Game News Pathfinder: The Dragon's Demand officially announced, coming to Kickstarter soon

[Decado]

Kickfarter=instant nope.

 

[Shaki]

Ossian Studios is an independent game developer who has made RPGs exclusively for twenty years, including Dungeons & Dragons story-driven RPGs

More specifically, in 20 years they worked on 3 NWN modules, and made one mobile game

 

[mediocrepoet]

A low level adventure in a generic forest? About slaying a generic evil dragon? Wow, this is getting too intense...

You should write in so they know to make it epic like BG3 and add in some tranny romances to appeal to modern audiences.

 

[Vulpes]

Have you looked at the character models? They're already in the game

 

[damager]

Thank god finally a turn based game. That will be the first Pathfinder game I will touch. Everything RTWP that's not infinity engine sounds horrible to me.

Even than it was suboptimal, but these games get a pass because they tried something. But copying this system? God forbid man.

 

[Luke Scull]

Why don't they make another NWN expansion? This looks gay af

I already am.

 

[Luke Scull]

The miniature bases in a video game are the same backward poser shit as tabletop dices in video games. For a miniature, the base is there because of gravity, so that the miniature can stand. Same for the dices, they exist in the real world as a way to simulate randomness. In both case, the base or the dices as objects are not of interest but exist because of the constraints of the medium. And now fucking posers put these in video games, where it makes absolutely no sense, as if it was an integral part of the experience. I thought it was about adventure and dragons and magic, not stupid bases and dices. At some point we will have the face of the developer behind a DM screen always visible in a corner of the screen.

Yeah I really hope there's a toggle for the bases. They look awful.

I'll add it to the list of suggested features.

 

[Luke Scull]

A low level adventure in a generic forest? About slaying a generic evil dragon? Wow, this is getting too intense...

Actually, a low to early mid-level adventure in multiple environs with many foes including an evil dragon and Lovecraft-inspired cosmic evil.

 

[Luke Scull]

A low level adventure in a generic forest? About slaying a generic evil dragon? Wow, this is getting too intense...

You should write in so they know to make it epic like BG3 and add in some tranny romances to appeal to modern audiences.

You jest - but BG3, except with Pathfinder and a miniature art style, is the goal. I know some of you won't like the chosen art style, but I suggest you give it a chance. We all know that replicating something with BG3's scope using the same level of graphical fidelity is pretty much impossible for any studio, never mind an indie, which is why we're trying something new. That doesn't mean we can't seek to match BG3 in the things that truly make a great roleplaying game.

As for modern audiences, I'm a straight white dude in my 40s. Alan was the producer of the original Baldur's Gate: Throne of Bhaal, as well as Neverwinter Nights. We've been doing this for decades. My fantasy trilogy is officially the 20th most grimdark of all time.

All this culture war stuff bores the hell out of me, so to put a marker down very early on, as the game's writer, I'll simply say this: my goal is to to tell the best story possible while respecting the setting, both in tone and lore. I did the same when I worked on the unreleased expansion for The Witcher, my Neverwinter Nights stuff (as I hope some of you can confirm), and the stories I wrote for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. Pathfinder is diverse by design - I think it's a strength of the setting, but it doesn't really matter what I think, because my job is to bring the truest representation of Pathfinder to a videogame. That's what you do when you're entrusted with an IP.

 

[Grauken]

You jest - but BG3, except with Pathfinder and a miniature art style, is the goal. I know some of you won't like the chosen art style, but I suggest you give it a chance. We all know that replicating something with BG3's scope using the same level of graphical fidelity is pretty much impossible for any studio, never mind an indie, which is why we're trying something new.

20 year old games look better than this

 

[Luke Scull]

You jest - but BG3, except with Pathfinder and a miniature art style, is the goal. I know some of you won't like the chosen art style, but I suggest you give it a chance. We all know that replicating something with BG3's scope using the same level of graphical fidelity is pretty much impossible for any studio, never mind an indie, which is why we're trying something new.

20 year old games look better than this

Art is pretty subjective. Technically? Probably not, but there are some incredible-looking older games. I understand it won't be for everyone, and that's OK.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

You jest - but BG3, except with Pathfinder and a miniature art style, is the goal. I know some of you won't like the chosen art style, but I suggest you give it a chance. We all know that replicating something with BG3's scope using the same level of graphical fidelity is pretty much impossible for any studio, never mind an indie, which is why we're trying something new.

20 year old games look better than this

Art is pretty subjective. Technically? Probably not, but there are some incredible-looking older games. I understand it won't be for everyone, and that's OK.

Will it have barbarians?

 

[Grauken]

You jest - but BG3, except with Pathfinder and a miniature art style, is the goal. I know some of you won't like the chosen art style, but I suggest you give it a chance. We all know that replicating something with BG3's scope using the same level of graphical fidelity is pretty much impossible for any studio, never mind an indie, which is why we're trying something new.

20 year old games look better than this

Art is pretty subjective. Technically? Probably not

Ah, you're aiming for the kind of technical visual superiority like Concord did, good luck

 

[Luke Scull]

Yes. The full feature list will be released when the Kickstarter goes live, but it's a very comprehensive implementation of all the core rules.

 

[Luke Scull]

You jest - but BG3, except with Pathfinder and a miniature art style, is the goal. I know some of you won't like the chosen art style, but I suggest you give it a chance. We all know that replicating something with BG3's scope using the same level of graphical fidelity is pretty much impossible for any studio, never mind an indie, which is why we're trying something new.

20 year old games look better than this

Art is pretty subjective. Technically? Probably not

Ah, you're aiming for the kind of technical visual superiority like Concord did, good luck

If we get a maximum player count of 950 on Steam and pulled from sale after two weeks, I'll personally swear to never again develop a CRPG.

Also, with the best will in the world, I don't think we could lose $100m. It'd be fun to try though.

 

[GreyViper]

Maybe we have been spoiled by Owlcat, but it feels simple. I mean if its aimed at young kids, sure more power to them, but I dont see this gathering interest in mature audience. Honestly im getting a lot of mobile vibes from it so far.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Yes. The full feature list will be released when the Kickstarter goes live, but it's a very comprehensive implementation of all the core rules.

Sounds cool all around. Is there a forecasted date for the Kickstarter going up?

 

[Vulpes]

Maybe we have been spoiled by Owlcat, but it feels simple. I mean if its aimed at young kids, sure more power to them, but I dont see this gathering interest in mature audience. Honestly im getting a lot of mobile vibes from it so far.

I think the bigger hurdle (maybe even the biggest) is gonna be the fact that the game uses Pathfinder 2E

 

[Falksi]

Maybe we have been spoiled by Owlcat

 

[Luke Scull]

Yes. The full feature list will be released when the Kickstarter goes live, but it's a very comprehensive implementation of all the core rules.

Sounds cool all around. Is there a forecasted date for the Kickstarter going up?

End of September, assuming we get enough followers.

 

[Dayyālu]

and the stories I wrote for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar.

I'm sorry, it must have been dreadful being forced to write for AoS. AoS has stories? Someone cares about AoS' setting? I'm amazed.

Pathfinder is diverse by design - I think it's a strength of the setting, but it doesn't really matter what I think, because my job is to bring the truest representation of Pathfinder to a videogame. That's what you do when you're entrusted with an IP.

Pathfinder isn't exactly diverse by design. Its initial setup was essentially tryhard 3.5 with a shitton of "dark fantasy" "edgy stuff" inside, the initial adventure paths were chock-full of stuff that contemporary Paizo would find unpalatable to the extreme. Bar maybe the God of child molesters, pity they retconned that, it would be a hit for their audiences nowadays. Paizo became .... fruity in the following decades, but their contemporary hand-wringing about the Culture War is boring, I agree. The Paizo setting isn't worth of much respect tho, it's a schizo "whatever it goes" setting that runs on "whatever it goes", the weekly fetish of the module designer and whatever they could salvage from 3.x. I've never met anyone genuinely liking Golarion and its kitchen sink approach.

De gustibus, tho.

Being charitable, the graphics are cartoony and childish at best, but I'm most curious about the system. PF2 didn't exactly get the most warm welcome (being utterly destroyed by D&D 5th isn't exactly its fault tho) but I've found it a clunky system, particularly in chargen and in the endless fetish for feats. Some combat ideas were nice however. Are you going to introduce mechanical changes or we'll get an Owlcat-style "faithful" adaptation?

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Female orc barbarian, female dwarf defender, african-american elf wizard and quirky female looking goblin alchemist.

 

[ADL]

Kickfarter=instant nope.

Kickstarter has been a net positive for video games over the past ten years. A good portion of worthwhile games came straight from Kickstarter and crowdfunding campaigns like it.

If Pathfinder were to have tabletop units, I'd imagine they would look just like this.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

You jest - but BG3, except with Pathfinder and a miniature art style, is the goal. I know some of you won't like the chosen art style, but I suggest you give it a chance. We all know that replicating something with BG3's scope using the same level of graphical fidelity is pretty much impossible for any studio, never mind an indie, which is why we're trying something new.

20 year old games look better than this

Art is pretty subjective. Technically? Probably not, but there are some incredible-looking older games. I understand it won't be for everyone, and that's OK.

Why this style in particular? I can understand wanting to use miniature but why this cartoonish light hearted style?

Is it required from Paizo to have this style?

 

[Pink Eye]

Alan was the producer of the original Baldur's Gate: Throne of Bhaal, as well as Neverwinter Nights. We've been doing this for decades. My fantasy trilogy is officially the 20th most grimdark of all time.

my job is to bring the truest representation of Pathfinder to a videogame.

Hold on. As a Pathfinder: Kingmaker fanatic, see:

Spoiler

This looks interesting enough. Though I'm more intrigued on two main things: 1) How much of the ruleset do you plan on adapting (meaning how many classes, how many class kits, how much of the combat rules will you be adding, how much of 2e is going to be in the game basically). 2) Since this is Pathfinder how "grimdark" is your story going to be. I haven't really bothered to read too deeply into Pathfinder since its stories annoy me to an extent (Wrath of the Righteous gave me a severe head concussion with its horrible writing) so I don't know how dark fantasy you can spin with this setting but I'm interested nonetheless on your ideas for the game; also bonus points if there are tragic elements in your Dark Fantasy stories.