As the clock ticked down the final hours on their Kickstarter campaign, Owlcat Games took to Reddit for an “Ask Me Anything,” community interview. This was the second AMA for Creative Director Alexander Mishulin and Narrative Designer Chris Avellone about their upcoming RPG, Pathfinder: Kingmaker. The property is set in the world of the Pathfinder RPG owned by Paizo Publishing. A name almost as synonymous with tabletop RPGs as the granddaddy of them all, Dungeons and Dragons.
The Kickstarter campaign easily annihilated its $500,000 funding goal. Naturally, fans were eager to hear how their beloved adventure path would translate to digital space. Here are a few of the stand out questions and answers asked during the July 10th AMA.
Brownstinker: What are you planning with Kingmaker that is different from other RPGs such as Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny or Divinity: Original Sin?
Should we expect more of the same or is there going to be something that makes this stand out above the rest?
Chris Avellone: There’s a number of things – one, certain relationship arcs outside the companions are equally important (example: NPC romance), kingdom building, and the ruleset and world feel markedly different as well. That said, if you enjoy the games above, you’ll find a lot to like in Pathfinder Kingmaker as well.
Vivificient: In one of your recent Kickstarter updates, you talked about the neighboring kingdoms of Mivon, Brevoy, and Numeria. This made me curious because I know that these kingdoms play only a limited roll in the adventure path as written. Are you planning to expand the adventure path by adding more interaction with these neighboring powers?
Alexander Mishulin: You will have some intereactions at least with representatives of these powers and some of them play a bit bigger role in the adventure.
Staying True To The Story
Praguepride: How faithful is the base game to the adventure path? Are you taking the maps and dungeon layouts as canon and then expanding on it? Are you taking those as blueprints and shuffling things around or are you just looking at it from an overall narrative standpoint? For example the war between the mites and the kobolds. Is that going to kick off in the same spot as the AP with the same maps and traps? Will it be shuffled around a bit but overall the same challenges as the AP or is it being completely revammped for the video game?
Chris Avellone: It’s pretty faithful, but not every dungeon and quest is laid out in the exact same manner as the AP, we do move some elements around, introduce familiar characters at different points (and re-introduce where appropriate) – so you’ll see a lot of hallmarks of the Adventure Path, but you’ll still be surprised by some of the content as well.
Kappaomicron: How much of a delay in the estimated release frame of August 2018 can we expect from the extra work that will be required to add in the stretch goals on top of the previously planned development?
Alexander Mishulin: We will try to fit in the estimated release frame by hiring more people to work on the game, a lot of talented developers asks us if they are able to join the team.
Looking Forward
Howard035: Once the game is launched with Kingmaker, do you anticipate making other Adventure Paths with the same engine, and if so, how long do you think that would take you?
Chris Avellone: That is a good question. If Kingmaker does well (and we’ve certainly gotten a great show of support already), I think we’d all like to do more Adventure Paths and do more in the Pathfinder universe. I don’t know how long that process would take, as there’s a bunch of factors involved in that decision.
Haloa92: How will main character health be addressed? Will they be allowed to go to negative HP or, as some other games, if he goes down, it is immediately game over? If it’s the latter it may be extra hard for some squishy characters!
Alexander Mishulin: It will be handled differently on various difficulty levels. On story mode you will just get up after the fight as if nothing happened as long as at least 1 party member survives the fight. On other settings you will be able to go into negative HP or even die and be ressurected while in fight or shortly afterwards.
Rowsdower11: What can change the nature of a man?
Chris Avellone: Hugs. And fireballs.
You can read the full Owlcat AMA over on Reddit or chat with other fans on the Pathfinder sub-reddit.
