Fleshing out your favourite BG plotlines
Moumitsos
Member Posts: 5
BG, is probably my favourite game and an epic cRPG. It has some awesome quests and some that could have been done better.
What are your favourite quests from the games? and if you had the chance how would you change them to improve them/flesh them out?
Which quests/plotlines do you feel they had potential but were left underdeveloped?
Two examples I was thinking:
What is the story behind the Ogre with the belt fetish and the girdle of masculinity/femininity. Why is it collecting belts? Is it a male or female ogre? Maybe it was a male ogre and killed an adventurer that carried the belt..he stole it wore it and changed to female...the poor ogre just wanted to get his balls back...with his limited mind he put two and two together got five and decided that since he lost his balls by wearing a belt...maybe the solution is to try out different belts until he (she) changes back...so it is hunting for belts until it finds "the one" that will reverse the curse.
Captain Brage: where did he find the sword of berserking? The mines are overrun but the amnian guard is doing nothing... They can't get organised because their captain is missing. Maybe Tranzig and the Iron throne knew that Brage could ruin their plans and ensured that Brage would get the sword to get him out the way?
What are your favourite quests from the games? and if you had the chance how would you change them to improve them/flesh them out?
Which quests/plotlines do you feel they had potential but were left underdeveloped?
Two examples I was thinking:
What is the story behind the Ogre with the belt fetish and the girdle of masculinity/femininity. Why is it collecting belts? Is it a male or female ogre? Maybe it was a male ogre and killed an adventurer that carried the belt..he stole it wore it and changed to female...the poor ogre just wanted to get his balls back...with his limited mind he put two and two together got five and decided that since he lost his balls by wearing a belt...maybe the solution is to try out different belts until he (she) changes back...so it is hunting for belts until it finds "the one" that will reverse the curse.
Captain Brage: where did he find the sword of berserking? The mines are overrun but the amnian guard is doing nothing... They can't get organised because their captain is missing. Maybe Tranzig and the Iron throne knew that Brage could ruin their plans and ensured that Brage would get the sword to get him out the way?
7
Comments
after you find all the clues to get nalia back, roenall comes at you with this; This is not over by any means!
and then you never hear from him again confirming that it is definitely over
also speaking about that, it would have been nice to know exactly who was the one responsible for the keep invasion, although some speculation says it was the roenalls behind it, but there isn't any concrete proof that it was them
also while im at it, i wish there was some fore thought with the ghost kid in the graveyard district, as in if you actually had the ability to use raise dead or resurrection you could and perhaps you could get a REP point out of it or some such, its kind of funny how usually when NPCs bite the dust it's over, but if your team mates bite it, meh, just a quick revive and oops a doopsie back in the fray sort of deal
and perhaps maybe even the harper quest where xzar has you to go check them out to find montaron but you don't and then xzar gets assassinated, but if you go back because of jaheira, montaron is hidden in a chest upstairs, it would be kind of neat if you could have actually revived him for the lewlz i suppose just for a neat RPG element
actually, even better yet, lets talk about bg1, why can't we revive gorion? seriously, he wasn't chunked infact for some reason his body never dissipates and how much is it to revive him? if he is actually only level 9 ( which is what ee keeper says, but the cut scene doesnt based on the cool magic he casts ) it would cost a pultry 800 gold to bring him back, or if he was even something like level 18 it would still only cost something as lowly as 1600 gold to bring him back
i guess this is just a general headache in a game like this where companions are so easy to bring back while anyone outside your party its practically impossible, which makes non team members deaths a bit silly; oh no! so and so died, so sad, so tragic! *sad face* - oh, imoen died again lol going melee when she wasn't supposed to, i guess i will just have to revive her again for the 5th time...
Yes that's a big one. There is the "The great Shadows of Amn conspiracy!" theory around that and their connection with the twisted rune.
I also know that the "unfinished business" and "Cowled Menace" mods deal with this... But I haven't played with either. Is this something you are familiar with? Would you know how they change these quests?
How would you improve this questline?
As for improvements? It wouldn't take much. They both just need some initiation to lead you there, and some closure after clearing.
FWIW, I consider the Slave Lords and Illithids to be separate storylines.
I always felt that perhaps the makers of BG2 had intended for some underlying plotline that involved Irenicus sowing the seeds of chaos along the Sword Coast (much like Sarevok did in BG1) by arranging for things like the Keep invasion, the circus illusion, the Trademeet invasion, etc., in order to keep law enforcement and do-gooders preoccupied while he carried out his schemes... but (perhaps due to time and/or budget constraints) the devs never fully followed through on implementing this.
My thoughts on that ... let's see, the evidence. The trolls at the keep had yuan-ti working with them, and TorGal spoke of a "Stronger". After dealing with two Roenalls, they don't strike me as personally intimidating enough to cow a troll chieftain like that. But the snakes - that's an angle worth pursuing.
Where else do you find yuan-ti? They pop up in random monster groups in a few places like Mekrath's lair and the Planar Prison, but there are also a pair of them in the slaver ship. Not locked up like the trolls (presumably there to supply the fighting pits at the Copper Coronet), but free to wander. So both the slavers and the trolls are working with yuan-ti.
All right, how do we wrap this up? My idea is that "Stronger" is a yuan-ti leader, working with the slavers. Isaea Roenall knows how to contact them, and works out a deal. Arrange this monster invasion, but don't commit too much of their own force - the monsters are supposed to lose eventually so the Roenalls can claim the land. So the yuan-ti get a clan of trolls to do the dirty work, and only send a few of their own. Knowing the layout both above and below ground helps too; it's Roenall information that helps the invaders know where to put the tunnel and get their forces inside past the defenses.
What's in it for the snakes? Probably a lot of money. Whatever Isaea is paying, plus whatever they can loot from the keep and get away with before the forces to "liberate" it arrive.
And then Nalia gets some serious adventurer backing, and wrecks the whole thing. She and her friends clear out the invaders too quickly, before the yuan-ti can get away with their ill-gotten gains. Then they defeat Isaea's personal revenge plot, and ruin his reputation in the bargain. If he hasn't finished paying, he probably can't now, and his snaky ally is not going to be happy. Now that's the revenge you should be looking out for,
so its very possible that isaea used that slavers connection with the yuan-ti to hire them