Salutations, friends.

The time hath come at long last — the first release of my new mod, the BG:EE NPC Revamp, is now available! You can find the download here.

Given that this is my own site, I thought I’d speak more candidly about the project. If you want some actual information about the mod itself, check out its homepage here on the Bar or come by the Beamdog Forums.

Originally, I had very little interest in the idea of ‘expanding’ the companions of Baldur’s Gate. I’ve gone on record saying that I think most well-known attempt to do so is not to my taste as a player nor reviewer. However, I was playing through the game sometime in 2024 and re-encountered the quest ‘Brielbara’s Baby’ — the one quest that has some modicum of companion involvement should Coran be present. His presence, though, was so minimal, that I found myself wanting more from it. Namely, to tell him that he’s a bastard. So that was the first thing I wrote, naturally.

It blew up from there. I spent hours plotting out banter for each character, each dynamic, and then I wanted to make quests, and before I knew it, I was making a full-blown expansion to the game.

I am aware that the scope of the project looks rather insane. I’ve spent a year working on it on-and-off and all I have to show for it is two characters out of twenty-nine (and some hidden stuff that I am not including with this release). I’m confident in my ability to stick with the project through the years despite this, and putting the mod out in beta on a character-by-character basis is perhaps the best decision I can make for my own sanity and for the quality of the mod.

Writing and coding Ophysia took me a really long time, as I had to learn entirely new skills in an area that I was unfamiliar with, and I was sitting on that mod for so long that I felt like I was going crazy. I’m very happy to be sharing the Revamp now, even though this is the mere beginning of a long road.

My perspective on the Revamp is that it’s really just 31 separate mods compiled into one. One for each companion, then banters and interjections. For those wondering: yes, everything in the Revamp will be modular to the extent possible. If you just want Coran’s additions and not Ajantis’, you can do that. If you want to disable interjections but keep quests, that’ll be supported too. Some of these mods will be smaller than others — the amount of content Coran has in the Revamp vs what Ajantis gets is night and day, but that’s because Coran already has content for him in the game. I’m more focused on elevating existing content where possible and creating new content where there is a void. Thus, the Enhanced Edition companions will not be getting any new quests, for example, whereas Garrick and Kivan are.

My current plan for the future of this mod is to focus on releasing new content whenever it’s ready. Ajantis and Coran launched with only 2 player talks each, but I want that number closer to 5 or 6 before I release the next “big” update with a new character. So expect the standard to be something like this:

1. A new character gets released in a main update.
2. The mod gets patched periodically with new banters and player talks for that character, until their arc is as close to done as I can get at that point.
3. Bug fixes, edits based on feedback.
4. Another character is released.

This will help me to stay focused on one character at a time so that I’m not spread too thinly. There are other mods and projects that I am currently working on and wish to work on alongside the Revamp. It’s very much a long-haul kind of project.

I have a rough roadmap of which characters I want to tackle and in which order, so I’ll share a few details.

Garrick will most likely be next, followed by Imoen, and then Kagain. Due to lofty goals that I need time to properly do justice, Branwen, Kivan, and Yeslick will probably be among the last.

As ever, I am more grateful than I can tell for all those who read my reviews and try out my mods. It truly means a lot to me. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the Revamp!

Cheers,
Llewren.