So, I was just made aware of this game which I am now backing on their kickstarter. Like 48 hours left.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649838104/serpent-in-the-staglands
http://serpentinthestaglands.com/
Gameplay Overview
An isometric, real time, party-based ARPG set in the icy Staglands, where a trapped god and chosen company embark on a perilous quest.
The vision for Serpent in the Staglands is a mix of the addictive build customization of ARPGs and party control and role-playing elements of games like Baldur's Gate and Darklands. As your search for answers as a mortal avatar of a god, combat and exploration is the focus, and you can individually customize the skills, spells, and aptitudes of up to five different party members of your choosing with a massive variety of build options and intellects.
The real time combat is frenetic and can often turn into an onslaught of magical assaults and frenzied attacks, so you can pause the game at any time to issue out orders or get a grip on your party's situation. Serpent in the Staglands features a classless role-playing system, where you create builds via any combination of the magic, combat and aptitude skills they choose. The game boasts over 100 different skills and synergies and a vast amount of inventory items to help min-max any build you can imagine. Our goal is to give you freedom to create any class you'd want to role-play, make them simple to use in game, and hard to master strategies for. The skill points put into these all come from the same bank, so your choices every level are paramount to who you are building.
We've created an entirely unique combat mode - you won't find any skill cooldowns, have limited use per battle skills, or a Scrabble board worth of skills and spells littered all over your screen. We designed what we found is the roots of fun tactical
RPGs: micromanaging team strategy, not button mashing skills. Your characters are loaded to the brim with what skills you give them, and they trigger independently. Spells are more omnipotent and are cast and held singularly. With enemies having access to the skills you do and more, your strategies and builds make all the difference between a quick onslaught or defeat.
The game features a dice roll combat system and unique character stat modification. Each character stat has a negative and positive dice modifier - the sides of that die and number of die are completely dynamic, meaning they are all essentially an "XdX". This works awesome for a crpg, where it would be an impossibility for physical roleplaying.
Spells, combat skills, inventory items and ailments can effect these modifiers, and usually deal damage with the same system but with a damage die - putting skill points into a skill, leveling up, or having skill points in a synergized Aptitude or other skill can affect either side of their dice damage roll.
The game is currently in development for
PC and Mac, and with the help of Kickstarter donations will be released Winter 2014.
Trapped in the Staglands by an unknown force, the usually indolent moon lord Necholai embarks on a quest for information and answers, desperate to return to his sanctuary, and furious at the presumption of one who would try to hold a god. Far from his source of power, Necholai is forced to take a mortal form to traverse the Staglands in disguise and look for answers.
As his avatar, you must rely on your skills, along with the help of a trusted priest and the poor souls you find and wrangle into your traveling party. On your journey, you and your companions stumble through traps, intrigue and mutinous offspring as you explore Emerald Mines, the port town’s Guild Houses, the forest domain of the Wandering Lady, and many more dangers across the Staglands peninsula.
