Well I believe you are referring to multiplayer in Baldur's Gate, because from reading Kate's post and yours I'd guess that is what you are referring to. Multiplayer in Baldur's Gate II (or I) is basically formatted as such. One person plays as the protagonist. Baldur's Gate is an overhead game so using characters in multiplayer is not really different from single player in most respects. If, let's say you have multiplayer with two people, the server (person who initially starts the game) allocates slots for the other players to use. You can have up to 6 characters in a game, so usually this would mean the server player would have control of 3 characters and the client would also have control of 3. The game is usually played real-time so it doesn't really get all that confusing. If you have played games like warcraft or other overhead games, movement is "similar" in many respects. Given that knowledge, multiplayer hasn't been very difficult for me at least.
You can pause the game (at least the server/protagonist can). There are some ways to turn on auto-pausing, so the game can be semi-turn based, but this is not an element I'd suggest using for multiplayer, because THAT can get rather annoying (to say the very least). You can save multiplayer games for play later. You can export and import your player characters (not NPCs you pick up along the way), so you can use your character in whatever game(s) you choose. You can, in multiplayer also choose to create as many characters as you want if you do not wish to pick up NPC characters along the way (up to the maximum of 6). The difference with your home-made characters and NPCs is that your home-made ones do not "talk" to eachother, they can be imported/exported, you roll their stats and do whatever you want with them. NPCs have set stats, alignments, classes, etc. It's nice to have a couple slots open for NPCs at least for enjoyment of the game. When you pick up an NPC, they are controlled exactly
the same as a home-made character. They may have special quests and other such "features" a home-made character doesn't have alone.
I'm not sure what else I can really say. Ohh yes...and quests, etc reward everyone in the group...no special "selecting" or weird tricks involved as far as I know =)
If you need more info, let me know. I had a lot of fun in BGII...but then again I didn't "read the boards" much during play. There is a LOT of spoiling in general on BGII boards I have seen (just a warning).
Have fun...
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