Halo YouTuber and Forger Red Nomster create Halo RPG board game in Halo Infinite’s Forge
Red Nomster used about 1,400 script nodes to make the game work so well.
The game is essentially combat in the style of Baldur’s Gate 3 for Halo Infinite, putting one team in charge of using UNSC marines to rescue a prisoner and the other to stop them with Banished squads.
Players take two actions per turn and can switch between first-person and top-down perspectives, activate immersive sound effects, switch movement to tabletop figurine style, and add spectators to the game whenever they want.
The randomness of D&D based dice rolling is evident in the game through the AI’s natural combat behaviors, such as missed shots or grenade throws.
The mode is called “The Halo RPG” and Red Nomster used about 1,400 script nodes to make everything work so well.
I thought I might stop being completely amazed by the incredible talent and creativity of the Halo Infinite Forge community eventually. After all, with incredible complete remakes of iconic campaign missions from Halo and sleek Pokémon battle arenas coming to the game’s content browser every week, I can’t help but raise my expectations. However, even despite how high they are at this point, there are projects that still exceed them – and the latest from Halo YouTuber Red Nomster has absolutely shattered them.
His new creation is The Halo RPG (be sure to bookmark your map and mode), an impressive and fully functional turn-based tabletop game, built entirely in Forge using around 1,400 script nodes. Set in a beautifully detailed attic on top of a colorful Halo-themed board, the game gives one team control over a squad of UNSC human marines mounting a daring rescue, while the other commands Banished forces charged with defending a mining site. The game is won whenever one side loses all of its units, or if the UNSC team manages to take a special marine prisoner from a prison cell and safely escort him back to a Pelican transport module.
I recommend watching Red Nomster’s full video below for a complete overview of the rules and how to play, but in summary: each time it’s your turn, you can use the Halo Infinite ping system to select a unit, then zoom in with the camera and ping at another location or enemy within the “opportunity range” that seems to make them move or attack. Players can take two movement or attacking actions with any of their units per turn and then end the turn by marking one of the two cards on the table that explain how to play. You can also switch between a remarkably smooth first-person and top-down perspective by pressing the “swap weapon” input.
It’s basically Baldur’s Gate 3 combat, but with Halo Infinite AI, and it’s simply phenomenal. Various elements of D&D action, like varied abilities and dice-based attack rolls, also appear; all AI units have different weapons, sometimes might miss their shots or grenade throws, and in the case of Grunts, might even run away in fear, as if they failed a Wisdom saving throw.
In rare instances, the AI might not move where it was instructed to go correctly, but Red Nomster has thought ahead and implemented an alternative solution for that which simply moves them to where you commanded them if they get confused along the way. By jumping on the green button on the map, you can switch all AI movements to work this way.
There are a few other buttons on the board that you can also press, like a red one that activates immersive sound effects for the game environment, as well as a purple one that assigns any spectator player to one of the teams. The former is an awesome way to make the game experience more immersive, while the latter is very handy if you’re hosting ongoing matches in the custom games browser.
Many incredible Forge maps have been made since the debut of the map creation mode, especially after the start of the 5th season of Halo Infinite in October last year, which gave creators campaign AI to play with. Of all of them, though, this is undeniably my favorite – and I’m not saying that just because I’m deeply involved in a Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough with friends (okay, maybe it’s influencing my opinion a little). The ingenuity on display here is wonderful and is another reminder of how amazing Forge is as a tool.
Stellar community-built experiences like this are part of a continued great revival of Halo Infinite that began late last year, sparked by the arrival of an excellent Firefight mode, the addition of tons of multiplayer playlists, some long-awaited quality of life improvements, and more. The game’s rating even jumped to “Most Positive” on Steam in December and has remained there ever since.
Halo Infinite multiplayer (including Forge and Firefight) is free to play, while its campaign costs $60 (but is usually much cheaper) on Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One consoles, and Windows PCs. Notably, you can also play at any level of the Xbox Game Pass subscription service.