New Baldur’s Gate 3 player dismayed by D&D’s “strangely depressing” lore
Larian StudiosA new Baldur’s Gate 3 player entering the world of Faerûn for the first time was taken aback by the “super depressing” setting in which the game takes place.
The world of Dungeons & Dragons that Baldur’s Gate 3 takes most of its cues from is sprawling and immersive, but at the end of the day, it’s a world built from the ground up for things to go wrong. How else would all of those campaigns start?
This means there are quite a few more sources of conflict on the Sword Coast than players might expect. After all, in the span of one game (admittedly quite a big one), your party runs into three gods of death, an authoritarian Githyanki queen, several devils, an Elder Brain, and a host of other deities and eldritch abominations. Oh, and the hag.
Baldur’s Gate 3 player finds too many evil gods
All of this makes for a great RPG story, but would you really want to live there? For quite a few players, Baldur’s Gate 3 is their first encounter with the lore of D&D, and it’s easy to see why they might come away with a negative view of life in this world.
One player in particular was dismayed by the number of antagonistic deities they ran into, saying: “The more I play, the more it appears the entire universe of BG revolves around various Gods and God-like beings fighting for control/power. From my understanding, the more followers/worshipers they get, the stronger they become.
“But the more I play, the more it really looks like you either join them or get screwed. Everyone below them is basically a pawn for their power play. Except all the Gods suck, even the good ones really come across as mostly selfish.”
“Everyone below them is basically stuck in a perpetual cycle of conflict between the various Gods, never-ending. I mean, it’s a great world for a game, since “God-level” conflicts will always arise, and heroes are needed to end the threat of that current cycle, but from an outside perspective, it’d be super depressing to live in this world.”