Horses...

[BigRob]

Skimming back over the romance track to try to find some piddling little reference to Aklon's past, I noticed something I hadn't really thought about until now.

 

There is a love talk which begins with a descriptive piece involving the party's horses. Now you may ask "What horses?" which is what this is all about.

 

I have always assumed (being the PnP player that I am) that the party in BGII travelled everywhere on horseback, but that you didn't see the horses, in the same way you don't see the NPCs stopping for lunch, or going into the bushes.

 

The question is this: Would you find mention of horses (and things happening with the horses) to be too jarring for your BGII experience?

 

The same effect can be achieved without the horses, but I will need to re-do the first part of the dialogue. It's a fairly minor thing, but it's been preying on my mind.

 

PREYING I TELL YOU!

[Kish]

That would be kind of jarring, yes.  Sometimes the party goes to places where it would make little sense to take horses--you certainly don't have horses when you arrive at the Windspear Hills, nor would it make a lot of sense to leave them outside the entire region.  And in ToB, where are they going to get horses before migrating from Saradush?  The town is sacked.  So, yeah, I think they get around by walking, except when they get around by ship or by teleportation.

[CamDawg]

I've always thought of the party travelling by foot.

[BevH]

Although at one point in the Anomen romance, after one of his temper tantrums I think, he says let us ride in silence for a while that I might think.  I'd never really thought about it much.  I just assumed the party walked everywhere.

[BigRob]

The dialogue was intended to trigger on travel from certain locations (e.g. not Ust Natha ). I don't even know if that's technically possible, so that may itself require a rewrite. ToB's a plane-jumpin' teleport fest, so I never figured you had horses in that one.

 

Anomen's reference to horses is pretty vague, so obviously it doesn't stick out too much. But a whole dialogue starting with them is probably going too far. I'd still like to hear a few more opinions on the subject, though.

 

But, I can see that my concerns have some foundation. It might be necessary to go back and purge the word "horse" after all.

[Bri]

Well, some of the travel would certainly be by horse, but some of the other locations doesn't make sense.

 

In a pen and paper game, just leaving a horse behind while you go spelunking in a dungeon, for example, begs for the horses to get stolen, or wasted by predators.

 

But, I think BevH might be right on the conversation with Anomen.  If it is ride on in silence, then there is some precedent there...

[BigRob]

You'd probably have a hard time getting horses into the shadow forest around the ruined temple, certainly.

 

In a pen and paper game, just leaving a horse behind while you go spelunking in a dungeon, for example, begs for the horses to get stolen, or wasted by predators.

Been there, done that.

 

A few subtle references to horses and we might just get by. I'll have to scour Anomen's dialogues for that one. But I'm still thinkin' there's a big editing due on that dialogue.

[CamDawg]

Just for the record, scripting a dialogue to occur after traveling from a specific (or non-specific ) area to another is easy.

[BigRob]

Thanks Cam. No technical worries then, just aesthetics.

 

Could be useful for something I had in mind for ToB, too.

[Meira]

I assumed that they would travel long distances riding. Then again I guess I would use any excuse to do that. Horses not being stolen/eaten/running away falls into same category with why the party never gets lost or hungry I guess.

 

I remember Anomen mentioning riding too.

 

-Meira

[BevH]

A few subtle references to horses and we might just get by. I'll have to scour Anomen's dialogues for that one. But I'm still thinkin' there's a big editing due on that dialogue.

Anomen says this within the first LT (entry #34960):

 

"I cannot imagine why you injure me so. I have done nothing but serve your cause faithfully. If this is what you truly think, then I would prefer to ride in silence."

 

Then later in the LTs (I don't remember which one but before his test) while he's having a temper tantrum, he says this (entry #35461):

 

"I suppose I should just ride off, now, and impale myself on a spear and save the rest of the world the trouble, that I cannot walk through life as easily as you!"

 

I think there are others, but it's late and I'm having a hard time thinking.

[Userunfriendly]

well, they could each carry 2 half coconut shells...

 

[BigRob]

Shoosh UU, you're giving away my easter eggs!

 

Anomen says this within the first LT (entry #34960):

 

"I cannot imagine why you injure me so. I have done nothing but serve your cause faithfully. If this is what you truly think, then I would prefer to ride in silence."

 

Then later in the LTs (I don't remember which one but before his test) while he's having a temper tantrum, he says this (entry #35461):

 

"I suppose I should just ride off, now, and impale myself on a spear and save the rest of the world the trouble, that I cannot walk through life as easily as you!"

 

I think there are others, but it's late and I'm having a hard time thinking.

 

Thanks BevH. It's now obvious that we do get occasional refferences to horses (Maybe they were thinking of putting them in when they wrote the dialogue ). But is a direct reference still too much?

 

Is the general consensus that passing references to horses (e.g. things like "Let's Ride!" or "It's over in my saddlebags") is alright, but that a direct reference (e.g. "Your horse kicks you in the head") is too much?

[BevH]

What I get from Anomen's talks is that it is supposed to be assumed that the party rides wherever it can.  However, in the beginning I would think the party walks since you don't have much gp.  The way you have presented the LT, I don't think it needs to be changed, but there should be restrictions, maybe, on where it can occur?

[Bri]

Ah yes, the saddlebags comment is also a good one.

 

Just for the record, I think you probably should have this in an FAQ when you get ready to release Aklon (assuming you intend to make one) so that people who whine about horses will see that in fact, BG II does reference horses.

 

Myself, I just figured they walked ;-)  I was in plenty of Pen and Paper games where that happened.  And you're right, it isn't a big concern Meira (like eating, going to the bathroom, etc).