Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General A number of questions about BG3

Hallo en zo naar België.

I have multiple questions about BG3 and didn't want to spam the forum with multiple threads, so I figured that I'd just combine them all into one thread here, I hope that is alright.

1. Is there gonna be any collaboration with Beamdog on this project?
2. Are any of the writers involved in the previous games in the series making a comeback for this? If so, who?
3. Can save games from Throne of Bhaal be transferred into BG3 aka are previous decisions gonna make a difference within BG3?
4. Is the story gonna be connected in any meaningful way to the Bhaalspawn saga?
5. Is the game gonna follow the game series' canon or the "official" canon which also Murder in Baldur's Gate and Legends of Baldur's Gate follow?
6. Which (if any) of the old companions are gonna make a comeback? Based on the official canon, we know that Coran and Minsc are at least around at that time.
7. Is there gonna be an option for custom character portraits?

Bedankt en fijne dag

Hey Buttercheese, long time no see.

What we know (or think we know) so far:

1 & 2: Almost certainly not. I think if any of the original writers were involved, they'd be trumpeting it all over the 'net.
3. C'mon really?
4 & 5: Define meaningful. Murder in BG is the sequel to the games. Descent into Avernus is the sequel to MiBG. This game is the sequel to DiA. I joked on the Beamdog forums that the game isn't BG3, it's BG5.
6. They've been teasing us about this. I would be surprised if we don't see cameos from some of the longer lived companions, but I would be equally surprised if any of them are joinable.
7. There damn well better be! Forget all this stuff about RTwP and continuity of storyline, if I can't slap my grumpy old paladin face into the sidebar, I'm going to be really upset.

Ohai there :P

1&2: Well they barely revealed anything at all yet, it could be that they simply are not allowed to talk about it yet.
3: Well, I don't see how the game couldn't at least read what type of character Charname was, if it would be relevant to the story somehow. Or other variables. I just hope that if they can't implement CHARNAME, that they just don't spe ify who they where instead of replacing them with Abdel Adrian. No one wants Abdel Adrian.
4&5: Meaningful as in is the Bhaalspawn saga only gonna get a throwaway reference at best or are those events actually gonna be important to the narrative. Meaningful: BG2 to BG1. Not meaningful: NWN2 to NWN1. Somewhat meaningful: MotB to NWN2:OC.
6: I absolutely assume that Minsc is gonna appear, he's been WotC's mascot for BG for a while now and their number one Marketing tool to get the BG crowd to try their other products (i.e. Neverwinter MMO). I'd argue that Sarevok has potential for being there as well, since he loses his Bhaal essence but survives either way in ToB. Meaning he didn't have to die (again) for Bhaal to be revived. Wouldn't be surprised either if some of the characters from LoBG would make an appearance either, such as Minsc's new friends. Would love to see Edwin(a) getting a cameo (And as a wizard he/she could have easily lived that long.)
7. I do hope so, it's kind of a trademark of the series. But I guess it depends on how character creation works.

Edit: There's a lot that Vinke and Mearles are staying mum about thus far, but some of the things we do know:

- set about 100 years after the events of BG/SoA/ToB and therefore after the Spellplague and Second Sundering
- direct story prequels are the tabletop adventure modules Murder in Baldur's Gate and the upcoming Descent Into Avernus
- starts in the Baldur's Gate area, including the city itself but will feature other areas of the Sword Coast or Faerun
- will feature an invasion (from another plane?) by mindflayers
- uses the 5th Edition ruleset
- starts at Level 1
- Minsc and Boo are alive somehow
- Some suggestion the the Dead Three (now as mortal Demi-urges wandering the land together) will play a major role in the overall plot

@Lemeris: Not sure what these things have to do with my questions but thank you. Anyway, Minsc and Boo are alive because a wild mage named Delina turned a statue of them to life. Whether or not this is the *actual* Minsc and Bio or just a living statue, I don't know. But I have only read Legends of Baldur's Gate and the Ravenloft based sequel. Still need to read the ice giants based one and whatever came after (if anything). American comics can be a bit difficult to get over here.

1st video https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=336&v=n9VgaaNPVeo
2nd video https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=Ju12JNh8gJs
1. Is there gonna be any collaboration with Beamdog on this project?
@5:36 1st video
2. Are any of the writers involved in the previous games in the series making a comeback for this? If so, who?
Same as 1
3. Can save games from Throne of Bhaal be transferred into BG3 aka are previous decisions gonna make a difference within BG3? @6:33 2nd video
4. Is the story gonna be connected in any meaningful way to the Bhaalspawn saga? @2:15 2nd video @2:15 2nd video
5. Is the game gonna follow the game series' canon or the "official" canon which also Murder in Baldur's Gate and Legends of Baldur's Gate follow? @8:40 1st video
6. Which (if any) of the old companions are gonna make a comeback? Based on the official canon, we know that Coran and Minsc are at least around at that time. @2:40 2nd video
7. Is there gonna be an option for custom character portraits?
They have said yet or I haven't found it.

@Buttercheese Sorry, I should have said that what I posted there is what is more or less known about BG3! Although we're getting new little suggestions and tidbits all the time from the interviews Vinke and Mearles are continuing to give.

@Nobody_Special: Thank you, I'll watch those right away!

1. Hopefully not
2. there was some specualtion on the chans, but nothing we know of
3. what do you think?
4. its already concluded
5. Follows that godawfull novel from what we understand, at least the new DnD adventure seems to.
6. we dont know but theres a list of companions that are still alive floating around somewhere, id be surprised if we didnt meet a lot of em, if not all of em in some manner.
7. Asking the real questions here.

Youd think this beeing a DnD game itd be a given, but NWN2 also didnt have this feature at launch. I suppose its up to anyones guess right now.
but with the production values leaning towards AAA im not holding my breath.