WotC Wizards of the Coast Announces Sci-Fi Video Game with ex-BioWare Developers

Wizards of the Coast announced they are forming a new video game studio called Archetype Entertainment headed by former BioWare developers James Ohlen and Chad Robertson. Ohlen will serve as the Head of Studio while Robertson will take on the title of General Manager. The debut project from the studio will be an original IP, “set in an all-new science fiction universe that will send players on a story-driven epic where choices they make will have real consequences on how their story unfolds.”

Ohlen's credits at BioWare include Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect, Anthem, and of course Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, and Neverwinter Nights. Roberts served as Head of Technology for BioWare from 2015 to 2019 and Studio Director from 2017 to 2019. In addition to their video game credits, Ohlen and Robertson also collaborated on the recently released 5e compatible campaign setting book Odyssey of the Dragonlords distributed by Modiphius.

Wizards of the Coast originally announced the formation of this new video game studio in April of last year.

 

[bedir than]

I imagine a mixture of shooter and ARPG, like Borderlands, Fornite: Save the World or Fallout.

If there are alien races I wonder about the TTRPG version will have also a SRD. It should have got one for the 3PPs or these will use the ones from Starfinder.

* Will we see a DLC about M.A.S.K. vehicles?

Well, this is NEW IP so it will not use Starfinder
It also won't use Starfinder because WotC using a video game to promote a competitor's product would be one of the worst ideas they could come up with.
It is NEW. Not, old, not retro.
NEW

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I have said the 3PPSs (not Wotc) could use things from Starfinder if WotC doesn't publish a SRD based in the future TTRPG.

 

[Mercador]

I don't know if the image is a concept art but there's a number missing on that building.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It is an interesting question of balance when it comes to sci-fi or even modern D20. If you have BFG, is you CR based on your base stats or on the BFG? Is a goblin with a BFG a CR 20 minion? What happens when that goblin runs out of ammo, and how do you adjust when the PCs get hold of it?

I don't think these questions are insurmountable. Video games do it all the time, I think some variation of a D20 system could do it with a bit of tweaking while still carrying over base concepts. While we think of modern weapons as being ultimate instruments of death, I think that is in large part because we've never seen anyone get hit with a claymore.

Which is not to say it would be easy or that it should be done, just that I can see a new system developed using the same base concepts to ease the transition. If I'm pitching a sci-fi game to my players that's going to be slightly easier if we still have the same types of abilities, proficiencies, class advancement and so on.

In my own system, nearly any handheld weapon does 1d10 damage per hit. All that actually matters is how easily getting hit by the weapon will remove you from the fight, after all. Recovery, and chance of successful recovery, is where a single hit from a glock and an assault rifle really differ.

now, a BFG...that would basically be treated like a magic weapon with a hefty damage boost, or an AoE weapon, or something.

 

[3catcircus]

If they are doing original IP, hopefully they use something other than d20-based rules. They're a terrible choice for a modern/future RPG.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I hope this game uses 5e rules and is turn based.

It won't. There are elements of 5e that don't extrapolate well to CRPGs, and if they say "we are using 5e rules" and then something works differently people will pour hate on the game for not meeting their exacting expectations.

If they make no claims about ruleset they can make something that is actually suitable for a crpg rather than a tabletop rpg without creating a rod for their own backs.

As for "turn based", if you look at the track record of Ohlen, he seems to be a fan of pseudo-turn based (AKA real time with pause) games. Indeed, he pretty much invented it.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

My bet is that this is going to be an action-RPG. The biggest question about the system is whether it will be first-person view or over-the-shoulder.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

My bet is that this is going to be an action-RPG. The biggest question about the system is whether it will be first-person view or over-the-shoulder.

Again, I would point to Ohlen's track record. The closest thing to an ARPG he has worked on was Dragon Age, and that was a lot more RPG than A. And pretty much everything he has done is 3rd person (apart from "sniper mode" in Mass Effect).

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Again, I would point to Ohlen's track record. The closest thing to an ARPG he has worked on was Dragon Age, and that was a lot more RPG than A. And pretty much everything he has done is 3rd person (apart from "sniper mode" in Mass Effect).

Exactly! He worked on Mass Effect, which is pretty much the definition of an ARPG. I agree that over-the-shoulder is more likely than 1st person for the new game, but it's far from certain, 1st person has gotten more popular since ME was made.

 

[Abstruse]

Remember that the reason third person was so popular in the mid-00s to mid-10s was it was the only way to properly do a cover system. And cover systems were popular because it allowed games to have more detailed graphics and environments - particularly textures - because it forced players to stop and give the areas time to load on the old 360/PS3 hardware. In a non-cover shooter, players could charge in and run around faster than the system could render the textures, causing framerate drops and other performance issues. It's not just market fatigue that caused the cover-shooter genre to slow down after the Xbox One/PS4 came out...