“If you were to build a BG3-esque game using only your own OC’s (with the option of a custom protag) who would you use? (bonus points: recruitment order and/or notes about those who refuse to work together) ((bonus bonus points: include the personal questline for each character))”
So because that’s the first thing I read when I woke up, my brain has latched onto it like a cat who found a hotdog on the counter. My brain being the cat running ahead with the thought while me, the cat owner, tries to chase the cat down to get the hotdog back. AnYwhO, a very long slightly too in-depth multi-part explanation of what OC’s I picked, little notes on them, and a Bad End and Good End romantic character arc :D Because apparently my brain chose insanity :D Also, everyone is bi, because that makes custom protag romances WAY easier to deal with, and they are my characters so most of them were already bi to start with lol. I have been at this for months now it's mildly embarrassing lol. ANYWAY part one!
Instead of mindflayer worms this game would focus on Vhaeraun and Lolth, them both struggling to plot against the other all while Vhaeraun makes an attempt on the surface. The party is captured originally as slaves for Lolth as they’re each traveling to their various destinations (with the exception of a handful of characters), but Vhaeraun meddles to set them loose and weaken the Lolth supporters that are keeping his people from making a move on a large port city. Act one is the party escaping captivity, stealing an important artifact during said escape, going against the Lolth supporters in the Underdark, and moving between Eilistraee supported cities and Lolth controlled. Act two ends with the Lolth group heavily damaged and the party finally reaching the surface, but the Vhearaun group beginning to make a move on the city. Act three is getting to the city, meeting previously made allies, and beating back both groups OR choosing to side with Vhaeraun or Lolth’s group instead.
So in the opening scene, your origin character of choice or custom protag wakes up in a dimly lit stone jail cell alone, with no memory of exactly how you got there. There are no windows, and all you can see across from you are more single person cells. All empty.
If you chose Olly or Lemon, you can hear your cousin calling for you, and you know it is your cousin but not how you got there.
If you chose WARFORGED you wake up in a small storage room instead, and can hear people outside in distress.
If you chose anyone else OR the custom origin character, you can hear two other people calling for each other who sound distressed but unharmed.
Your cell is Unlocked. You do not know why. A high enough investigation roll (10+) on the lock shows it’s been tampered with.
Characters listed in order of appearance, assuming this is an custom character playthrough:
Oliver “Olly” Bakhouzin - Mammon Tiefling - Soul Knife Rogue
Recruitment: Act One- Jailbreak
The PC will find Olly a few cells down attempting to pick the lock on his cell with a crudely made shiv while cussing in halfling/infernal, occasionally yelling out a “Lemon! Lemon you alright! Fuck I’m comin!”
Olly will pick the lock himself and get out if the PC doesn’t reach him quick enough, and will race down the hall to get to Lemon. (helpful if your PC can’t pick locks). If your PC can get to him fast enough he’ll ask who the fuck they are and if they can help him get out.
The PC can pick the lock before him if AND make it down to Lemon to open the lock themselves if they’re quick enough. This will gain points with both of them.
Olly offers to team up with the PC to escape, under the condition they help Lemon too. They’re a package deal. After the jailbreak the party will be working together to escape the Underdark and the people hunting them down.
If the PC turns down their offer, in Act Three the player has a much harder time getting the support of the Bakhouzin Family and Three Families Syndicate. Lemon and Olly are no longer seen in the game if the PC turns down their offer to team up, and can be presumed dead or captured somewhere in the Underdark.
Little Character Notes
Male, 32 years old, Bisexual, he gets around
Overprotective of his cousin Lemon. They may not always agree, but if you choose a dialogue option in conversation with her that is Rude to her you’ll automatically lose points with him.
Super tiny detail, but he will automatically target the creatures Lemon is afraid of if he is in the same party as her.
You’d be able to sleep with him fairly early in his approval, but he won’t form actual romantic feelings for you until later. When he does though he is very devoted.
The man has piercings everywhere, and other characters will comment about them in overheard conversation from time to time. Olly makes a joke about having the room on his dick to have multiple piercings, which if Lemon is in the party she will sigh and reply “Ew Oliver” and get a laugh out of him.
Romantic Character Arc
Good End
Will tell the PC he’s pretty damn lucky to have run into someone like him, and offer to either follow them on their journey or maybe if the PC wanted, no pressure or anything, but maybe if the PC wanted to…come live with him? The PC will have the option then to continue to travel with Olly, move into his place with him while he manages the bakery, or break off the relationship. If choosing to travel or move in with Olly, the PC will also have the option to propose, which Olly will enthusiastically accept.
If the option to travel is chosen, Olly will lament that his bees will have to find new homes, and asks for the time to get them sorted before leaving on their journey. If the PC declines this condition, Olly will instead break off the relationship. Yes the bees are more important. No this is not a bug.
Bad End
If you side with the Vhaeraun or Lolth sides in Act Two or Act Three, he will either attempt to assassinate you himself (if your approval rating is not at max or too low), or take Lemon and leave (if your approval rating is at max). There is no romance option for Olly if you choose to side with Vhaeraun or Lolth’s groups, and you will lose both him and Lemon as companions. This is locked, and neither of them will stay if you take Vhaeraun or Lolth's side.
Assassination (low approval) - You can either kill him yourself, let him escape, or trap him in one of Vhaeraun/Lolth’s prisons to keep as a pet. Either way you automatically make an enemy out of Lemon (if she escapes/survives the fight) and the Bakhouzin Family and Three Family Syndicate. All members of those factions will attack on sight.
Leaving (high approval) - If a romantic relationship was established, Olly leaves behind a letter saying that he can’t believe that this person is the person he fell in love with. He renounces his love, but admits he can’t bring himself to attack the PC. If no romantic relationship was had but his approval rating was high enough, he will instead renounce their friendship, and mark the PC as an enemy of the factions Olly is a member of. He ALSO takes all of his equipment, all of Lemon’s equipment, and will steal back any equipment gifted to the PC by the Bakhouzin Family and Three Family Syndicate.
My current brainrot and favorite guy stuck in customer service, Danya’s little brother Oliver “Olly” Bakhouzin! He’s in his early 30’s, is the manager of the Bakhouzin Bakery and Cafe in Shireforth, and is the resident grumpy neighborhood plug! He likes his bees more then most people, but is ride or die for his family and his few friends. Olly has been in a string of situationships, and can never quite figure how relationships are supposed to work. He’s a Soulknife rouge, and is lazy enough about cleaning dirty dishes to use his fancy knife trick in the bakery.
Drabble that turned into nearly four pages of Olly ranting about a guy he has a crush on at his bees. He spends most of it either talking about how pretty the guy is, how he shouldn’t make a move because he’s divorced and recovering from all that, OR just mad at himself for not noticing how bad his crush had gotten. He’s a fool and would not let me work on literally any other WIPs until I finished this one. Idea brought about because of some silly fun sandbox play :D
All those years of monk therapy bullshit did kinda pay off. Sorta. At least enough so Olly can notice when he needs to decompress before he seriously spirals out again. He’d let his staff at the bakery know he’d be at home today, and they could handle themselves alone for twenty-four hours without setting a fire. Hopefully. Probably. Fuck it they’ll be fine Lemon’s shift lead.
After a frankly shit night of sleep, full from a big breakfast and a little stoned, the tiefling was finally steady enough to try to get his shit together. Olly steps out into his back garden, does a quick glance around the perimeter, and takes a deep breath. It’s just early enough that the spring morning still feels a little crisp, the delicate scent of bee balm and lavender from the tidy garden beds drift over on a light breeze, and the sun is already high enough to beam down in shafts through the oaks dotted around the yard. All in all, not the worst morning to have a heart to heart with yourself. Could be worse. Could be raining. Olly fiddles with the little carved wooden ring around his middle finger, flicking the spinning inside ring once and watching as it flashes bright yellow. The glow brightens for a breath before sinking into the tiny carved animal faces on the ring and puts them in stark relief against the dark brown wood, the little bee glowing the brightest of them all. Handy dandy animal friendship spell in place, he heads over to the back of the yard, plucking a handful of blooms as he goes before flopping inelegantly in front of the largest of the hives in the center of the neat little trio of bee houses along the back fence. He sighs loudly, letting all the air push out of his lungs and folding his flower-filled hands on his stomach to settle in for a long stupid emotional talk.
“I wanna try askin him out. Fuckin gods above do I wanna try, but I shouldn’t. Don’t wanna make him feel uncomfortable cause I decide ta try flirtin with him like some shit fer brains asshole who can’t take a hint and just be his friend,” he grumbles as he huffs loudly to himself. A small swarm of bees file out of the hive and start buzzing around him, a couple landing on the flowers on his chest and getting to work doing their bee thing. Olly smiles softly at the sight before the image of the previous night pops back into his head and he scowls. He can easily recall how his fingers had wound through long brown hair and braided it away from that stupidly pretty man’s face. All because Olly just couldn’t resist trying to take care of him after the man had backed Olly up in some dumbass bar fight. “I was pushin my fuckin luck tyin his hair back fer him and I knew it. He was kinda tipsy after all, and yeah we’d just wrapped up a bit of a scuffle at the bar so maybe he wasn’t all that tipsy after that, but he…he uh…after I fixed his hair fer ‘em he-shit-well he…he kissed my cheek and had me walk ‘im back ta his room. I bolted before he’d even closed the door all the way. Just wanted it ta be an actual date so bad so I could kiss his stupid fuckin hand goodnight or somethin and didn’t trust it not ta show of my fuckin dumbass glass head,” Olly growled low, his chest rumbling with the sound. There was an answering buzz from the hives around him and he sighed, sinking further into the thick clover below as he focused on breathing again. Another bee landed on his hand. He stopped growling.
“Yeah if he didn’t wanna give us a go he wouldn’t be a prick about it. Put on the fuckin five-o boss man voice and all, walk me through all the feelings cause he’s good like that, put me down real gentle. Yeah sure. He’d do that. Stay friends after the pity period too. Wouldn’t be the worst outcome,” he says, wincing as he imagines how that talk would go. Might have to bite the bolt and just let that happen anyway. Get it all out in the open. Shit he didn’t wanna have to sit through that. More bees came out of the hives, slowly beginning to dart in the air above him, little yellow and black bodies humming all together. Some broke off to go into the flower beds and others stayed to investigate their prone keeper and the handful of flowers on his chest.
“I’d feel like a dickhead tryin ta take him out if he wasn’t done processing his divorce. Not like I’m just tryin ta be his friend ta get into his pants or nothing, cause I fuckin ain’t he’s just a good person and I like hangin out with him. Fuck I don’t want him to think that’s the only reason I wanted ta be friends. We were friends before I found out about the divorce yeah but…I didn’t bring him soup or nothin before I knew about it. Fuck even worse what if he figured out he really only thought I was hot enough for a lay? He already told me he didn’t wanna rebound date, that his feelings were all mixed up and he didn’t wanna hurt me or nothin so we should start as friends. I get that. Super. I don’t wanna be a rebound. I like being his friend. I do. Fuck he’s so worth takin a risk though. We could have a seriously good thing brewin,” Olly said softly, recalling the way the man looked when he’d kissed his knuckles on impulse. He’d flushed red, shit he was cute when he got flustered, but still the man was so headstrong and funny. Hells even when he was recovering from his work injury and Olly’d practically broken into his flat he’d starting trying to tidy up. Who does that? If Olly knew more maybe he could've helped with that too, like where he liked to keep his mugs, how he organized his books, how he liked his clothes folded away, what hangs up what doesn’t. Do they do anything fancy with his uniform? He’d always looked put together the handful of times he’d dropped off a surprise lunch basket at the precinct. Would it help if Olly ironed it the night before? It hit him all at once then and he gasped, clutching his hands around the flowers and growling low, tail lashing on the ground as he sucked in another breath to try to keep himself from whining like an injured beast.
“Fuckin shit I’d move across the fuckin mountains fer this guy! When the fuck did that happen?! When the fuck did I start thinking about this dumb fuckin crush like that? I ain’t even told him about being a fuckin bait dog! Shit on a stick and fuck me sideways I gotta pull back. Hells below he gets so soft sometimes though. Wanna make him feel safe enough to do that and know I won’t be a judgy asshole. Bring him flowers and lunch and help him unpack around his place and cook stupid little date night dinners with him and try ta get him ta dance with me after doing dishes and watch the little cousins together cause once they warm up a bit he’s fuckin good with them and he’s fun ta be around and-fuckin shit I am so lost on this guy how did I not notice!?” Olly rambled, getting louder and more angry at himself as he went, growl rumbling back to full force by the end. He took a deep breath, dropping the flowers onto his chest so he could press the heels of his palms into his eyes hard enough to see swirling colors behind the closed lids. Olly let out a long string of nonsense infernal before sighing again, slowly moving his arms back down onto his chest to avoid hurting any of the bees still darting around him. The swarm had gotten the air around him buzzing, but already bits of them were slowly filtering back into their hives now that the flowers he’d brought over had been worked over. That’s his cue. Gotta bite the bolt. Now or never.
“I gotta get over this. Dammit I am not gonna fuck up a good thing cause’a my dumbass feelings,” he growled loudly, huffing again and rubbing his cheeks hard to try to pull himself back together. “I’m takin the day off, baking myself silly, and gettin back ta work tomorrow. No random drop in visits for at least a week. Maybe two. I gotta back off. Distract myself or somethin. Hells might be time I do another fuck me show. Always manage ta pull at least one date outta that. Fuck it if it doesn’t work at least I’m tryin somethin.”
Character Asks (Sixty-Nine Questions):
For Lemon: 6, 18, 19, 31, 48, and 59 :>
For Dealer's Choice: 9, 23, 44, 45, and 65
Wow I'm really rambly tonight lol. Answers under the read more!
Lemon
6 - How have they changed in the last year? How about the last five years?
Lemon a year ago was brand new at adventuring and not knowing who she could trust or rely on, keeping her chirpy happy mask on at all times, and only letting it slip a little bit around Effie. Now she’s added a handful of jobs and a successful revivify to her resume, all while having a team of people she trusts and loves with her!
Lemon five years ago was just before she found out about her engagement, so she was head over heels in puppy love with her best friend, working with Olly and the others at the bakery and cafe, occasionally falling into little pits of depression wondering what she was going to do about her mother How will I keep her nonsense quiet this time? Has anyone noticed? How do I keep them from finding out? Am I believable enough or am I Too Happy?, then getting cheered up by going dancing with the family. Free time spent by visiting the forge to read in a pile with Aodhan and steal glances at Tadhgan working the forge, running with Coyote in the forests on the estate, hanging out with family, and getting up to mischief with her cousins. Outwardly she was content, but inwardly she was festering in indecision about her future and an emotionally abusive relationship with her mother.
18 - What dish brings back the best memories for them?
Farls or hand pies. Lemon always made them with family, so whenever she makes them she can’t help but feel like the people she loves are just outside the room. If she’s quiet she can imagine the sounds they’d make coming in, practically hear Olly or Nes calling out for her. It’s admittedly part of the reason she hasn’t made either yet.
19 - What sparks genuine unadulterated rage in them?
Her mother really. Outside of that and her standard occasional anger issue fueled by love for her friends/family, she hasn’t really found anything that only inspires rage! Most of her emotions are colored pretty heavily by sadness/protection/love, but the closest it gets so far is when in a fight someone takes pleasure in hurting someone else. Seeing the enslaved people sparked something like rage, but she was so focused on keeping her team safe and keeping her mask up she couldn’t really let herself be angry.
31 - Do they respond well to praise? How about criticism?
Lemon has no idea how to handle praise in anything but her baking. Baking is the only thing she knows she’s good at, so when anyone praises her for something else she bluescreens a bit. She likes praise, having verbal proof that she is doing a good job is wonderful, but she doesn’t know what to say other than try to deflect or say thank you and pray they don’t say anything else. Lemon blushes at a “good job” and anything more than that and she feels lightheaded. Criticism is both easier and harder for her to hear. She’s so used to a constant stream of it from her mother she tends to react a little defensively, plus she is already really really hard on herself all the time anyway. It does take a bit of extra thought for her to mentally separate her mother criticizing her from someone offering actual advice to improve. The need to improve to be more useful and therefore wanted wins out though, so she takes criticism okay even if she tends to dwell a bit on what she did wrong.
48 -Do they relate to anyone in the group? Conversely, which person do they relate to the least?
She relates to Nick a lot more than she ever expected! At first she was just sticking with him since he was the other odd person out, but as they got to know each other she learned they have a lot in common. Their morals are pretty similar, and hilariously enough they have similar experiences. Like Nick’s feelings of how people perceive him for being Big and Lemon’s feeling’s of how people perceive her as Tiny. Plus she finds it a little difficult to find her way in the two already very established dynamics in the party, so Nick is already easier to bond with then they are. Currently she relates to Kanti the least. She’s just so unbothered most of the time Lemon has no idea how to get a read on her. Lemon still thinks Kanti is nice, but until she has a better idea of how she reacts to things she’s been placed under the “Interact Through Izzy” section, which thankfully isn’t hard because they’re rarely apart.
59 -What’s an element of their philosophy that you disagree with?
Lemon and I actually have somewhat similar morals! She accidentally got dosed with my need to protect people and eat the cost i.e ”I’m gonna fight that guy and my friends might be mad at me for risking it but they’re safe at that’s what matters in the end”. One thing we don’t agree on is what she’s willing to do for knowledge. Lemon is much more likely to do something extreme in the name of science and progress then I am, to her own body or others. Lemon isn’t quite Mad Scientist levels, but with the right push she could lean more that direction then my morals would normally be comfortable with. I’m not saying if someone said she could live forever and learn magic she would instantly sacrifice her body for it, but I’m not saying she wouldn’t struggle with that decision either.
Dealer’s Choice - Olly
9 - When in their life were they most scared?
Honestly it’s a tossup between when he was rescued from the ring he was a bait dog for, since he was in a cage above a carrion crawler that was doing it’s best to get at him until this jacked half orc punched it to death thanks for that Benji OR The first time a deal went south and a civilian got involved. He was so worried about the guy that he got sloppy and got himself stabbed. Rosalind healed him up after though so the scar is nearly nonexistent now.
23 - In what moment did they consider themselves to be “grown up”?
Honestly the second he was able to mostly keep himself fed after running away from the orphanage. That’s all the adults there were good for doing anyway.
44 - What lies do they tell others?
“Nah I’m good.” - He is in fact, not good, and most likely on the way to brood somewhere.
“Oh fuck off I wouldn’t do that.” - He might do that, given enough booze or if it would make a good bit. He’s just embarrassed you caught him thinking about doing just that.
“Busy. Got plans with a buddy this weekend.” - Your bees do not count as weekend plans with friends Olly. You may gossip with them. but they are still bees and you cannot actually speak with insects. Your family will find you at the hives and then drag you out with them. Why do you bother lying about this??
45 - What lies do they tell themselves?
“I don’t have a thing for that flatfoot fuck off I do not nope not at all I don’t fuck with pigs.” - He does have a thing for goody goody types, and uniforms are hot, so there's a good chance he does have A Thing for that flatfoot.
“I can peel 100 hundred apples easy. Won’t even dirty a knife. Give me, what, an hour?” - Olly you moron no you can’t. Being good at knife stuff doesn’t magically make it easier to peel fruits. You will still slice your fingers a bit and then you can’t use that apple because you got blood on it. Stop it.
65 - What would their go to karaoke song be?
To sing for laughs, “Tequila” in the most deadpan voice and straight face he can muster up. To show off a bit either “Cooler Then Me” covered by Ethan Fields OR “Beggin” by Måneskin.
🍓Does your OC have any particular scents they like? Or hate?
Lemon really loves herby or spicey smells like rosemary, lavender, and five spice! Sesame oil is also a favorite. She doesn’t like how pork shoulder smells when it’s butchered, and isn’t a fan of most floral scents other than lavender. She hates the smell of roses.
🎂Does your OC have any contradictory interests or traits to the first perception people have of them? How do they surprise people?
Lemon is tiny and cute, and I assume most people look at her and think she’s proper and a bit innocent. I assume they can parse out just how much of a book/knowledge nerd she is by spending two minutes with her. Until she gets to know someone she is fairly polite and cheery, but she’s honestly pretty broody and a ball of anxiety under the fluff. I think her main surprise is how rowdy she can get with the right group. Lemon is a bit of a party girl at heart, and she grew up playing tag in the forests around the estate with her friend Coyote so she’s got a bit of a wild child streak in her too. Still hates bugs, but she’s no stranger to curling up in the boughs of a tree and sleeping outside.
🍷What’s one of your OC’s pet peeves concerning food?
Fancy restaurant portions. If she pays for good food she expects to be full by the end. That and how some of those restaurants present the food in containers that are just difficult to use or eat around. She will rant about it for hours.
🍰What’s something your OC counts as unforgivable?
Lemon hasn’t really had anyone do anything unforgivable just yet, other than the obvious with the way her mother treated her and what Ursula did to her at the engagement party. I think for her it would all boil down to trust? If she had the understanding that this person would treat her one way, trusted them, and they betrayed that. Like if Abyss had turned on them she wouldn’t really count it as unforgivable, because they were a known quantity who could turn on them depending on the cash flow or the job.
For Dealer’s Choice: Olly
🍸If your OC was in this universe, what would their favorite show/book/band/social media platform?
Show - He’d lie and say he doesn’t watch tv, but he actually really loves nature documentaries. Put on Planet Earth and he’d zone for hours. He also loves baking/cooking shows, competitions or otherwise. He will treat those like they were sports and yell at the TV a whole lot.
Book - Historical fiction would be his jam. Especially if there was a bit of romance peppered in. Not straight up romance novels, he cares way more about the world building aspect, but he won’t say no to a bit of romantic tension.
Band -He is a punk/rock/metal head through and through, would show up to as many shows as he could and be in the pit with everyone else, volume up high and enough bass to feel it in your bones. He’d also love coming home, putting on a jazz record, and slow dancing in the kitchen.
Social Media - I think he’d actually like Instagram tbh. Mostly posts pictures of food and himself flipping off the camera in various odd places. The occasional dapper looking outfit or pictures of him and his sisters or the rest of the family. Memes between him and Lemon about the bakery.
🍩What's a crime your OC is most likely to commit? What's a crime they're most likely to get arrested for?
Assault and battery, specifically against a rude customer in the bakery or someone who tries to talk shit about his family. Honestly I think he’d be booked for public drunkenness, but that’s only because he wandered off from the rest of the family and no one could find him. He’d just end up on some random corner leaning against a light pole snoring very loudly.
🍫Where does your OC go to think?
If he’s really thinking hard about something you’re pretty likely to find him in his office at the bakery with his feet propped up on his desk and leaning back dangerously far in his chair OR the gardens at his sisters home up in some tree flipping a knife around.
🍑What sort of traits does your OC look for in a Significant Other?
A nice rack. Genuinely though he is a bisexual switch and massive fool, who thinks he looks like and sometimes acts like too much of an asshole to meet people who are actually nice. Olly ends up with the occasional FWB set up, but he sort of hates those and secretly hopes they’ll end up developing into something more. They don’t, mostly because he has a habit of forming these attachments on people who are emotionally unavailable or uninterested in him as more than a friend. He is attracted to genuine kindness, a good sense of humor, and someone who isn’t intimidated by him and will put him in his place. Has a thing for goody goody types.
