let's say an encounter with a tribe of little forest men that drink a special juice that makes them really strong
sounds very much like a potion to me, or are they just drinking plain coffee
, or they spit armor melting acid at you
literally acid that dissolves a whole suit of armor? Hmm...
, or they ride huge frogs into battle.
I don't think non-magical frogs work that way, dude.
See, 'magic' allows you to explain all that wacky shit. Idk if non-magical is supposed to mean "you won't cast Fireball" to most people, but if taken literally, it means something else.
Well I'm not saying we're gonna be having something this far out, just explaining my view of what's non-magic is for me. Like, if a game tells me "hey man, the weird frog mounts were just tamed by the little folks, cuz on this planet frogs are smarter than dogs and are tameable and then they evolved acid glands in their face because it's a spooky different world where things evolve acid sacks in their face" I go "wow, this sure is a low-magic game! Because the word "magic" was replaced with "they evolved stuff"!" I get that others see "low magic" as something else. Ours will be a blend of these different perspectives, hopefully!
we decided to make the world more diverse instead of full on Hyborian and we wanted more technology than the Hyborian age could offer. Like astronomy, navigation, knowing the world is round, etc
late bronze/early iron age type of weaponry and tactics, or late medieval? or a mix? some dudes wandering around in loincloths while their southern neighbors practice feudal chivalry?
See, 'magic' allows you to explain all that wacky shit. Idk if non-magical is supposed to mean "you won't cast Fireball" to most people, but if taken literally, it means something else.
i'm definitely in the camp of having dire wolves and aurochs and other megafauna not counting towards magical. i mean, a 65kg wolf is intimidating no matter how armored one is, and i
can suspend disbelief to
fight giant frogs but not riding them. no magic makes me think battle brothers or any of those 'quasi-medieval mercenary group simulators' where after the novelty wears off it becomes a rote grind.
Right now it feels like this mix you mentioned. Technological and social progress isn't even betwixt all factions. There's a remote faction that was long isolated from others and is seemingly stuck in the late iron age, while another went past it and resembles later historical periods in some aspects e.g. has crossbows and huge globetrotting fleets and absolutism. But we just have a few locations ready and populated, so who knows. I think we'll have aurochs too, just didn't get the model yet.
A bit off topic though, speaking of
'quasi-medieval mercenary group simulators'
are there any good ones out there? To my surprise I have around 500 hrs in unmodded Battle Brothers and though it feels like I'll enjoy playing a few hundreds more when I'm free, the aformentioned novelty might wear off soon. I know of Wartales, but they just don't scratch that itch for me
Probably I guess, we're never good at planning. Would be cool to have something playable to share in 2024, but I dunno. Experience shows that you can only properly predict a release date, once you realize you're a month or two away from it.
if Atom made the best Fallout alternative, maybe they will make the Arcanum like RPG.
I heard there's a pretty cool looking arcanum in development at the moment already! We're not good at steampunk. But I guess you might call this project some kind of punk. Rope-and-pulley punk? Everything is some kind of punk!
if Atom made the best Fallout alternative, maybe they will make the Arcanum like RPG.
I'm sure it'll get itself a nice little niche! Atom Team's very own Lionheart, can you imagine?
Two games where you can be a literal wizard.
I meant in the way how they had those successful post-apoc RPGs but then they released a medival-esque thingy using their system!
In case you haven't I really recommend checking both especially
Dungeon Rats and to some extent
Blackguards if you're looking to see how good blow trading (rather than big area of effect spell) RPGs are balanced.
I might be interested in the game, although per usual lack of party creation means I might not rush into it.
Wow, I completely missed those titles, thanks! Party creation was something I had a long think about earlier this year. No chance it'll be in our game, since it was long decided you'll make a PC and meet the others in the world, but damn, I realized that I miss the times where the other way was the industry norm players actually expected. So we're totally opened for a game with full party creation sometime in the future. I said this as far back as 2020, if we're ever financially secure enough to waste time on weird experiments, I'll blackmail them into letting me make a blobber. It will be called Blasteriade I: The Chronicles of the Infant Regalia. Set in the far low high tech future of the year 3000, by which humanity has spread among the stars and sophisticated melee weapons and professional wrestling moves combined with Dune-style personal shielding changed combat forever, this thrill filled turn-based tile-based rollercoaster ride will take your party of up to 6 characters through mysterious planets, horrific space hulks and ancient temples of non-human make on a quest from the god emperor Corpulan XII the Corpulent Kyng himself... His dying wish: to unearth the fabled Infant Regalia and bring the galactic empire from the brink of collapse! But nothing is as it seems... And perhaps the mighty artifact might be of better use in the hands of other factions, or even the heroic party itself?... ...?