D&D General Drawbacks of a World with BG3 in it

jgsugden

Legend
Those of us that have played BG3 are (mostly) in love with it. It is outstanding in quality without rip off pricing, and with an almost unreasonable level of love from Larian in improving it post release. It is one of, if not the absolute, favorite game(s) ever.

HOWEVER ...

There are many ways in which this sonnauhbeyotch has screwed with me. I thought I'd share mine, and ask about any other drawbacks you've seen.

1.) Player Availability: My players are still disappearing on me. I see on Steam that they're playing BG3, but they're missing the start time of games, they're not showing up for board game times, and they're not answering chats/emails/texts. This happens in my gaming circle on occasion - but since BG3 was released, it happens a lot more. And I am hearing this from my friend's spouses, etc... This game is so addicting that people are missing a lot of important things. One mom got caught up and failed to pick her son up from daycare before they closed...

2.) BG3 Stunts in Tabletop: I've always tried to incorporate dynamic environments in my games, but only a small percentage of players really took advantage of it - but now that percentage has grown. The scales have tipped from "I wish my players appreciated the setup I gave them" to "wow, they're looking hard for ways to use the environment and I have to make up a lot on the fly due to weird detailed questions." Pushing, blowing things up, using water to electrify enemies, throwing things down on enemies to add falling damage to the damage inflicted, etc... I loved seeing the increased engagement ... and then I started to get a bit tired of the pushing the envelope and expectations. Example: In an encounter I described that the bad guy was hiding behind a barrel outside a shop (to get cover). One of the PCs cast a firebolt at the barrel with the expectation it would explode. All I did was say there was a barrel. I had no idea what would be in it when I said it ... and it would make no sense to leave an explosive barrel on your front porch - but the player assumed it was a setup for a big explosion. That was deflating in the moment.

3.) Rules confusion: I have really experienced players, medium experience players, and inexperienced players in my games. The medium and inexperienced players in my games are starting to assume the BG3 way of doing things are the actual rules of D&D, and they're using those versions in the game. For example, a ranger with Longstrider had never cast it before. Then they started to cast it "at the start of each day" when the PCs began to travel. I didn't pick up that they thought they were casting it as a ritual and thought that it would last all day - and they were casting it on all the PCs and their mounts. Players also have asked me where to find the rules for thrown weapon damage from throwing the weapons down at an enemy and other Bg3 environment related questions.

4.) Guidance-palooza: This has been a problem for many DMs over the years, but only rarely in my games ... until recently. Players are casting guidance CONSTANTLY now. When they arrive at a new location they cast guidance on the Sorcerer for social encounters. When the rogue goes to sneak off they get guidance. Those are fine ... but when the PCs cast guidance every 6 seconds DURING a CONVERSATION ... it gets weird. They're assuming the guidance might be getting used up on passive rolls, so it is better to keep guiding. OK, KAREN, I KNOW HOW TO SHOP ON MY OWN!!!!

5.) Mind Flayer facination: I had a bunch of hooks related to the Far Relams that the PCs had not been picking up in several games. Guess which threads have been front and center recently? The ones that relate to the Mind Flayers and Aberrations in general. I like variety in my games, but so many sandbox games where I am a DM and wher eI am a player are leaving to the Illithid heavily in the past 3 months...

What else are you folks encountering?
 

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Dausuul

Legend
I'm the only person in my group currently playing BG3. I'm also the DM. I had already planned a mind flayer story arc before BG3 came out, and there are a lot of common elements since we're drawing on the same lore (githyanki and their dragons, cranium rats, etc.). It has forced me to put a lot of thought into how my take on mind flayers differs from Larian's; it would be a little too easy to slide into imitation if I'm not careful.

Of course, it helps that I have no plans to tadpole the PCs. Well, not with mind flayer tadpoles, at least. One of them did get a little houseguest from a slaad, but slaad tadpoles are a lot slower-acting and less insidious, and getting rid of it won't be particularly hard.

Though now I'm thinking I could offer him a choice: Get rid of the tadpole, or put it in some kind of stasis and draw chaos power from it... damn you, Larian!
 


Eyes of Nine

Everything's Fine
Those of us that have played BG3 are (mostly) in love with it. It is outstanding in quality without rip off pricing, and with an almost unreasonable level of love from Larian in improving it post release. It is one of, if not the absolute, favorite game(s) ever.

HOWEVER ...

There are many ways in which this sonnauhbeyotch has screwed with me. I thought I'd share mine, and ask about any other drawbacks you've seen.

1.) Player Availability: My players are still disappearing on me. I see on Steam that they're playing BG3, but they're missing the start time of games, they're not showing up for board game times, and they're not answering chats/emails/texts. This happens in my gaming circle on occasion - but since BG3 was released, it happens a lot more. And I am hearing this from my friend's spouses, etc... This game is so addicting that people are missing a lot of important things. One mom got caught up and failed to pick her son up from daycare before they closed...

2.) BG3 Stunts in Tabletop: I've always tried to incorporate dynamic environments in my games, but only a small percentage of players really took advantage of it - but now that percentage has grown. The scales have tipped from "I wish my players appreciated the setup I gave them" to "wow, they're looking hard for ways to use the environment and I have to make up a lot on the fly due to weird detailed questions." Pushing, blowing things up, using water to electrify enemies, throwing things down on enemies to add falling damage to the damage inflicted, etc... I loved seeing the increased engagement ... and then I started to get a bit tired of the pushing the envelope and expectations. Example: In an encounter I described that the bad guy was hiding behind a barrel outside a shop (to get cover). One of the PCs cast a firebolt at the barrel with the expectation it would explode. All I did was say there was a barrel. I had no idea what would be in it when I said it ... and it would make no sense to leave an explosive barrel on your front porch - but the player assumed it was a setup for a big explosion. That was deflating in the moment.

3.) Rules confusion: I have really experienced players, medium experience players, and inexperienced players in my games. The medium and inexperienced players in my games are starting to assume the BG3 way of doing things are the actual rules of D&D, and they're using those versions in the game. For example, a ranger with Longstrider had never cast it before. Then they started to cast it "at the start of each day" when the PCs began to travel. I didn't pick up that they thought they were casting it as a ritual and thought that it would last all day - and they were casting it on all the PCs and their mounts. Players also have asked me where to find the rules for thrown weapon damage from throwing the weapons down at an enemy and other Bg3 environment related questions.

4.) Guidance-palooza: This has been a problem for many DMs over the years, but only rarely in my games ... until recently. Players are casting guidance CONSTANTLY now. When they arrive at a new location they cast guidance on the Sorcerer for social encounters. When the rogue goes to sneak off they get guidance. Those are fine ... but when the PCs cast guidance every 6 seconds DURING a CONVERSATION ... it gets weird. They're assuming the guidance might be getting used up on passive rolls, so it is better to keep guiding. OK, KAREN, I KNOW HOW TO SHOP ON MY OWN!!!!

5.) Mind Flayer facination: I had a bunch of hooks related to the Far Relams that the PCs had not been picking up in several games. Guess which threads have been front and center recently? The ones that relate to the Mind Flayers and Aberrations in general. I like variety in my games, but so many sandbox games where I am a DM and wher eI am a player are leaving to the Illithid heavily in the past 3 months...

What else are you folks encountering?
Guidance spam is not new in my games
 

On the upside, my local 'Looking for Group' facebook page is absolutely chock-a-block with first timers saying 'I've never played before but after playing BG3 I want to give an in-person game a try'

Honestly, while I won't start DMing my first game in a post-BG3 world til January so i can't speak from first-hand experience, most of these wouldn't bother me too much. Unreliable players have been a feature of TTRPGs since forever, as has been rules confusion. I positively encourage wacky stunts etc, when they go wrong or fail to work it's just as funny as when they do.

And I'm less concerned about Guidance overuse than many. There's lots of scenarios in which it's just plain not useful, according to rules as written. Social skills for instance. You might get one roll that benefits from Guidance - but Guidance has both verbal and somatic components and is touch range, so whoever it is you're talking to is going to be fully aware that some sort of spellcasting is happening and will be on their guard and/or a bit creeped out. It's only got a best-case duration of one minute, so casting it on the rogue before he sneaks off to scout is limited too, it'll most likely expire before he gets anywhere useful. Same problem with casting it on a wizard researching in a library or something (never mind that casting a verbal spell once per minute will both be horribly distracting if you're trying to pay attention, and also will probably get you kicked out by the librarian to making too much noise)
 

CandyLaser

Adventurer
4.) Guidance-palooza: This has been a problem for many DMs over the years, but only rarely in my games ... until recently. Players are casting guidance CONSTANTLY now. When they arrive at a new location they cast guidance on the Sorcerer for social encounters. When the rogue goes to sneak off they get guidance. Those are fine ... but when the PCs cast guidance every 6 seconds DURING a CONVERSATION ... it gets weird. They're assuming the guidance might be getting used up on passive rolls, so it is better to keep guiding. OK, KAREN, I KNOW HOW TO SHOP ON MY OWN!!!!
This was an issue of sorts in my game long before BG3, and I solved it by just getting rid of guidance. It wasn't broken, but it was annoying and slowed the game down as players would interrupt each other to remind them that they had guidance, or to cast guidance if they didn't have it, etc. My players actually were pleased when it was banned because otherwise they deemed it a must-take spell; without it, they felt more freedom to explore other entries on the spell list.
 

overgeeked

B/X Known World
Player Availability.
Yep. Same thing happened whenever there was a WoW expansion about a decade ago. You get spikes like that with some other releases, too.
BG3 Stunts in Tabletop.
I'm jealous. I wish players would try to get creative with the environment. The best they can manage is walk up to the baddie and hack away or stay at range and shoot.
Rules confusion.
Some of the BG3 rules are better. Why not make them house rules?
Guidance-palooza.
Yeah, that's nothing new for me. Been happening the entire edition. Every applicable action it was a shout of "GUIDANCE!!" from whichever player took it. And there was always at least one. It's so good you have to take it. Which means it's bad design. Guidance spam got so bad I finally just banned it.
Mind Flayer facination.
That might get old after awhile. But I'm a big Lovecraft, mind flayer, Far Realm, etc fan so it'll be some time before I'm over it.
 
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Our table is already getting confused between the 5E tabletop rules and Baldur's Gate 3 rules. For instance, our cleric player cast spirit guardians, sprinted through as many enemies as possible and immediately rolled for damage. Our DM who has 23 years of experience immediately recorded the damage. He took it back a minute later when he remembered that in 5E tabletop, the targets of spirit guardians only take damage at the beginning of their turn. In BG3 the enemy takes damage immediately from spirit guardians.
 


TheSword

Legend
I mean it’s an OK game, but hardly a paradigm shifter. [Edit: I’ll rephrase that, part one was excellent, part two was fairly underwhelming slog of gimmicky fights and part three was dull.)

About 6 of my gaming friends out of the 3 groups I DM have played it. Maybe mentioned once or twice. To be honest, it’s was a bit of a hard work playing it towards the end and the NPCs were all a bit edgelord. Just not very likeable. Played a lot at first though not been on it for about 2 months.

I think being more tactical about movement in the game is a good thing. Though I haven’t seen that impact our gaming. Good VTT maps helps with this. As for the rules I think they’re pretty self evident. Read the spell description folks. That said, after we switched to 5e I kept half remembering 3e rules so maybe that’s just part of life.

It sounds like some folks are just being a bit rude - being late for a game to play a computer game is more than a bit disrespectful. Have a word.
 
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