I would be happy, if this would become a Bloodlines discussion thread (in the appropriate section of the forum of course), since in the Bloodlines forum most discussions are centered around the catastrophic B2 development. And I really don't want to think about that. That might also the reason, I don't have much criticism for BG3, at least, that game is partly playable now (and the story is quite good) and will most likely be published in full. We Bloodlines fans might not even get this far and I have used up all my disappointment on that already.
Last edited by fylimar; 24/02/2102:02 PM.
"We are all stories in the end. Just make it a good one."
I realise that this thread is not really about BG3, but I'm happy to leave it here for the time being.
Should it remain active but veer off into a discussion of Vampire (or any other non-BG3 game), then it will be moved to a more appropriate area.
Thank you, Sadurian -- I didn't know where to put it, and it was started in a kind of post-announcement panic, because BG3's writers would really jive with World of Darkness vibes. It's such a dark, bloodthirsty game I mean, even the companions kind of fit Kindred archetypes --Gale is a Tremere, Shadowheart is a Lasombra, Astarion as a Toreador, Lae'zel is a Brujah and Wyll a Banu Haqim. Even the use of tadpole powers and the loss of control mirrors VtM's loss of humanity.
Also... I'm not the only one thinking and fearing that Larian would be a fantastic studio for Vampire: The Masquerade. Please don't take on more than you can chew. Please.
I would be OK with Larian, I only want Mitsoda back. He made the first game the gem it is today. I would make Wyll a Brujah btw. They are often idealistic and have a code if honour. And Astarion a Toreador Antitribu. They use their love for arts mostly for perfecting torturing and suffering (not umsimlar to the Tzimisce), which fits perfectly with Astarion. Lae'zel would also be a great assamite warrior cast. My player characters are most likely all Malkavians.
Last edited by fylimar; 24/02/2104:02 PM.
"We are all stories in the end. Just make it a good one."
I would be OK with Larian, I only want Mitsoda back. He made the first game the gem it is today. I would make Wyll a Brujah btw. They are often idealistic and have a code if honour. And Astarion a Toreador Antitribu. They use their love for arts mostly for perfecting torturing and suffering (not umsimlar to the Tzimisce), which fits perfectly with Astarion. Lae'zel would also be a great assamite warrior cast. My player characters are most likely all Malkavians.
Hehe, my BG3 characters are definitely Gangrel -- three Rangers in a row who like sleeping rough and can speak to animals, and, very soon, a druid.
EDIT: Wait, is Halsin the Beckett of Baldur's Gate 3?
I would be OK with Larian, I only want Mitsoda back. He made the first game the gem it is today. I would make Wyll a Brujah btw. They are often idealistic and have a code if honour. And Astarion a Toreador Antitribu. They use their love for arts mostly for perfecting torturing and suffering (not umsimlar to the Tzimisce), which fits perfectly with Astarion. Lae'zel would also be a great assamite warrior cast. My player characters are most likely all Malkavians.
Hehe, my BG3 characters are definitely Gangrel -- three Rangers in a row who like sleeping rough and can speak to animals, and, very soon, a druid.
EDIT: Wait, is Halsin the Beckett of Baldur's Gate 3?
He is a bit too nice to be Beckett, but he goes in that direction. I somehow can't see Halsin breaking into a nightclub to steal a book that belongs to infamous Sascha Vykos (one of my favorite npcs in the WoD btw) or trying to trick Dracula and survive to tell about it. But yeah, Halsin is certainly the guy that knows a lot and can turn into an animal.
My halfling ranger Sigrun Was clearly a gangrel. I'm planning to remake her as a druid once that is possible.
"We are all stories in the end. Just make it a good one."
ekhm, no. Bloodlines2 are Paradox, and Obsidian is Microsoft's. And Obsidian has their hands full, currently working on multiple projects. Microsoft could buy Paradox though... nothing will surprise me now.
New candidates for Bloodlines2 are studios that Paradox can afford or someone in house (I don't know who and how many studios does Paradox own). The high profile RPG studios are owned by Microsoft right now, and all have their own games to worry about. I doubt anyone famous will be willing to jump in that late into the project and clean the mess left by previous studio. Unless they hit complete reset button (and therefore delay game by another couple years) whomever comes next will have to build on what was done so far. And Paradox must have pulled the plug for a reason.
He is a bit too nice to be Beckett, but he goes in that direction. I somehow can't see Halsin breaking into a nightclub to steal a book that belongs to infamous Sascha Vykos (one of my favorite npcs in the WoD btw) or trying to trick Dracula and survive to tell about it. But yeah, Halsin is certainly the guy that knows a lot and can turn into an animal.
I don't know, Halsin broke into a goblin camp with drums on every corner to track down a Nightsong... and it looks like we are heading either to the Shadowlands, Barovia or the Outer City Cemetery to face against a vampire lord with Bela Lugosi vibes. He even supervises the written History of the Grove (like Beckett) and seems to have a tragic love story in his past (like Beckett), to the point that one of his apprentices is writing fanfictions about it.
He is a bit too nice to be Beckett, but he goes in that direction. I somehow can't see Halsin breaking into a nightclub to steal a book that belongs to infamous Sascha Vykos (one of my favorite npcs in the WoD btw) or trying to trick Dracula and survive to tell about it. But yeah, Halsin is certainly the guy that knows a lot and can turn into an animal.
I don't know, Halsin broke into a goblin camp with drums on every corner to track down a Nightsong... and it looks like we are heading either to the Shadowlands, Barovia or the Outer City Cemetery to face against a vampire lord with Bela Lugosi vibes. He even supervises the written History of the Grove (like Beckett) and seems to have a tragic love story in his past (like Beckett), to the point that one of his apprentices is writing fanfictions about it.
Ok, I see the similarities. Cazador sounds a bit like a cliche Tzimisce. I hope, when we meet him, he is a bit more fleshed out than it seems atm (if wee meet him, I might just strangle Astarion before that).
But I never catched on the tragic lovestory of Halsin. Is that in a book lying around in the grove? I thought, I've read them all. I always thought, he and Kagha might have history. When she dies, he seems to take her death very personal. On teh otehr hand, he never even looses a word about Nettie, his apprentice, being dead, if you kill her.
Did you read Becketts Jyhad diary? It's so much fun. The chapter where he and Vykos had to work together was hilarious.
"We are all stories in the end. Just make it a good one."
But I never caught on the tragic love story of Halsin. Is that in a book lying around in the grove? I thought, I've read them all. I always thought, he and Kagha might have history. When she dies, he seems to take her death very personal. On the other hand, he never even loses a word about Nettie, his apprentice, being dead, if you kill her.
Now that I've gone back to read all the canon hints, I think that you are right. It's not explicit... however...
Halsin killed a Harper named Isobel at Moonrise Towers using the Glaive under the Grove; he thinks that the death was accidental, born from the heat of a deal gone wrong, and that she never actually posed a menace. Isobel was the daughter of Ketheric, who was the Shar Justicar who turned the Nightsong into a weapon of Shar. Halsin believes that him killing Isobel pushed Ketheric to the dark side of the Force and to unleash the Shadowcurse.
The in-game Hot!Druid fanfic:
Now, this is where things get interesting... the in-game fanfic has many of the same flaws as real life ones: self-insert Gary Stu protagonist who sacrifices himself to save the day, and exaggerated versions of real characters who live in the end. In the fanfic, Balsin = Halsin, so Isobel must be Selene, the blue-eyed brunette Harper who goes to Moonhaven /Moonrise Towers and, in the fanfic's happy ending, is standing next to Balsin. I think that there's a nugget of truth in that story: Isobel was probably a Harper who tried to broker a deal between her father and the Druids.
My theories about Halsin's Subplot:
When Isobel's parentage was discovered, the Druids might have panicked, thinking that she led them into an ambush, which is when Halsin accidentally killed her. Ketheric, in despair, might have tried to keep his daughter alive by any means necessary, even if that meant transforming her into the Nightsong, effectively splitting her from the Moon-blessed bards. This would also be an iteration of the myth of Shar and Selune, the division of one Moon Goddess into two separate entities. After all, Selene is the Greek name of the Moon.
From a romantic fanficcy perspective, Halsin might be on a quest to make Isobel whole again. Her spirit is still haunting Moonrise Towers, and the Nightsong will ask the party to release her from her curse. This mirrors the way in which the PC has to come to trust and love all the aspects of their companions, the dark and the light, without "accidentally" killing them in the process, no matter who their daddy or mommy is.
But also, if you squint, "Halsin" sounds like "Helsing". I will bet 1000 gold and two snacks for Gale that he will be part of the Cazador Heist.
I think, the romance part is more a construct by that fanfiction writing druid, but the rest is pretty interesting. Tbh - the part in the video about
the Nightsong and how she came to be (btw, awful armor, but nice hair) made me think, that the same could have happened to Shadowheart. So I'm not sure about the whole Halsin helping to hunt Cazador part, but I'm pretty sure, we will find out, that Ketheric had brainwashed SH to become a Shar worshipper - that seems to be his style. And that would explain, why she isn't evil enough for a real Shar worshipper.
Btw: I did read that fanfiction, I think, it was in Netties room, but I totally forgot about it.
"We are all stories in the end. Just make it a good one."
...has there been any indication at all that Larian is being considered? An implication? One shred of evidence anywhere? This is mighty off-topic.
None at all, other than VtM fans mentioning that it would be a reasonable option AND my paranoid-fueled speculations based on the thematical and character similarities between BG3 and VtM.
