Taken as a standard isometric RPG, Sword Coast Legends doesn’t really grab me all that much. I mean, it’s got some of the team behind Dragon Age: Origins working on it, but other than that it looks pretty mundane.
It’s the game’s DM quest creation tools that I’m intrigued by, and the team at developer n-Space has released two new videos showing the sort of thing budding overlords can cook up for their unsuspecting players.
These videos were initially shown off at E3. The first demonstrates Campaign Creation mode, which pretty much looks like a simplified set of level editing tools. You can put triggers down for various events, from quest NPCs to vendors to traps and environmental objects like spider eggs, which spit out arachnids to attack intruders. It looks pretty robust, and hopefully it will encourage the same kind of creativity that the Neverwinter Nights 2 modding community was known for.
The second video shows off an adventuring party’s attempt to run a created dungeon. The DM’s an active player here too, spending a ‘Threat’ resource to throw new challenges at the intruders. It’s a neat mechanic, encouraging a slow build-up and preventing the DM from simply throwing twenty-three pit fiends at the group whenever he gets annoyed.
Sword Coast Legends will be available on September 8. I’m in the mood for a new fantasy RPG, so I’m hoping the main campaign’s even half as intriguing as these multiplayer elements.
