Sure, Mizora! Let’s talk about how I took a partial playthrough and turned it into four blog posts.
Confused? I don’t blame you. Aside from the opaque nomenclature (“8’/2.5? What does that mean?”) the situation behind this playthrough started off tangled and gets more tangled as we go along.
If Karlach needs time to figure things out, I imagine you do too.
On the one hand, it’s a story of two friends who would like to occasionally play Baldur’s Gate 3 together, but can’t do so freely due to technical limitations.
On the other hand, it’s about a strange obsession I have with a fictional character that doesn’t seem to go away.
If you don’t recognize this character by now, this is first of my blog posts that you’ve ever read. Welcome! Sit back, relax, sip a cool drink, and be confused like the rest of us (including me).
On the third hand, it’s tale about how you don’t ever, ever, ever mess with a cultural ethnologist.
Let’s see if we can make some sense of this.
Korilla will listen to me, even if no one else will.
My eighth BG3 playthrough
Let’s get the preliminaries out of the way.
I’ve described much of this in previous essays. But they’re there, and this is here. I’ll go over it again, so we’re all on the same page. (Web page! Get it? … Uhh, maybe I should stick to the psychodrama.)
You’re probably right, Isobel. So much blogging over something so minor.
Although ostensibly the main character in that playthrough was Wyll, my attention became focused on one of the hirelings, whom I named “Angela” after a friend of mine. In my mind, the story became about her, not Wyll.
This is a recreation of the instant at which the ordinary hireling Angela became the extraordinary Arctic Druid Angela, potent spellcaster and amazing leader.
Withers has no explanations either. But he’s not a cultural ethnologist.
Aside from the fictional melodrama, playthrough 8 also marked a transition in my understanding of how to play BG3:
It was the first one in which I successfully concluded the game in Balanced difficulty.
It was the first in which I managed to make a Druid build work.
The first Druid build I got to work was a Druid of the Land, spec’ed as an Arctic Druid.
In fact, I made two different Druid builds work: Arctic Druid (Circle of the Land) and BarBEARian (a blend of Circle of the Moon and Barbarian).
Halsin was the Druid of the Moon whose build I finally got to work. Here he’s showing off his work outfit.
Later in the game, characters have access to special powers. My final party had three characters who did not have these powers.
Karlach appreciates my efforts to do things the hard way.
To avoid spoilers, I’ll simply say there are role-playing reasons why you might not to give characters the special powers. For these particular three characters (Angela, Halsin, Minsc) it was not possible to give them the powers.
Araj admires me for my choice on avoiding others’ special powers… all the while accepting hers.
I recently wrote about tough choices I had to make about preserving old game saves, at least until I figured out a way to transfer them from my PS5 to my Mac. For most of my old playthroughs (e.g., playthrough 1) I could just keep one, made at the end of the game, from which it was not possible to restore to a point to do anything in the playthrough again.
It hurt to delete the old saves from playthroughs 4 and 10, Lae’zel. You were the main protagonist of those adventures. As I said, I had some tough choices to make.
In the case of playthrough 8 (and a couple of others), I’d preserved more game saves than that. For Wyll’s romance with Karlach, I’d saved the game at a couple of points in which there were story elements that were unique to Karlach.
These two were quite sweet together. There were moments worth keeping, at least for a while.
That was playthrough 8. Done, completed, blogged, talked about incessantly. But it was over, right?
If the Emperor (whoever they are) is impressed by a cultural ethnologist, perhaps you should be too.
The cultural ethnologist in question is my friend Sabrina. She predicted, after I put so much energy into it, the spirit of Arctic Druid Angela would continue to live on.
“Huh? Wuh? I was napping. You need me for something? Can I have five more minutes?”
Sabrina had no idea how how right she was.
Playing with Real Angela
As I said, I named the hireling Angela after my friend Angela. To keep the two distinct, in these essays I’ve consistently referred to the fictional character as Arctic Druid Angela, and the physical human being who loves dogs and plants as Real Angela. (Before even mentioning her name for the first time in these essays, I confirmed with her that she did not mind her name being mentioned, nor being referred to as “Real Angela”.)
As I’ve noted before, this isn’t Real Angela. It’s a digital character with a similar name. If Real Angela has the Mourning Frost staff, she’s never mentioned it to me.
I’ve made no secret of the fact that when I named the hireling “Angela” (and in a later playthrough I named a different hireling “Sabrina”) it was with the intent to attract their attention and consider playing the game with me. It took months in Real Angela’s case; Actual Sabrina’s playthrough is pending due to life reasons.
They’re still recognized throughout Baldur’s Gate. Folks ask them for their autographs.
Finally everything came together. Real Angela and I played BG3. I wrote my usual series of five posts, and Real Angela wrote one too.
We dubbed that playthrough “1/14”: It was Real Angela’s first playthrough, and my fourteenth. We also established that the first ordinal playthrough number belonged to the player who hosted the game. Real Angela hosted the game, so that’s why it’s “1/14” and not “14/1”. (If it had been up to me, I would have called it “Real Angela’s playthrough 1”. It was Real Angela who said that this playthrough should count for me as well.)
When either Naoise or Real Angela asked that question, I did my best to answer. Real Angela is swift at putting clues together, and didn’t need to ask often.
In 1/14, I acted as tour guide, showing Real Angela how to play the game, offering some non-obvious story choices that she might make, and leading her to locations and story elements that she might otherwise miss. All of the story choices were hers; I might lead her to the Secret Underground Lair, but she would choose whether to go inside and if the monsters within should be killed or negotiated with.
Fey generally liked it better when negotiation was not an option.
Playthrough 1/14 ended. Real Angela had gotten the “BG3 bug” and spoke of many more playthroughs to explore character builds, story options, and so forth. However, she didn’t need me to be her tour guide anymore. She could explore the game on her own.
In playthrough 2/14.5, Real Angela played Raelia. Here she is leading her team into certain death… for her enemies.
She did invite me to drop in from time-to-time on her second playthrough. That became playthrough 2/14.5: Real Angela’s second playthrough, my partial playthrough after my fourteenth. We encountered technical issues associated with mods. It was clear that, for Real Angela to enjoy the game in the way she chose, I could no longer even drop in on games she hosted. She’s completed her playthrough 3 and went on to playthrough 4, which I only hear about through her.
I understand that Real Angela has had cause to ask that question during her playthrough 3. I hope she writes about that someday.
This is a multi-part essay. Here are links to all the parts:
