What kind of future settings is Obsidian planning?

[Rhomal]

Have I mentioned Steampunk yet?

 

I really think the whole steampunk concept is overrated and except for a small vocal spliter group of the gaming community would not sell well enough for a publisher today to invest in. All they would do is look at sales of arcanium (last AAA steampunk game IIRC) and be turned off from investing millions in such a project.

[Trenitay]

I think Obsidian should make an RPG.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Have I mentioned Steampunk yet?

 

I really think the whole steampunk concept is overrated and except for a small vocal spliter group of the gaming community would not sell well enough for a publisher today to invest in. All they would do is look at sales of arcanium (last AAA steampunk game IIRC) and be turned off from investing millions in such a project.

Bioshock says otherwise.

 

All I'm saying is a lot can be done with a steampunk setting. Its severely underused so there's a lot of originality left in it. It also tends to have a lot of style.

[Walsingham]

I must agree with my learned colleague there. Which raises the question:

 

What QUALITIES must a setting have?

 

Rather than shouting for a particular setting. That way, maybe we can suggest one that makes us all happy.

[crakkie]

Down with consensus! Up with self-interest!

 

Qualities? Consistency, first and foremost.

A setting should take into account however the timeframe/technology/magic/political situations will affect the game's geography and culture. Within this framework, the setting should remain consistent and logical, even if by an absurd-yet-consistent internal logic.

[Rhomal]

Have I mentioned Steampunk yet?

 

I really think the whole steampunk concept is overrated and except for a small vocal spliter group of the gaming community would not sell well enough for a publisher today to invest in. All they would do is look at sales of arcanium (last AAA steampunk game IIRC) and be turned off from investing millions in such a project.

Bioshock says otherwise.

 

All I'm saying is a lot can be done with a steampunk setting. Its severely underused so there's a lot of originality left in it. It also tends to have a lot of style.

 

Never played BS but 'steampunk' was not the impression I got from the screenshots. But I certainly may be wrong.

 

As for the rest of your comments, I totally agree, except I apply your views to the cyberpunk, shadowrun style setting. Nothing like having your elf cast a mana ball then having your troll pump some fragger on full auto while the human street sam chopped some guards up with his katana and colt manhunter pistol... ahh those were the days...

[Winterwolf]

I must agree with my learned colleague there. Which raises the question:

 

What QUALITIES must a setting have?

 

Setting must be plain weird. Thus I vote for Lexx rpg. Imagine this with Chris Avellone and George Ziets doing the writing. It will be epic.

 

And the music... oh god the music.

Edited February 4, 2009 by Winterwolf

[Gorth]

I must agree with my learned colleague there. Which raises the question:

 

What QUALITIES must a setting have?

 

Setting must be plain weird. Thus I vote for Lexx rpg. Imagine this with Chris Avellone and George Ziets doing the writing. It will be epic.

One of the few settings that would give you party members as quirky as the PS:T ones

[Dagon]

Did I mentioned that Fading Suns would be a perfect setting for Obsidian's writing?

Fading Suns

Edited February 4, 2009 by Dagon

[Rostere]

I must agree with my learned colleague there. Which raises the question:

 

What QUALITIES must a setting have?

 

Setting must be plain weird. Thus I vote for Lexx rpg. Imagine this with Chris Avellone and George Ziets doing the writing. It will be epic.

 

And the music... oh god the music.

 

Hell yeah, that show is legendary. But I would prefer Obsidian to create their own IP. If the game is successful, it's a good investment.

 

Although speking of Obsidian expanding uopn already existing IP's, one of the first ideas that struck me when I heard Obsidian were working with Sega on the Alien game and AP was that they could acquire the rights to make a Jet Set Radio rollerskating/graffiti RPG . That would own.

[ShadySands]

What QUALITIES must a setting have?

 

The setting must incorporate elements of both cyberpunk and urban fantasy. It should be set in the not too distant future, maybe 40 to 50 years from now.... and it should be called Shadowrun.

 

 

 

As for the rest of your comments, I totally agree, except I apply your views to the cyberpunk, shadowrun style setting. Nothing like having your elf cast a mana ball then having your troll pump some fragger on full auto while the human street sam chopped some guards up with his katana and colt manhunter pistol... ahh those were the days...

 

[Hiver]

Elves with shotguns? ugh...just ugh.

[Solo]

What's wrong with that? Unles they have bozookas?!

 

*Sees people staring at him*

 

OK. Bad joke. Bad joke.

 

Anywho. Originalty is always good. Though I still would like to see Shadowrun along with Star Frontiers come to life more. Would T&T be bad to bring back? You know the game from Flying Buffalo Tunnels & Trolls? Yes, I'm that old of a pen and paper player. I've always been a fan of sci-fi and fantasy. But can't forget about the flavor of a little western thrown in like The Galaxy Rangers. That could work out well in a cross between Star Frontiers and Shadowrun.

 

If I can contact a friend who was in the Navy there is a game that he alone, well his wife helped too, made that was really good. Before Wizards of the Coast took over TSR he thought about having them look at his idea for a new game system. Mind you this was pen and paper but TSR wanted to own all the rights to it. So he gave up on them. But we played it in the Fleet Lounge on Yokosuka Base. The blessive days of gaming. Would the Obsidian team be willing to look at such a game idea? If so, let me know and I'll try to track him down or reley your interests to him and let it go from there.

 

I would say more on it but I don't want to without talking to him first. I have copies to his whole game system that he originally designed and would love for his dream, idea to happen. So weather or not it goes to computers, consoles, or the good old fashion pen and paper, just seeing his game reach others would be a very happy moment for me as well as him.

 

 

I'm off topic aren't I? Well better cool down now.

[Musopticon?]

Have I mentioned Steampunk yet?

 

I really think the whole steampunk concept is overrated and except for a small vocal spliter group of the gaming community would not sell well enough for a publisher today to invest in. All they would do is look at sales of arcanium (last AAA steampunk game IIRC) and be turned off from investing millions in such a project.

Bioshock says otherwise.

 

All I'm saying is a lot can be done with a steampunk setting. Its severely underused so there's a lot of originality left in it. It also tends to have a lot of style.

 

Never played BS but 'steampunk' was not the impression I got from the screenshots. But I certainly may be wrong.

Honestly, steampunk is a label that gets thrown around pretty randomly. As a genre, it's about having anachronistic technology in an older world. Usually Victorian, since the genre has it's beginnings in Gormenghast and Verne. That said, Bioshock would certainly qualify with the anachronistic technology aspect, but the look and themes of Rapture aren't anything like steampunk. Arcanum is steampunk, Thief 2 is steampunk, even Wild Wild West is steampunk, but Bioshock has lots of pipes and valves and a somewhat Nautilean look in its architecture, but that's about it.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

The weapons were pretty cheap/old meets new.

 

I have to wonder, would Crimson Skies (1 or 2) qualify as Steampunk?

[Musopticon?]

I haven't played the second one, but Crimson Skies one had that "what if nobody invented missiles or mach engines and everybody was an air pirate in the 50's"-look, right?

 

Well, I honestly don't know. I'd hesitate to call it steampunk, since there's nothing anachronistic in the technical aspects, but I know what you mean. It's the same thing as with Silent Storm's panzerkleins looking like old fighter ****pits and submarines or Overlord's dwarves having steam elevators, flamethrowers and really sophisticated(or not, going by minion death by burning -count) blast furnaces - there's elements in the look and the themes, but like Star Wars isn't scifi, but space opera, Crimson Skies fits into a different thematic genre than steampunk titles.

 

Honestly, I know most people won't agree with me since steampunk is often labeled under the nifty catchphrase "what if history took another direction?", but that's a whole different can of worms. I'd call that superordinate genre of anachronistic history and fiction. Stuff like Card's Alvin books or Superman:The Red Son. And you have to consider that there's various kinds of punk. Cyberpunk(very much what-if there), steampunk, newtonian punk(clockworks and ****), gothic punk and vernepunk(lol, hypercorrection right there) etc. Being called "steampunk" sorta requires that steam-aspect. No cars, but tons of railroads and steamers, robots based on boilers on legs, people being comfortable in smithing aprons while sitting in an automaton ****pit.

 

And the ultimate question, is Syberia 'punkish enough to be a new 'punk, or how are the genre wankers supposed to fix their minds around Soviet automata, mammoths, hot reporters and mobile phones all existing together in a seamless thematic background without reality going "snap"?!

 

I won't kill you for calling anything anything, otherwise I'd have to torch my local book store for having New Jedi Order in the scifi section. I just don't agree.

 

Edit: ****er spaniel, So****e Arukidasu, yep. This forum filter hates both me, Hachikuro and cute dogs. ****ake shrooms!

Edited February 8, 2009 by Musopticon?

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

The second one actually had more of a 30's vibe. Heck, there was a boss fight with a giant firebreathing mechanical worm that works on gears, and some robot with six legs that was actually the tip of a zeppelin. That, and some planes had weird weapons like the twin tesla bolts. Seemed pretty steampunk to me.

 

Then again, these days newtonian punk and steampunk are pretty much considered the same. Alternate reality/history doesn't have anything to do with it, but usually its all about the art direction according to me. "Pop art", the 50s commercials/advertisements with a sort of dark humour (Incinerate plasmids being advertised like common soap), seems to be shared by a lot of steampunk games, along with a tendency to use pipes, steam, gears, copper, old technology turned new, weapons looking like they were homemade, etc...

[Trenitay]

They shoud totally make an Abraham Lincoln Steampunk RPG.

[Musopticon?]

"Pop art", the 50s commercials/advertisements with a sort of dark humour (Incinerate plasmids being advertised like common soap), seems to be shared by a lot of steampunk games, along with a tendency to use pipes, steam, gears, copper, old technology turned new, weapons looking like they were homemade, etc...

You know, I'd call the 50's thing in Fallout and Bioshock art deco, the statues, the metropolis-skyline with a zeppelin, the mix of chrome and teak and marble in architecture, etc. Great style, which is fairly well known, but meshes too well with our notions of a modern city with it's skyscrapers, the NY look, that we tend to ignore it. Anyways, Pop art and similar stuff is currently in about two game franchises, one of which can't decide whether it's retro scifi or post-apoc and another that took a Randian utopia with it's own style and showed you its underbelly, I can't say it's "shared by a lot games", steampunk or not.

 

I agree that there's shared elements, but I honestly can't call Crimson Skies or Bioshock steampunk. Some filtered look isn't enough, there has to be consistent steampunk in the setting backstory and in the fluff as well. I mean, look at Rise of Legends. The Vinci are the steampunk incarnate. They quickly embraced Industrial Revolution, but didn't play around with spinning jennys, but huge freaking killer bots. I can't call Bioshock steampunk since the devs never went for the look or the idea. To you, steampunk is valves and the over-the-top gadgetry look, to me it's a very definite genre.

 

A question back, would you call the second Burton Batman steampunk?

 

Edit: Awesome pic

 

Edited February 8, 2009 by Musopticon?

[Rostere]

This is steampunk. Or at least it is to steampunk what Spelljammer is to FR.

[Musopticon?]

Totally. So is The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

You know what we need?

 

 

A Sky Captain RPG.

[Zoma]

You know, its ironicthat an awesome rich background sci-fi book, "Dune", only found popularity in the RTS genre. Come on man, the potential for making a mind boggling awesome RPG with such rich background is so bleeding with huge potential instead of being constrained in an RTS game.

[RangerSG]

Are we taking requests?

 

The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Steven Erickson's setting would be a glorious RPG opportunity. Multiple factions and races to choose from, many utterly unique. A magic system radically different from that of most fantasy RPGs. A rich, developed pantheon and history. What's not to like?

[Rhomal]

Elves with shotguns? ugh...just ugh.

 

Clearly you never played shadowrun and do not know the goodness it holds. Vastly more then yet another steampunk setting.