Baldur’s Gate III Video Interview and Editorials

The weekend brings us some more Baldur’s Gate III information to sink our teeth into, as we’ve been treated to a new video interview and a few additional editorials. We begin with the video interview on D&D Beyond, which features Wizards of the Coast creative designer Adam Lee talking about the significance of the symbol of Bhaal, the “Dead Three” (Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul), and more.

Next, we move to PC Gamer for an article on why they want to “sleep scum their way to victory”:

Sleep-scumming is the only way I know how to play classic Baldur’s Gate, and I refuse to play Baldur’s Gate 3 unless I can use the same trashy tactics that got me through the Nashkel Mines.

Health potions and healing spells are precious, only to be used in the most dire circumstances. You can’t just uncork a bottle of the red stuff every time a skeleton looks at you. The same is true of healing spells, which are a finite resource for your magic-wielding characters each day. Real adventurers are capable of sleeping off their ailments for the greater good, no matter how uncomfortable the environs.

From there, we hit HeadStuff for a piece on whether the threequel can “recapture the magic of the past”:

In short, the market has changed quite a bit since the heyday of the classic RPG, and to some extent, it would be justified to contemplate how the development of Baldur’s Gate 3 is in turn going to be affected by this trend. Certainly, given the hands holding the series at the moment, it’s unlikely that the newest installment’s going to go full Action RPG with limited dialogue and an almost purely combat focus.

That said, we are at a point now where many of Baldur’s Gate’s peers such as the Fallout series have had to compromise their original design in order to better achieve mass appeal. While, of course, no sensible person would say that Fallout New Vegas is inferior to Fallout 2 when it provides better graphics and gameplay mechanics, with only a relative small hit to story (though the less said about Fallout 4, the better), what this shows is that the general audience prefer Action RPGs to their slower, classic cousins.

Before stopping by Android Central, where they regurgitate “everything we know” about Baldur’s Gate III and the Stadia platform:

The Baldur’s Gate 3 tagline is “Gather Your Party” so having a multiplayer component is almost guaranteed. Sven did say that there will be cooperative multiplay and that the party is a huge part of the game. Dungeons and Dragons without a party is really not a lot of fun, so playing the game with a group of friends will make a huge difference.

I also like the idea of being able to give your inspiration to other members of your party. It’s a big part of Fifth Edition and would really add a feeling that you are playing the tabletop game, visualized through a video game.

And then finishing off at Tom’s Guide for a WotC commentary-laden preview of sorts:

“RPGs are really interesting,” Mearls said. “As far as I know … tabletop RPGs and computer RPGs are the only genres where you keep so much of that identity across platforms.” He pointed out that there’s really no board game equivalent to a first-person shooter, for example, but we expect computer RPGs to faithfully recreate the experience of playing on a tabletop.

I mentioned that tabletop war games and computer strategy games also bear considerable similarity to each other. Mearls agreed, but pointed out that the duty of a Dungeon Master is much more open-ended than that of a wargame opponent. While a wargame player can be strategic and creative, a DM must make open-ended decisions as well.

“[BGIII] is a continuation of the lore of Baldur’s Gate as well,” Kelly said. “Go and play Descent Into Avernus. But there’s a difference between the story of the city itself, and the player’s individual story. When you join the game, you’re Level 1.