Chris Avellone's Blog

Speaking of a setting, I'd gladly take any Obsidian chooses, but IMHO something similar to the one in Charles Stross's "Capital Laundry" series could be really interesting and fresh.

 

I.e. a modern setting, with the cave-out that Lovecraftian horrors (or whatever supernatural threats) are real and a secret government agency struggles to contain their incursions, while simultenously running a cover-up for the general public.

 

What makes it all the more difficult is that "spells" are actually based on mathematical algorithms, symbolic logic, etc. so that somebody who was just trying to write a really neat computer program could accidentially open a dimensional gate for an eldritch horror, etc. Your character's main magical weapon is a phone/tablet loaded with various esoteric programs, etc.

 

So, there could be a lot of different things to do - investigation of accidents, cover-ups of the same, tracking and stopping/recruiting people who unbeknowest to themselves could be up to something really dangerous, infiltration of cults that purposefully ditto, tracking posessed individuals, and occasionally confronting said horrors, sometimes even going through dimensional gates to do so.

 

At the same, you have to deal with all the stuff a public employee is saddled with - office politics, audits, budget cuts, etc.

Well now that I can at least dream about this again, my first choice would be Arcanum 2, lord knows I've bought the original three times now.

 

Second choice Icewind Dale 3, loved the first two.

So ya shows how much I miss isometric style games these days.

 

Let me know when I can put my money where my post is.

Although I love Planescape: Torment and it's probably one of the best RPGs in gaming, period. I think it should rest and screw WotC. What I'd really like is another good steampunk RPG since those are pretty non-existent nowadays (or ever really except Arcanum). I'd also throw cash at another Vampire title, I'm sure you guys could do interesting things with Requiem.

Give gamers a platform to create and mod limited only by their imagination.

 

When I first encountered RPGs they came in books, and gave me the opportunity to travel in worlds created by others or into my own. With my friends.

 

Soo...

 

An open source toolset, with adventure or world design so simple to use your or any ten year old can create an Epic story or world.

 

Single-player, Multi -player, Persistent World

 

DM function

 

If this sounds like NWN3, its ok... it's the only game to really mimic pen and paper RPG's freeing of the imagination. Think of it like an online RPG rulebook, operating system and limitless world creation engine, all open to betterment and addition from its community. Like a virtual D&D Basic set, but without the limitation to D&D...

 

Bet people would fund that

While there are many good and more original ideas i'm all for a Planescape 2.

 

As a previous poster pointed out it can't be Torment 2 but it could be Planescape 2.

 

You guys have the experience of a successfull modern update of an old isometric game in New Vegas and I can see in my head how cool it would be to wander round Sigil in modern era first or third person.

 

I know that even a wildly successful fund raising campaign may not give you a budget to consider a full 3d top flight style development so ye olde iso style might be a necessary restriction to fit the eventual budget. In that case you can still draw on the non 3d developements in rpgs (consitent 'use' actions, character configuration, non experience/level based mechanic etc). Always had a hankering back in the day for an ISO turn based RPG which has a really detailed 'physics' model for want of a better term i.e. you can use general feature of the game world (rather than specificly set up scripts) to make a noise and draw an enemy into an ambush. Systems like that in Deus Ex and Masquerade blood lines were amazing when i first encountered them.

 

Another direction you could go with the concept of adding informationaly layers to an ISO game world would be to do the magic system as another layer(S) of physics a top the conventional (the shadowrun table top astral mechanics for example). A simple implementation was the Gloom in the Nigthwatch games.

 

Licensing is always a potential problem even if there was not the slightest chance of any Planescape stuff being used in another game people with probably still want serious money for it and that probably has to be avoided on what will still probably amount to a modest budget for a top tier game. I think planescape really benefited from the work put into the table top setting but you can maybe think laterally and get that creativity and uniqueness from somewhere else, an author such as China Mieville for example (He's written at least one RPG supplement and being able to really see New Crobuzon would be epic).

 

I'd like to see something see up both story/setting wise and technologically that allows for quick sequels. Not just dragging a game out into 3 parts but something that allows for the quick (year or so) developement of 2 more games in the same setting (basically what happened with new vegas). Hopefully a restricted budget is a boon to this as there is only so much time you can spend and you'd have to plan accordingly. Sick of waiting 5 years or more for any life in an RPG franchise just because only top flight or indie games seem to be doable.

 

I'd be willing to stump up the price of a full price game in advance for almost any RPG concept you guys want to follow.

 

More than that I want to see this model become part of the main stream. You guys make it, we buy it (or the other way round really) and the bare minimum of middle men inbetween (kickstarter and its 5% in this case).

 

Edit: The guy above might be onto something a really good toolset with an Obisdian produced campaign as the center point to each major version. The core could be released for others to use because A) you'll have been paid up front and B) the Open Game License was a very interesting developement in table top still leaving the Obsidian produced campaign as a traditional gameing product to sell.

I hope it isn

Wow, some kind of thread: hither an excruciatingly detailed design pitch, thither nostalgia for the halcyon days of your Interplay forebears.

 

Am I alone in finding it depressing that when people have the freedom to express precisely what they want, about half invariably ask for sequels [to sequels]?

 

Say Obsidian, how's about something risky? Or risqu

A thing I have learned from this thread: The majority of people have no creative vision whatsoever.

 

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?

 

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. 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.

 

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.

 

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).

 

I'm an old fart myself. I Icewind Daled it up with the best of them, I liked Fallout, but if I'm honest then I'm just going to come out and say it - Fallout 2 was probably my favourite game of that era because it was fun, it had a great plot, and it didn't take itself too seriously. And I think that since that era, we've had a lot of evolution.

 

New Vegas, for example, was a massive step up in many ways. I was a bit sad that New Vegas lost some of the incredibly intelligent back humour and atmosphere of the prior games, but what it did get is what essentially makes Fallout Fallout. New Vegas was a post-post-post apocalyptic setting. They'd already done the post apocalyptic thing, then the post-post apocalyptic thing, and by this point society was starting to rebuild. This was the setting of Fallout 2 as well.

 

This is actually what Fallout 3 didn't get, and what Bethesda didn't understand, that what made Fallout so special wasn't all the things that they clearly believed, but purely because of the story and setting. If you look at New Vegas, you'll see what I mean. Obsidain understands these things, they know how to do something which is off the beaten path.

 

If you want a game that fetishises numbers of drudges up ancient games, then I think your best bet is heading over to GoG.com and buying their entire library. Because Obsidian has never really been about that. Perhaps whilet hey were at Interplay as Black Isle, they might have been somehwat about that, but what's not well understood is that that was purely because of the technological limitations of the time.

 

In fact, I'd love to see them do purely what their good at: Strip the math right back, let the computer handle the number progression of a player character, and concentrate purely on world, story, narrative, and choices. These are the areas where Obsidian excels. I want to see them do a brilliantly alien world which challenges some of the best we've seen, with plenty of intrigue, lots of "WTF?", and generally a world we understand through playing.

 

Not a world which (like The Witcher or Dragon Age) you sit and learn about by reading tooltips or magically updated entries in an omniscient journal, but something you learn about through experience. 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?"

 

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?

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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?

dear Chris and the amazing Obsidian team!

 

Id would prefer a title similar to the epicness of the Fallout universe. I know you dont own the IP so it would have to be something different. But OH! How I love that amazing world you guys created! Those game have a kind of soul that I seek in other games but is so hard to find.

 

What ever game you decide to make, I will kickstart and support the game! Man Im so excited!

Another vampire RPG like bloodlines, maybe a different rule system though.

 

I really love turn based combat, and always wanted a first person turn based RPG. I hate action RPG's.

 

Licensing the source engine I hear has gotten cheaper. With new games like Dota 2 coming, I think it would be a great way to make a game cheaply.

Okay, I has more to say.

 

I've spent some time thinking today and one thing I realised was how much I loved "Old World Blues." Now, if you've been following my posts, you'll realise that the last thing I'm going to ask for is anything Fallout IP related, or related to any IP. But it made me realise just how amazingly good Obsidian still is at 'intelligently funny.'

 

There are too many games that take themselves seriously these days, almost to the point of... well, if they were people, they'd be brooding, emo drama queens. "LET ME TELL YOU OF MY PAIN!" Would it be so wrong to have the odd Gai Daigoji-style character in a game? One that's optimistic, and has boyish enthusiasm for everything?

 

Maybe it's that I played a lot of Asian games in my youth, but sometimes, the completely serious nature of games just gets me down. It adds burdensome weight to the proceedings. I mean, it all feels as though it's a world that doesn't know how to laugh, that doesn't know joy, and that I find more depressing than anything else - a world that doesn't know how to laugh at itself.

 

I remember how much I loved Skies of Arcadia because Vyse wasn't a trembling mess of psychoses like most RPG characters, or how much I loved Grandia because of the interactions between Justin and Mr. Tigerman Knight Person. What was his name again?

 

I'll go and look it up.

 

Ah yes. Gadwin. Gods I loved Gadwin.

 

"We are manly men, Justin! Manly men. Yes, yes we are. And as such, we must do manly things! Manly things, as manly men of action. And we must express our manliness in platonic ways!"

 

It was so innocent and ridiculously funny, I miss that.

 

So if I'd like to see Obsidian try anything, it's more along the lines of Old World Blues. Because, Chris, do you know what OWB managed? It made me do a rare thing, something that games don't do enough of these days: It made me laugh. Joy is underrated, and there's nothing wrong with having a setting that can be serious, but can also be completely silly in the same breath.

 

This is why, in my first post here, I mentioned Discworld. Discworld is the most nonsensical setting imaginable, and it has its moments of pure hilarity, and yet... it can be so serious, so warm, and it can remind me of the things I loved about non-earth settings. I recall things like Seargent Vimes brandishing a swamp dragon as a flamethrower and I laugh. Vimes believed that he was such a badass in that moment, completely unable to comprehend how much of a nerdy goof he really was. That's great.

 

And one of my favourite shooters, just to go there... can you guess?

 

Bulletstorm. I loved Bulletstorm. It did the same thing.

 

Bulletstorm made me laugh, but it also had purpose. It was funny, yet serious, and it could do both of these things. I was out to protect Ishi, so I was emotionally invested in it, but I also loved the patter back and forth between Ishi and Gray. And later on, the extra dimensions added by the other characters.

 

The most disappointing thing about Bulletstorm was that it didn't sell well.

 

When did we forget how to laugh?

 

There was a time when you could have a wolfman, a steampunk armadillo, and a flying octopus with a pot on its head team up with you to save the world. And that was completely okay too, because it was funny. It was silly, it was really out of left field, but it was okay.

 

So another thing I'd love to see is these abstracts, these silly worlds, and this underlying humour tied in with Obsidian's storytelling, narrative, and choice. I'm tired of drama queens, I'm sick of emo characters, I'm fed up of playing an omnicidial maniac, I bore of having to put up with characters who're ready to crumble under their own psychoses.

 

These are things that have been done so much that they've been troped to heck and back a billion times over. What could Obsidian do with a setting that handled itself like Old World Blues? Which was serious and silly at the same time? That's something I'd like to see them do as well.

 

You guys have a great sense of humour, I'd love to see it in your next game.

I'd like to see another Ultima 7 and when I say Ultima 7 I mean everything from top down perspective to the way the story is presented to being able to bake bread. But what ultima 7 did was kept it simple. Graphics weren't elaborate, the gameplay didn't require 5 pages of mapped keyboard controls, and the story was easy to keep up with.

 

But it was a rich vibrant world. NPCs went about a daily life.

 

It seems like what always happens with RPGs these days is too much scope. How many people actually finish RPGs? probably not many because you take a break, and come back and forget what you were doing. Or there's too much to do, you get side tracked and lose interest.

 

Maybe it's not about the type of game, but a game that people want to finish. And there are plenty of great fun games people don't finish simply because they are hard to get back into once you walk away for a bit.

I think I'd be happy with absolutely whatever just as long as it's not shoved half-dressed out the door by an impatient publisher. Given the choice, however, I'd be more interested in a fresh IP than a sequel to an already established title. And as long as this fresh IP would be receiving a lot of love, creativity and, perhaps most importantly, time I'm sure it can't fail.

Once you set aside some of the trollish undertones (Claiming isometric is antiquated?? Witcher 1 has TOO MANY NUMBERS?!) of Wulf's tl;dr posts, he brings up a few good points. I'll summarize the worthwhile ones here:

 

Obisdian should focus on their strengths. Their strengths are storytelling, worldbuilding, and smart humor.

 

Obsidian should downplay their weaknesses. Their weaknesses are polished gameplay and solid programming. To elaborate a bit, I'm talking about the showstopper bugs, sloppy engines (see NwN2), weak/unbalanced combat elements (Fallout, Torment, Alpha Protocol).

 

Focus on story/world and heavily downplay combat. Keep the engine simple, it's cheaper that way and will lead to fewer bugs.

 

On the note of weird settings, check out Perdido Street Station. It will melt your freakin' brain.

Or, maybe some discordian // Illuminati RPG... heh? I mean based on Illuminati Trilogy, Principia Discordia and Illuminati Card Game

 

If this happened, I would absolutely die. Also, all the Disco communities would contribute tons of bucks.

 

EDIT: And by "all of the," I mean all six, and by "tons of," I mean $5,000 at most. lol

 

Everyone is calling for a modern day RPG, and in my opinion there is NO BETTER MATCH for Obsidian than I!3 (Illuminatus! Trilogy). The lore, the satire, the 70's style and high camp... Wow, they could do so much with that. If copyright is an issue, base it loosely like the Illuminati Card Game.

I would gladly help a kickstar project for a HD remake of Advent Rising and would love to see the trilogy finished up! I belive the orignal publisher, Majestik is gone, and the rights to game are probably avalvibe for sale at a reasble price. The game was a amazing. Everyone, BUT the biased critics, who played the game loved it!

Gotta go with the majority here;

Planescape or Arcanum.

 

For whatever its worth, i would donate serious amounts of cash if SOMONE would just stick it to the industry and make a turn based RPG for once.

 

How dare they even proclaim the genre dead when there are no titles to support financially?

After reading through 25 pages, I suppose what people really want is something like Academagia. A text-based adventure where you can talk your way down to the ending with a lot of skills, paths, possibilities and content, kind of like thse books where we were the hero, except with less cruelty toward the reader and a virtual dice.

Hell, they even describe the game like this: "Our game rewards relationship building, research and knowledge over violence". Gameplay is also threw out by the window but people seems to be fine with that. I wonder...

 

Something like that could work for a kickstarter project.

I've got two normal suggestions and one strange one:

 

1. Another Planescape game; not a sequel but once again pitting the player against the weird multiverse, and a return to Sigil, of course.

 

2. A cyberpunk game based on Neuromancer or Stand on Zanzibar/The Shockwave Rider. There are so few cyberpunk CRPGs it's a crying shame considering the richness of the literature.

 

3. Explore the zaniest tabletop RPG ever created: RIFTS! Frankly it'd be a challenge but an awesome one at that. This is a setting that has everything and the kitchen sink thrown in: Mecha, Dragons, Wizards, Aliens, Demons, Vampires, Plasma Cannons, Powered Armor, Zombies, AIs, Elves, Demigods, you name it, RIFTS has it. It's stupidly brilliant and I'm sure Obsidian could polish it into a black diamond.

 

http://www.palladium...s/what-is-rifts

 

Oh, and they have to be:

 

1. Turn-based combat.

2. Party gameplay

3. Story and dialogue-driven.

 

Thanks!

About me: I made an account here just for this post. Ive played black isle games since I was 12, and a decade and a half later obsidian is still doing great games. Iwould gladly pay a full 60 in advance for your best work.

 

First and foremost, I want QA out of you guys. QUALITY ASSURANCE. Id rather you spend all the voice over and some graphics money on that. I still remember going to the library after school with a 3.5 floppy to try and download the fallout 2 patch, because the game was unplayable vanilla. and all these years later I found myself shaking my head at new vegas for the exact same reasons. Both amazing games, but man you guys need a QA ninja (believe me, i understand that you were under the whip from investors.

 

For the game:

 

New IP/Forgotten Realms/Planescape/VTM/ (NO SEQUELS. New stories based on existing environments, preferably from AD&D or 3.0. Space only if you can do it differently than ME. I hated Arcanums setting and combat engine, but loved the roleplaying aspects.)

 

Infinity engine, optimized for win7 environments, or ToEE engine

Construction kit, not required but would be cool.

Same amount of text if not more as there was in planescape torment. Quality writing...if your looking for a wrong direction, consider where Bioware is going with their wonderful new plotlines involving dating sims.

 

Grimdark atmosphere, consider Berserk, or even the above comment for "the Wire RPG". Imagine handpainted baltimore (or harlem or boston or new orleans whatever) in infinity engine?

 

Real-time turn based isometric IWD or BG style, or full turnbased ala front mission or fallout.

 

300 hours of gameplay, built for a sequel where you can import your character.

 

Extremely diverse class system, the casualization of rpgs is killing the concept of rigid class.

 

TAKE YOUR TIME. Please dont give me a KOTOR 2 ending/cut content situation, it broke my heart. That was one of the greatest games of the last generation, and the last 7 minutes ruined it.

 

 

When it comes down to it, I think you should have all of your staff replay Planescape and Kotor2 before any brainstorming sessions. The story and character development was sublime, and with NV I think you can def do it again. I can still remember the old mumbling witch pulling the nameless one's guts out, suffering all that pain just to grab the whiff of a memory. Thats the old school rpging you should be aiming for. Godspeed, and if you would distribute the kickstart notice via forum email it would be appreciated. You have my utmost respect.

 

If it sounds like I am asking you to do a rehash, I am not. Go with your guy, I will support you. But please remember, take your time, gameplay matters, story matters, and QUALITY ASSURANCE.

 

Or just scrape together the old team and the old code for Baldur's Gate III: Black Hound

If Obsidian cannot get the Planescape license for whatever reason, an alternative may be a little-known RPG setting called Oathbound, which bears a remarkable resemblance to Planescape but has its own dynamic. I'm not sure if the company that published it, Bastion Press, is still in business, but if they are I'm sure they'd be thrilled to work on a real video game for it.

 

More info here: http://www.geeknative.com/396/oathbound/

How about a third person RPG set in a sci-fi or larping convention where you play a character who's helping to organize and run the convention. It would have mechanics that's a combination of New Vegas, Alpha Protocol, and Bully.

 

The different factions would be the fans of different sci-fi franchises. The two major factions would be the Trekkies and the Star Wars fans. Then you have various smaller factions like Dr. Who fans, Farscape fans, old BSG fans, new BSG fans, Babylon 5 fans, etc. The hostile raiders/mutants factions would be like the Twilight fans and the Michael Bay Transformer fans.

 

They each have their own territory in the convention. You can do missions to help each faction make improvements to their territory like booking guests, organizing events, etc. You can also do missions where you sabotage rival factions. Your main goal would be to either help one faction take over the convention or you can work towards peaceful coexistence.

The more I think of it, the more a Wire rpg would rock. I cant image getting the rights to it would be tremendously hard. Or just doing something similar in a hyperviolent realistic world in a real world setting.

Wulf, any game they do is probably going to have to be isometric because there's no way they could afford a 3D game which looks decent by today's standards on a Kickstarter budget.

Wulf, any game they do is probably going to have to be isometric because there's no way they could afford a 3D game which looks decent by today's standards on a Kickstarter budget.

 

Aurora engine is super easy to code and use. That said, give me infinity engine. It was a great one.