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The UX writing of Baldur’s Gate 3

Dungeons and dragons and details, details, details

Daley Wilhelm

Published in

UX Collective

8 min readAug 22, 2023

Front cover of the Baldur’s Gate 3 game with a group of fantasy characters, dragons, and a giant tentacled ship. — Mindflayers, devils, vampires, and bear shapeshifters oh my! Image from — https://earlygame.com/gaming/baldurs-gate-3-companions

Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the most anticipated role-playing games of the decade, and a clear contender for Game of the Year. For the uninitiated (roll for initiative!), this massive but well-polished game produced by Larian Studios is essentially a complete Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Players are thrust into the magical realm of Faerûn where they will gather a party of powerful characters and then do… really, anything they want.

The beauty of the game is that there are no limit of choices–players are free to act heroically, play the villain, kill everyone, or focus on hoarding gold and goods and pets. Who will you fight for? How will you do it? Who will you romance?

Astarion, a pale elf with white hair, smiles down at a ginger-bearded dwarf as he takes his hand. — Who would have guessed that the sarcastic rogue would be one of the favorites to romance? Image from — https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-looks-like-its-gonna-eat-starfields-lunch-when-it-comes-to-romances/

These myriad choices have to be communicated clearly, and lengthy histories of magic have to be rendered concise. The user experience writing in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3) deserves appreciation.

No spoilers beyond what you’ll find from the first cutscene!

1. Playing to your character

Five dialogue choices, three labeled with [PERSUASION] [DECEPTION] and [INTIMIDATION] respectively. The fifth option says to “Attack.” — Depending on the character’s abilities, such as charisma, they might be able to persuade these adventuers away from the Nautiloid ship. Image from — https://guides.gamepressure.com/baldurs-gate-iii/guide.asp?ID=53982

BG3 is a true role-playing game that offers players the opportunity to either create their own character or embody an “origin” character that has already been built out. Most opt to choose their character’s race, class, background, and appearance to create a unique character.

Once thrust into the game, there will be frequent interactions with other characters. Like encounters IRL, you can talk your way out of, or into, trouble. Selecting dialogue choices tagged with [CHARISMA] will likely result in charming or pleasing the tiefling you’re talking with. Helpfully, players can hover over this tag to see if they have any advantages concerning the CHARISMA stat — is the character you built truly charismatic? If playing a barbarian, characterized by strength and honesty, you might be presented with a dialogue option tagged with [BARBARIAN] that…

I loved your deep dive into the UX of BG3, Daley! 🎮 It's not every day you find someone so committed they'd even ponder the fate of giant space hamsters. 🐹 Keep rolling those natural 20s in your writing; you're a master of your craft! 🎲 #critHit #uxMagic #gamerPraise