Slashdot Mirror
Dungeons and Dragons Knowledge Compendium
ScurvySeaDog writes "Like me, I would bet many slashdotters where D&D players before they got their first home computer in the early 80's. This site seems to have every book, module, supplement ever published along with scans of the covers. They also have current collector values for you packrats. It was nostalgic for me to browse around looking up all the old modules and books."
Ooohhh, a counter. *Reloads website*
there was a D&D database called "Vast Database". Seems like everyone added their house rules to the database untill it was this monsterish download.
I can remember spending 2 days on a 14.4 modem on some BBS in Hawaii. I was in Alaska. My parents were VERY upset with the phone bill.
Has anyone seen it around? It had the # to another BBS to send updates/recieve updates. In mid 1992 it was 101 mb. That is about the last time I saw it. BBS died and the new "internet" thing was rolling.
Even now, no one has the bandwidth to host such a file given it's exponential growth rate. Given that it always seemed to take up half my hard drive, it ought to be up to about 80 gigabytes by now.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
The link between computers and RPG's goes back as long as either existed. Geeks' love of Role Playing Games has affected computer culture for decades: from "Adventure" and "Zork" which were both originally programmed on mainframes, to the heavily D&D-influenced classic "Nethack", both computers and RPG's have developed together to the point where today we have... um... faster computers and more elaborate RPGS.
...
Damn, I was hoping for something more profound to come out of that line of reasoning...
On that note i hate being a paladin..nothing is more boring than being lawful good
Verily, thy comments strike deep into mine soul. If thee is unable to play the part of the paladin with a joyful heart, then thy effort is short of that deserving knightly honour. Surely thou canst piss off all thy friends with an ancient dialect, at the very least?
Ho! Haha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!
Yes.
I'm afraid I don't know any specific URL's but there's a lot in the works.
Some maniacs are linking together a whole lot of servers to form the major parts of Faerûn. See Alandfaraway.net for more info. Sadly they're not taking player applications right now, so I haven't been able to try it out. Here's the mind-boggling server maps (click on a part of the map to see the server numbers).
Some other guys are implementing the city of Sigil with some planes as well.
And here's a module list on one of the largest fan sites. Most aren't D&D campaigns from "the books" but some might be.
Keep in mind that it's pretty time consuming to do large campaigns, but there *are* groups working on D&D adventures from the books while I type this.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
The books on that site are good if you're studying for your Ph.D&D.
Intercarve Networks, LLC
I am familiar with the site in question. It is nowhere near as comprehensive as the story suggests. They seem to have all the 1st edition and earlier stuff but hardly any 2nd edition and no 3rd edition.
This is, I think because it's mainly a site for collectors, and 2nd edition stuff doesn't fetch as high a price as 1st edition stuff. (Although I have seen a lot of 2nd edition stuff fetch lots more than some 1st edition stuff).
Details of modules etc are confined to differences between printings, rarity, etc.
This is definately a site for collectors, not players, and people wanting a stroll down memory lane (complete with random encounters) should look elsewhere.
graspee
Maybe... actually, I dragged my entire (classic) D&D stuff collection across the country to see if that could be translated to NWN.
Even found a couple of game magazines and 2nd ed AD&D modules sent by people. The only problem was that NWN doesn't have "erotic painting" and "beautiful young woman chained to the altar" tiles, and this makes converting the reader-made modules a bit tricky, because those things appear in just about every one of these for some obscure reason... =)
/me falls over. I wish my mod points hadn't just expired.
DM: "You enter a clearing, and near the center, you see a gazebo."
Incredibly Ignorant Paladin Player: "Has the gazebo seen me?"
DM: "Um, no."
IIPP: "I approach the gazebo."
DM: "Ok."
IIPP: "It still hasn't moved?"
DM: "No."
IIPP: "I attack the gazebo!"
DM: "Ok, you swing at the gazebo. Pieces of it are flying off."
IIPP: "Is it attacking me back?"
The good news is, roleplaying will improve IIPP's vocabulary.
Eric comes quite close to being a computer. When he games, he
methodically considers each possibility before choosing his preferred
option. If given time, he will invariably pick the optimum solution.
It has been known to take weeks. He is otherwise in all respects a
superior gamer, and I've spent many happy hours competing with and
against him, as long as he is given enough time.
So... Eric was playing a neutral paladin (Why should only lawful, good
religions get to have holy warriors? was the rationale) in Ed's game.
He even had a holy sword, which fought well and did all those things
holy swords are supposed to do, including good or evil (by random die
roll). He was on some lord's lands when the following exchange
occurred:
ED: You see a well-groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you
see a gazebo.
ERIC: A gazebo? What color is it?
ED: (Pause) It's white, Eric.
ERIC: How far away is it?
ED: About 50 yards.
ERIC: How big is it?
ED: (Pause) It's about 30 feet across, 15 feet high, with a pointed
top.
ERIC: I use my sword to detect whether it's good.
ED: It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo!
ERIC: (Pause) I call out to it.
ED: It won't answer. It's a gazebo!
ERIC: (Pause) I sheathe my sword and draw my bow and arrows. Does it
respond in any way?
ED: No, Eric. It's a gazebo!
ERIC: I shoot it with my bow (rolls to hit). What happened?
ED: There is now a gazebo with an arrow sticking out of it.
ERIC: (Pause) Wasn't it wounded?
ED: Of course not, Eric! It's a gazebo!
ERIC: (Whimper) But that was a plus-three arrow!
ED: It's a gazebo, Eric, a gazebo! If you really want to try to
destroy it, you could try to chop it wih an axe, I suppose, or you
could try to burn it, but I don't know why anybody would even try.
It's a @#%$*& gazebo!
ERIC: (Long pause - he has no axe or fire spells) I run away.
ED: (Thoroughly frustrated) It's too late. You've awakened the gazebo,
and it catches you and eats you.
ERIC: (Reaching for his dice) Maybe I'll roll up a fire-using mage so
I can avenge my paladin...
At this point, the increasingly amused fellow party members restored a
modicum of order by explaining what a gazebo is. This is solely an
afterthought, of course, but Eric is doubly lucky that the gazebo was
not situated on a grassy knoll.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Go on gnutella or your preferred p2p and search for "demento dungeon dragon".
There's an mp3 (the original) and an mpg (someone created a computer animation to go along with the soundtrack).
If you played dnd in high or junior high (now called middle) school, you will love this. You won't be disappointed.
Software Wars
When I first heard about Neverwinter Nights, I thought "Great, I can go and code all those modules I had when I was a kid"...then I started flashbacking to all my favorite modules' codes...D3, S2, Q1, etc.
But I realized it probably wouldn't work very well. The best modules always had a problem-solving aspect to it that just would never translate well to a the game frameworks that we have now. Neverwinter Nights is just not going to allow you the flexibility to really solve puzzles without cueing you so obviously as to what the solution might be.
The only game framework I could imagine that could really capture the essence of the best modules and campaigns is an Infocom-style framework - where the textual descriptions are so rich and your range of actions so potentially large that the solutions to the problems - and even the problems themselves - aren't painfully obvious. A puzzle isn't very satisfying when you only have to select one of 3 solutions from a menu, or when you just have to show up with an item and walk close to some target character, etc.
But sadly, this framework is almost completely incompatible - almost by definition - with Baldur's Gate-style graphics.
I first played D&D somewhere in late '79 or early '80. Looking at the Acaeum site and seeing the values placed on some of those modules... I still have quite a lot of them... I don't think I could bring myself to ever part with the stuff. It's been years since I've even looked at it, but somehow, it's a part of my life.
I love computers and computer gaming, but I am really quite glad that I was at just the right age to get involved when D&D was at its peak. (God I feel like an old fart for saying this...) Today's kids will never find the intellectual and creative stimulation from their consoles and gameboys and PCs that many of us did from books and dice and mountains of graph paper. (To this day, I still always keep a pad of the stuff nearby)
I've played through Neverwinter Nights, and enjoyed it thoroughly, but as other posts here have said, much of the joy of roleplaying AD&D is just not possible to emulate in a graphically oriented paradigm. Until someone can develop an AI computer that is 1 part actor, 1 part genius, and 2 parts off its rocker, computer based D&D games will never measure up.
The Digital Sorceress