What would be a good possible storyline for BG3?

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I've read the posts saying it will never be created, I've read the posts about it would be a really poor game that would just be trying to make money from Baldur's Gate's good name, and I would not have posted this but for the fact that this forum is still here, despite being basically dead-ended.

So lets use our own creativity to think of what would be a good storyline for a new game in the Baldur's Gate series. It doesn't have to be what is likely to be done (if it was going to be done), just what you think would be fun.

My idea is for a prequel to Baldur's Gate I. I took the idea from Gorion's account of the raid on the temple of Bhaal in Throne of Bhaal. The raid would be the end battle, with your mother from the existing baldur's gate series being the end boss. The storyline would follow a group of harpers, led by you, doing quests for the Harpers to gather information, slay enemies, etc, basically to thwart Bhaal's plans until all the final temple is Bhall's last hope.

Party members would be Harpers, and possibly others rescued from various dungeons or encountered on quests (in the typical Baldur's Gate fashion). Quests would be set into a locked storyline, like ToB as opposed to the open world system used by SoA. Romance could be included, and there is the potential for a happy ending when it is all over. There is also potential for rich character developement, with each character having their own reasons for joining you, fighting Bhaal, or having their own hidden agenda...

Harpers do favour certain races/classes, but you could be a mercenary, a friend of Gorion's, or just simply not the stereotypical Harper, in order to be able to have full class/race availability. The storyline stays true to the general theme of the Baldur's Gate series, without radically changing the gameplay, and it fits into the series without simply trying to add something unrelated onto the end. All in all, I'm very happy with it.

Now let's hear everyone elses ideas.

 

A prequel is impossible, actually. The game will be 4th ed rules, with the new forgotten realms campaign setting updates. All games with the WotC logo on them, uses the latest stuff from the pen and paper products. And all the changes they have made to the Forgotten Realms wouldn`t mix well with anything set in an earlier timeframe.

1. The magic has been completely changed. Mystra is dead (again).
2. A new continent sprung up from out of nowhere.
3. several cities, lands, etc, are in complete ruin. Alot of them are even wiped out, or swarming with undead.


There is alot more too, but I won`t bother to mention it. The top of the line; is that a prequel won`t work at all with the new ruleset\products from wizards of the coast.

A good bet for BG3 will be that its something completely new. Most likely it wil have nothing to do with the previous games either. They skipped about 100 years or so forwards in the timeline. And aparantly some massive plague killed of alot of people.
Most likely the NPC`s from BG 1 +2, are all dead. From old age, or the plague thingy.

 

1. The magic has been completely changed. Mystra is dead (again).

You do not mean that tables of faiths incident I guess. A shame, first Ellistrea, now Mystra.
On the other hand payback time in bg3?

 

Alot of the gods have been removed in the new edition actuall. Maybe half of them are missing now. Was Cyric that killed Mystra, I belive. So I think that payback wouldn`t be possible.

Anyway...My guess is that BG3 will have a brand new story, and the only thing BG about it, will be that it (probably) takes place in and around Baldur`s Gate.

 

If you are reffering to the spellplague (Curse it's name! why'd wizard have to go off and do something like that!), I don't see how that changes anything. Icewind Dale II is set well before the Time of Troubles and it was released after Baldur's Gate.

Unless you mean that they wouldn't create something that doesn't promote their nonsensical realm changes. In which case you have a valid, if infuriating point.
Wizard is worse than a Dwarf in a gold mine, always hacking apart everything in pursuit of gain.

 

That is partially what I meant, yes. And if they make a game set before the spellplague, it makes no sense to use the new magic system. The explanation for that system is that magic works differently now, after Mystra died (again). So having that magic system in a time before Mystra died, it would certainly mess up the continuity.

 

Ah well, i still think it was a good idea.

Let's forget magic systems and the like. Let's treat it like wizards are willing to make any game we come up with. Unrealistic I know, but wizards probably isn't going to make a BG3 anyway.

So what are your ideas?

 

As a sequell, it could be about the chiild the PC had with Aerie. Or maybe a decendant of one of the NPCs from the first games. The bhaalspawn saga is pretty much done and over anyway. So it would probably feel better if it had links to the original game, but not a direct continuation of the previous story.

 

Nice.

 

I've got one. The story takes place in the new setting, 4.0 or whatever, and the PC is the decendant of one or more Bhaalspawn (maybe mom's a descendant of the PC and Dad's of Imoen's line, they're vaguely related, but we're talking descendants here). Anyway, these two (of whatever race you want at this point) have a kid, the PC, and Bhaal's blood surfaces again, being newly focused. The essense of the God of Murder may be destroyed, but the blood, and the nature of that blood, remain the same. Instead of having the God of Murder trying to revive himself through you, you just have the power of the Throne of Murder, unguided and unbridled. It's present in all Bhaal's descendants, but diluted with other blood. Less so for you. There's a prophecy that you'll destroy something, or bring an end to the age, or something like that. This can be interpreted in the way "(s)he'll devastate everything" and cause people to try to kill you, or the "(s)he'll replace the existing corrupt system with a less corrupt one", which no one of course believes in (except some of your romance options). Maybe someone wants to make an attempt to use your blood to ressurect some of the old gods (like Mystra, maybe), since it is divine blood.

 

No offence NOG, but it sounds like the actual storyline for baldur's gate.

 

Think more of a combo of BGI and BGII with more of a focus on the nature of the dark blood in you. Lots of dreams about killing and destruction, with you choosing to advance it or stop it, each with different conditions (war, murder, sacrifice of a loved one, sacrifice of innocents in war, mercy killings, etc.). I very much liked the nature of the opposition in BGI, but this would have less grand conspiracies and more direct opposition/alliances. The focus of the 'bad guys' would be more on you as the PC, while in BG it was on gaining control of Baldur's Gate and the Iron Throne, and in BGII it was gaining your soul and then revenge on the elves. You were left chasing after the villian in each case, whereas here the villains will attempt far more 'showdowns by proxy', i.e. not risking themselves. The assassins in BG were interesting, but hardly the kind of 'showdown' I wanted. I'm also thinking a lot of the game would be spent peeling back the layers of these organizations, seeing just how far they go, and finding the roots. That would be more like BGI, but in both BGI and BGII you're left chasing after the villain for a good portion of the time. That wouldn't be the case here, though they may run for a bit near the end, probably to secure some last-minute secret weapon. Maybe even the final 'villain' ends up being one of the missing gods who wants Bhaal's blood to be dispersed forever, yet keep his/her own involvement secret.

Alternatively, there's always the cult that wants to use your blood to ressurect the 'old gods' lost in the transition to 4.0. Here much would stay the same, but perhaps you find the villains are also after others of Bhaal's blood (just one or two) that you can get to join you, or sacrifice yourself to increase your power. The final boss should probably be either someone that's used Bhaal's blood to try to become a god themselves (a little too TOB?) or a 'ressurected deity'. Anything could happen with the last one. Maybe it's a demon pretending to be a deity to get Bhaal's blood, maybe it's an evil deity like Cyric, or maybe it's a good deity that just wants your blood to ressurect his/her allies. The ending could even depend on your alignment. Good guys get to kill evil gods/demons, while bad guys get to prevent the return of good deities. Not sure about neutrals, though.

Anyway, I would like much of the game to explore the nature of undirected power and challenge the PC's will (give in, just give in, we can give you power and everything, we swear), as well as exploring the nature of killing and 'murder', and what you (PC and player) consider what.

 

So basically a Fable version of the existing games? It's a good idea and you seem to like it, but it seems closer to game modification instead of game creation.

 

I didn't play Fable that much, so I'll take your word for it. All in all, though, I'd like to see it still include the blood of Bhaal, or else I don't really see much point to calling it 'Baldur's Gate' (I consider that definitively a story of Bhaal's blood, not the city). I'd like to see something that explores the nature of that blood more. In the BG series, the blood of Bhaal was, at best, the will of a particular deity to come back. It was trying to force you to become a pawn for it's schemes, not really change you into something else.

I was thinking you could have a series of dreams where you have the option of killing someone in various circumstances: POW, injured enemy, mortally wounded comrade, deathly ill mother, innocent beggar, etc. For each time you kill, you get a Bhaal power, while for each time you refuse, you get some kind of bonus to your will, discipline, self control (don't know 4e rules at all). Somewhere near the end, you find out that those weren't just dreams, but actual circumstances somewhere in the world. You were actually acting out the role of God of Murder, or denying it.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'game modification' rather than 'game creation'. If you expect something completely different, how does it fit the name "Baldur's Gate"?

 

This isn't an insult or derogatory comment, I'm serious. You should get Fable 2, it has everything you're looking for. You would enjoy it immensely. If you don't have an X-box 360, go to a friends place that does. The game is made for you.

 

I think another god is the god of murder now, actually. So the Bhaal stuff is effectivly gone. Since another god gets his\her power from murder and such, there is now way the PC can get some of it, I think. Unless you kill the other god, or somehting in that line. Is Cyric the god of murder now? I don`t recall.

 

I have no friends that have 360s, and the first Fable really put me off. It was a proof of concept game, and that's it. Does the main plot of Fable2 last more than 8 hours?

As to the god of murder, I thought the point of 4e was that all the gods were gone, either killed or missing? I don't know much about it, but I kinda got that impression. If Cyric, who took over the role after Bhaal, was killed or simply MIA, and there were still people that had Bhaal's blood in the world, could the power of that domain manifest through them? Im assuming from what I know of the setting (very little) that descendants of deities aren't exactly a dime a dozen, so there wouldn't be god powers popping up all over, but one rare convergence of the descendants of the one god (or one of the few gods) that had mortal children in the material plane may.

 

Not all gods are gone, no. About half of them are. Cyric is still around. Killed Mystra I belive, to make room for the new magic system. Wasn`t all the Bhaalspawn killed in Saradush though? Except for the most powerfull ones. And the PC got their power from killing them. And in the end the Solar disposes of the Bhaal essence, destroying it completely?

 

Meh, spoiling all my fun. Still, if Cyric's still around, then it's out all together.

 

The direction they went with the Forgotten Realms in 4e pretty much ruined my ideas, but before its release I had some thoughts on what I wanted to see included in a BG3:

The Bhaalspawn Saga is over, and I see no reason to bring that exact storyline up again aside from a few early cameos from NPCs from the original series. I think Cyric is an awesome character, an icon of the FR setting IMO, yet Bhaal himself (and Myrkul as well) is interesting almost as a "force of nature" rather than simply an ascended mortal playing out mortal feuds with immortal powers. So I thought there was still room to play around with the idea of resurrecting Bhaal or trying to usurp Cyric (the latter is something BG2 addressed only in ToB, and only very indirectly).

In any discussion of the story of Bhaal we should eventually be taken to the place where he was slain: "modern day" Boareskyr Bridge, NE of Baldur's Gate, as well as flashback to the scene from the novel "Waterdeep." Bhaal's essence taints the waters there, and perhaps that could have been used as an important plot point.

Cyric himself has plenty of enemies, so I think if one were willing to tell a story that involved the gods more intimately, some interesting material could be found. I'd like to see the PC be able to ally with (or even double-cross) different factions like the Harpers (perhaps under Mystra's heavy influence), the Zhentarim, what remains of Bhaal's priesthood, etc., presenting you with different different quests, story, etc. depending on your playthrough choices. Despite their differences, each faction would ultimately be devoted to unseating Cyric (or stealing one of his portfolios), though in different ways, using the PC. Perhaps the PC could have even chosen to betray them all in the end and try to grab the power himself.

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All those possibilities are long past though, a more reasonable 4e approach might have the player being used by the church of Cyric in some fashion to undermine and destroy the faiths of the remaining gods, but eventually breaking free you are able to turn on him and return the favor, with the final confronation being with Cyric's Seraph of Lies.