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In tabletop RPG news: Freeport: the City of Adventure for Pathfinder: just passed it's goal of $50K. Achtung! for Call of Cthulhu: currently at 1,513% of goal! Throne of Night for Pathfinder: at 60% of goal. Wicked Fantasy for Pathfinder: succeeded at 933%. The Guide to Glorantha: succeeded at 714%. Nice to see the hobby is alive and well.

Ok, this is... awkward. I was an original kickstarter backer for Pillars of Eternity and got the "Kickstarter Hero Edition" plus "The White March" two-part expansions and apparently this includes the "Giant Miniature Space Piglet and Gaun's Pledge pre-order items". Thing is, I never... redeemed the rewards... Just slipped my mind. Thought I did, apparently didn't. Now, ironically, I have re-purchased the "Definitive Edition" as part of Humble's "Storied Strategy and Role-Playing Bundle", which includes the "Deadfire Pack" and "Royal Edition Upgrade Pack" that I didn't own, so now I am trying to figure out what to do with these two copies of the game. Are the Kickstarter rewards included in the "Definitive Edition" or are they-still Kickstarter Exclusive? Do I redeem all on Steam to get "The Complete Pack" or do I double-dip and redeem the Kickstarter pack on GOG or gift it to someone who won't take 8 years to remember they even owned the bloody game? Please, roast away... Oh, and as a Bonus, also ask me if I already owned the Definitive Edition from when it was free on the Epic Store... (come to think of it, maybe that's why I thought I had redeemed it?)

I've seen several threads but so far I haven't seen an answer yet. Anyone know?

Since Pillars of Eternity is a series for a niche market. wouldnt it make sense for Pillars of Eternity games to be at least Partially backed by the fans via Kickstarter? i think that this would make Microsoft more confortable with doing more POE games.

Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen just launched today. It's a party based CRPG with turn-based tactical combat on a hex grid and using the OGL ruleset (i.e., 3.5e D&D). They're also releasing the game with the editor / toolset so it will hopefully have many user created mods. It looks absolutely fantastic to me. I much prefer TB to RTwP. I only hope the story will be better than ToEE. The KS is raising funds in part to help hire a lead writer so that's a good sign

Hello Backers and Potential Backers! This is the Kickstarter Q&A forum. Here you can ask questions about the current Kickstarter campaign for Lords of the Eastern Reach or give us feedback about how we are doing. Thanks for your support.

Removed, thanks!

Update by Josh Sawyer, Project Director and Brandon Adler, Lead Producer Hey, everyone. After two and a half years, we're happy that you're finally going be able to get your hands on Pillars of Eternity. It's been a great pleasure to work on a traditional PC RPG again and it wouldn't have been possible without your interest, support, and feedback. We hope that playing Pillars of Eternity gives you the same feelings you had when you played the Infinity Engine games. Many of you have told us how much these games have meant to you over the years. It's always been our goal to recapture that experience as well as we can. We've worked hard to provide you with a beautiful world to explore, flexible systems that allow you to build all the characters and parties you can dream up, and a rich story that responds to the choices you make. Nothing can replace the Infinity Engine games, but we hope Pillars of Eternity is a worthy successor to that heritage. Thank you again for all you have done. -Josh Sawyer Kickstarter Tiers and Special Editions Due to popular demand we have created special Kickstarter Backer editions on both Steam and GOG. These editions match the retail versions of the Hero, Champion, and Royal editions, but they come with a few extra Kickstarter goodies. When you go onto your Products page on the Backer Portal you will see which Kickstarter edition was granted to your Kickstarter tier. This was done so that people could download their rewards in multiple places. Unfortunately, we were unable to map every tier perfectly. We have many tiers, many different combinations of add-ons, and only a few Kickstarter editions. Don't worry, though, because if your Kickstarter edition doesn't come with a reward you should be getting for your Kickstarter tier you can download it from the Backer Portal. In fact, the Backer Portal is the official way to download your rewards - we will always have them available for you on the Portal. If you would like to see what products come with your Backer tier you can find that information by going to your Orders page on the Backer Portal. If you expand your order you can click on the "What does this include?" link to see all of your rewards associated with the order. Steps to Redeem Your Items All of the steps outlined below have assumed that you have set up your account and confirmed your pledge. If you have questions about confirming your pledge, please read through our previous update on how to do so. If you follow these steps below, you will able to redeem your rewards: Head to the Backer Portal and go to your My Products page. Each entry on the Products tab is a reward that you can redeem. Depending on your tier you may have many different types of products to redeem. Let's start with redeeming a game code for your platform of choice. First step in redeeming the key to your copy of the game is to click on the game's entry to expand it. Once expanded click on the "Choose Platform" button to bring up a menu where you can select your preferred platform. We offer the choice between Steam and GOG. Once you have selected your platform you can press "Generate Key" to create a download key. Note that once you have generated a key for a platform it may not be changed in the future. Choose wisely. After your game key is generated you will be given instructions on how to redeem the key in your platform of choice. If you are redeeming a different type of reward, a PDF of the Campaign Almanac, for example, the process is the same. Expand the product entry and click the button to download the reward. And that's it. Using the processes described above you will be able to generate game keys and download all of your available rewards. As more rewards are finished, like the documentary, they will appear on your list of rewards to redeem. You may download your rewards as much as you like, but there is a short time limit on each link that is generated by the Backer Portal. If you are attempting to download from an old link, it is best to generate a new one by going through the process above. Documentary and Novella As most of you know we will be releasing the documentary and the novella after we release the game. For the documentary, this was to ensure that you could view the full journey of Pillars' creation - including the release of the game and launch party, and for the novella, that it is done at the highest quality for Backers. Both of these items will not be available on the Backer Portal initially, but once they are released you will be able to download them like any other reward. Printed Rewards If you are not getting the printed Strategy Guide and Collector's Book, but you would like one, you still have a chance to purchase them. Dark Horse - Collector's Guide We partnered with Dark Horse to bring you the Pillars of Eternity Collector's Book. Where the Prima Strategy Guide will be your go-to companion for all your walkthrough and strategy needs, the Collector's Book is there to satisfy the most hardcore lore enthusiasts. Whether your pledge included a physical copy or a digital copy, the Collector's Book is something we're sure you'll be happy with. We're very proud of it and we think Dark Horse did an amazing job bringing it to life. The content of the book covers everything you would want to know about the world of Eora. Among the many informative chapters, you'll find detailed information on the people and gods, as well as the history of the Eastern Reach and recent events. There's even a detailed bestiary explaining the origins and habits of Eora's creatures. It's available for order from a variety of online retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Random House. Prima Games - Collector's Edition Strategy Guide We've been hard at work collaborating with Prima Games on the strategy guide for Pillars of Eternity. The folks over at Prima Games are not only working on creating the awesome Digital Guide for you Backers, but will also be releasing a beautifully printed copy of the guide. Pillars of Eternity is a big RPG, and Prima Games is working to make sure that every inch of our huge game world is covered. The guide will include: Main Quest: A comprehensive walkthrough of the main story. Side Quests and Tasks: An easy reference to all side quests. Atlas: Maps for all critical locations in the vast world of Eora. Training: How to create a character and expertly assign points to attributes and skills. Achievements, Secrets, and exclusive bonuses. The guide will also feature a Thank You section. If you pledged at a tier that included getting your name in the game's credits, you'll also find yourself featured here! As an added plus, all physical copies of the guide will include an access code for a free digital guide, viewable on any connected device. If you missed out on pledging for the strategy guide, the Collector's Edition Guide is a great option for getting all the tips and tricks you'll need for your journey through Eora. To grab your copy of the Collector's Edition Strategy Guide head here. That's it, everyone. We really appreciate everything you have done for us. Now go redeem your game keys and be prepared to get sucked into Pillars of Eternity.

Hi all, Gold level backer here. I've played some of Act I so far, but have yet to see any tombstones in game (I paid for the in-game memorial). I thought it might be nice if we had a list of where all the backer NPC's and in-game memorials were to make it easier for backers to find their little piece of PoE. Also, small suggestion regarding the NPC's. I'd be a lot more inclined to read more of them if they just were text-based. I find I skip all of them because the weird soul mode thing with the screen change and noise is distracting and takes me out of the game. I think if it was just the text, people would complain about them less since they'd meld more into the game. The alternate mode and noise that sound t are big alerts that say "you're leaving PoE and entering Kickstarter backer mode" that aren't really needed IMO. If they were displayed the same as in-game text (i.e. without all the fanfare), players would be less annoyed with them since they'd be on-screen quicker, and quicker to get off-screen if players didn't want to read them (or that particular one). Thanks!

Hello, I bought the white march expansion season pass on steam the moment it came out. I had started a new game and made a fire godlike and received the kickstarter achievement. I had not backed it on Kickstarter. I also received the Kickstarter items. I already had pre-order items. However, when I started a new game with a death godlike neither the wurm not the cape were in my inventory. They are present in the save with the fire godlike. Could I get a clarification on this? I really liked the wurm and would like to have it again if possible. Thank you.

Feargus and Brian Fargo have a Kickstarter panel at San Diego Comic-Con.

Update by Brandon Adler, Lead Producer Hey, everyone. We have two bits of news for you today. One is about Zero Radius Games' Pillars of Eternity card game and the other is about updates for the DVD copies of the game. Pillars of Eternity Card Game: Lords of the Eastern Reach A quick note to let everyone know the Pillars of Eternity card game is in its last 24 hours. They've opened up 13 Stretch goals adding 82 more cards, solo rules, a wooden Pigeeple of the Spectral Pig, better cards, bigger dice, and are coming up on adding the Chanter troop type to the game. Plus, they just added a Campaign Book for people to be able to play through a whole series of scenarios that tell a story. Yeah... they've been busy. Check it out, and if it looks cool the guys at ZRG would be very appreciative of your backing. DVD Updates We have good news for everyone that has a DVD backer copy of the game, but would like the latest 1.06 update. You can now head over to our Backer Portal to download an update to the latest version of the game. Updates and installation instructions for all three OSes are on the page. When a new update is released in the future, we will add the new patches in this location.

Update by Brandon Adler, Lead Producer Hello, everyone. I have two exciting bits of news for you today. Our new update is now live and our friends at inXile just released a Kickstarter for a new Bard's Tale! So we don't leave you all in the cold on the Pillars of Eternity expansion, we just might (wink, wink... nudge, nudge) have some stuff to talk about after E3 (week of June 22nd) and we'll also have some really cool news to talk about with Update 1.07. Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter If you are like us, you probably spent an unhealthy amount of your childhood playing The Bard's Tale. It was a seminal title in the dungeon crawler, cRPG genre and shaped many games that came later. Well, inXile is helping to bring the party-based dungeon crawler back to the forefront. In their new The Bard's Tale Kickstarter, inXile is creating a mix of that old dungeon crawler feel with newer innovations in the genre. Their phase-based combat allows players to constantly react to each action's result, leading to very dynamic gameplay. Players can also input commands as quickly as they like, while not having to wait on character animations to finish. This allows players to play the game at their own pace. If you have a single-player, party-based, dungeon crawling, cRPG itch that needs to be scratched, join inXile by backing the project's Kickstarter now. Update 1.06 Update 1.06 is up on Steam and will be released on GOG and Origin shortly. This update contains lots of great fixes and some cool paladin balance changes. It also contains two major fixes that Unity just released: Fixed a crash that some people were experiencing on startup. This had to do with Unity attempting to load a corrupted font. Fixed severe slowdowns when streaming in assets if the user had specific network adaptors or was running programs like Hamachi. Take a look below for all the details: Balance Blacsonn was modified to have a focus gain multiplier (+20%) instead of a flat gain. Added the Flanking and Engagement entries to the Glossary. Also updated the Flanked entry to link to Flanking and Engagement. Minoletta's Concussive Missiles AoE is now set to foe only. Lay on Hands increased from 1/Encounter to 2/Encounter. Base healing value was increased from 20 per tick to 25 per tick and Greater Lay on Hands increased from +7 to +12. Flames of Devotion was given a +20 Accuracy bonus. Spell Holding: Blessing Accuracy bonus reduced from +10 to +5. All Zealous auras set to the same size. This decreased the size of Charge, but increased the sized of Focus and Endurance. Bonus Graze to Hit rate added to Zealous Focus. Bonus Hit to Graze rate added to Zealous Endurance. Sworn Enemy will no longer call a hit reaction when applied. Endurance reduction on the end of Reviving Exhortation was reduced. Suppress Affliction base duration lowered from 15 seconds to 10 seconds. All Exhortations are now set to recover immediately. Reinforcing Exhortation now grants +25 deflection instead of +15. Hastening Exhortation lowered to 9th level (was 11th). Items, Spells, Abilities Arcane Assault and Flagellant's Path have received animation polish. Quests and Companions Fixed an issue where a door in the Stronghold's Great Hall could become locked after the Steward unlocked it. This is a retroactive fix that should fix a saved game on load. Fix for Against the Grain where you were able to convince Trumbel after convincing Sweynur. Players in broken states can speak with Trumbel to complete the quest. Entering Lle a Rhemen will now force an update to The Bronze Beneath the Lake to the proper step if it's somehow been reverted to an earlier stage, allowing the Engwithan weapon container to appear. Fix for cases where hurting a Crucible Knight during the Forge Knight attack on Crucible Keep would cause Lady Webb to assume you had burned the bridges with the knights' faction, thus forcing the invite to the hearings to come from Dunryd Row. This fix is also retroactive for cases where Lady Webb still waits to hear your word about getting an invite - head over Hadret House and speak with Webb to continue with the Crucible Knight's support as intended in your playthrough. Attacking any main faction after acquiring their invite will now properly result in a quest update that asks you to talk to Webb about getting an invite in some other fashion (Dunryd Row support). UI Added the correct icons for items that were displaying an incorrect icon. Fixed a minor issue with Scripted Interaction images not animating correctly at times. When dragging items in the inventory, you can now see their stack counts. UI fix made for some localizations that were seeing text flow over their button's bounds. Highlight shader will now properly render behind objects in the scene. Added notifications on skill level up that lets users know that skill points may be saved for subsequent levels. Spell bars now clear out correctly when users switch party members with hotkeys. Fixed a bug where the second line of an object could get covered by newly gained objectives. Fixed a UI issue where icons on an expanded spell bar could show blue or gold glows behind them. Added notification when a player attempts to target a spell or attack when Paralyzed or Stunned. Reordered spells and abilities on the character sheet UI. This was a fix to abilities being displayed under the spells category. Fixed a bug where placeholder icons might appear in combat tooltips. Suppressed effects on the party portrait icons now show their effects with a "suppressed" qualifier on tooltip. Added a "per X sec" clause to beam spell descriptions to indicate how often they hit. Transition icons will now revert to their non-glowing state if you attempt to transition, but click away before completing the transition. Stronghold upgrade "purchase" buttons are now greyed out when another upgrade is already in progress. General Fixes Fixed a crash that some people were experiencing on startup. This had to do with Unity attempting to load a corrupted font. Fixed slowdowns that could be caused by certain network adaptors or programs like Hamachi. Fixed a problem where interacting with the ability bar in certain ways could disable mouse input. Fixed an issue where SFX were not playing properly on containers. Fixed a bug where Deceptive disposition was gaining ranks too quickly. Wolves now have an ambient animation for knocked-down state. Fixed an issue where grimoires were getting corrupted when sending a wizard to the Stronghold. Fixed Commander Clyver's barkstrings to be hostile if the Keep is hostile.

Update by Brandon Adler, Lead Producer Hello, backers. Obsidian has some very exciting news! Today marks the first day of a brand new Kickstarter for the Pillars of Eternity card game, Lords of the Eastern Reach. Lords of the Eastern Reach is a strategic card game of adventure and empire building based on Pillars of Eternity. You must protect and build a city. Hire heroes and troops for defense or to delve into dangerous dungeons for loot and glory. Build towers, blacksmiths and other buildings to gain the advantage and go for the win. The game is designed for 2-4 players and takes about 20-30 minutes per player. This gives the game a substantial feel while still being able to fit a game in on a work night. Turns are very interactive, with players being able to perform actions like building and hiring on other players' turns. No more sitting around waiting for your turn to come up! The original video game development team was actively involved in its development. The design of the card game was done by game industry veteran Chris Taylor (Lead Designer, Fallout) while much of the game's development was done by Obsidian's own Scott Everts and John Lewis. Lords of the Eastern Reach also features artwork created by Pillars of Eternity artists such as John Lewis, Kaz Aruga, Polina Hristova and more. If you are interested check out the video above where Feargus Urquhart and Chris Taylor go into the basics of the card game and talk about the Lords of the Eastern Reach Kickstarter in more detail. If you would like to back and get your hands on your own copy, head over to the game's Kickstarter page and donate.

So, I think we can safely assume Phase I looked like this: Broken Age Pillars of Eternity Shadowrun Star Citizen Wasteland 2 Torment: Tides of Numenera Phase II so far: Underworld Ascendant The Bard's Tale Any I'm missing? Will Phase II look like a bunch of sequels and/or Kickstarter Sequels?

On Madhmar Bridge, the backer NPC, Aerthuris, has an extra long backstory because it was copied and pasted twice.

Back in 2012 i think it was I was starved for a real classic RPG. And I mean real starved. Then a newsarticle in a national newspaper here in Norway suddenly made me aware of two things: That there was something called Kickstarter and two: Obsidian was gonna do a new, interesting game on it, named Project Eternity. The first thing that hit me was the strange project name, but knowing obsidian for their fantastic games i read it through and got very much intrigued. This was the kind of games Ive had been waiting for, for...years! This was before the release of the BG1 and BG2 enhanced enditions etc. so I didnt even have those games to spend some time with, and so, i read through the kickstarter again. Paying for a game before its even produced is for me totally alien. Something out there. Normal customer behaviour is usually you walk to the store, look for a nice game and if you find something you like, you buy it!! But i knew now that most game companies wanted to make games that did not include the kind of game i wanted. I guess its part of the time we are in and being old school game player equals being a old person dating from the stone age. I dunno how the kids today look on my computerfascinations, but CRPG is for me the real game. So I thought about giving my share to have this game realised. I wanted it! And more I read about it, the more I liked it! So I made an account with Kickstarter. The time was actually running out for me there since it took some time from i learned about it all! But that didnt stop me. Then come what should I support this game with. For every tier there where something exciting. I love many things in games, and many of those things where on high tiers. Private housing at 2 million, crafting/enchanting at 2,4m, stronghold at 3m and the chance for a 2nd big city realised itself on 3.5 million etc. First I went with 250 dollar tier, and living in Norway I gladly added another 30 dollar for shipping. And then I sat back, happily enjoying that I had supported in plans finally bringing to life a game i had been looking for, for years!! Now, back to the tiers. Along the way i had the pleasure to see that I was certainly not alone in wanting this game! Many others where too, and as the money flowed in, I saw many of these tiers reached their goals, and things I wanted dearly got within reached. I got restless. Being so late into the kickstarter I had not had the chance taking the money I shot into it into my daily spending. If I wanted to spend more money on this seemingly fabolously game I had to cut something. Thankfully it never come to that anyway, but I was able to add another 250 dollar later to the game before its time ran out completely, landing me around 500-600 dollar tier with a nice signed collectors box from my favorite game producers! The game is now straight around the corner, and I cant wait. It have been 2-3 years now in waiting, but that waiting have been a pleasure since we had the chance in following Obsidian along the way. I dont know how that have been for Obsidian. Having a bunch of fans peeking over their shoulders all the time, can be more annoying than business shareholders. People like me take more interest in having a good game than it bringing in more money. I do ofcource want it to bring in a fortune for you guys so you can make other fantastic games, but rite here, rite now, I have to say I simply cant wait for the game to go live! And having had the pleasure at following the 90 or so update mails, we surely got a good look on things with this game. And I am happy! I dont know ofcource how Obsidian will evaluate this kickstarter production for PoE but I am happy! And I hope Obsidian is too, so much that if they want to produce another CRPG they might try going all Kickstarter again. Just give us a shout first! You got my emailadress! Now, I am waiting for the 26th of march, which means in good time before my Easter vacation. I CANT WAIT! THANK YOU SO FAR TO EVERYONE WHO HAVE MADE THIS GAME POSSIBLE! I REALLY CANT WAIT!

Hey, folks. There had been some conversation and questions about whether the backers were going to be able to download the Hero, Champion, or Royal tiers on Steam and GOG. We are currently setting things up in a way that backers will be able to get special versions of those tiers. Since not every tier maps exactly to one of those special editions, it might be a little off. Don't worry, though. If the special edition your tier is mapped to does not come with one of your rewards you can still download it on the Backer Portal as normal. You will always be able to download all of your rewards on the Backer Portal. Just repeating myself so it is clear, if you have backed a reward you will be able to download it from the Backer Portal once we release the reward. Here is the current breakdown of tiers and what SKU they map to on Steam/GOG: Product Name - Pledge - SKU Mapping Show of Support - $5.00 - N/A Early Backer: Just the Game - $20.00 - Hero Edition Digital: Just the Game! - $25.00 - Hero Edition Slacker Backer - $29.00 - Hero Edition Digital Pack: Soundtrack, Collector Book, Behind the Scenes - $35.00 - Hero Edition Digital Fun Pack - $50.00 - Champion Edition Retail Pack - $65.00 - Champion Edition Digital Pack + Strategy Guide + Extra Download - $80.00 - Royal Edition Retail Pack with T-Shirt - $100.00 - Royal Edition Digital Collector's Edition - $110.00 - Royal Edition Retail Collector's Edition - $140.00 - Royal Edition Digital Collector's Edition w/Wasteland 2 + Expansion - $165.00 - Royal Edition Signed Retail Collector's Edition - $250.00 - Royal Edition AMD Loot Bag (US ONLY) - $350.00 - Royal Edition Complete Kickstarter Obsidian Pack - $500.00 - Royal Edition Custom Troll Portrait from Chris Avellone! - $750.00 - Royal Edition Complete Kickstarter Pack + NPC Design - $1,000.00 - Royal Edition Complete Kickstarter Pack + Epic Item Design - $1,000.00 - Royal Edition Complete Kickstarter Pack + Custom Portrait - $3,000.00 - Royal Edition Complete Kickstarter Pack + Adventure Company Design - $5,000.00 - Royal Edition Complete Kickstarter Pack + Inn/Tavern Design - $5,000.00 - Royal Edition Ultimate Kickstarter Watcher Pledge Pack - $10,000.00 - Royal Edition

I believe we don't have any details about it, but let's speculate a bit. I think this time they will try SciFi or Space Opera setting, I also believe that they will use the Pillars engine, as it will reduce time and money needed for the project. Do you think it is possible for them to license some property or they will try once again to create their own?

Dear Obsidian, So here we are. 2012 seems a long time ago, doesn't it? I found out about it while playing Diablo 3 with Gftd1. He mentioned PoE in chat. I logged off and checked it out. I backed it pretty soon afterwards. So, now we're on launch day here's my two pence FWIW. They say no feedback is bad feedback. Which is, of course, utter bollocks. I've watched the first two parts of your video about developing PoE. Even a horrible old bastard like me was moved by your passion. OK, I was only moved a little bit, but for me that's progress. Anyhow, it was great being even a tiny part of the juggernaut that you unleashed by launching your Kickstarter. I don't regret a penny. You've put two fingers up to the naysayers, gate-keepers and legacy publishers and won. Man, that must feel good. It's a buzz seeing the game at the top of the Steam listings. I've been posting here since the first week of Obsidian and at BIS forums before that. Watching the journey has been genuinely brilliant fun. I speak for many when I say this success is richly deserved. The idea that your studio might fold was horrible. Thank your deities of choice it hasn't. So that's enough smoke blown up your arses. You did good. Here's what I think you didn't do so well, take it or leave it. 1. Legacy Stockholm Syndrome - I see this with legacy authors. You shake off the shackles of publishers and stumble, blinking, into the light. Hell, you're free to do what you like. But... the pull of The Old Ways is strong. So you end up with indie freedom but legacy attitudes when it comes to new ways of involving backers and taking risks. For example the launch of the game and decisions around Paradox's preview strategy (some of the streamers, guys, shouldn't have been trusted with Kandy Krush, let alone Pillars). Although I'm personally [fairly] relaxed about the release myself, I dig why some backers are asking why they were treated the same as Joe Soap who just wandered onto Steam. The answer lies in communication. You guys must be so freaking busy, I see where the cracks in the pavement must open up. But it has to be a lesson learnt. There should be no surprises around crap like this. 2. Community Management - You finally did it, and the guy is clearly up to the job. But it was too late. That position should have been filled on Day One. We can only speculate as to the hype, synergies and opportunities that might have come out of it. For long periods of development it seemed like you thought the video updates could make up for a lack of forum presence. I think this was a mistake. Forum-goers are a contrary pain in the arse, this much is true, but somewhere in that muck there might be gold. Your forum-goers are also your missionaries, prepared to travel into dark, unexplored regions of the gaming omniverse to spread light where there was previously only FPS shooters. The more engagement, the further they roam. A CM would have filled that gap and allowed devs to dev. Edit - Bioware is awesome at this. Say what you like about their games (and I do), you can't even begin to knock how their CMs mobilize the Bio-horde. 3. Set out your stall - What is a backer? (ha ha 'What is the nature of a Backer?') A customer? An investor? Some schmuck who put down a chunk of cash for a risky pre-order? I've felt like all three during the KS. This was inevitable given it's your first go at crowd-funding, but in the future maybe you need to lay down some ideas and boundaries beyond legal rubric. Some folks thought of themselves as benevolent pre-orderers and some felt they were clearly share-holders in Obz (ha ha ha). Many felt somewhere in-between. I think you need an honest statement of expectation, a compact with your backers. A guarantee. It should be completely realistic but it should also include some carrots as well as sticks. These aren't massive gripes - the success of the enterprise speaks for itself. I'm still unhappy about some of the decisions around the game mechanics, but I'm big enough and ugly enough to suck that up and play the hell out of this game. But, as a backer and fan, if you want to finesse and build on what you've already achieved, I humbly submit my opinion for your consideration. Best regards, MC

Let's make a comprehensive list of everything in the game so far that has been Backer Made. Obviously, this will be filled in over time, but for now, I think we can get started with a few of the Backer Portraits and the Celestial Sapling. The rules are simple. We post images and/or name of people, places, and things such as: LARS WESTERGREN UNKNOWN CELESTIAL SAPLING ---- UNKNOWN UNKNOWN And then we fill it in as needed.

The higher tiers of the Kickstarter pledges and some of the pledge addons we could get lists a "Kickstarter Exclusive In-Game Pet." and "Kickstarter only in-game achievement and item." Do we have any idea what this item and pet is? I'm assuming it isn't the giant miniature space piglet and Gaun's Pledge item seeing as those are available to all simply by pre-ordering. But I have no experience with kickstarted games' business practice, or Obsidian's for that matter, so not sure what to think.

I think that most backers and especially fresh buyers are unaware of how much has Obsidian accomplished with the funds and the time they had. Let me make a list. Chiseler of the World Just look at this map, crafted with love, care, and chocolate cookies: Here are two pages as free excerpt from the Guidebook Part One (courtesy of Dark Horse Comics), and there is a shorter, but still satisfying Almanac available. Elaborate histories, raging deities, conquests, myths, jokes, -- the lore of Eora, and within it, the Eastern Reaches is as rich as fantasy book sagas, and accompanied by hand-drawn illustrations. The attention to detail is sometimes astonishing. Just like in The Lord of the Rings, new languages (conlangs) were invented based on real languages, complete with naming conventions and pronunciation rules, and all the major powers in the "civilized" world have proper heraldic signs. Weapons and armor have significant differences and much more historical accuracy than most RPGs. (The above coat-of-arms were created by forum user KazikluBey, based on heraldic descriptions given by Josh Sawyer). Crafter of Choices Selecting a race and a class is typical fare in an RPG. Selecting a background is present in some. Obsidian went even further. Recognizing that races are too big as a cultural unit, they developed various cultures within the world, some single-race, some multiple-race, and added a separate background choice like "slave" or "aristocrat", dependent on culture. Culture even determines the starting equipment, so instead of all fighters starting with the same leather armor and short sword, the starting gear depends on where you came from. There is an auto-autobiography in the game which records all the important choices you've made for your character, starting with your origins. I always wanted to have a feature like this in an RPG, and I was quite surprised when they announced it recently because this wasn't a Kickstarter promise, just an extra they thought of and wasn't much work to develop. Thank you, Obsidian. Hoarder of Reactions But that's just the beginning, literally! By acting in the world you build up dispositions over time like "diplomatic" or "aggressive". You get to define your character via words and actions, instead of static labels. This is separate from the reputation system, which functions as expected. There are a major and minor factions within the game, similar how Fallout: New Vegas handled it, each one tracking a reputation. In the game, there is reactivity to class, gender, culture, background, skills, attributes, disposition, reputation. In the backer beta, a certain interesting quest resolution was only available to ciphers. That's the wager Obsidian is making, they're willing to write dialogue and quest parts that will only be seen by a small amount of people on their first (and possibly, last) playthrough, because they believe people will appreciate such nuances, even if they see a fraction of them initially. Think of the amount of work that went into the situational reactivity, it's a brave, brave approach. Breaker of Molds You might or might not like the PoE ruleset, but it is still a huge body of work. It's doesn't quite have the complexity of Baldur's Gate 2, but it gives you much more than today's big RPG titles. There are a lot of different monsters, conditions, abilities, special attacks, unique equipment, whatnot. I like most aspects of the new systems like the Endurance/Health duality, lessening the need for reloads, the bottomless inventory, the enchantment upgrading, and so on. I particularly like that killing in and itself doesn't give XP, it's especially welcome for Trial of Iron plays, it allows you to choose quest solutions you find the least risky. I'll mention that I'm in the camp that thinks engagement isn't a good mechanic for a real-time game, but I'll just leave it at that. On another note, special speech options have a different approach than previous RPGs, where a speech skill option was always a winner. The gated options are not necessarily the best, they are simply more expressive, more defined than the regular choices, and they can make the situation better or worse, depending on circumstances. The example given by lead narrative designer Eric Fenstermaker is that if you are [diplomatic] with an ogre, he'll just see you as a wuss, and proceed accordingly with his huge club. Shaper of Classes This is my favorite one. Eleven classes total, and they wanted them all to be different, but neither of them mandatory. This alone is a huge design task, but they delivered and nailed it in most cases. You can create your own (silent) companions in the game, you can make choices with traditionally non-choice classes like the fighters, and the grand total is that an astounding variety of party setups are possible. Six priests of Skaen called the Traveling Troublemakers? Go for it, it's playable! A mind-bending cipher with a renaissance shotgun called the blunderbuss? Of course you can! I always hated DnD paladins and monks because I dislike classes that are "overdefined", there's little room for my imagination and playstyle choices in them. Bards I favored as a concept, not so much in execution. The reimagined paladin as a zealot for various, not necessarily honorable ideals is awesome, this might be the first game where my main is a paladin for one of the playthroughs. Chanter is more like the original Welsh bard (not like the renaissance troubadour of DnD called bard) and other folklore-tellers like the Hungarian regős, and the new monk is cool, too. Sower of Art In my book art doesn't equal graphics. Computer graphics is a medium to deliver art. It takes a lot of work to transform graphics into art. I think most people would agree that the most defining characteristic of Pillars of Eternity at first glance is the visuals, which pay tribute to the Infinity Engine games. This is one area where even the most grumpy grognards say that Obsidian delivered exactly what they promised: painterly 2D backgrounds, isometric camera. I won't go into the details, but lighting and water animations and various other effects are actually using 3D technology. It looks like the glorious 2D art of yore, with some nifty enhancements. Old and tried design aesthetic, new tricks under the sleeve: that's how you modernize old-school favorites. And there are a lot of backgrounds! The number of "screens" is somewhere halfway between Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 according to the devs. Nurturer of Music No words. Listen. Amazer of Old-School Gamers In the past I've worked as a software developer, and I have friends who work in the computer games industry. I have a pretty good idea how much work it takes to produce something, and I stand speechless at the amount of work they've done on Pillars of Eternity with the amount of resources they had. It was discussed by Brandon Adler, Josh Sawyer and Adam Brennecke that Obsidian has a lot of expertise in crafting RPGs, and their work pipelines were set up to work as fast as possible before full production started, avoiding blunders of the past. It shows, man, it shows. Do you remember this? The pre-campaign? Although there were some mismanaged moments in these past two and a half years, I can honestly that this was the Kickstarter project that I pledged to where I enjoyed the ride the most. So many updates, so many details, so many meaningful discussions (and even more meaningless ones, as usual), so many changes for the good. Here's to more expansions and installments set inside the world of Pillars of Eternity! A few hours from now on: No sleep for ME!

G'Day folks, I generated my Kickstarter backer key for GoG today. GoG now notes that I have the "Kickstarter Champion Edition" which doesn't appear to have a product page. So I compared the standard "Royal Edition" with the standard "Champion Edition" and the content that differed is similar to what I have listed within the "Digital Fun Pack" on my account. So this has left me to wonder, is the "Kickstarter Champion Edition" essentially the standard "Royal Edition" with a few extra bells and whistles? If so, why not call it the "Kickstarter Royal Edition"? Alternatively, if there is an actual "Kickstarter Royal Edition", how does it differ from the "Kickstarter Champion Edition" and was I given the wrong edition by mistake? Any help would be appreciated. Cheers Rowan/LSWSjr

Steps to Redeem Your Items All of the steps outlined below have assumed that you have set up your account and confirmed your pledge. If you have questions about confirming your pledge, please read through our previous update on how to do so. If you follow these steps below, you will able to redeem your rewards: Head to the Backer Portal and go to your My Products page. Each entry on the Products tab is a reward that you can redeem. Depending on your tier you may have many different types of products to redeem. Let's start with redeeming a game code for your platform of choice. First step in redeeming the key to your copy of the game is to click on the game's entry to expand it. Once expanded click on the "Choose Platform" button to bring up a menu where you can select your preferred platform. We offer the choice between Steam and GOG. Once you have selected your platform you can press "Generate Key" to create a download key. Note that once you have generated a key for a platform it may not be changed in the future. Choose wisely. After your game key is generated you will be given instructions on how to redeem the key in your platform of choice. If you are redeeming a different type of reward, a PDF of the Campaign Almanac, for example, the process is the same. Expand the product entry and click the button to download the reward. And that's it. Using the processes described above you will be able to generate game keys and download all of your available rewards. As more rewards are finished, like the documentary, they will appear on your list of rewards to redeem. You may download your rewards as much as you like, but there is a short time limit on each link that is generated by the Backer Portal. If you are attempting to download from an old link, it is best to generate a new one by going through the process above.