Cult Engine 3.5 (internal codename: Project Sigil)

[icycalm]

Dungeons & Dragons Might Unveil A Digital Subscription Service And Virtual Tabletop This Year
https://www.thegamer.com/dungeons-drago ... -tabletop/

Dungeons & Dragons might be bundling D&D Beyond and a virtual tabletop into a subscription service, according to a recent survey. Several Reddit users who responded to a new D&D consumer survey claimed to see a video showing off a new virtual tabletop software. Many describe the platform as being just like D&D Beyond, with the addition of a 3D-rendered tabletop. Others said that this new product is due this November.

They also reference a strict NDA, with threats that Wizards of the Coast could track any leakers using their IP address. Those who chose to break the NDA describe a suite of features that look very similar to D&D Beyond - interactive virtual character sheets, campaign managers, and online dice rolling. However, the software also seems to get into Roll20 territory by offering a 3D digital table that can be populated by customized tokens.

If an official D&D virtual tabletop and subscription software is coming in November, we'll probably learn about it during July's D&D Live.

[icycalm]

One D&D World Reveal
https://www.patreon.com/posts/70935630

Finally, the D&D official VTT is revealed, and it's basically a TaleSpire copycat.

Note that the three 3D VTTs covered in this analysis aren't the only ones coming out. I am aware of a few more, but they aren't worth discussing from what I can see so far, because their assets look crap. And if the assets look crap, I doubt the features will look much better. So I'll be focusing our attention on the three leaders, though still keeping my eye open if another worthy challenger arises.

[icycalm]

D&D Virtual Tabletop - First Look | D&D Direct
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RiRosl ... XVyolQO3wj



So here it is, the official D&D VTT. Try to not be bothered by the morons overacting everything. If you can manage this, you should watch the whole trailer, as most of the play footage is later on.

And it looks pretty damn great. I would say it seems somewhere between TaleSpire and Menyr. More photorealistic than TaleSpire, but without Menyr's full animation, first-person perspective, advanced weather effects etc.

It will have the entire Monster Manual, and with EXCELLENT 3D models, plus spell effects and other snazzy effects that TaleSpire doesn't yet have, including weather effects, that again TaleSpire hasn't put in yet. PLUS a marketplace from day 1 so people can sell assets they made, just like Menyr will have. AND it will have rules automation baked in from day 1, unlike with TaleSpire, which will take years to add this in and mostly rely on modders.

And it will be playable at the end of the year, for testers to start with.

So this will first of all put immense pressure on the TaleSpire devs. They will have to bring something to the table that the D&D VTT can't, and at this point I am not sure what that is. It all depends on how OPEN the D&D offering is. Will you be able to use non-D&D rule systems? Will you be able to build horizontally and vertically to great extent, or will it just be smallish areas with loading screens in-between like a CRPG? Will you be able to mod it, like for example remove the mini bases, etc.? How ROBUST will the building be? Will be it as easy and modular as TaleSpire's? Or will it be more restrictive?

From the little they showed in the trailer, I don't see why all the above questions can't be satisfactorily answered. In many ways, this VTT is already ahead of TaleSpire, even though it's been in development for less than half the time probably (Bouncyrock has been working on TaleSpire since 2015 lol). If they keep up this pace of development, they will be lapping TaleSpire in all respects within a year and a half or so. And then TaleSpire will just die. Their only hope is if the D&D VTT restricts creators in enough ways to make it worthwhile to the best of them to stick with TaleSpire. Note that the way you build stuff in the two programs is very different, the D&D one will be like Menyr, meaning a normal 3D rendering interface, whereas TaleSpire kinda gamifies the building to make it work as if you're using legos. So creators won't be able to easily crosspost assets and sets between VTTs. They will be able to do this easily between D&D and Menyr, but TaleSpire will be left in the cold. And that will be a shame because its art style is so charming and unique. I've grown extremely fond of it while building my campaigns on it. Maybe in the end that's what will save it... Maybe people will keep using it just for the art style. I certainly will, if it remains alive, and either way we ARE using it for West Marches (and its sequels...), because all that stuff is ready now.

As for Menyr, it will need to lean heavily into cutting-edge stuff like animation, first-person, real-time, VR, etc. Not to speak of its Codex which basically incorporates World Anvil into the VTT. If it does all this stuff, and it does it quickly, it could give the D&D VTT a run for its money.

So competition in VTTs is heating up in 2023, and by 2024 all three next-gen offerings will be out and the war will be in full swing. What I am salivating over above all is that SOMEONE will be the first to offer a full official campaign with full 3D assets. Paizo did this first with 4K 2D assets on Foundry, and all their new campaigns now are released in this format, but full 3D is too expensive for them, so I suspect Wizards will do this first, and Paizo will have to follow or lose market share. And this development should draw in more CRPG players, who will hopefully help to pay for the expensive assets.

Note that the first 3D GMRPG campaign was Beneos's version of Curse of Strahd. I am not sure if this is fully ready yet, but I know that most of it is. I recently saw him adding even optional material designed by GMs, so he probably has all the official stuff done. At any rate, the question now is which of the two main TTRPG publishers will step up to the plate first and match what Beneos has done, and it looks like it'll be Wizards.

And the next NEXT step is for someone to dumb down the rules so that anyone can play, and move away from fantasy to all sorts of themes including stuff like practically rule-less social dramas etc. That's what's coming later in the decade, and that's how they'll get more people playing. I will analyze all this at length in later parts of my "Roleplaying Culture" essay. We don't have to worry about any of that for at least a couple years more, but it's definitely coming. Won't change anything about my game and world apart from the fact that the best of that new stuff will be available on the overworld to travel to and play.

[icycalm]

Dungeons & Dragons Provide More Info About Project Sigil
https://bleedingcool.com/games/dungeons ... ject-sigil

Wizards of the Coast held a special presentation during Gen Con 2024 this week, informing several in attendance about how Dungeons & Dragons' new Project Sigil system will work.

The highlight of all this was the Creative Mode, where you can create whatever you wish from scratch. Or take something pre-made and improve on it. You can prep on the fly or build whatever you want way in advance, spending as much or little time on it as you see fit to tell the story your way. You can even create worlds around iconic IPs that are related to the franchise. As you can see from the images here, they've already incorporated assets from Baldur's Gate 3 into the system, so you have character and setting assets to play with.

Everything about it is being built on Unreal Engine 5, so essentially you have the same kind of building freedom game designers have when making their own titles, only here you have a library of pre-made Dungeons & Dragons assets to choose from. We only saw a few things at the start, such as your standard dungeons, castles, and town settings. But we didn't see additional assets such as water or ships, which makes us believe they will be releasing asset packs down the road.

The plan for Project Sigil will be to launch on PC, then eventually on mobile and consoles, so you can play with whoever you want, where you want, from anywhere you can. A Closed Beta will be revealed later this Fall, and you will need a D&D Beyond account to take part in it. However, they made it clear a D&D Beyond account will not be required to use it when it launches, much like other systems where you don't need to own a game in order to use assets tied to it. You'll be able to use it for free, but it will come with constraints, while those with a D&DB account will have more access. We'll keep an eye for a launch date on the Close Beta.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/project ... st-9423190

Are D&D rules baked into it? Or can it be used as a 3D visualizer system neutral?

Actually, that's what is most interesting about it for my money, it is the latter and not the former. It's like Tabletop Simulator, not like Roll20. They have apparently set it up to play chess, checkers and other games like chutes & ladders. When Roll for Ckbat takes to the team last year, they said it could be used to play any game, even Pathfinder, because while it measures space and movement and has number trackers, it all is DM-adjudicated manually.

The graphics engine is interesting from what I can see in that one build picture in that it's less blocky than Cult Engine 3, so you don't need to be a master builder to make something that looks cool, and some of the pics even verge on Cult Engine 4 quality, but without animation in the minis (but the spells are animated). It looks like a nice midpoint between CE3 and 4, which is why I dubbed it Cult Engine 3.5.

It remains to be seen what we'll use it for. We can just use it for the D&D worlds to give them a different flavor. And remember, Ravenloft is D&D, and it's probably the first D&D setting we'll use. But that's already fully built by Beneos in Cult Engine 2. Probably the Forgotten Realms will be the best setting to use with this engine, and Wizards will release a shitton of assets for it, including all the creatures.

[icycalm]

Project Sigil | D&D Direct 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S30eeOS ... XVyolQO3wj



It's basically somewhere between Cult Engine 3 and 4, which is why I labelled it 3.5. It's much easier to build something good-looking with than CE3, because it's not so blocky, and the minis are also much higher-fidelity than Hero Forge.

But the game-changer is that they're launching with an official mini-adventure, Danger in Dunbarrow, and will be releasing more and more of them. None of the other 3D engines have this yet. And the fact that they're giving you the Baldur's Gate 3 characters will draw in many CRPG fans. Who wants to wait another half a decade to play BG4? This thing will get many people into GMRPGs.



I will probably save it for our D&D games. We'll see how things go. I'll be keeping a close eye on it.

It won't be ready for anything but the handful of brief adventures it will launch with for at least a year, if not two. By that time, we'll already be playing side-adventures in CE4.