Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When was the Forgotten Realms campaign introduced?
With the release of the 3rd edition "Dungeons & Dragons" rules system in 2000 by Wizards of the Coast, the "Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting" was released as a hardcover, in 2001, updating the official material and advancing the timeline of the game world. In 2002, the "Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting" won the Origins Award for "Best Role-Playing Game Supplement of 2001".
On 1 March 2007, Funcom announced that the continuation of the story will be published under the title "Dreamfall Chapters". The numerous cliffhangers and apparent plot holes in "Dreamfall" have caused a great commotion among the players and were addressed by Ragnar Tørnquist on his blog. He stated that the game is, in fact, the first part of a duology and that all questions will be answered in the second installment. In November 2012, Ragnar Tørnquist's newly founded studio Red Thread Games began the pre-production of the sequel. Because Funcom's focus has shifted to online games, the company decided to license the rights to "The Longest Journey" IP to Tørnquist's development studio, who will fund and produce the game independently. A Kickstarter campaign to crowd-fund the game began in February 2013 and ended successfully raising $1.5 million in March. Tørnquist commented that the developers also considered the idea of making a film based on "The Longest Journey" or "Dreamfall" but found it too difficult to realize at the current stage.
Funcom, the developer of the original "The Longest Journey" and "Dreamfall", first announced "Dreamfall Chapters" on 1 March 2007. However, while its plot was already written out at that point, the production of the game couldn't begin until 2012 because all of the original creators of "Dreamfall" (including Tørnquist) were at the time working on Funcom's next MMORPG "The Secret World".
One of the primary features of "Cataclysm" is the redesign of the continents of Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor introduced with the launch of "World of Warcraft" in 2004. While the initial game design did not allow for the use of flying mounts in 'old-world' zones, those zones have been completely redesigned with flight in mind for "Cataclysm". Flight is still unavailable for Burning Crusade starting zones for the blood elves and the draenei.
Fury was a player versus player (PvP) competitive online role-playing game and massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Auran. The game was published by Gamecock Media Group on October 16, 2007, and was the first game they published. Less than two months later, the developer announced it had laid off all employees. The game switched to a free-to-play model, but in October 2008 Auran shutdown the game servers meaning the game would no longer be playable.
Adventures are often political, military, or spiritual in nature, rather than dungeon crawls, and are often presented as taking place congruently with events from Arthurian legend. An important part of the game is the time between adventures, during which player characters manage their estates, get married, age, and have children. Typically, the characters will have one adventure per year, and campaigns often carry over across generations, with players retiring their character and taking the role of that character's heir. This is quite different from most role-playing games, where one set of characters is played fairly intensively, and there is typically little consideration made of what happens to their family or descendants. The influence of this idea can be seen in the "Ars Magica" RPG, which also encourages stories taking years or decades to unfold (and which is also set in medieval Europe).
A campaign to crowd-fund the game on Kickstarter began on 8 February 2013, with a minimal goal of $850,000. Although game's intended full title has always been "Dreamfall Chapters", the developers had used the subtitle "The Longest Journey" during the Kickstarter campaign to improve brand recognition. They estimated the necessary budget for the project to be about $1 million (compared to the $5 million budget of "Dreamfall" and roughly $2–3 million of "TLJ") and planned to supplement the Kickstarter money with further grants and personal funds. Prior to starting the campaign, RTG spent months analyzing previous successful Kickstarter campaigns, particularly "Project Eternity" and "", to better plan their own project. "Dreamfall Сhapters" reached its minimal funding goal on 16 February, much quicker than the developers had anticipated, and concluded on 10 March with $1,538,425 raised, or 180% of the initial goal. Additionally, over $34,000 was raised via PayPal during the Kickstarter campaign, and Red Thread Games continued to collect funds through PayPal until 10 October 2014, when pre-orders for the game were opened.
In 2004, Blizzard Entertainment moved the series away from the real-time strategy genre and released "World of Warcraft", a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Requiring a subscription fee to be paid to play, it also introduced regular additional content to the series in the form of patches. "World of Warcraft" gained popularity worldwide, becoming the world's largest subscription-based MMORPG in 2008. The game reached a peak 12 million subscribers worldwide in October 2010. "World of Warcraft" has had seven expansions as of 2018. During the production of "", Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce stated that "If there's a team that's passionate about doing another "Warcraft" [real-time strategy], then that's definitely something we would consider. It's nothing that we're working on right now, we have development teams working on "", "", "Diablo III", and when those teams are all off the projects they're working on, they'll be intimately involved in the discussions about what's next".
The Seven Sisters—fictional characters of the "Forgotten Realms" campaign setting of the "Dungeons & Dragons" Role Playing Game. The sisters are epic level characters (characters possessing nearly super-human levels of skill and power) of differing abilities, most of which involve some form of spellcasting and use of magic. Created by Ed Greenwood, they have been featured in multiple novels, games, and officially created scenarios by an equally large number of authors/game-designers.
Typically action RPGs feature each player directly controlling a single character in real time, and feature a strong focus on combat and action with plot and character interaction kept to a minimum. Early action RPGs tended to follow the template set by 1980s Nihon Falcom titles such as the "Dragon Slayer" and "Ys" series, which feature hack and slash combat where the player character's movements and actions are controlled directly, using a keyboard or game controller, rather than using menus. This formula was refined by the action-adventure game, "The Legend of Zelda" (1986), which set the template used by many subsequent action RPGs, including innovations such as an open world, nonlinear gameplay, battery backup saving, and an attack button that animates a sword swing or projectile attack on the screen. The game was largely responsible for the surge of action-oriented RPGs released since the late 1980s, both in Japan and North America. "The Legend of Zelda" series would continue to exert an influence on the transition of both console and computer RPGs from stat-heavy, turn-based combat towards real-time action combat in the following decades.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is the second expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) "World of Warcraft", following "". It launched on November 13, 2008 and sold 2.8 million copies within the first day, making it the fastest selling computer game of all time released at that point. The game added a substantial amount of new content into the game world, including the new continent of Northrend, home of the eponymous Lich King and his undead minions. In order to advance through Northrend, players are required to reach at least level 68 and the level cap for the expansion is 80. The first hero class was introduced, the Death Knight, that starts at level 55.
"World of Warcraft" was first announced by Blizzard at the ECTS trade show in September 2001. Released in 2004, development of the game took roughly 4–5 years, including extensive testing. The 3D graphics in "World of Warcraft" use elements of the proprietary graphics engine originally used in "Warcraft III". The game was designed to be an open environment where players are allowed to do what they please. Quests are optional and were designed to help guide players, allow character development, and to spread characters across different zones to try to avoid what developers called "player collision". The game interface allows players to customize appearance and controls, and to install add-ons and other modifications.
World of Warcraft: Rise of the Horde is a novel by Christie Golden set in the Warcraft Universe. It was published in December 2006. Golden also has a commitment with Blizzard Entertainment and Simon & Schuster to write a StarCraft trilogy. Originally presumed to be the sequel to her previous 2001 book, , it depicts the draenei's escape from Argus and the rise of the Horde, following their shift from a shamanic race to a warmongering one. The book features major Warcraft characters, such as Durotan, Ner'zhul, Gul'dan, Orgrim Doomhammer, Kil'jaeden, and Velen. The story tells of how the orc clans and the noble draenei slowly become enemies due to deception and arrogance, and shows the downward spiral into which the orcs are thrown, and explores the role that demonic forces play in the Horde. It also expands on the origin of the Burning Legion, and the events preceding the first game of the Warcraft series.
An important influence on the action RPG genre was the 1986 action-adventure, "The Legend of Zelda", which served as the template for many future action RPGs. In contrast to previous action RPGs, such as "Dragon Slayer" and "Hydlide," which required the player to bump into enemies in order to attack them, "The Legend of Zelda" featured an attack button that animates a sword swing or projectile attack on the screen. It was also an early example of open-world, nonlinear gameplay, and introduced new features such as battery backup saving. These elements have been used in many action RPGs since.
"The Legend of Zelda" is considered a spiritual forerunner of the modern role-playing video game (RPG) genre. Though it is often not considered part of the genre since it lacked key RPG mechanics such as experience points, it had many features in common with RPGs and served as the template for the action role-playing game genre. The game's fantasy setting, musical style and action-adventure gameplay were adopted by many RPGs. Its commercial success helped lay the groundwork for involved, non-linear games in fantasy settings, such as those found in successful RPGs, including "Crystalis", "Soul Blazer", Square's "Seiken Densetsu" series, "Alundra", and "Brave Fencer Musashi". The popularity of the game also spawned several clones trying to emulate the game.
The original "Dragon Slayer", released for the PC-88 in 1984, is considered to be the first action-RPG. In contrast to earlier turn-based roguelikes, "Dragon Slayer" was a dungeon crawl RPG that was entirely real-time with action-oriented combat. "Dragon Slayer" also featured an in-game map to help with the dungeon-crawling, required item management due to the inventory being limited to one item at a time, and introduced the use of item-based puzzles which later influenced "The Legend of Zelda". "Dragon Slayer" was a major success in Japan, where its overhead action-RPG formula was used in many later games. The game's MSX port was also one of the first titles to be published by Square.
Dragon Quest is the first role-playing video game (RPG) in the "Dragon Quest" media franchise. It was developed by Chunsoft for the Family Computer (or Famicom for short) and published by Enix in Japan in 1986 as "Dragon Quest" and by Nintendo in 1989 in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES) as Dragon Warrior. "Dragon Quest" has been ported and remade for several video game platforms, including the MSX, PC-9801, Super Famicom, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4 and mobile phones. In play, players control a hero character who is charged with saving the Kingdom of Alefgard and rescuing its princess from the evil Dragonlord. "Dragon Warrior"s story became the second part in a trilogy. Several more anime and manga series, which revolved around this overarching plot were created.
The game was originally announced as a title for mobile phones and the PSP called It was directed by Hajime Tabata, who took up the project after completing "". Initially designed to provide players with easy access to the "Fabula Nova Crystallis" universe, the mobile version was eventually cancelled and the game's title was changed to distance it from the subseries' flagship title "Final Fantasy XIII". Releasing to strong sales, it received praise for its story and gameplay, but was criticized for its camera control and artificial intelligence. Further games related to "Type-0" have also been developed, including a high definition remaster that released internationally in March 2015.
"Final Fantasy Type-0" is an action role-playing video game in which the player controls the 14 members of Class Zero, who are sent on missions across Orience. Outside environments such as the Vermillion Peristylium (Class Zero's home base) and dedicated missions, the game world of Orience is navigated via a scaled-down world map. Class Zero are sent on missions across Orience during the course of the game. The player initially travels to preset destinations in the world on an airship supplied by the Peristylium, but gains their own airship to freely navigate the world map with after defeating a powerful enemy guarding it. The main gameplay is presented in a mission-based structure. The two types of missions encountered are story-based missions, and "Practice" missions, which act as side-quests. During missions, optional orders are issued which can be obeyed or ignored as the player chooses. Should they be accepted, the characters receive a temporary power boost, and completing the objectives yields rewards. Players can also engage in real-time strategy battles on the world map, with the player taking control of allied military divisions. Missions involve liberating cities and towns from enemy forces. Timed aerial missions are also available where the characters shoot down attacking dragons using their airship's weapons.
"Dreamfall Chapters" was initially announced as an episodic video game, but this idea was scrapped in favor of a full-length game when the pre-production started in 2012, because the developers felt that extended breaks between chapters would have negatively affected the story flow and pacing. However, faced with mounting production costs, RTG decided in June 2014 to return to the episodic format, and the first "book", subtitled "Reborn", was released on 21 October 2014. The subtitle of Book Two was announced on 26 November 2014. The subtitle of Book Three was announced on 22 May 2015, and its release date, one month later. Book Four's subtitle was announced via Twitter and Facebook in late September, and its release date, on 30 November 2015. The subtitle and the release date of the fifth and final Book was announced via Kickstarter on 6 April and 9 June 2016, respectively.
Overall, the opinions of reviewers seem to have been summed up by Pro-G: "One day someone is going to combine the RTS with another genre and pull it off really well; "Rise & Fall" isn't that game. The basic RTS elements are sound, but the hero mode verges on awful, boat control is a nightmare, and the campaigns are dull... There are so many other games out there that offer a better all-round RTS experience, there's really no reason to bother with Midway's effort. Some praise must be given for trying something a little different, but Rise & Fall is another idea that falls a long way short of its potential."
Dreamfall Chapters () is an episodic 3D adventure game with emphasis on character interaction, exploration of the game world, and puzzle solving. It is a sequel to the adventure games "The Longest Journey" and "". The game was released for PC in five episodes between 21 October 2014 and 17 June 2016. The updated "Final Cut" version was released on physical media for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 5 May 2017, and the Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux versions on 21 July 2017.
The "Campaign Set" (often referred to as the "Grey Box") was later released in 1987 as a boxed set of two source books ("Cyclopedia of the Realms" and "DM's Sourcebook of the Realms") and four large maps, designed by Greenwood in collaboration with author Jeff Grubb. The set introduced the campaign setting and explained how to use it, and reserved space on the map for SSI's Gold Box computer role-playing games set in the Forgotten Realms.
Forgotten Realms Adventures is an accessory for the fictional Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the second edition of the "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" fantasy role-playing game. The book, with product code TSR 2106, was published in 1990, and was written by Jeff Grubb and Ed Greenwood, with cover art by Clyde Caldwell and interior art by Steven Fabian, Ned Dameron, Larry Elmore, Caldwell, and Jeff Easley.
The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting is a role-playing game sourcebook, first published in 1987. It details the Forgotten Realms setting and contains information on characters, locations and history, and sets specific rules for the "Dungeons & Dragons" (often abbreviated as "D&D") role-playing game. The latest edition was published in 2008 by Wizards of the Coast, for use with the 4th edition "Dungeons & Dragons" rules.
Ed Greenwood began writing stories about the "Forgotten Realms" as a child, starting around 1967; they were his "dream space for swords and sorcery stories". Greenwood came up with the "Forgotten Realms" name from the notion of a multiverse of parallel worlds; Earth is one such world, and the Realms another. In Greenwood's original conception, the fantastic legends of Earth derive from a fantasy world, the way to which has been lost. Greenwood discovered the "Dungeons & Dragons" game in 1975, and became a serious role-playing enthusiast with the first "AD&D" game releases in 1978. The setting became the home of Greenwood's personal campaign. Greenwood began a Realms campaign in the city of Waterdeep, then started another group known as the Knights of Myth Drannor in Shadowdale. Greenwood felt that his players' thirst for detail made the Realms what it is: "They want it to seem real, and work on ‘honest jobs’ and personal activities, until the whole thing grows into far more than a casual campaign. Roleplaying always governs over rules, and the adventures seem to develop themselves." Greenwood has stated that his own version of the Forgotten Realms, as run in his personal campaign, is much darker than published versions.