Introduction
Just outside the gates of Avalon, a 12-year war realizes its climax... The uneasy alliance
of seven western kingdoms created the Citadel of Avalon as a mighty fortress. But in
the last eight months, the Citadel has become a city of refugees, a city under siege.
The Sha'ahoul, under the banner of the Shaman Warlord Mithras, are
waging a genocidal war against the Citadel. Avalon's garrison is depleted.
Now is the time for courage. For a hero.
Now is the time for the birth of a legend.
What is Siege of Avalon?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg_Iewk-eDc
Not clear from that? Well, Siege of Avalon is an episodic computer roleplaying game developed by Digital Tome. The gameplay consists of talking to the colorful cast, finding unique equipment to make yourself broken with, and fighting the invaders in Diablo-esque real-time isometric combat. It is well-written, with many memorable character, mechanics, and story beats that have stuck with me over the nearly two decades it has been since the game was released. Thats right. The final chapter was released way back in 2001.
Is this a nostalgia trip then?
Not completely. Certainly a lot of my appreciation for this game is nostalgia-based, but I dont believe all of it is. The game was one of the first times I encountered a lot of awesome, unique elements, both in story and mechanics.
Like what?
The obvious one is the format. Digital Tome released the game in six episodes, each available as a digital download. In 2000. While they eventually had to go to a fully CD-based format due to the cost issues of trying to do that in the goddamn year 2000, resulting in the Anthology version I ended up playing, it still blew my young mind that it was possible to release a game in installments, without physical copies being necessary.
My love isnt just for that though.
Siege of Avalon has a paper doll based equipment layout where every piece of equipment changes a characters appearance!!! I remember playing Diablo 2 and thinking, why does only body armor change how I look, and only at set tiers? Then I found this game.
Similarly, I played Baldurs Gate and wondered why I could only progress in narrow classes with predefined abilities. Then I found this game where you can use any abilities as any specialization! You can be a fully-armored knight who slings fireballs, or you can be a mage with a massive sword, all depending on where you put your training points.
But at the same time, the specialization you choose at the beginning does make you better at that classs thing, and it changes how characters react to you, including the availability of certain quests. A squire can undertake a quest to be knighted, while a scout has the opportunity to join the legendary Rangers.
The quests you do matter as well. If you dont help someone in Chapter 1, you might not be able to do certain quests involving them in later Chapters. There is a surprising amount of reactivity in Siege of Avalon.
Not that there arent plenty of cliches too, but they feel like they were included more out of love for the genre than laziness.
Basically, if youre familiar with the concept, this game is to western CRPGs what indie fantasy heartbreakers are to D&D, except pretty good, especially for its time.
Sounds cool! Where can I get it to follow along!?
. It is currently not available on any digital platforms. You can buy the Anthology CD with all 6 chapters from Amazon or eBay, but even then the game does not play nice with modern computers. It took a lot of trial and error to get this thing working on my Windows 10 PC, but I did it. If anyone is having trouble getting things running, Ill be happy to share what I have learned, but this is definitely an instance of the strong suit of LPs: Im playing this so you dont have to.
There is perhaps another way though one of the final decisions Digital Tome made before dissolving was to make the entire game open source. You can get all of the code here:
https://github.com/CartBlanche/Sieg...lon-Open-Source
Only Chapter 1s assets are included due to licensing issues, but thats still pretty significant. If and when this project is finished, we could see this game up somewhere online.
What's with the thread title?
It's based on Digital Tome's marketing for the game. It's so earnestly silly that I can't help but love it.
Let's get started.
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Table of Contents
Update I - Goondalf the G(reeter)
Update II - Goondalf the G(rateful)
Update III - Goondalf the G(entleman) (1)
Update III - Goondalf the G(entleman) (2)
Update III - Goondalf the G(entleman) (3)
Update IV - Goondalf the G(railseeker)
Update V - Goondalf the G(ardener)
Update VI - Goondalf the G(ilded)
Update VII - Goondalf the G(railfinder)
Update VIII - Goondalf the G(lorious)
Update IX - Goondalf the G(rand)
Update X - Goondalf the G(litched)
Update XI - Goondalf the G(houlish)
Update XII - Goondalf the G(ame-player)
Update XIII - Goondalf the G(eomorphologist)
Update XIV - Goondalf the G(hostbuster)
Update XV - Goondalf the G(hostbuster II)
Update XVI - Goondalf the G(hostbuster Reboot)
Update XVII - Goondalf the G(rasping)
Update XVIII - Goondalf the G(odking)
Update XIX - Goondalf the G(len-wanderer)
Update XX - Goondalf the G(rim)
Update XXI - Goondalf the G(len-Warden)
Update XXII - Goondalf the G(reat)
Update XXIII - Goondalf the G(renzer)
Update XXIV -
Update XXV - Sonlis the S(hadowwalker)
Update XXVI - Sonlis the S(iegebreaker)
Update XXVII - Sonlis the S(uccessful)
Update XXVIII - Goondalf the G(host) (Not)
Update XXIX - Goondalf the G(allant)
Update XXX - Goondalf the G(houl 'n' Ghost (Super))
Update XXXI - Goondalf the G(alactic)
Update XXXII - Goondalf the G(lacial)
Update XXXIII - Goondalf the G(uardian)
Update XXXIV - Goondalf the G(enius)
Update XXXV - Goondalf the G(igantic)
Update XXXVI - Goondalf the G(auze)
Update XXXVII - Goondalf the G(opher)
Update XXXVIII - Goondalf the G(rand Juried)
Update XXXIX - Goondalf the G(enesis)
Update XL - Goondalf the G(odhead)
Update XLI - Goondalf the G