Premise:
You and your band of adventurers get caught up in deadly conflict with a powerful group of evil worshipers, the Circle of the Black Rose.
Highlights:
The game uses the OGL 3.5, the set of rules at the root of Dungeons & Dragons 3.5.
Turn-based combat is very similar to Templer of Elemental Evil (Troika) and Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (SSI).
Omnipresent help files and clear in-game feedback on the results of each dice roll, saving throw, attack roll, modifiers and so on.
Interesting enemy AI. If your party has applied Acid Fog to the battleground, the enemy might use a Wind spell to dissipate the player’s Acid Fog.
Modding:
The mod tools are very powerful, from what I’ve been told.
A custom campaign called Hearkenwold is the most popular mod for this game. The Hearkenwold campaign is apparently better than most RPGs. Funnily enough, it’s also supposed to be better than the game’s own campaign.
I discovered this recently. Haven’t played it yet, only heard great things about the game, especially the combat. The passion of the small community around this game, and the high quality mod support, reminded me of Grim Dawn.
I remembered seeing this game long ago. I was interested until I learned the game was very hard even on the easiest difficulty. How do you find the game compared to other cRPG of the genre: BG, IWD, P:T, NWN, TOEE, Pathfinder, Solasta, etc? Is it as difficult as they say?
BUT, I have noticed fans of the game talk about how the game is a lot more balanced now and is apparently a lot more accessible now. Fans of KoTC 2 also recommend playing the Hearkenwold mod.
As for the CRPGs that you listed, I’ve only played P:T and TOE. The classic Infinity Engine games are in my backlog, along with the SSI Goldbox era titles, Wizardry, Ultima (0-8), Bard’s Tale (1-3), Wizard’s Crown, Lands of Lore and Might & Magic. I have a huge backlog.
One thing that I do know is that the KoTC 1 & 2 have a combat depth that is very similar to TOEE but have a much better encounter design (& naturally a better AI). Additionally, there is choice & consequences involved in the quests, but I’ve been told that the game is a little railroaded, so I assume that exploration is a thing but not a major focus.
Good to know, I’ll check Hearkenwold out! Did you tried TOE with the Circle of 8 mod and Temple Plus? Totally worth it.
BTW, this might interest you: Revenge of the Firstborn
It uses the 3.5 SRD. Looks very promising. The only hickup is that it’s a one man project. It set to be release in 2026 which I think is overoptimistic, but hey you never know .
And there’s also Pathfinder: The Dragon’s Demand. They succeed their Kickstarter campaign last year.
I never played anything more than vanilla TOEE. I’m turning a blind eye to mods because I have a huge backlog of IPs. That’s why I am not picking up Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos either.
Revenge of the Firstborn is on my watch-list. Also tracking a couple of others -
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