As the feature developed (primarily through the work of both Jeff and Nathaniel Chapman), we realized how much value it could add to the game. Toward the end of Mask of the Betrayer, designers Eric Fenstermaker and Jeff Husges played around with the idea a bit just to see what would be possible. Kevin: We initially experimented with the Overland Map as a novelty. Okay - what sort of strengths does the new exploration map offer?
while you talk about a fifteen hour campaign, I get the feeling that refers to the central arc involving the Yuan-Ti, and there's lots of room for random hack and slash. RPS: Equally, reading about the encounters in the wilderness. Kevin: I would say that your interpretation is accurate, yes. RPS: Reading between the lines of the press release, Zehir seems to be embracing the old school D&D of dungeon crawling and adventure.
With Storm of Zehir, we wanted to expand that to an entire party (as was done in the older CRPGs you mention). Obsidian's past games have given great customizability in terms of your character. But it's not what D&D and the Neverwinter Nights 2 franchises are about. The problems can compound when you're talking about an entire party instead of a single character. It's much easier to create a great game with a specific character/role the player fills - that's part of why so many games go that route. And there are many other considerations: once you let the player create their own character, you set many expectations that are challenging to meet. The story must be flexible enough to embrace a wide variety of characters. must all be adapted to work with each race. The amount of work required is staggering. There are major trade-offs in making a game that allows character customization. With a pregenerated character, you lose that magical sense of ownership that's at the core of role-playing. I don't even remember what adventures he went on, but I do remember him. I chose a halfling - probably because I was about that size - who I creatively named Nivek. I was five and my older brother (9) had bought the Basic D&D book - the red set with the warrior slashing at a red dragon on the cover. For me personally - and I suspect this is true for many - my first memory of role-playing is creating my character. This complete customization of who your alter ego is at the core of what pencil-and-paper role-playing is all about.
Kevin Saunders: With this approach, you completely own your character(s). Why did you choose to re-explore this terrain? What strengths does this kind of approach offer which the pregenerated NPC model loses? Most modern party based games go for the pregenerated NPC character model, making it a rarity in the modern marketplace.
#Neverwinter nights 2 mods halfling full#
RPS: With its full party customisation approach, it seems to owe more to things like Icewind Dale and even older RPGs (Gold Box and earlier, to Bard's Tale and similar). Below the cut you'll find a little about what Storm of Zehir's approach allows (And what's lost), his memories of playing early D&D games, what the overland map allows and how the fifteen-hour-main story perhaps isn't everything. NWN2: Storm of Zehir's producer, Kevin Saunders, took a few minutes from measuring the merit of monsters to answer our questions. No sooner than we heard that Obsidian were at work on another NWN2 add-on, with a more party-customisation adventuring approach, we dropped 'em a line.
0 kommentar(er)
