The problem with straying to far from Dungeons and Dragons.

[Acesahn]

Everyones mentioning all of the D&D games except NWN2... that was my first of all these games, and holds a special place in my heart (Oh Neeshka and Khelgar... its so clear to me you love each other like two brothers and sisters always bickering) The game had really amazing graphics for the time, and I enjoyed the combat and class system much better then BG2 even, never felt like more of a bad ass during the middle and late game, then with my 16 cleric 4 war priest, dishing out smacking fools with my 2 handed great mace I held with monkey grip with one hand, and a tower shield in the other XD.

 

Though I admit, the camera and controls NEED to be adjusted before you play it, it handles so slugishly at first.

[Cantousent]

The thing is, you enjoyed the setting.  You want to explore more of it.  I can hang with that.  I've never been a fan of the Forgotten Realms setting, which has been a lot of the DnD games. It was never an exciting setting for me personally.  Everything was always too *big* in the Forgotten Realms.  Everything was always too fixated on it's own importance in cosmic affairs whereas I tend to prefer personal journeys that tell a story of individuals.  ...But I enjoyed the past DnD games (yeah, not PoR2, but you get me).  Anyhow, you're just advocating your position, which I respect, but liking a setting is one thing.  Having rights to it is another.  So we'll have to hope that Obsidz fashioned something that will please us.  :Cant's keeping his fingers crossed icon:

[Diogenes]

Another good thing about moving away from D&D is not having to deal with all the Mary Sue creator pet characters like Elminster or Lord Nasher etc who could solve the problems going on without breaking a sweat but don't do so because they don't feel like it.

[PrimeJunta]

Another good thing about moving away from D&D is not having to deal with the really. stupid. names. Drizzt, for crying out loud?

[Acesahn]

The thing is, you enjoyed the setting.  You want to explore more of it.  I can hang with that.  I've never been a fan of the Forgotten Realms setting, which has been a lot of the DnD games. It was never an exciting setting for me personally.  Everything was always too *big* in the Forgotten Realms.  Everything was always too fixated on it's own importance in cosmic affairs whereas I tend to prefer personal journeys that tell a story of individuals.  ...But I enjoyed the past DnD games (yeah, not PoR2, but you get me).  Anyhow, you're just advocating your position, which I respect, but liking a setting is one thing.  Having rights to it is another.  So we'll have to hope that Obsidz fashioned something that will please us.  :Cant's keeping his fingers crossed icon:

Well the setting, the classes, the combat system really. I MISS a complex class system... does it need to be streamlined for most audiences? Heck yea, my first cleric was awful until I read a guide on the complex numbers behind the stats and what skills to priotize while leveling lol. But in the end, Ive never had so much FUN with my class, and knowing of all the different classes and combinations I could play with on alt characters or simply leveling up my companions (If you played NWN2 and turned Khelgar into a monk... whoa, look out. He turns into a god... well like all max level monks XD)

[Voss]

 

 

 

While Dragon Age did try to have its own spin on traditional fantasy ideas, it spun pretty deeply into Warhammer territory.

 

 

Well, two things, there.  Bioware did promise (originally) to create a fantasy setting the likes of which no one had ever seen before.... but failed miserably.  Generic fantasy stock plus a not particularly veiled christian church.

As for warhammer [fantasy] territory... only so much as both settings are painfully generic.*  With a couple exceptions (largely, the chaos gods) everything in warhammer was public domain or historical expies.  Or properly nicked, like Skaven (more or less everything but the name) from Fritz Lieber.  

 

*Or rather were, since the Warhammer Fantasy World is officially all blowed up, as of... last week

Another good thing about moving away from D&D is not having to deal with all the Mary Sue creator pet characters like Elminster or Lord Nasher etc who could solve the problems going on without breaking a sweat but don't do so because they don't feel like it.

 

It is actually interesting if you dig into the rationale behind it (or at least Ed Greenwood's rationale behind it, which gets fuzzy as time goes own and other people stick their oars into the writing process), because Ed actually explores this in a couple places.  The setting goes absolutely bug**** when the big name mages act, everyone in the same region starts pulling out all the stops and wide scale destructive conflict rains down on everyone, more or less indiscriminately.  It's all very 1980s nuclear deterrence, but well, personified in a handful of ridiculously powerful people.  So everyone (that matters, which is to say, spellcasters) sticks to lower level agents, because the resulting scale of destruction is an order of magnitude less.   

Edited March 19, 2015 by Voss

[Yellow Rabbit]

Another good thing about moving away from D&D is not having to deal with the really. stupid. names. Drizzt, for crying out loud?

Just a funny side note: in a Russian translations of Salvatore's novels Drizzt was transformed into Dzirt. Officially - because it's "so hard to pronounce that name for people used to Russain language's phonetics" (yeah, as if replacement is any better). Actually - "Drizzt" is very close phonetically to Russian verb which figuratively means "to have diorhea".

 

Imo, it fits. Never liked this drow.

[Cantousent]

Some Russian characters have odd names anyway, like Porfiry. ...But that's pretty funny, my Kuniklos friend. Not a Drizzt fan myself. ...Or any drow.

[Yellow Rabbit]

Most of modernly used names in Russia have either Greek or Scandinavian origins and because of that don't look striking so much for European/American people. But names that came originally from Slavic people like Porfiriy you mentioned or, say, Kuz'ma and Eryoma may sound a bit weird, that's for sure. They're rare in RL by now, though.

 

...Geez, I just saw those names written in latin alphabet for the first time. Now they sound weird even for me.

 

Sorry for offtop

[Stun]

Another good thing about moving away from D&D is not having to deal with the really. stupid. names. Drizzt, for crying out loud?

Oh, Drizzt is a very tame and normal name by D&D standards. Have you ever read the Book of Vile Darkness?

 

Here's a few names they've given to the various Demon Princes

 

1) Obox-ob

2) Churnovog

3) Dwiergus

4) Fraz-Urb'luu (although, stupid name or not, this guy has an amazing story that the world of Greyhawk fleshed out)

5) Graz'zt (name looks just like Drizzt, although Gygax came up with it 2 decades before R.A. Salvatore invented Drizzt)

6) Haagenti

7) Juiblex

8.) J'zzalshrak

9) Kostchtchie (no, that's not a misspelling, there really IS 7 consonants in a row here)

10) Lazbral'thull

11) Sch'theraqpasstt (try saying that one 3 times out loud)

12) Zzyczesiya

 

I suspect writers came up with many of these names the same way one determines anything in D&D: with a dice roll. They used a d26....rolled for every letter.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Stun

[BruceVC]

 

Another good thing about moving away from D&D is not having to deal with the really. stupid. names. Drizzt, for crying out loud?

Oh, Drizzt is a very tame and normal name by D&D standards. Have you ever read the Book of Vile Darkness?

 

Here's a few names they've given to the various Demon Princes

 

1) Obox-ob

2) Churnovog

3) Dwiergus

4) Fraz-Urb'luu (although, stupid name or not, this guy has an amazing story that the world of Greyhawk fleshed out)

5) Graz'zt (name looks just like Drizzt, although Gygax came up with it 2 decades before Ed Greenwood invented Drizzt)

6) Haagenti

7) Juiblex

8.) J'zzalshrak

9) Kostchtchie (no, that's not a misspelling, there really IS 7 consonants in a row here)

10) Lazbral'thull

11) Sch'theraqpasstt (try saying that one 3 times out loud)

12) Zzyczesiya

 

I suspect writers came up with many of these names the same way one determines anything in D&D: with a dice roll. They used a d26....rolled for every letter.

 

 

 

Wow, some of those names are extremely difficult to pronounce 

[Ganrich]

Stun, the "no, that's not a misspelling, there really IS 7 consonants in a row here" made me nearly spit coffee. I have a bit of Kona blend in my nasal passages. Thank you.

[Cantousent]

matchstick has 5 in a row... but yeah, I have to admit I also laughed out loud at the 7 consontants is a row comment. For a while, it seemed like a lot of exotic names required a ' or ten in the name, like Ca'Nt'to'us'''sent or something. lol Weird stuff. I don't see that as much any more.

[PrimeJunta]

 

Another good thing about moving away from D&D is not having to deal with the really. stupid. names. Drizzt, for crying out loud?

Oh, Drizzt is a very tame and normal name by D&D standards. Have you ever read the Book of Vile Darkness?

 

Here's a few names they've given to the various Demon Princes

 

1) Obox-ob

2) Churnovog

3) Dwiergus

4) Fraz-Urb'luu (although, stupid name or not, this guy has an amazing story that the world of Greyhawk fleshed out)

5) Graz'zt (name looks just like Drizzt, although Gygax came up with it 2 decades before Ed Greenwood invented Drizzt)

6) Haagenti

7) Juiblex

8.) J'zzalshrak

9) Kostchtchie (no, that's not a misspelling, there really IS 7 consonants in a row here)

10) Lazbral'thull

11) Sch'theraqpasstt (try saying that one 3 times out loud)

12) Zzyczesiya

 

I suspect writers came up with many of these names the same way one determines anything in D&D: with a dice roll. They used a d26....rolled for every letter.

 

Nah that's fine, everybody knows demons are from Poland. Except Juiblex which will get your bathroom sparkly clean with just a few squirts.

[Stun]

^and Haagenti, which is a brand of ice cream.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Stun

[Cantousent]

Juiblex which will get your bathroom sparkly clean with just a few squirts.

Rat bastard! :Cant's rueful grin icon: I actually looked up 'Jubilex bathroom cleaner.' Of course, I've been indulging, so maybe I can only blame myself. As my half-orc friend sometimes says (and sometimes not) nomenclature means something. Sometimes, there is something in a name. which is why we have naming algorithms for various games.

[Elerond]

9) Kostchtchie (no, that's not a misspelling, there really IS 7 consonants in a row here)

Interestingly that is probably easiest to pronounce from that list of names, because in actually tch is only one sound (seen in patch and watch), so in reality there are only three consonant sound in a row in two syllables (kostch tchie).

Edited March 19, 2015 by Elerond

[PrimeJunta]

It's also a real name, although badly transliterated from Cyrillic. 

[Sedrefilos]

Lol those names...

Anyway, names are names, not a big deal (I suppose if you hear my name many will think it's strange too). Going away from DnD only good things can bring

DnD settings and lores are nice if you want to go adventuring, slay monsters, fight bad wizards etc. You know, not very heavy stuff but super fun.

If you want to go deeper, thoug, make more complex things you have to stray away even if you're using DnD material; you have to strongly bend them. So why not make something new?

It's worth the effort if only just to move away from that awful childish allignment system of DnD!

Edited March 19, 2015 by Sedrefilos

[PrimeJunta]

Churnovog is another mangled Slavic god btw. Should be Chernobog (prounounced chyornabog in Russian). Means Dark God. Could be the b becomes a v in some Slavic languages, it's a common phoneme shift.

[Messier-31]

It's also a real name, although badly transliterated from Cyrillic. 

 

Kościej, which loosely sounds like "kosh-tchey"... the word kość literally mean bone, so it could be translated into Boner... but, you know, lol.

[Stun]

That's interesting. I knew that all of D&D's Arch Devils were taken straight out of real world Literature/Mythology (Asmodeus, Mephistopheles, Moloch etc.), but I would never have guessed any of the whacky hyphenated/apostrophe filled Demon names would be.

[PrimeJunta]

Kościej, which loosely sounds like "kosh-tchey"... the word kość literally mean bone, so it could be translated into Boner... but, you know, lol.

Poles to a man, those demons. Toldja.

[PrimeJunta]

That's interesting. I knew that all of D&D's Arch Devils were taken straight out of real world Literature/Mythology (Asmodeus, Mephistopheles, Moloch etc.), but I would never have guessed any of the whacky hyphenated/apostrophe filled Demon names would be.

Chernobog.

 

I belive Dwiergus is another somewhat mangled real name: proto-Germanic dwergaz (dwarf), which is possibly derived from Sanskrit dhvaras, "demon."

 

Fraz Urb'luu is probably made up though.

Edited March 19, 2015 by PrimeJunta

[Messier-31]

I belive Dwiergus is another somewhat mangled real name: proto-Germanic dwergaz (dwarf), which is possibly derived from Sanskrit dhvaras, "demon."

 

It sure sounds Slavic to me, but I got nothing. The closest in alphabet is Dażbóg, and still you can see the difference.