Making the "Black Isle Bastards" come true! Crowd funding a pirate crew!

[Gromnir]

 

 

Who would like to see our community pirate crew in the game? On the Black Isle or associated with it in some way?

 

yes.

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/91277-lets-found-a-pirate-group-and-buy-a-pirate-ship-together/?p=1878062

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/91277-lets-found-a-pirate-group-and-buy-a-pirate-ship-together/?p=1878887

 

am thinking a shortlist o' fifteen for a pirate crew we send to obsidian still makes sense, even if am doubtful we can, as a group, handle such. have three other npcs on the island in addition to the crew.  either submit and vote similar to the crew, or come up with something else.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Fluffle]

Before we submit individual crew member biographies I think it's also important - like you already mentioned before - to decide on a theme for the pirate crew.

 

Is the pirate crew going to be a friendly pirate crew (At least non-hostile to the player)?

Or are they marauding bastards that attack the player on sight? Or maybe are they former pirates who have turned their ship into an inn?

Or what else would you have in mind for our pirate crew?

 

And when we finally do some work on biographies, let's not forget that we deal with a crew here. So it should make sense that they are a crew. And they should have relationships to each other.

 

One idea is that we say our crew has 6 members, so the backers with the 6 largest donations can create one crew member each.

Additional backers could be mentioned through other means in the game.

 

These are all just brainstorming ideas. Feel free to submit your own!

 

If no one minds, I would register a PayPal account and make it ready for donations.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Fluffle

[ManifestedISO]

Couldn't we somehow evoke the general spirit of the Bastards instead, rather than create specific community members ...

 

 

 

 

 

[Fluffle]

Couldn't we somehow evoke the general spirit of the Bastards instead, rather than create specific community members ...

 

Yes, absolutely and if we manage to do that I would support this too.

But first we need to know what the general spirit of the Bastards is.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Fluffle

[Gromnir]

Couldn't we somehow evoke the general spirit of the Bastards instead, rather than create specific community members ...

is why we suggested votes, with obsidian being final arbiter.  

 

perhaps manifested invests a complete unique pirate concept: nial "the drowned cat" o'toole, a tawny-furred orlan barbarian/monk brawler who perhaps favors the new drug using monk subclass too much.

 

fluffle, on the other hand, goes straight up boardie identity with a big pink coastal aumaua rogue/fighter: captain fluffle.  

 

is no reason the two characters would be mutual exclusive in a pirate crew, depending on theme.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[ManifestedISO]

I mean, I thought it would be fun to pledge and become a Bastard with his own Isle, in spirit, then see us in-game as interpreted by Obsidian ... I wasn't keen to encounter Captain Community Member. 

 

Sorry, maybe I'm missing the point. 

 

 

[Fluffle]

I mean, I thought it would be fun to pledge and become a Bastard with his own Isle, in spirit, then see us in-game as interpreted by Obsidian ... I wasn't keen to encounter Captain Community Member. 

 

Sorry, maybe I'm missing the point. 

 

No I think I did understand you. And I wasn't going to talk you out of it. That's not my place anyway. I wanted to hear more from you.

 

Keep in mind, that I was just brain storming some ideas before, nothing more.

 

So if I understand you correctly, you would like Obsidian Entertainment to interpret us as a pirate crew for the game?

 

The immediate advantage to that would be in my opinion that we would avoid A LOT of really lengthy discussions and decisions.

Also this would guarantee that the Black Isle Bastards would fit into the game seamlessly.

 

So I do see the appeal. Did I understand you correctly?

Edited February 10, 2017 by Fluffle

[Gromnir]

I mean, I thought it would be fun to pledge and become a Bastard with his own Isle, in spirit, then see us in-game as interpreted by Obsidian ... I wasn't keen to encounter Captain Community Member. 

 

Sorry, maybe I'm missing the point. 

 

well, in the context o' deciding 'pon theme, am suspecting we can make that a choice, no? if folks would prefer to come up with broad guidelines for obsidian and let the developers complete run with it from there, we don't see an issue.  wanna kinda put in your own words and suggest?  am assuming fluffle is gonna keep track o' themes.

 

we kinda assumed folks wouldn't be on the same page at this point.  quicker we get some kinda consensus the better, yes?

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Leferd]

Just as long as these Pirates don't "Arr!" here, there, and everywhere.

[ManifestedISO]

A consensus theme from us, definitely. 

[Fluffle]

So, we define the theme of the Black Isle Bastards in the game, but we would leave the details to Obsidian?

[Gromnir]

So, we define the theme of the Black Isle Bastards in the game, but we would leave the details to Obsidian?

we got no problem going this way, but am not certain what manifested has in mind.  typically, "pirate" would be a theme, so how do we narrow or refine to make it unique and yet accessible?  most theme notions coming immediate to our mind is tending towards humorous.  not intentional neither.  honest.  when leferd pointed out how he didn't want the pirates to say, "arr!" we inexplicable thought o' pirates with australian accents who are obsessed with acquiring refined luminous adra, which they nickname  "juice."

 

 

what else?  retired corporate raiders.  former members o' the VTC who sold their stock, bought an island?

 

pirates who mutinied 'cause their captain became obsessed with chasing the leviathan?

 

undead pirates?  no.  just no. 

 

am honest a bit stymied at the moment.  am trying to think serious, but keeps becoming funny, 'cause anything serious sounds even worse in our head.

 

ex-slave pirates. why? because.

 

privateers in the employ o' one o' the dyrwood lords, or the duc himself, tasked with raiding aedyr ships.  

 

somebody wanna get this started? somebody not Gromnir.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited February 10, 2017 by Gromnir

[ManifestedISO]

I had specifically zip in mind, other than simplifying our 'gift' to PoE canon and avoiding a lengthy backer character-bio essay submission/approval process.

 

 

Open a theme submission page until Sunday, we'll vote and submit.

[Fluffle]

I think you can submit your ideas in this very thread.

[Fluffle]

So a few very rough first options, feel free to like or dislike them or propose new options anytime!

The options are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

 

Black Isle Pirates = BIB

 

1.) The BIB are a VERY TOUGH optional fight, obviously with some nice treasure as reward

2.) The BIB are some kind of merchants

3.) You can become an honorific member of the BIB in the game

4.) The BIB are retired pirates who run an inn in their old ship on Black Isle

5.) You help the BIB to deal with some kind of problem

 

X.) The BIB are arch nemeses of another pirate crew and you can choose which side you support. Or you can fight both...

Problem: We would need another pirate crew for that

[NegativeEdge]

Black Isle Bastard themes: poverty toursim/imperalism/fish-out-of-water comedy.

 

The 'bastards' are a cloistered, wealthy group of bored individuals that naively romanticise piracy as a heroic struggle between noble savages and greedy colonials. They fund their own adventures at sea driven by fantasies of encountering tribals with whom they engage in rituals of mutual respect and cultural exchange interspersed with lots of distressed-damsel emancipation.

 

Lampoon this attitude and their ineptitude generally by focusing on the collision between delusion and reality; their ill-fated voyage is a clumsy metaphor for backer attitudes to game development - overly ambitious, divorced from reality, and doomed to failure & disappointment; they packed fifty crates of golden pantaloons and none of them know how to sail, read a map, tie their bootlaces.

 

They wreck just out of harbor on 'Black Isle' a designation unknown to the cannibalistic natives who have been periodically kidnapping and murdering members of the hapless bastards since they shambolically arrived. The player encounters the survivors holed up in a small cave, desperate and starving - and can either rescue (Merciful - minor) or abandon them to a grisly fate (Funny - major).

 

TL:DR Dances with wolves meets the Donner Party and it all goes a bit Deliverance.

[Fluffle]

@NegativeEdge

 

It's not exactly to my liking, but what I do take out of your contribution is that the "Black Isle Bastards" would be - maybe contrary to expectations - some kind of failed pirates, or "wanna-be" pirates

 

That certainly is an idea. As I said I would not favor it, but maybe others will.

 

So I would add it to the themes:

 

6.) The BIB are some kind of failed "wanna-be" pirates

 

If I got your idea wrong, feel free to correct me!

Edited February 10, 2017 by Fluffle

[Silent Winter]

privateers in the employ o' one o' the dyrwood lords, or the duc himself, tasked with raiding aedyr ships. 

^I like this idea if there's allowed to be a short dialogue before the fight (not conversation, just something like the following):

"Under authority o' Duc Taxalot, we do hereby confiscate yer gold, yer equipment, yer ship...oh, and yer lives"

 

[Silent Winter]

4.) The BIB are retired pirates who run an inn in their old ship on Black Isle

I like this - only instead of being retired, they're running an inn made out of the wreckage of their ship, in order to earn enough money to buy a new ship. Their ship having sadly run aground due to a mis-communication ("I swear the lookout shouted 'port' ... maybe he just wanted a drink.")

[Boeroer]

I contacted a backer with an inn. It's totally up to him if he wants this or not. But I guessed it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

It would be to my liking if the Black Isle Bastars would indeed be "real" bastards: founding members were illegitimate sons and daughters of ducs and other high ranked individuals who didn't achnowledged their children, but made sure they were well fed and educated properly (and became officers, priests, merchants, whatever). 

Nowadays they recruit all kinds of people - the only requitement is that you are truely a... well... bastard.  Of course I don't insist on this - just an idea to explain the name.

 

What they do nowadays I don't really care: adventuring, freebooting, running an inn, planning a coup d'état - or maybe all of that.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Boeroer

[Osvir]

I fell a little bit in love with the story of the "Sea Peoples". The first documented "pirates".

 

Search "Incursions of the Sea Peoples". A little bit like "300", except on sea and naval combat.

[Osvir]

 

So, we define the theme of the Black Isle Bastards in the game, but we would leave the details to Obsidian?

we got no problem going this way, but am not certain what manifested has in mind. typically, "pirate" would be a theme, so how do we narrow or refine to make it unique and yet accessible? most theme notions coming immediate to our mind is tending towards humorous. not intentional neither. honest. when leferd pointed out how he didn't want the pirates to say, "arr!" we inexplicable thought o' pirates with australian accents who are obsessed with acquiring refined luminous adra, which they nickname "juice."

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfL4xKQeSfo

 

what else? retired corporate raiders. former members o' the VTC who sold their stock, bought an island?

 

pirates who mutinied 'cause their captain became obsessed with chasing the leviathan?

 

undead pirates? no. just no.

 

am honest a bit stymied at the moment. am trying to think serious, but keeps becoming funny, 'cause anything serious sounds even worse in our head.

 

ex-slave pirates. why? because.

 

privateers in the employ o' one o' the dyrwood lords, or the duc himself, tasked with raiding aedyr ships.

 

somebody wanna get this started? somebody not Gromnir.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Colonial settlers who were booted or mistreated and started to fight back?

 

Nobles who put on masks and fights for the people? (Zorro)

 

A pit stop for weary travelers?

Edited February 10, 2017 by Osvir

[Lord_Mord]

 

The 'bastards' are a cloistered, wealthy group of bored individuals that naively romanticise piracy

 

Sounds great. The rest is also not bad, but in my opinion this is the perfect premise.

[Rorschach]

The 'bastards' are a cloistered, wealthy group of bored individuals that naively romanticise piracy

Sounds great. The rest is also not bad, but in my opinion this is the perfect premise.

In my opinion, is not that the rest is bad but that it's too detailed, but I really like it (Gromnir proposed some good ones, too).

 

I rather give the team a general idea, something that can be written in a single line, leaving the rest to them so we they can work their way.

[Fluffle]

I rather give the team a general idea, something that can be written in a single line, leaving the rest to them so we they can work their way.

Yes, that is our current approach.

 

So when someone writes very concrete ideas I try to abstract from them, and extract a general idea out of it.

 

As I said above this approach does have some advantages:

 

1.) We do not have to decide on and discuss every little detail. And this could easily blow up on the forum I can imagine.

Next thing we know is we will have votes on individuals' hair colors

 

2.) I think people will less likely feel like "losers". In a project like this you would want to avoid to make someone feel like winner and someone

feel like loser. This is not what it's about. So instead of presenting very concrete, detailed information on individual pirates, if we present only a broad, rough sketch

of our crew and leave the rest to Obsidian it is rather less likely someone feels ignored.

 

So instead of thinking in terms of winners and losers I would like that everyone gets the feeling that they contributed in some way to this cause.

Concrete detailed ideas can be easily rejected. It is easier to agree on general ideas.

 

3.) The main point of criticism of backer made content has always been that it does not fit the game world and that it breaks immersion.

By leaving the details to Obsidian we ensure that that does not happen.

 

4.) The goal of this project is that our community pirate crew, the "Black Isle Bastards" are in some way - I daresay in ANY way (within reason) - represented in the game.

And for that goal the details are actually less important that the actual fact that our crew is in some way in the game.

 

As always note, this is just my opinion to which you can agree or disagree.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Fluffle