Depths of Peril Interview

Gameplay Monthly has published a quick interview with Soldak Entertainment's Steven Peeler about their upcoming RPG with strategy elements, Depths of Peril.
Q: Let's get down to it: Why are you creating this game?

A: We are creating Depths of Peril because we wanted to add something new to the RPG genre, especially the action RPG subgenre, by adding in some new elements that haven't really been seen in this type of game before. We don't want to be just another clone, we want to expand the genre and make something unique. There are many ways that we are doing this. For now I'll just mention three of them.

The first and biggest addition is the strategy elements dealing the other covenants. This includes diplomacy, trade, wars, and raids. How you do this is completely up to you, but a good way is to use diplomacy and trade to keep everyone off your back and going to war and raiding one enemy at a time.

The second is the huge back-story available in the game and told in a unique manner including short stories, histories, and myths. Many stories specifically talk about items, people, and monsters in the game.

The third difference is that the world the player adventures in is a living world. Things change all of the time from the player's actions, the other covenants' actions, and sometimes even the monsters' actions. Here's a good example. Let's say there is an uprising of nagas in the Dire Realm. If the player can't quell the uprising fast enough, the nagas might build up their power enough to attack the town. I've mentioned this scenario in previous interviews, but what I haven't mentioned is that while the nagas are attacking the town they can cause all sorts of havoc while there. Obviously they can kill some of the town npcs while they are attacking but they can also poison people, poison the town's water supply, or even infect the town with the plague.