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Dragonshard (computer game)
Encyclopedia
Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard is a real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
computer game
Personal computer game
A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...
, developed by Liquid Entertainment
Liquid Entertainment
Liquid Entertainment is a video game developer based in Pasadena, California. It was co-founded in February 1999 by Ed Del Castillo and Michael Grayford.-Overview:...
. It takes place in Eberron
Eberron
Eberron is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, set in a period after a vast destructive war on the continent of Khorvaire...
, one of the official Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
campaign setting
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
s. The game combines elements of traditional real-time strategy gameplay with role-playing elements such as hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
units and quest
Quest (gaming)
A quest in role-playing video games — including massively multiplayer online role-playing games and their predecessors, MUDs — is a task that a player-controlled character or group of characters may complete in order to gain a reward...
ing. Dragonshard includes two single player campaigns, single player skirmish maps and multiplayer support. The single player campaign follows the struggles of three competing factions to gain control of a magical artifact known as the Heart of Siberys.
Although Dragonshard is billed by Atari as "the first Dungeons & Dragons real-time strategy experience," Stronghold (1993) precedes it by over a decade.
Gameplay
Despite its Dungeons & Dragons license, the game's roleplaying mechanics bear no relationship to the Dungeons & Dragons d20 rulesetD20 System
The d20 System is a role-playing game system published in 2000 by Wizards of the Coast originally developed for the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons...
.
Dragonshard games take place on dual level maps divided into the surface world of Eberron and the underground realm of Khyber. Units travel between the surface and the underground through gateways that are fixed on each map. The surface map features traditional real-time strategy gameplay: the player builds and develops base structures, gathers resources, and amasses and upgrades an army. Armies consist of the following unit types:
- Champions: the game's hero unit. In campaign mode, the player chooses a champion before starting a map. In skirmish and multiplayer modes, the player summons a champion from the city headquarters. Each race has four champions: a fighterWarrior (character class)Warrior is a character class found in many role-playing games. This class may also be referred to as Fighter, as in Dungeons & Dragons. The class is sometimes also referred to as a Knight, although in some games this is a separate class with a more chivalric aspect...
, a healerHealer (gaming)A healer is a type of character class in video gaming. When a game includes a health game mechanic and multiple classes, often one of the classes will be designed around the restoration of allies' health, known as healing, in order to delay or prevent their defeat. Such a class can be referred to...
, a wizardWizard (character class)The Wizard is a type of magical character class in certain role-playing games and computer role-playing games. Wizards are considered to be spellcasters who wield powerful spells, but are often physically weak as a trade-off. Wizards are commonly confused with similar offensive spellcasting...
and a rogueThief (character class)The Thief or Rogue is a character class in many role-playing games, including Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft and many MMORPGs. Thieves are usually stealthy and dextrous characters able to disarm traps, pick locks, and perform backstabs from hiding...
. Each champion offers unique abilities and army bonuses. - Juggernauts: powerful, expensive units summoned from the city headquarters. Each race has a unique juggernaut unit, and only one may be summoned at a time. They can't venture into the underworld however.
- Captains: upgradeable units trained from unit-producing structures. Captains can be upgraded to level five. As they gain levels, they get new abilities and also gain a squad of subordinate soldiers, up to a maximum of four soldiers at level five. All races have a variety of different captains, including flying units, tankTank (computer gaming)A tank is a style of character in gaming, often associated with a character class. A common convention in real-time strategy games, role-playing games, MMORPGs and MUDs, tanks redirect enemy attacks and/or attention toward themselves in order to protect other characters or units...
s, rogues, healers, resource gathering specialists, spell-casters and ranged combatants. - Soldiers: support troops that are automatically trained by captains when in the vicinity of one of the player's bases. Soldiers cannot be ordered individually; they automatically follow their captain, which allows for large armies to be created with less micromanagement than in typical RTS games. Soldiers always take damage before their captains, and effectively multiply the captain's health as well as damage potential. Since soldiers cannot go underground, each soldier is converted into additional health for the captain. The captain's health is converted back into soldiers when the unit emerges on the surface.
Only champions and ground-based captains can travel underground, which focuses underground gameplay on a party of individual units rather than the surface world's squad-based armies. Underground maps feature party-based dungeon crawl
Dungeon crawl
A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinthine environment, battling various monsters, and looting any treasure they may find...
ing gameplay: units must negotiate traps, gather treasure, and hunt monsters. Items are stored in a global inventory accessible to all units.
Dragonshard has three resources:
- Dragonshards: used to construct units and buildings. Dragonshards periodically rain from the sky to the surface map and can be gathered by all ground units except juggernauts.
- Gold: used to construct units and buildings. Buildings generate a small amount of gold over time, but the majority of gold in the early to mid-game is gathered by exploring the underground map for treasure, completing quests and looting corpses.
- Experience pointExperience pointAn experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
s: used to upgrade troops. Experience points are gained by killing units, destroying buildings and completing quests.
Buildings
Possible locations for bases and expansions are predetermined by the map, following the example in games such as Kohan II and Age of MythologyAge of Mythology
Age of Mythology , is a mythology-based, real-time strategy computer game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios...
. Furthermore, each base or expansion is self-contained, with individual buildings placed on a fixed grid behind protective walls. The game does not allow any structures to be placed at arbitrary locations on the map. The limited size of each base places strategic limitations on the makeup of the player's army.
Experience points
Experience points in Dragonshard are assigned to a global pool. The player spends experience points at unit-producing structures to level up captains. Once the player levels up a captain type, all captains of that type belonging to the player are leveled up, and new captains of the type start at the upgraded level. To train a captain above level two, the player must build two or more unit-producing structures of the same type in the same group of four building pads. To reach the maximum captain level of five, the player must fill a group of four building pads with four unit-producing structures of the same type. Instead of filling a group of four pads to maximize a captain's level, the player may opt to build one or more monuments that grant bonuses to all unit types produced from adjacent buildings. Champions do not level up but they can be upgraded in campaign mode with "Champion Artifacts."Game modes
Dragonshard includes two seven-map single player campaigns, plus single player and multiplayer skirmish maps. Single player campaign maps feature main questQuest (gaming)
A quest in role-playing video games — including massively multiplayer online role-playing games and their predecessors, MUDs — is a task that a player-controlled character or group of characters may complete in order to gain a reward...
goals that advance the storyline and optional side-quests that provide bonuses such as inventory items, experience points, gold, and Champion Artifacts. Unused items are stored in an item vault between missions. Upon completion of a campaign map, players earn "Reward Points" depending on how skillfully they played. Reward Points can be spent between campaigns to buy items from the item vault or upgrade champions with additional Champion Artifacts.
Single player and multiplayer skirmish games have one mandatory and three optional win conditions:
- Raze - Destroy all enemy buildings. This condition cannot be disabled.
- Expansion - Control over 50% of expansion bases for a set period of time.
- Artifacts - Collect artifacts randomly dropped by monsters. The first player to reach the target number of artifacts wins.
- Control - Control over 50% of a map's "Places of Power" (shrines that a player can capture) for a set period of time.
Mythos
Dragonshard takes place in the world of Eberron. In the creation myth of Eberron, the dragon KhyberKhyber
The term Khyber may refer to:*The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province of Pakistan*The Khyber Pass, a mountain pass that links Pakistan and Afghanistan.*The Khyber Agency, part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
warred with his sister Siberys and shattered her body to pieces. In his anger, Khyber's brother Eberron wrapped him in his coils, trapping Khyber. The bodies of the three dragons became the three parts of Eberron's world: the surface Eberron, the Ring of Siberys that encircles Eberron, and the underworld of Khyber. The three world parts produce dragonshards, crystal and rock fragments imbued with magic power.
The Heart of Siberys is the largest dragonshard in Eberron. When it fell from the Ring of Siberys to the continent of Xen'drik
Xen'drik
Xen'drik is a fictional continent in the Eberron campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It is a jungle continent of vast size and varying climate that lies to the south of Khorvaire. Xen'drik's coastline has been mapped, but its interior remains largely unexplored,...
, it created a storm-swept mountain range known as the Ring of Storms and caused a city to sink into the earth. Its immense magical force caused the natural creatures of the Ring of Storm to evolve into the Lizardfolk
Lizardfolk
Lizardfolk are a fictional humanoid species in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Publication history:...
. To this day, the Heart draws factions into conflict over control of its power.
In addition to the playable races, Eberron is populated by a number of neutral non-player factions and creatures, including the illithid
Illithid
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, illithids are monstrous humanoid aberrations with psionic powers. In a typical Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting, they live in the moist caverns and cities of the enormous Underdark...
s, longtime foes of the Umbragen, a host of golems constructed by an extinct elven
Elf
An elf is a being of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of divine beings endowed with magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of mankind...
race, ettin
Ettin
Ettin, an obsolete English cognate to the Old Norse Jötunn from the Old English Eoten, meaning "giant", may refer to:*Bogle , a survival of the term in Northumbrian folklore*Ettin , a two-headed giant...
s, and thri-kreen
Thri-kreen
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the thri-kreen, or "mantis warriors", are an insect-like monstrous humanoid race. Thri-kreen are one of the primary player character races of the Dark Sun campaign setting, and have also appeared in the Spelljammer and Forgotten Realms campaign...
.
Dragonshard is the first computer game set in the D&D campaign setting of Eberron. Eberron's creator Keith Baker wrote the storyline for Dragonshard. However, some discrepancies exist between the game and the canonical Eberron Campaign Setting. Siberys dragonshards should be gold in color, but they are blue in the game. Building new warforged is forbidden under the Treaty of Thronehold that ended the Last War — the only sources for new warforged are Merrix d'Cannith's illegal forge in Sharn
Sharn
In the Eberron campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, Sharn, often called "The City of Towers", is the iconic metropolis of the setting....
and the Lord of Blades' forge in the Mournland. In the game, however, the Order faction can build Warforged Titans.
Order of the Flame
The Order of the Flame is the military wing of the Church of the Silver Flame, an organization dedicated to banishing evil. The Order of the Flame is an alliance of cultures and traditions including humans, dwarves, halflings, and celestials. Led by the clericCleric (Dungeons & Dragons)
The cleric is one of the standard playable character class in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. In the game, clerics are versatile figures, both capable in combat and skilled in the use of divine magic. Clerics are powerful healers due to the large number of healing and curative...
Lady Marryn and guided by the dwarven shaman Amathor, the Order travels to the Ring of Storms to capture the Heart of Siberys and claim its magic power. The Order of the Flame can recruit Archons of the heaven, from mighty Warforged Titans to fierce Sorcerers and Deathless Guardians.