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Message: <blockquote data-quote="L R Ballard" data-source="post: 7227351" data-attributes="member: 40307">Yes, this is the thing that game developers who want to make D&D video games are missing.Most D&D role-players don't want a “real-time” D&D video game; they want to keep the turn-based, chess-like tempo of the game but see improved 3D digital assets.Perhaps what prevents D&D from having an epic digital presence is that it's a misnomer to call what D&Ders want a “video game.”If tabletop role-players want anything digital at all, they want 3D digital assets that represent characters and environments better so they can track interactions, movement, and combat within the context of the tabletop game.So, let’s premise that any digital presence for D&D must keep the turn-based tempo and enhance the experience of tabletop role-players with access to visual technologies.Then game developers need to focus 3D digital asset creation on three things:1. Environments: Make highly detailed textures and meshes that offer jawdropping dungeons, cities, and wildlands.2. Character Portraiture: D&D players pretend to be other people, heroes and heroines. Most players have good ideas of what their characters look like, and, often, they can find miniatures that represent them well enough.But there’s a problem making or using an accurate digital character portrait when D&D players use digital tools to represent their characters. Take Neverwinter Nights, for example. It’s a fun video game, but it offers a limited number of premade characters to choose from. I choose the barbarian or the halfling thief. It’s a blast to play, but those aren’t my heroes.Even when the character portraiture tools are good, they never yield characters on par with the best graphics at that time. The D&D development budget sacrifices the highest-resolution graphics for environments and character portraiture to code all the “real-time” video gamey stuff that tabletop role-players don’t care about.Usually, I don’t play D&D video games. When I want to play a video game, I’m going to play Skyrim.3. Modding Tools: Modding tools are, in fact, why I’d rather play Skyrim than anything using D&D’s intellectual property—if I’m going to play a video game.Modding tools let me draw the characters from the imagination of my youth. The characters I made for Skyrim are closer than any representation I’ve seen or made in any other game. And it’s a kick to see them adventuring.The big disappointment is that there’s nothing state-of-the-art 3D digital out there that allows me to use D&D IP and share it with others.I speak for a lot of gamers when I say that what we want for digital D&D is turn-based 3D mapping with the highest-quality art possible.</blockquote>

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