My start with D&D is only a few years back and has been exclusively in a custom campaign my DM created. So I don't know the lore built up from old editions and old settings. I've been thinking about trying my hand at DMing particularly for a good friend friend wants to get back into D&D. He played the old Balder's Gate PC game from years back. Would Balder's Gate Descent into Avernus scratch a nostalgia itch from that old PC game?
Are there any one-shots in the Balder's Gate setting that I might dip my toes into before we commit to a full campaign?
Descent into Avernus only has the first chapter or so take place in Baldur's Gate. Most of it is in Hell. There's a pretty chunky section on Baldur's Gate's society and politics ans such, though.
I wouldn't worry about a lore learning curve or anything. The adventure is pretty well contained and everything with a Lore history gets a pretty good introduction or context. Writing that comment as a DM who is using BG:DiA as a return to D&D after about 26 years. Also definitely think of the adventure as a _campaign_. From what I've seen most groups take months to finish it.
Maelstrom's right too. It's a 258 pg. book. Of the 158 pages that are the "adventure" only about 34 pages are actually set in Baldur's Gate. The city does get a a 55 page "guide" that gives you the geography, maps, personalities and politics as well as some background tweaks for Baldurians (I forget whether that was the accepted or offensive way to describe inhabitants of BG, but there's even a note on that).
If you don't mind getting the book and not using or having to radically adapt/modify/repurpose of "save for later" over half of it (and if you liked what your old DM did, that may be your style), you could use the background and BG-based section of the adventure as the foundation for a BG-based game. Without getting too deep into spoiler terrain, one of the problems I see with the adventure as written is once the Baldur's Gate section is resolved, a motive for a denizen of Baldur's Gate to continue isn't entirely obvious beyond "greater good" reasons; and in the marketing and some of the flavoring of BG, "for the greater good" isn't exactly a core value of many Baldurians, and your players' party may well be of that persuasion too. When I read the adventure to prep for play, my notes have a big caps comment "why would they do that?" at that hinge in the plot. I resolved it during character generation by ensuring the party had a portion of characters with background to advance the plot along as written (that is, some characters are not from Baldur's Gate, they're from the other city important to the plot which would lead to a reasonable motivation to make the leap, though the "natives" interest in doing so are still thin).
Moreover, after the portion of the adventure set in Baldur's Gate, it's pretty clear there will be a huge fall out politically and in terms of power structures within Baldur's Gate and I could see characters with background ties to the city actually preferring to stick around and see how things play out and play angles and find a role or path to power in that fall out rather than going on some sort of hellbound crusade (while we're sticking with the adventure as written, if my group holds together we may do a parallel "while you were in Hell" campaign with an alt set of characters, or let them play as some of the NPCs they've been introduced to). If they or you want to traffic in devils or infernal influence (making use of the Hell/Devil resources in the book), it wouldn't be hard to do that too if they just stayed put.
Do any Adventure's League scenarios actually take place in Balder's Gate? Would that be a place to look to dip my toes into the setting and into DMing.
Haven't played it, and the edition linked here is an authorized scan for sale, though reviews suggest it's a good scan. The actual boxed set retails for around $200 on Amazon these days it looks. As far as "lore" I believe this adventure is set a few decades before Descent Into Avernus, but that shouldn't hurt play unless someone in your party has been staying on top of WotC's Forgotten Realms "plot" for seven years.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Do any Adventure's League scenarios actually take place in Balder's Gate? Would that be a place to look to dip my toes into the setting and into DMing.
Yes, the first few of season 9 I believe are all set in the city before you descend. I run them for conventions and they are pretty fun to run.
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My start with D&D is only a few years back and has been exclusively in a custom campaign my DM created. So I don't know the lore built up from old editions and old settings. I've been thinking about trying my hand at DMing particularly for a good friend friend wants to get back into D&D. He played the old Balder's Gate PC game from years back. Would Balder's Gate Descent into Avernus scratch a nostalgia itch from that old PC game?
Are there any one-shots in the Balder's Gate setting that I might dip my toes into before we commit to a full campaign?
Descent into Avernus only has the first chapter or so take place in Baldur's Gate. Most of it is in Hell. There's a pretty chunky section on Baldur's Gate's society and politics ans such, though.
Hombrew: Way of Wresting, Circle of Sacrifice
I wouldn't worry about a lore learning curve or anything. The adventure is pretty well contained and everything with a Lore history gets a pretty good introduction or context. Writing that comment as a DM who is using BG:DiA as a return to D&D after about 26 years. Also definitely think of the adventure as a _campaign_. From what I've seen most groups take months to finish it.
Maelstrom's right too. It's a 258 pg. book. Of the 158 pages that are the "adventure" only about 34 pages are actually set in Baldur's Gate. The city does get a a 55 page "guide" that gives you the geography, maps, personalities and politics as well as some background tweaks for Baldurians (I forget whether that was the accepted or offensive way to describe inhabitants of BG, but there's even a note on that).
If you don't mind getting the book and not using or having to radically adapt/modify/repurpose of "save for later" over half of it (and if you liked what your old DM did, that may be your style), you could use the background and BG-based section of the adventure as the foundation for a BG-based game. Without getting too deep into spoiler terrain, one of the problems I see with the adventure as written is once the Baldur's Gate section is resolved, a motive for a denizen of Baldur's Gate to continue isn't entirely obvious beyond "greater good" reasons; and in the marketing and some of the flavoring of BG, "for the greater good" isn't exactly a core value of many Baldurians, and your players' party may well be of that persuasion too. When I read the adventure to prep for play, my notes have a big caps comment "why would they do that?" at that hinge in the plot. I resolved it during character generation by ensuring the party had a portion of characters with background to advance the plot along as written (that is, some characters are not from Baldur's Gate, they're from the other city important to the plot which would lead to a reasonable motivation to make the leap, though the "natives" interest in doing so are still thin).
Moreover, after the portion of the adventure set in Baldur's Gate, it's pretty clear there will be a huge fall out politically and in terms of power structures within Baldur's Gate and I could see characters with background ties to the city actually preferring to stick around and see how things play out and play angles and find a role or path to power in that fall out rather than going on some sort of hellbound crusade (while we're sticking with the adventure as written, if my group holds together we may do a parallel "while you were in Hell" campaign with an alt set of characters, or let them play as some of the NPCs they've been introduced to). If they or you want to traffic in devils or infernal influence (making use of the Hell/Devil resources in the book), it wouldn't be hard to do that too if they just stayed put.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Do any Adventure's League scenarios actually take place in Balder's Gate? Would that be a place to look to dip my toes into the setting and into DMing.
If memory serves, there was a playtest campaign (probably an updated previous edition campaign) set in Baldur’s Gate, back when 5e was “D&D Next”
-- Arms are for hugging The Dandy Warhols --
Yes. And was eventually produced as a 5e boxed set campaign in 2013, and I think also adapted into a board game still in print.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/160318/Murder-in-Baldurs-Gate-5e?term=murder in Baldur's gate
Haven't played it, and the edition linked here is an authorized scan for sale, though reviews suggest it's a good scan. The actual boxed set retails for around $200 on Amazon these days it looks. As far as "lore" I believe this adventure is set a few decades before Descent Into Avernus, but that shouldn't hurt play unless someone in your party has been staying on top of WotC's Forgotten Realms "plot" for seven years.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Yes, the first few of season 9 I believe are all set in the city before you descend. I run them for conventions and they are pretty fun to run.