So the whole "let's have a 3D version of D&D with live dungeon mastering and some environment creations" has already been tried way back in 2002, and it's called Neverwinter Nights. It has been...
So the whole "let's have a 3D version of D&D with live dungeon mastering and some environment creations" has already been tried way back in 2002, and it's called Neverwinter Nights.
It has been one decade and a half since I last launched this game or its sequel, but from my memories of the limited time as teenager I had playing and then building of some RP-based worlds, you can definitely have some great experiences even if the tool you have to use are rather limited.
Random thoughts (also it's late and I haven't reread myself):
In the case of NWN, you cannot create zones on-the-fly (it requires reloading the game), but you can create "placeable" as you want (furniture, objects, creatures, graphical effects). Most of the time we played on known places (normal raidable dungeons for instance), but repurposed for another tasks in scheduled "DM event", e.g. all the creatures have changed and now this is the lair of a dark elf lord of doom(tm)).
It certainly skew the game toward more prep, but NWN had a good library of placeable, and it's flexible enough to evoke anything. Also, descriptions are still super important. It's not because it's 3D that it shows everything
Speaking of which: NWN is a 2001 game, and really have this low-poly esthetics that's basically PS1 low-poly but with better textures. I actually think that helps the suspension of disbelief because of its low fidelity; detailed enough to give you a good idea, but not so much so that you can still complete the picture in your head. For the D&D thing they specifically pointed out that they used a tilt-shift. I think it's a smart move to remind the player that what they are watching is just a suggested representation and not "the real thing". But now I wonder if nowadays tools are sufficiently good to easily create new content. For NWN it was easy enough that some people with no experience could create some pretty good new objects.
There's a recent video of a DM in the DM client showing how manage a given scenario. At one point he make the party fall out of a bridge, and crash on a mysterious cave with lots of debris (something that you definitely cannot do with the NWN engine). It's neat.
Whoa, even on the Switch! ... No custom module though. Too bad, that's was (still is?) the bread and butter of what's interesting with NWN. But I do understand that player generated content...
Whoa, even on the Switch!
... No custom module though. Too bad, that's was (still is?) the bread and butter of what's interesting with NWN.
But I do understand that player generated content moderation would be a nightmare for Nintendo (my favorite modules were definitely adult oriented) (not a Dance with Rogue, but the Bastard of Kosigan).
What would do for it is something like the verbal interface to the holodecks of Trek or the simulator of the Orville. The AI or whatever passes for a director inside the box has to be able to...
What would do for it is something like the verbal interface to the holodecks of Trek or the simulator of the Orville. The AI or whatever passes for a director inside the box has to be able to improvise with the GM prompting it. What kind of AI training data would you get from all that GM interaction, I wonder? I feel like I'd also want some kind of intuitive... sculpting of the environment using my hands to iron out kinks quickly. If you've seen the Tilt Five (a quick demo) it seems like a step in the right direction from a hardware perspective.
Networking multiple physical tabletops together virtually is a genuine upgrade to tabletop gaming, unlike roll20 and similar apps which are just poor shadows of it. It's extending one's game board/room into a shared, synchronized virtual space. It would certainly make finding reliable groups easier, or playing with friends across the country or the world. It's not hard to imagine extending this sort of digital tabletop into Kingsman territory. If you had the sense that everyone else was 'there' and you could visually interact around the virtual table that would sell me instantly.
Telepresence is the internet's killer feature. I'd love to see that come to the tabletop arena as a melding of shared gaming tables. Wizards just isn't thinking about it the right way. They want to tap into the gaming market when they should be reinventing the segment they already have.
You might like Shmeppy. Dumbest way of getting a map up for an online group, turns out it's also the best way, in my experience. Edit: but I totally agree, a solution where everything can be...
You might like Shmeppy. Dumbest way of getting a map up for an online group, turns out it's also the best way, in my experience.
Edit: but I totally agree, a solution where everything can be generated on the fly is coming, very soon. I imagine it will still be grid based initially, for technical reasons, but the move to floating point, unrestricted 2d movement isn't that much more work comparatively.
Honestly, I feel like this article is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I've tried my fair share of VTTs over the few years I've played D&D, and each had their ups and downs, to be sure....
Honestly, I feel like this article is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I've tried my fair share of VTTs over the few years I've played D&D, and each had their ups and downs, to be sure. They never really interfered with the game or its immersion except in rare cases though, and to my knowledge they haven't really divided the community, either. I don't know why this would be any different. It seems this article wants to toss the entire concept of an extravagant, 3D tabletop out the window, without allowing for the possibility that it could be good.
The latter portion of the article does at least have more salient points to me. The crux of how I see this is that a 3D VTT could very easily be good if developed well, but there's no guarantee it actually will be. The article mentions the possibility for microtransactions, as well as poor support for the game outside of it's new toolset, and those are very much valid concerns. These very reasons are why I won't be holding my breath for any of this.
All in all though, I just think there's a lot of potential value for the game if it were set up to work well in digital environments as well, where the issues of math and ad-lib content can be solved by the computer so that the DM can focus on the story and roleplay. WotC could absolutely bungle this; there's plenty of examples of much-anticipated software turning out to be hot garbage, to be sure. I'd just prefer we not drop the entire idea of making D&D digital-friendly as a whole, when it could certainly work out very well if properly executed.
So the whole "let's have a 3D version of D&D with live dungeon mastering and some environment creations" has already been tried way back in 2002, and it's called Neverwinter Nights.
It has been one decade and a half since I last launched this game or its sequel, but from my memories of the limited time as teenager I had playing and then building of some RP-based worlds, you can definitely have some great experiences even if the tool you have to use are rather limited.
Random thoughts (also it's late and I haven't reread myself):
There is NWN Enhanced edition out, complete with Switch crossplay. It holds up surprisingly well.
Whoa, even on the Switch!
... No custom module though. Too bad, that's was (still is?) the bread and butter of what's interesting with NWN.
But I do understand that player generated content moderation would be a nightmare for Nintendo (my favorite modules were definitely adult oriented) (not a Dance with Rogue, but the Bastard of Kosigan).
PC still has custom, but yea switch is limited to curated content iirc.
What would do for it is something like the verbal interface to the holodecks of Trek or the simulator of the Orville. The AI or whatever passes for a director inside the box has to be able to improvise with the GM prompting it. What kind of AI training data would you get from all that GM interaction, I wonder? I feel like I'd also want some kind of intuitive... sculpting of the environment using my hands to iron out kinks quickly. If you've seen the Tilt Five (a quick demo) it seems like a step in the right direction from a hardware perspective.
Networking multiple physical tabletops together virtually is a genuine upgrade to tabletop gaming, unlike roll20 and similar apps which are just poor shadows of it. It's extending one's game board/room into a shared, synchronized virtual space. It would certainly make finding reliable groups easier, or playing with friends across the country or the world. It's not hard to imagine extending this sort of digital tabletop into Kingsman territory. If you had the sense that everyone else was 'there' and you could visually interact around the virtual table that would sell me instantly.
Telepresence is the internet's killer feature. I'd love to see that come to the tabletop arena as a melding of shared gaming tables. Wizards just isn't thinking about it the right way. They want to tap into the gaming market when they should be reinventing the segment they already have.
You might like Shmeppy. Dumbest way of getting a map up for an online group, turns out it's also the best way, in my experience.
Edit: but I totally agree, a solution where everything can be generated on the fly is coming, very soon. I imagine it will still be grid based initially, for technical reasons, but the move to floating point, unrestricted 2d movement isn't that much more work comparatively.
Honestly, I feel like this article is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I've tried my fair share of VTTs over the few years I've played D&D, and each had their ups and downs, to be sure. They never really interfered with the game or its immersion except in rare cases though, and to my knowledge they haven't really divided the community, either. I don't know why this would be any different. It seems this article wants to toss the entire concept of an extravagant, 3D tabletop out the window, without allowing for the possibility that it could be good.
The latter portion of the article does at least have more salient points to me. The crux of how I see this is that a 3D VTT could very easily be good if developed well, but there's no guarantee it actually will be. The article mentions the possibility for microtransactions, as well as poor support for the game outside of it's new toolset, and those are very much valid concerns. These very reasons are why I won't be holding my breath for any of this.
All in all though, I just think there's a lot of potential value for the game if it were set up to work well in digital environments as well, where the issues of math and ad-lib content can be solved by the computer so that the DM can focus on the story and roleplay. WotC could absolutely bungle this; there's plenty of examples of much-anticipated software turning out to be hot garbage, to be sure. I'd just prefer we not drop the entire idea of making D&D digital-friendly as a whole, when it could certainly work out very well if properly executed.