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loadinglord552 · 3 years

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Best Dnd Games

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Not based on D&D but an adventure gamebook of the same name, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain: Goblin Scourge Edition is a unique experience on the Switch. More like a tabletop game than most of the games on this list, it even lets you switch (pardon the pun) things up and play as one of the. Dungeons & Dragons video games for XONE sorted by popularity among gamers. Xbox One is the 8th generation console and the third in the Xbox family from Microsoft (a successor to Xbox 360). It was released on November 22nd, 2013, initially only in 13 countries over the world.

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Best D&d Games For Xbox One

Not only is Planescape: Torment the best D&D game to have been made thus far, many would argue its place as the best RPG game ever made.

In addition to those games inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, the property has been the host of many officially licensed D&D games over the years - many of which stand as classics in their own right. Peruse our ranked list of the top ten D&D video games below, and share your picks in the comments at the end of the article.

Manticore Games, creator of Core, chose to honor the iconic RPG with a massive contest, inviting hundreds of players to create D&D-inspired experiences on its system. These fan-made adventures are all completely free to play right now on Core, and players can even access a special hub world that will teleport them to the contest winners.

D&D has been part of popular culture for over 40 years.

Even its creator Gary Gygax could not have possibly predicted the reach and popularity that this pen-and-paper tabletop game would achieve. Naturally, its successes have allowed it to seep into different types of media—video games included.

Thus far, D&D’s video games have followed the RPG formula. These titles also tend to translate the tabletop’s intricate rulesets into engaging video game mechanics, where players can create and customize characters. Plus many titles on this list boast fantastic narrative and writing, thanks in part to a significant amount of published literature and tabletop content for D&D.

Let’s dive in and see which games are the most fun to play in the D&D franchise.

NOTE: Unless otherwise specified, the video games on this list are available only on PC (either Windows, Mac or Linux).

10. Dungeons & Dragons Online

Released in 2006, Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) is the franchise’s first major take at an MMO title.

When it originally came out DDO scratched the online multiplayer itch with third-person perspective combat, cooperative quest-based progression, and customizable build paths.

Its graphics were functional in quality, but they sufficed for the game’s basic premise.

Unfortunately DDO hasn’t aged very gracefully in either graphics engine or gameplay.

Still, it earns a spot on this list for being a decent first shot at an online D&D video gaming experience. On the bright side it also came before D&D as a franchise really took off through Internet fandom, so maybe there’s hope for another similar multiplayer title.

9. The Temple of Elemental Evil

Released in 2003, The Temple of Elemental Evil follows the RPG formula taken by D&D video game titles from the previous decade.

However this game takes players away from the Forgotten Realms setting, which had become something of a favorite for D&D content.

Instead we are taken to Greyhawk, the first world designed by Gary Gygax for the tabletop’s first edition.

Temple of Elemental Evil uses turn-based combat, and many of its mechanics are based on the D&D 3.5 edition ruleset that released in the same year.

This title’s fidelity to the tabletop’s rules serves as a particular highlight overall, though it does lack the same narrative punch and writing chops as some other video games in the franchise. Still a really fun game to play if you’re a big fan of D&D as a whole.

8. Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation

Released in October 2017, Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation is set in the Chult region of the Forgotten Realms, one of D&D’s flagship settings.

The game’s main story follows the same plot threads as D&D 5th edition’s Tomb of Annihilation adventure module.

Unlike many preceding video games in the franchise, Tales from Candlekeep shies away from basing its mechanics too wholly on any one edition of D&D’s ruleset.

Instead combat follows an amalgamation of rules that resembles standard D&D fare adjusted particularly for a dungeon crawler focus.

In that regard, the gameplay is more reminiscent of the turn-based combat seen in the XCOM series than previous D&D video games.

Players get to choose the members of their main party from a set of premade adventurers, each with their own specializations that give you leeway to develop multiple iterations of tactics and combos.

Typical of RPGs, adventurers progress by undertaking quests that reward experience, gold, items, all that fun stuff.

The game also contains a map generation system that lends itself to multiple replays so it’s probably gonna keep you entertained for a while.

7. Neverwinter

Unrelated to other Neverwinter-themed titles (which we’ll come to later), Neverwinter is a free-to-play MMORPG available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

The game takes place in the eponymous city of Neverwinter where players can undertake different quests and storylines.

All the narratives and locations take inspiration from novels written in the Forgotten Realms setting. However recent content includes tie-ins to official modules published for the tabletop game.

You can also experience player-created content through the game’s “Foundry” system.

Neverwinter initially started with mechanics that took after D&D’s 4th edition rules. Gameplay involved players creating characters based on one of eight classes, each with its distinct roles and abilities(typical of D&D).

Players could team together in up to five-man parties while completing content. With the advent of D&D’s 5th edition, however, the game rebalanced its classes in 2019 to better match the most recent edition’s ruleset.

Like other MMORPGs, your characters grow more powerful by leveling up and acquiring better equipment. Though now you can do it in D&D-style!

6. Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition

This isometric RPG takes place in the eponymous Icewind Dale, a region in D&D’s Forgotten Realms setting.

Based on the Icewind Dale Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore, the game boasts fantastically-written dialogue and hours of content through quests and exploration.

Players create and control an adventuring party of up to six characters. Each character receives special class designation and stats, which determine their effectiveness in combat, skill access, and spellcasting ability.

You also improve these characters by earning experience points from quests and enemies.

Black Isle Studios(who is responsible for other great favorites on this list) developed the original Icewind Dale game.

Much later Beamdog took over its Enhanced Edition remake, which packaged in the original DLCs as well.

The Enhanced Edition features improved graphics, UI changes, bug fixes, and gameplay tweaks.

For both new and experienced D&D fans I’d say Icewind Dale will definitely scratch that classic RPG itch.

5. Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition

The original Neverwinter Nights had been developed by Bioware with Beamdog taking over the game’s 2012 remake.

This title contains hundreds of hours of content set in D&D’s Forgotten Realms.

In addition to the main storyline there are numerous side-quests and subplots. Players receive rewards (such as experience and items) for completing content outside of the main questline, so there is a lot of incentive to partake in engaging different characters and exploring areas—a highlight of the Neverwinter Nights experience.

The actual gameplay mechanics are mainly based on D&D’s original 3rd edition ruleset, which gives you many options in customizing characters.

Practically everything you do in the game relies on chance, based on a 20-sided die roll. You have some control over the results based on character stats and abilities, but there will always be a level of randomness to the successes and failures.

The game also has modding compatibility which adds more replay value through fan-made mods(and there are dozens of them). Also at this point there’s little reason not to go with the Enhanced Edition since it already contains the DLCs packaged in.

4. Neverwinter Nights 2

A top-down perspective RPG title brought to us by Obsidian Entertainment. This 2006 game provided audiences a taste of what this developer could do with the RPG genre(and some of you may know Obsidian for their much later work on Pillars of Eternity and The Outer Worlds).

Taking place in the same setting as Neverwinter Nights, this sequel title features equally stellar writing and depth of content to its predecessor.

The fact that this title improves on some of the first game’s flaws is what gives it the edge on this list.

Neverwinter Nights 2 faithfully adapts D&D’s 3.5 edition ruleset to create an authentic tabletop gaming experience right at your computer.

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Players go through an intricate character creation system, much like the tabletop game, that lends itself to customization and optimization.

This title also has three different DLCs, though only two were developed by Obsidian. But with these extra DLCs players who enjoyed the base game can opt into the expansions for some really fun additional content.

On top of having mod support, Neverwinter Nights 2 (as with its predecessor) benefits from an active modding community so players can find a lot of replay value here as well. Highly recommend this if you’re big into PC gaming.

3. Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition

Baldur’s Gate takes place in the ever-popular Forgotten Realms setting, specifically (and unsurprisingly) in the city of Baldur’s Gate.

Players dive into an intricate story of intrigue and interfaction conspiracy that threatens to spark open conflict in the region.

During the adventure your burgeoning hero can be joined by several colorful characters, and you may even encounter some big names of Faerûn fame, like Drizzt Do’Urden.

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The original and remake games’ mechanics take after the 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ruleset.

And just to clarify: the original 1998 game “Baldur’s Gate” is fantastic in its own right. In fact, it was hailed one of the best RPGs ever released… though I have to hand it to Beamdog for remaking the Enhanced Edition into a more superior title fit for modern standards.

In addition to looking better, the Enhanced Edition stays true to many of the original’s gameplay mechanics. But it adds hundreds of quality-of-life changes along with content and player options. I mean, it’s fair to say gaming has changed a lot in the past 20+ years.

The remake also contains the original Baldur’s Gate expansion pack, Tales of the Sword Coast, while having its own exclusive DLC called Siege of Dragonspear.

2. Baldur’s Gate 2: Enhanced Edition

Even in the realm of video games, the sequel curse exists—where a great work is followed by a not-so-great sequel.

I’m happy to say Baldur’s Gate 2 kicks that curse to the curb.

This succeeding game builds on what made the first one so memorable. Baldur’s Gate 2 takes the player deeper into Forgotten Realms, this time focusing on the country of Amn.

Much like the original Baldur’s Gate, here you are plunged into an epic adventure on a scale to rival or even exceed its predecessor’s story. With different class choices you can eventually build up your character to be a walking army, accompanied by a cast of fleshed-out recruitable companions.

Like its other D&D remakes, Beamdog’s take with Baldur’s Gate 2: Enhanced Edition polishes graphics with a more advanced engine along while adding many modern changes (such as functional multiplayer capability).

The remake also maintains its fidelity to the 2nd Edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

All the while the Enhanced Edition keeps to what made the 2000 original game such an impressive RPG: its great story, in-depth characters, and hundreds of hours’ worth of adventure.

1. Planescape: Torment

The top spot on this list indisputably goes to Planescape: Torment and its remake, Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition.

I have to admit the remake does well to update graphics to more modern standards that most gamers expect.

Not only is Planescape: Torment the best D&D game to have been made thus far, many would argue its place as the best RPG game ever made. Period.

You play as an immortal amnesiac protagonist known as The Nameless One.

Though based in the central hub of Sigil, the City of Doors, you will have to brave all the dangers and oddities of the Planescape multiverse (imagine every universe in existence).

Your goal?

To search your memories and understand how you came upon your immortal state. Of course, your quest won’t ever be as simple as that. And the game’s setting is a gift that can give one memorable highlight after another.

One can only imagine the utter weirdness and hilarity that can ensue when you mix creatures from every nook of existence, sometimes of utterly different moral alignments.

Luckily the writing is top-notch to keep up with the possibilities of the game’s multiverse.

Planescape: Torment just hits all the ideal RPG beats you want in a game.

A fantastic setting where you don’t always know what to expect. Complex and well-written, with tight dialogue and a gripping narrative. The chance to round out your party with compelling characters all with their own sub-plots to resolve.

And lastly, this is a game system that encourages different builds and customization.

Whether you’re new or a veteran of the RPG genre, Planescape: Torment is a must-play experience.

Special Mention: Baldur’s Gate 3

While Baldur’s Gate 3 hasn’t seen the light of day yet(as of this writing), I wanted to give it a special spot as possibly the most hyped D&D video game since Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition released.

This title will be brought to us by Larian Studios, developers of the acclaimed Divinity: Original Sin game series.

What we know so far is that it will take place (again) in Forgotten Realms, and gameplay will include some aspects of D&D’s 5th Edition ruleset.

Fans should also get excited at the prospect of encountering the terrifying Mind Flayers, a notorious creature borne more of Lovecraftian mythos than typical tabletop fantasy.

While Larian Studios and Wizards of the Coast have been keeping this title’s finer details under wraps, Baldur’s Gate 3 promises to be a must-have RPG-experience if its predecessors are anything to boast about. Keep your eyes peeled for this game’s release as we move into the 2020s.

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bharatiyamedia-blog · 5 years

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Learn how to smarten up your subsequent DnD evening with lights, devices and voice assistants

http://tinyurl.com/y5yegb37 Don’t be concerned, you needn’t substitute your trusty d12. Chris Monroe/CNET Dungeons & Dragons makes for good, geeky enjoyable, and I ought to know — I have been taking part in with a gaggle of comrades from the CNET Smart Home staff for the previous two years or so. And, whether or not it is the craft beer we deliver to share or the 3D-printed dice-roll tower our lead lab technician Steve kindly fabricated for us, we’re all the time on the lookout for methods to maintain the campaigns feeling contemporary and enjoyable. And, would not you understand it, among the very sensible house devices we take a look at and write about each day right here on the workplace can really come into play each time we’re rolling for initiative within the off hours, too. We already use a few of these methods nearly each time we play — and if you wish to push issues even additional, we have got a pair concepts on the way you may degree up your strategy. Disclosure: CNET might obtain a small share of the income for any purchases made via the hyperlinks on this web page. “Hey Google, roll six d8.” Chris Monroe/CNET Let your sensible assistant deal with sophisticated cube rolls D&D and cube go hand-in-hand — and actually, watching a make-or-break roll bounce throughout the desk at a pivotal level in an enormous battle is a big level of attraction for lots of D&D gamers, myself included. So no, I am not telling you to ditch the cube and roll utilizing voice instructions, as a substitute. That stated, D&D will generally require you to roll a die a number of instances and add up the outcomes, like rolling a d6 10 instances to find out what number of hit factors a therapeutic spell will restore. That will get tedious quick, and it forces you to concurrently observe the working complete and the variety of instances you have rolled as you go. Learn extra: The right way to set up your Google Home smart speaker Alexa and Google Assistant every provide a significantly better means. Simply say a command like, “Alexa, roll 10 d6” or “OK, Google, roll 5 d10,” and your assistant of alternative will rapidly let you know the consequence. It really works the identical with both one, however I give the tiniest of edges to Google for including in a fast cube roll sound impact earlier than Assistant responds. It is the little issues! You’ll be able to entry both assistant in your Android or iOS machine (and by the best way, it would not work with Siri), however I say preserve your telephones in your pocket and simply play inside earshot of a devoted sensible speaker. In case you’re going the Google route, you would be well-served with the Google House Mini, which you’ll often get for lower than $50. A sensible speaker like this Amazon Echo Plus generally is a versatile sidekick on D&D evening. Chris Monroe/CNET Alexa can look different stuff up, too I will confess that my compatriots and I aren’t D&D die-hards. We had been all curious newbies after we began taking part in just a few years in the past. We’re presently wrapping up our third marketing campaign, and for probably the most half, all of us have the gist of it by now, however it positively took some getting used to, with numerous time spent poring via the Participant’s Handbook to lookup the particulars of various spells, weapons and guidelines. These pauses can actually kill the movement of a marketing campaign, particularly within the early goings — so why not ask Alexa as a substitute? You may discover loads of Dungeons & Dragons abilities to tinker round with within the Alexa app’s Abilities Retailer. Screenshot by Ry Crist/CNET Learn extra: The 10 best things to do with your Amazon Echo To take action, simply open the Alexa app and head to the talents retailer, the place you will discover numerous free, D&D-specific abilities that may pull up information in regards to the recreation with a fast voice command. Some that I examined, like “Dungeon Master” and “Ask the DM,” provide a reasonably complete catalog of solutions to widespread questions, although they’ll admittedly be slightly clunky to make use of. Abilities which might be extra targeted and slender in scope are usually lots simpler to make use of. One good instance is “Dungeon Assistant,” which sticks to trying up information about spellcasting and might reply instructions like “describe magic missile” and “checklist warlock spells.” You may want certainly one of Amazon’s Echo sensible audio system, in fact. Any of them will do, however your finest wager might be the third-gen Echo Dot, which solely prices $50 and ceaselessly goes on sale. With sound high quality that is stronger than earlier variations (and stronger than the Google Home Mini, too), it’s going to positively get the job achieved. One different Alexa talent value testing is known as “Vicious Mockery.” It is devoted solely to the bard’s spell of the identical title that entails hurling a magic insult at an opponent. Simply allow it and say “Alexa, Vicious Mockery” and Amazon’s assistant will provide you with the insult for you. It is nothing too fancy, however it’s enjoyable for teenagers and straightforward to make use of, and it options lots of of tongue-in-cheek insults learn by an precise human (one instance: “Your lack of non-public hygiene would not require a notion verify.”) In case you host a whole lot of recreation nights, then color-changing lights may be a sensible funding. Chris Monroe/CNET Contemplate color-changing gentle Dungeons & Dragons is a collaborative role-playing recreation that often performs like a gaggle storytelling train. To that finish, you will usually see gamers crafting customized collectible figurines of their characters that embody particular particulars from their backstory, or dungeon masters (DMs) who use a playlist with totally different background music for various settings and encounters. Colour-changing sensible lights may help set a temper, too. With simply a few sensible bulbs, you would program enjoyable, colourful scenes for various conditions your group’s characters may encounter — daring greens as they trek via a forest, flickering reds as they discover a dungeon, stark, icy blues as they courageous the wintry north… you get the thought. Learn extra: The complete guide to Philips Hue The excellent news is that you’ve more options than ever these days if you happen to’re trying to purchase in. From fancy, full-featured bulbs from Philips Hue and Lifx to inexpensive options from names like GE, Sengled and Sylvania, you should not have a lot bother discovering a few good color-changers that’ll work together with your sensible house platform or voice assistant of alternative. Greenback for greenback, I believe GE’s new color-changing sensible lights, which promote in a two-pack for only a few {dollars} greater than a single Philips Hue bulb, are an ideal choose, particularly if you happen to use Google Home smart speakers or Google Nest smart displays. Need assistance selecting bulbs for an additional platform? That’s what I’m here for. As soon as you have obtained the lights you want, simply use no matter app you are utilizing to regulate them to arrange totally different scenes you may wish to set off. Then, determine the way you’d wish to set off these scenes in recreation. Voice instructions from Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant will work nicely, however you would additionally simply preserve your telephone useful and set off issues with a faucet proper within the app. Do not have sufficient lamps to go round? Think about using color-changing LED gentle strips. The Lifx Z gentle strips are my go-to favourite since they’ll put out a number of colours directly, however single-color strips from names like Sylvania and Sengled that price much less will work nicely hidden behind your furnishings, too. Nanoleaf’s color-changing wall panels can take your sensible lighting scenes to the subsequent degree — and Nanoleaf’s 12-sided distant management is about as acceptable for D&D evening because it will get. Chris Monroe/CNET Go all out Wish to go larger? Hey, do not let me cease you. One comparatively simple option to take your D&D lighting scenes to the subsequent degree can be to spend money on color-changing LED wall panels to your wall. Your most important choices are the square-shaped Lifx Tile panels and the rising number of panels from Nanoleaf, which can be found as triangles, squares or, later this yr, hexagons. Each assist voice controls by way of Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant, however between the 2 of them, I’d positively lean towards Nanoleaf. They cannot put out a number of colours per panel just like the Lifx Tiles can, however you get extra panels within the starter package and extra room to develop, too. Plus, Nanoleaf’s panels are simpler to animate, they function a built-in microphone that may sync these animated results with the sounds of your marketing campaign, they usually price rather less than Lifx, too. One more reason I like Nanoleaf: They provide one of many niftiest (and most D&D-appropriate) distant management equipment available on the market. It is known as the Nanoleaf Remote and it is principally an enormous, twelve-sided die that permits you to assign totally different lighting scenes to every aspect. A built-in accelerometer tracks the Distant’s motion, so you may set off these scenes simply by rotating that aspect to the highest. Lights too vibrant? Simply flip the Distant counter-clockwise on the desk to dim issues down. On high of that, it may set off your Apple HomeKit scenes, too. Source link

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years

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The Final Word on Daniel Lawrence’s DND

The title shows that, just as with The Game of Dungeons, “DND” was just a file name, not the game name.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the “Data Driven Gamer,” it’s worth a visit. The author, Ahab, is still building his readership base, much like I was in 2011. He’s more expansive in his selection of games than I am, but his particular focus is to analyze the games’ quantitative elements, while still supplying a lot of commentary on the qualitative ones.

Ahab did a great job in the last couple of years analyzing The Dungeon and The Game of Dungeons, prompting me to go back and win those games. But those contributions pale in comparison to what he did last month. For the first time that I’m aware of, he figured out how to get a version of Daniel Lawrence’s DND operating on a VAX emulator. For decades, we’ve had to reconstruct this missing link between the PLATO Game of Dungeons and the commercial Telengard based on player memories, adaptations, and interpretations of source code. Ahab not only showed the game in action, but he won it and supplied a full set of maps (for one of the three dungeons) as part of the process. His material is key to understanding this particular, peculiar line of CRPGs. Among other things, the ability to actually play this game shows that only the file name was DND; the title was–copyrights be damned–Dungeons & Dragons.

Gameplay in the VMS/VAX DND. My graphics are all messed up because of a line feed issue that I can’t solve. The dungeon walls don’t really look this chaotic.

Untangling the history of this particular lineage has been difficult, largely because of horrendous misinformation, much of it perpetrated (or at least not corrected) by Lawrence himself, who died in 2010 at the age of 52. (Among other things, he explicitly designated this page, which is so hopelessly confused I don’t know where to begin, as the “official DND site.” The authors do deserve credit for aggregating and preserving important files.) To read some sites, Lawrence is the father of the entire CRPG line, having written the first DND as early as 1972–two years before tabletop Dungeons & Dragons! His game was so popular, some articles have alleged, that students at the University of Indiana decided to adapt it as The Game of Dungeons. (Of course, it was the other way around.) Even writers who haven’t so thoroughly confused the timeline have accepted Lawrence’s assertions that he wrote “his” DND entirely on his own, with no reference to any other game, despite that it clearly borrows elements from the PLATO Game of Dungeons and Lawrence went to a university (Purdue) connected to PLATO. In a 2007 interview with Matt Barton, he suggests that his “play testers” might have played The Game of Dungeons and brought ideas to him. To me, such a scenario doesn’t begin to explain the similarities between the games.

Daniel Lawrence in an undated photograph. Credit unknown.

The best truth that I can determine with the available evidence is that Lawrence wrote his first version of DND in 1976 or 1977, clearly after being exposed to The Game of Dungeons on PLATO. I’m inclined to think that 1977 is the more likely date, since DND is closer in similarity to Version 6 of The Game of Dungeons, which wasn’t released until 1977. Then again, elements of The Game Version 8 (1978) also seem to show up in Lawrence’s work, so it’s possible he went back to the well several times during the development of his adaptation. The existence of several mainframe versions would support this thesis.

As we’ll see, Lawrence made plenty of additions, and to recognize that he plagiarized from The Game is not to deny his own skill and innovations. His primary contribution was releasing the game to the wider world, first by writing a version for Purdue’s DEC RSTS/E system. (In Lawrence’s own words, the game was “the cause of more than one student dropping out” and “made me very unpopular with the computing staff at Purdue.”) Engineers from DEC maintaining Purdue’s system became familiar with the game and liked it so much that in 1979, they asked Lawrence to come to their Massachusetts headquarters and write a port for DEC’s PDP-10 mainframe running the TOPS-20 operating system. (There are hints within DEC documents that Lawrence may have been paid for this, and that DEC’s intention was to offer the game with its installations. The specific agreement between Lawrence and DEC has not come to light.) This version was subsequently disseminated in many locations where DECs were installed. The VMS/VAX version that Ahab got running seems to have been ported from this mainframe version.

By then, Lawrence had already been porting the game to the micro-computer. In 1978, he wrote a version for the Commodore PET that he titled Telengard, which had been the name of one of the explorable dungeons in DND. Representatives from Avalon Hill ran into Lawrence demoing the game at a convention in 1980 or 1981 and offered him a publishing deal, which ultimately saw PET, Commodore 64, Apple II, TRS-80, Atari 800, and MS-DOS releases starting in 1981 or 1982.

The title screen from the Commodore PET version of Telengard. The 1981 date seems unlikely as the actual release year.

(None of the histories of Lawrence or Telengard mention the specific convention at which this meeting occurred, but I found a likely session in the GenCon XIV program from August 1981. Unless Lawrence ran the same competition multiple years [I can’t find the previous year’s catalog], it seems unlikely that Telengard had a pre-1982 release date despite the copyright date on some versions of the game.)

In 1981, Lawrence ran a “contest” in which players competed for high scores or other status in some version of DND. Someone from Avalon Hill attended the session, and the result was the commercial Telengard.

From then on, Lawrence and Avalon Hill waged war on the ubiquitously-released free versions of the game, ordering their removal from every system on which they appeared. For its part, DEC acceded to legal threats from Avalon Hill, resulting in the modern difficulty reconstructing what those early versions looked like. You can read a long, fun e-mail chain here in which DEC employees try to argue law with their own legal department. Hilariously, various employees request assistance in finding the Orb throughout the thread while their exasperated bosses remind them that the game isn’t supposed to exist on any DEC machine anymore.

A DEC executive orders the deletion of DND from DEC machines.

If Lawrence was guilty of some disingenuous behavior in trying to quash free versions of a game he partly plagiarized, it came back to bite him in repeated plagiarisms of his versions. We’ve seen plenty of them on this blog, including the so-called “Heathkit DND” (in actuality, also titled Dungeons and Dragons) of 1981, R.O. Software’s DND (1984), and Thomas Hanlin’s Caverns of Zoarre (1984). There are other BBS and shareware versions of the game that we haven’t tried.

A DND “family tree.”

That’s the history. But what is Dungeons & Dragons? It’s a text-based game with ASCII graphics in which a single character navigates one of three 20-level dungeons in a quest to retrieve a magic orb from a dragon. The layout of the dungeon and the locations of many of the special encounters are fixed, but the locations of combats and miscellaneous treasure finds are so random that you could encounter a never-ending stream of them from the same dungeon square. Combats are with a small menagerie of enemies, each with different strengths and vulnerabilities to the game’s various spells. The character gains experience through both combat and treasure-finding, with miscellaneous encounters increasing and decreasing his attributes and providing him with magical gear. When he feels strong enough, he takes on the final dungeon level, recovers the orb, and–if he makes it back alive–gets his name on a leaderboard of “orb finders.”

As I mentioned, there are too many elements copied directly from The Game of Dungeons for it to be remotely possible that Lawrence never saw it. These include:

The basic approach to game mechanics and goals, including the existence of permadeath.

A character creation process that includes a “secret name” for each character, serving as a kind of password

The need for a “secret name” is drawn from The Game of Dungeons, but the full set of attributes, the choice of character classes, and the choice of dungeons is new to DND.

The number of dungeon levels.

A main quest to recover an orb.

Carrying treasure out of the dungeon converts it to experience points.

My character levels up from a treasure haul.

A list of successful characters called “finders.”

The existence of a transportation device, called “Excelsior,” that moves you among the levels.

Basic combat options of (F)ight, (C)ast, and (E)vade.

A small number of monsters who have numeric levels assigned.

Many of the magic items are identical. Items can be trapped (although Lawrence’s traps are more creative).

Treasure is found in both chests and random piles. Chests contain vastly more gold than the random piles.

Magic books that can raise or lower your attributes.

DND’s handling of chests and books is the same as The Game of Dungeons.

Pits that you can fall down, dumping you on lower levels.

Luckily, I spotted this one.

It’s also possible that Lawrence took a few elements from the earlier The Dungeon, including the organization of spells into a number of “slots” per level as well as some of the treasures you can find in the dungeon and their relative conversion to gold.

But Lawrence also added some new things to the Game of Dungeons template, some making it better, some making it poorer. These include:

DND has no graphics. Walls and corridors are ASCII characters and the main characters is represented as an X. The Game of Dungeons had graphics for geography, the PC, monsters, equipment, gold, and so forth.

Instead of just “gold,” the player finds a variety of different treasure types that are converted to gold.

DND dungeon levels are much larger.

The Excelsior transporter exists on every level in DND, not just the top one.

A full set of tabletop Dungeons and Dragons attributes. The Game of Dungeons just had strength, intelligence, and dexterity. DND adds constitution and charisma.

A DND “character sheet.”

While the character in Game was a multi-classed fighter/magic-user/cleric, DND has the player specify a choice of these classes. As such, combat is rebalanced so that you don’t need to cast particular spells to ensure victory, and a pure fighter has a shot at winning. Spells, which could reliably one-shot certain enemies in The Game, are significantly reduced in power. They’re also more in line with tabletop Dungeons and Dragons and, it must be said, a lot less silly than The Game.

There’s no distinction between experience and gold in DND, as there was in Game through Version 5. The Game also changed to a single experience pool starting in Version 6, so Lawrence may have been influenced by the later one.

DND offers three dungeons to explore–Telengard, Svhenk’s Lair, and Lamorte–each of which might contain the orb.

Game resolved combats all at once. DND shows round-for-round results.

DND’s approach is generally better, but sometimes you wish it would just hurry up and get it done.

DND completely randomizes the appearance of treasure. The Game “seeded” each level with gold and chests whenever you entered, and you could clear the level, but in DND, treasure has a chance of showing up in every square as you move to it, including those you’ve already explored.

DND adds more special encounters at fixed locations, including thrones, altars, fountains, dragons’ lairs, and doors with combination codes.

Special encounters with altars are a new element in DND.

Lawrence replaced the awkward “teleporters” with stairs that remain in a fixed location.

DND includes a greater variety of equipment, including magic weapons other than swords. The pluses go much higher, too. Where The Game capped at +3, DND allows higher than +20.

DND adds cute atmospheric messages as you explore. Examples: “A mutilated body lies on the floor nearby”; “‘Turn back!!!’ a voice screams”; “The room vibrates as if an army is passing by.” There’s even a reference to Colossal Cave Adventure and its hollow voice that says “PLUGH.”

Finally, it’s worth noting some of the changes between DND and Telengard:

Telengard has no main quest. The only objective is to get stronger and richer. For years, I thought this was a defining feature of the sub-genre, but it turns out that it’s actually quite rare. Most variants have some kind of main quest.

Telengard‘s has only one dungeon, randomly drawn every time you start a new game.

The appearance of thrones, fountains, altars, and other special features are completely randomized, just like monsters and miscellaneous treasure. A player can encounter everything that Telengard has to offer by passing time in a single square.

Telengard has graphics.

Telengard has an expanded selection of items, including potions and scrolls.

Telengard is a nicer-looking game, but the greater randomization creates a chaotic experience.

Only the last item is a clear “improvement.” Telengard is arguably a dumbing-down of gameplay in DND. The lack of any main quest is particularly notable, and one wonders why Lawrence or Avalon Hill made the decision to exclude one. Perhaps they thought the game had greater replayability if the only goal was to create a stronger character.

For all the ink writers like me have spent on Lawrence and his game, it arguably had the least impact of the major lineages that began in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During its day, DND offered perhaps the best simulation of the mechanics of tabletop role-playing on a computer, but its arrival on the micro-computer scene was far too late to have any impact. By the time that Telengard was released, it had already been outclassed by Ultima and games in the Moria/Oubliette/Wizardry line. The direct influence of DND can only really be felt in its few clones, for which there was so small a market that they had to be released as shareware.

Gameplay from the Heathkit Dungeons and Dragons (1981).

Gameplay in R.O. Software’s DND (1984)

Gameplay in Caverns of Zoarre (1984)

There is one small exception, and to analyze it we must first note that DND did a reasonably good job anticipating the roguelike sub-genre. In fact, it’s hard not to call it a pre-Rogue “roguelike,” what with its random encounters, permadeath, and MacGuffin on the 20th floor. And yet it’s hard to detect any direct influence on Rogue. (To some extent, Rogue feels like a game created by someone who heard about DND but never played it.) To my knowledge, the developers of Rogue have never acknowledged any direct influence except Star Trek (1971), Colossal Cave Adventure (1976), and a general desire to emulate table-top role-playing.

However, I do think that someone on the NetHack development team was exposed to DND, or at least Telengard. I base this on the variety of special encounters that were introduced to the game at some point between Hack and NetHack 2.3e, including thrones that do different things when you sit on them and offer the ability to pry gems out of them; fountains that have a variety of effects; and altars that ask for money. Granted, thrones, fountains, and altars are fantasy staples that may have been introduced independently, but the specific way that you use them is so similar to DND that I think there must be a connection. It’s a minor legacy, but still worth acknowledging.

Sitting on thrones in NetHack has many of the same consequences as in DND.

Ahab was kind enough to send me the instructions I needed to emulate DND myself. I tried for a while, but I couldn’t solve an issue (involving line feeds) that created chaos out of the dungeon maps. (The solution he offers on his blog didn’t work for me despite us both having the same version of Windows.) Such a win would have been superfluous coming right on the heels of his own victory anyway. I may return to it at some point in the future, just for the statistic, but not soon.

This entry will serve as my final word on this line of games, which we’ve visited in bits and pieces since the first year of my blog. If any new information comes to light, I’ll include edits in this entry rather than writing anew. In the meantime, there are dozens of web pages and Wiki articles that I don’t imagine will be similarly corrected. Daniel Lawrence deserves credit for what he accomplished, but he is not the grandfather or even father of CRPGs.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/the-final-word-on-daniel-lawrences-dnd/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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nerdarchy-blog · 6 years

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Hello gamer, it is time to dive into another RPG Crate unboxing and see what treasures or loot we get to walk away with. If you are interested in signing up for this subscription box service and getting awesome fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons related material you can sign up at RPGcrate.com. Just make sure you use the promo code NERDARCHYRPGCRATE for 10 percent off your first month’s RPG Crate. Without further ado, lets dive into the crate unboxing and see what’s there.

The theme for July 2018’s RPG Crate is “Legendary” and it’s a crate for the legends.

June 2018 RPG Crate unboxing

Big surprise, the first thing as always is the index card letting us know the theme and whats inside: July 2018 is Legendary.

From the RPG Crate June 2018 insert:

“We continue the dangerous journey through time and hopefully a gorgon’s demise, to the final chapter of the stories in Season Two of RPG Crate. We’ve added several extra items this month in celebration of the end of a Season. Next month begins Season Three, but for now, enjoy the treasure we’ve procured for you.”

T-shirt

First up is always, a knock-it-out-of-the-park exclusive T-shirt. I have said it before and I will say it again, some of the shirts I’ve gotten in an RPG Crate are my favorite shirts. I am not sure how he gets great deals, but glad he is able to do it each month.

“These creatures were made to rule the darkness; ever vigilant they watch.”

This is an awesome gargoyle shirt. It is a gray design on a black shirt with green accents which really make the shirt pop.

Miniatures

Next up from Effin Cool minis is a premier metal miniature.

“Her beauty is only matched by her lust for power – evil is that one I say!”

Medusa the brood mother for use in your Dungeons & Dragons game or really any tabletop roleplaying game where you might encounter a medusa. Sadly this is one on two legs as opposed to the mythical naga-like design but it is a cool sculpt with a sweet staff. You could take this mini in several directions.

Atmar’s Cardography

I reach into the box and pull out the next item and it feels like a deck of cards. This is the first time I had a little foreknowledge this was going to be in the box. Atmar’s Cardography by Creature Curation & Norse Foundry is a 52 card set, and this is set No. 1: Enter the Fiery Pits.

“What adventure will the dungeon deal?”

Heads up, set No. 2: Break Through the Icy Divide, is going to be in next month’s crate. These cards allow you to randomly lay out cards and design a dungeon. Optionally you can also look through as a Game Master during your prep time and design the dungeon you want and that fits your need. You can then just pull those cards aside and be ready to use the dungeon your self.

But it does not stop there. There is a full-fledged adventure hidden in the instruction manual that you can go to the website and download. It is an 88-page PDF if you go with the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons but there is also an option for the Fate system as well. The PDF has NPCs, monsters and magic Items as well as a full adventure. Major score if you ask me. And as previously stated we should see the sequel to it next month with a similar set up. I spoke with the creator of these decks and a Kickstarter should be coming in September for three more decks. And if that was not enough, Brian Colin of Creature Curation gave me a pair of decks to give away on the channel. [NERDITOR’S NOTE: I was honored to be part of the Atmar’s Cardography team with these two adventures and hopefully the three additional upcoming ones too!]

Recipe for Adventure

All that adventuring and awesome product has got me hungry. Maybe I need a Recipe for Adventure. This month, “Your face will freeze like that.”

We get Gorgon Bread Bites. These cool cards give you a real recipe modified with a flair for fantasy but written with a way to make the recipe for real. Why not whip up some for your gaming group and have it prepared for when you run the encounter on the other side?

Frog God Games adventure

Now that you are full of some literally cheesy food you’re ready to go up “Against Tsathogga” with a fully prepared adventure by Frog God Games.

“Deep in the heart of of a lost marshland gather followers of the Tsathogga.”

This is a fifth edition adventure for four-six 16th-level or higher adventurers.

Let me quote a paragraph from inside the introduction: “This adventure is ‘suitable’ for 4-6 characters of level 16+. Don’t kid yourself; the characters have NO chance against Tsathogga if he is summoned.” It goes on to say you can adjust things here or there, but if you have a gargantuan frog mini and want to stomp your characters with it, feel free. The book does have stats for this behemoth and it is actually the highest challenge monster I have seen for fifth edition D&D — a massive 35! Now I am thinking to myself how would my party, who just made it to 19th level, fair against such a creature.

Well, that is one way to stick it to you characters — just kill ’em. If you want to be a bit nicer you can stick them with a couple of awesome pins. Two d20s done up in the RPG Crate colors and made Creature Curation for you to “Show off your love of the game.”

Adventures on the Open Road

Last and certainly not least is the ever-popular (with me at least) RPG Crate Adventures on the Open Road material prepared for D&D. This is an adventure for 13th-level characters and my guess based on the material of the rest of the crate has a medusa and gargoyles in it. We have Stone Garden, Cliff Ruins, and Brood Mother. We get three maps and looks like 10 monsters. RPG Crate sponsors a gameplay video of this material on our channel and it is usually the fourth Friday of every month hosted by yours truly. I try to reduce the content to make it streamlined to fit in a watching time frame. But if you run it all it is really cool and is about 6-8 hours of material prepared for you and ready to go.

There you have it. Another unboxing where we learned what was in the box. Speaking of boxes, I am a nut, but I save the boxes from past crates. I find them great for storing pawns whether they are from Pathfinder or Kobold Press or even Arcknight. You can use them to store magazines or campaign notes. A simple label as to what is inside and you are ready to stack them up and keep your nerd pride showing while everything is nicely organized.

Again if you want to get in on past crates or subscribe and get the crates each month head over to the RPG Crate website and use promo code NERDARCHYRPGCRATE for 10 percent off your first month.

Thanks for reading and remember, until next time, stay nerdy!

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Make your games Legendary with @RPGCrate including perhaps the most powerful #DnD creature ever! Hello gamer, it is time to dive into another RPG Crate unboxing and see what treasures or loot we get to walk away with.

#RPG Crate

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