Dungeons & Dragons doesn’t have the best history when it comes to video game adaptations, but the upcoming Sword Coast Legends could well be an exception to that rule. At a glance it’s just a typical generic RPG with D&D trappings, but it also lets you emulate the experience of playing the venerable pen-and-paper game. Key to that is a “DM mode” that lets one player act as a dungeon master, guiding the experience of four other players in real time.
This new D&D video game lets you be a virtual dungeon master
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It's not entirely clear how the dynamic will work
It’s not entirely clear how that dynamic will work, but the developers — the game is actually being co-developed by studios n-Space and Digital Extremes — are hoping that the new feature will help set the game apart from the plethora of forgettable D&D video games before it. “Dungeon master mode is going to allow players to quickly jump in and play as a real-time DM in a way that has never really been fully realized in a video game,” n-Space president Dan Tudge told IGN. “DMs are able to adjust encounters, place, promote, manage and even control monsters, set traps, reward and punish party members — all in real time.”
Aside from that defining feature, however, the game looks to be fairly standard RPG fare, with four-player cooperative gameplay and an isometric perspective reminiscent of Diablo. Sword Coast Legends will also feature a single-player story mode written by members of the Dragon Age: Origin development team. The game is slated to launch on PC-only sometime this year.
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