D&D's Forgotten 1996 RTS Has So Many War Crimes | Blood & Magic Review

[@WilliamSRD]

Sign up to Czepeku to receive thousands of detailed maps for your D&D games: www.patreon.com/czepeku/ Get my Blood Forge homebrew to pair with your Czepeku Map: docs.google.com/document/d/1hpkOjn31HS0RMgkKJCkaXEWChIroUNFE2YiBXXS9cns/edit?usp=sharing

[@sovietdominion]

There was mention of an expidition in the manual though

[@borissmyslov]

I played the living hell out of it)

[@Zulk_RS]

Honestly finding a part on the Forgotten Realms map that have only been mentioned in passing and plugging your original world and lore into that spot somehow feels like the most DnD thing ever.

[@DestroyYouAlot]

Sembia was originally just reserved for you to do that, then they realized it was too close to the other core stuff to leave undefined.

[@trueKENTUCKY]

love me some fanfiction

[@WayneBraack]

It is the most DnD thing ever. Making your own is what a dungeon master does.

[@planescaped]

Every time I see that vast map of Faerun I always think how tragic it is that every bloody game is always a Bioware styled RPG set in the Sword Coast. Where's my Diabo/Grim Dawn like ARPG set in Chult? Where's my Xcom-like turn based Strategy game set in Thay with focus on magic instead of guns? Gimme a support conjurer who summons a glabrezu to carry a wounded evocation sniper who got bum rushed by a Rashaman Muton over to my cleric! Where's my Witcher-esque RPG adventure game set along the shores of the Sea of Fallen Stars complete with sailing mechanics and Sid Meyers Pirates action? Let me dance with the governers daughter of Chessenta and then raid the coasts of Turmish. Get your shit together Wizards of the Coast!

[@powerist209]

Well, for one there might be difficult to bust into the gaming scene as "DND reskin" of the premises you mentioned, other than X-Com (which Onslaught or Dungeon Commander might work) and maybe Sid Meier Pirates can work if they made it as part of Spelljammer (also maybe fleet management sim like Battlefleet Gothic, which not sure why they haven't made navy boardgame for like 3 editions, even THAT would have been better--plus can catch new audience' eyes, just like how their videogames, novels, and boardgames tend to be gateway--than the 5E version "books").

[@chavesa5]

If it wasn't the bare minimum it wouldn't be D&D

[@AbstractTraitorHero]

Where is another glorious Zakhara game.

[@elowin1691]

Mask of the Betrayer is also a Bioware style RPG, but it's set in Rashemen with a brief foray into Thay (and a couple planes). Also probably the best Bioware style RPG based on D&D to date. Storm of Zehir is partly in the Sword Coast and Partly in Samarach, and besides being again also a (slightly weak) Bioware Style RPG, it also has some trading sim elements. Other than that, the only DND games I can think of that eschew the Sword Coast (not counting the Icewind Dale games or the brief foray into the Anauroch Desert in Shadows of Undrentide, that's still Sword Coast adjacent!) simply aren't in Faerun at all. Planescape Torment, the Dark Sun games etc. But unfortunately the very concept of non-Faerun video games has also all but disappeared the last decades.

[@dragoneye6229]

This comment encapsulates how I feel. When I was a kid and learned about D&D and played almost all of the games I realized there was no real creativity going into the modern era. Just more chasing the fame like Vampire Survivors clones. This resulted in TONS of RPG's like Neverwinter Nights with varying degrees of differences but the same core. When I recently played the Witcher games my friend had been visiting and he put so much emphasis on how it was an open world game when I was playing the Witcher 3. At no point did he care that it was the Witcher specifically. Sure he appreciated the lore and story of the Witcher but that wasn't what made the game for him. Imagine if we got a game like Skyrim or The Witcher but with the trappings, lore and characters of Dungeons and Dragons. Instead we got more NWN knock offs. Not only would this have been his introduction to D&D, he would have likely loved it. As is he played the TTRPG game out of passing curiosity and then kind of just stopped because he wasn't as invested as he was with other TTRPG IPs.

[@fandraxx]

"This was a weird game." ...a phrase scarily applicable to a huge number of D&D games. Great video!

[@SusCalvin]

A lot of modern players today seem to find it hard to wrap their heads around Space Hulk and Blood Bowl as well. Terminators in Space Hulk do not have a hp meter, they have one Wound because that was standard for non-monstrous, non-hero infantry models. They either have their Wound intact or not. The mechanic in Blood Bowl is risk management, where a lot of things except the most basic movement is a six-sided dice roll that can always end in disaster.

[@WilliamSRD]

And that's what I love most about this IP!

[@jingalls9142]

Heroes on Xbox was good iirc. It was like dark alliance I wanna say. Kinda wanna get my old FrankenXbox out and play it meow

[@Cynidecia]

i do like the concept of the bloodforges essentially being Army troop printers used to make cannon fodder for something like the Dawn War in lore.

[@bificommander7472]

It's in a small club with the likes of Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander who make the super fast building of armies during gameplay part of the actual lore.

[@christiansievers7965]

"Ja, es ist so incredibly schwer, mein dude." Ah yes. Agony mixed with empathy. Perfectly tailored to such a game. Also your pronunciation in German is really good!

[@onebadmoth]

For anyone considering playing this, the mana collection system really isn't so bad once you figure out that holding down the ctrl button allows you to repeat an action on another follower, trivializing the whole matter so you can get those sweet gains even faster.

[@toddkes5890]

I'd rather mod the game so the pyramids auto-transfer their mana.

[@onebadmoth]

They actually already do if you leave them long enough, but having them auto transfer as soon as they hit 10 mana would be wayyy too OP

[@MrEdders123]

Awesome! I've been waiting for this 😁 Some extra info to the history section - according to an interview with Tachyon's Vas Nokhoudian (sp?) from 1996, the game began development in 1994 and was unrelated to Interplay or AD&D. It was actually influenced by Magic the Gathering, and mid-90s RTS, but Tachyon lost their publisher around 2/3rds into development and were picked up by Interplay. Interplay wanted to use the AD&D licence and the rest is history. Apparently there was a lot of discussion as to how and fit mechanics like mana or basal golems into the lore. It also ran into some issues afterwards, such as losing the lead programmer. Really old blurry footage of the game from 96/97 indicates it went through some art changes, and I believe Zeb Cook wrote some of the text as well (he did a lot of odd jobs around Interplay in 1995 whilst working on other stuff). That's all I recall of it from skimming articles though 🤔 Regarding the stuff with the Utter East, I've noticed some back and forth regarding where the game was officially set in references to the game from the original announcement up to release. There was probably a lot of negotiation between Interplay/TSR over the lore behind the scenes. tl;dr as you suspected, it was a title that had the AD&D lore forced onto it.

[@quint3ssent1a]

Ahh, so it was MTG in it's infancy. When i heard about a "magical dudes that you could MANUALLY TAP for MANA", i immediately scratched my head, "where did i heard these therms?"

[@WilliamSRD]

Thanks for the extras! This game has been such an enigma! I can absolutely see the MTG influences, especially with the five different buildings! Looking forward to your Plansescape vid btw, I've got it bookmarked and am waiting for a spare evening!

[@HollandTHG]

This man said "Planescape Video." Your Planescape Torment video is now the next in my queue for the day. Excited would be an understatement.

[@Bluecho4]

I KNEW I wasn't crazy, comparing this game to MtG! It seemed too uncanny a resemblance!

[@alexisXcore93]

YOOOO Czepeku IS THE GOAT OF BATTLEMAPS. i literally had whole session planned around 2 or 3 of his maps, yall wont regret it guys

[@Bobbias]

Always happy to see someone cover this old game. My grandmother bought me a copy of Blood and Magic back in the day (which itself was incredibly odd, as that's the only time she ever bought me any kind of electronics/gaming related gift). For years, I could hardly find any talk about the game online at all. I've always loved the game, even though as a kid it was impossible for me without cheating. It did have some seriously badass cheat creatures though!

[@assassindelasaucisse.4039]

Baldur's Gate 1 was initially designed to be another RTS. Hence the real time (with pause) system.

[@D4rkK3y]

That is not true. It was developed by a few folks that never published a game before with some help by interplay, their head developer being a major FR realms fan and wanting a game to immerse themselves in. Major influence was "Wasteland" which was already the predecessor to the first Fallout Titles. The RTS influence is really only the step away from actual round based combat to, well, Real Time. (Though the round system is still there just very dynamic and adjusted, and probably one of the best adaptations of AD&D)

[@assassindelasaucisse.4039]

@@D4rkK3y It is true, and what you say is also true. Interplay wanted to make another DnD RTS game and designed their infinity engine to do so. They were eventually conviced to make an cRPG instead but they kept the RTS engine. That's what numerous devs have said during interviews since 1998 anyway. And yeah, BG is round based (it's obvious when you look at the combat log) but the real time aspect of it, and more importantly character movements are a result of the engine initially designed to run a RTS game. That's the detail Obsidian missed when they payed hommage to BG by making Pillars of Eternity (also real time, kinda round based but not really), and as a result it doesn't feel as good to play, especially the micro management of different unit's movements on the map, or the grouping/degrouping of those units. PS: English isn't my first language, it's hard to get a little technical. I hope my comment make at least a little sense lol

[@teaz3139]

​@@assassindelasaucisse.4039 sources on those interviews with developers?

[@assassindelasaucisse.4039]

@@teaz3139 I don't have the sources for interviews a read during the sapn of 25 years, sorry. I just remember them, one of the perk of being old.

[@BigWill076]

The joke at 9:00 got me pretty good lol. Always appreciate seeing another video from you!

[@RndStranger]

I recall some of the developers at the time mentioning that one of the challenges for developing a D&D licensed game was that TSR (but not WotC) kept a tight leash on the license and required certain fidelity to both the original game system and setting. Which is why for Blood & Magic they basically threw a dart at a map of unused portions of the Forgotten Realms setting since it was tough to justify RTS mechanics in the standard setting.

[@teenietinytony]

30:05 okay why wasn't that bad wtf? o.o that sounded pretty damn clean.

[@beoweasel]

Given how D&D's roots came from table-top strategy games and it's direct progenitor was Chainmail (a miniature wargame that had been created by Gary Gygax in 1971), it doesn't seem that crazy that somebody would take the license and make strategy games out of it.

[@snifflindrake3283]

I loved Blood & Magic back in the day. My dad hated the mana sound effect. He too asked what the noise was-over and over again he asked. Stronghold was fun too-it didn’t age too well though-of course playing it in a DOS emulator on a tablet might have had something to do with that 😅

[@quint3ssent1a]

Smh the idea that "your golems generate mana which can be used to print more golems" feels straight at home in MTG setting with mana dorks. In MTG all of these ideas are quite established concepts, while in DnD abstract MANA would seem as a gross oversimplification and creatures being able to produce more mana... idk, nothing like that was in aDnD books the last time i saw them. Even the types of units feels like it was lifted from MTG: Holy units for white Magical units for blue Nature units for green Crypt units for black Martial units for red.

[@samaranthae9671]

It's wild that interplay made an RTS, given that WESTWOOD made hillsfar!

[@Belial1125]

This just became my knew favorite setting.

[@Thyrork]

This game haunted my memories in fragments for many, many years. I'm glad to see it given your treatment!

[@Greatdictator]

Glad to see you coverd this game, as a RTS game and D&D fan i was always curious about it but never around to playing it Also all the characters being power hungry jackasses is almost refreshing as far as RTS game storylines go haha

[@WilliamSRD]

Absolutely! This one has kinda been in the back of my head for months since I learned about it! I was originally going to cover all the strategy games by order of release, but for whatever reason I couldn't get Blood & Magic out of my brain!

[@jacksavadge4210]

This lore sounds really good, dark and a solid explanation. Lot of hooks and DM ideas to work with.

[@Daktangle]

The first Cookie Clicker!?

[@Crocogator]

I...Y...Oh my god you're right.

[@Niskirin]

... I hate you so much right now. For being not entirely incorrect.

[@axt2]

Nice! Been waiting for your next vid! This looks comfy!

[@bpatrickt]

I got Blood & Magic back when it was a new game and played it all the way through. A few years ago I found the CD-ROM in my storage and eventually played it through to the complete the legendary campaign again, so it is doable. A couple of my younger brothers were obsessed with Warcraft 2 and Red Alert at the time. The games that brought us together were Myth: The Fallen Lords and its sequel Myth II: Soulblighter The online community built around them and eventual custom maps to compete on were a lot of fun back then.

[@BattIeBear]

Hello! What is that amazingly clean map at 7:06?

[@LolaliciousSmiley]

This is one of my favorite videos of yours. I hope someone can get back to you about the development history!

[@mmocracy]

Holy crap. I downloaded this from an abandonware site back in like 2002 and I’ve been looking for it ever since. Thank you!

[@OdaManjiro]

The poor Forgotten Realms must be the D&D setting with the most unrelated bits forcibly added. The Not-Arabia and Not-East Asia settings also having once been unrelated settings that got tacked on. The Moonshae Isles culture is also completely different to how it was in Greenwood's campaign, being the setting of an unrelated D&D novel they had rewritten to be in the FR before publication overwriting the intended Moonshae culture of Ed. There were several kingdoms in the setting which were added on from originally generic, but rebranded before publication, adventure modules as well.

[@613aristocrat]

3:35 Nice to see Stronghold getting some love. Once I got used to the weirdness, I really enjoyed that game. Nothing better then sending hordes of your units to swamp and kill the monsters.

[@Sevenigma777]

The Dungeon & Dragons arcade beat em up was some of the best D&D video game content to ever come out besides Baldur's Gate

[@TaranAlvein]

13:49 - Metapod? What?!

[@vazzeg]

The visuals around 22:52 is what made me first fall in love with this game. This is an absolutely gorgeous looking game amid an ocean of samey looking titles.

[@gamerbear84]

I remember having the demo for this one back in the day. I don't recall catching on that it was D&D related.

[@Kolyarut]

And here was me expecting Birthright (looking forward to that video!), never heard of this one!

[@WilliamSRD]

Coming some time soon!

[@MickTheMage]

Not to mention the nice animated intro, that wasn't in the full game, but was part of the demo version. And when you copied the intro file from demo folder to full game folder, the game played it as if the intro supposed to be there from the beginning. At least, my full game version didn't had the intro, don't know about other versions. :)

[@Pownypower]

You truly are the Goobertown of video gaming, your videos are always a treat!

[@sparetireXGE]

I played this via a budget d&d collection somewhere around 2000 and just didn't care for it because every map was about that snowball but I had played red alert and age of empires by that point. I enjoy that you can review games in context of their release and not what later games did better.

[@Bluecho4]

I'm not sure when the acquisition of D&D by Wizards of the Coast happened, and in either case this is probably unintentional, but I get strong Magic: The Gathering vibes from Blood & Magic's use of structures and/or Artifact Creatures that generate mana. Mana that spellcasters then use to wage war on one another. Even the division of mana sources into five parts, with very specific flavors of magic, maps more or less directly to MtG's color pie. Holy (White), Martial (Red), Death (Black), Nature (Green), and Magic (Blue). It's freaking _exact._ I, too, thought it was weird that this Mana seemingly came from nowhere, generated infinitely without apparent source. Though my thought was that it was going to create a (albeit localized) Athas situation. Where the Mountains, Forests, Plains, Islands, and Swamps were replaced by barren Wastes. The colonizers extracting the very life of the land around them like they extracted value from the people they enslaved. Until even the fabric of reality began to erode, and the Powers That Be (of all alignments, mortal and planar) had to step in and eradicate the source of the "free mana" once and for all.

[@BH-vh3iu]

Winning combo: stone golem wall with mages behind it for defense, a large horde of flame breathing flying wyrms for offense, all of them produced on the same building.

[@renewagain6956]

Hey there, played and beat this back in 1996 and a couple times since. A few notes if my memory serves... - Mechanically, the blood forges aren't infinite. They cap at 40 units per side (button to create more basal golems becomes unavailable). - You didn't mention the item buffs littered throughout the map (a pretty unique feature of RTS's, in my experience) which can give your unit a host of different abilities, such as water-walking. A few suggestions to help deal with the level 15 Stone Golems: - Use a basal golem to aggro the stone golem. You can lead him away from your BF due to the slow move speed of the stone golems. When your unit is about to die, use the sacrifice button to regain some mana. Often times the AI will even forget what it was doing and the stone golem will stand there for a few moments before heading back to attack your BF, granting you extra time. - Make use of the Basal Golems unique feature of becoming walls. You can connect them to the nearby buildings to slow the stone golems advance. All you need it a single ranged character to chip away at the stone golem to better your odds of taking them down. - Create wizards. While most units can only do 1 point of damage against a SG's high defense, wizards will always do 2 points of damage, no matter what their target is. - Use a flier, such as a Fury to attack the SG when it's trying to destroy your walled basal golem. Often, the AI will go back and forth between attacking enemy units, and the obstacle in their path. Use this ineffecientcy to your advantage. - If you can manage to get a couple of units over to the temple making more stone golems, attack the transformation pods. It's a huge value gain given the cost of making a stone golem. - A strong tactic in general is to bring over a basal golem + cleric and have the basal golem stand on the enemy BF which will block their ability to create more basal golems. Since enemy Blood forges damage enemy units, keep healing them with the Cleric to keep up the disruption. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ... I have so many memories of this game as a kid. There are so few who ever talk about it, and I've been hoping against hope for many years now that someone would make mods for the game like you mentioned. Also, it REALLY needs some compatibility patches for modern systems. Even Dosbox isn't able to get this game to run without issues. 😕 ... Thanks for taking the time to let everyone know about this oft overlooked gem of a game!

[@renewagain6956]

Oh, and since you, "love chaos" you should try playing around using the following cheat-code the next time you play (assuming you haven't already). "Microsquish" (without the quotes). Have fun! 😉

[@Tavoshel]

A wraith next to the bloodforge works too : basal golems stand on the bloodforge trying to attack, but dealing no damage

[@hircenedaelen]

29:30 'other' as a gender option! In 1996! Let's go

[@sinister8924]

i loved this game as a child...i still play it on dosbox to bring back the "good days'

[@solomassive6233]

Omg I thought that nobody knew about this game. I have some very specific memories of playing this game at my older brother’s apartment during summer break when I was like 12 or 13.

[@joec9958]

Wow. Never heard of this one before. Thanks for giving it some exposure

[@Nirakolov]

My bro loves this game, nice seeing a review for it.

[@AndersonReis42]

I've played this game as a child back then. It was more fun when it was released years ago, not that it isn't still fun today, but back then we didn't had QOL concepts we have now (queue? what are you talking about, you heathen!), it played and felt similar to Warcraft. Also, where i lived was a barren wasteland back then, so we didn't really had anything to compare it to, except for Warcraft that somehow made it there. This game holds a special place in my heart. I've spent years searching for it since I've forgotten its name as a child and I was really happy to re discover it a few years ago. It's nice to see it here.

[@JustGrowingUp84]

0:35 - Holy schmuck knuckles, it's fantasy Batman riding a giant doggo!

[@animeator]

I love that this game gets some light on it. And dipshit with a cantrip is... Gold, it will see use

[@yichlyichl4204]

There really is so much lost/untapped potential through so many of the settings...and I'm not even talking about Greyhawk or Mystara or Hollow World or Krynn, I mean even in the Realms. As a random example, the magocracy of Halruaa. It's a nation of wizards. Nation. Of wizards. The entire country. They have a standardized education system and public schools and pride themselves on that and their association with magic. Even the most destitute of some country bumpkin hovel over there is at least capable of reading and writing, and can cast like at least one spell. Political standing is based on how good at your favored school of magic you are. The big names get flying ships! How MUCH weird magic shenanigans do they get in to over there? How much weird stuff has been hidden?? With a notion as obscene as "OOPS ALL WIZARDS; THE COUNTRY", the potential for just about anything is there. But no we gotta make our next 17 campaigns AND video games in the Sword Coast. Why do people keep wanting to cause the apocalypse over there!? Why don't other nations at least check in on that more!?

[@gorvarhadgarson5227]

29:55 This bit lives in my head rent free, mein dude!

[@BH-vh3iu]

Dude, I can't believe you didn't play it through. I just started the last level, after conquering the whole map, and it's EPIC.

[@BH-vh3iu]

Storming those gates of heaven is some insane feat, when the last (I believe it was the last) gate went down I was overwhelmed by several vicious unities exclusive for this level, guardians, and they go through stone golems as if they were made of paper, and they spawn from the rear too, so they laughtered my basal golems on the reserve. I couldn't recover from that and I didn't save the progress, so back to surviving that brutal initial onslaught until I tip the economy in my favour and can try it over. So much fun.

[@twilightverdict]

0:39 gotta love that best value Grond

[@mementomori771]

Another excellent video!

[@SusCalvin]

I always thought Total Annihilation was the best example of an RTS where control of a massive economy and army was made relatively easy. Resources streamed in and units were produced at a massive scale until vast hordes of them were skirmishing over a huge map. Do you have to click every dang golem to tap their mana reserve? An infinitely growing economy coupled with the pathfinding and clunk of an early RTS does not sound fun. The map design looks nice, for a more tactical game. If this would have been a more tactical game in the first place.

[@Hektols]

And there is also Total Annhilation Kingdoms, it's fantasy spin off.

[@bluntaxe2]

I remember seeing this game in PC gamer and counted down till release date. I went to our local pc game shop ready to buy it on the given day; only to find out they not only didn’t have it, but none of the workers had ever heard of it. I probably blew my money on another game and never actually got to play Blood & Magic

[@davidprokopetz2144]

I played this game as a kid and until this video I genuinely didn't know it had music during the missions. I guess whatever archived version you got hold of is the same one that I had.

[@richardsonrym]

I think I had the demo of this on the forgotten realms collection (which was rad with Eye of the Beholder and a bunch of the other games you've gone over), of course I was like 10 so I was super bad at managing everything.

[@jacobshelt01]

I had that cd too! I forgot this game until this video

[@HeathenSWolf]

I remember this game and it's lore made me drew parallels later with Spellforce and Rune Warriors there quite easily, and to this day I love Spellforce universe. Didn't know that Blood and Magic was D&D though. Didn't know about Utter East either. I guess my D&D lore knowledge is lacking a lot.

[@eneekmot]

You can press S on your keyboard to collect from a selected golem.

[@nooneinparticular5256]

"Fuck EVERYONE in this entire story, ESPECIALLY the player character" is such a succulent vibe, that we don't get nearly enough of!

[@SusCalvin]

It was no RTS, but there was another strategy game for another D&D setting. Birthright, the special setting right during the last TSR years and the transition to WotC where domain play would be the immediate focus. Every PC could be a ruler who run different aspects of a small duchy together. You played guild leaders, high priests, theocratic paladin-lords, merchant-barons and arch-wizards. It was a setting that was already built like a strategy game where the barons and dukes of fantasy France feud and fight over who gets to reunite their old empire. It was much easier to transplant the starting region from the basic box right into a strategic map. It managed to combine adventuring where your ruler and their entourage personally deal with a dungeon and its monsters with the grand strategy of running a growing multi-province nation and waging field battles with other lords.

[@davidstenow5055]

Oh wow, I had totally forgotten about Birthright! What an insane concept for a game that was. The whole “running a country by day, plundering tombs with the boys by night” 😅

[@SusCalvin]

@@davidstenow5055 It had some time management built in. Your different shahs, praetors and grand wizards get a limited amount of actions per year. There are NPC regents who have terrible realms but a ton of personal goodies because they're constantly sidetracked by personal glory. It took an action to mount an expedition somewhere. When you adventured, you still had the backing of your realm. Like when king Conan decides to personally whack something. I think they just wanted to make a game that circled around domain play from the start. Instead of slowly building up to domain play like in OD&D you start right in the thick of it, right from level 1. In OD&D you're nudged into domain play around level 10 when you can plonk down a stronghold in the wilderness.

[@davidstenow5055]

@@SusCalvin I went to watch some videos of it after reading your comment and wow, it was so much cooler than I remembered it!

[@SusCalvin]

@@davidstenow5055 I know there was a Birthright computer game, but I have not played it. I know it used the map of one region of the setting, the one out of the basic box. You got a mix between leading battles, building up your realm and occasionally dungeoneering in person with some retainers. In the tabletop game you could play one ruler and her entourage. Or the rulers who co-manage different aspects of one realm together.

[@davidstenow5055]

@@SusCalvin Oh, I thought you meant the computer game! I never tried the PnP version, me and my friends were too young to appreciate the setting at the time

[@MRDLT00]

The story and concepts of the game sound super interesting, and I really want to try it out. Having said that, I think I'd need a mod to help make the game more manageable with the micromanaging, resources, and quality of life improvements. 😅

[@OhThatRobin]

I *really* wanna know more about Dragonshard. I’ve used ideas from the premise of that game in my own Eberron game but never seen the game myself xD

[@PurpleXVI]

I remember downloading a cracked copy of this back in the late 90's. I was fascinated by the presentation but never really enjoyed it greatly, the grinding economic style of gameplay grated on me due to the theoretically infinite army sizes and resource amounts meaning that there was no such thing as a fast fight.

[@elijahelizalde4308]

I can't believe this is real, I spent the last 10 or more years of my life thinking this game was a fever dream, oh lordy am I glad I was wrong

[@GradeAMolvanian]

Blood and Magic was, far and away, one of my favorite games as a kid.

[@muker83]

I loved this game. As far as I remember there was a way to collect mana quickly using keyboard. (not sure if those are the rigth buttons) Tab - cycles through all basal golems M - transfers mana So every other minute you tap TAB > M > TAB > M >....

[@CreepyUncle-yx9rk]

On one way, I am glad that someone is giving one of my favorite games of all time some attention, but I can also see you likely did not play the multiplayer. It is fun as hell! I am among those people who played this game at release, and let me tell you: LAN Party with a few friends and a free for all in this game? PURE CHAOS, where a small mistake can tip the scale from you winning, to you loosing your last Golem.

[@oodo2908]

The RTS experience surely went into making the Infinity Engine. This is an important step for Interplay in developing the best CRPG's ever.

[@goblinjunkyard]

you werent lying about the utter ear devastation, you are far stronger than i could ever be.

[@Donghua-clips]

I played the heck out of this game as a kid. I loved it so much.

[@Shiggedy]

Having Man, Woman, and Other options in the character generator is pretty cool. Even if the nonbinary options seem to consist of ghoulish abominations, at least there's representation?

[@Ave_Echidna]

I would probably pic a ghoulish abomination anyway...

[@4fives992]

Wow, what a ride. Who woulda thought this little game would have such an impact?

[@richmcgee434]

Never even saw this one. Surprisingly positive review - everything I've ever heard about it was quite derogatory, but that was coming from TTRPG players who, as you said, hated it for the lore impact it's connected to rather than the game itself.

[@danieladamczyk4024]

Seriously is there a RTS that don't have war crimes in it?

[@BH-vh3iu]

After watching this video I've got the game and... I love it!

[@charliebeareuwu]

Please please please please please review Neverwinter Nights :c

[@LibertyMonk]

So, this game is basically the Ur Zerg? Basic SC2 Zerg gameplay is to always spend all your larvae on resource gatherers, then build only exactly enough units to fend off attacks long enough to go back to making more drones. There are certain timings when suddenly turning all larvae into fighting units will have the best shot at crushing your opponent, and there's a limit on how many workers are useful (because minerals/gas don't just get pulled from thin air like Mana), but it's still a very similar gameplay pattern to Blood Forges. Except for the part where you make production structures instead of making more golem spawners and just having the golems transform into fighting units.

[@Banefane]

I loved playing this game. I still like the art style, the stories, and collecting XP. In my opinion this was a hidden gem back in the day and if it had been successful it would now be on par with Age of Wonders 4.

[@aaronbasham6554]

...this game genuinely makes me want to do something in the East, it sounds like a fun setting

[@Shabo0117]

Okay damn that's a good ass intro in those first seconds I gotta say

[@nikoladedic6623]

I am curious. For what exactly do you need more than 27000 exp to unlock in research? Or was that after he unlocked everything?

[@emiliestinson3086]

29:58 - As funny as "mein Dude" is, today I learned the way to say "dude" auf Deutsch is most likely either going to be Kumpel or Kerl. So that's fun.

[@LegalKimchi]

the starcraft 2 player in me (yes, it's my korean side) kind of wonders how i would do on the micro on this game...

[@WilliamSRD]

Oh, this one would have a huge skill ceiling due to the intensity of the micro! ...now 1v1 me

[@KarmicXRestrictions]

Playing this after planescape is a WILD double gesture

[@Dwarfurious]

wow, i knew of dragonshard and i actually liked it but this one i had no idea

[@Leethesynn]

Please please please also play and make a video on Dragonshard. It was such a fun rts with some cool mechanics for its time. It and LOTR BFM2 were my beginnings.

[@WilliamSRD]

That's the plan!

[@Leethesynn]

[@b0gster]

Great game, and a grate video, but it's barely scratching the surface. You can also destroy buildings and statues for items that grant instant mana chunks, which makes for yet another tactic. You can equip your troops with magic items, some of which are completely game changing. You can fight a giant demolisher golem as a sort of a boss fight. You can use the terrain in your advantage, such as making enemy troops go through hurting brambles or slowing mud. And it's not hard, nor really, when you know what you're doing. When I was a kid, I only managed to complete the campaign with cheat codes, and I found it so hard that I was literally struggling to type them in fast enough. On my second playthrough as an adult I breezed through the whole game.

[@BRNDMYR]

Wait wait wait. After 49 years of D&D there is a region without a consistent fleshed out canon? wow. I am bamboozled.

[@BH-vh3iu]

The soundtrack is excellent indeed.

[@BH-vh3iu]

Sound fx can be annoying, but you get used to it.

[@Epzilon12]

Unrelated: it’s weird there are only two games in Eberron, given it was the new setting of 3.5. Dragonshard and Dungeons and Dragons Online. I really wish DDO focused more on Eberron specific content.

[@Sevenigma777]

Blood and Magic was the one game i so badly wanted to play but since this way was before the internet i never could figure out how to exactly do that

[@ErikWarhammer]

Did the Devs ever get back to you?

[@MoonMoverGaming]

It's driving me crazy that there's so much land east of "the Utter East."

[@RyllenKriel]

Basil golems are great in a kitchen. They crush anything into a fine pesto.

[@matteste]

Dragonshard is another DnD RTS I pretty much never hear anyone talk about.

[@brianstewart425]

I really enjoyed this game. The voice acting and music were really good for the time. The UI definitely does not hold up though, I would love a mod that addresses it. I had to use cheats to beat that final legendary map so I could unlock the Gates of Heaven mission. That one is very weird and a bit of a slog, but delightfully random.

[@Numdenu]

honestly in the right hands, this could make for a great campaign setting in modern d&d. what if a usable blood forge is found? what important magical thing is it weakening this time?

[@edtazrael]

I remember this game. It was awesome.