why is their a town literally 2 feet outside of Baldur's Gate? In what universe is it logical to make a town a stone's throw away from one of the largest cities?
Rivington is on the other bank of one of Faerûn's major rivers. It was annexed as a useful suburb sometime in the 14th century DR when Wyrm's Crossing was finished, but started
outside of the city's jurisdiction as a trading hub for the farmers south of the Chionthar along with all kinds of businesses not wanted inside the city walls - like tanners, fullers, butchers or dyers and everything else considered gross or hazardous. Then you have traders trying to avoid road taxes, city tariffs and trouble with the Flaming Fist. Yet, this way the place is still close enough for the citizens of Baldur's Gate to profit from it, while the proximity to a fortified city still offers some degree of protection. Almost all major walled cities in Faerûn have these "gate towns" or slums that serve the same function, and that's quite the same with many major European cities of the middle and early modern ages. Even today many businesses and people like to move just outside of the major city where prices are lower while you can still use most of the infrastructure. In my area, you're not going to find any non-built up places any more. Note, that the potter's workshop was also on the other side of a body of water in Reithwin since it posed a fire hazard and produced toxic fumes.
Concerning the question of maps, I really can't make up my mind. I didn't expect full realism from BG3, so I just went with the flow, while knowing that it's probably a few days' journey into the Underdark and not a short elevator ride. I knew everything would be less complicated and flashier than the AD&D tabletop game I was coming from. Thus, I took a Mountain Pass in a region completely devoid of mountains, fast-travelling and a condensed world as part of the game flow which worked for me. I stop describing miles of empty road to my players as well, when I think they've got the point. A casual gamer may have never found the grove if it was buried in a maze of forest. Druid groves are also usually very well hidden with magic in the original game lore, so it was no immersion breaker for me
that the goblins who knew it was somewhere in the area could suddenly overcome the protective spell when they were led straight to the gate.
I guess any solution to travelling the map can serve to frustrate different gamer types, getting lost in a frameless pretty painting, paralysed by possibilities or endless loading times/other performance issues. For me, the most important thing would be that it suits the game's narrative flow which in BG3 works for me.
