Legend of the Red Dragon (LORD) is a text-based online role-playing video game, released in 1989 by Robinson Technologies.
[1][2] The player's goal is to improve their skills in order to defeat the Red Dragon which has been attacking the village.
As he did not have access to other door games such as Trade Wars, he needed something that would occasionally bring people back to the BBS.
Over time, Robinson incorporated features that he had seen work well in other games: for example, the restricted number of turns per day, and the concept of random events.
[3] The premise of LORD is that a red dragon is wreaking havoc in a town where the player has recently arrived.
Once they have gained enough experience, they must face their master at Turgon's Warrior Training and advance in skill level.
Actions could be to fight monsters in the forest, attack other players or to attempt to slay the red dragon itself.
There are three non-player characters located at the Inn: Seth Able the bard, Violet the barmaid, and the unnamed Bartender.
LORD features several in-game message boards, as well as a limited electronic mail system, which allow players to converse.
Some players even registered their own copy of LORD for local use so they could practice skills and test strategies.
In-Game Modules (IGMs) are small software extensions written by third-party developers that add functionality to LORD.
[1] Some IGMs were written to allow a "cheating" style of game play,[4][5] and others have presented bugs or loopholes to be exploited by players.
[6][7] The current maintainer of the LORD software, has introduced a scripting language called Lady in order to allow smoother development of game extensions.
[8][9] Wizardstone was planned to be a major IGM and the author was so enthusiastic about it, he convinced Robinson to advertise it by mentioning its two main characters in a forest event within the game itself.
[1] The Escapist magazine highlighted the way LORD handled sexuality, which became more mature as Robinson developed the game over the years.
It featured real-time multiplayer gameplay, with ANSI art graphics, in a Roguelike[1] top-down view.