Tamerlane

So... what was Mr. ****' "take on the fey", then?

For all its many faults (spoiler alert: it had a ****load of faults), Oblivion had some really cool quests. A painter has gone missing? Dude's trapped inside his own magic painting. Get in there and start killing the monsters someone painted in there with turpentine. A merchant hasn't returned from a visit to a nearby village? Time to investigate a crazy Shadow Over Innsmouth-type cult and rescue her under cover of darkness. Hey man, come help me find this magic axe in these ruins! Hah, just kidding, these ruins are actually used by rich people who hunt adventurers for sport. Start running. Of course, it also had terrible "kill ten fish and take their scales" quests and didn't handle its "spy on person" quests all that well, but****whatever. Is "gaol" the standard English spelling in Germany/Europe? In North America at least, it pretty much only ever comes up in fantasy fiction.

Ergh. I hate seeing "I don't believe in the blatantly obvious deities of this setting" tossed in. Opposing the agendas of the gods or believing that they aren't divine but merely powerful creatures or whatever the ****? Fine. Cool. Go for it, if it fits the setting. I... what? No. No! Jesus, man, no.

They did include it. Cook-Cook? And all of Caesar's Legion?

Every single fight in PE must start with ten seconds of one guy taking off his cloak.

I don't know if DA2 is the best example of Save the World! because... well, I never felt like the main character ever had any motivation to do anything. People just kept trotting him out to kill things every three years. I think DA2 was Bioware specifically trying to avoid a Save the World! sort of story but not replacing that with... anything. Now, DAO and the Mass Effect trilogy? Totally.

Age of Empires-style locked formations are one of the New Thangs I want to see most in PE, actually. That fancy wedge turns in to a conga line pretty damn easily in BG2...

A "relaxed" stance - halberd over shoulder, knives put away, etc. - when out of combat would be neat. I mean, not high priority or anything. But neat.

With how heavily weighted we are towards 2D art, I'm surprised nobody's yet criticized PST's portraits. Much as I liked the game's aesthetic, the 3D art used in the bestiary and portraits was... unpleasant. Hey, man. Don't talk **** about Beard Guy.

Maybe something more like the caravan protection things from the first Fallout? Like, you're going from town A to town B anyway, might as well guard some merchants along the way.

In the interest of Mother****ing Fairness, DAO gave a number of opportunities for companions to leave/fight you and die (sometimes getting inexplicably resurrected in the sequel). DA2 had one character that could leave for very vague and poorly-thought-out reasons half-way through the game, and you could end up fighting and killing a good chunk of your party at the end (though you could also convince them to rejoin you which I didn't because holy **** Fenris you were so god damn annoying this whole game just die already). Now, where this differs from what the OP was talking about is that in DAO and DA2, those companions were reacting entirely to you, not each-other like Harpers vs Zentarim.

I like it in theory... ... but it's one of those things where only having eight companions total can kind of god damn suck.

Unfortunately, they left the badge-making to Chris Avellone and he hasn't stopped drinking since the stream went offline.

... What the ****?

I like eight. Eight's cool. How often are companions plot necessary in PST? Only thing I can think of is Annah getting you past the painted door...

... Strangely specific. 1. Don't think you're going to see much in the way of a wolfman. Maybe from the Godlike. I'm still choked that Werewolf: The Apocalypse game got cancelled, like... a decade ago. 2. Weapons that exist just to suck do suck, I agree. Lookin' at you, spears. 3. This is... kind of absurd. I mean, I get that you don't want the items to be more important than the character. I wholeheartedly agree. The first time I played BG, I made a paladin with dex as a dump stat. He could take a beating, but he was a clumsy mother****er. Then I found the gauntlets of dexterity which, hey, awesome, there's an item here that makes me way better, but... bad dex was kind of... his... thing. It was part of him. A character should be more than just the thing that carries flaming swords, magic-absorbing armour, and HP regen rings. But to take it to the extent you did is nonsensical. A well-made bow wielded by an experienced, alert archer is always going to be worse than a well-made bow wielded by an experienced, alert archer and also that bow shoots lightning. Well, unless you're fighting something that's resistant to lightning, I guess. But unless you put magic-resisting enemies ****ing everywhere or apply some penalty for using magic items or something... no. 4. They already have a man who punches to death with the power of drugs. I have a sneaking suspicion you're covered, man.

I do recall Minsc spending most of BG2 wearing all pink...

I think we need to start a thread apologizing on behalf of Canadians for feeling superior to Americans because... ****, I'm lost.

Get the **** out with that balanced look that doesn't rely on a bizarre misunderstanding of the system proposed.

For me, the big thing is that the story be personal. Torment's Nameless One wanted to discover his past: good! Mass Effect's Shepard wants to save the galaxy: bad. The Witcher 2's Geralt wants to clear his name: good! DAO's Warden wants to save his country: Bad. DA2's Champion wanted... actually, I really couldn't tell you. And much like the cursed frogurt, that's bad. I vaguely recall reading something from Avellone or Sawyer or... yeah, one of those two, I think, where they more-or-less said the same thing. So I figure I'm in good hands on that front. Loghain actually was kinda interesting... in cut content and unexplored backstory. It happens to Bioware too, folks.

If we ever get an RPG set in a well-done fantasy version of the Byzantine Empire, I will buy an island and start my own nation there, purely for the purpse of marrying that video game. Well, Dragon Age has a very blatant stand-in for the Byzantines... ... but of course, the trouble's with the execution on that particular front.

Grace joined you once you talked to all the prostitutes and I think also the cabinet, Luis. Honestly, as much as I loved PST (spoiler alert: I ****ing loved PST), I was never happy with the "get Grace to join" quest. I never really understood why The Nameless One wanted her in the party. I mean, I wanted her because she was one of the few recruitable characters in the game and like hell I'm gonna pass up on that. But to The Nameless One, she was just... a very strange lady who ran a very strange brothel. And with all the other party members having deep personal connections to TNO and/or being forced in to the party by outside forces, it seemed weird that TNO would pursue this... random character so heavily. Now, I should note that hiding a companion at the ass-end of the game isn't necessarily terrible. I kind of liked Gorris' place in Fallout 2 because **** it, this game's getting a bit grey-haired, bring on the god damn deathclaws and ****.

What an... oddly specific request.

Chris Avellone doesn't get hung over. He gets I'm still drunk.

Similar to rjsahe, I've no particular opinion on this. You can create a balanced and fun system in a number of ways, so long as the mechanics mesh.