Blood & Magic

A real-time strategy game set in the Forgotten Realms.

Blood & Magic is a real-time strategy video game released by Interplay Productions in 1996. It uses the Dungeons & Dragons license and takes place in a previously unknown area of the Forgotten Realms. The game was the first computer game from Interplay based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying system by TSR.

Quick Facts

Developer: Tachyon Studios
Publisher: Interplay Productions
Producer: William Church
Designer: Vasken N. Sayre
Programmer: John Hamilton; Vangelis Van Dempsey
Artist: David Gaines; Vasken N. Sayre
Composer: Ron Saltmarsh
Released: November 26, 1996

Facts from the source article.

Plot

The single-player portion of the game is built around five standard campaigns that grow harder as you go, plus a final world conquest mode where you take over all 15 maps and eventually fight the gods. Finishing a campaign at least once is required to open the next one. The stories are standard fantasy fare, with no direct AD&D references, though each campaign puts its own spin on the genre. The first campaign kicks off with a barbarian chieftain named Rathgar the Raider taking over the kingdom of Doegan.

As he dies, the rightful king curses the barbarian. The king’s daughter escapes and asks a young necromancer, Aelric the Avenger, for help. You can play as the usurper protecting his new land or as the avenger, working to either break or carry out the curse. Next, Princess Roxana of Edenvale comes of age and announces a challenge: any man who wants to marry her must beat her in combat.

You can either help Roxana escape the flood of suitors or lead Bryan the Bold’s armies to win her hand. Tartyron, the Lord of Chaos, has broken out of his underground prison and wants to spread chaos across the surface. Opposing him are two lords and a lady from the Circle of Order, who once banished him and hope to do it again. The fourth campaign leans heavily into comedy.

Two brothers, Garrulos the Occasionally Good and Wormskull the Artificer, find a pearl with immense magical power. The pearl is also cursed, which causes conflict between them. Wormskull wants to use its magic for inventions, while Garrulos tries to stop his brother’s crazy schemes and win the king’s favor.

Critical reception

Blood & Magic received a middling 6 out of 10 from Andy Butcher in Arcane magazine, who described it as a straightforward real-time strategy game that feels like a less complex take on Warcraft 2 or Command & Conquer. However, Butcher felt the game brought nothing new to the table, lacking the depth and enjoyment of Warcraft 2. The Herald-News was more positive, praising the variety of units and terrain and calling the game habit-forming, though it criticized the enemy AI and the tedious resource management that required excessive clicking on basal golems. The Buffalo News assigned a C grade, commending the storyline as deep. GameSpy observed that players quickly recognized the game offered no compelling reason to abandon Warcraft II or Red Alert, despite the RTS genre's rapid growth.