Line #10 Creator/ChrisAvellone


1	[[quoteright:275:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ecebd0e9e6352c15047f11d149132ed8.jpg]]
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3	->''"... if you give the player the ability to create a certain type of character, make sure that you honor the player's character build. What I mean by that is, if you give a character the option to dump 500 points into speech, make sure that they have an experience that's very cool and is appropriate for a speech based character. The same thing is true if you're a stupid combat monster; if you're a sneaky thief who no-one ever sees... If you're allowing the players to build a character like that with the rule set, then make sure your content supports that experience."''
4	-->-- Interview with [[http://duckfeed.tv/woff/61e Duckfeed.tv]], regarding ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}''
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6	Chris Avellone (born September 27, 1972) is an American video game designer and writer, who started out with Creator/InterplayEntertainment, working on such titles as ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'', ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' and the ''VideoGame/IcewindDale'' series. He left Interplay after the cancellation of ''VideoGame/FalloutVanBuren'' and headed over to Creator/ObsidianEntertainment. His first work there was ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', followed by ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' and action RPG ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol''. He then returned to the ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'' series with ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', for which he is a senior designer and was heavily involved in the development of the DLC campaigns. He also starred in Season 2 of the fan project called ''WebVideo/FalloutNukaBreak'', which contained numerous nods to the original two ''Fallout'' games.
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8	He has then gone on to be involved in a number of Website/{{Kickstarter}} games (even styling himself as a "professional stretch-goal"), including Obsidian's ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity'', Creator/InXileEntertainment's ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland 2}}'' and ''VideoGame/TormentTidesOfNumenera'' and even became "special guest writer" for ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight: [[UpdatedRerelease Advanced Edition]]''. He left Obsidian in June 2015 to work as a freelance game writer, due to [[https://www.vg247.com/2019/04/16/obsidian-chris-avellone/ radical disagreements with the higher-ups at the company.]] The next project he worked on was ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII''. He would later return to the industry, working on ''Videogame/Prey2017''. His writing also appears in ''VideoGame/IntoTheBreach''.
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10	In June 2020, Avellone was faced with allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment. He sued two accusers for defamation and eventually settled outside of court in March 2023, with the defendants issuing an agreed-on retraction.
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12	Avellone is noted for subverting trends in [=RPGs=] that he often finds particularly infuriating. In ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'', he took his dislike of the [[TheGoomba Goomba]] tendencies of rats and utilized cranium rats, which are troublesome when encountered in large numbers. In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', he took his dislike of the way that the Force is often portrayed and used it to create a character that sought, for better or worse, to kill the Force entirely. He is also noted for making established game mechanics part of the story. In ''[=KotOR2=]'', your player character was described as being able to gain power through the Force by killing others, involving the ExperiencePoints system directly in the story. In ''Planescape: Torment'', the Nameless One's immortality made death not a liability, but an advantage, allowing the player to circumvent some {{death trap}}s by simply dying, and reviving later once they had been removed from the death trap. He is also known for having a very extreme aversion to traditional [[RomanceSidequest romances]], preferring ones that are somewhat tragic or unrequited.
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14	!!Game credits:
15	* ''Conquest of the New World'' (1996; designer)
16	* ''VideoGame/StarTrekStarfleetAcademy'' (1997; additional design)
17	* ''Descent to Undermountain'' (1997; lead designer)
18	* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' (1998; designer)
19	* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' (1999; lead designer and writer)
20	* ''VideoGame/IcewindDale'' (2000; designer)
21	* ''Icewind Dale II'' (2002; designer)
22	* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' (2002; lead designer and writer)
23	* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' (2006; designer)
24	* ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' (2010; designer)
25	* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' (2010; writer, lead for the DLC add-ons)
26	* ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland 2}}'' (2014; additional design)
27	* ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity'' (2015; narrative designer)
28	* ''VideoGame/TormentTidesOfNumenera'' (2017; additional writing)
29	* ''VideoGame/Prey2017'' (additional writing)
30	* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'' (2017; additional writing)
31	* ''VideoGame/IntoTheBreach'' (2018; additional writing)
32	* ''VideoGame/PathfinderKingmaker'' (2018; additional writing and a tie-in pen & paper adventure)
33	* ''VideoGame/StarWarsJediFallenOrder'' (2019; additional writing)
34	* ''VideoGame/PathfinderWrathOfTheRighteous'' (2021; narrative designer)
35	* ''VideoGame/DyingLight2StayHuman'' (2022; narrative designer)
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37	!! Frequently used tropes:
38	* ArcWords:
39	** [[VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment "What can change the nature of a man?"]]
40	** [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas "Let go, begin again",]] as well as [[ArmorPiercingQuestion "Who are you, that do not know your history?"]]
41	* AuthorAppeal:
42	** He seems to have a thing for mute girls such as [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas Christine Royce]] and [[VideoGame/AlphaProtocol Sis]] for the non-verbal communication factor. Ecco, one of Fall-From-Grace's students, from ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' is also mute. Non-traditional communication in general is a great mainstay of his, particularly when he's allowed to run away with a primarily text-based game.
43	** Also, pyromaniacs ([[VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment Ignus]], [[VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2 Qara]], [[Videogame/PillarsOfEternity Durance]]).
44	** He's also fond of mystical crones who serve the purpose of exposition and personal mouthpieces (Ravel, Kreia, Lady Webb).
45	* AuthorAvatar: He has gone on record saying that he does characters like [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords Kreia]] and [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas Ulysses]] to convey his personal opinions on their settings. Interestingly, this doesn't stop him from claiming they are ''wrong''.
46	* BerserkButton: If you value your health, '''do not''' show a picture of [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords Darth Nihilus]] with a nose or any facial features to Chris Avellone. [[spoiler:The Dark Lord is a wound in the Force and [[HumanoidAbomination isn't even human]].]]
47	* CharacterFilibuster: Kreia was the biggest offender -- the game would routinely create situations where she would be able to lecture and criticize the player's actions no matter what they said or did. In future games, he toned it down, and the player is able to tell a character like this that he or she is full of shit. He brought it back in full force with [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas Ulysses]] - the result was, however, not entirely intentional, as he was cut as a companion. [[spoiler: He will never acknowledge the flaws of his views, even if you convince him to stop his plan. And even if you manage to stop it, you end up proving his point.]] Interestingly, Avellone nowadays believes Kreia to be wrong, and he wrote Ulysses as if he was wrong.
48	* DeadpanSnarker: After the successful funding of ''VideoGame/TormentTidesOfNumenera'', Chris took to introducing himself as "writer, video game designer, and occasional Website/{{Kickstarter}} stretch goal". His [[https://twitter.com/ChrisAvellone twitter]] is a gold mine of sarcasm.
49	* DeconstructorFleet: As a side-effect of his obsessively detailed research, he learns virtually everything about a given universe that doesn't hold up under close scrutiny. And he will dig into the weakness and ''rip it to shreds.''
50	* NoHuggingNoKissing: He is known to dislike writing traditional romance in his games, stating that he prefers romances that end poorly, or other forms of intra-personal relationships, because they hold more interest to him as an author. He has also argued that romances in video games usually are about two people rushing into a relationship in the middle of a crisis situation, which in his opinion is not a healthy basis for a relationship. This has not gone unremarked: a joke stretch goal on the Kickstarter for ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternityIIDeadfire'' was to ''[[SelfDeprecation prevent]]'' [[SelfDeprecation Avellone writing anything for the romantic sub-plots]].
51	* OldShame:
52	** He regrets his involvement in the development of the now mostly forgotten ''Descent to Undermountain'', which received immense backlash from gamers when released in 1997 due to its unfinished nature and is regarded as one of the worst games of its era.
53	** He's not entirely proud of how ''KOTOR 2'' worked out in a few places, in particular how Kreia was written as his filibuster on the franchise.
54	* ShownTheirWork: Before writing ''KOTOR 2'', Avellone went on an ArchiveBinge of the entire ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' continuity that existed at that point.

Context Creator / ChrisAvellone