Wizardry and Anachronox Veterans Launch Old-school RPG Kickstarter

While the proposed game has no title yet, and the info on it is still scarce, it's worth noting that Wizardry and Realms of Arkania veteran Brenda Brathwaite and id Software co-founder and Anachronox designer Tom Hall, both currently working at Loot Drop, have launched a Kickstarter for a party-based, turn-based "old-school" RPG.  The funding goal is a rather lofty $1 million, but the team has already prepared quite a few stretch goals.  The most interesting of these is the fact that, with enough funding, Tom and Brenda will work separately on their own RPGs, making this a Kickstarter for two games rather than one. The announcement video:



And here's a quote from the page:
Gather your bearings and belongings, leave town, and embark on a journey in a world that seems at once welcoming and friendly... until you meet its dark side!

THE CHARACTERS

  • Characters: Create a group of up to 4 characters, choosing from multiple races and professions.
  • Skills: Balance your characters' strengths, weaknesses and skills, knowing each of them affects play.
  • Progression: Gain experience and gain levels to hone your characters to your exact liking.
  • Recruitable Characters: Hire NPCs to work with you, if you trust them, or allow them to hire you to be their guide.
  • Character Extensions (Stretch Goal): Wrestle with the old-school favorites from back in the paper days - alignment, age, rank and randomly-rolled temperament.

THE WORLD

  • Exploration: Explore a richly detailed world, home to unique, dangerous and sometimes crafty creatures who may be friend or foe.
  • Treasure: Loot castles, caverns and dungeons and defeat hordes of creatures in a world where your skill and cunning are key.
  • NPCs: At least five known NPC races call this world home. Forge alliances with them and do their bidding - or be their undoing.
  • Quests: Solve hundreds of quests on your way to discovering and uncovering the secrets of the world.
  • Multiple Endings: The smallest of intentions sometimes matters far more than you know. It is a world alive with memories.
  • Multiple Beginnings (Stretch Goal): The endings in one game affect the beginnings in another. Import your characters from one world to another.
  • Combat: Turn-based combat harkens back to the days when spells and swords hit hard and last-second healing spells saved the day.
  • NPC Enemies (Stretch Goal): What once was a relatively peaceful world becomes much more dangerous not only for you, but for those who live there. New NPCs come complete with an expanded game area and quests.

... AND MORE

  • Super Hardcore Mode (Stretch Goal) : Challenge yourself with Permadeath mode, no-save option and some optional but barely beatable bosses with the loot to prove their worth.
  • Pen & Paper RPG ($60 Reward Tier): Gather around a table and enjoy playing Old School RPG the seriously, really old school way.
  • Two Games, One Kickstarter ($1.9M Stretch Goal): Brenda and Tom make different, separate RPGs with unique worlds, quests and characters.

I have to admit that $1 million is an extremely ambitious funding goal, but we have already seen with Wasteland 2 and Project Eternity that raising that kind of money is hardly impossible. That said, both Kickstarter relied on audiences that seem relatively bigger (Infinity Engine and Fallout fans), so I guess we'll have to see. Either way, we'll certainly be following this project closely.