How a Baldur’s Gate 3 modder who’d never played a "known" roguelike ended up turning Larian’s RPG into one

“I was at a point where I didn’t know what game to play and Baldur’s Gate 3 came to mind,” modder Hippp0o tells me.

“I already had more than 500 hours in [its] story mode and didn’t really feel like starting a new campaign. I really only wanted to treat it like a turn-based combat simulator with my custom/modded characters. I knew a bit about the possibilities with [the] script extender and Lua isn’t new to me. So, I quickly made up and coded the basic concept, which is still used in today’s version of ToT – maps, scenarios and enemies. That was the original plan.”

This little bit of early concepting would eventually morph into Trials of Tav – ToT as Hippp0o referred to it there – a pretty huge BG3 mod that adds an entire standalone roguelike mode to the game, aimed squarely at those who, as the modder did, just fancy taking on wave after wave of foes with their party. After all, you can only take in so many deep camp conversations with Gale or head off on a charming little quest with Karlach so many times until you’re overcome with the desire to kill a bunch of stuff – preferably in a fashion that requires a bit less planning than your average dark urge puts in.