for those of you that liked Baldur's gate II and Throne of Bhaal hold on to your hats. I just saw The New Gary Gygax Game (Screen shots and a short movie) The Temple of Elemental Evil and it is going to blow Baldur's gate off the throne as best RPG. Gary Gygax is the guy that invented the rules the monsters and the world that Baldur's gate and the forgotton realms comes from.Gary Gygax started what we now call advanced Dungeon's and Dragons. He pretty much Invented the whole game and the Guy has finally tired of everybody else boching up and butchering his game. He has teamed up with the original five guy's that invented D&D and is makeing The temple of elemental Evil with rule set edition 3 and 1/2 whitch is going to bring the RPG world back on path to the real world of D&D just 6 or 7 more weeks and we are going to see the game for our selves. My friend just came by with a DVD with some of the game highlites and It looks like Baldur's gate in 3D, its fantastic. I couldn't take mt eyes off the TV set as the DVD played the short film of the actual game in play and then about 50 screen shots. I asked If I could make a copy and he said no way this is not even an offical DVD, the company doesn't know He Made it.If the found out who he is it would end his job forever so all I can say is WOW! WOW! WOW! what a Game I can't wait!!! I wish he had let me make a copy, I'd have played it for you. Just wait all you RPG Nuts like Me are going to love this game. Somebody iHas finally made a game better than Baldur's and Morrowind and magic and everything else that has ever tried to call it's self D&D and it took the great Gary Gygax to do it.

It does look very sweet. I don't like the 3D view, however. Oh well, not all games can be perfect like the IE ones. :D

For anyone who's interested. http://www.troikagames.com/toee.htm

CB, I am a bit confused here. Yes, I know Gygax wrote the original ToEE module under 1st Edition Rules and soon after he left TSR. It is indeed a classic module in every sense of the word. He made masterful adventures that few have matched in scope of depth. I hope somewhere in the future they will take the classic TSR modules and convert them over to 3E. My confusion is that everything I have read about this upcoming PC game is that Troika is responsible for its implementation and development. Where does Gygax come into play here? As a consultant?

I am glad that you are excited about the game because my main hope is that ToEE will do for the Greyhawk setting what BG1, 2, IWD, and NWN did for the Forgotten Realms setting. It your observations of game play how did you see the turned based form of engagement play out? Was it smooth? The reason I ask is because one of the biggest areas of discussion on many boards is D&D and turned based combatand how well will it do. If you can, please tell us what else captured your attention. To make a game better than BG and Morrowind is a tall order indeed. I just pray it lives up to the many promises I have read.

I've (and a whole bunch of others out there!!!) have been waiting for this games for yonks!!!!!!! bring it on... keep the bugs though!

too bad for me i read the book before i knew that there was a game coming out therefore spoiling myself of a great game oh well. reading is different from gaming. i cant wait for it to come out :D

Looks great. I've never really done anything other than Forgotten Realms, so this might be something good. The visual effects are absolutely stunning, BTW.

[ 07-16-2003, 02:01 PM: Message edited by: Nanobyte ]

It's not a 3D view, is it? It's overhead view like the IE games, right? Which is, IMO, the best thing. That, and an active/well-scripted party of NPCs. The last thing I want is dependency on online gaming with munchkins.

The view in the screenshots looks like basically a NWN view except with more than one person in your party...

I read a magazine article on the game, and have been really looking forward to it. I've gotten used to real-time play with the BG series, so it will be a bit of a jump to go back to turn-based. However, the turn-based system works well with the 3rd edition rules. That's not saying that NwN doesn't work, but they had to take liberties with some of the rules to make it fit into real-time.

However, there are three things that are really making me excited about this. One is that it is bringing the Greyhawk setting back into the spotlight. It was the first setting that I played in, and even to this day it is my favorite. Yet, many people have grown up on the Forgotten Realms setting. Though I do like Forgotten Realms, and agree that it is the most well-developed setting that I have seen, there is something about Greyhawk that is special and makes it stand out. There are quite a few people that have not seen anything about that setting, and it is good that they will get to see something about that setting.

Second, the game is much more flexible in its handling of alignments and paths through the game. Whichever alignment you start with determines your starting area, your reasons for getting involved, and what quests you get. And whichever path you go through determines what kind of ending that you get. I'm getting a little tired of these games that insist on making it easier for one alignment while penalizing other ones (i.e. they expect you to go the "heroic" path).

Finally, I love the Temple of Elemental Evil module, and even though they are changing it up (i.e. mainly for all of those old fans that have the module), it is still going to be cool to play in that old favorite setting.

Nerull, you are sooooooo right about Greyhawk being special. Some the greatest modules came out of it in 1st Edition Rules. And you are right about so few D&D players today have been exposed to it. I, too, hope the TToEE opens up this world setting to a new generation. Many of today's new paper and pencil crowd got stated because of BG1, 2, etc. May TToEE do the same for Greyhawk.

for all the Questions that you have asked go to the follqwing site it has all the answers except how the game ends:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ibnobody/
and for "Albromor's" question Gary Gygax was aproached by Troika over a year ago and asked if he would like to write and or put a game together for them and for the past year he {gary} has done just that check out the links above for any more questions.

Thanks, CB, your da' man!

Nice one. I can't go back to IE 2d after NWN's so I was hoping for this. Can anyone link me up to some good sites about this game..release dates etc.?

SpiritWarrior, start here: www.greyhawkgame.com and take it from there. By the way, turn on your speakers. Now after hearing this background "music" are you so sure you want to venture forth??? Also, go to Google.com and key in Temple Elemental Evil, you'll get loads of information this way. Hope this helped.

[ 07-17-2003, 12:06 PM: Message edited by: Albromor ]

Sweet, this may live up to the usual new game hype! If so, it will distract me from the NWN toolset long enough to stay inspired, so even better!

The screenshots and other info around the web look great!

LOoks great but that's not 3d like some have said..It's defintely 2d and reminded me alot of IWD while I watched the trailer. I'd still play it though!