Pick #94: Yet Another Dark Dungeon!

Dark Dungeon is a wonderful name - so wonderful that there are various games bearing it - sometimes to my chagrin, as they are confused with my own Dark Dungeon. Still, most are good games in their own right, and this site is dedicated to Dark Dungeon in many forms, so... here's another one!

This Dark Dungeon is a fairly recent Flash implementation of the game you might know as "Rogue" or "Hack!" which used to be played on Unix mainframes in the 1980's. Actually it's nice, and plays smoothly. Enjoy.

Pick #77: Charlie Brookers GameSwipe

Maybe you haven't seen the British rants of Charlie Brooker yet, maybe you have. As a master of not too subtle and subtle yet nasty but true comments on just about everything, he has not only turned to movies and daily news, but also to video games. Someone posted these on the net - enjoy and learn something new along the way.

Pick #76: MUDs were there before the MMORPGs!

To translate: Multiple User Dungeons were there before Massive Multiple-player Online Role Playing Games. Think you're new with an internet-addiction chatting and hacking away in EverQuest or WoW? In the nineties we already had the text-based MUDs.

And I'll tell, I've known quite a few junkies... Although most MUDs were free, and kept up by many volunteering programmers, flat fee internet was not so common. So, we experienced rather hefty phone bills instead.

What is a MUD? It's a text based adventure mixed in with an online chatbox like MSN or the one on Facebook. Or just imagine an old style adventure like Zork, and connect dozens of players in the same game. That's about how it looks. While you explore the many rooms and chambers of the MUD, you can converse with everyone else online in the environment - and "emote" to your hearts desire. You can do everything up to and including MUDsex... if that's the kind of shared texted fantasy drawing your fancy.

But most of the time MUDders are leveling and building their community, just like regular MMORPGers. Many made friends in far away places, and some eventually met and visited eachothers real countries. So, you can't say MUDs aren't social activity.

Maybe there are less of them than used to be, but MUDs, slightly graphic or more often completely textual still exist. Here you can find some top MUD sites to try.

Random RPG Thoughts #8: Sharing Worlds in an MMO ain't easy...

“Help me! Help me!” The player shouted over the channel, and my sister in law quickly jumped into the fray. Except that there wasn't any. “Where are the monsters?” she panted, confused for a second. Then she realized. She'd already done this quest, so the world had changed for her. No monsters left for her to see. Invisible. She was on another timeline. “Looks like you're on your own” she said - “In MY world this town is already rescued. You have to kill the monster yourself.”

What?

What happened to my sister in law, was in an MMO, a computer moderated shared fantasy world. Although shared is a big word here, as it seems. Players can shout at one another, but the group effort was suddenly gone. Not so shared in this case. That was a change from before. Then you could always help eachother.

But before, though you could help eachother, the world never really changed. You could rescue a town as many times as you liked, because it would be threatened by the same monster again and again. Like trolls from a freezer, monsters and enemies were respawned everywhere. Maybe then the world was sort of shared, but you couldn't really change it.

C'mon, real sharing can't be that hard?

So why don't the programmers allow you to let one person win the quest, and let the others have bad luck, and have em rescue someone else? That's what they try in some other MMOs, my brother tells me. But the problem is, that people pay to play in an MMO, so they won't be pleased if there is nothing left to do because someone else was there first. So even in this other MMO, the evils do respawn, after a longer while.

That's the problem with shared worlds, preprogrammed ones at least. It seems to be very hard to really share them, and have a unique gaming experience for all players at the same time. So in practice you may end up playing alone, and just meeting in the lobby. Or you play in a world where you don't make a difference even if you are umpteenth level, because everything trollspawns after dying – including you yourself.

I don't know, but it looks like MMOs are in need of an other way of generating stories and quests. At least to capture my attention or limited spare time. Which may be possible. Just have to figure a way how.

How about Tabletop Sharing Games?

Most tabletoppers don't share their games with other Game Masters. With Dark Dungeon we did do so, for about fifteen years. Eventually we scattered again as core GMs got into real jobs or emigrated across the ponds. We didn't have paying customers, we didn't have quests everybody needed to do (although we tried), and we didn't have respawning monsters. But we did have similar problems.

Sharing the world and allow players to change the world - or even let all GMs change the world turned out to be scary. Most GMs didn't care to do world-shattering stuff. But those who did seemed to be unable to communicate or compromise on what would happen. Most of the time it went well enough (I guess I just overruled some of them), but at one point the older players became really frustrated. And that was because the younger players spawned all sorts of horrible creatures, armies and treasures where the older players had already saved and solved the world and wanted... well, to be seen as heroes. They didn't want a new spawn of monsters for a new groups. Or at least they wanted the same respect from the new players as they figured they had fought for in the old groups. And the new groups, they wanted respect too. That was less easy than it sounds.

So, sharing is something we seem to seek out. But also something that's hard to do.

Random RPG Thoughts #6: How Psychopatic can Our Games Be?

This week, Breivik was first brought to court. He showed no remorse for the seemingly random bombing and shooting of over seventy victims in Norway last summer. In fact he said that what he did was the right thing to do from an ethnic and political perspective. Family members of the victims were rightfully not amused.

Now you could call Breivik a psychopath, or a sociopath. And he probably is, perhaps in addition to being extreme rightwing or a foreign secret agent with an extreme mission. Nobody goes out shooting like that. You just don't. Except when it's war. Or except... when it's a game.

When Zzzoom for the Spectrum came out you could also shoot at civilians. It didn't give you points, but they flew through the air in such a fun way that I couldn't resist shooting them. Naturally they were just bits and bytes. Later I played Carmageddon, and drove over poor grandmas with shopping carts. Bits and bytes, no more. More recently I played GTA III (I stopped there), and found that shooting hapless civies or driving over them was... something you just could do. And when you reached cheat mode, or were bored, you could climb on a rooftop and start shooting everyone in sight with your sniper rifle and scope. Bloody and sick. But even if the police helicopters came and suicide by cop was the only end to it, I'm sure I tried this more than once. Shooting civilians ad nauseum. Bits and bytes.

But if it were real, I would have been like Breivik, without a cause.

And I'm not by long the only one who played these games, or played them this way.

Table top roleplaying games sometimes have even more disturbing situations. No, let's say it differently. Most fantasy role players at one time or another must have stumbled on a goblin village, and burned it down. If they didn't do it for the experience points and the loot, they might even have done it for “the good cause”. That's almost like Breivik with a cause. Unless you call burning a goblin village an act of war, in which case it may be a straight war crime. You could also say its sociopathic.

I remember my players have done things like it, at least in our teens. Sure, a game is a game. And blowing off steam can be a good thing. You could even see this killing for the killing as a way of exploring possiblities. Thoughtful game masters have confronted me and fellow players with the moral consequences of killing. They confronted us with the victims, and the different sides and truths of a conflict. That was enlightening, and an experience I don't regret. I'm also very thankful for having it in a game world and not for real.

But to be honest, I've also seen a lot of senseless game killing without consequences. And also refraining from killing without consequences. When you think about it, and try to imagine the bits and bytes or fantasy creatures as in some way real... isn't that sad?

What kind of game do we play then? Do we feel inside like little Breiviks? Or like traumatized people from the horrors of a war? Do we? Why? Not all of us are players from former war zones. Are we?

Or are we just frustrated and bored? Or worse, is Breivik also just... frustrated and bored?

Pick #71: DOS Box your Old Adventures

Maybe you'll scoff at computer adventures. Maybe you just scoff at new ones. Maybe you think you should scoff at them because they're no "real" role playing games. Maybe you yearn for real old games which your *new* computer is somehow unable to handle. Or maybe you just think you yearn for them. And you don't have time to play anyway!

In any case, if you'd ever wish to play one of these oldies like Eye of the Beholder, Strahd's Revenge, or Ultima Underworld, and they're still somewhere on a shelf or in your basement, then you might like DOSbox. It turns your PC into a real OLD PC for the time you play your old game. For most games.

Turned to the Dar... eh Apple Side? No matter, their emulator for DOS, named Boxer, is even better. And more intuitive. It even plays Darklands, which I couldn't say for DOSbox on my webbook.

Lost your old copy? Sometimes you can re-find it on Steam. But otherwise have a search on an Abandonware site. The better ones now also observe copyright issues.

Pick #63: Kings Quest Revisited... and yes I know it's a Computer RPG

It's 1984. One of the first computer adventures. One of the first graphic computer games. One of the first games on the march to change the face of table top-roleplaying. Into lap-top roleplaying.

Well, almost anyway. I'm still confused that I have to explain what D&D is by referring to World of Warcraft. "You know World of Warcraft? Well, D&D is just like it, only without a computer." It seems like the world is upside down. This used to be the other way around, right?

King's Quest was a Sierra game series which was hugely succesful. Until Shoot-em-ups and eventually MMORPG took over. They were puzzle games. And the graphics were revolutionary. At that time. Now, they're not.

A group of programmers named Anonymous Game Developers Interactive decided to give the games a new life, and remake the first three parts of the series up to the standards of Kings Quest V. With SVGA graphics, speech and an improved engine. For Free. And they succeeded - as you might know, because the first one already has been downloaded half a million times since re-release in 2002. Or you might not know, like me.

In that case, have a look at Kings Quest I, Kings Quest II, and Kings Quest III. New old style.

Pick #44: Open RPG

Some picks ago I called attention to shared virtual desktops for gaming purposes. Programs with which you can make a kind of tabletop on your computer, and then share it with others anywhere on the world. As long as you're connected to internet. That way, you can play a role playing game even if you're all in different outbacks.

The virtual online desktops I linked were quite professional and expensive ones. But what I failed to notice then, is that there also are free, open source products which claim to be just as good.

Open RPG is one, which you can get in several flavors. For windows, linux, or python (and then on any platform). Some find the Traipse implementation even more user friendly. Have a look, see if you can install them, and organize a game with players in Wellington, San Diego, Canberra and Johannesburg.

Pick #36: Online Paper & Pen Tabletops

So you've got pen & paper role playing games, you have live action LARPS, you have MMORPG (just say M-Morp-er-ger), you have tabletopping, you have play by mail, play by email, interactive storytelling, theater sports, lone hack and slash CRPG, and then you have Yathzee. Also with dice.

But you also have roleplaying on a tabletop, while doing a basically pen & paper RPG, while you are not in the same room. In fact, you might not even be in the same town, or the same country, or same time zone. To do this you might use programs like Skype, or Teamspeak. But you might also need a virtual gameboard. I don't, but you might, especially if you do a Dungeon romp.

Recently I stumbled on what I guess are two of the leading products. The first is Fantasy Grounds, which has a pretty high wow looks factor. If you have to make your own virtual handouts for the game, or fill in scores of sheets however you might start to think otherwise. But it has a steady fanbase, and its well tested. The other contender I found is Battlegrounds, also with pretty nifty screen shots, and a slightly friendlier pricing scheme. It's less specifically fit for role playing games, but it does feature a big selection of art packs, games and adventures, also many for free. Once you have bought a GM client licence, that is.

If you're intrigued, and live far from the civilized world, you may also have a look at the RPG Virtual Tabletop wiki. And see if it's for you.

Image cropped gratefully from Battlegrounds

RPG Pick #30: Elite and Oolite

“So you want to fly your space ship to the next star sytem?” the game master said. “Then go sit at the controls and go do it.” He ushered me to the Amiga computer and switched it on.

It started to load ELITE, a spaceflight trading and shooting game. Fortunately I knew the game well, and it was fun to see it integrated into a gaming session. It gave the student room we were playing in the feel of an actual space ship for a moment. I steered the sleek machine toward its target when we were surprised by pirates.

“You are the gunner” the game master said to a fellow player. “Go help him!” And my fellow pressed the fire button until we killed them all. It was fun then. A good gimmick.

I tried to do the same thing later, but not with the same success. Still, I do wonder sometimes if we could not integrate a computer game and a paper and pen role playing game more like this. The tough thing would be to match the computer universe and the storyline. And then I don't exactly mean like in an MMO. Because that's different. The computer becomes dominant there. What would happen if the face to face game would be dominant instead? Think about it.

Want to have a look at ELITE (again)? The coding by Dave Braben and Ian Bell was so ingenuous, they crammed a full game and complete universe onto a singe density floppy. But sound was pretty crappy in most versions, and a lot of time passed since 1984.

OOLITE is the open source remake you may like better. Its reviews were rave. And you can even build your own expansions. Maybe here's a way to integrate your own adventures after all. You can download it here, and start wishing you could connect a joystick to your webbook.

Or you may have forgotten the controls like I have. You can find these here or here.

Pick #29: Diabolic Webbook

If there is any computer game which approximates the feeling I had when I first played D&D, it's this one. Descending into the depths of a spawned dungeon, which seems to be there for no other reason than the adventure of exploring it - and kill or be killed. The threatened village is there too, with all the supplies an adventurer could need, and vague non player characters who drop clues on what to do.

Diablo is one of the all time classics. The first issue that is, the rest is mostly rehashes. Actually, it's a very neat graphic version of the Unix classic "Hack!" (or Rogue). Top down 3d view, accompanied by the cries of the dead and spooky music. Completely nostalgic.

Okay, so I'm a sucker for old games.
Okay, so my webbook isn't the fastest computer around.
But who cares? I can run old games on my slow webbook!

If you do have the CD somewhere, you may run it on a CD-driver-less computer with MagicIso. If you don't have the original CD, you can always download a shareware version of Diablo here.

The game might even inspire you to master a cheap adventure. Real cheap maybe, but hey.
Now where did I leave my Longbow of Endless Arrows? Ah, here... Let's go then.
Mwuhahahaha!

Pick #23: Princess Bride RPG?

Liked the movie? Haven't got the book? Still not up to playing such a complex player character as Fezzik the Giant? Nobody to role play with because everyone's having Christmas with family? Everyone except you?

You might be wishing for a role playing game suited to play something with the feel of the Princess Bride. But there is no official game I could find. Others also wondered, and they suggested games like Wushu or Swashbuckler. Either would do, but actually most fast games would do, if you allow for good fencing and wittyness. One forum visitor stated that there in fact was a special Princess Bride game in the making, but the Morgenstern Estate stopped it.

Maybe I'll have a go at writing one too.

But I guess if you're reading this you are on your own, all alone, right?
So there's no time for face to face rpg anyway, is there?

No worries. You can play the game – a truly syndicated Princess Bride game. Okay, it's just a video game. It's not all that special, I guess. Probably wouldn't buy it. Guess. But it has a charm, and you can play some of it online. Check it out. You might even find it addictive.

Or go get a life. Merry Christmas!

Now, let's try and get Westley and Buttercup across the swamp one more time... ah, darn.

Pick #20: Indiana in Atlantis

Actually I don't have the time to play old games all the time. Not even adventure games. I have a family. I have work. But from time to time I also have nostalgia.

One game I loved during my roleplaying heyday in the 90-ies was this one. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. It runs like a true Indiana Jones movie, with humour, twists, mystic science, and Nazis. The engine is simple, with lots of point and click. Puzzles, not arcade. I wonder why the story has never found its way into any of our regular pen and paper games. It's sure good enough!

Recently the game has been rereleased by Steam - the guys that also run your Left4Dead games. Last time I checked they asked about 4 euros for it. Worth it. Although you could have a peek if it's still here too. Yes, it will probably run on a webbook. Enjoy!

pick #10: Beauty in the Eye...

Beauty lies in the Eye of the Beholder. Even if in this case, the beholder is a demonic creature from the deep.
Waterdeep, in fact, a creature from beneath the town of Waterdeep.

Eye of the Beholder is a dungeon crawler computer adventure made by SSI, for Dungeons & Dragons. Okay, twenty years ago, in 1990. But I still have fond memories of it. When we first laid hands on it, we built a party of our favorite player characters - the same ones we played in Dark Dungeon during weekends. And then we set out to rescue the town of Waterdeep. Or at least bash as many monsters on the way as we could, and collect all sorts of treasure while solving the puzzles of the game. Until next morning if we had to.

But why talk of such an old game, just nostalgia? No. If you are a webbook owner like I am, you may sometimes yearn for a game that its slow processor can handle. And old games are typically... slow enough!

Eye of the Beholder is such a game, which runs sweetly on an EEE-PC. And better than that, you can now download it for free here.Or you may search for parts one, two and three here, or here.

Pure portable nostalgia.

Pick #8: The Secret World

The Call of Cthulhu pen and paper game is great. And H.P. Lovecraft's writings might make for a great online role playing experience. Travel from Arkham to Dunwich, solve a few mysteries and nearly go insane. Great stuff to share in an online community. You might think.

When text only MUDs (the precursor of MMOs) were the norm, I tried to write for a Cthulhu MUD that was starting up. I had a lot written, but the game never really got off the ground. Until much later. Cthulhumud may be what its now. Or perhaps they went on to do Cthulhu Nation, a sort of graphic multi player game from the UK.

Or... would this be the next real thing? It looks like it might be. They seem to take in beta testers, if you dare. So why not have a go and tell me how you do? I'll wait for you to come back... sane, I hope.

Dark days are coming. Hm.

This MMO might be to scary for me anyway...

Pick #3: My First Computer

The machine was hardly fit for role playing games, only slightly fit for classic text adventures, and not fit for word processing. It wasn't ready for the internet, and as I bought it only few had dreamed of something like the world wide web. Its keys were rubbery, like dead meat. But I loved my ZX Spectrum, back in the eighties. And I also loved its many arcade style games.

If you miss them too, or want to know what on Earth I'm talking about... have a look at Retrospec. Its coders and artists rewrote a good number of Speccy games for PC. Including Atic Atac, the arcade dungeon crawler of Ultimate Play the Game. Or the even more frantic Dr. Who like Halls of the Things. Or search for a emulator or game at world of spectrum, and find most any game rom you're looking for.

Sixteen colors, hardly any pixels, and a host of old joys!