Game #7: Swords & Sorcery

Swords and Sorcery is a Star Trek variant in a fantasy setting and it is also turn based. The game became available on the PLATO network in 1977 and it continued to be updated until 1979. Magic items were added to the game in the spring of 1978.

Opening screen for Swords & Sorcery

You begin the game as a hero who accepts quests from the King. While on these quests you gain experience and gold and occasionally a magic item. When you complete one quest you receive an award and another quest from the King. Your very first quest will likely involve you having to chop down a particular number of trees. The other quests you receive usually involve killing a number of enemies of type x or finding a particular number of treasures.

The game is grid based and as the player you are able to choose the size of the overall world. The game world is a 10 x 10 universe with each quadrant 10 x 10 tiles. You can choose the number of quadrants; example you can choose the largest 10 x 10 or you can make your game world 4 x 4 quadrants or even just a 1 x 1 quadrant. When you adjust the number of quadrants it changes the difficulty setting of the game. The lower the number of quadrants you select actually makes the game much more difficult because moving away from your enemies becomes virtually impossible.

Your job as a hero is to take on quests for the king.

The game is grid based and movement in the game becomes very tactical. You have trees to avoid unless you chop the tree down. You dictate the number of your moves which is termed “speed” in the game. You can move between 1 and 3 spaces unless you find Phials of Adrenaline in the treasure chests. These will boost your Adrenaline score and allow you to move 4 spaces. You also determine direction. The game is turn based and in the beginning of the game you need to be very careful to avoid running into a tree or a treasure chest. You can actually take damage from running into each and you’ll likely instantly die.

The beginning of the game is extremely brutal. If you should find yourself in an adjacent square to your enemy they will get to attack you. This usually results in instant death. If you even so much as look at them the wrong way – instant death. There are all kinds of threats in the game: wizards, demons, werewolves, goblins, zombies, and a dragon.

Grid based screen with the list of commands in Swords & Sorcery

What you need to do is find the treasure chests and hope that you obtain arrows. Once you have arrows in your possession the game becomes much easier. You can also find gold or magic items in the treasure chests. The arrows allow you to slay your enemies from afar without risking yourself. Once you begin to build your experience the monsters can no longer kill you with one blow and you can begin to fight toe to toe with your sword as well. Some of the arrows are magical in nature and allow you to kill more than one enemy at the same time. Remember that I mentioned the game is grid based and turn based so if you can move in such a way as to get your enemies to line up in the grid you can take out multiple enemies with one arrow.

There are something called Magic Circles in the game as well to aid you. In a 10 x 10 universe you’ll have 7 Magic Circles to aid you. Monsters cannot attack you while in a Magic Circle. You can sell items and buy swords, arrows, experience, and adrenaline. I strongly recommend you buy arrows with your gold and buying experience does not hurt either as it allows you to stand up to your enemies defensively.

Once you have arrows in your possession the game becomes much easier. You complete your quest and when finished you receive another quest from the king and so on. The game can become rather addictive once you get past the nuances of movement through the tactical grid.

My hero, Kheda, now has 3,040 experience and 913 gold pieces (which is a lot!)

Swords & Sorcery was written by Donald Gillies. My understanding is that by 1980 this was the 7th most popular game on Plato. I rather enjoyed my time spent with Swords & Sorcery. I found the turn based tactical fantasy game a refreshing change of pace from Dungeon, Orthanc, and Moria and an interesting take on the fantasy genre. Tactical, turn based strategy games in the fantasy genre are very popular today with gamers and Swords & Sorcery then can be considered a first or a pioneer in the field.

I can’t stress enough how impressed I am with the level of sophistication and the enjoyment I have derived from these early Plato games. I am extremely glad I have embarked on this journey through time and was able to experience this historical piece of gaming legacy. I would recommend any of the Plato games in the fantasy genre and this one is no different.

Next up in my quest is the game Beneath Apple Manor