This isn't a walkthrough. There are big walkthroughs out there that tell you every step, and I'd rather you get lost a little, because getting lost is half the fun of this game. These are just my notes on each chapter: where you'll spend your time, who's around, and the stuff I wish somebody had told me the first time.

The top half of this page has no story spoilers. The story itself is at the bottom, under a big line. If you haven't finished the game, stop at the line. I mean it. The ending is so much better if you don't know.

You start in Candlekeep, the library fortress where you grew up, and before long you're out on the road with your foster father Gorion and nowhere safe to go. Talk to everybody in Candlekeep before you leave. Pick up everything that isn't nailed down (that isn't somebody else's, I mean).

Out in the world, head for the Friendly Arm Inn to meet Jaheira and Khalid. Then south to Beregost, which has shops, temples and an inn, and more people who'll join you than any other town. West of Beregost is High Hedge, where a mage named Thalantyr sells magic things, if you've got the gold. You won't, yet.

My tip: don't go wandering too far off the road at level one. There are things out in the wilderness that will eat a level-one party in two bites. I lost my whole first party to a pack of wolves.

Everybody on the Sword Coast is talking about the iron shortage. Weapons are breaking, prices are going up, and it all seems to lead back to the iron mines at Nashkel, down south near the border with Amn. Minsc is in Nashkel. So is a carnival, with Branwen in it, turned to stone.

The mines go down several levels, and they're full of kobolds. Kobolds are not a joke in there. Some of them shoot fire arrows, and a few of those will put a mage down fast. Bring a thief for the traps, keep your front line in front, and rest before you go down the last ladder.

My tip: buy every healing potion you can afford before you go in. You'll use them all.

The roads are full of bandits, and the bandits seem very interested in iron. Your job is to find out where they're coming from. Read every note you find on them, and talk to people. There's a bandit camp out there somewhere, with a half-ogre named Tazok mixed up in it, and Kivan would very much like to meet him.

This is a good chapter to wander a bit. You're stronger now, the map is wide open, and there are a lot of little places to find.

My tip: at the camp, don't fight everyone at once. Pull a few at a time back to your party.

A big, dark forest full of spiders, and at the far end of it, another mine. Coran is in the Cloakwood, and so are Eldoth and Faldorn, and Yeslick is a prisoner down in the mines.

Spiders poison you. Bring antidotes, lots of them, or a cleric who can cure poison. The mines themselves are a long crawl down, and the man in charge at the bottom is a wizard who will make you very sorry if you walk in tired.

My tip: when you're done down there, you'll know what to do with the mine. Yeslick knows too. Take him.

Finally, the city! It's enormous. You could spend this whole chapter just doing errands for people, and I did, twice. Tiax, Alora and Skie are all here. Shop at Sorcerous Sundries for magic. Go to the Elfsong Tavern and listen.

The main story is about the Iron Throne, a big merchant company with a headquarters in the city. You'll end up inside it, one floor at a time.

My tip: save before every door in the city at night. The streets after dark are not safe, and the save game is your best friend.

You go home. It doesn't go the way you'd hope. That's all I'll say up here.

My tip: don't fight the monks. Whatever happens, they're not the ones you want. And there's more to Candlekeep than what's above ground.

Back to Baldur's Gate for the finish, and this time the whole city is in trouble. The fights in this chapter are the hardest in the game. Everybody should be at their best levels with their best equipment.

My tip: once you head down for the very end, there's no coming back up to shop. Rest, buy potions, memorize your best spells, save in a separate slot, and then go.

Chapters 1 and 2. The armored man who kills Gorion on the road outside Candlekeep is after you, not him. Meanwhile the iron from the Nashkel mines is being ruined on purpose, so it goes brittle, and the man at the bottom of the mines turns out to be working for someone bigger.

Chapters 3 and 4. The bandits are stealing iron shipments for the same people, and their orders trace back to the Cloakwood mine, which is secretly producing good iron while everyone else goes without. Behind all of it is the Iron Throne, which wants Baldur's Gate and Amn to go to war, so they can sell the iron for a fortune.

Chapter 5. Inside the Iron Throne you meet its leaders, and the name that keeps coming up is Sarevok, the adopted son of one of them. He's the armored man from Chapter 1. And he wants a lot more than money.

Chapter 6. The Iron Throne's leaders go to Candlekeep, and they turn up dead, and you get framed for it and locked up. You escape through the catacombs underneath. And by now, between the bad dreams you've been having all game and what you learn in Candlekeep, you know who you really are: a child of Bhaal, the dead god of murder. So is Sarevok. That's why Gorion was hiding you, and that's why Sarevok wants you dead.

Chapter 7. Sarevok is about to have himself named a duke of Baldur's Gate, and he wants a war because a war means bloodshed, and bloodshed would make him something like his father. You have to expose him in front of everybody at the ceremony in the ducal palace. He runs, you chase him down under the city, and the last fight is in the ruined Temple of Bhaal, deep beneath Baldur's Gate.

The first time I beat him I was up at 3 in the morning on a school night, and I screamed loud enough that my roommate came running in with a hair dryer as a weapon. Worth it.