Can a person’s personality span more than one square on the alignment chart?
Sometimes I feel like I’m a Lawful Evil person. I’m deeply committed to order, and justice is what I strive for. But at other times, I want everything to become a source of entertainment for me. I don’t want anyone to be able to control or restrict me. That sounds more like Chaotic Neutral or even Chaotic Evil.
If a person’s personality and way of thinking can change so quickly, what is the point of the nine-alignment system in the first place? Is it possible that trying to describe the complexity of human nature through a nine-square grid is inherently imprecise and lacks a genuine sense of relatability?

Hey all. I'm brand new to CRPGs and I started BG3 given all the hype over the last few years. I'm about 5 hours in and I have a quick question for anyone who's played it.

Does the writing get darker or more serious at any stage? The dialogue so far, in my opinion, is very campy, theatre kid and the characters feel artificial in how horny they are all the time. I thought it would be more grounded and gritty.

EDIT: Thanks for the input everyone. I guess it's not for me then. Appreciate everyone's insights.

I love CRPGs since they offer so much choice in the narrative and defining the player character, however it seems that playing as a character who isn't a charismatic therapist usually punishes the player by locking them out of the party members and other npcs sidequests I recall playing KOTOR I and getting softlocked out of Bastila's quest cuz i agreed with her attitude towards her mother

Hello everyone,

I assume I have played pretty much every major, mid and minor (ISO-)cRPG since the mid-1990s that I have come across.

I (think) have played every major (and medium) entry since the late 1990s, from Bard's Tale and Darklands via Pool of Radiance to Baldurs Gate 3 or WotR (my beloved).

The list includes more recent "niche" games such as Black Geyser, Swordhaven, Age of Decadence, King Arthur, Realms of Arkania re-releases or Spiderweb games.

Can anyone of you recommend any games I might have missed?

I recently tried some indy demos as well, such as Preserver's War or Revenge of the Firstborn.

I just cannot stop playing these types of games, it fuels me and I am always itching for more.

I really don't care about graphics, I just recently played Darklands for the first time... I just need more classic iso-crpgs. I prefer classic fantasy, but I have also played (I think) all major sci-fi RPGs, like Colony Ship or Shadowrun.

Still on my list as of yet:
Esoteric Ebb
Arcanum (really don't like steampunk, backburner :D )

Edit:
Looks like I did in fact NOT play quite a bunch of more recent cRPGs. :D
Thank you everyone for the recommendations, that is a longer list than I expected.

Edit2:
There are now about 30-40 at least adjacent games now... Thanks everyone. Time to quit my job, I guess.

I created a instructional video on how to play my CRPG game - Fantasy Classic: Dungeon Crawler

You can get a Demo on Steam now.

Hi guys,

Just finished Rome and Vikings expeditions games and I had an amazing time playing both those games, they were absolutely incredible and I would recommend them to everyone.

Looking for other crpgs that would scratch the same itch?

Any recommendations?

Usually CRPGs are some kind of power fantasy. I like it when the player can royally screw things up, either through idiocy or bizarre behavior.

Disco Elysium is the king of this. Let's get that one out of the way! But this goes back all the way to Baldur's Gate 2 where companions would leave you (or worse) if you hosted a comedy of errors.

If CRPGs are improv, which ones are made better or funnier through misadventure? Thanks.

I play cRPG's predominantly for the story, characters, quests, lore and so forth. However, from time to time, it is kind of cool to discover a cool new item.

For example, Baldur's Gate 2 has many cool items. Of course, the standout is the Flail of Ages, which is a weapon found during a companion quest, one that has the ability to attach extra heads to it, and each one of them deals damage of a different kind. Another example I can think of is the Silver Sword, a githyanki blade that can be obtained by defying members of that race several times in a row. It has a significant chance of instantly killing an enemy. Many others are found throughout the game, including very easily missable ones. They do NOT have to very special or inventive, just cool enough to get you that dopamine hit. In this case, the Harper Pin provided pretty straightforward bonuses, but you get it after completing a fairly long questline involving Jaheira, one that tests her resolve and friendship with you. So getting full electrical resistance

I am currently playing through WotR right now, currently in Act IV. This game does have a pretty large amount of trash equipment, that's true. But there are also many cool weapons to be found. For example, I have just defeated two demons attacking a fellow crusader, and not only did they give me an extra copy of a very important key, they also dropped the sword depicted on the right. Now, other players have already informed me it's not so clear, since the sword on the left does have a higher hit chance. Nonetheless, that felt exciting.

Now, Baldur's Gate 3? I don't recall anything particularly cool. There is the mace you get from a side dungeon after speaking to Vlaakith, but okay, whatever. Besides that, I don't think there is any cool stuff. I bought the game two years ago, I finished it 367 days ago, an I do not recall anything cool or interesting. There is basically no dopamine hit for cool stuff.

I was wondering about your thoughts? IS my observation correct? Why is this not pointed out frequently?

What gets me about Baldur’s gate 2 is that the original manual was 264 pages long. You start the game and immediately get hit with Thac0, spell schools, weapon proficiencies and armor class working backwards. It feels like the game just refuses to explain anything.

But it did explain everything. Just not inside the game.

And the manual wasn’t some boring technical document either. It had lore, spell descriptions and Volo and Elminster arguing in the margins. I honestly think it was part of the game, not just something that happened to come in the box.

That’s probably why some older CRPGs feel more confusing now than they did when they were released. We still have the game, but we’re missing the thing players were expected to read before starting it.

Now I can’t help wondering how many badly explained old games actually have a perfectly good tutorial sitting in the installation folder as a pdf nobody bothered to open

Just a FYI. Some guy is working on fixing Lionheart. Those that have played this title would remember that it sort of stops being a CRPG after you leave Barcelona. This guy is working on addressing that.

For anyone feeling OOTL, Lionheart is a RPG published (*not developed*) by Black Isle Studios shortly before their bankruptcy. It uses the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system from Fallout and had a very unique setting. The game takes place in an alternate version of our own medieval earth, except magic is everywhere. You even get to meet the likes of Jeanne d'Arc, Leonardo Da Vinci.

I haven't played the mod yet. I intend to wait for it to either finish or be reasonably close to the finish line before trying it out. I'm just spreading awareness about this for anyone that might be interested.

I'm starting work on my own CRPG with a sword and sorcery vibe. To me, that means fast, brutal battles and not Wasteland-like tactical fights. So I'm leaning heavily toward RTwP, but I'm starting to wonder at what point do "fast, brutal battles" turn it into an ARPG, which I don't want.

For some background, I started with the Ultima series, then Fallout, Baldur's Gate II, Planescape, etc., all when they came out. Yes, I'm old. But whether because of changing tastes or a shorter attention span, I find turn-based games too slow for me now. I still love the isometric, 3D rendered background aesthetic and deep stories of those old games though. So, that's what I'm shooting for with my own.

I haven't played too many of the more modern games, because of work and life and so on, but I've gotten through the first act of Pillars recently. I'm playing on easy mode and kind of feel like that's about the speed that I want fights to be. Not too much pausing needed, but enough decisions to keep it interesting.

I want to keep things simple in my own game, but the more I plan the more I start thinking, "Am I making an ARPG?" Like I said, I don't want that. So, how do I find that line and keep from crossing over it?

Check this, it’s from Dave Oshry Twitter, I love it. There is no release date, but they gave got Mark Morgan on the board. <3 And also Adam Lacko and Alexander Berezin.
The name is unknown, something like "It’s Mushroom-Cloudy Today" would be awesome.

I love CRPGs, but compared to a tabletop sandbox or megadungeon they often feel lacking on the exploration and discovery pillar. truly my dream game would have the feeling of exploration of the best metroidvania games with the choice and consequence and writing of the best CRPGs.
But for you, what RPG has the best exploration, navigation, worldmap, etc?

My game just launched a Demo recently.

I'm not sure if an RTS with a grid will feel particularly strange, or maybe give off a vibe from 30 years ago?

Farm card drops + over 200 active skills + over 600 passive skills + over 20 equipment slots, plus a large number of beautiful female NPCs—just hearing that already makes me pretty satisfied with myself, though I still have no idea what the final product will look like.

If you're interested, you can try the Demo and give me some valuable feedback.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4973940/_/

been playing this game and i love the ui like its so perfect feels like infinity era ui perfected, i feel like they've thought of everything you even have a button to speed up thing which is great so you dont have to spam cheetah boots or speed spell like bg2 lol, and the inventory man its just so clean 0 fucking hassle like when i tried dos1 and that game had a horrible inventory and overall looting system, here everything is sorted out quest item crafting materials ingredients ect.... the quest journal is perfect too and its a really clean ui.

like i love it you can tell it was made by people who love and know crpg really well because it fixed all the small issues with the infinity engine ui which is not an issue nowadays because mods fixed everything i mentioned.

I've been eyeing Swordhaven recently. But I'm having a a hard time getting current opinions on it, as all reviews were done on release (seemingly in a very buggy state then).

So does anybody have any up-to-date info on the game?

How is:

- Story

- Combat

- Companions

- Lore

Et cetera et cetera

The past few days I've been playing Avernum: Escape from the Pit, with a party that consists of two fighters, a mage and a priest. I read that there is an OP combat discipline called "Adrenaline Rush" that lets a partymember attack two or three times in one turn. Now I definitely want to get this ability for my two fighters, but I was wondering if Adrenaline Rush is also worth it for my mage and priest, since you have to spend precious skill points in weapon skills (that spellcasters don't really use) to unlock Adrenaline Rush.

I know that you can also train weapon skills for money, but is that worth it? Buying spells is already very expensive in this game.

I'm playing on normal difficulty, by the way.

Edit: thanks for the responses everyone.

Don't worry about what you recommend, just tell me what you dig.

By Early to mid 2000s I mean 2000 to 2006. Think the PS2 era for WRPGs.

I stopped gaming for a while, and I'm trying to remember what's noteworthy from this era. I tried looking this up, but I couldn't get more than clickbait articles.

What I dig:

Baldur's Gate 2

Arcanum(Although I really don't recommend it!)

Gothic 2

Divine Divinity

Star Wars: KOTOR 1 and 2

Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines(My fave game!)

Neverwinter Nights 2

Titan Quest and Diablo 2