Chris Avellone's Blog

Something I didn't mention before (but was probably mentioned in the comments/the devs know themselves)

 

Don't make a game that actually would have chances to get approved by a publisher. That's not what Kickstarter should be for regarding major studios.

 

Either do something completly original or old-school (IMO, of course)

1) Stat-based RPG- the abstract RPG stats layer affecting not only combat, but also character interaction and environmental interaction. Basically, a somewhat complex system of skills (dialogue and non-dialogue/environmental), with lots of opportunities for "skill checks" and skill development. Some healthy C&C to go along with that.

 

2) A good squad tactics-based RPG. Preferably turn-based or we-go, as real time hasn't historically led to good squad based tactics (I'd say BG is more strategy-based than tactics-based; the only real tactical interplay came up during mage fights which is more about the nice variety of spells and possible spell effects than about fireteam/multiple-person tactics. Don't care about the setting.

 

3) Give me Dungeon Siege 3 with a BETTER CAMERA and a totally different setting/storyline/etc. It's probably Obsidian's most solid combat system (in various ways, from design to implementation), but lacks Obsidian setting and storytelling and pacing... and QA and wider non-corridor-y maps.

Hail to Lord Avellone and all the "Sons of the Roleplay" here!

 

 

My little contribute (sorry for my english guys):

 

0) The basic: "writing" from Lord Avellone!

 

1) Any kind of loreset is good if it's well detailed, but I prefer Fantasy set (without spending money for a licensed IP)

 

2) A new ruleset (based on something similar to SPECIAL but in a Fantasy set)

 

3) 3D world (not so big like TES or Amalur or New Vegas) with free roaming exploration (divided in great areas)

 

4) NO invisible walls! (It's possible to limit an area with an intelligent use of objets, textures, mountains, natural obstacles, pieces of ambient, and so on...)

 

5) Special interaction with some objects (like Ultima VII) and ambient (with possibility to open new secret ways using a specific skill or perk)

 

6) NON-linear world design AND dungeon design (using the special interaction, it's possible to create different secret ways for exploration with good feedback for the player)

 

7) A more "horizontal levelling" of our PG (with the introduction of some special perks or special interactions, it's possible to offer new special actions or moves without "powerplay" or "farming")

 

8 ) NO EUMATE, please! (give us original, variable and non-linear quests design)

 

9) Dinamic-Isometric Camera (a better - *better* - version of NWN2 and DS3 camera)

 

10) Party-based exploration and combat (not so much companions.....I think 4 in the party and 7 in total is a good compromise...all well caracterized and with unique skills/perks and unique personal quest line)

 

11) Strategic combat system with the use of tactical pause (possibility to set order to PG and companions), with a good number of combat animations, with a good IA pattern for enemy and Boss Fight, and with a lot of tactical variables to manage (resistence, defense, ambiental advantage/disvantage, and so on...)

 

12) Hardcore mode (need of food, water, rest, and healing of serious wounds [a wounded PG suffer penalties to Attributes/Skills] or diseases)...so we can't abuse of the Fast Travel...

 

13) Reputation system for Factions (like New Vegas with a more dinamic reactions to our actions)

 

14) Morality system for Party Companions (a mix between KOTOR2 and NWN2 MotB, with dinamic reactions to our actions and dialogues choices)

 

15) A LOT OF stats/skills/perks check in dialogues (I trust in Lord Avellone writing!) to offer a great number of approachs in quests solving (but without "[25%]" or "[75]" because we are intelligent enough to understand where is a check in a dialogue.....Planescape Torment rulez!!! :D )

 

16) Classic branched dialogues (NO Alpha Protocol Timer, please!...and NO Mass Effect wheel!)....simple classic dialogues (without synthesis of the sentence that we will choose...we want the entire sentence...)

 

17) Multi-plot with "Choices & Conseguences" in short- and long-term (especially in the final of the game...I love the use of typical "static screens" and descriptions of the changes in the loreset)....but without spending money for Computer Graphic Cutscenes, please...

 

18) A basic stealth mode, based on enemy line of sight, light/darkness system and sounds (not so advanced but still nice)...

 

19) Funny mini-games

 

20) Morals dramas

 

21) Adults contents and some heavy-metaphysical-psychological thematics

 

22) Scripted cutscenes for a good and epic narration (camera change, different point of view, zoom, and so on...)

 

23) "Contextualised Fast Travel" (Teleport, Stone of Teleport, caravans, transport, and so on...)

 

24) NO GPS on the map, please! We are proud "Sons of the Old Roleplay"!!! :D

 

 

This is it! :D

 

 

 

*he puts aside 500 $ for Kickstarter!*

Believe me, I've put up with discrimination that would leave you foetal, and thus perhaps I'm less thin skinned.

Don't take this as an insult, but are you a furry?

- Stat Trek RPG

- Fallout 4

I leave the content of the game up to you (though a new IP would be nice), but for the format I would love to see an RPG in the style of the Infinity Engine games. I suggest that because with a project funded through kickstarter you want to be cost-effective, and that format I suspect would give you the best return on your dollar. Here's why:

 

1 - Visuals: as opposed to graphics. Infinity Engine games don't have great graphics by today's standards, but they do have great visuals, thanks to the painted 2d backdrops, which contain a ton of scene and mood-setting detail. I would guess that compared to a 3D game, a @d isometric one would give a great visual return per artist-hiring dollar invested.

 

2 - Dialogue: I'm not necessarily against fully-voiced RPGs but I do think they make it more difficult to manage dialogue in games. A game like this I don't think would have to apologize for not being fully voiced. This means you could have more story depth per dollar invested.

 

3 - Gameplay: I always thought that a hidden strength of the Baldur's Gate series was that it had it's gameplay systems essentially pre-designed. Second edition wasn't exactly the most elegant system, but it had a huge library of classes, monsters, and encounter design knowledge over the arc of 20+ long levels that the BG series benefited from.

 

4 - Nostalgia value: A kickstarter project is gonna be trading in on this, and promising the next Fallout/BG2/Planescape will get people interested.

 

For all these reasons and more, a 2D, isometric, Infinity Engine-style game is the way to go. Make it happen!

I would happily support an Obsidian development. I wouldn't like to dictate a sequel or even a particular genre; I just want something superbly written with amazing dialogue and characters. Planescape: Torment is probably my favourite game ever, but for me what makes it so good isn't the isometric viewpoint, AD&D mechanics or even the Planescape license - it's the writing.

 

I'd pay up front in order to provide Obsidian free rein to explore their creativity in whatever form they see best. Just make something amazing.

http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/106877-brian-fargo-considering-kickstarter-for-wasteland-2.html

 

So there is another "brilliant" idea! You should team up with Brian Fargo to make Wasteland 2.

You should team up with Brian Fargo to make Wasteland 2.

 

This.

This was all said by 'Wulf' (the stuff that I'm replying to) but the quotes stuffed up and this is me trying to fix them.

Nope didn't work, guess it hates me messing around with the quotes.

 

Obsidian could do something really interesting and all you can think of is either a sequel to an ancient game that wasn't actually all that great anyway, or an isometric RPG with such obfuscated mechanics that no one would be able to or want to play it

 

 

Hmmm well I guess we all have different opinions on what games were really that great anyway, so actually people are asking for sequels to games that (in their head) were really that great? Not sure how constructive that bit is but whatever. And asking for a sequel to a game, while unimaginative, is also pretty convenient shorthand for "The kind of work you did here? This was good. I would like to play another thing that has similar experiences." For example, Planescape Torment is wordy as all heck and has weird people or whatever, people want to see that, I dunno.

 

This next bit confuses me. I don't think anyone was advocating a difficult UI. Most isometric games I've played have been relatively easy to control.

 

This has honestly gotten to the point where I can't tell if many people are being serious or just being hipsters. If we gave them the creative freedom, they could do something really amazing. I want to see them change the game, I want a paradigm shift that will help alter how people look at RPGs in general, and what I do not want is Ancient Game That Belongs in the Past VI.I think that they should look at how differently you could make an RPG, too. Shy away from mechanics both ancient and modern, and try to do something new.

 

Well these are good ideals I guess but 'do something new' is fairly nebulous. Some systems work pretty well, and having had them once, people are often gonna want them again rather than some nebulous "New revolutionary thing that is totally gonna blow your mind I promise you, or my name's not Peter Molyneux!" (OK perhaps a little cynical, but I am often fairly skeptical of alleged 'paradigm shifts'.)

 

Do you think that Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines would have been as touted if it were isometric? Its predecessor, Redemption, is almost unbeknownst to PC gamers because it's isometric and obfuscated.

 

Then again, games like Baldurs Gate and Planescape: Torment are even more beloved than Bloodlines, so perhaps the isometry (Is that a word? Probably not, I've decided to use it anyway) is not the reason for Redemption's relative obscurity as you seem to think.

 

If you obfuscate things, then it's hard to get at the story beyond the ridiculous amounts of number fetishism. Even The Witcher (and II) had this problem, it was almost an impenetrable bog of numbers. But that's not Obsidian, why are we forcing this on them? Obsidian has never been an 'impenetrable bog of numbers' developer.

 

I don't really know what you're talking about here. Is this about how a lot of the mechanics in RPGs are based on stat numbers? Like, percentage change to do x amount of damage, that kind of stuff? If so that kind of stuff's actually pretty important in an RPG. Being able to reduce the value of items and stats to a numerical figure is easier than a bunch of nebulous 'excellent/good/bad' or whatever values.

 

I mean you probably meant something else entirely but to be honest I'm not certain.

 

What Obsidian does well is storytelling and world building! They give us plots which make us think and feel, they give us choices which challenge us emotionally and intellectually, they create games which linger in our memories because they were so unusual, and not because they're just a repeat of some old, overly touted game that we shouldn't really care about any more (again, I can't tell if people are just being hipsters).

 

It gets a bit weird from here on because you do all this ridiculous gushing and talking about paradigm shifts and how they're not hard... but you're also still calling other people hipsters? Odd, but OK...

 

OK so I snipped a bunch of what you wrote here because my post is probably already pretty long but basically it was a thesis about the Fallout world, and about how you totally GET the Fallout world, and some people get it, Bethesda don't though, because you know what GETTING it is all about...

 

I guess my response to this bit is in my rewrite of your bit.

 

(snipped some bit about how apparently you never learned the world in some games by interaction with world, I dunno.) In fact, I'd love to see them go all the way out there and not include a single human, to do a truly alien world where the order of the day is discovery. I'd like them to try to tackle things like "What if a character was empathic and could feel emotions, how would that affect dialogue?"

 

Telepathy, gotcha. Been done. Worked OK I guess, by which I mean it was exactly like normal speech except they'd punctuate it with asterisks or something and mess with the syntax.

 

Or "What if a character was bound with a parasite and had to deal with things that the parasite slipped in through them in conversation and/or action?"

 

I'd like to see them tackle concepts which are really off the beaten track, and to do something that a publisher truly wouldn't buy. Of course, any publisher would go for Planescape: Torment 2, and we all know that they'd be idiots not to. That would be something that any publisher would buy. But that's not the point of this, is it?

 

Actually I'm not sure most publishers would be all that keen on PS:T, it was a 'cult classic' rather than a 'box office smash', and those are not exactly what every publisher dreams of.

 

Not only that, but they're working on a limited budget, and I'd rather see them do something unusual than blow all of their money on licensing a setting and/or combat system.

 

Agreed on the licensing thing, although I'm not sure why option 'b' has to be 'something unusual'. I've played 'something unusual' a number of times, it rarely ends well.

 

I really wish we could sit here and brainstorm something incredible rather than just getting another post where someone sits up and yells "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I know! I know! I'd totally fund if their game was Planescape: Torment 2, or Arcanum 2, or Neverwinter Nights 3, or Some Other Old Game VI!! Totally would! LICENSE THEM ALL!", because actually moving away from that and trying to embrace the idea of something really new would make me happy.

 

My impression of the original suggestion was that we, the potential backers, would be giving them an idea of things we like, not trying to design their game for them.

 

I suppose for the youngsters, who've not played years of RPGs, the idea of a Planescape: Torment 2 may seem appealing. But for the old farts like me who've been playing RPGs for over thirty years in one form or another (pen & paper, tabletop, computer, or what have you), I think that a lot of us older gamers just want to see something new.

 

Smooth. Play the 'get some time up' card. Also, mildly amused at the "Not played years of RPGs" and then referencing a game that came out over a decade ago.

 

Paradigm shifts aren't hard.

 

You just move away from what the mainstream wants and stop appealing to hte lowest common denominator. And isn't that precisely what this is about? I'm sorry, but the lowest common denominator in this case amounts to number fetishists, and people screaming for Ancient Game VI. We need to move beyond that. We really do.

 

 

If paradigm shifts were 'not hard' they'd probably occur a little more frequently and a little more successfully. And reading Avellone's original post, it actually seems like number crunching, sequels and 'ancient game', as you so dismissively put it, are exactly what this is 'all about'.

 

Give your imaginations a workout. Go beyond sequels. Forget IPs. What do you truly want to see?---

 

And if we really must have humans in the game, why don't we make them Interdimensional Explorers and land them in a world where all sorts of crazy **** could happen to them?

 

"Well, one of our number became a werewolf-like thing and he wants to stay with his hippie werewolf monks. One of them was absorbed into this fleshy mass of an overmind and claims to now know everything. One of us has become a pure energy being that can possess other people. One of us now has a parasite attached to his head that allows her to see beyond the reality that we see. And that just leaves two of us who're still actually kind of human... so let's be xenophobic and get the **** out of here before something happens to us, too!"

 

Where did the wonder for exploration go? That's what I want. I want a bat****, crazy world where all manner of bizarre things can and will happen. I want a world where you never know what sort of crazy experience might lay around the next corner. I want to see the brightest and darkest corners of the imaginations of the people at Obsidian printed into the very fabric of this game.

 

The Universe is an incredible place and all we can think about is pissing about and languishing in stuff we're already familiar with? I hope that this project won't be about that, but about just imagination for the sake of imagination. I want to see what they can do when their creative leashes are removed, when their restrictive harnesses are unbound, and they can do whatever the heck they want.

 

---

 

Essentially, I want an unfamiliar "What the eff is wrong with this world?!" game. We spend so much time in humancentric settings, doing humancentric things, that people are never really taken out of their comfort zones. This is a chance for Obsidian to write stories which really screw with the minds of the people playing.

 

Why would we not want that?

 

The problem with your above ideas (apart from being a pretentious load of tripe) is that in general, we play characters for whom a world will NOT be alien. Trying to play a game in a world where everything should be totally normal to your character, when actually everything is completely bizarre to the player, is an artificial barrier to roleplaying that runs counter to its ideals. Familiarish settings are good because they help facilitate roleplaying.

 

EDIT: Well this quote thing is now my archnemesis.

People are all getting far too wound up by Wulf, here. He recently got banned off of the RPS site/forums for his holier-than-thou attitude and passive-aggressive nature, so he's evidently just looking for somewhere else to voice his highly opinionated stances. Don't let him get into your veins. (dem lycanthropes, man)

 

Anyway, little else to actually say - though this;

 

You should team up with Brian Fargo to make Wasteland 2.

 

...this is interesting.

edit... didn't see the link being posted already in the previous page...

I really like the idea of such a project, it's like a return to a good-ol' motto "By gamers for gamers". A lot of opinions has been written already, personally I always wanted to see a Darklands or Master of Magic (1994, Microprose) or System Shock continued. There were thoughts about some kind of a new cyberpunk IP (based on GURPS, lol) as well.

I seriously hope you guys will do this.

Wasteland 2 would be my dream project, yes. I think Fargo bought back the rights for Wasteland not long ago too, so it's not 100% impossible. Only 99%.

A Star Trek RPG with Kinect controls similar to ME3. Exemple you can tell the onboard computer to find a crewman, activate forcefields or set of the auto destruct. Think about it atleast...

Anyway, little else to actually say - though this;

You should team up with Brian Fargo to make Wasteland 2.

...this is interesting.

 

Wasteland 2 would be a dream come true. I hope Brian Fargo considers it and it'd be cool if Obsidian helped(IIRC Avellone is a fan of Wasteland too!), but it'd be even more awesome if we got Wasteland 2 + Obsidian's game at the same time.

I always get a smile on my face hearing the words "planescape" and "arcanum". Simply for that I would kickstart anything you propose (if that anything had lots of story in it ;-). And I know at least two others who would put up money in a second.

But you are looking for preferences and suggestions. Here we go:

 

I would have said a turn-based RPG is a must, but I don't remember any mayor successful turn-based RPG, after Baldurs Gate made RTwP the standard. Except for Wizardry 8, but that was tedious because of too many fights (I never finished it). Maybe my desire for turn-based is just nostalgia. Or the desire for really tactical combat which on the other hand should be secondary to story and setting. Still, if you have something like RTwP, why not add a config option to make it turn-based through automatic stops (there is no problem with having actions that need more than one turn). If you add appropriate difficulty settings for turn-based and RTwP or even RT, everyone is happy and you can even market it to the action-RPG crowd. Although, I think you tried that with Arcanum and the real-time wasn't really working (or is my memory faulty in this regard?)

 

Mature story and characters and ideas is a must. Don't censor yourself to appeal to the masses. A strange, unusual or even weird, mysterious setting and humour would be wonderful. Both Planescape and Arcanum had the right mix (probably F:NV too from what I heard, but I'm slow and still playing FO3 at the moment). Did I say humor? If not: humor. It's what made Portal such a resounding success. What made Planescape unforgetable was the story and how everything fit together (read 4xis.black's post in this thread again, he found the right words). Really, the story should be your number one priority.

As lots of people said, no romance, NWN1 forever gave me a phobia for that.

 

The setting should be something fresh, paying for a licence is probably too expensive. But you may find fresh settings where you don't need to pay through your nose for that, webcomic or book authors might be happy about the promotion.

Probably a post-apocalytic setting isn't the best right now because surely we'll get more of that with Fallout 4. Steampunk or similar would be wonderful, but you might say "been there, done that". If not, take a look at the webcomic "Girl Genius". What wouldn't we give for gigantic steam-robots ;-) ?

 

Maybe some unusual (for games) hard-SF setting like a generation ship where you wake up and find a new primitive civilization surrounded by high-tech. Or the alien civilization you are thrown into as sole (as far as you know) survivor of a spaceship crash and must learn the rules (and can offer something new to them as well which would give the opportunity to incorporate a quest system). Read books by C.J.Cherryh or Iain Banks culture novels like 'Player of Games' for inspiration about interesting aliens and AI.

 

Maybe an alternate history setting. From Nazis-won-the-war to church-rules-everything. Aliens-live-among-us could be interesting, see the movie District 9 why it must not always be an invasion scenario.

 

A time travel main story where your actions in the past are necessary to overcome obstacles in the future. I know, difficult to do as an RPG (instead of as an adventure) but that would really be something novel.

 

Something similar to "Superhero League of Hoboken". I know many who always hoped for a new incarnation of that game. Not the mechanics (the game had its flaws no doubt and the story was simplistic), but the scenario was great, inept superheroes with superpowers like create organizational charts or see inside pizza boxes. Set in a postapocalyptic New York. Pleasantly weird and rich opportunities for satire and humor.

 

Something else you might think about is whether you could open-source the game. Would make it possible that your game gets expanded, improved and bug-fixed by a community of fans and take on a live of its own. Without having to support a complicated construction set.

I think part of what made Baldur's Gate a truly great series was that moral decisions weren't shoved straight down your throat. I've seen people fault it for not really making you think about moral choices, and that it's straight cut. Not everything or everyone is a shade of gray and some people don't care one way or another how things go. In the end, you're on a personal quest to get some revenge and to stop someone from taking you out for their own plans. Then you're out to get your soul back, and finally to stop someone from using you to ascend to godhood. I think a good story goes a ways further than a game packed to the teeth with moral choices.

Joined the forums just to put my two cents in. The words Arcanum and Planescape are pretty much the two that sound the best. I'll throw in Baldur's Gate 3, although I think that's what NWN was supposed to be, and what Neverwinter is supposed to be, soo yeah...Arcanum or Planescape(or similar settings) would be amazing.

 

Arcanum - there hasn't been a decent steampunk RPG to memory for years. Arcanum also was one of the most interesting universes that I've seen in recent times. If the IP is joint owned by a bunch of people, make a new steampunk tech vs magic world. That was probably what made Arcanum the most interesting to me. Also, there hasn't been a steampunk IP except for maybe Skies of Arcadia that has come at all close to being as awesome as Arcanum.

Planescape: Torment - It is still being hailed as the best RPG of all time. Need I say more? I'd love to see another RPG in the same universe, with the same weirdness, the same insanity, and the same deep, immersive universe. Not a sequel, but a visit to the universe.

Would be awesome to see either or both of these as Action RPGs or as traditional CRPGs in the same vein as Dragon Age: Origins.

Another idea? Buy the Edge of Twilight iP! That game engine looked awesome, and I bet Obsidian could make something beautiful out of what was left!

EDIT: Also, if you need an unrealscript programmer for if/when you decide to do Alpha Protocol 2, I'll totally do it!

If you could somehow secure the usage rights to D&D (and HASBRO/WotC's Marketing Department didn't make crazy demands for using it), finish The Black Hound for us. ;_;

Just tell me where to send my money.

I feel the exact same way! where can I dump my money!?

Other people have great suggestions for content. My suggestions are more of under the hood type of stuff, which would make the game have a very long life, especially with expansions, and DLC. Heck, the game can even have a series of modules that are played like a serial (think Ultima 7-9. This definitely will keep the game as a revenue source.

 

AD&D rules: It would be nice to have 4E or even 5E, but PnP is difficult to translate to computers in some cases.

 

Servers: It would be nice to have the ability to have multiple servers, with a server acting as a character data server, area server, or perhaps both. With proper transaction logging, it would keep character files from becoming corrupt on a multi-server persistent world, while allowing chat and talking between people on different area servers. This might require a database backend like MySQL or PostgresQL, but it would be well worth it. It would be nice to see server code be able to be run on Windows, OS X, and Linux, like NWN1, but not sure how hard that would be to implement these days. Having a small Linux cluster for a good PW would be nice though.

 

Extendability would be key. It would be nice for a character on a PW to have the ability to have additional attributes like date created, time played, etc. so one can add level experience that way, or seniority.

 

Module creation would be important -- it is hard to make a toolset that a beginner can use, but advanced scripters can use well. However, for a game with a long shelf life, it would pay for itself.

 

It would be nice to see functions be able to be attached to items regardless of modules they are in. This way, a player with a sword like Enserric would still be able to interact with it regardless of module. Of course, having metadata that would allow the module author to turn imported scripts like that off would help balance things.

 

What made NWN1 and NWN2 different from every other game out there is the persistant world aspect and the time/trouble/toil it took for world builders to make their creations. It would be nice to see a spiritual successor in this vein. Done right, it would definitely earn its keep over time.

Do what you do best, Obsidian, to me, has always been known for its amazing branching stories and characters. Game engines out there seem to come and go and there are some amazing ones out there, why reinvent the horse 'n buggy? (Unless its economicly cheaper) The true measure of a game engine is it has to be something that can handle future expansions so Obsidian can make more games for it! And it has to look awesome and have jawdropping magic/special effects...

 

My pipedream? Obsidian meets with Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Files. I know nothing about ip licensing or how much it costs, but the Dresden Files and Harry Dresden are pretty fun characters. Could Obsidian/Jim Butcher tell us a tale of Harry Dresden w/o screwing up Jims future books? I dunno.

 

Pipedream pt II - Folks speak of Arcanum and steam punk (it was a decent game) or Fallout (just not my cup of tea, the world is a burnt out cinder...) as rare and untapped, but how many modern/high fantasy stories have been told by pc rpgs? Many 3rd person action games Devil May Cry, Darksiders (fun game!) have had a modern fantasy cast to them, but a full Obsidian rpg... You could even get the Planescape feel with having the need to "cross dimensions" and walk into the world of the fae, or asguard, olympus, Heaven and Hell to do/finish some quest, accrue honor/debts/faction, etc. I know folks at Obsidian have to be rpg'ers so I say something like Obsidian + White Wolfs Mage, Dresden Files, White Wolfs Scion, Shadowrun. Joe average discovers the power of magic and becomes in a powerstruggle thru the planes of reality. Or maybe he is a god, secretly in hiding, thrown down from his throne and his mind struck clean, come to take back his panthion! romance, betrayal, guns, Magic! DRAGONS!

 

Do what Obsidian does best, tell a great story! Oh, and if you are going to put moral choices in the game, MAKE THEM COUNT FOR SOMETHING! This trend of games that hype different styles of play (FABLE! KOTOR, Mass Effect (its so mediocre, how did it get such hype?) etc) are crap, you can be the biggest douch in the world, but you make the one major choice for good at the end, and you are suddenly the ubar !@$ hero of the universe! No. I know its more work, almost 2 games in one allowing for "good and evil" play but I think thats one of Obsidians strenghts. If you play "good" then when you goto the "Higher" planes, they welcome you and give you quests to go stop evil. If you play evil, when you goto the "Lower" planes, they throw a party and try to get you to go do more evil!

 

Take us on a grand, turn based, none of this real time combat stuff, thats not a true rpg, tale. Use the concepts of White Wolfs world of darkness as a skeleton for the story. Neo and the Matrix meets Odin and Ragnorok (sp). Start us at level one with a magic missle and a phoney katanna from a close out sale from S-Mart!

Don't think you could make a sequel to either the BG or IWD series...or even PS, BUT, perhaps you could make a spiritual successor to the IE games of some sort.

I feel that steampunk as a setting is vastly overused, and that's why it's not been seen recently. It reached a peak with Arcanum, and things can only go downhill from there. I don't want to see Obsidian become part of that decline.

 

Now dieselpunk on the other hand...

 

Dieselpunk allows you to do some very unusual things, and some particularly fun pastiches.