A New Planescape: Torment

[Tale]

Hell, the whole idea of having a franchise like Torment be a thematic one rather than one defined by setting or a single story is pretty novel.

I'd love to see a Dark Sun: Torment and a Gamma World: Torment.

 

Then eventually a Gorkamorka: Torment.

[Brother None]

Oh man.

 

I'd play the hell out of Gorkamorka: Torment.

 

What can change the nature of WAAAAGH?

Edited December 3, 2012 by Brother None

[Starwars]

uuugh... Is it really necessary to dig up these old licenses? PS:T was a great game, it stood alone and works fine. Making a "Torment spiritual sequel" without the Planescape setting, and Chris' involvement, is just... why bother?! For the love of god, can't we get something new without having to attach old licenses to it? What's the point? Just make a new goddamn game without resorting to using an old name to get some quick cash in.

 

You're asking for originality yet objecting to it having a new setting? This game will be thematically tied to Torment, but have a whole new setting and characters. Seems pretty original to me! Hell, the whole idea of having a franchise like Torment be a thematic one rather than one defined by setting or a single story is pretty novel. I can see why one would object to it, but I hardly think it's a despicable idea, or "cash in". This isn't PS:T:EE, haha.

 

I don't find it despicable. Hell, if they manage to show writing promise with WL2 I might even be interested in it. But it's boring, and it's useless and it's again, an obvious and not-subtle way to generate the interest. What on earth would thematically tied mean in this case? What is there to salvage from something like 'Torment' as a license, if we discount the setting and the writer who did the absolute main bulk of the work on it (I would even argue that the parts of Torment where Avellone was more hands-off are a distinct step down in overall quality). I guess we will have philosophical discussions in it? Have a tormented main character? Come on, just throw away the license completely and do something new... They're oh-so-close anyways, just take the step for crying out loud.

[Brother None]

But it's boring

 

Again though. All-new setting. I see what you're saying but people want games that can produce the same experience as the classics did, and that's not a bad thing.

 

What on earth would thematically tied mean in this case?

 

That the franchise is defined by its core themes. Telling a personal story, tied with philosophical teams, in a unique, strange setting with unexpected rules, and subverting RPG tropes.

 

Come on, just throw away the license completely and do something new... They're oh-so-close anyways, just take the step for crying out loud.

 

We shall see.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Brother None

[Keyrock]

Shame that means he's not coming back to Obsidian

 

On the other hand it's good if InXile gets more talent.

Well, at least he gets to work with Brian Fargo and the team an InXile. InXile and Obsidian have already showed a willingness to work together (the bonds of Black Isle and Interplay are hard to break it seems), so working at InXile seems like the next best thing to having him at Obsidian.

[entrerix]

"The first step in designing a new Torment story is to ask the primary question. I'm older than I was when I worked on Torment, and my questions now are different than they were. I have children now, and I look at the world through their eyes and through mine, and that's changed me - in fact, the intervening years have changed me so much that I have new answers for the central story in the original Torment. So now that I know what can change the nature of a man, I ask: What does one life matter? … and does it matter at all?" he scribbled

"Then I'd re-examine the fundamentals of the setting. I'd put it some place other than Planescape. I'd use a system other than D&D, because I'd want to align the player's story axes along different lines than Good/Evil or Law/Chaos to something more subjective. The core of Torment is, after all, a personal story, and while we can be judged by others on the basis of our actions, arbitrarily aligning those actions on an external and eternally fixed line removes some of the agency from the player's game.

"I have a lot of ideas about what to put into a new Torment game," he closed, "but my primary goal would be to help the player tell a story that was evocative of the original Torment without aping it. To be faithful to the odyssey of the Nameless One, and to recognise that it has ended, and that stories of Torment are ongoing."

 

 

 

ok i like the sound of this, but still, i think it makes 100% more sense to wait until MCA is available to be involved in the project,

[obsidiansquid]

I'd love to see the PST style game just done more often. Similar setting but not necessarily a straight up sequel, that's not important to me. I just want more intelligent, really well-written, meaningful gaming experiences.

[Orchomene]

To Starwars : Having the licence 'Torment' is a communication tool. All that know PST would imagine what would be the essence of a game having this licence. It's the same for media. It's kind of a way to ease the advertisement of the product and touch the main target of the future game.

That's the idea of brands and name licences.

[Theobeau]

Only came across this series of posts today.

 

To saw that I'm very intrigued by the return of PST, albeit no longer wearing the clothes of Planescape, would be seriously underplaying how excited I was upon hearing the news.

 

The original game still means a lot to me and IMHO, is the exemplar of how computer games, among all the forms of artistic expression/entertainment, are uniquely placed to have the viewer (player) immerse themselves into a fictional life and by doing so, learn something of a wider truth and of themselves.

 

Onto the possibility of a new Torment game itself, Brian Fargo's recent comments suggest that the game may be backed by inXile, which should make it more likely to move to the next stage....any takers for a new Kickstarter in early 2013?!

[Humanoid]

I think launching a new funding drive so soon after their last one before showing any end product would result in some pretty justifiable scepticism from a sizable proportion of potential backers. I imagine they'd be content with self-funded preliminary work for the time being.

[Fish Of Doom]

what humanoid said.

 

but more seriously: