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Jon of the Wired

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Everything posted by Jon of the Wired

  1. Jon of the Wired
    The way I'm interpreting this is that the stash is not a bank or a chest in some fixed location, but rather represents gear that is stuffed deeply and inaccessibly in the bowels of someone's pack. So, equipment is the stuff you have immediately at hand, "top of pack" is stuff that you've placed in an accessible location, a belt pouch, small bag, or literally the top of a pack. The stash, then, is all the things you have packed together so tightly that in order to find and retrieve any particular item you would just have to unpack and repack everyone's bags. In that case, it would make sense that you would only have the necessary time and security to do it in the same sort of place you would feel comfortable resting.
  2. Jon of the Wired
    I've never been thrilled with the idea of evil humanoid races, so I'd rather they just leave out orcs, goblins, bugbears, et al. That being said, if they are included then I trust Obsidian to handle them in a more... sophisticated manner than is the norm.
  3. Jon of the Wired
    There's invariably going to be some sort of simple 3D mesh the defines the shape of the map. You need one to determine which areas are walkable, and do pathfinding and LoS calculations. The same mesh can also be used for dynamic lighting and to constrain particle effects. The concept is pretty simple, but it may require some cleverness to get it to look nice.
  4. Jon of the Wired
    While Oblivion isn't a PnP company, I can't see that as being a real obstacle. At the very least, Chris Avellone wrote for PnP games before getting into video games, and JE Sawyer has written a PnP system for Fallout.
  5. Jon of the Wired
    I don't know if it's been discussed before, but a backer reward I would really like to see (maybe as part of the collector's book?) would be rules for playing a pen and paper game in the Eternity world. Given that the game itself is going to be RTwP, a direct translation of the mechanics obviously wouldn't work, but a simple ruleset that captures the flavor of the game's mechanics would be really cool.
  6. Jon of the Wired
    One possible mechanic which hasn't been discussed is material components. It might be irritating as the primary resource mechanism for magic, but as a secondary resource mechanic it could be interesting. Obviously, the components would be consumed in the casting of the spell, making them essentially magic ammunition. Minor spells may not require components, or would require only readily available components (a pinch of sulfur, a lump of coal, a small twig). More powerful spells would require commensurately rarer and more valuable components (gold dust, a perfectly polished glass sphere), with the most powerful spells requiring components that are so rare and valuable they are almost never available on the market, and instead must be acquired through questing (the heart of an elder wyrm). Components of various qualities could also affect the power of a spell, something like ammo mods. This is as much a strawman proposal as anything else, but it does provide a resource management mechanic that needs to be managed across encounters, without requiring the fiddly messing about with spellbooks and resting that makes Vancian magic so irritating. It also could be expanded on to provide interesting choices and opportunities for mastery. Also allows you to pack a little extra flavour into the spells.
  7. Jon of the Wired
    A thought occurs that it might have been prudent to change the system for a different one long ago. GURPS, maybe? See, the problem is that PnP games are a social activity. If you want to play something other than D&D you can either find another group, or try to convince your current group to try something new. Neither of those is always easy. I have played a lot of other games (lots of Champions, GURPS, a bunch of White Wolf crap) but a lot of the time the choice is between D&D and nothing. Despite everything, I still prefer D&D to nothing (though you couldn't pay me to play a spellcaster).
  8. Jon of the Wired
    How old are you? Old enough to have been playing D&D for twenty years or so. Which, it turns out, is plenty of time to develop a deep-seated hatred of Vancian magic. Okay. Just curious. In the early 80s I dont recall too many alternatives for PnP fantasy RPGs. So if you hated them then you pretty much hated PnP RPGs. I hate Vancian magic, but I don't hate D&D. I just never, ever play a spellcaster.
  9. Jon of the Wired
    I had no idea people actually How old are you? Old enough to have been playing D&D for twenty years or so. Which, it turns out, is plenty of time to develop a deep-seated hatred of Vancian magic.
  10. Jon of the Wired
    Wow, I had no idea people actually liked Vancian magic; I thought everyone merely tolerated it. I'm ambivalent towards cool-downs, but the five minute work day is absolutely terrible game design.
  11. Jon of the Wired
    It was mentioned that one of the uses of guns in the setting was piercing Arcane Veils, which are a standard defensive measure among wizards, and which don't stand up well to fast moving projectiles. In the gun thread, someone speculated that one weapon that could achieve velocities similar to that of a bullet would be a whip. So, it's possible that Edair's whip is actually for fighting wizards. If he is a wizard hunter, or something like that, it may also be why he prefers to look unassuming.
  12. Jon of the Wired
    Ok, I'm in. Grognard of the Obsidian Order.
  13. Jon of the Wired
    I don't understand the connection that some posters are drawing between firearms and steampunk. There's almost three hundred years (~1500 -> ~1800) between the invention of the wheel lock and the invention of a practical steam engine. It's a period that encompasses the latter half of the European Renaissance and the Enlightenment. It's long and rich period of history and it's a period that hasn't been exploited much in previous fantasy RPGs.
  14. Jon of the Wired
    I'm sure everyone at Obsidian must have a dozen ideas in their back pocket that they've always wanted to pursue, but could never sell to a publisher. I say indulge yourselves. Find something you really want to make and just do it. If I had to express an opinion, than I'd say that anything in the neighbourhood of "oldschool" deeply non-linear isometric RPG would make me very happy.
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