Anyone who has played Baldur’s Gate 3 will have found themselves at least once naked in bed with a companion, on the beach, or in the forest. In games like Pathfinder: Kingmaker or Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, this does not happen. MeinMMO spoke with the responsible parties.
Owlcat is known for some of the best role-playing games you can currently play:
- Pathfinder: Kingmaker
- Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
- or Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
In a blog post, Narrative Designers Nika Alborti and Arseny “Thai” Kyrmov talked about how the studio handles romances in RPGs. MeinMMO took the opportunity to ask for an interview – and received answers.
What you are reading here is just a small excerpt from the entire conversation. We will publish the full interview on Sunday, June 21, 2026.
“You must ensure not to create tonal dissonance”
Nika Alborti and Arseny Kyrmov answered many questions for us. One of them was about how Owlcat never portrays sex scenes explicitly, but always leaves it to the player’s imagination – unlike, for example, Baldur’s Gate 3, where only things like the legendary bear scene are not shown directly.
MeinMMO: You often use the “fade-to-black” technique. Do you think the success of very explicit titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 has changed fan expectations, or do you remain true to your literary, subtle style?
Nika Alborti: There are games that are more focused on explicit scenes, and there are characters that benefit from passionate and physical portrayals of love. But that does not apply to all games and characters. So we decide based on what we want to achieve.
Arseny “Thai” Kyrmov: It depends on the story you want to tell. Open eroticism in Baldur’s Gate 3 contributed to its great popularity, but you must ensure not to create tonal dissonance. I am sure that would look bad in Wrath of the Righteous. Nonetheless, whenever we discuss a new IP that we should work on next, I always vote for Oglaf – that would be fun and challenging to write!
In the further course of the interview, we also talk about the archetypes of characters, the challenges of romances, and even secret lovers in the games.
But just on the side: What is important to you in romances in role-playing games? Do you even place value on it? Or do you even use mods for more freedom? Write us a comment!
Owlcat is currently working on Dark Heresy, the new role-playing game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and there will also be romances here. A very dedicated player even wants to date a Space Marine and is so persistent that the boss asked us in the interview if he might be one of you. You can find the interview series here: Warhammer 40,000: Why you wouldn’t survive long in a major city of the Imperium
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