Beamdog working on a new D&D CRPG (cancelled)

[Xeon]

New game will be 3D? I thought they will stick to isometric. That kinda lowered my expectation when it comes to look.

I kinda hope its not Neverwinter or at least if it is, they don't use any of the prequels as a guide because they both sucked. NWN1 was good for mods and NWN2 was good for MotB. I don't think they can make a similar mod tool or a very good story, tho they do have Gaider now so hope something good will come out.

I think I saw a post that Beamdog has 70+ people working for them, don't remember if I saw the post here or in the Beamdog forum and probably all of them working on one game. Obsidian has 100+ I think and they are split to multiple projects.

 

[Barnabas]

I wonder what part of the world it will take place in. Dnd games usually revolve around a city so they won't go to Baldurs Gate, Icewind Dale, Luskan (scl), Amn.

Maybe Waterdeep or Calimport. OR MAYBE they will go to the Underdark and Menzoberranzon!!!!!!

 

[Tigranes]

Can Beamdog pull off a brand-new D&D 5E isometric offering ? I wonder ... it'd be nice to see one instead of the shite rolling out of Obsidian, inXile and Larian these days (well, not Larian)

I remember "Sword Coast Legends and Siege of Dragonspear wow we are going to get some true old school D&D good games instead of all this shit by Obsidian inXile etc!!"

Remember, X being shit does not make Y any less shit

 

[Xeon]

Sword Coast Legends wasn't made by Beamdog, SoD was kinda true to the lore (don't know jack about the lore) but a bad story writing. Gameplay was kinda fun IIRC, kinda similar to BGs.

PoE sucked, Tyranny enjoyed. Wasteland 2 sucked. DOS had amazing combat but bad story.

 

[Barnabas]

Poe IS amazing, as most crpg fans agree. If anyone says PoE sucks but loves Baldurs Gate they are most likely elitist scum

 

[Xeon]

What was good about PoE? Gameplay not fun, story not good, choices don't seem to matter, companions and NPCs suck (did like Eder tho), stronghold and crafting bare bone and probably ended up hurting the other parts of the game.

BGs pretty good gameplay, an eh story (even BG2), choices don't matter, companions are cliche, no crafting but a lot of unique items, stronghold is mostly cosmetic but based on class and have some questline and did not hurt the rest of the game.

Edit:
I should probably mention, my experience with PoE is pre 3.0. Can't speak about the current state.

 

[Barnabas]

get out of here

 

[Reinhardt]

They should drop the story and go full IWD. SoD had some pretty good fights.

 

[Morality Games]

Be nice if it was Ravenloft.

 

[Prime Junta]

If it's Ravenloft, Al Qadim, or Dark Sun, . Otherwise,

 

[Sizzle]

Be nice if it was Ravenloft.

A SJW-ized Ravenloft. Where every domain is ruled by a Darklord Absence of light gender neutral person in charge.

 

[Lacrymas]

Dark Sun or Ravenloft would be awesome actually, they'd have to cut the trendy crap though. Maybe they learned their lesson from the SoD debacle? That's uncharacteristically optimistic of me, whereas hope is a cruel mistress. Let's not forget that Gaider is in charge.

 

[Reinhardt]

Be nice if it was Ravenloft.

A SJW-ized Ravenloft. Where every domain is ruled by a Darklord Absence of light gender neutral person in charge.

And they all hate each other.

 

[Morality Games]

SJW in games is just a trend, like the excessive grim darkness of comics in the 80s and the bulging muscles and machismo of the 90s. It'll go away after the millennials leave college and go a couple of rounds in the school of hard knocks.

 

[Mannikola]

I don't think this is going to be an Enhanced Edition of anything. You don't hire David Gaider to make Enhanced Editions.

Gaider and his 7 (or 5, forgot) writers aren't working on their next Enhanced Edition. That one doesn't have any writer for it, no new content.

Thankfully, none of the 3 people who wrote for SoD (2 main writers, one small contributor) aren't working at Beamdog anymore.

 

[Infinitron]

That one doesn't have any writer for it, no new content.

Do you know something we don't or is this a guess?

 

[Rev]

If it's Ravenloft, Al Qadim, or Dark Sun, . Otherwise,

It's Beamdog, so definetely

 

[Morality Games]

Eh. There's a remote possibility they'll perceive the high market saturation of high fantasy RPGs (having gotten a taste of it themselves with SoD) and develop something that negotiates the all important line between familiar/comfortable and exotic/exciting.

However, Hasbro may fiat a product that advertises mainstream 5E materials.

 

[Rev]

Eh. There's a remote possibility they'll perceive the high market saturation of high fantasy RPGs (having gotten a taste of it themselves with SoD) and develop something that negotiates the all important line between familiar/comfortable and exotic/exciting.

However, Hasbro may fiat a product that advertises mainstream 5E materials.

I was referring more to the fact that Beamdog has yet to produce anything of worth, not about the setting (although tbh I think it's unlikely that they'd choose something other than FR).

 

[Morality Games]

Eh. There's a remote possibility they'll perceive the high market saturation of high fantasy RPGs (having gotten a taste of it themselves with SoD) and develop something that negotiates the all important line between familiar/comfortable and exotic/exciting.

However, Hasbro may fiat a product that advertises mainstream 5E materials.

I was referring more to the fact that Beamdog has yet to produce anything of worth, not about the setting (although tbh I think it's unlikely that they'd choose something other than FR).

They've done okay. Nothing amazing, but video games haven't been amazing since the era of 1998-2002 era.

Pretty sure any developer would do anything beside the Forgotten Realms, it is WotC/Hasbro that has a boner for the setting. Corporate execs in both companies don't comprehend the virtual games market whatsoever, which is why they can't even produce a roll20 competitor.

 

[Lacrymas]

Dorn is fine, I suppose, especially how he loses his powers if you choose a certain option in his personal quest. Not singing Beamdog's praises at all, just giving credit where credit's due.

 

[Mannikola]

That one doesn't have any writer for it, no new content.

Do you know something we don't or is this a guess?

It's information taken from their own forum, it's not private info. Most of the pertinent info comes from 2 threads: the beta-test signup thread and the "everything we know from the next game" thread.

 

[Max Deltree]

I don't know if this still holds true, but Wizards of the Coast was doing something like thematic "seasons" for everything D&D, like tabletop, board games, miniatures, comics and videogames. So they release the adventure Out of the Abyss, which was set in the Underdark, and it was followed by a Board game called Tyrants of the Underdark. Neverwinter Online gets an expansion set there and even Sword Coast Legends got a DLC, if I'm not mistaken.

If this is still going on, I imagine Beamdog games might be a part of this, too. So I guess this might restrict where their game will be set, at least for now.

So far, we had Tyranny of Dragons, Rage of Demons (which was set in the Underdark), Elemental Evil, Curse of Strahd (Ravenloft!) and, right now, Storm King's Thunder (Giants and shit).

And the only setting book so far was about the Sword Coast. But, like I've said, we had stories set in the Underdark and Ravenloft.

Personally, I hope that (if they have to go for the Sword Coast) they don't try to do Baldur's Gate 3 or Neverwinter Nights 3, and go for something like Waterdeep. It's a kickass city and it will avoid too much comparison with past games, and make it something that it's theirs, and theirs alone.

Also Ravenloft would be awesome as fuck!

 

[DeepOcean]

DnD is a setting to engage on fun fantasy adventuring rescuing the wonder of childhood, it is just that, that is the whole point to be on a world where you are free and you can do extraordinary things. The reason people liked the original DnD games was exactly because of that, to fail on the very basic thing and waste time with fucking genre politics on fantasy games for DnD nerds is to fail on a rather extraordinary way. I don't trust Beamdog to have self reflection, people that think they are moral shiny snowflakes tend to not be able to do that.

 

[Barnabas]

They are looking for testers on the iPad version of the game so that's pretty much a given that it will be 2d isometric