Dnd (computer game)

dnd was a role playing game written for the PLATO System by Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood at Southern Illinois University in the mid-1970's. Dirk Pellett of Iowa State University and Flint Pellett of University of Illinois made substantial enhancements to the game from 1976 to 1985.

Related Topics:
Role playing game - PLATO System - Southern Illinois University - Iowa State University - University of Illinois - 1976 - 1985

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The name dnd is derived from the abbreviation D&D, for the book-based (or paper-based) role playing game Dungeon and Dragons, which was first published in 1974.

Related Topics:
D&D - Dungeon and Dragons

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dnd was probably the third dungeon crawl game written for PLATO. The first such game, known as pedit5, was deleted just a few months after it was created. The second game, m199h, was created in a lesson space for foreign language instruction, and it was similarly deleted as soon as its illicit purpose was discovered.

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In dnd, a player would create a character and then venture into the multi-level Whisenwood Dungeon in search of treasure and the famous 'orb'. The dungeon was populated by an assortment of monsters and treasures. The orb itself was kept in a treasure room deep within the dungeon. Protecting the orb in the treasure room was a powerful Golden Dragon and a number of lesser monsters. If the character defeated the Golden Dragon, retrieved the orb and made it out of the dungeon, the character would be retired to the Elysian Fields. The character's name would then be inscribed for all to see when others visited dnd.

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Subsequent revisions of the game added more dungeons, such as The Caverns and The Tomb, with different creatures guarding different treasures (such as the Grim Reaper guarding The Fountain), and the player had to obtain both The Orb and The Grail to win. Also, many different types of miscellaneous treasures were added over the years.

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dnd was one of the first computer games that placed the player within a story with a beginning, a middle, a climax, a denouement and an end. dnd also was one of the first video games to attempt humor and irony within the game. Later PLATO games, such as Rogue, were influenced by dnd.

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dnd would today be considered an adventure game rather than an RPG, since it had only one character. Nevertheless, the game implemented many of the basic concepts of Dungeons and Dragons: different weapons inflicted different damage on different monsters, teleporters moved characters between levels (especially the Excelsior Transporter, which first appeared in dnd on PLATO), the strength of the monsters encountered by a player increased as he/she ventured deeper into the dungeon. For example, monsters on Level 2 were generally stronger (i.e. harder to kill) than those on Level 1, and monsters on Level 3 were stronger than those on Level 2, and so on. High level monsters, like the boss monsters invented later in Japanese coin-op video games, provided a grand finale for each dungeon.

Related Topics:
Adventure game - RPG - Boss - Coin-op - Video games

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dnd was the first adventure or RPG to have a store where the player could buy magic items: Aumakua's Alchemy sold potions, and Korona's Armory sold hardware such as magic swords and rings.

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The game proved enormously popular on PLATO and continued to be played until PLATO was finally deactivated.

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