King of Dragon Pass

Hi all, potential buyers be aware that this version differs from the Steam Version. Sadly this seems not mentioned within the description. You can find the full information about the differences on the official blogspot here: http://kingofdragonpass.blogspot.de/2015/07/new-in-steam.html To make it short, this is a different - old - Version of the game, which will not be updated to the new Steam Version, as it's not possible. It's like a new game. Small excerpts from above site: The version on Steam is essentially the mobile version, but tuned for desktop and laptop screen sizes (I ran it on a 30 inch iMac, but it should run on a 1024 x 576 netbook). So if you played on Windows or Mac before, you’d be moving from 1.7 to 2.2. There are 48 new scenes and 4 new illustrations (plus a new Lore map). There are also new advisors, and a lot more advice in management screens. There are also more treasures. We made many bug fixes (such as unblocking two of the original scenes), and fixed typos. You no longer have to worry about sheep. The economics system should no longer be quite as harsh, with death spirals less likely. (Rest assured that the game is still difficult, especially on the Hard setting.) Best regards Critney

The game is not exactly role-playing, and it's not exactly TBS. It's more like 'The Oregon Trail + Master of Orion in the 7th Century AD'. It's almost all about chance. The sort of chance that comes with drawing a 'random event' card during a tabletop game (like the 'Community Chest/Chance' cards in Monopoly). Indeed, random events are what this game is all about. Managing resources and looking after the happiness and well-being of your villagers are only conducive to continued play, not unlike making sure you have enough quarters to finish an arcade game. They merely dictate how hard a bad event will hit home when it occurs, or how well a good event effects your game (vis. If your people are already angry, and you're suddenly struck by a plague of undead, you might very well face a revolt of some sort or another). There are a tonne of events that are sequential, meaning you may never see them if you don't first encounter the events that precede them. Furthermore, they branch out in different directions based on your decisions, but not every decision has the same result. More often than not, one decision simply has the highest chance of resulting in a particular outcome. It all comes down to how well you know what the subject of a particular event (such as a group of traveling acrobats or a wandering madman) favours, and what entities might favour that particular subject. Which brings me to my next point, and subsequently the reason for taking OFF one point out of a five-star review: Politics. There are loads of politics to be dealt with, whether you choose the road of diplomacy or the path to total war. You need to figure out which clan likes what other clan, and which ones hate each other. You need to know how far-off civilizations and savage peoples will react to your decisions and any treasures you might have on display. And so on. But on the other hand, I suppose this, as well as the incredible illustrations and story-telling, keeps the game from being little more than fiddling with a probability calculator. Excellent re-playability and lots to discover make this a game to buy. Here's looking forward to a 2-4 player version.

I'll admit that I randomly found this gem. Very randomly but the reward, OH MY. It's a very interesting fantasy game, you could feel some northern vibes in some of the art, but oh boy, this is replayable. Try it, you will not regret.

Nobody will ever make games as good as this again. In depth tribe management mechanics with intense battle sims which genuinely make you care about the members of your tribe more than you would expect. One of the evergreen all time greats.

Despite its complete lack of animations, King of Dragon Pass has both a visceral and intellectual satisfaction to it, at once giving you the thrill of raiding your neighbors for cattle (and maybe slaves?) and letting you deluge your brain with the epic god stories of Glorantha. There is never any one way to victory, and even at its easiest it is a difficult game to master, with a somewhat unforgiving learning curve, but the payoff is great.