Games - Skotos

	Games - Skotos

Skotos is an online game company that was founded in 1999 and released its first game, Castle Marrach, in September of 2000. Its primary focus is prose online RPGs (essentially, MUDs and MUSHes), though it currently offers a total of 15 different games. These include a number of graphical RPGs and online strategy games, which are also available at other sites.

Skotos is a commercial service that charges a monthly fee for its services. It is also the owner of RPGnet, a free tabletop roleplaying web site.

Skotos has been featured by , , , , , and .

Skotos Games

Core Prose Roleplaying Games

Skotos' core set of games is built around the DGD engine. Skotos has developed a gaming development library (a MUDlib) which can be used to create a variety of different games. They also have create web-based editing utilities which allow players to edit existing games, and even create their own.

Castle Marrach. The first Skotos game, released on September 21, 2000. In this fantasy roleplaying game, players awake in a strange castle atop a distant mountain and slowly must introduce themselves into the intrigues of this fairie tale like acourt.
Lovecraft Country: Arkham by Night. This game, based upon Howard Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, was released at GenCon 2004. It centers on the imaginary Miskatonic University where players take the role of students and slowly delve into the mysteries of the witch-town. A unique "expedition" system sometimes takes players to distant locales where the true horror occurs. Tomb of the Desert God, also released in 2004 is the only Lovecraft Country expedition that's been run to date. Skotos' game is based on Chaosium
's series of Lovecraft Country RPG books.
Mortalis Victus. The newest core Skotos game was first released in January of 2005 and is still moving toward a gold release. It places players in a largely freeform fantasy world where they create plots with little outside intervention.

Worlds Apart Roleplaying Games

Two of Worlds Apart Production's games are also available solely through the Skotos service.

The Eternal City. This traditional MUD, with a very sophisticated combat system, is set in the low-fantasy Roman-like city of Iridine. It was previously available as an ad-driven service and came to Skotos in 2001.
Grendel's Revenge. A game developed jointly by Skotos and Worlds Apart, where players take on the roles of monsters.

Skotos Strategy Games

There is currently one strategy game available exclusively through Skotos:

Galactic Emperor: Hegemony. A 3-week long space combat game, previously available for free as Space Empires
and purchased and rebranded by Skotos in 2001.

Other Skotos Channel Games

There are a number of other games currently available through Skotos on a non-exclusive basis:

Graphical Roleplaying Games. These are more traditional MMORPG
s, though mostly last generation ones. Only Meridian 59 is currently available via this gaming channel.
Online Strategy Games. These are turn-based traditional online strategy games: Droid Arena and Space Federation. Galactic Emperor: Hegemony also fits into this same category, but is an exclusive game, as noted above.
Tabletop Strategy Games. The entire series of Days of Wonder
online games is available through Skotos. This currently includes: Ticket to Ride
, Ticket to Ride Europe, Gang of Four, Fist of Dragonstones, and Queen's Necklace.

Other Skotos Services

Skotos also has a free article archive available. It's largely centered around online game design, though a few authors have also written about online game playing experiences and the gaming industry in general.

The most notable columns at Skotos have been Jessica Mulligan's Biting the Hand and a column by Richard Bartle, the father of modern MUD design (and thus most MMORPGs and other online games).

Skotos also owns RPGnet and continues to offer it as a free service.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Skotos ]

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