D&D (2024) What innovative elements from Baldur's Gate 3 would you like to see implimented in 2024 D&D?

[Reynard]

Note they didn’t put that the other way around, for good reason, unlike BG3.

I am uncomfortable with this line of discussion that suggests certain things are immoral or just "icky" regardless of how consent factors is.

But, we are probably bumping up against the forum rules, as well, so I will bow out of this discussion before I make it worse.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I'm just happy we're highlighting some mature-bait sexy times that's actually consensual and with a non-relative in fantasy media. Thank you very much Mr. George R R Martin.

 

[Scribe]

The sum total of bear sex, ogre sex, constant hit ons, multiple party members repeatedly trying it on, and a sexual relationship being the capstone achievement of a characters interaction adds a fairly sleazy dimension to a game that didn’t need to be there. Which is off putting in what is otherwise an excellent story.

Bear - Avoidable no? I havent seen it in my game at all.
Ogre - Yeah, that was a shocker. A gag.
Hit on - Again, once I 'picked someone' everyone but Halsin stopped. This actually seems more a dialogue bug at this point.
Multiple Party members - I'm not seeing this and I'm in Act 3.
Capstone - Is it? I'm not down that path with Shadowheart, but her story continues to develop each Act.

Maybe I'm playing it out different, but I'm honestly not seeing these things. Yeah my character slept with Karlach, but thats it, one time, moving on with the story.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I'm going to side with @TheSword here. It's not that I particularly mind any of that stuff, but much of it comes off as crass 12-year-old humour to me. I like the game anyway, but I'd probably like it more without any of it. It just seems unnecessary.

I like what's in the game more than I like the crudeness of Vox Machina (the cartoon), though. I really enjoy that cartoon, but I often cringe when they're crass. Again, I don't feel like the show is made better for it.

To each their own.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I have way more problems with VM's vomit shots.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I have way more problems with VM's vomit shots.

Yeah, that too.

 

[MGibster]

If this was published in a TTRPG product everybody would be rolling their eyes and adding them to the list of books we don’t go near. Frankly I don’t know how they got WotC to sign off on it. Then again there has always been an element of WotC courting edginess. Like it would somehow make D&D cooler.

I had the exact same thought which prompted me to open a thread about whether D&D was having an identity crisis. I'm in agreement with you, had the hot bugbear-on-ogre action appeared in a module there would be quite a few of us pulling our hair, wailing, and gnashing our teeth. Nor can I imagine role playing a romance scene with dommy mommy Lae'zel in a face-to-face table top game. I never gave much thought to what a Githyanki labia might look like, but now I'll never get it out of my mind. But that's really my own faut for having the adult setting turned on for the game.

This might be a good way to illustrate the differences between playing a game alone on a computer versus face-to-face with multiple participants. What I'm comfortable with in a computer game might not be the same thing I'm comfortable with in a face-to-face game with multiple participants. I can't imagine roleplaying an NPC and commanding a PC to "taste" and then telling them to continue by going further down.

I must admit I don’t get it. Adding soft core porn and bestiality into rpg games definitely seems seedy and crude. I mean I get how pretending to get laid might float some peoples boat but I don’t really want that kind of flavor around my favourite crpg franchise

We're kinda of getting into a debate here. What's porn? Justice Stewart of the Supreme Court said in 1964, "I shall not attempt further to define the kinds of material....but I know it when I see it." Like I said, I have the adult setting turned on for BG3, and the romance scene with Lae'zel was fairly graphic. Was it pornographic? I don't think so, but your mileage may vary.

 

[TheSword]

I had the exact same thought which prompted me to open a thread about whether D&D was having an identity crisis. I'm in agreement with you, had the hot bugbear-on-ogre action appeared in a module there would be quite a few of us pulling our hair, wailing, and gnashing our teeth. Nor can I imagine role playing a romance scene with dommy mommy Lae'zel in a face-to-face table top game. I never gave much thought to what a Githyanki labia might look like, but now I'll never get it out of my mind. But that's really my own faut for having the adult setting turned on for the game.

This might be a good way to illustrate the differences between playing a game alone on a computer versus face-to-face with multiple participants. What I'm comfortable with in a computer game might not be the same thing I'm comfortable with in a face-to-face game with multiple participants. I can't imagine roleplaying an NPC and commanding a PC to "taste" and then telling them to continue by going further down.


We're kinda of getting into a debate here. What's porn? Justice Stewart of the Supreme Court said in 1964, "I shall not attempt further to define the kinds of material....but I know it when I see it." Like I said, I have the adult setting turned on for BG3, and the romance scene with Lae'zel was fairly graphic. Was it pornographic? I don't think so, but your mileage may vary.

I was trying to work out why in the Witcher 3 I didn’t find it as jarring. I’m kind of at the place where I think it might just be a quantity thing- where the sexy times were not only was less frequent but also more subtly woven into the various character storylines in Witcher 3.

To an extent I get why they have done it - they don’t want there to be gender restrictions the way there was in Witcher which is laudable. But way they have implemented it means there is this barrage of horniness coming of the NPCs. I’m on my third play through now and this time round now I’m aware of it, it is super jarring.

I’ve also reflected on why I’m bothered enough to post several comments on the subject. I think I’ve been used to a certain stigma around role-playing over the years. It’s a hell of a lot more popular than it was but it’s debatably mainstream and definitely not ubiquitous. Certainly in the UK announcing you’re a role player can still get a bemused look. The language doesn’t help - the word roleplaying is probably more familiar to average Joe as an erotic term than a gaming one. As is even the word Fantasy. I don’t really want the showcase computer game for DND and roleplaying games in general being even more associated with grown men (and women) acting out imaginary kinky sex fantasies. There is a big difference between reading something in a book or watching a film rather than having to respond to this stuff in a game. Some media you are an observer and in some you’re a participant.

i appreciate these are my own hang ups and it may be a generational (and male) thing but nonetheless I don’t think I’m alone. Particularly where IMHO it’s not justified by some other creative requirement. I am definitely am uncomfortable with a computer game that I would be acutely embarassed about if my family (adults, not children) walked into the room.

Baldur’s Gate is a long time franchise and if the company that makes it is going to add some pretty substantial tonal differences then I don’t think it’s unreasonable to push back on that.

 

[ChameleonX]

I would prefer Weapon Mastery to remain in the game as at-will powers, and BG3-style Weapon Actions to also be added to the Fighter class as encounter powers, or perhaps as x/day abilities.

Other classes could access them via a feat, as usual.

 

[TheSword]

I think we can look at the Vox animated series and see the same sexual/crass humor. I mean, if I remember correctly, it starts out with the halfling bard's head between some giant orc or ogre's legs. And while I don't watch them, I know from clips many of the streams offer some pretty sexually explicit humor.
Perhaps it's a spin off from those 80's and 90's fantasy movies that always intertwined sex?

From a tabletop perspective, it has always seemed odd when sex is never mentioned (provided people are at the age to hear it). It doesn't need to be detailed, but a slight nod that at the end of tavern night this new couple is stealing your room for a moment of togetherness or some druidic full moon celebration or whatever. It has always seemed natural to the players I've sat down with to have it slightly incorporated into the game world. (PS - The same goes for love, which seems to be left out of sooooo many campaigns. And considering it is one of the biggest motivators for people in the world, it seems silly to not have it be present and pronounced.)

Interestingly that seemed to come up in the first episode and then seemed to almost disappear. Almost like they wanted to make a point and then forgot all about it. I didn’t particularly like the seediness of that either back then but at least it was something I could just passively observe rather than interact with. Plus it was short lived.

I can’t speak to other people but it just isn’t normal in most of the social groups I move in, to freely and frequently discuss sex… let alone want to act it out with our imaginary characters. It just isn’t polite conversation.