The Good Worms, BG3 | Running The Game 

Truly he is a river to his people.

Babe, wake up. There's a new running the game.

Astarion laughing at the sick irony that the worm will eventually turn him into a monster is just an amazing character beat.

And right when we needed him most, he returned.

"I'm pretty cynical when it comes to games like this, because CRPGs tend to view writing the way the Academy Awards view acting; It's not the best, but it's definitely the *most*." THANK YOU. One thing that always drives me bonkers when discussing video games is that people will praise games with lots of writing, saying that it has "great" writing. Like, no, just because it explains something in an overly verbose way doesn't suddenly make the writing "great". It's nice to know I haven't lost my mind and there are others like me out there.

Didn’t even mention my personal favorite element of the worms- a supposedly time limiting call to adventure. Whenever the plot starts feeling convoluted and players start asking “what are we doing again?” BG3’s answer is always “get the brain worm that is threatening me out of my head”. Not only that, but there’s an implied time constraint! The players have to be adventurous and dive into the plot quickly and not just dick around because supposedly the worm will kill the players if they don’t act fast. Combined, it keeps the players focused and keeps them moving, amazing assets in a dnd campaign.

Matt I hope RU-vid never dies, because I need to always have your videos running while I’m doing prep. It’s been a habit for the last 5 years. Thank you for what you do.

The validation of my ideas being cooler because they are mine is something I really needed to hear. Too often I get stuck trying to make something as cool as other people's ideas and eventually give up. So thanks Matt. That bit of advice in this video has inspired me the most. ❤

MCDM: Inevitable TTRPG "Fine. I'll do it myself." Picks up 2d6

The brain worms also contain potassium benzoate

Of course Colville likes BG3! It, like Dune, is about worms.

13:40 The "leave that in" cracked me up

5:18 This was something that really impressed me in the original Ghost in the Shell animations. Moments of cinematic "nothing", put there specifically to let you process things that just happened along with the heroes of the story; a moment for a lull before the storm, a moment to discover a new perspective, a moment that can feel real and that will make your character's experience relatable. I often miss that in modern cinema - like there's no light without shadow, there's no action without stops... and when everyone is always running, nobody is. And then it's just hard to care.

"Baldurs Gate sure as shit doesn't have that problem." amen! lol. You can FEEL their commitment to make a good game above all else.

The best thing DMs can steal from BG3 is the structure of the first 3 parts of Act 1. You start with a linear tutorial that teaches you some mechanics, introduced the brain worms and we meet the squid faces. The second objective is entering an area, it's a linear objective, but you can complete this objective like 5 different, distinct ways. This teaches the players there's more than one way to skin a brain worm. Third objective is when you get to the mini "quest hub" where you are pointed in no fewer than 4 different directions on how to figure out what to do with the brain worm. At this point the players are picking their own objectives, each of which with numerous ways to solve the problem. The progressive freedom players are given is just amazing.

Ah, at last Matt gives us his "steal this from BG3" video! I'm excited.

Holy God I LOVE your story telling.

The other thing the worms do (that Matt didn't mention) is not stated outright but is clear from reading between the lines: they reset your level to 1. This might not matter to you, the random mook off the street. But Lae'Zel was a respected Githyanki Knight. Wyll was a hero defending the downtrodden for years. Karlach spent who-knows-how-long as the enforcer to one of the Lords of Hell! It's such a simple conceit, but it solves one of the most awkward problems in TTRPGs: how to have an interesting backstory, while still committing to low-level play. Now, you can have your cake and eat it too! You *were* cool, then some mind whammy happened to you, and now you're starting from the bottom again, with all the memories and connections you used to have, but none of the overwhelming power. Very neat!

The Run DND Shirt harkening back to some of the earliest videos when I remember thy shirt was in a more pristine condition - it brings a tear to my eye just noting how far we've been running together.

Baldur's Gate 3 has some AMAZING inspiration for DMs/GMs out there! I've learned so much about encounter building, map design, social encounters and so much more! It's a fantastic game in its own right, but it's also a fantastic resource for TTRPG players/DMs/GMs!

Okay, now I have to know the "unforgivable sin" from bg3 that Matt is talking about.

Kidnapped and tortured by the Muppets? Matt, you weren't supposed to spoil my campaign pitch like that! Props on going above and beyond with the Morgul Knife Wound suggestion. It would have been really easy to make the undead suggestion a Vampire bite with all the powers and risks that might entail, and even an MCDM monster who could lead it, but the Morgul Knife Wound suggestion is way more interesting.

About the level appropriate thing, another really neat detail is that they used the tadpole to justify why all of these characters are suddenly on the same power level, pretty much all of them have had their abilities reset and brought back down to an appropriate level by the tadpole. Wyll mentions this frequently, but it makes sense just in the context of characters like Karlach(who fought demons for a living) and Gale(definitely like a level 20 wizard) suddenly having to worry about goblins and intellect devourers being a real threat.

“Leave that in…” I cannot stop laughing

On the xenomorph egg, I assumed he was about to start talking about slaadi.

The amount of mechanics that larian homebrewed that work better than base 5e is stellar. I have already stolen and will continue to steal so many of their magic items, most of the lower tier magic items add small fun mechanics and benefits that you don't see from the dmg. I hope wizards pays attention to this success when making onednd.

I decided my custom character was a level 0 commoner before being abducted, and the worm has given him some connection to some eldritch horror, making him into a level 1 Great Old One Warlock. I decided this right at the start, and had no idea how much this video game was going to "yes, and" me with that, because I hadn't played early access and didn't know about the features that I would later encounter. There is a common sentiment amongst the playerbase that Durge is the real main character, as theres content custom tailored to them. I had more "custom tailored" content for my custom character thanks to that background choice than the Durge does. That felt like a campaign run by a GM tailored specifically to my PC. I had, completely by accident, turned the main plot into my PC's character specific plot. And it was awesome.

I see the moment by the hole, before you fall from the nautiloid, as a makeshift mirror. You have a tadpole in your head, and you see before you the mind flayer you are fated to become.

If you make more videos about BG3, I for one would be interested to hear what choices it made that you didn’t like. Not for the sake of drama, but I’m curious how you think it could improve or what you think shouldn’t be copied.

I didn't realize it until Matt pointed this out, but enemies inadvertently giving otherwise normal heroes a powerful tool is one of my favorite story beats and it actually appears in a lot of my favorite works. In Enslaved, your character wears a slave collar of old world ancient tech, but manages to repurpose it to let him tap into a lot of other old tech items throughout an apocalyptic wasteland. In Fire Punch, your character only has minor regeneration powers. But his village is burned down by a cultist whose power creates flames that never burn out. Thus making you into a walking wildfire wherever you go.

The dragon claw idea showed up in Scavenger's Reign. Great animated series!

Return of RTG! BG3 has so much for DMs to learn from and steal, 85 hours in and there always seems to be some new quest or quirk to grab and transplant into my game.

That last bit about the undead cult reminded me of pointy hat's "which lich" series of undead for every class and now I want to run an undead campaign with an evil council of liches for every class ruling it.

I think once you finish the game, or you know, whenever you feel like it, it’d be interesting to hear a full rundown of parts of BG3 you think are great, and which mechanics and decisions you think are problematic or you just dislike. Anyway excellent video.

Didn’t expect to suddenly visualize Kermit in my d&d game. Also your thoughts on what would you have wanted in the game and the limitations on magic

Matt talking about a party member being an agent of the mind flayers triggers my Yoshimo PTSD.

The one huge aspect of the Worms that you didn't mention, perhaps because it seemed too obvious to you or implied by the "doesn't matter, you're in the adventure now," was that you Can't Run. There's no "hero denies the call" in this journey, because it's not a "call," or if it is it's of the kind coming from the killer already inside the house. There are a LOT of adventure hooks willing to drag you kicking and screaming INTO the inciting incident. The party at the start of Pathfinder's "Strange Aeons" campaign sees the heroes kidnapped and brain-fried by an evil cult, awakening in a prison with total amnesia regarding their former life (but with assurances that they were pretty bad people, actually). The thing is, after they escape that prison there are a reasonable number of character (or perhaps player) archetypes who might peace out; You're back to a standard fantasy game's need to talk with your players and collaboratively contrive why they'd stick around, or let that character leave and the player come up with another who'd be part of the further adventure. BG3 has no such problem. You can spend a long time - potentially the whole game - looking for ways to merely escape the problem posed by the worms so you can get back to your own life. But, well, they're worms. In your brain. With Magic Powers. There's pretty reasonable reason to believe that nothing short of god-level intervention can save you from their influence without killing you. So perhaps you go searching for just that, but then such entities want you to do a favor for them first... That dynamic can keep a party together for a whole campaign, all by itself.

While i havent played BG3, I'm not only thankful for you parsing and delivering inspiration from it for me, But I also know the turmoil you went through with that game to do so haha. So thanks

Love everything you put out man. Never stop doing what you do 😁👍

Matt, I love how supporting and warm you've always been. Thanks.

Playing BG3 (also the best game I've ever played) after watching this channel for years had me thinking the folks at Larian must watch Running The Game. There were so many little moments that made me think of the advice from this channel.

Mr. Colville I want to thank you sincerely for this series. I'm 13 sessions into DMing my first campaign and I would have been lost at sea without this River to our People. If my first time players ever start watching you're videos they'll know where I get 80% of my good ideas and get wise to the techniques I've adopted.

Baldur's Gate 3 is (in my opinion) required gaming for anybody interested in or already playing Dungeons and Dragons. It's elevated gameplay at our table like crazy and has made rule concepts that seemed unattainable and complicated in the abstract to run much smoother during our sessions. I love this game so much. Thanks for the video, Matt!

Second visit with Uncle Matt in like a week... Yay!

4:49 "They're called movies, folks, not explainies." Well, for awhile they were known as "talkies"... Talking being an upgrade from just moving pictures. 😂

That’s kind of how I flavor my dragon blood sorcerer/fighter character. His draconian power doesn’t come from lineage, but rather that his soul is bonded with a dragon’s soul due to a ritual that went wrong. Every time I take a level of sorcerer, that’s giving in to the dragon, and if it happens too much, then the dragon’s soul gets the body and the man’s soul is lost forever

I don’t have a PC or a console, so I have yet to play BG3, but my brother has played it three times already and loves telling me the basic story elements or hilarious moments,yet withholding the serious spoilers. I AM using Vlaakith, though she is the bad guy in the current arc/ next arc. I run West Marches style and got a crew gathered from my new job and plan on them being prisoners on a crashing Spelljammer, so I’m glad there’s some precedent in the zeitgeist lmao. I felt like a hack but thanks for reaffirming me Matt! I truly appreciate everything you do!

After playing baldurs gate 3 I started playing dnd with my family (I’ve always wanted to play but I’m so introverted I never had the guts to walk into a game store and jump in lol) and your guides have really helped me with learning how to play and dm!! Thank you so much for all you do ❤

Now im curious what you don't like about balburs gate 3

Wow... the intro stuck Matthew very hard... I remember that scene, but it didn't freeze in time and my brain as it did in Matthew's description! :O

A BG3 video AND a running the game video!?

HOLYMACKEREL- learned so much watching this series from start to finish! Looking forward now ♥️

Love the videos where Matt is really into the subject.

Hey, glad to hear you decided to stick with it. I look forward to seeing how you review it when you reach the end, and can speak about it without fear of spoilers.

My god I love Matt Colville... been watching Running the Game series for what feels like forever. Has had a direct link to the success of my several many year campaigns. Thanks Matt!

Always chasing the high of a fresh video from Matt. Blessed are we.

Im so glad you made this video now. I've been inspired by BG3, too, and I wanted to take the idea of a shared, pressing problem. This video helped me figure out what the time crunch will be, the consequence of the shared problem. The Dilean (Delean?) Tomb helped inspire my first campaign, and now here we are, all these years later 😭

18:20 "I should write this down" lmao i think you accidentally found your way to the plot of NWN2

I got the Astral Tadpole and used Ilithid Persuasion to convince Shadowheart and Karlach to go all in on the dark powers but then I asked Astarion and his response absolutely killed me and I was like "nope, I think I'm going to stop asking". Sucks that he can't Fly, but I'm not making that boy meditate on the worm. Couldn't ask Wyll to do it either after everything he went through. Do wish it didn't make me look ugly.

The idea of having an agent of the enemy within is AMAZING

14:00 lmao Matt going full Palpetine then chuckling and saying “leave that in” is but one of many things I love about him and his channel 😂

The subtle frogurt Simpsons reference was perfect.

I agree. you perfectly explain why that moment between the mc and the illithid as the ship is falling is such a cool, good moment. Love it. thanks

I agree Matt, Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of my all time favorites and one of the best games I’ve ever played.

was not expecting an AC6 namedrop in a Matt Colville video, i basically howled

Funny you mention changing the adventure to make it your own. I ran Waterdeep: Dragonheist where the twist revealed itself after the party took three long rests. They woke up right back in the Yawning Portal - with all their levels and memories, and a select few items, but every three days the loop would reset. The knot would tie, and they'd wake up back in the Yawning Portal, racing against the wizard Manshoon to find the Vault of Dragons before it's too late.

Slaad slugs work similarly, but for power at a high cost, there’s also the darkspawn hunters in Dragon Age. The potion that lets you sense and fight darkspawn is also going to kill you. It won’t be immediate, of course, but you’re sacrificing half your potential lifespan. A similar thing could be done with vampirism; maybe you are only half-turned, but won’t become a true leech until you kill and consume your first mortal. You can use the power you’ve already developed to destroy the monsters which did this to you, but eventually, you’ll probably loose control of yourself and become a monster too.

One of the coolest things for me about the worms was that when you make a Tadpole ability check the DC is almost always two... TWO! The first time I saw that it was like oh, I know what's happening here. The Illithid powers are "quicker, easier, more seductive." I think that's an important part of introducing something like this in your game. Give the players something that *just works* even though they know it could slowly turn them. This is how Warlocks should work, or at least how to tempt a non-Warlock into becoming one.

This is how I, a Cyberpunk 2020/Red GM, feel about so much of the start of Cyberpunk 2077. Having Johnny Silverhand in your brain opens up so much of the game in fun ways.

Matt you ROCK! I'm playing the first 2 BG and now I'm totally excited for 3!

Back when BG3 was in pre-release, our group decided to run a relay campaign (where every player takes turns being DM for an arch) as described by Seth Scorkowski. I started as first DM and used the opening cinematic from BG3 as the intro for our group of misfits who ended up based out of Sigil at level 5. Fast forward to lvl 15, and we have a group including a Githyanki Dragon Knight, a Rakshasa, a Death Knight, a Lich, and a half-gold dragon Illithid Paladon (LG) fighting and endless swarm of demon bugs, on a field of infinite holes, looking for the portal that will let them assassinate a demon general running part of the blood war. This game has been epic.

These ideas are amazing. Thank you!

The way the tadpoles give you powers outside of your race or class options is really good. Though I think the individual powers aren't great unless you get the opportunity to use them as bonus actions. I actually wanted to run a game where the players were invited to Dracula's castle or something and the players were forcibly implanted with this ancient force from before Dracula came to the land. Each town in the cursed place would have a different classic movie monster inspired villain or character (Frankenstein, Wolfman, Mummy, Creature from the Black Lagoon, etc) and each time the players defeated one of them they'd get the opportunity to choose an upgrade to their mysterious Eldritch Lovecraftian skills because each of the bosses and minibosses had similar powers to theirs. All the while Dracula would be tempting them, wanting them to take his place so that he could leave the cursed land. Sort of Curse of Strahd meets Baldur's Gate 3 meets Castlevania meets Bloodborne.

16:44 why do i get the feeling that dragon's name is Gregory ;D An important addendum to stealing from good products, don't just steal from one, steal from everywhere :D

Looking good Matt! Fun to see you on the RU-vids, even for just a moment. BG3 really was a fantastic ride

Your PC's are sacrifices to the mythic beasts from which you draw your power. Once you reach the creatures lowest CR you begin a contest of wills to retain your will and remain human. Failure will advance the transformation another step until the point the beasts will overwhelms you and the beast rips free of its human egg...

Glad to hear praise for BG3's amazing cinematics. Larian's Cin. Anim lead, Jim Southworth, just passed a few hours before this went up. May he rest in peace!

I was on the verge of articulating this for myself. Clearly we both have the same type of worm in our brains.

For the love of god, please, please, bring this series back.

Dammit Matt, now I want Muppet Mind Flayers.

Larian are a river to their People

i was brewing a tadpole-esc concept for a new campaign and this helped me solidify it thank you!

y o u w i l l e a t t h e b u g s

@09:30 Without spoilers, I'm pretty sure that there are playable 3 characters without tadpoles.

When you mentioned the dragon, it reminded me of Dragon's Dogma where the BBEG, the dragon, devastates a town at the beginning, then your character tries to feebly stop it, only to have your heart plucked from your chest and devoured by the dragon. But it doesn't kill you. It in fact links you to him and sets you on the path for revenge. God, there's so much more to it. Phenomenally underrated game and the second one is coming out next year, I believe. Very compelling characters and story for the most part. Gameplay as well.

The first 30 seconds of this video sums up my entire relationship with Larian studios in a nutshell :)

That moment when you sit there and just exchange looks with the mind flayer is a favorite of mine. I never skip it. It's just so striking a moment. Cheers, Matt!

Great video, thank you!

Nice video Matt. Thank you.

Well done! Its been so long since we've seen a video over here. Please keep us on your radar.

Over the course of the pandemic I ran a 5e game where the Spawn of Kyuss were invading the world, heralded and guided by the reanimated corpses of a few legendary heroes. Each of those heroes, much like the undead in this video, were in some way warped by their reanimation and were tragically aware of how their fundamental natures had been shifted towards the cause of the Worm that Walks. Pro-tip if you are going to do any of that worm infection stuff, have it target the character's HD not their HP. HD goes down faster and becomes a sort of infection timer, so no matter their level or class there is always a risk of infection. This slight modification works for vampires, werewolves, and zombies too.

There was a draconic bloodline sorcerer in the campaign Im currently running (who unfortunately had to leave for personal reasons before the conclusion of the game) who gained his power from the experimental cybernetic implants of a mad techno litch. These implants were a failed experiment because the dragon heart integrated into the core of the machine effectively had too aggressive of an immune system, so the cybernetics were slowly spreading to take over the host. The PC played it like a terminal illness slowly eating away at the PC, while feeding new strength and elemental power into his veins

Oh wow, you weren't kidding about the crowdfunding campaign for your RPG to be soon; I clicked through the link and it says it starts in like 3 weeks! Best of luck MCDM!

That was very insightful. I hadnt thought about a lot of these things in the game

You always come in clutch with videos like this. I have a player in a new game that I am running that was hit with The Worm. I'm going to tweak some of the ideas a bit and make it something unique. Thinking it is a faulty worm that is gonna horribly mutate the player. Fun abilities, but nasty ones.

Proudly wearing my MCDM pin that arrived with my book earlier in the week

Thanks for the video, Matt. I love the content

I’m curious about how everyone feels about the *other* special power of the brain worms that Matt surprisingly omits here: any two people who have them can share memories - and often do so by accident when under stress. Larian uses it well, if a bit too often, as a Dramatic Misunderstanding Instant Resolution Device. But you can also cast Detect Thoughts on almost anyone in the game to get free information, at the risk of them noticing and becoming hostile. It’s a great mechanic for RP purposes, but not a mandatory one, and still has a chance to go wrong. Love that aspect. I do wish that dialogue scenes and cutscenes didn’t use it automatically quite as often, and gave me more chances to talk my way out, but it’s still used very effectively. Credit to them for that.

This is hands down my favourite you tube channel

As soon as I saw that moment with the mind flayer i knew you would see it and love it lol