Happens on both my Vista and Win7 computers.
The Vista's drivers are all up to date, as is DirectX. It uses an NVIDIA 9800 Graphics card.
The Win7's drivers are up to date and uses an AMD 4225 Graphics Adapter.
Neither machine has/had a firewall enabled when I downloaded/installed/ran the game.
I recall having this problem when I tried to get the game working from the CDs I own.
Any ideas? Is anyone else having this issue?



**New Post**
Pseudo-Solution:
If you are having this problem, put the game in Windowed mode before clicking "New Game" in the multiplayer menu. I don't know why, but the entire thing crashes when in full screen mode.
Not sure if it happens with "Load Game" yet, don't have a game to load.


**Update**
The crash does indeed take place for the 'Load Game" option. The fix for this is the same as above (for me).

The GOG page lists it as SP only game so they probably didn't test MP.

Also , if you do plan on playing multi, it tends to work better if the host PC is running XP. At least it was that way last time I ran through it. The net code is probably too outdated for GOG to fix.

Windows 7 has an XP emulator which I believe is free from microsoft.com

It does take some setting up but when running will emulate XP nicely and may solve your issues...

Not sure if it will work with the GoG version, but after many trials and tribulations getting Icewind Dale to work across the internet, my friend and I stumbled across Game Ranger and it works like a dream. And it's even free, although you can get extra community features if you pay for it. I really should, because it worked "out of the box" for us and saved us many hours of heartache. Give it a try and let us know if it works with the GoG version:

GameRanger.com

Yes, I had the same problem when setting up MP (not tried GOG's version yet), and indeed, the only fix seems to be running the game in windowed mode.

This is exactly correct, while not a desired solution, it's a solution none-the-less. IT's been my experience with my hard copies as well, in the newer OS.

...so I could have been playing fullscreen all this time?
Daaaaaamn.
Thanks Maighstir!

You should have one unless you deleted the mission-pack save that's installed together with Tales of the Sword Coast.

Noticed and noted in the OP.

It won't run at all in Windowed Mode? All you need is for it to last long enough to get by the 'New Game' or Load Game' screen, as Miaghstir noted. So you can start in full screen, switch to windowed for the few seconds it takes to get past New or Load Game and then switch back to full screen again.

Nope. I believe the widescreen mod forces fullscreen.

Are you trying to play multiplayer with friends or just want to create your own party? If the latter, I'd suggest this:

uninstall/disable the widescreen mod. Create your party and ten save the game. Move the save to the single player save slot. Install the widescreen mod and then fire up in single player, load up that save and play.

NOTE: I'm not sure if this will work, as I don't know if you can apply the widescreen mod to an existing save or if you must start a new game when you install it. But it's worth a shot.

There is a way to use widescreen and go into windowed mode. You have to choose a resolution that is below your highest supported resolution.