rjshae

A while back a group of us were working on a net project to develop a campaign setting. We came up with an idea for an undead campaign, and I think it could be adapted to this dungeon. Here it is in a nutshell: This is a bleak, barren world in which all of the lands have been consumed by the undead. Living creatures, where they still survive, hide away in isolated islands of safety around fonts of pure life force. From this world come the party of adventurers. Their ultimate goal will be to seek a means to restore life to the lands and drive back the undead hordes into the graves from whence they emerged. To do so, they eventually discover that they must seek out a legendary portal; one not designed for traveling to other places, but instead a portal of time. They must to travel back to the very moment when the undead first began to overrun the world, and somehow change the course of events. Unfortunately, when the party finally reach this chronoportal and find a means to activate it, they find that they have been duped. An undead creature of great power tricked them into this very act. It forces its way past the party and steps into the gateway, thereby traveling back into the past. It is this very creature that unleashed the horror turned the world into an undead desert. Now, the party must now step through the portal, travel back in time, and seek a means to stop this evil beast before it can succeed. Now, turn back to the Endless Paths. Suppose that this portal actually lies deep within this undead tomb; a construct of the mad wizard Od Nua. What his vision for this powerful portal was remains a mystery, but he was successful in completing this gateway through time. Unfortunately, a powerful undead creature stepped through the gate, and proceeded to turn the dungeon into his private stronghold. Let's call him the Soul-hater. Gradually this beast has been gathering the forces he needs to complete his plan, turning potent undead into his generals and the lesser undead forms into his minions. The Soul-hater does not yet have the forces necessary to conquer the world, but he is getting ever closer. Into this mayhem step the party. After battling their way down several levels of the Endless Paths, they discover a curious figure. It is a humanoid form wrapped in a mysterious shimmering blanket of force. The being is wearing primitive garb and is poorly armed, but appears thoroughly capable. The party must seek a means to release the figure from the field, perhaps by consulting a knowledgeable sage in the city. Finally, they succeed, and the figure is released. He is defensive at first and speaks in a curious manner that is difficult to understand, but is not hostile. Gradually they draw him out and find that he is a time traveler from the distant future; a bleak, horrible realm that has come to cover the entire globe. He came back to try and stop the horrible destiny that awaits the world, only to discover that he became the very trigger that allowed it to happen. He wants to join the party and prevent the destiny that awaits them all. What do you think? Would that be sufficient motivation to complete the Endless Paths dungeon? (Yeah, I know... it's The Terminator plot line. )

Okay folks, what unit system do you think this game should use? Pounds or kilograms? Rods and stones? Furlongs per fortnight? Obsidian Entertainment is based in the U.S., so should they use American English? Or should it use système international because it is being sold world-wide? Should it be localized? Maybe it should have it's own system of units? Or should it just leave them unspecified? Hopefully this topic doesn't generate any acrimony...

Will they have spell levels per D&D? If they don't include spells for the higher levels, then level caps may be inevitable. I believe 12th level was mentioned as a probably ending level, which in D&D terms equates to 6th level spells.

Instead of XP for killing x creatures, it might be enjoyable to have a combat accomplishment system. Maybe an entire integrated tree of combat accomplishments. You might not rise any higher in level, but, if you, say, kill off a large number of orcs, you could get unique benefits as a result of that Orc Slayer accomplishment. Perhaps a bonus to cause critical damage when attacking orcs, or a bonus to defense when defending against multiple orcs. That in itself is a type of XP gain, almost like a bonus Ranger feat for a favored enemy.

I'm really curious how this is going to balance out against custom portraits: Well, we did have character customization in the IE games combined with static portraits. But it might be interesting if they allow us to have... tintable portraits! Not sure how the artists would feel about that though; they may blow some fuses.

Very informative. Thank you for the responses, Dimitri!

Sure, they'd be like the hunting rifles in Fallout 3, except they take many rounds to load (under ideal conditions) and have trouble hitting the broad side of a barn at 100 paces. Meanwhile the guy with the clearly inferior sword has lopped off your arms and spilt your guts.

Meh, I'll wait.

It sound's like Neal Stephenson's Kickstarter project CLANG is an ambitious project to embody many of the combat maneuvers into a framework that can then be incorporated into a gaming system. I'm not sure how well such a system would integrate into a party-style CRPG like PE, but it certainly will be interesting to see how it works out. I could just picture a game with CLANG-style melee tactics, Su Generis combat physics display, and PE group tactics and world setting. It'd be impossible to control a group in fine detail, of course, so probably the combat details would be handled by the AI.

'E's a chatty fellow.

Getting the boxed edition was what sold me on that contribution level.

Here's an interesting article on Gamasutra: Art of War: Animating Realistic Sword Combat What do you think? Is it good advice for the PE combat animators?

I'm wondering what role cannon will play in the game? Perhaps as a siege weapon with the PC's stronghold? It seems like too powerful of a weapon to use in a typical encounter, so perhaps the effects will only have an indirect impact? Will the developers opt for fortifications that take the cannon into account? (I.e. such as the use of ditches and ramparts.)

Call me ignorant if you will, but I'm curious to learn if there is any trend toward playing "live" D&D (or other PnP RPG systems) using Skype sessions? I know there was some rumblings about playing D&D online, but I haven't heard much since then. Thanks.

Here. Meh. A handful whiners doesn't equal "a lot". On the internet you can find anonymous posters to grumble about virtually any position. I think it's reasonable that Josh Sawyer has a philosophy of game design and is is willing to post his views. I'm not sure I completely agree with him on everything, but I'm pretty comfortable with most of his concepts. Time will tell whether he's right or not.

Perhaps a simple approach would be to give each weapon a Strength requirement, then apply a, say, -5 Strength penalty to the off-hand weapon. That way, if you are physically strong enough, you can whip around a pair of Katana quite readily. However, the Strength penalty will still reduce the effectiveness of the off-hand weapon in terms of pure damage.

Where are you getting that "Sawyer hate" impression from? I think it's incorrect. Most of the grumbling is coming from a few squeaky wheels. As to your other points, I'll just be happy if there isn't an "ideal" build from a power-gaming perspective. I should be able to stumble my way through much of the game even if I have a crud PC; it would just take longer and be more challenging to finish.

The gods were watching...

Any word on when the fulfillment site will be coming online? Thanks.

^^^^ Good to know. Thank you! Zdzislaw Beksinski -- man, that guy's artwork is bleak!

By the time games are sold as used, they're usually available in the bargain bin and the developer ain't getting much anyway.

I'm wondering if they will draw upon the experiences of the BGEE iOS port for a future release of PE to that platform, since that now seems eminently do-able?

Hi Dimitri. First I wanted to say thank you for taking the time to tell us about yourself. It's appreciated. The questions I have is about the models that are going to appear in the inventory panels. Based upon last week's art update, it looks like those representations will be somewhat detailed at around 4,000 polys. Are you able at this time to tell us how much control the players will have over the appearance of those figures? Will it be comparable to the NWN2 system with multiple heads, hair styles, and tinting control? Or will there perhaps something more detailed? Also, I'm curious to know if those models will be emotive? I.e. will they perform animations as in DA2 and possibly behave in a manner that communicates their physical and emotional condition? Perhaps that is more detail than is really necessary, but I was just wondering. Thanks again!

I did enjoy playing the Bard class in Oblivion, if only because of the character flexibility in a single-character game. One element I liked was the specialization in Illusion magic. That seems to make sense, since Bards have an affinity with sensory experiences. A viable bardic illusionist (Chanter) class would be an interesting twist and perhaps make the character more playable as a party member. Their combat skills could rely on deception and misdirection, with moves taking longer to play out but being all the more devastating when they succeed.

Some day I wouldn't mind seeing a cRPG that uses some architectural themes from historical India and southeast asia. I don't think that has been explored much, and I suspect most westerners would find it exotic. Perhaps an intermix of romanesque and ancient Indian architecture would make for an unusual setting, while still being plausible? Shrug.