38 Studios just published its first community Q&A in the official Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning forums. Starting today, the team will be posting a Q&A every Wednesday to answer questions from fans. In the inaugural interview, Lead Designer Ian Frazier answers five questions that cover topics such as pure class builds and the game's open world structure. You can read all of his answers after the jump!

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is our first glimpse into 38 Studios' original fantasy universe that will act as the setting for an upcoming MMO, as well comic books, novels, toys and additional games. The action RPG is being made by a dream team: Curt Schilling, a three-time World Series champion and the founder and owner of 38 Studios; Todd McFarlane, a legendary comic book artist and owner of a successful toy company; R.A. Salvatore, a best-selling author who is best known for his Forgotten Realms novels; and Ken Rolston, a renowned designer who played a big part in The Elder Scrolls series of games.

Wednesday Community Q&A

Q: I apologize if you have covered this elsewhere but could you speak about how linear the game is? Also how easy is it to diverge from the main quest line if I decide I want to do a faction or just do some open world exploration? Thanks! - By Stormsurge

A: Reckoning’s structure is extremely open. The main quest and each of the six factions contains a mostly-linear narrative you can follow, but you can veer off and pursue hundreds of different sidequests at any time. Even if you choose to ignore all the quests completely, the world is ripe for exploration, with all manner of rewards to find (both hand crafted and systemic) for the explorer. - By Tiberius

Q: How will PURE builds be rewarded? We have seen mainly mixes of rogue mage and warrior with a bit of mage, but what lies in store for us if we decide to go Purely MAGE, WARRIOR, ROGUE etc? - By MemoryKill

A: Pure builds are rewarded in two different ways: First, they have access to the top tier abilities much sooner than other builds, and those abilities can be pretty awesome. Gambit, for instance, is a top-tier Finesse ability that lets you leap into the air ninja-style and scatter a mine field of explosive traps all over the battlefield, right in the middle of a fight—pure Rogues are going to get it a lot sooner than hybrids, whereas a Jack of All Trades won’t have access to that ability at all.

The other advantage of a pure build is that you’ll unlock a unique Destiny if you get a pure build up to the level cap. A pure build Might player, for instance, will unlock the Warlord Destiny, which grants you the “Last Stand” ability. Last Stand will let you get back up from the brink of death, but it requires you to defeat the enemy who killed you within a short span of time after you get up or you’ll bleed out. It results in a feeling like the end of a superhero movie, where the hero’s had the crap kicked out of him and he gets back up to destroy the villain once and for all. - By Tiberius

Q: Again to reference Elder Scrolls, will there be readable books in-game? Whether that is lore, fiction, comedy, a journal, whatever. Books are one thing I really love about Elder Scrolls. It gives a whole separate layer of believability to the world. - By Outlander

A: Yup, there are hundreds of readable books/scrolls in the game. Some are serious, some are funny, some are specifically for quests and some are just meant to give flavor and depth to the world. They range from a cheerful book of gnomish nursery rhymes to a blood-stained suicide note. We’ve also got something called Lorestones that…well, we’ll talk about them more later. - By Tiberius

Q: What can you share about Reckoning's mission setup? Will it be open-world with fast travel options or some slightly more on-rails? Any details would be great. - By Macstorm

A: Reckoning is an open world game with fast travel. You can fast travel to any location you’ve previously visited, whenever you’re outdoors (you can’t fast travel from inside a dungeon). We try to provide roads and paths and quest markers to help guide you through the world, but if you want to ignore them and wander off into the woods to hunt antelope, there’s nothing stopping you! Want to ignore the main quest and just do side quests for hours? Go ahead. Want to ignore quests altogether and just explore the world for crafting components so you can craft your own gear (and perhaps sell it for a tidy profit)? Feel free! - By Tiberius

Q: What part of RPG games don't you like and have you removed it from Reckoning?? - By Gulfy_

A: A lot of us at BHG are pretty hardcore RPG fans, so there’s a lot we love about the genre, but as for what we DON’T tend to like? One thing that drives us nuts is boring, repetitive combat that makes you feel more like you’re chopping wood than being a hero. That’s why we’ve dumped a bunch of time and effort into building fun, dynamic combat that just plain feels good. It’s been a ridiculously huge undertaking, but we’re really happy to be improving upon that aspect of the genre with Reckoning.

Another one that bugs us is the problem of “buyer’s remorse” in advancement systems—making players choose attributes/class/whatever at the start of the game before they really know what they’re doing and them sticking them with that decision. In Reckoning we’ve pulled way back on the amount and size of decisions the player has to make up front, and have built the entire Destiny system around the idea of “try the game out and figure out what sort of character you want to be as you go.”

Another one is when an RPG lets you get everything (i.e. max out all skills/abilities/etc.), as this results in everybody’s endgame characters looking/feeling pretty much the same. We’ve deliberately set up the game such that you CAN’T get everything in a single playthrough. The Destiny system gives you the flexibility to try some of everything, but it also has some constraints—in the end of the day, your level 40 character won’t be the same as mine. - By Tiberius