Pillars of Eternity Interview with PC Gamer

In an interview with PC Gamer, Josh Sawyer from Obsidian Entertainment talks about the aesthetics of game design and how they tried to inspire nostalgia and capture the feel of old infinity engine games like Baldur's Gate. For many people Baldur's Gate gave them that D&D fix that they may have been missing, either between sessions or because they could not find a group. But whereas the earlier games used a modified version of AD&D 2nd edition, Pillars of Eternity uses its own custom ruleset.

The setting of the game differs from D&D standard, but they try to distilled the archetype of characters down to capture the spirit of the D&D classes without necessarily having the exact same mechanics. Additionally, while the characters still have six ability scores, these scores have been rethought to facilitate the idea that all ability scores should be useful to all characters in one way or another.

The example they give on how ability scores will work is a barbarian that focuses on intellect. In a D&D game intellect would usually less than ideal for a barbarian, but intellect affects duration of abilities and the size of area-of-effect abilities. This is a very interesting direction to take, but it looks like something that would be difficult to implement in a pen-and-paper game, at least to the same level of detail.

Initiative is a fairly useful abstraction, but the use of attack speeds, the ability to interrupt attacks, and casting duration could prove fairly difficult to use in a table top setting without a spreadsheet or a decent amount of math. It is not so much that you would need to find the derivative of an integral and more that either the DM or players would need to constantly add or subtract small sums, which can wear down on you over the course of a long combat.

I do like the idea of a more involved initiative system, and I see how interrupts could add another level of tactical play, but I will have to think long and hard as to whether an increase layer of complexity is a decent trade-off for more involved player. Perhaps more involved play is not actually desirable in and of itself.

Pillars of Eternity's use of six ability scores also makes me reconsider the use of nine ability scores in my own system. Tradition is a powerful force, and an attempt to make all ability scores useful in some way may result in diluting the characters focus too much. On the other hand, I like symmetry, and the power/finesse/resistance and physical/mental/social framework is difficult for me, personally, to ignore.

Forest Fires the West

While I never have to face the threat of forest fires where I live, weather conditions in the western provinces of Canada have lead to massive blazes and the evacuation of some towns. Hopefully those who are affected by these fires are safe and we do not lose any fire fighters to the blaze, but it did make me consider forest fires in the context of RPGs. D&D has an entry for forest fires in the SRD section on wilderness.

Forest Fires (Cr 6)

Most campfire sparks ignite nothing, but if conditions are dry, winds are strong, or the forest floor is dried out and flammable, a forest fire can result. Lightning strikes often set trees afire and start forest fires in this way. Whatever the cause of the fire, travelers can get caught in the conflagration.

A forest fire can be spotted from as far away as 2d6×100 feet by a character who makes a Spot check, treating the fire as a Colossal creature (reducing the DC by 16). If all characters fail their Spot checks, the fire moves closer to them. They automatically see it when it closes to half the original distance.Characters who are blinded or otherwise unable to make Spot checks can feel the heat of the fire (and thus automatically “spot” it) when it is 100 feet away.The leading edge of a fire (the downwind side) can advance faster than a human can run (assume 120 feet per round for winds of moderate strength). Once a particular portion of the forest is ablaze, it remains so for 2d4×10 minutes before dying to a smoking smolder. Characters overtaken by a forest fire may find the leading edge of the fire advancing away from them faster than they can keep up, trapping them deeper and deeper in its grasp.

Heat Damage

Getting caught within a forest fire is even worse than being exposed to extreme heat (see Heat Dangers). Breathing the air causes a character to take 1d6 points of damage per round (no save). In addition, a character must make a Fortitude save every 5 rounds (DC 15, +1 per previous check) or take 1d4 points of nonlethal damage. A character who holds his breath can avoid the lethal damage, but not the nonlethal damage. Those wearing heavy clothing or any sort of armor take a -4 penalty on their saving throws. In addition, those wearing metal armor or coming into contact with very hot metal are affected as if by a heat metal spell.

Catching on Fire

Characters engulfed in a forest fire are at risk of catching on fire when the leading edge of the fire overtakes them, and are then at risk once per minute thereafter.

Smoke Inhalation

Forest fires naturally produce a great deal of smoke. A character who breathes heavy smoke must make a Fortitude save each round (DC 15, +1 per previous check) or spend that round choking and coughing. A character who chokes for 2 consecutive rounds takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. Also, smoke obscures vision, providing concealment to characters within it.

I do not think I would treat forest fires in this way, at least not for the larger ones. Current there are fires burning in the Northwest Territories that are causing breathing problems dozens of kilometers away and are changing the colour of the sky. Fires of this size would be more obvious, but they would also affect all life in the area, likely changing the encounter tables that the players face. Maybe the fires displace entire tribes of humanoids, bringing conflict with some of the settlements in the area for years to come.

Going back to World of Darkness again, Damnation City has a section on chase scenes in the city. I can see potential to modify this as a matrix for escaping a fire that is heading towards you. Perhaps the trail that you were following does not head directly away from the flames, do you follow the train or head into the brush? You come upon a thirty foot drop, do you run along its edge hoping for an easier way down or do you attempt to descend? By having a series of obstacles prepared where the players have to make a choice you can make the escape from the fire not just a matter of dice rolls but also a dramatic scene.

Mysterious Crater in Siberia

In strange news from around the world, a mysterious 80m wide crater opened up in the ground of northern Siberia. Beware, distorted audio in the later half of the video.



From the article I read, one of the leading theories is that it is related to methane gas release, likely brought on by global warming. If the region where the megadungeon takes place is experiencing a rapid period of warming then the areas that are affected by permafrost melt, making the terrain even more treacherous than you would expect.



 
It is not exactly scientific, but this warming could be triggered by increased volcanic activity in the region. What is causing this increased volcanism? That is one of the great mysteries. It also gives me an excuse to include more elemental based creatures, and have some conflict between those various forces of nature.

In the World of Darkness games that I have recently been playing, the world is mirrored by a world of spirits. Spirits are not the same thing as ghosts, they are instead abstract representations of things that exist in the real world. So you could have spirits of cold or spirits of fire, basically being parralell representations of D&D's elementals.You can also get abstract representations of other things, like spirits of faith in a place that has seen lots of worship, or spirits of pain in locations that have seen a lot of suffering. The changes in the landscape and the conflict spilling out from the spirit world into the physical will likely form one of the layers of conflict within the campaign.

Nonstandard Corridor Cross-sections for your Megadungeon

JDJarvis at Aeons & Augauries has made a great post on corridor profiles. Instead of the same 10' wide corridor your megadungeon could have one of the 240 non-standard cross-sections that he has on his blog. This is not to say that his post exhausts all the possibilities, but it should hopefully get you thinking in three dimensions instead of just two. Sometimes the tools we use can constrain our creativity, and if working out a dungeon gets you stuck in that 2D then just could be just the thing to throw your players for a loop.

See the link for a picture detailing all 240 cross-sections.

Environs of the Megadungeon: Lands of Fire & Ice

While the players will have to deal with nature and savage weather conditions, and the way ice has shaped the land should be readily evident, the presence of a threat underneath their feet should always be present. While this northern region has long had a history of hot springs, there was no record of volcanoes, at least not as many as there are currently active.

Basalt columns give the landscape a synthetic appearance, but are actually evidence of a violent volcanic past.
 

Geysers and hot springs are evidence of the heat beneath their feet, but also form the basis for various settlements in the region.
 

Mountains around the region are actually long dormant volcanoes whose fumaroles and vents now break through their glacial shrouds.



One of the great mysteries is the increase of volcanic activity. There have not been any violent eruptions in the regions closest to civilization, their are worries as to what would happen if some of the volcanoes around the main port were to erupt. There is no easy access to the environs around the megadungeon except by ship.

The contrast between fire and ice will allow for a variety of environmental hazards during a extended delve in the megadungeon. What may begin as frigid conditions in the high mountains may become warmer, presenting problems with water. At the greatest depths heat and poisonous gasses could present threats that have to be overcome. Obviously there can not be any threat that the players magic or technology could not potentially overcome or else there is no actual point to having these threats in the game, unless they are intended to form absolute barriers, but that is not fun and in the end the point of the game is to have fun. Face a challenge, perhaps lose a few characters, but to have fun.