The GWJ cRPG Club Main Thread Part 2 - Still playing Pillars of Eternity 2

Right, I'll do the first update now before I get engrossed in Company of Heroes 3 again.

So far we have:

Nominated and Seconded

Kingdoms of Amalamadingdong
Wasteland 3
Wildermyth
Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous

Nominated

Expeditions: Rome
Kenshi

I’ll second Expeditions: Rome, but I’ll probably feel compelled to play Vikings and maybe Conquistador first…. Yes, I have issues.

KENSHI

What even is Kenshi? I feel like I need a pitch for this one, I’ve never heard (read) anyone ever say anything about it.

Redherring wrote:

What even is Kenshi? I feel like I need a pitch for this one, I’ve never heard (read) anyone ever say anything about it.

Allow me to repeat my post from early in this thread:

Kenshi is 60% 55% off in the Steam Sale, and is the game I will be advocating for every single vote until we finally play it. I think the insane amount of flexibility and randomness would make for a discussion thread full of unique playthrough stories.

I think the best argument for Kenshi is the Steam reviews, many of which are just stories of how things unfolded in someone's playthrough, no two of which are alike:

I met my best friend in slavery, and he sacrificed himself so I could get away. It's been months, Hotlongs. I will set you free one day. I miss you

I enslaved the dictator of a nation hell bent on the destruction of all robots. Once enslaved, I systematically removed his limbs and replaced them with robot limbs, essentially making him a living embarrassment to his entire nation.

My plan backfired: his hatred fueled him and when he escaped he beat the ♥♥♥♥ out of my villagers with his hardened steel hands and feet.

Lost a leg, bled out crawling through the desert, rescued by slavers, became a slave, became a master locksmith, crawled to my freedom, slithered around peoples homes at night, learned to steal, incarcerated again, rinse, repeat. Finally made some money, hired a man to carry me, named the brute Hodor, travelled the world, found a new leg, became a master thief, almost died +20 more times, hired many more members, started massive rum operation which grows into a full living city.

Now I stand atop my tower as Hodor trains armies to raze slaver encampments, as my scientists build state of the art prosthetics, as my logistic and agricultural personnel fuel the operation, as my turret gaurds shoot slavers for practice, as my smiths craft armor and blades 10 times more expensive than what I was appraised as a slave. There will be blood.

I decide to go on a nightly stealing spree with my thief. Usually I can get pretty good pickings, but sometimes I have to run for my life and wait for things to dial down.

My thief is picking through the shopkeeper's belongings, when a camel-like beast from the caravan wanders into the shop with her. Turns out my thief left the door open - she's still new at this. Now, these camels wander all throughout buildings in town, so this is normal behavior for the camel. Only this time the camel is in a shop after dark, and this camel is pretty loud, so it wakes the shopkeeper upstairs.

My thief runs for it, closing the door behind her. The shopkeeper runs downstairs only to find the camel. And this is where Kenshi becomes Kenshi.

In most games I've played, this would be treated as a glitch. Nothing would happen. The camels aren't supposed to wander into the shop after dark, so this would just be aberrant behavior.

Instead, the shopkeeper sees the camel, thinks it's busting up his shop, and starts to attack the camel. The camel fights back. Pretty soon, the shop guard is fighting the camel too. The caravan guards join in the fray, and then the whole town erupts into fighting. It's the caravan vs. the town guards. The town guards win out, and there are bodies and prisoners everywhere. My thief takes advantage of the situation to pick the bodies clean of any loot. She's cold-hearted like that.

And if you prefer video, I'll let Charlatan Wonder sell Kenshi:

*Legion* wrote:

KENSHI

second

tboon wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

KENSHI

second

I always hear the ladies say what a stud tboon is.

Current update

Nominated and Seconded

Kingdoms of Amalamadingdong
Wasteland 3
Wildermyth
Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Expeditions: Rome
Kenshi

Voting closes at 9pm GMT.

No noms from me. Everything I'm tempted to play next is represented.

Half an hour left should anyone else have anything to nominate!

OK time is up.

Because we only have 7 games nominated and seconded, I'm going to skip straight to Ranked Choice voting here as it would seem the most sensible thing to do.

Game 22 Ranked Choice Voting

In this round, please rank the following seven games in order of your preference for play. Please vote based on what you'll play with the group. You do not have to rank every game.

This round of voting will run until 9pm GMT (4pm EST) on Wednesday, 22nd March. That should give us about between 18 to 24 hours to pick up the game in the sale if you don't already own it.

The Candidates
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning - £11.54 / $13.19
Wasteland 3 - £8.24 / $12.49
Wildermyth - £19.49 / $24.99 (not in the sale)
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - £7.49 / $9.99
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Enhanced Edition - £12.89 / $14.99
Expeditions: Rome - £18.49 / $22.49
Kenshi - £10.34 / $13.49

Quick List for Ease of Voting
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning
Wasteland 3
Wildermyth
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Expeditions: Rome
Kenshi

How to Vote

1. Please rank the candidates in your order of preference of play, with the game you want to play the most at the top of your list.

2. You may rank as many games as you’d like. You do not need to rank all the games. However, keep in mind that a game in the bottom half of your ranking could win. Ranking at least all the games you would play is a good idea.

3. If you do not want to rank a particular game, please make sure to delete/omit it from your list. (Don’t simply leave the unranked games at the bottom of your list.)

How We’ll Determine a Winner - Elimination Style

Basically, we’ll keep running through the rankings, eliminating the game with the lowest number of top-preference votes, until we have one game that has gotten a majority of the votes. I could write a bazillion words to explain details, but this one-minute video does it better than that:

*For elimination rounds, if we have ties at the bottom of the voting pile, I'll break them by looking at second place votes, so we only eliminate one game each elimination round.

You know what to do.

1. Wildermyth
2. Wasteland 3
3. Kenshi
4. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning
5. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

1. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning
2. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
3. Wasteland 3
4. Wildermyth
5. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
6. Expeditions: Rome
7. Kenshi

Kenshi
Wildermyth
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Edit: Updated my votes. Hope that's ok since it's still well before deadline.

Kenshi
Wildermyth
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
Wasteland 3
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous

Kenshi
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Wildermyth
Expeditions: Rome
Wasteland 3
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

KENSHI
Wasteland 3
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
Expeditions: Rome
Pathfinder: Wrath of Khan
Wildermyth
Kingdoms of Ama-no-more-console-3rd-person-action-adventure-plz

Path Wrath
kenshi i guess
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
Wildermyth

1. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
2. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
3. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning
4. Wildermyth

Kenshi
Expeditions: Rome
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Wildermyth

Redherring wrote:

1. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
2. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
3. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning
4. Wildermyth

This is my ranking too.

1. Wasteland 3
2. Wildermyth
3. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning
4. Kenshi
5. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
6. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
7. Expeditions: Rome

My vote:

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Wildermyth
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
Wasteland 3
Expeditions: Rome
Kenshi
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
Wildermyth

24 hours in and voting looks as follows:

Results so Far:

Kenshi - 5 Votes
Kingdoms of Amalur - 2 Votes
Pillars of Eternity II - 2 Votes
Wrath of the Righteous - 2 Votes
Wasteland 3 - 1 Vote
Wildermyth - 1 Vote
Expeditions: Rome - 1 Vote

In news to Legion's Ears, Kenshi is a strong favourite after the first day of voting. Again, every game has at least one 1st choice vote but there only a few votes for Kenshi as other ranked votes, so it certainly isn't a forgone conclusion.

The Candidates
Kenshi - £10.34 / $13.49
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning - £11.54 / $13.19
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - £7.49 / $9.99
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Enhanced Edition - £12.89 / $14.99
Wasteland 3 - £8.24 / $12.49
Wildermyth - £19.49 / $24.99 (not in the sale)
Expeditions: Rome - £18.49 / $22.49

Quick List for Ease of Voting
Kenshi
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Wasteland 3
Wildermyth
Expeditions: Rome

Keep those votes coming in.

For the Record, my votes are:

1. Expeditions: Rome
2. Wrath of the Righteous
3. Wasteland 3
4. Pillars of Eternity II
5. Wildermyth
6. Kingdoms of Amalur
7. Kenshi

Sorbicol wrote:

7. Kenshi

Ouch.

Sorbicol wrote:

In news to Legion's Ears, Kenshi is a strong favourite after the first day of voting.

(...)

Keep those votes coming in.

IMAGE(https://media.tenor.com/G6R6XyRsvWoAAAAC/stop-the-count-donald-trump.gif)

When someone describe Kenshi I feel there is just about 50/50 chance that if I played it, it would become my favorite game ever, or I’ll leave even more confused than I was from reading about the game. Nothing exists in between.

So

1. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
2. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
3. Wildermyth
4. Expeditions: Rome

Is that really it?

Okay then
5. Kenshi