Retro Gaming: The Realms (MMO)

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******BEWARE! BEYOND THIS POINT THERE BE LOTS OF TEXT!******

-you have been warned :p

Back in my early days of online gaming (late '96) there were few MMO's out there. I had missed out on Shadow of Yserbius on INN but was fortunate enough to jump into Neverwinter Nights on AOL just before the floodgates were opened as AOL moved from a per-hour charge to a flat monthly rate (I think I had 10 hours left on my AOL account).

Due to corporate greed, Neverwinter Nights was shut down, leaving thousands of players looking for a game to call home.

Some went to Dark Sun Online, others went to Meridian 59, some went to Ultima Online while others (myself included) went to The Realms. Although I eventually left the game for the bright and shininess of a new game called "EverQuest", I never forgot about how much I enjoyed the simplicity of The Realms.

Fortunately not only is it still running today, it's being run now by a team of long-time players that have spent years playing the game. Over the weekend I played quite a bit and saw the main events guy (Zodan) hop on and run events at least 3-4 times for a good hour or more each time.

The game itself is a 2D scroller where combat is turn-based and takes place within a "combat cloud". The new team has added a "speed-up" feature that makes the combat go by much faster (hit F12 to cycle speeds from normal up to 5x). Not being a "twitch" game is a nice change of pace and advancing through a turn-based game means you eventually have to learn tactics (similar to chess, having to think farther ahead the more advanced in levels you get).

The character creation is pretty basic. You can create a Human, Giant, Orc or Elf and they can be either male or female (you can adjust various facial features as well as your height and girth). Each race has certain base stats and you get 8 points to assign as you wish (how you assign these will depend on your profession). Your choice in professions are Wizard, Thief, Adventurer or Warrior. Your assignable attributes are Strength (for melee damage), Intelligence (for spell damage), Dexterity (for movement and ranged weapon damage) and Endurance (health).

This is a min/max game so if you play a wizard you'll want to be an Elf and put all your points into Int. Conversely, if you are wanting to be a warrior you'll want to be a Giant and put all your points into Str. Human adventurers (with points more spread out) are a decent way to learn the game, but it will get slow going as you get closer to 100 because of how Build Points work. Thieves (with all Dex) can be fun, but they are incredibly difficult to level up as a first character.

There are 27 different skills in the game and every profession has access to all of them (2-Handed Sword, Shield, Necromancy, Sorcery, etc). Each skill has 5 levels (novice through Grand Master). In order to increase your skill you need Build Points, you get one Build Point when you reach a new level (each new level takes 10k to reach, all enemies have an exp value that is lowered the closer you get to it and then beyond - this allows for some massive power-leveling).

How many Build Points you need to reach a level of proficiency with a skill depend on how you assigned your stats at character creation. Skills involving magic use will require fewer Build Points based on your base Int stats (the base for your race and how many of the 8 assignable points you put into it). Conversely, once you get your Giant Warrior's melee skills maxxed (which really are only your weapon and Critical Stike, these can be done by level 80) and decide to work on a magic line, it will take you more Build Points to get each new skill level.

A truly nifty aspect of the game is the ability to permanently enchant anything you can equip. This makes the lower game easy but is an absolute must for the higher level content. The % chance your enchantment will take lowers for each extra enchantment you put on the item. If an enchantment fails to take it can vaporize your item. Higher Intelligence raises those chances (current max of different enchantments is 5 for the free game, 6 if you are a subscriber because of Prestige levels).

Another aspect that allows more personalization is the ability to name things. You can rename any item you can pick up (vendor loot, your gear, etc). If you rename your gear others will see the name you've given it when they inspect you or if you drop the item on the ground and they pick it up. I came up with my current main character's name waaaay back when by buying jugs of ale, naming them "Bardweiser" and handing them out to newbs.

The VAST majority of the game is free but subscribing ($50/year) gives you a 50% bonus to exp (added to any exp bonus for hunting in hot zones), the ability to Prestige after you hit level 1000 (giving you a 6th level of skill) and access to certain Prestige content). Prestige does not reduce your skill levels nor require you to learn all your spells again, you are just dropped back to experience level 1.

I got a bit nostalgic last week and downloaded the game last Thursday, played it a bit, loved the changes being made. I also noted that the game seems to be seeing a slight upswing in population (there seems to be 100-300 people on at any time. In December (I believe) the devs opened a new "fresh start" server, that seems to be where everyone is playing (the old server is available, just no one there). The players in the general chat (channel 4) are friendly, helpful and enjoy engaging in good-natured banter (read: pretty kid-friendly, also you can create your own chat channels if you want).

I went ahead and subbed for a year and blew my entire weekend playing. I have a level 101 wizzie and a 66 warrior already lol!

So if you're looking for a little change of pace from today's current craze game, check out The Realms.

Maps, guides, etc

Wikia