The tabletop adaptation of Divinity: Original Sin started as many great things do – its creators just felt like doing it. At least, this was the justification initially delivered to me by Larian’s publishing coordinator, Kieron Kelly: “We wanted to make a board game … it was never a question.”
The folks at Larian certainly achieved this goal. Insofar as our review is concerned, they’ve exceeded it and wound up being a serious best board games contender. Though this wasn’t achieved without first enduring a chaotic six-year development process plagued by roadblocks, redesigns, and team recompositions.
With such a storied past, it’s hard to imagine how the project avoided entering the annals of tabletop gaming history as a catastrophic flop – an awkward blemish on the reputation of a studio that has otherwise been smashing it in the past few years. To clear up this mystery, Kieron took the time at a recent launch event to talk me through everything Divinity: Original Sin the board game – including the tragic (but necessary) exclusion of barrelmancy.
