Greyhawk Interview with Tim Cain
Sia 'Garrett' Manzari, 2003-06-10

After last years disappointing first adaption of D&D 3e Edition in Pool of Radiance, Greyhawk by Troika Games/Atari is due to hit shelves this fall. As the game is being developed by the sme people who did Fallout and Arcanum for example, chances are good, that this one will be a good one! We took the chance to put a few questions to Tim Cain from Troika Games:

RPGDot: Can you tell us about the background story of Greyhawk in a few words?

Tim Cain: Sure. Here's my summary of the game (with no spoilers):

Ten years ago, the forces of good defeated an evil temple's army and cast down their leader. Since that time, the villages across the countryside have been relatively peaceful and prosperous. However, just recently bandit activity has been on the rise, and something else, something undefinable, has begun to make itself felt. There are whispers that the evil has come again, and this time, the forces of good cannot stop it.

RPGDot: What are the main differences and the main similarities between Greyhawk and your other projects, say Arcanum or Fallout?

Tim Cain: All of my RPG games to date have shared certain characteristics. They have all been isometric, turn-based games. They have all had rich and varying dialogs, nonlinear plotlines, and multiple solutions to quests.

However, besides the obvious difference that Greyhawk uses the D&D 3.5 rules, it also is my first party-based game. You create and control a whole party of characters, instead of making a single hero, which leads to a lot of choices to make during creation time and during play. It is also my first game with multiple starting points, in addition to multiple endings.

RPGDot: When this project came up I know you looked through your old modules and decided on one of your favourites -The Temple of Elemental Evil. Why did you decide to recreate a classic module in the first place?

Tim Cain: After our first meeting with Infogrames, both sides had agreed for a classic CRPG. We wanted something that felt and played like "old school" D&D. So I went home that night and pulled down all of my old modules and went through them. It was a close decision. I really liked the whole GDQ series - giants, drow, Lolth. But that series did not start at level 1, and ToEE does, so that was my tie breaker.

RPGDot: How close to the original module have you stayed? Any variations will be scrutinised by fans - how have you balanced staying true to the source material against keeping a sense of discovery or suspense for players who might know the module?

Tim Cain: We have tried to stay very close to the original module. I am very sensitive to making changes, and most of the ones I have made have been due to engine limitations or simply the nature of a computer game (where reloading and trying again is a simple thing to do).
However, a lot of design is left unspecified in the module, things that a human DM would fill in easily. All of the personalities and dialogs of the NPC's had to be filled out, and several maps were changed because they were simply too big and too sparsely filled. Also, several new locations had to be created from scratch. I think that anyone familiar with the original module will still enjoy our version.

RPGDot: Troika is known for it's non-linear games with multiple paths. The original ToEE module was fairly combat-heavy -what changes or additions have you made to provide an open style of play?

Tim Cain: We have added multiple paths through the story so that combat can be avoided with certain groups, and many combat situations of a dialog-based alternative, although the player may not like the specific alternative ("Certainly I will not eat you. Give me 1000 gold and you may leave in peace"). We have also recognized that not every party is going to be of good alignment, which was an underlying assumption of the module. Evil parties can make certain choices that dramatically change the end of the game.

RPGDot: Describe the party system in ToEE for us. I believe you were debating whether to give players full control of NPCs in combat - what have you decided and why?

Tim Cain: We are experimenting with a mixed system. NPC's that you invite into your party as followers are fully controlled and appear on your character portrait bar. However, you cannot access their character sheets or take things from their inventory, and sometimes they may choose to leave the party based on actions you've taken or because their goals are met. You are limited to at most 3 controlled followers.
On the other hand, summoned creatures (including animated undead) are not under your direct control. They simply follow you around and fight whoever you fight. But you can have as many as these followers as you want (if not limited by the spell), and they last as long as their creation spell does.

RPGDot: What improvements or changes have you made to normal turn-based combat conventions?

Tim Cain: We've remained faithful to the D&D turn-based combat rules, but we have added an option to speed up combat by letting monsters with adjacent initiatives take their turn at the same time. So, for example, your characters A and B were fighting zombies Z1, Z2 and Z3 and the intiative bar looked like this:

A, Z1, Z2, B, Z3

So your character A would take his turn, then zombies Z1 and Z2 would both attack at the same time, then B would go, followed by Z3.

This option really speeds up combat when there are a lot of opponents. It sometimes gives an advantage to the monsters and sometimes to the players, but overall it appears not to change the outcome of a combat. Even so, the player can turn it off if he wants.

RPGDot: The ending of the original module was not specifically detailed. Will choices made during the game affect the ending? How many endings will there be?

Tim Cain: Yes, your choices during the game have an effect on the ending. There are four major endings, meaning four main events that can occur that end the game, not counting your party dying a variety of horrible, painful deaths, of course. And we have a bunch of slides to show too, that detail the effects of your actions on the world (and some of those effects can be MAJOR ones on the Greyhawk world). So even if you play twice and get the same major ending, your end slide show will probably be different. Playing different alignments will also help you achieve different endings too.

RPGDot: Is the focus of Greyhawk more on story or more on action/combat or a mixture of the above?

Tim Cain: When I wrote the design doc for Greyhawk, I recognized the combat is a fundamental part of D&D. The classes are designed to form a party of adventurers with balanced abilities, true, but the main purpose of the game is to kill monsters and take their loot. So within that framework of combat, I tried to weave a story that the player would find interesting and compelling to follow. Their are a lot of choice points in the game, where the player can use his characters non-combat abilities to uncover plot information and to sometimes steer the plot in a different direction. So, I think I have provided a solid narrative that is punctuated with a great deal of combat.

RPGDot: Can you describe typical situations regarding combat and magic? Can you solve a situation like a puzzle or a confrontation in different ways?

Tim Cain: Most combat takes place as a set encounter, where the party discovers a room or area inhabited by hostile creatures. Normally, combat begins and everyone attacks on their turn, as determined by their initiative. But many times there is an alternative. For example, sometimes a guard can be deceived by dressing the party in the appropriate garb for an area. He will mistake the characters for his allies and ignore them. Or the player can use a character with a high Bluff skill to let his party pass thru an area unmolested. Or magic can be used to avoid an encounter altogether, using invisibility or teleport to simple go around the hostile creatures.

RPGDot: Many ambitous projects tried to create an epic D&D RPG like Baldur's Gate 2, but many have failed, the last one to to so was Pool of Radiance 2. Why will Greyhawk be equally good or even better than BG2?

Tim Cain: We have made a story at least as compelling as out competitors and added tactical combat and non-combat solutions. Plus, our adherence to the 3.5 rules and especially by using turn-based combat, we have made a truly faithful and epic D&D game.

RPGDot: Will you offer a mod-rool/editor for the game?

Tim Cain: No. The tight schedule for this title made any user mod tools impossible.

RPGDot: Will you do addons or sequels?

Tim Cain: It's up to Atari, but there are several other classic modules that would lend themselves to translation to a computer version. I think Lolth and her little drow minions need to be dealt with, don't you? :)

thanks to Dhruin for supplying most of these questions