Different-area Dialogue

Trick Summary
This trick allows you, in limited situations, to converse with NPCs in other areas, and in particular to let removed NPCs in other areas rejoin your party.

Games It Works In
Baldur's Gate I - Yes

Baldur's Gate II - Yes

Icewind Dale I - ?

Icewind Dale II - ?

Planescape: Torment - ?

Method And Explanation
Baldur's Gate Series

To perform this trick, leave a character who is trying to approach the PC to initiate dialogue (such as an NPC removed from the party) behind in an area, and have the PC travel to another area. In the new area, send the PC to the co-ordinates the NPC is at in the previous area, and the NPC will initiate dialogue. This is probably because the code to determine whether two characters can enter dialogue checks only their co-ordinates to see if they are next to each other, and does not check they are in the same area.

In order for the trick to work, it is required that after leaving the first area it remains loaded in the game's memory - whether or not this is the case depends upon the scripting of the individual areas, but a useful rule of thumb is that the game will keep loaded large areas when you enter smaller areas branching off them, but not the other way around. Useful cheats to use when planning tricks involving this glitch are CTRL-G and CTRL-X. The former lists the area codes of currently loaded areas, while the latter shows the co-ordinates of the point under the mouse cursor.

It is useful to note that, for unknown reasons, in Baldur's Gate II, having a party member join (or rejoin) the party in any area will keep that area loaded in the game's memory permanantly until you reload a save, which significantly broadens the range of uses of this trick. This method for keeping areas loaded has not yet been tested in any other games.

Notable Speedrunning Applications

 * Involved in breaking the cutscene after the summoning of the Avatar Of Rillifane in Baldur's Gate II.

Video
500px|Notice that you can have party members on each side of a party required transition.