Torment: Tides of Numenera Interview

inXile Entertainment's (and former GameBanshee editor) Thomas Beekers was recently interviewed over at RPGNuke about a variety of topics, including Torment: Tides of Numenera, the virtues of video game crowd-funding, the "RPG renaissance" that has been happening in recent years, and more. Check it out:

It's no secret that inXile is tightly cooperated with Monte Cook, creator of Numenera, but how does TToN affect PnP Numenera and vice versa? Were there any cases when you (or him) suggested some new interesting mechanic or crazy setting idea?

We will be publishing a Torment sourcebook for Numenera that'll expand upon the PnP setting based on the work we're doing. But of course Torment has also been taking a lot of the great ideas from different Numenera books straight into our game. Writing one scenario I dug deeply into the bestiary for strange creatures, or working on items the Sir Arthour's Guide to the Numenera has been a great resource. Monte is very open to new ideas, and I think it's been a great cooperation especially because guys like Colin McComb, Adam Heine and George Ziets really understand the essence of the setting and truly love it, which means we're all working in the same direction.

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An adjacent topic the so-called «RPG renaissance». It's foolish to deny that lots of RPG releases are pouring in abundance recently, it's even hard to find time to play all of these games. Or maybe you think otherwise? Do you have any favorites among modern RPGs, are there any releases you look forward to? Are there any franchises from the past you would like to be resurrected?

It is hard if not impossible to find the time to play all these new RPGs. But isn't that great in its own way? If you asked me 10 years ago, after the cancellation of Van Buren, what I thought of the future of turn-based, reactivity-focused, hardcore RPGs, I would've said «it's dead». And now look where we are, there's too many for me to play! That's the best kind of problem to have, and I hope it stays that way for a long time.

I have not really had time to fully appreciate all the titles that have come out over the last two years. Of the ones I managed to put some healthy time into and I did not work on, my favorites are probably Larian's Divinity: Original Sin and Harebrained's new Shadowrun RPGs. There's a lot I'd like to see resurrected, but I'm perhaps more excited to see this RPG renaissance lead to fresh franchises that bring new setting or gameplay concepts with them.