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Abe Sargent · 12-29-2015, 06:27 PM

#2. Tales of Maj'Eyal
Nicolas Casalini
2012
Roguelike RPG

This is the highest charting game which was designed by a single person on our charts. I grabbed it this year from Steam (although you can download it for free on their own website, but I wanted Steam achievements and such unlocked. I also picked up the DLC on Steam as well).

I started a class called the Doombringer and I was killed after a few hours. Sad face. Then I tried a dwarven berserker and was deep into the game before I died. I was pissed I tried a Temporal Warden and then won, and then I followed that with an Oozemancer, and won, and I put the game down for a while, around 90 hours into the game.

So, what is Tales of Maj'eyal?

I've played Rogue. I know what the game is like. Then someone wanted to make Rogue again in the 80s and it was a really hard follow up called Moria. I played it too, was really crazy and hard. never got close to beating it. Then another game game followed to make teh game is harder, and more fleshed out, one of the most important, compelling, and influential games you've likely never heard of called Angband.

I played the crap out of that game. It hit #9 on my first run through. All of these games are free to play, btw, and lack graphics, using ASCII characters to represent the world.

Angband was so popular, a ton of variants were spawned, most using teh 'band as a suffix - I played Zangband (my favorite, based on the works of Roger Zelazny), Cthband (based on Cthulthu), Gumband (based on Elric, and Michael Moorcock's work), and so forth. One variant, pernband, was based on Anne McCaffrey;s works on Pern.

List of Angband variants. I mean seriously:

List of Angband variants - RogueBasin

Okay, so Rogue was in a direct line through Moria, Angband, and then the Angband variants. All caught up? Good!

TOME, originally entitled Tales of Middle Earth, is based off the PernAngband variant. The developer of TOME began with PernAngband a long time ago, and has been the one in charge of its development ever since.

He wanted to dives the game of its new Middle Earth trappings, with the though of a lawsuit always being something to consider. So Nick decided to create version 4 of TOME and completely redesigned it from the ground up, and created a new world for the game, Eyal.

He wanted to modernize the Rogue/Moria/Angband?PernBand/TOME lineage. So he made some very un-rogue-like changes. He changed the culture and the concepts. He created a game that is friendly to newcomers, which is graphical based, and which brings in newer concepts of RPGs. For example, remember when Guild Wars was released? You could "equip" a certain number of skills,a t the bottom of your screen, and then use them when you needed. And that was it. The same is true here, you can equip skills, or items with abilities that activate, and then use them from the graphical menu.

Set in Eyal, this game introduces a variety of common RPG tropes, like quests, a plot, and so forth. You advance the game and then it ends when you complete it. Or die. There's even an option to turn death off. (It'll show up as such in your achievements though

)

Not only is TOME an accessible, open ended, and fun game design. But he also adds new characters and templates I've not encountered before, like the Temporal Warden. That character specializes in teleporting. You teleport in and around the battlefield to get the best position and advantages. You have both expertise in close combat and bows at the same level, and you can move from one ot he other to take advantage of your foe. Meanwhile the Oozemancer makes, literally, various oozes, and is turning sort of ooze-like. You can gain various ooze-ish abilities over the course of the game.

The game is not afraid to push the buttons either. You have a variety of conflicts within the game, and you have to choose sides, and your decisions will change the world. Plus, and this is, at best, a light spoiler, things have meaning. For example, you'll have a major quest to kill some orc tribes. Most of them are now dead. So a DLC has been announced where the final orc tribe left, from your destruction of them, is going to be the site of the new campaign, featuring orc characters and classes. That's what I want from an RPG.

Now it's still a Roguelike. It's hard. There is perma-death unless you are on "exploration" mode. And you have to unlock some races and classes during game play (or by being a donor, in the case of the Dwarven Stone Warden).

The guy will add classes, dungeons, and more with updates. So the game is constantly under growth. And if you want to try it out free, or just play it, its available:

Download | Tales of Maj'Eyal and T-Engine4

Tales will likely replace Angband at #9 on my list, and Angband will drop on my Top 100 of all time. Probably, I haven't figured that out yet.

Now there are other snake-like tentacles that snake out from other Rogue-inspired games. I've played a fw of them, and I'm told that ADOM is really a lot better now than it used to be. So it's the next roguelike in my queue. In case you care!

12-29-2015, 06:27 PM	#53
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	#2. Tales of Maj'Eyal Nicolas Casalini 2012 Roguelike RPG This is the highest charting game which was designed by a single person on our charts. I grabbed it this year from Steam (although you can download it for free on their own website, but I wanted Steam achievements and such unlocked. I also picked up the DLC on Steam as well). I started a class called the Doombringer and I was killed after a few hours. Sad face. Then I tried a dwarven berserker and was deep into the game before I died. I was pissed I tried a Temporal Warden and then won, and then I followed that with an Oozemancer, and won, and I put the game down for a while, around 90 hours into the game. So, what is Tales of Maj'eyal? I've played Rogue. I know what the game is like. Then someone wanted to make Rogue again in the 80s and it was a really hard follow up called Moria. I played it too, was really crazy and hard. never got close to beating it. Then another game game followed to make teh game is harder, and more fleshed out, one of the most important, compelling, and influential games you've likely never heard of called Angband. I played the crap out of that game. It hit #9 on my first run through. All of these games are free to play, btw, and lack graphics, using ASCII characters to represent the world. Angband was so popular, a ton of variants were spawned, most using teh 'band as a suffix - I played Zangband (my favorite, based on the works of Roger Zelazny), Cthband (based on Cthulthu), Gumband (based on Elric, and Michael Moorcock's work), and so forth. One variant, pernband, was based on Anne McCaffrey;s works on Pern. List of Angband variants. I mean seriously: List of Angband variants - RogueBasin Okay, so Rogue was in a direct line through Moria, Angband, and then the Angband variants. All caught up? Good! TOME, originally entitled Tales of Middle Earth, is based off the PernAngband variant. The developer of TOME began with PernAngband a long time ago, and has been the one in charge of its development ever since. He wanted to dives the game of its new Middle Earth trappings, with the though of a lawsuit always being something to consider. So Nick decided to create version 4 of TOME and completely redesigned it from the ground up, and created a new world for the game, Eyal. He wanted to modernize the Rogue/Moria/Angband?PernBand/TOME lineage. So he made some very un-rogue-like changes. He changed the culture and the concepts. He created a game that is friendly to newcomers, which is graphical based, and which brings in newer concepts of RPGs. For example, remember when Guild Wars was released? You could "equip" a certain number of skills,a t the bottom of your screen, and then use them when you needed. And that was it. The same is true here, you can equip skills, or items with abilities that activate, and then use them from the graphical menu. Set in Eyal, this game introduces a variety of common RPG tropes, like quests, a plot, and so forth. You advance the game and then it ends when you complete it. Or die. There's even an option to turn death off. (It'll show up as such in your achievements though ) Not only is TOME an accessible, open ended, and fun game design. But he also adds new characters and templates I've not encountered before, like the Temporal Warden. That character specializes in teleporting. You teleport in and around the battlefield to get the best position and advantages. You have both expertise in close combat and bows at the same level, and you can move from one ot he other to take advantage of your foe. Meanwhile the Oozemancer makes, literally, various oozes, and is turning sort of ooze-like. You can gain various ooze-ish abilities over the course of the game. The game is not afraid to push the buttons either. You have a variety of conflicts within the game, and you have to choose sides, and your decisions will change the world. Plus, and this is, at best, a light spoiler, things have meaning. For example, you'll have a major quest to kill some orc tribes. Most of them are now dead. So a DLC has been announced where the final orc tribe left, from your destruction of them, is going to be the site of the new campaign, featuring orc characters and classes. That's what I want from an RPG. Now it's still a Roguelike. It's hard. There is perma-death unless you are on "exploration" mode. And you have to unlock some races and classes during game play (or by being a donor, in the case of the Dwarven Stone Warden). The guy will add classes, dungeons, and more with updates. So the game is constantly under growth. And if you want to try it out free, or just play it, its available: Download \| Tales of Maj'Eyal and T-Engine4 Tales will likely replace Angband at #9 on my list, and Angband will drop on my Top 100 of all time. Probably, I haven't figured that out yet. Now there are other snake-like tentacles that snake out from other Rogue-inspired games. I've played a fw of them, and I'm told that ADOM is really a lot better now than it used to be. So it's the next roguelike in my queue. In case you care! __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 12-29-2015 at 06:47 PM.