So, which one?

[Guest Guest]

heh, thank you and I am glad that you've enjoyed the romances.

 

While I was thinking of Moiraine Damodred a few times while writing for Dynaheir, there is only one open reference in a PC option to the Wheel of Time in the texts that I remeber of. The rest of associations is there because Wychlaran, Aes Sedai and Bene Gessarit have many things in common. And, to be honest, I think that the first two are to a greater or lesser degre the rip-off of the latter.

 

 

Frank Herbert for the win!

 

I'm about three quarters of the way through the Dyn romance and loving it. The writing is solid, the flow of dialog and pace are marvelous. I'm definitely getting the Jessica Leto inspiration, and I like the foreshadowing element.

 

(on a side note, it's nice to see the the party members react to Charname's unexplainable powers and dreams)

 

Given the shadowy adviser role Dyn plays so well it's an unfortunate irony that she gets killed out of hand in the cannon, before charname really comes into his own. Although given her constant sense of foreboding it makes the end result that much more tragic.

 

Anyway, great job and fantastic writing on all sides, especially on the Dyn romance.

[Kristal]

"View results" ought not count as a vote (grumble, grumble)

 

Now I cannot vote or view the results again :/

 

Anyway, Coran is an absolute brat and possibly my favourite NPC. Kivan would be, but he is much too quiet.

 

Incidentally, I thought the comment Kivan made about Rill in the cloakwood mines was extremely out of character. "associating with slaves will drag you down to their level"? pfah

 

That is something one would expect to hear from one of the evil NPCs.

Edited August 7, 2008 by Kristal

[Miloch]

Incidentally, I thought the comment Kivan made about Rill in the cloakwood mines was extremely out of character. "associating with slaves will drag you down to their level"? pfah

 

That is something one would expect to hear from one of the evil NPCs.

What's funny is that even in vanilla BG1, Kivan is not really the "good guy" you might think. If he witnesses Viconia's death, he'll say "May Viconia's soul rot in hell." Whereas, if the reverse happens, she'll say "It is sad that Kivan and I never understood each other." Which one is more "evil?" PnP alignment can be a pretty shallow guide to personality sometimes.

[Kristal]

The elves and drow hate eachother, so this is to be expected. Other than this strange remark, Kivan is always empathising with and urging the PC to emancipate captives. I am not terribly learned on any of the races cultures, but I don't think the elves keep slaves or look down on them more than they do any other non-elf. Finally, Kivan comes from the elven equivalent of a working class or peasant background, so he doesn't seem like someone who would be terribly snooty and judgemental towards his social "lessers".

[Domi]

I don't remember the interjection, but off-hand it's most probably a typo, and should be 'slavers', not 'slaves'. If not, I can take a look at the dialogue to see if I can remember 3 years down the road how it was justified.

 

And thank you for a kind word about Coran. He gets so little love, poor boy.

Edited August 8, 2008 by Domi

[Kristal]

That might just be because most people will meet him later in the game. The default portrait is also hideous. I can imagine that would annoy me, for example.

 

I think you did a fine job with barely any spelling errors *wink*

 

I am still available for proofreading, you know

[Ankhesenpaaten]

I HAVE to write this. Thanks, Domi! I finished Coran's romance with the best ending path late last night (yes you kept me up late) and it was much better than I thought it would be. I really enjoyed it! I wasn't too impressed with his "challenge responses" but it was worth it to choose him. He proved to be a great archer for me and a great lover and entertainer. The storyline was sweet but did had a realistic feel. I really loved it!

 

Thanks for making me like/love a character I used to kill on sight.

[-JR-]

What's funny is that even in vanilla BG1, Kivan is not really the "good guy" you might think. If he witnesses Viconia's death, he'll say "May Viconia's soul rot in hell." Whereas, if the reverse happens, she'll say "It is sad that Kivan and I never understood each other." Which one is more "evil?" PnP alignment can be a pretty shallow guide to personality sometimes.

Not saying you're wrong, (and things are definitely always more complex than PnP alignment tags) but I always thought Viconia's comment was highly sarcastic sounding, whereas Kivan was just more straightforward about hating her guts.

 

Plus, yeah, he's highly prejudiced against drow and admits to it, I think straightforwardly in SoA. But very able to overcome it, as in the (albeit mod-added) flowery talks with Drizzt in BG1, which I think speaks to his character.

 

Kivan's openly-admitted hypocrasy (oximoron?), and occasional denial of being a good man when he clearly is, was some of what endears him to be. "It's too late for me to change, but you still have a chance," or somesuch, I thought was particularly interesting and realistic.

 

Incidentally, I thought the comment Kivan made about Rill in the cloakwood mines was extremely out of character. "associating with slaves will drag you down to their level"? pfah

 

That is something one would expect to hear from one of the evil NPCs.

I don't remember the interjection, but off-hand it's most probably a typo, and should be 'slavers', not 'slaves'. If not, I can take a look at the dialogue to see if I can remember 3 years down the road how it was justified.

I think noticed this too and assumed it was a typo. As practical of a 'good guy' as Kivan is, he still has idealism that would make dealing with slavers highly distasteful.

 

 

Thanks for making me like/love a character I used to kill on sight.

Hahah, That's what I love about these mods. Ain't it great?

[Guest Ruth]

I just wanted to say thanks - I'm romancing Xan (even if he's quite the evil racist ) and while I love him dearly there's something I love even more. Khalid and Jaheira. They've always been my favourite characters and it's delightful to see them flirt more so than "'Twould take a sailor..." and "Is grass not made of blades..."

 

Congratulations on a mod well made - it's one of the best I've come across, actually it is the best.

[Jab]

So far Dynaheir was the best (I never tried Coran though). Although I have a huge complaint about her story.

She knew, that charname is a Bhaalspawn and since the beginning her "goal" was Sarevok. She probably doesn't need charname at all with her powerful divination skills.

 

However my favorite NPC in the BG saga is without doubt Xzar. He was unbelievably good, funny and well-written. I already think, that everything that "Hendryk" touched must inevitably be great. I also liked, what he did with Khalid/Jaheira. I must try Eldtoh as well!

[Nilfalasiel]

And thank you for a kind word about Coran. He gets so little love, poor boy.

A little late to the party, but I wanted to add my praise for Coran as well. Warning: incoming WoT.

 

I can't really compare him to any of the other romances, since his is the only one I've tried so far (well, besides having to turn Ajantis down), but I did enjoy it a lot. In fact, I was a little disappointed that the romance couldn't continue into BG2 (not sure whether it was because of lack of popularity or always intended). My long-term goal was Kivan, but since I essentially had the whole of BG1 to pass the time, I decided to RP my character as trying to find someone else to take her mind off unrequitedness, and Coran pleasantly surprised me, in that he proved that he had the potential to be more than a diversion.

 

My case is a little peculiar, since I didn't notice the Charisma requirement at first (my character's natural Charisma was 11), so I spent most of the game wondering if something had gone wrong. Then I realised my mistake and slapped on a Nymph Cloak. Still, it meant that I did the Brielbara quest before the romance triggered, so I accidentally bypassed the entire baby storyline (was planning to take the CN path anyway). Not sure whether that influenced the outcome, but I managed to get the good ending without a hitch.

 

I especially appreciated the part that you needed to have a good grasp of Coran's personality to navigate the romance: he sees the process of seduction as a game, and he enjoys having a competent "opponent", as it were. And if the opponent manages to outsmart him (dragging out the waiting, not throwing hissy fits, not being sappy, etc.), well, you've got the tables turned. Again, due to the fact that there's no explanation as to what happens post-game, I can't tell for sure whether his feelings are meant to be genuine by the end, but it certainly sounds like it. Or, at least, he seems to believe that they are, and there were several unexpectedly moving moments throughout. But then, you did an excellent job at making him more 3-dimensional than the usual womanising stereotype. In particular, the episode with the serving wench took me by surprise when I decided to try not jumping to conclusions.

 

This is also why I was disappointed that the romance didn't carry over into BG2. I know that the "taming the bad boy" storyline is somewhat of a cliché, but then "sorry, I lied" is one as well, and Coran was developed refreshingly enough to make me wonder how a successful romance with him could play out in the long run. Or maybe I was comparing him to Dragon Age's Zevran (another personal favourite). Still, I completely understand that you wouldn't want to continue something which unfortunately proved to be unpopular. I wonder whether the random factor was partly to blame.

 

Anyways, thanks a lot for your efforts, and, to round things up, favourite episodes from the romance:

- the kissing game: loved the "correct" outcome to that

- the serving wench: Coran being vulnerable?!

- hiding in the mist: *fans self*

- pre-Sarevok speech: awww...

Edited September 8, 2011 by Nilfalasiel

[Domi]

Oh, wow, thank you for all the kind words! It is always so strange and wonderful to get those reviews for the work done a few years back. It's Neeshka, Neeshka and Neeshka atm for me, with some littl' other things on the side, but yes, there once was Coran, and his mind-boggling branching out romance

 

I have a cycle of stories that were a concept proofs for some of the romance dialogues with Coran and the last ones went into what I was planning for BG2 when I thought to work on that before being seduced into NWN2 and then having a baby (my own, not Briel's), lol!

 

The stories are in the FanFiction forum, called Luck be a Lady, linkie:

 

http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?s...ost&p=14418

[Nilfalasiel]

I have a cycle of stories that were a concept proofs for some of the romance dialogues with Coran and the last ones went into what I was planning for BG2 when I thought to work on that before being seduced into NWN2 and then having a baby (my own, not Briel's), lol!

 

The stories are in the FanFiction forum, called Luck be a Lady, linkie:

 

http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?s...ost&p=14418

That's...a lot more tragic than how things ended up. Surprising, actually, especially since modded BG2 Coran implies that he was the one who left. Then again, I say surprising, but I have no idea how the whole Safana situation was supposed to happen in vanilla BG2...And I still haven't gotten to that part in modded BG2 either.

 

Anyways, thanks for the link, I thoroughly enjoyed the read (special mention for Kivan's hip wiggle in the slaver episode ). It's really interesting to see the source material: I noticed that the rain talk made it into Kivan's romance, for instance ...Which is also wonderful thus far, by the way, but since I'm not done with it, I'll spare you the extra gushing.

 

Best of luck with Neeshka though!

[Paszteciara]

It's time to refresh this topic!

 

I voted for Xan. I adore him a lot: he's really charming, so cute and very talkative. Ajantis? I don't like paladins at all - talking about honor, law, duty, discipline - well, he's very good written, but he's not my type of men.

 

I think my second option will be Coran. For fun for my Charname of course

[MissBehave]

My first run of BG I took Coran, Ajantis, Xan and Gavin, and played a good aligned, charismatic female elf. Hilarity ensued. Who says you can have too much of a good thing? I was surprised to eventually choose Xan. I later created a human for Gavin, and I really did enjoy Coran as well. Ajantis was the only one who didn't really do it for me. Maybe I'll have to try again..