I've been thinking a bit about why the world in BG3 feels so unconvincing to me. I think lack of verisimilitude in mechanics is a big issue, but I think there's a writing issue as well. Every NPC is involved in some kind of extreme storyline. We've got:
- Tiefling refugees who just popped in from Avernus
- Druids who are missing their leader and in the middle of a shadowy takeover
- A goblin war party being controlled by Absolute fanatics
- A town wiped out by said goblins
- Another town that was just burned to the ground in the middle of a drow kidnapping plot
- A tiefling on the run from Avernus, being pursued by corrupted paladins
- A githyanki search party with a dragon
- Two otherwise normal brothers, but their sister has been taken in by a hag
- The absolute circus of potential party members that you can recruit
- ...
- And then a mindflayer ship crashes right into the middle of it all
Where are the normal people who are just living their lives and aren't participating in the insanity of the main plotline? Where's the reclusive woodsman that just wants to be left alone? Travelling merchants? Farmers? Fishers? The few normal people that we see in this game (tollhouse guy and some bodies in Waukeen's Rest, among others) were dead before we got here (again, due to exceptional circumstances). The Zhentarim are the closest we see to people just living their lives, and they're pretty exceptional on their own and are also a little wrapped up in what's going on.
When every storyline is big and flashy and special, then none of them are special. This world doesn't feel convincing.
