Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard
| Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard | |
|---|---|
Cover art
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| Developer(s) | Liquid Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Atari |
| Platform(s) | Windows XP |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) |
Real-Time Strategy Role-playing video game |
| Mode(s) |
Single-player Co-op and head-to-head multiplayer for 1 to 8 players |
Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard is a real-time strategy role-playing video game, developed for Microsoft Windows by Liquid Entertainment, and published by Atari in 2005. It takes place in Eberron, one of the official Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings. The game combines elements of traditional real-time strategy gameplay with role-playing elements such as hero units, and questing. Dragonshard includes two single-player campaigns, single-player skirmish maps, and multiplayer support. The single-player campaign follows the struggles of three competing factions to gain control of a magical artifact known as the Heart of Siberys.
Although Dragonshard was billed by Atari as "the first Dungeons & Dragons real-time strategy experience,"Stronghold (1993) precedes it by over a decade.
Dragonshard combines aspects of real-time strategy (RTS), and role-playing games (RPGs). Games take place on dual level maps divided into the surface world of Eberron, and the underground realm of Khyber. Units travel between the surface, and the underground through gateways that are fixed on each map. The surface map features traditional RTS gameplay: the player builds and develops base structures, gathers resources, and amasses, and upgrades an army. Unlike most real-time strategy games, all units are available at the beginning of the game, rather than having prerequisites to allow their construction. There are three player-controllable factions in the game: the Order of the Flame, the Lizardfolk, and the Umbragen.
Armies consist of the following unit types:
Only champions and ground-based captains can travel underground, which focuses underground gameplay on a party of individual units rather than the surface world's squad-based armies, and plays more like a role-playing game. Underground maps feature party-based dungeon crawling gameplay: units must negotiate traps, gather treasure, and hunt monsters. Items are stored in a global inventory accessible to all units.
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