Game News NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer announced

[Texas Red]

So... no fun on the Planes? Dang, thats pretty much what I was looking forward to in the inevitable expansion pack. I just hope anything still on Faerun is just a prelude to someplace fun and bizarre.

But wasnt the whole Planescape multiverse concept officially changed? I dont know what the hell they have now.

 

[Jim Kata]

So... no fun on the Planes? Dang, thats pretty much what I was looking forward to in the inevitable expansion pack. I just hope anything still on Faerun is just a prelude to someplace fun and bizarre.

But wasnt the whole Planescape multiverse concept officially changed? I dont know what the hell they have now.

It was too interesting and didn't have enough elminster, so they scrapped it.

 

[OSK]

So... no fun on the Planes? Dang, thats pretty much what I was looking forward to in the inevitable expansion pack. I just hope anything still on Faerun is just a prelude to someplace fun and bizarre.

But wasnt the whole Planescape multiverse concept officially changed? I dont know what the hell they have now.

Yeah, I think I remember reading about this on the NWN official forums. Apparently, Wizards of the Coast officially dropped the whole planescape/multiverse concept and wrote their own half-assed crap to replace it. Since it isn't official, they can't use it to make a DnD licensed game.

 

[Sir_Brennus]

So... no fun on the Planes? Dang, thats pretty much what I was looking forward to in the inevitable expansion pack. I just hope anything still on Faerun is just a prelude to someplace fun and bizarre.

But wasnt the whole Planescape multiverse concept officially changed? I dont know what the hell they have now.

Yeah, I think I remember reading about this on the NWN official forums. Apparently, Wizards of the Coast officially dropped the whole planescape/multiverse concept and wrote their own half-assed crap to replace it. Since it isn't official, they can't use it to make a DnD licensed game.

But... where do the gythianki and githzerai do now come from?

 

[serch]

Interview with Lead Designer at Gamebanshee:

http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/maskofthebetrayer2.php

We’re implementing some expansion-specific gameplay elements that will make Mask of the Betrayer stand out from Obsidian’s previous titles and other D&D computer role-playing games. As one example, the passage of time will have important impacts on gameplay. Mask of the Betrayer will also feature major enhancements to the companion Influence System that Obsidian has pioneered through Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and Neverwinter Nights 2. Of course, these new elements will be things that the community can modify to their own modules and campaigns if they wish.

Passage of time? Not bad, not bad at all. We'll see.

 

[Elwro]

This is the place for your Planescape needs.

 

[Texas Red]

So... no fun on the Planes? Dang, thats pretty much what I was looking forward to in the inevitable expansion pack. I just hope anything still on Faerun is just a prelude to someplace fun and bizarre.

But wasnt the whole Planescape multiverse concept officially changed? I dont know what the hell they have now.

Yeah, I think I remember reading about this on the NWN official forums. Apparently, Wizards of the Coast officially dropped the whole planescape/multiverse concept and wrote their own half-assed crap to replace it. Since it isn't official, they can't use it to make a DnD licensed game.

But... where do the gythianki and githzerai do now come from?

Well, nobody actually knows what replaced the multiverse system. As far as I know all of the PWs and such still follow the Planescape concept.

Are there any D&Ders who can enlight us unwashed barbarians?

 

[OSK]

I found this at Wikipedia:

In early editions of the setting, The Realms shared a unified cosmology with various other campaign settings called the Great Wheel. In this way each of the Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings were linked together to form one interwoven world connected by various planes of existence. With the release of the 2001 Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, the setting was given its own distinct and separate cosmological arrangement, with unique planes not explicitly connected to those of the other settings.


WotC probably just placed the Gith in one of these new planes.

 

[Jim Kata]

They should still be ont he astral plane, I assume. That one should be reachable from all the planes still. They just ditched sigil and all that cool stuff, unfortunately.

But, having everything explicitly interconnected is lame in ways....

 

[Gromnir]

am not too enthusiastic 'bout the nwn2 expansion yet... 'cause so far all we see is puffery and promises of epic levels. 'course there is little to makes us less enthusiastic than we were 3 days ago... before the presser and the previews. set in the forgettable realms and not the planes? shocking. after all, the FR setting is d&d's most popular, and planescape tanked, so why would a publisher want a game set in FR? epic levels? who woulda' thunk that atari would wants the expansion to nwn2, a game that got you to level 20, to include epic levels?

also of note, Gromnir has encountered more than a few people who complained of nwn2 ease. almost none of those folks thought to move the difficulty slider past "core" til after they had completed the entire game.

...

if it takes you more than 20 hours to figure out that game is too easy at core setting, then you is either retarded, or a typical crpg player. am getting to point where we not see much difference 'tween the two groups.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[aboyd]

Apparently, Wizards of the Coast officially dropped the whole planescape/multiverse concept and wrote their own half-assed crap to replace it. Since it isn't official, they can't use it to make a DnD licensed game.

They didn't drop Planescape entirely. The logo is dead, but the guts of it live on. The Planar Handbook is a 3.5 edition rule book for the planes. If you follow that link, you can even use Amazon's "Search inside this book" feature to review the table of contents, and see for yourself that Sigil, the planes, and other standard stuff is still there. In addition, the Planar Handbook is not the one & only book on the subject. It is intended to complement The Manual of the Planes, which is older but still considered officially supported.

So the way one person described the WotC arrangement nowadays is this: Forgotten Realms has its own cosmology and gods; Greyhawk has its own cosmology and gods; Eberron has it's own cosmology and gods. It is Greyhawk which uses Manual of the Planes & Planar Handbook. And Greyhawk is the "core setting" that all the main hardcover books default to.

To sum up: "planar setting no longer part of Forgotten Realms" is accurate; "planar setting no longer official" is inaccurate. Conceivably, if Obsidian wanted to license Greyhawk for a romp in Sigil, that setting is available. In fact, WotC has a big new Greyhawk book coming out in August, so they are currently active in it.

 

[Greatatlantic]

Yeah, I don't need "Planescape" specifically, anything like Hordes of Underdark (only more settings and more interesting characters) would suffice. I mean worlds where the dominant population is not human and weird stuff goes on.

 

[OccupatedVoid]

Yeah, I don't need "Planescape" specifically, anything like Hordes of Underdark (only more settings and more interesting characters) would suffice. I mean worlds where the dominant population is not human and weird stuff goes on.

BUT that would mean you would have to be creative...

 

[Surgey]

Yeah, I don't need "Planescape" specifically, anything like Hordes of Underdark (only more settings and more interesting characters) would suffice. I mean worlds where the dominant population is not human and weird stuff goes on.

BUT that would mean you would have to be creative...

Or be Discworld.

 

[Ladonna]

am not too enthusiastic 'bout the nwn2 expansion yet... 'cause so far all we see is puffery and promises of epic levels. 'course there is little to makes us less enthusiastic than we were 3 days ago... before the presser and the previews. set in the forgettable realms and not the planes? shocking. after all, the FR setting is d&d's most popular, and planescape tanked, so why would a publisher want a game set in FR? epic levels? who woulda' thunk that atari would wants the expansion to nwn2, a game that got you to level 20, to include epic levels?

also of note, Gromnir has encountered more than a few people who complained of nwn2 ease. almost none of those folks thought to move the difficulty slider past "core" til after they had completed the entire game.

Im either arguing with you here or there it seems...oh well.

First off, I am not sure whether you are lamenting the demise of planescape and heaping scorn on the 'forgettable realms' or your defending the decision based on commercial grounds. Or both. Makes sense if thats your motive.

Hmm, Im agreeing with you too many times lately. Does not compute. Syntax error.

What do you think of epic levels? I personally dislike them, probably due to getting into the whole DnD shebang when getting to level 8 was godlike, whereas now it seems levels come quicker than +1 longswords.

As for the ease of the game....I would say that its harder than the KOTOR games, though much easier than the old school RPG's that many making the complaint are hankering after. It poses some challenges late in the day with those skullheads, but nothing on the level of your favourite game (No doubt) BG2. Lets not bother comparing its challenge to the old school RPG's.

The Roleplaying issue with this game has already been covered. And your idea of creating a storydriven yet open roleplaying experience I already agreed with. This is one of the areas that has not really been addressed for the expansion however. How it will take your actions during the official campaign into account; Whether it will drive you down the 'forced story' pathway or give you more player agency, etc. In other words, things I would much rather hear about.

 

[Avin]

Are you guys on drugs? Sigil is still there, Check Manual of the Planes and Planar handbook.

Althought isn't shining like old PS books, it's still there for using.

 

[Texas Red]

Are you guys on drugs? Sigil is still there, Check Manual of the Planes and Planar handbook.

Althought isn't shining like old PS books, it's still there for using.

Its still there but nothing new is released for it. And now the factional system is over and they have some bullshit democracy with elected civil servants.

 

[aboyd]

Are you guys on drugs? Sigil is still there, Check Manual of the Planes and Planar handbook.

Althought isn't shining like old PS books, it's still there for using.

Its still there but nothing new is released for it. And now the factional system is over and they have some bullshit democracy with elected civil servants.

??? The Planar Handbook is from 2004 and is 3.5 edition rules. It's newer than the Dungeon Master's Guide and Player's Handbook. In addition, it's part of the Greyhawk setting, which has new books out recently and another coming in August.

As far as factions, you're right, they were overthrown and/or ceded control of Sigil to others. However, look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Factio ... action_War

Basically, the factions had a very "real" result of the war. In other words, they're not gone as if some godly machinery just removed the completely. They moved, dispersed into smaller groups, or are hiding out while plotting their return. If the people behind PS:T said "we want to make another game covering the chaos of the factions" I'd say it sounds like a meaty story. Basically, here are your new factions:

Sons of Mercy
Sodkillers
The Mind's Eye
Athar (kinda -- dying out at the base of the Spire)
Doomguard (on 4 planar citadels)
Fraternity of Order (on Mechanus)
Harmonium (on Arcadia)
The Fated (on Ysgard)
Revolutionary League (on Carceri)
The Second Wave

I don't know. I think the loss of some factions was pretty bad, particularly the Sensates. But there is still an interesting setting there to explore, and many members of disbanded factions are said to still hold their beliefs, albeit quietly. I don't think the change was awful, and I could build a good story around it if I were tasked.

Interestingly, Rogue Dao Studios appears to have completely ignored the Faction War. Their upcoming Planescape module still has 'em as they were, far as I can tell.

 

[AlanC9]

Are we sure there won't be any planar content in MotB? I don't recall prerelease chatter for HotU mentioning that a full third of the game took place on an outer plane, rather thatn the announced settings of Waterdeep/Undermountain and the Underdark.

As for difficulty, it sure would be interesting to see someone trying to sell a difficult game. But I get the feeling the devs are probably right about what people want.

 

[Lumpy]

Lawl @ thread

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Lumpy, you didn't strike me as a forum necromancer, I'm surprised.

 

[Lumpy]

Lumpy, you didn't strike me as a forum necromancer, I'm surprised.

I'm not. I didn't just resurrect this at random. Just read through the posts.