Hello!
I have a question thats rather important for me as a roleplayer.
What I especially enjoy in RPGs is an opportunity to play an evil character, be it an ingenious mastermind that plots and twists others with his lies and intrigues or just a thieving scumbag who s ready to sell a companion for profit (and fun).
Dont get me wrong, irl I'm a pretty decent guy - so I hope at least - but I love choosing path of evil in games. Sadly not every tabletop DM supports such endeavors and "plot rails" are often a thing but in computer games, both old and recent, there's usually at least a certain degree of freedom when it comes to choices of path.
So my question is: how much of a choice will we have in terms of "good" path and "evil" path? Will it have meaningful impact on the whole playthrough or just a line in the end "he still saved the world but nobody really liked him"? Will there even be such a concept or instead a set of complicated controversial choices where the outcome is unclear? How will characters with different alignments interact in a party? Can they fight each other? Can they kill each other?
Basically please tell us more about alignment and alignment based choices in your game and how it will affect characters and the story progression.
I also encourage other players to share their opinions on the matter.
Intelligent Evil
Hey there Naliathas.
No need to justify yourself, there is indeed a certain charm about being able to play the bad guy in RPGs (that "journalist" totally deserved it, eh Shepard?). This is unfortunately a topic I can't answer now, we will reveal that later :)
One thing however, do keep in mind that a healthy dose of "plot rails" is necessary in video games - unlike real DMs, the script can't account for every single possibility on the fly. No, seriously, stop trying to seduce the dragon. WHAT ARE YOU DOING STOP THIS.
I'll second Naliathas question here: would love to be able to play an evil guy / girl here.
Can't wait to know more about the incoming revelations.
Especially if you are going to make certain classes like the Cleric! Make them bilingual. But perhaps their alignment makes them learn certain spells as opposed to the others.
Cure wounds / Inflict wounds
Bless / Bane
Remove fear / Cause fear
Turning undead / Create Undead
There is no light without shadow...
Dungeon and Dragons makes a distinction between three types of evil alignments. Solasta is based upon that system and I would like the writers to allow for expressions of those nuances. What I don't want to see is evil always being rude or being dumb. One of my favorite types of characters to play is a dark knight with a code of honor, politeness, and charm, who is willing to do almost anything in pursuit of her organization's goals. This lawful evil character sees the value in working with a team towards a common enemy.
The other character type I sometimes play is a wizard that has no restrictions in her pursuit of power. If this means consorting with dark entities and using forbidden magic, she has no hesitation in crossing those lines. Undead labour is useful for society and can give a kingdom an edge over its neighbors. The powers of undeath can also give her more time to research and discover more secrets. She is savvy enough to know that some places she travels in the world she has to hide some of these details or it could put her in a disadvantageous situation. So the ability to hide or bluff are important to her. She wouldn't necessarily walk around with a black robe and skull tiara. She is more neutral evil than the dark knight, but she understands the advantage of working in a team, particularly when it gets her closer to her own goals.
Sometimes when I play a computer roleplaying game (CRPG) I get the impression that the writer has never played an evil character before and their entire concept of an evil character is dumb, rude, lacking any subtlety or the ability to compromise in the pursuit of ambition or a greater goal. So I would ask one question of the Solasta development team. Are there any writers on your team that regularly play evil characters and appreciate nuance or does your entire writing team only play good characters regularly? If the latter, you still have time to hire someone. ;) The mechanics of the game look great so far.
I'd agree with you, Sulla, I think the alignment system is a bit over-simplifying roleplay, though it was a good tool for me as a beginner to grasp the basics of tabletop roleplay.
Now I think no one would describe themselves as something as simple as one of those 10 alignments.
Solasta will let you choose an alignement but you'll have to define more precisely what that means for your characters in terms of personality, and as you may have understood now, your party's various personalities will define the options you'll have in dialogs and quest-related choices.
Cheers
Sadly now with the official release we see that alignment plays absolutely no part in Solasta's story other than slightly affecting dialogue flavor. There are zero opportunities are to be evil, good or anything else because if you don't follow the railroaded plot exactly the way it was meant to be played, you lose. Game over. I had such high hopes for this game too.
How very disappointing.
WotC has been doing there damnedest to pretend alignment never existed in D & D - something evident both here and in BG3. Not sure if such direction might have been given along with the license obtained by Tactical, but it's becoming something of an endangered animal in PC games.
There are a couple of "moral" decisions in the game... off the top of my head (spoilers):
1) Let dig site worker go or die
2) Kill Dramacht (sp?) or settle peacefully
3) Kill wolf ranger or pass peacefully, etc., etc., etc. Lots of "live or die" moments, but directionally same outcome... with some blood on your hands.
There are also some pretty funny responses at times from my evil characters. Also, some fairly greedy dialogue choices around the crown and other treasure. Also, opportunities of telling NPCs they are worthless... from Merton, the Princess, and others.
I agree, nothing plot-changing in decisions (well, I did AOE some allies... you can give the "rails" a good run for their money to keep the game from breaking), but overall a good start. I tend to play anti-heroes, dark-heroes, and parties with explosive dynamics (stick the lawful neutral paladin with the chaotic neutral wizard). You can catch some of that tension in character dialogue, but inter-party fisticuffs are sadly not allowed (my paladin and wiz still want a best-of-3 death match... saving throws will decide that outcome).
Needless to say, 280+ hours on Steam, and I still smile.
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