Author: Mark G. McLaughlin, History Editor

Why I Can’t Stop Playing King of Dragon Pass

King of Dragon Pass is a game where turn-based military strategy, Dark Ages role-playing and Celtic saga blend to lure the player into a wondrous and enjoyably royal adventure. This truly unique blend of war and literature is as rich and deep as it is fun and addictive. Designer David Dunham is a true warrior-poet as well as an accomplished gamer, and in this product his company, A Sharp, has given the computer gaming world one of its few true works of art.

A Real War Game

King of Dragon Pass is a real wargame. The player rules a small Celtic clan of a few hundred people and their animals in a small area on the edge of a harsh land. He must build up that clan into a force around which to form a tribe and then forge a kingdom. He must explore his region of the world, recruit and lead warriors into battle, and make diplomatic and trade agreements with other clans and tribes. The player also has to direct farmers, herdsmen, craftsmen and hunters to feed and make the people prosperous, and must determine which gods they will worship, sacrifice to, and call upon for aid. As if this were not enough, the player must also embark on quests to gain knowledge, artifacts and prestige (or to gain heavenly help).

All of the elements of a traditional wargame are here, but there is more, a lot more, to King of Dragon Pass. It has everything found in the typical 4X game (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate) BUT it brings it ALIVE by making it all seem personal and real. The player gets to know the principal leaders of his and other clans and tribes. They have names, personalities and special abilities and foibles that the player has to consider when conducting affairs. The player will constantly come face to face with people, beasts and situations that require him to make decisions, most of which will affect the play of the game (some have no discernible effect whatsoever, which is also nice).

Review last year's production.	The clan's history.

It Is Good To Be King

This game is set in the pseudo-mythical Dark Ages, similar to the setting for the popular RuneQuest role-playing games. Here, however, the player is not some member of a questing party, but a chieftain with dreams of grandeur. As a chieftain, the player is constantly called upon to make decisions, many of them life and death ones either for a single character or for his whole clan, tribe or kingdom.

This game is all about decisions. Each year has five distinct seasons (or turns), plus an interphase. Each turn, the player gets the opportunity to initiate two actions. Although the player can take any action he wishes in a season, certain actions are more likely to succeed or fail based on the time of the year. For example, the planting season is a nice time to go raiding enemy clans, but to take men out of the fields to strengthen the war party means less food will be planted. The same goes for the harvest season; take men to war and the harvest will rot - which means people will grumble and go hungry in the winter. Fortunately there is a turn of good, clear war-making weather in between planting and harvesting, but that is when every other clan also goes raiding. If a player sends his forces out on a raid, they might not make it back in time to defend their own homes.

The three good weather seasons have their mates in two bad weather times. Going abroad to explore, trade or fight in the storm season is possible, but there is also the chance that the party will disappear or return, complaining of everything from snow-blocked roads to their leader getting a bad case of the chills. There is even less chance of getting people to go somewhere in the dark season, but that does not mean it is necessarily going to be a quiet time. Players will probably fall into a rhythm of actions to do based on the seasons, but there is so much going on around and amongst the clan that it is impossible to become complacent and regimented.

For every action a player can take, or chooses not to take, there are benefits and consequences. As with most games (and life) there is not enough time to do everything. There are strange lands to explore as well as the clan’s own area to patrol. Leaders and men have to be sent out to make trading deals and undertake diplomatic missions. Even the simple reallocation of workers to different tasks, or the recruitment of new fighters and farmers, requires taking one of the two actions permissible in a turn.

In the meantime, events will occur that will require additional decisions, many of which will be as important and as vital to the clan’s survival and relationships as the actions the player initiates.

Go to the next page

© 2008, The Wargamer, LLC, a TM Interactive Publishing company. All Rights Reserved. Protected under copyright and international treaties. No portion of this web site or the files contained therein may be obtained for other than personal non-commercial use nor may they be reproduced or otherwise redistributed. Violations will be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible under the law and may result in severe civil and criminal penalties. All other copyrights and products mentioned on The Wargamer are the property of their respective companies.