Many articles about Sword Coast Legends (Sep 8th for PC; later in the year for XBone and PS4) are referring to the "robust Dungeon Master tools", and these tools are a feature that a lot of people - especially here on EN World - are very interesting. Many are hoping for something akin the the old Neverwinter Nights toolset. I figured I'd poke around in various articles written at E3 and tease out any tidbits about the DM tools that I could find. Here's what I got!
What we definitely know:
What we don't know:
VGChartz, like everybody else, refers to the tools as "robust". That word comes up a lot. Describing their experience of DM mode, they say "Four players entered a randomly generated dungeon, and I was given full freedom to place enemies, traps, and treasure chests, as well as make cosmetic changes like placing skull heads, dead bodies, and even said bodies' blood stains." They mention being able to change the types of enemies in that dungeon, their placements, and their relative levels, and how they could change the difficulty level on the fly.
There appears to be some restriction on the DM's power, though. "... it was built to prevent DM’s from cheesing the system and making things overly unfair on players. DM’s have a pool of expendable points used whenever they place enemies or traps or increase enemy levels. Once they run out of points, they can’t get them back until players defeat enemies or, DM’s remove enemies or lower their levels."
What else can a DM add? Other than enemies and traps, "they can also add characters as well, including those that give quests (with descriptions and dialogue written by the DM) and those who are vendors, and you can also set these characters as neutral, friendly (fight alongside the characters), or hostile (attack the characters)."
Other campaign settings? Interestingly, when asked if future content might include other campaign settings, developer N-Space said "absolutely". That'll be of interest to those who want something other than the Forgotten Realms.
GGSGamer also saw the game. They refer to a preview of a "campaign that was built from scratch and managed by a human Dungeon Master." Summarizing the customization tools, they say "You can use pre-built concepts, or create every quest, every character, every environment and even down to the individual dialog that characters use in interactions." They, too, call it a "robust" set of tools.
Their example, like the previous one, looks like it was a basic dungeon.
On to PC World. Believe it or not, they think the that the design and scripting editor is "robust". They do go on to cover a more important question, which hasn't been addressed elsewhere, though: "The only thing I couldn’t figure out is whether you can create custom maps or whether you’re just adding props to prefabs." This question is one which comes up a lot. VGCHartz mentions that the game can create random dungeons which a DM can then manage, but we don't have any information on creating custom locations. "During our demo, we watched an empty dungeon room turn into a grim ritual chamber, with rows of torches and an altar. Give two players the same dungeon layout and they’ll undoubtedly put the space to very different uses."
That said, in this video from NerdAlert (watch it below), there's an interesting exchange. Kim Horcher spoke to developer Dan Tudge of N-Space:
Kim Horcher: If you've already played a certain campaign or two, would you be able to recreate it in pretty close detail, or what are we thinking here?
Dan Tudge: Oh, absolutely. I mean that was the test I put to the team. I said "hey, I want you guys to pick your favourite campaign and recreate it with our tools, and if you can do that we've succeeded", and I recreated my favourite, so...
Kim Horcher: I saw him and he killed me!
That exchange is a little unclear. Kim Horcher appears to be referring to a character, but they're using the term "campaign", which is a series of adventures. They move on to the next subject, so it's not too clear which Dan Tudge means - can you recreate The Keep on the Borderlands, or The Isle of Dread? Or any of the other Top 15 D&D adventures of all time? GGS Gamer, above, did specifically say that they saw "a campaign built from scratch".
It seems odd that with all these demos, previews, and articles, we still don't know if you can create custom maps. It sounds to me like you can't; otherwise someone would have at least mentioned it by now. Nobody seems to have asked that question directly, though.
There's hope, though! Technology Tell says that DMs can "log in and not only create your world, but also play an active part in the actual gameplay". "Create your own world" sounds hopefu, especially when they go on to say "Once you are done drooling over the possibilities of creating your own lavishly appointed game world with all the buildings, characters, trees, treasures, and traps (lots of traps)".
WCCFTech saw the previews too. They contradict Technology Tell and say you can't create custom worlds. "While you can’t world build per-se, the options and variations you can create are virtually endless."
The Koalition describes some of the customization process. "They pulled up an editing menu and loaded a premade map of a town. From there, they placed NPCs around, gave them dialogue, created a merchant with a merchant’s wagon, gave him potions to sell, and created the quest NPC." They goo to describe things like weather toggles and the like, before covering the random dungeon creation that earlier articles mentioned. "Once all of those areas were completed, the development team randomly created a dungeon using one of the tilesets then started placing enemies and traps. Overall, the entire process from start to finish (minus planning and writing) took about 20 minutes."
Moving on to RPG Fan, which has some slightly disappointing news: "All of the dungeons are randomly generated, but one could argue this keeps the focus on the encounters instead of level design." They also bring up that points-based resource that DMs use -- "My villainous tendencies were slightly restricted by a resource that must be used in order to place hazards and enemies in the world, and it only refills when the party accomplishes tasks or overcomes adversity. Greater dangers understandably cost more, preventing overzealous DMs from littering the world with level twenty dragons."
What needs to happen, I think, is next time somebody interviews Dan Tudge, just ask this simple question: "Can DMs create their own maps?"
As a final note, Dan Casey - editor of Nerdist.com - has good things to say about the toolkit too: "If you play Dungeons & Dragons, Sword Coast Legends will blow your mind. Such a robust DM toolkit. Can't wait to play more."
If there's one thing we do know about the toolkit - if nothing else, it's clearly very robust!
[video=youtube;-BJn11gJ61Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BJn11gJ61Y[/video]
What we definitely know:
- Everybody uses the same word - "robust" - to describe the tools.
- You can create random dungeons and run them
- You can make cosmetic changes to prefab locations
- You can control enemies, NPCs, traps, and add dialogue and quests.
- The DM uses a controlled expendable pool of points to challenge players
- Future content will include other camapign settings
What we don't know:
- Whether or not you can create custom maps.
VGChartz, like everybody else, refers to the tools as "robust". That word comes up a lot. Describing their experience of DM mode, they say "Four players entered a randomly generated dungeon, and I was given full freedom to place enemies, traps, and treasure chests, as well as make cosmetic changes like placing skull heads, dead bodies, and even said bodies' blood stains." They mention being able to change the types of enemies in that dungeon, their placements, and their relative levels, and how they could change the difficulty level on the fly.
There appears to be some restriction on the DM's power, though. "... it was built to prevent DM’s from cheesing the system and making things overly unfair on players. DM’s have a pool of expendable points used whenever they place enemies or traps or increase enemy levels. Once they run out of points, they can’t get them back until players defeat enemies or, DM’s remove enemies or lower their levels."
What else can a DM add? Other than enemies and traps, "they can also add characters as well, including those that give quests (with descriptions and dialogue written by the DM) and those who are vendors, and you can also set these characters as neutral, friendly (fight alongside the characters), or hostile (attack the characters)."
Other campaign settings? Interestingly, when asked if future content might include other campaign settings, developer N-Space said "absolutely". That'll be of interest to those who want something other than the Forgotten Realms.
GGSGamer also saw the game. They refer to a preview of a "campaign that was built from scratch and managed by a human Dungeon Master." Summarizing the customization tools, they say "You can use pre-built concepts, or create every quest, every character, every environment and even down to the individual dialog that characters use in interactions." They, too, call it a "robust" set of tools.
Their example, like the previous one, looks like it was a basic dungeon.
On to PC World. Believe it or not, they think the that the design and scripting editor is "robust". They do go on to cover a more important question, which hasn't been addressed elsewhere, though: "The only thing I couldn’t figure out is whether you can create custom maps or whether you’re just adding props to prefabs." This question is one which comes up a lot. VGCHartz mentions that the game can create random dungeons which a DM can then manage, but we don't have any information on creating custom locations. "During our demo, we watched an empty dungeon room turn into a grim ritual chamber, with rows of torches and an altar. Give two players the same dungeon layout and they’ll undoubtedly put the space to very different uses."
That said, in this video from NerdAlert (watch it below), there's an interesting exchange. Kim Horcher spoke to developer Dan Tudge of N-Space:
Kim Horcher: If you've already played a certain campaign or two, would you be able to recreate it in pretty close detail, or what are we thinking here?
Dan Tudge: Oh, absolutely. I mean that was the test I put to the team. I said "hey, I want you guys to pick your favourite campaign and recreate it with our tools, and if you can do that we've succeeded", and I recreated my favourite, so...
Kim Horcher: I saw him and he killed me!
That exchange is a little unclear. Kim Horcher appears to be referring to a character, but they're using the term "campaign", which is a series of adventures. They move on to the next subject, so it's not too clear which Dan Tudge means - can you recreate The Keep on the Borderlands, or The Isle of Dread? Or any of the other Top 15 D&D adventures of all time? GGS Gamer, above, did specifically say that they saw "a campaign built from scratch".
It seems odd that with all these demos, previews, and articles, we still don't know if you can create custom maps. It sounds to me like you can't; otherwise someone would have at least mentioned it by now. Nobody seems to have asked that question directly, though.
There's hope, though! Technology Tell says that DMs can "log in and not only create your world, but also play an active part in the actual gameplay". "Create your own world" sounds hopefu, especially when they go on to say "Once you are done drooling over the possibilities of creating your own lavishly appointed game world with all the buildings, characters, trees, treasures, and traps (lots of traps)".
WCCFTech saw the previews too. They contradict Technology Tell and say you can't create custom worlds. "While you can’t world build per-se, the options and variations you can create are virtually endless."
The Koalition describes some of the customization process. "They pulled up an editing menu and loaded a premade map of a town. From there, they placed NPCs around, gave them dialogue, created a merchant with a merchant’s wagon, gave him potions to sell, and created the quest NPC." They goo to describe things like weather toggles and the like, before covering the random dungeon creation that earlier articles mentioned. "Once all of those areas were completed, the development team randomly created a dungeon using one of the tilesets then started placing enemies and traps. Overall, the entire process from start to finish (minus planning and writing) took about 20 minutes."
Moving on to RPG Fan, which has some slightly disappointing news: "All of the dungeons are randomly generated, but one could argue this keeps the focus on the encounters instead of level design." They also bring up that points-based resource that DMs use -- "My villainous tendencies were slightly restricted by a resource that must be used in order to place hazards and enemies in the world, and it only refills when the party accomplishes tasks or overcomes adversity. Greater dangers understandably cost more, preventing overzealous DMs from littering the world with level twenty dragons."
What needs to happen, I think, is next time somebody interviews Dan Tudge, just ask this simple question: "Can DMs create their own maps?"
As a final note, Dan Casey - editor of Nerdist.com - has good things to say about the toolkit too: "If you play Dungeons & Dragons, Sword Coast Legends will blow your mind. Such a robust DM toolkit. Can't wait to play more."
If there's one thing we do know about the toolkit - if nothing else, it's clearly very robust!
[video=youtube;-BJn11gJ61Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BJn11gJ61Y[/video]
