Theobeau

@Ink Blot Many thanks for putting this great load of new (for me anyway) info together!

Predictable cliches for NPCs and races: - stoic and inexplicably scottish dwarves - in decline but still glorious elves (who are welsh?!) - hobbits halfings with furry feet who claim to be home bodies but really like travel and taller women - the noble Paladin, the power mad wizard, the in conflict with his faith priest etc.... No more than one example of breaking the fourth well please Magic becoming a overly complex chess game of breaching that defence and dispelling this buff a la BG2 ToB Certain weapon types being almost immediately useless from the get go Loot drop that becomes magic weapon candy land Clunky inventory UIs with really small stacks or worse, no inventory system (ME 2 and 3 anyone?) Too many companions for the player to really use * That said, I've got a fair bit of confidence that OBS will not make these mistakes or errors and make in PE a really great cRPG.

MoTB redeemed NWN2 for me. However, while all the NPCs from MoTB are really well written, Fall From Grace wins. Must be Jennifer Hale doing an English accent! Bumping this thread again.....

I'm a huge fan of PST as many others out there and was a little disappointed that OBS Kickstarter campaign was for the spiritual heir of PST rather than PS 2. That said, the centrality of the soul in PE is something that is potentially as clever if not more so than the centrality of identify, memory and regret was for PST. As other posters have said, with the talent that OBS possess, their pedigree and the fact that Avellone is intimately involved with this project makes me more than hopeful that the end product will be Planescape Torment's spiritual successor, just as was promised. (warning gratuitous BW bash) Plus, even the worse scenario should see a game better than DA2.

Intrigued by this KS campaign but like others tentative about pledging until I see more info on their KS page. In addition, while I liked Wizardary, for me that series didn't have the inspired writing and emotional pull of the BG series or other OBS games. For me, this is a watch and see. Plus am holding off additional pledges until I see how OBS revamp their reward tiers (hint, hint)....

Like most of the other posters here, prefer cardboard b/c of the old school cRPG/IE game feel to it. LordCrash made the good point that standard edition plastic, collector's cardboard as we are pledging a premium. Aside: Is cardboard that much more expensive to process than plastic that it would justify an upped pledge?

Best cRPG experience came in the penultimate room of PST when the Nameless One confronted his past selves. When I realised who "good memory" represented and having made the correct choices during the game and re-integrated that aspect to my TNO with a huge slab of text describing the flood of memories and Morgan's lush soundtrack playing in the background.....glorious. Best PnP RPG experience was playing v1 AD&D, the original Ravenloft module. We were playing a d20 roll of 20 = multiple DMG with d8 determining the multiplier (x2,x3,x4). The firwst encounter with Count Strahd and on the first roll of the dice, we win initiative. My paladin (wielding a Holy Avenger) rolls 20, 8 and 8. With all the additional multipliers in effect, he managed to decapitated the good Count with his first swing. Needless to say as the friends playing fellow party members heartedly congratulated me, my best mate the DM combined both slack jawed disbelief and the evil eye. Great times! Finally OP great post for bring back fond memories. Well done!

Re: above post Hurray, not one size fits all. While small fry compared to everything else about the game, at least won't have to settle for a XXL sized t-shirt that could masquerade as a tent for a small child!

My 2 cents which has been stated before. 1/ Why not have a grand and outlandish stretch goal target at say the $3M mark, something so cool that many of us would consider upping our pledge. 2/ Given my past experience with BI/Interplay and OBS cRPG games you guys should do a grand job with the mega dungeon. 3/ More granularity in pledge tiers should increase the numbers of current backers willing to up their pledges. Cheers!

Mega dungeon sounds interesting and given their record in the BG series, potentially quite a challenging addition to PE. I just hope that crafting is optional rather than a compulsory means of obtaining magical items. To just one of their most recent games FNV and as example while schematics and complexity where there, the need to lug lots of small bits around, the lack of an automated sorter system in the vanilla game plus the off kilter UI (why did you have to return to the top menu to craft another item?) made it seem like a grind a lot of the time. Plus too much complexity meant that for this player, I never made >80% of the craft options and just stuck with a few standard items such as FMJ /Hand Crafted /overloaded Ammo and a few health items.

For what it's worth please not one size fits all !

Someone beat me to the Ultima IV reference but that was an interesting and at the time unique take on character generation. A prelude if done well can give an immediate boost to game immersiveness immediately thrusting the player into the game world and even add to replay-ability (DA:O is a fair example). However from what little has been said about the game; that the protagonist is a witness to an horrific event which forces him down down a certain path suggests that multiple preludes may not be an option.

Made this comment in an another thread but FNV did it really well. Fixed currency, paper notes, different factions preferred units and barter into a perhaps too seamless economic transaction system. An additional step they should have considered is having antagonistic factions discounting or refusing to accept certain currency. Made little sense to me for the military bases of the NCR accepting Legion gold at a non-discounted rate.

Agree with the above poster, for those who like more realism why not have the option? Also agree with those who suggested that if gold having a weight is mandatory, consider options such as bags of holding/ promissory notes / merchant guilds acting as primitive banks and gems et al being available as high value bater add ins to otherwise currency transactions. Aside: Some of the themes touched on here are also being debated in the monetary system thread. Interesting that the forum is getting into the nitty gritty of pre-renaissance banking systems.

FNV used a system which combined different factions paper currency, coins, an atypical standard unit of currency and barter and their currency had weight. It actually was fairly seamless in its integration which bodes well for what they will do for PE.

@Farudan, Many thanks for the additional info. I'll have a look at the template and see if I can track down their threads in this forum. Cheers!

@Farudan, Do you mind linking to the threads or pointing out how to access the templates? Many thanks!

Played most of the IE games and the original WL on an Apple II C.... ..........showing my age much!

I think it may depend on the direction of the underlying narrative. Two OB examples: By the end of PST, the TNO in PST was an incredibly powerful fighter/thief/mage (especially the latter) with made sense as he had, by then, regained most of/all of his lost memories and with the correct play through re-integrated the memories and skills of his original and very powerful persona. The character progression of BG-BG2-ToB also makes quite a lot of narrative sense. By ToB, as one of the few remaining Bhaalspawns it was very believable that the PC could dismiss a pack of brigands with minimal effort. However if PE is going to be part of a series of games as suggested by numerous OBS posts, I would hope that at the end of the first the protagonist doesn't yet have the powers of a demigod, has to work up a sweat to defeat a large group of low level enemies and if he makes a tactical error face some consequences.

@Infinitron, Again can't recall which link discussed the issue but they suggested the main protagonist does the talking, the companions add to the conversation via means suggested. For what's it worth when you look at their past games only IWD and SoZ don't follow this approach and with the former game, there was no main protagonist. - Can't speak for SoZ as it is one of the few OBS PC games that I didn't play.

I may be wrong but I recently read in one of the newer interviews listed on PE's Kickstarter page or Chris Avellone's Obsidian Blog someone from OBS addressing this issue. Again could be wrong but he suggested that conversations would be driven by the main protagonist but that NPCs could influence their outcome. Providing the mechanics work out then certain NPC races, classes or skill sets could open or close conversation tress that would otherwise not be available to the protagonist. NPCs might also interject or add something to the conversations. Not an unreasonable compromise.

Good poll as there must be many pledgers who up their contribution but for "XXXX" My "XXXX" is that there is a large jump b/w 140 - 250. More than 2000 have pledged the former but 700 the latter. I can't be the only one of those 2000 who could consider increasing their pledge if there was a tier inbetween, such as 180-200. Someone very early in the PE Kickstarter campaign noted the lack of granularity in their pledge tiers and who they have made some effort to address it, a few more tiers with a fair spread of rewards should increase the contribution of re-pledgers of their final tally. One of the clever very parts of the successful Obsidian Order campaign is that it was a small amount that came with a clearly visible prize or reward. I'm sure that OBS have been paying attention. My two cents.

@LadyCrimson, Many thanks for the info. I'll try linking to the badge rather than copy and pasting it. Cheers!

Sorry to slightly derail this with a very nob question but how does one place a badge in your signature? I assume it has to do with managing notifications but I can't seem to find an option to upload the image of the badge. This has to do with PE and the OO. I'll go post there is it is deemed more appropriate. Many thanks.

Great idea with class conflict certainly falling under the rubric of a mature theme. With the qualities of writers that OBS posses, PE should certainly do a far better job explaining and exploring complex political issues such as the fair distribution of wealth vs. the right for individual pursuit of wealth or the role of religious institutions compared to the state in providing welfare than the pap we see and hear from current political class. Or they could just go with T&As for mature themes.