I fancy myself as a dungeon master, an example of how I play Baldur's Gate.

Thought I would share, maybe give someone ideas.

I play heavy on the role play side. I try to be creative and modify the games quests to fit my story. Every playtrough comes out very different from the last. What is happening in the picture follows:

Backstory
Djikstra (mainchar), Imoen and Dace (custom companion) got a mercenary job from Kagain (lead of a mercenary organisation, I'm on his payroll. A RP excuse to do many of the sidequests!). It was about guarding an excavation site. There a lot of things happened and Imoen, being the trouble maker she is, pocketed an artifact from the crypt that got a murderous raving monster to attack us. It was a tough battle, we used everything we had. A trap, scrolls, special abilities, wands and potions. Eventually we managed to slay the monster. Victory was ours. HOWEVER, we were gravely wounded and all our healing potions expended. In such a weakened state we were ambushed by a hobgoblin named Ba'ruk who demanded we leave his land. Having gotten cocky by his recent exploits Djikstra refused. And so a bunch of kobold commandos jumped out of the bushes and cut Djikstra and Dace down. (dead, but I let it be unconsciousness not death)

(Reload) Imoen however survived the encounter and managed to bargain for their lives.. at the cost of everything valuable they had. Imoen did manage to pocket a magical ring that the bandits then missed. (DEX check vs. DC: 12) Having returned to the temple of helm in Nashkel we rested after our grave injuries. Once we had recovered and were planning to take to the road, we needed at least some basic equipment. We were penniless though. Djikstra could have sold his ring, but it was of sentimental value to him (The ring was a gift from Gorion, didn't make it up there, used it since the start of the game). An idea came up to go and ask the garrison of Nashkel for aid as we WERE the heroes of Nashkel.

The picture is what happened next.

I write dialogue between characters in the journal. Just because writing it down gives a more real feeling. Playing it out in my head is not as satisfying for me. I roll dice IRL and set a DC plus add bonuses and penalties based on the situation. So in the picture I roll a charisma check against a base DC of 15, +1 for having gotten Brage executed, -3 for solving the Nashkel mines problem, -1 for being honest about the bounty thing. I rolled a 13 on my d20 and have a Charisma of 16 so a +3 bonus. And there we go! The guards agree to help me.

Would I have failed the roll - "Times are tough Djikstra. We've barely the arms to arm our own men."
Would I have rolled a 1 - "Wait.. are you really Djikstra?! Are you using his good name to rob us blind! Have at you!"
Would I have rolled a 20 - "Here Djikstra, have this. It was my fathers, but I'd like to think it would help many more people in your hands than mine."

And that is how I lost ALL of my magical gear and am now wearing regular weapons and arms! (Except the ring)

As a side note, I do the dialogue thing with my NPCs too (just for banter like BG2). Though I feel it works better with custom characters because their personalities are mine to make. Though some characters like Imoen and Minsc are easy to make dialogue for. And also maybe worth mentioning I don't plan these in advance. I make them up on the fly.