Baldur's Gate Bedtime Stories
Grum
Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,100
bengoshi said:877. You've been telling your six and five year old boys the story of Baldur's Gate as a bedtime story and when you get home from work, the six year old shows you this:
from here: https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/3nw8ic/ive_been_telling_my_six_and_five_year_old_boys/
P.S. kambalder - kobold, gnaler - gnoll (swedish)
This inspired me to do the same with my kids. I've decided to share with you all how it is going.
My son is 5 years old, my daughter is 3 years old. I started off by having my boy design Charname. Here is what he came up with.
Name: Gorgia
Race: Human
Class: Fighter
Equipment: Sword and "lightning shield"
So I started off with candlekeep and Gorion, letting my boy design the character. I described it as a castle filled with books where Gorgia and his father lived. Then one day, his father...well, you know that part of the story. So they run away and come across "a big man, covered in armor. Seven feet tall! The big man has two ogres with him." I then recite the dialogue from memory, because all of us can.
As I do this my boy has his eyes wide and is listening intently. I don't dwell on the part where Gorion dies, instead just saying that the armored man won and Gorgia ran away. I then bring in Imoen, Gorgia's sister. My girl bubbles with excitement at this, and likes that she has a bow. Well, or just likes that there is a sister involved. She is sitting on my lap, but has to get off to talk excitedly about...something. Her pronunciation isn't too good.
So I tell them what Gorion's letter says, about how there are friends in the Friendly Arm Inn, another castle. I ask my boy what Gorgia does. He tells me that Gorgia goes to the Friendly Arm Inn to meet his friends.
So Gorgia meets Khalid and Jaheria, hereafter called 'his friends.' So his friends tell Gorgia that because he is so strong and has practiced with swords (good timing, given that I just bought my boy a toy sword and shield) that he should use it to go help people. My boy informs me that Gorgia indeed does want to go help people. So 'his friends' tell Gorgia about the problems in the Nashkel mines.
I stop here to ask my boy if he knows what a mine is. I end up explaining it to him, and getting him to the point where he understands why making the metal break is bad. He tells me that Gorgia will go help.
I say that is enough for this night and my boyo insists that I keep telling the story. So...we go on.
Gorgia gets to the mine and I tell him that the owner of the mine says: "So you want to take a look at me mine, do ya? Well, I'll give you one day. But I warn you! People who go into that mine, they don't come out. And I don't know why. It is really dark down there. Are you sure that you want to go in"
My boyo tells me that Gorgia runs away.
I tell the boyo that Gorgia has a sword and lightning shield and that his sister has a bow, and that they should help people. So Gorgia gathers his courage and goes down.
They get ambushed by kobolds. As the arrows come in, hitting Gorgia's shield I hit the bed, making it shake. I describe how his sister uses her bow to shoot he kobolds. My girl is quite happy at this.
Now, I ask my boy who he thinks is behind this. His response? "A green piggy." (He is an Angry Bird fanatic)
Ok, I can work with this. So Mulhay is green. That makes everyone happy. I go through the dialogue and Gorgia decides to trust Mulhay and to read the letters. My boy is quite surprised when Mulhay betrays him. It is a good thing that Gorgia has this 'lightning shield', which he uses to beat Mulhay down and take his letters.
So...score one for the good guys.
I try to stop the story there and to get them to bed, but my girl is excited and the boyo refuses to let me go, asking me to keep telling him the story.
So Gorgia tracks down the green man's friend, a wizard, to find out why Mulhay was poisoning the metal (yes, I know it should be ore, but there is already enough info here for a 5 year old). The wizard threatens Mulhay. And what comes of this?
Gorgia hits the wizard and knocks out his eye.
His sister shoots the wizard and knocks off his leg.
Good thing that combat was described for me! Saves me the effort, I suppose. So the wizard tells Gorgia that someone was paying him and the green man to poison the metal and that there were other people stealing all of the other metal, so no one could have it.
I then had to explain to the boy the economics of stealing all of the metal so you can sell your own for a higher price. I ended up explaining it using pizza as an example. It was easier.
When this was done, the boy said that the wizard is now Gorgia's friend. As such, the wizard has his eye and leg back. I ask the boy why the wizard is Gorgia's friend. There was a small pause. Apparently Gorgia gave the wizard a new wand, so now they are friends. Ok, I'll go with it.
I tell the boyo that we are ending it there. He refuses again and demands that I keep going. I am firm this time. I give him and his sister a kiss and a hug and say that we'll go on tomorrow night.
(For anyone who is wondering why the boyo gets more attention here, it is because my girly is only 3. So just mentioning the sister is enough for her. I gave her choices, but it always meant her going off on a tangent which doesn't fit into any of the above. As such, the boyo gets to be Charname).
And that, thus far, is what happens when a 5 year old gets to be Charname in Baldur's Gate.
Comments
Also, no amount of promotes is enough for this idea.
http://www.zazzle.com/level_1_human_baby_creeper-235639478450147318
So I just dropped my wife off at the airport and my boyo asks for more story. So I do a quick recap and Gorgia heads off to the bandit camp. I have to explain what bandits are, and my boy decides that Gorgia has to attack said bandits.
So they come across the bandits in the woods, and the bandits give Gorgia a choice. Fight them, or be a bad guy too! I point out that Gorgia can pretend to join them. The boyo insists on attacking. When he finishes them off I tell him that there is one bandit left who says "Don't kill me! I'll tell you anything!" Gorgia...cut off his head.
Ok then. So he and his sister spend alot more time wandering around until they find the bandit camp. I describe it with the multitude of bandits, the hobgoblins and the gnolls. I ask him if he wants to sneak in or just attack. Attack. Ok then!
So they attack and fight through all the bandits. They then get to Taugosz. The big man with the giant hammer and armor. Gorgia attacks, blocks the hammer with his shield...and gets knocked down. Luckily they are playing on 'core' difficulty rules and his sister shoots Taugoz in the back. Then Gorgia cuts the hammer in half. Taugoz tries to run away, but he gets shot with arrows and a thrown shield. Because the boyo saw some Captain America, apparently.
So they find the letters describing the cloakwood mines. I say that we'll stop there and listen to some music. There is disagreement at this.
Gorgia and his sister go into the woods, and come across...the giant spiders. They meet Tiber who asks for help finding his brother. Gorgia, somewhat warily, says that he will help. They fight through, as the boyo put it, "hundreds and thousands of spiders!" until they found his brother. The brother...was already eaten. Which wasn't what the boyo was expecting to find. But he found a magic sword! I was going to make him choose between his lightning shield and a magic sword, but he beat me to it by declaring it a lightning sword. So whatever, I'll let him have his magic sword now too.
They reach the mine. I take awhile setting the scene of coming up to the fortified palisade, though not in those words, of course. Cautiously the two enter and meet Drasus. Whom I reduced to just him and one mage, for ease. The boy asks what the mage's name is. When I take too long he names the mage "Lightningpowerfire." So why not?
I let him decide how he wants to fight this. Attack the mage or Drasus first? They go for Drasus. His spells are disrupted and he goes for the kill. This leaves him open to Drasus, who gets in a good hit against Gorgia. Luckily his sister saves him.
Sadly, the girly was getting overtired at this point. She started crying, telling the boyo not to hurt the wizard. The boyo tried to explain that the wizard was a bad guy, causing the girl, in tears, to say that it was a good wizard. Knowing by experience that an overtired and cranky 3 year old will not handle an argument well, I declare that the story will continue later.
And thus ends part 2 of the Tale of Baldur's Gate, as played by a 5 year old.
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edit, part 3
Its bed time and the two of them insisted on more of the story. I was tired and said no, but they were most insistent. So on we went.
They went into the mines and found the slaves, whom Gorgia wanted to help. They also fought through all of the guards, deciding not to sneak. I had pictures ready this time to show them what hobgoblins looked like. They also ran into Yeslick. I did the dialogue and the boyo said that Gorgia needs more friends to help. So Yeslick joined. He was somewhat shocked at Yeslick's story and said that he would help Yeslick get revenge against the Iron Throne.
Now, because the boyo plays "Angry Birds Epic" (http://epic.angrybirds.com/img/cliff_scene/angry_birds-epic-cards_red.png), he sees all of this in that light. When I told him that Yeslick can heal, he decided that Gorgia is the red bird (ie: the knight), his sister Imoen is the blue bird (ie: the archer) and Yeslick is the white bird (ie: the healer). He said that Gorgia needs to find the black and yellow birds (ie: close combat damage dealer and wizard). As such, I plan to bring in Minsc and Boo, as well as Dyhaneir next to fill in those roles.
So they get down to Daevorn, who does his evil speech. Gorgia runs forward. Daevorn teleports away and throws a fireball. I tell the boyo that there are three paths and there are three of them. So they can either stay together, with Gorgia in front to protect his friends, or they can split up to find the mage. He decides to stay together. A lightning bolt flies down at them, but Gorgia jumps in front of it to keep his friends safe, using his shield, of course.
They then see Daevorn casting another spell. He has Yeslick stop the spell and then Gorgia runs forward. The mage zaps Gorgia again, making him drop his shield. But Gorgia still has his sword and cuts down Daevorn. There are high fives all around as both kids are quite happy at this.
I then bring up freeing the slaves. Spend his money and let the slaves live or keep it and they die. He says "keep the money." I look at him, shocked. "Why?" I ask. "Because I don't want to help the bad guys." Ok, there is some confusion there. I explain that he already beat the bad guys, but the slaves are the good guys. He goes "Oh. Spend the money." So the slaves were freed.
We ended there, with the next order of business being to find more friends so he can fight the Iron Throne.
however i am proud of his libertarian ways, the slaves should bootstrap themselves out of poverty
Then, on our holiday i asked her if she would like to hear about a story, where she is the protagonist and shecan decide what to do in the story. She liked this even more, than the "dad fairy tale". She made her bhaal spawn, a black furred rakshasa named Dora. Dora and his cat sister Imoen played a lot in Candlekeep together. Dora learn to tend the animals by Dreppin and heal at the priest quarters (it seems she is a ranger/cleric) She cleaned the rats for Reevor (a well suited job for her), excercised fighting with Jondalar, got Hull's sword and the antidotes for Nessa, brought the bolts for the guard captain and the scroll for Firebead. She's about to part for a journey with Gorion and her silver-haired horse Bubble.
Not sure if i should kill Gorion, and i fear that i must leave out the main storyline, god of murder sounds on my native language even more disturbing for a 5 years old, than in english.
For fights i use the old system, what i invent with my cousin as a child, when we told RP stories for each other. To defeat an enemy you must answer a question, or to name a certain number of something (for example: name seven kind of flowers).
With gathring the party, they moved for Nashkel, because the business of the harper pair there. In Beregost they managed to pick the inn with Karlat, but they defeat the hostile dwarf without much hassle. Next day they left the village, but they bumped in the ogrillions and the halfling messenger on the road. After the fight with the monsters Jaheira and Imoen found the message on the halfling's body, so they decided to bring the letter back to Beregost.
My daughter asked, if he can cure somehow the halfling messenger. I told, that she has not the power for that. So now they carry back the body of the halfling to the Beregost temple.
In Naskel mine: after "demons i say" and "i heard a dragon lives in the deep"
-A man run to you, crying for help. Some lizardlike creatures chase him. You must defeat them.
-You have to fight with a couple of kobolds.
-Kobolds attacks you.
-Kobold ambush!
-Kobolds!
-Kobolds...
-Guess who attacks you in the cave within the cave?
(Ok, i left out the giant spiders.)
For some reason she didn't get tired with kobolds, and kept on till the party reached Mulahey.
Also, a new we introduced a new game mechanic: traps and locks. She can disarm a trap, or unlock a lock with a 20 questions game (If that's how barkochba is translated to english).