Betrayal at Krondor

Overview

Betrayal at Krondor is a PC RPG that was developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra On-Line in 1993. The game takes place in the fantasy world of Midkemia which was developed by the author Raymond E. Feist and also serves as the setting for his "Riftwar" series of novels. Feist was not involved in the writing of the storyline or dialog for Betrayal at Krondor, but did later novelize it in his novel "Krondor: The Betrayal".

The game was DOS based and was originally released on 7 3 1/2 inch floppy disks.

Gameplay

The game is played primarily from a first-person perspective, with the exception of combat, which is played from a third-person perspective. The gameplay is largely mouse driven, but keyboard shortcuts can be used. Each chapter of the game is typically limited to one or two areas and the player must complete key quests in order to move on to the next chapter and open up new areas. The player is free to go where they wish within these areas and can pursue quests and side quests in whatever order they choose.

Party and Character Development

The player controls a party of up to 3 characters. There are 6 different playable characters that the player meets and can add to their party over the course of the game. Characters are either fighters or magicians.

• Fighters - Fighters can use swords and crossbows.
• Magicians - Magicians can use a staff and are able to cast magic spells, but only if no enemies are adjacent to them for the given combat turn. Magic is the only ranged attack that can be used by magicians.

Character Attributes

• Health – Determines the amount of damage a character can take before dying.
• Strength – Determine the amount of damage done by melee combat.
• Stamina – Determines the number of actions a character can take. After stamina is depleted, health is used up when actions are taken.
• Speed – Determines how many squares a character can move for their turn.

Skills

Each character has a set of skills that improve as the character uses the given skill. For instance, a character that frequently uses crossbows will have their crossbow accuracy skill increase. Each character has 2 main skills that improve at an increased rate over the other skills. NPC characters can train characters in certain skills and items found in the game can temporarily or permanently increase a skill.

Skills in the game include:

• Defense
• Crossbow accuracy
• Melee weapon accuracy
• Spell-casting accuracy
• (Enemy) Assessment
• Armorcraft
• Weaponcraft
• Barding
• Haggling
• Lockpick
• Stealing
• Stealth

Combat

The combat in the game is played out on a grid of squares and is turn based. Players can execute a melee attack with a swing or a thrust. The swing attack is less accurate, but can deal more damage. Fighters can attack from afar using crossbows. Magicians can attack with their staff if enemies are in adjacent squares, or attack with magic if there are no enemies in adjacent squares. Players can also choose to rest and regain health and stamina.

Deceased enemies remain on the ground and can be looted upon the completion of a battle.

Wordlock Chests

One of the more notable feature of the game is wordlock chests that are scattered throughout the world by the Moredhel dark elves. The chests have a riddle and series of code wheels attached to them that players can use to enter their answer to the riddle. The party must have a character present that can read Moredhel, or a magician that can cast the Union spell in order to read it, or the riddle will appear in foreign characters. Wordlock chests typically contain valuable items or equipment.

Original System Requirements

• Minimum CPU Type: 386SX
• Minimum RAM Required: 2 MB
• Minimum Hard Disk Space: 15 MB
• Minimum OS Version: MS-DOS 5.0
• Graphics Type: VGA
• Color Depth: 256 Colors

Availability

Betrayal at Krondor was re-released on GOG.com for $5.99.