Dungeons and Dragons Online is free. Play with me.

[aran]

Check it out. They've got a nice client that streams content to you so the up-front download isn't so monstrous. Just choose to use to the turbine download manager instead of doing the bulk download. It took me less than 15 minutes to download enough content to start playing. Really smooth.

You can play forever for free. There are a couple of races and classes that you can buy access to with real money. There's also more content that you can buy if you want. But playing forever for free is feasible if you don't mind slight inconvenience. From what I've seen in the DDO store, it's not even too expensive to buy stuff that might be worth it in game. I would actually consider buying some of the potions to speed up levelling and the like--for a reasonable price, I will buy items in a game that I find fun to support its operation.

The gameplay is not your typical MMO fare. It's more like Guild Wars, but with a longer levelling curve, multiclassing, and more D&D-like mechanics. The game isn't a faithful conversion of D&D to the PC, though. It takes liberties fitting D&D rules into an MMO-like environment and I think it does sufficient job of it. Quests are all instanced multistage encounters in all kinds of environments. The content in this game is nowhere near as trivial and boring as most MMO content is, and that's just itnroductory/level 1 content. Usually I'm bored out of my mind in the early levels, but with DDO, I find myself wanting to log back on. That's a great sign from me, someone who is very skeptical, almost outright hostile, towards almost every MMO that he's played.

So please give the game a try and join me: Sarlona server, my character is a Paladin named Beside Always.

[fantom1979]

I prefer to have friends and not live in my mothers basement. Thanks

[aran]

This MMO doesn't require you to be logged on for 4 hours in order to get anything done. You can safely play in 20-30 minute increments or less if you want to.

But the basement is cozy. And there are no windows that can let sunlight besmirch my milky white skin.

[MrDNA]

Duh, people who play D&D have to have friends, because who else would be in their party and who would dungeon-master?

If I had any time between work/grad school/my increasingly sporadic involvment in FOF-MP, I'd definitely check this out

[Schmidty]

It pisses me off that I actually paid for that crappy game, and now it's free.

No thanks.

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by MrDNA

Duh, people who play D&D have to have friends, because who else would be in their party and who would dungeon-master?

See, the tricky thing about that for me was that as DM, I knew exactly what would happen, but as Krevac the Unjust, I had to suppress that knowledge in order to advance the story. I had a little system set up where I would roll two d12s and a d8 to simulate each character's decision making prowess. Barbarians, for obvious reasons, would use a d4 and two d6s. But the point is, using standard probability matrices, I could make tactical decisions for each of the five stalwart adventurers in my party, including some very tender roleplay scenarios played out between Allafina, the half-elven minstrel, and Buzzex, the gully dwarf war priest who loved her from afar.

Look, all I'm saying is that sometimes when you get into Strat-o-matic, you find yourself living near Baltimore in 1988 and running a replay campaign for the hometown nine doesn't seem as worthwhile as it does in some other towns or eras. A little Ken Gerhart is too much Ken Gerhart, I always say.

[SunDevil]

The movie that plays on the link provided by OP is priceless. It sounds like the girl who narrates the commercials for the computer game design courses.

Oh and one more thing to piss you off Schmidty
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[Schmidty]

I give up.

[SunDevil]

I just got my new signature.

[SunDevil]

Aran,

I am downloading now. I will try it out. I will post my character name when I get the game running.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

I just got my new signature.

That's a double whammy and I hate you.

[Izulde]

...I really need to finish grading this stack.

But a few minutes won't hurt.

[SackAttack]

I downloaded it a week or so ago. Been playing on Khyber. For what it's worth, the client I downloaded was 2.9 GB up front and then streaming the rest of the package across meant I had significant enough lag for 2-3 days that I couldn't do much more than solo quests, but that has since gone away and I'm able to run in parties of 5-6 now.

And, yes, it is possible to play in 20-30 minute increments, although some of the quest chains can take a few hours.

I'm sure it's not the best MMO out there, but it's enjoyable enough, and Turbine's "freemium" model fits my playtime anyway. I play it enough to enjoy it, but not enough that I'd ever have paid the monthly fee anyway.

I might end up ponying up for the odd quest pack here or there, but from what I understand you can do quests in a party even if you don't have the content, as long as the initiator does. You just can't solo it or start your own party for those quests until you pony up for the quest pack.

[Mustang]

Bummer. Wanted to play again, but getting a 'Crypto API failed'

Followed whatever directions they had to get around it (reinstall Framenet 1.1 and some other things), but nothing works. Sounds like a fair number of people are getting it, but nothing fixes it.

Blah..

[Sgran]

"closed for maintenance"

[JAG]

I picked this up based on a couple threads about it the past few weeks. I've enjoyed it quite a bit for what it's worth. I actually wasn't planning on doing anything more than solo because I didn't want to deal with any horror story type groups, but some days ago I decided to give it a go and I was pleasantly surprised to find I enjoyed it more playing in a group and I have yet to find a lousy group. I'm actually at the point of trying to figure out if I want to put some money down or not. Even though I'm enjoying it, I'm leaning towards no as it seems like it could get repetitive.

Anyway, this is all from the standpoint of someone who never really played an MMO like WoW, Everquest, etc....

[Thomkal]

I got back into the game too the past couple weeks too, just soloing. I don't like it as much as I did WoW, Everquest, LOTRO, but hey for free its better than Guild Wars.

But the recent Windows Update seems to have screwed things up for me and others. When I try to play the game now, I get sent to the Turbine downloader, wanting me to download the entire game again instead of loading the game. Any ideas?

[Matthean]

Some of the people from CoH have been playing so I have started to tag along. I got a cleric up to level 3. It's better than I thought, but finding quest locations outside of the initial town has to be my biggest pet peeve for pure annoyance.

[Schmidty]

I've been playing for two weeks, and am really enjoying it. I've been holding off from joining a guild, or joining many groups, but I'd be down with a FOFC guild.

[Peregrine]

I haven't been playing this much in the last couple of months but I have several characters and do really enjoy the game. My main complaint has been lack of good guilds and a lack of community interaction, but if we could get some kind of FOFC group going that would be great.

[Coffee Warlord]

Hmm, might give it a little shot here.

[Thomkal]

This MMORPG is very group slanted, which befits Dungeons and Dragons after all. You can solo for a bit early on without much trouble but especially when you get into the longer dungeons, you'll be wanting a group-especially if you are soloing a non-rogue class.

[BYU 14]

i would be down for this as well, haven't played, but the game sounds fun.

[Coffee Warlord]

Are there still multiple servers? If so, where am I going to find any shred of FOFC?

[Peregrine]

The game is a lot of fun, and very different from a lot of the major MMOs - combat is less scripted with various attacks and is a bit more of a free for all, and it really has all the fun stuff from classic D&D that modern games don't have - secret doors, lots of real traps, a GM setting the scene, etc. My only downside is that once you start paying for things in game, it can get quite expensive, but you always have the option to keep that to a minimum.

Yes, there are multiple servers, not sure how many, but 5 or 6 at least. All my characters are on Cannith or Orien.

[Greyroofoo]

I'm up for a FOFC group

[Tasan]

I had completely forgotten about this being free. I'll grab it and see what its like.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

Yes, there are multiple servers, not sure how many, but 5 or 6 at least. All my characters are on Cannith or Orien.

I don't have anybody on those servers so I have room to make guys there. Any other suggestions for servers?

[Schmidty]

I have some guys on Orien, but no one past level 3.

[Matthean]

I think I might make a ranger/thief because not having those skills on a team is a huge growing pet peeve of mine. Having one of those and a cleric are the only two things I would "require" on a team, but I already have a cleric in my one other guild so I don't feel like making another. Outside of that, I would likely do a mage, or Arcane Archer.

[Coffee Warlord]

The monolithic download hath commenced.

[Tasan]

I'll make a cleric as soon as this insane download finishes, which will probably be tomorrow since I'm listening to baseball online as well.

[Thomkal]

I've made a bard, Lyricin Songseeker on Orien. Never got to play this class really because its really only good for groups. I'm going through the tutorial adventure now (make sure you break all those crates and stuff to get money and items if you are lucky), but likely won't be able to stay on for long once through with that.

[Tasan]

Maybe we can all meet up tomorrow evening?

[Schmidty]

I've got a 3rd level dps fighter on there, and a 2nd level wizard. I'm happy playing either one.

[Greyroofoo]

I create a halfling thief on Orient (name is Samkin), I also went through the tutorial. Up for some FOFC grouping.

[Peregrine]

I have a Favored Soul on Orien named Coryai Dellis (level 4), and a Barbarian/Ranger/Rogue named Mosso Thrun (level 5). I'd be glad to do some grouping on either one, though I can't do it tonight (Tuesday) until later, like 8:30 or 9.

[Matthean]

I'm working 3rd shifts for a couple more weeks so I can only do something like 7-9. Sundays I try to team with the other guild, but that's their off day as well, so it can be hit-or-miss.

[lighthousekeeper]

anyone down for a game tonight?

[Greyroofoo]

When creating a character, should I just go with one of the default builds for a class, or should I do customized? Keep in mind I don't have a great deal of knowledge about DnD mechanics.

Also how much should I be able to play this game before I have to start paying for stuff?

[Matthean]

I would just use the default stuff for now. Even playing D&D for years(ages ago mind you) I would just rather have them do stuff by default for me. Somebody mentioned on another forum that they know they don't max/min and seem to do ok. You can still pick spells and enhancements and I'm sure other stuff so it's not totally locked in. People have been known to play the game without paying at all. Most of what I see as being stuff to get would be if you want to unlock races, ie drow and such.

I can be on as soon as I shower. I don't know how to make a guild yet so somebody with better experience can do that. I'll assume FOFC would be the name, but it can be something more D&Dish as well.

[Matthean]

Oh, and I assume Orien is the server. I have a rogue and a mage, but I'll likely focus on the rogue.

[SirFozzie]

I'll have to try this again some time...

[Matthean]

Tharnius Obidiah, level 1 rouge.
Morticane, level 1 mage - elementalist. May reroll into the mage class that goes more control though. Still undecided about playing the glass cannon in this game.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

I've made a bard, Lyricin Songseeker on Orien. Never got to play this class really because its really only good for groups. I'm going through the tutorial adventure now (make sure you break all those crates and stuff to get money and items if you are lucky), but likely won't be able to stay on for long once through with that.

Logging on now as Lyricin so wave if you see me.

[Matthean]

Got three on.

[mrkilla22]

I just started a ranger named Anairyl on Orien server.

[Matthean]

Yeah, sorry I had to bail, but I literally had 30 minutes to eat and get to work. Still should be three on.

[Thomkal]

Two on now, mrkilla and lighthouse

[BYU 14]

Just started a Darkblade Rogue name Walik on Orien, played a bit, love the D&D "feel" but combat is a bit chaotic.