Raedwulf

No, we're still waiting for answers...

Shipping is included for $ 500+ tiers. So you may want to use the $30 for something different, like the soundtrack on CD and another pack of cards.

Potions are fun and valuable resources, as rjsahe already pointed out, like spells and scrolls... if done right. You're right about the potions in Skyrim. In Skyirm you just paused the game in the middle of a fight to quaff potions or to eat, well, say 10 mammoth snouts, to get your health up. That's just ridiculous. But in Baldurs Gate II, quaffing a potion took some time, one round, if I remember right. One round without casting spells or attacking your foes. And this could be a long, long time. I do remember game sessions with Korgan low on health, where I've clicked on his readied healing potions, again and again, shouting "drink, drink f***ing dwarf" but had to see him die... And if I remember right, in Neverwinter Nights 2 it got harder, as your foes got an attack of opportunity if you quaffed a potion. That's something I would like to see in PE as it limits the use of potions but not as excessive as Witcher II.

Well, thinking of Baldur's Gate II the stat restrictions usually were reasonable. Like a strength of 18 needed to use a composite bow which offered a plus to damage or an intelligence of at least 9 to read a scroll or some good wisdom to get good results from the wish spell. As PE should become the successor of Infinity Games and not Dragon Age I won't expect the problems you've stated. In contrast to you, I do hope we get any of the well known stats --Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, Charisma-- but not a simplification.

If the printed almanac is, like the other physical items, for physical tiers only, you must not include shipping costs here.

To print or not to print, that is the question: How many backers do you, ie. Obsidian, expects to book this addon? By the way, the Dungeons and Dragons 3E / 4E source books are in the range of $ 30 to $40 for hard cover books, so a price of $ 30 should be cost-effective.

Well, after spending some time to think about the idea of an physical addon, I want to refrain from it. The printing costs are mainly setup costs. So it doesn't matter if you're printing 2 or 100 almanacs, the costs remain, roughly, the same. If you include it in the tiers above 500, you get an incentive for about 600+ backers. On the other hand, with a hard cover almanac as a physical addon you risk not getting the money to fund the printing costs. Well, on the other --my third-- hand, Feargus stated they're thinking about offering a PE Pen and Paper RPG. If so, a hard cover almanac would be handy anyway. Looks like it boils down into a business decision... Anyway... So I should change my mind and ask, as sitting on a $500 + tier at the moment, shamelessly for a hard cover alamanc to be included in the $ 500+ tiers.

I would like to ask for a hard cover almanac, too. But it shouldn't be included in any tier, as this would take the money for printing from PE, but offered as a physical addon.

I'm not talking about which classes or sub classes to include, too. I'm talking about game mechanics, player expectations and the most limiting factor... money. Just by calling a class a sub class you're not saving money. And, as said before, if being a Barbarian boils down to raging only, than I would agree to you, implement him as a Fighter sub class called Berserker. There's life aside the battle field, isn't it?

Well, I like your idea of becoming a Paladin or a Berserker, but in my opinion neither the Paladin nor the Berserk are Fighter subclasses. I would expect a subclass to be something like a BG2 kit. For example a Swashbuckler. It's a Rogue who gives up its sneak damage to get a Fighters BAB. Such rules are easy to implement and do not change the general layout of the class, but allow a fine tuning what the player wants to do. On the other hand, the Paladin. Let's look at some Dungeon and Dragons cRPGs. In IWD a the Paladin renounced any reward. In BG2 you could become a Fallen Paladin if your reputation went below a threshold. In NWN2 you could loose your lawful good alignment, thus preventing you from taking any more Paladin levels, due to an alignment shift in conversation or due to actions taken. Also you would expect the NPC crowd to react differently if they're approached by a trustfully Paladin instead of a sturdy Fighter, wouldn't you? Also, what's about items, weapons or armor restricted to Paladins, like a Holy Avenger sword? If Paladin is a sub class only you have to add sub class based restrictions (or maybe feat based restrictions), which will increase the complexity of the game, instead of class based restrictions. Summarising, this clealy breaks, in my humble opinion, the idea of a Paladin beeing a Fighter sub class, Please note, that I do not want to say, it's not possible to implement the Paladin as a Fighter sub class. But that it will become as costly as implementing a class on its own. Same holds true for the Barbarian. I do want to get treated differently than a Fighter. Maybe I do get some druid spells, like the Ranger in D&D, maybe the ability to rage, maybe some better ways to survive in the wilderness (hunting, tracking), maybe some special armor (I really like barbarous looking fur armor) and so on. Well, if being a Barbarian boils down to raging only, than I would agree to you, implement him as a Fighter sub class called Berserker. Edited: Fixed wording.

Just for the record. Chaos Theory asked today at Kickstarter about a comparision between player crafted items and epic high level items: @Chaos Theory Very qood question. Let me check with Adam to see what he was thinking. We don't want to restrict data, but the items you guys create will be powerful in the game and matter. One thought is that we want to associate the designed items with quests.

Quelle surprise, Elerond! You've missed Ultima IV and V but played Bard's Tale? At the time of Bard's Tale, anyone I know played both series...

Well, what's the difference between a Samurai and a Fighter or an Assassin and a Ninja despite the cultural background? Especially the Samurai isn't a good adventurer class but a fighter in service who needs to obey to his lords commands. Well, you may want to go for a Ronin instead. But even the Ronin is just --ok, this is a rough approximation-- a Fighter with a Dai-Sho.

Gamebanshee is aiming for the $ 10,000 tier and if they reach it, "Obsidian is willing to build us a banshee-themed inn or tavern, a custom character, and a custom item". If we're going at the $ 5,000 tier, we're getting an adventuring party of the Obsidian Order which the player needs to overcome. Does not sound that great. The order should not getting defeated, shouldn't it? Looking at Gamebanshee's chipin, it looks like $ 10,000 is really hard to gain. So, maybe, we could get a special offer at, say $ 2,000, for a house, npc and some minor quest. Well, Farudan, looks like you need to train your bargain/appraise skill a lot...

Happy Birthday. But an old geezer, no. I remember Wanderon from the Neverwinter Nights 2 forum. He was in his sixties. Edit: Fixed typos.

Oh, I remember Lords of midnight, had lot's of fun with it... Luxor the Moonprince. He's standing on the tower of the moon, looking north to... So, looks like I'm off the scale too. But my favourite is Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (for it's story, not for it's epic levels)

Even renowned Ultima IV used gravestones to immortalize play testers. And they scripted the text and name in runes, not letters. Many a player translated the runes to letters just to unterstand what's written there; usually only important information was enscripted in runes. It was a shock at first, cause you had to translate the runes by hand, but a good laugh at last. And something you've remembered a long time.

This is just a short update of some information gathered on Kickstarter. @Obsidian : Will NPCs from the $1000 tier only be use to "populate" the world or will they have quest(s) like companions ? @Archon The NPCs we have people design will be fairly prominent and have quests (if appropriate). @Obsidain Entertainment Do we get info about the quest prior designing the NPC or are we allowed to give a rough estimation of a quest. @Raedwulf We will work with people to figure out the NPC - work on the quest will be more high level, since we need to keep everything fitting within the story. @Raedwulf For our $1000+ backers we are setting up an obsidian e-mail that will just be for you to ask questions. We will also be setting up a forum for you as well, for the purpose of talking about how the design will work. Sorry I don't have all the answers just yet.

I've stressed Faergus on kickstarter again. While still not getting a definitive answer, this sound like the creators of items or NPCs will become part of the development process: @Raedwulf For our $1000+ backers we are setting up an obsidian e-mail that will just be for you to ask questions. We will also be setting up a forum for you as well, for the purpose of talking about how the design will work. Sorry I don't have all the answers just yet.

I would like to second that you get a personal, upgraded item. But I would add that I don't want to see this done by player crafting. Instead I would like to see a handsome NPC, like the dwarf Cromwell in Athkatla's Docks Disctrict in Baldur's Gate II, who is able to upgrade the item. Edit: Fixed typos

This looks like the signature assigned by kickstarter is invalid to authenticate/autorize your request. You should check the setting of your pc clock and clean all cookies from amazon and kickstarter and try again. You may want to try to reach amazon payments manually first: https://payments.amazon.com/ Also the link you posted is clearly wrong, as there is a missing slash after amazon.com. Is this truly the link you've been taken to by hitting the Continue button or just a typo? Edit: Fixed typos

A little late but just came back from duty, well, robbing graves. Raedwulf, Grave Robber of the Obsidian Order.

At least one: Witcher 2

Well, according to the example given in Update #4, you're correct: For instance, if you are at the $35 Pledge level and want to add one Digital Download, you would enter $60 as your total pledge.

This is not a dumb question but a qualified one. It's not clearly stated. For example, the description of Pledge $250 or more says it includes Previous reward tier + ... so it should include the beta key, but the graphics for this tier does not mention it. Well, any tier above $140 includes a Collectors Box. So by Update #4 we would expect to get a beta key, if we pledge at least $140. But, sorry to insist, it's improperly announced. On the other hand, Obsidian does not want us to downgrade our pledge to get a beta key, won't they?