The Bard's Tale: Play on

After reloading, we found the blacksmith without trouble, and bought some basic gear. Swords and shields for the fighters and rogue (armor is a bit expensive), a mandolin and short sword for the bard, staves and robes for the mages. This leaves us with $220, just enough to buy three leather armors for the front rank.

Fighting tactics are a bit limited right now. Magic recharges on its own during the day, but the only spells that are useful right now are Arc Fire, a minor damaging conjuration, and Vorpal Plate, a magician's cantrip that boosts a partner's melee damage. The rest either boost the spellcaster's own AC, which is no help when they're already in the back row, or provide effects that are only helpful in dungeons.

Next goal - find the nearest temple. The streets aren't safe, we will get hurt exploring, and we need a way of healing up, because it isn't free, and we don't have magic healing yet. The album map shows one to the south of the adventurer's guild, but the map isn't quite as precise as one might like. We get into some fights while searching, some resulting in total party kills and reloads, and I take note of which enemies we can and can't handle. Running is an option, and it often works, but not always.

Eventually, we locate it, but not before taking a few raps from some hobgoblins on the way.  

Damn you, for-profit healthcare!

We're going to need a boost to survive this early stage, and the disk provides one. The stock characters might not have the greatest stats, but they come with decent gear, are level 2, and have way more HP. I load three of them in front while Ahab, Kurisu, and Sunfall hide behind them and share in their XP.

 

The best part; I needn't spend any money healing the guys in front. If any of them die, I can just delete them from the character disk and restore from a backup.

Further up north, there's the Review Board, where characters can level up, multiclass, and learn magic, and just next door, the Sinister Inn.

 

All drinks are free (Yeah!) and they recharge Sunfall's song powers. One song even heals, but it only heals the entire party during combat, and heals sloooowly. So how do you not get flattened by hostile monsters while waiting? Simple - you can initiate combat mode any time, anywhere. You could even have your party members attack one another in this mode if you wanted to for some reason.

 

Healing this way seems cheesy and boring. It probably is cheesy, and definitely is boring, but I don't see any non-cheesy ways of surviving this early part of the game, and having half the stock A-Team powertrain half of the beginners is marginally less boring than relying on musical healing.

And this becomes the gameplay loop for a little while. Explore, flee from tough encounters, fight easy ones, and delete/restore the A-Team fighters as needed. If running from a hard encounter fails and I die, reload. If someone dies in a fight that seemed winnable, reload and rethink encounters with that monster type in the future.

Most of the fights are manageable, but they don't reward much XP; I'm getting about 60 per character per fight on average, and you need 2,000 to level up for the first time. Barbarians, who hit hard and appear in groups of 7-9, remain unassailable. Gear improves steadily; the rearguard quickly get armor, shields, and helms, plus gauntlets for Ahab and Kurisu, and Ahab scores a "halbard" upgrade.

The real find, though, is a fixed and repeatable encounter against a powerful Ogre Lord on the other side of town, near the snowed-in gates.

Survival isn't guaranteed. In fact the death of at least one party member is very likely, but it's worth 400+ XP to the survivors, and the victim can just be deleted and restored at the guild.

Eventually, we train Ahab, Kurisu, and Sunfall to level 2, and we reform to help train P-Tux, Viila, and Scribe, but without a bard in the group this is more difficult. Magic just isn't as good as music at this point. After them, Grub and RedSlayer get their turn, along with Sunfall who earns a third level.

Now we're a little hardier, and fit to explore Skara Brae without disposable meat shields up front. We do, but it becomes evident that P-Tux isn't pulling his weight; with no locked doors in the entire city, and no treasure chests to be found anywhere, all he does is sit in the back and nibble on second breakfast to Sunfall's stirring ballads while Ahab and Kurisu tank hits and Viila/Scribe sling their limited magics. Ahab, with only 10 HP, is still a bit squishy as a tank. I have both replaced with hunter Grub and monk RedSlayer, and move Sunfall to the back row.

With this power party, I'm able to sweep most of Skara Brae. RedSlayer isn't quite as useful as Grub and Kurisu, but he's less of a liability than Ahab at this point and can still kill monsters bare-handed. The cash pours in, I even find valuable treasures like Plate Armor, and I can finally rely on temples, which are spread throughout the city, for healing. Everyone but RedSlayer gets equipped with Garth's finest, and we all reach level 3, allowing the wizards to learn new spells!

We're not champions of the city yet, though. Barbarians are still too much for us, and at night, wolves are very dangerous. Even some lesser foes like hobgoblins and nomads are risky to fight when HP starts to wane. Nor can we take on the ogre lords yet. There is, however, a softer training dummy in the southeast not far from the guild; a lone samurai, who typically goes down in the first round without landing a hit and awards 170XP per character.

Beyond him is the Scarlet Bard, a fabled tavern with a wine cellar. The manual tells us that this is the first dungeon we should be exploring.

A note regarding my map - almost all of the "walls" in Skara Brae can be "entered." These represent (mostly) abandoned buildings, which occasionally have monsters squatting inside. But if you're looking for something to fight, you'll have no trouble finding them in the streets, so don't bother.

Monster XP is per creature, and divided evenly among all surviving party members. 

A Guild of Adventurers B Credits C Garth's Equipment D Temple E Review Board F Tavern G Iron gate H City gates I Ogre Lord J Stone Giant K Golem L Teleport M Samurai N Scarlet Bard O Temple of the Mad God

Monster XP Kobolds 60 Hobbits 70 Gnomes 80 Dwarves 80 Hobgoblins 90 Magicians 100 Conjurors 100 Orcs 100 Thieves 110 Skeletons 110 Nomads 120 Spiders 150 Mad Dogs 180 Mercenaries 220 Samurai 1024 Ogre Lord 2816 Stone Giant ? Barbarians ? Wolves ?

Other points of interest:

• The northeast of the map is sealed off by a pair of iron gates, and an unseen tower lies beyond them.
• The southeast, which also contains a tower, is guarded by ogre lords.
• The northwest of the map is guarded by stone golems, who are even tougher than the ogre lords.
• The center of the map has four clusters of temples surrounding it, one of which is ominously named "Temple of the Mad God" and refuses us entry.
• The city gate in the west is snowed-in and impassable, and Sinister Street in the southwest goes on forever, by means of an invisible teleporter.

Game 452: The Bard's Tale

Read the manual here:

https://www.mocagh.org/loadpage.php?getgame=bt1

The Bard's Tale is one of the few really major releases so far that I truly have no prior experience with at all. I've understood it to be a missing link between Wizardry's linear and punishing dungeon crawl, and Might and Magic's semi-open world hack 'n slash fest, but while I've played through both of these series' early entries years ago, I'm going in blind this time.

The Bard's Tale was one of the Commodore 64's first RPG hits, predating Wizardry's eventual release by over two years. This is almost certainly the best-selling and most famous version, and perhaps the logical successor to Cranford's C64 dungeon crawler Maze Master, but I will be playing the Apple II original, which was the target platform for most of Interplay's games at the time.

As a game published by Electronic Arts in their early, computer-focused years, it comes in an album-style box, featuring a scene on the front that looks more like a medieval college dorm than a barroom, a map of Skara Brae, a brief backstory, and a mini-biography of designer Michael Cranford. Enclosed are the game disks and EA's typically high quality manual and reference card.

The story - evil wizard Mangar froze the city with ice magic, summoned lots of monsters, and killed all of the watchmen. Go get him.

The manual describes a very Wizardry-like gameplay structure, with first person exploration and party-based combat, but there are some differences.

• The city of Skara Brae is itself an explorable level, and the various establishments (and entrances to multiple dungeons) are locations within it, much like Oubliette, except Skara Brae is no save haven. The Adventurer's Guild is your home base, where characters are created, recruited, and where you must return to save your game.
• There is a default beginner's party available to those who don't wish to create their own, but the manual advises that creating one is better in the long run.
• A total party kill doesn't save the game state to disk unless you request it, and rebooting the computer restores everything to the last state that you did save; nobody gets stranded in the dungeon because of an "accidental" blackout.
• Character backups are explicitly encouraged. You can restore an individual character from a backup disk if you can't afford the temple resurrection fee (or if the character is beyond divine help). 

Eight basic character classes are available, though your party only has room for six:

• Warriors are simple fighters who gain extra attacks every four levels.
• Paladins are fighters with enhanced protection against evil. The manual describes no disadvantages compared to warriors.
• Hunters are fighters with critical-hit ability.
• Monks are fighters who specialized in unarmed, unarmored combat.
• Rogues are mediocre fighters but specialize in trap detection and disarmament.
• Conjurers are magic users whose spells focus on creation and destruction.
• Magicians are magic users whose spells focus on enchantments and manipulation.
• Lastly, the Bards of the series' namesake are a special class of magic user who can fight to an extent but their real power is in song, which bestow a variety of party buffs depending on the song played and whether in combat or exploration mode. This power is, of course, fueled by beer.

Two elite spellcaster classes are also available, but only as multiclass options to advanced characters:

• Sorcerers' spells focus on illusion and clairvoyance.
• Wizards specialize in summons.

By multiclassing, a spellcaster can learn magic from any of the four disciplines, and by mastering all becomes an archmage. We're told that you need to have one, and will want to have two. This will take a lot of grinding; you must reach level 13 in a class before the highest level spells become available, and changing resets you to level 1, but keeps all spells learned. 

I decide my initial party will have one of each class except hunter and monk, and from rolling several disposable characters I conclude that:

• Dwarves are the strongest class, but have poor luck. They may not be spellcasters.
• Gnomes are the most intelligent, but have poor luck and constitution. They may not be paladins or bards.
• Half-Orcs are the most hardy, but have poor luck and intelligence. They may not be paladins, monks, or bards.
• Hobbits have the best dexterity and luck, but poor strength and constitution. They may not be paladins or hunters.
• Humans, elves, and half-elves don't really excel at anything but aren't poor at anything either. Humans are a bit stronger and hardier, elves a bit smarter, more dexterous, and luckier, and half-elves between. Elves may not be hunters, and half-elves may not be paladins.

I aim to outclass the default party, which isn't as tedious as it is in Wizardry; you can discard and reroll new characters very quickly.

Stock Custom Name Brian the Fist Ahab Race Human Dwarf Str 12 18 IQ 9 6 Dx 14 12 Cn 10 17 Lk 6 10

Stock Custom Name Samson Kurisu Race Dwarf Half-Orc Str 18 18 IQ 10 5 Dx 9 15 Cn 11 17 Lk 10 11

The bard doesn't get his own portrait!

Stock Custom Name El Cid Sunfall Race Elf Hobbit Str 12 11 IQ 9 12 Dx 16 18 Cn 6 8 Lk 6 16

Stock Custom Name Markus P-Tux Race Hobbit Hobbit Str 9 8 IQ 10 10 Dx 17 18 Cn 6 12 Lk 10 17

Stock Custom Name Merlin Viila Race Gnome Gnome Str 10 12 IQ 17 17 Dx 7 10 Cn 9 9 Lk 12 11

Stock Custom Name Omar Scribe Race Elf Gnome Str 11 13 IQ 16 17 Dx 11 11 Cn 8 10 Lk 11 10

For good measure, I also create two pinch-hitters from the two outstanding classes. 

Class Hunter Monk Name Grub Redslayer Race Dwarf Dwarf Str 18 18 IQ 12 11 Dx 14 10 Cn 11 17 Lk 6 8

 

For convenience, I save this party under the name "B-Team." The entire party can be loaded from disk in one command this way instead of six.

 

We leave the guild and head in the direction of the blacksmith.

Nice, scaling effects!

But before we can find it, the party is torn apart by a pack of wild dogs roaming the streets.