Divinity: Original Sin II

Hands-on with Larian Studios’ digital tabletop system

- Fraser Brown

During the Kickstarter for Divinity: Original Sin II, Larian Studios added a stretch goal for a Game Master mode, a platform for creating online tabletop adventures. It’s been over a year since that goal was hit and Swen Vincke, Larian’s founder, asks me to roll a d20 to see if I can steal memories from a corpse by eating it. I roll a 16 and enjoy a snack.

We’re meant to be playing the beginning of Ultima VII: Serpent Isle, one of Vincke’s favourites, but with the engine of Original Sin II and the ‘anything goes’ philosophy of tabletop role-playing. Using a walkthrough to refresh his memory, he crafts the campaign in less than 30 minutes, but it keeps us playing for hours. It’s a testament to both the flexibility of the mode and its ease of use.