#bg3 definitive edition...save me

[fangsandfeels]

These are not EA answers.

From my memory, the EA answers had even more jerkish options to reply to Wyll's confession and actually call him a fraud - which still was uncalled for since in the EA he chose to tell the truth, without Mizora appearing and turning him into the devil. Yeah, BTW, the EA Mizora got tadpoled too, and then was captured and tortured by goblins. Freaking goblins caught a cambion with supposedly devilish powers. To be fair, Mizora wasn't mentioned as Zariel's lapdog back then and her relationship with Wyll was...kinda odd. But this is where my memory gets muddy.

Speaking about Wyll's EA hero status, Wyll was known as the Blade of Frontiers (at least, goblins recognized him instantly) and it was implied that he was famous already. But the way interactions were built with him, there was that inexperienced beginner hero vibe: if you told him you hadn't heard of the Blade of Frontiers at all, he'd scowl at it, but then reply with something like "Well, I'll have to try harder then". And when he was training the kids he was very interested in inspiring them and being a good image (while in the final version, he was invested in teaching them self-defense, first and foremost, not how to play hero, but how to fight back and find an opportunity to run away.

As a result, I found the EA version kinda weird because Wyll still mentioned fighting minotaurs and other monsters, and his replies about how he would kill a vampire haven't been changed since the EA -- so he wasn't supposed to feel like a beginning folk hero. He was supposed to be experienced and knowledgeable, whereas in the EA there were several situations where Wyll felt unconfident as if he hadn't dealt with a complex situation before. Mostly, I'm talking about the EA scene with Spike (the goblin torturer) who demanded Wyll torture the prisoner in exchange for the information about Mizora. Without the intervention from Tav, Wyll would agree to it, despite his great reluctance, which, once again painted him as inexperienced and new to being a hero.

Also, IIRC, Mizora found Wyll after he actually lost his battle (and his eye) to the goblins and hid the fact she was a cambion, promising to make him a hero. When she revealed her deception, Wyll was angry with her (and blamed her for tricking him), but also was forced to look for her and save her because he wanted out of the pact. So, it felt like the EA version of him intended to struggle with maintaining the perfect hero image as well as question his self-worth without Mizora's gifts. There was also more unresolved bitterness about him (he had a lot of violent interactions with goblins and his relationship with his father was described as more rebellious) and he avoided talking about the pact because he was ashamed of it, not because there was any specific restriction that would have killed him on the spot.

In general, I like the final version for amplifying Wyll's badassery. He went from having a vendetta against goblins to fighting Tiamat cultists at age 17. He casually went to Avernus to hunt devils. The Flaming Fists treated him with respect despite the horns. Also, he went from being a rather awkward liar in EA to a smooth and effortless word-weaver.

I also love how he was more connected with his experienced hero image -- he is a romantic and an idealist, but he had obviously been in tough situations, he knows how to handle them and he willingly, knowingly denies Mizora the satisfaction of being miserable by not regretting his choice in the first place, taking responsibilities and pushing for the better tomorrow.

My only pet peeves about his content are a) why the fuck we just let Mizora hang around in Act 3 and not let her know how unwelcome she is, b) why the fuck we can't get proper closure with her or fucking kill her, c) lack of Ulder and Wyll interactions because his relationship with his father means to him so much and it needed more content - or at least more involvement and earlier hints at Wyll's option to become the next Duke.

why do all of the options for talking to wyll after mizora's punishment feel so mean? the poor guy just got sent through the tortures of the nine hells and had his body permanently changed, and it's clear that all of this is because mizora was deceiving him, and you're telling me i can't just...check in on him? like what's even the point of having five different options if all of them are just different flavors of "you had it coming"? i think he's been beaten down enough by the devil who just showed up to fuck him over and treat him like something less than human while doing it, let me just be nice to him!!!!!

[flymmsy]

Prediction: Durgetash goes canon in the definitive edition.

[tugoslovenka]

people will see the sixth patch for a game that was never fully finished and say shit like "think about it this way guys it's actually free content for a $60 game!" without thinking twice

[cicadaknight]

well into act 2 and supposedly astarion and i are together according to everyone in camp, but he has nothing more to say besides the usual “hello darling” 😩

[jojea]

sadly the steamdeck had to charge immediately after i finished in the character creator but look at my tav, boy

it is mandatory

[bharv]

On defined vs customisable protagonists

Taking a break from DATV for some musings on this. This isn't really an essay, just a ramble, and I'm trying to steer clear of spoilers and heavy critical stuff.

I'll discuss the Dragon Age franchise, the Mass Effect franchise, and Baldur's Gate 3, Pillars of Eternity and Cyberpunk 2077.

Basically, I want to talk a little about ways in which a game's set up can help and hinder us in understanding our protagonist, the pros and cons of voiced protags, and what works in my eyes and what doesn't. I hope this also helps people to think about how they draw characters as well!

Firstly I want to say that people will have different reasons to prefer a more defined protagonist or a more open one. Ultimately it comes down to expectations from roleplay in my eyes. There's not a right or wrong answer in which is "better" but I think there are things that help us to engage with both types.

Establishing what we know (and being consistent with it)

Essential to both types in my eyes is establishing what is known. I'm going to use Commander Shepard as my first example here. We are told instantly that Shepard is an experienced officer, has an expertise in one area, and is being considered for a significant promotion. This allows us to infer that they get the job done, and that they have to have a degree of competency (whether or not they are by the book or more loose with the rules) and that they take their job seriously. The game then gives us some good flavour choices around family values, historical trauma, what they look like and what kind of expert they are, but make no mistake; this is a veteran soldier and you are on that road with them. It's a masterpiece in creating just enough freedom for ownership of a character while telling a very distinct story; if you are paying attention at the start, you know exactly what kind of person Shep has to have been to be considered for this role, which makes for a really clear path through.

Hawke in DA2, which was almost certainly designed to mirror the success of Shepard, follows a similar path. We know that Hawke is a refugee, and has a family, and fought in a recent battle. I would argue where Hawke is weaker to people who enjoy customisation is in setting them against their family; your Shepard could be a wunderkind or be eighty years old, have any number of emotional resonances in their personal life. Hawke is much more definite in age range, relationships and social status, which gives less freedom in making them truly your own. However, DA2 is highly consistent with Hawke. Perhaps you can only really customise the face and the attitude, but that attitude ripples through all of your interactions and creates a very distinct character that is easy to become attached to.

Dragon Age Origins does a very different thing by threading through the origins into inferences throughout the story. The knowns are that you will be the Warden and you will have to save the world. How you get there offers enormous choice. You can be a self-serving politician trying to weasel your way back into power, or you can be a devout Andrastrian on a path to martyrdom. A lot of this choice comes from the choice that is allowed with a non-voiced protagonist in sheer range of responses, a pathway that games like BG3 and Pillars of Eternity have continued.

It is essential you are clear with your player early in what is known about the character, both to help them establish them in a world and avoid disappointing their expectations. If your character is a rookie, say it! If they are an expert, make it clear. You can do this through action too - it doesn't have to all be written out.

To voice or not to voice

To me, personally, Shepard is one of the only truly successful voiced customisable protagonists. I have others I like very much (V in Cyberpunk 2077 and Hawke in DA2) but they are much more a slightly editable character on a defined narrative journey. The moment you put a voice on a character you are deciding tone, meaning and intention, and if your written choice doesn't accurately reflect your tone, it breaks immersion. Shepard walks a careful line that is aided by them being "on the job" for much of the time. Formality helps! It creates boundaries that we instinctively understand from our world.

If you have a voiced protagonist, then you have to either record a ton of lines allowing for anger, diplomacy, fun, inquisition and dismissal, and if you don't do that? You probably should have just set up a more defined character and told their story, and been clear in that expectation from your establishing moments.

Oh, Lore

One thing I really liked in BG3 is the way you could toggle on and off lore friendly options during character creation. It gave you the chance to say actually no, I don't care, or make sure you were creating within that world if you did. But regardless, if you have established lore, you have to carry it through. If you have a ton of backgrounds for characters, you have to make sure that's meaningful. A Grey Warden should be able to sense Darkspawn in their first encounter; it's a huge part of their deal. A Qunari character, if you have not specified that they are Tal-Vashoth and strictly from one background, should be able to reflect positively on their religion and cultural upbringing or see things through a non-Andrastrian lens. This is where it can be easier, even if it is disappointing, to set stronger boundaries in the creation of characters. For the most part, people are okay with limitations if it gives them something to work with. In Inquisition there were complaints about how much or little the backgrounds really added to the experience of being the Herald of Andraste, but they did choose backgrounds where there might be a rough knowledge of what was occuring at the conclave. It's okay to leave some things for people to fill in the gaps, but consistency is key.

Learning as the character learns

One clever way to establish connection but allow for discovery is for the characters to learn as we do. The Dark Urge in BG3 is an obvious example of this, but I'd also add in The Watcher in Pillars of Eternity too, and even V from CP77. Whatever they thought they are, they are something more, and it allows us to keep all of what we thought we knew about our characters and find out more along the way. It allows the game to take us down a path of the present, not the past (even though all of them ARE discovering events of the past!) by making it about what a person sees themself as, what they want to be, and what they have been. It sidesteps invalidation of ideas by creating narratives that are inherently biased as they are memory, allowing us to take or question the information we are given as we are given it. It trusts an audience and the player to invest their own opinions in the burgeoning narrative.

To do this, you need to make sure that the player has a good grasp, again, of what they do know. Good grounding is essential here. Think of the prologue of Pillars of Eternity, where we can establish a character's whole value system, or the pre-heist time with V which allows us to establish an enormous amount of relationship building and relationship to the world around them. Take that time, or it will fall apart.

[monstersandmaw]

First time romancing Astarion, and I'm all aboard the ace-spec interpretation of Astarion that I've seen floating around. As someone who's ace, I definitely resonated with him in this scene anyway. That hug reaction from Astarion. Oof.

And the fact that if you also romance Halsin, one of the dialogue options Astarion can give you is to say something like: 'it's not because... we haven't... in a while... is it?'... My heart cracked painfully at that, I'm not going to lie. I have spoken almost exactly that sentence before, worrying that just kissing and physical affection is not enough for someone who's not ace. To have that validated by Astarion was really special for me.

(aka, I really didn't get to know Astarion very well in my first playthrough because he didn't approve of my absolute doormat of a Tav (Kaerlyn the drow) and I didn't spend much time with him, but now with my sassy monk...? I get it. I totally get why you all love Astarion so much).

EDIT: additional dialogue from Raphael talking about Cazador indicates that it might be linked to vampirism (my own headcanon for vampires anyway is they can't get aroused without having fed recently, not just BG3 vamps, but in general)

[some poly-ace-astarion thoughts under the cut too]

I'm not 100% convinced that Astarion is really ok with the consensual poly situation in-game, because he famously doesn't say what he actually wants and is the king of manipulating others, especially in sexual situations (e.g. what Cazador sent him out to do, and how). I'm not sure if I'll reload a save and just have Halsin as a friend...

The dialogue when you check in with Astarion before the Halsin scene is... strained? Odd??? Maybe it's just me over-analysing it. He sounded strained though - his tone high pitched and more grandiose than he'd been in previous cut-scenes, where he was more softly-spoken. It sounded more like early-game Astarion to me...

Also, my dialogue options may have been totally randomised the next time I approached Astarion after a steamy night with Halsin, but they sounded kind of strained there too, and I got the 'I can never say no to you' one, which set my ace people-pleaser alarm bells ringing...

As someone who's poly-romantic but asexual, I can project/imagine here that Astarion has come to care for Tav a lot (more than he ever expected, for sure), and he genuinely wants Tav to be happy. He trusts Tav enough to know that Tav respects his autonomy and right to decide things for himself, and values Astarion for who he is, so Astarion is intellectually/conceptually happy for Tav to get something from Halsin that Astarion is not providing (sex), but perhaps emotionally that additional fact and dynamic is harder to deal with.

That could totally be me projecting though, because that's how I'd react if my husband (not ace) and I (ace) were in that situation (we've discussed it between us, actually XD). Feelings of guilt and inadequacy around sex itself are apparently very common with us ace folks, even in very healthy and happy relationships.

Anyway, that turned into a ramble I didn't intend on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I'm not looking to start any discourse about this though. If you don't see Astarion that way, or had a different experience and interpretation, that's all totally valid and I'm not trying to invalidate it in anyway.

[annakie]

We've been waiting literally ten years for a new Dragon Age game and now that it's going to be here tomorrow I am very much not ready.

My life needs to be a little less chaotic right now (it won't be until the middle of November.) The earliest I'm going to really be able to sit down and play more than a few hours is the week of Thanksgiving. But hey, I am staying home alone for Thanksgiving weekend so then I'm going to really get to devote time to just playing the hell out of the game.

I'm gonna be so behind.

It was a hard choice but I think I'm going to break the mold of me always playing a rogue first in Dragon Age games and having literally NEVER played a fighter type character in any DA game (or most any RPG ever.)

I haven't paid a ton of attention to the options yet but after a quick skim several weeks ago I think I'm going with a Grey Warden Fighter romancing Emmrich first.

Basing her off the character I just got done playing for a few years in 13th Age who is a 40-ish year old woman who, when she was only 20 years old had to make a hard call that ended up going very badly for her and it was kind of her downfall, so she spent most of the rest of the last 20 years trying to make up for it.

Second playthrough will be a rogue or mage who romances Davrin.

---

I've honestly BARELY gamed the last several months, what with all the renovation stuff happening and other stuff going on in life.

This weekend I swore to change that and, after spending all day Saturday working on house projects, decided to pick back up my ME3 playthrough that I had gotten to Thessia on and never finished.

But then I had to reinstall the game since the SSD I had been playing it on died. Then I had to reinstall all the mods, and picked up a few new ones. That took a few hours to make sure I got it all right.

I did end up playing, and actually got through Thessia... and then I was tired of being at my computer all day and went outside and read a book on the patio for awhile. Then I realized something was wrong with my new airondeck chair and spent an hour fixing it (my bad, I screwed two screws in the wrong place it turns out.

By the time all that was done it was time to prep for my Sunday night D&D game.

Not gonna finish before tomorrow since I'm running D&D tonight, too and still have to do Omega in there. (Plus the Citadel Epilogue Mod AFTER the game.) Ah well.

Never did finish my 2nd BG3 playthrough.

Never did finish writing my BG3 fic. It's just languishing.

Never did play Starfield more than a few hours despite buying the deluxe edition.

Started playing My Time at Portia and still haven't played more than like 8 hours of it, despite enjoying it (with lots of mods.)

Hoping now that the house is getting close to being done where I want it to be that maybe next year I can spend some time focusing on hobbies more.

Not that I regret a single thing about how I've spent my time this entire year. :)

Working on my last two house renovation posts, too. Definitely want to finish that since my two favorite rooms (after the master bath) I saved for last.

[sorcerous-somebody]

Rowan 🌕

Race: Half Wood Elf

Class: Circle of the Moon Druid

Pronouns: they/them

Age: 38

Background: Outlander

Romance partner(s): Shadowheart & Halsin

More notes under the cut (contains BG3 spoilers)

My notes:

Rowan is based on a character from a very short-lived D&D campaign. I didn't have much of a story for them until I put them in BG3 and let my mind go wild.

They were raised as a noble in Baldur's Gate. Their father ran away from noble life for a while, had a kid with a wood elf, and decided to return to Baldur's Gate with the kid. Rowan's childhood was spent mostly locked away, their extended noble family was afraid of the social repercussions of having a child born out of wedlock (and the child being being a half-elf).

Once Rowan became of age though, the family changed its tune and began parading Rowan around like some sort of exotic pet to be married off to the best bidder (yikes). Rowan chose to leave the city when an arrangement was made and their family refused to tell them who it even was.

They had been planning to leave ever since discovering a hidden chest full of letters addressed to them over the years from their mother. They set off on an adventure to track her down. While Rowan did not end up finding their mother, they did find a druidic circle that took them in and taught them survival skills. They lived with that circle for many years, up until they got kidnapped by mindflayers.

Rowan actively despises wearing dresses or anything feminine due to their upbringing.

No one can guess their age. In camp one night, everyone is shocked when Rowan says they're 38. Half-elf genes and being a druid definitely contributes to them looking that young.

During the events of BG3, Rowan really connected with Shadowheart, especially when she expressed care for animals. But they did struggle to get past her Sharran tendencies. Rowan became completely smitten though when Shadowheart threw the spear away of her own volition in the Shadowfell.

Rowan also had a small fling with Astarion, but they both decided he would be better off with a friend, not a lover. The little asshole still made a comment about how defeating Cazador would be the "second most satisfying" thing they had done together though. -_-

They have green vine tattoos on their neck and face that fade quickly over time if they are not with their circle. Only druids know how to "refresh" the tattoos. I used the magic mirror to make them look more faded over my playthrough, until their night with Halsin. Rowan came back from that night somehow feeling both refreshed and exhausted ;)

Rowan refused to use the tadpoles at all and was very disgusted by what they saw as the Emperor's attempts at manipulation. Unsuprisingly, Orpheus ended up as the mindflayer again in this playthrough.

They still want to try to find their mother, but they suspect a note from they found in the cursed Shadowlands is from her (the handwriting matched her other letters). She likely died to the shadow curse, unfortunately.

Shadowheart chose to save her parents, and they all live in a cottage together with lots of rescued animals post-game. I like to think the cottage is near the formerly cursed Shadowlands so they can visit Halsin and help with the children sometimes.

I changed their hair each act to show that they were growing it out, pics below.

Starting off strong trying to save their future girlfriend (I reloaded):

Platonic Sad boy hours with Gale:

The main squad for this playthrough:

Shadowheart giving her blessing to climb Mount Halsin:

Forehead smooches from Halsin:

(Shadowheart's kisses are mostly broken for me, unfortunately. I submitted a bug report today.)

Confronting the brain:

That's all I've got on them for now, I may edit to add more as I think of things!

[moonvigilant]

i think it has been long enough so i can say this, bg3 ending spoilers ahead

bg3 only has one (1) ending, every other 'ending' is just non-standard gameover

and the 'evil' playthrough isn't complete as well

the one (1) ending is where you tell the netherbrain to commit die, and the gate prevails once more, if you try to do anything else you get:

try to take the brain for yourself and conquer the world? illithid gamer chair, fade to black

same as 1 but you do it for bhaal instead? illithid gamer chair, fade to black

try to save the world but you didn't resist bhaal? well too fucking bad he takes over regardless of of your choices, and there's four of them, first three will result in him taking your body, which doesn't even work in the cutscene because right after he does the game cuts to you rushing to karlach LMAO

4. 4th choice will let you kill yourself before bhaal could take over, which honestly goes pretty hard i won't lie i just wish it lasted more than 20 seconds

every other 'variance' is not even part of the ending to the actual 'plot', they are character endings i.e. lae'zel going to war w vlaakith or not, sending wyll and karlach both to avernus, etc

this is why i was also thinking they just didn't cook 'evil' playthrough enough because if you are evil most choices actually don't matter

unless i've missed something, which i very much could have, when i killed isobel (through killing aylin) i couldn't find jaheira anywhere, not even a body, the game implies that she's '''''retired''''' instead of killed off so i assumed i could find her in act 3? nope just literally nothing, friend who was watching me play was confused as well

and from what i've heard minthara doesn't even have her own personal quest, unlike halsin, which is bonkers, i don't even like her but i hope all minthara enjoyers out there get what they want

volo criticizes you for being awful and then... just peaces out, never to be seen again

i will give them that if you are a paladin durge, sarevok actually makes a comment on it

and of course the interaction with helsik in general

it's upsetting that they imply ascendant astarion could make a difference, but of course it doesn't

and then allying with gortash also makes no difference my guy just gets snapped regardless

idk, if i have to put how i feel about an evil playthrough in an easy way, it would be "it's unserious" because it is lmao they clearly are trying to nudge you into being 'good' which is fine and all but i just wish being 'bad' made more sense without the game trying to guilt trip you back into being 'good' because even with my complains i still had a lot of fun, just wish they have real 'alternate' endings

end rant, i just wanted to get this out of my system

and maybe we will have a proper durgetash ending in bg3 definitive edition *gets shot*

[queenofcarrotflowers-s]

I finished my first BG3 playthrough last night after 210 hours with my redeemed Dark Urge spores druid Sorcha and I have so many emotions about it!

(spoilers for the ending)

the final battle was so good and I nearly cried seeing all the allies standing around in the main chamber right before. the emotional payoff for playing the Dark Urge, who masterminded this whole plan, to be reborn anew and save the world, was just incredible. we killed the Netherbrain in the last round with two companions dead-dead (Gale and Shadowheart), and Astarion, Sorcha, and Orpheus just wailing on it, hoping they don't die. got the brain down to 10 HP on the final turn, and a Potion of Speed is all we needed for Astarion to get in the final hit.

however, I was disappointed by all the bugs that happened at the very end. I had to click "skip" through Wyll and Karlach's cutscene in Avernus, because it wouldn't move forward without me doing that. then when my epilogue scene with Astarion started, first it was just a blue screen, none of the text was voiced, and I couldn't click the dialogue options it just said "continue." I reloaded, and it worked a little better, the lines were voiced but some got automatically skipped, but I also ended up in freecam mode, with... my summoned fire myrmidon still in the room with us, on top of my character. lol

I also never got a final conversation with Halsin, despite having romanced him too? I thought that's where the "daddy Halsin" dialogue comes from, but I never got it. is that dialogue only if you are exclusively dating Halsin?

I just wish there was a final celebration at the end after beating the game—which Gale even talks about in the dialogue on the docks!!!—where you can talk to all of your companions and allies one final time. also, you should be able to take ALL your companions into the final battle with you, it felt rude as hell just leaving them at the Elfsong and then not even seeing them when the rest of our allies were gathered. hopefully some of these bugs and things will be worked out and improved upon in future updates/whenever the Definitive Edition gets released.

[keicordelle]

Brain is still mush but I'm bored and can only watch so much anime in one sitting, so I figured I'd pick and choose some of those 2023 in Review writer asks to answer

1. What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?

Dabbled a bit at the start of the year with some darker themes in smut. I think it turned out pretty well, but I definitely learned I just prefer to write sweet, romantic, and consensual. I'll play with it more at some point, I'm sure, but I think I've found my niche.

2. How many fics did you work on this year? (They don’t have to be finished or published!)

55! 43 of which are published atm

4. What piece of media inspired you the most?

BG3, definitely. Even if I still haven't posted anything for it yet :P

5. What fandom(s) did you write for this year?

FFXIV, Genshin Impact, BG3, and that one Hades fic that I really hadn't intended to write

7. What character(s) captured your heart?

Astarion. I expected to like him because he's a sassy vampire. I did not expect to identify with him as much as I do. I don't doubt he will be firmly lodged in my heart for years to come.

9. What fic meant the most to you to write?

The Soft Green Glow of Affection. I didn't really expect this fic to mean so much to me, but the softness between Aether and Xiao really hit home. Love offering solace to a tortured soul. (Not at all a theme with me, no siree)

12. What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it?

Beneath the Human Guise was my first time working with a threesome, and it was a hell of a challenge keeping pronouns and names straight, not to mention being sure I hit the dynamic I was looking for. I'm really happy with how it turned out tho

13. What fic was the easiest to write?

To Soothe the Suffering of Ten Thousand Years was surprisingly easy to write! I love writing scar exploration, but I didn't expect it to flow quite as smoothly as it did

14. What were your shortest and longest fics this year?

Shortest: The Warmth of Home at 849 words Longest: The Daily Inconveniences of an Au Ra at 39, 341 (though admittedly some of that is from 2022 -- I still think just the 2023 additions would push it to the longest fic of the year tho)

15. Rec a fic you wrote or posted in 2023

No Regrets! This fic was the precursor to my Thanuri fic A First for Everything, and I'm still very very proud of how it turned out. Sweet Emmanicard first time <3

18. What was the hardest fic to title?

They're all hard /o\ But I think that honor has to go to Rinse and Repeat. That's the fic where I gave up and phoned a friend to help title it

19. Share your favorite opening line

"Oh for the love of all creation, save us both from this torment and just go ask him to fuck you, would you?"

from The Alternative Uses of Aetherial Shackles. I like how jarring it is, and how it definitely mirrors the startle Eros would be feeling to have his daydreams interrupted by such a demand.

20. Share your favorite ending line

By the time I awoke, Estinien was gone.

from Just for Tonight. Love me a bittersweet ending.

21. Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Answered here

25. What did you use to write? (e.g. writing programs, paper & pen, etc.)

I write exclusively in the Notes app on my phone and then transfer it over to Word to edit it

29. If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

Ahem. I would like to thank my friend Zena for being the most excellent sounding board/cheerleader/occasional unwitting beta reader. Also my friend Kore for being infinitely more adept at titling things than I am and for being so willing to help me with that. And above all else, I'd like to thank my fans: everyone who commented, kudosed, and read my works this year. You make it worth all the hardship that is writing <3

30. What’s something that you want to write in 2024?

2024 is going to be the year of series, I think! I look forward to continuing with A First for Everything, and I've also got 2 different BG3 series in the works: one a self-indulgent Kazstarion piece, and one centred around Gale! Plus a few shorter multi-chaptered thinks I'd like to work on for Genshin. I look forward to sharing more about them all!

[moontheoretist]

One thing that annoys me in BG3

I dunno if anybody noticed, but the game assumes where are you from depending on the race you are playing as. I didn't play all the races yet, but for example half-elves, dragonborns and tieflings are assumed to be Baldurian, while half-drow, drow and possibly all races related to the Underdark are not assigned "Baldurian" tag. It kind of annoyed me when I recreated my Neverwinter Online character in BG3 and tried to play her according to her lore, meaning that she was coming from the forest of Cormanthor and lived in Neverwinter since 1479 DR, but the game forced Baldurian on her in the romance scene with Shadowheart by not giving me an option to say that I'm from somewhere else than Baldur's Gate in form of some generaic non-tagged answer like "tell her about your home" (which I was pretty sure was available before, so I'm unsure if it was a bug or not, but it really bothered me) due to the tag that was assigned to her as a half-elf. I checked that character just after it was created on the first save on the Nautiloid, and indeed the Baldurian tag is assigned to for sure wood half-elves and others.

And tbh I'm not sure if your class affects the Baldurian tag. Because race definitely does, but I'm not sure what is the rule for assigning this tag other than Underdark races usually don't get it. For example, if you want to play a half-drow that is from Baldur's Gate the game doesn't give you the option to assign that tag to the character on your own. It will just assume that half-drow is not from Baldur's Gate because of, I assume, one of the parents is a Drow which equates the Underdark.

The fact that I noticed this made me lowkey wish that there was some mod to change the assigned tags to your person. The game uses tags to assign the character backgrounds, race etc. so then you would be able to have dialogue options from the tag visible during the specific conversations to which they were assigned. The sad thing is that the game doesn't allow you to edit the tags before you start the game as they're solely composed from your choices in the character creator, but you can't see the tags and check if everything is as it should be.

Unfortunately, I didn't find any mod to edit tags, which is sad. Mostly because I think that the ability to assign yourself Baldurian tag or not, it would be really great. I'm not preaching adding all Faerunian cities tags, no. Just an ability to add/remove that one tag for immersion.

Edit 21.08.2024:

I FOUND A MOD THAT COULD HELP!

[micropoe10]

Dumb Ways to Die... BG3 edition! PART: 1

Long post EXTREMELY LONG POST...okay maybe, probably not that long?? DEFINITELY LONG and Possible spoilers?!? I'm not sure read at your own peril! IT'S TOTALLY WORTH IT THOUGH🤣

I've been playing BG3 for a collective of well over 250 hours now. I CAN'T express how much I absolutely LOVE this game! I adore my OG character she is perfect (as Astarion loves to tell me)! I will ALWAYS choose ASTARION to romance and too fall in love with repeatedly! ⬇️⬇️❤️❤️⬇️⬇️

That has not changed in the other 2 characters I have made so far alongside my OG campaign. I have save scummed SO hard. (Listen...I want to watch THOSE scenes with my OG character over and over again whenever I want lmao😂 I also love watching the wholesome fluff scenes too) ❤️That being said this is not that kind of post.. this post is my, lets call it....DUMB WAYS TO DIE .....To the story.....

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THE STORY: The Goblin Horde

I would like to stress the importance of what I'm going to say next!

☠️☠️ALWAYS GROUP YOUR PARTY MEMBERS!!!!☠️☠️

So there I was playing on an ALT campaign that I made because I wanted to see what Dark Urge was all about. (I should clarify that I have NOT finished the story yet...no, not even on my OG campaign, im enjoying the game at my own pace and I have a lot of IRL responsibilities too.) So.. there I was, Astarion is madly in love with me ❤️ I just saved Halsin from the Goblins 🐻 everything is going so well, and he wants me to kill the BIG THREE leaders of the Goblin Camp. 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

I got this....or so I thought...*(rolls a NAT 1 on Confidence)*

In my party I have Astarion, Shadowheart and Wyll. I also have a summoned wolf but for the sake of this story we're gonna leave them out of it. On my OG character I have already gone through the Goblin camp so on my Dark Urge alt I was feeling pretty good about my survival chances this time around...I start by picking off small groups of Goblins, the ones that are secluded, around corners, away from the big packs so it doesnt alert all of them. I close doors to keep them hidden...you know...

⬆️⬆️YEA THAT⬆️⬆️

I destroy EVERY SINGLE war drum cause obvious reasons⬆️ I DONT want to alert everybody! I even saved Volo because...I have a soft spot for his annoying humor, and quite litterally I'm pretty sure he is the NPC equivalent of the games damsel in distress but *spoilers* lol. When I've picked off the stragglers all that is left is the BIG THREE and their packs of mobs around them. I figure my best bet is kill off Grannie Gut first so I remember that there are some spiders in the makeshift cages below and if you're like me well...🕷️☠️

☠️🕷️Same Ron, Same🕷️☠️

But I ➡️ UNGROUP Wyll⬅️..remember this.. I ungroup only Wyll, because he is the only one in my party who can speak too animals and I was determined to Dr. Dolittle Bullshit my way through a convo with these spiders to make them do my biding! Even if it killed me, and if the RNG/DICE gods were displeased with me it could, would and probably should have. (Also this would be a good time to mention that yes I know there are potions, and scrolls for speak to animals...but I am a complete and utter MONEY GREMLIN sooo it all gets sold). So, I sweet talk my way through that convo while also trying not to stare directly at my screen cause. 🕷️=☠️.

The spiders tell me you need to open the door for us and im like that is simple enough. I walk over, I try to unlock the doors and the guards on the other side (nice chaps, great convo) say noooo the gates must stay closed spiders are dangerous, they are not trained. (I KNOW, kinda the point here). So if I couldnt open the doors I was just going to do what I've done best so far and KILL THEM.

As wyll is shooting at these two "innocent" guards they are trying to spam unlock the door and all I'm seeing is:

.....Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked,Locked......

At this point I have Astarion jump down and help me kill these goblins, but not before another "innocent bystanding" goblin joins the fight. At this point Shadowheart, and my ALT are trying to kill this extra goblin. Astarion is trying to unlock the door, the spiders are saying FREE us. And Wyll is just standing there living his best life, When Grannie Gut gets involved...

Stay tuned PART: 2 will be up shortly!

[dothegravitybounce]

so yeah I spent the entire night on this loool 😌

this are based on my self sim and then two other random sims i have (that didn't end up nothing like the original lmfao), respectively

my full thoughts under the cut

it bothered me incredibly that you can not choose the presets individually, only as whole, so I always felt like I was making a slight variation of what the game gives me not something unique to my taste

the sliders for nose, lips and cheeks are very limited (where's my nose rotation slider 😡 on the other hand there's a built in hooded eye slider), but I think this would be kinda fixed if you could change the presets individually and you had more variety.

surprisingly I didn't feel any uncanny valley vibes even though I'm very sensitive to it, but also I didn't love the zois i created the same way I love how some of my sims turn out. even looking at the canvas page I didn't get super impressed with the zois created by the community

I liked the skin details, how you can make it more or less realistic

I love the eye iris options!!! LOVE!!!!! we can steal that for sims lmfao (are they called contacts idk you know the eye colors lol)

love that it had a photo mode full of options inside the character creation!! i wished I was good at photography!!!

they definitely have a generic modern video game character feel to them, i keep wishing that it had a more unique aesthetic. the realism didn't bother as much as it would, I thought I'd hate it. but while making them i still wish they were a bit more stylized

also whenever you change something, like the eyebrow or lipstick the model has this fade out animation that looks more like the texture is glitching lol that really annoyed me

love the sense of fashion!!! it feels like they have people who are experts on styling and have real life knowledge of makeup and hair on the team. like it looks very well researched. the makeup and hair are genuinely stuff you see people on social media teaching tutorials on. i was even able to recreate my usual eye and lip makeup perfectly lol. it's skewed on korean aesthetics ofc, but if you're into that world you'll recognize very specific styles. would not be surprised if they have actual makeup, hairstylists and fashion/costume designers on the team, which more games should have imo

not being able to access the settings page from the character creator is annoying. like you can't turn of the music or check your graphics settings etc

you also can't change the name of the characters from the caz screen, you have to go back to the previous page. the game saves your progress on that character, but it's annoying now, imagine creating a save with a full family/house lol absolutely not. naming is the last thing you usually do, it should be on the screen!!

the color wheel is great but it really needs a bigger spectrum of darker colors. specially when you're making melanated characters, it feels like the options are a bunch of light and vibrant colors and then straight into black. i had trouble making a dark red lipstick. the transition into the base colors (like from orange to red to pink etc) could have a bigger fade as well, i had trouble trying to pick coral shades. maybe this is an ui issue? the color wheel shows very small on my screen. but I didn't look for ui scale settings so idk

i can see this becoming heavy on micro transactions and monetization. like having to pay extra for a hair version where you can edit the highlights

the demo wasn't as heavy as I thought it would be. it loaded for me automatically on lite graphics after installation, but I was able to use higher custom settings without performance issues, which was very surprising. for some reason, changing the anti aliasing for me crashes the game and then I can't open it anymore I have to literally go into the game's files and delete the user settings. but maybe it's my graphics card issue, I had anti aliasing troubles with bg3 as well.

i can definitely see this becoming a performance monster when it comes full release and idk if my pc could be able to handle it with whatever dlc and add-ons and mods the same way I run sims 4 without any performance issue. so idk this might ended up being very restrictive for the demographic

the ai feature is 100% gen ai it's not just photogrammetry. there's an option where you can upload a picture and it pastes into a texture but there's an ai button where you can generate said picture. it's very bad though and they'll be dumb to really spend dev time trying to make it better tbh, which they'll probably will, because that is trendy and sk right now is pushing ai into stuff for marketing points, so I definitely see them insisting on it unfortunately

tldr: overall I thought it was a little fun to mid results. I didn't absolutely love the zois i created in comparison to s4, it felt way more restrictive than I thought it would be and I kept wanting to put a smoothing filter on their faces lol but it's nice you can sink a bunch of hours into this and come out with completely different results, you can make something you like and there's a ginormous room for improvement. I'd definitely keep checking out in the future but it's not as revolutionary as it looks on the surface

[thegoldheartmonk]

WELCOME TO MY SIDE BLOG:

I noticed that other blogs tend to have a little info page for their TAV'S and I thought that sounded fun.

Note; So far all my TAV's are based on my actual OC's. So if you are coming from a different blog... that's why some of these names are familiar lol.

Will edit periodically

RUIZ:

My main TAV, and the one this blog is named after. Was once engaged, but their Fiance, Tobias, died. Leaving them in a spiraling cycle of grief.

Half-Wood Elf

Way of the Open Hand, Monk

Background | Charlatan |

(TBH I depict them a lot more with an Acolyte background in comics/drawings, since before I started their playthrough I was expecting to take a whole different route)

Gender: Non-binary (Agender specifically) | They/Them

Sexuality: Definitely somewhere on that AroAce spectrum, (maybe demi?)

Age: 36

Love Interest: Gale

Main Story position: Used some tadpoles, didn't fully evolve, Started friendly with Emperor.

Status?: Finished my first playthrough with them, currently on my second.

Goals/Story; Move on from their lost.

Playlist, aka the most confusing mix of songs you will hear all day:

TOBIAS CLAWKEEP:

Still in Act 1! Currently finished recruiting all main companion! Think of it as a AU where instead of Tobias dying, it was Ruiz who died instead.

Human

Oath of Vengeance, Paladin

Background | Noble

Gender: Cis Male | He/Him

Sexuality: Queer, (Preference for Masculine presenting people)

Age: 37

Potential Love interest: Wyll

Status: Begininng of Act 1

Goals/Story: Maybe try Oathbreaker path? Possibly use the Astral Tadpole this time. Gonna do Gale's ascension ending. Currently debating doing Astarion's ascension as well.

BEAUCHÊNE

Save file made, still on Nactuloid. My first Dark Urge playthrough.

Drow

Fighter (No subclass yet) | Multiclass to Bard?

Background | Haunted One

Gender: Trans Male | He/Him

Sexuality: Pan

Age: ehhhhhhhhhh complicated

Potential Love Interest: Karlach

Status: Made, not yet played.

Goals/Story: Try to be redeemed. AVOID USING TADPOLES. We going to war with the emperor babyyyyyyy. Figure out what is actually happening maybe.

EZEKIEL THEE ZEPHYR

Save file made, Still on Nactuloid

Drow

Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline)

Background | Noble

Gender: Cis Male | He/Him

Sexuality: Uncertain

Age: Early 20's

Potential Love Interest: Lae'zel

Status: Made, not yet played

Goals: Not too sure, made him on a whim cuz I wanted to play around more with the customizer :)

(I think I'll try doing some silly actions. That should be fun. He's so unserious.)

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Hey, I also do commissions! While I don't have many examples of BG3 stuff yet, I am wanting to do some, so if you want commission me to draw a companion or TAV, let me know!

I use PayPal for commissions! Just message me if you are interested!