Play Tales Of The Unknown: Volume I – The Bard’s Tale Online

Tales of the Unknown: Volume I: The Bard's Tale is a role-playing game released for MS-Dos in 1987. Developed by Interplay Productions and published by Electronic Arts, it is a first-person dungeon crawler set in a fantasy world. The game utilizes turn-based combat and exploration mechanics.

Players form a party of up to six adventurers from a selection of character classes, including Bard, Hunter, Monk, Paladin, Rogue, Warrior, Magician, and Conjurer. The party explores the town of Skara Brae and its surrounding dungeons from a first-person perspective, navigating grid-based environments. A core objective is to defeat the wizard Mangar the Dark, who has besieged the town with monsters and cast an Eternal Winter spell, isolating it from aid. Gameplay involves tactical, turn-based combat encounters with various monsters, managing character inventories, and developing party members through experience and equipment.

Progression is structured around exploring the town and a series of interconnected dungeon levels, solving puzzles and uncovering secrets to advance. The Bard character class holds a distinct role, as certain magical songs they perform are necessary to solve specific puzzles and provide beneficial effects to the party during combat. Additionally, the Magician and Conjurer classes can be promoted to higher-tier versions when players meet particular in-game conditions, altering their capabilities.