We got some new details to share on D&D: Dark Alliance, the upcoming action-RPG from Wizards of the Coast and Tuque Games. We know where the game will take place thanks to a trailer released at last year’s Game Awards, but now we’ve got some juicy new details and concept art to go along with it.
We’ll start with the Verbeeg, an older race of giant-kin that has yet to make an appearance in Fifth Edition but have been represented in previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons. The Verbeeg are a race of almost giants that have gone through some changes over the years. In Fourth Edition, they were represented as a cunning race who used their wits to outsmart true giants and ogres. In Dark Alliance, it seems that the Verbeeg are now even larger at 12-feet tall, but now just as brutish and evil as the ogres and giants they used to prey upon.
The big blue guy we saw at the end of the trailer is Kelvin, a frost giant that was previously defeated and buried under a mountain of rock that was then called Kelvin’s Cairn. He’s back, and he seems upset.
And then we have a pack of gnolls that are sacrificing people to their demon overlords for unholy powers. Pretty standard stuff.
Dark Alliance will take place in the realm of Icewind Dale, the setting of the 1988 novel The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore. He spoke to IGN recently about his role in Dark Alliance’s development, where he’s been consulting with Tuque.
"I love when other creative people jump in on what I've done, whether it's a book cover, or now video games,” Salvatore said. “Y'know, I stood on shoulders to get to Icewind Dale, right? Ed Greenwood and Gary Gygax and the people who came before me. Watching other people build off my work and letting their own creativity fly is an amazing experience."
Dark Alliance will take place shortly after the events of The Crystal Shard. Monsters from all over the world are falling upon Icewind Dale, thus explaining the near-constant combat.
We still don't have a specific release date yet, but Tuque is saying D&D: Dark Alliance will be out later this fall.
Source: Wizards of the Coast, IGN