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

[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:So much fun!

[plover]

I haven't played in probably ten years now, but I agree that it was always a good time. (Except for the rule nitpicking, and our DM would usually solve it the "Paranoia" way. The Paranoia GMs guide has one cardinal rule -- "Action is good, reward it with success. Be boring and you're dead." So, arguing about the rules ended up causing way more pain than it was worth.)

My biggest regret is that I loaned my boxed set of original D&D books (along with another dozen supplemental rule books, monster manuals, etc.,) to a friend just at the end of high school, and I never got them back. I should probably check eBay to make sure he hasn't sold them! :-)

Based on hours spent...

[ConceptJunkie]

I should have received a degree in D&D with a minor in Computer Science.

DnD replaced by MMORPG

[tod_miller]

In my limited roleplaying experience (mainly a few games of paranoia, and mechwarrior) I found the a good structure was excellent. The DM was intelligent enough that we were confortable with his decisions etc. It felt like a true game experience.

You had too many laughs obiviously, especially paranoia, which has an amazing atmosphere.

Take that to the PC. You have faceless people playing games, less laughs, more stats.

DnD used to be small groups of upto 12 (for Vampire games which again I joined out of interest).

MMORPG seem to have lost that element of role playing in their enormity.

How about a LMORPG? Get lots of subscribers, but play mini missions (1 week or so?) where you select a band of 5-6 other players, and really role play, and take challenges.

There should be an API for a human DM in these instances, as it is only their own mission.

Just a couple of eurocents.

Re:DnD replaced by MMORPG

[fiftyvolts]

Even with something like NWN, I don't think you achieve the same kind of "fun & laughs" the parent post was talking about. Playing DnD with close friends is so much more personal than using a computer. With a computer there's no pencil, no paper, no dice, but instead a screen that blinks at you. No matter how powerful a computer gets there is still something much more touching about dealing with real people in real life.

... and I spend a LOT of time on the computer...

Re:DnD replaced by MMORPG

[Anonymous Coward]

You do realize the irony in referring to D&D as "real life", right?

Re:DnD replaced by MMORPG

[microTodd]

I realize this is a joke, but I was listening to a commentary on the radio the other day and I realized how relevant this is.

Take any group of guy friends (or gals, for that matter). They enjoying spending time together. "Bonding", if you will. So what do they do? Go fishing? Bowling? Drink beer and watch Monday Night Football? Or get together and play a table-top RPG?

Yes, despite ironic jokes to the contrary, this is REAL LIFE. Real life is spending time with your friends in person, having conversations, participating in activities you enjoy together.

How come a poker club is "socially acceptable" as having a life, but D+D is not? In both cases you are sitting at a table for hours, drinking beer and talking to each other.

Its all about social stereotypes. But as the demographics of the population changes (I'm only speaking for the US...I don't have too much experience in other countries) I think that ideas about these things will change. Are videogames still "geeky" pasttimes? A lot of us who started the video game craze are now in our 30s with disposable income. And as my kids grow up I won't harbor any negative feelings against them for wanting to play a lot of videogames. The same is true for D+D.

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 :)

A truer thing never said:

[Johnny Mnemonic]

From the interview with Stephen Colbert: I put more effort into that game than I ever did into my schoolwork.

If I had had 1/10 of the enthusiasm for my schoolwork as I did for drawing maps on graph paper and figuring the averages of different dice shapes and combinations I could have gone to Harvard.

Instead, I moved from D&D to MUSHing, and now I post on / in the middle of the day. So it goes.

ps: A 6 sided die has a 3.5 average, for those who had things to do on Friday nights :)

I have Planescape: Torment

[david.given]

...and it's brilliant. Really. The characters are excellent, the graphics are great, the voice acting is superb (although there's not much of it), it has an atmosphere you can cut with a knife, and the writing --- wow. If you've played it, you'll know what I mean when I say that Morte, Dak'kon and Annah's backstories all hit me at the same time, and I was glued to my monitor for several hours, ignoring the graphics, just reading the text as it scrolled past...

Alas, it's not perfect. The AI ain't great; Ignus, my physically weak but very powerful sorceror, has a tendency to wander up to some huge, horrible monster when I ask him to cast a long-range spell unless I keep an eye on him. (This tends to be terminal for him.) There are some scripting bugs; there's one minor subquest I can't complete. There are some more serious engine bugs, too. If I try and enter one room the game crashes on me, which is a pity because I need something that's in it. One whole section, the Godsman temple, is noticeably poorly written, at least compared to the rest of it.

The worst problem is that it's far too easy to get involved in the story and gallop through the main plot while avoiding the subplots. (I did this.) This means you end up at the endgame grossly underpowered. I'm now wandering around trying to level up so I stand a slight chance against the ...

But the problems are minor. If you like RPGs, get it. It's not expensive these days, and you'll enjoy it. It's the classic RPG; if you think you know about the genre, it's required playing. It's the Hamlet of RPGs, and no, I don't think I'm overstating the case.

It's a damned shame it didn't sell better --- it was probably too intelligent. If it had, perhaps we'd have more games that were that good.