Current Events > What games have that D&D roleplay flavor to them?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've been going through my first D&D experience with some friends and I really love it. Specifically, I guess with the combination of
-the mysterious/mythical medieval setting,
-the diverse roles/weapons/approaches,
-the freedom to craft your backstory,
-and the sense of openness and freedom of your immediate actions and how you develop yourself,

putting it all together it's just a really amazing experience. The only thing I don't really enjoy is the combat itself when people's dice rolls can drag on after a while. I think probably that all that stuff I listed can't be successfully all put into a game, especially since part of the experience is talking to other real people, being able to describe exactly your actions, and having the description of the DM illuminate the world. But still, I feel like there must be something out there worth playing, that has that sense of surviving in a world taking dangerous quests with a party and having interesting interactions with an overworld or dungeon based on your abilities.

What experience does CE have in this
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ce, ce
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a lot of CRPGs
you've got the ones based off of D&D itself like Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, etc.
ones based off of Star Wars like KOTOR
newer ones like Divinity Original Sin that streamline a lot (and the second one is really good too, def rec)
and so on
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Baldur's Gate is the first one to come to mind.
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A really good bonus would be if they were on the Switch also.
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Doe posted...

A really good bonus would be if they were on the Switch also.

DOS2 will likely end up on Switch once Larian get around to it, def worth the wait
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I hear mixed stuff about the enhanced edition of Baldur's Gate, is it better to have that or play the original with rec'd mods
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Wedge Antilles posted...

Baldur's Gate is the first one to come to mind.

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Divinity: Original Sin 2
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Pathfinder: Kingmaker just came out and it's based on the Pathfinder rules, which are a D&D 3.0 spin off. It's really good. Moral choices and roleplaying are important, and there is an aspect where you get to manage your realm. Literally my only complaint is the title, but that dates back to the original module/adventure it was based off of.

Pillars of Eternity 2 is on Switch I believe. Or planned.
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There isn't really anything that can re-create an authentic D&D experience, but considering 98% of DMs are pretty mundane, there are a few games out there that can provide a strong narrative and sense of exploration, though they're pretty much all cRPGs. If you want one like that, then I have some recommendations for you:

Planescape: Torment
Baldur's Gate+ToSC
Baldur's Gate 2 + Throne of Baal
Neverwinter Nights (Its DLC is exceptional, and the user-created content is fantastic)
Icewind Dale 2
Divinity: Original Sin (the 2nd one was released last year, and is exceptionally good)
Pillars of Eternity (its sequel was release early this year, and I hear it's pretty good as well)

Also, if you're craving the D&D experience even more, and want to listen to others weave a story, then follow the D&D Twitch and YouTube channels, as they are constantly uploading and creating new content for various shows and D&D groups. Matt Mercer and Chris Perkins are both DMs of very good shows, and the Penny Arcade guys dabble in their own shit as well with Acquisitions Incorporated.
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Alucard188 posted...

Also, if you're craving the D&D experience even more, and want to listen to others weave a story, then follow the D&D Twitch and YouTube channels, as they are constantly uploading and creating new content for various shows and D&D groups. Matt Mercer and Chris Perkins are both DMs of very good shows, and the Penny Arcade guys dabble in their own shit as well with Acquisitions Incorporated.

Are they like, the 'official' D&D people or do you mean in general
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there's a bunch of really good table top RPGs that do the roleplaying feeling of D&D without the slow combat, stuff like Dungeon World, 13th Age, FATE, and a bunch else
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Lemme recommend something old school. Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. Old School RPG, tons of different ways to play and to approach quests, if you can think of a solution, you can probably do it. For example, you need information out of someone You could persuade him, maybe jump through hoops and do a quest maybe. Maybe steal what you need. Or maybe you just wanna say "Screw you, I ain't got time for this." and just kill him and resurrect his spirit to interrogate it. The level of Roleplaying is crazy. Also one of the best character creations I've seen in game.

Also a really unique setting.
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yea arcanum is pretty underrated and always seems to miss recommendation lists.
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Wedge Antilles posted...

Baldur's Gate is the first one to come to mind.

I will suggest Wizardry 8, the final release by SirTech back in 2001, still excellent to this day and on Steam for $8.

15 character classes, 11 races to choose from, personalities can be picked and avatars that poorly mouth the actually very good voice acting. You have room to customize your characters this way. I have done runs that mimic other games' characters, or characters from other lore.

There are seven stats that can be raised each level up and skills that all improve based upon their corresponding stats, of which each has one or two. Skills can be raised manually or by usage in the field. There are four schools of magic and corresponding casters for each one along with one that can learn any of the schools, and all of them if you really want to. The spells have 7 degrees to which you can cast it with varying risks of it backfiring or fizzling if you aren't skilled enough. Enemies have the same issues as well, though much less frequently.

It's turn based battle with stats like Initiative coming into play, affected by the characters own Speed stat and the weapons and armor they're wearing. It's also first person perspective, so you have a degree of platforming to do occasionally and there are numerous puzzles to solve that involve you interacting with the mouse.

It also has a long list of mods. I personally play with mods at all times at this point. There is one, Flamestryke's mod, RIP, that basically adds a lot of quality of life items that balance the roles a little better, more minibosses, more weapons, more spells. But nothing game-breaking. There are other mods that do that, like Dodd's mod.... Research them as the info is still out there if you're into that sort of stuff. Flamestryke's I'd recommend even for beginners as her work is so seamless.

Super replayable, and Hard mode is actually hard. There is also Iron Man mode, too.
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Pathfinder: kingmaker just coem out and it is excellent.
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Doe posted...

Alucard188 posted...

Also, if you're craving the D&D experience even more, and want to listen to others weave a story, then follow the D&D Twitch and YouTube channels, as they are constantly uploading and creating new content for various shows and D&D groups. Matt Mercer and Chris Perkins are both DMs of very good shows, and the Penny Arcade guys dabble in their own shit as well with Acquisitions Incorporated.

Are they like, the 'official' D&D people or do you mean in general

Chris Perkins works on D&D, but Matt Mercer is a voice actor. Years ago, he and a bunch of other voice actors got together and started a campaign that they eventually decided to stream as the Critical Role show. I can't speak for Perkins, but Critical Role is fucking amazing. Because the entire group are professional actors, the RP is stupendous. The crew includes:

Laura Bailey (Trunks from Dragonball, Jaina from Warcraft, Lust from Fullmetal Alchemist)
Travis Willingham (Roy Mustang from Fullmetal Alchemist, Thor in various Marvel series)
Ashley Johnson (Ellie from the Last of Us, Terra in Teen Titans, regular in live-action Blindspot)
Liam O'Brien (Tenma from Monster, Illidan from Warcraft, Asura from Asura's Wrath)
Sam Riegel (Lil' Slugger from Paranoia Agent, Phoenix Wright)
Taliesan Jaffe (Darion Mograine from Warcraft, Flash from Injustice 2)
Marisha Ray (the only one to not really have any notable roles but she's also great)

Definitely recommend, though be warned that their first campaign is 100+ episodes with an average episode length of about four hours.
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DuranOfForcena posted...

Popcorn_Fairy posted...

Lemme recommend something old school. Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. Old School RPG, tons of different ways to play and to approach quests, if you can think of a solution, you can probably do it. For example, you need information out of someone You could persuade him, maybe jump through hoops and do a quest maybe. Maybe steal what you need. Or maybe you just wanna say "Screw you, I ain't got time for this." and just kill him and resurrect his spirit to interrogate it. The level of Roleplaying is crazy. Also one of the best character creations I've seen in game.

Also a really unique setting.

i almost got into Arcanum one time but i had trouble installing the patches and getting them to work. what's the best way to go about that, do you think?

I dunno, I never had any trouble running any of them. If nothing else, could play without them. I have before, and don't remember running into any issues.
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Doe posted...

Alucard188 posted...

Also, if you're craving the D&D experience even more, and want to listen to others weave a story, then follow the D&D Twitch and YouTube channels, as they are constantly uploading and creating new content for various shows and D&D groups. Matt Mercer and Chris Perkins are both DMs of very good shows, and the Penny Arcade guys dabble in their own shit as well with Acquisitions Incorporated.

Are they like, the 'official' D&D people or do you mean in general

Chris Perkins is one of the senior writers for Wizards of the Coast, so that's as official as you can get. The characters that the players play are _dangerously_ close to becoming canon in Forgotten Realms.
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Goats posted...

Pathfinder: Kingmaker follows the pathfinder system pretty accurately, which is basically D&D 3.5 with some alterations. It just came out on Steam and I'm having a blast. Would definitely recommend it tbh drampa

Something is keeping me away from that game despite being a huge fan of D&D and a tabletop 5th edition player and DM. I hear there is a bit of a balance problem and bugs galore
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Alucard188 posted...

Doe posted...

Alucard188 posted...

Also, if you're craving the D&D experience even more, and want to listen to others weave a story, then follow the D&D Twitch and YouTube channels, as they are constantly uploading and creating new content for various shows and D&D groups. Matt Mercer and Chris Perkins are both DMs of very good shows, and the Penny Arcade guys dabble in their own shit as well with Acquisitions Incorporated.

Are they like, the 'official' D&D people or do you mean in general

Chris Perkins is one of the senior writers for Wizards of the Coast, so that's as official as you can get. The characters that the players play are _dangerously_ close to becoming canon in Forgotten Realms.

Chris Perkins is great, but I have a really hard time watching any stream of D&D outside Critical Role
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I watched Dan Harmon DM once but I think he was going more for comedy with guest stars
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Morrowinds dice roll mechanic
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Neverwinter Nights was amazing.
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Doe posted...

ce, ce

You mean video games?

Here's a short list.

1. Divinity: Original Sin (2)
2. Shadowrun Returns and sequels (sure not really D&D but they're still heavily based on the Shadowrun books which were one of the major competitors to D&D back in the early 80s)
3. Crimson Shroud
4. Any game made by Spiderweb Software such as Avernum or Avadon. (Jeff Vogel. Not to be confused with a similarly named developer who made Mars: War Logs)
5. Pillars of Eternity (2)
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