Company News Wizards of the Coast say the Planescape setting is available for licensing

[Harg Harfardarssen]

"We would absolutely consider licensing out Planescape, or any of our other great D&D IPs, if we were approached with a proposal," Wizards of the Coast told us through its presumably bushy beard.​

"We often get proposals and are actively pursuing opportunities to make great digital D&D experiences.​

"Brian [Fargo] suggested Baldur's Gate 3 had proven difficult in the past before we regained our digital rights, so, that probably didn't help the situation."​

Eh, this is as non-committal as you can get. Since they're distinguishing between Fargo reaching out and "a proposal", it sounds like what they don't want discuss it at any level below a formal proposal, which is generally not an insignificant commitment (I don't work in the games industry, but given the complexity and amount of money involved I would assume this applies). I can't imagine any company doing that without, at minimum, some indication from a potential customer that they're interested and a rough order of magnitude dollar figure to gauge what kind of project scope they can propose.

If they were actually interested, they wouldn't have shut Fargo down. (Assuming, what we know about the Fargo blow-off is acccurate).

 

[Diablo169]

Fuck Planescape. Seriously we don't need another RPG set there and we certainly don't need WOTC breathing down Fargos neck all the fucking time like they did to Trent Oster and his Enhancement team.

Monty Cook and Colin McComb work well together and I'm more interested in what they can do with a new setting.

 

[Gondolin]

Planescape is cool, but non-mandatory.

 

[Grunker]

HEY MAYBE THE NEW BLACK ISLE STUDIOS COULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT HUH GUYS? HUH?

 

[Erebus]

And she will be day one DLC.
"Lady of Pain as additional companion, purchase The Blade Romancer DLC now! Feel love like never before! Only in Origin"

Ah, not quite. She will be day-1 DLC, but she's not an additional companion. She's the protagonist. BioWare's fresh new foray into innovation of the genre! Play without the protagonist if you wish, or buy the optional content for $19.99!

Buy? Rent, for 19.99/week.

I was going to advise against giving Bioware ideas, but then I realized : their Decline Research Department has almost certainly already thought of all those things and more.

 

[DalekFlay]

Furthermore, as the article shows, neither of them really wanted to license a D&D setting anyway.

And thank fucking god for that.

 

[Angthoron]

 

[Spectacle]

"Available to license" probably means "Available to someone making an AAA console RPG based on simplified 5E rules"

 

[hiver]

The main problem I see with this is, even if InXile were to license Planescape from WotC, the latter would probably still have creative control over the game, which would suck like it always does.

Thats not what Monte, Colin and MCA said about developing PST.

"We would absolutely consider licensing out Planescape, or any of our other great D&D IPs, if we were approached with a proposal," Wizards of the Coast told us through its presumably bushy beard.​

"We often get proposals and are actively pursuing opportunities to make great digital D&D experiences.​

"Brian [Fargo] suggested Baldur's Gate 3 had proven difficult in the past before we regained our digital rights, so, that probably didn't help the situation."​

Eh, this is as non-committal as you can get. Since they're distinguishing between Fargo reaching out and "a proposal", it sounds like what they don't want discuss it at any level below a formal proposal, which is generally not an insignificant commitment (I don't work in the games industry, but given the complexity and amount of money involved I would assume this applies). I can't imagine any company doing that without, at minimum, some indication from a potential customer that they're interested and a rough order of magnitude dollar figure to gauge what kind of project scope they can propose.

If they were actually interested, they wouldn't have shut Fargo down. (Assuming, what we know about the Fargo blow-off is acccurate).

Bullshit. Fargo got the Torment brand for cheap and it was easier to do it in a new setting he can get for cheep too.

 

[CappenVarra]

He didn't get the Torment brand from WoTC; it was just available. There's a difference between picking up a term nobody bothered to renew copyright on and licensing a setting...

But yeah, they probably meant give us millions of dollars to slap "Planescape" on the box of your generic corridor cover shooter MMO with facebook integration.

 

[hiver]

I did not fucking SAY he got it from WoTC. I said he got it.


http://indierpgs.com/2012/10/interview-with-chris-avellone/

Did you ever have a moment where Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro came in and vetoed a design decision? How hands-on were they?
There was one example on the design side – we wanted to have one of the companion characters be bisexual (along with his romance options), and we couldn’t convince them to allow us to do it, which was unfortunate. Other than that, they were pretty hands-off with the design and they trusted us to do our job, since we’d done so many titles in the past. As for the other departments, they may have had a different experience.


/

I think there was one more interview about early development but i cant find it and i cant remember was it with Colin or Monte.

 

[l3loodAngel]

Fuck Planescape. Seriously we don't need another RPG set there and we certainly don't need WOTC breathing down Fargos neck all the fucking time like they did to Trent Oster and his Enhancement team.

Monty Cook and Colin McComb work well together and I'm more interested in what they can do with a new setting.

Done by whom exactly? Fat bald retard?

 

[DwarvenFood]

Planescape: Grimoire

 

[DragoFireheart]

If Bioware uses the license, It'll be a corridor shooter/DA2 slug fest with random demon whores trying to jump your bone. Probably some tranny succubi as well.You can either defeat the Lady of Pain, talk her to death, or romance her.
If Bethesda uses the license, we'll have a quest compass that will say "updated my journal" every time a update to a quest is done. Lady of Pain will be some mediocre final boss and Bethesda will use assets from Oblivions Merhunes Dagon's area to create Planescape.
If Obsidian uses the license, we'll be treated to decent writing, mediocre graphics, and extremely buggy gameplay. The game will require five patches before it's stable.
If Inxile uses the license, we'll have whatever the Kickstarters demand. Expect to see random fags in the game for about 10 seconds before getting portaled to some place or eaten by a demon. The game will likely be isometric, have keywords, hex-turn-based combat ala Xcom, and pre-placed cover.
If SqaureEnix uses the license, we'll have a bunch of androgyny fucks running around having 30 min monologues about why the Queen of Pain hates everything but doesn't hate everything. Combat system will be automated, you'll level up by playing some shitty ball-related game (PORTAL BALL!), and you can some various DnD creatures that share the same names as summons from your typical Final Fantasy.

 

[Zed]

If Bioware uses the license, It'll be a corridor shooter/DA2 slug fest with random demon whores trying to jump your bone. Probably some tranny succubi as well.You can either defeat the Lady of Pain, talk her to death, or romance her.
If Bethesda uses the license, we'll have a quest compass that will say "updated my journal" every time a update to a quest is done. Lady of Pain will be some mediocre final boss and Bethesda will use assets from Oblivions Merhunes Dagon's area to create Planescape.
If Obsidian uses the license, we'll be treated to decent writing, mediocre graphics, and extremely buggy gameplay. The game will require five patches before it's stable.
If Inxile uses the license, we'll have whatever the Kickstarters demand. Expect to see random fags in the game for about 10 seconds before getting portaled to some place or eaten by a demon. The game will likely be isometric, have keywords, hex-turn-based combat ala Xcom, and pre-placed cover.
If SqaureEnix uses the license, we'll have a bunch of androgyny fucks running around having 30 min monologues about why the Queen of Pain hates everything but doesn't hate everything. Combat system will be automated, you'll level up by playing some shitty ball-related game (PORTAL BALL!), and you can some various DnD creatures that share the same names as summons from your typical Final Fantasy.

You forgot Beamdog. They're the ones most likely to pick up the ball if given the chance, at this point. If InXile have really settled for Nume-whatever that is.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

If they were actually interested, they wouldn't have shut Fargo down. (Assuming, what we know about the Fargo blow-off is acccurate).

Bullshit. Fargo got the Torment brand for cheap and it was easier to do it in a new setting he can get for cheep too.

I wouldn't be too shocked if that were the case. The impression I had was that they gave Fargo a fairly firm brush-off rather than responding with "let's talk". But, we don't actually know much about how he reached out.

 

[DragoFireheart]

You forgot Beamdog.

If Beamdog uses the license, we'll get a HD version of Planescape: Torment except it'll include romance options such as Morte and Modron. Some of the endings "bugs" and cut content will be fixed/added. Everything else will remain the same.

 

[Zed]

You forgot Beamdog.

If Beamdog uses the license, we'll get a HD version of Planescape: Torment except it'll include romance options such as Morte and Modron. Some of the endings "bugs" and cut content will be fixed/added. Everything else will remain the same.

Don't be so sure. They have said that their intentions (after BG2 remake) would be to make their own "spiritual successor" sort of game.
http://www.gamefront.com/baldurs-gate-3-is-beamdogs-long-term-goal-expect-a-kickstarter/
They'll probably grab what they can, even if it means a PST2 rather than BG3.

 

[DragoFireheart]

You forgot Beamdog.

If Beamdog uses the license, we'll get a HD version of Planescape: Torment except it'll include romance options such as Morte and Modron. Some of the endings "bugs" and cut content will be fixed/added. Everything else will remain the same.

Don't be so sure. They have said that their intentions (after BG2 remake) would be to make their own "spiritual successor" sort of game.

Successor to BG2 or PS:T?

I have not played their games so I can't comment on the quality of their non-HD non-remake games.

 

[Zed]

Successor to BG2 or PS:T?

I have not played their games so I can't comment on the quality of their non-HD remakes.

I ninjaedited my post.

The quality of their remake (BG on the PC) is shit. As for their non-HD remakes, I didn't know they had any. I thought they were all about making things play in higher resolution with hd textures.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Successor to BG2 or PS:T?

I have not played their games so I can't comment on the quality of their non-HD remakes.

I ninjaedited my post.

The quality of their remake (BG on the PC) is shit. As for their non-HD remakes, I didn't know they had any. I thought they were all about making things play in higher resolution with hd textures.

Also ninjaedited my post. I was trying to say that I have not played any of their games: I'm only aware of their remakes.

 

[hiver]

Bullshit. Fargo got the Torment brand for cheap and it was easier to do it in a new setting he can get for cheep too.

I wouldn't be too shocked if that were the case. The impression I had was that they gave Fargo a fairly firm brush-off rather than responding with "let's talk". But, we don't actually know much about how he reached out.

I think we all just assumed it was some sort of a brush off, reading between the lines.

I was a bit suspicious since both him and Colin said they tried to "broach a subject" long ago - and never since.
But i figured license would bring Wizards oversight.... which also didnt turn out to be true. - at least not to the extent it seemed-

And i am very pleased with Numenera setting and the first general ideas we heard about...


But i had a talk with
CMcC

... COOOOOOLLLIIIINNNNN!

 

[Excidium]

Fuck Planescape. Seriously we don't need another RPG set there and we certainly don't need WOTC breathing down Fargos neck all the fucking time like they did to Trent Oster and his Enhancement team.

Monty Cook and Colin McComb work well together and I'm more interested in what they can do with a new setting.

P. much. WOTC is a shitty mass market company, InXile is better off without their influence on development.

 

[hiver]

http://indierpgs.com/2012/10/interview-with-chris-avellone/

Did you ever have a moment where Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro came in and vetoed a design decision? How hands-on were they?
There was one example on the design side – we wanted to have one of the companion characters be bisexual (along with his romance options), and we couldn’t convince them to allow us to do it, which was unfortunate. Other than that, they were pretty hands-off with the design and they trusted us to do our job, since we’d done so many titles in the past. As for the other departments, they may have had a different experience.


Who was the companion character that you originally wanted to give bisexual romance options?
It was Gann in Mask of the Betrayer.

 

[CMcC]

The main problem I see with this is, even if InXile were to license Planescape from WotC, the latter would probably still have creative control over the game, which would suck like it always does.

Thats not what Monte, Colin and MCA said about developing PST.

Back then the people who were overseeing the Planescape license in-house were the exact same people I had worked with a year or two previously. I think I have one friend who still works at WotC in the design department, and I know he has no influence over digital brand management.

The entire management team has changed since MoTB, too.