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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[Morlock]

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.

I'm just speculating, but offering a deluxe version that doesn't add much value as a way to get a 50% price bump from kids with deep pockets who want bragging rights (or are completists, whatever) seems like a good idea. I wouldn't hurry to judge a game's value, or the future value of its expansions, on this kind of thing.

 

[Morlock]

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...

I bought the 5e PHB, MM, DMG, and PotA $102 shipped. I came this close to buying HotDQ, RoT, and the starter set for $59 shipped today, on a whim to satisfy completist urges. That would be about $165 for what I consider to be the complete line (I don't buy stuff like DM shields) so far. Thinking about what the extra $65 could buy me at DTRPG made me reconsider.

Maybe I just got lucky, but your experience doesn't map with mine.

That said, I agree with you, $60 bucks is not a lot to spend on a game that delivers on the replay promise of a NWN type toolset.

 

[R_Chance]

I bought the 5e PHB, MM, DMG, and PotA $102 shipped. I came this close to buying HotDQ, RoT, and the starter set for $59 shipped today, on a whim to satisfy completist urges. That would be about $165 for what I consider to be the complete line (I don't buy stuff like DM shields) so far. Thinking about what the extra $65 could buy me at DTRPG made me reconsider.

Maybe I just got lucky, but your experience doesn't map with mine.

That said, I agree with you, $60 bucks is not a lot to spend on a game that delivers on the replay promise of a NWN type toolset.

The retail of the 3 core books is $150. I did Amazon for $100 (roughly). I decided to pony up for a second set (another $100) from Amazon. I dismantle the DM shields and mount it on my own screen. It was (iirc) about $14 (BN for this one at the brick and mortar store). I don't buy adventures / adventure paths or the beginners box for that matter. Is it two adventure paths so far? 3 hardbacks? Plus the Beginner's set. I'm not sure what that would total... checked Amazon; retail $130, Amazon $88 currently (and roughly). That's the 2 Tiamat books and Princes of the Apocalypse plus the Starter Set.

On the up side the core 3 are down to about $75 total currently. Argh! $25 less than a couple of weeks ago. *sigh*

All assuming my bleary eyes are working properly (I'm grading final exams).

 

[Morlock]

Yeah, in my case dropping the price was a good strategy, because it's the only thing that made me stop waiting and go ahead and buy. I saw all the core books for under $23 or 24 apiece and figured they're not getting much cheaper than that. Decent, used 3e core books + shipping aren't much less than that at their cheapest. The more I look at them, the more I like them, both the rules and the art (which isn't perfect, but I like more than the 3e dungeonpunk style).

 

[TheSwartz]

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.

Have you not watched the videos they've released months ago? Completely looks like a working game to me.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWP8GOixB74zWHiicg6yIaQ

 

[TheSwartz]

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...

This is sort of misleading.

It's $20 difference between the regular and deluxe pre-order prices. There is more than just DM access to the beholder in that upgraded sku; albeit, yes you are paying for more DM tools, just that it's more than just the one thing.

https://swordcoast.com/preorder

 

[TheSwartz]

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.

Absolute apples and oranges.

Fantasy Grounds is a virtual table top that supports D&D amongst other rulesets. In the instance of 5e, it then plays exactly the same as a tabletop 5e game (albeit virtually).

Sword Coast Legends is a party based, asymmetric competitive (4 member party vs 1 DM) action RPG based solely on D&D/Forgotten Realms. It is a video game adaptation of 5e and it's already discussed that it won't be an exact 1:1 version of the tabletop game.

Completely two different types of games.

 

[Jester David]

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

This is sort of misleading.

It's $20 difference between the regular and deluxe pre-order prices. There is more than just DM access to the beholder in that upgraded sku; albeit, yes you are paying for more DM tools, just that it's more than just the one thing.

https://swordcoast.com/preorder

Right now, if I'm planning to DM a multiplayer campaign on the Sword Coast, and want to involve Xanathar of Waterdeep, how much do I need to pay?

 

[ZeshinX]

Have you not watched the videos they've released months ago? Completely looks like a working game to me.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWP8GOixB74zWHiicg6yIaQ

Watched? Yes, all of them, including today's Twitch one. Have I seen anything remotely resembling the adventure creating DM Tools they've been suggesting? Not even remotely.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Watched? Yes, all of them, including today's Twitch one. Have I seen anything remotely resembling the adventure creating DM Tools they've been suggesting? Not even remotely.

There's been hints of it. I suspect from what they've said that there will be two methods of creating a campaign. You can quick create a campaign by selecting small, medium, or large and a tileset and it will generator a "campaign" using that tileset with monsters appropriate for it. Then, you can use the DM tools in order to modify the monsters and traps and NPCS on the fly by controlling them and making a story to go with them.

Then the second method, I suspect will work similar to Neverwinter Night's adventure creator from the answers they've given to questions. You'll be able to make maps using tiles with a certain theme. You can place monsters, traps, and NPCs. You can use a basic scripting language to create dialog trees.

I suspect that the adventure creation tools are the last thing they are working on, mind you. I have a feeling we are going to be looking at a post launch release of the tools for making adventures since they refuse to show them.

As for the rest of the concerns here, I believe that the large part of the extra cost of the Deluxe Edition is the tileset. I'm guessing that the tileset includes new textures, new buildings, new decorations, and so on. I'm guessing tilesets are going to be 10 or 15 dollars each. The Beholder likely costs $5 or less.

I believe that both of them will be available for purchase separately. But I do think that everything that comes with the Deluxe Edition will end up costing more than $20 total after the fact so that people who buy the Deluxe Edition don't feel ripped off. However, if all you want is the DM stuff(the wisp, the tileset, and the beholder), I actually think it'll come to less than $20.