Torment Chris Avellone and Shanna Germain on Shane Plays Radio Sat 19th talking Numenera

[Darth Roxor]

My opinion is that sometimes any RPG writing runs the risk of drowning in the lore of the world (too much exposition kills momentum)

 

[mindx2]

My opinion is that sometimes any RPG writing runs the risk of drowning in the lore of the world (too much exposition kills momentum)

Yeah, I caught that one as well....

 

[sstacks]

Hey RPG Codex, there were still some leftover questions from the Shane Plays interview on Numenera a while back, and since my schedule is a bit insane at the moment to do another podcast, I decided to spare Shane some scheduling agony and answer you guys directly and not leave anyone hanging.

Thanks Chris! You are a gentleman and a scholar

Shane

 

[sstacks]

...
Sstacks U jelly?

Nope, of course not. The goal was to get your questions answered, and whatever method Chris's schedule allows rocks in my book.

Best,
Shane

 

[Fairfax]

It's less than Eternity, but more at the same time - let me explain: I have only one companion in Numenera to write (and I'm enjoying it immensely), but the amount of input on story and design materials has been far greater than PoE (Colin, Kevin, and Adam regularly looped me in on story discussions and we spent entire days going through each Act of the storyline at inXile). In addition, I was allowed to weigh in on faction quests as well as well as offer designs for their progression, which was awesome b/c the factions in Numenera felt very Gene Wolfe-inspired.

Beyond the mental dungeon for Eternity (which was interconnected prose, not a physical level layout) I wasn't involved in any of the area or world design for Eternity. Similarly, while I was allowed to weigh in on area designs and narrative hooks for each area, I'm not designing areas for Numenera, George Ziets is already doing a great job orchestrating that with his twisted sensibilities.

Sounds great to me. Also, anything Gene Wolfe-inspired and well executed can't be bad.

(not as a Project Lead, that wouldn't have been possible while at Obsidian)

Guess MCA dodged a bullet there.

That's tough. Maybe Vhailor, because I can see his armor being similar to the Y-17 Trauma Override Harness in Old World Blues - it was a technological marvel designed to keep the consciousness downloaded and intact in the event of an emergency.

Vhailor would be a great fit for a Fallout game.

(If you've read Transmetropolitan, a similar situation happens when Spider Jerusalem's two allies also discuss hooking up with him.)

Nice, MCA is a Transmetropolitan fan.

Am looking forward to Horizon: Zero Dawn as a result (what Fairfax said).

Uh, well...nevermind.

 

[Immortal]

...
Sstacks U jelly?

Nope, of course not. The goal was to get your questions answered, and whatever method Chris's schedule allows rocks in my book.

Best,
Shane

Some of us are just harder hitting journalists than others.

 

[sstacks]

Some of us are just harder hitting journalists than others.

Hah! Well, that answers a lot... not trying to be a hard hitting journalist. Just trying to have some fun talking geeky stuff and getting to meet interesting folks.

And in this case, the radio show topic was Numenera not all things MCA... he's just being an extremely cool dude and going above and beyond.

NOTE: Edits for quote tags.

 

[Fairfax]

MCA actually likes hostile questions. See this Codex interview.
Speaking of which, Codex site staff should try to get another one, it's gold.

 

[Immortal]

Hah! Well, that answers a lot... not trying to be a hard hitting journalist. Just trying to have some fun talking geeky stuff and getting to meet intere..

 

[sstacks]

Hah! Well, that answers a lot... not trying to be a hard hitting journalist. Just trying to have some fun talking geeky stuff and getting to meet intere..

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I win.

 

[Jedi Exile]

Jedi Exile: Even though you didn't ask the question, the way the dialogue with Mira was written with the intention that she obviously had already considered hooking up with you, which means you were already in her headspace. I tried to imply this with her critique of your fitness. (If you've read Transmetropolitan, a similar situation happens when Spider Jerusalem's two allies also discuss hooking up with him.)

Thanks for the answer! I've read Transmetropolitan and I remember that Spider slept with both of them eventually, but only one became his GF. So, I take it that romance with Mira was possible... The girl I really wanted to romance in that game was Atris, though.

I've read the iterations of D:OS 2 story line and given/helped with iterations when I could in story meetings

That's some serious So, Sven is really as great as he looks? Cool. Can't wait for D:OS 2

 

[ArchAngel]

My opinion is that sometimes any RPG writing runs the risk of drowning in the lore of the world (too much exposition kills momentum)

If only Obsidian listened to him

 

[Fairfax]

My opinion is that sometimes any RPG writing runs the risk of drowning in the lore of the world (too much exposition kills momentum)

If only Obsidian Saywer and Fenstermaker listened to him

FTFY

 

[Infinitron]

Oh no, this isn't turning into one of those threads again.

Besides which, the more straightforward reading of that sentence is as a criticism of D:OS 1, which is what Zed was asking him about.

 

[Duraframe300]

My opinion is that sometimes any RPG writing runs the risk of drowning in the lore of the world (too much exposition kills momentum)

If only Obsidian Saywer and Fenstermaker listened to him

FTFY

Funny thing, early on Sawyer talked about that (and agreeing with it) to the point where he sounded like he was completly banning exposition from dialouge. I even advocated against that.

That this went completly in the opposite direction is still one of the greatest mysteries about PoE to me.

 

[Mustawd]

. When adapting PnP rulesets to cRPGs, the two main camps seem to be turn based and RTwP. Do you have a sense of which works better to capture the PnP experience? Are there any alternatives to turn based or RTwP that you'd like to see implemented in a cRPG?

Well, the big question is do you want to capture the *PnP* experience, or do you want to create a *digital* game experience. The inputs and mindsets between the two are different, and I don't think the two meet evenly - but at the risk of detouring from your question with my dissembling nonsense, if you wanted to capture the *PnP* experience, you would use turn-based by default, since that's all PnP uses. I don't think that's always best for a computer game, however.

Interesting answer. Kind of a bit different take compared to Larian's goal to make a cRPG as close to the PnP experience as possible.

 

[Infinitron]

Remember when I said that the things that MCA actually writes about game design aren't really that un-Sawyery? There's another example of that.

That this went completly in the opposite direction is still one of the greatest mysteries about PoE to me.

Maybe they decided that most fans liked and wanted flowery writing. Codexers keep on saying "look how much they wrote, it's obvious that they're so proud of their setting but THE PLAYERS DON'T CARE". No, you don't care. They wrote that stuff for the players, not because they're "proud of it".

 

[Fairfax]

My opinion is that sometimes any RPG writing runs the risk of drowning in the lore of the world (too much exposition kills momentum)

If only Obsidian Saywer and Fenstermaker listened to him

FTFY

Funny thing, early on Sawyer talked about that (and agreeing with it) to the point where he sounded like he was completly banning exposition from dialouge. I even advocated against that.

That this went completly in the opposite direction is still one of the greatest mysteries about PoE to me.

Sawyer didn't deliver on many things he said about game design and PoE. I really don't believe he was that passionate about the game in the end.

 

[Roguey]

I have not tried, but if the song is appropriate, fire away with a suggestion ...although I think I may have answered this in the podcast, strangely enough.

All right, my suggestion would be Destination Unknown by Missing Persons.

 

[Neanderthal]

Mr Avellone, you're a gentleman and a scholar, cheers. Hope your kin are allright an all.

Oh and cheers Shane as always, you're a dude.

 

[duanth123]

I have not tried, but if the song is appropriate, fire away with a suggestion ...although I think I may have answered this in the podcast, strangely enough.

All right, my suggestion would be Destination Unknown by Missing Persons.

caught you slippin'

 

[Mustawd]

80s? Get serious. Time for some 60s and 70s...

 

[Roguey]

80s? Get serious. Time for some 70s...

That's not Chris. Chris is Turn up the Radio in Alpha Protocol and Do You Really Want to Hurt Me in Wasteland 2.

 

[Mustawd]

80s? Get serious. Time for some 70s...

That's not Chris. Chris is Turn up the Radio in Alpha Protocol and Do You Really Want to Hurt Me in Wasteland 2.

I guess no one's perfect.