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KickStarter Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Aha, finally! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owlcatgames/pathfinder-kingmaker/posts/1930646

Luck is merely another word for skill

Dear Pathfinders,

You can now support our game through PayPal

Got any friends who want to help our project, but can't use the payment methods accepted by Kickstarter? Visit https://owlcatgames.com/preorder and support us through PayPal! Please spread the word and let your friends know. Thanks!

And now getting to the topic of this update - Skills in Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Skills are an incredibly important part of most pen and paper RPGs, including Pathfinder. What are skills? Skills represent some of the most basic and yet most fundamental abilities your character possesses, like, for example, Perception – a skill to take note of details around you, to timely notice a deadly trap or to hear the muffled breath of a hidden adversary. Be it finding your way through the unknown lands or high court intrigues, be it searching for forbidden knowledge in the academy library, in a dusty tomb or a shady tavern – all of this is what skills are for. Without them, characters would be mere murderers. It is the existence of skills that allows them to resolve challenges and conflicts without resorting to bloodshed.

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While it is a daunting, perhaps impossible, task to make skills just as useful in the CRPG as when playing Pathfinder on the table, it is not our goal to replace the original Pathfinder RPG, but rather to provide you with an experience similar to the fascinating atmosphere of pen and paper gaming. To do that we need to make the application of skills at least as frequent and at least as important as it is in pen and paper, if not as varied.

For our skill list, we decided to use our own approach to what is known to Pathfinder players out there as Consolidated Skills – a system where most skills from core Pathfinder are aggregated into bigger, wider skill groups. Our approach to this also includes our idea that skills should not only be used in dialogues but also in common gameplay and that these skills should be useful and applicable to the characters that archetypically should have those skills.

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For this reason we, for example, made Lore - Nature, the archetypical skill of Rangers and Druids, to be based on Wisdom, and to include the knowledge about animals and insects, survival in the wilderness, handling of animals and tending to companions who were wounded or had succumbed to sickness. For that reason, we had made Lore - Religion to include knowledge about both Gods and their servants – outsiders, and plan to make it possible to use Lore - Religion to heal afflictions of the mind.

For those, who rely more on scholarly education, there are the branches of academic knowledge. Knowledge - World studies Golarion and everything specific to it, be it races and cultures that live there, their history and current interactions, trade and politics. Knowledge - Arcana deals with research and knowledge about various unnatural phenomena, eldritch spells, enchanted items and otherworldly entities such as elementals and magical beasts.

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For those who crave action, there are Athletics and Mobility, the first of which deals with the skillful application of physical strength, mostly to surpass obstacles or to remove them from your way altogether, and the second deals with avoiding those obstacles and hazards through graceful movement and acrobatic feats. And those more cunning may find for themselves skills like Stealth, which allows you to move unnoticed behind the enemy lines, and Trickery, that allows you to pass through more complex obstacles like locks and traps.



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For those of you, who, like kings are supposed to, rely on the world and its inhabitants to act according to your royal decisions, there are also skills like Persuasion, which is the mastery of manipulating others' thoughts and actions, through both subtle, direct or sometimes even forceful means and skills like Use Magic Device, which deals with the usage of magical items and tools in creative ways and bending even the most stubborn and complicated of them to your will.

The skills of your character and your companions may be used in combat, to demoralize the enemy with a disheartening threat using your Persuasion or to lull the enemy into thinking that you are not a threat with a timely use of Trickery, only to then catch him flat-footed for your next attack. Skills may be used when camping, to forage for food using Lore - Nature or to guard your sleeping companions better by having high Perception.

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And, of course, skills can be used in dialogues and other events. For example, you might need to use your Knowledge - World, to remember some information crucial for the current conversation. You can try to use your Perception to gauge whether the person you are talking to is trying to swindle you. Or why not try to swindle them yourself by using Bluff, a specific use category of your Persuasion skill? Use categories are a type of actions that can be performed with this skill, in which Pathfinder fans may find familiar names. Intimidate, Bluff and Diplomacy being use categories of Persuasion, and some character traits, feats and class features may give bonuses to certain use categories only. Some character traits, feats, class features, and other abilities may give bonuses to use categories instead of a broader consolidated skill - it makes sense for a half-orc to have a racial advantage in using Intimidate, and not to Diplomacy and Bluff.

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In many cases, you may also improve your odds by carefully preparing for the challenges ahead. You can find items that can be used in a specific skill challenge, like an encyclopedia just about the subject you need to have Knowledge about. Or have more common tools at hand, like a roll of sturdy rope or a trusty shovel. Or you may acquire a fine and specialized set of instruments just for a particular skill, for example, a box of masterfully crafted lockpicks. And sometimes your decisions and actions will affect the difficulty and bonuses to your skill use, for instance, by either providing you with a helping hand of someone you have saved before or depriving you of it in your moment of need. And, for certain, you can use spells and potions to make yourself stronger or quicker for the task before you.

That concludes our thoughts and developments in the field of skills. What was the most memorable skill application that you had witnessed in a pen and paper game session? Tell us in the comments section.

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

Hail to the Kings!

Owlcats

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Quillon

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2016
Messages
5,214
So more than 2x more skills than PoE :hmmm:

And about 2/3 of Deadfire.
Really? Where can I see the whole list?

They haven't revealed them yet.

Not sure if it was already the case in Pillars, but does scouting confer a bonus to detecting hidden objects in Deadfire?

JS: It no longer does. Now, whether you're scouting or not, your chance to detect stuff is based off your Perception; it does not gain a bonus when you are scouting. Scouting is just for being stealthy.

BN: How much have you talked about Skills? Like, the amount of new Skills that we have?

JS: Not a lot. Bobby likes skills.

BN: Yeah, well, without getting too in-depth in it, but we do have a lot more skills. If you remember for the last game—I think we were at five or six in the last game?

JS: Yeah, five or six. I think it was just five.

BN: Yeah, I think it was five. And that was something that during PoE1, towards the end when we were doing patches, Josh and I sat down and we mapped out: how do we make more skills in this game? And for that game we were running up on budget, time limits and what not.

So we definitely opened it up for this one. I think we're at eleven or twelve or something like that now?

JS: Oh, dude, it's way more.

BN: Is it more than that? Okay, it's a fair amount.

JS: It's a lot.

BN: You have a lot more customization of your characters and making them—the thing that's nice about skills is having—in my mind—not just gameplay ramifications for them, but also it helps define your character and it helps make the roleplaying aspect of it better; which is always a good thing.

JS: Definitely. And that's what a lot of the choices was like: for a skill, does this make—obviously does it fit the world and can we fit it in a quest[?], but also does it make me feel more like a specific type of character?
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,889
Ah who knows what they consider skills this time around. Maybe they consider stats as skills since they can affect conversation options.
 

Quantomas

Savant
Joined
Jun 9, 2017
Messages
260
Looks like we are getting a proper competition. Who will be the better designer?

Chances are that I will play Pathfinder: Kingmaker first, as I suspect Deadfire to do a midgame expansion (notwithstanding having a backer edition).
 
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Luckmann

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Looks like we are getting a proper competition. Who will be the better designer?

Chances are that I will play Pathfinder: Kingmaker first, as I suspect Deadfire to do a midgame expansion.
It's a Paradox game from scratch now. I expect at least one major expansion spread over 14 different parts, and a price hike 5 years down the line.
 

Quillon

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2016
Messages
5,214
Don't remember much from what I played of it. It had many more?

Taking a look at its wiki suggests they call combat abilities skills so I guess their abilities are what's relevant here, tho many abilities seems to be passive combat abilities/talents so different systems...can't tell :P
 
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LESS T_T

Arcane
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Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5ljy2?Pathfinder-Kingmaker-Kickstarter-Ends-Soon

Pathfinder: Kingmaker Kickstarter Ends Soon!

The countdown has begun on the Pathfinder: Kingmaker Kickstarter by our friends at Owlcat Games! With only a few days remaining, the project has reached it's funding goal, and is headed towards the next stretch goals. Pathfinder: Kingmaker is an isometric single-player computer RPG based on the Kingmaker Adventure Path, where you'll be able to explore the Stolen Lands, survive the harsh wilderness, and local threats, all while building up your own settlement.

Haven't heard of Owlcat Games? Lisa took to email just a couple weeks ago to talk about our new partnership and the current Kickstarter project.

Since we launched the world of Golarion and the Pathfinder RPG, I have eagerly awaited the day when I could announce a single-player computer RPG based on our game and world. Many companies have approached me over the years, but the fit was never quite right.

Last year, our friends at Obsidian connected us to the folks at Owlcat Games, who had some interesting ideas for a Kingmaker CRPG. Owlcat wanted to meet us at Gen Con and show us what they had in mind. I was expecting maybe a Powerpoint presentation, but they brought a work in progress. To say I was blown away was an understatement. They had clearly put a lot of time, effort, and thought into everything—and we hadn't even signed a deal yet! I ran around the convention finding various Paizo employees to look at it, and everyone got super excited. We started work on a licensing deal right away.

A couple months ago, Owlcat came to the Paizo offices to show us a vertical slice of Pathfinder: Kingmaker. A vertical slice is a small segment of how the finished game is going to look and play. We were all mesmerized playing the game, which was filled with a ton of familiar Golarion hooks in the artwork and mechanics. A lucky few of you at PaizoCon 2017 had the opportunity to play through a similar vertical slice, and all the feedback we received was super positive.

I need to tell you a little bit about Owlcat Games. They're a new development studio, but don't take that to mean they're inexperienced! Some of them have been together for more than a decade, and the list of games they've helped create is strong. They have the backing of one of the largest game companies around, so you don't need to worry about their stability. And you definitely don't need to worry about their enthusiasm for Pathfinder—they're longtime gamers, and have several different tabletop Pathfinder campaigns running in their office. They know the setting, the story, and the rules as well as anyone. And they've been joined by CRPG legend Chris Avellone, who is infusing his touch of story genius into our now-classic Adventure Path.

Owlcat Games has the full backing of their parent company to make the game to the specifications that we had approved, but they have a lot of great ideas beyond that spec, so they decided to launch a Kickstarter that's all about making it bigger and more awesome—more sidequests, more companions, more options, more depth.

A great Pathfinder computer RPG is something that I have personally waited a decade for, and I couldn't be more excited to see it come to fruition.

The kickstarter is headed towards it's next stretch goal at $700K, where a new chapter to reveal hidden secrets of original Kingmaker story will be added, as well as support for both Mac and Linux. Check out the Pathfinder: Kingmaker Kickstarter projectand select your pledge level before the campaign ends on July 11!

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,889
Archetypes, we almost knew you.
Don't be surprised if X time after KS ends they tell us that their parent company was so happy with how KS went they decided to finance Archetypes and maybe some other stretch goals as well. What is additional few 100k $ to My.com..
 

sstacks

Arcane
Joined
Jan 30, 2014
Messages
1,151
I decided to read this entire 40+ page thread in one sitting to see if I could get some good questions to ask MCA tomorrow. Ye gawds what was I thinking, freebasing pure unfiltered Codex?! I made it to about page 6 or 7 before my eyes exploded and my soul whimpered.

:badnews:
 

santino27

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
2,679
My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
I decided to read this entire 40+ page thread in one sitting to see if I could get some good questions to ask MCA tomorrow. Ye gawds what was I thinking, freebasing pure unfiltered Codex?! I made it to about page 6 or 7 before my eyes exploded and my soul whimpered.

:badnews:

Weakling. As punishment, you must now read the remaining 34-35 pages. Out loud.
 

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