D&D tabletop-style RPG Battlemarked is out on PC today with a singleplayer mode for Baldur’s Gate 3 nutters

Ho there, embarrassing Baldur’s Gate 3 fans! Not had enough D&D in your life lately? Pining for the Owlbears, is it? Feeling a bit shrivelled for lack of magic missiles? Baby want some Helldusk Armor? Perhaps you will be consoled by Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked. It’s a Forgotten Realms-themed adaptation of Resolution’s Demeo, a co-op tactical RPG co-created by former Left 4 Dead developer Mike Booth, which is itself a homage to tabletop.

We were keen on Demeo, with Alice Bee and Edders (RPS in peace) hivemindedly deeming it “a cool TRPG hangout that probably won’t get as many players as it deserves”. It began life as a homely ole VR game, but has since made the leap to cutting-edge flatworld display technology.

I’m not sure whether Alice and Ed’s dire predictions were born out, but I imagine the Demeo format will be automatically more interesting to a lot of you for being transplanted to Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Wood and Cragmaw Castle – these being among the places you’ll visit in Battlemarked’s two launch campaigns, with more to follow as DLC.

The game sees up to four players joining turn-based raids on craggy, grid-based maps full of traps, treasures and pugnacious figurines. Character classes include paladin, sorcerer, ranger and rogue, while enemies range from dire wolves and kobolds to giants. Going by trailers, I’m not sure it’ll support the mad knock-on effects you get in the Larian game, but then again, Larian are to spell and ability combos what vultures are to the steaming corpses of recently slain paladins. There’s something to be said for a party-gatherer that keeps things relatively clean.

I enjoy the game’s grabbable vinyl aesthetics, and I like how your thrown D20s physically bounce around the corridors of the map at hand. The question I have is naturally whether it’ll stack up well as a solo game: you can command your whole party in skirmish mode if you’re short on buds. Find out more on Steam. You can also play using your ZuckerBuckets if you need to lean closer to the board.