Really Obscure RPGs

[octavius]

Only thing I know about T&T was that it was made by Americans (Flying Buffalo, or something) and the equivalent of a Fireball spells was called "Take that, you fiend!".
Oh, and it was a Play-by-Mail game, also. May still be, for all I know.

 

[skeletonmeister]

the equivalent of a Fireball spells was called "Take that, you fiend!". Oh, and it was a Play-by-Mail game, also. May still be, for all I know.

It still is. The Play by Mail part just became Play by Post.

 

[Sotomonte]

Earlier this year I finished the game. I really had a lot of fun playing it. Being able to explore the whole world freely gives you a great sense of adventure. In your wanderings you encounter many situations, fights and events (yes, a lot of CYOA here).

Things I remember: being captured by orcs and turned into slaves in the sulfur mines (losing all equipment, including various magic weapons), the fight against the troll on the bridge that I could only win using a ring of fire (30000 points of damage from a single shot!! it was like wearing a small Death Star on my finger) or the encounter with the beast from the blackwater swamp (impossible to win... the swamp was a no-go zone for me ).

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Is Grimtooth in the game?

 

[skeletonmeister]

Is Grimtooth in the game?

Nope. The game was made for japanese audiences (originally made for PC-98) and since none of Grimtooth's books were released there they didn't know about him.

 

[Victor1234]

I'm looking for some help remembering the name of a really obscure RPG I played sometime between 2000-2005.

It was either browser based or a separate downloadable that connected you into a server, but it was definitely online only and there were no graphics, it was all text based. There was a free trial that limited you to X days of play and then you had to buy an account or it might have been monthly subscription based too.

It was set in the world of the Three Musketeers. You went through some character creation stage and loaded into the game which had you arrive in Paris as a young aristocrat from the countryside. The starting area was a newbie safe space where you couldn't get attacked but nothing much happened there.

There were lots of historical and fictional locations in Paris to explore with players and NPCs there as well, a very impressive inventory and item system, lots of 'regiments' (I distinctly remember the main King's Musketeers and Cardinal's Guards from the movies but also some obscure ones called things like Queen Anne's Light Horse, etc) which functioned as guilds for the players, with their own HQ building, ranks, etc. I'm fairly certain there were some survival mechanics outside of combat including food & rest or at least I remember some veteran giving me some money to buy food with once. The economy was mostly NPC storekeeper run but I think you could buy buildings/stores as well.

You started unaligned and there were always a few players hanging out in the newbie space, ready to welcome people and occasionally give out items or money if you wandered around too much without figuring things out. There was definitely progression in terms of getting better inventory/weapons/clothes, maybe levelling/XP as well, but I remember it was mostly a case of start a new character, try to join one of the regiments and then run across people in the street to fight them. The regiments would also hand out quests and I think you could just hang out on your own unaligned and ambush people but I don't remember too much about doing those.

I do remember my abiding ambition in the game was to be able to get into the King's Musketeers regiment HQ (you had to be a member or be invited in by a member), which I never did as that regiment was the most popular one and there wasn't space for me to join. I remember loading up the game and rushing for the nearest player to fight a duel like it was a bad game of Call of Duty. I fought a good 3 duels with other random players on the street and died almost immediately each time, only to start a new character and respawn in the newbie zone before I figured out I should play properly or I'd never get anywhere. I joined a regiment and did a ton of carrying messages and fetch quests but progression was too slow for my liking so I stopped playing.

In retrospect, I should've kept at it then maybe I'd remember the name now....

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

World of Chaos. Unplayable eastern european(i think) game where you playing as ork.

Even turn based, but i can't find screens of combat.

Sans the unplayable bugs (there are two scenarios: either your char freezes at the final battle of act 1, or the game goes batshit crazy for no reason at all and assigns you shitload of skill points, thus allowing you to wrap up that buggy battle in one turn, but rendering the rest of the game pointless), it had one of the best atmospheres of all the rpg games I've played, quite interesting quests with some nice C&C thrown in, character system not unlike of The Dark Eye and really, really satisfying turn-based combat. It's such a shame nobody modded this to a playable version.

Where on Earth can I find this? Nothing on ebay, can't find a download/torrent, official website is dead.

 

[JarlFrank]

I'm looking for some help remembering the name of a really obscure RPG I played sometime between 2000-2005.

It was either browser based or a separate downloadable that connected you into a server, but it was definitely online only and there were no graphics, it was all text based. There was a free trial that limited you to X days of play and then you had to buy an account or it might have been monthly subscription based too.

It was set in the world of the Three Musketeers. You went through some character creation stage and loaded into the game which had you arrive in Paris as a young aristocrat from the countryside. The starting area was a newbie safe space where you couldn't get attacked but nothing much happened there.

There were lots of historical and fictional locations in Paris to explore with players and NPCs there as well, a very impressive inventory and item system, lots of 'regiments' (I distinctly remember the main King's Musketeers and Cardinal's Guards from the movies but also some obscure ones called things like Queen Anne's Light Horse, etc) which functioned as guilds for the players, with their own HQ building, ranks, etc. I'm fairly certain there were some survival mechanics outside of combat including food & rest or at least I remember some veteran giving me some money to buy food with once. The economy was mostly NPC storekeeper run but I think you could buy buildings/stores as well.

You started unaligned and there were always a few players hanging out in the newbie space, ready to welcome people and occasionally give out items or money if you wandered around too much without figuring things out. There was definitely progression in terms of getting better inventory/weapons/clothes, maybe levelling/XP as well, but I remember it was mostly a case of start a new character, try to join one of the regiments and then run across people in the street to fight them. The regiments would also hand out quests and I think you could just hang out on your own unaligned and ambush people but I don't remember too much about doing those.

I do remember my abiding ambition in the game was to be able to get into the King's Musketeers regiment HQ (you had to be a member or be invited in by a member), which I never did as that regiment was the most popular one and there wasn't space for me to join. I remember loading up the game and rushing for the nearest player to fight a duel like it was a bad game of Call of Duty. I fought a good 3 duels with other random players on the street and died almost immediately each time, only to start a new character and respawn in the newbie zone before I figured out I should play properly or I'd never get anywhere. I joined a regiment and did a ton of carrying messages and fetch quests but progression was too slow for my liking so I stopped playing.

In retrospect, I should've kept at it then maybe I'd remember the name now....

https://dingogames.com/three-musketeers-game/



This?

 

[Victor1234]

I'm looking for some help remembering the name of a really obscure RPG I played sometime between 2000-2005.

It was either browser based or a separate downloadable that connected you into a server, but it was definitely online only and there were no graphics, it was all text based. There was a free trial that limited you to X days of play and then you had to buy an account or it might have been monthly subscription based too.

It was set in the world of the Three Musketeers. You went through some character creation stage and loaded into the game which had you arrive in Paris as a young aristocrat from the countryside. The starting area was a newbie safe space where you couldn't get attacked but nothing much happened there.

There were lots of historical and fictional locations in Paris to explore with players and NPCs there as well, a very impressive inventory and item system, lots of 'regiments' (I distinctly remember the main King's Musketeers and Cardinal's Guards from the movies but also some obscure ones called things like Queen Anne's Light Horse, etc) which functioned as guilds for the players, with their own HQ building, ranks, etc. I'm fairly certain there were some survival mechanics outside of combat including food & rest or at least I remember some veteran giving me some money to buy food with once. The economy was mostly NPC storekeeper run but I think you could buy buildings/stores as well.

You started unaligned and there were always a few players hanging out in the newbie space, ready to welcome people and occasionally give out items or money if you wandered around too much without figuring things out. There was definitely progression in terms of getting better inventory/weapons/clothes, maybe levelling/XP as well, but I remember it was mostly a case of start a new character, try to join one of the regiments and then run across people in the street to fight them. The regiments would also hand out quests and I think you could just hang out on your own unaligned and ambush people but I don't remember too much about doing those.

I do remember my abiding ambition in the game was to be able to get into the King's Musketeers regiment HQ (you had to be a member or be invited in by a member), which I never did as that regiment was the most popular one and there wasn't space for me to join. I remember loading up the game and rushing for the nearest player to fight a duel like it was a bad game of Call of Duty. I fought a good 3 duels with other random players on the street and died almost immediately each time, only to start a new character and respawn in the newbie zone before I figured out I should play properly or I'd never get anywhere. I joined a regiment and did a ton of carrying messages and fetch quests but progression was too slow for my liking so I stopped playing.

In retrospect, I should've kept at it then maybe I'd remember the name now....

https://dingogames.com/three-musketeers-game/



This?

Nope, but that is the game (and other more recent mobile games) that spams the Google search results for pages if you try looking for anything 3 Musketeers RPG themed...like I said, mine was entirely text based with no graphics. I guess that technically makes it a MUD?

This does look pretty interesting as well to be fair.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I haven't tested this out but it might be an RPG. Name screams Od&D
https://archive.org/details/zzt_insearch

 

[Narushima]

ZZT games are typically not RPG. Not even sure they could be.

 

[Victor1234]

I'm looking for some help remembering the name of a really obscure RPG I played sometime between 2000-2005.

It was either browser based or a separate downloadable that connected you into a server, but it was definitely online only and there were no graphics, it was all text based. There was a free trial that limited you to X days of play and then you had to buy an account or it might have been monthly subscription based too.

It was set in the world of the Three Musketeers. You went through some character creation stage and loaded into the game which had you arrive in Paris as a young aristocrat from the countryside. The starting area was a newbie safe space where you couldn't get attacked but nothing much happened there.

There were lots of historical and fictional locations in Paris to explore with players and NPCs there as well, a very impressive inventory and item system, lots of 'regiments' (I distinctly remember the main King's Musketeers and Cardinal's Guards from the movies but also some obscure ones called things like Queen Anne's Light Horse, etc) which functioned as guilds for the players, with their own HQ building, ranks, etc. I'm fairly certain there were some survival mechanics outside of combat including food & rest or at least I remember some veteran giving me some money to buy food with once. The economy was mostly NPC storekeeper run but I think you could buy buildings/stores as well.

You started unaligned and there were always a few players hanging out in the newbie space, ready to welcome people and occasionally give out items or money if you wandered around too much without figuring things out. There was definitely progression in terms of getting better inventory/weapons/clothes, maybe levelling/XP as well, but I remember it was mostly a case of start a new character, try to join one of the regiments and then run across people in the street to fight them. The regiments would also hand out quests and I think you could just hang out on your own unaligned and ambush people but I don't remember too much about doing those.

I do remember my abiding ambition in the game was to be able to get into the King's Musketeers regiment HQ (you had to be a member or be invited in by a member), which I never did as that regiment was the most popular one and there wasn't space for me to join. I remember loading up the game and rushing for the nearest player to fight a duel like it was a bad game of Call of Duty. I fought a good 3 duels with other random players on the street and died almost immediately each time, only to start a new character and respawn in the newbie zone before I figured out I should play properly or I'd never get anywhere. I joined a regiment and did a ton of carrying messages and fetch quests but progression was too slow for my liking so I stopped playing.

In retrospect, I should've kept at it then maybe I'd remember the name now....

https://dingogames.com/three-musketeers-game/



This?

I ended up finding it. Surprisingly easy yet sad at the same time. Once I found a site that categorized MUDs, there were over 1,963 entries, but only ~20 in the 'historical' category. Even without the need for graphics, nobody wanted historical settings, but a million goblin variants instead.

​

MUD Name Age of the Throne Language English Location USA Admin Name King Louis Theme 17th Century Paris during the time of King Louis X Codebase Custom - orginal code base from scratch World Size Medium (3001-6000 rooms) World Originality All Original Player Killing Restricted Playerkilling Roleplaying Encouraged Category Historical Avg Players Online 21-25 Year Created 1996 Features Supports ANSI Color Has Quests Class-less System Level Based System Equip saves on exit Payment Required to Play Hiring Coders

​

Age of the Throne - MUD Description​

Age of the Throne is unique MUD in more ways than one, we have written the game from scratch using our very own programming language and we have also aimed for a theme found nowhere else in the Gaming World. Set in fashionable 17th Century Paris the game evokes and emulates the period of History that saw King Louis XIII on the throne of France, Cardinal Richelieu as Head of the Church and the endless rivalries that ensued between the Kings Musketeers and The Cardinals Guard. The locations within the game are replicated from original maps of the time. As our programming language does not restrict us we are free to implement many original and interesting features into the Gameworld. The Combat, Movement and Skills systems featured are like none other. Progression in the game is attainable by many routes other than tireless questing for points. The Age of the Throne website has recently had a professional makeover and now boasts many useful pages and resources to help the newcomer to quickly acclimatise into this unique gaming environment. Age of the Throne employs a full time programmer allowing us to add new features to the game on a weekly basis as well as promptly responding to queries and bug reports.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Because history is gay.

 

[mondblut]

Sans the unplayable bugs (there are two scenarios: either your char freezes at the final battle of act 1, or the game goes batshit crazy for no reason at all and assigns you shitload of skill points, thus allowing you to wrap up that buggy battle in one turn, but rendering the rest of the game pointless), it had one of the best atmospheres of all the rpg games I've played, quite interesting quests with some nice C&C thrown in, character system not unlike of The Dark Eye and really, really satisfying turn-based combat. It's such a shame nobody modded this to a playable version.

Where on Earth can I find this? Nothing on ebay, can't find a download/torrent, official website is dead.

Here is a german version:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1awai7bZHdVstaoRdkvf5nftURUpgFeMj/view

Not sure if it ever made to english.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Because history is GRAY.

Fixed it for you.

 

[Vic]

History is gay.

 

[Rincewind]

World of Chaos. Unplayable eastern european(i think) game where you playing as ork.

Even turn based, but i can't find screens of combat.

Sans the unplayable bugs (there are two scenarios: either your char freezes at the final battle of act 1, or the game goes batshit crazy for no reason at all and assigns you shitload of skill points, thus allowing you to wrap up that buggy battle in one turn, but rendering the rest of the game pointless), it had one of the best atmospheres of all the rpg games I've played, quite interesting quests with some nice C&C thrown in, character system not unlike of The Dark Eye and really, really satisfying turn-based combat. It's such a shame nobody modded this to a playable version.

Where on Earth can I find this? Nothing on ebay, can't find a download/torrent, official website is dead.

Can't help you, but the game is supposed to be based on a cult-classic Hungarian fantasy book series from the 90s called the Chaos Saga by John Caldwell (it was a pseudonym, of course; "books from the West" sold much better). The protagonist, Skandar Graun, is a half-orc warrior-priest of dubious morals, and it's quite an amusing read, I can tell you. I loved the books as a kid, but they're only available in Hungarian, unfortunately.

You can read about it here (thanks to Melan, if I remember correctly):
http://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2017/04/blog-smell-of-chicken-guts-unlikely.html

About the guy behind the John Caldwell pseudonym (Hungarian only, but you can try Google Translate):
https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemes_István_(író)

Book illustration by Szendrei Tibor

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Those would be ok profile pics... esp gobbers.

Looks like my old manager from the my restaurant days.

 

[Vic]

Disco Elysium, it's so obscure, most of its players don't even know it's an RPG.

 

[Melan]

Yeah, the Chaos books (mostly the first five) are a whole lot of fun. It is not high literature, but as pulp fantasy, they have a lot of creative energy to them.

Never played the game, since it is such a depressing story. As I understand it, the devs were fucked by their German publisher, who forced them to ship an incomplete, buggy mess to meet some quarterly financial target they had.

 

[vazha]

Were any of the chaos series ever translated into English / German / Russian?

 

[Melan]

I don't think so. The author also had a great "dragons-vs-helicopters" series that was top tier, which would be great to see in English.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Yeah, the Chaos books (mostly the first five) are a whole lot of fun. It is not high literature, but as pulp fantasy, they have a lot of creative energy to them.

Never played the game, since it is such a depressing story. As I understand it, the devs were fucked by their German publisher, who forced them to ship an incomplete, buggy mess to meet some quarterly financial target they had.

I actually found the project manager's name while scrubbing the internet for a copy, talked to him about his time back in the days of the creation, and he recently sent out a shipment of an extra original copy he had lying around.

Will see how buggy it actually is, I might do a Let's Play on it. Hopefully there will be a language setting for English or Russian so I can actually understand a bit.

 

[vazha]

Yeah, the Chaos books (mostly the first five) are a whole lot of fun. It is not high literature, but as pulp fantasy, they have a lot of creative energy to them.

Never played the game, since it is such a depressing story. As I understand it, the devs were fucked by their German publisher, who forced them to ship an incomplete, buggy mess to meet some quarterly financial target they had.

I actually found the project manager's name while scrubbing the internet for a copy, talked to him about his time back in the days of the creation, and he recently sent out a shipment of an extra original copy he had lying around.

Will see how buggy it actually is, I might do a Let's Play on it. Hopefully there will be a language setting for English or Russian so I can actually understand a bit.

Looking forward to that LP if you ever get to that!

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Yeah, the Chaos books (mostly the first five) are a whole lot of fun. It is not high literature, but as pulp fantasy, they have a lot of creative energy to them.

Never played the game, since it is such a depressing story. As I understand it, the devs were fucked by their German publisher, who forced them to ship an incomplete, buggy mess to meet some quarterly financial target they had.

I actually found the project manager's name while scrubbing the internet for a copy, talked to him about his time back in the days of the creation, and he recently sent out a shipment of an extra original copy he had lying around.

Will see how buggy it actually is, I might do a Let's Play on it. Hopefully there will be a language setting for English or Russian so I can actually understand a bit.

Looking forward to that LP if you ever get to that!

It actually came into the mail a few hours after I posted this, lucky timing. Will definitely get a LP going once I find some time.