This week, we received our first drop of news about the next Dungeons & Dragons game from Wizards of the Coast and, thank the gods, it doesn’t sound anything like Baldur’s Gate 3.

The as-yet-unnamed D&D game is in the works at Giant Skull, a new studio formed by Stig Asmussen, who previously directed God of War 3 and both Star Wars Jedi games. It’s an “all-new, single-player action adventure title set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons,” with plans for a PC and console release.

Out Of The Shadow Of Baldur’s Gate 3

As a big fan of Larian Studios’ modern masterpiece, I obviously would enjoy playing another game that builds on that foundation. But since Larian is moving onto something new, Baldur’s Gate 4 would necessarily be made by another team. That would be a major opportunity for that team, sure. For a lesser known studio, the chance to make a game in the series after Larian so emphatically revived it would be like an indie director signing onto a Marvel movie. It could be a chance to permanently move up to the big leagues.

If we keep that metaphor going, there are a whole host of problems that come from signing onto a big franchise as a small fry. Any new team coming in would likely have less creative control than Larian — an established studio that had already made Divinity: Original Sin 2, a critically beloved hit, when it started on BG3. And yet, the end result would still be compared to Baldur’s Gate 3, fair or not. It isn’t impossible that another studio could make something as good as BG3, but given that it’s one of the best-reviewed games of the 2020s so far, it sure seems unlikely.

Thankfully, Wizards of the Coast is going in a different direction. Though we’ll need to see the game to know if it’s good or not, this does seem like the right angle for any follow-up to BG3. Since most Dungeons & Dragons games date back to the ’90s and early ’00s, they tend to play like RPGs from that era. Real-time-with-pause (or, in some cases, turn-based) combat from an isometric perspective. Third-person action-adventure rose to prominence years after these RPGs fell out of fashion, so this will be uncharted territory for the franchise.

This Will Be A New Kind Of Game For D&D

This is only possible because of Baldur’s Gate 3’s success. If Wizards of the Coast had announced that it was making an action-adventure game while its iconic isometric RPG series lay dormant, fans would understandably be annoyed. Larian’s success has freed WotC up to try new things with the license. And, as a fan of this kind of game, I’m eager to play one in this setting.

The game may still face its own hurdles. If players come to it expecting a deep RPG and instead get a linear, action-focused adventure game, it may experience the same difficulties Dragon Age: The Veilguard did last year. That game buckled under the weight of the Dragon Age name, unable to live up to the RPG depth or strong characters its fans expected. The D&D game won’t be a direct sequel to BG3, but it will likely be the first big D&D game to launch after BG3.

Though that may be a danger, this is what previews are for. If players see trailers and gameplay for the game before launch, and it makes a compelling case that it’s its own unique thing, then it should be able to sidestep those issues.

Whether players, more generally, want action-adventure games in the RPG space is a bigger discussion, though, as many recent breakout hits have leaned into mechanical depth, not mainstream breeziness. Kingdom: Come Deliverance 2 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 are two of this year’s big hits, and both are crunchy RPGs, through and through.

Still, taking a significantly different tack than Larian is a good move for Giant Skull. It gives the game a chance to stand on its own, and be judged on its own merits. I don’t know if it will be great but, at least this way, if it is great, that will be enough.