New D&D Video Game Announced

New video game developer Giant Skull is developing a new D&D video game. Variety announced the new untitled game today, which will be a single-player action-adventure game set in one of the worlds of the game.

Giant Skull was founded by Stig Asmussen in 2023. Asmussen previously was the game director of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, as well as God of War 3.

“Stig and the team at Giant Skull are exactly the type of exceptionally talented creators we want to work with, and I’m so happy to be reuniting with him on this new project,” Wizards of the Coast chief and digital gaming president at Hasbro John Hight told Variety. “In our time working together on ‘God of War I’ got to see firsthand Stig’s artistry and expertise, and he and the Giant Skull team are the perfect fit for our new game. Worldbuilding and storytelling is in our DNA, and this collaboration reflects our evolution and commitment to our ‘Playing to Win’ strategy, building a stronger presence in digital play. We look forward to revealing more about this brand-new ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ game in the future.”

 

[Azzy]

The idea of AC increasing past 20 doesn't make sense to me... How do you roll a d20 to get a number high enough to hit a target with AC 30+???

Modifiers to the roll, just like always. Instead of a THAC0 that gets smaller as you level, you get an increased attack bonus as you level. Then there's the ability score modifiers and magic item bonuses as usual.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The idea of AC increasing past 20 doesn't make sense to me... How do you roll a d20 to get a number high enough to hit a target with AC 30+??

The same way you hit a target with an AC of -10 in 1st edition.

But if there is one mechanic that is highly unlikely to make it into an action game it’s AC.

 

[belsonic]

I think it could be good. I really liked the Jedi games, and I think there's definitely gameplay ideas in Survivor that could be extrapolated into an ARPG with D&D elements.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah, Survivor even has a bit of plane hopping.

 

[Parmandur]

The idea of AC increasing past 20 doesn't make sense to me... How do you roll a d20 to get a number high enough to hit a target with AC 30+???

Yhe AC spread in 5E is exactly the same as in 2E: 30 is -10, 20 is 0, 10 is 10. It's just flipped around.

 

[Sacrosanct]

New mechanics doesn't mean better.

It's not about better. It's about aligning a video game mechanics with the current edition to maximize familiarity.

 

[Reynard]

It's not about better. It's about aligning a video game mechanics with the current edition to maximize familiarity.

You literally can't do that outside of a CRPG.

 

[Sacrosanct]

You literally can't do that outside of a CRPG.

Not literally every mechanic word for word and only word for word, but the same core mechanics. Someone familiar with 5e will recognize most of the mechanics of BG3, for example. Same races, classes, d20 system, initiative, spells, feats, ability scores, etc.

 

[Reynard]

Not literally every mechanic word for word and only word for word, but the same core mechanics. Someone familiar with 5e will recognize most of the mechanics of BG3, for example. Same races, classes, d20 system, initiative, spells, feats, ability scores, etc.

You can make a D&D themed ARPG and you can call things by their D&D names, but D&D mechanics are fundamentally turn based tactical aside from a very limited set of passive abilities (some of which still don't make sense outside of turn based tactics).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You literally can't do that outside of a CRPG.

Sure you can. The feel, the lore, the characters, the abilities the protagonist acquires can all be tuned to a specific edition on the game.

You don’t see tiefling hexblade warlocks spamming eldritch blast in 1st edition.

If the fiction was entirely edition-agnostic you wouldn’t get people asking for new versions of old settings.