Games - Minsc

	Games - Minsc

Minsc is the name of a prominent fictional character in the Baldur's Gate series of Dungeons & Dragons
computer role-playing games created by Bioware. Appearing in all four games of the series, he served as a light-toned comic relief and was always accompanied by a pet hamster named "Boo", represented as an icon in Minsc's inventory. Minsc insists Boo is in fact a miniature Giant Space Hamster - a Dungeons and Dragons creature from the Spelljammer
series. Some suspect Boo may be just an ordinary hamster.

He was one of several non-player characters (NPCs) available in the Baldur's Gate series to accompany the player's character through the storyline, but Minsc stands out as a particularly noticable character, and is regarded as one of the most popular NPCs in computer gaming, recently receiving high rankings in polls run by IGN and GameSpot. He is voice-acted by Jim Cummings.

Game appearances

Minsc is a bald, purple-tattooed ranger from the Forgotten Realms country of Rashemen. Originally a berserker on his "dajemma", a rite of passage, to gain entrance to the prestigious "Ice Dragon Berserker Lodge", he swore to guard the witch Dynaheir. Following his failure to do so, Minsc becomes a mercenary and self-proclaimed "defender of good".

In the first Baldur's Gate game, Dynaheir and Minsc are ambushed by gnolls near the Wood of Sharp Teeth. Dynaheir gets captured and taken to a Gnoll Stronghold west of the town of Nashkel and Minsc and Boo travel back to Nashkel, where the main characters can meet him. The player will encounter him as a bulging fighter wielding a two-handed sword who is talking to, and even taking advice from, his pet hamster whose cuddly noises make sense to Minsc. He asks for the main character to help him free Dynaheir before she gets eaten, and will hold the main character to his word, with violence if necessary, and if the player does not rescue her within ten days after Minsc joins the party then he will turn on the group and attack. It is possible to encounter a sworn enemy of Minsc and Dynaheir, in that the mage Edwin Odesseiron will engage the main character with the offer to assassinate Dynaheir, an offer which naturally outrages Minsc, and keeping the two, or three, of them in the main character's company is sure to erupt into physical fighting at any time. If Dynaheir is rescued, she and Minsc will become inseperable, and if any of the two are later dropped from the party, then the other will also leave.

In Baldur's Gate II, Minsc and Boo are found alongside the main character as the game starts. Together with Imoen and Jaheira, they have been captured each in a seperate prison cell, and he is in a brutal rage as Dynaheir has been murdered by their captor Irenicus. Minsc travels with the main character, if allowed, and develops long-standing bonds with other NPCs Jaheira, Imoen and Nalia. In the place of Dynaheir, he chooses the avariel elf Aerie, whom he protects as his new witch.

In the released retail version of Baldur's Gate II, Minsc, unlike most other NPCs in that game, did not have a personal mini-quest. However in a game modification called "Unfinished Business", a Directors Cut-style modification which adds quests left as unfinished code or hinted through interviews by the game developers, introduced a quest for Minsc called "The Kidnapping of Boo".

Quotes

Sword meet evil! Evil meet sword!
Butt kicking for goodness!
Minsc and Boo stand ready!
No effect? ...I need bigger sword!!!
Evil round every corner... Careful not to step in any.
Less talk, more fight!
Go for the eyes, Boo, go for the eyes!

References to Minsc and Boo

In the 2001 film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, a tough-looking character at the Prancing Pony Inn is briefly seen cradling a small rodent - perhaps a tribute to Minsc and Boo.
In the webcomic Megatokyo, Largo has a hamster as his conscience which is called Boo, a tribute to Baldur's Gate II that Rodney Caston was famously a fan of.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Minsc ]

Searches on eBay

minsc