Since the majority of CRPGs are single-player experiences, they solved this by placing the player in charge of multiple characters at once. He/she is all heroes at once, controlling them as they go through the content made by the developers – which could be considered an inflexible Dungeon Master.

Not every CRPG is like this but most are, especially in the West. Baldur's Gate falls squarely in this category. Neverwinter Nights does not.

In NWN the player only controls a single character. Combat is still real-time-with-pause, just like in Baldur's Gate, but companions are restricted to one at a time (two with the expansions) and can only be given general orders, which is more akin to shouting directions than taking direct control.

The reason for this controversial change was the ambition to emulate the true pen-and-paper experience by creating of a multiplayer-focused RPG engine.

The project was built around the idea that the player would make a character and go online, joining a module where other players would meet and form a party, while a human Dungeon Master controlled their adventures. It was meant to be a 1:1 conversion of physical role-playing games into digital form.

To make this possible, the tools not only had to be powerful, but also simple to use. Anyone should be capable of running a campaign, editing the content on-the-fly and even creating entirely new campaigns.

This lead to an incredible engine with amazing modding capability. Players could play with a handful of friends online, but also create “permanent worlds” – customisable micro-MMOs with up to 96 players. Meanwhile, the Aurora Toolset allowed anyone to create their own adventures, something which can be attested by the absolutely stunning amount (and quality) of mods that were made over the years.