Desslock’s RPG News

GameSpot’s RPG wizard, Desslock, has written up another article about some of the recent events happening in the RPG scene. Included in the article are his thoughts on BioWare’s resolution with Interplay, Icewind Dale II being officially announced, and the Baldur’s Gate II MOD, The Darkest Day. Here’s a snippet:

Like the original Icewind Dale and the Baldur’s Gate games (as well as Planescape Torment), Icewind Dale 2 will use the BioWare Infinity engine. It’ll still predominately use the Second Edition D&D rules (like all of those games), although there will be a number of significant rules from D&D’s third edition incorporated (such as the method of calculating a character’s defensive armour class and 3rd Edition character classes like the Monk, Sorcerer and Barbarian). Icewind Dale 2 will also take advantage of a number of features introduced by Baldur’s Gate 2, such as the available of a wide range of character class kits, to significantly expand the variety of character classes you can select for your characters. In general the game will be very similar in design to the original Icewind Dale – you’ll create all the members of your party, so there won’t be a lot of NPC chatter, and explore a variety of environments in a relatively linear manner. Many RPG fans have bemoaned the “death” of the Infinity engine – but now they’ll get at least one more chance to play a D&D Infinity engine game.