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Editorial Chris Avellone on Doing Planescape: Torment Successor

Crooked Bee

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Tags: Chris Avellone; Kickstarter; Planescape: Torment

Chris Avellone has written up a piece for Kotaku on how he would do a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment. He says this probably won't be an Obsidian Kickstarter, but that he'll throw some ideas out anyway. (He still seems to leave the possibility open, though. Such a tease.) Have some snippets:

So even though this wouldn't be an Obsidian Kickstarter, here are my thoughts on a Torment spiritual successor:
  • It'd be best not to use [the Dungeons & Dragons] mechanics or the Planescape license. One reason is doing so would undermine some of the joys of the Kickstarter (not having to answer to anyone but the players – if we take a license, we have to answer to the franchise holder), I'm not sure Wizards/Hasbro/whoever knows where to take the license, and looking back on Planescape: Torment, it's been clear to me that we had to bend a lot of rules to get some of the mechanics and narrative feel we wanted. Could we have done that easier outside of a Planescape universe? Sure. [...]
  • Similar, but not exact, campaign mechanics in the following respects:
    1) A plane-jumping universe with diversity in environments, cultures, religions, and people.
    2) Tactical combat – it doesn't need to be turn-based, but pausing and choosing your actions is important.
    3) A diversity of creatures, perhaps not to the same extent as in the Planescape original title (would depend on budget, but just like the main cast, I'd prefer to have fewer, higher-quality creatures that allow for a spectrum of behaviors rather than a grab-bag of a thousand random monsters).
    4) A small group of extremely detailed companions.
    5) A mechanic similar to "remembrance" in the original game – this metaphysical interpretation of your immortality and amnesia is something that can be explored in a number of ways depending on the game premise [...]
  • Having a character basis and an advancement scheme with spells, traits, and abilities that are suited to the campaign setting and the system and narrative mechanics. As an example, Dak'kon's Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon and the spells he gained from that had a strong narrative bent, and I enjoy balancing out skill and spell trees that reinforce the philosophy of the world.
  • Items with stories. One of my favorite parts of Torment and the Icewind Dale series was giving them names and writing short stories for each inventory item... and sometimes very long stories (The Fanged Mirror of Yehcir-Eya). The best moment I had for Icewind Dale 2 was creating an inventory item name that used the token in the title and having a developer come into the room and accuse me of ripping off his character for the sake of a magic item. When he was done ranting, I explained to him that it was actually a scripted reference that was personal to each character playing the game. At least that's the story I stuck to. [...]
  • Lastly, this is also something that set Torment apart – we had a good chunk of the story, dialogues and the flow of the narrative laid out before production began. This was key. If I had the power and funding to sit down for a year and script a spiritual successor out, then we built from there, I would do that, but that process is something no publisher would agree to – you're constantly under the gun, either as an internal or external developer (Josh Sawyer had to write the Icewind Dale 2 storyline over the course of a weekend, for example – he did a great job, but that's not an ideal way to write a story). Generally, you have 2-4 weeks.
Click here for the full article.

Spotted at Gamebanshee
 

Shadenuat

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This can't be happening

All these isometric RPG's in unique settings
Head... spinning...
Need... to.. sit... down.....
 

Black

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2) Tactical combat – it doesn't need to be turn-based, but pausing and choosing your actions is important.
Uh-oh.
Anyway, needs less talking and more doing and kickstarting.
 

felipepepe

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I also think a lot of the strength of Van Buren (Interplay's Fallout 3) was the same process we had with Torment – I was able to sit down for 3 years and plot out the flow and locations of the game before production began, and even playtest it in pen-and-paper roleplaying games with the future developers on the title.
Ah, so that's what he is doing all this time.... okay bros, we have 3 years to save money!
 

FeelTheRads

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The hell? He previously said a Torment successor was the first on his list to kickstart.

Guess it's his "high-school RPG" then that will be kickstarted.
 

No soup for you!

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Overall this sounds very intriguing. I reserve judgement for the proper Kickstarter pitch.

2) Tactical combat – it doesn't need to be turn-based, but pausing and choosing your actions is important.
Uh-oh.
Anyway, needs less talking and more doing and kickstarting.

Yeah... this makes no sense to me. What he is requiring here IS a turn-based mechanism if he wants to pause. I would invert the statement as such: "Tactical combat -- it doesn't need to be real-time, but quickly proceeding through a few turns if orders haven't changed is important."
 

IronicNeurotic

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The hell? He previously said a Torment successor was the first on his list to kickstart.

Guess it's his "high-school RPG" then that will be kickstarted.

HIS list

But, then you have brainstorming sessions with Tim Cain, JE Sawyer and Friends and you suddenly have several ideas which you may like better.
 
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Poor MCA. Every time he gives an interview on anything all people really want to know is PLANESCAPE SUCCESSOR! ARE WE THERE YET!? ARE WE THERE YET!? ARE WE THERE YET!?
 

quasimodo

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The combat in PST sucked just like all RTwP games.

If I wanted RPGs with bad combat I would play AAA RPGs.

For a Kickstarter game if they go TB and I'll give them lots of money. If they go RTwP and I won't give them a dime.
 

Infinitron

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:lol: I hope they do make it RTwP, just for the glorious amounts of butthurt it will generate on the Codex.
 

Phelot

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Ugh. PST can't have a sequel, that would be retarded storywise, and since he can't do a Planescape setting anyway, why not come up with something different without trying to throw the whole PST name in? A "spiritual successor" would be just as bad as an actual sequel.
 

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Ugh. PST can't have a sequel, that would be retarded storywise, and since he can't do a Planescape setting anyway, why not come up with something different without trying to throw the whole PST name in? A "spiritual successor" would be just as bad as an actual sequel.

??? Not sure what you mean. A spiritual successor would not be using the "whole PST name". That's why it's only "spiritual" and not an actual successor.
 

Shadenuat

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What, we have so many planeswalking-themed games to look horse in the mouth? Planeswalking is an unexploited theme which only MotB and the King himself dabbled into a bit.

I won't play Planescape without TB combat!
:what:
 

kaizoku

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He says this probably won't be an Obsidian Kickstarter, but that he'll throw some ideas out anyway. (He still seems to leave the possibility open, though. Such a tease.)
what?
y would u not du that?
why no KS? makes no sense.


2) Tactical combat – it doesn't need to be turn-based, but pausing and choosing your actions is important.
ah! so you're aiming for AAA mainstream?

4) A small group of extremely detailed companions.
I like the last part. But the first part makes me think he wants full VO.

5) A mechanic similar to "remembrance" in the original game – this metaphysical interpretation of your immortality and amnesia is something that can be explored in a number of ways depending on the game premise [...]

...
pathfinder RPG
 

Phelot

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Ugh. PST can't have a sequel, that would be retarded storywise, and since he can't do a Planescape setting anyway, why not come up with something different without trying to throw the whole PST name in? A "spiritual successor" would be just as bad as an actual sequel.

??? Not sure what you mean. A spiritual successor would not be using the "whole PST name". That's why it's only "spiritual" and not an actual successor.

I mean, he doesn't need to name drop PST since any kind of successor to PST wouldn't make sense.
 

FeelTheRads

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Ugh. PST can't have a sequel, that would be retarded storywise, and since he can't do a Planescape setting anyway, why not come up with something different without trying to throw the whole PST name in? A "spiritual successor" would be just as bad as an actual sequel.

I was never supposed to be a sequel. He stated numerous times that the Torment story is over.
 

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Ugh. PST can't have a sequel, that would be retarded storywise, and since he can't do a Planescape setting anyway, why not come up with something different without trying to throw the whole PST name in? A "spiritual successor" would be just as bad as an actual sequel.

??? Not sure what you mean. A spiritual successor would not be using the "whole PST name". That's why it's only "spiritual" and not an actual successor.

I mean, he doesn't need to name drop PST since any kind of successor to PST wouldn't make sense.

I suspect that "spiritual successor" does not mean what you think it means

what?
y would u not du that?
why no KS? makes no sense.

Because other folks at Obsidian have better ideas for a KS, according to him
 

thesoup

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We get like two of these per month ever since the whole kickstarter kraze started. How about they actually start something already.
 

kaizoku

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yeah just read that...
MCA: Obsidian has talked about Kickstarter for some time. Not to put myself or Planescape down, but the range of ideas we've had internally for a KS are, IMO, better than doing a spiritual successor to Torment, and it involves more of the powerhouses in the studio rather than turning me into the Nameless One.

Which ideas? When will they finish that damn South Park game and show what they're working on?
MCA is half time at inXile. What is he doing the rest of the time?

mmm... wonders about "Arcanum 2" :smug:



So maybe I should do 2 Kickstarters – one that does the worldbook and characters for the game, and the second one would be for the production of the title itself if enough people like the idea? Hmmmm.
so he wouldn't use Pathfinder after all.
 

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Well, Josh Sawyer has been fiddling around with Icewind Dale related stuff recently...

Oh fuck I hope that doesn't mean Trent Oster is making an Icewind Dale EE :x
 

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