Co-op Neverwinter RPG Announced For 2011

Atari and Cryptic Studios are teaming up to make a new Dungeons & Dragons-based RPG called Neverwinter, planned for Q4 2011. Gameplay will center on five-person groups that can include other players and/or AI allies, and there will be an extensive content generation system. Gamespot spoke with Cryptic CEO Jack Emmert, who explained parts of the game in more depth: "I think there are two very unique gameplay elements in 4th Edition that we've done something interesting with: action points and healing surges. In the tabletop game, an action point lets a player perform a reroll or add an additional die to a roll. In our game, action points are earned through combat and spent to power special abilities called 'boons.' These boons give players special boosts, but only in certain circumstances. Healing surges represent the amount of times a player can heal himself before resting. In D&D and Neverwinter, various abilities let players use a surge immediately or perhaps replenish the number of surges available. It's a precious resource that players will need to husband as they adventure in the brave new world. Positioning, flanking, tactics, and using powers with your teammates are also all things that come from the 4th Edition that are interesting. Of course, we're using power names and trying to keep power behavior consistent with the pen-and-paper counterparts. Neverwinter will definitely feel familiar to anyone who has played the 4th Edition."

Re:4th Ed.

[Corwn of Amber]

4th Ed... Oh please no. Just no.

Same advancement tree for everyone ... content-free books ... no non-combat skills ... made for raiding ... no risk to die, at all, ever ... healing surges are like a zillion reserve HP ... second wind, half-health? poof! full health! ... every class plays the same way ... no longer D&D ... playing a bard makes you crazy ... so much less versatility ...

Re:Already an RPG with that name?

[Anonymous Coward]

Meh. The Reborn toolset will probably be easier to use and add some genuine innovations. I am not as quick to believe that it will be nearly as powerful as the Aurora toolset; I think only Bioware, Blizzard, Obsidian, or similar studios (SP-plus-big-content RPG developers) have the needed experience. Bioware had many years of prior history working with the predecessor to Aurora, Infinity. The underlying content support for both engines was nearly the same. The big difference with NWN was that Bioware released most of their internal tools, combined into one highly-polished toolset.

I think the persistent world claim is interesting. Does this mean that Reborn will be a MMO-RPG hybrid? Multiplayer, 60-120 players, persistent? Groups that can travel anywhere in the world in isolation, players that can log on/off at any time, with a world that keeps on running? It's the best of both worlds: moddable servers, large player support, group oriented, but not fixed to one particular world area. I love the idea. NWN had (and still has) many fun PW servers.

Magic system

[Dancindan84]

I like the way the combat system works for magic, as it alleviates the players trying a fight/rest/fight/rest type of dungeon crawl. Outside of that I much preferred 3.5. I was thinking of trying a hybrid campaign where we used the 3.5 rules for everything except magic, which would use the 4th ed turn/combat/daily magic use.

My edition is superior to your edition

[Pond823]

OD&D - The perfect dungeon based roleplaying game, with dungeons. Just where the hell can I buy Chainmail?!
BD&D - Pandering to the Rogue-like crowd. Also, when my DM's in a bad mood with me and make up biased rules.
AD&D - Pandering to the Dungeon Master crowd. Also, can we not start at 5th level and I play a Wizard? With psionics?
2D&D - Pandering to Diablo crowd. Also, whoo, this all tastes a little Vanilla.
3D&D - Pandering to the Ultima Online crowd. Also, while I've spent 40 hours perfecting my NPC liche, it's too complicated to actually run.
4D&D - Pandering to the WOW crowd. Also, it's only fun when actually, you know, playing the game.

Now T&T, there is a game.

Re:4th Edition?

[geminidomino]

I wish I still had people like that to game with.

Every group I've been part of in the past decade or so (before I finally threw in the towel) would have just killed the cultist, stashed the body, and then killed the contact.

And then demand extra XP for being "clever."

Strong pass

[Samy Merchi]

4th Edition killed my interest in D&D. It's a shame that I will apparently never have a new D&D computer game to play ever again, but I'm sticking with 1st-3rd Editions and Pathfinder which feels far more D&D than 4e ever will.

Forgotten Realms was one of my favorite fictional settings, but 4e killed that too, with the Spellplague and jump forward in time and everything, so again, 4e ruined not only D&D but also the Forgotten Realms.

Furthermore, Cryptic is one of my least favorite developers. They make very simplistic games that are all about combat mechanics and hack and slash, with no good story or intriguing characters anywhere in sight.

This is a strong pass. I'd *love* a good Forgotten Realms D&D game, but this provides for none of that. "good" is negated by Cryptic, "Forgotten Realms" is negated by 4e, and "D&D" is negated by 4e.

Re:Ignore the rules you don't like

[Rogerborg]

Well, we're talking about 4th Edition here, and I doubt that the game under discussion will have a "Use 2nd edition plus house rules" mode, so your crusty old reminiscences are about as relevant as elves-as-a-character-class - when y'all played D&D the first time it was called D&D, you get to yell at kobolds to get off your lawn.

Re:What happened to v1?

[curveclimber]

Check out Swords & Wizardry:
http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/ [swordsandwizardry.com]

or
Labyrinth Lord:
http://www.goblinoidgames.com/products.html [goblinoidgames.com]

Either is 1 free book to get your oldschool game one.

WoTC jumped the shark.

4e as a computer game - Yeah Right

[dmgxmichael]

4e may copy the feel of WoW, but it's Magic: The Gathering at it's heart. As a foundation for a computer game it's a hopeless joke. Over a third of the powers in the game "interrupt" another power. That's great for a table top game, but every one of them will have to be rewritten for a computer game in real time. By the time they are done with it they're going to have a new system in place entirely.

Re:Ignore the rules you don't like

[Thangodin]

I have to disagree with just about everything you've said here... with the exception of 4th ed being not much fun.

1) It's a drag for DM's because you can't do anything with the system but frustrate the players. Monster powers are arbitrary and often completely out of line with their challenge ratings, and there was often no logical or systematic reason for what monsters could do. At the same time, you couldn't actually tell an epic fantasy story in it because the high level free form magic was all gone, so even if you gave those abilities to your NPC's there was no way for the players to respond.

2) Wizards have not ruled the game since 2nd ed, and clerics have never been other than a support class. Druids still kick ass, but everyone gets their moment to shine. Are you sure you played 3.5? A cleric who spends five full rounds buffing himself can be a mediocre fighter, but still can't beat a fighter two levels lower than he is (we put this to the test.) But a similar range of buffs on the tank can turn him into a Dragon slaying god. Spellcasters are good at taking out hordes of grunts, but for bosses, there's no saving throw against a good axe.

Cryptic?

[Etrias]

I see a lot of the comments are taking sides on which rules edition is best and that's fine and to be expected. Problem is, the biggest issue on this is not that they're using the 4e rule set, but that they handed yet another beloved property to Cryptic. Y'know, the guys who took the Star Trek MMO license and took a big steamy dump on it. The guys who took their Champions Online engine and skinned it Star Trek then called it a days work. The company who innovated on how to nickel and dime their player base and laughed from their pile of money conned from a bunch of Trek fans. The company that promised Atari that it could publish a new MMO every year so they could rake in the cash.

Yeah, this isn't Bioware doing Neverwinter Nights as an MMO, this is just Cryptic preparing to kick yet another nerd group right in the balls. My bet is that their precious "character customization" selling point, which they mention in every goddamn fluff piece from their marketing department is the same thing from when they were involved with City of Heroes/Villians which really amounts to your various options on a slider bar. Bah, I'm never giving Cryptic another damn dime. Gaming is better off if this company goes broke and folds.

Re:4th Edition?

[prograde]

Roleplay isn't something you can really put in or take out of the rules.

White Wolf's Exalted handles this really, really well. For any action, you can try to get "stunt dice": basically, you describe what you are doing in a cool way and if it sounds creative, you get extra dice to roll.

So, instead of, "I attack with my sword," you say, "I lunge over the table, uttering a blood-curdling war cry, and slash mightily at his mid-section."

Even more extra dice if you cause the entire group of players to either laugh or gasp in amazement. It does a great job of keeping the players engaged and thinking creatively.