Wombat

Just dropping info. It's still under consideration. Update #12 - Reddit Q&A with Tim Cain

Yeah, IIRC, Sawyer mentioned this somewhere.- no arcanum style. I'd like to see everything should be placed in a way they make sense and have their solid roots, too.

Yeah, if the designers can pull it off - as many as possible as long as a certain qualities are assured. Some factions/regions may be tolerant or intolerant to the same factor. At least, there should not be a perfect embodiment of goodness or evilness. I thought "misogyny" may make some players unhappy but, thinking of it after a discussion, now I think they may simply have hated the limited selection for character stats. There may be a faction which treats women like the Legion in FONV while, there were, indeed, woman rulers in the Middle Ages (Let's see how each NPC react each other from such cultures). Well, I' be surprised if Obsidian made monks the perfect examples of goodness. Any culture should have its own dirty little something either by itself or in its relationship to a certain culture(s). That said, Western Middle Ages absent of the influence of Christianity? It's quite hard to imagine.

Thinking of the possible usages of mental ability scores with non-mage class, I think mental ability scores can play quite a huge role around soul-based abilities. Also, mages who can wear armor may play a role in how their physical ability scores and combat play out. However, maybe, I should think about these factors after more info are revealed. Guess I'df wait for updates rather than browsing boards which began to repeat the same old topic.

The interview which the OP introduced is not related with sexuality at all. If you are interested in such topic, then, make another thread. Now, as for possible interference between stats-based dialogues and story-development dialogues Hypothetically speaking, if the designers blindly followed D&D style, the possible problems are: 1. If the system is heavily influenced from D&D, then, the players shouldn't have an option of increasing the initial ability scores at their will. FONV has this option with money and/or a feat. 2. One of the focus is that the characters should work as combat unit in combat (while I do hope they are more than that outside of combat and/or in the setting). In this case, the players try to optimize characters for combat. Mini/Max players may not be interested in role-playing aspect but the physical combat classes tend to naturally end up with more or less low mental scores. However, as usual, solutions can vary. Well, isn't it hard to prevent it from being absurd here and there? Sawyer once came up with an idea of CHA affecting on combat as leadership (This was eventually realized in FONV). A board member wrote STR could play a similar role, which Sawyer dismissed the idea as absurd. Maybe, rather letting the mental ability scores tie with some skills/feats which can be used in combat can be more promising option. Also, this would naturally discourage the players resorting for easy mini-maxing route while having the possibility of expanding combat choices/multiclass builds. Outside of CHA (with possible leadership skill), feats like combat expertise, which requires INT 13, made the combat more engaging than older DnD models, too. In any case, I think, making each ability score have more or less meaning in every single class can be one of possible solutions.

NWN2 had all of that stuff and was RtwP. O.K. We don't know how prone will play out and reach weapons are yet to be decided.

I'm bit surprised to see that combat system seems to be quite detailed for a RT one. And...pet? That "piyo piyo"? Well, I don't know how to react. Thanks for the update, as usual.

[Edit]Wrong thread. Tried to backtrack form the QA thread... [Edit]

So, tome or grimoire? In any case, basic magic system sounds all right. Wonder how it actually plays out in the game-play with healing mechanics which seemingly weights on resource management, though.

Yup. And it will be possible with PE because they aren't voicing everything over. Actually, I think the example is cleverly done since the changes are in just non-voiced PC lines. Also, the dialogues offer info without penalizing the player. For extremely low INT character, I think the players can reasonably expect such dialogues, too.

Well, people don't mind dwarfs and elves arguing but, as for politics related with man/woman, some people tend to take them way too personal. If the things are so problematic to some people's eyes, then, I'd rather the designers to focus on boiling down a fantasy setting which has something common in our lives in deeper sense, or surrealistically (according to Cain's description). Personally, I'm just interested in possible experiments in various formats. If role-playing games, books and movies are my escapism, it would be because they, well, some of them at least, can offer views which can look into things in different ways. There are too many people who try to politically influence others but not so many people can give interesting insights on things around us, or they tend to be buried in the sound and the fury.

The (stats) sim factor sometimes or often gets in role-playing one (C&C in a narrow sense) in dialogues. At times, the players only have narrowed down choices as a penalty of not spending "enough" points o mental stats. PST, while the content was remarkable, was quite notorious for this. I'd like Obsidian to come up with a good implementation of these factors in dialogues since, I know their writing team is top-notch - so why should they diminish their strength by putting efforts on the other factor?

As for low-INT dialogues: I've gotten an impression that INT/WIS requirement for decent story-developments were quite high. Also, it didn't work with the D&D combat: If the players choose fighter class, they have a huge penalty in conversations. In VtMB, the players should have a good idea when choosing Malkavian (Even in this case, some players who expected more physiological twists were let-down). However, for example, letting their character have 8/18 INT in this game (D&D-ish stats is just a placeholder), do the players have a clear idea about the consequences - means, they chose "comedy/parody" story mode? Avellone is very good at C&C to expect the players intension and I don't understand why I feel he is stepping on my toe in a rather clumsy manner when it comes to the game-play? Outside of this, I'd like to see stats-based conversations if the designers aren't "burnt out" by writing dialogues like in the case of TBH aka Jefferson.

There was a discussion about hypothetical "atheist priest" at the update thread. And, considering the design direction of Obsidian, I began to think that they are going to design classes as just functions in game systems and try not to interfere with players views. As for purely technique/knowledge-based classes, this won't be a problem but more or less faith-related classes such as druid, priest classes can be tricky. Sawyer and Obsidians have been boiling down their reputation system for a long time now, which could, I think, with a good writer team, make role-playing games more interesting. I don't know how NPCs react to your character when you play a "self-righteous" one but, I think they give a room for "idealist" characters. For example, Kaelyn in Mask of the Betrayer began to question her god when the PC met her and has eventually gotten an independent believer of her own idealism. In a way, she was still idealist but dematerialized her belief. Also, while Obsidian allow the existence of guns in the setting, they forbid that of printing machines, which was eventually to lead the Reformation in Christian cultures (Sawyer's favorite novel is The Name of the Rose, too). While I think the setting may still have some loose ends, I think this can be a good compromise (hypothetically, of course - note that there are quite many guess works by my side). Just in case, I'm not trying to make a discussion about real world religions but about what-if about the PE world, thinking of how the game-play/content relationship would be.

As for paladin class, I think battle priest build of priest class and/or multicasting priest class with fighter class will do. In the case of bard, while it has quite common with rogue, it would be interesting if there were a class which uses music to make use of soul powers.

I'd say, give D&D fans mechanics they want but I'd like to have the content without feeling like playing with teenagers* (In fact, quite many of the supporters are already more than 20 and I believe nostalgia will wear off if they find the story/themes are not fitted to mature audiences - these kinds of games tend to be long, too). And considering the writing team, I think there is a plenty chance that they can make it. Some of the old D&D tradition may get in but, as far as what I am informed so far, it seems to be O.K. As for AP, for me, too, my lack of understanding to spy action genres interfered with my play through (Also, they are not Eidos Montreal). Personally, I've gotten an impression that I'd be more interested in the canned version of Brian. The setting, too, is quite important factor. *I think it's cool for geek parents and/or elder siblings to entertain their children/younger counterparts, though.

Yeah, I guess but, I just simply thought: "Hey, now they have a pretty good alternative, which fit their way of crafting the world." I, myself, read my share of sweetened versions of Greek mythologies in my childhood but, I began to recognize them as "literature" when I began to read more cruel aspects of them. By that time, D&D couldn't have already held such themes anymore... Just simply, like that.

http://www.eurogamer...14-release-date "While there are social concepts of good and evil," he added, "the game does not track an alignment for the player. Instead we will use a reputation system to keep track of what different groups in the world think of you. Consequences of your actions will matter in Project Eternity." That said, I don't know why I saw karma meter in FONV especially when the rep system worked quite nicely. By reading Sawyers' posts, I thought he would be going to this direction but it took years to realize. Alpha Protocol didn't have alignment, though.

Then, D&D gods would hit me with lightening since I spoke ill of quite many of D&D mechanics. Especially, I have been feeling the alignments most restrictive. I wanted PE to be free from it, while having some devices to realize a multicultural melting pot like the designers of Glorantha did or through any other means. IMO, it's an interesting place for role-playing, experimenting with different types of conflicts. @Knott Yeah, the words "battle priests" in the explanation of priest class attracted my eyes but I may be wrong.

[speculation] So, in PE's world, people with different ideologies fight each other using both physical power, trying to make use of their own methodologies? Still not clear how classes play here: They seem to dictate how the characters access "soul" power-sources. And yet, belonging the same class don't mean they are under the same faction/race/social classes. This is particularly clear among believers of different "deities."

That's happen to be my initial thought, too (I have no idea on why you differenciate Sorc from Wizard, though). In any case, as long as there are various way of thinking, it suffices to me. Thanks for the update, anyway.

Soul part is pretty much unknown but it's one of possiblities since class ablities can be quite "magical" even if they are not counted as spells. In any case, this is pretty much guessing area.

Any of them including HP bonus can be feats. This should depend largely on each build. That said, for balancing, class system should be easier, indeed. Yeah, I presume "classes" might be related with soul system but not sure. Even in that case, I think such abilities can be expressed as feats, though.

He really sounds like a GM veteran here. They will do good with game mecanic aspect. However, the content is rather murky due to the different tastes. Just browsing forum gives me a headach, especially when I imgagine how anyone can satisfy such conflicting desires.

Considering classes can be divided into feats/skills, I wonder if Obsidian is going for "classes" composed of skill/feat sets. If the players want more customization, they can build characters from scratch rather than selecting from given class templates (+ additional minor changes with a few feats/skills). I don't know, class-based characters tend to feel odd in a believable word setting. I mean, a character may be from an area, a race, a faction and/or a social classes. However, what do "classes" mean in social context? Occupations? How should it be so fixated? In the world of PE, "classes" may be more than occupations.