D&D 5E (2014) D&D Beyond Offers A Free Baldur's Gate Gazetteer

In Baldur’s Gate, thievery, blackmail, and illegal trade runs rampant. Now you can journey to this dangerous city of the Sword Coast with the Baldur’s Gate Gazetteer. Learn about each of the city’s districts and key locations and people, and unlock backgrounds for your next Baldurian character!

The Gazetter includes:

• History of Baldur's Gate
• Baldur's Gate Today
• Government
• Citizenry
• Economy and Trade
• Religion
• Dangers in Baldur's Gate
• City Landmarks
• Upper City
• Lower City
• Outer City
• Beyond Baldur's Gate
• Baldur's Gate Character Backgrounds
• Dark Secrets

The Gazetteer is quite sizable, and mainly lore-based, with two new NPC stat blocks (Nine-Fingers Keene, and Rilasa Real), some random encounter tables, and information on how the regular D&D character backgrounds fit in. There's also a new background, the Faceless. Finally there are some rules about 'Dark Secrets' which are a background element which the party shares.

Claim Baldur’s Gate Gazetteer now! - D&D Beyond

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[Weiley31]

In my FR, I still use the Neverwinter as a city in reconstruction caught in somekind of civil cold war and a huge colony of aboleths lurking under the town. Oh, and Helm's Deep as a pretty creepy inquisitorial sanatorium for the spell-plagued!

In my 5E FR game, the restoration of Neverwinter is one of the MAJOR events happening in the background and that 4E book is pretty much the basis for all that. And now EVERYBODY wants their hands in the restoration efforts in order to reap the benefits from assisting in such a matter. Of course, some like the Zhentarim, want to get involved secretly in order to manipulate things to their advantage.

 

[Parmandur]

You don't get a synergistic release when one product is released in 2019, and the other four years later in 2023.

The relevant Daye for BG3 isn2020, when people began playing it.

 

[Ondath]

The relevant Daye for BG3 isn2020, when people began playing it.

Except, it's pretty obvious that the vast majority of people were not playing the game in 2020. A minority played the Early Access, yes, but even then, that was only less than a third of the game. You couldn't glean all of the plot points of BG3 from that, and without those, the ways in which the book fully ties in with the video game are not clear. For instance, at some point you learn that the Dead Three are behind most of what's happening in the game. The Dead Three also played a role in DiA, but their role was secondary to Duke Vanthampur and his infernal plots. I'm at the start of Act 3, and I still don't know if the beginning portion of DiA and the big plot in BG3 are related or not. Without clear plot threads creating a synergistic story between the two games, it's not a good tie-in. And we didn't have access to BG3's full story until two weeks ago.

So for all intents and purposes, BG3 came out this year. A small minority played the Early Access, but the buzz they generated is negligible compared to the new crowds that are playing the game now. The smart synergistic strategy would be releasing DiA now, not three years ago when a (at the time) dubious Early Access programme was launched.

 

[Parmandur]

Except, it's pretty obvious that the vast majority of people were not playing the game in 2020. A minority played the Early Access, yes, but even then, that was only less than a third of the game. You couldn't glean all of the plot points of BG3 from that, and without those, the ways in which the book fully ties in with the video game are not clear. For instance, at some point you learn that the Dead Three are behind most of what's happening in the game. The Dead Three also played a role in DiA, but their role was secondary to Duke Vanthampur and his infernal plots. I'm at the start of Act 3, and I still don't know if the beginning portion of DiA and the big plot in BG3 are related or not. Without clear plot threads creating a synergistic story between the two games, it's not a good tie-in. And we didn't have access to BG3's full story until two weeks ago.

So for all intents and purposes, BG3 came out this year. A small minority played the Early Access, but the buzz they generated is negligible compared to the new crowds that are playing the game now. The smart synergistic strategy would be releasing DiA now, not three years ago when a (at the time) dubious Early Access programme was launched.

I can see a case thst it is an iffy tie-in. But it isna tie-in that exists, that they have marketed as such.

 

[Ondath]

I can see a case thst it is an iffy tie-in. But it isna tie-in that exists, that they have marketed as such.

Sure, I concede that point. But my point was that DiA and BG3 fail at being good tie-ins even though they were designed as such. Since they fail at doing the tie-in job well, I'm exaggerating slightly to say that DiA should not count as a tie-in. Similarly, Whizbang was bemoaning how WotC wasted many good opportunities for good tie-ins, using the DiA-BG3 duo as an example. Clearly, Wizards also intended these two products to be synergistic. But they botched their connection so badly that it hardly counts as a tie-in. That was the point Whizbang was making, and I think it's a good point.

 

[Parmandur]

Sure, I concede that point. But my point was that DiA and BG3 fail at being good tie-ins even though they were designed as such. Since they fail at doing the tie-in job well, I'm exaggerating slightly to say that DiA should not count as a tie-in. Similarly, Whizbang was bemoaning how WotC wasted many good opportunities for good tie-ins, using the DiA-BG3 duo as an example. Clearly, Wizards also intended these two products to be synergistic. But they botched their connection so badly that it hardly counts as a tie-in. That was the point Whizbang was making, and I think it's a good point.

I dunno, I wouldn't judge how botched it is without seeing the sales numbers. DiA may have juiced up the Early Access numbers for BG3, which helped the final release, for all I know, and DiA is certainly still in print and selling: for context, thst means that DiA has been in print and for sale longer than 4E D&D as a whole.

 

[bedir than]

Sure, I concede that point. But my point was that DiA and BG3 fail at being good tie-ins even though they were designed as such. Since they fail at doing the tie-in job well, I'm exaggerating slightly to say that DiA should not count as a tie-in. Similarly, Whizbang was bemoaning how WotC wasted many good opportunities for good tie-ins, using the DiA-BG3 duo as an example. Clearly, Wizards also intended these two products to be synergistic. But they botched their connection so badly that it hardly counts as a tie-in. That was the point Whizbang was making, and I think it's a good point.

DiA isn't in the top 100 games and puzzle books. SCAG is in the top ten.
If it was an effective tie-in to a game that's sold nearly 3 million copies already, it would be in the top 10.

 

[Reynard]

I'm surprised they didn't at least get Beadle and Grimm to do a fancy pants version as the actual "tie in."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm surprised they didn't at least get Beadle and Grimm to do a fancy pants version as the actual "tie in."

It turns out there's a lot of legal issues when you try to sell D&D-branded live octopuses.

 

[Reynard]

It turns out there's a lot of legal issues when you try to sell D&D-branded live octopuses.

Octopi