Return to IWD

With Amy and Matthew at a swim meet this past weekend, Nathaniel and I were on our own. We did a bit of modeling, but he was keen on some D&D video game action, so we played a bit of the classic '90s Chronicles of Mystara games on our Xbox. He was looking for something more, so I suggested we check out the renowned Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale series; after I described both in detail, he opted for Icewind Dale, so we picked up the Enhanced Edition on Steam and jumped into some old-school second-edition character creation! Nathaniel created three heroes based on some of his favorite characters of past campaigns, and I contributed three of my own -- including a new incarnation of my all-time favorite character from my first-ever IWD play-through. We're still early in the game, but he's loving it so far, and I'm glad to be able to share this experience with him!

Return to Mystara

It was just over a year ago that the boys and I played through the first of two '90s D&D arcade games that we'd downloaded for our Xbox. Yesterday we decided to kill some time before the Super Bowl by tackling the second game in the Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara series. This one provides several character class options beyond what was available in the original, so we all had fun trying out different classes whenever we got killed -- which was often. (And we were elated to learn that the cleric has the infamous Sticks to Snakes spell that provided so much entertainment in the original game!) The boys cycled through lots of characters, while I tended to stay with a human fighter named Devon. (And every time he would die and re-spawn, I invariably invoked one of our favorite recurring SNL gags: "Devon? Whaaaaat are you doing here?") We were deep into the game when my friend Kyle showed up to watch the Super Bowl with us, so we handed him our fourth controller and he joined in the action. We had to delay the final two boss fights until the break between the first and second quarters, but we beat the game and then enjoyed watching the Chiefs beat the Niners!

"Sticks to Snakes!"

I'm definitely not a Halo guy, so after the boys blew me up a dozen times in a multiplayer scenario, we decided to switch over to Chronicles of Mystara for some cooperative Xbox action. The first game in Chronicles is called Tower of Doom, and it involves heroes battling against a lich called Deimos. There's probably more to the story, but Matthew clicked through all the dialogue, so we were a bit fuzzy on what was going on. Nevertheless, our stalwart party -- with Matthew as the cleric, Nathaniel as the fighter, and me as the spell-slinging elf -- hacked and slashed our way through hordes of kobolds, skeletons, gnolls, and other classic D&D monsters. (Shout-out to the owlbears, yo!) It took us a couple of hours, but we defeated the lich and saved...whatever we were supposed to save!

The hands-down most entertaining aspect of this game, however, is the cleric spell Sticks to Snakes. When Matthew would cast that spell, his character would call out "sticks to snakes!" in a very authoritative voice as he tossed some brown rectangles onto the ground (remember that this arcade game first came out in '93, so the graphics aren't that great!). The sticks then animated into snakes that zipped around and attacked the party's enemies. Matthew would often burn through a full day's allotment of Sticks to Snakes spells in a single battle, giving us legions of slithering allies. I'm not sure how effective they were (especially against flying foes like the lich), but it was definitely hilarious to watch! 

Chronicles of Mystara

Remember those awesome D&D arcade games from the '90s? Neither do I, because they never made it to Horseheads, New York. I learned about them years later, after coin-gobbling arcade games had gone the way of Blockbuster Video. At long last, I have the opportunity to scratch that itch, thanks to our Xbox. Last night I downloaded Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, which contains both arcade games from that series -- Tower of Doom (1993) and Shadow Over Mystara (1996). As old-timey side-scrolling games go, they're not half bad! I think the boys will enjoy joining me for some multiplayer action.