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As the original Baldur's Gate games leak for Game Pass again, fans reminisce over the bizarre D&D systems that drove BioWare's CRPGs
04.01.2024 - 13:01 / gamesradar.com
The original Baldur's Gate games appear to have leaked for Xbox Game Pass, causing players to reminisce about the bizarre rulesets of the D&D editions they were based on.
As noted by TrueAchievements, earlier this week Game Pass subscribers received a push notification from the subscription service's app, suggesting that Baldur's Gate 1 and Baldur's Gate 2 were available on the service. That's not currently the case, as clicking the notification simply takes you to the games' store page, but it's also not the first time this has happened - a similar notification was pushed in August. Once might have been a mistake, but twice seems like an unlikely coincidence, implying that the classic CRPGs are on their way to Game Pass at some point in the future.
Unfortunately, while Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 are classics for a reason, they're not always the most accessible games. Baldur's Gate 3 is built on the Fifth Edition (5e) of Dungeons & Dragons, a system that might seem complicated from the outside, but is one of the more accessible versions of the TTRPG.
By contrast, the first two games in the series are based on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' Second Edition, which feature the infamous THAC0 system. THAC0 - as explained by shellshocked Baldur's Gate fans over on Reddit- stands for 'To Hit Armor Class 0', and is a version of the hit chance and AC system that's present in current forms of D&D that flips what you might expect from 5e on its head. In the modern game, the higher your Armor Class (AC), the better defended you are, and the less likely your enemies' attacks are to hit. THAC0 inverted that idea, meaning that a lower AC was actually better.
Realistically, that means that THAC0 isn't actually that complicated - it's a plus or minus system added to your enemies' rolls to determine whether they hit or not. The numbers are inverted from 5e, of course, but the only major way that the system differs is by directly affecting a roll - in 5e, AC essentially works by limiting your likelihood of rolling a successful hit, while THAC0 directly adds or subtracts from the number you roll.
Nevertheless, while THAC0 may not ruin the experience of Baldur's Gate 1+2, there's no doubt it's a very different system, housed within a very different game. The first game just turned 25 years old, and if you're used to Baldur's Gate 3, you won't find the same extent of player freedom here. If these games do end up on Game Pass and find themselves with a swathe of new players, it might be worth remembering that while these might be classics, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're easy to play in the modern day.
Check out the full Xbox Game Pass list to see what you can actually play via the subscription service.
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Amid the altogether glowing launch reception for Baldur's Gate 3, which went on to win just about every GOTY award under the sun and which we also put at the summit of the best games of 2023, there were a fair few reviews and posts from long-time CRPG fans who argued that Larian's take on the series felt more like a Divinity game than a Baldur's Gate game. That's not necessarily calling it bad – the Divinity games are beloved, after all – but perhaps it just doesn't feel like the Baldur's Gates of old. And I remember similar conversations around Baldur's Gate 3's early access launch about three years ago.