Baldur’s Gate 3 TTRPG Announced
“Since this type of game hasn’t existed in tabletop form, we’ve had to develop all of it from scratch"
Larian Studios announced earlier today that following the massive success of Baldur’s Gate 3, the studio is developing a tabletop role-playing game set in the Baldur’s Gate Extended Universe. “Nothing like this has ever been done,” says Larian Studios representative Sheena Hibbs. “We’re taking the same world, characters, and action you loved in the video game, and bringing it to the kitchen table. Finally Baldur’s Gate is coming to tabletop!”
That isn’t to say that the development has been a smooth one. “Since this type of game hasn’t existed in tabletop form, we’ve had to develop all of it from scratch,” says lead developer Tara Fleet. “It was a whole new system, like none ever seen before.” Even the most basic aspects had to be reimagined according the Fleet. “A great example is the dice rolling mechanics,” Fleet tells The Dungeon Tribune. “We had to come up with a way to make that digital action work in an analog setting. There were all sorts of similar adaptation problems.” When asked if there were any other tabletop games it would be compatible with, Fleet indicated there were none.
Many players we’ve interviewed were excited at the concept of being able to bring their digital characters to life. “It could be a wonderful way to play when the power goes out,” says long time Baldurian Greg Thompton. “I’m excited to see how they implement character sheets. Maybe they will be stored on the blockchain!”
Not everyone is thrilled about the studio’s efforts, though, as many players don’t see the project as worthwhile. In particular, many fans are not happy with the “Dungeon Master” feature, which is intended to provide a living, breathing human to adjudicate and narrate the sessions. In theory, it could mean unlimited options for players, as the Dungeon Master could adapt to player actions in ways a programmed game can’t. But many players see it as a step in the wrong direction. “What if the Dungeon Master is bad?” says Keith Hartwick, Editor of the Baldur’s Gate 3 wiki. “It’s bad enough that they are making us use our imagination, but they’re also putting the game in the hands of a human? Surely AI could do a better job.”
Despite some player objections, the game is begin considered a leap forward for many data scientists, who are excited about alternative data storage capabilities. “They are taking thousands of lines of code, and converting it into only a few hundred pages of text,” says Data Analytics Professor Lester Kellof. “They’re calling it a ‘book’. From there they’ll use an actual human as a PLLM (Pseudo-Large Language Model) to fill in the gaps of the game. It’s really quite remarkable.”
No word on how DLC will be handled in the new tabletop format.