. I didn't get to chapter 4 until i was 15 (i played other games in between). I got through most of durlags tower before i lost momentum (I think because of mass effect 3). when the EE came out I started again and also started reading the item descriptions properly and thinking about the actual mechanics of the game. Midway through bg2 I finally worked out how to use spells properly (spells other than magic missile and fireball). It's taken me 14 years to learn how to play this game and i only managed to complete it (full saga) in October. My advice, ask somebody who knows the mechanics well to explain them to you, I learnt by reading many different posts in this forum (before I joined).

Lord_Rattlebottom_IV

@dreamrider

No worries on that front, my good dreamrider. I have a pdf to get me through until the real one comes in the mail on Thursday. Can. Not. Wait. (Well, obviously I can wait because technically I am waiting at this very moment but you know what I mean)

@‌wubble

Thanks for sharing that story. I had a similar experience with a game called Dungeon Master on my old Atari St 2600. I was around 8 or nine and had NO grasp of the mechanics. Knew only one fireball spell. Had my wizard on the front line, just a train wreck of a party. Needless to say I don't recall making it down too many levels before the party either was slain or starved to death. But about a year ago I got a copy to work on my current computer, read all I could find on it, and no surprise, I was finally Master of that damn dungeon after . . . ahem . . . XX years. The important thing is that in both circumstances I was having a ton o' fun.

Garrik

Well fourth edition you are indeed correct avoid at all possible,3rd edition and 3.5 I actually enjoyed them,mind you 2nd edition started me into DND so while the rest of my group hated it in some sort of vain It always will have a soft spot in my heart.

Lord_Rattlebottom_IV

I'm like that with bands (especially the ones I discovered when I was a teen), the first album that got me into the band is usually my dearest for along time even it is not considered their best. It's more about remembering that thrill of discovery and then being a part of a movement when it was actually happening that put's the ol' nostalgia glasses into hyperfocus. Sigh. Everyday I am sounding more and more like the old man I am becoming.

Garrik

I remember at the time I first joined my group that the music they played was rap ( funky for a DND group ) and it was Ice Cubes the predator album and this aw with 2nd edition,our party was called the Iron wolves...on our horses jamming to a best lol.I think ones assessment of being old is indeed correct lol.

Hurricane

Also, there is another simple, yet incredibly satisfying way to learn about the lore of the world:

Just start playing the games.

See, when I first played Baldur's Gate, I knew nothing about Baldur's Gate.
I knew nothing about the Forgotten Realms.
I knew nothing about Dungeons and Dragons.
I knew nothing about Roleplaying Games.

But Baldur's Gate taught me.

By playing the games, you learn so much about this world. Details that don't even have anything to do with your adventure. For instance, there are books in the game, dozens of them, that serve no purpose at all, other than to enlighten and amuse you if you just read them. They are filled with historical accounts about places and events in the Forgotten Realms.

When you read one of those books, also have a look at this map. It shows the main continent where the games take place (the in-game world map only shows a tiny portion of the whole continent). When you discover the places mentioned in the books on the map, you better understand those stories.

Edit: fixed map link

Lord_Rattlebottom_IV

Thank you Hurricane for your great advice. I couldn't agree with you more.

I am a self proclaimed "lorewhore" and will cherish reading any book, scroll, tome, grimoire, map and scrap of paper I can my stuff in my inventory. There is definitely something to be said for learning about the world organically.

Thats what I did in the Elder Scrolls reading every book that series numerous times, in Dark Souls I read the blurp of text before looking at the item's stats to see if it would shed some light on what has happened in that world. I'm always craving more knowledge about the universes I enjoy. I immensely enjoy pouring over the in game books and maps, making connections between events, famous heroes, cataclysms, etc

I suppose the reason I am so eager to acquire the history, politics and such of this world could be attributed to the fact DnD is the grand daddy of role playing. I've spent a decade role playing in Tamriel learning all there is to know, doing all there is to do (although mods make that a blatant lie) but also being conscious of the fact that so much of that was either influenced or directly taken from DnD. As a fan of this kind of fantasy, I owe it to myself to learn about DnD

To me, it would be like me saying I'm a huge fan of Led Zeppelin but haven't heard any blues records. Granted, you don't have to listen to the blues to enjoy Zeppelin but if you do study the blues, you develop a better appreciation of the group. Even better, more often than not, you find the ones that influenced the greats are just as good, if not better than, the greats themselves.

What I'm trying to say Is I'm very excited to finally be getting around to experiencing the DnD universe but have to remind myself I didn't learn everything about the Elder Scrolls or Zeppelin in one day.

wubble

Lord_Rattlebottom_IV said:

Thats what I did in the Elder Scrolls reading every book that series numerous times

How did you find the lusty Argonian maid?
I myself thought it was an excellent read.

Lord_Rattlebottom_IV

Fine literature for the discerning gentleman.
Also, Lifts-Her-Tail is the most hilarious name in the franchise. Argonian or otherwise.

elminster

Reading the game manuals is your best bet. That will give you an understanding of the game rules as well as some lore regarding the Sword Coast area (this is where the first game takes place).

Manual 1 in particular is a good place for lore related info.

http://www.beamdog.com/files/bgee/BGManual1.pdf

You could also check out Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast, for a light hearted (and not entirely serious) take on these areas. You may even see similarities between what is mentioned there and what made it into the game

Besides the 2nd edition players handbook (that others have mentioned) there are also Forgotten Realms Campaign Settings that have information about a lot of the areas you will be visiting in the game (TSR 1031 or 1085 would be examples of this).

That said the easiest (and quite possibly the cheapest) way you can get information is probably going to be from the forgotten realms wiki.

This is its article on the Sword Coast. Its limited but from it you can get a basic understanding of what locations it encompasses.

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Sword_Coast

Lord_Rattlebottom_IV

Thank you, Elminster.

I have read the manual including Volo's Guide ( I recognize your name! ) I was intrigued by the campaign settings you suggested. I looked them up and they seem like they would be helpful. Over the past few days I have increased my knowledge of Dnd exponentially and I have all you kind people to thank for that. My player's hand book came early in the mail and I'm enjoying the read immensely. I've been researching what novels to read however so far I have found there is lack of consensus as to which are the must reads. I've only begun my research so that's bound to change. Of course if anyone has any suggestions feel free to let me know.

Garrik

And if one is brave enough try and get ones hands on the Ravenloft campaign settings as gothic horror campaign mixed with DND,mind you my favourite little supplement for 2nd edition was called ' a paladin in Hell ' ( not that I'm bias because I love paladins ) but I found it an interesting little book not to mention a good way on how to role play them.

dreamrider

wubble said:

I was around 4/5 years old when i first played BG, I had no idea what i was doing aside from +items were better. I didn't get to chapter 4 until i was 15 (i played other games in between). I got through most of durlags tower before i lost momentum (I think because of mass effect 3). when the EE came out I started again and also started reading the item descriptions properly and thinking about the actual mechanics of the game. Midway through bg2 I finally worked out how to use spells properly (spells other than magic missile and fireball). It's taken me 14 years to learn how to play this game and i only managed to complete it (full saga) in October. My advice, ask somebody who knows the mechanics well to explain them to you, I learnt by reading many different posts in this forum (before I joined).

There are Spells other than Magic Missile and Fireball???

Oh, Yeah. I know what you mean.

Sleep. ;-)

dreamrider

elminster said:

Reading the game manuals is your best bet. That will give you an understanding of the game rules as well as some lore regarding the Sword Coast area (this is where the first game takes place).

Manual 1 in particular is a good place for lore related info.

http://www.beamdog.com/files/bgee/BGManual1.pdf

You could also check out Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast, for a light hearted (and not entirely serious) take on these areas. You may even see similarities between what is mentioned there and what made it into the game

Besides the 2nd edition players handbook (that others have mentioned) there are also Forgotten Realms Campaign Settings that have information about a lot of the areas you will be visiting in the game (TSR 1031 or 1085 would be examples of this).

That said the easiest (and quite possibly the cheapest) way you can get information is probably going to be from the forgotten realms wiki.

This is its article on the Sword Coast. Its limited but from it you can get a basic understanding of what locations it encompasses.

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Sword_Coast

I HIGHLY recommend that any new traveler in Faerun read the Baldur's Gate wiki section on Reputation top to bottom, for a sussinct reference on a confusing subject.

http://baldursgate.wikia.com/wiki/Reputation

Be Warned. Be careful which other articles in the BG wiki you choose to read. In articles about locations, characters, and items, it is spoiler laden, though a wonderful ref for those who have been to the Sword Coast before.