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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Flying Toaster" data-source="post: 9743372" data-attributes="member: 7052563">A few more thoughts about Wizardry, and how it both followed old D&D conventions and also anticipated some later trends in character building and party composition.  For my friends and I, this game felt like playing D&D solo since the minimal dungeon graphics were basically the same as theater of the mind.  You were expected to map the dungeon levels on real graph paper as you explored, very old school.  I never actually finished the first game as I always got bogged down on the third level, which had some dungeon corridor intersections trapped with magic that would spin you around or maybe just teleport you, making it hard to map and easy to get lost.  Just like in OD&D there were jokes and puns, such as a deadly magic sword called the Blade Cuisinart.  The spells all had nonsensical all-caps fantasy names; the most powerful Mage spell was called TILTOWAIT and was described as something akin to a very small thermonuclear blast.The basic classes (Fighter, Mage, Priest, Thief) are clearly the same quartet found in OD&D and B/X (yes, I am including the thief... <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="😌" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60c.png" title="Relieved face    :relieved:" data-shortname=":relieved:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />).  The ability scores were mostly similar to those in D&D, but Luck replaced Charisma as peaceful NPC interaction was not a major feature of the Mad Overlord’s dungeons.  The game used an RNG to “roll up” characters, who qualified for various classes if their stats were high enough.  The Bishop (cleric/mage) was the only one of the elite classes that was usually within reach when rolling up new first level characters.  PCs needed to play for a while and level up their stats if they wanted to qualify for Lord (paladin) or Samurai (fighter/mage with crit capability), and the unarmed Ninja martial artist needed ridiculous stats (17 in everything!!!). The tripartite alignment system (Good, Neutral, Evil) was actually just as much a consideration when building characters and parties as ability scores.  Of the eight classes only the Fighter and Mage had no alignment restrictions.  Four classes were restricted to two choices and two had no choice at all.  Priests and Bishops had an alignment quirk requiring them to choose either Good or Evil, but not Neutral, which resembles a weird old D&D rule requiring Neutral clerics to change alignment and pick a side in the cosmic war of Law vs. Chaos by the time they reach a certain level.  Thieves could be Neutral or Evil, but not Good.  Samurai could be Good or Neutral, but not Evil.The Lord had to be Good and the Ninja had to be Evil.  Since there was a standard rule that Good and Evil characters could each mix freely with Neutrals, but could not go adventuring together, no PC party could ever include both a Lord and a Ninja.  However a Neutral Samurai and an Evil Ninja work fine together.  In order to have some thieving skills in your party you had to either roll up a Neutral Thief who could hang with the Good-aligned clergy, or make an Evil Thief who might someday aspire to change class into the 17+ nirvana of the Ninja.In practice, if you wanted to use elite classes you had to choose a standard party alignment when rolling up your characters and building your party.  The situation resembled one of those old fox-goose-grain brain puzzles.  You had two options: The Guardians of Goodness<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Good Fighters (2) (Lords/Samurai?)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Good Priest</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Good Bishop (or another Mage)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Neutral Thief</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Good/Neutral Mage</li> </ul>The Bastion of Badness<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Neutral Fighters (2) (Samurai?)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Evil Priest</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Evil Bishop (or another Mage)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Evil Thief (Ninja???)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Neutral Mage</li> </ul></blockquote>

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