Name of the game: Legend of the Red Dragon, or L.O.R.D.

The BBS door game to end all door games. In the glory days of pre-internet local dialup Bulletin Board Systems, there were few games quite like LORD. Most door games on BBSes were poorly written, and not a whole lot of fun for a long period of time. LORD opened the floodgates for a wave of quality BBS RPGs for years to come.

Legend of the Red Dragon is a multiplayer RPG. You first choose your character class: the elusive and stealthy Thief, the powerful and honourable Death Knight, or the mystical spell weaving Magician. You begin the game in Town Square, where there are several options available to you. The Forest is where you'll spend a lot of your time, killing monsters and collecting gold and experience points. The Inn is a valuable place too, getting experience from flirting with Violet, the barmaid, and extra bonuses for hearing the music of Seth Able the Bard. You may also get a room at the Inn to protect yourself from other players, and for a steep price, bribe the bartender into letting you into another user's room to attack them. You can also go to Turgon's Warrior Training, to advance in level by entering combat with your master and defeating him, provided you have enough experience. And of course, there are weapon and armor shops in which to better equip your character. There is also the Killing Fields, the main reason people play the game. Here you may slaughter other players, and reap the benefits of their experience, and climb the prestigious ladder ranking.

LORD is also a fantastic interBBS game, competing against other BBSes to see whose BBS has the strongest players. LORD is highly competitive, and there are various methods of winning the game, depending on your perspective. You can slaughter the Red Dragon, an extremely powerful monster that has been slaying the townspeople, or just strive to be number one on the ladder.

This game is text and ANSI graphics only, but is incredibly fun and addictive. Seth Able, the creator of LORD, has hidden hundreds of easter eggs and hidden surprises in the game that one can never get tired of. I have been playing LORD for around 8 years, since I was a wee lad BBSing on my old 80086 with a 1200bps connection. I was enthralled with its references to popular fantasy novels, its hilarious humour, and the competitiveness and glee of stomping on people twice my age. When I was 11, I won a LORD tournament that won me a grand prize of two month unlimited access to FUBAR BBS.

Lord was created in 1988 by Seth Able. It has since spread to nearly every BBS still running, and has spawned various copycat games. Seth Able has also created Lord2, a fun ANSI-driven sequel to LORD, but it has nowhere near reached the popularity of its predecessor.

LORD can still be played on many telnet BBSes, but it seems to have lost its charm. Many waking hours of my young life were spent playing this, particularly the FUBAR LORD tournament, where we had 250 Forest Fights each day.

Similar exceptional BBS door titles are Exitilus and Usurper.

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