Astarion Pulls Me into Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms
Posted on September 7, 2023 by Aywren
I haven’t written anything about Baldur’s Gate 3 yet, mostly because (despite the hours I’ve put into it) I’m still only in Act 1. This is somewhat due to the fact I’m running several games – one solo and two games with friends. So, I don’t quite feel qualified to talk much about the game thus far.
Despite this, I already know the star of the game for me is Astarion. I pretty quickly identified him as my character type – a tragic anti-hero with a fun personality. Adding to this is the whole vampire thing, which just complicates the story all the more.
Anyhow, this isn’t mean to be a post where I fan over Astarion. Rather, it’s to talk about how a banner on Steam that included a free Astarion unlock got me to play an idle clicker game – Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms.
Add to this that there’s a huge giveaway for all kinds of season champions that give a new player a big leg-up, while the base game is free, and it hit all the right buttons for me to give it a try.
What is Idle Champions? The Steam site says:
Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms is a Dungeons & Dragons strategy management game uniting characters from throughout the D&D multiverse into a grand adventure.
While I don’t have any emotional connections or knowledge of characters from Forgotten Realms, aside from those BG3 has introduced me to, something is appealing about this little idle game. In fact, having struggled to find the energy and spoons to sit down with more intense games, it’s nice to have a little strat game that basically plays itself.
It even plays while you aren’t online to play it!
You can just come back when you have time to see what you’ve unlocked and the progress your champions have made.
There’s actually much more to this game than first meets the eye. It’s been fun to watch videos and learn about the community that rallies around this game. There’s lots of Twitch streams with free chest drops and all sorts of fun things like that.
Seems like, while it is F2P and has a cash shop, you can obtain all of the champions and play all the areas without any cash gating. There are even little stories for each area and boss if you want to follow them.
Anyhow, it was an unexpected little game that I’m enjoying. If you’re an Astarion fan or a fan of Forgotten Realms in general, and you’re looking for something that doesn’t take a whole lot of time (or takes as much time as you want to let it), then this game might be something casual to poke around with here or there!
Oh, and can I add, the jukebox has some AMAZING music. It features some work from what’s known as “Bardic Inspiration,” including talent such as Jason Charles Miller – the fellow who sings theme songs from Shadowbringers and Endwalker. This game has a whole realm of music worth looking into!