Play OSR D&D on an Amazon Echo?
I’ve had an Amazon Echo Dot for over a year now. If fact, we now have three because they are much easier for my wife (with her MS-related hand issues) to use than a normal timer, alarm clock, etc. I’ve never found the games available as skills to be all that much fun to play — at least more than a time or two.
Today, however, I discovered Six Swords — an attempt to have Alexa run a D&D-like game. It’s not based on modern D&D — it’s “based on OSRIC, an open source version of first Edition Dungeons and Dragons ™” according to the Six Swords skill description. I haven’t had a lot of time to play with this, but I can already say it is the most interesting Alexa skill game I’ve tried yet. It’s far from perfect, but it seems like it will be a fun away to spend some time. It also appears to be under active development with new releases with bug fixes and new features every few weeks. Here’s the full description of the Six Swords skill. It’s not going to replace a human DM anytime soon, but it’s the best game I’ve seen for Alexa-powered devices.
Engage in classic fantasy adventure. Build a team of up to six companions to explore exotic cities, high castles, and deep dungeons. But be careful, the further off the path you get the more dangerous it becomes.
The system used is based on OSRIC, an open source version of first Edition Dungeons and Dragons ™.There are many features available in the skill which you can discover as you play it. Some of the more used commands are:
North, South, East, West: move around the game map.
Enter: enter into a town, castle or dungeon.
inventory: list what your party and your active player is carrying
who: list the companions in your group
activate
: make one of your companions the active companion give
- to
: give an item from the party inventory to the companion take
- from
: move an item from a companion to the party inventory When in combat you cannot use the move commands. However you can:
fight: fight a round of combat with the enemy
run away: flee a fight
Other versions: 6 Swords Lite and 6 Swords Kids.
If you received some type of Amazon Echo or another device with Alexa, you might want to give this a try.