As human beings with all the normal Products of the Flesh – hopes, dreams, and a single brain split between multiple bodies, inextricably intertwined via thick, ropy cords of spinal tissue – we at RPS are quite excited about inXile’s Planescape: Torment not-quite-a-sequel. It is, however, missing a couple key ingredients: 1) Planescape lead designer Chris Avellone and 2) money. So of course, inXile’s released a video of Chris Avellone explaining why you should give them money. On Kickstarter, by the way. That’s officially a thing now. Or at least, it will be very, very soon.



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The Kickstarter’s due to kick off on March 6th, which the arbitrary social constructs of our time have deemed “Wednesday.” Until then, though, we have new info to tide you over.

“In Torment: Tides of Numenera, players will have to decide for themselves the eternal question: what does one life matter? Numenera’s Ninth World is a vision of a world in which massive civilizations continue to rise and fall with only cities, monuments, and artifacts left behind to serve as reminders of their past existence. These reminders have become part of the accumulated detritus of eons and now this assortment of ancient power is there for the taking. The humans of the Ninth World call the ancient power left behind the numenera. One of these humans has discovered a way to harness the numenera to grow strong, to cheat death, to skip across the face of centuries in a succession of bodies. But he discovers an unexpected side effect: You.”

Meanwhile, everything else looks to be pretty much as you’d expect: no DRM, “deep and reactive choices,” and – of course – intrinsic ties to Monte Cook’s recently Kickstarted Numenera role-playing system.

It’s nice to hear that so many former Planescapers are present and accounted for, too. I mean, I doubt they’ll be able to recapture the wonder of Planescape: Torment, but this is a new setting and system. I’ve come to terms with that fact, and honestly, if I wanted to play the original again, I’d just, you know, go replay the original. Sure, Chris Avellone’s off working on a different pseudo-successor to Planescape, but this is still a promising lineup. Will Tides of Numenera be better than the original? That’s an almost implausibly tall order. Truth be told, I’m doubtful, if only because Planescape’s such a special thing. But I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.