The Sword and Laser discussion

InExile entertainment has launched a kickstarter project for a sequel to Wasteland, the 1988 post-apocalyptic CRPG. InExile's CEO is ex-Interplay founder Brian Fargo, who was was involved in the Baldur's Gate games, Fallout 1 & 2, and other classics.

Wasteland was ground-breaking at its time for featuring a wide variety of skills your characters could choose from, improve, and use in different situations, multiple solutions to puzzles and obstacles, and a degree of sandbox-y freedom of action. It was also the inspiration for the Fallout series.

I never finished Wasteland, but there's a definitely lack of party-based, turn-based, tactical style RPGs out there (and sci-fi to boot!), so I'm interested to see how well inExile can mix old-skool goodness with some modern conveniences (like a smooth UI).

Just in the first day, they're halfway to their goal! Like the Double Fine kickstarter project, it's an encouraging example of getting fan support for a kind of game that can't get AAA funding anymore.

Also, SF author Michael Stackpole was part of the original Wasteland design team, and he's back for this project.

Scan of original back cover of Wasteland