It seems as if we’re not done with the Baldur’s Gate 3 cast just yet, because they’ll be making a surprise appearance in the new D&D virtual tabletop.
As revealed in a press panel at GenCon 2024, party members from the hit video game will be available as digital miniatures in the upcoming D&D virtual tabletop (known as ‘Project Sigil’). Astarion and Karlach were shown off as part of the presentation, and it seems that more characters might be on the way. Specifically, head of Project Sigil Chris Cao says that the system could allow players to continue their party’s adventure post-Baldur’s Gate 3 and “make the story go on and on.”
“I think a lot of people are worried about what [Wizards of the Coast]’s going to do with BG3 characters and the story and all this stuff,” adds game director Kale Stutzman. “What we’re trying to do is say, hey, why don’t you continue your Baldur’s Gate 3 story in here, use the characters however they ended up in your games?”
Although these miniatures don’t have the same pizazz as the Baldur’s Gate 3 character models (they won’t be animated and are basically on-screen versions of plastic minis), Project Sigil seems to have enough bells and whistles to keep players from straying to their social media feeds during a session. To begin with, spells are animated – as an example, fireballs hit their mark with an explosion. In addition, Project Sigil makes use of the Unreal Engine 4 video game system to realize its maps, effects and models.
“A lot of times people get confused by that because they’re like, that’s the best video game engine out there,” Cao says. “Well, we’re using that to make the best toy play experience. And it’s on PC right now. It’s gonna be on mobile and on consoles, not to just spread it everywhere. But to connect all the D&D players. We want you to be a player with who you want, when you want. Those are big barriers sometimes to playing D&D. It’s hard to get the group together to get everybody able to play an hour of D&D. Well, if we can do that, suddenly, we’ve made this not only accessible to lots more people, but just a lot more fun for all of us who love it.”
“We want to make it easier for you to play D&D,” continues Stutzman. “I think that’s what we learned from [Wizard’s other digital game, Magic: The Gathering Arena]. If you make it easier to play, people will play more often. And I think that’s very key to our strategy. We release adventures that will be sort of plug and play as a baseline. So instead of saying, okay, I’ve got to read a lot of things to get ready for this adventure, it can be something where you go, I’m going to sit down and play it right now… It’s all set up, and we’re ready to go, Hey, nobody has characters? There’s pre-gen characters just sitting on the board ready to go.”
Alongside these plug-and-play adventures (Cao says that you can “easily import existing D&D Beyond maps, characters, and monsters, with built-in rules integration”), users can create their own custom maps for homebrew questing. Our own US Managing Editor Rollin Bishop, who was at the GenCon panel, described that system as akin to a Diablo map editor of old, and it makes me think of a medieval Sims – you’re putting down individual walls, torches, and accessories to populate the world. These can actually be turned on and off in-game, as an extra touch of flair.
Speaking of interactivity, Project Sigil will feature an adventure panel that can be used to pass notes to your players or drop info in real-time. While you can’t beat playing the best tabletop RPGs in person, that sounds pretty handy.
I couldn’t say no to an all-singing 3D system, either; it goes without saying that 2D battlemaps are awesome, but Baldur’s Gate 3 and its use of the D&D mechanics made me daydream about pen-and-paper sessions run with a similar system. It seems like I’m getting my wish, even though Cao and co are keen to stress that it isn’t a video game – this is very much an on-screen version of your in-person sessions, albeit with some special effects.
“What we want to do is make a place where you can come try out D&D, for free,” says Cao. “You can invite your friends and say, hey, let’s play a session. We want to be the digital starter pack that anyone can jump into. And we want to use the characters and worlds and stories that we make and that you make to make that onboarding as smooth as possible.”
It’s unclear when it’ll be arriving, though. However, despite not having a release date yet, a closed beta for Project Sigil is on the way this fall. If you want to give it a try, you can sign up here.
For recommendations on adventures to try next, be sure to check out these D&D books. As for a change of pace, don’t miss the best board games.