Dungeons & Dragons Anniversary Gets Further Celebration

Thanks to GameSpy for its series of articles helping commemorate the 30th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons. Continuing previous articles about the occasion, the week-long feature includes a look back at SSI's Gold Box series (" the first series of games to truly bring the D&D experience to video gamers"), The Daily Show's Stephen Colbert discussing his D&D schooldays ("We were all complete outcasts in school -- beyond the fringe, beyond nerds"), and a feature on Planescape: Torment ("One of the greatest, and certainly the weirdest, RPGs ever made.")

Comments

Torment was great

[Ev0lution]

Planescape:Torment was the best of the computer AD&D games and one of the best RPGs ever (only Ultima at its best could equal it IMHO). Conversation was as important as fighting, and the best aspect was the great interaction with the rest of the party - huge elements of plot could be uncovered by talking to your companions. Wish they would make another.

Re:Torment was great

[Anonymous Coward]

Torment is one of the best RPG's I have ever played. Right up there with Baldur's Gate II, Suikoden, Final Fantasy 7, and Knights of the Old Republic.

If you can stand the out-dated graphics, the game will run in a window on Windows 2000. I haven't tried it in XP. You can sometimes find it in the discount software area of Best Buy (the ones that are in jewel cases without boxes) for less than $10.

Re:Torment was great

[ajutla]

Torment works fine with XP, yeah, and I too have seen it at Best Buy in the "dual jewel" set, bundled with Soulbringer.

So much fun!

[fiftyvolts]

I'm not sure why, but rolling d20s is one of the most enjoyable experiences ever.

The past few years I've been lucky enough to have a strong group of DnD'ers to play with. We've been getting several games in a week. I think it's because it has a strong human element, as well as a structured rule system along with lots of possibility for strategy.

Wizards of the Coast has done a great job with the franchise since they bought it from TSR. Both from a marketing stand point and a rules standpoint (NWP's?! THAC0's!? WTF :-]).

If you've never played you should really give it a shot. I assure you that you will have some fun :D

Re:DnD replaced by MMORPG

[Leffe]

Um, Neverwinter Nights?

What about Wizardry? Bard's Tale?

[dougmc]

the first series of games to truly bring the D&D experience to video gamers

While they didn't actually use the D&D license, I'd have to say that Wizardry and later on The Bard's Tale brought the `D&D experience to video gamers' long before the SSI games did.

But of course, when you're writing a story about D&D and not the copy cats, I guess it makes sense to ignore the copy cats, even if they did it first. (Which sounds really odd. Copy cats usually do something second, not first :)

Re:What about Wizardry? Bard's Tale?

[RexDart]

A fairly lengthy story on NPR yesterday presents an 'outsiders' view of RPGs; Includes brief audio from D&D co-creator Dave Arneson and adult players of the game.
They do cover the crossover and influence on computer games, one interveiwee labeling the game "the first virtual reality". Worth a listen.