Quick Introduction to Dungeon Craft

So, now for a quick introduction to Dungeon Craft (and my adventure module in-progress!).

Dungeon Craft emulates the old Gold Box games by SSI, such as Secret of the Silver Blades (one of the only games I beat as a child) and of course Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures, which allowed players to create their own games. Thus, it is an old-school AD&D game engine that features PC creation, 3D-esque dungeon exploring, and turn-based grid combat (a la old wargaming with miniatures) for cool strategy.

Unlike the aforementioned classic SSI games, Dungeon Craft has the benefit of being able to display any amount of colors and much higher resolutions (you can pick from 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768, and 1280 x 1024, but I have chosen 640 x 480, if only because it is hard enough to create art for this resolution as it is!), allowing you to create beautiful, colorful graphics if you only put in the time and effort! (I still remember my first SSI game, Champions of Krynn, which I played on my first computer, which was equipped with a CGA card (a whopping 4 colors, including black). (Another problem I had was that loading the game took about an hour (with disk-switching), and loading each combat took about half an hour!) Another benefit of Dungeon Craft is the ability to use combat icons of any size, so you can have huge dragons, gargantuan squid, or colossal sharks as part of your combat scenes!

When playing the game, you wander through areas from a 3D-esque viewpoint (you can also use overland maps). Once you trigger some kind of event (including random events), you are treated to a view of the monster or creature you have encountered, and then you may opt to enter battle!

Once you are in battle, you are treated to a grid-like scene where your PCs face off against whatever creatures you are fighting with. Positioning is important in these battles, especially since you should consider the range of your weapons and spells, as well as area effects!

That basically wraps up the quick introduction to Dungeon Craft (and my half-baked adventure module, two screens of which you can see here!).