danger2013 ([info]danger2013) wrote,
@ 2009-01-05 15:58:00
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Baldur's Gate
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BaldursGate

Baldurs Gate

Minsc and Boo, series mascot(s)
"Ok, I've just about had my FILL of riddle asking, quest assigning, insult throwing, pun hurling, hostage taking, iron mongering, smart arsed fools, freaks, and felons that continually test my will, mettle, strength, intelligence, and most of all, patience! If you've got a straight answer ANYWHERE in that bent little head of yours, I want to hear it pretty damn quick or I'm going to take a large blunt object roughly the size of Elminster AND his hat, and stuff it lengthwise into a crevice of your being so seldom seen that even the denizens of the nine hells themselves wouldn't touch it with a twenty-foot rusty halberd! Have I MADE myself perfectly CLEAR?!"
—The Player Character

This is silly! Buttons are not how one escapes dungeons! I would smash the button and rain beatings liberally down on the wizard for playing such a trick!
—Minsc

Baldur's Gate is a Role Playing Game series in a High Fantasy setting, using the second-edition ruleset of Advanced Dungeons And Dragons. It was developed by BioWare with Black Isle Studios, published by Interplay Entertainment, and includes:

Baldur's Gate (1998)
Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (1999)
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000)
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (2001)

The original game and its Expansion Pack, TotSC, are set along the Sword Coast of Faerûn between the titular city and the borderlands of the nation of Amn. The sequel, Shadows of Amn takes place largely in Amn itself, in and around the capital of Athkatla, and its Expansion Pack Throne of Bhaal moved the plot further south to the northern border of Tethyr.

The plot centers around the hero (named and designed by the player), who is regularly pursued due to power granted by a Mysterious Parent: Some want those abilities for themselves, others are simply fearful of what the hero may become because they know With Great Power Comes Great Insanity. The first game centers around the hero learning about the powers and their source; the second deals with the consequences and choices that come with that power and knowledge.

The series is best known for its memorable selection of sidekicks, which your hero can have up to five of at any time. All have distinct, if sometimes simple, personalities and backstories, and most will drag you into at least one sidequest unique to them if they stay on your team long enough. Especially in the sequel, they also have a tendency to make comments or suggestions about the current situation, or interact with each other positively or negatively.

Its engine and successors were also used for the Icewind Dale series and Planescape: Torment. Since Interplay's license from WotK for AD&D ran out except for the Baldur's Gate franchise, Interplay made two unrelated AD&D-based games with the “Baldur's Gate” moniker: The console exclusive Gauntlet-alike Dark Alliance series, and The Black Hound (codenamed “Project Jefferson,”) a cancelled game that was actually going to be sold as Baldur's Gate III (one of the original creators apparently intends to complete it in the form of a module for NWN2, which he also worked on.)

The character sheet is under construction
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Tropes:

Adventure Couple (yourself and your chosen partner)
A God Am I (Amelissan) is quite arguably the living definition of this trope. Also The Player Character can engage in this behavior. Oh, and Sarevok...and Irenicus.
All There In The Manual (As far as game mechanics go, that is; most of the Baldur's Gate II manual is essentially a reprint of the AD&D 2nd. Ed. Player's Handbook.)
Angry Black Man (Valygar Corthala doesn't take your shit.)
Bag Of Spilling (Baldur's Gate 2; justified by getting captured between games. You get to keep all your skills, though.)
Battle Couple (Khalid and Jaheira; potentially you and your chosen partner)
The Berserker (Minsc and Korgan, although neither of them brood much over it)
Bonus Boss (Aec'Letec in Tales of the Sword Coast, Kangaxx in Baldur's Gate II, and Demogorgon in Throne of Bhaal). To a lesser extent, all but one of the Dragons in Baldur's Gate II - you don't have to fight the other four unless you want to.
Bonus Dungeon (Durlag's Tower in Tales of the Sword Coast and Watcher's Keep in Throne of Bhaal)
Bonus Level Of Hell
Break The Cutie (Imoen gets more serious between games due to this trope)
Broken Bird (Viconia)
Broken Bridge (the city of Baldur's Gate is closed off until you solve the ore problem)
Cain And Abel (played straight in BG 1, then played with for all it's worth in Throne of Bhaal, which is more like 'Cain and Cain and Cain and Cain and Cain and Abel.)
...Only with Abel murdering all the Cains.
...And going on to become God.
Burn The Witch
The Call Knows Where You Live
Cant Argue With Elves (Subverted; you can. And if you don't, Valygar will. And if he doesn't...well, let's just say the elves deserve to be argued with this time around.)
Character Alignment (It's a Dungeons And Dragons-based game. Duh.)
Clown Car Grave (Due to game mechanics, zombies, mummies, and others can endlessly spawn at times)
Cloudcuckoolander (Minsc relies very heavily on Boo, his "Miniature Giant Space Hamster", for advice. The hamster's advice, as related to the PC by Minsc, actually works at least once. Of course, using his insanity to get committed to an asylum is handy too.)
It's worth pointing out that Giant Space Hamsters do actually exist in the game's cosmology. Spelljammer is part of the same multiverse as Baldur's Gate and contains such hamsters, and shrinking spells do exist. It is thus hypothetically possible that Boo really is a Miniature Giant Space Hamster.
In fact, Miniature Giant Space Hamsters are a genuinely known to exist variant (one of dozens) of your basic Giant Space Hamster. Of course there's no way to tell the difference between a Miniature Giant Space Hamster and a plain old hamster.
Cool Old Guy (Keldorn, sorta)
Cute Bruiser (Mazzy)
Cut His Heart Out With A Spoon (Just see the quote at the top of the page.)
Deadpan Snarker (Most evil party members; the protagonist can be pretty sarcastic in the first game as well)
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu (The Bonus Boss battle against Demogorgon, the D&D multiverse's number one Demon Lord. Amellissan also counts, seeing as how she was almost 99.99% the Goddess of Murder by the time you fought her.
Considering that the remaining .01% of Murder God is the player character, any 'normal' monster that manages to kill you might also qualify.
Does Not Like Men (Shar-Teel)
Doom Magnet (The protagonist)
Dropped A Bridge On Him Several party members from the first game turn up dead in rather anti-climatic fashion. Inverted when, due to the open nature of the games, several characters who should (If you got them killed) be dead after the first game can still show up for a cameo in the second. Lampshaded when the PC can actually ask them 'Didn't you die?'
Empty Room Psych (Averted)
Enemy Chatter (several scripted encounters which may or may not end in a fight)
Expansion Pack (along with the two official packs, this series has a large community of amateur modders)
The Eeyore (Xan)
Feed Me (Irenicus in particular)
Fetch Quest (most of them optional, thankfully)
Gender Bender (Anybody - there's a certain enchanted girdle to be found in the game - but Edwin in particular, as he actually has a subplot that uses this)
Give Me Your Inventory Item (Branwen in Baldur's Gate)
Gladiator Revolt
A God Am I (the various Big Bads and, possibly, yourself)
Grand Finale (Throne of Bhaal)
Grid Inventory (Inverted; the sizes of the objects do not matter, but their weights do)
Hand In The Hole
Heel Face Turn (Sarevok in Throne Of Bhaal and potentially Viconia if she's the main character's love interest.)
Hello Insert Name Here
Heroic Sociopath (Korgan)
I Have A Family
I Want To Be A Real Man (Anomen)
Improbable Power Discrepancy — The Amnish guards in Baldur's Gate 2 are incredibly more powerful than the Baldur's Gate guards in Baldur's Gate, so much so that if the power discrepancy were "real" instead of merely game mechanics (to compensate for higher-level player characters), the Amnish could simply march their supermen up to Baldur's Gate and conquer the country within days. And then there's the Tethyrian and Calishite legions in Throne of Bhaal, whose rank-and-file footmen carry +3 weapons.
Infinity Plus One Sword
Item Crafting
It Was His Sled The player character is a child of Bhaal. The series is even informally referred to by many, including some of its creators, as "The Bhaalspawn Saga", for crying out loud.
Jerkass (Many evil party members — oh, and Anomen)
Karma Meter
Kleptomaniac Hero
Lady Of War (Jaheira)
Large Ham (All the villains, plus Minsc, Mazzy, and occasionally Jaheira, Anomen, and Edwin).
Like Brother And Sister (The main character (if male) and Imoen). It's revealedThey are actually half-siblings
Literal Genie (in Baldur's Gate 2; limited wish spell, and indeed the wish spell)
Lovable Traitor (Saemon Havarian)
Love Redeems (The player character can convince Viconia to go from Neutral Evil to True Neutral if she's being romanced.)
Luke I Am Your Father
The Mole (Yoshimo in Baldur's Gate II)
Malevolent Architecture
Multiple Endings
The Munchausen (Jan Jansen)
Murder The Hypotenuse: Haer'Dalis will do try and do this to you if you romance Aerie with him in your party.
Only if your relationship with Aerie hasn't been solid when you get him. If you have solidified your romance with Aerie, he gracefully backs down.
Mysterious Parent
The Napoleon (played straight with Korgan, subverted with Mazzy)
Novelization
If such a novelization were to exist... and this troper isn't saying it does!... He would have to advise, just as a public service announcement, that you don't buy, read, or even stare directly at it. He... hypothetically... read it, and it is really, really awful. Like, toxic, almost. Hypothetically.
Describing the hypothetical novelization of Baldur's Gate (purely hypothetical, mind you!) as 'toxic' would be regarded as an insult to good poisons everywhere. This troper would not dignify calling the pages it would have been printed on as toilet paper, as mere contact with the stuff would probably give you cholera.
Adaptation Decay (The fact that any novelization would likely contain lots of this explains why none so far exists.)
Character Derailment (To the point where you wonder if the author of these totally hypothetical novels has ever been in the same room as a copy of the game, much less played it.)
Designated Hero (Abdel, the totally nonexistent hero of these totally nonexistent novels, is not exactly a shining beacon of goodness. More specifically, he murders at least one person I can think of for no reason, steals another man's wife and then cheats on her with a vampire, and completely and utterly fails to actually save or help anyone, largely due to his own stupidity and lack of self-control. ...Actually, since the game allows you to create and play as a bastard of this magnitude, this is probably the closest the novelization ever got to being like the game. Or should I say 'the closest it would have gotten'?)
Said character has a save file with a similar character included with one of the games, while supposedly neutral good, has a party of entirely evil characters.
Everybodys Dead Dave (Hypothetically, we could also say that no one except for Gorion's ward makes it to the end of the trilogy alive. Hypothetically speaking, of course. It's impossible to spoil something that doesn't exist.)
Suddenly Sexuality (So in one of these completely nonexistent and theoretical novels, it turns out Imoen is into chicks)
Never Got To Say Goodbye (the protagonist)
Now Where Was I Going Again (check your journal and find out, duh)
Necromantic (Bassilus)
The Obi Wan (Gorion)
Old Save Bonus (A Tales of the Sword Coast player can import a higher-level hero than normal into Baldur's Gate II. Also, pantaloons.)
Perky Goth (Haer'Dalis is a doomguard — basically a Nietzsche Wannabe who is happy about knowing that the universe is pointless and everything will inevitably rot and die.)
Plotline Death (Gorion in Baldur's Gate, Yoshimo in Baldur's Gate II)
Pre Ass Kicking One Liner (loads of them)
Purely Aesthetic Gender (save for the romances, dialogue and certain people hitting on you harmlessly)
Rant Inducing Slight (see quote on top of the page)
Rebellious Princess (Nalia. Nobility instead of royalty, but the principle is the same.)
Relationship Values (the romances in Baldur's Gate II)
The Reveal (several)
Scary Black Man (Sarevok, though his race isn't made clear until Throne Of Bhaal gives him a badass new portrait)
But Not Too Black
The Scrappy (Anomen; also highly subjective in that various players end up thinking of different characters as The Scrappy)
Sdrawkcab Name
Sidekicks (lots to choose from, most of them very memorable)
Sidequests (you can spend more time on these than the actual plot, easily)
Shapeshifting Squick The sheer range of creatures which show up claiming to be Bhaalspawn in To B is... is... well, it raises some interesting questions about what the God of murder was doing while "walking the earth". Everything from humans to dragons to chinchillas.
Considering that he foresaw his death while walking the earth and decided the best thing to do is sire as many kids as possible, to use their essence as a springboard back to life, it makes perfect sense.
Chinchillas, dude. It makes sense, but perfect sense is giving ol' Bhaal too much credit...
Smug Snake (Edwin)
Somebody Elses Problem (Christ almighty the civilians of this world are lazy gits.)
Superpowered Evil Side (the "Slayer" form)
The Sword That Speaks (Lilarcor)
Take Your Time
Talking Is A Free Action (Sometimes Time Stands Still when dialogues happen. Sometimes it doesn't)
Tear Jerker (The fates of Khalid and Yoshimo. And Dynaheir!))
Technical Pacifist (Aerie, before she... look below)
The Three Faces Of Eve
The Toblerone (Minsc and Korgan)
There Can Be Only One (Sarevok's plan, and, essentially, the climactic scene of Throne of Bhaal)
Time Keeps On Slipping (not that it matters much)
Took A Level In Badass (Imoen, Aerie and Nalia in Throne of Bhaal)
Vendor Trash
The Very Definitely Final Dungeon
The War Sequence
Those Two Bad Guys (Xzar and Montaron)
Wide Eyed Idealist (Aerie and Nalia in Baldur's Gate II)
With Friends Like These (Xzar and Montaron—to you and each other)
You Cant Go Home Again (Candlekeep)




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