Baldur's Gate 3 and D&D Rules

[GMMichael]

Baldur's Gate 3 does something that we don't see very often in RPGs: it makes specific references to RPG (D&D) rules during gameplay. If I recall correctly, this has popped up in earlier Baldur's entries, and Icewind Dale (BioWare games).

Do you notice these rules/interactions? Actively track them? Consider them a nuisance? On one hand, I'm not a big fan, because if I'm playing BG3, it's not because I really want to be playing a dice-RPG. On the other, I could be learning how the D&D rules work if I want to be a PC, or I could be getting ideas and understanding more if I want to be a DM.

 

[MGibster]

I paid attention, found it amusingly fun, and didn't find it a distraction at all.

 

[Meech17]

I enjoyed it. It made it so that BG3 was a D&D CRPG, rather than just another CRPG. Beyond just including Forgotten Realms lore and setting material, they bridged the gap so that it felt like D&D, in video game form.

The visible dice rolls were also very cool. You know there are probabilities and chance going on behind the screen in other RPGs as well. In EverQuest I know my Evocation skill is improving because I see my Blaze spell fizzling less often, and I can put two and two together. But in BG3 you see the odds spelled out right in front of you, and can toy with the numbers. You see the difference from various effects in real time, often before you chose to make the roll or not.

It's also cool because it made some things easier to grok than reading the rules from the PHB. When you're sitting there with the book reading the skill or ability or whatever, I know at least speaking for myself I've sometimes had trouble imagining what something might do in practice. Between my understanding, and the DM's understanding, the interpretation can be weird at times. But inside of a video game engine it's more reliable and clear-cut. I know this one cuts both ways.. I haven't experienced it first hand, but I've heard stories of players complaining because "It works like X in BG3!" and arguing against their DM's ruling. I've only had positive experiences personally though. I had a few new players in my group, and playing BG3 really helped them understand the game mechanics better than I was able to.

It also ended up being the push I needed to go from Theater of the Mind play to Grid play. Seeing the way the game made use of space and verticality and other terrain was really exciting and inspiring.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

(Full disclosure: I never got past Act 1, but I still managed to log in over 100 hours with the game.)

I assume we're talking about how BG3 shows you d20s being rolled openly, along with the relevant modifiers in effect. I might be in the minority here (I usually am), but I really liked that. The game embraces the idea that you are playing a video game based on a tabletop RPG, rather than try to hide one while emulating the other. To me, it felt like playing a tabletop game while enjoying the immersion and automation of a computer game.

That was an unexpected, but welcome feature for me. It also gave me a better appreciate for the 5e rules, as well as the game itself. I finally understood how this edition works best; not as a procedural progression from one level-appropriate encounter to the next, but as an open narrative-based, story-driven experience with a system that protects players from bad rules and mistakes.

If anything, it helped me realize why I could never get into this edition despite recognizing some of the good designs built into it. It's also likely to be the reason I never felt compelled to complete BG3. But that's a little off-topic...

Bottom line, I like how BG3 didn't hide the mechanics of the game it was based on. Making that core mechanic as part of the normal game loop reminded me of the connection to the tabletop experience, which made it more enjoyable for me. But I am also not a fan of real-time or pause-to-play strategy games.

 

[Gradine]

(Full disclosure: I never got past Act 1, but I still managed to log in over 100 hours with the game.)

Many such cases

 

[Li Shenron]

It doesn't bother me that much, but I think it makes me metagame too much (read: reload a savegame when I see I missed a DC by little).

 

[Sossij]

If I recall correctly, this has popped up in earlier Baldur's entries, and Icewind Dale (BioWare games).

Don't forget Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2!

 

[Piperken]

Baldur's Gate 3 does something that we don't see very often in RPGs: it makes specific references to RPG (D&D) rules during gameplay. If I recall correctly, this has popped up in earlier Baldur's entries, and Icewind Dale (BioWare games).

Do you notice these rules/interactions? Actively track them? Consider them a nuisance? On one hand, I'm not a big fan, because if I'm playing BG3, it's not because I really want to be playing a dice-RPG. On the other, I could be learning how the D&D rules work if I want to be a PC, or I could be getting ideas and understanding more if I want to be a DM.

Without detracting from your poll, one point of interaction that worked extremely well in this game, was the presentation of your choices (the what do you do?) as colored by the Narrator (Amelia Tyler).

I deliberately picked particular routes just on the basis of how situations were presented in terms of acting, in the moment.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have multiple players who are better D&D players because of BG3 doing this and lapsed players who are interested in coming back with a renewed appreciation of the rules and character options in the game.

 

[Gradine]

I have multiple players who are better D&D players because of BG3 doing this and lapsed players who are interested in coming back with a renewed appreciation of the rules and characters options in the game.

BG3 has also made new players way more creative in the way they approach scenarios (often but not exclusively combat); largely because of the things that the most purist tabletop fans complained about (height advantages, barrelmancy, in general utilizing the environment more, etc.).

Pre-BG3 my biggest problem with new players was getting them to engage with the space beyond "I walk up and hit it". My post-BG3 new players do not have that problem.