Octopus Overlords

New isometric party-based game announced based on the Pathfinder RPG rules (originally based on DnD 3.5). Narrative design by Chris Avellone (known for Planescape Torment, Fallout 2, Icewind Dale, SW:KotOR2, NWN2, Alpha Protocol, Fallout New Vegas).

Pathfinder: Kingmaker sees players trying to establish their own kingdom. As you build and expand your territory, fledgling kings and queens will have to combat rival lands and threats from the wilderness. Your kingdom will grow based on your "alignment, choices, allies and the hero’s ability to lead his or her people", according to Owlcat. Expect a ruthless tyrant to create a city of cold stone, while a benevolent person of the people will build a thriving market town. (source: pcgamesn.com)

[Kingdom building] "will go beyond simple stronghold-building to become a true reflection of the hero’s character and choices made throughout the game," Owlcat said. "Each kingdom will be a living thing shaped by alignment, choices, allies and the hero’s ability to lead his or her people." (source: PCGamer)

Here's the official website.

• Defend yourself against the threats of wilderness and rival kingdoms as you explore a world rich with history, magic, and conflict.
• Experience the adventure alongside living and breathing companions, each with deep stories and decisions of their own. Love them, adore them or hate them for who they are.
• Customize your character and companions with a multitude of options available in Pathfinder to make the perfect party capable of overcoming insurmountable challenges.
• Establish your kingdom in Stolen Lands, claim new territories, and build towns and cities. Be a wise ruler or a heavy-handed tyrant.

Hopefully they're getting some better advice with this than they did with Pathfinder Online.

Love the concept, especially if it's an updated version of Birthright.

Zarathud wrote:Love the concept, especially if it's an updated version of Birthright.

My thoughts exactly. Literally! Get out of my head!!!

It's up on Kickstarter now.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ow ... =user_menu

Just got an email about the kickstarter wit h6 days to go lol. least they made some stretch goals.

this looks fantastic! But I got a quirk.. I want this. I want Tyranny. I want the new Planescape. BUT. I own Pillars of Eternity and played it all of 10 min. WTH??! I am a HUGE Infinity Engine game lover. I just dont understand whats happened lol.

But this is going to be great I think..I hope. never heard of Pathfinder .Hey Chris Avellone has made some of my favorite RPG games. So I got a bit of confidence in it. If I had the cash id jump in on this. I think it would be my 2nd or 3rd community fund thing.

Daehawk wrote:never heard of Pathfinder

It's just a modded version of D&D 3.5 edition.

Max Peck wrote:

Daehawk wrote:never heard of Pathfinder

It's just a modded version of D&D 3.5 edition.

Which is to say it has about twice as many excessively detailed rules as D&D 2.0, isn't as broken as D&D 3.0, is also more well received than D&D 4.0, and die-hard fans will always say that none of it holds a candle to D&D 1.0.

The die-hard fans these days tend to lump 1st and 2nd (the AD&Ds) together. OD&D (original D&D), AD&D, 3.5, 4th, and 5th are the major divisions that get discussed and compared.

To bring this back on topic, when 4th Edition was released, people were very unhappy with it. It was a rules-heavy miniatures game that removed almost all of the role playing elements in favor of mechanics inspired by the MMOs that were costing them customers.

Paizo came along with Pathfinder, a revamped version of 3.5 D&D that polished off the rough edges and provided good quality rules and supplements, sometimes called 3.75 D&D. It was so popular that, for the first time in the history of the hobby, D&D was not the best selling RPG. Pathfinder was, and remained so until after the release of the vastly improved 5th Edtion rules (which are my favorite, having played every edition but 4th, including Pathfinder.)

Pathfinder also has it's own world (Golarion) with its history and characters, tons of novels, extensive miniatures lines, the whole shebang.

Daehawk wrote:Just got an email about the kickstarter wit h6 days to go lol. least they made some stretch goals.

this looks fantastic! But I got a quirk.. I want this. I want Tyranny. I want the new Planescape. BUT. I own Pillars of Eternity and played it all of 10 min. WTH??! I am a HUGE Infinity Engine game lover. I just dont understand whats happened lol.

I know what you mean. I loved 2d iso CRPGs back in the day, but Wasteland 2/Pillars/Tyranny and any other recent ones I haven't mentioned get a big 'meh' from me. Not that they're bad, I'm not saying that at all. I see how I would have loved them back then, it's just now for some reason I can't play games like that anymore. I wind up feeling restless, like I'd rather being doing something else. It's like being a kid and thinking bologna sandwiches are the best, then one day when you're older you realize you can never eat another bologna sandwich as long as you live.

Oh so this is not an area in the forgotten realms like icewind dale and baldurs gate?

No, but if you were playing you might think you were in some type of alternative AD&D campaign world for all the similarity the game holds to the source rules.

Nope. The Realms are owned by Wizards of the Coast. Pathfinder is Paizo, which means the world of Golarion. It still has a lot of material and some very cool ideas. I always enjoyed the undead nation, where the undead have their own government, laws, etc. As I recall, if you die there, your body belongs to the state by law.

It is likely based on their well-loved adventure series, named *gasp* Kingmaker.

Smoove_B wrote:No, but if you were playing you might think you were in some type of alternative AD&D campaign world for all the similarity the game holds to the source rules.

Have they said that they're using the Pathfinder rules system? I seem to remember something a few years back, maybe with Pathfinder Online, where it was an issue. Something to do with the OGL license (that covers the portions of Pathfinder that come directly from D&D) that created legal issues with using the rules themselves, perhaps with it not extending to video games. Again, just a faint recollection.

Come back you all I found something here!!

Can anyone tell me what might make this different or more appealing than the DD: Original Sin 2 or POE games? I have eyeballed the latter but have yet to pull the trigger, and wondering if this has something different to offer.

Freyland wrote: ↑Wed Sep 05, 2018 2:19 pm Can anyone tell me what might make this different or more appealing than the DD: Original Sin 2 or POE games? I have eyeballed the latter but have yet to pull the trigger, and wondering if this has something different to offer.

None of them are PUBG so you might just want to move along.

Redfive wrote: ↑Wed Sep 05, 2018 2:33 pm

Freyland wrote: ↑Wed Sep 05, 2018 2:19 pm Can anyone tell me what might make this different or more appealing than the DD: Original Sin 2 or POE games? I have eyeballed the latter but have yet to pull the trigger, and wondering if this has something different to offer.

None of them are PUBG so you might just want to move along.

Freyland wrote: ↑Wed Sep 05, 2018 2:19 pm Can anyone tell me what might make this different or more appealing than the DD: Original Sin 2 or POE games? I have eyeballed the latter but have yet to pull the trigger, and wondering if this has something different to offer.

The draw for me is that it's a traditional single-player RPG that allows you to establish and rule a kingdom.

Your Kingdom

We chose to adapt the Kingmaker adventure path because it features a host of open-world mechanics, allowing players to experience the story at their own pace as they explore the Stolen Lands, which will challenge you as both an adventurer and a ruler. Most importantly, the game allows you to claim these lands as your own, letting you carve your own kingdom from the wilderness. While classic dungeon crawling and exploration lie at the heart of this adventure, diplomacy, politics, and kingdom development are also part of the challenge. Choose your allies well, and keep them close while exploring ancient tombs and ruins — and while dealing with politics in your own court.

As you’ll discover, building a kingdom goes beyond simply building a stronghold: Your kingdom is a reflection of your character and your choices throughout the game. It is a living thing shaped by your alignment, your allies, and your ability to lead your people. Not only can your kingdom expand, opening up new territories and allowing you to build new towns and communities, but your capital city will physically change based on your decisions, your policies, and even whom you choose to ally with. As your kingdom grows, a number of factions and neighboring countries will come to you to seek favor—and to test your strength.

Releases Tuesday, any early adopters?

RMC wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 8:29 am Releases Tuesday, any early adopters?

Yup, I went all-in on the Imperial Edition.

RMC wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 8:29 am Releases Tuesday, any early adopters?

I kickstarted it at a level that ended up translating to “Imperial Edition”.

Ive not kept up on it..least not in months. I still think it will be good from what I last saw.

Preload is up on Steam....Not that I preordered this or anything...

I was tempted to preload it, but then I remembered that it will be faster to download it after it unlocks than it would be to decrypt/unpack the preload.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:27 am I was tempted to preload it, but then I remembered that it will be faster to download it after it unlocks than it would be to decrypt/unpack the preload.

Not on my 10MB download speed, that I can do while I am at work. MY daughter has a cross country meet tonight as well, so I will not be home until late to even start it up.

I'm being aware of it right now. Pathfinder's other attempt to expand into video games was a complete mess, so I'll wait and see how the reviews work out.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Tue Sep 25, 2018 10:02 am I'm being aware of it right now. Pathfinder's other attempt to expand into video games was a complete mess, so I'll wait and see how the reviews work out.

I agree, but it was too BG looking, and with a very cool premise and setting. For 40 bucks, I'll try it.

It unlocked earlier than I expected. Downloading now...

If anyone is interested GOG is doing a Twitch stream of it right now.

Watching. Not really sure what I'm seeing, but I'm watching. He's running a raffle right now. Type "!raffle" in chat for a chance at the base game.

Combat looks great. There is a LOT of dialogue. Lots of options in conversation. Lots of skill rolls.

raffle over.

Slick combat interface. Really solid. Lots of skills/spells/abilities in combat and they are all available from the party icons at the bottom. Select a character and buttons with detailed mouse over text appear above the party avatars.

I wasn't there for the raffle. A lot of times I dont join them because either Im not sure on a game, I own it, or I see others talking who probably need and deserve it more than me.

Lots of pause options in combat. Extensive in game details for what mechanics are in play. Rock solid (until closing out to desktop). First impressions are very good.

Traveling this week, but when I get back home, I will be digging into this one. The continuous action combat looks extremely customizable, to the point you are almost making it turn based. Character creation deep and interesting. And the Kingdom section of the game sounds like it has some originality. Very optimistic!

The King maker aspect is the only thing that I haven't seen enough of to have an opinion of yet. The rest looks like a very solid party based rpg. As noted, the combat looks quite strong.

The character creation is downright dangerous if you're prone to decision paralysis.

My only real complaint is that they didn't produce a manual for the game. The documentation is an in-game encyclopedia, and that doesn't seem to include things like equipment/weapon tables, which is a pita if you need to pick weapon specialization during character creation (for example) and don't have reference material for the pen-and-paper game. Of course, it didn't seem possible to access the encyclopedia during character creation, so the lack of gear lists wouldn't help me anyway. The game really deserves a nice meaty old-school RPG manual.

There is still a little room for more polish. I've spotted some minor typos, and have had a couple of non-persistent UI issues with spell lists (duplicate entries in the list of available spells, mislabeled spells in a character's spell list).

I also found that the combat can be pretty brutal if you're not familiar with the Pathfinder/D20 3.5 systems. I managed a complete party wipe in the tutorial section on my first go-round, and am still hitting some severe difficulty spikes early in the game with a 2nd level party. I had to drop the difficulty down to easy (from normal) to get past one recurring random encounter that seemed otherwise unbeatable, and resorted to reading up on a particular P&P game mechanic in order to avoid death by a thousand scratches because the game didn't provide any discernible reason for why everything I tried failed to do any damage to seemingly trivial critters that nibbled me to death 1 HP at a time. I need to git gud...

I had a bit of that character creation paralysis last night...took over 2 hours to decide on my character. Should I be a Rogue? hmm...maybe Magus. No, an Inquisitor. Dammit how about a Cleric? Okay...Rogue it is. Straight Rogue or one of the archetypes? Settled on the Eldritch Scoundrel for a Rogue with some spellcasting abilities. We'll see if I reroll once I get going

I will not buy anymore RPG's that I won't finish I will not buy anymore RPG's that I won't finish I will not buy anymore RPG's that I won't finish

Lorini wrote: ↑Wed Sep 26, 2018 11:29 am I will not buy anymore RPG's that I won't finish I will not buy anymore RPG's that I won't finish I will not buy anymore RPG's that I won't finish

How do you know you won’t finish if you don’t buy the game?