Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance

***Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance*** is a video game released in January 1988 for various home computer systems and consoles. The game is based on the first *Dragonlance* campaign module for the *Dungeons & Dragons* fantasy role-playing game, *Dragons of Despair*, and the first Dragonlance novel *Dragons of Autumn Twilight*. *Heroes of the Lance* focuses on the journey of eight heroes through the ruined city of Xak Tsaroth, where they must face the ancient dragon Khisanth and retrieve the relic, the Disks of Mishakal.

## Gameplay

*Heroes of the Lance* is a side-scrolling action game. The game uses actual *Dungeons & Dragons* statistics, with statistics for the characters exactly as they were in the rule books. Eight heroes from the *Dragonlance* novels series must be assembled for the quest, and only one is visible on the screen at a time; when one on-screen hero dies, the next in line appears.

While *Heroes of the Lance* is a faithful representation of the books it is based on, it was a departure from the usual role-playing video game style of most *Dungeons & Dragons* games, with a gameplay interface which consists of using one character at a time in horizontally scrolling fighting. Each character has different types of attacks and spells making them more suited to fighting different enemies but they merely act as "lives" for the player as in more traditional fighting games, removing one of the main strategies of role-playing games from the game.[*clarification needed*]

## Characters

The eight heroes that make up the party are:

* Goldmoon, a princess who brandishes the Blue Crystal Staff, an artifact whose powers she seeks to fully understand.
* Sturm Brightblade, a powerful and solemn knight.
* Caramon Majere, A warrior who makes up for his lack of intelligence with pure strength and fighting prowess.
* Raistlin Majere, Caramon's twin brother; a sly and brilliant, but frail, mage.
* Tanis Half-Elven, the 'natural leader' of the heroes, and good with a bow.
* Tasslehoff Burrfoot, a kender pickpocket. He fights with a sling weapon known as a *hoopak*.
* Riverwind, Goldmoon's betrothed. He is a noble and wise warrior.
* Flint Fireforge, a grizzled dwarven warrior.

## Development

*Heroes of the Lance* was based on the Dragonlance novels by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. *Heroes of the Lance* was not part of the Gold Box series; the nickname for these other *D&D* titles were "Silver Box" games. The NES version was developed by Natsume.

## Reception

*Heroes of the Lance* was very successful for SSI, with 88,808 copies sold for computers in North America. After reviewing a pre-production copy of the DOS version of *Heroes of the Lance*, the magazine *G.M.* praised its graphics and "excellent" audio and said that "it would undoubtedly go straight to the top of the computer games charts and stay there for several months. Its THAT good." *Computer Gaming World* gave the DOS version of the game a similarly positive review. *Electronic Gaming Monthly* columnist Seanbaby listed the NES version as the 2nd worst NES game, and as the 11th worst video game. Levi Buchanan, in a classic *Dungeons & Dragons* videogame retrospective for IGN, wrote that "If you don't plan well, you can lose a lot of heroes in a very short period of time. This offered a slight strategy angle, but *D&D* fans largely preferred the *Pool of Radiance* straight RPG approach." (*Pool of Radiance*' sales were triple that of *Heroes of the Lance*.) According to GameSpy, "While the game was actually a fairly decent side-scroller for its time, the frustrating level of difficulty, along with the fact that you couldn't save the game, meant that most gamers gave this game a miss."

## Legacy

The storyline for this game continued in two subsequent video games, *Dragons of Flame* and *Shadow Sorcerer*.

## References

{{#vardefine:numCol|2}}

1. ↑ Heroes of the Lance (NES) - Video Game Music Preservation Foundation Wiki.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Buchanan, Levi (March 6, 2008). Dungeons & Dragons Classic Videogame Retrospective. IGN. Retrieved on 2011-03-18.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Tresca, Michael J. (2010), *The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games*, McFarland, p. 142, ISBN 078645895X<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Maher, Jimmy (2016-03-18). Opening the Gold Box, Part 3: From Tabletop to Desktop. The Digital Antiquarian. Retrieved on 19 March 2016.
5. ↑ "*Advanced Dungeons & Dragons*". *G.M.* Croftward. **1** (1): 1820. September 1988.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
6. ↑ Wilson, David (Dec 1988). "Heroes and Heavies of the Lance". *Computer Gaming World*. pp. 54, 56.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
7. ↑ Seanbaby. The 20 worst NES Games of all Time. Archived from the original on 23 March 2007. Retrieved on March 29, 2007.
8. ↑ Seanbaby. Seanbaby's EGM's Crapstravaganza: The 20 Worst Video Games of All Time.. Archived from the original on 23 March 2007. Retrieved on March 29, 2007.
 (expanded from an article written for Electronic Gaming Monthly #150)
9. ↑ Rausch, Allen (August 15, 2004). A History of D&D Video Games. GameSpy. Retrieved on 2009-12-23.

## Sources

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* Dykes, Big Al (December 1991). "Rerelease: Heroes of the Lance" (review). *Sinclair User* (118): 44. ISSN 0262-5458. Retrieved March 29, 2007.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
* Rich (January 1992). "Replay: Heroes of the Lance" (review). *Your Sinclair* (73): 82. ISSN 0269-6983. Retrieved March 29, 2007.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
* South, Phil (March 1989). "Screen Shots Part II: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes of the Lance" (review). *Your Sinclair* (39): 80. ISSN 0269-6983. Retrieved March 29, 2007.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles> alternate html version of the review.
* "Fantasy Roleplaying: Heroes of the Lance" (review). *Crash* (62): 71. March 1989. ISSN 0954-8661. Retrieved March 29, 2007.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
* "Games Review: Heroes of the Lance". *Sinclair User* (83): 3435. February 1989. ISSN 0262-5458. Retrieved March 29, 2007.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>

## External links

* *Heroes of the Lance* at MobyGames
* *Heroes of the Lance* at SpectrumComputing.co.uk
* *Heroes of the Lance* can be played for free in the browser at the Internet Archive
* *Images of Heroes* of the Lance package, manual and screen