Here is a twist for y'all: for me BG was never about DnD. For me BG was the first 2 games of the series. DnD was secondary to the particular story, characters, gameplay. For me DnD part of BG was mostly of narrative kind: places, gods and demons, etc.. I didn't (and still don't) care about DnD mechanical part. If they keep the narrative, story, characters and RT party based gameplay I don't care if it's DnD or not.
DnD was always just a tool to deliver the narrative of the game. Analogy would be: game engine. I don't care what game engine is used as long as it plays as fun and is a continuation of the same narrative. A lot of people get hung up on "how DnD it is" argument, and specifically on mechanical part of it which is not why I (and probably many others) love BG.
I also don't get why then DnD purists don't bring up the stink about it being 5e instead of adnd2, if it's mechanics what bothers you so much. 5e is quite different from adnd2 that was used at the time (and in a sense more limiting).
Again, imo if anything was lackluster in original games it's probably DnD gameplay mechanics part. IMO the further we go gameplay wise from tabletop towards more engaging and fun digital - the better. Trying to closer emulate playing tabletop for me is a negative thing. What I liked in BG DnD ruleset adaptation (and by the way, they didn't do a 1:1 with the adnd2 ruleset) was that it removed the worst parts of DnD (or at least moved them under the hood) - the annoying and boring TB and all the obnoxious rolling for everything. It made game play as something actually enjoyable instead of wasting your time at every step "cause tabletop digital game".
If I wanted to play BG, but closer to DnD and tabletop I would be looking at the physical game market and board games, not digital games. cRPG are supposed to be the striving to become a role-playing experience without frustrations and limitations of physical games. Trying to be "closer to tabletop" simply sounds backwards to me.
I fully agree. But I'll go even further. For me the attraction to D&D games is not D&D per se but rather the setting, Forgotten Realms. That's what I love about D&D games because the Realms is my most beloved fantasy setting of all. The D&D rules I can take or leave. That's why BG3 deviating from D&D 5e rules is the one argument I have not been a party to as a critic of the game, because I am totally ok with the game deviating from D&D rules. I think D&D rules are crap, and I want cRPG devs to develop new rulesets and mechanics for their games that are as far-removed from D&D as possible. In fact, I wish WotC would be willing to license just the FR setting, so studios can create games using the FR setting (and lore) but using their own rulesets.
