Pathfinder CRPG with Avellone and without Obsidian announced

[rheingold]

 

Excited about Avellone being involved, just concerned about the studio not having any experience. There have been some rather dodgy rpg's released recently by some small relatively unknown studios. The dwarves and Sword Coast come to mind.  I certainly don't have any high expectations even if CA is involved. Just hope he doesn't destroy his reputation over this.

 

What reputation? He seems to work on any game that he is asked to work on at this point. His career at the moment seems to be more of a glorified KS stretch goal than an actual narrative designer.

I would love him to focus on a project or two, instead of writing for multiple games at once. Then I could actually expect something from a game he is working on, instead of wondering how little work he actually did on the project and how he was paid and used to get some name recognition for the game. 

 

I think that's the point It would be fantastic if he had complete control creative control of a game. He still had a good reputation currently, which will suffer if he continues the way he's been going.

[Harry Easter]

 

 

Excited about Avellone being involved, just concerned about the studio not having any experience. There have been some rather dodgy rpg's released recently by some small relatively unknown studios. The dwarves and Sword Coast come to mind.  I certainly don't have any high expectations even if CA is involved. Just hope he doesn't destroy his reputation over this.

 

What reputation? He seems to work on any game that he is asked to work on at this point. His career at the moment seems to be more of a glorified KS stretch goal than an actual narrative designer.

I would love him to focus on a project or two, instead of writing for multiple games at once. Then I could actually expect something from a game he is working on, instead of wondering how little work he actually did on the project and how he was paid and used to get some name recognition for the game. 

 

I think that's the point It would be fantastic if he had complete control creative control of a game. He still had a good reputation currently, which will suffer if he continues the way he's been going.

 

 

Well, he also doesn't get any younger, so maybe he will keep this up for a while, to recharge his creative batteries? Let's wait and see.

 

As for the game:

 

- They aren't experienced as I understood it. Some of them worked on the old rpg "Evil Island" and "Heroes V". They just have to heave a game like this in their current team. Let's see, how it turns out.

 

- "Kingmaker" does read like one big stronghold-quest. Works fine for me! I love me some rival barons to battle and my homebase to defend.

 

- I'm interested in the setting. Isn't the Pathfinder one of those weird worlds, where my medieval warrior can fight monsters from space? That sounds pulpy enough to be very fun and could give them some ideas for interesting set pieces.

 

- I'm curious how much threads will ask the developers, if they have any romances planned   .

Edited May 24, 2017 by Harry Easter

[IndiraLightfoot]

I find this news very interesting because I'm a big fan of the Pathfinder world as well as 3.5 edition D&D, but I do wonder about the reputation (or lack thereof) of the developer. And I do think Obsidian is making a big mistake by walking away from doing a Pathfinder cRPG themselves, though I applaud them for not standing in the way of Paizo going to someone else.

 

As for the game being "generic," yeah maybe so except for one thing. The press release makes a big point of emphasizing the game as being not just a standard isometric party-based cRPG but also equally a "kingdom-builder" game. This is the aspect of the game that I am most attracted to as I LOVE kingdom/empire-builder games in high-fantasy/medieval settings. This aspect of this game does give it a unique/different dimension and separates it from the crowd.

 

I'm keeping my expectations contained, but I'm also vigorously rooting for its success.

I couldn't agree more. This sounds like a fantastic game concept to me.

Weird, though. Just a couple of months back, Obsidian had us fill in this extensive survey, with plenty of questions like "How do you feel about our making a party-based Pathfinder CRPG?"...

What was all that about, then?

Actually, I'm hoping that Obsidian will be making their own Pathfinder CRPG in the not so far future. *Fingers crossed*

[Lorfean]

It seems pretty clear to me that Obsidian chose to prioritize the PoE IP, which they own and have full creative control over, instead of pursuing a licensed product. Makes sense considering PoE's success and, seeing how Deadfire managed to raise even more money and is looking f***ing amazing, I'd say they made the right call. That's not to say I wouldn't want an Obsidian Pathfinder CRPG in the future -- I'd love one -- but now is clearly not the right time.

 

I'll be taking a wait-and-see approach to Kingmaker. I definitely want it to turn out great, but I don't know the developers and haven't played any of the games they worked on in the past, and (sadly) Chris Avellone's name is anything *but* an automatic seal of quality these days, after being attached to everyone and their grandma's projects in the past ~3 years. Let's hope they put out a solid Kickstarter campaign. That'll be the first step.

Edited June 1, 2017 by Lorfean

[ShadySands]

https://venturebeat.com/2017/05/31/pathfinder-kingmaker-launches-500000-kickstarter-for-extra-content-not-the-base-game/

[Mamoulian War]

Nothing mentioned if it is based on PFRPG rules, or just lore like Pathfinder Online :-/

[Labadal]

Kickstarter is live! I backed at the $20 tier.

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owlcatgames/pathfinder-kingmaker?ref=nav_search

Edited June 6, 2017 by Labadal

[Labadal]

[Doppelschwert]

Only got the 25$ tier, but still, 3$ saved. Compared to PoE, my incentive to spend unreasonable amounts of money on this is much lower.

 

I wonder why Avellone is not listed as 'has worked on PoE' on his past projects.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Doppelschwert

[Doppelschwert]

Sorry for double post.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Doppelschwert

[rjshae]

Ruh-roh... I see a ridiculously oversized sword.

[Hurlshort]

Looks sooooo much like PoE. Is it turn based or real time? 

 

Seems worth a 25er.

 

edit: Ok, read up a bit, RT. Bummer.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Hurlshot

[Gromnir]

initial query:  there are 11 core pathfinder classes, so which is absent from kingmaker? 

 

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/coreRulebook/classes.html

 

kickstarter does says 10+, so is possible the core 11 is already in the game, but is curious to us nevertheless. anybody can confirm if all 11 core is included?

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps is just a guess, but to answer doppelschwert, am expecting chrisA would rather cut out his own tongue with a rusty razor than be compelled to boast of his contribution to poe.  am assuming the question were serious. if were a joke, then, uh... good one?

Edited June 6, 2017 by Gromnir

[Lorfean]

I'm intrigued but holding off on backing for now. Partly because they're an unknown developer and I've been burned by KS one too many times, but also because the game is getting made regardless of the success / failure of this campaign, which makes it feel more like a marketing tool than anything else. I like what I'm seeing so far though.

 

ps is just a guess, but to answer doppelschwert, am expecting chrisA would rather cut out his own tongue with a rusty razor than be compelled to boast of his contribution to poe.

 

I was thinking the same. Still -- PoE fans are clearly the target audience here, so it seems like a missed opportunity to not name drop it.

[Tigranes]

No idea if it'll be good, but I hope so, would be lovely and would be happy to buy upon release.

 

MCA participating means nothing, he's endorsing and helping out with every bloody RPG known to man at this rate. We'll see if he actually has a substantial role to play this time.

[Amentep]

Like Gromnir I wonder what the 10+ classes mean.

 

Also curious if stretch goals could bring in non-core classes (would love to play an alchemist) or non-core races.

[Ethics Gradient]

I'm intrigued but holding off on backing for now. Partly because they're an unknown developer and I've been burned by KS one too many times, but also because the game is getting made regardless of the success / failure of this campaign, which makes it feel more like a marketing tool than anything else. I like what I'm seeing so far though.

Owlcat may be a new name on the scene, but they're really just a subset of the mail.ru/my.com media empire.  I can't see how they would lack the resources to eventually deliver an okay game.

 

I agree with you on the rest though.  It is a little off-putting to see Kickstarter occasionally used as a reverse-advertising platform where the company in question gets paid to spread some hype.  I like what I see too, but it would be nice to get a better feel for why I should kickstart a game that is being released whether or not the community supports it.

 

Also holding MacOS/Linux as potential stretch goals (or post-release development) makes me a little less likely to gamble on a game that may or may not be supported on my system of choice.

[Gfted1]

Holey moley that caster is like a machinegun.

 

Ive never played the Pathfinder ruleset but I hope it offers free unlimited resting. Or do abilities use mana / something else?

[Mamoulian War]

It's close to DnD 3.5 (NWN2) but imo the unlimited resting would break all caster classes and make them OP (if the game stays close to PnP rules).

[Raithe]

Holey moley that caster is like a machinegun.

 

Ive never played the Pathfinder ruleset but I hope it offers free unlimited resting. Or do abilities use mana / something else?

 

If they actually use the Pathfinder ruleset, it's more like a modified DnD3.5.

 

Dang. Sniped.

[Labadal]

Second update.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owlcatgames/pathfinder-kingmaker?ref=profile_backed

 

Edited June 8, 2017 by Labadal

[Labadal]

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by Owlcat Games (Creator)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Pathfinders,

Once again, we would like to thank all of you so much for your support!

We received a ton of questions about game mechanics from you and this update's purpose is to answer at least some of them. In our first mechanics-based update we're focusing on difficulty, build diversity and character development.

Your perfect hero

We wish to make it possible for you to create and develop characters fitting as many concepts and play styles as possible. We want you to be able to replicate the characters that you are currently playing in tabletop, roll characters you’ve always wanted to play or that you had already played before, but you didn't get a chance to really watch them grow because of untimely character death or because your gaming group had fallen apart. For this, we want to give you as many options as possible.

For example, if you had always wanted to play an Arcane Trickster*, a character who only shows her true power after her levels reach the double digits, you may have turned down this idea because most characters in tabletop (and, frankly, most campaigns) do not live that long. In Pathfinder: Kingmaker we give you a way to play this character. The Arcane Trickster is already in development, with more prestige classes already on the way. Or maybe you wanted to play a Cleric of Erastil that supports his companions from afar by summoning monsters and using his longbow (favored weapon of his deity). But when you played him in the adventure path, he died because of unlucky rolls and carelessness? We know exactly how that feels, but now your Cleric can live once more inside the CRPG!

 In Erastil's name!

Character classes must not chain you to a certain concept, but provide you with new ideas, and that can only be made possible by large amounts of options for each of them. Our Barbarians will have a large allotment of Rage Powers, and will also have a choice between unchained and standard Rage. Rogues will have rogue talents - and will also be unchained! Wizards need to have as many spells as we can make, from both the core rulebook and other books, and there are already more than 15 spells to choose from for each of the three first spell levels, including Gravity Bow, Snowball and Enlarge Person on the first. And fighters will need all the combat feats there are, and, given enough time, advanced weapon and armor training. The list is constantly growing! We want these features to be as true to the Pathfinder RPG as possible.

Of course, some combat mechanics work differently in real time. Area of effect spells can seem unwieldy because you can miss your enemies, but it could be pointed out that they are still used far more often in CRPGs. One reason for that is the amount of preparation on the table for encounters with large amounts of monsters - too much time is required to place them all on the mat. Just working out the initiative and turns for dozens of monsters can take ages! Computer games don't have such problems - annihilate these monsters to your heart's content!

 When preparing a feast for a large party, apply fireball to a group of monsters and cook for 2.8 seconds.

There will be around 10 variants of animal companions, and the same goes for familiars. There will be more than 300 feats, including large feat chains. Some of you asked about deities - there will be at least the Big Twenty. There will be combat maneuvers. There will be blood… lines. Domains. Specialist arcane school powers. Alchemical discoveries and bardic masterpieces. Metamagic and combat styles. Lots and lots of spells. And, of course, prestige classes will also be there.

You set the challenge

Now, if reading about all of these features is making your head spin, because you may be hoping for a more casual experience, don't fret! If you just want to enjoy the game without worrying too much about mechanics, character planning and micro-management, you may always choose a lower difficulty setting. Our AI can help you control the characters in battle. There are pregenerated builds and recommendations for all the choices and options. You can choose exactly which elements you want help with and which of them you want to handle on your own.

Difficulty settings will include a story mode, for those who are less interested in combat and want to focus more on the plot and dialogue. In story mode only thematic abilities of enemies will be noticeable, trolls will still regenerate and spiders will still be venomous, but overall combat will be far easier, and enemy abilities will be easier to deal with. Damage and enemy defenses will be greatly reduced in story mode, and some complex mechanical systems, such as attacks of opportunity, will be switched off for enemies. There will also be a core rules difficulty, which will adhere to tabletop Pathfinder as closely as possible - with attacks of opportunity on your archer that shoots in melee, friendly fire from area of effect spells and occasional deadly critical hits on your party. There will be adapted rules – a simplified version of core rules, fit for fans of CRPGs more than core, where drinking a potion will not provoke an attack of opportunity from an opponent and critical hits of your enemies are not as deadly, reducing the randomness of fights. There will also be several different harder difficulties, where enemies will have their stats (and, consequently DCs for saves, AC, attacks and such) and health incresed by different amounts, for those of you who seek a greater challenge. Other difficulty settings include an easy mode, set between story and adapted rules. On top of that, many combat-related settings will be customizable. Don't like attacks of opportunity? No problem, just switch them off in the options. Most difficulty settings can also be changed in the middle of a fight.

You will also be able to choose from several AI behaviours for your party members, allowing them to use spells and abilities or spend resources on their own, should you so desire. As your characters level up, you will be able to select which among them will be following their pregenerated path and whose development you want to control by hand. For instance, you could level up your main character completely manually, but leave all your companions, or some of them, to develop according to their predestined builds. There will also be recommendations for many builds and play styles. Want a character to become a skilled archer? You can ask the game to point out recommended feats for archers in the level up interface. The game can even give you recommendations based on your previous choices! It's a little bit like shopping on the internet. "We see that you have taken Point-Blank Shot, you may also like: Precise Shot."

This concludes our first update on game mechanics. What do you think? Have you got feedback or questions for us? Why not drop by in the comments section and leave us a message? We're always happy to hear from you!

 

Reward tiers update

Paizo Inc. were awesome enough to add the Inner Sea World Guide PDF to the Lore Explorer reward package. Due to Kickstarter limitations, we cannot change existing reward tiers. Instead, we will close the current Lore Explorer tier and re-create it, so it will contain the new PDF as a reward.

If your pledge has already made you eligible for the Lore Explorer reward tier, don't worry! Every Lore Explorer, current and future ones alike, will gain access to the Inner Sea World Guide.

* All specific names are used only as reference to original Pathfinder Roleplaying Game ® entities and could be subject to change in the Pathfinder:Kingmaker CRPG.

Hail to the kings!

Owlcats.

 

 

 

 

 

[LittleRose]

I haven't been really hyped about a game since 2011, but I am now. I've got a feeling that Kingmaker might be one of the games that end up in my list of all time favorite RPGs. It sounds like the kind of game that will not just be fun for a while, but will raise the bar for other games to come.

 

What does it take to get on this list?

-Either character skill before player skill or at least the feeling that the characters' levels actually make a difference, or it doesn't really feel right to me.

-Don't just let me fight army after army, don't overdo it with the amount of battles. That's tedious.

-Give me several solutions for quests, so I can actually roleplay.

-Interesting subquests, that show me more of the world I've just entered.

-As we're talking about worlds: Make it fascinating. Draw me in, make it feel alive and realistic in itself.

-Give me interesting NPCs I like to remember. They don't even need to be in my party, though I'd appreciate that in a party RPG.

 

If Kingmaker will match the criteria? I have  a feeling that it will, at least the information we've been given so far sounds like it could. Let's hope I'm right.

[Labadal]

Three gameplay videos

http://www.ign.com/videos/2017/06/09/pathfinder-kingmaker-pathfinder-intro-and-troll-combat

http://www.ign.com/videos/2017/06/09/pathfinder-kingmaker-gnome-combat-assist-and-skill-check

http://www.ign.com/videos/2017/06/09/pathfinder-kingmaker-wizard-gameplay

Edited June 9, 2017 by Labadal

[Raithe]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOF5UKN8bsQ