How do we want to Roleplay BG3?
PsicoVic
Member Posts: 868
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M57vTyM-iE4In this interview, in 7.40 the interviewer asked Swen Vinke a burning question: about the origins stories in DoS2 and if they will make a comeback in bg3. ( In Larian´s Divinity OS2 you can choose between 6 origin stories or a custom one. You can play as one of your companions and shape his/her story).
So, in the upcoming Baldur´s gate 3, what do you want to see?
Do you want the "Origin Stories" of DOS2 make a comeback in BG3? Play as one of your companions? Do you prefer a more story-driven fixed main character, as in Witcher, Gothic, Mass effect, etc?
Do you enjoy the multiple backgrounds of games like Dragon Age origins and you want several biographies you can choose to? Or Do you prefer the freedom to choose your own character that you had in Elder Scrolls?
Maybe none of the above and you prefer a party instead of a main character (Wasteland 2, Storm of zehir expansion, IWD)?
- How do we want to Roleplay BG3?34 votes
- No "Companion Origin" stories, fixed background (Baldur´s gate Original recipe)35.29%
- No "Companion Origin" stories, múltiple backgrounds (Dragon age, Diablo, etc)29.41%
- Companion Origin stories and a custom background option (Divinity OS2).32.35%
- Story-driven BG3. No Origin stories, no múltiple backgrounds (PsT, Witcher, Gothic, etc)2.94%
- Another option.0.00%
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Comments
Aside from the background though, I'm curious to know if BG3 will use a voiced protagonist (e.g. Commander Shepard, Geralt, Hawke), or a silent protagonist. I find it much more immersive for myself if it's a silent protagonist (BG, PS:T, DA:O), since I can read the dialogue options and voice them in my own head, with my own inflections and emphases, rather than listen to somebody else do it (and they invariably will voice the line in a way that I interpreted differently).
That means the main character cannot be completely voice-acted, other than just a few stock lines like in Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, if at all.
I'll not be buying Baldur's Gate 3 immediately upon its release. I'll be doing a heck of a lot of reading about it, and maybe watching the beginnings of a few streams and Let's Play videos, to find out exactly what kind of gameplay it has. I'll also be waiting for several patch cycles to fix all the inevitable bugs and instabilities it will be released with, and waiting to see if they completely change the rules in the weeks after release in a way that borks everybody's original character creations and their save games.
It is like the Dao Origin stories, a background subplot you only have if you choose to be this character; only that in the next game this character can be your companion. You can choose your class and attributes but you have a fixed past, race, sex, voice and name. You can choose betwen 6 different origins or create a new one.
In DoS2 for example, if you play as Sebille the god that "helps" you is of the Elven Pantheon, and you can seek revenge on your kidnappers and fulfill (or not) the destiny someone took from you. If you start as Ifan you are a human assassin hired to kill the son of a god while you try to make peace with your past. The human god is the one that gives you powers.
The main plot is almost the same for all of them and your custom character.
Think of it as if you can play as Imoen at the start of the game in candlekeep, play as Sarevok , etc... or create a new baalspawn, son of Gorion and raised in Candlekeep.
However!...
I actually do want for the game to be like the experience of tabletop play, which means I am not responsible for controlling my companions. I want really good AI to do that for them. With a kind of synergy that takes place uniquely as each game progresses, depending on the various chemistry that results from the decisions that I and the other party members make. So not only do I want the game engine to act as a DM--which Vinke says is one of their chief goals... but I also want for that AI to be good enough to make it feel like I'm joined by thinking players in my party, that behave independently and sometimes unexpectedly.
Hmmm... That's quite an intriguing notion. On the other hand, I'm not sure if I actually like the idea of essentially having a "BG3 multiverse" where in some alternate reality, Gorion's Ward never existed and Imoen/Sarevok/Viekang wound up becoming the protagonist. I think that in small doses it can be fun (like the Darkspawn Chronicles DLC for DA:O which is a brief glimpse into an alternate future where the Warden died during the Joining and Alistair has to step up), but playing through the entire game as one of the Companions? Ehhh, I dunno... That feels a bit to me like you're usurping the character's life, if that makes any sense.
Many people feel the way you said, that is why you can choose between the 6 origin stories or a brand new character. The latter option was the least interesting in DoS2, to be honest.
BG is easily in the top ten list of my games, and I think it will always be, but I the least thing I liked is that no matter your class, age, sex, race, etc you always are Gorion´s ward, a Baalspawn raised in Candlekeep, and after that the hero of Baldurs gate.
Maybe I prefer to be a baalspawn raised with the elves, or a rogue of the shadow thieves, a noble of the Iron Throne, a burly dwarf mercenary, an orc outcast, a halfling in Gullykin? etc You do not even have to change the story that much in BG (and you have zero impact in the plot of bg2, SoD, and Tob).
And that would be in the old BG series, we are talking now about a new game.
I know that you can make your own character in most D&D games: custom appearance, custom biographies (not this in bg because you have a fixed biography) and I like that. But when you actually play the game you have your orphan druid who lived in the woods raised by wolves; your alcoholic monk who learned to fight in bar brawls, your sorcerer who also was a former slave and escaped jail in Thay... so what? There is no meaningful impact on the game. The game and dialog options will be almost the same for those three characters in Iwd, Nwn, etc.
I enjoyed the most how they make different backgrounds in games like Dao, mass effect, DoS2, etc. It feels that you had a past, you are a character in this world, not a person that was magically created at the start of the adventure. Also, that gives you some added value to replay the game. The first times I created a brand new character, then I tried to see the story in the eyes of another different character. It was very interesting to hunt the little differences in successive plays.
It's a fine distinction, I'll readily admit, but I still feel weird about taking over the life of an NPC in a game. XD
Anyway, thanks to your explanation, I've been able to make my choice for the vote.
They even had another one, human commoner origin, that was cut from the game (but it is already in the game files). I hope Larian will surprise us with something like that.
I agree. This worked well on Planescape because discovering who your character was, how he became immortal, etc., was actually made into an integral part of the game and the story and did not feel forced. The fact he could change classes inside the game also helped make him your character. I think it would be hard to do this in any other story.
The Witcher also works well because the game is about the story of the witcher Geralt. It's obvious you'll have to be The Witcher for the game story to work. Even then it could have some flexibility around combat styles, skills, etc...
I was sceptical about the Origin stories in D:OS 2 but then I tried them, and I liked them.
Having an option to choose which one to take - your own character, or an Origin character - is cool. DA:O preludes were awesome as well, I remember running through each of them.