Might and Magic: Book One – The Secret of the Inner Sanctum

The first Might and Magic was largely the work of one man, Jon Van Caneghem, and it launched one of the most enduring RPG series ever made, which later gave rise to Heroes of Might and Magic. It’s a huge, unforgiving first-person RPG in which a party of adventurers sets out to explore the world of Varn and uncover the mystery of the Inner Sanctum. For its time, it was remarkably ambitious in scope.

Gameplay

You create a party of six characters, choosing from races such as humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes and half-orcs, and six classes:

• Knights, paladins and archers handle the fighting, each with their own strengths.
• Clerics and sorcerers provide healing and magic from two separate spellbooks.
• Robbers deal with traps and locks.

Alignment and gender also matter in some places, which was unusual for the time.

Exploration takes place in first-person on grid-based maps, and the world is big: towns, castles, dungeons, caves and a large outdoor wilderness are all open from early on. There’s no automap, so you’ll be mapping on graph paper. Combat is turn-based and menu-driven, often against large groups of enemies, and the difficulty is notoriously harsh, especially in the early hours.

The great appeal is freedom. There are few signposts, so you discover quests, secrets and the shape of the world by exploring it yourself.

Verdict

Might and Magic Book One is a historically important RPG with impressive scope and freedom for 1986. Today, its brutal difficulty, manual mapping and spartan presentation make it hard to recommend to anyone but dedicated old-school fans. If you have the patience, though, there’s a large and rewarding world to explore.