Interview Shadows of Undrentide Q&A at Action Trip

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide

<A href="http://www.actiontrip.com/">Action Trip</a> has posted an <a href="http://www.actiontrip.com/previews/neverwinternightsshadowsoftheundrentide_i.phtml">interview</a> with the guys working on <A href="http://nwn.bioware.com/shadows/">Shadows of Undrentide</a>. They ask funny things like, <i>What's in the game for hardcore RPG fans</i>, <i>What new spells</i>, and this:
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<blockquote><b>AT: There was much talk of new items. Can you reveal some of them?</b>
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RE: Well, BioWare's Aurora toolset makes it really simple to add new magic items such as weapons, armour, rings, amulets, staves, etc. So expect to see lots of those. But we're also adding some new 'wonderous' items, as they are called in D&D. Two of my favourites are The Rod of Wonder? a crazy chaotic item that produces a random effect each time it's used, and our own 'Deck of Hazards', which is based on the classic artefact 'The Deck of Many Things.' We didn't want to use the actual DoMT as it appears in D&D, because many of the effects didn't really make sense in a CRPG. So we created our own artefact, a magical deck of cards that has been soaking up the ambient magic of an ancient ruin for centuries. Talented module builders should have little trouble modifying our Deck of Hazards to fit into their campaigns, even recreating the original DoMT, if they want.</blockquote>
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I got yer <i>Rod of Wonders</i>, baby!
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Spotted this at <a href="http://www.homelanfed.com">HomeLAN Fed</a>

 

[Spazmo]

First off, giving players items as powerful as Decks of Many Things or Rods of Wonder (damn, Saint beat me to the dirty joke) is a bad idea. Before you know it, half your party is ruling the continent with their huge army from their gigantic castle and the other half is wondering where their wealth, their equipment, and their right arm went.

Second, it's even worse when you neuter all the negative consequences of these items. For example, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal had a Deck of Many Things. However, when the Deck made you lose stat points or gave you some curse, all you had to do was cast a simple remove curse spell and all the bad stuff was gone. That's right, third-level priest magic (which ain't all that mighty for the D&D laymen out there) dispelling a goddamn Deck of Many Things (which is ridiculously powerful for the D&D laymen out there), where in the REAL rules, not even a wish spell (which is jaw-droppingly powerful for the D&D laymen out there) could reverse the effects of the Deck.

 

[Section8]

It's going to have to be a nerfed Rod of Wonder, because half of the stuff it can do isn't easy to implement in a CRPG, and if it's not easy, Bioware aren't going to dedicate effort toward it.

It would make for some interesting gameplay though. Zap! Whoops, that wasn't the effect I wanted. Quickload. Zap! Oops, not again. Quickload. Zap! Damn, this thing is immune to fireballs. Quickload.

 

[Walks with the Snails]

I wouldn't touch a deck of many things with a ten foot pole in PnP. When you have save/reload, though, something tells me it's just not quite the same. Never played ToB, but why they let you cast remove curse for the bad things is beyond me. I think you're overstating its power a bit, though, IIRC, it's a small keep, not a gigantic castle, and the coolest stuff it generally does is give you some nice stat bonuses. The bad stuff tends to be really bad, though, wipe out all your worldly possessions, trap you in another plane, give permanent penalties, etc. Anything good you could probably earn on your own, anything bad you're pretty much screwed. Only way I'd consider using it from the player's end is during character creation.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Yeah, things like the Deck of Many Things shouldn't be anywhere near a CRPG, because designers should damned well know that you can use Quick Save/Load to exploit the living hell out of those things. It basically goes from an uber gift/curse chance to just uber gifts, one after the other. It's insanely stupid to even have such a thing in a CRPG, you may as well just save everyone the trouble and just shower the player with bonus abilities.

 

[triCritical]

Yeah, things like the Deck of Many Things shouldn't be anywhere near a CRPG, because designers should damned well know that you can use Quick Save/Load to exploit the living hell out of those things.

They could save a seed that made damn sure you got the samething everytime. But then they would not be munchkinWare would they?