Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General BG3 Going All In With Romance Scenes And Body Customization?

Was looking around the Nexus to see what's new and to my surprise Patch 9 apparently contains fully detailed and modeled female genitals which are not yet implemented into the game. They are also not a part of the main body model, but rather a separate model. There is also a leaf that covers the genital area as well.

Considering BG3 is already an 18+ rated game that doesn't shy away from nudity, has full freedom of character customization regardless of sex and with the recent inclusion of pronouns, this could mean that;

• The romance scenes might be even more graphically pleasing than led to believe
• There might actually be coming full body customization that includes even genitals, similarly to what Cyberpunk has, since it is a separate model
• There might be possible nymphs/dryads somewhere in the game with happy endings
• There might also be coming a "No Nudity" option in the settings

Either way it's quite a curious discovery and surprise, as very rarely prominent games/developers embrace full nudity. Personally I find that to be great news as it means more realism being added into the game, or at least I hope it does, because the last game that I remember not shying away from nudity was Diablo II back in the day and Cyberpunk recently. And it makes me wonder what more is there to come for full release.

Naturally I won't post any links here and urge others not to either, but you can find the showcases on the Nexus and other social media.

rofl.

Imagine if the gameplay was the actual focus instead of this absolutely cringe use of resources.

From the beginning they showed a mocap video and in one of the shots, you could see a diagram of different sexual positions the actors were going to perform. Needless to say they could make a Succubus blush…
I am sure there is an old thread with screenshots on here somewhere…

Should I deduce that you don't like the Mass Effect and the Witcher series?

I'm personally not a fan of fully nude sex scenes. I've yet to see character models that don't absolutely deep dive into the abyss of the uncanny valley once the clothes come off. It really breaks immersion for me.

You could deduce that this 'Early Access' continues to reflect a product that could use resources which have seemingly been directed at area's that are better left to real life in a bedroom.

That nude models exist doesn't necessary need to indicate anything. During Deadfire's patched one of the sidekicks was graced with fully finished, nude model. The guy responsible for modeling explained that they always start with nude model and then create clothes on top - they just copied a wrong file by accident.

I'd laugh so hard if they just went full hardcore with penetration shots and a movable camera to view the entire scene. It was meaningless/a waste of resources in Cyberpunk 2077 and it'll be the same here. Please work on the non sex animations before trying to make sex scenes Larian.

Also, I hope I have a choice to have underwear and not that ridiculous leaf, but it's Larian, so who knows.

Well, it's a role-playing game. It sounds logical for me to include sex scenes as consequences of a person's decisions. I can agree that these scenes are hard to get right because of the animations (especially facial animations), which can look cringy in comparison with animations in normal dialogs. But cmon, why do people think that it requires a lot of resources? There are probably not a lot of them in comparison with all other animations. And having body customization in a role-playing game sounds nice. The problem with Cyberpunk 2077 was that developers used maturity as one of the selling points, which was lackluster in the end. I do not think not having customization and scenes in Cyberpunk would make any difference.

As long as we are doing this... it would be nice if they would put an "ACE" tag in character creation. That's not my lifestyle irl, but I'd pick the tag if it could guarantee that I don't accidentally see uncanny valley cringefest video game sex.

I'd prefer they don't do that. If I wanted to play a porno game I'd buy a porno game. It just never feels like a natural thing. It feels like some developer is an exhibitionist and wants to showcase their favorite sexual activities to the world.

It is true that model creation always start with Ken/Barbie type of a body model, and in rare ocassions sometimes even a fully detailed nude body model. Beyond Two Souls for example had a fully textured nude model of Ellen Page's character Jodie, despite the game not having nudity whatsoever. However in this case it's a fully detailed female genitalia 3D model that snaps onto the bulge area of the main body model.

Which is why it caught my attention, because I work with 3D models all the time and normally you do not do that. So from a gameplay perspective it seems to be made intentionally modular and replacable, especially since there are files for males too named "censored"/"uncensored"/"slightly censored" and such, it makes me believe that there will truly be genital customization because there is no denying that BG3 is an inclusive game.

It supports pronouns and supports fully free character customization for transexual main characters. Because of this they cannot just use full body models, but have to make the genitals modular so transexual minorities can roleplay properly if genitalia are included. And since it is an 18+ rated game, the addition of genitals would further drive inclusivity by being able to choose;

• Male/Female body
• Male/Female pronouns
• Male/Female genitals

I just don't see someone making a mistake of creating or even copying a vagina, a leaf meant to cover genitals and male genital files as well. So I believe they are going for more realism and making sure everyone can create a character that fits their roleplaying vision.

I’m also all for tasteful fades to black when it comes to the sex scenes. The animations would need to be near perfect for them to be sexy rather than silly and I can’t see that being the case, particularly given different possible body models. Plus how a character, or pair of characters, would have sex is deeply individual and so any representation that Larian give of that is highly unlikely to feel authentic. I’d much prefer they focus on quality non-sexual interaction and relationship building and leave the actual bonking to my imagination.

But yes, if explicit sex scenes are included I’d like the option to turn them off in the event they’re as cringeworthy as I expect.

There very likely will be "No Nudity" option, as there is a leaf model too that covers the bulge area of bodies. Plus games almost always have such an option available.

In the Witcher 3 for example, Yennefer will be fully in a towel in the opening scene of the game rather than fully nude if the player chooses No Nudity option.

And Cyberpunk for example has genital customization, but you practically never get to see it other than in the inventory menu and very rarely during sex scenes. It's a "don't blink or you'll miss it" type of thing. But it adds more realism to be able to see it, even if it's for a split second, which I'm totally alright with. And naturally there's an option to just have underwear instead of genitalia.

So I have no doubt they'll have rich options to choose from for everyone. With genitalia, with underwear, no nudity and so on.

The idea that its more important we get the money shot, than they spend time on the actual game, is just soo on brand for this game's development...

Pretty much how I see it as well.
No hate or shame from me toward those who want it, of course. Everyone has different level of comfort and want when it comes to this type of stuff.

If it's Dragon Age type of romance scene, I'll be fine (the games, I haven't watched the animated show). But if it's going too much in the direction of Cyberpunk's (so, actually explicit from what I've heard and the little I've seen), meeeh...not for me.


And this part about The_Red_Queen's comment :
Is not negligible, in my opinion. It's really something I would like to literally leave to my own imagination 🥰

I'm glad to see that nudity will likely be an option based on what's been shown by Chubblot, but I would also like a "tasteful fade to black" or a "tune it down a bit" option 😅 The leaf 🌿 covering the genitals is iconic, btw. I seriously love it 😂


Sidenote : my Tav standing proudly and fully naked after the night with Astarion feels weird as well, but mostly because I keep thinking "Aren't you cold, hells", "couldn't be me standing naked like that, arms dangling on my sides" and so it feels unnatural to me.

I doubt they are doing this so they can have highly detailed animations of penetration.
And honestly its just a little bit of modelling and texturing a single 3d artist probably banged this one out in a day at most.

And it will be funny as hell to see the character run around as naked as they day they were born, maybe NPCs can comment on it.

"Like... ok wow... so anyway..."

That would be more labour intensive to add or we can just headcanon they are very accepting in the world of faerun.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/baldurs-gate-3/romance

Nuff said

Wobbly bits.

That's all just marketing, it's going to end up being very mild. Lots of hands gripping each other, stomachs being touched, moving the furniture stuff at most. I'd be shocked if we actually see genitals being sexually touched.

Yeaaaah, about that. Minthara would like to say hi

Minthara in the game pretty much goes downtown on us with plenty of tongue twisters and even doing the 69, which is quite visual. I mean it quite literally shows her eating us out, then going into the 69 pose where our character eats her booty while she has her fun on the opposite end with ours. Naturally the animations are still early access quality and they rely on angles to hide the fact that we have nothing down there, but... I don't know really, I don't see any other reason why they would suddenly start putting in genitalia files into the game unless they planned to not rely on angles to hide body model shortcomings.

I believe it will be out on full display. Naturally I do not expect anything hardcore as some people here to think. There won't be closeups of genitals interacting with one another most definitely. But I do see them not relying on angles to hide it and it being visible in brief moments as they're shuffling about, before the camera cuts to black.

For example with Minthara, instead of using Minthara's head or Tav's leg to hide the fact she has nothing under there, they might change the angle to show MInthara approaching her erotic zone in a glimpse before the camera cuts to black. So I definitely can see that. Soft erotic scenes enough to know you're not empty down there, but nothing hardcore as some people seem to think.

Cyberpunk for example has genitalia, but you don't even get to really see it during romance scenes. It's barely a glimpse even if you do. And to my opinion Cyberpunk has one of the most beautiful romance scenes ever made. The scenes with Judy are incredibly classy, intimate and lovely. Incredibly well done.

Have you seen the Minthera(sp) scene? That one is pretty explicit. Soft core atm. We will see. I personally don’t mind really soft low level scenes; however, pornhub level stuff does put me off.

I've just looked up the Minthara scene. There are different versions it seems (based on gender/race)? Anyway...yeah, not my cup of tea, at all. It looks so awkward to me. I'm really not feeling it 😕

That would totally break the immersion in my case 😓

So, really hoping for the option to have an automatic fade to black (not forcing me to click to skip every angles/shots of the scene) or something of the sort.

the Minthara love scene looks ridiculous. One person is constipated while the other is confused and smiling. Super awkward and "explicit" only for the shock value, but it just ends up looking juvenile.

As MelivysilverRoot mentioned, I really hope they add a true skip cutscene feature, and not just a 'skip to next camera shot' as they have now.

I hope you guys are familiar with Niara's opus Focused Examination: Intimate Choreography with Small-sized Characters If memory serves, she goes into detail about the shortcomings of the Minthara scene, from a cinematographic angle among other things.

I personally don't mind how explicit they go with it, outside the narrative I want videogames to be free to go there, and inside the narrative I think it can advance the dramatic development of the characters involved.
Judging from some of the choices you make during the [under construction] scenes, I hope the intimate scenes don't just exist in their own pocket plane, and are actually meaningful to the narrative.

Considering everything else, I wonder if the clip show vignettes in Cyberpunk were the original plan. I remember a sex scene in Andromeda that came out of left field for me, but I think that was just because I wasn't really invested in the characters there.

Niara's ....I want to say Thesis, is exactly why I would rather them keep it simple. There's simply no way Larian is going to put a fraction of the effort Niara has done into these intimate scenes. It's going to end up looking ridiculous at best, creepy at worst.

Wow, Niara really went deep on that one and I only read 1 1/2 posts!

edit: HA, just realized there should have been photos but they were removed by Larian haha

Yup, her scene is affected by Male/Female + Normal/Short height. So to me it's pretty cool that they're taking into account such things, even though I truly only experienced one variant with her. I love attention to detail.

Kinda makes me curious to see the more muscular body type for romance scenes, assuming we're getting them as was shown in the release trailer.

And whether any of the classes will take celibacy into account

I'm fully on board with a role playing game that has romance options giving players the ability to engage with an important part of romance(sex). The game is 18+. We're already accepting gratuitous violence, body horror, gore, etc, so why draw the line at nudity and sex? If you don't want to see it, you don't have to engage with it, as you're not being forced to pursue romance options with your companions. Even putting that aside, we already know there's going to be a streaming mode for players to allow viewers to vote on their dialogue choices in the game, meaning unless Twitch has suddenly changed its policies on nudity sexual content, there is likely going to be a menu toggle for nudity and sex scenes. Complaining about Larian investing development into cutscenes that you personally don't want to engage in makes no sense to me. There will likely be tons of cutscenes that I'll never see simply based on choices I make as a player, but I'm not going to complain about them existing simply because I won't engage with them. Larian is making the game they want to make, meaning these assets and scenes were planned on, meaning the inclusion of them isn't detracting from development. Not including them wouldn't add to development elsewhere.

Also, for those saying how awkward it'll look. Have you seen how far 3DCG porn has come in the past couple years? If an indie animator can fully rig high quality Mortal Kombat porn, I'm sure Larian will do just fine.

I don’t think that’s what folk are doing. Most of us are simply expressing a preference, which is what Larian have said they want to hear from us during EA. They are of course free to take on board or not.


Hmm, I haven’t seen but I’m going off the animation we already have in the game which can be pretty wonky. Of course there could be vast improvements between now and full release, and I very much hope there are. But I don’t find what we’ve seen from BG3 so far promising in this respect.

I've seen various cutscenes go from having wonky/no animation to a patch that makes them look very natural. Some of Kagha's scenes at various points had no lip syncing at all off the top of my head. I think it's fair to say that a lot of the worse scenes are just not yet complete.

Basically the 3D/CGI content Swagnar talks about is pretty evolved by now that it looks incredibly realistic, especially by the more talented creators for the more popular games such as Overwatch, Cyberpunk, Witcher 3, Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider and basically any game that has a female character/protagonist. The community revolving around it is massive.

And games like Cyberpunk have shown how officially it can be done incredibly realistic and proper. But regardless of such animations, I do not doubt in Larian's capability since it's Early Access and optimization is not really their priority right now. Which is evident by so many wonky animations such as facial emotions, movement and other aspects.

For example like this one below. This is an animation error where our character looks sideways. And there's far far worse examples than this by them looking stiff, constipated and so on.

But then you have an incredibly high quality representation of what they're capable, such as with musical instruments where animations are incredibly fluid.

So I am not too worried about animation quality, as the optimization hasn't even started yet, but I have a feeling judging by the ones showcased above that this shouldn't be something to worry about.

Yeah, it was a big project and one that, unfortunately, I was not able to dedicate the time to finish to my satisfaction, considering the difficulties imposed...

Unfortunately, in its present state, the thread is difficult to parse without the supporting models and pose references - it really needs them in order to be easy to digest. The problem was that the forum's rules for this were too fuzzy, and though I had communications with Larian representatives on the matter, and they conveyed that they were going to reform those rules to make it clearer what I could post and how - and thus what a solution would be to proceed - that never eventuated, so I can't progress.

The issue was that I was using 3d models and poses to support my discussion - these were just completely blank, featureless 3d body models, but they were nevertheless considered NSFW enough to be disallowed, while images from the game itself, being Larian official content, are allowed regardless... but I couldn't conduct the examination I needed to built just on shots from the game, since I needed to discuss choreography and illustrate the difficulties or advantages of various choices and how they affected a scene.

I cannot provide a public link or reference to the unedited version of the document, formally speaking, but I'd like to encourage anyone who has an interest in the dynamics of choreography and scene-writing for intimate moments (and, you know, how to convey feeling and emotion without making it completely awkward or creepy, and the considerations that must be kept in mind while writing and choreographing such...), to send me a PM, where I can share a link to the examination in its intact form.

That part at the end of the video you originally posted made me feel sick when he mentioned the half-lings, because I had forgotten about the small child height classes in the game. Yeaaah, no thank you. Please just fade to black. 🤮

I agree here. If they really go full porno, I'd like to have the option to fade to black too.

I mean, I totally get, that people are exciting about this, after all, the first mods that come out for most games are nude mods. I just don't need that in my game and would very much appreciate a fade to black option and that my character keeps her knickers.

I actually find sexual scenes a good playground to present and develop the characters. By making Minthara's scene pretty vulgar as if straight out of porn they establish her predisposition to dominance and love of pleasure, presenting her as an unhinged person once again and adding a little extra to the character. I expect sex scenes to explore on our companions' initimate traits and fears. Sexual behavior can tell a lot about a person, one opens up and fully exposes themselves as they are, others remain emotionally closed. Good field to work with, actually. Removing it is like removing body comedy from Jack Sparrow. We need to have some visual storytelling in the game which is not just gesturing while staying in one place, imo. That'll contribute to the richness of the story.

I wholeheartedly agree that the romance scenes are an important extension of characters and their personality, and an important contribution to the story meant to enrich them as characters rather than be a mindless sex act just for eye candy, as they tell a lot about our characters.

• Shadowheart is an innocent and shy romantic who loves picnics, so her romance slowly blossoms which I find absolutely beautiful.
• Gale is a gentleman and quite a romantic. I hope to see some magical creativity during his romance.
• Lae'zel is pretty much a straight forward "strip! we're banging right now!" type because the concept of love does not exist in her culture of warriors. So to her it is just a carnal pleasure meant to be satisfied and she doesn't mince words, which I absolutely adore and enjoy seeing as part of her culture. However I hope that by the time the game ends we'll get to teach her in some extent the concept of love and devotion, along with other values. I would really like that for her as a character.
• Astarion I didn't get to research a lot, but we do actually get incredibly important details about Astarion and his past, especially the scar on his back
• Wyll I admit, never slept with. But I will eventually.

As for Minthara, I wouldn't call her unhinged as that is not what her romance is supposed to portray nor who she is. I fear a lot of people have misconceptions about her, and all other companions for that matter. People think she is just a lustful pleasure driven dominant badass Drow, when in truth she is an ex-Lolth Drow with an extremely traumatizing past of consecutive betrayals against her who for the first time ever actually lowers her psychological and emotional barriers in order to overcome her traumatic fear of being betrayed, by putting all her trust in Tav because for the first time ever she is genuinely in love. And she is in fact so much in love that she wishes to take Tav as her consort to spend an eternity together in Menzoberranzan after the war is over, which utterly shatters her heart when that dream is almost ruined by the Absolute's wishes. But her love runs so strong within her that she goes against the Absolute's wishes and helps us reach Moonrise Towers, with hopes that her dream with us will become a reality eventually.

So hardly unhinged and hardly just a pleasure ride for her. Her romance actually portrays that she sacrifices a lot in order to make love to Tav by going against the very essence of who she is in order to surrender to the moment fully and for the first time ever experience something she never ever had the privilege to receive... love and trust. Which is why if you try to probe her during the romance, you'll break her heart and she'll see it as betrayal.

Personally it kinda hurts seeing people perceiving these romance scenes as nothing but porn and eye candy, when in truth they are quite beautifully crafted and meaningful intimate moments with a lot of subtle meaning and lore about our characters meant to enrich their backstories and them as characters.

I’m not sure that many people associate graphic sex scenes with romance. A sex scene can absolutely be romantic but I don’t think that would constitute vivid depictions of various sexual acts or positions. Has pornography ever been called romantic?

I really don’t see why the game needs it personally. Maybe I’m weird but I like these kinds of games for the appeal of undertaking a grand fantasy adventure, not to explore carnal pleasures. I mean, what are Larian aiming for here…Baldurs Gate: 50 Shades of Greyhawk?

That is exactly the thing - is it romance or is it just sex? Is it just a way to escape harsh reality or a way to make love to the person you care about? Those could be discernable with the help of the well-structured sexual narrative. It is all very raw for now tbh, I guess we'll wait and see.

But honestly, what an adventure it is if there is no sex in it
Let us shed the skin of insecurity here, fantasy games are based on real life, because fantasy is an exaggerated reality. Sex is a part of real life. So not liking it in this game/setting becomes a matter of personal preference, not inappropriateness.

I agree that it is totally a personal preference. I don’t agree that a fantasy video game adventure needs sex though. Can anyone seriously say for example that The Lord of the Rings is worse off for not having graphic sex in it?

Romances have become one of the number 1 cringe "features" in RPGs anyways (imagine if a party member betraying you rather than luvin' you had become a "feature" requested and you get an idea why it's become so shallow -- it's nothing surprising anymore, plus it's something to be ticked off a list, which both is the polar opposite of character depth).

There's a lot to say about how romances play out in RPGs too. The formula of gradually leveling up companions, unlocking ever more dialogue and eventually, as the "big price", pardon me, banging them, has always been juvenile to the max. But then that's probably the gaming industry for you, which is comparably still in its infancy.

I'm not holding my breath that BG3 is going to stop that trend in the slightest. (Which is is fine, I'm then just going to ignore all that stuff.)

Nah, LOTR is not worse off due to lack of sex in it because it is an artistically elevated masterpiece with a completely different portrayal goal of fantasy, so naturally sex would not fit in it.

But for something like Game Of Thrones, which is trying to illustrate the raw, real and brutal medieval atmosphere... yes the exclusion of sex would very much change the atmosphere of the show and what it's trying to portray. The way sex is conducted in the show by various characters and cultures, has a tremendous amount of meaning and perception. It makes it far more real and gritty seeing how something that is a symbol of love can be so hideously misused and portrayed by certain characters.

So it depends on what an art is trying to portray. BG3 clearly is trying to display the gritty real world of Faerun without sugarcoating it. The very first teaser for the game has the Flaming Fist knight go through ceremorphosis. So to me it very much fits into the narrative and enhances it, rather than makes it worse.

That is the main problem. Pornography is always a scene out of context. It may have some story, but we all know it is irrelevant. But in this case, we will have hours of characters' interactions and development. People are worried that it is going to be a full porno, but after Minthara's scene, I am pretty sure that it is not going to be the case. It is part of romance and it looks to me that a lot of people a worried because all such content is associated with cringy over the top videos with extremely bad actors' performances - but it should not always be the case. Some people also connected some NSFW mods to this topic, but I think these are different kinds of players. It is not the same - trying to build a relationship with your beloved companion to see how it ends, and just walking nude the whole game. Looks like these are different people for me.

It is just a theory, but it looks like a porno spoiled people's attitude to sexual acts. I feel the same way, to be honest, and I am not sure what to think about this topic. But maybe it is good to give Larian a chance to change our minds?

Lord of the Rings doesn't have characters whose personality needs to be extended through sexual scenes. Because good characters are not commonly associated with sexuality, and more with dignity and romaticism. Evil character are commonly associated with desire, dependence and power when it comes to relationships, so a graphic sexual scene can convey all of those things properly. But in case of LoTR evil is presented more as an ambiguous entity rather than a well-defined person. Sauron is just a personification of evil and he doesn't need to have that kind of representation. I am talking about the original trilogy ofc, not the Rings of Power.

Everything you've described is applicable to the real life all the same. People meet each other, they get interested, then attracted, then attached. Then they get to decide whether they need to make a step further. If they do it can end in sex....wow, huge revelation... didn't mean to shatter someone's psyche

Our actions form our companions' affection to us. People are attracted by ones who grant them comfort. So if you've been accumulating hundreds of approval it is then just natural for either you or your companion to make this step I was talking about earlier. On the other hand, it could be great to have some companions which can deny our propositions and decide to stay friends because of what we've done or their personal reasons.

LotR is a morally uncomplicated fable of good vs evil with no grey areas and characters that are more archetype paragons than people. I say this as someone who loves Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was writing a mythology, and a heavily Christian influenced one at that. Baldur's Gate is set in the Forgotten Realms, a morally grey world with all the trappings of the real world, and characters who are broadly speaking just regular people. You think there wouldn't be a Brothel or 20 in the whole of the city of Baldur's Gate when we've seen them in previous games like Neverwinter Nights? There are already plenty of sexless RPGs out there for people to play who don't want to see nudity or anything like that. Fantasy adventure games don't need lots of things. They don't need high fidelity AAA graphics, but BG3 is investing a ton of its budget into visuals and animations. They don't need multiple races to choose from, but Larian is putting the effort in to make sure NPCs in the world respond differently based on your race and even subrace. Fantasy adventure games don't need classes, you could easily be playing a game where you're forced to be a sword-user. They don't need to have blood or murder or death either. We could have Pokemon combat where the animation involves your character bouncing slightly in the air and a white flash that results in the enemy hp draining.

Saying an RPG doesn't need something really isn't the point. Its an option that you aren't going to be forced to engage in. Even if it were for the sole purpose of titillations, why is that a problem if that's what the devs choose to add to a game? If a significant number of players want that type of content in their fantasy games, and the abundance of NSFW mods in other fantasy RPGs and their popularity gives me full confidence that they do, why fuss over it? If I don't want to play as a halfling cleric. I don't have to. If you don't want to see a nipple, you don't have to. We really should be past this sort of argument at this point. It's an adult game for adults, and is labelled as such.

Edit: Just to be clear, it's fine if you don't want to engage in the content. Not everything is for everyone. I guess I just find it a little frustrating how some people are talking like this kind of stuff shouldn't be in the game at all. Games like this should be about crafting your own narrative and responding to the world around you as you see fit. I'm personally glad that Larian is willing to push the boundaries of acceptable content in video games, especially since I remember all the controversies in the past and moral panics surrounding The Elder Scrolls Oblivion with a bugged piece of armor in the code that removed female tops that affected the ESRB rating, or the San Andreas Hot Coffee controversy. Not every game that's made has to be PG-13. I'm just trying to make the case that sexual content has just as much of a place in a fantasy RPG as all the violent content that we accept as a given.

I actually played a game a long time back with no romance, but instead centered on your party members reactions to your choices and the reaction of your soldiers and people to your actions. For example very early on if you make to many morally gray or down right evil choices one of your heavily good aligned allies sets up a trap for you as he thinks you will become a tyrant if you are allowed to become any stronger, but if you end up taking more good actions along the way and change your path before the betrayal event comes up. He will change his mind and warn you about it, help you defeat the attackers, then willingly subjugate himself to your decision as to his punishment. Knowing that what he did is treason and by law he should die for his betrayal. You can execute him which makes your soldiers respect you more for remaining true to the law, but your people will dislike this because he was beloved by the people for being an honorable man. You can also show him mercy and let him live, but your soldiers will lose some faith in your conviction to hold true to the laws and some may leave because of this. The people on the other hand will love you and your kingdom will grow larger. You can also banish him which makes both sides happy, but only partly and you lose that companion.

That's the thing though. I love romance in RPG game, but not explicit sex scene. And everything you listed there doesn't require the explicit aspect.
I love romancing companions, what happens before and after, knowing that they are about to have sex and that I get to learn more about the characters. But, again, I don't need to see in such details how they have sex. What we have in EA is enough (well, mostly, there are some missing bits and fixing needed). To me, it's not because I find it "cringe" or whatever. It's because it's just not my taste and breaks immersion.


And yes, again, this is not about wanting to remove it all :

And

The Forgotten Realms is a quite sexy / sexually liberated setting if you are familiar with the source material.

Larian staying true to source material i know that is not their strong suit but they are hitting the mark on this topic.

These are the same people that don't know how to change/skip the channels on their TV.

A cRPGs is a story-telling tool amongst other things, and I would be disappointed not to have the opportunity to make romance and/or sex part of my characters’ stories when I want to. I also understand that there are resource constraints on the amount and complexity of content that can be created and so, while I do hope for memorable moments, I don’t expect the whole relationship to be there on screen but see what is presented as being hooks or triggers for my imagination.

That said, I would be all for presenting different patterns of romance/sexual relationships. I don’t know any great examples, but I liked the “rivalmance” idea in Dragon Age 2, even though the approval system worked poorly in practice. Mass Effect Andromeda made some attempts to have its relationships developing with different beats, with some following the tried and tested route but, eg, one that could start with a one-night stand that could then either be let go with good will on both sides or else you could take a step back and build a longer term relationship.

At the very least, I do hope Larian will do more in the final release to disguise the fact that they’re limited in how they can progress romances in a game like this to help suspension of disbelief. As lots of folk have mentioned, all the propositioning at the party at the moment can be farcical.

But apologies, I think this thread is more about the actual sex scenes rather than the relationship that brackets them so I’m probably off topic.

I do agree that showing some intimate interaction is really important to bring the relationships to life, I just think a lot can be done with a few well chosen establishing scenes. I actually liked the start of the Minthara scene for example. The fact that it could start with a bit of a dominance struggle suited the character I was playing, and showing a bit of how that played out in the sex made it feel consequential and I wouldn’t have minded a few edited highlights. But the sex scene went on … and on … and on. Obviously everyone’s mileage will differ but I was in stitches laughing by the end, I found it so absurd to be watching it, which is not the right mood at all!

And despite the good points made in this thread about the benefits of including sex scenes, I still don’t want Larian to show me in detail how my character has sex. The more they show, the greater the chance that what is shown will clash with my head canon of who the character is and how they would behave with their sexual partner.

I’m sure that Larian will indeed get around this by having different options. I just hope that it’s possible to skip any extended sprite porn marathons without losing all the intimate scenes that will help add flavour to developing relationships (or indeed relationships that aren’t going to develop beyond that single encounter).

Oh, and while it’s not the whole of my objection I do admit that at least part of my concern is that, based on what I’ve seen so far, I don’t yet trust that Larian can pull off polished, convincing animation of sex. Those who have said that they still have time and we shouldn’t dismiss the possibility are of course right. I would love to have my suspicion on this point proved baseless.

I believe it all comes down to, as usual, a preference and that would be well compromised with a...you guessed it...a toggle.

I'm not sex-repulsed, but watching porn is just not fun for me. Does absolutely nothing for me and watching animated porn is, like people already said, just cringy for me.

Yes! Show me the kisses, the body language that *leads* to sex. Hell, show me full nudity and how the engaged party got there, but please fade to black after.

And, most of all, show me the pillow talk, I *hate* it when we jump out of the scene when everyone is clothed again. Is that how people have the morning after talk now?

I don’t get your argument; classes, races, fighting have always been an integral part of playing D&D CRPGs so one would expect to find them in the game…are you suggesting graphic sex is as an integral part? Do people who play tabletop D&D roleplay in graphic detail sexual relationships or orgies during their campaigns? I genuinely don’t know because I never played it.

Where did I ever state there wouldn’t be a brothel or sex in Faerun? There was a brothel in BG2, nobody is disputing that they don’t exist in D&D world. I just don’t feel you need to have vivid depictions of a blow job to somehow reveal some profound insight into a character.

I haven’t played the game in a long time but I do recall being propositioned by my companions from very early on with minimal interactions. I wasn’t forced to engage with it but it was very much shoved in my face from the outset. Perhaps that has changed in recent patches?

Shot in the dark, but wouldn't the Twitch integration option in the settings censor nudity and sex scenes?

Well it was supposed to be about the potential of what could come with the inclusion of genitals, but sometimes people are unable to separarate nudity and porn so it devolved into sex, whereas I was looking more for the realism potential the game might be going for

Such as there being mangled/dismembered/defiled nude bodies, similarly to what Diablo 2 has in ACT 1 of Andariel's Cathedral where all Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye members were tortured, quartered, dismembered and so on... to fully illustrate the corruption of Andariel.

Also since there are slavers in BG3, there might be chained up slaves being beaten to a pulp without clothes to illustrate the hardship of Faerun. Also as I mentioned in the OP, there might by dryads/nymphs which are forrest women and are usually fully nude. Moonrise Towers in the trailer also seems quite a morbid place, there might be a lot of corpses, monstrosities turned out of human bodies to portray the horror that might be going on there. The possibilities are endless to make the world more gritty and dark.

Nudity is not just used for sex, it's used to really kick realism and horror into overdrive when it comes to illustrating a dark and gritty world. It is an 18+ rated game afterall, which is why I found the news very interesting and wondering what they might do with it.


Understood. I believe they most likely will be including some sort of "No Nudity" option, as there are already signs that lead me to believe that. And sex scenes most likely will be a fade to black which will then continue after the deed is done. Though I still think it would be a good idea for people who would like to skip such scenes to write a suggestion on the forum to include an option to do so.

Shoved in your face as in Lae'zel propositioning you? That happens in the real world, and you're free to refuse. No one is forcing you to go to the sex mausoleum.

If sex exists in Toril, and we the player are taking on the roles of people who live in Toril, and another character wants to have sex with our character, and we choose to have sex with them, why is it a problem if the player gets to see their choice? You're basically arguing we don't need graphic depictions of violence. I don't need vivid depictions of decapitation to somehow reveal profound insight into a character.

Plenty of RPGs exist that lack character creation, class choices, and race choices. The Witcher is one of the most popular of them. We could easily have been given a predefined character with a narrow selection of choices and minimal dialog choices, and it would still meet the technical definition of an RPG.

And finally, how groups play D&D is entirely up to the table and what the players are comfortable with. Some groups don't want any hint of romance whatsoever, and it's nothing but combat mechanics and quest objectives, with little to no role playing. There are groups that do lite romance, but never elaborate. I've seen tables do grand romances that develop through campaigns, and offspring of the romance become replacement characters when the older ones retire, and you can absolutely find erp groups that have graphic descriptions of sex acts in their sessions. D&D is what you make it, and there's room for both celibate paladins and horny bards in it.

Ah! You’ve got us bang to rights there

With respect to nudity/genitals in general, I think in an adult game like this there certainly are scenarios in which it would be reasonable to expect to encounter nudity rather than folk in underwear (and I don’t find the underwear in game so far particularly convincing anyway). And if you’re going to show nudity then if your sprites don’t have genitals then, even if you’re not particularly zoomed in, it’s probably going to be noticeable and the smooth, featureless, nipple-less avatars you see in some games are weird and creepy.

But if you go there, you have to start thinking about things like whether sprites have pubic (or other body) hair and how much. Personally, lack of pubic hair on either men or women says to me either “doll” or “child”, both of which can be deeply uncomfortable in different contexts. But there seem to be plenty of folk who prefer no hair on one or all genders. And I have no idea how hairy your average au naturel dwarf, elf, gnome or dryad would be and don’t particularly want us or Larian to vanish down a rabbit hole of thinking about it.

I do think if you’re going to do nudity you have to do it well, and I wouldn’t blame Larian if they dodged the issue by use of strategic placement of cloth, leaves, hair, blood or limbs (dismembered or otherwise) and carefully chosen shots in cutscenes. But while that might be the safest option, if Larian decide to be brave and go for full nudity then all power to them. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed it’s done well enough to add to rather than break immersion.

Part of the problem currently is that the way they've set up, shot and choreographed their sex scenes, they make it painfully visible and clear that the character models are smooth around the bend - they could hide this with clever shooting and posing, but they don't - so aside form the myriad other major choreography problems that exist in the current scenes ("Why are you giving an invisible blowjob to my vagina-owning PC?", "Where are you even kneeling, there is zero possibility of penetration there!", "I'm a halfling, why are you kissing the altar way over over there?"), they're made all the worse by the shooting showing off with gratuitous clarity that the models are ken-and-barbie dolls where it matters!

Interesting take. Am I to understand that you believe that it should be a case of "Hey, we just met, let's bang"? While I have had that happen out here in the real world, it's usually more "leveling up the companion" by doing things like, you know, dating. Wine and dine, dinner and a movie, you know, those things we do out here because we can't go crawling through a dungeon collecting loot, or flying around the galaxy, opposing x threat, or creating it... I find it odd that the video game version of dating would seem juvenile.

It is clear as day that those scenes are underdeveloped atm.

Yes, which is why we give this feedback on them... because if we assume that everything is known about, and not finished, and 'will get fixed', then a whole lot of stuff will not, actually, get improved, but we don't know which is which, so we give feedback on what we see, which is the point of participating in early access.

It is clear as day as well! I thought there was some pun intended regarding the unfinished content being bad. I mean, OBVIOUSLY it is bad because it is unfinished. It is just you've started your post with the word "problem".

It is a problem; it is a problem and it needs to be addressed.

So many thoughts here so many points to think about but.... At the end of the day two things will surface from all of this I think. We are all players here and most I would think are early access players. We have paid for the privlage of playing the game in it's raw form, helping find bugs and giving the team's the ability to shape the game to what "we the players and fans" are looking for in the final release. So Assuming (yes i know I shouldn't) that we are all adults here, Relationships in games like this are honestly few and far between for me, I have yet to see a solid non porn made game that has the great game play, great characters and ability to shape our characters world that this has the potential to be. If Larian are willing to build and put in the time for a somewhat realistic relationship within BG3 then I am willing to see where it goes and support what they do. If you dont want to see nudity, that is fine and fair and a switch to option to disable that is easy, But Please do not deny those players who want to push the boundaries of all aspects of this game from doing just that. How would you feel if you build your Bard/Warlock/Barbarian only to find that some other players didn't like the cleave feature, The ability to provide inspiration or to cast hex via twining) so they nerfed it or removed it all together ?

Sadly it really upsetting to see how many people are just like eww SEX, listen if your not 18 plus you shouldnt even be playing this game and if your 18 plus why you shaming one of the most natural act of being human... it make no sense if you have a issue with sex dont play M game, especially don't play game that are base off such act either. but that beside the point i think as someone who enjoy being able to do a lot in a game that nudity is fine there nothing shameful or eww about it. The ability to fully flesh out a romance or relationship in a video game is nice it give meaning and character to your playthrough. Sensual sex is one of the core things in love making in the first place you dont just shove it in and think it alright you play, you feel, you enjoy each other bodies and then you go further. the fact so many people here have issue with oh Sensual scene or i dont want to see a penis or vagina is dont right not ok if you dont want to see it then all you have to do is use the No nudity opition enjoy the scene with no sexual preference that your choice.

Seriously Larian if your reading this at one point dont take what these ignorant people say just add a no nudity opition and if they grow up in time they can turn it back off for those who will enjoy your game please have fun with us and do as you please we cant wait for the game release!!!

Moving on to the goblins and harpy and orge nudes mod i think it fine, in fact i think it be cool to have a goblin romance, we have halfling romances and dwaref and gnome why not have goblins if you decided to play evil why not have a harpy lover orge i mean if you like big bone women or big women or males in general why not i dont think we get Scene for Orge of course but still why not enjoy versatility of gaming i think it fine. i mean shoot evil playthrough aside i think it fun just not flesh out as much as say doing a good route which is a little ugh in my part. but still there nothing wrong with Sex with sentient beings to think otherwise is you shaming the act of sex.

That’s just unnecessarily rude. I’m not sure which posts you’re referring to, but there have been a variety of different preferences expressed as to whether and how the game should represent sex and numerous reasons given for them, none of which I’ve seen have anything to do with sex or genitalia being icky or shameful. You seem to have a preference for inclusion of explicit sex scenes in the game, and of course you’re entitled to your view but so is everyone else without their views being insulted or misrepresented.

Given that your suggestion - ie include (well executed) explicit scenes for those that want them but give those who don’t the option to skip the most graphic bits - seems to be the one most endorsed in this thread, your tone seems particularly unwarranted.

I haven't caught up on comments past yours, so it may have been addressed, but other games do have much more subtle, much more player-consensual romance, eg POE2 Deadfire, where there are dialog options blocking the romance paths, and that's ish the case here, but with much less subtlety.

Colin,

Glad for the update. I have by no means played every game out there. That said there seem so many here just against the raw reality of as someone put it "SEX" style graphics in the game.

Has ANYONE at all said "ew, gross, sex"? All the comments I've seen is how ridiculous it's going to look, the wasted development resources on something that will look stupid/meme worthy, and the complexities of having animations with different races/sizes/etc.

I know it's tempting to create strawman arguments and defeat those, but at least try to attack what people are actually saying.

Wanted to be extra nice, but since you haven't been...

I think it's safe to assume most of us here are adults and have had some prior experience with sex. Don't recall a single person here against including sex and/or nudity, but the way it is/will be included because we saw it, we done it and yet still cringe hard when we see two pixelated people do something that is supposed to be fun while clipping through each other, making strange facial expressions and doing things that should not be possible be it due to character height or gravity.

That must have been one of the longest sentaces I have ever written, and still not as embarrassed as seeing most sex scenes in video games.

Exactly.
If we do not get dragonborn, this scenes are probably the reasons why.
Not only because they require extra work to create but also because of the expected social impact when people starts screaming "furry" which might get even picked up by media with a agenda (aka, FOX).

Ha! Considering that in D:OS2 Larian made lizards “the sexy race”, I think it will be right up their alley.

Not really. Its one think to have dialogue lines in the game, but having graphic implied (as far as the BG3 scenes imply) scenes is something completely different.

As I said, the term "furry" gets thrown out a lot today, especially as FOX and other right wing media started a campaign to equate furry with LGBT in order to attack diversity ect. So now having pretty graphic scenes between lizards and (near) humans is something that might make BG3 a target for media.

And on the other side, dragonborn would need their completely own scenes. For example you can't reuse any kiss scene with them because of their snout and most other scenes will likely also not work because of their anatomy. Granted, you have the same problem with size differences, but its still possible to reuse one set of animations for all small races.

Can I just say... I want to see that camp scene, where you jilt Minthara's advance and tell her you're more interested in fooling around with Sazza over her... I would *love* that option ^.^

Asking for a spoiler here, is there a way to actually save Sazza?

From Minthara? You can persuade her to spare Sazza I think.

I didn't think the Minthara scene was *that* bad. It's EA so of course they will polish things. I love that games are more open with romance, nudity and yes, sex scenes. I hope Larian keeps doing what they were doing.

Hi all! where can i watch updated sex scenes? on YouTube, either old videos or censored ones

We still only have one fully rendered sequence, which is Minthara's, unless Larian sneakily put in more full sequences without me noticing somehow.

Penis 1 and Penis 2?
For the uninitiated: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cyberpunk-2077-penis-2

Gale's and Wyll's are definitely still "Under Construction" and Shadowheart's full sequence is apparently there (as it was before) but of course doesn't include sex.

Haven't tried Astarion this patch, or Lae'zel at all yet.

I definitely agree with the no nudity option. Not everyone wants to see things or even have a sexual relationship in their game. I myself am asexual and a SA survivor. I for one, would be very appreciative if there were at least an option for no nudity. I would especially like it if there were a romance path that you could take with the characters where you still romance them, but refrain from anything past kissing, hand-holding, hugging, etc. Perhaps not with Astarion though...he seems to be a very explicit character as far as that goes. With that being part of his personality, he may be only character without the no sex option (in my opinion.)

I just would like full freedom to interact with these characters as I would, or as my character would. Most of my characters are more serious characters and aren't really interested in sex, although romance is not off the table. I understand that some people would prefer to have these types of relationships with the characters, but others may not. In fact it may be almost triggering for some people, especially SA survivors like myself. I don't like seeing sex scenes, but it doesn't trigger me. For others, however, it could trigger panic attacks or worse.

That's a good point, and thank you for sharing your perspective. That it could be traumatic for some players is definitely yet another good reason to enable users to opt not to see sex scenes, so that those gamers aren't totally barred from the safe bits of the romances. And yes, it would make sense for player characters to be able to say that they like an NPC and would be open to a relationship with them, but not sex. As you say, not all the NPCs are necessarily going to be into that, but our characters should at least be able to express their preference, and I don't see why at least some of the companions wouldn't be open to the idea.