SWORD COAST'S DM Tools

There's been a lot of info about the upcoming Tales of the Sword Coast video game, but not so much on the Dungeon Master's campaign building tools end of things. A recent interview with Gameranx contained a few - vaguish - new snippets on the subject, direct from Dan Tudge, the lead developer of the CRPG.

Here are the pertinent quotes from Dan Tudge:

• DMs will be able to create a fun and challenging experience for their party within a few minutes. However, if players want to spend hours crafting a massive campaign, they can do that too.
• Just like on the tabletop DMs in Sword Coast Legends will have a whole-lot of power, balancing that power is really what DM Threat is all about. DM Threat rewards DMs when they provide an awesome challenge for players and limits the totally out of whack griefing they can do. Of course, we don’t preclude adversarial play if that’s what the group wants to do.
• ...the threat system exists to help maintain encounter balance while giving the DM some fun tools to use in real time. We also do things like control spawn distance and limit threat spend on per area basis that help balance the experience. While it’s entirely possible for the Dungeon Master to “grief” players and create overly challenging situations, the DM’s experience would also be much less fun.
• We have gone to great lengths to ensure your characters move through the different modes of gameplay - you can take the character you played in the story campaign into someone’s DM campaign.
• While we’re not discussing the specific details of DM Campaign Creation right now I can tell you that we’re very aware of the importance of “role playing” in Sword Coast Legend. Campaign Creation will allow for much more than just create encounters with monsters.
• We are ensuring that DMs can tell their story (that’s key to D&D) and while I’d love to tell you more about DM Campaign Creation right now, I can’t!

Read the full interview here.

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[TheSwartz]

I really can't wait for this game. I hope it lives up to the hype.

 

[Rondor]

I worry that the secrecy means it either is not working right now or the ambitions could need to be reduced in some areas.

 

[Jester David]

I'd be more excited if I didn't expect the DMing tools to be based around droves of micropayments. We already know you need to pay extra to unlock the behold, so I only imagine that'll be commonplace for many monsters.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'd be more excited if I didn't expect the DMing tools to be based around droves of micropayments. We already know you need to pay extra to unlock the behold, so I only imagine that'll be commonplace for many monsters.

Yeah, that'd nuke the experience from orbit for me.

I mean, the copy all sounds fine and good, but there's precious little in the way of evidence, and this is something that a LOT of games have tried and failed at before. It's possible they've got it right this time, but personally, I'll need more than their say-so for it. Promises and assurances and advertainment aren't going to sell me. But I might be a tough sell.

 

[Mephista]

I worry that the secrecy means it either is not working right now or the ambitions could need to be reduced in some areas.

Nah, that's actually an older article. The secrecy is "marketing." They're releasing teasers slowly.

I'd be more excited if I didn't expect the DMing tools to be based around droves of micropayments. We already know you need to pay extra to unlock the behold, so I only imagine that'll be commonplace for many monsters.

Supposedly, updates are going to be coming in form of storyline releases. Base game is tied into the whole Demon-Underdark story we got coming up. Each further update is supposedly going to be the next storyline, etc. Basically, a whole list of updates that come in expansion form, it seems.

Neverwinter Online seems to be following the same model too. We may need to buy each expansion (that's typical for this kind of game, though).

 

[ZeshinX]

Until they actually show these wonderful features in action and prove this game is capable of all they have thus far suggested (but not promised, I recognize), then I consider them the boastful rookie studio (rookie in terms of RPGs released), and the game itself will be remarkably underwhelming (at launch anyway).

A game claiming to release approx. 3rd quarter of 2015 that still has yet to show its major features in any significant way? While I'm sure some exist, there aren't many perspectives where that would be considered a good sign.

I suspect what we're going to see is the SP campaign (and MP coop-able with a DM) at launch, with the more comprehensive DM Tools (a la Campaign Creator) released at a much later time.

 

[Jester David]

Nah, that's actually an older article. The secrecy is "marketing." They're releasing teasers slowly.

Supposedly, updates are going to be coming in form of storyline releases. Base game is tied into the whole Demon-Underdark story we got coming up. Each further update is supposedly going to be the next storyline, etc. Basically, a whole list of updates that come in expansion form, it seems.

Neverwinter Online seems to be following the same model too. We may need to buy each expansion (that's typical for this kind of game, though).

I can imagine them releasing future storylines as paid DLC for players. But DMs are trickier, as they might want to use monsters or terrain not in the story for their own tales. And that's likely paid and could get pricey. It's already going to cost you $20 for a beholder...

 

[Hand of Evil]

I just wonder about how it is going to compete against Fantasy Grounds. Sure they are two different type of experience but could be problematic.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

It's already going to cost you $20 for a beholder...

Is there a source for this? $20 is utterly insane and seems off even by the greediest microtransaction scale...