D&D Lords of Waterdeep - Released

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HiddenX

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Lucky Day spotted the release of the strategy game D&D Lords of Waterdeep:

Wizards of the Coast and Playdek present the award-winning Dungeons & Dragons board game Lords of Waterdeep!

Welcome to Waterdeep, the City of Splendors! A city run by a secret society of masked Lords who rule with shady back-door dealings and unmatched political power. In Lords of Waterdeep players will play as one of these masked Lords and will need to recruit adventurers to go out and complete quests for them. The more quests they complete, the more control and influence they have over the city.

Players can expand the city by purchasing buildings that will open up new opportunities within the city walls. Intrigue cards can be used to help the player and may also either help or hinder their fellow Lords in their quest to become the supreme ruler of Waterdeep!

Lords of Waterdeep is a turn-based strategy game played in 8 rounds and can be played against AI or with up to 5 human players. Players take turns assigning their agents to do their bidding, whether it is to recruit new adventurers to their tavern or purchase a new building for the city. Points and resources are gained by completing quests, playing Intrigue cards, constructing new buildings or having other players utilize the buildings you have constructed. At the end of the 8 rounds bonus points are awarded and the player with the most points at the end wins the game.

Features


  • Computer opponents and asynchronous cross platform multiplayer online play
  • Options for 2-5 players (6 players with the Undermountain or Scoundrels of Skullport expansions)
  • AI Opponents
  • Asynchronous or real-time online play (2-5 players)
  • Ability to invite Playdek friends to matches
  • Public or Private online profile statistics
  • Selectable online game clocks
  • "Next game" button takes you to your next asynchronous online game
  • In-game tutorial
  • Rule Book and Card Gallery to review game text and effects
  • Options for Music and SFX and animation speed
  • Animated backgrounds
  • Player ratings system
  • Other player's Online status indicator
Click to expand...
More information.
 
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Ugh, it's from Playdek, the shady mobile developer that launched the Unsung Story Kickstarter, showed virtually no progress, and most likely used the KS money to work on other games and pay off debts. Wouldn't give them a cent.
 
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Don't know much about Unsung Story, but when it comes to board game conversions like Lords of Waterdeep, Playdek has a good reputation.

I've played this on the IPad and it was pretty good. But it's a worker placement board game with D&D influence, not a RPG.
 
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Unsung Story is a pretty notorious case. Very sketchy and questionable conduct after the KS was funded, and then it looked very much like they had plowed the money from the Unsung Story KS into the development of their card games. Then they pleaded financial hardship, washed their hands of the project, and sold the rights to Unsung Story to another company.

I wouldn't touch them.

http://kotaku.com/a-timeline-of-unsung-story-one-of-the-biggest-kickstar-1797466457
 
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It's a software conversion of an official D&D board game from WotC. The critics have been good so far.

Lords of Waterdeep was released in 2013 for iOS, that was before Unsung Story. It's definitely a complete game.

edit: It's also available for Android now.
 
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I own and have played it IRL. Is a good board game, as mentioned, not an RPG at all. One of the guys in my group says the iPad version is good too. No idea re this one. There's a faithful TTS version if you want to go PC digital (no AI though).
 
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I was always curious about this game as I saw it was on Ipad but not Android. Good to know I'm not missing much. :)
 
Fluent said:
I was always curious about this game as I saw it was on Ipad but not Android. Good to know I'm not missing much. :)
Click to expand...

Um? Who said it was bad?

It's a good conversion of the board game, if you wanted more then that's on you for not understanding what it was.
 
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Yes, its a board game, but a great one. The D&D theme is implemented very well into the game, by the way. It has a great atmosphere of a fantasy setting and the elements in the game mesh well in that theme (if you have an imagination, but most crpgers do, I reckon). I'm a board game enthusiast, so have played this game both in the normal board game (I own a copy) and the digital version. Both forms are excellent if you like strategy board games.
 
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Why not?

EDIT:
daveyd said:
Ugh, it's from Playdek, the shady mobile developer that launched the Unsung Story Kickstarter, showed virtually no progress, and most likely used the KS money to work on other games and pay off debts. Wouldn't give them a cent.
Click to expand...
I'm convinced and will stay away. Phone developers need to bankrupt already.
 
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Ripper said:
Unsung Story is a pretty notorious case. Very sketchy and questionable conduct after the KS was funded, and then it looked very much like they had plowed the money from the Unsung Story KS into the development of their card games. Then they pleaded financial hardship, washed their hands of the project, and sold the rights to Unsung Story to another company.

I wouldn't touch them.

http://kotaku.com/a-timeline-of-unsung-story-one-of-the-biggest-kickstar-1797466457
Click to expand...

I'm a backer and though they clearly have failed, I'm not sure they plowed the money into other games. I think a likely alternative theory is that they failed because of incompetence. At one point I remember they scrapped the strategic elements "because they weren't fun" their prototype gameplay looked crappy. Remember this studio had never worked on this kind of game before. Not that excuses the poor communications.
 
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forgottenlor said:
I'm a backer and though they clearly have failed, I'm not sure they plowed the money into other games. I think a likely alternative theory is that they failed because of incompetence. At one point I remember they scrapped the strategic elements "because they weren't fun" their prototype gameplay looked crappy. Remember this studio had never worked on this kind of game before. Not that excuses the poor communications.
Click to expand...

I think it goes back to a debate I had before, about what I consider to be the artificial ringfencing of KS funds, in the context of an ongoing business. To me, if a company offers a backer a reward for a set sum, they have an obligation to deliver those goods; if they are still solvent and trading, their liability to those backers still exists.

We can't know for sure what went down internally, and specifically how those funds were spent, but in a sense that's irrelevant - if they're still in business, and those backers have been cut loose, then something is rotten.

And when that happens, as we are in the dark as to how the funds were spent, I think it's very natural to ask the question about how the benefit of those funds was appropriated.
 
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It is possible that they are both incompetent and shady mofos. It's not like those things are mutually exclusive.

Playdek has flat out acknowledged in one of their updates that they were having financial problems before the KS. Of course this didn't mention this until well after the campaign was over. So at the very least they should not have been taking on a major project like that when they were in the red.

Now Little Orbit has said they didn't receive any of the KS money. Little orbit basically said that they're having to start completely from scratch as nothing is usable. The story outline / design docs they have from Matsuno are unfinished. They never finalized a deal with the composer so no soundtrack was created. So what was the money spent on? My guess is the bulk of it was spent on paying off their debt and other projects. If not and they really spent over half a million bucks on the pathetic prototype that they showed gameplay footage of, then they're beyond incompetent. But people who played their mobile board game adaptations say those are decent.

All I know is I would never give Playdek a cent ever again.
 
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All I'd say is, that thanks to Kickstarter customers get a glimpse of how many investments actually fail that no one will ever find out. This happens all day. This even happened and still happens to experienced developers you people love. But as long as you're not invested you're normally not going to find out. As long as it's not your money you can also still love them. You only get mad when it's your own money that gets wasted, never if it's the money of the publisher.

Said that, I purchased Lords of Waterdeep for Android and IMHO it's a superb tabletop game, especially with both add-ons included. It's best played on a tablet, but also works on smartphones with 5 inches screen. And it's compatible with family library feature of Google Play.
 
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Avantenor said:
All I'd say is, that thanks to Kickstarter customers get a glimpse of how many investments actually fail that no one will ever find out. This happens all day. This even happened and still happens to experienced developers you people love. But as long as you're not invested you're normally not going to find out. As long as it's not your money you can also still love them. You only get mad when it's your own money that gets wasted, never if it's the money of the publisher.
Click to expand...

Yeah before this thread I'd only heard positive things about Playdek. Usually their involvement in a digital board/came game conversion is considered a sign that you can expect high quality. However, doing a digital version of an existing game is very different form creating your own game, and it sounds like they failed miserably at creating their own stuff. But for a conversion project like this, I couldn't care less about that.
 
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I've played the boardgame quite a bit and it's good fun.

I don't really see the point of playing a digital version though. I don't think there's a single boardgame out there that would appeal to me as a singleplayer game - unless something significant was added to keep progression interesting.

As a multiplayer game - you really need people around you.

I do think Tabletop (the application) has potential - since it has VR as an option. That might work - but then you'd need at least 2-3 friends with VR :)

So far, I have only one friend who invested in VR.
 
Actually, sometimes I do enjoy playing a tabletop game in single player. I already did so before there have been software conversions. I have played several conversions of Settlers of Catan or Caracassonne. Great board games never get boring, even in single player. And since many of my friends finally got children and/or moved to different places, it's getting harder to assemble them in one place for a simple thing like a board game. With software support it becomes easier. Maybe it's not the same, but sometimes it's the best you can get.

From an economic point: I payed 11 € for the game and its expansion(s). I'd have to pay 75 € to get the analog board game and expansion. I share the game with my family, so everybody can run it on his/her smartphone/tablet. Maybe it's also not the same, but we can play together whenever we want, wherever we are, and it doesn't need storage space.
 
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