Most videogame RPGs cite Dungeons & Dragons as their primary inspiration, but few directly adapt its rules. In a world of cooldowns and mana bars, D&D’s dice rolls, bonus actions, spell slots, and long rests can feel clunky and restrictive when applied to a videogame. Even Baldur’s Gate 3 makes many notable changes to make D&D more user-friendly, while indie RPG Solasta wears the 5e ruleset as a badge of honor, warts and all.
This is a game where combat is on a grid, where every d20 rolls on screen, and where jumping away from enemies is a sometimes-treat rather than a regular part of every meal.
While it may forever lurk in the shadow of Baldur’s Gate 3, its crunchy, dice-heavy combat is just what I want in a lean adaptation of the tabletop RPG.
Town Musicians of Bremen is a one-shot based on the German folk story of the same name. Designed for Tier 1 (levels 1-4), the adventurers meet multiple D&D versions of the four animals from the folk story on their way to Bremen.
Starring: Kaelan, level 14 tiefling Monster Slayer Ranger/Fiend Warlock Scarlet, level 14 human Oath of Devotion Paladin Gillian, level 14 triton Champion Fighter/College of Lore Bard Kethra, level 14 half-elf Assassin Rogue TIM, level 14 warforged War Domain Cleric
We barely hear each other over the roar of the rapids. Scarlet and Kethra work furiously to keep our little rowboat from capsizing.
TIM is mumbling and waving his hands, magically calming the water around us. I nearly break his concentration when I scream, “Waterfall!”
Ninety feet. Eighty feet. We’re soaking wet, crashing waves slamming into us as we approach the drop. Seventy feet. The boat lurches sideways, but Scarlet grunts and keeps us upright.
Forty feet. TIM is unnervingly calm, fighting nature itself. Styx, flying somewhere above, cackles gleefully.
Twenty feet.
A school of fish darts away. Was that a larger form in the water? It’s my last thought before we hit the sky, and my stomach drops out.
I open my eyes. We’re in the air, still in the boat, gently descending downward. My hands are still desperately clinging to the side of our battered rowboat. TIM is still chanting, keeping some water around us, but the rest of us look around in bewilderment.
Then we see her. Gillian. Triton. Emissary of the Sea, floating beside us, keeping us gently wrapped in her Featherfall spell.
Making fun of the United States of America isn’t exactly a challenging endeavor. Our culture of celebrities, excess, and ignorance pretty much mocks itself at every opportunity. Satire can be a bit more difficult, but when carefully crafted and applied, can contain a multitude of messages and realizations draped in humor.
Monsters of Murka is an effective satire of American culture and politics, a sourcebook for a fantasy world that reflects our current (or at least, circa 2016-17) state of political divisiveness alongside huge leaps in social media, technology, and globalization. Not all of it is overtly clever, but there’s more than enough content, including new player options, to craft an entire campaign in the tumultuous land of Murka.
Starring: Kaelan, level 14 tiefling Monster Slayer Ranger/Fiend Warlock Scarlet, level 14 human Oath of Devotion Paladin Gillian, level 14 triton Champion Fighter/College of Lore Bard Kethra, level 14 half-elf Assassin Rogue TIM, level 14 warforged War Domain Cleric
I led them through the forest. A living forest, very much aware of our presence. The warforged, TIM, tried shouting at it, only to get a mass of barbed vines waving in his face. “Calm,” I reminded, as if speaking to unruly children.
We’d survived a night and a day in here, and I was not about to be killed because these fools wanted to poke and prod.
Muttering to myself, I turn a corner, stopping suddenly in my tracks. A red-skinned woman is floating off the ground in front of us. Her lower half is a mass of writhing tentacles, and she’s armored in black iron.
When she speaks, her voice barely raises above a whisper, yet echoes ominously through the woods.
“Hello there little mortals, it’s lovely to meet you,” says the demon. “I am Irathon. What might your names be? And what exactly are you doing here?”
My hands fly to my crossbows and aim them at her head. I whisper one word in response, not taking my eyes off her. “Demon!”
The Psion Class tackles a popular character class option, the mind-based Psion, who has access to an entire unique list of nearly 200 new spells, though ultimately falls into the same trap of re-theming the Wizard and Warlock classes.
The Dark Tide of Damodan is an aquatic-themed adventure for level 5-8, with a dungeon crawl in a partially sunken keep. It checks all the boxes for combat, role-playing, and exploration, though the dungeon crawl is a bit too by-the-numbers.
Starring:
Kaelan, level 13 tiefling Monster Slayer Ranger/Fiend Warlock
Scarlet, level 13 human Oath of Devotion Paladin
Gillian, level 13 triton Champion Fighter/College of Lore Bard
Kethra, level 13 half-elf Assassin Rogue
TIM, level 13 warforged War Domain Cleric
“You didn’t answer my question,” said Kethra, staring down the trio of odd tiny creatures, our apparent captors who were in need of our skills to save their world. “You were close to him, you must know your master’s weakness.”
‘The Master’ was what they called a powerful planar wizard, the creator of this domain they called Anonyma, a refugee world for displaced creatures and biomes. He’d disappeared, and now their world was threatened by invading armies of demons and angels.
And they turned to us as a last line of defense, which I’m pretty sure we never signed up for.
“And that’s the first lead we have,” said the magical cat Rycresh. “As far as we know our master has only one weakness: Marina. His lover. She lives here on this plane. If he told anyone where he was going or what he was doing, it might be her.”
“She’s not nice though,” said the tiny fairy, Thyxia.
“No she’s really not,” said the small hairy man called Feogh. “She would be your first contact, but it ain’t gonna be easy. He loves her you see but, she’s a dangerous, vile woman. She’s a druidess, but she has a bad habit of wiping out civilizations she thought were encroaching on the wild.”
“We do know that Master have her a grove so she wouldn’t hurt anyone anymore. He visits her from time to time,” said the fairy.
“Alright, show on us on this map where we can find her,” said Scarlet.
![Solasta may be the dice-obsessed D&D RPG you’re looking for [PC Gamer]](https://roguewatson.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/keyart_exploration_1920x1080_72dpi.png?w=1200)
