When RPGs Had Teeth: The Bard’s Tale

Jason Denzel pens a retrospective look at Interplay’s classic Tales of the Unknown, Volume I: The Bard’s Tale, considering what made it so good and which ingredients it contained that modern RPGs are lacking in.

The meat of why this particular game remains immortal in my memory is that it genuinely challenged the player in ways that modern RPG’s dare not do today. First, there was no auto-mapping feature, which meant that you would have to map the dungeons by hand in order to survive. This was no small feat considering that the dungeons you had to trudge through were incredibly complex with frequent traps which would spin or teleport you around without any indication that it was doing so. And there was no question that you needed these maps. You could not simply walk into the catacombs or Harkyn’s Castle and blindly make your way through. The sewers alone were a complete nightmare.

Fortunately at the time, I had a friend who happened to own the game’s cluebook, which he allowed me to photocopy. (Yes, yes, I know that’s heavily frowned upon. But trust me in that I’ve consciously made up for it over the years in the considerable contributions I’ve given this game’s lasting legacy; not to mention all the various copies I’ve gotten off eBay!)

Unlike the full-featured game guides of today, the supplemental guide for Bard’s Tale was presented in the form of a journal that you had presumably inherited from an unfortunate party of adventurers who’d previously failed in their assault on Mangar’s domain. Maps were included of every level, but often the advice given would only hint at what needed to happen rather than outright giving you the solutions. As a player, I liked that back when I was 13 years old. Today, I like that even more. It required me to think, and only gave hints, not outright solutions.

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Thanks, RPGWatch.