Sword Coast Legends is not D&D

[Will Doyle]

Single player could have you controlling the entire party, with multiplayer allowing each person to control a single character or multiple characters together as they work through the campaign.

Multiplayer turn-based games are rarely very popular, especially when they're designed to support more than two players. If they want to appeal to more than just the TRPG crowd, it sort of has to be real-time.

 

[Li Shenron]

After seeing tons of videos about the game (specially the character creation videos) I must say that I am totally disappointed about the game. It is nothing like D&D. I was expecting an experience similar to Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights rule wise and what I found was a Diablo clone...

I don't have the game, but I've also seen previews, and honestly I had the opposite feeling... to me it seemed a lot more like Baldur's Gate than Diablo.

I played both a long time ago, and Baldur's Gate to me was mostly about story and exploration, plus a little bit of character interaction. Combats were always different because of the variety of opponents, and they very tactical because of that and because of the option to pause and think about it.

Diablo is a shoot-em-up. There is almost nothing tactical in Diablo combats, they are just too many and too fast to even think about it, and monsters are all very similar to each other. There is only strategy in building your character by carefully choosing combos that optimize attack and defense around a small set of options (like one debuff trick, one area attack, and little more). The only tactics required are when to use either of those few options. Then just repeat for a thousand hours to unlock all cinematics.

 

[Ranes]

I too have watched the videos and - apart from the fact that I think their videos betrayed a lack of experience of level design - I agree with the OP. It isn't quite what I was hoping for, which was something along the lines of NWN. Someone upthread said X-COM was the template for a turn-based D&D game and I totally agree but, as someone else has pointed out already, that lacks appeal for the multiplayer audience.

And on an aesthetic level, I'm disappointed that SCL's dungeons look more like Space Hulk interiors than dungeons.

I played PoE and found that it lacked the tactical depth and variety of Baldur's Gate but was otherwise pretty good. I'm holding out more hope for a better BG-like experience from Tides of Numenera. But what I'd really like to see is a multi-player D&D game which enables party members to act in pseudo-real time out of combat and then move to turn based once the PCs or bad guys go loud. I'm thinking in terms of the flawed but so almost-there Temple of Elemental Evil, which is next on my list to replay with the Circle of Eight mod.

I'll keep an eye on SCL and it might have enough appeal as a computer game to tempt me into buying it but it increasingly seems to be aimed at a much more casual gamer than this grognard.

 

[Mirtek]

Basically there are two kinds of RT D&D games:

Those like BG who give the necessary concessions to make it work while still trying to stay as close to the D&D rules as the framework allows (e.g a fireball still dealing 6-48 damage)

Those like SCL who just put some D&D skins over whatever system they came up with (e.g a fireball dealing 750 damage to the 900hp bossmonster)

 

[Treantmonklvl20]

I'd say none of the video games are like real D&D. Even Baldur's Gate... the battle system alone makes it feels so much less like normal D&D. A real D&D game should be turn-based.

My wife and I have been playing Divinity: Original Sin. It is a multiplayer that uses turn-based combat. I would love to see a D&D game built a similar way. However, to the OP I recommend looking up Divinity O.S. on Steam, it's a good buy.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

The most frustrating thing is that 4E would have been perfect for a video game if implemented exactly as the ruleset. Yet there's no video game that implemented the ruleset fully.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

No joke, if you're looking for a BG/NWN experience, go with Pillars of Eternity. It is that kind of game.

Hmmh, Pillars of Eternity for the BG experience, but does it offer NWN-like building as well?

 

[EthanSental]

I didn't play 4e (watched friends play it a few times) but played Neverwinter through level 20 and thats what cemented my opinion that 4e was video game like with the powers and such (rogues bamf'ing around like Nightcrawler, etc). Neverwinter might not have captured all of what 4e was but it seems to have done a decent job.

 

[Mirtek]

The most frustrating thing is that 4E would have been perfect for a video game if implemented exactly as the ruleset. Yet there's no video game that implemented the ruleset fully.

I have to disagree here. Anything other than a turn based game that asked basically every player before and after every action or reaction or interrupt if they want to use their interrupt or reaction could not implement the ruleset exactly.

You'd spend more time clicking away the question whether you want to interrupt/react than you would spend on clicking your actual actions on your turn

I didn't play 4e (watched friends play it a few times) but played Neverwinter through level 20 and thats what cemented my opinion that 4e was video game like with the powers and such (rogues bamf'ing around like Nightcrawler, etc). Neverwinter might not have captured all of what 4e was but it seems to have done a decent job.

Actually Neverwinter is like SCL in that regard, it just slapped 4e skins and terms on a very non-4e ruleset

 

[Xanthais]

There is no pen-and-paper D&D for me because there is no one around here who plays it. In fact the last time I've got to play D&D was like twenty years ago with AD&D 2ed. Since then I haven't found anyone, so video games are my only valve of scape for my D&D cravings.

Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds both get you playing actual D&D with other people.

As to the notion of turn-based video games...that's why I loved the old Pool of Radiance game for 3E. Especially POR: Ruins of Myth Drannor. I like having friendly fire off, as well as turn-based so I can actually position my caster in places to try and not get the AoE on my party and other tactical stratagem like that.