Whatever Happens... Happens (SoA)

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Soon I will be starting a new game in BG2 but I need input. The theme of my game will be "Whatever happens...happens". I plan to play a bard (no special kit, just the bard) I plan to have 5 other companions. And here is where the randomess sets in...

1)I'm going to randomly select 5 out of the 16 NPC's in SoA to be in my party before I start the game. This will be my group.
2)If any NPC's conflcit with each other, so be it, whatever happens happens.
3)If anyone is chunked (I'll be playing difficulty level hard) then I will not reload. They are gone. Crap happens. However if they just died, we will raise them.
4) If any spellcasters in my party fail to learn a spell and the scroll is wasted, then it's gone sorry, no getting it back, I won't reload.

Ok those are some ideas I have so far. Of course this leads to some questions. I suppose being neutral I should set some reputation number that I can't go above and another I can't go below. This will prevent anyone from leaving the party for reasons of rep, because my bard will be neutral and will play neutral. I just need to decide on some good numbers...what do you think of staying in between 6 to 15 maybe.

Also I need to decide beforehand who I am going to sign up with: Shadow thieves or vampires? I think I'll make that random too. I'm just trying to avoid accomodating for whoever I get stuck with. That would defeat the purpose.

Another hardcore idea I have is to go with the rolls I first get. (You'll have to take my word for it) I think I might do this. Hey, whatever happens happens.

I expect that there is a good chance I won't finish the game with 6 characters It will also be interesting to see which 5 get chosen.

So have I overlooked anything? Have you any ideas? Now's the time to speak while I'm still finishing my game in ToB...

 

I think you should probably not think about rep limits if you want to stick strictly to your "what will be will be" principle. If they dont like how you run things and they leave, then so be it. However, this could make the game pretty hard, depending on your random choice of npcs...

 

I probably won't need the rep limits anyway, my bard will be neutral and his actions will lead that way. And nobody leaves unless it's an extreme on either side, and if I roleplay neutral I won't hit the extremes. That doesn't mean there won't be any unhappy NPC's in my group though

Any more ideas?

 

play core rules, and... no reloading if *YOU* die. If you completed it, it would be truly awesome

 

This is a great idea. I really like it.

From my experience deep-role-playing Duharrel, may I suggest the following....
1. Develop some general over-arching rule for certain decision-making times. For instance, my "straight-ahead" rule dungeon movement comes to mind - Duharrel moves straight ahead in order to avoid "influence by God".

2. The choice of Bodhi/Shadow Thief alignment may be dictated by your view of alignment vis-a-vis the bard himself. CAn bards be evil? I would think so but I don't have the game up or the manual at hand right now. Obviously, "those evil Nazis" made good use of the musical genre to boos the morale of their people during WWII (no value judgement there.. just an illlustration).

3. Dialogue choices may be serious influences on whether or not NPCs stay with your party. Here is where another "intra-party relations" rule might come into view. With Duharrel, except for Viconia, I decided to look at the intra-party dialogues through the viewpoint of the NPC making the statement. Having been through the game before, I had a sense of whether or not a particular line was truly insulting or not when an NPC offered it. That is why ANomen no longer runs with the pack.

4. As far as reputation goes, let it do whatever it does. Think about it - don't you hate "wishy-washy" people? Then again, don't some other people think that those same people are good/bad? Let your reputation be what it is. At this point, Duharrel and crew are running around with a rep of 6. And I still say he is nuetral - reputation reflects other people's view of his actions, not Duharrel's.

5. Lastly, I will hazard a guess that you may wind up with an evil-oriented party if you follow the rolls. No big deal I say... whatever happens, happens.

Again, great idea. I will follow this closely... Now that I can return to the game and reading this board....

Good luck!

 

I think once you get your party of six, if one of them dies for good or leaves for good you should go ahead and conscript the next available NPC you meet. Why not... if it happens, it happens, right?

With all due respect to Kailynne, I disagree with her "overarching" role-playing rules. They serve her well in her game and that's great, but I don't think you necessarily need to be scrutinizing all the NPC dialogue in your game and thinking about how you're going to choose to interpret it. If your character is a true neutral bard whose mantra is "que sera sera," then run with it, man. First five NPCs are preordained, major plot points (Bodhi or thieves' guild, etc.) are preordained, when in doubt, flip a coin and call it preordained, let everyone be themselves, and if anything unexpected happens, live with it. I think that sounds like a pretty cool game to me. (-:

 

Hey.. everyone is entitiled to his/her opinion and I only offered mine.. AS I said, I think he has a great idea... I only offered an opinion since it was solicited.

OTOH, tjekanefir - I am a guy... Kailynne sounding like a girl's name or not... Just thought I'd clear that up.


[This message has been edited by Kailynne Johanne (edited September 15, 2001).]

 

That's ok. I'm a woman, and everyone calls me 'he'. (Well, on messageboards they do, anyway.)

I think your rules of engagement have worked great for you in your current game, don't get me wrong. You're getting as much role-playing fun out of a computer game as anyone I know. (-: But your technique--coming up with carefully thought-through role-playing justifications for everything you want to do in the game--is like the polar opposite of what Big B's suggesting. He wants to *not* justify anything, and let what happens happen, and the NPCs deal with how they feel about that. I think it's a cool concept in its own merit, and I'm interested to see how it goes.

 

Thanks for info tjek. Female, eh?

Errr, married? No? Me neither... Any chance...

[This message has been edited by Extremist (edited September 16, 2001).]

 

Well, in my experience, i can tell you that this is the most lifelike way to play the game. I played a chaotic neutral bard(skald) and aside from the q&a sessions i played according to my allignment. This meant that if all my clerics went to shite and there were no clerics left to enlist in the entire realms (which happened) then so be it. I also ran completely out of thieves, and had to use Nalia (all of four levels of thieving ability) as my main thief. Whenever she needed to perform her duties i told her to get changed and, like wonder woman or some such thing, she instantly came out of the shadows with shadow armor, boots of stealth, ring of lockpicking and awareness.... and no spellcasting ability..... you get the idea. Anyway, if you truly want randomness i think you ought to give some thought to rolling a die or something when you have speech options. To me this seems the most intriguing bit of possibility in the game for, as tjekanefir experienced, there are times when saying the wrong thing at the wrong time can mean interesting consequences in terms of game play. It would be pretty funny if a character decided to be perfectly amiable to the most rotten of people and turn around and be beligerent towards a child. Keep us posted.

 

Good choice of character first off, Bards are the typical drifter types, although standard fighters and any kind of mage tend to have a similar way of just going with the flow.

Your not SERIOUSLY going to just go with the starting stats are you? what if you get like your highest stat a 10 or something?

Well...I guess I have no say in this, good luck regardless.

 

The one thing that is necessary is deciding how to make decisions.... I guess that is what I was tynig to clear up and explain..

Especially in dialogue scripts/conversations... These are sometimes teh central and most important deciding factors in whether or not quest are given, comepleted or a ffight starts ro doesn't start. Unless he is going to roll a dice for every dialogue encounter, then some generic rules might be devised to accimplish that...

Simply rollng a dice for every coversation definitely WOULD be "whatever happens, happens".... but someone has already suggested taht I think.

 

First off thanks for the replies, I've read what everyone has said and done some thinking.

Marcus Dirago's (my bard) fate has been chosen. As fate would have it, he will think joining the Shadow Thieves will be the best course of action. And as fate would have it, he will be adventuring with (in the order they were chosen):
- Jaheira
- Haer'Dalis
- Valygar
- Viconia
- Edwin

Based on this I have come up with a little BG backstory. The events of BG had Marcus traveling with Jaheira and Khalid. Imoen, Garrick, and Kagain were also fellow party members. Marcus accepted the events of BG as part of his fate, but had a knack for adventure and was really enjoying the whole thing. When Sarevok fell, Kagain left the band of adventures on a wild treasure hunt relayed to him by some of his dwarven trader friends back in Beregost. Marcus has heard nothing from Kagain since then, but had wished the old dwarf merry adventures. In the meantime, he and Garrick had a squable over where the party should go next and Marcus' decision making in general. Tension in the party grew and finally erupted into a fight in which Garrick left the group. Imoen had mostly sided with Garrick, and was upset at how things had turned out. Over the course of their adventures Imoen had taken a liking to Garrick and was torn between staying with the party and following after Garrick. She planned to talk with Marcus about it the next day...but it was late. The camp had been set up and she fell asleep. The next time any of them woke up...they were in Irenicus' dungeon.

Also note, in the course of their adventures Marcus met a female drow elf named Viconia and saved her from the hands of an mercenary bent on killing her. Although he never talked to Edwin personally, he remembers seeing Edwin standing in the streets of Nashkel asking would be travelers if he could hire their services for a bounty hunt on a certain mage rumored to be held in a gnoll stronghold. Also note, at this time Marcus has never met Haer'Dalis or Valygar.

OK so that's a little background info. His stats and the beginning of his adventure will come soon. His portrait has been picked out and he will be a human.

This leads to some questions and answers:
1)Who will he romance??? I want fate to decide, but to what extent. Should I predetermine it right off the bat like I did the Shadow Thieves, or should I roll on each dialogue option, or what. This needs to be decided before I start, or at least before it becomes an issue.
2)I have decided to use beginning stats, the game's roll are never completly awful...
3)Difficulty will be hard, and I will not reload for missed spell learning or characters getting chunked. (At least I didn't get Aerie, she seems to like getting chunked )
4)I will not quit the game if I die. I will reload, but I will make a very good effort not to die, if I do, I'll tell you how and where.
5)Group relations should be interesting especially Vic and Jaheira, and Edwin and Valygar with his great dislike for mages It seems Haer'Dalis and I will be caught in the middle of it...good fun.
6)How to include more randomness in reasonable measures? I don't know about the rolling every time there is a dialogue option. I mean, Marcus is a neutral bard who's a gambling man and believes a lot in fate but he is not always going to allow what he tells someone to be decided by a coin flip or such. Better for Marcus to do it like this. Stick neutral, if dialogue choices say something like "What's in it for me?" or "What's the reward?" (Kaigan has rubbed off on him ) then that is what he will choose. But there will be times when random rolling would be good, and I will be sure to tell which times this occurred. One good example is when Marcus meets up with Jan. Will he turn him into the guards or will he say they were just talking about the weather? It's a quick spur of the moment decision for Marcus. I could see that being random. What do you think? Any suggestions?

 

Married with a two-year-old son, actually, Extremist. (-: You never can tell who plays these crazy games, huh?

Big B, Haerdalis is going to be perfect for this party--he also feels like that everyone is at the whim of fate and will sooner or later die and that's that. (-: My bets are that he's your first chunk, though. He goes more often than anyone but Aerie in my games.

I agree with your gut feeling. No need to roll every response randomly--any chance at a romance would then be doomed, for example. Follow the neutral path, and just pull out the dice when you find yourself at a real decision point. I vote for rolling now to decide which of the two romance interests to pursue, but it's your call.

 

Suggestions? whatever happens happen Good luck B

 

Nooooooooooo...

Ok, life goes on...
:thumb up: Big B!

 

***Disclaimer: This thread is bound to contain game spoilers as well as embellishments to the plot.

...And the show must go on...


It is time for Marcus Dirago to make his impression upon Amn. I rolled his stats once, left them how they were and here they are:

(Quotes are his comments on himself)

Strength: 6 "Hey that's life."

Dexterity: 16 "Well I can touch my toes, see?"

Constitution: 15 "Fit as a fiddle."

Intelligence: 14 "Do I *look* smart?"

Wisdom: 8 "They always said I was a wise guy..."

Charisma: 18 "Dirago. Marcus Dirago."


So who will Marcus fall in love with and attempt to woo with his long songs and poetry??? Fate has decided that the fair Jaheira will steal his heart...

Here begins his tale:

"'Ahhh the child of Bhaal has awoken.' Let me tell you, waking up with a killer headache, some goon in a funny costume telling you this is the last thing you want to hear. Well I remember it alright, the lightning bolts, the fiery meteors, you don't forget stuff like that. But to my good fortune, my torturer had to cut his session short and deal with some would-be intruders. Next thing I know, Imoen shows up, but I could tell something was getting her down and it wasn't just the whole Garrick ordeal. Showing off those talented lock picking skills of hers, Imoen had me out in no time. We stopped short as we heard a faint sqeaking, as if a hamster was nearby... As we passed some more cages, we were startled as a guy named Minsc, who I recognized as the same strange, but kind-hearted man who I met in Nashkel months before, called out to us. After a few witty comments on my behalf, he went into some kind of rage and the next thing I knew he bent the bars of his cage far enough for him and his pet hamster to escape. All this commotion has stirred another captive in a nearby cage. I was relieved to find Jaheira, safe, but nonetheless caged. After discusing where Khalid might be, a much calmer Minsc and I went in search of a key as Imoen worked diligently at Jaheira's cage. Let me tell you, that Minsc guy is quite a riot, I don't know what he'd do without that hamster of his. Daring to find out, I tried to pickpocket his hamster. But that hamster must've had a mind of its own, for it nearly bit my finger clear off. Anywho, we found a nearby room with some supplies, a conscpicous key, and a really dumb golem which told us to go back to our cages. Really, golems these days... Jaheira was freed in no time and we decided to split into two groups and meet back if there were any problems. Minsc assured me that his voice would carry a long way. I didn't doubt him. So he and Imoen went one way and Jaheira and I the other. Despite the headache, the current situation did bode well for adventure, and you know how I like a good adventure..."

- Marcus Dirago

More to follow soon.



[This message has been edited by Big B (edited September 19, 2001).]

 

Your stats for this character remind me of Doug Flutie the NFL's smallest QB...

Write/play on... literally.

 

Hee! A cool concept and I like Marcus' style, too. Looking forward to seeing what happens.

 

Out of curiousity, why did you predetermine the romance? Isn't that a little antithetical to your "Whatever happens, happens..." theme?

Other than that, I look forward to hearing more.