Realms Of Arkania: Blade Of Destiny

Germans don't give D&D the time of day and wouldn't give Rune Quest a cheese roll if it was starving. For them the best paper and pencil role-playing game is Das Schwarze Auge which has now been converted onto pc as the Realms Of Arkania series. First of the series. Blade Of Destiny, involves a quest through 52 towns and villages in search the sword of Grimring and has won a crop of awards in Germany. The game gives you simultaneous control of up to eight characters, who can be moved round as a group or independently. Each character has more characteristics than you can shake a multi sided die at. As well as positive characteristics there are negative attributes such as greed, superstition and phobias. All this and 80 spells too should have RPGers rolling on their backs and waving their hairy little feet in the air. As a side note the soundtrack is available on CD which is a bit alarming.