I AM SO PLEASED! This means we players won't have to create (or wait for others to create) tools in order to make it even *possible* to mod BG3/BGNext/WhateverIt'sCalled.
I agree, but I like that about it! It'd be especially impactful if you're a DM running players who've played Baldur's Gate through the module. I'd so love to be like "what were your favourite playthroughs?" during character creation and then cobble together a "canon for your home game" version of charname in collaboration with your players while they're making their characters for your homegame so that having them meet the Bhaalspawn Grand Duke/Duchess before it all goes down would feel more personal.
I usually use Abdel as a template to represent Baldur's Gate kind of like how Shepard represents Mass Effect. The novels were awful, but that doesn't mean you can't use his name and appearance to represent the most likely path through the game.
Anyway for anyone who hasn't ran it, I do HIGHLY recommend Murder in Baldur's Gate, which is the name of this module.
Chris Avellone was a guest on a podcast called "My Favourite Game" and mentioned, besides other things, he was currently working not only on TToN and Divinity: OS 2, but also on a host of other games that he couldn't talk about yet:
"There's a range of stuff that I'm working on, these two [TTON, DOS2] are the ones I can talk about".
You fools! 'Tis not the stars to look for but the very forums themselves! The amount of black magic on this forum is increasing at an alarming rate- WE ARE THE SACRIFICES!
You fools! 'Tis not the stars to look for but the very forums themselves! The amount of black magic on this forum is increasing at an alarming rate- WE ARE THE SACRIFICES!
I am willing to sacrifice the lot of you to get the next beamdog project on the way.
You fools! 'Tis not the stars to look for but the very forums themselves! The amount of black magic on this forum is increasing at an alarming rate- WE ARE THE SACRIFICES!
Am I going to point out the only logical explanation of this or does anyone else want to have a pass?
the aging Bhaalspawn is the Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate, and he thinks that everything is cool because he won back then, but the real deal is that when only one remains Bhaal will rise, and one assassin has been hiding and hunting this whole time, and the players don't know this.
So either the players get bogged down fighting other foes and the assassin slays Abdel Adrian (or a CHARNAME if your DM is cooler than the written adventure), or the players help out without knowing any of this and help slay the assassin...and when that happens, the Slayer avatar erupts out of the final Bhaalspawn (whoever it is) and heralds the return of Bhaal.
So everything we knew about the prophecy, as explained to us in Throne of Bhaal by the Solar AND Bhaal's spirit AND Melissan, Bhaal's high priestess in charge of his resurrection, just gets thrown out the window. Those were the most reliable authorities we could possibly have, and their words mean nothing.
Pathetic.
The Solar's whole purpose in ToB was to explain the "real deal," with Melissan and Bhaal filling in the blanks: Bhaal would be resurrected when (1) enough of his essence returned to his body and (2) Melissan performed the necessary rituals. Or, if Melissan failed to do so, then whoever controlled the bulk of that essence would be able to either become the new Lord of Murder or discard the essence, leaving Bhaal's portfolio unclaimed and presumably open to Cyric. But apparently even Bhaal, the very person who foresaw the Time of Troubles and concocted this ingenious plot, didn't actually have any idea how it worked. Because the real "real deal" was that Bhaal would arise automatically when his second-to-last child died.
It's like if J. K. Rowling released a new story reversing the events of The Deathly Hallows. It turns out that Voldemort is still alive because he invented a whole new spell to come back to life, a spell that nobody ever heard of before. He never really needed those Horcruxes anyway; Harry and Hermione and Ron were wasting their time trying to destroy the Horcruxes. Then Voldemort kills Harry Potter with a Muggle handgun, undoing everything that Harry and his friends tried so hard to achieve after seven years of struggle.
If you're going to include a plot twist, it should be a clever spin on the existing story. It shouldn't just be some random surprise out of the blue.
So everything we knew about the prophecy, as explained to us in Throne of Bhaal by the Solar AND Bhaal's spirit AND Melissan, Bhaal's high priestess in charge of his resurrection, just gets thrown out the window. Those were the most reliable authorities we could possibly have, and their words mean nothing.
[snip]
Hahaha, you really don't know what's reliable in D&D and what's not, do you?! What's canon is basically what TSR writes. That's canon, regardless of what other sources (such as games or adventures) write. TSR wanted the Dead Three to come back, so they did. /shrug
Video games are not considered canon. Books and novels however are.
Indeed. In fact canonically
Abdel Adrian finished off Melissan by punching her repeatedly and then throwing her into the Throne of Bhaal's pulsating pillar. Also I don't think Melissan is ever called anything other than Melissan. There are a bunch of other differences as well between the game and the Throne of Bhaal novel (like the party sneaking into the city of Saradush by way of the sewers).
Video games are not considered canon. Books and novels however are.
And they would be no way to make video games canon, because there's guaranteed to be more than 1 ending. Any book that TSR creates and/or blesses? That's definitely canon. For instance, anything that WotC creates, TSR has to bless it.
And just to drive home how amateurish and fanfic-esque (in the worst connotation of that term) WotC's efforts are - that "other last Bhaalspawn assassin" is Viekang. Yes, that Viekang. I suppose that makes as much sense as Abdel having sex with Bodhi.
And just to drive home how amateurish and fanfic-esque (in the worst connotation of that term) WotC's efforts are - that "other last Bhaalspawn assassin" is Viekang. Yes, that Viekang. I suppose that makes as much sense as Abdel having sex with Bodhi.
WotC didn't sanction bringing the Dead Three back; TSR did. So, get over it. The book, of course, is an abomination of literature, but it is technically canon.
Comments
I AM SO PLEASED! This means we players won't have to create (or wait for others to create) tools in order to make it even *possible* to mod BG3/BGNext/WhateverIt'sCalled.
Why spending on lawyers so much? - this is an answer:
Anyway for anyone who hasn't ran it, I do HIGHLY recommend Murder in Baldur's Gate, which is the name of this module.
Chris Avellone was a guest on a podcast called "My Favourite Game" and mentioned, besides other things, he was currently working not only on TToN and Divinity: OS 2, but also on a host of other games that he couldn't talk about yet:
"There's a range of stuff that I'm working on, these two [TTON, DOS2] are the ones I can talk about".
Chris Avellone deserves more recognition in the videogame world.
TTON = Torment: Tides of Numenera
Trent Oster answered:
Pathetic.
The Solar's whole purpose in ToB was to explain the "real deal," with Melissan and Bhaal filling in the blanks: Bhaal would be resurrected when (1) enough of his essence returned to his body and (2) Melissan performed the necessary rituals. Or, if Melissan failed to do so, then whoever controlled the bulk of that essence would be able to either become the new Lord of Murder or discard the essence, leaving Bhaal's portfolio unclaimed and presumably open to Cyric. But apparently even Bhaal, the very person who foresaw the Time of Troubles and concocted this ingenious plot, didn't actually have any idea how it worked. Because the real "real deal" was that Bhaal would arise automatically when his second-to-last child died.
It's like if J. K. Rowling released a new story reversing the events of The Deathly Hallows. It turns out that Voldemort is still alive because he invented a whole new spell to come back to life, a spell that nobody ever heard of before. He never really needed those Horcruxes anyway; Harry and Hermione and Ron were wasting their time trying to destroy the Horcruxes. Then Voldemort kills Harry Potter with a Muggle handgun, undoing everything that Harry and his friends tried so hard to achieve after seven years of struggle.
If you're going to include a plot twist, it should be a clever spin on the existing story. It shouldn't just be some random surprise out of the blue.
What a cheap trick.