Other Games in the TOEE style?!?

I feel like a dinosaur, but I love TOEE, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale (a lil...)

are there any new games hosting D&D adventure, that aren't just online?

or even any throw backs that someone could recommend...

APPRECIATED!

 

Neverwinter Nights?

Otherwise I'd be thinking back to the very old gold box games like Pool of Radiance (you can often find them on abandonware sites).

 

Well, if you're going to go for really old games, there are a good number of DOS games...

The D&D

-Eye of the Beholder I, II, II are great, but they are first person POV (Forgotten Realms Setting)
-Menzoberranzan, i don't know how it is really, it's not available as free abandonware, but it has very good critic and graphics seem good...and yes, you can play with the "angsty two wielding scimitars drow" (Forgotten Realms Setting)
-Hack n' Slash, just one character in a dungeon and...well, that, lots of hack n' slash (Forgotten setting)

Theres also a trilogy of Dragonlance setting, i don't remember their name, but it was something like "knights of Krinn" and "queen of Krinn", those are more like ToEE, not in FP POV...

Also you could give a try to the various "Realms of Arkania", theyre not D&D, but are something like the grandfather of ToEE style games, with a map in which you travel, have random encounters and combat is turn based, with isometric view. They have a huge selection of classes, skills and races, lots of towns, villages and realms to roam (inside towns you have FP POV), an endless number of quests and mysteries, items, NPCs etc etc...and is hard and complex as hell.
Frankly it's an awesome game, but have in mind that it's OLD, and graphics are a little bit crappy (inside towns are great, and the portraits too)

 

Forgot to mention Planescape: Torment. That's an excellent game.

 

Your bringing back memories with those dragonlance games.
It was Champions of Krynn, Death Knights of Krynn and Dark Queen of Krynn.

I think they are pretty hard to find now.

 

Exactly those...

There's a World builder for Forgotten Realms setting using the same engine (the same graphics, system, etc), so you can customize your own quests, creatures, towns etc...
I've found them in many abandonware sites as Zebedee pointed, they're legal and free to download...i think i've seen them in

www.abandonia.com

there you can at least have some feedback on those old wonderful games (they have walkthrougs,screenshots, cheats, etc, even the original covers,... pretty much like this place :mrhappy: )

 

Champions of Krynn

...one of the Gold Box games Zebe mentioned earlier.
Put out by SSI which was absorbed and then disbanded by; (edit)

- so that now all the Gold Box games are abandonware and freely available.

http://www.abandonia.com/games/619/download/ChampionsofKrynn.htm

I played that even tho' I was no fan of Dragonlance - and was pleased that it took into consideration something i thought the official setting had overlooked - the Dragons start to set themselves up as the overlords; finally realizing I guess that they are older; smarter; and more experienced and should be giving the orders.

It also has some really cool quests to become a Knight of Solamnia of the advanced orders - too bad the idea one should "earn" paladinhood and such didn't catch on.

IIRC; it was also the first appearance of deity-specific powers to AD&D clerics?


.. And thanks for the reminder; I am bit-torrenting Torment now.

If anyone is interested in Wizard's Crown; the classic that won SSI the right to license the Gold Box games; email me.

 

Re: Champions of Krynn

Who says they don't have to earn it? You don't think they are born paladins, do you? I agree they must be born with the potential (read: stats), but that's not the same thing. Upon attaining a proper age, candidates have to take service with a lawful good deity, stay honest & faithful, train-train-train, undergo religious rites & pass tests of ability, and then still many never succeed. After that, They have to earn it every day, or else they become fallen. Lareth the Beautiful was born with the potential, but he chose a different path.

Dubious. These first appeared in the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game setting; specifically, in the Glossography (part of the boxed set, by Gary Gygax) circa 1983. I'm certain that he allowed PC's in his campaign to use such powers all along, and gave it to the rest of us when that product was released.

 

Re: Champions of Krynn

Well what i more meant was ; for example in the 80's basic-expert-etc series; paladin was in effect a prestige class that you earned by staying lawful (lawful good) as a fighter for 9 levels - then you became a paladin. perhaps a little extreme but you get the point - the game is very much like that. That version of the rules you might recall had clerics not using spells until 2nd level - whether this is better or worse is a matter of taste - whether you think Powers would empower 1st level charcters (and then is every priest the "cleric" class- all a whole ' nother discussion)

In the specific case; although I agree with you on Paladins; 3rd/3.5th edition Doesn't - they ARE basically born paladins ( and no longer need a 17 charisma) - the PHB basically says they are chosen to be a paladin by (insert power here) and answer the call; or don't.
like I said; I like your version better - but its not what the paladin class is now. For that matter D&D Online has "drow" paladins running around above ground...:chainsaw:

More to the point; in the computer game listed; the knight character has to graduate through several progressive levels/orders of knighthood; and doesn't gain any supernatural powers until he's proven himself - not just by training but by action.

Clearly the idea wasn't THAT popular; but i thought it was awesome.
Characters starting with powers I would give to a Champion is an old bone with me.

 

That site is GOLD. So many classic games on there!!!:thumbsup:

 

Re: Champions of Krynn

I never played by the basic/expert rules, just "Advanced". Paladins didn't get spells to cast until 9th level; so arguably they had proven themselves by that point. They really became powerful with the advent of the Cavalier class in 1985's Unearthed Arcana. Talk about prestige...

As for clerics, they could always cast spells immediately at 1st level in AD&D. These were what was first envisioned as a crusading warrior type in the earliest rules sets (what I think you are describing), but two seperate character classes evolved & were published in the 1st Edition PHB.

 

Re: Champions of Krynn

myself I started with "dungeons and dragons" box that was really the "first 'basic' set(from '77-but i started later); but within months had the Ad&D books AND the '81 re-work of basic - so in effect we had 3 sets of rules; not to mention the little greyhawk and blackmoor booklets with the horrid art; and hobbits still being hobbits and such
...switching randomly between our Dm's greyhawk box hex map; the Mystara setting of the "new" basic set; and whatever random temple of the frog towm our Dm dug up ( remember that thing? lol)

Anyway; Paladins get supernatural abilities at 1st level; spells or not; in every edition I can think of offhand...
EXCEPT the video game mentioned; as they start as a 'knight' class and not until (in effect) prestiging several times did they get "holy" abilities asociated with being a champion. Not exactly Paladins of course; but an interesting approach - and that was the original point; that game had several interesting "approaches" in it.

The clerics not getting spells until 2nd level was from the '81 Basic set - basic/expert/etc series; the same where you gained paladin by "graduating" to it as mentioned previously. (This was the set of rules that gave us Mystara and hollow world; and many of those creators had alot to do with 2nd Edition) * whether or not the ideas they tried there; or in 2nd Edition ; were 'good' is I think a matter of taste.

As to Clerics - I agree with you so vehementally i wrote 2 blogs about that subject. Maybe if they had just CALLED the class CRUSADER alot of the confusion would have been averted; lol; you know; people thinking cleric = healbotmg:
I think alot of people just associate cleric too much with their concepts of Judaeo-Christianity to really wrap their head around Gygax's cleric class -

The later split of the cleric class( I thought it was 2nd edition? at least for the core rules? you mentioned 1st PHB so perhaps you are referring to Cleric/Druid as the 2 classes?) - into the "Generic Cleric" and "Specialty Priest" (which I am referring to as the split) would be a natural extension of what you said that Greyhawk rules differentiated clerics in; what 83? - too bad that wasn't made a core-rules concept then(other than alignment).

Anyway; I enjoy these tangents and reminisciences - but I think the salient point was that it's been represented different ways in different versions of rules -

but of the "Gold Box" games; the first licensed AD&D computer games, most were pretty generic; Champions of Krynn really tried some different ideas.

 

If we have any more Paladin discussions I think my head will explode!

Was trying to think of some more DnD games which were released but I think that we've pretty much covered them all. Anyone think of one not mentioned?

There are of course many, many good RPG games - just not based on DnD. The other Troika games are definitely worth digging out. Similar problems to ToEE in some ways, but once you apply the fixes etc, you realise what gems they are.

 

1. Turn Based
2. Uses D&D 3.5 OGL rules
3. No need for Kickstarter
4. Creators have stated:
5. ToEE shall be our paradigm

"And despite the fact that almost all CRPGs of the last ten years have used some kind of realtime combat, there has been a relevant turn-based game called The Temple of Elemental Evil developed by the magnificent development studio Troika Games (you are being missed). Regarding the combat system, ToEE shall be our paradigm."
http://www.chaos-chronicles.com/

 

If it's the turn based combat you like especially, check out Silent Storm and the expansion SS: Sentinels.

It's World War 2, so totally different vibe, but it's a real blast. Personally I prefer it to Jagged Alliance 2 (though I'm probably in the minority there)