D&D 5E How To Make a Good D&D Videogame

[Magil]

It's practically a crime that they didn't make a grid-based tactics video game using the 4E D&D ruleset. We could get into all kinds of arguments over whether or not it'd make a "good D&D game" or other such nonsense, but it'd be a damned solid game provided they didn't screw up the coding. And it'd be a heck of a lot easier than trying to code in the effects of spells and other weird rules exceptions from any other edition.

 

[darjr]

Wasn't "Arena of War" a 4e game? It went free to play at one point it seems, or was it always. The android version isn't available, was it ever? Any links to the iphone version don't seem to work either. Was it turn based? It looks like it was, sort of.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

I really just want an RPG that really uses the D&D ruleset. No 100 times more HP, no real time combat, just the real D&D turn-based strategical combat.

Also a good D&D RPG for me is mostly about exploration of dungeons. No monster kill quests, no running around town for hours. Instead huge dungeons you can easily get lost in with traps, puzzles, locked door, locked chests and many many creature that are all out of the MM.

 

[Tinker-TDC]

I wrote this to a few friends after playing an hour of Sword Coast Legends and quitting. Just gonna quote it directly here.

"I want it to be a game of D&D, or, rather, a dungeon crawl.
I'm just talking put in all the core races and classes and abilities are done as they would be done in-game.
Combat isn't pause-and-play (though I do like pause-and-play games), but you choose all your characters' turns and then each round of combat a new initiative is rolled and the characters work it out.
If you are playing multiplayer, add a countdown timer so the DM (or players if the computer is DM) can determine a maximum time the player has to take a turn. Have small things that work to make it gamey (fireball can hit x allies for every y enemies type thing) and then the game plays out showing a dice-tray type thing in the side so as your fighter attacks you see a quick die-roll+mods in the tray and a hit or miss onscreen and when your wizard casts fireball (either select targets in order of priority or choose an area on the ground) you see a ton of saving throws rolled in the tray. I could go with simply the numbers showing up but to emphasize that it is D&D a set of 3d dice in a virtual tray sounds pretty cool, probably want to see them rolling as your character is moving up to the enemy so they stop right as the attack animation occurs. Give spells and abilities per-rest instead of recharge and showcase the monsters in the MM and the magic items in the DMG. If it has a DM mode (and it should) the DM either controls all monsters or uses a premade AI (when you place a monster down you can click on it and choose default, agressive, defensive, cowardly, etc.) or a combination of both with the ability to program triggers (cause: monster goblinboss <1hp, effect: monster goblin1,goblin2,goblin3 retreat to room 4) to be able to play a game you set up as the DM.

Now, I'm sure y'all can pick out a hundred reasons this wouldn't work in today's videogame market, but this is my ideal D&D videogame because it is a videogame which could go two things:
1) Allow a dungeon crawl that could be single-player, one player vs. DM, or any number of players vs. DM.
2) Teach a new player the actual rules of the game.
That's it. That's what I want out of a D&D game."

 

[Mirtek]

Wasn't "Arena of War" a 4e game? It went free to play at one point it seems, or was it always. The android version isn't available, was it ever? Any links to the iphone version don't seem to work either. Was it turn based? It looks like it was, sort of.

Arena of War was basically "D&D Marbles", had nothing to do with D&D at all, except that the marbels you flicked at each other were D&D themed

 

[Reinhart]

Arena of War was basically "D&D Marbles", had nothing to do with D&D at all, except that the marbels you flicked at each other were D&D themed

To answer [MENTION=52905]darjr[/MENTION]'s original question, Arena of War claimed to be "based on the D&D Next rules." Seriously. When I mentioned that last spring and suggested that "based on the 5th Edition D&D Rules" probably didn't mean much for Sword Coast Legends, people reacted like I was speaking blasphemy.

Both DeNA and N-Space claimed, in their own defense, that they worked closely with WotC and that every design decision was approved by the WotC D&D team. I just want you all to remember that whenever we hear about how closely the D&D team works with the various licensed contractors. Those might be accurate statements, but I'm also not sure it indicates much about the products either.

 

[hawkeyefan]

The problem is that the rules don't translate very well to live action games. The strategy really comes out when you go with a turn based game, and the rules of the pen and paper game then translate as closely as they can.

But if you make a live action game, then you basically wind up with a Diablo style game. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing in and of itself...but unless it's better than Diablo, then it's probably best to try something different.

The problem is that for so long now, players have been conditioned to think of live action as superior. But I think that maybe it's finally starting to swing back the other way. Games like Banner Saga and the like have earned critical and commercial success. I think it'd be wise for DnD to keep that in mind for their next video game attempt.

They already have DDO and Neverwinter, so why not create something that plays a little different?

 

[Zardnaar]

I have been playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown and ts a turn based tactical squad based shooter. The combat system seems very D&D based with things like reactions and full move and readying an action. Different genre of course.

 

[Reinhart]

As Zard just pointed out, there's plenty of great turn-based games on console and PC that are also somewhat popular right now. There are also previous D&D games that have taken table-top game mechanics and authentically adapted them to real-time gameplay. Obviously that shift alters the way the game mechanics are actually experienced. I just don't understand why so many people believe that change somehow necessitates that the final result will resemble Diablo with cool-down timers. Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights both demonstrated that's not the actual case.

Sure, some mechanics will need to be modified to work slightly differently, but they can still be done in a way that yields similar results. For instance, in NWN many of the feats needed to be modified slightly because of the changes in the UI. But those feats still had similar benefits and requirements. NWN still emulated the D&D 3.0 rules system about what a feat did and how many you got. Likewise, as someone pointed out already, the current system by which spellcasters can use higher level spell-slots in 5e doesn't lend itself well to real-time casting. But adapting around that difference doesn't mean you automatically have to ditch the traditional spell-slots and concept of prepared spells entirely.

N-Space definitely could have made a game that resembled D&D 5e more. Somewhere in the process (probably the very beginning) they decided not to. And for whatever reason, WotC was A-Okay with that. Likewise, the reason Neverwinter Online looks like every other MMO and not like D&D 4e isn't because 4e's turn-based mechanics were impossible to adapt. MMO's are just super expensive to make and Perfect World didn't want to take any chances in design. So they just didn't care to try to make it much like D&D beyond sharing certain labels.

This is not an indictment against those game designers, however. If they don't want to make a game like D&D then they don't have to. And if WotC is okay with other companies paying to further dilute the D&D brand, that's their prerogative. It's just obvious when you see threads like this one in every other forum and gaming community that there is some untapped demand for a game that more closely emulates the D&D rules. I doubt WotC is consciously standing in the way in the creation of that game, but I suspect that the licensing fees they require and the continued existence of the SRD are combining to create an environment where unlicensed copy-cats are more likely. Basically, if you're Obsidian Entertainment, it's probably a lot cheaper and safer to crowd-fund Pillars of Eternity as a "spiritual successor" to Baldur's Gate without paying Hasbro the D&D licensing fees.

 

[Parmandur]

I have been playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown and ts a turn based tactical squad based shooter. The combat system seems very D&D based with things like reactions and full move and readying an action. Different genre of course.

That'd be so cool: Harpers as Wizard SHIELD, developing a roster of characters to send on quests.