Like most pubescent geeks my age, I spent far too many hours examining the intricacies of role playing games and far too little time chasing girls. OK, I chased but my plus two boots of speed didn’t seem to help.

Of course the dominant role playing game of the last two decades was, and is, Dungeons and Dragons including derivations such as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and all rule versions right up through the current 3.5. And, as with all lifelong gamers, I eventually came to recognize that not only were the masses of tables and rules a hindrance to actual game play but concepts such as THAC0 were just ridiculous.

Eventually I had worked my way through all of rule systems, including creating my own and while GURPS (Generic Universal Role-Playing System) from Steve Jackson Games came closest to what I envision as the “perfect” system, I always found myself back at Dungeons and Dragons. The simple fact is that so many people have grown up with Dungeons and Dragons that it was comfortably familiar to everyone and there was simply no comparison when it came to content. Additional rules, class guides, adventure modules, maps, figurines and a horde of other supplemental material flowed throughout the gaming community like a stream of obscenities from a drunken dwarf.

The advent of the digital age tore the nerd community apart. Dungeons and Dragons have been a part of computer and console gaming almost from the outset. The pen and paper purists practically burned their pocket protectors and bent their slide rules at the thought of their sacred role playing game being turned into a solitary entertainment for the cliques who shunned them and stuffed them into lockers.

Think about that for a moment; Electronics, Computers and Dungeons and Dragons, three things that were synonymous with the term Nerd, were being stripped from the very people who created them and watching as they are homogenized and offered up to anyone and everyone. Ouch, now that will take the elastic out of your suspenders.

As it turns out, Role Playing and electronics were perfectly matched. This has been proven time and again with such storied franchises as Ultima, The Bard’s Tale, Wizardy and newcomers like Asheron’s Call, The Matrix Online, Worlds of Warcraft and now, Dungeon and Dragons Online.

As a franchise, the success of Dungeons and Dragons has reached far beyond its roots as the social centerpiece for awkward young men with questionable hygiene and found success in nearly every facet of the entertainment industry. Dungeons and Dragons defined the Pen and Paper role playing industry, scored huge success with multiple product in the board game and trading card game industries. While electronic game titles such as “Curse of the Azure Bonds” could not be considered blockbusters, there has never been a Dungeons and Dragons based product that could be considered a flop either. The unprecedented successes of Dungeons and Dragons based computer games like Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights were likely the foundation upon which the only true failure in the history of Dungeons and Dragons was predicated. The feature film bearing the name Dungeons and Dragons was dredged from a steaming pile of dragon dung and spewed onto the silver screen. The human race dumber for bearing witness to its creation.

A creation of a massively multiplayer title based bearing the Dungeons and Dragons moniker was simply a matter of time. And credit has to go out to TSR…err Wizards of the Coast…err Hasbro…well, no credit can really be given to anyone for waiting on the creation of an MMORPG worthy of the franchise. The fact is the rights and franchise of Dungeons and Dragons has gone through so much turmoil and seen so many changes over the past few years that it just wasn’t possible to get an MMORPG out the door, let alone insist on one of quality.

The Lawful Good:

At long last fans of the Dungeons and Dragons franchise and rejoice and unite in celebration as a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game has finally come to fruition. And I believe those fans would agree that the time spent waiting was a fair sacrifice as there is a lot to love in this new online experience.

Created by veteran developer Turbine Entertainment and published by Atari, Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach was meticulously crafted to adhere to the 3.5 version of the D&D ruleset. While I am clearly not a fan of the D&D ruleset, I will admit that each successive generation of the rules has been an improvement and the latest version is the best by far. This includes all the classic races and classes as well as skills and feats. Obviously not every aspect of the rules would directly translate, such as mages having to spend hours praying and preparing their spells. Instead you will still need to rest, but it only takes seconds instead of hours. Other examples are visible in the way a cleric is granted his divine favors. D&D Online now keeps some healing spells constantly at the ready as a way to represent the bond between the cleric and his or her chosen deity. You would hard pressed to find an instance where the D&D Online version of the 3.5 ruleset was greatly divergent from it pen and paper predecessor.