Bard's Tale Construction Kit - Electronic Arts RRP œ26.99
                    (RPG creator for PC)

                 Reviewed by Julian Gregory

The Bard's Tale series began in the late 1980s. In it you had to
explore various dungeons with a party of adventurers which usually
consisted of warriors and spell-casters. As they accumulated
experience (by combat) they would increase their levels. By doing
so, fighters would gain extra hit points and spell-casters would
also gain extra spell points and the ability to cast higher level
spells.

The Bard's Tale Construction Kit was written to enable enthusiasts
to create their own worlds and then sell the product. All that was
necessary was an acknowledgement that the game had been created
with the BTCK.

With it you can design the types of characters available to your
party and also the enemies you will face later. All the
characteristics can be adjusted, from how effective they are in
combat to how close they will come after each move.  You then
get the opportunity to map out the locations on each level. You
can set walls, portals and areas where you lose points. Just don't
forget to include an entrance and an exit to the next level!

I found the concept interesting, but surely only to real
enthusiasts of this type of RPG. As with any 'game-generator' be
it TADS, Quill or BTCK the game is only as good as the writer's
imagination. However good the generator is it won't produce an
award-winning game just by itself.

As far as BTCK goes, with the advances made in this type of game
since the Bard's Tale was written, particularly in terms of
graphics, I just wonder whether the concept is still worth while.
The fighting system of attacking someone, losing hit points,
defending whilst your opponent does the same and then repeating
until one of you dies seems to me to be rather outdated now.

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