Shadow Realms

[Nefaro]

What's this new thing BioWare is doing?

https://www.shadowrealms.com/


4v1 multi-player episodic Action RPG. 

They have Alpha sign-ups running right now. Sounds very interesting but I don't feel like Alpha/Beta testing lately. 

[FarAway Sooner]

A computer game with a dungeon master is an interesting concept.  It's surprising to me that nobody has tried it before.

I'm struck by how many awesome game concepts there are on the market these days.  Co-op gaming and solitaire gaming are both better than they've ever been in the board gaming community, thanks to some innovative and fairly abstracted game design concepts.  Titles like Arkham Horror, Pandemic, Elder Sign, Wrath of Ashardalon, and Galaxy Defenders have had great commercial success.  There's a slew of Zombie survival games out there as well.

They also introduce some very simple mechanics for solitaire (or more frequently "co-op versus the system") gameplay.  I've never understood why more PC game designers take some of these titles and automate them.  Board games have leaned towards abstraction and simplification in many of their game mechanics, and they've managed to do it without compromising immersion.

I wonder why virtually no PC games have tried to do the same thing?  Reading the rulebook for Galaxy Defenders at http://www.galaxy-defenders.com/rulebook/pdf/galaxy-defenders_rulebook.pdf makes me think, "Man, recreating the X-Com tactical experience in a board-game?  Sheer genius!!"

Sorry for the rant, didn't mean to pull this one off-topic.

[Gusington]

I like the idea too. Never having played actual DandD, I would be interested in trying this.

[Nefaro]

A computer game with a dungeon master is an interesting concept.  It's surprising to me that nobody has tried it before.

There have been a few that I recall.  The first Vampire:TM.  Both NWNs.  I actually GM'd a bit in them.  However, they were very pen & paper style, with the GM running the party through stuff that he's placed and being a puppeteer to entertain them.  This one is a bit different.

The difference, here, is that the "GM" side has it's own level-ups and character advancement.  So someone can get a full-on experience from playing the bad guy.  It's more competitive.  Seems closer to a few specific boardgames with this kind of mechanic rather than a pen & paper RPG.  I believe Descent (?), Level 7: Omega Protocol, and Middle-Earth Quest are just a few examples of where the single person plays the bad guy and has some kind of RPG progression comparable to the player party, being more invested in winning than storytelling.