Review Submitted By: Habbakuk
Author Status: Player and staff member
Started on Age of Legends: Tales of the Lance: Several years prior.
Submission Date: Jul 9, 2005
TMC Listing: Age of Legends: Tales of the Lance
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Habbakuk]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
To make sure that this review applies to you, I'll point out the
specifics of Age of Legends: Tales of the Lance right away. Firstly,
it is based entirely on the Dragonlance series, during the Age of
Might, prior to the Cataclysm. Age of Legends is also strictly RP-
Enforced, and there is also an approval process that every character
must run through before they can be accepted into our world. This is
to ensure that every character has a sense of quality and is
acceptable to participate in the Dragonlance setting.
As for the mechanics of Age of Legends, there are many cool and
new features that have been recently added into the game, on top of
a wide variety of races (12 in total), and several (10) classes.
Some of the newer features include horseback riding, fishing,
skinning, digging, and even burying valuables, too.
Each race has its own benefits and disadvantages, though every
race is worth playing and balanced out rather well. Especially when
it comes to the equipment we have available in the game, which we
have made sure to create good equipment specifically for certain
kinds of races.
The classes are also balanced and interesting as well. Every
cleric, depending on what god (or goddess) that they serve will have
different prayers available to them, and this is the same for the
paladins (a roleplay-rewarded class) of different gods as well.
Mages of the different Orders (White, Red, and Black) have different
spells available to them, making each order interesting in its own
way.
Every class and race must be roleplayed correctly, or at least
have a good reason for not doing so, lest the player is opt to lose
points on their Roleplaying Factor (a mechanic in the game that can
either help you, or do worse for you depending on how high or low it
is). Several of our classes are very roleplay intensive, in that, a
Knight, when they create, aren't a Knight right away. They are
naught but a person looking to become one, and they must first find
a fully-fledged knight to squire them, and then from there, Knight
them fully. This process is much the same for a Mage, where they
start out looking for a teacher, then they become a Novice of the
Conclave, and eventually be tested.
Our world is always growing, with a separate Builder's Port for
the staff to work on, and this is a good thing to note because
crashes on the Builder's Port won't affect the player's port in the
slightest, so we have all the room in the world to try out neat, new
things, work out the clinks in them, and then update them for the
players when they're good and ready. There is often an immortal
online in the game and willing to help things through with anyone if
they have a concern, but then there is also a newbie channel (which
cannot be used for idle chatter, only for appropriate questions) to
help people through too.
It is needless to say, that from both aspects of Age of Legends
(staff and player), I find it to be, by any and all measure, the
greatest roleplaying mud I have ever experienced. I do not speak out
of bias, I really don't, which you might often see in a review. This
mud is balanced in every way that I can say, offering a huge, wide
world (all of it original, and mapped according to the world of
Krynn) for those to explore and develope their character through
hack & slash, while the mechanics of the game (acceptable combat
system, wide variety of skills/spells, and balanced colouring - you
won't go blind here!) really make it a great, comfortable place to
stay.
Age of Legends is basically a story of Good Vs. Evil, where Good
is prominent, and Evil is in hiding, though they often strike out
and create an awesome story/plot for the players to go by. Of
course... there's always an immortal around to throw in a quest,
too. :)
