D&D 5E Baldur's Gate vs Waterdeep

[gyor]

Baldur's Gate vs Waterdeep. Does anyone else wish instead of BG3 we were getting Waterdeep 1? It's just that Waterdeep is a much cooler, much more impressive city then BG.

The novels set in Waterdeep are also better.

Don't get me wrong, 5e BG is more interesting then 2e BG, but Waterdeep is still more interesting then either.

I look at my poster map of Waterdeep, and all the interesting sites, then look at a picture of 5e Baldur's Gate sigh, wistfully.

Don't get me wrong, Little Calimshan, Twin Songs, Undercellar, Hall of Wonders is neat, but after that BG really isn't that interesting.

Waterdeep on the other hands has so much to see. It has way more temples, mount waterdeep, chosen of mysteria, merfolk in its harbour, walking statues, magic schools, and more. Oh and a little thing called Undermountain.

But in CRPG spheres Baldur's Gate has the name recognition.

 

[Zardnaar]

I didn't play BG but played Eye of the Beholder set under Waterdeep.

Kind of neutral on both places, slight preference for Waterdeep perhaps.

 

[Ash Mantle]

I was rather hopeful we were going to get Athkatla, people would know about that city from Baldur's Gate 2, and it's a den of stinking evil to boot. The weight of avarice is heavy in that city.

I guess there's more sinister happenings afoot in Baldur's Gate, with the eventual rise of mind flayers to tie-in with Baldur's Gate 3, which is probably why Baldur's Gate was chosen, everything is well planned in advance at Wizards.

 

[Coroc]

Did play EoB 1-3 and Baldurs gate I and 2 and throne of baal and siege of shadowspear castle, own the 2e FR waterdeep city of splendors and the 2e undermountain 1 and 2. And I did play all of these games more than once. Did also paly neverwinter (not the mmorpg but the one from 2001, they also had some waterdeep and undermountain.

From a DM point of view I prefer waterdeep, because it gives me more freedom. The cinema in my head would always be influenced by the BG crpgs would I run something in BG. Also Waterdeep got skullport and undermountain and loads of portals, it is a more fundamental base for adventures. Wit waterdeep you can do a campaign totally ignoring politics and factions or totally integrating them into the scenario even making them a topic. For 2e material you got the noble families the thieves guild other guilds the masked rulers etc. that's a multitude of factions.
If the play material for BG is the same like the BG cprg you only got the Duke, the thieves guild and some high level mages as power players. In BG you cannot easily ignore the equivalent factions, otoh the motivation to work for or against them is much more difficult e.g. take the flaming fist, if your group is not totally a law and order gang then things get difficult for you if you are on the wrong side of the fist.

If the sewers are the same like in the CRPG then on this point BG wins, because they are much more realistic than both the stuff given in eob or in the actual boxed set.

As a player I cannot tell easily which one of these, but maybe waterdeep also.

 

[gyor]

I never played Eye of the Beholder sadly. Maybe I will see if GoG has them.

 

[Zardnaar]

Probably has aged terribly. Part 2 was good all those decades ago.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'm sure a lot more people played the Baldur's Gate CRPG than Eye of the Beholder. By the time BG came out (1998) PCs where a lot more ubiquitous than they where in 1991, and the improved technology allowed for a more immersive, accessible experience. Eye of the Beholder may have been set in Waterdeep, but it was a Waterdeep built of cubes. By using hand drawn artwork for the backgrounds Baldur's Gate gave a much stronger impression of what the city was actually like.

 

[gyor]

Just looked a video of EotB, which I assumed was more like Pool of Radiance, but nope, its not appealing, so its a pass.

I would still have prefered Waterdeep be the setting then BG for Larians game, but no worries.

I do wonder if BG backgrounds features will be in BG3.

 

[Coroc]

EOB was actually one of the most important predecessors of everything going on today, be it WOW Neverwinter online or anything else going on in POV perspective.

EOB actually brought me to D&D in a way the gold boxes never could.

Those were times, you had to map for yourself on gridpaper and you never would know if you missed out something. I think I figured out some of the special quests in EOB 1 only 15 to 20 years later. Some were easy but some were really hard to find out.
There is a nice EOB edition where they made parts of the dungeon accessible, which were previously only reachable per hex editor and defunct, probably Test areas for the developers.

The second part was hideously difficult in some places until you knew your tricks.

The third part was about myth drannor, and it was different, not all out bad, good riddles partially, but very different due to being produced by a totally different team.