Guess the Title should Be OLD Video Games not Vidoe.
But I am with you bring back the "Gold Box Games".
Ubisoft did Pool of Radiance back in 2001 for the PC.
Which sucked. Hard.
Eye of the Beholder was awesome, that game was why I got into computers!I'd munch ELminster's beard for a GOOD new version of it (not the crappy GBA one)
Eye of the Beholder was awesome, that game was why I got into computers!I'd munch ELminster's beard for a GOOD new version of it (not the crappy GBA one)
-I have the Game Boy Advance game, and I'll concur, it wasn't very good. I am happy I did not pay for it, because I'd want my money back.
anyway.....
there is a por1 module for nwn2.
por2:romd would of been better IF it had been true 3e, and the devs didnt cheat..... or so I heard when I still played it.
anyway.....
there is a por1 module for nwn2.
PoR:RoMD might have been fun if the spellcasters weren't railroaded with their spell selection and it had used a functional 3e instead of a predetermined template of 3e.
-I never played that video game, but I do have, and read the novelization. Is that, more or less, the same plot line as the video game?
would never of bought it if it ws in myth drannor.
Right now I am doing a PnP version of Icewind Dale which the group is really enjoying so far. We are at about 17th level and when this one is over I will fast-forward the campaign about 200 years and recreate the original PoR, with some changes here and there I am sure. I would like to go from 1-10th level, with the final battle resulting in their paragon level.
I think 11-20th would work for Azure Bonds pretty well, but I don't know if I will do Silver Blades or not because many of the ideas from Silver Blades I have taken for my current game. I may skip that one and go straight to Pools of Darkness.
But if Wizards WERE to do a PnP of those games I would hop on them in a heartbeat. No questions asked.
TheSeventhStooge...
all I got was the novel
the even more worthless game
a soundtrack
a pnp game splatbook
something else I think.
trash, the book was the best part.
The only gold box game I ever finished was gateway to the savage frontier, but that was a real good game.
were the only ones I didn't play :/
I had an amiga, and there was far too much damn disk swapping for them.
IMHO, D&D HAS to be played turn based for it to be good.
ah that's the one!
Coincidentally its Planescape: Torments 10th anniversary this year, huzzah, such a great game (blows dust off the box) time to make some more Hard Drive space.
:P
Torment was a unique game ... the whole story and concept was truly awesome. Too bad they never followed up on that setting.
Problem is, if they remake them today, they will end up as Neverwinter Nights 2. Although I kinda liked the game itself, the character handling (and especially the moronic AI) made me wanna scoop out my intestines with a rusty spoon.
Baldur's Gate series was the last decent D&D PC game in my opinion.
aahhh ... the old classics ... i loved playing Pools of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds on my C-64 (damn has it been that long??).
Torment was a unique game ... the whole story and concept was truly awesome. Too bad they never followed up on that setting.
Problem is, if they remake them today, they will end up as Neverwinter Nights 2. Although I kinda liked the game itself, the character handling (and especially the moronic AI) made me wanna scoop out my intestines with a rusty spoon.
Baldur's Gate series was the last decent D&D PC game in my opinion.
c-64..... thats a what now???
oh wait now its comming back to me, that the word processor pc out back in the day that was out around the time that little grey box was out, now what was it callled.... oh yes the Nintendo, which was out and about the same time of sega( which btw did you know Microsoft did the software for these??) and also out around this time was the apple II series of machines , and the amiga, as well as various IBM and clones.
during this time the really kewl Atari consoles the 2600 and what not were coming to an end.
dont we feel old???
if not how bout now??
8086
286
386
489
pentium 1
pentium 2
pentium 3
etc
a mouse with a rubber ball
a mouse with 2 buttons
a 5 1/4 floppy drive
a 3 1/2 floppy drive
a mouse with no up down switch
a amberscreened monitor
a 16 color monitor
man have the years gone by...
anyway nwn2 wasnt that bad, its bad enough but with tony's AI its pretty good, that and KAedrin's hak.....
there are also some of the older games out for nwn1.
bg is going to nwn2 as well as iwd.
aahhh ... the old classics ... i loved playing Pools of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds on my C-64 (damn has it been that long??).
Torment was a unique game ... the whole story and concept was truly awesome. Too bad they never followed up on that setting.
Problem is, if they remake them today, they will end up as Neverwinter Nights 2. Although I kinda liked the game itself, the character handling (and especially the moronic AI) made me wanna scoop out my intestines with a rusty spoon.
Baldur's Gate series was the last decent D&D PC game in my opinion.
Is there any consensus that multi player games are "better" that single player games like the above? A complaint I've heard about multi-player games like Ultima Online is they have no real plot/story, since so many players can interfere with it and solve it before you do.
But, think about a book or a movie, you don't interact with either, but they're still enjoyable. Books in particular I've heard mentioned sometimes they are shared in the classroom, but certainly not a WHOLE book, only parts of it.
and still is
Ultima Online was the doom of the Ultima Series.
and still is
Maybe they make no more ultima games, but UO is still going strong. You can find plenty of free shards to play on, with many different rules as the edition/ time period you want
Never tried out Hillsfar. Was it any good? Furthermore, what was the plot, and how would you compare it to the others? (This is for anyone familiar with these games or at least Hillsfar).
Hillsfar was terrible. One of the worst of that era of games. Wasn't really a D&D game - had a lot of (really bad) action sequences, like riding a horse and having to jump over obstacles, or burglarise a house, or suchlike.
from 1994 i think i own aalmost every dnd game short of that rts from eberron. and i was considering picking that up just because.
as far as ubisofts pools of radiance, i dounloaded a patch 1.4 and it was back to business, certainly not the worst dnd game. but then again nothing could top interplays undermountain game.
my first video games were the 3 pak ravenloft: strahds possession, dark sun:shattered lands, and al quadim, i missed the really old games, but i found a dos emulator that kinda plays them. not the same but close enough. having recently played some of those old games i was suprised at how much text they relied on to set the story and the image!
-Never ever heard of those three. While I like Dark Sun in theory, I don't know much about the world. I know enough about Ravenloft and al-Qadim, though: How were those?
-Never ever heard of those three. While I like Dark Sun in theory, I don't know much about the world. I know enough about Ravenloft and al-Qadim, though: How were those?
i think they were all from interplay, dark suns graphics even for that time wern't good, having many of the dark sun races/classes/spells to chose from but all in all you forgave the gaame because of its amazing ability to guess what the player would do, most of the spells psionics were well implimented and all in all i very good game. levels could take you from 1-9ish because of the second edition way they did xp, and more often then not you could level 3 or four nines straight through the game, also the gear was a perfect fit, high end gear stayed impressive, low and gear gave just enough push to not make you feel outgunned, they made a sequel to it that takes you from 9-15ish or 18. and after that they made a very overpriced mmo using the same buggy engine. all things considered, still fun.
the al quadim looked exacly what you would find in a prince of persia styled high end 8 bit nintendo game. it had the nostalgia of dnd, but they could have named it sons of the sand or anything else cliche and it could have worked, again impressive features was the wow you get from the story, detailed (txt) characters can still make you forgive the story.
strahds possession played using the visual of a fps with a party of four, they reuse the same egine to make strahds possession and a sequeal to that based in a desert realm of ravenloft, and finally a forgotten realms version wheere you can pick drizzt up in your party. initially challenging when you ffirst start the game picks up steam and spells make a huge difference. strahds possession had complicated maps that they thankfully got rid of later and 11 months after that bioware (black isle) makes the first baldurs gate. the difference was so big its like looking at night and day of the coolness. not many people mention they used the same "infinity" engine all the way through to the last game in 2002ish with icewind dale 2.:D
aahhh ... the old classics ... i loved playing Pools of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds on my C-64 (damn has it been that long??).
Torment was a unique game ... the whole story and concept was truly awesome. Too bad they never followed up on that setting.
Problem is, if they remake them today, they will end up as Neverwinter Nights 2. Although I kinda liked the game itself, the character handling (and especially the moronic AI) made me wanna scoop out my intestines with a rusty spoon.
Baldur's Gate series was the last decent D&D PC game in my opinion.
I'm playing Torment now for the first time in...five years at least? I love the music, the story and the characters but boy oh boy the bugs!
Baldur's Gate I and II are wonderful. BG was the first computer game I ever played - my roommate was playing it and I kept hearing the NPC's speaking up out of the blue. Went over, made my own character and so began the love affair...:D I'd love to see these two games back again though I know the odds are impossible.
I also bought the gold box collection quite a long time ago (someone above mentioned all the games it contained). I played the hell out of it. Hillsfar is one big steaming turd out of the bunch, though. It's not really an RPG at all.
Loved the Baldur's Gate series. Icewind Dale was also pretty good.
Have been disappointed with both the Neverwinter Nights iterations, and I think I know why. As time has gone on the game designers have gotten further and further away from the turn based nature of D&D mechanics. Baldur's Gate though quasi-realtime operated in a turn based way (and if I remember, it could also auto-pause at the end of a round so you could give orders). Neverwinter Nights pretty much dispensed with that and operated as live rounds which made stealth, flanking and backstabbing a big pain in the ass.
This got me to thinking about how someone would make a 4E game. I think it pretty much HAS to return to a turn based format because of the way powers work. Every round each characters would need to be deciding what power to use. My hope is that if there is a 4E computer game, at the very least they give us a turn based option.
Filson
I also bought the gold box collection quite a long time ago (someone above mentioned all the games it contained). I played the hell out of it. Hillsfar is one big steaming turd out of the bunch, though. It's not really an RPG at all.
Loved the Baldur's Gate series. Icewind Dale was also pretty good.
Have been disappointed with both the Neverwinter Nights iterations, and I think I know why. As time has gone on the game designers have gotten further and further away from the turn based nature of D&D mechanics. Baldur's Gate though quasi-realtime operated in a turn based way (and if I remember, it could also auto-pause at the end of a round so you could give orders). Neverwinter Nights pretty much dispensed with that and operated as live rounds which made stealth, flanking and backstabbing a big pain in the ass.
This got me to thinking about how someone would make a 4E game. I think it pretty much HAS to return to a turn based format because of the way powers work. Every round each characters would need to be deciding what power to use. My hope is that if there is a 4E computer game, at the very least they give us a turn based option.
Filson
I know I am old-fashioned (although it seems like many of us are), but I agree with the turn-based format. The games felt more D&Dish when that was the case. Don't get me wrong; Baldur's Gate I and II and Icewind Dale I and II are awesome games but I felt like there was just a tad bit more control over the characters in the old gold-box games precisely because they were turn-based. Just me though.
Speaking of which, I had to end the Icewind Dale PnP game not too long ago and am now working on a Pool of Radiance game. The players actually like it more than they did the previous (at least, so far). We'll see what happens.
TheSeventhStooge...
This thread really takes me back.
I loved playing pools of radiance on my Commodore 64. I always went to the fighter's guild, got some hirelings, take em out to the slums, kill them and take their stuff, then go back to town and get more hirelings. Good times, good times. I must of played that game for like a year before i realized there was a quest you were supposed to be doing. I didnt even know there was a weapon shop. I just sent my party into the slums with no equipment and killed kolbolds and took their stuff and worked my way up. I had fun just runnin around killin things and exploring the area. By the time i figured out there was a quest and everything and went to the council i had already compleated like 10 missions and got lots of treasure and xp all at once. Same thing with leveling up, by the time i figured out you was to go the guild or whatever it was to train every one gained like 3 or 4 levels. I guess i should of read the manual before playing. That game really got me into D&D and the Realms in particular. They just dont make em like that no more.
A new game would definitely have to be turn-based if it's supposed to be D&D. Temple of Elemental Evil was great for calculating everyone's turns in order - loved the graphics too. Shame it was so buggy though.
I just don't think there is any way to make a "4th Edition" D&D game and have it in real time. They could make something real-time using the D&D license, but it can't and won't be 4th Edition mechanics.
The problem from a game developer's perspective is that they won't be able to sell a turn based RPG when the only successful RPGs on the market are real time, 3D and oftentimes first person (Oblivion, Fallout 3, etc.).
Filson
Ahh, the good old games from the glory years of gaming * checks to see if any kids are the lawn... 
* I think every era has had some really good games, and plenty of sorry ones as well.
Pool of Radiance (the remake) was the worst game I ever attempted to play. I brought that one back and got a refund for it (one of only two games I've ever done that with). Everything about that game was flawed - you could be an archer, but had to close to melee range first to attack; you couldn't ever flank your enemies, but they would set up flanks around you every single time; finding out there's an "obstacle" between you and where you wanted to go that takes you on a magic detour around every hostile creature on the screen, all of which happily make attacks of opportunities; many feats included, too bad you couldn't select which ones you wanted; and my favorite: you couldn't change the default install directory.
But there were the great games as well: Might and Magic 3, Wizardry, Pool of Radiance (the original), Planescape: Torment (one of the best ever), Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, and Knights of the Old Republic (for those who didn't know, the game was essentially a Neverwinter Nights mod - they didn't even bother to change the character classes in the 2da files, so you had wizard and sorcerer entries for jedi...
I would love to see some of the old games redone. Baldur's Gate still has a decent following with a ton of mods out for it - if you haven't tried the Baldur's Gate Trilogy mod, you really should.
Square-Enix has done a great job repackaging the old Final Fantasy games for the Gameboy advance and now DS. I'd love to see that kind of treatment given to the old PC classics.
Baldur's Gate Trilogy mod? Ooooh....
I wouldn't mind an updated version of the old FR games. They could do a lot with the NWN 2 engine and give us a very good update just through that.
I wouldn't want the video games to override and dominate over the pen and paper version, but video gamess are one of the best advertisements for D&D and any attached setting. Granted the game as advertisement concept has the difficult prerequisite of actually being good game first before it qualifies as effective advertisement. I keep hearing how the Baldurs Gate games started people the Realms and D&D.
It's quite obvious that the specific audience of the pen and paper game is nothing compared to the wider consumer base of a proper video game. With the potential of that audience and the way the process works, comes a more massive creative engine in terms of the production of related art and multimedia aspects for more a more upfront visual branding. We see this with 3e and especially 4E with the greater output of game art. The art created for the core set is still nothing compared to even a mildly funded video game project with any sort of competent direction. I think WotC is acknowledging the successful marketing of video games, but it needs to do more. A well made, strongly tied-in video game would do all of that and provide a good initial introduction to D&D.
I wouldn't mind an updated version of the old FR games. They could do a lot with the NWN 2 engine and give us a very good update just through that.
I wouldn't want the video games to override and dominate over the pen and paper version, but video gamess are one of the best advertisements for D&D and any attached setting. Granted the game as advertisement concept has the difficult prerequisite of actually being good game first before it qualifies as effective advertisement. I keep hearing how the Baldurs Gate games started people the Realms and D&D.
It's quite obvious that the specific audience of the pen and paper game is nothing compared to the wider consumer base of a proper video game. With the potential of that audience and the way the process works, comes a more massive creative engine in terms of the production of related art and multimedia aspects for more a more upfront visual branding. We see this with 3e and especially 4E with the greater output of game art. The art created for the core set is still nothing compared to even a mildly funded video game project with any sort of competent direction. I think WotC is acknowledging the successful marketing of video games, but it needs to do more. A well made, strongly tied-in video game would do all of that and provide a good initial introduction to D&D.
You are right about the power of video games. My husband got into D&D and the Forgotten Realms because of BGII.
I've just started Baldur's Gate again (with EasyTutu - sorry Mouser, I promise I will try the Trilogy Mod after this one!). Doing an evil fighter for the first time since I'd played it through, just to pick up the characters I normally never bothered with.
I've just started Baldur's Gate again (with EasyTutu - sorry Mouser, I promise I will try the Trilogy Mod after this one!). Doing an evil fighter for the first time since I'd played it through, just to pick up the characters I normally never bothered with.
Heh
If you've already played it with Tutu, go ahead and install the big picture mega-mod. Over a hundred mods, all designed to play nice with each other and run with an autoinstaller. Just be sure to read the individual mod readme's so you know what you need to do to get the mods started (at least for the big ones: Check the Bodies, Tortured Souls, Region of Terror, North Side of the Sword Coast et al.).
I've just started Baldur's Gate again (with EasyTutu - sorry Mouser, I promise I will try the Trilogy Mod after this one!). Doing an evil fighter for the first time since I'd played it through, just to pick up the characters I normally never bothered with.
Heh
If you've already played it with Tutu, go ahead and install the big picture mega-mod. Over a hundred mods, all designed to play nice with each other and run with an autoinstaller. Just be sure to read the individual mod readme's so you know what you need to do to get the mods started (at least for the big ones: Check the Bodies, Tortured Souls, Region of Terror, North Side of the Sword Coast et al.).
I gave up my evil character; I'm too much of a wimp. :P Never played it before with Tutu; this is the first time I've used the mod. I can't believe the number of mods out there - and it's nice to see that they're working to keep them compatible with each other! Way too much to try out, argh!
A lot of people have mentioned Pool of Radiance. Just an FYI here, someone did an exceptional adaptation of Pool of Radiance with the Neverwinter Nights 2 toolset. Better than the original IMO. You can find it on Neverwinter Vault (and probably other Neverwinter Nights sights).
The original Pools of Radiance or the newer attack on Myth Drannor one? If its the orginal one that would be awesome!
and it would be Markus's work, he also did the a hunt in the dark too.....
for the 2nd one to be remade, it would have to be redone from the ground up.
you'd still need to update your system Silversword
and in this one too
nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2Module...
you still need to update your system
and then there was this one for nwn
nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modules.De...
by chris fowler
Speaking of which, I had to end the Icewind Dale PnP game not too long ago and am now working on a Pool of Radiance game. The players actually like it more than they did the previous (at least, so far). We'll see what happens.
TheSeventhStooge...
I'd love to hear about your Pool of Radiance game.
I've been thinking about turning it into adventure myself. I tend to get distracted by other things though, including the simple fact that I haven't beaten it yet.
Pool of Radiance was my introduction to D&D. I've actually got three copies of it, 3.5 floppy, the AD&D Collector's Edition from WizWorks, and the NES version.
I've played around with the other games a little bit, but haven't really gotten anywhere with them except defeating the Fire Knives in Curse of the Azure Bonds. I'm not too keen beating that before I beat Pool because I'll just have to go through it again with the party I import.
I have PoR:RoMD as well.... Hate it. Dirty, dirty marketing scheme. I have fun every time I clean out Phlan's Slums. I do not have fun wandering aimlessly around whatever subterranean system they've got you in in RoMD. I've never gotten beyond the first dungeon. Drives me crazy as someone mentioned before how your characters think it's a good idea to run past every enemy when they move.
Speaking of which, I had to end the Icewind Dale PnP game not too long ago and am now working on a Pool of Radiance game. The players actually like it more than they did the previous (at least, so far). We'll see what happens.
TheSeventhStooge...
I'd love to hear about your Pool of Radiance game.
I've been thinking about turning it into adventure myself. I tend to get distracted by other things though, including the simple fact that I haven't beaten it yet.
Pool of Radiance was my introduction to D&D. I've actually got three copies of it, 3.5 floppy, the AD&D Collector's Edition from WizWorks, and the NES version.
I've played around with the other games a little bit, but haven't really gotten anywhere with them except defeating the Fire Knives in Curse of the Azure Bonds. I'm not too keen beating that before I beat Pool because I'll just have to go through it again with the party I import.
I have PoR:RoMD as well.... Hate it. Dirty, dirty marketing scheme. I have fun every time I clean out Phlan's Slums. I do not have fun wandering aimlessly around whatever subterranean system they've got you in in RoMD. I've never gotten beyond the first dungeon. Drives me crazy as someone mentioned before how your characters think it's a good idea to run past every enemy when they move.
YellerSummer,
Yeah, I agree with your evaluation of RoMD- I tried playing it once and just found it WAY too buggy, plus I thought the game was a remake of the original, so that was a bit disappointing too.
Are you having a specific problem at some point in the game that is causing you to not be able to beat it, or do you simply not have the time right now to play it enough to beat it? I know the frustration of not being able to figure out how to continue because I didn't know where to go or what to do (the Valhingen Graveyard was my biggest stumbling block because I could NEVER find the vampire until I ended up buying the cluebook.)
As for the game itself, let's see...
Currently in our group, we have six characters-
1) Human Great-sword-wielding fighter
2) Longtooth Shifter Execution-Axe-wielding Ardent Paladin
3) Longtooth Shifter Greatspear-wielding Battle Cleric
4) Gnome Wizard/Illusionist
5) Elven Bow-wielding Ranger
6) Human Invoker
They are currently sitting at Level 9, and should hit Level 10 at the end of the next adventure.
Currently they have done the following in Phlan-
1) They have cleared out the slums (the main boss was an ogre that had several orcs as his followers.
2) They cleared Sokal Keep on Thorn Island, which was occupied by an army of hobgoblins and gnolls (strange, that such monsters work together- there must be someone VERY powerful ruling over them...) One of the things that was memorable about this one was that they got a ride from the dock supervisor (named Rolfkirk), but when they got to the island they were immediately attacked by skeletons; Rolfkirk got so scared, especially since the group didn't disembark from the boat immediately, that he jumped off the boat and swam back to New Phlan. He hasn't wanted to do anything for the group since them (LOL).
3) They cleared out the library on the other side of the river. They recovered much information about the history of Phlan (including some obscure references to an ancient being named Tyranthraxus, who incidentally was a major villain that my group fought in my Icewind Dale game), as well as fighting some rat swarms and a cold-chilled basilisk. Of course, when they are leaving, they are attacked by a mummy who used to be the custodian of the library.
4) They were given a personal commission by Junior Councilman Pophyrus Cadorna, to go to the old Textile Complex and recover a treasure for him as well as try to locate a henchman of his named Paciorek. They way he presented himself to the party, however, made the party extremely distrusting of him, and they decided to investigate Cadorna and see if he is as "real" as people think he is. Well, they took an entire day of talking to people, friends of Cadorna, and even breaking into the City Council building and his office, and they find damning evidence of his collusion with "the Boss," so they bring this evidence to Lord Werner Von Urslingen (who has befriended the group), and Urslingen decides there is enough to arrest him. He tells the party there will be a trial in a week and he wants them to be there for it. In the meantime, they go to the Textile Complex and recover the treasure, which turns out to be a deed to a large plot of farmland along the Stojanow River.
5) On the way to the Textile Complex, they go down the well at the center of the Kuto District and clear out a small tribe of kobolds. They also rescue a gnome and elf who were the remains of a mercenary group and they join the party (thus, the introduction of the illusionist and ranger).
6) They are commissioned by the City Council to travel to Podol Plaza and observe the possible transaction of a very powerful magic item. But when they get there, they are greeted by silence and a city district filled with the dead bodies of orcs, gnolls and goblins. They encounter a few survivors and dispatch them, but when they travel further into the plaza they run into a group of crazy humans that have a huge ogre under their spell. An extremely furious fight occurs and they have to use EVERY encounter and daily to win, but they finally do. They find a note on them which said "He who Shall Not Be Named Will Rise Again and Destruction Will Reign Over Faerun." Searching further, they discover what they think may have been the item that was to be sold- a magical staff that is now completely destroyed. Using a ritual, they determine that the staff came from someone living at Sorcerer's Isle to the north of the city. They still have a few days before the trial, and they have a commission to figure out what is polluting the Stojanow River, so they head that way.
7) They travel to the island and discover the pyramid at the center of the island which is spewing out garbage polluting the river. Entering the pyramid, they discover a mad wizard named Yarash who is trying to create mutated lizard men to form his own personal army to rule the Moonsea. Of course, the party defeats him and shuts down the sewage. They also find out that the Boss was trying to recruit Yarash into his service, but Yarash was going to send a refusal as a response.
8) On the way back to Phlan, they run into a small, run-down keep that is on the land that they possess the deeds to, and they decide to investigate. There is a group of orcs and a hill giant residing there; the party act as evictors (if you know what I mean).
9) The Trial of former Councilman Cadorna- The group attends the trial, but just when the trial begins, Cadorna is assassinated by someone outside of the courtroom by a poison dart! The group manages to pick out the assassin, and the ranger & illusionist recognize the assassin as a rogue whom they were hunting down. They manage to pursue him to a commoner's house, but he escapes to the basement and is killed by a large group of zombies and skeletons that somehow dug their way under the river to the house. The party killes the undead and decide to track down where they were coming from. (At this point, I took a break from GMing and replaced our cleric with a warlord, with the player who was playing the cleric taking over the game for a few sessions),
10) The party entered the graveyard and discovered a portal that led to a pocket plane that had a single structure sitting in the middle of it- a VERY old, run-down castle. Entering it, we fought several groups of undead, a dracolich, and finally the master of the castle- a knight that was cursed to reside at this castle forever by Vecna, a victim of his desire for his love to live. The group fought him, and after using EVERYTHING we had we finally defeated him and ended his curse.
11) They ended up being gone from Phlan for over a month (although it only seemed like two days), and when they come back, they get a couple of options for missions- recover an ancient temple originally dedicated to Bahamut, or stop a tribe of nomads from joining the Boss. As of right now, they retook the temple and will be going on from there.
I know this post was long and had a lot of detail, but I suppose I could have written my summary like this- it mostly followed the storyline in the video game, but there have been about two or three twists that the players ended up instigating that took the game in a direction that I am very much looking forward to seeing how it will end up. The discovery of Cadorna as a scumbag in league with the Boss is one example, and a direction I was glad to take.
It has been a blast and I am looking forward to writing more about what happens.
TheSeventhStooge...
Well, what usually happens is I play it a lot, then I take a break which slips from a few days to a few weeks to a few months sometimes. By the time I get back to playing I've forgotten where I was and what I was doing and even sometimes what letter my last stable save file was. Then I can get hung up on my current step - deciding what sort of party to take through since I would like to play through all four games with more or less a single party. Doesn't help that I tend to lose track of what journal entries I've uncovered when I take my break.
Your game sounds like a lot of fun. I'm glad you didn't just give the short summary.
One of my main concerns is that I'll end up with too rigid of a conversion when I do it. Twenty orcs in an empty room that's about 4 sqares by 9 or 10 squares - not a very engaging encounter (though, it would freak out my gaming group since we almost never have a controller). I hope seeing places where you've diverged from the game will help me to loosen up when I start working on it.
My personal philosophy when it comes to putting together a game like this is, follow the storyline for the most part, but let the players go in a different direction if they so choose and run with it. The investigation and conviction of Cadorna, for instance, was completely at the instigation of the players. I wasn't ready for it but I decided, okay, why not? So we spent the entire next session trying to figure out if Cadorna was really the crook that he impressed on the players he was.
That was not in line with what I was intending for Cadorna to do, and it will change some things in the future, but that's okay. I am not a big fan of railroading my players so if that is what they wanted, that's fine. I have other thoughts about how to bring Cadorna back (in the future, they will receive a report from Lord Urslingen that his body has been stolen and somehow, I will bring back Cadorna as maybe an undead, or a follower of a cult that the group has run across. Not sure yet; oh, the possibilities!!!).
If you do something like this, treat it like a homebrew adventure- have the storyline but be prepared for the group to go in whatever direction they go. I am not the greatest improvisor in the world, but I do well enough that I am dangerous. But if you aren't, just tell your group that you are happy to go in that direction but you will need time to put something together.
4E has been really good to me when it comes to putting together encounters; and the storyline/RPG aspect has been no problem for any of us at all.
It has been fun! my group has been really, really good at tackling any encounters I have thrown at them so it's been a nice challenge keeping them on their toes.
TheSeventhStooge...