D&D Dark Alliance - co-op action brawler where you play Drizzt's party

[Tyranicon]

I also love how the marketing calls it "Bringing DnD to life," yet this probably has more in common with modern Assassin's Creed (looking at you, Valhalla) than DnD.

 

[Thonius]

It got more common with potato mash, fish, pickles, and sauerkraut I ate yesterday at dinner - ie it's already turned into shit and flushed.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Yes, compare for example the beholder Evil Eye from Dragon's Dogma (2012) and Gazer from Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (2013):

Is that a black beholder?.

An interesting take on a giant version of a beholder, used for a boss fight at the end of the first main section of the Dark Arisen expansion dungeon Bitterblack Isle:

 

[Fedora Master]

Why does Fluent talk like a queer who has transitioned towards the female gender?

Because its not fluent.

 

[Silentstorm]

Honestly, reading the title of the thread, I already had lower expectations because of Drizzt, is he still popular!?

I mean, I recall buying Drizzt books when I was younger but nowadays I just find him an overrated Mary Sue.

At least when Capcom made their DnD games, they were actually fun and had the good sense of just giving you generic characters representing classes.

And quite a few classic and beloved games actually tended to create their own characters for the games and allowing you to make your own, having a pre determined party representing characters from books actually seems more limiting and boring...or I just feel that way because I don't care for Drizzt anymore.

 

[Poseidon00]

Drizzit. Fucking clear sign of marketing bullshit. Stop selling DnD with stupid props. Then again 5e kiddies are into that sort of thing.

 

[Tyranicon]

Honestly, reading the title of the thread, I already had lower expectations because of Drizzt, is he still popular!?

I mean, I recall buying Drizzt books when I was younger but nowadays I just find him an overrated Mary Sue.

DnD is in a strange place where despite being decades old, all its "popular" characters are one-dimensional walking tropes that nobody really likes.

 

[Silentstorm]

Someone must like them, honestly, i just prefer making my own characters and i prefer it when established characters only appear at best, and there is no doubt Drizzt was popular, a lot of people copied him and he appears in games...it's just that over time his story became less interesting.

It also doesn't help i grew to dislike the idea of a race of all-evil or good beings and ONLY ONE OR TWO BEING DIFFERENT, it doesn't exactly make me think the race can be redeemed or turned evil, just that the character is apparently some mutant spawn or pratically some kind of chosen one that must get a backstory where he/she is tormented...not that you needed to, last i checked, Dark Elves aren't well known for males having the best position in society.

I don't know, it would have been better if there were more dark elves that were good or neutral, and some of which aren't related to Drizzt at all, it's funny how i used to accept it before, even bought some books with Drizzt, but overtime this trope just became really bland, boring and annoying to me.

 

[santino27]

I don't know, it would have been better if there were more dark elves that were good or neutral, and some of which aren't related to Drizzt at all

Not that I care (I think the books are pretty bad), but there are. In forgotten realms, there was a whole sect of drow who had turned from Lloth (Lolth?) to worship the chaotic good eilistraee. No idea if any of that still remains the case after Wizards did whatever they did to FR, but there you have it.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Not that I care (I think the books are pretty bad), but there are. In forgotten realms, there was a whole sect of drow who had turned from Lloth (Lolth?) to worship the chaotic good eilistraee. No idea if any of that still remains the case after Wizards did whatever they did to FR, but there you have it.

Lolth is the original spelling, first appearing in adventure module D1 Descent into the Earth, with the D trilogy of adventure modules leading to Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits in which the player-characters must confront Lolth herself on her own plane. When TSR replaced Greyhawk as the standard, default, generic AD&D campaign setting with The Forgotten Realms, the drow were imported into the setting along with their deity, but for whatever reason Lolth was then sometimes (but far from always) referred to as "Lloth".

 

[The_Mask]

I thought that Lloth was the way Drow named her in their language, and Lolth was how she was named in Common. Was I mistaken?

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

IT'S LOLTH NOW QUIET AND KNEEL IN HER PRESENCE.

 

[Palomides]

Looks like a sequel to Dragon Age 2 or some shit. Awful.

 

[Norfleet]

 

[Saerain]

I thought that Lloth was the way Drow named her in their language, and Lolth was how she was named in Common. Was I mistaken?

It's been so interchangeable that I just see it as like Audun/Odin/Oden/Wodan/Wotan, different spellings because it's older than writing and easily misheard.

 

[Norfleet]

Lolth is the original spelling, first appearing in adventure module D1 Descent into the Earth, with the D trilogy of adventure modules leading to Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits in which the player-characters must confront Lolth herself on her own plane. When TSR replaced Greyhawk as the standard, default, generic AD&D campaign setting with The Forgotten Realms, the drow were imported into the setting along with their deity, but for whatever reason Lolth was then sometimes (but far from always) referred to as "Lloth".

My guess is that it was a typo that people interpreted as intentional because it looks exotic and Welsh. The problem is that Welsh is unpronounceable.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I thought that Lloth was the way Drow named her in their language, and Lolth was how she was named in Common. Was I mistaken?

My guess is that it was a typo that people interpreted as intentional because it looks exotic and Welsh. The problem is that Welsh is unpronounceable.

It seems that R.A. Salvatore (and his editors at TSR) misspelled Lolth as "Lloth" in The Crystal Shard (1988), Streams of Silver, The Halfling's Gem, and Homeland, before acknowledging the error in Exile (December 1990).

Due to the popularity of these novels, the misspelling was officially retconned by TSR in AD&D Forgotten Realms products as being the local Menzoberranzan drow pronunciation of Lolth, possibly starting in FOR2 Drow of the Underdark (1991).

 

[Tyranicon]

I thought that Lloth was the way Drow named her in their language, and Lolth was how she was named in Common. Was I mistaken?

My guess is that it was a typo that people interpreted as intentional because it looks exotic and Welsh. The problem is that Welsh is unpronounceable.

It seems that R.A. Salvatore (and his editors at TSR) misspelled Lolth as "Lloth" in The Crystal Shard (1988), Streams of Silver, The Halfling's Gem, and Homeland, before acknowledging the error in Exile (December 1990).

Due to the popularity of these novels, the misspelling was officially retconned by TSR in AD&D Forgotten Realms products as being the local Menzoberranzan drow pronunciation of Lolth, possibly starting in FOR2 Drow of the Underdark (1991).

So there are people who care about DnD lore. Makes sense because they get paid to care.

 

[Silentstorm]

Of course there are, it's why there are books and games about various settings, and that one cartoon i never saw, and that movie.

I swear, if any fandom of something with a ton of lore is big enough, there will be fans who care about it extensively and know minute details about it, it helps that DnD basically attracted these people, being basically the first Tabletop RPG that was an expanded version of an expansion for a wargame, and thus it had tons of rules for various situations, and people would discuss rules, and i think DnD magazines would discuss rules and add more rules.

A lot of people don't really pay attention to all of those and play by house rules...others not so much and i bet a lot of those are also deeply into lore...or only care about lore in general.

Looking on Wikipedia, there are a ton of DnD novels, and Salvatore is still writing for the Forgotten Realms setting, AND DRIZZT IS STILL A THING, just last year, Salvatore finished apparently yet another trilogy of Drizzt novels and has already announced a new one, no wonder this game is based on Drizzt and his friends, apparently while i stopped reading...very few others did the same and maybe the number of readers increased.

 

[Calthaer]

I read some of the Drizzt novels. They were OK...not great though. Neither was the Cleric Quintet from him. I'm trying to think of a D&D novel that was actually good, though...most of them are mediocre to bad. Kind of a shame. The game is fun to play - it's just that those books weren't as fun to read as the sessions upon which they were obviously based might have been as fun to play.

 

[Tyranicon]

This game would be at least 100% better if you could generate your own characters and form your own party, rather than have to suffer through whatever "epic story" the devs had in mind.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Looks like a sequel to Dragon Age 2 or some shit. Awful.

DA2 actually had a decent premise, it was just very, very poorly executed.
This looks like shovelware trying to capitalize on the 5e/BG3 hype.

[edit]
and if it wasn't for "WOW LOOKS IT'S DRIZZT!" I'd have a hard time even telling this is a D&D game. Why would you take iconic D&D material and completely redesign it?

 

[LudensCogitet]

I read some of the Drizzt novels. They were OK...not great though. Neither was the Cleric Quintet from him. I'm trying to think of a D&D novel that was actually good, though...most of them are mediocre to bad. Kind of a shame. The game is fun to play - it's just that those books weren't as fun to read as the sessions upon which they were obviously based might have been as fun to play.

Is any pen and paper RPG campaign _not_ embarrassing / mediocre as a story? Especially if you're watching it, but if you're playing it as well.
I actually felt better about my own experience playing PnP when I tried to watch Critical Roll and saw how cringe inducing it was.

 

[Silentstorm]

The thing is that these typically or traditionally tend to be played with friends and the whole point is cracking jokes or roleplaying as serious characters and just enjoying a story with combat and maybe teamwork.

There is a social aspect to them, and the fact that they are less limited than computer games, the DM is only limited by their imagination and players can come up with some really crazy stuff and if the DM lets them or the rolls are great, get away with doing some crazy actions.

The joys of computer games, and yes, multiplayer games are different, as for Critical Roll...never saw it but i tried to listen to Adventure Zone and that one was also quite crazy before i quickly stopped listening to it, my extremely brief foray into DnD podcasts.

 

[Tyranicon]

I read some of the Drizzt novels. They were OK...not great though. Neither was the Cleric Quintet from him. I'm trying to think of a D&D novel that was actually good, though...most of them are mediocre to bad. Kind of a shame. The game is fun to play - it's just that those books weren't as fun to read as the sessions upon which they were obviously based might have been as fun to play.

Is any pen and paper RPG campaign _not_ embarrassing / mediocre as a story? Especially if you're watching it, but if you're playing it as well.
I actually felt better about my own experience playing PnP when I tried to watch Critical Roll and saw how cringe inducing it was.

Most people are not great storytellers. Coupled with the fact that roughly 60% of all pnp campaigns end up devolving into rampant sex and murder, yeah I would never want to watch a recording of my sessions.