King of Dragon Pass: Magical Viking Simulator

[Enoch]

What is King of Dragon Pass?

King of Dragon Pass is a game from 1999 with a very distinctive graphic style as well as a unique setting. Essentially you manage a clan of iron age technology people through the settling of a new land filled with other human tribes and other more exotic inhabitants. This is achieved through the core mechanic of events occurring with multiple options to resolve them, as well as more traditional clan management such as assigning farmers and forging trade agreements. Choosing the path of your ancestors and following the clan's traditions pays dividends, the designers specifically point out playing with a modern western viewpoint can land you in trouble.

That sounds a bit dry so let me try to explain it another way. KoDP is a game of the mundane and the fantastic, and the two blend effortlessly. For instance one day you could be sending out one of your leaders to improve relations with another clan:



The next you could be deciding on the marriage of one of the noble daughters of the clan:


This would be followed by your war chief becoming an avatar of his god and re-enacting the myth of how death first entered the world in the god plane in order to claim a powerful artefact:



And finally your year would be ended by a beastmen raid due to you oppressing the peaceful duck tribe (seriously don't mess with the ducks!):



Simply put KoDP is an obscure gem, which I think deserves to be better known. It used to be very hard to get hold of, you needed to send the developer twenty dollars and he would burn a cd for you , but it can now be bought at Good old games for $6.

So does anyone here play it? Care to share the story of the day when a skeleton band turned up at your clan's tula, or the day a stegosaurus broke your cow pens?

Oh and would there be any interest in me setting up a tribe to run through some of the game and show it off a bit?

[Mardoc]

I bought the game from GoG a while back, and I've been meaning to give it a try one of these days. If you want to post a story, that might be the last little bit of impetus to make me figure out the controls. But what I'd appreciate even more would be if you could do some sort of introduction to the game post, a tutorial of what's important to know and do right away, and what can be left until later.

I'll be interested in anything you post, certainly, and I'll hopefully have the time to contribute to your thread sooner or later.

[Enoch]

No problem I can write up a starting out guide for the thread tomorrow. The number one tip will be: get as many cows as you can!

The interface looks complicated at first but the clan management side is relatively simple once you get into it. Also it has a good old fashioned manual which is pretty helpful.

[NobleHelium]

Sounds interesting! Reminds me of The Lost Tribe for some reason even though they're not really similar games.

[sunrise089]

I can't find it now, but didn't we have a KoDP thread here a few months back? I KNOW I've seen this game talked about somewhere...