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2019-04-10, 10:41 PM
I had a random idea and am now going to ramble about it. Also this thread surely wouldn't go into gaming other.

Shadow over Mystara was one of the contenders for the greatest DnD video game ever. It did this while not even being an rpg, which is all sorts of awesome. So I thought what other noncrpg DnD games can be made and, from there, what still hasn't been made?

The answer I found is a fighting game. Far as I know, nobody ever made an actual (instead of somewhat vaguely inspired by) DnD fighting game. Why didn't anyone ever make a shoddy SF/MK/SS clone with, say, iconic class pcs or copyrighted DnD monsters beating each other up? I'd've thought that'd be good for a quick buck.

But actually I have a much better idea. While I'm sure it'd be novel and worth paying 3$ for during a Steam shovelware bundlefest to maul a beholder with an owlbear, who among us does not really, truly, deep down want to mash Corellon's smug face into the ground with Gruumsh? Answer: nobody. Nobody doesn't want it and it's weird that this hasn't been done yet. Just call it Sunderplague 2: Time of Tworoubles or some other dumb **** and fill your fighting game's roster with DnD deity avatars.

Remember. Raiden has been a thing for decades now and DnD gods reenact his original ending all the damn time and **** up Faerun whenever some dumb hack at WotC wants to change a few rules of the game. Write another garbage cataclysm story (it's not like anyone cares about a fighting game's story), put two dozenish of the biggest name FR gods into your roster, give them portfolio appropriate moves, make some famous Faerun landmarks all messed up as stages. Guaranteed game of the year right there.

Hire me WotC (alternately do it so I can sue you claiming you stole my idea and point to this internet post as proof).

Anyway. Let's get to the main course of this rambling: The roster of this imaginary fighting game.

Corellon: A poncy elf with sword, bow and magic. A versatile avatar good at all ranges and excel at none. As a pansy, he won't have any punches, kicks or throws. Summons the Seldarine to mob the enemy cos he can't be bothered to do his own supermove himself.

Gruumsh: A big one eyed orc with spear. A close range long string combo monster who gets overly physical animations. Can't attack much from far but can defend well against zoning lamers and has surprisingly fast closing moves. Shoots giant laser from his eye as a supermove.

Moradin: Can't have the other two and leave him out. I'm thinking he should be more like a gadget guy with lots of bling instead of the cliche axe dwarf. He's weak both close and far range but excels at middle, with a lot of "forgey" stuff like a jetpack, wrist balistas, thrown runic bombs, summoned golems. He forges some superweapon and uses it immediately for a supermove.

Lolth: Again, you just gotta have her. Obviously appears as a drider instead of a drow stripper. I want her to be the resident grappler, shooting poisons/shadows to snare/slow the enemy, followed by a quick teleport to initiate her Zangief protocols. Most importantly she shoots web strands to pull while screaming get over here.

Helm: Since we're on Faerun, he's the closest to a human analogue to the previous ones (discounting Lathander, which I'm doing for a reason atm). The thing is, he's just a melee fighting dude wearing armor. And so is Tyr. And so is Tempus. And so is Bane. So guess what: they're the shotoclones of this game. The average avatar against whom everyone else in the roster is judged (the exact same role your basic human has among DnD races). I'm not sure how many shotoclones is traditional in this sort of game, but the order of their inclusion should go Helm (slightly more defensive), Tempus (slightly more offensive), Bane (better melee combos), Talos (better zoning with lightning).
[Crazy thing is, every goddamn DnD pantheon has its own war god outside humans too and all of them are basically the same guy with different wigs: Rillifane, Clanggedin, Arvoreen, Baghtru, Ilneval, Stronmaus, Laduguer. It's almost like there's some frigging assembly line somewhere churning out fighty war gods by the dozen. I know art imitates life in this instance but goddamn, c'mon Gygax.]/rant

Mystra: FR means Mystra, whether we like it or not. She's your basic lameass zoner that every incompetent online kid picks to spam ranged magic all day erryday and ragequit if the enemy ever closes the distance and starts to combo the **** out of them.

Lathander/Amaunator: Another bigshot FR name that you just gotta have. I'm putting that / there so I can separate him from the shotoclones, as I'd give him a transformation kind of thing. I generally suck at fighting games despite liking them so I wouldn't presume to come up with a mechanic for the transformation, but Lathander will be a close range combo brawler and Amaunator will be a long range zoner with some way of switching back and forth. He'll be a more technical character that casual scrubs like me couldn't manage, cos every fighting game needs at least one guy like that.

Tiamat: I wanted something with true whoa... potential and found Dragon Queen to be the most suitable. The important thing is to make her big. As is, gigantic. Tiamat doesn't even enter the arena, her sprite/model is her knotted mass of dragon heads coming in from the top of the screen. I know they did Galactus in MvC, so I'm sure this can be managed too by competent game developers. Some heads shoot stuff, others rush forward to bite and smack, occasionally multiple heads cooperate for a grab or throw. Her supermove is casually strolling through the arena and her enemy gets trampled into dirt.

Auril: She's Subzero. Cos of course she is, what else would she be?

And lastly, the big boss. It's gonna be Shar. I mean, c'mon. Who else could it be? Cyric? Whenever a new edition comes around, it turns out Shar ate another couple of minor deities in the confusion and is now masquerading as them. All she needs to do is say Your portfolio is mine! and she slots straight into Shang Tsung's throne watching the match.

Shar: The shadow cloner boss of the game. Turns into shadow copies all other avatars and does their moves but with extra damage. Reads inputs like a mother****er and slowwalks into you until you're dead. Has no moves of her own.
And then there be spoilers.
Selune: The secret boss. Only appears if you get to Shar without losing any rounds. Or maybe even dumber prerequisites like the original Reptile had. Whatever the conditions, Selune suddenly appears and instantly knocks out Shar. Is a white palette swap of her twin with even more ridiculous extra damage on cloned moves. Why is this even happening? Cos Ao says **** you, probably.
Also once the game is out for a while and we're printing money, it's time to announce DLC bonus avatars. Obviously we'll have been saying it's always ever gonna be god-on-god action in our game from day one, so we can pretend to be capitulating to fans when we add Demogorgon, Asmodeus, Primus and Lady of Pain (with unique stage!!!) for 19.99 each (except Lady costs an extra 10 due to unique stage ofc) a few months after launch.

So there's my rambling done. What you say, playground? This roster good enough or would we need more avatars? Which ones? Or you have a better idea than mine for a particular one?
Or (trick question) should it have been a dota clone to get our finger into Smite's pie instead?

ExLibrisMortis
2019-04-11, 12:09 AM
Well, I can't speak for the viability of the idea, financially speaking, but I enjoyed reading this ramble :smallbiggrin:.