Baldur's Gate 3's lead writer on romances: 'sex is not the goal, it's just sex'
«I know we made them too thirsty,» Baldur's Gate 3's lead writer Adam Smith jokes about the RPG's companion characters. «We're aware of it. The internet has told us this.» We spoke with Smith during yesterday's PC Gamer Chat log podcast, where he shared his thoughts on the nuances of party relationships in Baldur's Gate 3.
«One of the reasons I think they come across as forward is that we did want them to be the person who comes to you,» he says, describing Larian's approach to romantic relationships between players and their party members. «We wanted them to initiate a lot of the time rather than you saying, 'I'm bringing you things and that means that I want to sleep with you.'»
RPG's with romances tend to do that: give you an approval bar that you fill up partly by saying all the «right» things in dialogue and partly by repeatedly gifting them that one item they like. After enough right lines and offerings of trinkets, a confession (sometimes a sex scene) pops out. Congrats, you romanced!
Baldur's Gate 3 has some of that: an approval meter and lots of opportunities to influence it in dialogue with incremental «Astarion approves» and «Karlach disapproves» notifications. But the way Smith describes it, Larian puts less emphasis on sticking to the same formula for every character. There are definitely different vibes in how each relationship begins: Lae'zel comes on strong after you impress her with your capability as a warrior, and Karlach's years of being literally on fire have left her touch-starved, but Wyll is a downright slowburn by comparison, and Shadowheart is more wary with her true feelings.
«It always started with the story. Who is Astarion? How did he get like this? You see the people who say 'I can fix him.
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