Crowdsourcing subrace interactions: BG2

[DavidW]

In IWD2, subraces come to life because NPCs respond to a creature's subrace. Ideally I'd like to do the same for subraces in the other games, but it's quite a large task and only partially plays to my modding strengths. So I'm hoping to crowdsource it. This thread is for suggestions for NPC responses to the main character's subrace in Baldur's Gate II , including ToB.

A few guidelines:

1) I don't need code. English-language descriptions are fine.

2) I do need specificity. "Shopkeepers in Baldur's gate should react badly to Tieflings" is not useful. 'SHOPKN01 should respond to a Tiefling at block 4' is useful.

3) If you want to suggest actual text, that's fine, but I'm happy to have suggestions like 'he should say something bigoted' too.

4) Responses should be limited - no more than a one-line comment and a one-line response by CHARNAME. If you want to suggest a way in which being a Tiefling leads to a zany quest, that's out of scope.

5) I am keen to keep the level of responses at least approximately constant across the subraces. Obviously it's easy to see ways in which a duergar or tiefling character is going to get a reaction, and to some degree that's cool, but I don't want the exotic subraces to get all the love.

6) I have no idea when I will have time to implement any of this! It's an experiment, both to see if I get good suggestions and to see what the coding looks like. Don't be offended if it takes ages for me to do it, and don't contribute if you're going to be offended.

7) Thank you! 

[RoyalProtector]

Off the top of my head, and apologies for the lack of specificity, but this type of creative work is not in my skillset, some things that could be worked on:

- The Elf-hating human racist in Waukeen's promenade could get different lines for different subraces of elves (and half-elves, when and if that happens, i.e. half drow). He could have a different type of drivel for each elf (drow excluded I guess)

- Raelis Shai and the actors should probably have at least some interjection in response to charname being planetouched, maybe also in the planar prison/sphere. (I'm not including Haer'Dalis, since perhaps including joinable companions is out of scope or complicates things...?).

- Deep gnomes in the Underdark should probably have a small interjection if charname is a deep gnome too.

Hopefully someone more creative can inject something creative here for those events.

 

[hulkamania]

Just came across this thread and will give it some more thought, but a couple ideas popped into my mind:

• Vithal in the Underdark could have an interaction with genasi characters. He remarks that he feels like he couldn't survive long on the other side of earth portal. To an earth genasi, he could add something along the lines of, "although I'm sure a genasi of your particular constitution would find it quite... congenial there."
  
  To an air or fire genasi he could make a similar remark after returning from the air or fire portal: "Another close run thing... I wonder if your cousins would show you the same hostility they showed me."
   
• The elves of Suldanessellar might have any number of reactions to a wild elf character. The warrior elf who first stops you as you exit the Underdark, for instance: "A wild elf? Have you savages gone so feral as to fight alongside the drow?"
  
  Demin or another elf in the besieged city could have a positive reaction: "Ah, a wild one. Surely this was ordained... we have need of your ferocity in this hour..."

Edited April 10 by hulkamania

[hulkamania]

• Fael could deliver a creepy line about any character whose subrace has an exotic color or texture to their skin, as if he's sizing them up and imagining how they'd look as a suit of leather armor.
   
• Nalia's aunt might be caught off guard by the inherent regality of a Moon or Sun elf and her initial criticisms might be muted a bit. She could remark on the mismatch between their noble features/bearing and the "raggedy war gear" they're wearing.

 

Edited April 10 by hulkamania

[hulkamania]

• Cromwell could play a compliment to Shield or Gold dwarf characters after they agree to help him work the forge as he crafts their item: "Let's get to it then, cousin. Will be good to work with someone who knows his/her way around a smithy.
  
  On the other end, he could react with reflexive contempt to a duergar character on their initial meeting before agreeing to conduct business with them "provided ye can pay in proper, surface coin."
   
• The Solamnic Knights trapped in the planar sphere could react with alarm to any of the halfling subraces entering their room, since they've been fighting the cannibal halflings in the chamber next door. Reyna could shout, "To arms, brothers! They're at the south door now!" before realizing her mistake.
   
• High Watcher Oisig (or someone from another temple) might take a dim view of tieflings in his sanctuary: "Mind your conduct here, planetouched. This is hallowed ground."

[hulkamania]

• Unger Hilldark should definitely have a reaction to a duergar character, but it needs to be just as dismissive as his default ones so you don't have to rework the Sir Sarles quest. Something along the lines of: "Get ye gone, cousin. You're a fool to gallivant about as openly as ye do."

[hulkamania]

• Bodhi might outright refuse to work with an assimar like she does, if I recall correctly, with a pure class thief. She might make a special entreaty for a tiefling character ("You may not understand the power your blood holds, but I do. And I will show it to you.") She might also make an extra appeal to the Underdark subraces, a half-orc character, and perhaps even a Ghostwise halfing to join her based on what she assumes to be their shared antipathy towards or mistrust of human society at large.
   
• Renal Bloodscalp might joke with an aasimar, Sun elf, or Moon elf character that he's surprised to see them "slumming it" with the Shadow Thieves but is eager to see what they bring to the table nonetheless.
   
• Mae'Var might react with initial surprise upon meeting a drow character as if he's wrongfooted by their reputation for stealth and deception, but then double down on his abuse of CHARNAME: "I've always suspected you lot are not quite so fearsome as the stories make you out to be. Let's see if you can hack it in my guild."

 

(I just realized I've been brainstorming a lot without really understanding guideline 2 in your original post, especially the phrase "block 4." Is that a reference to how the game's dialogues are coded? If so, is there a way for me to look at the script broken down into blocks? I would be more than happy to make more specific suggestions if I knew how to look at the different encounters' dialogue options directly.)

[RoyalProtector]

I think your suggestions are great @hulkamania! Although drow charnames are out of the question as far as this mod is concerned so far.

[hulkamania]

My mistake! I saw that they were mentioned in the readme, so I assumed the mod made them playable. 

[Galactygon]

3 hours ago, RoyalProtector said:

I think your suggestions are great @hulkamania! Although drow charnames are out of the question as far as this mod is concerned so far.

You've already got at least one if not two drow joinable NPCs in the game whom surfacers don't react to adversely. It's gonna be quite a lot of dialogue writing to implement.

[hulkamania]

Yeah, the whole project is definitely ambitious. But there are at least a couple times when surfacers react adversely to Viconia (Belmin and Elhan). And then there are the encounters with the Flaming Fist and fanatics in the government district that constitute her recruitment scenarios in BG1 and BG2. Maybe there are other dialogue lines here and there that I don't recall, but the skeleton of this concept is already in the game.

(Viconia has a funny exchange with the duergar merchants in the Underdark where they call her out for not belonging to a house and Salvanas hits on her while aware that she is a dark elf, both of which I think would qualify for the type of race/subrace interactions the thread is calling for even though they're not hostile.)

I've only done a couple playthroughs with Baeloth and I don't recall anything unusual happening there other than that Phandalyn attacks on sight (which is a function of alignment rather than race).