Choose my Adventure: Dungeons and Dragons Online
by Shawn Schuster 
Oct 12th 2009 at 12:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Culture, Game mechanics, Free-to-play, Massively meta, Hands-on, Choose my Adventure
Last week we ended our Lord of the Rings Online edition of Choose my Adventure with the retirement of Gibbi the Hobbit in his very own hobbit hole. This week, the votes have been counted and it appears that Dungeons and Dragons Online will be the next game in which I'll spend the next two months. I'm excited to make my way through DDO, especially since it's the first game in this series that I haven't played beyond level 10, and it will also be fun to try it out since it has re-released as a free-to-play.
So follow along after the jump for a set of polls that will determine character creation and play style throughout my adventures in DDO: Unlimited.
First, we will determine the server. You can either pick a server you already play on, or choose one you think would be best for a new player to explore.
Next is the class. All of the classes in DDO are available to free accounts except the Monk and the Favored Soul. From here I will pick the path, since they branch off for each class, and a poll for that would be more like a flow chart.
The races of DDO are common to anyone familiar with the classic high fantasy setting. All races are available to free accounts except Warforged and Drow Elf.
Do you want me to play as a male or female? In the game, I mean.
What type of budget do you want me to maintain as a guideline throughout the game? This is very important because you could want me to play entirely free content only (in which case the races and classes with asterisks would be not applicable), or keep up with a precise budget of DDO store purchases to help me along. [Edit: Added in the 2-month sub option, which unlocks everything]
From here, I'll handle the look and name of the new character. Then on Wednesday, I will introduce you all to our newest adventurer as he or she prepares for battle. At that time, the real gameplay voting will begin and we'll start establishing groups of readers who may want to play along with me, exactly as we did in LotRO the last two months.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Mr Angry said on 12:07PM 10-12-2009
Strange, there was a surge for DDO there, wasn't there, Fallen Earth and Aion were right up there for quite a while ;)
If I don't think the polls work out quite right, your gonna have it difficult as hell, no spending money for you, see how free this free to play really is!
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Shawn Schuster said on 12:15PM 10-12-2009
Hey, you're right. I added in that option now. Thanks!
Shawn Schuster said on 12:15PM 10-12-2009
Also, the surge is from Turbine putting the poll up on their main DDO page and tweeting it, which is tricky of them, eh? :)
monkeystick said on 12:56PM 10-12-2009
The other MMO companies had just as much opportunity to link to your poll, but they didn't. If they aren't paying attention to the best MMO coverage site on the net, it's their loss.
Enjoy DDO! I think you'll be pressed to run out of F2P content during your adventure.. There is a ton of free content.
ReijMan said on 3:46PM 10-12-2009
Lovely don't you think? Such a community :-) (people willing to vote for their game, keeping up what's going on with their game and other social elements)
It's one of the things your $$ and fancy programming skilz can not buy nor plan, and will make the game so much more valued!
Go DDO!
styopa said on 9:48AM 10-13-2009
@monkeystick: meh.
I *really* like DDO. I like the balance, the dungeons, how they handled traps, the classes, the closeness to D&D (ironically it's not the current D&D, which itself plays more like a video game with power cooldowns, etc.).
However, at about lvl 6 (?) I've really run into that 'ok you've done everything free for your level and you're going to have to repeat-grind instances until you have enough xp to be able to crest into the next tier of content' wall.
I don't begrudge them that - obviously, they'd like me to start paying to play. But it knocked my opinion of the game down from nearly a 10 to about a 6 or 7. Still a great game, but the repetition cost is there.
Impaqt said on 12:11PM 10-12-2009
For $30.00 You can have everything unlocked completely during your 2 month stay. You shouldof had an option tojust Sub to the game. Free to play is nice, but the possibility exisits that you will spend more money than the subscription would cost due to your fanbase dictating your direction.
Good Luck! and Thanks for Tryin DDO..... Again....
Go Thelanis!
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Innocente said on 12:11PM 10-12-2009
zzzzzzzzzzzzz
I am thinking it would have been MUCH more usefull if you had chosen to play one of the new releases, instead of a nearly dead-on-its-feet one.
I think you might have been the victim of Viral-Voting on this one.
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Skuz said on 12:14PM 10-12-2009
I've been messing around in DDO for a while & the one thing that really stands out is how much more balanced the classes are, at least early on, though I've heard ranged damage really loses out at the high end.
I've made this my main game & have enjoyed playing each of the classes I can access, to be honest the fact the game doesn't force you to buy stuff makes me want to all the more, when games are ramming the necessity to buy down your throat all the time it really puts me off.
I miss having a more open world to fool around in & the lack of any meaningful crafting is a downer but what DDO does it does do very well I think.
I've definitely changed my opinion of the game since trying it out in it's F2P guise, it's tons better than it was in beta.
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Mitch said on 12:26PM 10-12-2009
Since new releases tend to be in flux the first few months (sometimes longer) playing an established game that has been revamped is probably a good idea.
Warforged WF freeplay would be interesting. Take video and use the ultra-high res graphics/DX10 options!
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bmurphy said on 12:47PM 10-12-2009
GOGO Cannith!
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Scopique said on 12:44PM 10-12-2009
I think you should limit it to free content only because that's what's going to draw most people in. More people (even only a slim margin) will probably opt to keep their money rather then paying it out. If this adventure gives them a base-line taste of what they can expect, then the for-free content is going to be gravy.
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Shogun said on 1:02PM 10-12-2009
Was actually going to try DDO, gave up after 10 attempts at making an account with the same error. Bored now, cheers!
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Poozle said on 2:14PM 10-12-2009
I know someone else who had that problem, it turned out to be something to do with their ISP and they just had to use another net connection to register. After that all was fine.
Shogun said on 2:42PM 10-12-2009
Thanks for the tip, I'll try from work tomorrow
David said on 3:41PM 10-12-2009
Do you already ahve a Turbine account and are trying to add DDO? If so this might be it.
From the FoH thread on DDO:
"Is there a way to add a DDO sub to an existing turbine account? I already have my most used account names taken by my existing turbine accounts."
Answer
DDO Sub on Existing Turbine Account or Error #FTx... - DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE®: Eberron Unlimited™ Forums
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?p=2411195
They really need to get that fixed. I am enjoying DDO now and its cool so far.
Jerry said on 2:49PM 10-12-2009
Congrats! Us DDO folks get behind good things, that's why DDO won.
Don't forget that DDO offers multiclassing, so you could theoretically take the top three class votes and split your character up.
Just a reminder that even a monthly paid account still needs to unlock Drow and FvS through favor or the store.
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pogger said on 3:30PM 10-12-2009
I'm all for this and will start a character on whichever server you choose (my current lowbie is on Khyber tho).
While I'm not against paying for unlocks in this game through MTs, I'd like to see this Choose my Adventure stick to the free-only content. It would be a good test for the "most-likely-to-succeed" (IMO) F2P MMO out there.
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hexxa said on 3:53PM 10-12-2009
Some think that since this game is older, it doesn't deserve your attention--but I think its worth exploring why DDO has such a dedicated base of players that have stuck with it for years, even though it never ever got the advertising of other games.
Cannith would be rather challenging as there is a LOT of new player spam on that server, and all characters had to start from scratch with no loot or plat, but you would be on an even playing ground since no one will be twinked. . .I would suggest maybe doing a character on Cannith and one of the other Servers as well, since the Auction House and Venders will be stocked with different items, and Auction House prices are different as well. You will also see what the LFMS look like on a Server with many capped alts .
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RobertK said on 3:52PM 10-12-2009
Personally, I'm disappointed you're playing DDO. I wanted firstly a non-fantasy game, and secondly one of the new releases, to see what their like. But nevermind, I can only hope for next time. Oh, and with DDO at what, about 4 times its nearest rival in the poll, something tells me this isn't really very fair.
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