Athans: What was always the biggest challenge for us was the disconnect at the very heart of the RPG tie-in novel and that's that the very best RPG adventures are all about set-up and loose ends, following plot points to various possible conclusions that players arrive at with their own characters after DMs have altered parts of the story to fit their own worlds, and so on. But a novel, obviously, has to start with characters and follow a plot through to a satisfying ending.
This is why strict novelizations like Baldur's Gate never really worked, while novels set within the Forgotten Realms world, using D&D as basic worldbuilding rules (how magic works, etc.), were often huge best-sellers. You're essentially looking in on R.A. Salvatore's FR campaign, then switching over to Ed Greenwood's, then Elaine Cunningham's, and so on. But none of those stories in anyway finished the Forgotten Realms story, or prevented new stories from being told both by Wizards of the Coast and by individual players and DMs all over the world.
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Craddock: How much autonomy did BioWare have in developing Baldur's Gate?
Athans: As far as I know, no one in R&D, and certainly no one on the books team, interacted with BioWare on any level. I honestly have no idea what they were given in terms of guidelines or feedback.
Craddock: How fleshed out was Baldur's Gate, the setting, before BioWare's team made their game?
Athans: Baldur's Gate is one city in the Forgotten Realms setting, but as is true of most parts of the Second Edition Forgotten Realms world there was actually an enormous amount of detail on the city's various residents, its history, etc., contained mostly in FR game supplements but also in various novels that moved through and/or around the city. I can only assume that some material was somehow made available to BioWare.
I honestly don't know everything that might have been added, having never played the game, but a majority of the characters in the game, as far as I could see from a distance, were new to the video game and not drawn from previous canon. That, in and of itself, was not at all a bad thing. The strength of the Forgotten Realms setting always was the space left for additions to the canon—new characters, especially.
Craddock: You’re the novelist who adapted BioWare’s Baldur’s Gate CRPG into a book, and also wrote the eponymous sequel. Those novels are divisive among fans, to say the least, so I wanted to extend an opportunity for you to clear the air. What was your interaction with BioWare—either directly between you and the studio, or between BioWare and Wizards?
Athans: I was given an Excel spreadsheet with slim character descriptions and a very basic story flowchart that traced paths through the game depending on what class you chose. From that I put together a short proposal—basically a character sketch for my “PC” [player-character] then more or less pushed him through what I felt was the most interesting path through the story. And that was it.
Craddock: What challenges did you face in adapting the games?
Athans: I had no contact with BioWare at all, and neither did my editor. All communication was funneled through Interplay. I had no idea what changes were being made at BioWare from that initial story document to the finished game and never received any feedback on the novel from anyone at either BioWare or Interplay.
I was told by someone at Wizards of the Coast that Interplay said it, the novelization, was “fine.” Full stop.
Craddock: What were your thoughts on any of the unique characters and lore BioWare’s team added to their take on Baldur’s Gate?
Athans: I honestly don’t know everything that might have been added, having never played the game, but a majority of the characters in the game, as far as I could see from a distance, were new to the video game and not drawn from previous canon. That, in and of itself, was not at all a bad thing. As I said before, the strength of the Forgotten Realms setting always was the space left for additions to the canon—new characters, especially.
