The announcement of an HBO series based on the hit game Baldur’s Gate 3 has left me excited and perplexed in equal measure. As a massive fan of Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms (the setting of BG3), I can’t wait to see that fantastic world come to life in what I hope will be a worthy adaptation. But did it need to be a Baldur’s Gate 3 show?

With over 400 hours of playtime under my belt, I have nothing against the game. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience that Larian Studios created. However, I can’t help but feel that Baldur’s Gate 3’s well-earned popularity has overshadowed D&D’s rich and vast mythos. A prestige HBO drama would only serve to make the video game synonymous with the Forgotten Realms. Over the course of five decades, so many great D&D stories have been told, with plenty of memorable characters, that I just don’t think everything D&D-related has to be connected to Baldur’s Gate 3.

Just a few days ago, Wizards of the Coast announced a new Secret Lair drop series for Magic: The Gathering, called Roll for Initiative. It’s D&D-themed, and two of the seven drops are built around BG3 characters: Shadowheart and Gale. They join Astarion’s Thirst and Karlach’s Rage, meaning that four out of seven of the origin characters from the game now have a Secret Lair. That’s cool, but would it be too much to ask for a Drizzt Do’Urden Secret Lair instead?

Things are not so different........

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