Kennyrules

You need to add a way for people to gather to roleplay together in the world of Eora. With Obsidian creating a ruleset for tabletop roleplaying, you have one more entry into a saturated market of tabletop roleplaying games in countless different settings. What most of those lack, and what Obsidian can offer, is the official backing of a company that makes several types of products related to the setting. People will come to Obsidian for Deadfire, and find the tabletop roleplay rules along the way. If the two were unconnected, the tabletop would be far less likely to succeed as an independent product. What you could do is create an official site, be it on the forum, or a separate client as OgreTimeYay mentioned, where everyone can gather to find others interested in this exact setting, who are invested in this exact roleplay. There are a few examples of this type of thing in practice. http://www.giantitp.com/forums/ - If you like reading webcomics at all, you've probably been here. It's the Order of the Stick site, but it also has a little subsection of the forum dedicated to play by post games. People have been posting there constantly for over a decade, playing in the D&D setting and any other setting they can think of. And that's just a webcomic site. But the subforum stays going, because the forum is tied to a popular, regularly updated main site, and people looking for active roleplays often come there. http://www.theninja-forum.com/ - another example of a forum tied to something bigger, this time a naruto-based browser game. While not at all on the same scale, this community driven forum roleplay sprung up in the naruto setting, and went for a solid 8 years before dying off. 8 years. For what was essentially just one more rinky-dink browser game. It's dead now, but I was there for it's heyday, and wanted to link it. There is also Divinity Original Sin 2's Dungeon Master mode, which basically allows the game to double as a way to roleplay in that world, using those systems. While not a direct parallel, it is doing wonders for Larian's publicity that the developers are putting the means to roleplay in the hands of their players, and doing so with officially backed material. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_the_Five_Rings - I'd also point to Legend of the Five Rings as a way to integrate your product and your community. LoFR was a card game that had a book series to go along with it. And a new book was released shortly after the tournament, with the outcome of the book determined by the tournament itself. The author even went as far as to integrate as many details of the tournament into the book as well. Thus, whichever "faction" won the tournament, that faction would emerge victorious in the novel, and the writers would write the novel around what happened in the tournament scene. This led to people being much more invested in certain deck types winning simply because they loved certain book characters. None of these examples were ever as big as Obsidian is now, and they certainly didn't have the online presence Obsidian has. You could really do a lot with your roleplay setting if you wanted, but I think it might at least be worth considering creating a space for an Obsidian Roleplay, inside the Eora setting and others, if you want. And if people start spreading the word of a very active roleplay run by Obsidian, roleplayers will come and then discover your other products as well. It's a small investment of time once the community takes over and keeps it moving, and it serves as word of mouth advertising to a group that tends to fall by the wayside. Just my 2 cents. Thanks for reading!

Hey Fluffle, I had a bigger paycheck than I expected. Once I have all of March's bills paid, and I see how much I have leftover, I plan to donate to this cause. It'll probably be around 50 bucks, but it might be more. Just wanted to let you know some more money is on the way in a couple of weeks!

Just wanted to throw out that I'm spending my money backing the actual game, and I don't really have any left over to back the B.I.B. in particular. But I really hope this pans out and makes it into the game, because I think its a great idea.

Personally, I'd like to see the option to either help or fight them. Assuming Obsidian decides to include them in the game.

Suikoden. Best Stronghold experience ever.

If it's based off IWD and BG, then I'm good. I enjoyed how those conversations worked.

When I consider everything I'd love to have in a stronghold... I could make my own game. Seriously. A stronghold based game world, which while fun, isn't the point of P:E. So I'll narrow it down to things that are reasonable. The stronghold is supposed to be a side-item. A snack compared to the rest of the game. An upgraded player house, as indicated by the stretch goal descriptions. So I'll go on that assumption. 1. Unnecessary: The stronghold should not be required for the main storyline. It should be an optional side-quest. You can give me the stronghold for free, but don't force me to upgrade it or play there. If you do tie it to the main story somehow, don't make upgrades required or even related to success in the part of the main story it is related to. 2. Single Location: I'd love to have my choice of locations. Hell, I'd love to have more than one stronghold. But given that this is not a stronghold-focused game, we should limit it to one location and focus energy on the parts of the game (main quest, storyline, big cities 1 and 2) that will require titanic amounts of effort already. Keep it to one location for the sake of less time and effort. 3. Respectable Customizations/Upgrades: Want to hang flags on the walls? Cool. Want to mount your enemy's skull on a pike? Also cool. I think for good amounts of money, we should be able to customize things in our stronghold. Also would love to see the stronghold get upgraded. Move from a paliside fence to a stone wall, more floors in the main building, recruit merchants and enhance their selection, etc. 4. Stronghold Quests: Quests related to the well being of your stronghold and the surrounding lands. Many of these can be generalized across classes for efficiency's sake. A broken levy, for example, is something each class might handle differently, but each class would still have to handle. Likewise with kobold infestations, robbers, etc. Getting permission from a local lord to improve various aspects of the stronghold (hiring more soldiers, etc) would also make the stronghold feel more interesting and important. 5. Recruitable NPCs for the Stronghold: I want to choose from a pool of NPCs to decide who my guard captain will be, who the head servant is, who the chef is, etc. Give each option character strengths and flaws. Same with merchants. I want a stronghold filled with people I chose consciously. It feels more alive when my cook has a name and a backstory! 6. SOME class-specific content: I understand a mage wanting a stronghold that isn't entirely based around swords. I also understand that limits on time and finances restrict just how much class-specfiic content can be added. So add some options for upgrading that relate to each class. Example: stronghold is under attack. Have a mage? Enchant your guard's blades to be more effective. Warrior? Train the guard yourself to be more skilled fighters. Paladin? Rile them up into a fanatic frenzy to defend the stronghold. Cipher? Give their minds a boosted reaction time. Same end result - better defended stronghold. Just different ways of achieving that goal, but they make the stronghold more dynamic and fun for each specific class. Same with customization - make some mage staffs and gold piles for the mages and thieves out there. Have a limited number of merchant locations, and have to choose between the magic merchant and the armor merchant, etc, etc. Efficiency is king. That's still a lot to ask for, yes, but we hit a 3 million stretch goal reward. I don't feel bad asking for a lot. But I also want it to be doable. This, I feel, is a good meeting of the two - a lot to do in the stronghold, but also in a way that is capable of being done fairly quickly with less effort and programming headaches. Bottom line - I trust Obsidian. I know they can make a helluva stronghold for me to play in. I'm just throwing out things I'd like to see in it, while trying to keep myself reasonable so there's a chance they'll actually incorporate some of what I've mentioned.

Dear Epic Beard Guy: We all respect you greatly. Beards are a symbol of complete manliness. Only a real man can grow a beard. Boys can't, girls can't, women can't. But you? You have endured, grown your beard despite the initial itchy phase. You grew your beard, unafraid of the "awkward-length-beard" phase that everyone faces. You endured social distance for the sake of your beard. Most impressive of all, you escaped that snare of endless shaving. Real men across the world salute you, sir. Keep growing, and carry on.

"Second." -Scruffy, the janitor

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Baldur's Gate II. Hard call to make, honestly. But that's the one I'd choose, out of everything.

I prefer the "tall grass" method. It worked for pokemon, it can work for P:E! [/sarcasm] Seriously, though. I enjoy a mix. There need to be some random encounters just to keep adventuring parties on their toes, but the encounters need to be logical. I don't want to be running into demons just outside of town just because I've gotten to such a high level that those are the only encounters that provide a "challenge". So yes, areas should have their own difficulty, and that difficulty should be static. Of course, crafted encounters are the ones that have the chance of becoming truly memorable. Ambushes from a marauding band of rival adventurers? Hellz yes.

The very first Diablo was a 16 level dungeon. That WAS the game. Sixteen levels of dungeon crawling, and only that. Just saying, Obsidian could easily build an entire game around the dungeon and nothing else. But we have two extra big cities, a stronghold, and a main storyline, along with god knows how many minor sidequests on top of this massive 15-level dungeon. I'm so excited right now. Also, yay for fancy playing cards! Anyway, thanks for the quick update, Obsidian! Take your time, do it right, and keep us updated as you have time and/or notable things to mention. We love you guys!

^ That.

We need an Obsidian Order-based stretch goal. Like [x] members gets us a quest in game or something. I think that'd be interesting.