Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures Initial Impressions

Are you a Dungeons & Dragons fan? Are you on FaceBook? You should probably check out D&D: Tiny Adventures on FaceBook if you said yes to both.

I think the concept is great. Create a character, pick an adventure. Adventures update in intervals and you can check on the status. You can use potions to get the results you want during encounters. Invite friends and you can boost their stats while they are on an adventure, or heal them when they are complete. Other than that, you really just get into encounters, get experience, get loot, get rested and go out again.

Hardcore players be warned: it's not a very deep or accurate portrayal of the game. The classes don't mean much except for initial stats. They really only dictate what kind of environments your class will be good at.

There is potential here, it's rather addicting to check up on how your character is doing, but otherwise, it's just checking up to see how you're doing. The looting and leveling aspect is as addicting as any other RPG, except you really don't have much choice.

I'd like to see the next iteration of this game add a choose-your-own-adventure kind of control. Instead of just randomly picking events and telling you the outcome, Tiny Adventures could let you sort of maximize your class abilities. Rescuing a wounded soldier? Maybe a Cleric would choose to heal the soldier and then have help instead of rushing straight in and defeating the attackers.

The class distinction should also dictate what kind of support you give your friends. Perhaps a Cleric could heal a friend once per adventure, or a rogue could sense a trap for you. These distinctions would allow a group of friends to pick different classes and pretend to adventure together.

Lastly, in a social network environment, I'm surprised that I can't gift items I find and can't use. I find it kind of strange that the class choices don't give you any benefits, yet I have the restrictions of that class when it comes to items. The simplest solution is to allow trading and gifting of items. It would also make the game more social.

Anyway, so far so good. Wizard's of the Coast at least put out a great little app that draws interest for D&D. It also seems to use a bit of 4th edition rules, so it's interesting to see it play out on such a Tiny scale.

Next Generation Mobile Company :)

Neil Young, CEO of ng:moco:) and 11-year EA vet, had a keynote speech at iphonedevcamp2. He talks about the iPhone as a gaming platform.


Neil Young > iPhone is greater than... from Dom Sagolla on Vimeo.

I've posted about this before and totally agree. Neil Young brought up some interesting points. The iPhone is a multimedia device that could potentially allow games to tap into all sorts of functionality that no one has considered before. What if the game changes based on GPS? What if an SMS text was a medium for action? What if games spanned multiple days to play (one doesn't turn off an iPhone)?

These are very interesting things to think about and I am excited that a company like ng:moco exists to foster a new generation of game developers.

Running the Labyrinth

Every once in a while I check out Jane McGonical's blog. I saw her keynote speech at E-tech in 2007 and have been enamored by what she stands for and works toward. Her most recent blog entry talks about The Lost Ring, and like most alternate reality games, it is a site that is slowly revealing rules on how to play an interesting game.



The rules are being collected here, but basically it looks like one runner is blindfolded and must navigate a maze with nothing but a team that will build the walls and hum so that the blindfolded runner will not run into them. You can read the rules here.

By the way, Jane is all about these social game experiments that foster teamwork and build relationships. Her games usually involve interacting with complete strangers in order to accomplish a goal. Thumbs up, Miss McGonigal!