New Baldur's Gate 3 stream reveals details about narrative and player choice

A recent Baldur's Gate 3 stream unveiled details about the game's narrative, as well as offering some interesting insight into its use of player choice.

The stream aired during D&D Live 2020, during which Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke revealed a variety of details about Larian Studios' highly-anticipated RPG.

You can check out the original stream in the video embedded below, which has been uploaded in full to YouTube.

The video offered viewers a choice of two paths — you could make your way to the underdark, or take on the hobgoblin Dror Ragzlin. If you're looking for a summary, a press release from Larian Studios concisely collected all of the most important bits unveiled during the stream.

Here's Larian's rundown:

• The narrator that will lead players through the game has changed to present tense/second person narration.
• Changes have been made to the initiative system. Previous gameplay showed the side initiative, which has evolved over the past month.
• Characters with similar individual initiative can now be grouped together automatically, which will allow the player to try out combinations and align their attack in a group initiative system. Other characters and enemies will have individual initiative
• Vincke showed the inspiration system for the first time. Inspiration points will allow the player to reroll one of their dice - a very valuable asset if the roll of the dice decides over life and death. These points are awarded to the player as a reward for finding special solutions during the playthrough.
• Reactivity to the player character: During the gameplay, Vincke played as a custom character elf, which showcased how the world reacts to who you are and - more importantly - which decision you have made in the past.

AS you can see, there are some pretty hefty changes in terms of how Baldur's Gate 3 is gearing up to address storytelling, and it's playfully toying with some innovative D&D dice-rolling mechanics.

Baldur's Gate 3 is - hopefully! - launching in Early Access in August. You can check out over an hour of gameplay here.