Question abut the lore in the game

[rinaldop]

I played D&D a little when I was younger so I do not know any modern lore. I also did not play Baldur's Gate 1 and Baldur's Gate 2 because I prefer turn based games.

How well does Baldur's Gate 3 do in regards to its plot and D&D and Baldur's Gate 1 and Baldur's Gate 2 lore?

Thanks

[The Sylvan Learning Center]

if you didnt play baldurs gate 1 or 2 then why do you care about how 3 did in regards to 1 and 2?

[Heu, Iterum Id Feci]

Also the events of bg3 take place about 130 years after bg2. They follow up directly on the events of the 5e campaign "Baldurs Gate: decent into avernus". It has some tie ins to the old games here and there, but is largely independent from those games, largely because those games wrapped up their story pretty nicely, and 20 real life years of lore writing happened, including a change of ownership of D&D etc...

[nilus]

There are some references to Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 in this one and a few returning characters but they are really just fun easter eggs and call backs. Nothing you need to know and many players were fine not knowing who they were.

As for D&D lore and what you know. I do not know what "When I was younger" means in context of years but the Forgotten Realms, where this takes place, has probably been the world that has had the most written about it since second edition D&D. That being said the game tells you what you need to know and you do not need to be an expert in D&D or the Realms at all. Like the call backs to the original game, there are call backs to Forgotten Realms lore that act as Easter eggs mostly. For example, Elminster the Wizard shows up and hes a big deal in the lore but if you didn't know that the game pretty much spells out hes clearly a powerful wizard(just look at that beard and hat on him).

Honestly if you played D&D in the past but not recently, the biggest change would be the races that are running around. The game really likes Tieflings, who were mostly a Planescape race back in the day, and Dragonborn(aka dragon people) are a thing now since 4th edition.

[GriffinPilgrim]

It's pretty well connected with the originals, though given the multiple different kinds of playthrough of BG1 and 2 one can have it can't cover every option. But there are no absolute contradictions.

[rinaldop]

Thanks for all the answers. I will address 2 questions

if you didnt play baldurs gate 1 or 2 then why do you care about how 3 did in regards to 1 and 2? ]

I really don't care but I was wondering what people that do care think.

I do not know what "When I was younger" means in context of years

I do not like sharing my age online so keep this a secret, it was back in the late 70s ;)

[EricHVela]

Don't expect anything like D&D was when we were younger. BG3's good in its own right and standing on its own, but it's nowhere near the same.

5e is very different already from the old editions. BG3 is 5e modified to be a videogame.

Again, it's a good game all the same... unless you're expecting any 2e rules or even a 5e tabletop experience.

[nilus]

Originally posted by rinaldop:

I do not like sharing my age online so keep this a secret, it was back in the late 70s ;)

Okay that helps with context a lot then. So you may some familiar monsters but the lore is all new. Rules are very different too. The game does good job teaching you how to play and explains the world so you will
be fine.

I asked because sometimes you see posts like this from 20 somethings who were “kids” in the early 2010s. And then I feel so very old :)

[alanc9]

Originally posted by rinaldop:

Thanks for all the answers. I will address 2 questions

if you didnt play baldurs gate 1 or 2 then why do you care about how 3 did in regards to 1 and 2? ]

I really don't care but I was wondering what people that do care think.

I do not know what "When I was younger" means in context of years

I do not like sharing my age online so keep this a secret, it was back in the late 70s ;)

So AD&D, then? Me too.

Mechanics-wise, the big thing is that D&D has been turn-based for a while now. So instead of calling out your action at the beginning of the turn, dicing for initiative, and then everything playing out as a big chaotic mess -- I thought RTwP worked just fine for this -- now you get to your turn and have all kinds of options. Some things use your Action, some things use your Bonus Action, some things are Reactions... there's gonna be a bit of a learning curve.

Lore-wise, the game is about as close to a direct sequel as the current state of the Forgotten Realms permits. One of the antagonists is trying to rerun a major plot from BG1, for instance, and doing better with it than the original villain did.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by rinaldop:

Thanks for all the answers. I will address 2 questions

if you didnt play baldurs gate 1 or 2 then why do you care about how 3 did in regards to 1 and 2? ]

I really don't care but I was wondering what people that do care think.

I do not know what "When I was younger" means in context of years

I do not like sharing my age online so keep this a secret, it was back in the late 70s ;)

D&D is a totally new game from what it was at each of the big redos.
the 70s were so early that your race and class were married, eg "i am an elf' was your class and race both. They got rid of the max armor thing (LO, or -10 ac) and inverted it (high AC Is good now, back then low AC was good) and those are just a couple of very quick examples of things that are radically different.

Today's 5th edition is really like a complex board game, like talisman. There are not a lot of character creation choices or building details and depth to it, you just kinda pick your card and play it. The biggest choices here are if you will multiclass, and what you will do with that idea. Everything else is tiny choices like whether your fighter will use 1h or 2h weapons.

-----------------------------
this game is not much like BG 1 and 2, but the ruleset is different, and its been many, many years of video game changes from how things are done to graphics to different authors and all. The NPCS here are just not memorable, while the ones in the older games had a lot more personality crammed into their handful of audio bites than all the ones here have combined even with all their dialog. That doesn't mean its not an excellent game, it IS, its just not exactly following in the footsteps.

Plotwise, its fine. Enough time has passed since the last game (in game world terms, its been so long most of the Bg2 folks are dead or aged) that any plot would be workable, though :)