Summary
- Baldur's Gate 3 influenced changes in Dungeons & Dragons rules for the upcoming 2024 Player's Handbook.
- The video game helped DnD designers identify rules and mechanics that needed tweaking.
- Baldur's Gate 3's own design tweaks aren't planned to be implemented in tabletop play.
Baldur's Gate 3 shows off a lot of what makes great, but the game's weak points are actually what influenced DnD's upcoming 2024 Player's Handbook the most. After a decade of following the rules established in the 2014 core rulebooks, DnD is getting a refresh that maintains backward compatibility while making a lot of tweaks. Pinpointing exactly what needs to be changed can be difficult, however, and Baldur's Gate 3 provided a surprising assist in that regard.
In an interview with Screen Rant, DnD lead designer Jeremy Crawford explained that Baldur's Gate 3 helped the team get a feel for some rules and mechanics that could use reworks. Although DnD's designers obviously have plenty of tabletop experience, feeling something out in video game form can clarify just how much a tune-up could help.
Jeremy Crawford: "[W]e would see how some of our own rules worked in BG3 and then change them in the tabletop game, hoping that then in the next Baldur's Gate we could use our new design and not the old one. So it was much less about us adopting design decisions from BG3, but instead reacting to our own design that was in BG3 and saying we want to change it."
Baldur's Gate 3 Is A Major Part Of Modern D&D
The Beloved Game Has Definitely Won Over Fans
It's interesting to get some confirmation of Baldur's Gate 3's impact on DnD, although it might not be in the way that everyone would expect. Despite staying generally loyal to DnD's core ruleset, Baldur's Gate 3 does make a number of tweaks to various mechanics, and it doesn't sound like any of those will be carrying over to the 2024 Player's Handbook. The one concept that definitely will recur is the Wildheart Barbarian, a subclass name that Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios and DnD publisher Wizards of the Coast chose together.
Related
Baldur's Gate 3 goes about Dungeons & Dragons combat in some smart ways, and one particular emphasis has had a big impact on my tabletop campaign.
Tabletop and video game design prerogatives are ultimately very different, and it makes sense that the tweaks that worked for Baldur's Gate 3 would often be less purposeful in actual DnD play. As to whether the next Baldur's Gate will follow up on the new changes in the 2024 Player's Handbook like Crawford hopes, that mostly hinges on whether the game gets a sequel. Larian has moved onto other projects, so another studio would have to be selected to create another game. The demand is certainly there, but it's a difficult act to follow.
The enormous success of Baldur's Gate 3 positions it as a potential entry point to DnD for many players, and the 2024 Player's Handbook makes it an exciting time to try tabletop play. It won't be as close to Baldur's Gate 3 in design as the 2014 book is, but if all goes well, the changes that it's making should largely be for the better. Baldur's Gate 3 is great, but it isn't perfect, and continually iterating on the ideas that make Dungeons & Dragons so compelling is a large part of what has made it resonate across the decades.
Check out Screen Rant's full interview with Jeremy Crawford here.
Dungeons and Dragons
Dungeons and Dragons is a popular tabletop game originally invented in 1974 byErnest Gary Gygax and David Arneson.The fantasy role-playing game brings together players for a campaign with various components, including abilities, races, character classes, monsters, and treasures. The game has drastically expanded since the '70s, with numerous updated box sets and expansions.
- Franchise
- Original Release Date
- 1974-00-00
- Publisher
- TSR Inc. , Wizards of the Coast
- Designer
- E. Gary Gygax , Dave Arneson
- Gaming
- Dungeons and Dragons
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