WotC Baldur's Gate III Announced; Powered by D&D 5E

The developers of the Divinity: Original Sin series, Laria Studios, officially announced Baldur’s Gate III.

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The new game will use the D&D 5^th Edition rules as the backbone for their system and the storyline will be set directly after the events in the upcoming adventure Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus. The game will be released on PC and the new Google Stadia video game streaming service. The announcement came with a teaser trailer below. More information is expected at the video game and electronics conference E3 next week.

The game isn't quite available for pre-order, but you can add it to your wishlist on Steam. The Steam listing also gives some idea of the features and gameplay options, as it lists Single Player, Multi-Player, Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer, Co-Op, Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op, Shared/Split Screen, and Cross-Platform Multiplayer.

The announcement follows a tease last week with an image of the stylized "III" which left the title of the game as part of the filename.

Warning: The trailer features some gruesome imagery which may not be suitable for all audiences and is definitely NSFW.

[video=youtube;OcP0WdH7rTs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcP0WdH7rTs[/video]​

 

[Urriak]

This article tells way more info on the game: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/20...d-from-the-creators-of-divinity-original-sin/

Spoiler for interesting plot details;

[sblock]The game is set right after Descent into Avernus, meaning that it is possible in that book to stop the city from being absorbed into hell (not too surprising). It also means the game is pretty much set right at the end of that book, so you could very easily pivot right from the Descent into protecting the city from Mind Flayers in a D&D campaign, which is pretty dope.[/sblock]

 

[MarkB]

This article tells way more info on the game: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/20...d-from-the-creators-of-divinity-original-sin/

Spoiler for interesting plot details;

[sblock]The game is set right after Descent into Avernus, meaning that it is possible in that book to stop the city from being absorbed into hell (not too surprising). It also means the game is pretty much set right at the end of that book, so you could very easily pivot right from the Descent into protecting the city from Mind Flayers in a D&D campaign, which is pretty dope.[/sblock]

I suspect that it will more likely be a case of reversing the event in question rather than preventing it. But we will see.

This seems like a winning tactic for WotC - I haven't played through many of the 5e adventures, but this actually has me stoked to play the Descent campaign as a prelude to playing BGIII.

 

[Abstruse]

Wait, I just noticed the title of this thread is "Powered by D&D 5e".
That's not quite true:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/20...d-from-the-creators-of-divinity-original-sin/
While it is certainly inspired by 5e, it is more likely to be some variant of the Divinity Engine 3.0.

It depends on what you mean exactly. If you mean the engine from a video game design standpoint, then no, D&D 5e isn't a video game engine the way Unity or Unreal are. However, the numerical rules will be D&D 5e based and they're adapting several systems from the Divinity series to work within the D&D 5e systems like Backgrounds and Traits. It obviously won't be a one-to-one translation because the needs of a video game and the needs of a tabletop game are different, but this is Baldur's Gate III not Divinity: Original Sin III and the mechanics will reflect it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Warning: The trailer features some gruesome imagery which may not be suitable for all audiences and is definitely NSFW.

[video=youtube;OcP0WdH7rTs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcP0WdH7rTs[/video]​

Somehow, this warning did not do it justice.

For those of you who don't want to click the video:
[sblock]The trailer features a Flaming Fist Mercenary undergoing Ceremorphosis. With an extra dose of body horror. Also a Nautiloid.[/sblock]

Oof. I wish I'd read this first. Was not prepared to deal with body horror like that today. Gonna be sick for a few hours, now.

Did the trailer need to be that disgusting?

Note to Larian: the point of a trailer is to make people want to play your game, not make them lose their lunch.

Like it's not hard to use shadows and sounds to convey the same information.

 

[Blue]

Seeing Multiplayer and Local Multiplayer I'm worried that unlike a true decedent of Balder's Gate that this game does not support a single player controlling a diverse party.

I haven't played Divinity: Original Sin, anyone who has want to comment on the type of game it was in regards to number of characters controlled?

 

[MarkB]

Seeing Multiplayer and Local Multiplayer I'm worried that unlike a true decedent of Balder's Gate that this game does not support a single player controlling a diverse party.

I haven't played Divinity: Original Sin, anyone who has want to comment on the type of game it was in regards to number of characters controlled?

Divinity Original Sin 2 allows you to control up to four characters as I recall. If you're playing co-op, you can choose who gets to control which characters other than each person's main character.

The game's multiplayer support is very robust, but it's equally playable as a single player game.

 

[Parmandur]

This article tells way more info on the game: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/20...d-from-the-creators-of-divinity-original-sin/

Spoiler for interesting plot details;

[sblock]The game is set right after Descent into Avernus, meaning that it is possible in that book to stop the city from being absorbed into hell (not too surprising). It also means the game is pretty much set right at the end of that book, so you could very easily pivot right from the Descent into protecting the city from Mind Flayers in a D&D campaign, which is pretty dope.[/sblock]

Obviously this ties into Descent to Avernus, but I wonder if this gives us a clue as to the villain of next year's big storyline adventure...

 

[Abstruse]

Seeing Multiplayer and Local Multiplayer I'm worried that unlike a true decedent of Balder's Gate that this game does not support a single player controlling a diverse party.

I haven't played Divinity: Original Sin, anyone who has want to comment on the type of game it was in regards to number of characters controlled?

That part's been confirmed, you'll be controlling a party in single player. It's what the multiplayer means exactly that's the question - will each player get their own party, or will they split control of the party - I get my PC and Branwen you get your PC and Minsc. And yes, the Divnity games play very similarly to the original Baldur's Gate and the other isometric D&D games. You start with one PC and slowly build a party that you control as the game progresses (getting a fully party pretty much by the end of the tutorial and getting more options as you go).

 

[EthanSental]

I’m in! Looks like it will be a fun game from a great cprpg making company.

 

[Ricochet]

Trailer was great! Larian are great! This might just work. Finally Wizards has partnered up with a competent software house. "Too green" though? Yeesh, what about those other D&D games of the past decade? They don't exactly scream quality.

Really good start for this one!