Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Chris Avellone: Narrative Paths

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There are only three days to go to the end of the Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Kickstarter campaign - Chris Avellone shared some insight on how to create a CRPG:

Chris Avellone: Narrative Paths

Translating a Pathfinder Adventure Path like Wrath of the Righteous is no easy task. Wrath, like Pathfinder: Kingmaker, has the enormous challenge of translating one of Paizo's Pathfinder Adventure Paths into the digital realm.

For those not familiar with Adventure Paths, they are a series of six interconnected modules that take Pathfinder adventurers from Level 1 to... well... a frighteningly high level. A table top playthrough of an Adventure Path can be akin like playing six seasons of Game of Thrones, it's that epic. And intricate. Also, in Wrath's case, it also comes with a healthy splash of demons and demon lords.

The effort in translating the core story line doesn't even take into account the additional story layers the Mythic Paths and the companion interactions provide the core story experience - it's like taking the core story, adding six more interwoven stories (now 8, with the stretch goals met - thank you all!), and then interweaving the companion stories on top of that.

So the question is how to adapt this amount of narrative content into the computer gaming realm. I'll go into some detail about how it's done from a narrative standpoint, courtesy of the efforts of our writing lead, Alexander Komzolov.

[...]
More information.
 
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I suppose it helps the game development process quite a bit to be using an existing adventure series. It's already been extensively play-tested, so rebalancing is likely minimal.

No final days bump? Maybe people are waiting on the PayPal option?
 
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I suppose it helps the game development process quite a bit to be using an existing adventure series. It's already been extensively play-tested, so rebalancing is likely minimal.

Sorta yes, sorta no.

CRPG players tend to want a high magic setting.
A plethora of magical items lessens difficulty.
So we run into solutions such as was implemented for Pathfinder Kingmaker: artificial stat bloat, which is not present in the PnP.
 
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Sorta yes, sorta no.

CRPG players tend to want a high magic setting.
A plethora of magical items lessens difficulty.
So we run into solutions such as was implemented for Pathfinder Kingmaker: artificial stat bloat, which is not present in the PnP.

I like no/lesser magic settings like Kingdom Come: Deliverance or Battle Brothers. I like less und unique items. A special sword should be special all game long. Maybe you have to enhance them througout the game with your skills/levels. (The leveled items that last for one level were really the baddest thing in DD: OS2.)
 
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I like no/lesser magic setiings like Kingdom Come: Deliverance or Battle Brothers. I like less und unique items. A special sword should be special all game long. Maybe you to enhance them througout the game with your skills/levels. (The leveled items that last for one level were really the baddest thing in DD: OS2.)

That's not really typical for D&D-style games though. It's a constant arms race and that's what players expect.
 
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I'd say the item balance is okish in PF:KM, but I would prefer maybe a couple of weapons of each type that are special (that's still LOADS of weapons). Special armours of the different types should be scarce as well. Still, it's perfectly fine as is.

DOS2 though...yuck. Abysmal itemization that shouldn't exist outside of ARPG's. Here's to hoping Larian doesn't go that route with BG3 (and since it is DnD they probably won't).
 
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After reading up I decided not to back it. I’ll probably still pick it up but they have plenty of money and I get a bit Leary about dev’s trying to do too much when they get so much more than their asks.

Also going to have to read up a bit more about the mythic paths not really liking the sound of them and I don’t care for the leading armies thing so I’ll have to see how involved that is.
 
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