If your D&D group has spent the last two years quoting Astarion's vampiric line readings at each other, here is some news worth bringing to game night. Random House Worlds is launching a four-book Baldur's Gate 3 publishing line, and the centrepiece is a prequel novel called Baldur's Gate 3: Astarion, written by Hugo-winning fantasy author T. Kingfisher and out on 29 September.
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See how it worksThat author choice is not a throwaway. T. Kingfisher (the adult-fiction pen name of Ursula Vernon) won the 2023 Hugo for Best Novel with Nettle & Bone, and her bibliography is stacked with Hugo, Nebula and Locus nominations across short fiction, novellas and graphic novels. Putting her on a story about Astarion's centuries serving the vampire lord Cazador Szarr signals that Larian and Random House are after a real piece of fantasy writing rather than a tie-in cash-in. The audiobook brings in Neil Newbon, who voiced Astarion in the game and turned a side character into the breakout star of 2023's biggest CRPG. Senior BG3 writer Stephen Rooney consulted on lore, which suggests the novel may canonise pieces of Astarion's pre-game backstory rather than just retelling cutscenes.
The line also includes a Necromancy of Thay prop notebook (21 July), an official colouring book of 40 line drawings (11 August), and a cookbook called A Feast for a Tenday with 65 recipes organised by course and camp location (3 November). More titles are pencilled in for 2027.
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Find events near youFor D&D groups running Faerûn games, fresh canon for one of the most popular vampire spawn in fantasy is genuinely useful (and the cookbook is a perfectly silly excuse to theme your next session's snacks).
