Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Game Master Mode and Wish List

One aspect I'm really interested in is the proposed game master mode. Though Sven has not committed on it, but hinted it would be a post-release feature add. For someone that runs P&P DnD games with my family and friends, I am really looking forward to moving some of my games from fantasy grounds to running them in BG3 GM mode. Are there other P&P players out there also looking at this for their VTT capabilities?

I really like what they did in DOS2 (though it can certainly be improved for DnD).

Wish List:
- Official licensed content (DMG, Monster Manual etc)
- Steam Mod support for adding characters, spell effects, items, Audio, character speech, etc.
- Map and Tile builder that builds on their DOS GM mode to include ships etc.
- Expanded overland maps to include FR global map
- More options to theme dialog screens, (Font, parchment etc.) perhaps even model in official DnD font/colors


Really cool wish list:
- Options to pull in licensed maps, characters, etc. from WOTC or complete adventure modules. (this could be an additional revenue stream as well)


In reality, the game in GM mode is a glorified active battle map but can be managed very similarly to other VTT systems. It would be a much more enhanced version of something like fantasy grounds, but instead of static tokens, you have in-game fully animated and controlled characters etc.

I´ll add mod support, easy import/export and compatibility with the most common formats and resources and editing tools. DM mode is not that useful if you do not have that.

Game Master Mode and Mod Support appear to be no-brainers to me. And yet, apparently, they are still being debated.

gonna say it again, most requested feature for modding and game master mode is peresistatn worlds.
Larian figured out how toa ctually do TB combat in a multiplayer enviroment.

use it.

If Larian can produce a toolset that allows PWs and build-your-own adventure modules along the lines of NWN and NWN2, that would be incredibly wonderful. I'd definitely be interested in creating content and writing tools for a modern FR engine.

Persistent worlds? DON'T TEASE ME LIKE THAT, I'm going to faint!

GM mode with D&D rules set and monsters + persistent worlds ? Now that would be a match in heaven!

If they can pull this off. TAKE MY MONEY!

they already had "Bhuild your own adventure" stuff in OS2.
And theyhad the game master mode.

NOBODY USED IT.
Theres like one or two half baked modules on the Nexus that have no wrting and are only used for GMing.


Moddign htis much for a GM mode just isnt a thign people do.

However.
peresistant worlds are huge. They are what elevated NWN from another DnD game to a unique expirience that hasnt relay been done untill the likes of Conan Exiles.

I know this is not a priority for Larian. But god damn it it should be.
And i realy dont see why it isnt possible.

I realy dont. Nothing i can see, even in original sin 2, seems to contradict it.
You can be in seperate areas in original sin, mostly. Some poeple managed to increase the ammount of players on a server, you can drop in drop out. Characters are serverside one way or another and DM mode exists.

I think Larian underestimates the impact that peresistant worlds would have

There are few of them, yes, but there are some guys that made a great work, including some mods of NWN turned into DOS2 modules.

I'm not sure the time and $$$ required to make BG3 a persistent world would be worth it for a few reasons. First, this game is set up in acts; as soon as you go to Act 2 you lose access to act 1 so the persistent world portion is over for Act 1. Not sure how much it would have really added to the game in a setup like this.

Don't get me wrong, if they had begun with having a persistent world in mind that would be different. I'm not opposed to it; I actually think it could elevate the game to a whole new game so I guess I'm just saying I don't think it would be financially beneficial at this point.

We are not talking about BG3 campaign being persistent. We are talking about a GM mode and the possibility to create persistent worlds with a toolset just like it was done in neverwinter nights.

Deathidge i think you dont know what were refering to.

Peresitant worlds is a term from Neverwinter Nights. Basically its a multiplayer server that runs indefinitly and has serverside characters.
they would usually have populations of aorund 20 people, and ofthen enforce ruels such as constant roleplaying.
the content was almost always entierly custom and ofthen reliat on a DM beeing present to spawn enemies and roleplay as the NPC.

That beeing said several servers had stuff like respawning dungeons, random NPC camps and even World bosses.
Think of it like a miniature MMORPG but with constant GM events (think Everquest 1), roleplaying and people larping as Drizzt beeing realy annoying.

From larians side this requires:
-GM mode (they already have that)
-More than 4 players allowed in a MP server
-Support for user created modules (probably have that9
-Drop in-drop out DMing
-Moderating tools for the DM/host

thats... probably it realy. I dont think you need anyhting else.

The question would be: do the Larians use certain editors themselves to create the content in BG3? Are those editors standalone tools ready(or easy to make ready) for the masses? If not, it would be way to much work to create exactly that to be used by us.

Though the idea is tempting. Persistant D&D in a world seen in the gameplay video would be a dream come true

It really depends on the process Larian is using. Different people in Larian work on different parts of the game, and so the content they create for the game is not always created with the same tools that are used to build the maps, which complicates the process of building a map. Even assuming shared resources (textures, models, AI, code), there may not be any one single person who has all the tools and knowledge to build an entire map from scratch.

wouldnt the original sin 2 map editor be a good place to start digging that up?
Its the same engine afterall.

i for one just want to get it through to larian that the effort might just be worth it for the payoff

This game is different from DOS2 in the sense a lot of PnP players are wanting this. It's D&D and there is already a large market of VTT players that would love to add GM mode for a D&D game. Those same VTT players would likely not like DOS2 because of 1. the ruleset and 2. the feeling / vibe that was not really D&D

I am a PnP player and i absoluteley dont.
The ammount of work to go into graphical representation of each session would be tremendous, meanwhile it limits my ability to worldbuild and to plan encounters.

Meanwhile i also love OS2. Also 3 out of 5 of my players do too. If were already talking anecdotal evidence.

I used it, thus making your argument invalid.

congratulations.
only you dont. I also played the RTS Dragonshard in multiplayer. me and one other person.
commercial success