Sidekicks stories

[Seafarer]

Hello all!

 

Recently I've gotten into looking over the 4 Sidekicks we have coming to us in Deadfire and I noticed that they will likely all be recruited by finishing a quest with them, basically being their loyalty quest to have them join. I'm curious on what you guys think some of their quests might be like and which ones you are most excited to meet.

 

I personally am most interested in either Randora and maybe bailing her out from a drunken escapade or Bonteru and helping him track down so highly poisonous beastie in the wilds of the deadfire.  So what do you think the quest will be that will net us these new Sidekicks? 

 

Bonus round: If they do release an expansion and upgrade 2 sidekicks, who would be your choice? Mine would be Randora and Bonteru personally.

 

Just as a reminder the four planned are:

 

• Radora- Ocean Folk/Vailian human wizard.  She has difficulty keeping a captain's position for long.  According to her, she's at her best when she's had a few to "take the edge off", though she swears she never drinks at sea.
• Bonteru- A mountain dwarf rogue obsessed with exploring the Deadfire and cataloguing its various poisonous plants and creatures. Bonteru has memorized the effects of hundreds of different poisons and is all too happy to describe them in detail to anyone who will listen.
• Ydwin- A strange pale elf cipher from "a lot of different places". Fascinated by animancy, Ydwin spends her free time examining fresh and not-so-fresh corpses.  Though she has a charming and pleasant demeanor, new acquaintances are often shocked at her intimate familiarity with death and her dispassionate affect in the face of even the most grisly scenes.
• Rekke- An odd-looking man that the Principi rescued from a floating piece of flotsam on the eastern edge of the Deadfire Archipelago.  He doesn't speak a word of any language that anyone can understand, but he's cheery and willing to lend a hand to any company he finds himself in.  He's just happy to be alive(at least, that's what everyone assumes).  Storm Folk fighter

[Wormerine]

From my experience the most dull looking companions turn out being the most interesting ones. Also at this point I find it difficult to get excited about any of them. Those are really vague discriptions and they could very well completely change by the time the game releases.

 

I would rather see them add new companions rather than reworking existing ones unless one the sidekicks will show a lot of unrealised potential but that is a discussion to be had after the game is released.

[drgonzo]

I really like the idea with sidekicks and i find their backgrounds interesting. However, i found ydwins concept art very off putting. Will have to wait and see with the others.

[JerekKruger]

At the moment Rekke is the sidekick I am most interested in. Of course we know very little about any of them, so we'll have to wait and see.

 

I really like the idea with sidekicks and i find their backgrounds interesting. However, i found ydwins concept art very off putting. Will have to wait and see with the others.

 

Same. Her background is fine but I don't like her art at all.

[smjjames]

I really like the idea with sidekicks and i find their backgrounds interesting. However, i found ydwins concept art very off putting. Will have to wait and see with the others.

 

Her concept is offputting, really? Is it just because some people thought she was anime kawaii or something?

 

Me, it seems like she's supposed to be a pioneer in forensics science or something, which I think is awesome.

 

 

At the moment Rekke is the sidekick I am most interested in. Of course we know very little about any of them, so we'll have to wait and see

 

 

Same here actually. I find that guys background particularily interesting, probably because of the mystery of it.

 

Radora sounds like basically an alcoholic who can't keep a job for long and Bonteru sounds like someone who could give bonuses to the team.

[JerekKruger]

Her concept is offputting, really? Is it just because some people thought she was anime kawaii or something?

 

He said her concept art to be fair.

 

Same here actually. I find that guys background particularily interesting, probably because of the mystery of it.

 

That and the fact he's a new type of human (storm human) which suggests the possibility of new, unknown lands. Given the time frame that Pillars happens in, and the theme of Deadfire, the possibility for an expansion of future game to involve travelling to a newly discovered continent seems likely (and cool).

 

Radora sounds like basically an alcoholic who can't keep a job for long and Bonteru sounds like someone who could give bonuses to the team.

 

Obviously both could be great depending on their writing, but I have similar feelings to you. It also doesn't help that I don't enjoy using crafted poisons in CRPGs (assuming that's something that's in the game and Bonteru specialises in).

Edited September 17, 2017 by JerekKruger

[drgonzo]

 

I really like the idea with sidekicks and i find their backgrounds interesting. However, i found ydwins concept art very off putting. Will have to wait and see with the others.

 

 

Her concept is offputting, really? Is it just because some people thought she was anime kawaii or something?

 

Me, it seems like she's supposed to be a pioneer in forensics science or something, which I think is

Well, yes. I think her concept art looks like anime and i don't like it. I don't know what kawaii means.

[injurai]

I'm most interested in Rekke, he sounds like he's from distant lands. Storm Folk? What's that?

 

Bonteru also sounds like my type of guy, Maturin to my Aubrey.

[algroth]

I'm not too won over by any of them, really, all read out a bit generic. Would they be expanded though, Rekke and Radora I guess could have some interesting and more unique backstory that makes them the way they are in the above description, whilst Ydwin does have the animancer perk to her. I have little to say about all of these but Bonteru strikes me as the plainest amidst the lot: just about the only thing of interest to him is that he's the closest we get to a dwarf companion.

[smjjames]

'Storm folk' sounds like a placeholder for where he came from, or perhaps the way he was found, a shipwreck from a storm. Also, isn't the sea east of the Deadfire the one filled with all these monstrous beasts? Basically "HERE BE DRAGONS!". fakeedit: Actually, the book that talks about monsters of the Deadfire doesn't really specifiy whether they are in the sea to the east or the west of the Deadfire.

 

 

 

I'm not too won over by any of them, really, all read out a bit generic. Would they be expanded though, Rekke and Radora I guess could have some interesting and more unique backstory that makes them the way they are in the above description, whilst Ydwin does have the animancer perk to her. I have little to say about all of these but Bonteru strikes me as the plainest amidst the lot: just about the only thing of interest to him is that he's the closest we get to a dwarf companion.

 

I guess Bonteru might be the plainest because his backstory is spelled out right there. We'll just have to see how they're written. Also, there's supposedly some quest attached to them via which you can have them join your team. Would be cool if they each had some quest exploring their backgrounds, fill them out somewhat.

Edited September 17, 2017 by smjjames

[CottonWolf]

Storm Folk's probably just the racial name. The other humans are Meadow, Ocean and Savannah Folk (or at least their common names are. anyway). E: Storm Folk's just going to be not-East Asian. Calling it now.

 

Personally I'm Rekke>Ydwin>>>>Bonteru>Radora. Bonteru and Radora just don't sound particularly interesting, and they're not going to get any development, 'cos they're not companions. But hey, I just won't use them. No skin off my back.

Edited September 17, 2017 by CottonWolf

[smjjames]

The sidekicks mostly seem like a mechanism to have more than five companions in a party. I'm not sure if they're using them in some way beyond that function.

[CottonWolf]

I assume you'll be able to recruit them then just stick them in a position on your crew if you want to. Assuming that that's how the crew works.

[Messier-31]

The sidekicks mostly seem like a mechanism to have more than five companions in a party. I'm not sure if they're using them in some way beyond that function.

 

Not more than 5 man party. More than 7 companions you can put in your party.

 

So you can have 3 companions and 1 sidekick but the party is still restricted to 5.

Edited September 17, 2017 by Messier-31

[smjjames]

Are you sure that's how it works? I was assuming they'd be attached on the same way pets are, maybe it's the label of sidekick and the fact that they aren't as fully fleshed out as the companions are.

[Boeroer]

No - they work like any other party member and are between official companions (relations, quest, lots of banter and dialogue) and hired adventurers (you buy them and they don't talk at all, hooray). 

Edited September 17, 2017 by Boeroer

[smjjames]

Oh, I misunderstood then. Still not really seeing what their appeal would be. Seems like if they're going to be in the same slot as regular companions, they'd go back to a party size of six.

 

Hopefully at some point Obsidian will go through the sidekick stuff and explain it in further detail.

[algroth]

 

'Storm folk' sounds like a placeholder for where he came from, or perhaps the way he was found, a shipwreck from a storm. Also, isn't the sea east of the Deadfire the one filled with all these monstrous beasts? Basically "HERE BE DRAGONS!". fakeedit: Actually, the book that talks about monsters of the Deadfire doesn't really specifiy whether they are in the sea to the east or the west of the Deadfire.

 

 

 

I'm not too won over by any of them, really, all read out a bit generic. Would they be expanded though, Rekke and Radora I guess could have some interesting and more unique backstory that makes them the way they are in the above description, whilst Ydwin does have the animancer perk to her. I have little to say about all of these but Bonteru strikes me as the plainest amidst the lot: just about the only thing of interest to him is that he's the closest we get to a dwarf companion.

 

I guess Bonteru might be the plainest because his backstory is spelled out right there. We'll just have to see how they're written. Also, there's supposedly some quest attached to them via which you can have them join your team. Would be cool if they each had some quest exploring their backgrounds, fill them out somewhat.

 

I think he feels the plainest moreso because there's no conflict to derive from his description. He likes and catalogues poisons, that is an interesting bit of information but in terms of making the character more compelling it does very little. Radora for example may be as vague but her apprehension to a leading position as well as the allusion to a drinking history intrigue one as far as learning why she is apprehensive or on edge. Rekke's the most deliberately 'mysterious' of the four, while Ydwin at least offers the position of a faction or career so far unrepresented amidst our companions.

 

Though keeping in mind the role that these sidekicks are supposed to play, I reckon that they don't really need much conflict to them either. They're flavour companions, really there to add some more character to the game via banter and interjections but hardly more than that.

[injurai]

I think their appeal is pretty self-explanatory. Additional party options that aren't just cardboard cutouts and paper dolls, more economical than companions which represents their vision of what party members can and should be.

 

It's also somewhat realistic because not everybody you meet in real life intertwines their life with yours as others, yet you still find yourself working along people for a time.

[JerekKruger]

Yeah, sidekicks are simply companions with less personal content. I think Obsidian said they'd have about the same content as the less fleshed out companions in Pillars, whilst full companions would have a lot more. They'll also not be part of the relationships web that Deadfire is going to have.

[Messier-31]

Storm Folk's probably just the racial name. The other humans are Meadow, Ocean and Savannah Folk (or at least their common names are. anyway). E: Storm Folk's just going to be not-East Asian. Calling it now.

 

I think storm folk might be asian-oriented. This ethnicity is absent in PoE, so maybe there is such unknown land east from Deadfire. Rekke was found on the eastern edge after all, so maybe he is a member of a discoverers party from their country. Plus he is odd-looking, so maybe this is the first time the other kith see a "asian" bloke.

Edited September 17, 2017 by Messier-31

[esyvjrt]

I would choose Ydwin and Rekke, i like how Bonteru sounds, as for Randora, is actually the only one whose concept does not sound at all appealing to me.

[rjshae]

Yes, it seems like Randora's background needs to be kicked up a notch. Right now she's just a drunken wizard/captain -- that's an odd combination, but not particularly adventurous. Maybe she'd work better as a chanter/smuggler?

[injurai]

Sea wizard is a pretty novel idea no?

[rjshae]

Sea wizard is a pretty novel idea no?

 

A drunken sea wizard? What could possibly go wrong...

 

Wizards supposedly have a high mental discipline. That probably conflicts with being a hapless alcoholic.