Post originally by Phantom Grunweasel at 2003-12-12 10:20:45
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I'm familiar with the game myself, and I'd say that mood and feel are its strongest points. It's hard to describe; sort of earthy, folklorish fantasy with an emphasis on mists, spooks, curses, hobgoblins, traditions, ghost stories, witches and werewolves, with some elements of old-school D&D dungeon-crawls thrown in.
There was actually a series of solo gamebooks set in the same world (known as Legend, as I recall); the Bloodsword books. They had the same flavour, and were rather good; somewhat more sophisticated than Fighting Fantasy. They even allowed multi-player play, of a sort.
Post originally by John DeHope 3 at 2003-12-12 16:08:10
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"There are rabid fans of this game on the interweb, and plenty of sites with information on it."
I looked and didn't find much. I'd be appreciative if you could point me to the best site you know of. The game sounds like an interesting old-school DND clone.
Post originally by SJE at 2003-12-12 17:15:21
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I lovd this game as a kid- it was the first one I ever ran with my schoolmates and that was because it was in the library!
I had it out on permenant loan- it and the following books were great.
Ah, happy memories!
I definately remember the atmosphere- Knights were real knights and Barbarians, real men! Sure the rules were simple, but it encouraged you to diferentiate your character throuh your roleplaying, not which skill packages or prestige classes your PC had managed to accumulate!
Post originally by Simon Jones at 2003-12-12 19:36:14
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Well, the picture of them had the elf wearing a toga. But there really wasn't much on them. While the option was there, they didn't really come up much as PC's in the gameworld. One of the the two multi-part adventures, the Elven Crystals, focused on finding the tomb of some elf lord. The only other mention I could find was in the adventure in the 5th book, where elves shot at you with poison darts that sent you mad.
What really struck me about the books is how dark it was for something that was essentially marketed at kids. And that the last book they released was one of the greatest world books ever.
Post originally by Simon Jones at 2003-12-12 19:39:04
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Actually, later on, your characters did get prestiege classes and feats, in book 4. With Barbarians getting bloodlust and knights getting all those abilities and sorcerers making wands and so forth.
Post originally by Simon Lee at 2003-12-12 20:03:44
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Agreed. Book 6 was undoubtedly the best of a good series. Unfortunately it's also the most difficult to get hold of these days. Copies show up on eBay quite regularly, but only for $50 or more.
Post originally by Simon Jones at 2003-12-12 20:16:23
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Well, part of the problem there is you're competing for not only an RPG but also a nostalgia item. There's an entire generation of kids who grew up playing this rather than AD&D, mostly because of the price point.
That said, Dragon Warriors warped my attitudes to Roleplaying forever.
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