Game News Paradox announces Runemaster, a Norse-themed turn-based RPG

[Excidium]

Well if you're happy with the current crop of TB combat you probably won't be disappointed.

 

[Misconnected]

I know no such game will ever be made, but seeing Pdox, procedural & RPG made me imagine, just for a moment, that I'd get a strategy RPG with world simulation from farmers to kings, driven by AI personae capable of generating and resolving missions/quests.

But hey, another KB/Expeditions is always welcome.

 

[1eyedking]

Looks pretty generic.

Music is made of bonus tracks and bootlegs from Skyrim's soundtrack.

 

[GlutenBurger]

When I hear of a "TRPG", I am immediately suspicious. Goldbox series weren't referred to as "tactical RPGs", Natuk or Wizard's Crown or KOTC weren't referred to as "tactical RPGs", ToEE and Dark Sun weren't referred to as "tactical RPGs". For all of their superb tactically controlled combat, they were always just RPGs, and the genre's posterboys at that, without any silly sublabels attached. Fuck, even JA2, for all the arguments about "the dude behind laptop" surrounding it, was still an RPG for those who considered it as such, without any silly T's attached.

Yeah, but time was that a FPS with RPG elements was referred to as a hybrid. Nowadays they're considered straight RPGs. It's time to fight back by broadening the definition in the other direction. Soon enough, "RPG" will be synonymous with "game," and our Pyrrhic victory will be complete.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Looks pretty generic.

Music is made of bonus tracks and bootlegs from Skyrim's soundtrack.

Art direction looks like shit, too.

 

[lebe frei]

From the Escapist preview

You can choose the race from six choices - Human, Dwarf, Light Elf, Dark Elf, Troll and Giant - and your choice determines whether you support Loki in bringing about Ragnorak or Thor in preventing it. Of course, Ragnarok is just rebirth, not oblivion, so Loki and his followers aren't necessarily evil, they just want a new deal.

Elves and dwarves started in Germanic/Noric mythology. Tolkien used a lot of Germanic ideas in his stories. As of yet we haven't had any "major" game set in a mythologically accurate Nordic world that I am aware of. If done correctly, this will not be at all LoTR/D&D, but a tribute to the precursors that spawned that genre, and one that really is quite untapped.

Furthermore, the entire Ragnarok thing is a lot more complex than good or evil. For the downtrodden, the disadvantaged, the jealous or the antireligious, it represents a means to destroy many/most gods, upset the entire balance of the world and start anew (although most humans will die). Playing between keeping the status quo or crashing down the entire system is a pretty unique goal in a fantasy setting.

One can say that Nordic themes have been overdone lately, but has actual Nordic mythology been overdone? The most that we see of Nordic gods is in Marvel movies, and obviously they aren't particularly accurate to mythology. Skyrim is as Nordic as Tolkien, which is to say very little.

If the setting is actually used and not bastardized as is the norm, I'd really like to see a game set within it.

Having said that, I don't think of a King's Bounty style game as an RPG, nor do I particularly like them, so I will be very disappointed if that is the type of game this will be.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I skipped the trailer after a minute muttering generic shit so nothing happened. Paradox announced then cancelled another stupid game because developers had rl issues.