So You Want to Be a Hero Trivia Quiz

Answer: Quest for Glory

Sierra Online was a company better known for its graphical adventure games (with puzzles to solve). "Quest for Glory" (originally "Hero's Quest") was the first Sierra game to introduce RPG elements into its adventures. The player can choose to play a Fighter, Magic-User, or Thief, and the game is cunningly designed to allow any of these playstyles to win. For example, in order to retrieve an item from a bird's nest high up in a tree, you can climb the tree if you're a good climber (Thief skill), use a spell to retrieve it (Magic-User skill), or throw a rock at the nest (Fighter skill). This makes the game highly replayable.

The quote is an in-game prophecy that indicates what the player needs to do to beat the game.

Answer: Nethack

While "Rogue" is the father of all "roguelike" games (featuring ASCII-graphics, permanent death, and random magic items that change every time you play), "Nethack" is probably the most popular and best balanced, as it has been updated and improved for years by a development team. Featuring a wide variety of monsters, magic items, and dungeon features, the game can be downloaded or played online for free and it still provides a great RPG fix. However, winning is extremely difficult -- most players never even get close.

The quote is from the opening introduction, shown when a new character is created.

Answer: Ultima

The "Ultima" series is regarded as the one of the greatest RPG series of all-time, with nine games and several spinoffs in the series. Origin's motto was "We create worlds", and in the later games, it really felt like you were revisiting a different world, as NPCs moved around on schedules and could hold meaningful conversations with players. The most distinguishing aspect of the later "Ultima" games was the focus on ethics and morals: instead of killing innocent townsfolk for treasure and experience, players were encouraged to be virtuous in small matters as well as large. To do this, an entire ethical system based on Buddhist principles was created, with eight virtues (Honesty, Compassion, Valor, Justice, Sacrifice, Honor, Spirituality, and Humility) to live up to.

The quote is from the opening virtue "personality" test to identify which of the eight virtues the player most strongly identifies with. (This specific question tests Honesty vs. Compassion, but the other tests are similarly compelling.) The process teaches the player that sometimes virtues conflict, and then there is no one universal right answer.

Answer: The Bard's Tale

"The Bard's Tale" was one of the first RPGs to feature music and color graphics in a first-person view. The music was particularly important as one of the characters could become a bard that played songs that affected the party's statistics. The success of "The Bard's Tale" led to two official sequels as well as some unofficial ones.

The quote is from the introduction in the manual.

Answer: The Legend of Zelda

"The Legend of Zelda" was the first RPG for console systems. Link is often asked to saving the world of Hyrule and its princess, Zelda. "The Legend of Zelda" has become such a popular franchise that it has spawned both an animated TV series and manga comics.

The quote comes from the very beginning of the game, when the player enters a cave and is given a sword.

Answer: Starflight

"Starflight" was one of the first science-fiction based RPGs, featuring a Star Trek-inspired quest with several alien races to meet and outwit. It used fractal technology to generate the planets of the universe, so the "world" feels incredibly large and awe-inspiring. Also, unlike many modern games, a large degree of freedom was given to the player, in that the player can tackle objectives in whatever order desired, giving rise to the genre of "sandbox games".

The quote comes from the opening message on the bulletin board in the Spaceport, which gives some general goals and then lets the player loose on the universe.

Answer: Fallout

Another popular genre of role-playing games is that of the future after a nuclear exchange. The "Fallout" series is regarded as the finest of this genre, with its open-ended world that responds dynamically to player choices, and multiple paths to victory. Based on Steve Jackson's GURPS system, the player can roleplay as a brawler, a thief, a technologist, or even a silver-tongued diplomat who can win without fighting a single combat.

The quote comes from the opening introduction movie of "Fallout 1".

Answer: Dungeon Master

"Dungeon Master" was one of the first real-time action role-playing games, with monsters taking swings at your characters as you decided what action to take. The ability to pick rocks off the ground and throw them at enemies advancing towards you in real-time, or to manually manipulate levers and switches to open secret doors, added a dimension that had not been successfully done previously. Originally for the Amiga, its success soon saw it ported to many other platforms.

The quote comes from the manual, which was written by a professional novelist, Nancy Holder.

Answer: Baldur's Gate

"Baldur's Gate" was the first to use the Infinity Engine to implement AD&D in an isometric perspective, and it single-handledly revived the CRPG genre, which had been flagging for many years. Featuring stellar graphics (for the time), voice acting, quasi-real-time combat (the player can pause to halt action and change orders), and a compelling narrative, "Baldur's Gate" and its sequel, "Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn", are together regarded as two of the greatest CRPGs ever made.

The quote comes from within the game as a chant in Candlekeep, which gives the player a premonition of what is to come.

Answer: Planescape: Torment

Acclaimed by many for containing the greatest story and characters ever written for an RPG, "Planescape: Torment" is simply an experience that should not be missed by any serious CRPG gamer. The Nameless One's immortality means that death is merely an inconvenience (and sometimes a necessity to advance the plot!), but his quest to understand his past and why he is tormented with immortality leads him to shocking discoveries that make the player feel ill, depressed, or elated. Accompanying him are a memorable cast of tormented misfits whose lives are tied with his inextricably.

The film critic Roger Ebert once famously said that he did not see video games as art. He clearly never played "Planescape: Torment".