PrimeJunta

I respectfully disagree. There's a lot of systems going into this feature, and it would be artificial and difficult to separate it from the storyline. The stronghold was very much not an option in Neverwinter Nights 2, and IMO it was one of the better parts of the game, so it's not like there's no precedent. I.e., my vote would be to fully integrate the stronghold into the storyline. Just like the dungeon of Od Nua for that matter. However, I think it ought to be possible to complete the game while being a lousy baron, just like there ought to be plenty of optional areas in the Od Nua dungeon. Always assuming suitable consequences naturally – missing out on cool/powerful items and/or XP, like with any optional content.

We already know there won't be resurrection/raise dead magic in PE, nor (much) healing magic for that matter, so that one's out. Animating them as zombie minions sounds cool though. Macabre, but cool.

Woah. They are NOT short-changing us for the stretch goals. And most of it already coded...? Wow.

First reaction is, nah. There is stuff like that in cRPG's, and most players sell it as soon as they can to be able to buy stuff that actually does something, or in the case of unique but unsalable items, hang onto them under the (usually correct) assumption that it's a quest item that'll disappear once it no longer matters. I honestly don't see the point of hauling pixel junk into your treasure vault, even if the pixels are colored golden. But then I don't larp much in cRPG's, and didn't care for Elder Scrolls post Morrowind (which I loved because of the wack setting, not the larpy features). And while I'm sure scattering random pick-uppable objects around isn't a huge investment, it's still an investment and I'd rather have that effort spent on something that delivers gameplay value. However, it would make sense if it's tied in with actual game mechanics. There's been some hints about the stronghold gameplay. If hauling shiny to your stronghold increases its prestige which has gameplay effects – fun quests? better hirelings? cleverer burglars? something else? – then sure, that sounds pretty cool.

They laughed at Einstein. They laughed at Galileo. But they also laughed at Zippy the Pinhead.

Since someone brought up Star Wars, George Lucas actually did a metric buckton of research before writing the script. Specifically, research into mythology, especially through the writings of Joseph Campbell. In my opinion Star Wars owes much of its staying power precisely to those mythological roots. The blasters and lightsabers and spaceships and rancors and hutts are superficial; the story would work just as well if it had bows and swords and warhorses and dragons and trolls. (In fact, one Christopher Paolini wrote a pretty successful fantasy book where he transposed the Star Wars episode IV story into a traditional pseudo-medieval fantasy setting.)

Just my dime's worth – in my experience, social reinforcement works much better than top-down policing. Put another way, be the culture you want to see, reinforce (=make visible) your support for other individuals who are the culture you want to see, don't be the culture you don't want to see, and discourage (=call out) the culture you don't want to see. It takes time but behavior does shift. Sometimes it shifts in directions you like, sometimes it doesn't, but in an environment about the size of, oh, the Obsidian fan forums, all it takes is a half-dozen determined but patient individuals to make a big shift in the culture. There will always be a few individuals who make a point of making a nuisance of themselves, and some policing/moderation will (probably) be needed for that. (What kind of culture would I like to see? Well, for starters, I'd like to see strong, vocal, and near-unanimous social disapproval of, say, someone saying they'll rape your kids because they didn't like the game you worked on. There's critique and then there's douchebaggery; the former is necessary, the latter is a nuisance.)

Day-um. I can't believe I'm actually seeing people argue that researching a topic before writing about it is a bad thing. O tempora.

How about taking this even a notch further: only heal a random percentage of the damage the minion has suffered after it is unsummoned, and have the summoner only know how it went the next time around. Once the minion's max health has dropped below a threshold, it will no longer respond to summons. Then add some -- costly -- possibilities for the caster to restore some or all of that damage. I.e., a neglected, severely damaged, or killed minion + bad luck = permanently lost minion. This would motivate summoners to be a bit careful with their minions and give them ways to manage their health, and since there's no way to know whether it dropped below the "gone for good" threshold in any given fight, there would be no incentive to reload. By the time it's next summoned and it's not coming back, well hey, too bad.

Yeah, that sounds super annoying. I hope they don't do that; it would be intentionally **** design. I would, however, like to be able to win battles by running the monsters off (perhaps to regroup and face me again later?). But chasing xvarts as a quest objective sounds annoying. I'm not too worried though; they're good designers and if they put in morale failure I'm fairly certain they'll do their best to make it improve gameplay rather than add busywork.

Why not?

I like to take pictures. At one time I wrote about it on the Net a quite a lot. One of my idiosyncrasies is -- and has long been -- that I prefer using prime (fixed focal-length) lenses over zoom lenses, for a variety of reasons that make sense to me. For some reason, many people took this to mean that I think everyone should prefer prime lenses and zoom lenses are no good for any purpose. Eventually I kinda gave up and made up a Prime Junta which enforces orthodoxy in the correct choice of photographic equipment. So that's me. The avatar is from Scandinavia and the World, because I am from Finland and I liked the look.

I've updated it a bit: added Connections, fixed some errors in the data, disabled the buttons when you've hit the limits, and gave it a bit of a visual makeover. Still not a graphic designer though, but hey.

Yeah, that's gonna be interesting. Most of the best bits about the Numenera system are about arbitration and creativity -- DM intervention, using XP to get temporary benefits, tinkering with numenera to change their properties, using your esoteries or other skills in unconventional ways, and so on. I.e., guidelines for players to use their creativity, common sense, and logic in play. Some of the character creation rules have to do with inter-player interaction. There is no way to translate that directly to a computer game. OTOH the bare-bones system gives computer game designers a lot of freedom to build on. I'm really curious to see what they come up with.

I have a huge crush on the Numenera character generation system. It works like this: http://prime-junta.net/numenera/chargen.html

I thought that chargen utility was a bit limited, so I made my own. Not as pretty (not a graphic designer here) but it has some more stuff in it. http://www.prime-junta.net/numenera/chargen.html

Great find. From character creation to play in about fifteen seconds...!

How about making use of AI for consumables? What if each character portrait had a toggle that let you switch consumable use on, after which they'd make their own decisions about it? It could be off by default as combat begins so you don't accidentally forget it on and lose all of 'em. I know there's an option to control this in most other games of this type, but it's usually buried pretty deep in the behavior adjustment UI.

+1 on the vials. Also, The Witcher. It did potions right in so many ways, not least serving size.

Definitely. It's by far the simplest RPG ruleset I've come across. The GM needs to do a bit of homework to get his/her end of the operation down, of course, but the core rules fit into a few pages.

So, Numenera is out. Any other prospective players/GM's here? What d'you think? I'm going to start my campaign in another few weeks, after my D&D one winds to a close. Been reading the Corebook. My impressions so far -- I love the mechanics. Just enough to give the game structure but not get in the way. Some simple yet brilliant ideas there, such as making the rules asymmetrical, with a bare minimum for NPC's and lots of stuff for PC's, the GM intervention rules, and the rules encouraging player creativity, such as spending XP for short-term or long-term benefits, modifying esotery effects, and awarding each other XP. They suit my way of running the campaign to a T. I'm less awed by the setting. It's very much of a kitchen-sink, with some way-cool, out-there ideas and locations. Unfortunately it's also a bit of a hodgepodge. As presented it strikes me as too poorly structured to be really believable. Weird and unknown is fantastic, but there has to be a minimum of underlying logic to make it work. There are also some downright dumb bits here and there ("Temple de Frogue" -- really?), with some fairly plain-vanilla kingdoms and empires and such. I prefer settings with more structure and a stronger history, and at least some high-level explanations for how they got that way. Al-Qadim, Planescape, and Dark Sun all qualify in this respect; the Ninth World, not so much. Then again, I like world-building, and there are plenty of things to dip into, there. I have a hunch this may be what the designers intended; deliberately leaving fundamental things open so GM's and players can fill them in. Anyone else have any thoughts on this at this point?

@Silent Winter: PE won't have health potions, so that's unlikely.

My main beef with consumables in the IE games and their successors is that they're either unnecessary or a chore. You only actually need them if you're intentionally gimping your party -- for example, playing as a rogue or bard, or without a cleric or druid. The upshot is that I'm just hauling around a massive load of scrolls, potions, and wands "just in case" and never end up using them, or alternatively just treat them as vendor trash. Oh, and, arrows. Isn't it so much fun to run out at the wrong time because you forgot to spend small change the last time you dropped by a shop? To make consumables worthwhile, the game system has to design them in. They have to be an integral and critical part of the gameplay. It can most certainly be done – NetHack, for example, makes massive use of them. Trying to play without scrolls, potions, wands, or comestibles makes the game much, much harder, and a big part of the challenge is figuring out what each of the consumables do and finding or making the ones you want. I thought Shadowrun Returns gets it almost right too -- fetishes and grenades make a really big difference and don't cost all that much. The trouble with that is, again, that the game is too damn easy. Why would I use an 800 nuyen fetish if I don't have to? I like the Numenera system's approach of basically building the mechanics around single-use cyphers and limited-use artifacts, even if the carry limitations strike me as a bit heavy-handed -- surely there would have been better ways to stop players from hoarding them? In other words, putting a lot of effort into consumables is, IMO, a bit of a waste of effort unless you change the gameplay simultaneously, so you really need them. It would be cool if P:E did this, but I kinda doubt it. Making consumables worthwhile means making the game hard enough that they matter, which would probably make way too many players ragequit when attempting to play the way they're used to in IE and NWN -- it would be a legitimate complaint too, as it would be a material departure from the "IE feel." Perhaps in one of the harder modes?

Ya think? I thought they were mostly done pretty well, especially in The Witcher 2, Saskia's boobplate notwithstanding. Most of the time when skin was shown, there was a good reason for it, while regular clothing and armor looked fairly realistic and practical.

w00t, Vesemir. You could certainly do worse than drawing inspiration from the Witchers...