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Adoniis
2008-01-17, 06:32 AM
Hi all I was wondering if anyone could tell me if Baldur's Gate was ever printed for use at the table? I used to love that game and would really enjoy doing a run through with my players. (Them following the main character of course.)

If not can anyone give me any tips on how to convert it to P&P easier then playing through and writing all the info down as I go?

raygungothic
2008-01-17, 08:42 AM
Wouldn't it be rather difficult to adapt? The party can only ALL be the protagonist if you're up for a major rewrite. The party can't FOLLOW the protagonist, because that would be really dull and give them no choices at all. A Big Special NPC as party leader is really to be avoided - the game has to be the players' story to succeed.

Actually, a major rewrite in which the entire party are adopted orphans, raised together, who all share the Baldur's Gate guy's background and are all wanted dead by their half-brother the BBEG... could be fascinating*, but you would be rather closer to writing a campaign from scratch. That might not be such a bad idea, actually, given that the amount of combat grinding we see in BG would start to get dull in tabletop time where every fight takes half an hour.

*(I didn't get far on BG2 before getting bored, so I only know the BG1 plot; I don't know if 2 would be harder to adapt)

Ellisthion
2008-01-17, 09:13 AM
I was, once, actually planning on trying to do just this, as my gaming group have not played BG, and I love the story.

Never got around to it...

Adoniis
2008-01-17, 09:14 AM
Well the problem I was having making the party the protagonists is that at the end of BGII the main character can become the new God of Murder. I'm really not sure I want my players to become a God.

If I can come up with a good way to avoid that and still keep it fun for players I'm going to do this. If anyone has any good ideas please feel free to share. I'll even give you full credit when/if i ever finish.

Dragonmuncher
2008-01-17, 11:14 PM
I think you could do it- like raygun said, the whole party could be children of bhall. Or just some of them, or only one, whatever. The expansion pack story might need some tweaking, as instead of you being the last Child of Bhall, there'd be 4 or 5.


The big thing to consider tweaking is resurrection. The Children of Bhall disintegrate when they die, making resurrection extremely difficult.

raygungothic
2008-01-18, 06:56 AM
If only part of the party are children of the old Lord of Murder, the other players had better be offered some damn big carrots to make up for feeling like the plot's fifth wheels.

If it's the entire party, though, that suggests a mechanism for sorting out the end and preventing one of them from ascending.

There has to be only one left. The villain (in part 1) wants the party ALL dead for this exact reason.

Therefore, you need to invent some other condition for the finale (um... up to you, this one, but it has to be *important* to them) that means they *have* to have more than one party member alive. Killing all their mates to become Lord of Murder should not be an option. Best if they're all-Good, or Loyal* Neutral, so that's not their inclination anyway... If you pull this off right, choosing NOT to become Lord of Murder could be their greatest heroic achievement.

*Not necessarily any specific one of L or N or C... just not inclined to let down their mates; "party-ist" rather than "individualist".

AslanCross
2008-01-18, 07:40 AM
BG 2 has the same issue: Only the protagonist is a Bhaalspawn. Everybody is strictly optional and can be cut out of the story entirely. Writing a campaign from scratch would seem like the ideal way to go. Keep the settings, maybe some of the adventures, but you'll really have to accommodate an entire party of Bhaalspawn in your campaign.

hewhosaysfish
2008-01-18, 09:04 AM
Crazy idea: since I never played BG2 for very long before getting distracted by something shiny, it may already be contradicted by the contents of the game:

You could make the party all triplets/quadruplets/quintuplets/whatever and at the end declare that they only actually got one lot of Baal-ness between them, meaning that the whole party is a Baalspawn rather than any individual one of them.

Thus, the Lord of Murder is in fact 5 beings, who grant spells and do miracles by consensus.

"All those in favour of smiting him with lightning bolts...?"
"Aye"
"Nay"
"Nay"
Aye"
"Usdammit! Another tied vote! If only there'd been 5 of us..."

Of course if there is already a precedent of multiple-births Baalspawn in BG2 being just like the others, then that shoots the whole thing out of the water.
And you need to get the players to agree on a race.
And you can't really introduce new characters to the group.

Dragonmuncher
2008-02-01, 12:30 AM
Crazy idea: since I never played BG2 for very long before getting distracted by something shiny, it may already be contradicted by the contents of the game:

You could make the party all triplets/quadruplets/quintuplets/whatever and at the end declare that they only actually got one lot of Baal-ness between them, meaning that the whole party is a Baalspawn rather than any individual one of them.

Thus, the Lord of Murder is in fact 5 beings, who grant spells and do miracles by consensus.

"All those in favour of smiting him with lightning bolts...?"
"Aye"
"Nay"
"Nay"
Aye"
"Usdammit! Another tied vote! If only there'd been 5 of us..."

Of course if there is already a precedent of multiple-births Baalspawn in BG2 being just like the others, then that shoots the whole thing out of the water.
And you need to get the players to agree on a race.
And you can't really introduce new characters to the group.

Yeah... it was a good idea, but BG2 and its expansion tells us that there were actually a whole bunch of Bhaalspawn, to the extent where you meet up with a group of woodland animals who have been fathered by the Lord of Murder.

I like the idea of a party of Bhaalspawn (not neccessarily all good, but whatever), who fight to stop the super-evil bhaalspawn from conquering the world and/or reviving Bhaal. Then you can have some all powerful mage want to harness one or all of their souls for some nefarious purpose. After they kill the wizard, they can go to the final storyline, which involves all the bhallspawn causing chaos in the world, and the Five most powerful bhaalspawn (not counting the party) are each trying to kill off the other bhaalspawn for their own ends.

Final battle could be against Melissan, the high priestess of Bhaal who manipulated the spawn to gain their power for himself. Then, after that battle, the party has to decide amongst themselves what happens to Bhaal's mantle... do the PCs let the Throne of Bhaal dissolve? Does someone become a good-aligned god? Or does an evil or neutral character try to seize the mantle?

Oh man, I really want to play this... I loved Baldur's Gate!

Zincorium
2008-02-01, 01:56 AM
In the expansion for 2, you can actually have three bhaalspawn of various stripes in the part, so a party composed of bhaalspawn is not only possible but it has precedent.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-02-01, 02:35 AM
I think a party of all-Bhaalspawn could work. The "there can only be one" aspect only has to come into play at the very end, and even then it doesn't necessarily descend into a PvP murder-spree. At that point in the game, not all of the players might want the title (this is why Imoen and Resurrected Sarevok don't kill the hell out of the protagonist during the denouement. Imoen wouldn't touch the position with a 10' pole and I don't think Sarevok is eligible anymore).

Although since they're RPG players, they probably will slaughter each other. But at that point, the campaign's over anyway.


Another idea is to have the party actually following the protagonist of BG&BG2 (henceforth known as CHARNAME, pronounced shar-nah-meh). Another group of adventurers with Destiny dealing with the actions of CHARNAME as he beats up a bunch of people. For example, dealing with unresolved sidequests, encountering increasingly desperate bandits, Iron Throne Investigators, and confused bounty hunters (during the first game), joining the opposite Thieves' Guild than the protagonist or working for the Cowled Wizards (during the second game), etc. It's the same technique used in a few of the Lord of the Rings video games, and something I've long plotted myself for a Final Fantasy VI campaign (now if only I could find a good system for it).

Pronounceable
2008-02-01, 10:51 AM
In addition to the stuff above, why would the party go to Spellhold? Because Cowled Wizards took one of them? If so, what happens to the player? Will he be watching tv while others game, waiting for them to get to Spellhold?
A DMPC (Imoen) would be bad. As is any kind of DMPC.

When a powerful group of Bhaalspawn team up The Five happens. The last part of the campaign can become a Five vs Five. Then: "How come these guys each have armies and impenetrable fortresses and what not at their disposal, while we're slugging it out in the wilderness without so much as a squire to carry our stuff?" will be the players' main question. (you won't be giving them armies and massive fortresses I imagine)

Then there's Sarevok's resurrection. Resurrecting Sarevok binds him to the resurrecter in some way, which will certainly be exploited by players. Will the mighty Sarevok become a cohort?

Plus none of their opposing number would dumb enough to sit waiting to be picked off one by one as it happens in the game (arrogant bastards thought they could take Charname one on one) if there's a whole party of epic Bhaalspawns coming their way.



Another idea is to have the party actually following the protagonist of BG&BG2 (henceforth known as CHARNAME, pronounced shar-nah-meh). Another group of adventurers with Destiny dealing with the actions of CHARNAME as he beats up a bunch of people. For example, dealing with unresolved sidequests, encountering increasingly desperate bandits, Iron Throne Investigators, and confused bounty hunters (during the first game), joining the opposite Thieves' Guild than the protagonist or working for the Cowled Wizards (during the second game), etc. It's the same technique used in a few of the Lord of the Rings video games, and something I've long plotted myself for a Final Fantasy VI campaign (now if only I could find a good system for it).

This is much more workable than faithful adaptation. It needs ironing, but better for multiple players.

ShellBullet
2008-02-01, 11:02 AM
I know that this sounds stupid, but what about if none of them were Bhaalspawn?

If by some strange quirk of destiny one of players or all of players were mistaken for Bhaalspawns? Like picking up a ring that contains bit of Bhaals essence or similiar item?

Adoniis
2008-02-01, 11:39 AM
I know that this sounds stupid, but what about if none of them were Bhaalspawn?

If by some strange quirk of destiny one of players or all of players were mistaken for Bhaalspawns? Like picking up a ring that contains bit of Bhaals essence or similiar item?


Honestly I personally wouldn't mind playing a P&P game where I was simply following the Main Character, the players would just take over the NPCs places.

I would still be in on the action. I would still influence the world and the main character. And the choices I make would have an effect. So I don't think it would be boring for PCs at all. Besides, I may not be becoming a God myself, but I would be helping a friend reach Godhood, and I would probably be darn close to epic level by the end, so there would still be a chance for that....

I'd still want to put the video games NPCs in as temporary NPCs to do certain quests, and then they'll leave when the quest is done instead of sticking around like in the video game.

Starbuck_II
2008-02-01, 11:43 AM
I think a party of all-Bhaalspawn could work. The "there can only be one" aspect only has to come into play at the very end, and even then it doesn't necessarily descend into a PvP murder-spree. At that point in the game, not all of the players might want the title (this is why Imoen and Resurrected Sarevok don't kill the hell out of the protagonist during the denouement. Imoen wouldn't touch the position with a 10' pole and I don't think Sarevok is eligible anymore).


Sarevok already died.
Imoen or you give him essence just enough for him to gain life. But it is still her or your Essence and thus he does'nt count. He still has awesome Str and Fighting skills though.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-02-01, 12:00 PM
Right. Been a while since I played ToB.

Azerian Kelimon
2008-02-01, 12:14 PM
Does anyone else think this thread screams of needing Queen's Princes of the Universe?

"Here we belong...
Born to Be Kings, we're the princes of the universe."

Now, more seriously, in ToB you face "Challenges" in the pocket plane. You could rewrite the Challenges so as to make one party member do one challenge each, alone. If the party member fails the challenge, he or she doesn't die, but rather is cut off from the possibility of ascending (Yet retains the Bhaal essence). If no one completes a challenge, the Bhaal essence is destroyed. If only one person makes it, he/she/it becomes a god, and if more than one person makes it...

I dunno. Maybe you could have a tiebreaker atop Cronias with the song above blasting through the speakers?

Triaxx
2008-02-01, 03:57 PM
Having run through the two games a couple of times as a Paper campaign, it's actually best to play as a group who are just trying to find the cause of the trouble in the area, and not worry about the bhaalspawn essence until the final battle with Melissan.

I've actually had three different endings. Once, the party decided to split the Bhaal essence, each taking a few aspects. Twice they decided to disperse it so no one could have it. And the last time, they recoalesced it into Bhaal.