Rampant Games - Being Pathetic and Loving It

Couchpotato

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Rampant Coyote re-played Baldur’s Gate Enhanced. As you can guess the title speaks for itself.
After so many years living in more modern systems, it was kinda fun taking the wayback machine to the 2nd edition Dungeons & Dragons rules. It was also a harsh reminder of how brutal those earlier rules were.

How did anyone ever make it to level 4?

Oh, right – combat was not nearly as common in the “real” dice & paper game as in the computer versions, and the computer versions allow saves. But… man. It seemed like every half-hour, combat would begin, and *SPLUTCH*. If you’ve not played Baldur’s Gate, the other members of your party are pretty optional, and can be killed (and, sometimes, brought back) as needed. But if your primary character has his or her hit points dropped to zero (or some other nasty permanent state, like getting petrified), the game is immediately ended.
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"Yes, denied the use of his magic spells, four times out of five first-level Gandalf would be shredded and left in a bloody pulp on the floor by Mr. Whiskers."

In the original Rolemaster rules, a sloth that got a great attack roll and a great critical role could stab through an eye kill you dead. No matter what armor you had. No matter what level you were. FEAR combat! (Or better yet, have the GM put a max limit on crits.)

I don't know what those rule makers were thinking. Sure, you can roll up a new character and even give them enough levels to catch up with the rest of the party pretty fast. But then you don't get the fun of watching your character grow up. Plus you either have to stop the whole game while the guy/gal who's character died goes through the rebirth process or leave the guy/gal out for the rest of the night.
 
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That's all definitely true, but why would he complain so much about Baldur's Gates in particular? It sets you with a companion to start with, it's not like you puny mage is travelling alone.

The comment on how it's not nice to be uber-powerful rings true to me. It slightly spoilt the ending of the first Witcher for me that two seemingly most powerful bosses in the game felt like the easiest of them all!
 
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Wow, I kinda found Bard's Tale and Wizardry to be much harder than Baldur's Gate, myself. Compared to those two and most of the SSI products, BG was a simple game.


-Carn
 
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