BG3 modders have already found and opened Pandora’s Box

Not that Larian tried very hard to hide it

Larian Studios

Baldur’s Gate 3 players are elated by the game’s official mod manager and corresponding tools, which were released as part of BG3 Patch 7, but this is only the beginning of the fun: Modders already managed to find and unlock the tools required to create custom maps and campaigns, which means that we may be able to play entirely new, user-made adventures inside the game’s framework in the future, despite Larian not officially supporting such mods.

The answer to “Why?” is – as so often – licensing. Dungeons & Dragons owner Hasbro wants to sell other D&D games (and subscriptions to its digital tabletop service) at some point and may also not be all too happy if assets or concepts from other games or IPs make their way into BG3, so Larian couldn’t include those more powerful tools into its modding kit outright and won’t be able to provide any official technical support for such large-scale projects.

It’s a similar issue as the one that popped out ahead of Total War: Warhammer’s release. The Total War games always had a strong mod scene with talented community members creating some amazing works – some of which used iconic IPs like The Lord of the Rings or, funnily enough, Warhammer itself. When the first official Total War: Warhammer came out, developer Creative Assembly communicated very openly that it’d allow and support modding as long as modders followed certain guidelines, such as not using other IP, because license holder Games Workshop would not play nice otherwise and modding may have to be scrapped completely. Fortunately, everyone stuck to the rules back then and the third game of the trilogy has a thriving modding scene that delights players with its creations and even provides ideas for Creative Assembly to work with.

While the developers at Larian probably won’t be too fazed with anything the community makes, going by their general attitude, the ball will be in Hasbro’s court once those bigger mod projects come to fruition – will the license holder try and get rid of these mods, incurring the wrath of the gamers, or will it have enough sense to keep its eyes closed and let people have their fun?

Mods have proven time and again that they are crucial in elongating a game’s lifespan and with it long-term sales – there is even a fantastic D&D example for this in Neverwinter Nights – so there is an argument to be made that more powerful modding tools would in fact benefit Hasbro. BG3 isn’t exactly competition to its digital tabletop service, since someone wanting to enjoy a CRPG by themselves wouldn’t think of getting that subscription as an alternative, but it’s very possible that an executive who’s never played a game may not understand that.

For now, we can all enjoy this brave new world of official BG3 mods and be hopeful that the future is even brighter.