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Managing the family's BG playing is not always easy...

TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
I have a decision to make and I am not sure what would be the best course of action. Here is the story: I want to have my mother play BG 1&2 from start to finish. After many failed attempts to finish vBG1 since its release way back when she has finally finished her first vBG1 run about 2 years ago. I started her on vBG2 but she barely got out of Chateau Irenicus before I things got messy. BG2:EE got released and I kinda stopped getting together with her to watch her play (I think she prefers to play with me watching her). So now I figured I should get her to play BG again and see if she can finish a run finally. The problem is that I am not sure how to go about doing this. She has not played BG1:EE ever and some of the things in BG2:EE, especially the new characters, may not make complete sense to her. I mean, I would kinda like her to have a background perspective on what the characters were like in BG1:EE. That said I would much rather her play BG2:EE than vBG2. So these are some of my options as I see it:

*Make her play BG1:EE before doing BG2:EE (I don't think she wants to go through BG1 again, at least not with the same character.)

*Just move her on to BG2:EE with the closest approximation to her character I can make (I would have to explain the new NPCs as she meets them I guess).

Some additional information: She likes paladins, a lot. I am sure she would want to play BG2 as a paladin (I would recommend inquisitor to her and she will likely take it). I want her to use Keldorn at some point because, knowing her, she would just love everything about him (this ties in with her paladin fixation). I wouldn't want her to use Keldorn if she is a paladin, but we will see what happens with that I guess. Maybe I can convince her to play again from start to finish eventually as something else and she can take Keldorn then.

So how does everyone think I should go about doing this?

Comments

  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    Oh blimey, @Tresset, how the heck can we advise about that? I reckon a helpful answer would need to be person-specific, which is obviously impossible since we out here have never met your mother.

    In general terms, I'd recommend anyone to play through BG1ee before BG2ee, so as to be familiar with the new features and new characters and so on, and thereby get the "full flavour" of the whole series.
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  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
    @Shandyr Heh, I am not sure she would understand the forums very much or really care to be on them... It isn't exactly her type of thing, unfortunately.

    My brother is more likely to join, but he doesn't like forums and he probably thinks this is a typical forum riddled with trolls and all that. I doubt I could convince him otherwise.
  • MeyahiMeyahi Member Posts: 143
    She can have a Cavalier and Keldorn is fine. One can be 2 handed while the other dual wields (or sword and shield). Remember you can have the Purifier.
    Throw in Anomen (for romance), Aerie (cute little girl) and 2 of Minsc/Yoshimo/Jan/Nalia/Imoen/Jaheira.

    If she wants a standard BG1 like party just replace Khalid with Keldorn and go with Minsc, Jaheira, Imoen and replace Dynaheir with Aerie.
    You'll be low on theiving but should be fine. Yoshimo/Jan can stay till Spellhold.
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    Awww... This is so sweet! She must have raised you well. Tell her we said hi!
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    Heh heh. Reminds me of my wife playing bg1ee for half a year, completing every side quest she could understand, completing all the totsc content but getting severely stuck at sarevok.... yep, she killed aec'laetec not by first killing the monks but killing him 7 (?) times, but sarevok was too much.... she asked me to finish it while she watched.

    For your mom. I guess you have to visit her more often, which is not a bad consideration since she's your mom and all that. ;)
  • toms_twitrtoms_twitr Member Posts: 4
    If she's fixated on paladins, don't forget Mazzy.
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,760
    I have an idea. I know almost everyone in your family likes snakes. Tell her about a Totemic druid and his summons, snakes among them.

    This way, you can interest her by a totemic druid going right from the Candlekeep, to see how the snakes become stronger and stronger.
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
    bengoshi said:

    I have an idea. I know almost everyone in your family likes snakes. Tell her about a Totemic druid and his summons, snakes among them.

    This way, you can interest her by a totemic druid going right from the Candlekeep, to see how the snakes become stronger and stronger.

    Heheh. While almost everyone in my family does like the snakes, I am the only one that is really in love with them. Though the basic premise of describing cool class features may work to some extent...
    Meyahi said:

    She can have a Cavalier and Keldorn is fine. One can be 2 handed while the other dual wields (or sword and shield). Remember you can have the Purifier.
    Throw in Anomen (for romance), Aerie (cute little girl) and 2 of Minsc/Yoshimo/Jan/Nalia/Imoen/Jaheira.

    I was thinking I could try having her do Cavalier too. We shall see. Her paladin is male, so Anomen romance wouldn't exactly work... She would probably like Aerie or Jaheira the most for her paladin.

    On top of this I need to get my aunt to finish a run one of these days... She hasn't even reached the city of Baldur's Gate yet in any of her failed run attempts... She enjoys playing but only seems to play when I remind her to do so/make her play.

    My uncle also plays BG but he has yet to finish BG1 completely. I think his farthest run was in vBG1 where he got as far as the thief maze but got stuck on the skeleton warriors or something (so close!). He prefers to play alone. I know he has tried to play BG1:EE but he seems to have a bit of restartitis. His latest run as far as I know is with a wizard slayer of all things. I don't hold much hope for that character lasting...

    All three of them have somewhat busy lives and BG is not really near the top of their priorities list (understandably). I do what I can to encourage them though.

    As for my brother... he finished his BG runs before I did (both in vanilla and in EE). Unlike me, he does not have any restartitis and has the attention span to finish runs promptly. He just doesn't re-play as often as I do, tending towards the host of other games that he has...
  • CahirCahir Member, Moderator, Translator (NDA) Posts: 2,819
    Oh boy, if I ever manage to convince my wife to play ANY computer game, let alone BG(2)EE, I'll be one happy panda. I tried, I really tried... and failed miserably.
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    Cahir said:

    Oh boy, if I ever manage to convince my wife to play ANY computer game, let alone BG(2)EE, I'll be one happy panda. I tried, I really tried... and failed miserably.

    I hear ya and second this statement. I got my last GF to start playing HoMM, but failed on RPG's. My current one is afraid to start since she can become quite intense in her gamin if she let go of her discipline. I ofc, as the gentle boyfriend I am, try to get her to fail her saving throw and fall into a unhealthy maniacal gaming behaviour. I wish I had a greater malison and doom sequenser, but it seems I always get my spells interrupted before they land or she has massive MR. Perhaps she's a drow in disguise?
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    Keep trying. I succeeded after 8 years. :smiley:
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
    Well I have decided to have her start on BG2:EE. Day 1 was spent buying, downloading and installing. Hopefully we can get some playing in next time.
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