The bard chats with a local.

If you’ve been into gaming for a while, you may remember Brian Fargo and his series of RPG games that began with The Bard’s Tale. These games brought a fresh approach to RPG gaming that brought players into their game world like no other RPG before them. These games also served as a source of inspiration for other storied series such as Might & Magic and Wizardry. And since the last Bard’s Tale game these innovations have been so copied and diluted that they’ve now become clichés. This irony has not been lost on Brian Fargo, who is resurrecting the series to poke fun at all of the near-identical RPGs you’ve played in the intervening years. And who better to star in such a game than a bard who is opportunistic, sarcastic, and sardonic by nature? As the game’s designer puts it himself, the bard is not interested in saving the world; he is strictly motivated by coin and cleavage.

So what are you tired of doing in RPGs? Killing rats in cellars? Following a linear path from the story’s beginning to its end? Hauling junk cross country until you can find a merchant? Never scoring with all the hot babes that you encounter? Well, The Bard’s Tale will either end all of that or at the very least poke fun at it mercilessly.

The game is set in a land similar to Scotland’s Orkney Islands. Why? Because according to Brian Fargo fantasy RPGs should all be set in a Medieval European location where all of the characters speak with a similar European accent. The game opens with you offering to help out a buxom barmaid with her little rat problem in the cellar – not out of the goodness of your heart but because it is a chance for you to score a hot meal, if not a little something else. Yes, your first quest is to kill rats in a cellar. However, when you see the cause of the problem and how you must deal with it … well let’s just say that it is a very humorous episode that sets the tone for the rest of the game.

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