Legend of the Red Dragon

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For the Chinese film The Legend of the Red Dragon see: Hong Xiguan zhi Shaolin wu zu
The L.O.R.D. inn menu
The L.O.R.D. inn menu

Legend of the Red Dragon (LORD) is a text-based role-playing game written in Pascal and run on Bulletin board systems as a third party door game. It was created by Seth Robinson of Robinson Technologies and is currently maintained by Michael Preslar. The player's goal is to improve his or her skills in order to defeat the Red Dragon which has been attacking the village. The software is compatible with DOS, Microsoft Windows, and OS/2.

Contents

[edit] Storyline and Gameplay

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The premise of LORD is that a Red Dragon is wreaking havoc in a town where the player has recently arrived. Multiple players compete over a period of weeks to advance their skills and to kill the dragon. In order to achieve this goal, players must face combat to gain experience. Once they have gained enough experience, they must face their master at Turgon's Warrior Training and advance in skill level. Advancement presents stronger enemies and masters; a player must reach level 12, the final level, before challenging Turgon himself and attacking the dragon.

Players also select a character class, choosing from among Death Knight Skills, Mystical Skills, and Thieving Skills. While a player is training in a particular skill, s/he is subject to random events in the woods for that particular skill, which provide opportunities for advancement. Eventually, players may master all three skills.

The game features many elements that later became mainstays in MMORPGs, although on a smaller scale. LORD allows many players (as long as the BBS supports it) to play simultaneously, even allowing real-time player-versus-player battles.

LORD features several in-game message boards as well as a limited electronic mail system which allow players to converse. Players may use the mail system to send flirtations to other players of the opposite sex, propose trysts, or marriage (only marriages lead to the conception of children).

LORD was special in two other ways - it had possibly the most compelling registration system ever - and it only let you play for ten to twenty minutes a day, thereby assuring you would not burn out.

The registration system let all players play right up until level six, then it told you you couldn't get past to level 7 until the program was registered. Users often sent in funds for that very purpose.

[edit] Locations

Action in LORD spans a variety of in-game locations:

  • The Inn is the workplace of Seth Able the bard, Violet the barmaid, and the (unnamed) bartender. It is also the place where players may rent a room for the night to be more safe until the next day, flirt, converse with other players, or hear music. Players may bribe the bartender to let them attack other players staying there. Players can also trade gems for potions that boost strength, defense, or hitpoints.
  • King Arthurs Weapons and Abduls Armor are places where players may buy and sell weapons and armor.
  • Turgon's Warrior Training is a training hall run by the master, Turgon. Players fight here in order to attain the next level. Players must accumulate experience in order to challenge the master to advance.
  • The Forest is where players spend most of their time, earning experience to gain levels, as well as gold and gems. Random events also take place here as players search for opponents. There is also a Healer's Hut located in the forest, as well as the road to the Dark Cloak Tavern.
  • The Dark Cloak Tavern is located "somewhere" in the forest. Players normally get to the tavern through a random event in the forest, or directly if they have a horse. Chance, the bartender, provides players with their only in-game opportunity to select a new skill class, as well as information on opponents. The Tavern also offers games of chance, in which players may wager their gold.
  • Ye Old Bank is an establishment where players may store their gold to guard against attackers.
  • The Healer's Hut may be visited either from town or the forest. The healers can restore hit points lost by players during fights.
  • "The Fields" is where players go who quit the game without getting a room at the Inn, and where one may find other players with whom to engage in battle.

[edit] Events in the forest

Random events occur frequently in the forest, including:

  • An encounter with an old hag who can increase a player's hit points in exchange for a gem.
  • A visit from an old man who needs to be guided to town in exchange for charm points and gold.
  • A blackjack challenge
  • The opportunity to rescue a prince or princess in distress
  • Meeting a severed head named Olivia
  • Assorted dealings with fairies
  • Running into a horse trader
  • Meeting a group of merry men that will restore a player's hit points
  • Finding a sack of gold
  • Finding a gem

[edit] Seth Able, Violet and the Bartender

There are three non-player characters located at the Inn, who provide services helpful to players. Their names are Seth Able the bard, named after the game's author, Violet the barmaid, and the otherwise unnamed Bartender.

Seth Able the bard will sing a song for a player, male or female. Once a day, players can listen to Seth's song and receive a bonus, such as the doubling of one's bank account or additional forest/player vs player fight opportunities.

Male players can also flirt with Violet, and female players with Seth Able. There are several options ranging from a wink to a proposal of marriage, with success determined by a player's "charm" score. A marriage to Violet or Seth may last one day or two months or more; unlike player-player marriages, the software may terminate these bonds at any time. During marriage offspring are possible, and these bring sometimes surprising benefits to warriors.

The Bartender provides services and information to any warrior who can pay him in gold or gems, but provides nothing for free.

[edit] Weapons and Armor

Throughout the history of LORD, the selection of weapons and armor has remained constant. The player begins with the Stick and Coat; upgraded equipment must be purchased with gold earned in forest fights. A player may carry only one weapon and one suit of armor at any time. It should be noted that in recent games, the following names can be changed by the SysOp.

Weapons Stick - Dagger - Short Sword - Long Sword - Huge Axe - Bone Crusher - Twin Swords - Power Axe - Able's Sword - Wan's Weapon - Spear of Gold - Crystal Shard - Nira's Teeth - Blood Sword - Death Sword
Armor Coat - Heavy Coat - Leather Vest - Bronze Armour - Iron Armour - Graphite Armour - Erdrick's Armour - Armour of Death - Able's Armour - Full Body Armour - Blood Armour - Magic Protection - Belar's Mail - Golden Armour - Armour of Lore

[edit] IGMs

In-Game Modules (IGMs) are small software extensions written by third-party developers that add functionality to LORD. These are frequently intended to expand the scope of the game for players who have become bored with standard LORD gameplay.

Quite a few IGMs have been written to allow a "cheating" style of game play, and others have presented bugs or loopholes to be exploited by players. The current maintainer of the LORD software, has introduced a scripting language called Lady in order to allow smoother development of game extensions.

Most notable IGM's include:

  • Across The Tracks
  • Adoption Market
  • Aladdin's Bar
  • Aladdin's Palace
  • Axehandler's Arena
  • The Arena Of Lords
  • The Apothecary
  • Backally Bar
  • Backally Church
  • Backally Orphanage
  • Barak's House
  • The City Of The Sun God
  • Crossroads
  • Felicity's Temple
  • Four Horsemen Of the Apocalypse
  • Love Shack
  • The Mystical Mountain
  • Seth Able's Music Shop
  • Violet's House
  • Violet's Cottage II
  • The Wishing Well

[edit] Metropolis Gameport

Robinson sold the game and its sequel to Metropolis Gameport in 1998 to concentrate on writing other small games for PC and mobile platforms. His final release was 4.00a.

Metropolis Gameport contracted Michael Preslar on January 8th, 2001, to continue the game's development. The most recent version of LORD (4.07) was released in 2006. According to Preslar, further updates to the LORD software are planned, including a web application and versions for ELF-compatible Linux and Unix systems.

[edit] Related Games

[edit] Tournament LORD

Tournament LORD was a port of Legend of the Red Dragon capable of handling many players at once. It was written by Robinson and designed for the MBBS/Worldgroup BBS systems.

[edit] Wildcat Tournament Legend of the Red Dragon (WT-LORD)

Wildcat Tournament Legend of the Red Dragon (WT-LORD) is a multi-player battle game created for Wildcat! 5.x Bulletin Board Systems (Wildcat!_BBS). Joe Marcelletti arranged a deal with Robinson prior to the sale to Metropolis software. The software includes a large amount of customized code, including integration with the Wildcat! BBS software. It was maintained by IceRage Technologies however is no longer being developed or supported.

[edit] Legend of the Red Dragon II

Exploring a village in LORD II.
Exploring a village in LORD II.

An official sequel, Legend of the Red Dragon II: New World, was a major change from the first game, featuring full ANSI graphics. It employed a top-down view, similar to a roguelike game. LORD II was written by Robinson and its final release came in 1998, before its sale to Metropolis Gameport.

[edit] Clones

Since LORD's release, many software developers have released clones of the game. Most recently, LORD was the inspiration for a free open source PHP/MySQL-based web implementation called Legend of the Green Dragon (website). There are also a few other clones worth mentioning: Gameserv for IRC Networks, a project hosted on SourceForge, was also inspired by Legend of the Red Dragon. As was LORRDbot, an instant messaging (AIM, MSN) based version of LORD.

[edit] External links

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