A Dangerous Interview

[DragonmasterDan]

I am trying to find a later revision of my article, because I distinctly remember someone (Gygax?) stating that Dangerous Journeys: Necropolis video game was * promoted* at an industry convention, but he did not make it sound as if it were a playable demo. Of course, this is all speculation, hence my allusion to Kremlinology.

I was at the 1992 and 1993 Summer CES where TTI was an exhibitor and I don't recall seeing it at their booth either year.

[Galder]

God... awesome thread and information! Too bad that the game was never released. By checking the couple of screenies I have to admit that there was definitely something "new" going on with that game. I can hardly match its graphics and GUI with any other RPGs of its time. It would have been a bloody mess in the TE's screen though having the game's window, the characters faces, the map, the commands etc.

[esteban]

partial translation courtesy of xelement5x



(10:12:35) xelement5x: null the blue part says dangerous journeys
(10:14:12) xelement5x: 1st line, i can only read "game"
(10:14:23) xelement5x: 2nd line "gary gygax"
(10:14:50) xelement5x: 3rd line "kusu no "..
(10:15:06) xelement5x: 4th line "fantasy RPG"

You guys didn't notice the caption under the pic?

http://archives.tg-16.com/Dengeki_PC_Engine_1993_03.htm#dangerous_journeys

It clearly says:

Dangerous Journeys: "A fantasy RPG based on a book by the esteemed game writer Gary Gygax."

[esteban]

d'oh!

So, you have the Dangerous Journeys: Mythus book... what can you tell us about Necropolis?  If DJ is based on the book and given the subtitle "Necropolis", then we can hopefully get more of a feel for what the game would have been like.

Well, I bought them 10 years ago, so I'll have to refresh...because I haven't read them since.

However, it had pretty general rule sets, from what I can remember...let me read 'em again.



I'll get back to you

[esteban]

Ok, so I have some reading while I am playing with my kids this afternoon:

 

[Galder]

Dat artwork!!! (... and dem french fries!)

[esteban]

Dat artwork!!! (... and dem french fries!)

"Magickal Fryes from Aerth," according to the nomenclature of the Mythus universe.

[Gentlegamer]

As much as I loved Gygax, Dangerous Journeys was a game I couldn't get into, far too rules heavy.

If anyone knows RPGs, Gygax followed that game with a much more rules-lite game, Lejendary Adventure, which is far superior in my opinion.

[Mathius]

Yeowzer! Nice detective work guys!

[SuperGrafx]

So that's what he looked like?

[Gentlegamer]

So that's what he looked like?

You never watched Futurama?

[SuperGrafx]

So that's what he looked like?

You never watched Futurama?

no

[esteban]

...
now, if only esteban could give us insight into the world of necropolis!

I will keep updating this post, so all NOTES about Necropolis are in one place:

 

(01) Dangerous Journeys = the entire RPG system, intended to be "universal"...HP = Heroic Persona (instead of PC = Player Character).

(02) Mythus = the "fantasy" component of Dangerous Journeys, set on Aearth, thus, it is not surprising that magick (magic) is an important element of Mythus. In fact, the thick tome above—Mythus Magick—is really just a damn spell book, listing thousands* of incantations, spells, et f*cking cetera. *1,400

(2.5) HEKA (officially pronounced "hee kah", but I pronounce it "hay kah") is the "magical energy" that permeates Aearth, and is especially concentrated in AEGYPT.

(03) Necropolis = AEGYPT, the first fully "fleshed out" setting/scenario in the Mythus fantasy realm, based on an alternate version of Earth's Egypt (where Aegypt never crumbles and, instead, establishes itself as a permanent, ongoing empire, fending off foreign invaders—Romans, Persians—and remaining an incredibly powerful influence on the entire Mediterranean region. The Aegyptian empire of Aerth is on par with, if not more powerful than, the Roman and Persian empires we know from Earth).

NECROPOLIS SPECIFIC STORY:
(A) Set = evil entity/god
(B) Rahotep = Set's pawn/servant, but still a mighty antagonist/arch-enemy who executes Set's will. Rahotep is the power-hungry, ruthless bastard who wants take over Aearth, but first he has to take over AEGYPT. Rahotep has super-powerful control of HEKA and wants to become godlike...he transcends his human form and comes close to conquering AEGYPT, but, of course, his plans are thwarted (he doesn't fully transform to a god) and he is imprisoned in a tomb by "good guys"... where he remains trapped for millennia, until...
(C) Rahotep wants to (1) free himself, (2) complete his transformation to Demi-God, (3) conquer Aearth. NATURALLY HE NEEDS NINE EVAL OBJECTS (containing vast magical power) to aid him in this mission.
(D) Who should stumble upon these enchanted weapons? Our heroes, of course...who will inadvertently bring them to Rahotep...

(E) Our heroes could be motivated by  (1) righteousness and/or (2) greed.

(F) Here is a better summary of the entire Necropolis scenario, it would be interesting to see how much of this would have made it into the the TG-CD game.

NOTE: View/save original image (@ 1,000 pixels wide), I halved it here using "width=500" property of image tag!

  

  

[Mathius]

Confused Mathius here. In the above writings does "HP" in this instance mean "Human Players"? Forgive me as I don't play D&D.

[Mathius]

Heroic Persona.

esteban... thank you! Damn that story would make a great game. I wonder if the 9 icons in the lower left represent the 9 relics you mist find?

You have my eternal gratitude!