The Broken Hourglass Interview
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Q: How familiar will the setting and the rules system be to a Baldur's Gate series fan and what are the most radical changes he or she will experience?
A: BG players specifically or simply D&D players generally shouldn't have too much trouble adapting to the setting superficially, it falls under the "sword and sorcery" or "mage and metal" category. The Byzantine-inspired flavors should be a breath of fresh air. The most significant difference that a D&D/BG player may find is that although our setting does have magic and swords and pikes and cruel, excessively tattooed elves and whatnot, it's comparatively light in the "wandering and marauding monster" department most of the "baddies" in our world are, in fact, other people, not dog-faced monsters. That's not to say there aren't a few strange and unusual creatures in the bestiary, however.
As far as rules go, players have more options to develop weapon proficiencies and attack speed, and primary abilities can be raised at any time alongside secondary or skill-type abilities, which generally speaking are on a scale from 0 to 100. The system favors effects that happen "on a gradient" rather than "in binary fashion", meaning that there aren't spells that immediately put you to sleep if you fail to meet a target roll, but instead would make you "act sleepier" by reducing your speed or making you feel more encumbered or some such.
As far as the interface goes, most of the changes are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. For instance, rather than having a "thieving mode" button, we simply presume that you are always on the lookout for traps and secret doors and hidden compartments and whatnot. Similarly, if you try to take a path through a closed door, we presume you want to open it. If you click on a trap or a locked door, we presume you want to try to disarm/unlock it. By the way, opponents for whom it would be sensible (i.e., those with hands) can also manipulate doors as part of their standard AI. They also can pick up and use loot dropped on the ground. so if you lose a party member with valuable gear, you may find it being used against you in the rest of the fight!
