Multi-player video games that recreate the D&D experience?

[Deleted]

Hi all,

I just posted this on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamingsuggestions/comments/a83xkz/looking_for_a_multiplayer_game_with_a_sandboxopen/

So, my friends and I are lifelong D&D-players. Now, over time, most of us have moved away, or, generally, become less available for this sort of recreational activity, and so, we have been pondering whether to instead play some video games together on a regular base. - We are aware that there is stuff like Virtual Tabletop, or Roll20 out, and those are certainly options that we'd like to explore at a later point, but we'd rather try something else instead, at least for the moment. - Now, at the same time, while we know what we want, we have no idea where to get it; nobody among us is much of an avid gamer, still, except perhaps for stuff like Magic Arena or Hearthstone, so, my apologies if the following sounds kind of redundant. The kind of game we're looking for would likely have to include:

• Individual player characters, possibly with a roleplaying dimension/individualized level-up possibility - like, say, the Elder Scrolls.
• Cooperative game play with open world elements, like base-building, dungeoneering, or hunting.
• Possibly, an enclosed space, of sorts - either a closed multiplayer modus, like many old games (Jedi Knight, Fable series), or the possibility to reserve our part of the game really to us, so, whatever, that, in an MMRPG situation, we don't get raided by a neighboring guild just about every other weekend.
• On a technical/practical levels, since most of us are only casual gamers, it would be cool if the game was not demanding all too new hardware, and if it was playable without having to spend money on a monthly base.

What can you recommend me? Can you recommend me anything, at all? My apologies if I speak about video games like I am Bambi; the last game I played, outside from some Final Fantasy remakes on Android was... Skyrim in '11, I think.

What's your take on this? It's certainly a topic that many of us are facing, here and there. - Personally, I've been wondering whether, say, putting up a private Ultima ONline server might be an idea for this; but obviously, putting in a lot of work, and then finding out that you can only as a group once or twice per year, that wouldn't be a scenario that I'd fancy.

Yours,

Rafe

[Deleted]

... Of course I am "Rowell the Blade" on Reddit! Blackmoor, once and always!

[chicagowiz]

I would like to find such a game as well, but beyond the MMOs like Elder Scrolls Online, D&D Online, LOTR Online, I'm not sure there's one that fits your requirements exactly as presented.

[Deleted]

This could be something, I think, if it was done well.

Now, 30.000 € for a book AND an app is very little money. I am not holding my breath for this one to be released any time soon, but maybe an app *of the same kind* might be worth a look, at some point...

[Deleted]

Dec 21, 2018 11:12:41 GMT -6 chicagowiz said:

I would like to find such a game as well, but beyond the MMOs like Elder Scrolls Online, D&D Online, LOTR Online, I'm not sure there's one that fits your requirements exactly as presented.

The thread on Reddit pretty much went nowhere, lamentably ; the good thing about it was that it pointed me to this game:



(That's a petty slooooow video blog, honestly, but the only one I found.)


I have not played it myself, and it seems like it wasn't precisely a success immediately after its release, but it's the one game that I have been pointed to repeatedly when asking about this stuff. So, next time I have a prolonged period of free time while I am at home, I think I am going to try this one... Even though the game's principle really just seems to be that it's "Minecraft with the Oblivion engine". - Even if the game itself isn't ready for what we're looking for, it might be a project worth following: If not now, maybe it will become useful to us in a couple of years.

[Deleted]

Moving this to GD in the wake of Corona. This is a thing that we might want to discuss a bit further.

What MULTIPLAYER games are out there that best emulate D&D for you?

[Otto Harkaman]

Maybe "Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord"? Only PC



All of the RPGs on PS4 are too weird for me.

[akooser]

There are multi-player roguelikes wiki.isleward.com/Main_Page

Crossfire has been around for a long time crossfire.real-time.com/

There is Battle of Wesnoth but it's single player or PvP.

[Deleted]

Apr 26, 2020 15:35:14 GMT -6 Otto Harkaman said:

Maybe "Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord"? Only PC



All of the RPGs on PS4 are too weird for me.

I played the first one, and I thought the game was pretty amazing!


Right now, my own online endeavors are reduced to two things, though:

1. Find out whether it's possible to play the desktop version of the classic boardgame "Talisman" with several of my friends, and not just with random people, as the multiplayer mode suggests.

2. Wait for this one that I already mentioned above:


...But I'd love to do some more conventional multiplayer/MMRPG gaming, as well. Doesn't have to be anything fancy; I might try and convince my gaming group to try something as traditional as Ultima Online, or something of the kind: Some that's easy, reasonably fast-paced, and has a distinctive fantasy flair - but where you can also do your own stuff, in an open-world environment....Just that such a game doesn't exist, it seems.

[hamurai]

Apr 27, 2020 5:17:46 GMT -6 @rafael said:

Apr 26, 2020 15:35:14 GMT -6 Otto Harkaman said:

Maybe "Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord"? Only PC



All of the RPGs on PS4 are too weird for me.

I played the first one, and I thought the game was pretty amazing!

I played the first one for many years. The mods alone were worth spending the money. From what I've heard from a friend M&B 2 seems to create a similarly cool experience.

Apr 27, 2020 5:17:46 GMT -6 @rafael said:

1. Find out whether it's possible to play the desktop version of the classic boardgame "Talisman" with several of my friends, and not just with random people, as the multiplayer mode suggests.

The Vassal engine has a lot of modules, for example Dungeon! ( www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Dungeon ) Talisman is not available (any more, but maybe still around somewhere?).

[thegreyelf]

From a strictly personal standpoint, there is no videogame, virtual, or online platform that faithfully replicates the D&D experience, because (again, for ME) it's literally all about the physical presence of the other players around the table. Attempting to use virtual or video game presences as a substitute just increases my sense of sadness and loneliness at not being in the presence of my friends. I envy those who don't have that issue, and I seem to be in the minority on this, but there you have it.

Now, that disclaimer aside, has anyone ever tried Neverwinter Nights? I don't know if it works over the web, but my group experimented with it on a LAN basis once upon a time and were surprised at how much it was like playing D&D with miniatures, only the settings were richer and the minis animated. You don't have the storytelling aspect with it, becasuse the DM is literally just programming the story in, but it uses actual D&D (3.x) mechanics, so it faithfully replicates the play experience, only faster because computers can use 3.x mechanics at lightning speed and all the fiddly bits that bug us at the table are just handled in the background. It's worth a look, in any case. I've said for awhile that 4e works great as a board game mechanic (see the Legend of Drizzt, Castle Ravenloft, et. al. board games). The same goes for 3.x as a video game engine.

[hamurai]

If you want to give Neverwinter Nights a try, know that there's an enhanced edition available which greatly improves textures.
I've played it back in the day, all expansions included, and I had a good time.

Also (and I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier), there's Tabletop Simulator which has tons of user-generated content for D&D and other RPGs for free. It replicates the play at the table pretty closely, as you can play with minis on a grid and move your character around and roll dice and whatnot, all in 3D.

[asaki]

Yeah, I would say NWN would be the obvious answer, but I didn't play it long enough to really get into it. Tried a custom server once...a few gigabytes later, my friend takes me to a graveyard, says "grind on these zombies for a while" and I got bored of clicking my mouse while everyone else was talking OOC about the episode of Friends they were watching.

But MMOs have never been my cup of tea. I've started to get into certain MUDs, but nobody really plays them anymore, and my friends certainly wouldn't.

I tried a free server a while back that lets you play Ultima Online as it was in the early days (1998ish). It was pretty cool, lots of players, but seemed like something that would be a bit too time-consuming for me.

There was another one, a fan one, called Egg's Ultima Online, that styles itself more like Ultima IV (complete with VGA graphics), I played it for a few days.

But as far as being like D&D, the closest I've played IMO was Darklands, which is a single-player game.

[libertad]

Apr 27, 2020 10:02:38 GMT -6 hamurai said:

If you want to give Neverwinter Nights a try, know that there's an enhanced edition available which greatly improves textures.
I've played it back in the day, all expansions included, and I had a good time.

Also (and I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier), there's Tabletop Simulator which has tons of user-generated content for D&D and other RPGs for free. It replicates the play at the table pretty closely, as you can play with minis on a grid and move your character around and roll dice and whatnot, all in 3D.

I actually bought this game on sale during the quarantine. Sadly there's not many players on Steam as interested, although it does seem to have a sizable community. Most people in my gaming circles prefer Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds, though.

[countingwizard]

When I get the D&D video game co-op urge, I usually turn to:

Vagante [****-]: vagantegame.com/
Terraria [****-]: terraria.org/
Don't Starve Together [****-]: www.klei.com/games/dont-starve-together
Conan Exiles [**---]: www.conanexiles.com/
Remnant: From the Ashes [***--]: www.remnantgame.com/en/about/
Outward [**---]: www.ninedotsstudio.com/outward
Any of the Dark Souls Series [*****]
PULSAR: Lost Colony [****-]: www.pulsarthegame.com/
The Forest [***--]: endnightgames.com/
Necropolis [**---]: harebrained-schemes.com/necropolis/

Rated 1-5 stars myself. Not many of these games have magic or spells. I tend to like games where you have more direct control of your character and where the dungeon/environment tells the story, not the dialogue. Usually I either find myself wanting to either play this type of game, or grand strategy games like Europa Universalis IV, Crusader Kings II, Total War: Warhammer II, or Dominions V. Of those, the Dominions series is closest to D&D mechanics and lore.

Lately we are playing Last Oasis: store.steampowered.com/app/903950/Last_Oasis/

One oldie is 1979 PLATO mainframe D&D-clone called Avatar, which is only still playable because there are people still playing it that can help you retrieve your corpse when you inevitably die: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(1979_video_game) can be played at www.cyber1.org/

[libertad]

A lot of people pointed me to the Baldur's Gate series as 'quintessential vidya game D&D" although I confess that I tried the first game and couldn't really get into it. I cannot really put why that is into words, though.

Others have recommended Neverwinter Nights for being very mod-friendly, although I kind of lost interest when I found out that the engine does not support mounted combat. I wanted to make a Dragonlance server, and given dragon-riding is an iconic part...

[countingwizard]

There are two reasons why Baldur's gate doesn't jive with D&D play.

1. Combat puzzles. The game is designed around unforgiving combat encounters that require reloading instead of accepting losses, and frequently require the right combination of luck and spell/item usage to win the encounter.
2. Dialogue. The games have a wall of dialogue and railroad you through the story constantly. I like the characters though and prefer playing as them than custom created ones and exploring their backstories.
3. Real-time With Pause. This style of game requires lots of awkward micromanagement instead of a turn to turn style.

[asaki]

Apr 28, 2020 18:57:06 GMT -6 countingwizard said:

1. Combat puzzles. The game is designed around unforgiving combat encounters that require reloading instead of accepting losses, and frequently require the right combination of luck and spell/item usage to win the encounter.

Oh, it's not just me? I thought I was just really bad at the game. I figured there was no way they designed the game to just keep killing you.

Especially near the beginning, where they put a time-limit pressure on you to get to the mines. No time to level up! No time to rest and get your spells back! Get in there and die!

[Deleted]

This one looks kind of promising, and the multiplayer feature might be nice during the days of social distancing:

www.playconclave.com


Not a "Triple A" title, but for sure well-enough done: