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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[Jester David]

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

If you pay an extra $20 for the digital delux version one bonus is a beholder for use as a DM. Along with some single player stuff. And they haven't said if the beholder will be available separately for a lesser cost. So it' snot *just* $20 for a beholder as you get some extra stuff, but if you just want to run a game it might as well be.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

If you pay an extra $20 for the digital delux version one bonus is a beholder for use as a DM. Along with some single player stuff. And they haven't said if the beholder will be available separately for a lesser cost. So it' snot *just* $20 for a beholder as you get some extra stuff, but if you just want to run a game it might as well be.

Blech. Thanks for the info. Guess we'll see how usable this is without a ton of add-ons...

 

[Mephista]

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...

Special edition with some extras (note that you get special items like a Tome of Learning and a Cloak as well as the Beholder) for a price increase is also standard at release. That's happened long before we had micro-transanctions.

Could they be in the game? Sure. Its possible. However, the existence of a Delux Edition for pre-orders does not imply that they will either. It proves nothing either way.

 

[Mephista]

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

https://swordcoast.com/preorder

Its not a microtransaction. Its delux edition with a number of specials. There's a difference. Its also something that's been around for a while.

We don't have enough information yet. It could go either way. The truth is that we don't have enough information yet.

 

[Jester David]

Blech. Thanks for the info. Guess we'll see how usable this is without a ton of add-ons...

Okay, wanted to double check the math. $39.99 for the basic game (currently $34.99 pre-order) or $59.99 for the "digital deluxe pre-order pack". Which includes some items for the singleplayer campaign (Tome of Knowledge, Order of the Burning Dawn Cloak, Armor and Weapons) and some DM items (Beholder, Lost Mines dungeon tile set, and Wisp curson). Plus a couple forum badges and the digital soundtrack.
Given this is a "pre-order pack" it likely won't be available post-release. But since the beholder and tile set are likely desirable, this means there's undoubtedly going to be microtransactions for tiles and monsters. So, yes, it will still be seen how useful the "DM mode" is without paying extra.

Special edition with some extras (note that you get special items like a Tome of Learning and a Cloak as well as the Beholder) for a price increase is also standard at release. That's happened long before we had micro-transanctions.

Could they be in the game? Sure. Its possible. However, the existence of a Delux Edition for pre-orders does not imply that they will either. It proves nothing either way.

It's very unlikely that something you're paying for in the deluxe version will be free later. It's equally unlikely that something as iconic (and hard to sculpt and animate) as the beholder will be limited to pre-orders. So while this game looks to be the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights with a dash of DragonAge they might have a very limited toolset that you have to pay to fully utilize.

We'll see. And the microtransactions *could* still be limited to really hard to program monsters and new content. And the program might be very expansive for DMs. But it's worrisome enough that I'm not preordering and waiting for reviews.

 

[R_Chance]

D&D 5E. I bought 3 books for $100. Amazon, or it would have been $150. I'm ordering a second set of books. Just over $100 on Amazon. Another $14 iirc for the DMs screen. I don't buy the adventure paths (I have my own setting) or I could have sunk a couple of hundred more into it. Starting with $59 for the deluxe version it would have to have a lot of add on / micro transactions to be "too expensive". The real question, for me, is will it be a good game. I'm cautiously optimistic about it...

 

[Larac]

If I can not reskin models or add models, or add my own I will pass.

Having to wit for the Devs to release the monsters I want is just silly.


They should list out the next 3-5 Packs of monsters, and better be packs, not a single monster for 5-15 bucks.

Then allow community to build the stuff they are skipping, Win Win

But Marketing Things, please do not call them people, only see ways to squeeze money out of folks.
They will have all these spread sheets made up showing how the company can make Millions by having monsters at 10 USD each.

In 9 months the game will be mostly dead.

Give us tools and it will be selling for years.

Simple math but the liars from marketing win over the CEO

 

[darjr]

$20 to get access to the beholder? Sure it's not the only thing in the 'delux' version but it sounds like something I don't want already.

 

[ThirdWizard]

So here's what I need to even consider purchasing the DM Tools:

• Powerful Scripting Language
• Ability to add assets
• Ability to influence NPC behavior (AI)
• Tools for PC interaction with NPCs/objects
• Ability to open single player campaign in creator (or at least all tools to recreate it)

Here are things I want that I could maybe live without:

• Ability to create magic items
• Ability to modify classes/races
• Dynamically malleable world/tilesets
• Ability to constantly save game state on a local server

 

[Hand of Evil]

Would not be surprised to see them release "manuals". You get the basic game, common monsters, then extras would be DMG to allow additional design and creation then a Monster Manual, and so on. That is why I wonder about it being completion to Fantasy Grounds, figure this will be more computer game than desktop but will be watching to find out more.