Obsidian announce isometric RPG Kickstarter

Phonomicon Ex Cultis - 100 random gods and cults

For those of you still checking this for NWN2 updates, this will be a bit of a departure. But still on the RPG front, and for the pen-and-paper gamers amongst you, I've just released a collection of 100 random cults and gods on RPGNow - something I was working on for my own tabletop dungeons but thought I'd share.

Phonomicon Ex Cultis: Phonomicon Ex Cultis

Kickstarting Modding?

Hello all! Still here - but a lot going on since I was last on the NWN2 scene. Now playing more pen-and-paper RPGs than ever before which is A Good Thing(TM). Also looking at playing/running games over Google+ and their free hangouts - check out the games at ConstantCon. The future for virtual tabletop RPGs? Could well be... I'm pretty quiet on the social networking/blogging side of things, but hook me up on Google+ if you use it (email in profile bar to the right).

I've not opened up NWN2 in quite some time. Been replaying IWD2, dabbling in Skrim, enjoying Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes immensely, kicking a$$ in Arkham Asylum, toying with A SoU/HotU replay, and reminding myself of how much I suck at (but enjoy) FPS games with RAGE.

Was reading a thread that got me thinking today about the old modding scene - specifically about Kickstarter. For those who don;t know, it's a way of scoping out interest and funding for your nascent creative project. Issues with the site/ethos aside, it got me thinking - would people have used this in the modding scene back when we were all trying to make those multi-chapter juggernauts ? Would it have improved productivity? I'd be interested to hear from the ossian crew their thoughts as to if it would have made a difference?

(note: I'm not advocating one way or another here - just genuinely interested in the implications and people's views)

I might start using the blog more for general RPG thoughts rather than anything NWN2 focussed - if that means you want to delist, just giving you a heads up.

Hope all are well!

Mud Sorcerer's Tomb - progress update

It was a slow start, with being out of the country most of March - and having to reacquaint myself with the toolset after a 6 month break - but have been chipping away my conversion of the Mud Sorcerer's Tomb for Chaos Wielder's Community Project.

I'm useless at remembering to take screenshots in playtests. Here's the entrance where the workers' bodies have been unceremoniously dumped.

Nothing unsurmountable in the playtest, and might put up a link to share soon and get feedback on fleshing out with flavour text. The tomb is more about traps and puzzles, but the few combat encounters can be nasty due to resistances the creatures have. Thing I'm happiest I got working first time is - once inside the Mud Sorcerer's Tomb - any spell cast that calls on water/earth elements (including cold/acid) has a 50% chance of summoning a rogue elemental instead. Caused a few shocks for good old Brigit Chandler in the test run ;) . This worked so well, I might try something similar for the next adventure I'm due to face, when the PCs go up against the druids - reminds me of a spell my cleric in an old PnP game devised called 'Congregation' that could subvert any summoned creaturre called in a certain radius of the PC, making it an good celestial allied to the cleric, rather than the intended creature.

Belated congrats to the recent Hall of Famers - Amraphael and EC Patterson. Very well deserved!

Redesign

Something I've been toying with for a while (and reignited by Lance's recent post - nudge me Lance if I don't reply!), I'm going to work on a redesign of the blog to also cover more general, non-NWN2 but gaming related thoughts. Plus some projects I'm working on the side that are gaming related.

All of this in my non-existent free time, of course.

More to come, and an explanation for the new blog title, soon

By the way, any artistic types that have suggestions for images/artwork blog header based on that title, let me know!

Still alive

...albeit enslaved to the corporate zombification process at work these past few months. Ain't no free time when you're an undead minion...

Glad to see LoWPM still chugging along, despite the bugged areas. Other than rebuild them from scratch, deleting them is a simpler option to solve the bugs (there's enough other areas in there), but I'm loathe to do that. I think the random bugs that some see 9journal updates) and other dont = or that some see with one install that then disappear on a reinstall - aren't helping lure me back to the toolset. But I have been dabbling in a bit of writing, planning, and pen-and-paper D&D, which is good to be inspired in again.

Will try and be around more - got a backlog of new mods to play!

The Future of cRPGS...?

Am I the only one who reads this list and feels a little disappointed?

What next for someone that doesn't want MMO/MP-style mundanity? Why does it always seem that RPG elements in recent RPGs have to be hidden behind more arcade-y gameplay/graphics?

Don't get me wrong, there's interesting stuff on that list I'll likely pick up, but the grognard / old-schooler in me really feels there's something missing - something new yet harkening back to good old story-driven SP fun that will keep me locked in a room til the wee hours of the morning.

Trouble is, sometimes I keep thinking back to ToEE when I think about what style of game I really want to come out, and so far nothing's looking promising on that front... Fallout: New Vegas I'm expecting a lot from, but we'll see.

What are others looking out for?

Legacy of White Plume Mountain: Released

I'm happy to report that Legacy of White Plume Mountain is now released on the vault.

Thanks to all the custom content creators whose work I've tried to also showcae in this project, and to the playtesters for perserverance, feedback and advice.

And to those who've stuck with the NWN2 community, I really hope you enjoy my little sandbox in Faerun.

Uploading to Vault

Weekend was spent mainly doing final bits of testing and tweaking. And getting the final battle in place.
This is me just before the final battle kicks off...


And this is me a few minutes later...


I'm really hoping people get a kick out of playing this. It's not a style to everyone's taste (mine included being story-lite), but I've had a blast building it, and I hope that shows. I'm upoading to the Vault as we speak but it may take some time (>600Mb in optimised RAR files). Will post again once it's approved.

Old School Dungeon Crawl of Doom

Feel bad that I've not been active on my fellow builder's blogs recently (so much juicy stuff going on for NWN2 now! Hoping I can help play/test your work soon!) but that's due to lack of time - but the upside is that most spare time has been spent digging into the toolset. And hopefully I should be getting close - if all goes to plan, this weekend I intend to run through the main plot path - party of 4 level 7 PCs tackling in order White Plume Mountain, Return to White Plume Mountain, and the climactic Ex Keraptis Cum Amore. That's one long old school dungeon crawl right there, weighing in at a solid few hours. Focus will be to check for balance, but also to see if I can finally overcome the clingy bugs that have been plaguing me e.g. creatures that refuse to jump to a waypoint even when there's no good reason they shouldn't (will likely end up using script-hidden as a workaround). Plus there's a few old-school aspects that will need testing like magic decks of cards that completely screw up your PC (does anything cry classic D&D more than that?).

Since the last few play reports I've overhauled the balance of the entire campaign, but I think tweaking that could go on forever and I'll never please everyone, so I'll likely release soon and make any alterations on the fly. Hopefully the upcoming spate of releases will see more traffic back on the Vault and all new content can benefit from that.

So. If I'm lucky, end of the month doesn't look like too unrealistic a prospect.... eek.

Here's some screenies of the specific dungeon areas i've just finished adding scripts and dialogue to. Strange pools of bubbling alchemical mixtures - drink, swim, or avoid like the plague? Time to make those Wisdom checks....