The Broken Hourglass Interview, Part One

RPG Vault has conjured up a four-page interview with Planewalker Games producer Jason Compton about their upcoming fantasy RPG, The Broken Hourglass.
Q: Are you willing to tell us more about the gameworld, the range of different locations it contains, and how will it differ from other RPG game settings?

A: The game will take place in several major, exterior city zone maps, each of which contains numerous unique interiors. Final area art is not yet completed, but we expect to clock in around 100 unique maps. Before the game is finished, players will see the long-buried catacombs from the city's early days, witness new alien construction going on within the city limits, and even catch a glimpse of primal elemental planes.

Our gameworld is a bit different than some of the more popular fantasy RPG settings in that we don't have a larger array of sentient, playable races and an even broader range of intelligent and semi-intelligent "monster" races - with very few exceptions, the humans, elves, feyborn and Illuminated make up all of the talkers, plotters and schemers. There are no evil elves in tunnels or evil dog-people in caves waiting in the wings to provide plot.

The designers of the world and the game wanted it to feel like one with many possibilities, where players won't feel constrained by rigid selections of concepts like class or alignment. Mechanically, that means if you want to cast a lot of spells but also pick up a sword and swing it, feel free to do so. Dramatically, that means if you want to be nice and then be nasty, feel free. What it says on your character sheet won't stop you from doing any of those things.