Monte Carlo

No co-op no MP.

Detailed character backgrounds, unless it is a game with a pre-defined character (PS:T, The Witcher, DA2) is a fairly new concept. Ambiguity / sketchiness was fine, it allowed the player an element of imagination and it allowed the developer to create an open plot. Adding character traits and backgrounds adds flavour to that without shoe-horning you into someone else's character. I hate being told who I am in a CRPG. Put it like this. I make a fighter called Rolf. On his character screen it says Background: City-Boy: You grew up in a teeming metropolis, the son of a tradesman. You have the gift of the gab and can run rings around vendors less smart than you. Mind you, go out into the wilds and you quickly miss the bright lights and a down-filled quilt... All of these things might give minor bonuses or penalties in a number of contexts. Maybe I also start with a bit more money, and even an heirloom item linked to my urban heritage (as you leave to make your fortune, your father gives you a treasured ring that belonged to his father before him. Won on the battlefields of 'X', it bestows minor protections against curses and hexes). There's plenty there for me to be getting on with. Too much detail and I start thinking I'm just an extra in someone else's movie.

JWestfall speaketh much wisdom, which should be heeded. I feel the sickly iridescence of entitlement here, and it must be cleansed.

Bah, 'tis no problem. I am surprised that none of you noticed the midnight blue +5 Bracer of Swift Game Development Sawyer was wearing on his right wrist. Legend has it that he stole recovered it from BIS, in the crypt where a statue of Herve Caen looked menacingly over scenes of employee sacrifice.

if we do not have throwing stars I shall withdraw my pledge.

bobobo878 FTW

Dude please go and look up the definition of 'troll.'

I think you could do worse than this for a character background:

Every dwarf cave-girl needs *this outfit* It oozes sex appeal, plus it's practical.

^ Merin I think DA3 is planning to do something like this.

First off, I want to spend three hours rolling virtual dice. Then I will spend an inordinate amount of time clicking through my custom portraits, which take up a 1 TB external hard drive. Anyhoo, I also expect to grow up on a small farm on the borderlands (how a high-intelligence half-orc assassin with a semi-Japanese name, an interest in rare poisons and proficiency in throwing stars grew up on a small farm isn't important right now). While I'm killing some rats in a nearby cellar, evil humanoids rampage through the village. I escape, having found a +1 dagger and levelled up twice. I go on to have a number of hair-raising adventures and earn the trust of a Scottish dwarf with mead dependency issues, a haughty but foxy MILF druid and a scarred barbarian with a name containing no vowels. This is all sorts of awesome to me.

* sigh *

Is Margaretha a Lord of Flies .alt? Feels like it.

There is a small trollfest going on led by members of the First (Feminist) Passive / Aggressive Grenadier Regiment. Should burn itself out.

It's the Sims, right?

I think a druid should be a sort of elemental sorcerer who draws power from ritualistic magic. Or something. They should be scary, occasionally feral and in no way tree-hugging. They should not, however, under any circumstances, wear revealing clothes.

These guys rocked up in my garden last summer... They were OK, they tidied up after themselves and everything. I was a bit more concerned about this, though... So, Druids look quite friendly. Then they go and put someone in a big man-size cage and set it on fire. Talk about the duality of man and all that.

I also made another thread about muskets where I posited the chance of bayonets, turning our firearms into spears!

I too am interested in the barbarian cultures. Would be cool to have a race with access to only spears / slings / clubs etc but who are incredibly tough. Yes, the Caveman kit!