A great thinking man's game for anyone who ever wanted to lead a tribe of Vikings.

Back in the Dark Ages of computer gaming it was relatively easy to be surprised by a new game. After all, there was only one magazine dedicated to computer games, no demos, no previews, and advertisements were only for current games. You just didn't see two years worth of ads for a game (an idea I wouldn't mind seeing again). Now, as soon as the developer even thinks about creating a new game, fan sites pop up, a huge marketing campaign begins, and the media starts to throw out previews, interviews, and designer diaries. So when King of Dragon Pass made its way onto my desk I was intrigued. Here was a totally unknown game -- a definite surprise in today's world. Would it be a good surprise?

King of Dragon Pass is an empire building game, albeit a small empire. Taking place in the world of Glorantha (specifically the area known as Dragon Pass) it is your task to lead your clan into becoming a tribe, in one of two possible game types. In the short game you must form a tribe, have one of your leaders become king or queen of that tribe, and have that leader remain as ruler for ten years, after which you will win the short game. In the long game you must unify all of Dragon Pass, becoming the King of Dragon Pass.

Many of you are probably saying to yourself, "Gloranwho?" Glorantha is an intriguing fantasy setting that dates back to the role-playing game Runequest. For a number of years Runequest was considered the strongest competitor for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, but even still Runequest never took off in popularity like AD&D. Essentially Glorantha is to Runequest what the Forgotten Realms are to AD&D: a highly detailed world rich in lore. Because Glorantha has been extensively developed the background to King of Dragon Pass is already solid. Thanks to some great documentation and background information even if you've never heard of Runequest you'll still be able to enjoy the game.

You begin the game by answering a series of questions, reminiscent of creating a character for The Elder Scrolls. How you respond to the queries determines what type of clan you play. Who are your enemies? What is the clan best at? Who do you worship? Think of it as creating a character in a role-playing game, except instead of a single individual you're creating a body of individuals.

Gameplay is played out annually, and is divided up into five seasons and a period before the seasons, called the Sacred Time. During the Sacred Time you can assign magic points to various rituals that affect your clan over the following year, or save some (or all) of the points for later. Among the rituals you can assign points to improve the overall health of your clan, give you aid in combat or trade, and help with crops.

The five seasons roughly correspond to our seasons, with the fifth season being an extension of winter. They are the sea season, the fire season, the earth season, the dark season, and finally the storm season. During a season you can choose to perform up to two actions before the season changes.

King of Dragon Pass is full of choices and actions to perform (and this review can only skim the surface), and it's here the game really shines. This is a very deep game, and if you don't like long term planning this is not the game for you. King of Dragon Pass is also not a game that you should expect to easily win. Expect to lose a good number of games before you even begin to get the hang of running your clan.

Your clan is composed of seven clan ring members (who offer advice and help with Sacred Time rituals, amongst other things and can be exchanged for new ring members), farmers, hunters, crafters, nobles, weaponthanes (professional warriors), children, and thralls. During a year you must keep the clan happy, which may mean throwing feasts or giving out gifts. The food supply must be managed, and it is up to you to decide how land is used (do you clear away the wildlands for pastures?). On top of land use you'll also have the opportunity to assign what type of crops are planted. Then there's inter-clan communication. You'll need to send out emissaries to other clans, perhaps even perform a favor or two. Trading routes can be set up, unexplored lands explored, heroic quests made, and of course expect to wage a battle or two. Finally, you'll have to deal with random events.

The seasons roughly correspond to what form your actions can take. For example, fire season (summer) is the best time to raid while sending out emissaries during dark (winter) is pretty foolish since no one has yet invented a GPS tracking system. Figuring out what actions to perform is where the game gets tricky. How much of your crop should be dedicated to barley (can you really have too much beer?), how many patrols do you set up around the clan, and do you go on a raid and if so against whom? Like I said, this sure in heck isn't Pong. Learning how everything interacts is not something for the faint of heart. If you're someone whose cities in Civilization were always rioting and you could never figure out why, it's probably a good idea to give King of Dragon Pass a wide berth.

Unfortunately while the inner clan workings are tough to master, they're not as tough as dealing with the random events. Something will happen, it may be an adulterous affair or it could be an attack of a chaos beast, and you will be presented with a number of choices. Your clan ring will give their advice, with probably every choice as a recommendation by the time you talk to all the ring members, but the solution is entirely up to you. More often than not you can expect to make an incorrect choice, making you feel like you're just stabbing in the dark. Yet if you view the choices in terms of not what is the right choice, but instead what is the correct choice for your clan, you won't find the random events that frustrating to play out.

One aspect of King of Dragon Pass that is sure to annoy some gamers is the complete and utter lack of graphics. Yes, it did win an award for the artistic content, but in this case art really means art. The game uses static paintings for everything, from performing quests to raiding your neighbor for cows. The only actual graphic (and it looks like something that would be home on a 386) occurs at the start of the year, where you're shown your clan's land (called the tula). Thankfully the paintings are well done. Coupled with the superb writing and excellent background music, the game manages to draw you into its world even without graphics.

While the majority of the game doesn't suffer from the lack of graphics (after all, would you really need to display visually changing the goods the crafters make from plain to fancy?) the one area which would benefit from a little eye candy is the combat portion. Picking a tactic from a list and reading the battle results is simply not my idea of fun. Like the random events, sometimes you can't help but feel that battles are won more on being lucky, than a mastery of strategy.

King of Dragon Pass is not a game for everyone. There is a lot of information to juggle and decisions to be made, and learning how to become a proper clan leader takes quite an investment of time. The lack of graphics will definitely turn some people off. If you're willing to overlook that aspect, and are in the mood for a serious empire building game that's quite different from Alpha Centuri or Civilization II, you'll find King of Dragon Pass a very pleasant surprise.

Reviewed by Scott R Krol, PC Gameworld.