D&D 5E (2024) Wizards of the Coast promises to release more “CRPGs that are going to be as serious as BG3” without Larian

[MGibster]

Certainly did for me. NSFW content is something I very much enjoy in fantasy like D&D, but generally don’t want in the tabletop game. Putting it in a D&D video game is a great example of taking advantage of the strengths of the medium.

What parts of BG3 weren't appropriate for a tabletop experience? About the only thing I can think of off the top of my head was just how horny the companion NPCs were in BG3. I couldn't give any of them a friendly hello without them trying to sex me up. (I play games to escape real life not live out my day-to-day experiences!) Pretty much the rest of BG's content felt wholly appropriate for a D&D campaign.

 

[Gradine]

Well, @Ruin Explorer already hit the nail on the head in post #35. One circle of that venn diagram is white dudes who like fantasy, action, and boobies. The other circle is women and queer folk who like fantasy, romance, and boobies. The overlap includes people who like fantasy, and people who like boobies. Also, there’s a not insignificant portion of folks like me who started out in one of those circles and moved to the other.

Also, I am once again forced to ask people to stop acting like Baldur's Gate 3 is a serious game

 

[Scribe]

Oboy more I over the top drama dark GOT style choices and less heroic stories. Pfft!......can I just have my heroes being heroes please.

Yes, all day every day, never deviating, in pretty much everything Wizards has released for a decade.

 

[Charlaquin]

What parts of BG3 weren't appropriate for a tabletop experience? About the only thing I can think of off the top of my head was just how horny the companion NPCs were in BG3. I couldn't give any of them a friendly hello without them trying to sex me up. (I play games to escape real life not live out my day-to-day experiences!) Pretty much the rest of BG's content felt wholly appropriate for a D&D campaign.

Yes, the sex was the thing I was alluding to there. I mean, I know there are people who don’t mind roleplaying sexual content in TTRPGs but I think they’re probably the minority. Personally, I’m fine with light romance and implied sexual content at the table, but just generally am not interested in anything more explicit, unless the only participants are myself and my real life romantic partner or partners. But in a single-player video game context, more explicit romantic and sexual content is much more appealing.

For context, I haven’t played all the way through BG3 and don’t know how explicit it actually gets in the later half of the story. The parts I did play through were on the borderline of what I’d be comfortable with at the tabletop, but like I said, were an unambiguous value-add to the video game.

 

[MGibster]

For context, I haven’t played all the way through BG3 and don’t know how explicit it actually gets in the later half of the story. The parts I did play through were on the borderline of what I’d be comfortable with at the tabletop, but like I said, were an unambiguous value-add to the video game.

I get you. I certainly wouldn't want to play out something like Lae'zel's romance at the end of Act 1 in a tabletop setting. Not unless I wanted everyone at the table to be absolutely uncomfortable.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yes, the sex was the thing I was alluding to there. I mean, I know there are people who don’t mind roleplaying sexual content in TTRPGs but I think they’re probably the minority. Personally, I’m fine with light romance and implied sexual content at the table, but just generally am not interested in anything more explicit, unless the only participants are myself and my real life romantic partner or partners. But in a single-player video game context, more explicit romantic and sexual content is much more appealing.

For context, I haven’t played all the way through BG3 and don’t know how explicit it actually gets in the later half of the story. The parts I did play through were on the borderline of what I’d be comfortable with at the tabletop, but like I said, were an unambiguous value-add to the video game.

Soft porn and a shapeshifted bear.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Just make Torment 2.

And make it good. FYI

 

[Charlaquin]

Soft porn and a shapeshifted bear.

I’m not unaware of the bear scene, I’m just saying I haven’t directly experienced the alleged “softcore porn” so I can’t accurately assess if it’s more than I would be comfortable with at the table. I assume that it is based on its reputation, but I can’t know for sure until I get back around to playing all the way through. Some day, probably.

 

[Yaarel]

Yes, to an extent. But also, it has to have something that makes it feel like D&D. It doesn’t have to feel like playing the tabletop game, but it does need a certain D&Dish ja ne se quois, else it’s just another generic fantasy game/movie/whatever.

Judging from the D&D movies from the past, the attempt to simulate a "D&D adventure" tends to diminish the appeal of a story.

Any future D&D shows should focus on the "situation" of the characters first: their relationships with each other and with the neighbors around them.

In other words, a D&D show should avoid being a D&D adventure. Instead, it is a story that happens in a D&D setting.

Any adventure that happens, if any, must emerge inherently from the ongoing situation itself, like a police procedural show.

I notice D&D adventures themselves are becoming better stories, with session zero caring about character "background", and deciding how most members of a team already know each other even before an adventure begins. Many adventures do emerge organically from a homebase. 2024 is great for encouraging this. For a show, tv or cinema, this is a necessity.

 

[Charlaquin]

Judging from the D&D movies from the past, the attempt to simulate a "D&D adventure" tends to diminish the appeal of a story.

I disagree, the only good D&D movie so far (HAT) has been the only one that actually felt anything like a D&D adventure. And I think the movie works because of, not in spite of, that feel.

Any future D&D shows should focus on the "situation" of the characters first: their relationships with each other and with the neighbors around them.

In other words, a D&D show should avoid being a D&D adventure. Instead, it is a story that happens in a D&D setting.

Any adventure that happens, if any, must emerge inherently from the ongoing situation itself, like a police procedural show.

I notice D&D adventures themselves are becoming better stories, with session zero caring about character "background", and deciding how most members of a team already know each other even before an adventure begins. Many adventures do emerge organically from a homebase. 2024 is great for encouraging this. For a show, tv or cinema, this is a necessity.

I thought we were talking about a video game?

A series probably shouldn’t try to feel like an adventure, I agree. In the era of network TV you could maybe have pulled off a highly episodic series where each episode was a self-contained “one shot” and ended with the party back at the Yawning Portal or whatever. Maybe build in a seasonal narrative arc where the same BBEG is behind a lot of the problems the heroes deal with in their one-shot delves that season and subtly build to a confrontation with them in the finale. But, in the current Netflix-style streaming series era, I agree that the best bet would probably be a generic prestige drama that happened to take place in (insert your favorite campaign setting here). But I do still think such a series would need something to make it feel like D&D. Not the adventure structure, but something besides just the window dressing.