rjshae

Bell of the Unseen Servant When rung, this small brass bell summons an unseen servant of the air--a weak air elemental that will attempt to follow your instructions. The servant can lift objects that are low in weight, drag slightly heavier objects across the ground, activate simple mechanisms, or provide a distraction. In game terms it can be used to perform the following actions: Retrieve a small object from some distance away, even if the intervening space contains a chasm, river, or a trap. Remotely open an unlocked chest or door. Trigger a simple mechanism from across the room. Activate a basic trap that is sprung by mild pressure, such as a tripwire. Briefly reduce the attentiveness of a creature. The servant is invisible to most creatures and is only harmed by strong winds. It is unable to perform any action that requires a skill check.

In order to foster a sense of exploration, you can't have an encounter around every corner. I think you still need to leave a good chunk of an outdoor map free of threat in order to cultivate a sense of drama. Otherwise it just degenerates into an action game.

Suppose your character has recruited N companions, and, of those, you can take along up to 5 on a particular mission. The remaining N - 5 are presumably standing guard over your stash. It would be interesting if those N - 5 guards (plus your hirelings) occasionally had to fight off some brigands, bandits, or scavengers. Not frequently mind you, but at least some percentage of the time and then only when you're on your way back to the camp.

Yep. Apart from the Faith and Conviction benefit (which apparently shows that the game will have comparable saves to D&D), the Paladin benefits all appear to bestow leadership qualities on the Paladin. If you go where he goes and fight what he fights, then you get benefits. That doesn't seem like a support role to me. The horse archer was a very effective weapon in the middle ages, so it seems like a legitimate tactic to shoot and scoot. I'd say it depends on how much of a movement increase the Paladin provides and how much time it requires to get off a shot.

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Gorget of Adra Sculpted out of the shell-like material known as adra, this gorget is reputed to provide some limited protection against the biamhacs, the spirit-wind phenomenon that scours the ruins of Eír Glanfath. Although of little value to those with strong souls, these items are sought out by weak-souled looters so that they can hunt for treasures amidst the ruins. Wearing the gorget for extended periods can result in disturbing dreams that leave the subject restless and weary. However, it does provide some protection against sleep spells and similar magic.

It might be interesting to have a weapon's properties vary depending on your status with a particular faction...

Must be the anti-paladin class.

Dry noodles; very nasty.

Still wondering how much space a character will occupy. It matters in terms of how effective these area buffs are.

I'd rather see class enablements than restrictions. That is, have an item more favorably complement the ability set of a particular class, but still be useable by others. For example, a paladin's sword could allow an additional use of Reviving Exhortation by the character. If you're not a Paladin, then that ability provides no benefit.

It all sounds good. Thanks for the update! A couple of questions: Could you explain 3m and 4m in terms of the space occupied by a character? Are they 2m circles, or something else? What happens when identical powers (such as Zealous Barrage) overlap with each other?

Yeah it's funny how often game cloaks end up looking more like capes.

True, but we lack sufficient information to readily fit it into the larger context so that task would need to be left to the game designers. Hence your point is moot. Now, do you have any interesting ideas for encounters?

One of the more interesting topics on the Wasteland 2 forums was a series of posts by the community on interesting encounter ideas. I think that might also be a useful topic here, so how about it? Do you have a brief but unique idea for an encounter or a short side quest in the P:E setting? It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just something unique or memorable. I'll throw a quick one out there to get the topic rolling:

Looks intriguing, but some of the grammar has me a little concerned: Frozen State

Perhaps we should do like they did with Wastelands 2 forums and start a 'Quest ideas' thread to see what sort of original notions we can come up with? There's bound to be a nugget or two they could use.

COMBAT IS NOT WHAT MAKES AN RPG. If you can play a role in a story which reacts to your choices, it's an RPG. If it has a stats-heavy system and a well-defined, branching story, it's a CRPG/Western RPG. While combat-free CRPGs have been very rare to absent, it's not unknown in P&P, and the amount of actual combat encounters is generally smaller even in the ones with traditional combat system. This is true, but irrelevant. If I want a non-combat game then I'll deliberately pick one. For me the primary benefit of a party-based CRPG is to allow tactical options in combat.

Yes well that's the key factor isn't it: will any loot be dropped?

Exactly the point. Combat has a cost with no benefit. Ergo, it becomes an adventure game withe the occasional boss battle. Zzz...

Avoiding most combat sounds a little... boring. I'd rather have combat that require unique and creative tactics to solve.

^^^ It might be nice to have the ability to flag certain combat states as causing some type of GUI interaction, whether creating a floaty string, providing audio feedback, or even pausing the game. Maybe through a configuration dialogue?

I agree in general, but even games concerned with optimized efficiency for multiplayer, like DotA, LoL and Starcraft 2, still use solid UIs. The implication elsewhere in the thread that P:E is hanging on to an outdated design sensibility while everyone else has moved on just isn't true. Hmm, interesting. Your examples all differ from the original P:E interface by using varying heights. The latter interface just looks like a solid bar across the screen. Your examples also add a lot more color, which tends to blend in with the game window. I wonder if those factors have any impact on the perceived changes to the aspect ratio?

Obviously, some old, mad Wizard developed the Flame of Eternal Burnitude, and made oodles of money by selling it to all the dungeoneers throught the land. Afterwards, they killed him off, took their money back, and re-dubbed the technology Infini-Bright. The mage who invented endless magical light for dungeons and got stiffed out of royalties would be such a great quest hook... One possibility is to make such a spell require a relatively uncommon material focus. This would make it at least somewhat costly to implement on a large scale. Another is to put in a prohibition that would require either certain conditions or else maintenance by a wizard. Here's one method: the eternal flame requires a flawless crystalline focus to serve as a containment vessel. The lowest cost material for this purpose is a crystal of quartz of at least the size of a thumbnail. The larger the crystal, the brighter and more durable the light. In order for the light to function, it must draw upon the surrounding darkness. Thus, the spell must be cast in dark conditions and be kept isolated from bright light sources. (In actuality this could be ultraviolet light sources.) The ideal conditions for this are deep underground, away from sunlight. A particular hazard is a spell that can reproduce sunlight; these can snuff out the flame if they are cast too close to the crystal. There may be rumors of a spell that can protect the crystal from extinguishing light sources. But the cost of casting this spell is high.

In most games of this nature the portraits can be selected to choose a character, so they are active. The combination of portraits and icons effectively act as noun-verb pairs, so it makes sense to have them in proximity with each other for issuing commands.