The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate

Interplay Productions

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Products	The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate

The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate is a fantasy role-playing game released in 1988 by Interplay Productions, serving as the third installment in the The Bard's Tale series. The title was crafted by designers Rebecca Heineman, Bruce Schlickbernd, and Michael A. Stackpole, and became available on various platforms such as Amiga, Apple II, Commodore 64, and MS-DOS.

Plot

Set after the catastrophic fall of Skara Brae, caused by the Mad God Tarjan who unleashed monstrous entities during a celebration marking the party’s earlier triumph over the dark wizard Mangar, the narrative begins with the player in a refugee encampment situated outside the devastated city. The playable area has been reduced to a 16x16 grid from its former 30x30 size. An aged survivor guides the adventurers to defeat Tarjan’s lieutenant, Brilhasti ap Tarj, and to acquire potent relics from alternate realms by employing chronomancer magic.

Significant worlds and their goals include:

• Arboria: A mystical elven land where players must overcome the antagonist Tslotha Garnath to claim Valarian’s Bow along with the Arrows of Life.
• Gelidia: A frozen tundra where Lanatir’s Sphere and the Wand of Power are sought, revealing a backstory of perpetual winter imposed by Alendar, the last inhabitant.
• Lucencia: This gnome city requires retrieving the Belt of Alliria and Crown of Truth from Alliria’s tomb, involving battles against a dragon and her deranged consort Cyanis.
• Kinestia: A dwarven kingdom embroiled in conflict with robotic foes; here, Ferofist’s Helm and Hammer of Wrath are obtained. Players may choose to ally with or oppose Urmech, an artificial entity capable of training Geomancers.
• Tenebrosia: A realm defined by paradoxes where Sceadu’s Cloak and Helm of Justice must be secured following a confrontation with the villainous Sceadu.
• Tarmitia: A dimension marked by endless warfare and historic battlefields; players acquire Werra’s Shield and Strifespear after defeating Werra, the war deity.

Once these artifacts are gathered, the party returns to find their mentor fatally injured. They then journey into Malefia, Tarjan’s stronghold, where they recover the Strifespear from Hawkslayer’s remains before facing Tarjan himself. The gameplay strategy particularly favors using a thief or rogue character to stealthily overcome Tarjan, reflecting the game’s subtitle Thief of Fate.

Upon Tarjan’s defeat, the adventurers ascend to godhood, replacing those slain by Tarjan and becoming new celestial figures.

Gameplay

This dungeon-crawling title introduced several advancements compared to earlier entries:

• The first in the series to feature graphical auto-mapping across its 84 dungeon levels
• Improved save game functionality
• Introduction of two new magic-using classes: geomancer and chronomancer

Development

Michael Cranford, who originally created the Bard's Tale franchise, was not involved in this sequel as he had left Interplay to pursue studies in philosophy and theology.

Programmer Heineman disclosed that the game was initially titled Tales of the Unknown - Volume III: The Thief's Tale. He later sought to continue the series but was unable to obtain rights from Electronic Arts.

Michael A. Stackpole was responsible for developing both the plot and maps; he has since established a successful career as an author within franchises such as Star Wars and BattleTech.

Reception

In a 1988 review by Computer Gaming World, Bard's Tale III was recognized as an advancement over the previous installment, though it was still noted for its strong emphasis on combat. By 1993, the same publication acknowledged that despite some imperfections, this entry revitalized the series, particularly praising its quest design as the standout aspect.

One frequently mentioned drawback was the lack of an obvious way to replenish spell points. Unlike earlier games where players could immediately restore them through payment, this title requires standing on designated "magic regeneration squares" found within dungeons. This mechanic was neither clearly detailed in the manual nor accompanied by noticeable audio or visual indicators.

In Dragon issue #138 (1988), reviewers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser assigned the game a rating of 3 out of 5 stars.

Shay Addams praised The Bard's Tale III as a more engaging adventure compared to its forerunners, highlighting the introduction of diverse puzzles facilitated by new commands reminiscent of text-based adventures such as Zork. Additional improvements included an auto-mapping feature, new character classes, an expanded spell list, and more varied dungeon environments. The game presents exotic locations across multiple worlds with a user-friendly interface and vibrant first-person visuals. It also allows players to import characters from previous titles in the Bard's Tale series as well as from early entries in Ultima's III and IV and Wizardry franchises.

Reviews

• Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine volume 12, number 13 (Mid-December 1988)

Legacy

During the Kickstarter campaign for the fourth installment of the series, inXile collaborated with Rebecca Heineman and Olde Sküül to create a remastered edition of the original trilogy optimized for contemporary PCs running Mac OS and Microsoft Windows, replacing previous emulated versions. After encountering development difficulties, responsibility for the project was shifted to Krome Studios.

The updated collection titled The Bard's Tale Trilogy was officially released on February 26, 2019. Following inXile Entertainment’s acquisition by Microsoft, this compilation became available on Xbox One on August 13, 2019, incorporating support for Xbox Play Anywhere.

See also

• Silversword

External links

• Comprehensive Bard's Tale Resource
• The Bard's Tale III on GameBase64]
• Bard's Tale Online Community