Pillars of Eternity: Character Creation and the Crisis of Countless Choices

Is this the spiritual sequel to Baldur's Gate that I've been waiting for all these years?

No spoilers here for Pillars of Eternity, I've barely started it. I seem to have got stuck on the character creation. Not because it's bad, but rather because it has so many options I can't quite make up my mind! Instead, I'll ramble on about RPGs for a bit and the gameplay posts will come later on.

The introduction: You are travelling with a caravan to a new settlement when you get stuck in a mountain pass.

If there's one thing I really do love about RPGs, it's the character creation. Good character creation can add a wealth of possibilities to a game. As a first impression though, it can provide a daunting plethora of options, many of which might be completely unknown to the player. How important every statistic, every class, every spell, every choice can have unforeseen consequences for the future of your character.

9th Century Gaming: Crusader Kings II

"It was the year 867 CE, and Caliph Al-Mu'tazz sat on the throne of the great Abbasid Caliphate. He looked across his many fiefdoms, and knew that this was not enough. Although he was only 20 years old, he knew it was his destiny to conquer Mesopotamia, Egypt, Arabia and beyond, all in the name of the Sunni faith. His starting point was strong, he had a well developed nation and mostly loyal vassals. His enemies were ripe for the picking! First though, he had to deal with his family, the thorns on this desert rose."

The start menu, from here to world domination

I had heard of Crusader Kings many times, but had never dabbled. The closest I got was experimenting with Europa Universalis III: Complete (it's not complete, two more expansions were later released), which ended mostly in disaster. I just couldn't quite get my head around the systems and my choice of England was perhaps a poor one. Both of these games are by Paradox Interactive, a rather wonderful slightly smaller developer and publisher from Sweden. They excel in these sorts of grand strategy games, and they have produced games that cover historically accurate strategy from the 9th Century to the 20th (Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Victoria, Hearts of Iron).

Caliph Al-Mu'tazz the Great, head of the Abbasid Caliphate (892CE)