Invoke Studios’ single-player Dungeons and Dragons game, Warlock, might be an RPG, but its developers want players to know that it won’t be filled with choice. 

Warlock: Dungeons and Dragons, as the full title goes, is an RPG set in Ravenloft, which players can explore. However, while sprawling RPGs may allow you to go wherever you wish, the game’s developers are crafting a linear story without sprawling narrative options. 

“There is fundamentally a linear story contained in the world,” ice President and General Manager, Dominic Guay explained in an interview with PCGN. Nevertheless, as you explore Ravenloft, there is an open world with space for “your own little adventures”, although there won’t be any branching narratives like, say, Baldur’s Gate 3.

“We need to be so careful because the world is so open and exploration-drive, we can’t put like, breadcrumbs every 50 meters with big setup cinematics, otherwise you’d have to follow all of those,” Guay continued. “So we need to accept that players will sometimes branch in and out of that core story and its more baked narrative moments, but fundamentally it is a linear story inside of that world.”

Guay was clear to state that Warlock will not allow you to choose how good or evil Kaatri, the main character, will be during her adventure. While you are role-playing as the character, choosing which side quests to do, and evolving her skills, the character is fully formed with her own ideas that you simply have to follow.

“Kaatri’s story is written,” he said, “and the story fundamentally has written set pieces ro it.” Guay mentions you can’t simply decide to be “the evil character or the good character”. Instead, Kaatri’s tale will show moments of both as a deep, fully realised character.

While some may shrug at a seeming lack of choice, not all RPGs need to revolve around moral choices. If Kaatri is indeed a fully realised character with shades of grey, then this could a very engaging story. If not? Well, the combat does still look pretty sick.

Warlock is just one of many Dungeons and Dragons video games that Wizards of the Coast is hoping to release. As Hasbro pumps a billion dollars into video games based on the license and other brands, there should be more D&D games than ever before. Some of these, like Warlock, sill have linear stories. Others, like the aforementioned Baldur’s Gate 3, will focus on choice. The beauty of the D&D universe is that it can handle both.

Warlock is currently set to release on PC and console sometime in 2027.