A New Era of Roleplaying: Project ORCS and the Future of Collaborative Storytelling

Project ORCS, the latest creation from Lightforge Games, is set to revolutionize the roleplaying game (RPG) industry. This innovative multiplayer RPG combines the collaborative world-building and storytelling of original tabletop Dungeons & Dragons with the polished video game presentation of its successors, such as Baldur’s Gate 3. In this article, we will delve into the intricacies of Project ORCS, its development team, and the potential impact it could have on the RPG genre.

Project ORCS, an acronym for “Online Roleplaying with Collaborative Storytelling,” is a significant leap forward from tools like Roll20 and Tabletop Simulator. These platforms allow pen-and-paper roleplayers to play online by providing a digital simulation of miniatures, dice, and other essential elements. Project ORCS, however, offers a unique blend of editor mode and traditional co-op RPG gameplay. Players can create their own adventures from scratch or join premade campaigns, either by the game’s developers or other players, with up to five friends.

The editor in Project ORCS can be used to craft characters, environments, and encounters before the group plays or edited in real-time, much like a Dungeon Master (DM) riffing around the table and reacting to dice rolls. Players will be able to carefully customize their character in a character creator, selecting from a variety of classes and species, before jumping into the adventure.

As in a D&D-like RPG, players can level up their characters across multiple quests, returning to a home base that they’ll also be able to upgrade and expand. Guilds are also planned, allowing players to form larger groups who share a world they’ve built together. The game’s clean interface and social interaction between players showcase the work of Lightforge Games’ CEO, Matt Schembari, who previously led engineering at Blizzard and served as the UI director at Epic Games, including on Fortnite’s battle royale mode.

Schembari shared his vision for Project ORCS, stating, “We’ve set out to make a roleplaying experience that has never been attempted before in the games industry. We’re calling it a Collaborative Storytelling RPG or CSRPG. Project ORCS is a collaborative game that will give new and old RPG fans a way to create their own stories on an interactive canvas.”

The success of Project ORCS remains to be seen, but its potential impact on the RPG genre is significant. By combining the best elements of tabletop RPGs and video game RPGs, Project ORCS could attract a wider audience to the genre. Additionally, the game’s collaborative nature could foster a more inclusive and welcoming community for players.

Project ORCS is due to launch into early access later in 2024. As we await its release, the anticipation builds for this groundbreaking RPG that could redefine the genre and set a new standard for collaborative storytelling in video games.

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About the Author:
Matt Jarvis is a seasoned journalist with a background in writing about music, films, video games, and tabletop games. He has spent many years as a technology, PC, and video game journalist before joining Dicebreaker as Editor-In-Chief in 2019. Matt has been trying to convince the rest of the team to play Diplomacy since.

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A New Era of Roleplaying: Project ORCS and the Future of Collaborative Storytelling

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