Which RPGs have the most sword-and-sorcery feel?

[ghostdog]

The 1991 Conan the Cimmerian action RPG (DOS/Amiga) is decent. If the whole interface/control wasn't clunky as fuck, it could have been great. IIRC you needed to use the city maps from the manual to find where things are, since the city was pretty big and chaotic. I really liked that old-school stuff.

You gotta love this intro. Conan smooches his woman and then he sends her to do the laundry while he works the anvil making some big-ass swords. Then, as she's by the river wearing her leather thong and shaking her ass, evil soldiers raid the village and kill her. The biggest mistake they could have done, now Conan will find them and put their heads on pikes...




There's also the obscure amiga game Evil's Doom, that was about to be released in amiga's dying days, but was never formally published. It has been released in the net since. It's a pretty cool looking dungeon crawler, and even if the name Conan isn't used, it's obviously only for copyright reasons.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

The 1991 Conan the Cimmerian action RPG (DOS/Amiga) is decent. If the whole interface/control wasn't clunky as fuck, it could have been great. IIRC you needed to use the city maps from the manual to find where things are, since the city was pretty big and chaotic. I really liked that old-school stuff.

You gotta love this intro. Conan smooches his woman and then he sends her to do the laundry while he works the anvil making some big-ass swords. Then, as she's by the river wearing her leather thong and shaking her ass, evil soldiers raid the village and kill her. The biggest mistake they could have done, now Conan will find them and put their heads on pikes...




There's also the obscure amiga game Evil's Doom, that was about to be released in amiga's dying days, but was never formally published. It has been released in the net since. It's a pretty cool looking dungeon crawler, and even if the name Conan isn't used, it's obviously only for copyright reasons.

Never could get the fighting in this game to work.

 

[eric__s]

To me, Spirit of Adventure always felt like this. Partially because they stole a bunch of Conan the Barbarian images and drew over them, but there is just something rough and Teutonic about the aesthetic of the first few Attic RPGs. The game sucks though, don't actually play it.



Blade of Destiny has a similar feeling and probably a similar nonchalant attitude toward art theft. Blade of Destiny especially captures the essence of shirtless, sweating barbarians because of its emphasis on the wilderness, camping, travel and low magic fantasy. Unlike Spirit of Adventure, Blade of Destiny is great - one of the best RPGs and something everyone here should play.

 

[ghostdog]

The 1991 Conan the Cimmerian action RPG (DOS/Amiga) is decent. If the whole interface/control wasn't clunky as fuck, it could have been great. IIRC you needed to use the city maps from the manual to find where things are, since the city was pretty big and chaotic. I really liked that old-school stuff.

You gotta love this intro. Conan smooches his woman and then he sends her to do the laundry while he works the anvil making some big-ass swords. Then, as she's by the river wearing her leather thong and shaking her ass, evil soldiers raid the village and kill her. The biggest mistake they could have done, now Conan will find them and put their heads on pikes...




There's also the obscure amiga game Evil's Doom, that was about to be released in amiga's dying days, but was never formally published. It has been released in the net since. It's a pretty cool looking dungeon crawler, and even if the name Conan isn't used, it's obviously only for copyright reasons.

Never could get the fighting in this game to work.

IIRC you fought the duels with the numpad. It was a bit like the Barbarian game, but clunkier.

 

[Marten Broadcloak]

Well, if all you care about is the setting, and not the writing or the mechanics, then there is always that game...

 

[Neanderthal]

Rune?
Oddly enough a Torment fighter run does the business if you ask me, big axe, half nekkid barbarian, 100% attitude, dogs bollocks.
Severance already been mentioned but its interesting to read up on lore behind its mythology an place names it uses, Zoroastrian an Persian/middle eastern stuff. Go Tukaram.
Volgarr the Viking, back to good old twitch days.
Enclave has a kinda different setting (Roman Elves) but is bloody silly at points, an theres too many pointy fuckin ears.
Sacred as a Gadiator or Seraphim should fit but despite good atmosphere, sounds an a decent mechanical side theres nowt there to really hold you, deep as a puddle. But wandering through desert while that music plays and coming across Bronze Age settlements o Orcs, an all undead shambling from their graves, its a pretty good experience an best part o game for me.
Worlds of Ultima: Savage Empire kinda does what you're lookin for.
Early text adventures the Quest an Ring Quest used a lot o Frazetta like art.
Tir Na Nog an Dun Darach I suppose you could take a look at, don't really conjure up historical/mythological Hound of Culain though.
Yeah not enough ancient world/sword an sorcery stuff really, folk want same renaissance fayre shit oer an oer again it seems, we need some brawn, buttocks, breasts an bloodied broadswords in hands o barbaric bastards who sport a full set o bollocks.

 

[Fenris 2.0]

Death Bringer/Galdregon's Domain

total sword and sorcery, total trash.

 

[vazha]

Ww-what game is this?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Oh, right, the Konung series men.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Tir Na Nog an Dun Darach I suppose you could take a look at, don't really conjure up historical/mythological Hound of Culain though.

If this. then Celtic Tales: Balor of the evil eye.

 

[Fenris 2.0]

Ww-what game is this?

I played the Game on Amiga back in the days, but there is a ugly EGA Version for DOS. It played like Dungeonmaster in very boring, you had only one Character, IIRC Magic was only available with Scrolls and it was far to easy to kill a friendly NPC accidentally. The Game was shit, but it had a nice Overworld and some scantly clad women

Oh, maybe the Conan Modules from NWN 2 should be mentioned.
https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/module/conan-chronicles-legions-dead
https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn2/module/conan-chronicles-2-zamorian-chronicles

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Ww-what game is this?

I played the Game on Amiga back in the days, but there is a ugly EGA Version for DOS. It played like Dungeonmaster in very boring, you had only one Character, IIRC Magic was only available with Scrolls and it was far to easy to kill a friendly NPC accidentally. The Game was shit, but it had a nice Overworld and some scantly clad women

Oh, maybe the Conan Modules from NWN 2 should be mentioned.
https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/module/conan-chronicles-legions-dead
https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn2/module/conan-chronicles-2-zamorian-chronicles

They were. You're missing the gladiator one.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

And King of Dragon Pass.

 

[V_K]

Keef the Thief has all the Conan-ish tropes, but it makes a parody of them rather than playing it straight. Can't blame the devs though, it's hard to take that shit seriously.

 

[Quillon]

Well, if all you care about is the setting, and not the writing or the mechanics, then there is always that game...

Lacks the sex appeal of Conan-like. Now that I think about it they must have deliberately avoided it.

 

[Darkzone]

One thing that increasingly annoys me about recent RPGs is their adherence to a high-magic Early Renaissance/Late Middle Ages type setting, with elves, dwarves, and other non-human intelligent races being common.

Are there any RPGs out there that go for a more human-centric, Bronze Age/Iron Age setting where magic is something to crush the sanity of those who dabble in it instead of something to be used for whimsical fireworks?

Basically, I'm looking for games that feel more like this:

Spoiler

Than this:

Dark Sun is the most Sword & Sorcery type of ADD setting and the game reflects this. Conan the Cimmerian was a nice game but it wasn't that type of a real cRPG. S&S setting requires a low magic world, so Tranny is not really S&S because of the extend amout of magic.
I can tell you what i have heard from a "hmm" person: S&S ARPG in a savage bronze age world can appear on EA Steam or on GOG in 1 year. But please don't bind me to it, because this person is quite lazy and is taking to much drugs and i had only few conversations with hir.
If i can find a picture from this thing i will post it for you.

 

[deama]

There's Overlord, maybe?

 

[Spectacle]

bylam, why won't Funcom make a single player Conan RPG???

 

[Falksi]

Female barbarian butt is awesome.

 

[bylam]

bylam, why won't Funcom make a single player Conan RPG???

Until very recently we only had multiplayer rights to the Conan IP.
Corporate Management still strongly believes that the only way to make money is with multiplayer games (something I disagree with wholeheartedly).

I wrote a Darklands inspired pitch in 2014 that we discussed quite a bit. For a while, I thought we were actually going to make it. I even made a prototype in our Dreamworld Engine. And then we switched to Unreal 4 and changed plans.

 

[Melan]

Dragon Wars takes some cues from swords&sorcery with its Mesopotamian city states and Roman legionaries, but it almost immediately turns around and starts to sneak in more high fantasy (including the titular dragons, a late addition). It is an excellent game, but still, pretty disappointing that they almost had something solidly S&S, and then it slipped out of their hands.

 

[Excidium II]

Well, if all you care about is the setting, and not the writing or the mechanics, then there is always that game...

smash tha muthafuckin retarded button fam

 

[octavius]

It's kind of ironic that the games (that I have played at least) that best capture the S&S mood are non-RPGs like Dun Darach and Thief. In these games you are forced to play characters with limited abilities, though, while in CRPGs the wider choices seem to make it inevitable that the games become magic heavy.
I guess that in CRPGs, and MERP, most players won't accept not being able to play a character being able to cast spells.

 

[Excidium II]

It's kind of ironic that the games (that I have played at least) that best capture the S&S mood are non-RPGs like Dun Darach and Thief.

Well non-RPG there are loads. Arcade games and such.

 

[Quillon]

Cos when its an RPG they gotta make fag wizards for players and every third person must be a wizard and they can't be all evul wizards so inevitable fundamental change of feel of the setting to accommodate this and some more stuff.