I must confess I have never heard of this game before GOG added it yesterday. The description has raised my interest, but on the other hand it made pop up a lot of questions, too...


1. Reading through the comments here, the concept seems to be pretty unique, so there is probably not one other game to compare with. The desription talks of "Civilization" elements, looking at the screenhots I feel reminded of Tropico, Majesty, the early Settler series, Lords of the Realm II, Populous and other games as well...can someone try to explain to me which parts of which game come close to it?

2. How would you consider the balance between strategy and other elements like roleplaying/simulation in that game?

3. It seems that there is no campaign, just a huge epic free game, right? (Hint: Would be a plus for me, I'm not into classic campaigns - a challenging free play mode rules for me)

4. Is the game more about direkt managment (e.g. me building/fighting/exploring with units) or more about influencing people in game to behave like it wanted them too?

5. If there is combat, how is it decided? RT/TB? How much control do you have about it? Again - is there any game with a comparable combat mode?

6. Can you name some of the features you like best in the game, eventually ones making so unique compared to other games?

7. How good is the AI? Especially: Screenshots show a lot of negotiating/trading - how clever, believeable, logical does the Ai act here?

8. Are there any serious bugs left?


Thanks in advance for helpful answers!

Gonna try and answer some of those for ya.

1. I've played little of the mentioned games, so I don't know if I can answer this. All I know is I've never seen a very similar game.

2. The whole game revolves on decisions, so every choice affects something. Basically nothing happens realtime, so it is more pondering on the results than acting quickly, so I'd put it in the simulation genre more than strategy. The game advances at a brisk pace, seasons at a time.

3. Technically there is a goal -- becoming the King of Dragon Pass. Practically what you do is completely free, most games end satisfyingly in a very non-kingly situation.

4. Decisions. You make all the decisions that a clan chief makes, be it related to warfare or little disputes amongst your people. The most direct actions you can make globally are exploration parties, warfare, and trading, in which you mostly send them on their way and give further orders when so required. Very light, although there is some management. If I had to answer you directly, I'd say it is the latter, as sometimes your decisions have unforeseen consequences.

5. In combat, you receive a description of the overall standing before the battle. You then decide the general tactics to be used based on the information you have, and the usage of the clan magic to aid in the battle. Sometimes you will be asked about a special situation in the midst of the combat, for example, should one of your heroes charge the enemy or hold back. There is no animation, you will be given a short description of how the battle went, along with the statistics regarding casualties and loot. Personally I like it.

6. The world, the world. The world of Glorantha has been in developement since the 60's or 70's, and it shows. The cultures depicted are very fleshed out for this reason, and you could spend hours just reading about it in game (there is a glossary, I think). Nonetheless, the game is remarkably simple after you get the basic terms, so deep study is not necessary. (For example, your clan's lands are referred to as your "Tula", some of the gods have certain roles which are not immediately apparent from their names etc.)

Some might disagree, but the world is my top reason for loving this game.

7. The AI acts on basic principles, although there is a small random variable as well. The difficulty, I think comes from deciphering the AI's reasoning, and calculating if you can afford certain decisions. There usually is no right or wrong choice, perhaps save choices made during a battle. Your clan ring will provide you with some insight upon the situations at hand as well.

8. I can't answer that, when I played, I encountered no bugs, but I haven't tried the GoG version.

Hope that helps somewhat!

Well it is a unique game. What i would say is it is a game everyone should play, a true classic (even more so due to it's uniqueness) to sit alongside Civilization, Xcom, Moo, Master of Magic and all those truely (and rightly) revered titles. There is nothing else quite like it and for a measly $6 you will get more game time out of this than any modern $60 title. It is more a story roleplaying game than anything else, the strategy side of the game is very abstract (you don't place cities on a map or move army units in an rts or tbs type manner). However, you will always face strategic choices, important choices and that is one of this games real strengths. Free as the wind of Ornalth himself ;) You task, if you so wish, is to become King of Dragon Pass, but how you do that is largely left up to you and chance and the Gods. hmm out of those two choices more the later, but overall it is best described as a tribe simulation with role play and strategic choices to be made. It's more about your people and their relationship with other tribes, the gods and any random events that crop up. Combat is abstracted. You select the size of your army (if attacking) based on how many thanes you have available, this is done with a slider, so no actual unit manipulation as is typical in an rts or tbs game.

During battle you get stages of the battle explained to you on a static screen and as things progress you get to make certain choices that can have a postive or negative outcome.

This may not sound 'awesome' but it works really well and you'll soon get the hang of this important part of the game. It is the only game that feels like the people you control are real people, from the members of your ruling ring (those that help you run your tribe) that all have stats and personalities and grow old and die etc! To the people that form the basis of your food production, trade and war band. Somehow they all transcend the numbers and become important, you strive to keep them well and alive and productive.

The storytelling (all the individual scenarios to the grand history and background of the world) is about the best that has ever been written in a game imho. It will draw you in. You will lose, most of the time. I can't say if this is entirely down to the AI control of the other tribes, but sometimes you will feel like the gods are against you and no matter what you try your tribe will dwindle away and perish.

This is actually a huge part of the fun of the game as each game feels different enough that you can try out many different things, and what works one time might not work another. It is an addictive challange just trying to survive let alone become the King of Dragon Pass (which i have managed once!). Not sure, but i've played pleanty of games and not noticed anything that broke the game for me at any point?

In short this is probably the best $6 you could spend on a game. A lot of people are going to find it really hard, and wonder what the heck they have to do to 'win' the game, but really most of the fun of this game is in the losing or just taking part. If you can become King of Dragon Pass you will know you are worthy of that honour :)

This is a very abstract game, but at the same time very personal and engaging. There is zero animation, no troop movements, no city building, no battle direction. You play in the role of the Clan Circle, a group of seven nobles who decide the courses of action which to take during each year, with the goal of unifying a group of clans into a tribe and ruling it, and in the long game, eventually uniting the tribes into a kingdom.

Each year consists of five seasons, and during each you can make choices concerning agriculture, construction, religion, trade, war and so on, and see how they end up. There are also random events every turn, dealing with anything from settling a divorce mess to trying to weed out a vampire from your village.

What's fun is that the game typically rewards you from disregarding modern values, and following the codes of an insular Bronze Age warrior culture, instead. Sometimes it's a good idea to put a random group of strangers to a sword just because they're not fellow Orlanthi. Sometimes it's good to throw away a good deal because there's an age-old feud between you and the other party. Not honouring your gods and ancestors kills your clan's magic, and that will kill your clan in a pretty short order.

Without repeating the excellent posts above, I would say simply that the game is very close to a digital version of a choose your own adventure story. In feel it's like you're reading a great story but also writing one of your own at the same time.

It also has a bit of a rep as being punishingly hard but it's not and shoudn't really be viewed that way at all. It's a lovely game which you might fall in love with. The game rewards logic. It also occasionally flouts logic and smites you where you stand! Make your own choices..

I wrote a longer form semi-review on the product page itself for any other newcomers.

Thank you all for your detailed and explaining posts :) You have convinced me, I will get that game...

Kinda random on my part to necro this thread, but I was browsing the games here on GOG and I find an amazing charm with KoDP's artwork. I was still on the fence about getting it, because I generally don't like resource management games (HoMM, etc)....just not my thing in gaming. But I've always loved "choose your own adventure" stories (check out the "Choice Of" game apps for your cell phones if you love them too), so scouring through the KoDP's forum here and reading this one quote above from you Harmonica speaks very loudly to me. I understand its not a 100% clone of the "Choose Your Own" style, but I really like the idea of a game that runs similar.

I think when I get a few bucks I'll be getting it.