Chris Avellone Joins Divinity Original Sin 2 Writing Team As Stretch Goal

John Keefer

Devilish Rogue
Aug 12, 2013
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Chris Avellone Joins Divinity Original Sin 2 Writing Team As Stretch Goal


Chris Avellone takes his RPG writing talents to Larian Studios to help pen at least one origin story for Divinity: Original Sin 2.

It seems like Chris Avellone is becoming a regular as a Kickstarter stretch goal. First, he joined Wasteland 2 after fan-request stretch goal [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116690-Wasteland-2-Breaks-Obsidian-Funding-Target].

"This is the first time I think the community is responsible for bringing two developers together who might not have crossed paths, and especially for such a great project," Avellone said in the press release announcing the teaming. "I have a lot of respect for Larian Studios, [creative director] Swen [Vincke], and Divinity: Original Sin II. It's one of the best game Kickstarters ever. I met Swen at PAX Prime, talked about RPGs for hours, and at the end, it was clear we were on the same page. Now? We're primed to do something great, and I'm proud to be part of it."

Avellone, who has such great RPGs as PlaneScape: Torment, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fallout: New Vegas, and the recently released Pillars of Eternity to his credit, has been tasked with handling at least one of the origin stories [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin-2/posts/1363117] in the upcoming game.

"It's a huge honor to have one of our favorite developers on board for the game," Vincke said in the release. "Chris' credentials are sterling, so of course I was very nervous about showing him what we'd been working on. When it turned out that he was enthusiastic about it, I was absolutely giddy! It's a real honor to have one of the masters on board to help us improve our narrative and characters. I honestly can't wait to get started."

Larian has already more than tripled it $500,000 goal with only four days left to go. It has already reached seven of its stretch goals and could conceivably hit an eighth before funding concludes.

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Andy Shandy

Fucked if I know
Jun 7, 2010
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Bloody hell, soon enough we're going to need a new genre, CAWRPGs (Chris Avellone Written Role-Playing Games), he sure does get around.

Not that it's particularly a complaint, he is one of the better game writers around.
 

Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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Aug 2, 2015
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Andy Shandy said:
Bloody hell, soon enough we're going to need a new genre, CAWRPGs (Chris Avellone Written Role-Playing Games), he sure does get around.

Not that it's particularly a complaint, he is one of the better game writers around.
Not everyone agrees. Especially when it comes to KOTOR II:

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/so_i_beaten_kotor_2_for_the_first_time_too_bad_ended_up_with_the_worst_outcome/post37
 

Imre Csete

Original Character, Do Not Steal
Jul 8, 2010
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Oh no. I love the man's work, but he can be overbearing at times. I always kill Ulysess because he is a goddamn mouthpiece for Avellone and I can't stand him by the end of the DLC. I don't think the silly humor of the Divinity games suit his style at all.
 
Apr 5, 2008
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A bit upset that I missed the launch of the KS campaign. I was keeping an eye on developments for ages, waiting for it to launch and then missed it until I read this article. But as of now, I've backed this bad boy and done so gladly. I backed the first and wasn't disappointed. Larian delivered a great game and a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I have no doubts that they won't do the same again with the sequel. Adding someone with Avellone's cred to the project is icing on an already tasty cake.
 

Realitycrash

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Dec 12, 2010
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Always nice with another, experienced writer onboard, especially since the writing was what sunk D:OS. Seriously, the plot was nonsensical mind-numbing poison.
 

EternallyBored

Terminally Apathetic
Jun 17, 2013
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Imre Csete said:
Oh no. I love the man's work, but he can be overbearing at times. I always kill Ulysess because he is a goddamn mouthpiece for Avellone and I can't stand him by the end of the DLC. I don't think the silly humor of the Divinity games suit his style at all.
Same here, Avellone can do some great writing, but whenever he gets a bug up his ass about something he seems to like to preach to the player in a ham-handed way, you can tell when he's using a character as a mouth piece because the universe will bend over backwards to make that character look right.

Also, yeah, his tone tends to be serious and outside of the tone of the past divinity games, Avellone likes pessimistic plots and tragic characters, one of the big things I'm always glad the other Obsidian writers challenged him on was the course of the Fallout games. Chris preferred that the setting remain just wastelands and anarchy, which just seems pointlessly limiting and bleak.