Dungeon Lords Interview
Sia 'Garrett' Manzari, 2003-06-27

DW Bradley, author of such great titles like Wizardry V - Heart Of The Maelstrom, Wizardry VI - Bane of the Cosmic Forge and Wizardry VII - Crusaders of the Dark Savant or CyberMage and Wizards & Warriors is just in the productions of another very promising RPG: Dungeon Lords. While very little is known about that project, we had the chance to secure one of the very rare interview spots with him and here's what he has to say about his latest baby:

RPGDot: Hello D.W., thanks for taking the time for our questions! How are you?

DW Bradley: I'm working on Dungeon Lords and loving it, notwithstanding all of the endless hours and challenges that come with making a new breed of CRPG for the 21st century…

RPGDot: For how long have you been working on Dungeon Lords already? How many people are working on it?

DW Bradley: I've been working on the main story, game system and design, engines and game play mechanics for well over a year, but full production has only been underway since this past spring. There will probably be between 20 and 30 personnel who will have worked on the game by the time it's done…

RPGDot: Can you tell us about the background story of Dungeon Lords in a few words?

DW Bradley: The great wizard, Galdryn of the Meadows, staunch ally of Lord Davenmor and backbone of power to his kingdom, was slain by a dark conspiracy within the Circle of Mages. Without Galdryn's support and powerful magic, Lord Davenmor's kingdom has fallen under siege by his nemesis, Lord Barrowgrim. In an effort to save his kingdom, Davenmor pledged his daughter's hand in marriage to Barrowgrim, but as fate would have it, she has already given her heart to another, the captain of Davenmor's royal guard. Upon learning of this love, Davenmor ordered the arrest of her lover and had him imprisoned him far away, in an attempt to quell their affair. Soon after this, the daughter mysteriously vanished. Lord Barrowgrim believes that Davenmor and his daughter have hatched some scheme of treachery, and so has again declared war upon Davenmor. Aided by the conspirators against Galdryn within the Circle of Mages, Barrowgrim's unholy marauders march to destroy Davenmor and his kingdom once and for all…

RPGDot: What are the main differences between Dungeon Lords and your earlier games, say Wizards&Warriors or the later Wizardry games?

DW Bradley: Dungeon Lords is all new, a completely different kind of RPG from my previous games. Dungeon Lords brings high energy action combat in combination with deep story and detailed RPG elements, including an innovative new character development system. The game is full 3D 3rd person perspective view, and all real time. In Dungeon Lords, from the onset of character creation, the player controls and develops their hero with a multitude of attributes, class specializations, and skill choices to develop a truly unique personal character. Multiplayer allows a number of players to gather their individual heroes into a party and brave the dangers of the game together, and single player mode provides numerous allies that can be persuaded to join up with the player's hero as cohorts…

RPGDot: Is the focus of Dungeon Lords more on story or more on action/combat or a mixture of the above?

DW Bradley: In Dungeon Lords, the world exists with many characters and events that are unfolding as the player progresses. Combat is all action and naturally plays a big part (we strive for sweaty palms and clenched stomachs), but the real intrigue lies in the storyline, and interacting with the various storyline characters, making alliances and deals, pursuing quests, solving puzzles, navigating traps and pitfalls, these are all equally important elements necessary to reach victory in the game…

RPGDot: As for gameplay and interface: Is there an automap, a journal and a quest book? Are there multiple choice dialogues?

DW Bradley: Yes, of course! Dungeon Lords is very involved story-wise, and is a fairly massive world, it would be a crime to expect anyone to keep up with everything without these kinds of helpful features. If by "multiple choice dialogs" you are asking whether there is game branching based upon player's choice of response to dialog, then yes, absolutely…

RPGDot: Can you describe typical situations regarding combat and magic? Can you solve a situation like a puzzle or a confrontation in different ways?

DW Bradley: Provided your character has available magic to cast, then you are free to use it at anytime - using your fireball spell when the ogre-giant starts kicking your butt would probably be a good time for this, but there are many ways to kill or otherwise dispatch the ogre-giant. Sometimes you will find opportunity to turn an enemy's trap upon itself (always a satisfying solution to a problem), or convince someone else to engage the creature for you, and of course when all else fails and you're getting creamed, I generally recommend you try running in the opposite direction. Your character will have various abilities depending upon how you develop them, so in general it will be up to you to determine what you can accomplish with your hero in any given situation, whether with combat, npc interaction, puzzles and game situations involving hero control (jumping, leaping, and climbing to circumnavigate obstacles and avoid pitfalls, etc.), traps, or whatever. Of course, you will have to figure out strategies and solutions for the various situations for yourself, but many of the game situations don't have specific "solutions", just a matter of finding the right approach that works for your hero…

RPGDot: What different spells are there? How does the spell system work? Based on reagents, only mana or totally different?

DW Bradley: Regarding the magic system in Dungeon Lords I will provide only a few basic hints: There are four primary forms (schools) of magic, each works by different means from the others, and players are motivated to make strategic and prudent use of the magical abilities they currently possess. There will be no such thing in Dungeon Lords as unlimited fireballs for however long one might keep mana holding out, although there are very powerful magical artifacts that will offer formidable ability from time to time. I expect to provide details of the full magic system only once we near release of the game…

RPGDot: And how does combat take place? What weapons are there and will you also offer ranged combat?

DW Bradley: Combat is one of the most innovative aspects of Dungeon Lords, and plays a major part of the game. Whereas the combat system is based upon the abilities and skills of the player's hero, it is also completely dependent upon the player's ability as well. In Dungeon Lords, the player controls each moment of their hero's actions, choosing when to attack, when to cast magic spells, when to block, when to dodge and maneuver, and performing various combinations simultaneously, and all in real-time - the player is continually involved in moment to moment control of what their hero is doing, responding to enemy actions, and making split second strategic decisions based upon the unfolding challenges of the battle - hence the "Action/Fighter RPG" description of the game. However, the hero's ability to strike a target, perform combination attacks, cast magic spells, block and dodge, etc., is all tied directly to the hero's skill proficiencies, such that the more skilled the hero, the more capable they are, so players must develop their hero wisely. There are a number of weaponry types, including close range melee weapons of different sorts, as well as hurled and ranged weapons and a few other special goodies…

RPGDot: What races, classes are there in Dungeon Lords? The classic humans, goblins, orcs etc or others as well? Which classes and races can you play actually? Is there a character creation process? Can you describe the RPG system also? What skills and stats are there?

DW Bradley: Players will play and control one personal character hero during the game, and when they initially create their hero will choose from a number of basic races and gender, including Human, Elf, Dwarf, and the Demigoth subhumans (there are a number of Demigoth races, each with special strengths and weaknesses) as well as desired face and hair. There are six primary attributes that comprise the basic abilities of the hero and which influence a number of personal stats, all improvable throughout the game. At the heart of player development however, is a unique new system featuring a class specialization tree and many different individual skills that are potentially available, and once obtained, improvable. As the game approaches release date, I will provide more detail into the inner workings of the new system, but at this time wish only to reveal that a player's hero may have more than one class specialization, the class specializations do have unique skills associated with them but in general do not prevent the hero from obtaining basic skills from other class specializations, and that it is extraordinarily unlikely that a single hero would be able to obtain all the possible skills, certainly not to any significant level of proficiency.

RPGDot: How does level up work? Do you get XPs for killing monsters and/or solving riddles, quests? And if so, how can you use the XPs?

DW Bradley: Dungeon Lords is breaking another CRPG mold in the area of personal character development, and employs a new system for players to improve their character hero, and though I will volunteer that the heroes do acquire experience in the game from all sorts of endeavors, I'm keeping description of the new system under wraps for the time being…

RPGDot: Is there anything else you would like to add for our readers?

DW Bradley: Only to say how much we appreciate your interest in Dungeon Lords and to say thank you to all the dedicated fans that, over the years and throughout the world, have been a constant inspiration to me and to whom I am forever grateful. May you all have thrilling adventures and exotic dreams - long live CRPG and Dungeon Lords!