I've been plagued by bad rolls throughout my years playing tabletop RPGs, and this curse has now followed me into video games. But in the case of Lightforge Games' co-op RPG, now known as Project ORCS, bad rolls often generate the most entertaining consequences. Case in point: A failed attempt to thwart a mysterious ritual left my party dealing with an out-of-control being. However, after half an hour, the undead monster would become a staple of my party's base, magically linked to a dagger carried by our blacksmith. Pet leach. I'm sure everything will be fine.
When I interviewed Matt Schembari, CEO of Lightforge Games last year, the presentation seemed like it could capture the best parts of a TTRPG, even more so than the great Baldur's Gate 3. Now, after spending an hour with Project ORCS, I'm completely convinced.
The arrival of the aforementioned Lich in the middle of our battle was the product of collaboration between me and Schembari, who was playing the role of the group's guide, the ORCS project facing the GM. Even more than in a typical tabletop RPG, it's the conversation that drives everything. This starts almost immediately. Upon logging into the Schembari server, I quickly created my character and joined the party: three adventurers and our guide. To begin our adventure, Shimbari asked us to introduce our characters (a process that would eventually be supported through prompts) and then choose an adventure.
Both of the adventures on offer will allow us to upgrade the NPCs in our safe purse, either the blacksmith or the sage, and after a quick conversation the group decides that access to better weapons would be a huge boon. When the group headed into the wilderness, we had only a skeletal framework, as we were on a rescue mission, but the demands and cooperation promised to fill it. On the map screen, a series of potential challenges are also presented to us as various possible approaches. After further discussion and a round of voting, the adventure began to take shape: We would rescue our blacksmiths from the clutches of some cults, and we would use stealth to defeat them.
These prompts are there to help parties rather than trap them in pre-made scenarios, so while we decided we were going to encounter and infiltrate a particular cult, it was up to us to create and act out the scene. Guides can create scenes filled with NPCs and props in advance, but in this case we arrived at an empty forest and, as a group, built the scene ourselves. I brought down a large altar, which Shimbari then surrounded with cultists and skeletons. Each NPC is editable, from their abilities to their equipment, and even though we only dedicated an hour to play, the group convinced Shimbari to give them all unique names. Who wants to beat up a generic skeleton when they can instead fight a boy known as Bob Bones?
RPG Builder
In just minutes we transformed the space. Instead of an empty space with the sun shining, we now have a proper spooky location filled with props and enemies. For some reason, I also felt compelled to include a cute family of rabbits. Why not? The time from day to night was also changed, because cultists never perform scary rituals when the sun rises.
With the scene set, the adventure can begin. We could see the cultists hiding behind a wall and shrouded in darkness, but we also saw a small furry creature, a small animal, that looked like a cross between an Ewok and a Froppy, and which was also wearing some stylish goggles. We asked him to make small talk (mostly I wanted to steal his goggles), where he turned our attention to something close to a cult. My first roll!
I was running a search check, but as mentioned before: my lists were cursed. In an ORCS draft, most of your rolls will succeed to some extent, however, even if you roll poorly, you can still do what you were trying to do, but with an additional negative consequence – damnation. Likewise, if you roll well, you can get a blessing. When this happens, you can choose between two different options, and then properly explain the consequences using the guide. In my case, the roll was so bad that it was a complete failure, but I was still able to make a choice how Things went wrong. I couldn't see what our new friend was pointing at, and thanks to the curse I picked up, I encountered something disturbing: a pack of wolves that were sneaking up on us.
Once again, the curse prompt left the details to us: it was the party that agreed that something like a pack of wolves would be appropriate. Shimbari quickly summoned the pack, then increased the size of its leader, creating a dire wolf. But what could have been our first fight instead became another friendly conversation. One of my adventurous friends decided to influence wolves, but they had a flaw: their “disgusting” personality trait. This was supposed to be a negative modifier, but Shimbari felt that in this case it would actually be an advantage, by scaring away wolves, so he inverted the modifier, emphasizing the benefit of having a flexible human GM over the strict written rules.
All the interesting quirks of Project ORCS are in the battles.
The wolves, now our allies, charged at the cultists, with the party following behind them. While ORCS takes place in real time outside of combat, when swords and spells appear, it slips into a turn-based structure.
All the interesting quirks of Project ORCS are in the battles. So, when the attack roll is very low, your attack can still be successful, but you also need to choose a curse. Maybe you'll attract some unwanted attention, or find yourself unable to use magic for a role. I wasn't too keen on wading into the crowd, as I was a mysterious cloth-clad rogue known as the Voidgaze Hunter. Instead, I asked Shimbari if I could turn the cultists' rituals against them.
Why come in?
Basically, I had to present my plan, awakening whatever creature was lying in the coffin, which was the key to the ritual. So I'll disrupt the ritual, and maybe bring the mysterious creature to our side. Then it's time to roll. To edit the list, I was able to select the Triumph Token, which I had obtained from a previous success.
Even with Ramsey, my gesture wasn't entirely successful. I had to choose another damn thing. The result was that my attempt to disrupt the ritual and summon the occupant of the coffin was only half accomplished. Why come in? Instead of joining our side, this undead villain decided to go against everyone, and killed one of the wolf pups before attacking one of the cult's skeleton friends.
However, we will not be enemies for long. On my next turn, before attacking anyone, I decided to influence the lich. I was the one who released him, after all. Leaving nothing to chance, I used another token, as well as another modifier that spent some of my magic reserves while increasing my corruption – more on that in a bit. Fortunately, this wasn't a waste, because I succeeded and received a blessing, where I talked the lich into coming to our side as he goes the extra mile to kill our enemies. To complete the deal, he consumed the sect standing next to him. It's always good to make new friends.
I then moved to attack another sect myself, choosing my Void Strike attack. It is a risky move because it also increases corruption, which has already happened once at this juncture. Honestly, I just wanted to see what would happen, and I got my wish. The attack was partially successful, but I was corrupt. This means it's time to decide how I was cursed. Will I feel jinxed, that one touch could cause things to break? Or do I accept the curse of emaciation that reduces my ability to move, fight, and endure? The last one seemed more dramatic, and I love some drama, so naturally I went with it. To emphasize the effect of my curse, Shimbari accessed my character's stats and reduced my weight “downwards”, reducing me to mere skin and bones.
To emphasize the effect of my curse, Shimbari accessed my character's stats and reduced my weight “downwards”, reducing me to mere skin and bones.
The battle ended when the lich killed the last cultist, but we still had a problem: we had released the lich, and the blacksmith, who we were trying to save, wasn't particularly happy that we had unleashed such evil upon the world. Another attempt at influence was necessary, thank God for my silver tongue. I managed to convince the blacksmith to let us complete the ritual, which would bind the lich to the dagger. However, the blacksmith did not fully trust us, and would only agree to the plan if he was able to keep the dagger himself. I acquiesced. Maybe he'll let me borrow it later.
With the mission completed, we returned to the safe haven with our pet, pet wolves, and pet blacksmith. The quest also raised the level of the blacksmith, giving us more options when hitting him to get more gear. Meanwhile, wolves and lich didn't come with any baked-in utility, instead serving as narrative constructs, leaving it up to the party and the guide to decide how to use them. So we can bring them on our next adventure as allies, for example. But Lightforge is also experimenting with some AI features, which could potentially allow NPCs like the Lich to start giving quests or some other job.
What I really appreciate is how this endeavor has allowed us to make progress on multiple paths. So our characters naturally gained some experience points that would allow us to pick up new talents, we now had a small army of allies willing to help us, and we were able to develop a secure foothold by rescuing and empowering the blacksmith. The creation tools also have a progression system. So you start out with a basic set of options, but as you progress through the missions, you can unlock more props, NPCs, and enemies. One benefit of this system is that it means you won't be overwhelmed with options during those early missions, making the process of crafting them much faster.
I was wondering if cooperative storytelling might remove some of the surprises typically inherent in TTRPGs. If we were all building tasks together with prompts and discussing everything from the challenges we would face to the consequences of our actions, would we feel like we were just going through the text? I was pleased to discover that this was not the case at all. The mission didn't go the way I expected, and I was constantly coming up with takeaways, which both my team and our guide had to respond to. The ORCS project fully embraces the spirit of improvisation, with all the prompts giving you a framework to play with.
The ORCS project is expected to hit Early Access this year, but you'll also be able to get a taste of it today and tomorrow during a series of live streams hosted by the developer.
