One of many bizarre factor about enjoying dungeony dragony pc video games from the 80’s is the existence of a complete community of video games by disparate designers and publishers that allowed you to import characters from different video games. My authentic try to map out this phenomenon included 10 totally different video games. However primarily based on the feedback to that publish and additional analysis, I’ve added a couple of extra video games:
A purple arrow signifies a relationship with the entire trilogy, e.g. Ultima III characters could be ported into any Bard’s Story.
The main finish states of those progressions are Deathlord (an Oriental Adventures-style journey), Legend of Faerghail, Dragon Wars, and, inexplicably sufficient, the sci-fi journey Centauri Alliance. Adventurers from as much as ten totally different video games may find yourself travelling to the celebs! Not all on the similar time, although. Not each model of each sport (C64, Apple, PC, and many others.) supported the identical degree of character importation. Additionally, you may’t have greater than Eight characters in your Centauri Alliance occasion.
I believed it is perhaps amusing to take a look at how the totally different video games on my chart above deal with characters, by way of occasion dimension, courses, races, and skill rating classes. Here is what I came upon about this unusual interconnected array of video games.
Most of those video games characteristic events of not more than 6 PCs. Ultima IV and Centauri Alliance enable 8, although the latter recommends you permit at the very least one slot within the occasion empty for an NPC to affix. The Bard’s Story video games have a seventh slot that may’t be stuffed with PCs. Two of the video games, Ultime III and Dragon Wars, have events of solely four characters.
Two of the video games above, Cantauri Alliance and Dragon Wars, appear to make use of talent techniques as a substitute of sophistication techniques. All of the others have between six (May & Magic I) and an astonishing eighteen courses (Deathlord). All these video games characteristic a Fighter class, but it surely is perhaps named Warrior, Knight, Senshi, in addition to a Wizard/Mage/Magician/Sorcerer/Mahotsukai. Excluding Ultima IV, there is a Thief/Rogue/Robber/Yakuza accessible as effectively. Though most video games have Cleric/Priest/Healer/Shisai class, the Bard’s Story makes use of the Magican, which at all times struck me extra as a magic-user class with cleric-type spells. I used to be suprised to seek out equivalents to Ultima IV’s working stiff courses, the Tinker and Shepherd: the Blacksmith of Legend of Faerghail and the Kosaku (peasent) of Deathlord.
Ultima IV and Dragon Wars have people as the one race accessible to PCs. Centauri Alliance has 5 sci-fi alien races. However a lot of the video games have elves, dwarfs, halfings/hobbits (bobbits in Ultima III), and gnomes. Half-orcs and half-elves are frequent, however not ubiquitous. (Legend of Faerghail smooshes the latter two races into the only doubtful class Combined.) Deathlord has all of those however half-orcs, renaming all of them besides the Gnomes for some cause, and including Trolls and Ogres into the combo as effectively. The Phantasie sequence lets you select amongst an array of regular PC races or to assign a random monster race to the character you simply rolled. You would possibly get a gronk like an Ogre, Troll, or Minotaur. Otherwise you would possibly get a pixie or a kobold or one thing in between. After which there’s the Fuzzies. If Ultima III hadn’t come out earlier than Gremlins was launched to film theatres, I might have assumed they had been primarily based on Gizmo the Mogwai, as a result of they appear to be furry little friends:
Each sport on this array has a Power stat, although May & Magic calls it May. (Sadly, M&M doesn’t have a corresponding Magic stat.) All of them has an Intelligence/IQ/Mind rating. Practically all have a Dexterity or Agility stat, however May & Magic splits that rating into Velocity and Accuracy. Knowledge/Piety/Spirit is much less frequent, with Charisma and Structure kind scores even rarer. In the meantime Luck is a stat in Bard’s Story, May & Magic, and Wizardy. Dragon Wars and Deathlord each have a Energy stat. And somebody behind Deathlord should have been acquainted with Runequest, because it has a Dimension stat as effectively.
So what the purpose of all of this? Heck if I do know. I similar to considering how, in the event you performed your playing cards proper, a personality you made in 1981 for Wizardry may find yourself spending 1985 and 1986 within the worlds of Bard’s Story I and II. Possibly alongside the best way they staff up along with your 4 PCs from Ultima III. Will all of them go on to Faerghail? Will a few of them go battle the Dragon Wars? Simply enthusiastic about these prospects offers me good time emotions.
However I do assume there is a seed of an thought right here that may very well be utilized in tabletop RPG gaming. Every rectangle on my chart above represents a constellation of locations and occasions. You may construct a lifepath system for knowledgeable PCs utilizing a flowchart made in a similar way. Every cease on the flowchart would then include some form of die chart that will let you know what occurred to the PC.
Add comment