RPG Watch Planescape: Torment Feature

[Incendiary Lemon]

Brother None (of NMA fame) has done a two part interview with Chris Avellone and Colin McComb for RPG Watch. The questions are interesting but it better for the lengthy answers that the two give. Avellone posted two design documents to go with the exchange, one is the Ravel outline including her speech tree and the other is the pitch they gave to Interplay management.

One of the directions for the theme of the game was to turn a lot of RPG cliches on their head, and a number of encounters, situations, and game mechanics revolved around that.

Its a fun read.

Part One (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/article?articleid=55&ref=0&id=208) & Part Two (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/article?articleid=56&ref=0&id=208)

[Juan Rayo]

Awesome linkies

Thanks for the links, that was a good read, boy did it bring back memories of what is, to this day, one of my favorite games.

[Kunikos]

It just makes me sad that everything that the people who worked on Torment have done since has fallen so short of the bar they previously set.

[Mordrak]

Avellone is right about the game's box. It isn't very appealing. When the game came out, I asked on the official forums who made it. When someone posted saying something about it was them on the cover, I didn't have the heart to tell them I didn't like it.

I don't know if they've fallen short, maybe with polish, but it's been so long it's hard to say there. I remember there was one major memory leak bug that was fixed soon after release. Still, a good part of what makes Planescape interesting is a setting that lends itself to the incredible creativity that the people involved showed. Star Wars and Forgotten Realms, while having many interesting elements, are settings that tell much more mundane stories. Planescape is probably the best fantasy game I've played.

[Kunikos]

I didn't like any of the high-resolution 3D renders, actually. They look like they're made out of Playdoh. :P

They should have released a second version of the box with just the symbol of the Lady of Pain on the front and the symbol of Torment on the back, but I suppose by then the damage was done.

[Gendal]

All that talk of a lost Kingsfield clone set in the Planescape universe has me depressed now. I loved the Kingsfield series, even though I knew they could be so much more than they where.

[stusser]

Anyone else read both word docs and the pdf in their entirety?

[Charles]

That pitch PDF is fucking awesome. Must have been good to do internal pitches. I never got around to doing mine to Bioware, ended up leaving. Oh well.

[Mordrak]

Anyone else read both word docs and the pdf in their entirety?
I skimmed the format of the design documents, since I've seen so few of them. I wonder how long it took to write up that rough draft.


That pitch PDF is fucking awesome. Must have been good to do internal pitches. I never got around to doing mine to Bioware, ended up leaving. Oh well.

Wow. You're right. I really like the character concept sketches.