Deep within the ancient Verduran Forest of Taldor, in a treacherous swampland known as the Dragonfen, there is a tale about the Dragon Tyrant Aeteperax, slain a thousand years ago by a band of heroic warriors. But victory doesn’t last forever, and enemies eventually rise again, calling forth new heroes to embark upon a perilous quest to save a town and defeat he who would once more call himself the Dragon Tyrant.
Hail and well-met Pathfinders! I’m Alan Miranda, CEO of Ossian Studios, and I am excited to introduce you to our new Paizo-licensed RPG video game, Pathfinder: The Dragon’s Demand. Over a year in the making, it’s a single-player, turn-based game that features deep character customization, a faithful adaptation of the remastered Pathfinder Second Edition Core rules, and an enhanced tabletop minis-style play. It’s all about miniatures in a tabletop-style world—the world of Pathfinder!
Playing tabletop many years ago made a huge impact on me. It was the most exciting time I’d ever had with a game, like a fantasy book coming alive from my own choices and dice rolls. It felt magical. It’s those memories that inspired me to work at BioWare as a producer on the Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights games. And that’s when I realized I was always trying to recreate that same pen-and-paper magic in the RPGs I worked on.
So that’s what we’re doing with The Dragon’s Demand: going back to our tabletop roots to recreate that magic in a single-player, turn-based video game, with miniatures. It looks like a beautiful tabletop diorama but does all the things that aren’t possible to show on a physical tabletop, so it’s like an “enhanced tabletop.” And it uses a faithful adaptation of Pathfinder’s Second Edition rules for players to interact with the world in some very refreshing ways.
We’ve been building a prototype of this enhanced tabletop game for over a year. That includes nailing down the right art style on a solid technical framework, as well as integrating the remastered ruleset in an ongoing process.
So, what are some of the cool things you’ll see in The Dragon’s Demand? Well, when it comes to miniatures, we have adaptive poses based on actions, including grab poses, dynamic body postures for different inclines, but most importantly, a 3D grid system. Instead of grid squares, we’ll be using grid cubes, which give characters the incredible freedom of movement to climb ropes, walls, and trees, levitate, fly, swim deep underwater, and more.
And our environments will have dynamic weather that impacts the world, visual effects that obscure visibility, and a ton of skill-based environmental interactions like taking cover and sneaking, squeezing through really tight spots, throwing your own ropes to climb, and forcing open doors and windows with a crowbar.
The CRPG will be based on 2013’s Pathfinder adventure The Dragon’s Demand, a Pathfinder First Edition dungeon and wilderness adventure for 1st level characters. Written by Mike Shel, it delves into the Dark Tapestry—the darkness between the stars where powerful entities and madness lurk. We’ll be expanding that adventure with new areas to explore, lots of intriguing side quests, and a brand new, personal story for player characters that delves into the darkness of the Dark Tapestry.
The return of a legendary dragon long vanquished sees the town of Belhaim once again under dire threat. The game will present a huge, interactive world to explore, with hundreds of characters and dozens of quests that react to the player’s choices. A cast of colorful companions, including iconic characters such as the goblin alchemist Fumbus, will be on hand to join the player’s party, each featuring their own motivations and backstory.
With over 30 hours of gameplay accompanied by a beautiful soundtrack and professional voice acting, gamers can look forward to a classic, single-player, party-based CRPG experience where they will be able to:
- Create deep, custom character builds from a choice of 7 ancestries, 16 classes, and more than 30 backgrounds.
- Play as a dwarf, elf, gnome, goblin, halfling, human, or an orc.
- Choose their path as an alchemist, barbarian, bard, champion, cleric, druid, fighter, investigator, monk, oracle, ranger, rogue, sorcerer, swashbuckler, witch, or wizard.
- Form a party of four with up to three companions, out of a possible dozen characters encountered during their adventures, to forge bonds of friendship and even romance!
- Level up characters to level 8.
- Wield a multitude of powerful spells from all four magical traditions: Arcane, Divine, Occult, and Primal.
- Equip hundreds of unique armors and weapons and see them dynamically change on miniature characters.
- Explore the region using an interactive world map to travel to many mysterious and dangerous locations across the Dragonfen, Verduran Forest, and the town of Belhaim.
Ossian Studios is an independent game developer who has made RPGs exclusively for twenty years, including Dungeons & Dragons story-driven RPGs. For The Dragon’s Demand, Ossian brings our attention to detail together with the rules, lore, and deep character customization for which Pathfinder is known—and even offers a selection of digital dice to toss in the game.
Today we are sending out the call to Pathfinders to back the Pathfinder: The Dragon’s Demand CRPG on Kickstarter. The Kickstarter is live and offers authentic minted precious metal City of Absalom coins and 3D printable STL minis files among the many rewards.
Dragonslayers wanted! Get ready for wild adventures in a world filled with monstrous enemies in a brand-new style of CRPG. Learn more about Pathfinder: The Dragon’s Demand at DragonsDemand.com.
Alan Miranda
CEO
Ossian Studios
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