D&D 5E (2014) Murder in Baldur's Gate Cover Revealed; "Ancient Evil" Identified

[GX.Sigma]

http://www.kekaiart.com/freelance.html

Kekai Kotaki did alot of the art so far. He doesn't have the 2 modules shown on his site if they are his.

Kekai Kotaki is a tremendously cool guy.

 

[Pour]

Given the cover and the characters, please, please, please be the tabletop promotional to a Baldur's Gate III announcement.

 

[Jester David]

Not particularly thrilled by this.

It really seems like WotC is trying to cash in on the very popular Baldur's Gate video game series, almost like they're riding BioWare's coattails. D&D has gone from the game that video games imitate and that video games adapt to the game that is imitating and adapting video games. (Almost as bad as comics, and their insistence on changing the source material to match the adaptation.)
Bhaal. Whee. The only thing interesting he did was die and do that poorly. He was only really active in the Realms for two years (1987 and '88) before dying when 2nd Edition was released. He's not exactly a fondly remembered god full of nostalgia and was rather redundant in the evil pantheon.

Hopefully, the Bhaal image and BG character are related to 2/3rds of the adventure being a detailing of the city of Baldur's Gate. A reference to the city's past and not its present as reflected in the adventure.

 

[RevTurkey]

Bit harsh, blimey.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Not particularly thrilled by this.

It really seems like WotC is trying to cash in on the very popular Baldur's Gate video game series, almost like they're riding BioWare's coattails.

I think it's about time they cashed in on it--they had a huge mainstream chunk of brand recognition, and they were just ignoring it.

I'm calling it now: the plot of the adventure involves one of the Bhaalspawn (I believe canonically the player character is the only one who lives) transforming into Bhaal.

 

[gyor]

Maybe one of the Bhaalspawn died by being turned into a Statue in which case a Stone to Flesh Spell would bring him back to life.

It was along time ago and I'm not certain if the protagonist is the last Bhaalspawn or not.

Heck even if it was it could also be one of his children.

 

[gyor]

Or given the Sunderings focus on the Chosen it could be a Chosen of Bhaal instead of Bhaalspawn.

 

[Alzrius]

(I believe canonically the player character is the only one who lives) transforming into Bhaal.

Canonically, the last Bhaalspawn was Abdel Adrian, from the Baldur's Gate novelizations. He retained a tiny amount of the essence of Bhaal, and the rest of it was scattered across the cosmos, supposedly never to be absorbed by anyone.

 

[DEFCON 1]

You might also get a good brand tie-in... in that the Enhanced Editions of the Baldur's Gate II and Throne of Bhaal computer games from Overhaul Games and Beamdog are supposedly due to be released by the end of 2013.

So we might be seeing Murder In Baldur's Gate released at about the same time of the Enhanced BGII. So players could experience the Bhaalspawn Saga two different ways... in the original FR timeline of the CRPG, and the Sundering timeline of the new module.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I think it's about time they cashed in on it--they had a huge mainstream chunk of brand recognition, and they were just ignoring it. (snip)

I agree.

It made no sense to ignore one of the most critically and commercially successful pieces of D&D IP until now.

While not not yet convinced that the current D&D brand team knows their arse from their elbow in a marketing sense yet, this seems to be a step in the right direction.

Except for the diehard FR haters, of course.

I just hope Rob Schwalb isn't responsible for NPC names. We don't need more FR characters named Adrian, Kane, Ren etc....