Topic: Shadow World and video games

[dekdarion]

a question for terry :


Did you have any contacts to develop an rpg video games or even an mmorpg with a SW  background ?


if  not , will you be interested with these kind of products ?

[vroomfogle]

Noooooooo.

I sincerely hope that my beloved Shadow World will never become an MMO.

doodz, lets camp andraax hez g0t mad l00tz!

[Guillaume]

doodz, lets camp andraax hez g0t mad l00tz!

Not much to add here...

M8, lets raid Ondoval's lair, there's an uber item in the raid loot.

Even the sanest ( IMHO ) MMO ( namely DDO ) would be a bit too much for Kulthea.
I tried to build a NWN module... and just to transpose a tiny part of Jaiman book took me weeks, and the result wasn't really that good or accurate.

RM would do great as a MMO system, but Shadow World wouldn't even pass the first stage of setting selection... the setting has too much evil, twisted evil, shadowy characters, characters whose behavior is somewhere between the darkness and the light, characters that are utterly mad, characters that are depraved... ( even the Deux ex Machina is ready to blow the whole planet )... nah, it can pass through selection, or it's been so much sanitized ( remember target audience of most of the MMO are teens/ young adults ) that it's not Kulthea anymore.
( just look at what they did to Eberron in DDO, or ME in LoTRO, and so on )

[egdcltd]

One problem with any computer based game like this is the NPCs. Whilst you can do some clever programming, they aren't intelligent, and any interaction with them is going to be along the lines of "If A, then B." Now, if you had the NPCs being role played by actual people, that would probably work a lot better. And cost more of course.

[Hurin]

Didn't Dark Age of Camelot take some basic ideas from Rolemaster? I thought I remembered something about that...

[Guillaume]

Didn't Dark Age of Camelot take some basic ideas from Rolemaster? I thought I remembered something about that...

Actually it's more than that if I got the story straight.

DAOC was going to use RM as the game system ( which would have saved the old ICE ). But everything went to hell when TE made it's move to kill the old ICE, and the developper of DAOC had to scramble desesperately in coding sprees to remove all occurence and reference to RM in the code of DAOC and build from scratch a system that worked and was not RM without pushing too far the release date. There's still hints of RM in it, because they couldn't exactly remove everything.

Now, that's what I understood of the events from an external point of view, some people with deeper knowledge of the events at that time might have more to say. ( if they are willing to )

[RandalThor]

I have to say that I, for one, would love to see a Shadow World MMORPG. I would actually get a high-speed internet connection and a subscription.

[Wōdwulf Seaxaning]

I'd like to see a console/PC based Shadowworld & RM based RPG.It'd rock.Since I don't play MMOs I'd not be interested in one. I'd see a consol or PC based RPG helping to build both ICE's standing in the gaming market as a living game system  & SW as a viable setting.

I'd rather see ICE publish Shadowworld based comix though. Get Terry to convert the Shadowstone Chronicles to a comic script & find a decent illustrator in the European school (NOT British but Italian & Spanish style) or Liam Sharp.

[vroomfogle]

I'd rather see ICE publish Shadowworld based comix though. Get Terry to convert the Shadowstone Chronicles to a comic script & find a decent illustrator in the European school (NOT British but Italian & Spanish style) or Liam Sharp.

Now there's an idea!   Shadowstone published as a graphic novel would probably have more appeal then a regular novel.

[RandalThor]

Here, here! I second both the graphic novel idea and the PC/console game idea.

[GoblynByte]

While not in Shadow World one could play any of the Elder Scrolls series (preferably Oblivion as the graphics are amazing).  It was constructed informally around a former Rolemaster player's campaign world and shares a lot of similarities in the system.

To revisit the Shadow World aspect one could easily (read: easier than building a game from scratch) do a total mod for Oblivion to model Shadow World.

Oblivion is far more 'alive' and deep than any MMORPG ever created and would truly do as much justice to a RM-based game as any computer RPG could ever do.  If a deal were (unlikely) reached between ICE and Bethesda they could take what small measures to bring the two even closer together.  The framework (and 'love' of the Elder Scrolls designers) is already there.  It would just take a more permissive relationship to open the flood gates and BOOM!

But, IMO, an MMORPG should be avoided lest the integrity of Rolemaster be dragged down into ear-deep mud of idiodic pandering that plagues every licensed MMO to date.  Every MMORPG has been such a dismal shadow of 'true' roleplaying that attempting to do any established setting or system justice is doomed to leaving most 'true' roleplayers cold.  Therefore I doubt anyone here would find the process satisfying.  I mean, once you've had the four course meal of table top roleplaying games its hard to be satisfied with the dried crackers and water of MMORPGs.

[mathhatt]

I'd rather see ICE publish Shadowworld based comix though. Get Terry to convert the Shadowstone Chronicles to a comic script & find a decent illustrator in the European school (NOT British but Italian & Spanish style) or Liam Sharp.

Now there's an idea!   Shadowstone published as a graphic novel would probably have more appeal then a regular novel.

I'd vote for William Tibaud !

[Guillaume]

I'd rather see ICE publish Shadowworld based comix though. Get Terry to convert the Shadowstone Chronicles to a comic script & find a decent illustrator in the European school (NOT British but Italian & Spanish style) or Liam Sharp.

Now there's an idea!   Shadowstone published as a graphic novel would probably have more appeal then a regular novel.

I'd vote for William Tibaud !

Vote Seconded !!!

[Wōdwulf Seaxaning]

I'd go with someone like Enrico Marini of Gipsy fame .

[Witchking20k]

I would love to see it if only to see terry & ICE cash in a bit.  But, really, SW is all about the players developing it as much as the writers(much like star wars, which cetrainly hasn't been hurt by MMO)

[Wōdwulf Seaxaning]

I'd like to see Blizzard do a console/PC rpg based on the RMC rules & SW setting. I'd buy them.

[frnchqrtr]

A console and/or PC game would be fine by me.  Maybe something a little more interactive would help me to understand the timeline.  I can't get half through it before I get cross-eyed, dazed and confused.  If I were 25 years younger, maybe I'd have the time and stamina to keep it straight. 

A comic?  That'd be groovy.  It would be especially groovy if it were drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith.  Check out the b&w on this page and the color on this page.  I've never seen a fantasy comic that I liked better than his.  Not that others aren't good, but BW-S was the pinnacle, IMO.

[Wōdwulf Seaxaning]

A comic?  That'd be groovy.  It would be especially groovy if it were drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith.  Check out the b&w on this page and the color on this page.  I've never seen a fantasy comic that I liked better than his.  Not that others aren't good, but BW-S was the pinnacle, IMO.

Bah!! Cary Nord or John Buscema  (RIP) or Ernie Chan (retired)the best of Conan's comic illustrators =) As I said before Liam Sharp or even Karl Kopinski would be a good fit.They'd do Terry proud by bringing SW alive as a comic.

[RandalThor]

I like the new guy they have doing the Conan compilations (God in the Bowl, The Frost Giants Daughter, etc..). It is clean and attractive. I do not like the art that has all the lines in it, like Frank Miller, or Barry Windsor-Smith (sorry, frnchqtr  ). I have always preferred realism over impressionism - just my own taste.

[RandalThor]

I would go for the PC/console video game action too.