So, has anyone played the 'World of Aden' SSI rpgs?

[Whisper]

One of my favourite games: speaking about Thunderscape.
Good setting, good rpg system, combats are fun. Definitely recommend for those who enjoy this types of game a-la Wizardry 8.

I strongly advise to check it, Blackadder.

 

[Luzur]

kinda hated the sound, also no dungeons, just caves.

also i kinda forgot about the deal.

 

[DraQ]

I tried setting up Thunderscape on my system under DOSBox, but couldn't get the sound to work.

 

[Whisper]

Run pefectly under dosbox, with sound. Probably you need start setup or install first to configure.

 

[Baxter]

This is what I mean:


http://www.mobygames.com/game/world-of- ... underscape

and

http://www.mobygames.com/game/world-of- ... e-darkfall

These games came out during a very busy period, so missed the bus. I had relegated them to the rest of the garbage RPG's released in those dark years...but then I thought I had better ask here just in case.

So, impressions? Gameplay type? Etc?

Never got around to Entomorph, but played Thunderscape. From what I played, I couldn't get into it. But, at the time I had a crappy PC and it ran slow as hell.

 

[Infinitron]

So, this IP was resurrected via Kickstarter last year: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1860935013/thunderscape-the-world-of-aden

And here's an article about its history from the website of the new owners: http://kyoudai-games.com/aden/?p=163

The History of the Aden IP (Part 1)

Hello, everyone! I thought I might take some time to discuss what Thunderscape has been in the past, what it is right now, and what we hope to make of it in the future. I wanted to start today with a discussion of how the world came to be in the first place, and some of the folks who made it into the property that we here at Kyoudai Games adore so completely.

Strategic Simulations, Inc., or SSI, was founded in 1979 and developed a reputation for developing quality computing games during the 1980s. So much so, in fact, that they acquired the license for Dungeons & Dragons and produced several titles using that property. Eventually, however, they parted ways with D&D and wanted to go into business with their own properties that captured the same feel as the D&D gold boxes. They decided that they wanted to develop a world to set their games in. Apparently they were gamers at SSI, no shock there, and they happened to read a Shatterzone novel published by West End Games, written by Shane Hensley, and they decided that Shane was the man they wanted to develop their world.

It was Shane who developed the core ideas of Aden, including the unique source of its many villains and monstrosities, the Darkfall. In fact, the game was originally intended to be called Darkfall, but that was changed to avoid confusion with Dark Sun, which was something D&D was working with at the time. The idea behind the Darkfall was originally to provide a means of generating virtually any kind of enemy that SSI might need for any game they generated for the setting. Some of the ideas one can see in Aden are obviously inspirations for Hensley’s later works, among the most famous of which are Deadlands and Savage Worlds.

Thunderscape was followed by Entomorph, which was released late in 1995. At this point, both games were successful, and it was hoped that many more might follow. Three novels were produced in 1996 by HarperPrism using the same setting: The Darkfall by Shane Hensley, The Sentinel by Dixie Lee McKeone, and Indomitable Thunder by Mark Acres. (You might notice yours truly reviewed all of those novels on Amazon… I wonder if I should go back and add a disclaimer that I now own the propery?). SSI also licensed the property to West End Games for use with their Masterbook series, which at that point was also supported by their popular D6 system as well. The World of Aden was written by Shane Hensley, and its companion work, Campaign Chronicles, was written by Stephen Crane.

What might have come of Aden after that is unknown. SSI was preparing to license the setting to Mayfair Games as a subset within their pre-existing card game, Fantasy Adventure. There were allegedly plans for some sort of mass battle game in the works as well, but at that point SSI was purchased by Software Tookworks and all licenses were cancelled. The property changed hands numerous times after that, but Aden and Thunderscape were never revived.

The members of Kyoudai Games tried to find out who owned the copyrights to Aden for many years, and sought help from Shane Hensley at Origins early in the 2000s. Eventually Shane acquired the rights for the property, and in the fall of 2012, agreed to sell them to Shawn Carman and his partners. And that brings us to today.

Next time, we’ll see what’s going on with Aden right now, in terms of what our plans are for immediately after the Kickstarter and what we hope to accomplish with your support.

 

[getter77]

Part 2 now up as well, interesting stuff and hopefully they can indeed do a great deal with the lot of it going forward.

 

[Luzur]

but, thats just an Adventure Module, and not an actual PC game?

 

[getter77]

I think the hope is they will eventually stretch the wings to "bring it home", as it were, to what most would consider the cRPG origins. There's a roughly similar undercurrent of hope on the whole Dragon Kings project helmed by the main person behind Dark Sun.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

I played Thunderscape. I was a memeber of the Columbia House PC Game club (which was totally a thing back then) and they randomly mailed it to me for some reason (I think it was game of the month or something). I remember getting way more into it than I was Daggerfall, just because Daggerfall was buggy as shit at the time and once you realize that it's all just procedurally generated, it gets kind of boring.

Still never finished Thunderscape, though. I remember burning out somewhere in the Dwarven mines too.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Thunderscape was cool.

I'm kinda afraid to replay it though.

 

[Luzur]

it had rock music for everything.

 

[Baxander]

Played them both. Thunderscape was not too bad if my memory serves me correctly. Entomorph on the other hand.....I remember it being being terrible.

 

[octavius]

Played them both. Thunderscape was not too bad if my memory serves me correctly. Entomorph on the other hand.....I remember it being being terrible.

How come you keep getting new nics and new blogs?

 

[Excidium]

What's up with the sound effects in Thunderscape, Jesus

 

[Scroo]

What's up with the sound effects in Thunderscape, Jesus

Yeh I stumbled across Thunderscape a few weeks ago and tried it but what the hell is wrong with those sound effects, made my ears bleed. I want to try it again one day but then with the Care Bears running in the background or something

 

[agris]

CryptRat so is Thunderscape good? It looks interesting.

 

[CryptRat]

I liked it but it's been a while, the opinions above sure are more trustworthy than mine.
There's a good chance it's one of these games where I got stuck by some riddle, which retrospectively tends to be a marker that a game is good.

 

[Dorateen]

Since this thread is from 2011, I missed the opportunity in joining those who speak well of Thunderscape. It's a solid party-based dungeon crawler. Great atmosphere. I still get chills whenever I watch the intro cinematic.

Someone must face the horrors of Skelon's Pass!

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

I love this game ("Thunderscape", that is) but I would hesitate to recommend it as it's ugly, repetitive and features too much, too easy combat. And the final levels are a nightmare to navigate and finish, even using a walkthrough. Without using one, good luck to anyone trying.

But as I said, I love it just the same : it features a very cool classless system, phased-based combat (which was, and still is, not that common), steampunk setting and awesome paper dolls.

Can't resist the pleasure to show you those of my last party to finish the game. First two are PCs, the other four are joinable NPCs.

Beautiful isn't it ? Unfortunately the game world and sprites are way uglier. All in all "Thunderscape" is a not perfect but still very enjoyable dungeon crawler.

 

[Whisper]

One of very good dungeon crawlers. Solid combat and fun setting.

 

[Sacred82]

I really like the whole feel of Thunderscape, and its goofy-fantasy-grimdark feel.

I wish there was more information about the mechanics behind it though. Like, you could really build some interesting characters and parties, but you're never sure what you're doing exactly.


Another problem is the difficulty slider. On the default setting the game is piss easy, which would call for a no-reload game. OTOH there are apparently quite a few insta-kill enemies later on, and resurrection is extremely rare. On the highest setting the game is really fucking hard IME, you'd need to understand the mechanics better I guess.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

The difficulty slider is shit. As you said, on normal setting I find it too easy. But if you move it up, it doesn't change much until you hit a certain spot. Then it becomes hellish : all monsters get the initiative and play before all your party members, unleashing powered-up spells and wiping your party clean, often before you can really act (or react). And try as I might, I never found an in-between position. You move that accursed slider a pixel to the right, and the game goes from "too easy" to "too hard". The only way you can somehow adjust this shit is by constantly changing the slider's position according to the type and number of enemies you face, which is both a hassle and an unsatisfying one at that.