Tsuga C

Short answer: yes. Longer answer: I like my science fiction heavy on the science and light on the fiction and my pseudo-historical fantasy heavy on the history and light on the fantasy. My credulity is easily strained, so I have a strong preference for keeping things in P:E on the well-grounded side of the spectrum instead of indulging in preposterous flights of fancy. Keep the internal logic of the game consistent, keep the arms and panoplies historically-based (maybe with a subtle dash of artistic license; no battle axes with heads the size of trash can lids, though), and remember that this isn't Sigil or the Great Wheel. I genuinely enjoy the Planescape setting and Todd Stewart has done a fine job of keeping it alive and promoting a Planescape-esque feel in his collaborations with Paizo, but I don't want to see ludicrousness indiscriminately propounded with sterling ideas in this game for the sake of shock value to stimulate the junior high kiddywinks. Re-read the first book of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Game of Thrones. Yes, there were certainly fantasy elements there, but they were decidedly subservient to the storyline and didn't come across as in-your-face weirdness for its own sake.

All kinds of insipid, truth be told. This is a clear case of trying too hard for the "kewl". Samurai & b00bies & pirates, oh my! The work of that artist has never really struck an appealing chord with me. Ever notice how nearly all of the "bad guys" he draws are portrayed as having just bitten into a lemon rind (especially the undead) and have narrow, yellowed teeth?

Verisimiltude! Bring on the realistic arms and panoplies, Obsidian. Looking good, ladies and gentlemen.

That'd come in handy, especially during archery season for white-tailed deer. The rascals are notoriously crepuscular and, during firearms season, outright nocturnal on public lands. Impossibly cool, indeed!

They might be entitled to a share of the coin and the non-monetary loot, but I'm not yielding any of my XP. It was assigned based upon the actions of the group and nothing the group has done should be lost from memory just because one team member gets kicked to the curb.

I'm not familiar with the reference, but that would be suitably bizarre. I can't imagine that the eye would appreciate the heat, embers, and smoke of blackpowder belching out the muzzle beneath it, though. Poor eye...

I'm in favor of the D&D 3.X method of a slow increase at set intervals. I don't want to see radical shifts in our statistics, but a modest one that rewards the player with a sense of growth in their PC is a good thing.

Forget the respec! I'm in for the printed manual and if there's not a complete listing of all feats/skills in the manual, then there has to be one in PDF format on the DVD. Regardless, read the manual and know what you're doing before you get to level 8 with a completely fudged-up PC. Sheesh, people--take some responsibility.

It might be nice to use magic to permanently illuminate the sites on a wheel lock for a small bonus "to hit". These days we use batteries or tritium, but magic would fit the bill quite well in P:E.

I didn't know that Vecna swung that way... Not my orientation, regardless. I was hoping for the handjob of Vecna's sister! Getting back on topic: though this isn't a medieval combat simulator, I do hope that Obsidian takes some intelligent cues from this and other weapon threads. We favor realistic arms and panoplies and want P:E to satisfy this desire. The cliche of 25lb two-handed swords and other such preposterously heavy equipment is in desperate need of banishment.

Deflection plus damage reduction, if magically appropriate. People get too hung up on hitting as being able to strike an opponent when it's more properly thought of as being able to strike and inflict damage. I'm entirely comfortable with the D&D abstraction of armor class.

As a person favorite, no. Were I going into combat I'd likely select something else, but some of my characters have had them as their favorite weapons. I also like halberds for tripping and spetums/ranseurs for disarming opponents as I see this as adding to the enjoyment of combat. Having a variety of options for your melee-oriented characters is always a good thing.

No, thank you. I'm here for roleplaying and adventure, not taking inventory at the end of the month. I'll pass.

My thoughts, exactly. For adding some local flavor and variety it beats the heck out of killing rats in the cellar of a tavern at low levels for sidequests. As your party levels up, the issues brought to you by the spirits could increase in importance and complexity.

Whether or not the spirits are those of ancestors, I do like the idea of spirits being active. The Norse landvaettir and disir are typical of what I'd like to see active in the world of P:E. They had their own list of "dos and don'ts", but as long as you stayed within their respective boundaries and offered them a bit of sacrifice, the spirits would often help you with crops, animal husbandry and other such things of day to day living. Anger them and you could potentially have a serious problem on your hand.

If the trees are too narrowly branched, then I'd say it was poor design because of their inherently limiting nature. I'd prefer ones that are broad rather than narrow, else the characters having feat "x" at the third branch of the tree must needs be built alike. No mandatory "cookie cutter" paths of advancement, please. I don't mind a few prerequisites here and there, but if we're to go with trees then let's keep the trees broad and well interlaced. Overall, I prefer prerequisites like D&D 3.X.

Best news of the day so far! Gimme, gimme, gimme tags, baby! I'm not my character, hence I'm not present in the game world. Unless told via copious amounts of writing, I'm not going to be able to use the body language, speach patterns, and other physical queues to ferret out possible clues regarding the disposition of those with whom I'm conversing. The same applies to my character. Without tags I very well might imagine a line being delivered as a sneer when it was thought by the writers as being something entirely different. Tags: love 'em for conveying accurate intent vis a vis the set of possible responses by the NPC in question and minimizing confusion and frustration.

Give me the dialogue markers, please. If dialogue choice #2 is labeled as [wisdom], I consider that a very good thing. The more information I have as a player regarding dialogue, the better.

I don't need such colorful descriptions, but the combat log should detail whether or not an avatar was "critted" and other such information. The one in NWN1 was quite useful.

The NPC should have the option of leaving or betraying the PC/party as they see fit, but I certainly don't want it happening at the drop of a hat. Furthermore, a wise PC or other member of the party should probably be able to pick up a hint or two that the NPC in question is becoming highly dissatisfied with the current status quo. Having the heavy-duty fighter go AWOL right before entering that 15-level dungeon without a reasonable hint that he was getting ready to leave would be unduly harsh.

Rare magic that isn't rare at all. In fact, it's dirt common and your inventory is soon overflowing with baubles and trinkets of medium to medium-high magical power. *yawn* So much for magic being "rare and special" in this world... Mages and arcane magic are feared in this world. While wandering around, though, you never encounter any significant problems with two mages in your party. The paladin-like character who is a complete sphincter instead of a fundamental, unshakable force for good. It'd be nice to see one or two of these paladins actually live up to their billing. Gods that are nothing more than powerful spirits (and sometimes hardly even that). Let's have some gods worthy of the moniker in terms of not only their raw power, but also the depth and breadth of their vision, wisdom, and majesty vis a vis their respective portfolios. Players might be able to challenge a demi-god when they're ultra-high level-wise, but the real deities should be utterly beyond them. Wild "normal" animals that automatically attack, attack, attack the party and do so until death. As a forester I've spent a fair amount of time in the sticks while on the job and while hunting and fishing. This psychotic-animal syndrome is a complete load of crap that really rubs me the wrong way. Black is really gray because all things are subjective anyway. What a load of horse s***! Anyone who's ever had the misfortune to deal with genuinely vicious, nasty, rotten people knows the difference between selfish or disinterested people and the borderline sociopaths who take a great deal of satisfaction from viewing life as a zero sum game.

I'll second this motion. Interruptions are a fact of life and the ability to quickly review what happened just before I was called away to deal with a bothersome something or other would come in handy.

Something between? *goes to look up interview* *prays for minimal 4E*

I'll take category #2, please, though I do still enjoy the variety of weapons and their constituent adjustments "to hit" for damage in my AD&D Players's Handbook. Ah, now those were the days...

If this sort of patently over-the-top silliness was slated for P:E, I'd be demanding my Kickstarter pledge back, pronto! Although I can appreciate the baroque level of detail that went into their creation, all of those works go beyond stretching my credulity and shatter it into its constituent atoms. That sort of thing might be acceptable and even desirable by Goth wannabes in the junior high crowd, but... I would certainly hope that P:E has a much more mature target demographic.