Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Interview Meriwether: An American Epic Interview at RPGWatch

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
Patron
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Messages
15,048
Location
In quarantine
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Tags: Meriwether: An American Epic

RPGWatch's GhanBuriGhan has interviewed Josh DeBonis, lead designer on the historical RPG Meriwether: An American Epic, which ran a successful Kickstarter campaign last December. Have a snippet from the interview:

RPGWatch: Meriwether, subtitled "An American Epic" is based on the Lewis & Clark expedition, which is a well-known historical event in the U.S. Could you summarize the scenario for our non-American readers, and explain why you chose it as a basis for your game?

Josh: In 1804, President Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis along with a party over 30 men, a woman, a baby, and a Newfoundland dog on a journey across the North American continent. They were looking for the Northwest Passage. They never found it, but they had an amazing adventure, made it from coast to coast, and met so many interesting people along the way.

RPGWatch: The historical setting as well as the financial support the project received by various public sources could lead gamers to the conclusion that Meriwether will be more Edutainment than game. What are the central gameplay elements that you think will make Meriwether attractive to RPG players?

Josh: It's been a constant struggle to separate Meriwether from edutainment. Yes, you will learn things playing this game. But we are approaching it first and foremost as a game, in the same way that we approach other games we design. I tend to favor elegant, distilled game mechanics that are easily approachable but have great depth to explore. This philosophy manifests itself in Meriwether in many ways; we wanted a game that won't feel too daunting to a history buff who doesn't play a lot of video games, but also will have lots of difficult choices to offer to hardcore gamers. We have shown and playtested the game at both PAX East and a Lewis and Clark convention, and had a very positive response at each. I think we are well on way to making that difficult balance a reality.

There's two parts that will be especially attractive to CRPG players. The first is our dialogue system. Our writer, Carlos Hernandez, is an incredible storyteller and he is giving a unique voice to all of the amazing characters. The conversations are a pleasure to play, but they also offer an interesting "facet" mechanic. We associate each dialogue choice with one facet of Lewis's personality-leader, soldier, diplomat, scientist, or melancholy. When you choose an option, it increases your level in that facet. Occasionally, you need to choose melancholy to keep balanced, which can often lead to an undesirable situation. The trick is to choose it at the right moment! So the facet system will couple a good story with good gameplay and provides players with a pretty unique dialogue system.

The other mechanic that I think will interest CRPG players is managing the party as a whole. You need to balance all of your resources very carefully. Will you spend your timing hunting or clearing a safe path for your boats? Will you trade your last spare rifle for horses to make your journey across the Rocky Mountains easier? The real Lewis and Clark Expedition had to think about balancing those choices every second of their voyage, and they import beautifully into our game.

RPGWatch: You have stated that in contrast to most CRPGs, combat is not a major focus in Meriwether. How did you go about creating interesting gameplay for a CRPG without this typically central gameplay element?

Josh: Personally I love combat in RPGs, but it wasn't an appropriate direction for this game. Historically, the Expedition got into one fight, and came close a couple other times, but even though they were a military expedition, they were on a mission of peace. If you look at RPG combat formally, it almost always comes down to some form of resources management-usually under the guise of trading damage for hit points. We have made the "gamey" aspects of the game very much about managing your men and materiel, which allows you to explore interesting systems in the same way that combat often does. Combat can occur in Meriwether, but it is uncommon, simple, and lethal. My favorite aspect of combat in Meriwether is our game's "dragons"-ferocious grizzly bears. Reloading is slow, so you usually only get one shot, and if you miss, you better be prepared to run!​

Meriwether is scheduled for release at the end of 2013. You can find the full interview here.
 

Borelli

Arcane
Joined
Dec 5, 2012
Messages
1,261
It is good to see a proper America game instead of the usual :patriot: stuff.
 

HiddenX

The Elder Spy
Patron
Joined
May 20, 2006
Messages
1,655
Location
Germany
Divinity: Original Sin Shadorwun: Hong Kong
At the end does he blow his brains out, or will it have multiple endings?

I understand that you can choose how quests can be solved and how characters develop (in boundaries). So you don't have multiple endings, you have multiple pathes and character developments through the game.
 

Arkadin

Arcane
Joined
Nov 13, 2010
Messages
1,102
Location
big muddy
Will be happy to learn more about this. Wonderful topic for a game, and I'm always happy about more historical RPGs.
 

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
27,562
Location
Tampon Bay
Interesting, the kind of game I like to play.

Artstyle is ok. But I don't like the clothes. Outside of special occasions, meetings with natives perhaps, no one would walk the wilderness in such an attire. It's completely impractical.
 

GhanBuriGhan

Erudite
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
1,170
Interesting, the kind of game I like to play.

Artstyle is ok. But I don't like the clothes. Outside of special occasions, meetings with natives perhaps, no one would walk the wilderness in such an attire. It's completely impractical.

They commented on that in an update - they originally planned to have changeable clothing, but later decided to go for a fixed, easily recognizable attire for each character.
 

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
27,562
Location
Tampon Bay
The art style is fne, changeable clothes are an unnecessary feature. What I mean is that in the wilderness Lewis and Clark would wear more plain clothes. Shirt, jacked etc, and not such .. costumes which are for the parade ground and fashionable for portrait sessions. It unnecessary takes away a lot of the realism autheticisty that they seem to strive for, and which makes this interesting.

Here is an example, I think the painters had a much better feeling for authenticity.

lewisandclarkpic.jpg
 

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
27,562
Location
Tampon Bay
And by the way, Sacagawea should make an interesting character. From what I know she was first seen as a normal indian woman, giving birth and carrying her young child around, but turned out much more useful than her husband, who had joined the expedition. She was energetic, intelligent and diplomatic, exactly the kind of qualities that are necessary on expeditions. If done right, she has the potential make one of the (rare) interesting females types in a computer game.
 

Country_Gravy

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 24, 2004
Messages
3,406
Location
Up Yours
Wasteland 2
Wasn't she banging Clark? I thought she had his kid. She knew a few of the tribes they met along the way and kept them from getting their asses kicked a few times, I think.
 

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
27,562
Location
Tampon Bay
Indian women were probably libe-ral with such matters. But I only remember that he adopted her (two?) children after her death.
 

karnak

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jun 14, 2014
Messages
920
Location
Negative Zone
Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In I helped put crap in Monomyth
Too bad that development is going very slow, though. This was the first KS that managed to grab my attention ( I couldn't back it for financial reasons at the time) yet it's sad that it's not on early access or anything.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom