Wombat

This nails the issue pretty much. This is why I like to read the designers' posts first since quite many of them end the further possible discussions. At times, some people try to continue arguing with them further, but, in most of cases, I think the designers' posts are accepted by most people. The recent implementation of "likes" system seem to work reasonably well - Why don't they integrate it with the search function? As a side note, soul system may work as a hole which leads to some past settings created by some BIS/Obsidian designers. Those who are familiar with their past works have already found such inherited elements in later works. Even in a recent interview, Avellone still seem to like working on "Ravel" character, too.

Thanks for the headsup. Hard to complain of the answers in the interview. I believe the room for various theories and interpretations eventually constructs an attractive world, too. If the designers have good research in some classic PnP materials, I think they can get quite many info about things which work well and those don't. I think Joan of Arc can be fitted to this description considering her origin but it's a nitpick and I'm happy with the general direction.

Yeah, I think this would nicely fit the reputation system. Rune Quest achieved it in a quite interesting way but there can be other ways to do this. For example, soul power's source is unknown and it's a black-box to the people in the PE world. While wizards can use their own methodologies/rituals to make use of the power, priests/druids/paladins seem to be able to have access to the power through their beliefs. From our modern point of view, priests/druids/paladins may be dealing with the power through their subconsciousness. Someone with extraordinary soul power may declare that he/she has the revelation from a god (and he/she can "prove it" through soul powers). He/she can be called a prophet and may even have political importance. Likewise, traditional/established religions can belong to collective unconsciousness, which may have originated from distant memories of past prophets/shamans. What prevents me from wondering the possibility of such implementation as above is the fact that the designers mentioned there were gods scheming. Still it is unclear if "gods" have physical bodies in the PE world: They may just have access to the world indirectly, through the soul powers and possible motivations of their own. Or, they may even have physical bodies in the PE world but non-believers simply consider them as a certain race(s). As someone said, whether a certain existences are considered as deities or not relies on subjective viewpoints. I hope there will be no objective evidence on the existence of gods. So, I'd like the designers to take "subconsciousness" implementation (Even in this case, I think the designers shouldn't define it clearly, leaving it to the imagination of the players). However, gods as somehow mysterious existences with their own motivations which can be accessible only through soul powers can be the second best option to me. Of course, if the designers have much better idea, I'd be interested in listening, though. However the settings around the deities are implemented, the objective is to make a big room for various viewpoints and possible conflicts at both physical and metaphysical levels.

Any conflict among understandable motivations would work as a source of drama. However, I think there must be some conditions for a certain way of thinking to be established. It is impossible to make a world from scratch but, there must be a better compromise in making a believable, coherent world, while letting it more or less accessible from modern players. I do think "atheist" sounds more in modern monotheist culture than just meaning "unbelieving" in some other cultures. Also, I don't like some fantasy settings which carelessly mix modern factor and/or Si-Fi setting with magic world. That said, there can be a better way to slip a pseudo-modern thinker in the setting of the Medieval West like Eco did, for example.* * Maybe, putting "Aristotle" in a pantheist setting can be more natural than putting "Ockham" into it, though. Then again, in D&D settings, usually, "pantheism" is just a Christianity under its cover. Not so many settings have tried to make a world with the difference between the eyes of the characters and that of the players in mind.

Maybe, you are right - he solves mysteries by employing psychology and profiling rather than forensic evidence like Sand Holmes. Anyway, thanx for the headsup, OP.

I see. If you think there should be a limitation of power, especially with the mortality, then, there shouldn't be much problem. If being influential with the soul of the power doesn't necessarily to be connected to human/philosophical maturity, then, the PE world has something we can sympathize with. However, if the philosophical maturity comes with some real powers, then, the world suddenly becomes somehow "explanative" to the eyes of the philosophers. Here again, the incomprehensiveness of the existence of the soul-favored people can play a role. Even if some people who happen to be favored by "soul" power may develop their idiosyncrasies by exploring their philosophy and physical power and, maybe, nobody can tell whether they are mad or genius. The mortality as a limit is one of the universal questions while I'm not sure of absurdity. the Renaissance admired the reason of human being, probably too much in the process of gaining systematic knowledge as the replacement of the coming absence of God. Eventually, intellectuals have come to the study of madness such through psychology and philosophy. There was an era of disappointment of modern western intellectuals to human reason. Camus used this as a theme of his works. I think, such heroism still dragged the image of the Renaissance man. For, ancient Greeks seem to have accepted madness as a part of their existence: For them, human beings are originally born full of contradictions and dilemma however learned they are.

Actually, with your interpretation, the image Camus has depicted in Le Mythe de Sisyphe wouldn't be possible. For, there will be no rebel against deity by Sisyphe since he can overcome it both philosophically and physically. In such scenario, if he could rebel against something, it would be he, himself, which, I think, is more or less Nietzchean. Then again, if such thought itself had physical power more than as literature or art, then, their conflict would disappear like in a shape of enlightenment in Buddhism (The base Eastern philosophy didn't have this concept but eternal reincarnations) or something like Plato's philosopher king. Camus or Nietzsche, they used factors from Greek literature and Christian theology (mythology?) - so-called God complex - as the power of their "literature."* So, probably, in the PE world, there is no objectively known way to discern why there is the inequality in "souls." In any case, I think Western philosophy has been greatly influenced by monotheism and its "powerful" God and it is tough to wipe off theological influence in it. Note that ancient Greek expressed tragedy as literature rather than philosophy. Post-Christianization West, God has influenced in many areas such as science, politics and literature of Western cultures (e.g. philosophia ancilla theologiae). In fact, even in games - D&D is one example - even in a "pagan" setting, people still try to see through one-solid morality code rather than even trying to simulate various viewpoints/moral codes (Rune Quest did this in a very conscious manner). So, what I expect is that some stories behind each individual/culture, some of which will be more logically constricted like the basis of science while some others can be more of literature. The problem in the PE world, the "soul" plays as an irregular factor, which makes it difficult for its inhabitants to discern religion, philosophy, literature (fiction) and science as we do. Guess there are quite a room in which the writer team to toy with ideas. *Nietzsche is often mocked as failed poet by philosophers.

The below are the actual quotes.http://forums.someth...0#post408196150 Obviously you'd probably only have the time to do these for companions and few major plot figures, but I think that would be really cool. I do want to do these and have wanted them for a while. Oddly enough, they were in Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows prior to that project being eviscerated. Though really I just ripped it off from one of the Tales of... games. http://forums.someth...0#post408200983 Sorry, I meant doing emotion states for major NPCs/companions. Doing it for all of the PC portraits would get... gnar.

IIRC, it's in something awful forum while back. However, to avoid possible misunderstanding, what he was talking of was NPCs portraits (in the dialogue window, more specificaly speaking) - not PC's one.

2D if it is what the OP means. That said, Baldur's Gate, especially BGII is way too cartoon-ish for my taste. I'd rather have IWD series portraits. One note, though. Sawyer seems to be generating an idea of changing the expressions of portraits depending on the circumstances. However, personally, I think Obsidian writers are capable of carrying enough expressions in their writings and I don' like factors which can make the game way too cartoon-ish, as I wrote above. Such preference may more to do with VARK model in addtion to artistic one, though.

Not only I'd like to see varieties, but also I'd like them to have places in the world and rich lore*. While this should enrich the world by itself, even for game-play, if the characters are well-informed, they may be able to deal with them in various ways. Typically, bard chanters, rangers (and druids?) are good at these things but, depending on the nature of knowledge, wizards and priests may turn out to be useful (The class-free skill system may make things flexible, though). *Personally, I like systems which call them creatures. The word "monsters" are more for in-world usages.

City-building mini-game interwoven to the central plot? Please no. Taste differs and don't expect some people to like a specific game simply because you like it. Likewise, I don't have any problem if some people like city-building game enjoy it as an option.

The lack of the printing press in the setting already indicates that the designers are well aware of the divisions of knowledge shared both through time and places. Ancient Greek already knew that the Earth is a sphere and such knowledge must have been shared by those who had access to such materials even during Medieval periods. Also, despite what Bacon wrote below, printing, gunpower and the magnet all originated from China (except Chinese printing press being wooden).http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Novum_Organum/Book_I_(Spedding) The knowledge about the origins of technologies is not needed to employ the technologies in question. Some knowledge can be hidden by intentional propagandas, misunderstanding, and/or unconscious biases.* In any case, what the designers appear to be doing is how these historical factors are fitted to their setting in a convincing manner. *After all, how could we establish knowledge without any bias? Again, ancient Greek divided knowledge systems into metaphysics and physics. In a way, the epistemology was repeated in the Western Renaissance-Modern era in the shape of Continental Rationalism and Anglo-Scottish Empiricism. Predating this, Aquinas and Ockham can be said to have played a role of bringing back knowledge of ancient Greece to human use during the shift from scholasticism to modern philosophies. Releasing knowledge occupied by religious organizations marked these periods.

Nice to see you seem to be alive and kicking. I'm kinda on and off when it comes to the net but you were quite active in BIS forum. Some of Sawyer's posts/writings at that time and your Project Jefferson (Thank you for that site!) kept my eyes on Obsidian, beside their own works. Nice these small things finally turned out to make a game of their own IP finally.

Yeah, I meant he wasn't engaged in the game development itself. Are you a programmer, perchance? No, you don't need to answer. I don't mean to intrude your privacy. It's just some characteristics in people's behavior stir my curiosity. It may be from my old and vague memories in the old forum, too. *Torment music* Oops, guess way too off topic. I simply tried to see where they come from since I cannot understand their way of thinking in any direct ways. XP or loot, they are just data which become totally useless outside of the game. Rather than XP gathering, I'd enjoy the process of playing games in the way of my liking.

Due to the scope of the game, I wonder if it is worth the time to implement options for "dungeon crawler" style players and balance them. However, since many of them don't seem to care for the balance, maybe just give them an option of giving EXP for killing. The same goes with equipments which can break the game-balance. I don't want to see them in my play-through. Maybe, there should be munchkin mode to secure the game but, again, I wonder if it is worth the time. I know Torchlight, Borderlands and Diablo are popular but I'd like PE to keep a solid design scope. Talking of "right," other players than those who are fond of dungeon-crawler play-style have the right to play the game with the balance which is intended by the designers, too. Here, different from Torment, they have Sawyer in their team. I think his records are good enough to leave him at the helm of game-balancing. After all, we are talking of a game whose system design is going to be done by Sawyer & Cain.

Well said. I couldn't do a thing when both BIS and Troika went down but, thanks to Kickstarter, I could play my tiny role in helping the devs. Enjoy the well-deserved party to day and good luck on your development.

Personally, I'd like to see a different take. Since the PE world is tied to reputation system to make a reactive world, how about killing a fearful creature attract attentions of different factions. People who value valor may try to reward you/ask a further combat-focused quest. Peasants living near the area of the territory of the creature may thank you, too. As a twist, a certain group may be unhappy with such deeds due to their beliefs (Maybe druids, or some people believe the creature as sacred or a part of sanctuary). Or killing the apex predator can change the power balance in the area and may cause new issues. Any GM can reward the players with EXP but good GM can reward them with interesting story developments.

Why? You can still fight through like in old IE games and get objective XP, anyway. People who can possibly have a problem with this are just those who wouldn't like other people to get objective XP through different ways. As for stamina/HP, I agree. It even dates back to old PnP Dragon Quest, which predates that JRPG and has almost nothing in common except western fantasy setting. If someone wants to know how it works, play Darklands. I think it's same as the name "cool-down" - the same name doesn't necessarily mean the same function. I don't know why some people appear to rush into taking things out of their context.

Varieties in religions are nice. Religions depict views to life and death and worldviews eloquently in different cultures, which I think, fit both the reputation system and Planescape style writing. While some views have similarity to our modern way of thinking, some others may not. While such views shouldn't be presented as escapism, I think less modern conscious approaches depending on cultures may turn out to be good for a change, or, even more in-depth exploration to human nature from different viewpoints. I hope soul system won't be too restrictive, though. Again, thanks for the update.

Wonder how to react. I don't like the intrusive quest arrows. However, while I always play FONV with hardcore mode (and Sawyer mod now), I have to confess that I'm glad there are some conveniences for the players such as fast travel system/quest locator. I'm not good at directions and I don't like to spend my time on circling around same places in vein. I tend to go back the player house before quitting the game since I don't like to start the game with inventory management. Just like reading books, when I quit, I like to put a bookmark so that I can begin to read it again whenever I'm free/inclined to do so. You know, I have life and other things to do. While I want the game to be challenging, I don't like to spend my time on some nuisances. Just my opinion, though.

As the name "Briton" suggests, probably from Roman influence, too. For it also depends on how much knowledge is shared with other cultures. Likewise, If there are monks, they must know there are other places in their world, I guess. However, that is remained to be seen if any culture has an ability to write precise maps without any unexplored areas. Even at the Caesar' time, Romans didn't recognize Scandinavian peninsula as a peninsula. Related with this, I'm also wondering if there were ancient culture which played like ancient Greece anc Roma in this world. This was mentioned in many places and I think Sawyer is awre of the issue. In any case, the PE world seems to be on the make, so, rather than criticizing, how about just relaxing and making some feed backs? [Edit]Talking of "on the make", the designers may like to introduce some "in-world" materials when they are unsure of what they are going to do. Since they are "in-world", there are possibilities of misunderstanding or biases from the view point of the writers/painters. The designers can adjust these things even after releasing them.[/Edit]

There was such individuals as Eratosthenes existed but many of old maps were quite different from what we have. Sawyer said that the sea in the PE is much more dangerous than our counterparts due to the sea "monsters" creatures, too. I'd like the map to be "in-word" document. If possible, even the almanac written in such style would be interesting (I don't expect them to go as far as write them in possible original languages ). Realistically, how about putting materials written in "in-world" style to reflect how NPCs see each other and "their world(s)"?

Haven't thought of that. Yeah, the update says they merged 600 years ago, roughly equivalent to Norman Conquest to the late Middle Age.

There doesn't seem to be Norman/French influence, which puzzles me. Quite many people in the second big city argument, including myself, think Vailian is roughly based on Italy, though.