Backed! This should be fun.
Thanks for the write-up, peacedog! It sounds like an interesting combat system, although I really prefer something like Temple of Elemental Evil as far as RPG combat goes.
Does anyone know if you have to create your whole party, or if you just create one guy and recruit the rest? I personally prefer creating just one character, as I find it difficult to roleplay more than one. It’s even better if recruitable NPCs come with their own backstory, banter, quest(s), etc.
I know the feeling. I quite like combat systems like this, if only because it’s something different and variety is the spice of something or other. Also, it’s worth mentioning for educational purposes that this was the only sort of combat we got in CRPGs until Ultima III came out and maybe everyone do head exploding thingies (it was the first digital RPG to feature tactical combat where you moved your guys around on a battlefield. The great-ancestor of ToEE).
Bard’s Tale, I will note, made interesting use of it’s setting. When the game started out you had to go discover where the Adventurer’s Guild was, so you could evel up. The town was completely hostile though (story goes that evil wizard cursed Skara Brae with eternal winter, so everyone is shut up in their homes/fled the city/dead and monsters are patrolling everywhere). In addition to exploring the town (which offered a store, the afformentioned guild, the inn where you get started, a couple of taverns, a place to go recharge spell points en masse, and temples) there were a slew of dungeons and towers (the inverted dungeon!) numbering up to 4 levels deep (or tall; also there was one place that was a 3 level dungeon with another 3 level dungeon stacked undernearth. . . SEPARATE dungeons, you understand). Oh and the last one was 5 levels. There was some theming to them, as much as we could get given the rudimentary technologies of the time. Dungeon exploration involved having to deal with the occasional puzzle (except more here, based on what the Kickstarter is saying) but also classic map hazards. Teleporters, spinners, one way walls and doors, anti-magic squares, magic mouths, special encounters, etc.
It was a colorful take on Wizardry’s basic formula. Even though the “town” was essentially just another dungeon level, it was still pretty cool to have above ground exploration next to underground. Skara Brae felt alive in ways the original Wizardry games did not (DW Bradley changed all of that with Wiz 5, but that’s a topic for another time).
Does anyone know if you have to create your whole party, or if you just create one guy and recruit the rest? I personally prefer creating just one character, as I find it difficult to roleplay more than one. It’s even better if recruitable NPCs come with their own backstory, banter, quest(s), etc.
Don’t believe they said but it will be “create your whole party”, if it’s in the classic style. BT featured a larger than normal class selection than what the genre typically offered, though. Warriors, paladins, thieves, the 4 mage classes, bards, hunters, monks. In BT that didn’t amount to a lot. I mentioned bard songs, and there’s a special place in BT 1 you need a bard to get by (or a Passwall spell). Hunters could crit (they added crit ability for Thieves in BT III). Paladins weren’t as good at getting multiple attacks but were resistier (no spells) than Fighters. Monks could do the unarmed thing and eventually get crazy ACs (and really awesome damage). Based on the description we’re going to get even more out of the different classes here, so party creation should be an absolute blast.
I didn’t see anything about graph paper being included. How am I going to map all the levels??
Also, how have we arrived at yet another topic for a major release with a typo in the title?
Alright, thanks again peacedog. Seeing as how the campaign just started, I’ll think it over for a while before deciding whether to back it or not.
So did I.
I backed and I think I am in time for the free copy of Wastleland 2. That makes it a no brainer.
Yep, as soon as I saw I could get a free copy of Wasteland 2 (which is on my Steam wishlist) for backing a game I probably would have backed anyway I could not push the button fast enough. $20 for Wasteland 2 (in July) and Bards Tale 4 (whenever) is a ridiculously good deal.
I gave in and backed this at the $20 level. Sometimes I marvel at my own lack of spine. :)
Wait - I backed early today at the $20 level. I’m getting a free copy of Wasteland 2? I didn’t see that anywhere.
I think you get to choose between The Witcher, The Witcher 2 and Wasteland 2. It says so on the Kickstarter page, near the top.
This game better let me roll a monk who can kill 99 barbarians with his bare hands.
I already own Wasteland 2 on Steam. If I get another copy can I gift it?
From the Kickstarter page:
[I]"inXile Entertainment is proud to announce an unprecedented crowdfunding offer: anyone who backs The Bard’s Tale IV on Kickstarter in the first 24 hours of the campaign will receive a FREE copy of inXile’s Wasteland 2, or CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher, or The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. (until 6/3 at 6am, PST)
For all backers of The Bard’s Tale IV at the $20 Reward Tier and above. Wasteland 2 will be delivered on Steam or DRM-Free on GOG.com after the Kickstarter campaign. The Witcher and The Witcher 2 will be delivered on GOG.com."[/I]
Despite being a bit burned out on Kickstarter, this genre is just too near to my heart, so I backed at the Early Bard tier. Now to forget about it for a year and a half!
In the first update, Fargo says 3 minutes of “in engine” footage coming later this week.
Yeah, this is the first game Kickstarter I’ve backed. Why?
- They have a track record of actually delivering (looking at you, Chris Roberts) 2. More importantly, I blew an ungodly amount of my middle school years in The Bard’s Tale. 3. I’ve been meaning to get Wasteland 2, and being able to get it at the $20-tier level made this a no-brainer.
Yeesh, my RPG backlog is officially ridiculous once Wasteland 2 gets delivered. I’m barely able to play Witcher 3 because they released on the cusp of summer, and it’s too goddman nice to spend the evenings indoors. Then I got Pillars of Eternity, and then Wasteland 2. At this rate, I’ll probably finish by the time Bards Tale 4 is done.
Bard’s Tale was the game that legitimized my C64. We could not afford an Apple IIe. So Wizardry was out of reach for me, except for playing at a friend’s house. This game changed all that. IMO, and maybe it was because of C64 colored glasses, Bard’s Tale out-Wizardried Wizardry.
Backed immediately.
I love how fast this is going. One day, and over 700000 already! Good job!