Obsidian boss “very tempted” to launch Planescape: Torment sequel Kickstarter

When he’s not busy working with Brian Fargo on the Wasteland reboot, Obsidian boss Chris Avellone is doing a lot of thinking about a Planescape: Torment sequel. Not quite a sequel, though, but more like one of those “spiritual successors” that – in this case – does everything the original did, but without those problematic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules (and the expensive licence, maybe).

“Yes! Very tempted,” he told GamesIndustry when asked about the possibility of a Planescape: Torment sequel Kickstarter project being a thing that could actually happen.

“To be honest I don’t know if I’d want to do it as a Planescape game – I think a better approach would be to ignore the D&D mechanics and respect what Planescape was trying to do and what the game did and see if you can do what Fallout did when it became the spiritual successor to Wasteland,” he said.

“I think if you made a game using some of the concepts of Planescape, the metaphysical ideas and the plane travel, without using the D&D mechanics, you could actually come up with a much better game.”

According to Avellone – who worked on the original Planescape: Torment for Black Isle, released back in 1999 to instant cult status – the D&D ruleset “got in the way” of the game experience at times.

“We had to ignore certain spells, change up the class mechanic so that you can switch at any time you like by remembering abilities. That was stuff that D&D didn’t allow for, it was too restraining in some respects,” he explained. “If we did do a spiritual successor, then I don’t know if we’d use the Planescape licence or attach the mechanics, perhaps something that has a different feel to Torment.”

Yes, yes, and YES. I’m putting money in my piggybank right now.