What works (and doesn't work) about Baldur's Gate 3's D&D-driven systems

09.08.2023 - 20:19 / gamedeveloper.com

Baldur's Gate 3's well-earned roaring success is making it the kind of overnight hit that was years (maybe a decade) in the making. Larian's experience with the Divinity series signaled that audiences were ready for a return of number-crunching role-playing games like the kind labeled as "computer role-playing game" in the '90s. (And lest we forget, Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity and Harebrained Schemes' Shadowrun also laid the groundwork for genre revival).

When looking through one lens, the CRPG might be viewed as kind of a transitionary product—they were games that relied on tabletop-inspired systems to drive rousing adventures with 3D graphics. Leading developers like BioWare would shed many sourcebook-inspired frameworks as they advanced through the ages. As game budgets, computing power, and audience size increased, what need did RPGs have for dice rolls and dense sourcebooks?

It turns out—quite a lot. Baldur's Gate 3 feels special in part because, for better or worse, it's a digitized (and streamlined) way of playing Dungeons & Dragons. Character creation is deep with nitty-gritty stats. The game maps look like grid-based dungeons from Wizards of the Coast's sourcebooks. Automatic dice rolls that progress as you play sub in for a game master, giving you a small heart attack by suddenly asking you to make a Perception check.

It feels great. And terrible. But then great again! It's a fascinating example of what tabletop-inspired design can do for your game—but also how challenging that design can be for players who don't have the 5e sourcebook on their shelves.

Larian Studios employees, if you are reading this, please go give a high-five to your UX and sound design people for me.

One of the best parts of any tabletop game is the moments when players interact with physical objects—particularly when rolling dice. And Baldur's Gate 3 puts a lot of love into dice. The executions are simple, but you can tell it took a lot of fine-tuning to get them to feel just right.

The game does an excellent job of prioritizing what dice rolls should be shown to the casual player. Rolls that occur during lockpicking and conversation are called up on a big screen, and players are shown what modifiers they can use to increase their odds of success. There's a very animated sound that plays during the die roll—one that sounds more like a slot machine than the clunking of a die crossing a wooden table.

Then, there are the various checks that occur while navigating the environment. These include Survival, Wilderness, Perception, etc. Players aren't shown all of the modifiers going into each roll, but a combination of text popups and die symbols that appear by each character (and another pleasant rattling noise) catch their