Okay, so now he is saying he expects it to go off the rails fast, and can react to that. Though we are still basing our characters off of the ones in the book at the start, though. Which is strange to me, as everyone will be at different levels, and in different places, but I'm sure he will deal with that in a nonobtuse way. My character is based on Murtagh.... Building a Warblade, because that sounds amusing. And I may actually be able to win some of the fights that are in the book.

So it appears the premise has changed from "follow the plot of the book" to "start at the opening of the book and see what happens." I think he's expecting to use a lot of the main plot points, at least, but that shouldn't be an issue since I forgot most of them, and the other guy who has read the books is a new player. I'll update this after the first session.