DDST - William Miller
             (RPG for ST on SynTax PD Disk 37)

                 Reviewed by Matthew Pegg

DDST is a shareware game that originated as a multi user game on
an American Bulletin Board.  This stand alone version has simple
graphics based on the ST's keyboard symbols, although they are in
colour.

The scenario of the game is the standard "defeat the evil
demon/wizard/parking attendant" kind of stuff. The game is closely
based on Dungeons and Dragons and has some familiar creatures to
battle.

You roll up your character and are then presented with a standard
list of statistics. You can reject this and 'roll' again. When you
have given your character a name then you are shown a character
profile which includes percentile scores for skills such as
climbing and picking pockets.  It is hard to spot whether most of
these are just cosmetic or whether they actually affect the
gameplay.

The main playing area of the game is a map which shows woods,
rivers, towns, mountains and ruins. You can enter ruins (dungeons)
and explore but you will not last long if you do it right at the
start of the game.  Better to go to town first.  There is no
graphical display for towns:  they are just a text menu.  In towns
you will find inns, blacksmiths and a market as well as an oracle.
Inns provide shelter where you can pay to rest and restore hit
points.  You can also get a job here to earn money to pay for arms
and armour.  Blacksmiths will sell you these items.

In the market you can sell any treasure or items you may have
found. You can also buy various bits of equipment, such as
lanterns and candle wax, but to tell you the truth it doesn't seem
to make much difference whether you have any of these things.  The
oracle in each town will give you a scroll which you can pay to
have translated. These give you the background to the story and
helpful hints.

When you have got tooled up with better armour and weapons then it
is time to go hunting monsters. Monsters will attack you anywhere,
but you don't find the really nasty ones outside the ruins.
Fighting will earn you experience points.  You are told when you
have been raised a level (your starting rank is "Twit":  is that a
military rank?), and your skills are increased as well as your hit
points.  Monsters also drop potions, which restore your hit
points, and items which you can use or sell.

In the ruins you can only see the areas you have already explored:
if you have ever played "Ranarama" you will remember how this
works, the dungeon is gradually revealed as you explore it.  There
are secret passages which you have to find by trial and error and
traps which you can attempt to defuse.  Every dungeon contains
something important to your quest and is arranged on several
levels.

DDST is basic in its presentation. Public Domain oldies "Hack" and
"Larn" are only a step or two cruder in their presentation.  But

this doesn't matter at all because the game itself is really
compulsive and playable.  It is the kind of thing you pick up to
play for fifteen minutes, look up, and an hour and a half has
gone.  In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the basic presentation
didn't contribute to its appeal:  a lot of computer RPGs have
reams of rules and a complex play system, you have to take a lot
of time to get into them and they take time to load and set up.
DDST is simply a bog standard RPG with nothing very new to its
credit but that, combined with a well designed menu system, means
that you can just pick it up and start playing. You can save your
character at any point, and so it is perfect for playing at those
times when you haven't got a whole evening to get immersed in
something complex.  Having said that, there is still enough to
explore and discover to keep you interested.

If you haven't tried any RPGs and are put off by the complexity of
some of the glossier commercial efforts then this game will be a
painless introduction.

If you are an experienced RPG fan then you will still find
something to enjoy here.

I shall certainly be returning to DDST and I look forward to the
promised upgrade.