The Campaign Builder's Guild

Quote from: SteerpikeI mean, it's insane and would never fly today, but a part of me wishes this sort of baroque, sort of hyper-ergodic design philosophy still existed.

Not to derail this thread too much, but I tend to be extremely skeptical of any sort of claim that "they don't make games like X any more."

What design philosophy exactly are you looking for? Games with lots of lore that you gradually discover? Games with intricate subsystems that can't be easily understood? Games that have both and half the game is figuring out how to play the game in the first place? Or what?

Tagging back in...

Q12: Does the game feature turn-based combat?

A12: Yes.

Q13: Is the game by Spiderweb Software?

A13: Yes, indeed it is.

Q14: Is it one of the Avernum games?

A14: Yep. And that's the cool setting I want to swipe for D&D-style tabletop games. Avernum with the serial numbers filed off.

What version of Avernum have been playing?

Congratulations Llum.

I recall playing one of the Avernums as shareware around 97 or something... could someone here maybe explain the "deep storyline". I missed it at the time; it seemed sort of generically dull... and I also missed any "deep storyline" in the recent game I found regrettably disappointing- Divinity: Original Sin. (Note: Tone is missed online, my tone is intended to be quizzically wondering because my experience has been very different from how the games are "sold" and I wonder if I have been missing something or if others have a different idea of what a deep immersive game consists? The latter is up for debate regarding merits of gamestyles and could probably merit another thread; but the former is what I am at the moment wondering about.)

Divinity: Original Sin has great gameplay. However the boring allies and bland mercs were meh. But ya, the story was kinda ok but kinda meh,

I've been playing Avernum: Escape from the Pit, which I got on Steam a while back. It's one of the newer, rereleased versions of the older games. Honestly, I haven't played it in a couple of years, and I never finished the game, but the setting sort of grabbed me.

I don't think Avernum has a "deep storyline." Maybe it'd be looked at different in the context of the 90s? Frankly there are a lot of things about it that don't seem to have aged very well.

The part I really liked was the idea of a subterranean open world, with a hardscrabble civilization that never sees the light of the sun, founded by exiled criminals and political targets tossed into a pit by a corrupt Empire. I like the idea of running a semi-sandboxy game in a world like that-- players are all exiled for some sort of crime (maybe they're even guilty of it), and might work toward making a safe society underground for their fellow exiles, escaping back to the surface, getting revenge on the Empire that did this to them, all that stuff.

Assuming a taste for old school rpgs (Baldur's Gate, Morrowind, Arx Fatalis, Planescape: Torment, Ultima, Diablo 1, older stuff), is Avernum worth playing?

What I can recall of it, it's turn-based, rather combat-focused and very heavy on world exploration and resource management. Isometric view with simple graphics. I never finished the game because I got bored with the level grinding and couldn't figure out how to advance the plot at one point.

It's a very niche game with a weird interface. I'm not sure what to tell you. If it's a gem, it's certainly a flawed one.

For me, a big part of the draw was exploring all these underground caves and caverns and waterways that make up the landscape. There are lots of secret chambers and treasures and etc., and I found myself keeping a notebook on all the stuff I couldn't quite get to, so I could go back to it later. So if that sounds like your cup of tea, there you have it.

I got Avernum: Escape from the Pit last night, so far it's fun. But I do enjoy a lot of the things that Ghostman said about it.