septembervirgin

Let's be blunt. What you see as a soul isn't what is being described here. A soul in this game is something which is separate from the brain. The brain makes decisions, has memories, is in fact the primary decision maker. The soul is just there, offering special abilities, offering memories and skills at times, and recording affairs in its own memory. It has been in other people too. It's not a soul like you say, but a fictional soul. Although I am inclined to indicate there are no such things as souls.

Souls come back. Sometimes souls stay in (or are brought into) corpses. We cannot assume that vampires would refresh the cadaver. Blood is not to be a strong factor in magic, otherwise we're Thedas. Vampires cannot use the blood for magic, cannot use the blood for constant feeding, otherwise we have rivers or lakes of blood and hence Kirkwall. What else drinks of blood? How about internal substance made fluid, like the way spiders eat? Vampires are hominid cadavers that sting with their tongue and inject a venom that invades the host body. The body is swiftly bloated as organic walls are dissolved and the organs liquefy. The vampire then drinks from the bloated corpse. I just read this is like the Viesczy monster told of by the Kashubes, a Slavic folk who traveled along the Baltic Sea. To add to this horror, we might draw it away from a recognizable being, like spiders, and make it not so much a Viesczy lest the Kashubes sue due to copyright infringement. These vampires can teleport and can command the weather to a degree. This is because they are beings of a season, let's call it Autumn, and in that season they are most powerful. They can call in dusty blinding winds, instill heavy fog to pour out of the visual westward horizon (this fog is alive and functions as the PE equivalent of an intelligent and large elemental of water but its damage is caused by illusionist spells as if a 9th level illusionist), cause vegetation to wilt, cause rainstorms and flood rivers or coastal regions thusly. They can cause clouds to gather over a small area or even over an entire city, dimming natural light or cause the moisture in the air to rise so that flames gutter and snap or go out entirely. Now they sound dangerous to a people dwelling in a temperate clime on coastal or river-bound region. These creatures need to have vulnerabilities and symptoms that occur as they approach. When these vampires intend to leave an area, the path where they intend to tread will be infected with a coughing sickness so that those who walk on that road will cough up an orangish phlegm so long as they tread that road and three days after. This is because the vampires have as servants spirits of disease, for their master is a god of health who uses these vampires as enforcers and assassins. All who wear the symbol of that deity or who are pious will have no harm come to them from the vampires but will feel the need to leave the area immediately and be empowered to do so. These vampires are dead so only magic can undo their possession of a cadaver, but explosives do work to damage the cadaver they possess. They can leave any corpse and find another corpse, though. In Autumn, this can be done rapidly. They *can* be banished in the name of other deities but this does not assuage the offense that brought them and so more might come. These vampires will nest in a sequestered spot, usually in light woodlands, and make many holes to store corpses in. These corpses their spirit will use to inhabit if their own corpse proves unsuitable or is rendered unsuitable.

We cannot be certain those guys are going to be companion NPCs. What we can know is that unique and appealing flavor is all in dialogue (although it's sometimes in AI behavior).

As long as I get to make food from kittens and puppies, I'd love to have them in the game!

I think while it sounds interesting to build *part* of a big city, like a district, building an actual city of the proportions we want in this "2nd big city" is not in the interests of Obsidian. For it to be valuable at all, it would take a variety of potential structures. The city would have to be structurally variant, at least as much as a Total War city circa Rome Total War.

You know, we should be honest. Murder is only acceptable if you make use of the entire cadaver: food, tools, jewelry, toiletry wipes, composte. Otherwise, it's just a waste. Remember, meat means murder *and* murder means meat!

They can't include the tarrasque (lower case used due to special circumstances), but they can include a giant monster that's virtually impossible to kill.

Probably big fish people? Right? Right?

One might argue that a soul is trapped inside a body when it is reincarnated. Do not assume that nature is anything but a trap. There are real world texts about liberating a soul from the cycle of incarnation; perhaps the same possibility exists in this game, that souls can be liberated from the trap of reincarnation. Of course one might argue the contrary, that a soul is saved from the trap of vacuity by being reincarnated. If a soul is compelled by merciful automation to become someone, why not permit it to. Of course I think it might be cool if somehow souls that are pressured towards non-existence suddenly generate afterlife turf as a result of their dissolution. Also there should be beings that devour souls because the title "Devourer of Souls" should not be exclusive to Melnibonean toys.

I agree with you whole-heartedly to a certain degree; the idea of an underground complex filled with separate communities is sound and could be appealing but I don't think they should do it, also we should dispense with the infinite dungeon aneath unless it's deemed feasible. I disagree with you only in that: I think the infinite paths should be mostly undead filled. Given its description, the strange and altered dead should scurry, walk, crawl, and wriggle there. I believe the underground should be haunted to the point where most of the bodiless dead cannot be removed by magical means available to the characters: it should be annoying and to a certain degree dangerous. Finally, I hope to see oozes and slimes and molds and sentient gasses. I think there are many examples of dungeons where "monsters" have a community. Ghosts and other haunts might drive away some beings and others might end up going mad or dying. Keep in mind that this dungeon is not unreasonably feared, for travelers have stumbled in there with few survivors, and this has been the situation for centuries. Communities that exist in that dungeon are not going to be wholesome, healthy villages. If it were *just* the dead, I'd believe they could manage to live in tandem with the dead, but these walking dead are the result of or are accompanied by strange experiments and damned sorceries.

How about sea monsters with powerful soul-based abilities?

It's a good thing they can't show Mohammed in a video game. It cuts down on the number of paranoid schizophrenics who go nuts from a computer game thinking they're hearing the voice of God and somehow wind up scissoring one or two people to death. Speaking of scissoring, how about Sarah Silverman? Is she going to appear in this game?

I still think it should be in playable form. That way, if I get bored with a commercial, I could continue playing Terrence and Philip until the actual show comes on again.

I'll always worry about Butters. He's just so refined and elegant. Yet he lives amidst the squalor and horror that is a remote mountain city somewhere in the urban depths of Colorado. Furthermore, isn't he depicted by comedians?

This could lead up to a siege of Cartman's house by cats, one of whom makes a reference to having participated in Ulthar Storm (The Cats of Ulthar by Lovecraft). This could be the "big siege" for the game. Any other ideas?

I don't think alot of people really want to see Diablo in a mature, intelligent CRPG. There's enough Diablo in Diablo.

What if someone has to be sacrificed outside the entry gate for the gate to open?

Actually, they all drank hemlock after the kickstarter was successful. At least I think it was hemlock. Maybe it was stomach remedies.

This is a good idea. If people become fond of the game, they'll want to play any expansions and sequels that come along. Should they be playing this game for awhile, they will be less likely to purchase competitor games for a time. If they are not rich enough to buy games often, they might be more satisfied with a game they can keep playing than with a game they must restart. Also a constant unending game is like a comfort food. They'll come to feel familiar with and comfortable with an unending game like it's a pet, a member of their own family. Of course, there's a right way and a wrong way to do everything. If it will be a constant game, variations must exist to make it as compelling as SimCity or Civilization to continue playing with. I can't think of any CRPG that manage to permit continued play in a way that is so appealing, but I think a South Park game could manage this. Especially if random themes continue, such as bullying, unsatisfactory content to lunch boxes/bags, decision to go to the movies or play with friends rather than church (or vice versa), making money by mowing lawns, playing a Terrence and Philip CRPG, etc. By micro-managing civic relationships, killing people upon occasion (who return later on), and trying to remain alive, they eke out a meaningless yet sufficiently complex existence in order to remain viable attention sponges for the players.

The dungeon should have very pretty levels, all visually striking, with breathtaking music (as you promised). The architecture should probably be a bit different than in most CRPG. Imagine that the dungeon enclosures are visible superstructures. The residents that still live might build internal structures. Also, think on beautiful yet strange enclosures within movies. Interesting corridors can be rare. Also, take a look at some of the artistic photography of underground abandoned structures, such as the disjecta Russian subway system. Make the dungeon itself haunted. That is, blood will appear from nowhere. Ghosts will move objects around. Distant moans of abject misery. The whole nine yards with spookiness. Give gamers unrelenting chills. Do this for sixteen levels and don't let them kill the ghosts nor end their haunts. Haunting accumulates as levels are descended and become an environmental hazard -- albeit the more commonly occurring damage is something which can be mitigated.

How about kerflufflepuppyguppy?

I'd prefer giant ooze monsters like the Kerflufflepuppyguppy, or however it's spelled.

RaaaR! I is a toll! RAAWR!

Rolemaster and all accompanying game structures for it. If I had to pick a computer game though, I'm afraid I'd have to forgo a choice until Runequest (in Glorantha) or Rolemaster become salient presences as 21st century computer games. Especially if they had multi-player design-your-own dungeon capabilities.

From the standpoint of a primarily fifteen level dungeon, all I can say is that I'd like to see it draw from such as Glorantha's Snake-Pipe Hollow and Big Rubble, Harn's Khiraz and Ushet (empty though they might be), Tekumel's underworlds (especially Jakalla), and City State of the Invincible Overlord (which has some underground stuff). Also, larger "star ship" maps can be just as interesting as college layouts -- and should one draw tunnels and rooms between college buildings on a campus map, then one has an interesting dungeon with strange familiarity (this works especially well with Berry, MIT, and Yale -- although there are some rooms in Yale and MIT not shown on any publicly available map). From a computer game standpoint, I cannot really suggest someone draw from the Great Underground Empire (nor Infocom stuff) at this late date, and the maps in Wizardry might be too threadbare as would those in Temple of Apshai. All great places to hang out and have a few with antmen and creeping coins. nethack and Omega cannot be truly great influences either. It's best to seek influences from books, while books are on the shelves.