That does sound solid. Wasteland 2 is going to be a hit around these parts, I just have a feeling!

I know, I know xtal. I ought to, but... there are so many games contending for the morsels of time I have... Sob.

Anyway, I saw this on the Wasteland 2 kickstarter update page:

NPC Bob, who is guarding some guns, has intro text that reveals two keywords he has more to say about. Clicking on Bob starts the dialog:

>NPC Bob – “Hey strangers, we don’t normally see people out so far into the wasteland. Be careful, it is really dangerous out here unless you are heavily armed.”

This introduces two keywords to the player that they can use to converse with NPC Bob, dangerous and armed. Using the keyword dangerous will prompt NPC Bob give you more information about what is up ahead.

>Ranger Party (keyword = dangerous) –“What is so dangerous about these canyons?”

>NPC Bob – “These canyons are crawling with the outcasts of every crappy society in the wasteland. You had better watch your step.”

Using the armed keyword will have NPC Bob tell you about a possible mission.

>Ranger Party (keyword = armed) –“How do you think we should be armed?”

>NPC Bob – “It is best to have a lot of hollow point ammo out here for all the mutant creatures wandering around. I just came from a cave at the end of that canyon where I found a half destroyed case of ammo. You are welcome to help yourself if you find them. You are going to need all the help you can get out here.”

It sounds promising enough, but if the party heads for that cave they will find themselves in an ambush from the Red Skorpion Militia.

If you had used perception on Bob before talking to him, and you passed the perception skill check, the examine text would have revealed that Bob has the insignia of the Red Skorpion militia tattooed on his neck under his collar. This would put Red Skorpion into your local keywords for your conversation with NPC Bob. Holding your mouse over Red Skorpion, shows the sentence, “I see you are a member of the Red Skorpions.” The Rangers already know that the Red Skorpions are out to get them so calling out Bob as being one can have several effects on the conversation.

For example, if you start the conversation by using Red Skorpion, Bob’s response would be to admit to being a member. Now when you mention armed, which had Bob give you the Trap/Mission before, he no longer tries to bait you, but he doesn’t warn you about it either:

>Ranger Party (keyword = Red Skorpions) –“I see you are a member of the Red Skorpions.”

>NPC Bob – “So what if I am? What are you going to do, shoot me just for having a tattoo?

>Ranger Party (keyword = armed) – “How do you think we should be armed?”

>NPC Bob – “Now that I think about it, I could really care less. Leave me alone and go bother someone else.”

Knowing that the Red Skorpions are your enemy, you might cleverly choose to hold off revealing to Bob that you know he is one. If you wait to use the Red Skorpion keyword until after you had used armed (in which Bob tries to lure you into the trap), Bob would cave and tell you everything:

>Ranger Party (keyword = armed) – “How do you think we should be armed?”

>NPC Bob – “It is best to have a lot of hollow point ammo out here for all the mutant creatures wandering around. I just came from a cave at the end of that canyon where I found a half destroyed case of ammo. You are welcome to help yourself if you find them. You are going to need all the help you can get out here.”

>Ranger Party (keyword = Red Skorpions) –“I see you are a member of the Red Skorpions.”

>NPC Bob – “Okay, okay, you caught me. Listen, don’t kill me, I am only following orders. There is a patrol of Skorpions on the rim of the canyon ahead and I was supposed to send you down there. Meow that I warned you please let me live!”

If you had explored the entire canyon before you got to Bob and you had found some blood stains on the ground you could use "blood stains" as a keyword and get Bob to inadvertently tell you about the cave full of loot he was looking for at the end of the yellow canyon.

>Ranger Party (keyword = blood stains) – “What can you tell us about the blood stains on the trail?”

>NPC Bob – “Oh, that was me. I was looking for a weapons stash I had heard about in that canyon and I was jumped by a pissed-off Honey Badger.”

This essentially gives you a hint to find an inconspicuous cave that you wouldn’t get from just the Bob’s original keywords.

Extending the above example, if your party had Red Skorpion armor equipped when you started that same conversation, it would change Bob’s intro text, and instead of him offering you keywords about dangerous and armed, he would just give you a line about how you are late to the ambush and the rest of the Skorpions are up ahead in the canyon.

If you also had Rick Baychowski, who is on good terms with the Red Skorpions, in your party as a CNPC, Bob would greet Rick in his intro line. He would also reveal the ambush up ahead, and tell the party they can find some ammo in a shed down the path to the right.

Events outside of the conversation can also unlock local keywords. For example, another NPC, Jim, might ask you to let Bob know his sister Sarah had just died. When then talking with Bob, he still delivers his intro line offering up the dangerous and armed keywords, but you also see the keyword Sarah. Holding the mouse over Sarah, you see the sentence “Jim just told me your sister is dead.” Clicking Sarah puts Bob into a panic and he runs away leaving you access to the gun cache. This might have been the only way to get those guns without killing Bob, and you couldn’t have done it if you didn’t talk to Jim first.

Keep in mind that in this example, you still had the option of shooting Bob in the head before any of this dialog happened. This would have had its own level of reactivity. It would have given you access to the guns he was guarding but brought the ambush fight to this location. Meanwhile, using stealth to quietly kill Bob before talking to him gets you the guns without the fight – though you might stumble into the ambush later unless you learn about it another way.

Sounds fantastic to me!

Very well put Botch and Steerpike. The other thing is seeing that line of RPGs being picked up again as well as other games in other genres that fizzled out. There are so many corners of the medium which aren't explored nearly enough so to hear these kickstarters heading into those very corners to see what else there is to be found is really exciting. I don't think it's all tapping into nostalgia, I think some of it is literally people picking up where they left off.

Is anyone playing this? I'm curious what the system requirements are. My desktop has been packed away for some time so I have access to just my laptop, which is pretty mediocre. And system specs doesn't seem to get mentioned in reviews these days because .. well I don't know why actually. Usually Steam lists requirements but, with my Desktop PC packed up for some time I haven't been on Steam.

I'm interested in Wasteland 2 though and if my so-so laptop could run it I'd give it a shot.

Hmm, well those recommended specs are about exactly what my laptop is so I guess it'd be a coin toss. Maybe I'll wait to see if there's a demo.