Solasta: Crown of the Magister

In the world of fantasy role-playing, there's no name more exalted than Dungeons & Dragons. So, when creating an original fantasy role-playing adventure like Solasta: Crown of the Magister, there's no better foundation to build upon than the benchmark of the genre. Licensing Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition rules, Solasta instantly feels familiar to anyone who's ever played a tabletop role-playing game (RPG). And for those who haven't, the game includes great tutorials, helping guide newcomers into the experience as painlessly as possible. There's still a lot of character and inventory management, stat building, and other technical mechanics players will need to work through. Thankfully, the bulk of the heavy lifting, such as resolving die rolls and calculating modifiers, is handled quickly behind the scenes by the game; this keeps the action moving along. Those looking for more options for their adventure can choose to purchase additional content, such as the Primal Calling expansion, which adds two classes and one extra quest for an additional 10 bucks. But even without this, the game is a complete D&D-style role-playing package on its own.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister isn't content with just being a straight D&D adaptation. This isn't a flat, 2D world. The game makes a lot of use of environmental elements such as elevation and lighting. Players need to pay special attention to the world around them before and during combat. Giant spiders will crawl up the side of a wall to gain the higher ground, whereas a well-placed magic bolt might send it falling off a cliff and splattering hard against the ground below. The game is also highly customizable, with an almost overabundance of gameplay options to give just the right balance of challenge and fun. Players can tweak difficulty on the fly, even raising and lowering enemy hit points in the middle of combat. And if the included campaign isn't enough to keep players' interests, the game includes a robust Campaign Creator to craft their own unique adventures, or to play with the creations of others. This allows players to combine multiple custom dungeons built with the drag-and-drop Dungeon Builder, alongside custom monsters, items, non-player characters, and more, tying them all together into one complete custom campaign module. It's infinitely easier than the days of budding Dungeon Masters sitting up all night with pads of paper and crafting complex adventures for parties. All of these things work together to make Solasta: Crown of the Magister a fantastic fantasy escape for old-school role-playing fans and newcomers to the genre alike.