The Shadow of Yserbius, Fates of Twinion, Ruins of Cawdor

[Fowyr]

Does anyone played these games?
They are oddballs because always considered "graphical MUDs" first, but they can be played offline (Cawdor needs the patch), but in essence they are real dungeon crawlers with TB blob combat, interesting dungeons, quests, story, the whole kit and caboodle. Because of "one man party" without other players, they are hard, but not really hard. I finished both Yserbius and Twinion and seriously progressed in Cawdor.
Now for specifics:
Yserbius and Twinion are fantasy games set on the same island. Cawdor is Macbeth-inspired place of madness where NPCs talk in Early Modern and encounter descriptions constantly break the 4th wall. It's better than it sounds, trust me.

Some advices:
1)Don't fear the Reaper.
Death is only travel to the top of mountain.
2) Maps are usually regenerate when you enter them again. Exceptions are some fountains and quest-related thingies.
3) Fixed encounters fully regenerate in Yserbius/Twinion and regenerate on leaving map in Cawdor. Some quests in Cawdor depends on winning all fixed encounters on map, BTW.
4) Don't train fully all your spells and skills. Leave a single "11" somewhere, thus you will continue to get taining points on level-up.
5) Protection spells work on NEXT round. Keep it in mind.
6) Control spell is the best first spell in combat. Allow enemies to take care of themselves.
It could be casted from scroll - Sovereign scroll - that is sold in shop for whooping 25000. Monsters in Yserbius' first map - Soldier's Quarters - have it in their loot too. Also it can be pickpocketed from them with thief's Pickpocket skill.
7) Lower entrance to mountain (grate in Yserbius, skull in Twinion, glowing portal in Cawdor) is for returning to map where you were after using Teleport spell. Keep in mind, you DON'T replenish health and mana this way.

I have a fucking shitload of various info for Yserbius (spells/items and whatnot) but I need to complete it some more and then I can dump it here.

 

[aweigh]

pics. videos.

we should dedicate ourselves to making compilation threads per-decade for the dungoen crawler genre. we can split it up to 1 thread for every five years as well.

1970-1980 alone produced well over 200 dungeon crawlers easily. IMO turn-based dungeon crawlers are the only genre of RPG worth talk

in order to keep the threads monocoled of course only turn-based entries allowed.

 

[aweigh]

excuse me, i mean during 1980-1990. for 1970-1980 i doubt more than 20 crawlers came out considering oubliette came ut in 77.

 

[Fowyr]

Navigationally speaking, Yserbuis and Twinion have very complex dungeons with backdoors, teleports and whatnot. Every map from first cluster (Cleowyn's Palace) have several connections to other maps. Labyrinth (second map cluster) is navigated through pits where for one pit that sends you to lower level, 15 send you to the death. I remember Yserbius had "Chess Board" map where you used knight chess piece to move like chess knight.
Cawdor maps are easy and don't have this kind of complexity.

 

[Sceptic]

I think the only one I finished was Yserbius. The dungeon design was absolutely fantastic, but I found the combat in single player mode to be fairly tedious and it put me off finishing the others. If these allowed full party creation in their single player mode they'd be stellar dungeon crawlers.

 

[Fowyr]

I found very neat trick with magic weapons in Yserbius. Some of them cast useful spells for several times. Say, Crossbow of Chaos can cast Death Darts twice. When you cast two times it becomes unusable, but return to top of the mountain and you can cast Death Darts twice again. However, if you cast only once and returned to top, charges do not replenish.
Teleport spell is pretty useless because does not heal you does not restore mana, but it still considered journey to the top.
So you can use all charges on item winning the combat, use Teleport spell to re-charge it and use item in the next encounter.

 

[Fowyr]

Major areas of Labyrinth

Red X are pits/lava.

Attic:
1) Teleport to/from the Thieves' Den.
2) Teleport to/from Dungeon Entrance
3) Pit to Mage's Overlook
4) Teleport to/from Zephyr
There is also teleport to/from Castlegate, but it's activated in Labyrinth 4.

Secret Chamber of Labyrinth Thieves:
5) Teleport to/from Zephyr
10) Pit to Torbriar's Treasury

Wyn Sanctuary:
6)Teleport to/from ZZYZX
7)Pit to Dragon Leap

Wind Knights' Tomb:
8)Pit to Moon Hollow
9)Teleport to/from Moon Hollow

 

[varangos]

from what time in human history this comes from?neolithic?

 

[Fowyr]

from what time in human history this comes from?neolithic?

Hey, I posted somewhere my maps of Elvira II made by ruling pens and Indian ink.

 

[varangos]

lol,you must be over 60

 

[Fowyr]

Typical Cawdor humor on the typical Cawdor map.

Back to the kitchen...

And then fight some alliterated monsters.

 

[TigerKnee]

Hearing that the offline versions of the game doesn't allow full party creation and play does kind of hamper my desire to play these...

 

[Fowyr]

Compare lazy Cawdor map with these unfinished maps of Labyrinth:

My maps only show major areas and ingresses/exits, they are really pretty complex inside.

 

[Fowyr]

I've found interesting bug with chess board (and probably some other "triggerable" tiles). Normally, you move on the board using knight move, but if you cast teleport and then return, you can move one tile forward in the direction that you are facing.

 

[Sceptic]

Oh god just looking at the Labyrinth maps instantly reminded me of some of the encounters on those levels

Goddamnit. Why do we have thousands of shitty mods for shitty games and hundreds of pointless ports and whatnot yet no one would tweak this trilogy for single-player full party I'd reinstall and play all 3 of them in a heartbeat if this was possible.