Edgwyn

With E1 and E2, A1 and A2, A:EFTP and A:CS he was kind of locked into that geography because of his original map making. He could have broken out of that for E3, A3, A:RW but it must have been habit by then.

Didn't Jeff say somewhere that the A4 remake is going to keep the combined indoor/outdoor map?

Finishing QW, GF3-5 and A4-6 would take up that entire 10-12 year span. I would love to see a new Nethergate, but it does not look like there is time for it

The descriptions of slith lairs definitely seem to reinforce a reptilian not mammalian cycle. An argument could be made for some fish aspects but I think that something along the lines of turtles would be closest breeding wise, definitely not any biological reason for nipples or navels. It does make sense that a AI with a lot of furry art is going to have a mammalian bias.

I found it interesting that the Freeforms had substantially more scales/rougher skin than the non-freeforms

Erika does, but I think that you have to either have a higher reputation or do some quests first before she offers the training, but I cannot remember which for sure.

I wish A4 would get the map style from A1-3, but I am just happy that A4 is going to get remade, even though we are talking 3-5 years from now

Yes, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to the community.

QW is probably closest to Avadon in style, Avernum is an older style (and I personally prefer it). The side quests in Avadon can help make you stronger which can help with the end game.

What is not really clear from what we see is how many staff Avadon actually has. In Avadon 1, if I recall correctly, there is only enough space for half a dozen hands and three or so Hearts. The quality of the hands seems really poor (common RPG problem where the PC is the best option there is) with the brand new recruit/draftee being the only one who can do anything, which seems to be part of the problem with assigning completely wrong personalities to the missons

Compensation seems to be another issue. A big part of a hand's compensation package seems to be what they can extort from various people, often ones who are in great need. If the Hands were being well compensated and held accountable then bribery would be at least a lot more expensive.

Avadon has a lot of lessons in how not to run an organization. Don't forget the lack of accountability

Peter Ustinov posed as David Niven's Batman during World War 2 to make it socially acceptable for the two actors to socialize more openly then their ranks in the British Army would otherwise have allowed.

Arguably Sam is the only character that we spend much time with from the lower class. The rest of the companions are all some kind of nobility/upper class (Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, Aragon, etc). Sam's characterization is probably not all that far from the reality of the England of Tolkien's youth.

I am currently reading the Ring of Fire series. That should keep me occupied for a long time