Obsidian Tells a Tale

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

With Pathfinder Adventures' imminent release—Thursday, April 28!—it's time we talked about the core strength of both Pathfinder and Obsidian: storytelling.

When Obsidian Entertainment and Paizo started talking about Pathfinder Adventures, I was most excited about the prospect of bringing the story of Rise of the Runelords to life. A little background: I started at Obsidian in 2007 working on Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, and one of the first things I did was join a group of coworkers playing Rise of the Runelords. The story stuck with me. And when I started playing "Burnt Offerings" in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, it all came flooding back. I loved the way Mike Selinker, Chad Brown, and all of the designers at Lone Shark Games used the mechanics of the cards to tell a story. Local Heroes stood out to me right away, as did Foul Misgivings later. Since story has always been a priority at Obsidian, I knew that we could bring the theme and drama of the Adventure Path to the forefront of the digital version.

As mentioned in my first blog, one of the first things we did was put all of the location decks on a map. This helps gives the game instant context and setting without a word being written. As an example, throughout "Burnt Offerings," you were playing in bright and sunny Sandpoint, but when you start "The Skinsaw Murders," things look a little different...

Workin' on our night moves (yeah, you just got Bob Segered).

It's Sandpoint's nighttime look! And it's a good one. Since "The Skinsaw Murders" is a ghost story and a murder mystery, we decided to set the mood.

Where PACG uses text descriptions on the cards to convey the story, we use dialogue. Most of these conversations are driven by the iconic heroes that you choose to play with. Each of the iconics has a distinct voice, so a party of Ezren and Valeros experiences different dialogue than a party of Seoni and Amiri.

Before setting out to write dialogue for RotR's 11 iconic heroes, I worked with Erik Mona and James Jacobs at Paizo (with some helpful insight from Chris Avellone and Matt MacLean at Obsidian) to develop a Character Bible. I use it as a touchstone each time I write to make sure the characters are always true to themselves. Each character has a set of style and story notes to remind me how they speak and how they will develop.

I'll pull back the curtain and show you (most of) Lini's entry:

Style

Having an intimate relationship with animals, Lini sees the world from an animal's perspective. She has a hard time understanding people and their complicated schemes, but she is curious about them. She has tremendous instincts and will trust or mistrust NPCs with a high level of accuracy ([REDACTED] will always smell wrong and Ameiko will be a fast friend). She does not emote in half-measures. She's excitable and fiery, using short declarative sentences for just about every occasion. Dank dungeons make her uncomfortable, but she'll never abandon her pack or the mission in front of her.

She will have a habit of interrupting villainous taunts to attack with an "Aaah-Kii-Yeee!"

Story Notes

She will seem naive at first, not understanding man's cruelty. Her curiosity will continue to drive her though. She will grow to see mankind and those with powers as complex, yet simple as any other force of nature. In Chapters 5 and 6, Lini will have a very specific understanding of what she sees and experiences and will always know with certainty what she must to do to flow with or fight against anything she is faced with.

When each scenario starts and ends, you'll get dialogue that's reactive to the characters you have in your party. Likewise, when you fight the villain for the first time, you'll get some banter determined by who's fighting the villain.

Let's take Crow Bait as an example. Harsk is adventuring solo and having a productive discussion with Ameiko about the Sihedron rune when Maester Grump interrupts with terrible news.

They even ate the dogs!

Harsk will get down to the bottom of it! At various points throughout the game, we'll check to see what cards you have and add a little extra flavor. The game does a quick check of his deck and notes that he has the beloved Deathbane Light Crossbow +1. So he adds:

Nothing beats the old Deathbane!

Harsk comes upon the Farmhouse location. In most scenarios, it's just a country home. In Crow Bait, it's a gruesome scene with a creepy note addressed to Harsk.

The letter reads, "You, and you alone, have brought this fearful harvest. They are dead because of you, and more shall join them soon."

Soon enough, he finds Rogors Craesby, who discusses his ugly intentions:

Harsk is no creature's breakfast.

When all is said and done, Harsk considers what has happened and how it relates to the larger plot:

Harsk thinks in terms of tactics and the hunt.

Where there are opportunities for flavor or exposition, we take them. Certain henchmen will talk with you before they fight. Some ally cards in your deck provide good opportunities as well.

And the haunts in Foul Misgivings! Let me tell you about the haunts. Better yet, let me show you!

In case you didn't know, RotR gets dark! Credit for this amazing art goes to the incomparable Lindsey Laney.

There are eight unique haunts throughout the Foul Misgivings—so many that it's impossible to see all of them in one play through the scenario.

You can be sure that there are a great number of things that I've left out for the sake of spoilers and easter egg hunts. I will say that we track a specific action in Burnt Offerings that has implications in The Skinsaw Murders. And I can't wait to show you what we do with Here Comes the Flood!

Nathan Davis
Game Director, Obsidian Entertainment
@nathan_J_davis
(Previously Harsk in Rise of the Runelords and Ranzak in Skull & Shackles; currently Alain in Wrath of the Righteous)