Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

[Lahey]

Also:

 

[Jacob]

Does Sawyer watch anime? Anybody care to ask him this? What is his favorite anime?

 

[Roguey]

Does Sawyer watch anime? Anybody care to ask him this? What is his favorite anime?

I've never seen him discuss it, so likely not.

 

[LESS T_T]

Does Sawyer watch anime? Anybody care to ask him this? What is his favorite anime?

I think he answered the question in the New Vegas LP stream or something. The answer was no, though he watched some major ones like, IIRC, Ghibli and Ghost in the Shell.

 

[Jacob]

Does Sawyer watch anime? Anybody care to ask him this? What is his favorite anime?

I've never seen him discuss it, so likely not.

Does Sawyer watch anime? Anybody care to ask him this? What is his favorite anime?

I think he answered the question in the New Vegas LP stream or something. The answer was no, though he watched some major ones like, IIRC, Ghibli and Ghost in the Shell.

So Sawyer kept a few thing hidden from his bride

 

[Quillon]

Use these in some developer mugs or something, get creative ppl

 

[SymbolicFrank]

Ok. So, after reading this whole tread, I would like to recap:

Josh likes tabletop games that are historical accurate. And he doesn't understand why computer games might require different rules.

Hint: they're a different medium?

But I get from all this that he designs and tests everything for use in the tabletop RPGs he runs. That's what he likes best.

 

[Sannom]

I think you've misinterpreted a lot of thing here.

 

[Prime Junta]

Josh likes tabletop games that are historical accurate. And he doesn't understand why computer games might require different rules.

One of the core Josh-isms is that cRPGs and tabletop games require completely different rules. The PnP Pillars game he's designing will be totally different mechanically.

 

[SymbolicFrank]

Josh likes tabletop games that are historical accurate. And he doesn't understand why computer games might require different rules.

One of the core Josh-isms is that cRPGs and tabletop games require completely different rules. The PnP Pillars game he's designing will be totally different mechanically.

I think you've misinterpreted a lot of thing here.

Well... I didn't see it.

The talk about mechanics and feedback is mostly about what his tabletop groups liked / didn't like.

His favorite mechanics are still an AD&D 4E hybrid, because that's the system that makes everything and anything equally usable, and is especially designed to work well in video games as well. Total balance, perfect for MMO's.

I haven't seen a single post that shows that he understands that in a CRPG you control a whole group by yourself, so you want members to excel in different things. You really don't want them to be all the same.

You're not building a single character. You're building a team.

And, unlike tabletop, those team members don't throw a tantrum if they cannot shine for five rounds.


Also, you don't build your team by fixing the skills of the team members so they can all react in the same way to every challenge. You select different team members to excel in certain situations, like taking down mages or blocking melee.


Anyway. Whatever. I didn't see a single post of Josh that addresses any of those things. Just a lot how his tabletop groups react to stuff...

 

[Prime Junta]

Invoking Roguey, this guy needs chapter-and-verse

 

[Background Character]

Ars Magica rpg WHEN SAWYER

FUCKING WHEN

 

[Roguey]

SymbolicFrank

Generally speaking, I think most tabletop RPG systems are crummy. It's very telling that the latest edition of D&D in many ways resembles an MMO rule set more than a traditional tabletop RPG rule set. By their very nature, games on a computer can be systemically tested much more quickly than they could be by hand (or on tabletop). This process tends to separate the wheat from the chaff at a rapid pace.

When I play in a tabletop game, it's usually because I like the setting/GM/players. When I GM, I adapt or modify the existing rule set or create my own.

 

[Infinitron]

The "Sawyer designs his CRPGs like PnP" thing is a Sensuki theory(tm). It's based on the idea that stuff like AoOs and lots of active abilities doesn't make sense in a CRPG, but does make sense in tabletop.

It's an ironic thing to say when the games that PoE is being accused of failing to live up to were actual PnP adaptations and PoE isn't. Although you can argue that 2nd Ed AD&D is a PnP system that just coincidentally happens to be highly suitable to computer adaptation.

 

[Roguey]

Additionally

DOESN'T HAVING SEPARATE SYSTEMS FOR COMBAT AND NON-COMBAT SKILLS KIND OF DETRACT FROM THE SPECIALIZATION AND THEREFORE UNIQUENESS OF CHARACTERS BY ALLOWING FOR BROADER COMPETENCY?

Yes. I consider that an acceptable trade-off to prevent dead-ending certain players/parties in circumstances where their particular brand of non-combat specialist isn't accounted for. You're also configuring a party of characters, not a single character, so the number of combinations is much larger even with combat and non-combat skills being segregated.

We're not making a single-character MMO. We're making a party-based RPG. We're making it to appeal to the general tastes of audiences that have played D&D-based tactical party RPGs in the past. Yes, when you play a single character, having that single character be locked down is annoying because your only character is prevented from moving. You have a whole party to use.

We're also making this game for an audience that we believe wants increased challenge and will not react negatively to mechanics that require increased attention and player input. There are clearly limits to this, but we are willing to try this mechanic because we believe it is more appropriate for our audience.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

The "Sawyer designs his CRPGs like PnP" thing is a Sensuki theory(tm). It's based on the idea that stuff like AoOs and lots of active abilities doesn't make sense in a CRPG, but does make sense in tabletop.

Pretty sure Josh has repeatedly spoken against parroting PnP mechanics into video games. AoO and engagement system wasn't put into PoE to mimic some PnP mechanics, it was there as a counter to Benny Hill levels of kiting that plagued IE games.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Sensuki]

The "Sawyer designs his CRPGs like PnP" thing is a Sensuki theory(tm). It's based on the idea that stuff like AoOs and lots of active abilities doesn't make sense in a CRPG, but does make sense in tabletop.

Pretty sure Josh has repeatedly spoken against parroting PnP mechanics into video games. AoO and engagement system wasn't put into PoE to mimic some PnP mechanics, it was there as a counter to Benny Hill levels of kiting that plagued IE games.

That's not really true. The kiting that most people think as 'Benny Hill' in the IE games is done with bows. Slowed recovery speed while moving was implemented to prevent this (confirmed by Adam Brennecke), and also general nerfs to the animations of ranged attacks, which are obvious.

Engagement was put in there to mimic PnP mechanics as best as it could. It is mostly built off 4E's concept (which I forget the name of) where you can select 1+ targets to 'engage'. It is a ridiculous system in realtime when compared with the active and fun crowd control of other realtime games.

lots of active abilities doesn't make sense in a CRPG

I never said this. I believe that the response to melee attackers SHOULD be active. I did criticize the amount of active per-encounter abilities in Pillars which ended up as rote spamming.

 

[Quillon]

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Lahey]

What can we infer?

"Psychological terror is my greatest interest, especially when coupled with religious overtones and closed in ambiguity. Black and white is better than colour not because I am colourblind, but rather for aesthetic presentation of narrative themes in my favourite tone which is the pure despair of hope faintly glimmering in darkness, forever out of reach for all but a fortunate few. Drama for the sake of drama is meaningless without a wider context. Fun is allowed in small doses, but only ironically because humour is beneath me".

 

[Prime Junta]

No Ingmar Bergman?

 

[Jack Of Owls]

No Ingmar Bergman?

Fun fact about Ingmar Bergman: he once set a live horse on fire for one of his films and filmed its death throes as it ran around screaming, covered in flames (The Passion of Anna), hung a small dog as it struggled and gasped for breath in the same film, and shot another horse to death on-camera followed by using professional butchers posing as staving peasants to cut the horse up into horsemeat which so disturbed actor David Carradine that he developed a twitch in his eye for several hours on set. Well, okay, not so fun facts. But, hey, he was a cinematic genius!

 

[One-and-a-half-Ivan]

Actually, I like his taste :mrpresident:

 

[Luckmann]

Lawrence of Arabia? He's going to make long-term alliances with the arab world which he and his masters will then break, thereby prompting the arabs to join nationalist Europa in their struggle for mutual freedom from judaic oppression?

Is Sawyer, dare I say it, #OurGuy?