Baldur’s Gate 3 might seem like it occurs across a vast expanse of land, but it turns out that players only see a fraction of what its setting has to offer.
Baldur’s Gate 3 takes place in D&D’s Forgotten Realms campaign setting, which is the most popular in the game. The story itself happens around the city of Baldur’s Gate 3, with the occasional trip to different planes of existence, like Avernus and the Astral Plane.
Considering the sheer length of Baldur’s Gate 3, people unfamiliar with D&D might believe that the game uses a ton of content from the source material.
As proven by a thread on the Baldur’s Gate 3 Reddit, the game barely scratches the surface. It turns out that Baldur’s Gate 3 only covers a tiny portion of the Forgotten Realms, less so even than its predecessor. The map was recreated below to make the game’s location easier to see.
One player wrote, “It kind of answers why nobody thought to do anything about the shadow curse. It’s basically like saying we should do something about Gary, Indiana. It’s a problem, but for 99% of the time, you can ignore it.”
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Another said “That’s one of the things that brushed me the wrong way playing BG3, as an avid fan of the 1 and 2. You’re not anymore exploring huge areas, it feels very confined.”
“And that’s why I think Pathfinder games are far better spiritual successors to the BG franchise. BG3 is more of a Divinity Original Sin sequel with the Baldur’s Gate brand forced on it. It’s still a phenomenal game though.”
This map doesn’t even show the full picture, as Faerun is only one continent in a much larger world. There’s also the Underdark – a massive underground region encompassing much of the world, to say nothing of the sky above, with floating cities and realms of the cloud & storm giants.
Baldur’s Gate 3 might not have the world-spanning adventure of its predecessor or Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, but it does an incredible job with the small slice of Faerun we see. Bigger doesn’t always mean better, and a more localized story can be more enjoyable than a continent-hopping epic.
