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Kickstart Planescape 2?!

Is the Nameless One coming to Kickstarter in an attempt to reboot the classic Dungeons & Dragon RPG? In an interview with Games Industry International today Chris Avellone – the longtime brainiac behind some of the most classic RPGs to grace gaming such as Fallout 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Icewind Dale, and many more – replied “Yes! Very tempted” when asked if he was tempted by a Planescape Kickstarter project.

Although I personally thought a Planescape reboot could be a brilliant yet touchy game to revitalize, I was all ears. Rebooting a beloved RPG classic, in theory, sounds like it could be fantastic, but Planescape is so unique and a quintessential game of the late 90's time period that many believe it should be left the way it is. But I mean this is Chris Avellone, it isn’t some shmoe coming in with a fat wallet snatching up intellectual properties solely because they know it was once successful. Surely  one of the minds behind the original would be able to bring the IP into the 21st century while also doing it justice and maintaining the integrity of the original. Right?

Well, we might not have to worry about that. Avellone went on to explain that he might want to separate himself from the Planescape universe, which is understandable considering Atari currently owns the intellectual property rights to all D&D gaming. That’s one less hoop that developer Obsidian would have to jump through.

In regards to that Chris stated “to be honest I don't know if I'd want to do it [Kickstarter project] as a Planescape game - I think a better approach would be to ignore the D&D mechanics and respect what Planescape was trying to do and what the game did and see if you can do what Fallout did when it became the spiritual successor to Wasteland”.

Shortly after Avellone said a Kickstarter passion project would be more about capturing the essence of Planescape to create something new possibly, saying “I think if you made a game using some of the concepts of Planescape, the metaphysical ideas and the plane travel, without using the D&D mechanics, you could actually come up with a much better game. With Torment, I'd argue that the D&D base actually, in places, got in the way of the experience. It was a lot harder to make a game with those ideas in it with D&D mechanics. So much so that we had to break a lot of them. We had to ignore certain spells, change up the class mechanic so that you can switch at any time you like by remembering abilities. That was stuff that D&D didn't allow for, it was too restraining in some respects.”

Although the idea of a spiritual successor is just a figment in the imagination of one of gaming’s most influential minds, I can’t help but be excited that the idea is rolling around in his head. That alone is enough to keep an eye on Chris’ plans for the future of Obsidian. But I doubt it will be anytime soon regardless, seeing as Avellone is currently working on South Park: The Stick of Truth and the resuscitation of Wasteland 2. But keep your hopes up, Planescape 2 could be right around the corner, or perhaps it will not continue the Nameless One’s tale at all, and instead it could be the start of a new gaming franchise equally as profound. Either way, no matter how it turned out, I know I’d pitch-up my $15 to Kickstart a project from Obsidian in a heartbeat.

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