BG3 – Alchemy and Transmutation Wizardry

If you've kept track (and there's no reason why you should), you may be puzzled by the mention of an 18th playthrough when I haven't written about playthroughs 15, 16, or 17. I'll save that story until just before the fanfic at the end of this post. For now, let's get into the substantive part of this…

Continue ReadingBG3 – Alchemy and Transmutation Wizardry

Last Night’s Game – Gnome Hollow

Last night, I played Gnome Hollow with A, J, and M. I enjoyed Gnome Hollow. However, it's not without its issues. I already mentioned the need for table space, not unlike Leaf. The game is subject to quite a bit of "analysis paralysis"; the box cover says "45 minutes" and we took three hours. That's an expansion…

Continue ReadingLast Night’s Game – Gnome Hollow

BG3 – An explanation of Dice Checks

As I've played and discussed Baldur's Gate 3 with both Real Angela and Actual Sabrina, the subject of "dice checks" often comes up. Their interest comes from different places. Actual Sabrina is new to gaming, and is learning how die-rolling works. Real Angela is an experienced gamer, and wants to understand how a flat bonus compares with…

Continue ReadingBG3 – An explanation of Dice Checks

Last Night’s Game – Leaf and L’Oaf

M and A had received a special edition of the classic board game Puerto Rico. We looked at this edition, with beautiful new artwork, board design, minis with separate sculpts based on player count, and so on. However, J pointed out that none of us really knew the rules. The suggested time on the side of the…

Continue ReadingLast Night’s Game – Leaf and L’Oaf

Real Angela’s playthrough 6 – Light Urge Persephone

Character After back-to-back playthroughs of Origin characters, I wanted to go back to playing a Tav character, one that I could sink more into and hopefully use as a palate cleanser. Meet Persephone, my Light Urge/Resist Urge character. I wanted to roleplay her as being naive and wide-eyed and gullible, someone who is aware that something is…

Continue ReadingReal Angela’s playthrough 6 – Light Urge Persephone

BG3 world-building/lore series – Part 2 – what happened to Isobel?

One of the main plotlines in BG3 involves a bad guy named Ketheric Thorm. You hear his name a lot in the first half of the game, both from allies and enemies, and the final boss battle of act 2 revolves around him. He was once a powerful general, and the driving force behind the curse of…

Continue ReadingBG3 world-building/lore series – Part 2 – what happened to Isobel?

My BG3 and D&D rules explanations

I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 with Actual Sabrina for a few weeks now. I've labeled this "playthrough 1/16": Her first playthrough, and my sixteenth. She's new to video games, and to the "Gygaxian" rules systems associated with both BG3 and D&D. To help her out, I pointed her to the "rules tangents" I included in some…

Continue ReadingMy BG3 and D&D rules explanations

Real Angela’s playthrough 5 – Origin Astarion

Unlike my previous Origin Karlach playthrough, this one was not planned. As I get further into my playthroughs of BG3, I have certain goals planned, but don’t necessarily have all the other factors filled out. In playthrough 5, I wanted to romance Lae’zel because I hadn’t before (and Bill stated that she was one of the best…

Continue ReadingReal Angela’s playthrough 5 – Origin Astarion

Last Night’s Game – Soul Raiders, Chapter 2, part 2

Last night (to be accurate, yesterday afternoon), A, M, and I played the second half of Chapter 2 of Soul Raiders. In that earlier post, I predicted that we were going to lose the game. Unfortunately, that prediction proved accurate. We came close to final victory. However, my character got badly sidetracked in the last third of…

Continue ReadingLast Night’s Game – Soul Raiders, Chapter 2, part 2