I've been playing (and playing around with) the Baldur's Gate games and the various mods and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. What I'm really enjoying, however, is the character creation aspect of the game, as I never really got the chance to fool around with Dungeons & Dragons when I was younger. I've got three or four games going, using different starting PCs so as to get more out of it, or as much as I can playing through the same storyline (more or less) over and over again.

So, my question is, basically, is there a game or (better yet) a mod for BG that would let me have a more traditional (as far as I know) D&D experience? I'd like something wherein I could make a party and do some adventuring without having to go through the fairly linear storylines of BG and BGII. Temple of Elemental Evil or Icewind Dale look like promising candidates, but I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.

NWN games in the multiplayer, maybe with Persistent Worlds (PW) or looking for someone wishing to do a campaign.
Is very similar the experience to BG, and in my case was my introduction to D&D Actually, the Pilar of Eternity is based in the BG, Icewindale Dales and Plane Scape Torment games but leaving the D&D system far away.

Icewind Dale and Temple of Elemental Evil are more focused on combat. They are certainly more linear than BG. However character building and combat is quite D&D like.

Pillars of Eternity is supposed to be less linear but will still take a while until released.

If you don't care for D&D ruleset and just want a real open world exploration experience then I recommend Avernum Escape From The Pit.

I wholeheartedly agree with this, or any Spiderweb RPG. I can't think of any D&D games that really fit your criteria, but if you want to focus more on being able to play the game any way you want, and less on the specific ruleset, you could also try Daggerfall, which is easily the most libertarian game I've ever played. Don't want to follow the main story? Well, then don't. Rather live a day-to-day life as a member of multiple guilds, own a house, and become a vampire? Go for it.

Thanks for the advice, friends and neighbors. I do like the D&D set up and want to explore it further (since I never got to play the pen-and-paper games as a kid), and will probably wind up getting the other games offered on GOG once the money gets good. However, since Daggerfall is free, I'll start messing with that once i figure out how to use DOSBox and whatnot. Thanks again.

Temple of Elemental Evil is tremendously fun. It might have the best battle system in any game I have ever played, and best character perk progression as you level up. There is nothing like having your tank with a long reach weapon get certain perks and notice the huge difference in combat it makes. Same with mages too. It is fairly linear, but again, the battle system is outstanding. Just make sure you patch it before you start (vanilla is pretty buggy).

Arcanum is another extremely fun game. It is way less linear than ToEE, and has an amazing storyline and lots of character options. It might be the one game I have fully played through the most times to finish just because there are so many options to create different types of characters - and so many different ways to handle the challenges that character faces. Think Fallout, but with a steampunk setting instead of post-apocalyptic, with both magic and technology (don't forget to patch this too, another buggy one in vanilla).

Both of those games are turn-based like Fallout.

Two Worlds II is close to Elder Scrolls play (not as good, I got bored and quit playing but thats just me). But it is more open world than the other two I mentioned.

I bought The Witcher 1 and 2 on GOG, but sadly I wish I hadn't as I never even got out of the tutorial in 1 because the battle system was very unappealing to me. I guess I can't really speak to those games as I have no idea how good they are further in. I'm planning on giving it another go in the future. I only got them because I thought they would be like the Elder Scrolls games, but I think they are way more linear. Someone else would be able to speak on that, I'm not sure.

The Elder Scrolls games have set the bar so high for me, that similar games just lose my interest after a bit into them. I'm currently playing Morroblivion for the first time as a hand-to-hand specialist using only non-offense spells (no destruction, no summons). If you don't already know, the mod allows you to play Morrowind in the Oblivion engine - and travel back and forth to both landmasses whenever you want. I'm having a blast with it.


To sum it up, the first two games would be my recommendations. A bit more linear than you're asking, I think, but the character and battle aspect of both are outstanding.

Regarding, The Witcher 1, it is kind of open world. While you're confined to a rather small area per chapter, each chapter has a huge list of NPCs that are have huge amount of ways to interact with and has many different possible ways to resolve.

What bothered me the most about the game was that it lacked combat. It's basically 80% talking to NPCs, 15% walking around and 5% combat.

I quit it eventually because I kind of prefer more combat-focused games.

That sounds pretty cool. I'll have to check that one out. There is also a mod in progress called SkyWind which aims to recreate Morrowind in the Skyrim engine. Edit: Looks like they are hosted at the same site along with Skyblivion. I'm going to have to download those, heh.

Another mod worth mentioning if you have Skyrim is Skyrim Unbound. Essentially, it allows you to start anywhere within Skyrim as any character, rather than the ubiquitous prisoner scenario at Helgen. You're free to completely ignore the main plot (indeed, it never activates until you kill a dragon - and even that can be disabled). For a real blast, you can randomize everything - character, skills, starting location, etc. - and try to survive from there. Nothing like spawning near a Forsworn camp in your peasant garb. How fast can you run? =)

Flynn

If you can get your hands on the SSI Gold Box D&D games, they are worth a playthrough. These use the AD&D ruleset, so a similar ruleset to Baldur's Gate - though more limited. The games are somewhat hard to find, but look for a set called The Forgotten Realms Archives and see if you can get a complete copy. I found one used for about $25 about a year ago that was in excellent shape.

These are DOS based games, so you'll want to run them in DOS Box. You'll want a complete copy as there are code wheels for the earliest games and manual checks for the rest, as well as looking up paragraphs in the Adventurer's Journal (similar to Wasteland 1) for area descriptions and such. If you can't find a complete copy (or it's more than you want to spend for one) ReplacementDocs.com has most of these on their site - minus the code wheels.

Flynn

I was introduced to D&D and AD&D many different ways:

Saw the print ads in comicbooks back-in-th'-day. There were great adaptations of AD&D (Intellivision and computer games).

I even remember childhood friends trying to get me into the gameplay but I had trouble understanding the game...
1. My childhood friends were terrible teachers.
2. My math calculations was very weak...at the time.

However, as I got older, the D&D exposure started to become very visible and more refined. I began to appreciate the game much better when more players were attracted to it... namely females.
:)
When Baldur's Gate and the Dungeons & Dragons movie came out, that's when I knew the game had finally arrived.

As someone else said, you want to join a campaign in Neverwinter Nights. Assuming they get back online, http://www.neverwinterconnections.com/index.html would be a great place to figure out where to play. Or ask around on these forums. I know a few guys who are itching to play again.

Also, NWN comes free with The Witcher 3, so a lot of people have spare Neverwinter NIghts keys. If you ask nicely here: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/neverwitcher_nights , then you can probably get the game for free.

If you get it and you want to have a genuine pen-and-paper-online awesome experience, send me a PM. I did a roleplaying treasure hunt a few months back and a few of the guys have been begging me to do another. So we could go out for a grand adventure again.

And again, D&D + PC games ´+ non lineal = NWN (1 and 2 ) Persistent Worlds, I'm already looking for french serverS (because I need to practice) for remember those more than 1000 hours spent there. Try the Witcher 2, maybe will not be bad money for you, the controls from both games are very different (because the second was imported to consoles). Is not mandatory to play them in order and the awards are minors. Just one warning: QUICK EVENTS in boss battles (I personally disliked the witcher 2).

I grew up in a very rural part of a very conservative, religious Southern state in the '80s, when most of the folks in my area thought D&D was a one-stop expressway to hell and damnation. In fact, one bookstore in a nearby town had a gaming section, but it was restricted to folks over 18. On top of that, there were about six kids my age within a ten-mile radius, and most of them had parents who whole-heartedly believed the Satanic tinge of a role-playing game. I had a cousin who lived in a smallish city and he played, so I got to do all of two campaigns, one of which ended in my first conflict with a monster.

I tried to get into it in college, but my experiences were uniformly unpleasant. I don't won't to talk bad about people I haven't seen in almost two decades, but long story short, they had no patience for a noob. However, I was able to dabble some with computer games (including the AD&D games Flynn mentioned above) starting with the NES port of Ultima III. I wound up playing every game in that series up to 9 and beating every one except 2 and 8. So, this is my first serious foray into AD&D anything, really.

Again, thanks to one and all for the input and suggestions. I'm using a Mac, so Neverwinter Nights and Arcanum are (for now) off the table, and I've already started digging into Daggerfall, and it is a mouthful, indeed. Based on y'all's help and some other independent investigation, I think I'll go with Temple of Elemental Evil next and then try the Iceland Dale series. Price works out, too, though maybe GOG will run another sale soon.

To repeat, much obliged for all the help.

Y'know what turns me off of The Witcher 2? That the gamepad controls on the PC version are so much worse than of the console version. Seems lazy that they don't provide the console-style gameplay for the PC version (especially since these days most people use an XBox Gamepad for PC).