The use of magic characters are where things become more interesting in combat. Players and enemies are able to use parts of the environment for cover or decrease their enemies visibility in different ways to reduce the chances of taking damage. The combat mechanics were still unpolished and glitchy, but the things that they were able to show off would introduce some unique ideas to Solasta: Crown of the Magister. Girard says that they want to allow players to make choices such as this while they play, so that they feel like they are more in control of combat and movement. This made what should have been a difficult fight much simpler through the use of the environment.
During one point in the demo, an enemy wolf was lured to a cliff-side and kicked off to its death. Tactical Adventures put a significant focus on vertical movement, so players can position their characters on higher terrain to have a height advantage against ground enemies or attack enemies that are flying in the air. There will also be different dialogue options based on what a character's personality is.Ĭharacters can be moved around in the environment in multiple ways to give different advantages in combat. Solasta also has a new system called " personality flags." Depending on what alignment and background the player chooses, they will receive specific personality traits that influence how the character behaves during cutscenes and narration. Just like in D&D, backgrounds grant players different skill proficiencies and abilities. Each one will give the player a sidequest that unlocks a different part of the game," explains Girard. " Each background is going to define a story arc for this character, so players will have four different story arcs for their party. Tactical Adventures has remained faithful to 5th Edition when it comes to backgrounds, but also adapted them into Solasta: Crown of the Magister in new ways. There were many options for designing a character's looks as well, including different beards and hair styles. After choosing a Snow Dwarf Cleric, Girard informed us, " You actually chose very well, because Dwarves and Clerics have the most customization options in the game so far." He wasn't wrong either as Clerics in the game have a range of different gods to choose from, which provide them with different skills and spells. All this to say that Girard and the rest of Tactical Adventures have a lot of of experience with pen and paper RPGs.ĭuring the course of the preview, Girard gave us the option of deciding which character and class we wanted to see shown off. He also is currently running a session with a party of people who work at Tactical Adventures, and they play using the Roll20 app. Girard is actually currently running four different D&D campaigns with different groups, even while under lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Girard has been playing tabletop RPGs for many years, and loves playing them with friends and coworkers. Making a RPG, especially one very faithful to tabletop, has always been a dream of mine, so this is really a passion project for me and for a large part of the team as well." Girard said " We are big fans of tabletop RPGs as well as computer and video game RPGs. Girard and his team wanted to bring their passion and excitement for Dungeons & Dragons to Solasta: Crown of the Magister as much as possible. During our chat with Tactical Adventures' founder Mathieu Girard, it was revealed that the devs are tabletop game players.