Planescape: Torment successor announced. Set in Numenera universe.

[HoonDing]

RPS – Given no Planescape and presumably none of the PST characters, what makes a Torment game a Torment game to your mind?

Fargo: We know it hasn’t been done often in the game industry, but we’re envisioning Torment as a thematic franchise with certain themes that can expand over different settings and stories. We will focus on the same things that made people appreciate PST so much: overturning RPG tropes; a fantastic, unconventional setting; memorable companions; deep thematic exploration of the human condition; heavy reactivity (i.e., choice and consequences); an intensely personal (rather than epic) story.

And people complain about AAA game marketing bull****.

[Nordicus]

I'll wait for the actual Kickstarter to start hating on it, inXile might be on to something if Numenera setting is as cool and weird as it seems (something more out of an adventure game than your standard fantasy RPG), and if they really emphasive protagonist's character development, ideologies, moral stance and inner struggles over whatever calamity has struck the world.

 

Then again, they might just start a Kickstarter with a video that explains jack ****, and puts heavy emphasis on getting funds with developer and brand name recognition. 'Cause no developer has done THAT before amirite?

[Bester]

I don't get why WotS won't allow anyone to make a BG3 or a Torment2. That's just pure evil, isn't it?

[alanschu]

I believe WotC has buried the Planescape setting. I doubt they aren't allowing a BG3, however.

 

Having said that, I'm glad we got PST instead of just another sequel.... I am definitely NOT interested in a genuine "Planescape: Torment 2"

Edited January 9, 2013 by alanschu

[Orchomene]

I'll see when there will be more details.

Using Torment name as a marketing tool is fine by me if they live with the potentiel backlashes. Double edged tool.

[WDeranged]

I hate to be sceptical about this after the Project Eternity hype, something about it doesn't sit right with me but I don't have the head space to articulate my feelings at the moment.

[Malekith]

Torment in the title is for the most part a marketing ploy.But even Avellone said that Obsidian might be interested in making A P:T spiritual successor after P:E with Avellone as Lead.

All a P:T successor really neads is a fantastic, unconventional setting, emphasis on story over combat and to be very text heavy.If it matches that crittiria it is in the vein of Planescape:Torment.Will it be as good?Noone knows, but propably not.But its a direction in games that no other game followed,except maybe MotB, and its the direction i enjoy most. Will be a good game?I think so.Better than Torment?No.But it doesn't have to be.Its enough that they will try.DA:O was worse than BG2,but was still a good game.The same can happen here

[nikolokolus]

I'm intrigued by the Numenera setting, but then again I count Jack Vance's Dying Earth and Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun as some of my all time favorite books. If a game ever nailed the look and feel that those books evoke I'd be a happy camper even without the "Torment" tie-in.

 

At this point I'd say they've got my attention, but I'll wait to hear and see more before I give it any money in a kickstarter effort.

[Sandro G Meier]

To be a successor of a great game/people is always not such easy. First, I was so glad about their courage-it may be one of the most difficult things in the world that make a spiritual sequel of the PST.Then, talking about game, some ideas of world and the game setting is cool, although. But I still doubt how deep it would be on the philosophy side that compare with the depth of the PST, and how would it perform that(story,dialogue etc.)

So I still hold a wait-and-see attitude to it, until more info coming, they are just preproducting,aren't they?

[anubite]

Some thangs is easy as **** ta hate. Lap tops bein one, dis bein another.

 

Da game might need up bein aiiiight yo, but it won't be PST and even PST like.

 

I don't like liars n' dis playa is lying.

 

I'm kind of skeptical too about Mister Fargo as well, Volourn. I think it would be smarter to announce this thing... once Wasteland 2 has been successful. Or that people can be comvinced that they've already gotten one good game from the guy. This seems like a good business decision, but a bad PR one.

[Bester]

I believe WotC has buried the Planescape setting.

Then make it public domain. It's really evil what they're doing.

[alanschu]

I can understand why they don't make it public domain.

 

Although frankly, as I stated, if doing so would mean "Planescape: Torment 2" then I'd prefer it remain buried. I love PST because it's not a sequel. If a sequel had been made instead of PST we'd all have been in a worse off place. The advantage this Torment 2 has is that it's possible to do even better. Though really, it doesn't need to be "Torment 2" to do so.

 

I have high hopes on Project Eternity being able to wow me the way PST did, and it's not set in the Planescape universe.

[NOK222]

I believe WotC has buried the Planescape setting. I doubt they aren't allowing a BG3, however.

 

Having said that, I'm glad we got PST instead of just another sequel.... I am definitely NOT interested in a genuine "Planescape: Torment 2"

 

I actually agree, that whole storyline is something that should only be concluded if they ever want to end the blood wars, which is never.

[Zoraptor]

I don't get why WotS won't allow anyone to make a BG3 or a Torment2. That's just pure evil, isn't it?

Not really, there are circumstances behind it. WOTC/ Hasbro is not really a computer game publisher or developer itself and has not sub licensed since Atari (excluding the Neverwinter holdover). For all we know no publisher may be interested in D&D since it's never had great penetration on consoles and the last worthwhile title monetarily using D&D was probably NWN2, six years ago, on PC only. There's also the problem of deciding what the best strategy for it is- $20 mill+ multiplatform AAA aiming for millions of sales? Low to mid budget PC title aiming for 1 million plus? Portable/ online titles? Is Hasbro going to hand over the money direct or will there be external funding? Who will distribute it? Lots of questions for non specialists, especially when it isn't exactly like the specialist computer game publishers are hitting it out of the park with all their successful projects. Add to that they have a basically defunct current edition and even if they wanted to do it their options are limited to a few RPG focussed developers capable of handling the project. They ought to do something with BG at least, but doing nothing is better than doing anything just for the sake of it, though I'd guess we might see some movement to coincide with 5e.

 

They won't make stuff public domain for the same reason very little stuff is voluntarily made public domain by corporations, there's no money to be made from it and potentially money to be lost. They aren't charities working for the betterment of mankind, after all.

[Volourn]

"Then make it public domain. It's really evil what they're doing."

 

LOLZ Protecting your property is not evil. It's intelligent.

[Nepenthe]

I'm still kind of sore about WotC cancelling the successful (licensed to original authors) Dragonlance 3.5e line. One can never have too much awesome.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Nepenthe

[WorstUsernameEver]

I'm still kind of sore about WotC cancelling the successful (licensed to original authors) Dragonlance 3.5e line. One can never have too much awesome.

 

I haven't been following D&D for a while (been playing Pathfinder for a bit with my group before we disbanded) but.. they did? Dragonlance was pretty popular last time I checked, and it's not like they had any problem keeping more than one traditional fantasy setting, given that they also kept pushing Greyhawk with 3/3.5.

[Dream]

If they said the exact same **** but didn't spend a third of the interview trying to push the whole sequel to Torment bull**** I'd be excited as ****. As it stands, however, I'm very skeptical.

[HoonDing]

I believe WotC has buried the Planescape setting. I doubt they aren't allowing a BG3, however.

 

Having said that, I'm glad we got PST instead of just another sequel.... I am definitely NOT interested in a genuine "Planescape: Torment 2"

 

I actually agree, that whole storyline is something that should only be concluded if they ever want to end the blood wars, which is never.

The Blood War has ended.

[WorstUsernameEver]

They have to start other projects before Wasteland 2 is released. They might be able to pay for pre-production by themselves, meaning that they can use that for the KickStarter campaign. By the Wasteland 2 beta we will know that they can deliver, at least deliver a game.

 

I get it, there are economic realities that they have to deal with. Same with the Torment license, which is obviously more or less a PR stunt to raise awareness. Still, not good for the people who are supposed to pay, IMO.

[Flouride]

I'm a bit skeptical. First of all, we haven't even seen Wasteland 2 yet. How many people are willing to feed more money to Fargo when we have no idea what they've been able to make with the few million dollars we just gave him. Especially since I haven't played a single InXile game, it's kinda hard to talk myself into giving them more. With Obsidian it would be a different thing, since I kinda know what to expect.

2nd, how good is Colin McComb? I'm not really familiar what he did over at Black Isle and what he has been up to ever since. Is he up to the task? Mentioning Kevin Saunders did make me feel a bit more comfortable.

 

So yes, I'm a bit skeptical, but highly intrigued at the same time.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Flouride

[Spider]

MC Comb is pretty good. While Torment was MCA's baby. McComb was hired on the project due to his immense knowledge of the Planescape setting (he wrote a lot of the source material for it after all) and was, afaik, the second most influential designer after Avellone.

 

He also liked to interract with the fanbase on the forums a lot, so there's that.

 

I certainly think he has the design chops for this project, yes.

[Nepenthe]

I'm still kind of sore about WotC cancelling the successful (licensed to original authors) Dragonlance 3.5e line. One can never have too much awesome.

 

I haven't been following D&D for a while (been playing Pathfinder for a bit with my group before we disbanded) but.. they did? Dragonlance was pretty popular last time I checked, and it's not like they had any problem keeping more than one traditional fantasy setting, given that they also kept pushing Greyhawk with 3/3.5.

This was a part of the move to 4th edition, they axed the licenses for all the licensed properties (Ravenloft, Dragonlance). They didn't want them competing with FR/Eberron whatnot. The real tragedy of the matter was that DL was licensed to Margaret Weis's publishing house, and they had a significant bunch of the original DL team working on the fluff (and game material), with the addition of Cam Banks, a hugely talented RPG developer. IMO Their real innovation was supporting different eras of play (and time travel), including branching histories. Some of my favourite books, and a way of making a fairly vanilla fantasy setting interesting on its own.

[Bester]

How many people are willing to feed more money to Fargo when we have no idea what they've been able to make with the few million dollars we just gave him.

 

Being a bit familiar with this process in a somewhat related area (not gamedev, but close), the best time to raise funds is now.

If they wait for W2 to be released, then it can go either way. It can be a genius game and everyone will donate; or it can be a mediocre or a misunderstood title and nobody will donate for a long time (until the public "forgives" ineXile); or it can be somewhere in between.

Right now, almost everyone is still excited, Fargo has a huge credit of trust because he received a big funding and hasn't spoiled it yet, so the perfect time is now. After that, they've made two games, at least one is bound to be good, so they can keep working with Kickstarter. At least this is exactly how it works in my area of expertise.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Bester

[Nepenthe]

Right now, almost everyone is still excited, Fargo has a huge credit of trust because he received a big funding and hasn't spoiled it yet, so the perfect time is now. After that, they've made two games, at least one is bound to be good, so they can keep working with Kickstarter. At least this is exactly how it works in my area of expertise.

I don't think so, I've definitely noticed a certain amount of kickstarter gaming fatigue. Personally, I won't back another game until some of the earlier ones start dropping. I did cough up for the Elmore art book, but, hey... Concrete and fast.