D&D Lords of Waterdeep
I’ve never played the board game, but I thought I would give this game a shot since I’m a long time D&D player and have been craving a bit of solo fun. Most people have already outlined the pro’s and con’s regarding it, so I will not go through them. I will tell you:
-The game is worth $10 easily. Even $15 is acceptable if you like computerized board games.
-You must play the tutorial to understand what’s going on. I played it twice, and after that was a pro at playing.
-Ignore all the naysaying about the animation speeds. Once you know what is going on, you will appreciate the speed of the animations. Could they be slower? Sure. However, a couple games through and you know exactly what the cards are doing. There is also a review icon that you can click called the “Discard Pile” to read and look at the cards that have been played. In addition, you can click on the individual players cards and review those that they have drawn which may have moved too fast to read initially. IN FACT, it is a good strategy to review the other players cards to make decisions in the game.
– Real player with 61.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dungeons & Dragons Tabletop Games.
My “hours played” stat is a little misleading, because I played the iOS version of Playdek’s adaptation on the iPad for years.
This version is virtually identical to the iOS version, with a few exceptions. The most obvious is the fact that the game is horizontally oriented, instead of vertically. This is an unfortunate necessity, since monitors can’t be oriented vertically. As such, the expansions –- and I strongly recommend getting that DLC – have to be awkwardly crunched into the board, instead of elegantly just placed below the board. One has to scroll as well, and non-obvious tabs implemented to save space.
– Real player with 43.1 hrs in game
Fantasy Grounds Unity
The Skinny:
Easily one of the best programs on my computer and just keeps improving itself. More detailed below.
The Thick of thing:
I began looking for an online resource to start playing Pathfinder remotely, as I only knew a handful of people who played and they lived all over the place. I started with Roll20 and stayed there for a year. During my tenor there I had to keep restarting things on every new game I made. I could not use the same assets without bringing them in again to the new map, and eventually started paying subscription to gain abilities to automate and utilize the feature that made life easier. Content creators were great (independent artists and such) but I began to realize the subscription model was going to make me pay more than any other game I owned. So I started looking at ‘competitors’ which I learned there were many.
– Real player with 794.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dungeons & Dragons Indie Games.
Fantasy Grounds Unity (FGU) is a special case. It has a lot of downsides; however, FGU is the only product that provides flexibility, official support, automation, and most importantly regional currency support.
On the bright side; FGU runs on the local machine. The GM can use whatever maps and props he likes. It is also possible to make modules and share them. I can make an entire adventure including images and tokens and just send the file to a fellow GM or move characters between campaigns. I can run 50000 different campaigns and the best of it, once I purchased FGU, it is mine to keep. The official support is also great. You just buy the system once and it is yours. Most of the settings are updated with new features. If you are following a rather popular system, there are tons of adventures and if you are a DIY person you can make your adventures. The FGU also comes with 11 RPG systems and starter info for the most popular syste. Unofficial support is also plenty, there are a lot of unofficial RPG system files out there. You can also port or make your own system. With FGU, the sky is the limit.
– Real player with 549.5 hrs in game
Mystery at Morgoth
Mystery at Morgoth is set on the world of Qaedon, a thousand years before the Great Cataclysm and is the follow-up to The Curse of Feldar Vale . Known as the Age of Chaos, humans, greenskins, and all manner of monsters fight to survive these troubled times.
The peoples of Morgoth are living in fear of the shadowy organization known as The Cabal. But who controls them, who are their leaders? Nobody wants to find out as unpleasant things happen to those who are too inquisitive.
Build a party of 4-6 characters to adventure in Morgoth, to seek fame and fortune, or more likely find just enough coin to put food on the plate. Mystery at Morgoth delivers old-school gaming with hand-drawn 2D graphics throughout.
If you completed The Curse of Feldar Vale import your party to continue the adventure or solve the mystery stand-alone with a new party of your choice.
Unravel the Mystery at Morgoth and export your party to the next adventure - The Dark Tower (in development, coming Late 2022).
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Hours of gameplay with multiple locations to visit and numerous quests to undertake.
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Build your party from traditional D&D races (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Half-Elf, or Halfling).
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Use your Warriors to batter the enemy, your Rogues to sneak up unseen, or your Clerics to Turn the Undead.
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Get power and magic with your Battlemages or pure magic with your combat-weak Mages.
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Recruit single or multi-class units like the Warrior/Rogue.
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Tactical turn-based encounters on square grids where every decision counts.
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Adventure in overland locations, explore buildings, or battle in dark dungeons.
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Keep your party supplied (hungry heroes do not fight as efficiently as well-fed ones!).
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Hundreds of items for your party to find.
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Dozens of spells for your Battlemages, Clerics, and Mages to blast the enemy or help your party.
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Fill your coffers with Qaedi (the global currency) by looting your enemies.
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Permanent death for units unless you can afford Resurrection!!
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Dozens of options to customize gameplay.
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Optional advanced rules to change the way you play.
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Customize each member of your party as they level up through combat experience.
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Dozens of attributes for each unit covering their physical quality, abilities, movement, protection, and combat modifiers.
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Equip your units with all manner of goodies using a variable inventory with up to 23 slots per unit.
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Build spellbooks for your spellcasters from three Schools of Magic - Arcane, Divine, and Planar.
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Battle dozens of foes, many of them based on original D&D creatures.
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Deal with Traps both mechanical and magical.
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Detailed In-Game Player Guides (Item Directory, Spell Compendium).
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Help System for every spell, item, and ability.
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Customizable Tooltip System.
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…and so much more!
New rules/improvements from The Curse of Feldar Vale:
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New rule: Advanced Flyers - flying units can ascend and attack from afar or descend into melee.
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New rule: Chance of Critical Hit - do extra damage by striking a vital area of the enemy.
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New rule: Combat Accuracy - sometimes fighting units are just going to miss!
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New rule: Static Encounters - improved AI gang-rushes if turned off.
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High definition maps throughout.
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Interactable containers (cupboards, chests, etc.)
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Items with Abilities (Necklace of Missiles, Brooch of Healing, etc.)
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Improved AI spellcasting and combat (with new Veteran AI personality).
Fantasy Grounds Classic
OK, so please read the full review instead of just taking note of my thumb down vote for this game. That was a tough choice to make. This program is a very mixed bag, some wonderful things in here that are blended together with some horrible design decisions.
Context: I use this program as a face-to-face tool for my gaming group, no outside connections. So this review will ignore any feature dealing with that. Also, will not be comparing this to any competitors. My setup is a dual screen PC, with two instances of the program open. One (GM) on my monitor and the second (Player) on a TV laying flat. Players are using miniatures and real dice, while I am using tokens and the program’s dice.
– Real player with 1343.8 hrs in game
*** Update as of 3-July-2020****
I’m not going to remove the previous review because it’s all accurate still. That being said, FGU has more features and is better than classic, mostly.
However, even perhaps more importantly…. There is a piece of software called “Foundry” that is LOADS and HEAPS better than every other options out there. You pay 50 bucks for software as the host and it works just.. seamlessly. Check it out, it’s outstanding and incomprehensibly good. People connect via their browsers, but with NO exaggeration, it has 1/50th the load time of FGU or FG, and is so utterly beautiful. Check it out, you will be impressed.
– Real player with 530.5 hrs in game
Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation
Short version:
Pros:
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Colorful graphics
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Decent ideas
Cons:
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Repetitive enemies and locations
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Too random
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Unbalanced
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Grindy
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Questionable DLC practices
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Feels like a mobile game
“Long” version:
Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation is a turn-based dungeon-crawler that takes place in the Dungeons & Dragons universe.
You control a group of heroes with different abilities and you must complete quests and side objectives to upgrade your gear and get to the final level.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2377348053
– Real player with 30.4 hrs in game
Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation is a boardgame-inspired title in which a group of brave adventurers seek to end a terrible curse plaguing the Forgotten Realms. Traverse the jungles of Chult to find the source of deathly magic unleashed upon the living and the dead, yadda yadda.
Writing two introductory sentences about a fantasy-themed game shouldn’t be difficult in theory, but here we are, struck by reality where the curse of Dungeons & Dragons video games persists - majority of them are very lackluster for what is supposed to be one of the greatest and most known tabletop franchises, and Tales from Candlekeep is no different.
– Real player with 25.0 hrs in game
Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms
Idle D&D game? Count me in! Cute characters, addicting game play, funny story lines (sensiblechuckle.gif), easy to grind gems to pay for shiny upgrades. Kept me up hours past bedtime. 10/10.
– Real player with 2609.5 hrs in game
Love this game. Played a few idle clicker types but nothing like this. Exceptionally fun and I’m sure I’ll be playing it for a long time to come.
– Real player with 2155.3 hrs in game
Tabletop Adventures
Tabletop Adventures is meant to look and feel like an actual role-playing environment that you would setup at home and play with pen & paper, dice, miniatures, map tiles, and imagination. The game uses familiar rules systems and takes you through a generated story with random changes to make things unpredictable for maximum replay-ability. Since the game is single-player, you won’t have to find friends with flexible schedules in order to start playing. You control 4 heroes and partake in a voice narrated story in a video game that emulates tabletop board game actions. This is not meant to replace your favorite role-playing game, but to get you through the week while waiting for your next tabletop adventure.
The Curse of Feldar Vale
I have well over 100 Steam games, but have never felt the motivation to do a review before. I have finally played a game that I feel is worthy of a review. Please excuse the review being a bit ‘long winded’, but put that down to my venerable old age!
My interest in D&D games started way back in the 70’s as a player in a tabletop game. Through the 80’s I was hooked on the Wizardry games, programmed a D&D game in the mid 80’s, was a tabletop dungeon master in the 90’s & have tried almost every D&D game that has been released since. With this extensive D&D history I feel I can recognise a good D&D game when I see one – and ‘The Curse’ is one such game.
– Real player with 152.7 hrs in game
Yeah good fun but, it would be nice for double movement out side combat. Makes exploring easier. You know a bit like 3rd ed. So I can’t change class for any of my party. My champion was supposed to have a couple of levels of rogue before becoming a fighter. A little frustrated with that. Overall though I am having good fun times. I especially like my accordion manoeuvre with my big fighter supported by my cleric when in tight single file corridors. My mage ‘mister squishy’ , don’t ask me about my mage. How do I add spells to his spell book?
– Real player with 50.1 hrs in game
Goblin’s Shop
I tried to get into this game, but ultimately put it away.
The premise is that you are a shopkeeper for the monsters who fight humans. You progress in experience points not by fighting but by shop keeping. You can designate VIPs to do the fighting for you when you collect resources to craft items for your shop. I like this premise, but there are several things about the game I don’t like.
Progressing through human territory means discovering new materials and new crafting recipes. But the rate of discovery outpaces the slow rate of craft mastery. By the time I’ve mastered crafting level 2 weapons/armor/potions, I’m already on level 4 materials in the human world. Obtaining mastery of crafting is a big grind.
– Real player with 34.0 hrs in game
15 hours in, just trust me when i say make a pass on this. Lots of irritating things in this game, once you get to the point i am its just a HUGE grind. Hell its nothing but a grind, typically games like this you want to be able to walk away for a few mins and see some progress but there is none.
Honestly this is just an idle game w/o the idle mechanics and after 3hrs you will find yourself regretting you bought this.
I bought on sale for $5 and still not worth it!
– Real player with 14.7 hrs in game
TRPG Workshop
Driven by their intense zeal for making an easier-to-use and more user-friendly online TRPG platform providing players more freedom, these veteran gamers develop TRPG Workshop. It is deemed as a comprehensive TRPG auxiliary platform that gives players a great degree of freedom. This means that TRPG Workshop almost contains all the functions needed for TRPG games and renders a visible and simple solution.
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Interactive Visualnovel-like gameplay brings more engaging game experience
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Act as GM, Player or Spectator
The GM and Players in a single room have different abilities and rights including visible methods to throw a dice or switch the background – all for your convenience!
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Check visible profiles in game anytime
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In-game map editor
Share maps via Steam Workshop or other ways. On a map, there exists the Fog of War blocking your vision, little Tokens representing your characters, and even different accidents that may take place to change the world.
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Replay your game when it ends!
Every game in TRPGWORKSHOP will be recorded. Any choice you have made and any throwing of dice will remain unchanged. Logs are replayable and shareable.
Rulebooks are supported. Share them with friends or on Steam Workshop!
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Share and re-create
Steam Workshop will be fully available for TRPG Workshop. Backgrounds, character illustrations, map, map resources, scenario mods and even rulebooks or character cards are all free to customize and share on Steam Workshop at will.
Powerful resource manager is also supported for TRPG Workshop. Just one click to sort out your creations as easy as blowing off dust.
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Future
Apart from various built-in resource packages for the platform, we are engaging in developing many convenient functions including QuickNote, voice-to-text log or even illustration production and facial capture for Live2D visual characters.