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Descent To Undermountain
''Descent to Undermountain'' is a role-playing video game developed and published by Interplay in 1998. Based on the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' setting of Undermountain in the Forgotten Realms, it casts the player as an adventurer out to explore the treasure-filled recesses of the Undermountain dungeon. The "Descent" part of the name refers to the game's use of the 3D rendering engine from the 1995 game ''Descent''. ''Descent to Undermountain'' had a troubled development cycle. The ''Descent'' engine turned out to be unsuited for a role-playing game, leading to ballooning budgets and protracted delays. Interplay decided to ship the game in time for Christmas 1997, resulting in a rushed product - although it failed to make even that deadline and actually shipped on January 15 of the next year. The game received very negative reviews and has been called the worst ''Dungeons & Dragons'' video game ever. Plot The player character is an adventurer who has come to Waterdeep looking ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clyde Caldwell
Clyde Caldwell (born February 20, 1948) is an American artist. Self-described as a fantasy illustrator, he is best known for his portrayals of strong, sexy female characters. With his work at TSR in the 1980s, he is considered one of the artists contributing to fantasy art's "golden age". Early life Born on February 20, 1948, in Gastonia, North Carolina, Caldwell was interested in becoming an artist from an early age, "I became an artist sort of by default ... I couldn't do anything else! I was into music for awhile. I played the guitar for a local band. I also enjoyed writing both stories and songs. But drawing and painting were the easiest for me." Caldwell took up an interest in painting fantasy and science-fiction art while in junior high school. "My biggest influences back then were the covers of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books. I wanted to paint pictures like those covers. My parents had always encouraged me in my artwork, but they didn’t understand why I was painting s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Development Cycle
In software engineering, a software development process or software development life cycle (SDLC) is a process of planning and managing software development. It typically involves dividing software development work into smaller, parallel, or sequential steps or sub-processes to improve design and/or product management. The methodology may include the pre-definition of specific deliverables and artifacts that are created and completed by a project team to develop or maintain an application. Most modern development processes can be vaguely described as agile. Other methodologies include waterfall, prototyping, iterative and incremental development, spiral development, rapid application development, and extreme programming. A life-cycle "model" is sometimes considered a more general term for a category of methodologies and a software development "process" is a particular instance as adopted by a specific organization. For example, many specific software development processes fit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Non-player Character
A non-player character (NPC) is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster (or referee) rather than by another player. In video games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer (instead of a player) that has a predetermined set of behaviors that potentially will impact gameplay, but will not necessarily be the product of true artificial intelligence. Role-playing games In traditional tabletop role-playing games such as ''Dungeons & Dragons'', an NPC is a character portrayed by the gamemaster (GM). While the player characters (PCs) form the narrative's protagonists, non-player characters can be thought of as the "supporting cast" or "extras" of a roleplaying narrative. Non-player characters populate the fictional world of the game, and can fill any role not occupied by a player character. Non-player characters might be alli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Level (video Gaming)
In video games, a level (also referred to as a map, mission, stage, course, or round in some older games) is any space available to the player during the course of completion of an objective. Video game levels generally have progressively increasing difficulty to appeal to players with different skill levels. Each level may present new concepts and challenges to keep a player's interest high to play for a long time. In games with linear progression, levels are areas of a larger world, such as Green Hill Zone. Games may also feature interconnected levels, representing locations. Although the challenge in a game is often to defeat some sort of character, levels are sometimes designed with a movement challenge, such as a jumping puzzle, a form of obstacle course. Players must judge the distance between platforms or ledges and safely jump between them to reach the next area. These puzzles can slow the momentum down for players of fast action games; the first ''Half-Life'''s penul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Player Character
A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional Character (arts), character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not controlled by a player are called non-player characters (NPCs). The actions of non-player characters are typically handled by the game itself in video games, or according to rules followed by a gamemaster refereeing tabletop role-playing games. The player character functions as a fictional, alternate body for the player controlling the character. Video games typically have one player character for each person playing the game. Some games, such as multiplayer online battle arena, hero shooter, and fighting games, offer a group of player characters for the player to choose from, allowing the player to control one of them at a time. Where more than one player character is available, the characters may have distinctive Attribute (rol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Character Class (Dungeons & Dragons)
A character class is a fundamental part of the identity and nature of characters in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game. A character's capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses are largely defined by their class; choosing a class is one of the first steps a player takes to create a ''Dungeons & Dragons'' player character. A character's class affects a character's available skills and abilities. A well-rounded party of characters requires a variety of abilities offered by the classes found within the game. ''Dungeons & Dragons'' was the first game to introduce the usage of character classes to role-playing. Many other traditional role-playing games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games have since adopted the concept as well. ''Dungeons & Dragons'' classes have generally been defined in the ''Player's Handbook'', one of the three core rulebooks; a variety of alternate classes have also been defined in supplemental sourcebooks. Classes by type Principal base c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
Several different editions of the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game have been produced since 1974. The current publisher of ''D&D'', Wizards of the Coast, produces new materials only for the most current edition of the game. However, many ''D&D'' fans continue to play older versions of the game and some third-party companies continue to publish materials compatible with these older editions. After the original edition of ''D&D'' was introduced in 1974, the game was split into two branches in 1977: the rules-light system of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and the more complex, rules-heavy system of ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' (''AD&D''). The standard game was eventually expanded into a series of five box sets by the mid-1980s before being compiled and slightly revised in 1991 as the '' Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia''. Meanwhile, the 2nd edition of ''AD&D'' was published in 1989. In 2000 the two-branch split was ended when a new version was designated the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boss (video Gaming)
In video games, a boss is a significantly powerful non-player character and computer-controlled enemy created as an opponent to players. A fight with a boss character is referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the players have faced up to that point in a game. Boss battles are generally seen at climax points of particular sections of games, such as at the end of a level or stage or guarding a specific objective. A miniboss is a boss weaker or less significant than the main boss in the same area or level, though usually more powerful than the standard opponents and often fought alongside them. A superboss (sometimes 'secret', 'hidden' or 'raid' boss) is generally much more powerful than the bosses encountered as part of the main game's plot and is often an optional encounter. A final boss is often the main antagonist of a game's story and the defeat of that character usually provides a conclusion to the game. A boss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drow (Dungeons & Dragons)
The drow ( or ) or dark elves are a dark-skinned and white-haired subrace of elves connected to the subterranean Underdark in the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. The drow have traditionally been portrayed as generally evil and connected to the evil spider goddess Lolth. However, later editions of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' have moved away from this portrayal and preassigned alignment. More recent publications have explored drow societies unconnected to Lolth. Creative origins The word "drow" originates from the Orcadian and Shetland dialects of Scots, an alternative form of " trow", which is a cognate with " troll". The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives no entry for "drow", but two of the citations under "trow" name it as an alternative form of the word. Trow/drow was used to refer to a wide variety of evil sprites. Everything about the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' drow was invented by ''Dungeons & Dragons'' co-creator Gary Gygax except for the basic concept of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abyss (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the fantasy role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'', an Outer Plane is one of a number of general types of planes of existence. They can also be referred to as ''godly planes'', ''spiritual planes,'' or ''divine planes''. The Outer Planes are home to beings such as deities and their servants such as demons, celestials and devils. Each Outer Plane is usually the physical manifestation of a particular moral and ethical alignment and the entities that dwell there often embody the traits related to that alignment. The intangible and esoteric Outer Planes—the realms of ideals, philosophies, and gods A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...—stand in contrast to the Inner Planes, which compose the material building blocks of reality and the realms of energy and matt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lolth
The drow ( or ) or dark elves are a dark-skinned and white-haired subrace of elves connected to the subterranean Underdark in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. The drow have traditionally been portrayed as generally evil and connected to the evil spider goddess Lolth. However, later editions of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' have moved away from this portrayal and preassigned alignment. More recent publications have explored drow societies unconnected to Lolth. Creative origins The word "drow" originates from the Orcadian and Shetland dialects of Scots, an alternative form of "trow", which is a cognate with "troll". The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives no entry for "drow", but two of the citations under "trow" name it as an alternative form of the word. Trow/drow was used to refer to a wide variety of evil sprites. Everything about the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' drow was invented by ''Dungeons & Dragons'' co-creator Gary Gygax except for the basic concept of "dark ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wizard (Dungeons & Dragons)
The wizard, formerly known as the magic-user or mage, is one of the standard character classes in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. A wizard uses arcane magic, and is considered less effective in melee combat than other classes. Publication history Creative origins The Magic-User class was inspired by the spell-casting magicians common in folklore and modern fantasy literature, particularly as portrayed in Jack Vance's '' The Dying Earth'' short stories, and John Bellairs's novel '' The Face in the Frost''. Gandalf and Saruman from Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'' and Merlin of King Arthur fame also influenced this class. Wizards memorize their spells, then forget them when cast in the fashion of magicians from Jack Vance's '' Dying Earth'' series of novels. ''Dungeons & Dragons'' In the original version of the game, ''magic-user'' was one of the base character classes. Magic-User was one of the three original classes, the other two being Fightin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
