The reasons for the success of Baldur's Gate 3 were many, and one of those factors was its use of the Dungeons and Dragons license. D&D had exploded in popularity since RPG developers were last making games based on the ruleset, and suddenly we had a great video game welcoming in that new generation of fans. Why would Larian want to give up that advantage? Well, a fresh history lesson from RPG legend Tim Cain shows the constraints that D&D can hang on a video game project.
Cain is best known for creating the concept for Fallout and leading the original game's development, but he also led a notable D&D game: 2003's The Temple of Elemental Evil. Directly based on the D&D 3.5 module of the same name, it was arguably the most faithful adaptation of the tabletop game ever made, replicating almost every little rule and character build option you could ask for.
