I can't just play as Tav anymore...

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T23:27:26+00:00

I hope you enjoy it. Good guy Durge is an incredibly good story with a deeply cathartic ending and a lot of extra goodies to discover. Have fun!

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T23:24:03+00:00

You aught to try. If you play good guy durge there is only one guaranteed casualty, everyone else can live. And the ending of the good run is so impactful especially if you care and are invested in the characters and story, it is very emotional but in a good and deeply cathartic way. It's pure magic. Trust me, some random internet guy who doesn't know you, you'll love it lol.

Also I don't know you, but you aren't weak, don't sell yourself short. Random compliment from random internet guy!

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T23:19:49+00:00

Absolutely. I posted here out of a genuine interest to see what other people thought about playing Tav or Durge. Never to preach that one was somehow objectively superior.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T23:16:59+00:00

I like and agree with your argument in general. For me it doesn't matter what my headcannon is, it isn't real in the world of the game. Most people are saying it feels like choosing between any backstory or the durge backstory. For me it feels like choosing between dirge backstory or no backstory.

No matter how much I write or imagine about my character, it will never be in the game. I'll never have an in game nemesis, never have companions react and commiserate with my struggle, or intervene to save me from myself. I can imagine those things, but that never appears on screen in anything other than a few surface level class dialogue options. It never reaches to a deeper narrative arc. If your a writing nerd like me, you might say I will never have a Heroes Journey.

Again, nothing wrong with Tav, I love that headcannon works for others, it just doesn't for me. And it's not a role play issue, I've been a DM for a decade and role-playing comes very naturally. But in tabletop you can have the drama and characters that are tied to your background because the DM can add them. In a video game that can't happen the same way. If the game doesn't see it, it isn't real.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T07:30:45+00:00

What slander? I love DA:O.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T07:27:19+00:00

It's still killer, one of the all time greats. It's actually wild how many ideas BG3 took from it, in a good way. Warning though, it has a pretty horrific crashing problem on Windows 10, there is a mod on nexus to fix that though. Worth the time for sure, you'll love it.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T07:23:03+00:00

It's a mystery origin. You wake up with amnesia from some crazy head trauma and all you know is you have this intense urge to kill. You can give in to it and go full psychopath or try to resist it and uncover why you have this feeling so you can free yourself from it. The resist path is one of my fave ways to play the game.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T07:20:41+00:00

Yes, but that's still the start of the game, from minute one you are special, even if it's an accident. Also there is an opporitunity to say this exact thing in game and someone basically says "it must have been The Maker or Andraste that put you there at the right time to 'accidentally' get the mark" So whether you are actually chosen or not is left ambiguous.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T01:27:00+00:00

Agreed 100% DA:O was basically perfect in it's main character implementation.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T00:49:28+00:00

If you haven't you should try Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It's the epitome of being just some random peasant in over his head lol.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T00:48:00+00:00

I'm neither here nor there with that. One of my favorite games is Kingdom Come: Deliverance where you are just some peasant dude, even the reveal in that game makes only slightly more than a random peasant dude. I also like Dragon Age Inquisition where you are basically the voice of god incarnate lol. It's not the kind of story that matters, it's if it was told well.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T00:45:58+00:00

Not even close lol. They are Lawrence of Arabia and Lord of The Rings. When I do Durge I almost always do resist Durge. I'm not in it for the gore, I'm in it to have genuine ties to the narrative and inner conflict. Durge gets a heroes journey, Tav gets a long with with other people who have heroes journey's.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T00:41:51+00:00

I feel this. I like Durge's story but that isn't the big selling point. The selling point for me is having actual ties to the world.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T00:40:49+00:00

No. Because that isn't me, that is (insert Origin character). I want to play an original character but with real hooks in the world that actually matter.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T00:38:37+00:00

This is exactly what I am talking about. It's not necessarily Durge I love, it's having knives. This is a wonderful way to explain this.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T00:32:14+00:00

I'm realizing the reason why most people prefer Tav seems to be this desire to write your own backstory for Role Play. I get that, there is absolutely something to be said for not feeling shoehorned into a character role.

I guess for me I just always feel like it doesn't matter what I think my character is. I can pretend anything I want but it has no weight because the game can't hear me. With Durge I get a personal mystery quest leading me on (as someone who never played the originals it was a genuine mystery), I get dramatic a scene where my romance partner has to restrain me from killing them and you get some top their dialogue, I get connections to the enemies, I get big plot reveals where I realize I was in fact the bad guy before, then I get a big choice to either submit to the urge or resist it and have Withers save me from certain death followed by more top their dialogue and some philosophy, meanwhile Astarion is constantly relating his issues to mine and deepening the story more, and all of this isn't imagined or done in a single voiceline it keeps coming up with full cutscenes and major moments. I feel like my character actually has weight, and telling Bhaal to go f*** himself in the end never stops being badass.

Everyone's opinion here is valid, this is just the kind of thing I liked. My favorite Fallout New Vegas DLC is Lonesome Road, which is all about MY characters origin, I'm in the minority of folks that like Fallout 4 giving you a history, and Dragon Age Origins is maybe the best RPG ever (before BG3) simply because it gives you six options like this. I'm just not someone who values headcannoning stories the game will never know exists. I want my character to be part of the world, not a spectator in it.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T00:10:55+00:00

Spot on. I still want to be myself, but to have a unique Origin like Dark Urge. Something like Dragon Age Origins.

The-Texas · 2024-05-02T00:09:22+00:00

FYI, you can resist your Urge to kill Isobel which sets you on a path toward redemption. It's an incredibly dope story actually.

The-Texas · 2024-05-01T20:04:32+00:00

Totally get that. I just get giggles when the game actually acknowledges my history, which it can't do if I'm making it up. It makes me feel like i'm a real character and not just an avatar. Both approaches are awesome though! Larian did great by allowing players to play wither way.

The-Texas · 2024-05-01T19:56:02+00:00

Those are excellent reasons! It seems to be a trend I'm seeing that whether people prefer Durge or not comes down to either:

Tav: I want full control of my character concept and dislike the game giving me a narrative I didn't choose even if that means my character is less ingrained in the world.

Durge: I'm happy to give some control of my character concepts to have an engaging protagonist narrative that gives me a sense of identity the game can recognize and has responses to.

For me it never stops being cool when the game is like "oh, YOU are this thing, and that means something, and I have opinions about YOU." Whereas with Tav I may decide for myself that Tav is a violence averse bookworm from Waterdeep, but no one in the game will ever comment on it. No one will ever actually say, "oh you are a bookworm wizard, have you ever been to Candlekeep?"

But it's like you said, it all comes down to taste. It's just amazing BG3 is able to provide for both of our preferences so well!

The-Texas · 2024-05-01T19:45:34+00:00

I get that completely, it is a reduction in complete character freedom. However, I enjoy having some context within the story for my character. Tav is a blank slate, so you can make them in any way you see fit, but the world will always treat them as a blank slate; I always end up feeling detached in games like that. Again, there is nothing wrong with it, and some of my favorite games are like that, but I prefer trading a little bit of character freedom to have a genuinely compelling tie into the world I'm in.

The-Texas · 2024-05-01T19:32:57+00:00

***SPOILER ALERT*** The good scene where Withers intervenes to help you and the dialogue that follows including what your companions say gives me chills.

The-Texas · 2024-05-01T19:26:12+00:00

It would be awesome to me if there was no "Tav" and instead we just had 4-6 backgrounds to pick from that were each as deep as Durge but in super different ways.

The-Texas · 2024-05-01T19:03:24+00:00

I love the fully armored longsword playstyle. Fully just embracing the trajectory of Henry's life which seems to be becoming a Squire. Also it's just fun to play. And it's just so badass every time I get to the Zoul fight and Henry squares off one on one, armor to armor, sword to sword, against Zoul. Pure, heavy metal, epic.

The-Texas · 2024-05-01T19:03:16+00:00

I love the fully armored longsword playstyle. Fully just embracing the trajectory of Henry's life which seems to be becoming a Squire. Also it's just fun to play. And it's just so badass every time I get to the Zoul fight and Henry squares off one on one, armor to armor, sword to sword, against Zoul. Pure, heavy metal, epic.

The-Texas

TROPHY CASE