The Tavern

An epic, retro-style CRPG in the tradition of Eye of the Beholder. This thing is massive and has been in the making for over 17 years.

Noteworthy Features:

600 hours of play possible in a single game
244+ Maps in the game to explore!
Turn-Based strategic combat
144 context sensitive magic spells
14 races, 15 professions, 50 skills
64 intelligent NPCs with 8000+ Words in Vocabulary
Full Sentence Communication with NPCs
240+ monsters each with special powers and defenses
1000+ items, Carry Containers, Global Party Inventory
30 conditions, from Confusion to Disease & Lycanthropy
Automapping, Autowalking, Autohealing
Global Map Atlas With Position Marker
Quest Journal, Hint Prompting, Help Facility, Mini-Quests
Complex LockPicking Interfaces for Doors & Chests
Challenging Puzzles and Rich Interactive Dungeons
Browsable Character Library for up to 100 characters
Up to 12 Commented Postage Stamped Savegames
Multi-themed GUI and customizable screen layouts

http://www.indiegogo.com/grimoireforever

So, I looked into this in the last days and ... wow!
If this is an internet fake, it would be the best since a long time.
But seems all true - a Sir-Tech renegade trying to pawn Wizardry VII !!!
I'm really thinking now about to invest a little sum for a pledge.



All you-tube previews
-> http://www.youtube.com/user/TexasArcane/videos?view=0

Old article about the ancient beta at Ironworks Gaming:
http://www.tgeweb.com/ironworks/preview ... oire.shtml


Relevant threads at RPG-Codex forums:

Why did Sir-tech go bankrupt?
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.ph ... ion.53695/

Grimoire kickstarter?
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.ph ... ter.75724/

Somehow the whole style of the game and the irreverent fundraiser vid screams "elaborate but funny fake". But digging in more it does definitely seem to be real, if incredibly bizarre. The "Why did Sir-tech go bankrupt?" thread appears to be some legendary and wondrous thing, which sublimes into some kind of transcendent state after page 39 where an antiques dealer joins the fray who has just purchased the entire contents of the long-abandoned Sir-Tech office including masses of design documents, concept arts, and even game code and demo disks for their never-released Wizardry 8 (including a lot of evidence to support Cleve's ever-outlandish claims about the Sir-Tech palava). The main thing that convinces me of the truth of all this is that (particularly from that point onwards) it just gets so bizarre you literally could not make this up.

I don't think the Grimoire dev (Cleve Blakemore, an active participant in that thread) does himself any favours with his irreverent and often fairly offensive style. Personally I mostly find him hilarious but I am thick-skinned. I suspect the fundraiser could have done somewhat better if he gave folks a bit more reason to take him seriously!

The possibility of an a elaborate hoax brings to mind a review from the final issue of Crash (ZX Spectrum magazine) for a game called Danny Duster's Dirty Deeds, purporting to be the best Speccy game ever designed. I spent several days pestering my computer shop for a release date and them being incredibly confused that it didn't exist, before I realised it was in fact the April issue. Sadly, the article about it being their last issue didn't turn out to be a joke!

Here are scans of the review in all its glory:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=Crash/Issue98/Pages/Crash9800052.jpg
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=Crash/Issue98/Pages/Crash9800053.jpg

That was great, thanks Grimm. Waggle your joystick for suds!

The entire Look Around You series is compulsory viewing.

check it out you can actually play Diarrhea Dan:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/lookaroundy ... s/dd.shtml

with this game around who needs crawl anymore?

It does strengthen the case for the previously proposed excretion subgame.

No shit!

Are you taking the piss?

No just farting about.

Yes, I thought it was just a lot of hot air.

I'm detecting a certain amount of faecesiousness.

That's what you get for pooh-poohing our ideas.

Maybe it's time I mucked in. First I'll put on my dungarees. I think it's time everyone stopped guanon about this.

It would help if you posted a dump.

That shield you were using was crap.

Try playing a Merdefolk.

For even more of a challenge, play a Merdefolk Death Shite.

Fetid Assassin

Is the playstyle very different from a Fetid Shitstabber?

Yeah, you can wipe out a lot more enemies.

So Fetid Assasswipe would be a better name?

Yeah.

I did once try to get going with some Arcane Arsefissures but they all died early. Heightened susceptibility to infection, I suspect.

A Fetid Copromancer would be fun.

The demo is finally out....

WUT ?

The question is : Is it any good?

On another forum I saw peoples complaining of crash every 5/10 minutes.

P.S. ClawlessVictory, how can you even think to survive with Varsovie the Cunning in your party?

Yeah, it's busted. At least for me, it's riddled with bugs and crashes constantly.