IIRC, I think Descent into Avernus is technically a prequel to Baldur's Gate 3.
Ah, straight from the horse's mouth
"How is the storyline linked to D&D?
Baldur’s Gate 3 takes place right after the events of Descent into Avernus. The holy city of Elturel disappeared from the Forgotten Realms and descended into Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells. In our canon, it was saved by a party of heroes. The game is based on the 5th edition ruleset of D&D and was created closely together with Wizards of the Coast. "
From Larian.com
I think people are playing the "but technically it's touted as a prequel!" card a bit too readily, and I think
@Whizbang Dustyboots has a point. You don't get a synergistic release when one product is released in 2019, and the other four years later in 2023. "WotC couldn't have accounted for Covid delays" is a silly excuse. People
know AAA releases take 4-5 years at least at this point. If there were no Covid, the game would probably be released in 2022 instead of 2023. That's still too late for two products that are supposed to boost each other's sales.
Also, DiA is a
terrible tie-in for Baldur's Gate 3. The story starts in Baldur's Gate just to make that connection, but then asks you to drop all your connections and plans in that city to go save another, unrelated city. There are some plot points (like neeeding to rescue Duke Ravengard) that both games use which, if experienced together, lead to a repetitive experience. This to me indicates that the book's writer team had little communication with Larian beyond the general points (such as the adventure book leading to Tiefling refugees). If Wizards wanted the book and the game to truly tie into each other, they would make sure the book's writing team and Larian worked closely together, they would keep the book's release date free-floating to make sure it'd align with the game's release. Like Whizbang says, they'd offer combo products that give you both the game and the adventure. Instead, they basically tied the story of one book they released four years ago to the game, and they did that pretty haphazardly. This isn't good brand management, and I'm baffled why people are defending WotC on this.
Honestly, this isn't the only tie-in WotC screwed up
just this year. Keys From the Golden Vault has the same Absolution Council as the movie does in the beginning. That's great! I loved to see that the Dragonborn and the halfling on the council can be found as practically identical characters in the adventure Prisoner 13. But do you know who's missing?
JARNATHAN! The
only council member who is relevant to the movie's plot, who was well-liked by the audiences, and who was a major part of the film's marketing campaign. I'm guessing they came up with that character later during the production and couldn't add it to the book, but that's the kind of tie-in opportunity that they seem to keep missing.
www.dndbeyond.com
