Larian Studios Forums Divinity General Discussion Feature Suggestion: Turn Your Playthrough into a Readable ‘Novel’

Dear Larian Studios team,

First of all, thank you for your incredible work. Your games offer deep, complex, and truly immersive storytelling, which I greatly appreciate.

I would like to share a suggestion based on a personal difficulty I often experience in story-driven RPGs, including Baldur’s Gate 3.
A recurring problem for me is that I struggle to grasp the overall narrative as a cohesive whole. For example, in Baldur’s Gate 3, I start the game, create my character, and almost immediately I am surrounded by companions who seem like fanatics, then there are cultists, the Absolute, and many other elements introduced very quickly. Information comes from all directions at once, and it feels fragmented, making it hard to form a clear, structured picture of what is happening.

I understand that the story is not meant to be fully clear from the beginning, and that mystery and gradual discovery are important parts of the experience. However, even later in the game, when the relationships between characters, factions, and conflicts become more defined—when it becomes clearer who is aligned with whom, what forces of evil dominate where, and how ancient powers or gods are involved—I still find it difficult to connect events together or to clearly remember how earlier moments relate to later developments.
Because of this, it becomes challenging to reconstruct the narrative in my mind as a continuous story.

This leads me to a suggestion that I believe could significantly improve narrative clarity and immersion:
What if the game included a dedicated in-game feature that presents the player’s journey as a continuous, novel-like text? In other words, a separate tab where the game converts the player’s actions into a structured written narrative. Even if initially the system only captures the main events and key turning points of a player’s journey, rather than the full branching narrative, it would still allow players to revisit and better understand their story in a clear, readable format. This could be an optional feature, used when the player wants to revisit the story. Ideally, this system would focus on faithfully reconstructing the player’s actual journey, rather than adding or altering events, so that it remains a true reflection of their unique experience.

Such a feature would allow players to pause and revisit their journey in a more immersive and digestible way—essentially reading their own personalized story as if it were a novel. This could be especially helpful for players who take breaks between sessions or who want to better understand the broader narrative context. I understand that implementing such a system—especially one that adapts to branching narratives—would be a significant technical challenge. However, with modern advancements in AI and text generation, it might be an exciting direction to explore in the future.
Additionally, if technically feasible, it would be amazing to include an option to export this generated story (for example, as a text or e-book file). As a further enhancement, this generated story could optionally be printed as a personalized book or collectible through a print-on-demand system, giving players a tangible keepsake of their adventure, perhaps even including illustrations or artwork from the game.

TL;DR:
Ever wished you could read your own journey like a novel? A feature that turns your playthrough into a readable story, capturing main events and choices, could let players revisit and better understand their unique experience, with the option to export it digitally or even print it as a personalized collectible via print-on-demand.

Warm regards,
Fropsy

Interestingly, I've played a game that did something like this. I can't for the life of me remember what the name of the game was... But I do recall playing a game that had a Journal that was updated as if your character was writing it.

Meaning, it contained entries of events that occurred, as well as what decisions you made in response to them. Sometimes with additional remarks about potential consequences of such responses for example stuff like "Party A and Party B had a dispute. I decided to side with Party B to solve the dispute. I hope that Party A doesn't retaliate in some way..."

It was quite interesting to see the journal actually be used as a journal, rather than just a quest panel.

Meanwhile, codices are quite common, especially ones that adapt to player progression and update as more information is gained in regards to specific characters or factions.

As far as the whole "Turning it into a novel" thing... I dunno how engaging such a novel would end up being, if the goal is to highlight character driven options and to ensure narrative clarity. Would likely end up reading like a toddler's story with "I did this and then I did that and then I did this and then I did that and then I did this and then..."

If they can add it, then go for it. I'm just skeptical as to how popular it would be (Especially if it used Gen AI to aid with it... Larian already got slammed hard by backlash for use of AI for concept art and placeholder text. I'm not sure they're keen to take another round of backlash for using it for an actual end product)

I really like your idea as well. Even if it’s done without AI and is simply a chronological record of the events you went through, it would still be great. Something along the lines of: I made this choice, faction A supported it, faction B didn’t, and so on.

Basically, just a more detailed way of tracking what actually happened during your playthrough. It doesn’t have to be a fully connected narrative or a “novel” — even separate entries or blocks would work perfectly fine.

The main value is being able to go back later, refresh your memory, and kind of reconstruct the story in your own head.

I also like the idea, but I think that the novel would become very large for a 100+ hours game, except if it were gated to limit some of the freedom we now have in BG3. E.g. the gnolls on the risen road come in 3 packs that you can basically confront in any order, even move on without beating all 3 of them, but come back later for the rest. So, every confrontation and its result should also be recorded separately. Whereas if the game were gated to make the player cofront all the gnolls in one go, it could simply log a short paragraph saying something like, "we discovered a horde of gnolls of the absolute that had corenered a Zhentarim caravan in a cave. We defeated the gnolls and learned about a Zhent hideout in a nearby tavern." It might be a challenge to keep full freedom of choice while at the same time managing the log in a way to keep it readable in the end.

I think you’re right, and that’s a very good point. Because of that, it might make sense to skip or abstract some of those smaller, non-essential encounters, so they wouldn’t necessarily be included in the main narrative directly.

Focusing on key story moments and major turning points could already provide a clear and readable version of the player’s journey, without trying to capture every single detail.

Personally, I would definitely prefer to keep the current level of freedom and non-linearity as it is. If needed, some events could be summarized or generalized rather than fully described, so the final narrative remains coherent and easy to follow.