Four players and a DM walk into a bar – D&D RPG Sword Coast Legends revealed

Well, I guess this is going to be a good year for western RPGs. That was more or less my first thought upontaking a glance at the recently revealed Dungeons & Dragons / Forgotten Realms RPG called Sword Coast Legends that, as you may expect based on the title, is going to take you on an adventure to the very same area where, for example, the first Baldur’s Gate also took place. The game is being developed by n-Space and Digital Extremes, with Wizards of the Coast also being involved in the process, and I suppose the fact that the game will be using the same “real time with pause” combat system that was present in many of the classic Infinity Engine titles (including Baldur’s Gate) doesn’t come as too big of a surprise, either.

Easily the most promising aspect of Sword Coast Legends lies in its so-called Dungeon Master Mode that, in an effort to simulate the genuine tabletop roleplaying experience, will allow co-operative play between four player characters and a fifth person acting as the Dungeon Master. The Dungeon Master is the one who provides various challenges and adventures to the fortune-seeking heroes; the official site describes the mode as a “non-adversarial 4 with 1 experience” (notice the lack of “vs”), which means that the DM’s role isn’t to screw the players over, but rather to co-exist with them. And I can get behind that.

The game is scheduled to be released sometime later this year and will be available exclusively on PC via Steam, we’ve been told.