Also not news really, but just a feeling I still have... That part of what made the game so successful as a 'Community' thing, is that while the game doesn't require any sort of D&D background to get into, for the minutia D&D pedantics create this nice web where people feel motivated to teach others how to play. So instead of a bunch of "get good" nonsense, instead you'll have like full on Wikis to explain every spell and every item, hour long tutorial videos or experimental twitch streams or whatever, where peeps can just go off the deep end into minutia. Even the single player game has that aspect, like you could be spectating or getting taken back to school. Maybe learn a new trick or puzzle something out from the D&D knowledge, but mainly because that part of the game also exists outside of BG3. So for example, someone wants to know why Shadowheart is always igmissing everything with her firebolt cantrip, but then someone else points out it's because the Firebolt cantrip comes from her High Elf background and uses INT. So instead of that +3 from Wisdom, she won't get the bonus for attacks. So in that case Firebolt is like just for lighting fuses or environmental torches and such. Typical player probably wouldn't ever be able to figure that out from the tooltips or positioning on the hotbar, but it then it sorta seeps out into the aether, whether by osmosis or principles of recursion or who knows, but like the Squid word gets out, and the game has that extra layer of meta. It's the sort of thing that reminds me of Dungeon mags or Nintendo Power, like something cultivated alongside the game instead of within it. I feel like because it's BG/D&D it gets that bonus on top, which would probably be harder to pull off if introducing a brand new IP with totally self contained systems, like a built in encyclopedia, or an approach which tries to more explicitly teach players how to play the game.
Initially I had hoped for the triple Trifecta, where BG3 leads inexorably to IWD3 and ultimated to NWN3, all sorta interconnected or maybe using the same engine or same theme/over-all look and read. Like I expected the 3s to hit right in a row. Not with an interegnum or studio change, but just like I guess the heir to the throne of 90s bioware. But that's like such a tall order that I kinda get it. I mean damn, talk about pressure cookers. Still I think for the ultimate dream of NWN3, that it would be really cool if the game went into Nth degree detail for it's toolset and module maker. Giving the player extra vocabulary and ways to describe the little nuances, inside say Character Creation menus or NPC/Monster builders, but also where all the tools for that feel like little games unto themselves. The BG3 Char creator has definite charm and the promise of cinematic emotive stuff from theater carried over. But I mean I guess what I'm saying is Gortash with Total Power, like over the whole stage and wardrobe, but with an Elminster-esque tool tip for the mouse over details. I just want a Neverwinter caliber toolset, with a BG caliber main campaign, and an IWD caliber dungeon crawler for replay or MP. But I don't know, I mean it doesn't necessarily have to be D&D. Could probably be Ultima or MM or anything like that with long enough legs to fill in the gaps. I still find myself super excited for Excalibur, whatever it means! But yeah, just clinging to all the threads for now. It'll be hard to top near term
In a lot of fandoms and gaming communities, there is a highly competitive spirit where if somebody expresses confusion or ignorance about an aspect of the game, they are immediately pounced upon and mocked (or told to "git good", as they say.) D&D is on the whole quite different. We do have our share of gatekeepers and toxic players too, of course, but far more often, our first instinct is to immediately jump out with answers and explanations. We are EAGER to share our knowledge and experience, to welcome new players and new adventurers into our ranks, and that in turn, builds a sense of community and camaraderie that can be hard to find in many other games and settings.
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