Moria Part 10 – Victory!

THE largest dungeon crawler I have ever experienced

Moria was my 4th challenge or game since beginning my RPG and adventure gaming chronicles. I began playing Moria on May 15th, 2020 and have just completed the game on Sunday, August 31st more than three months later. I did not keep a perfect timer on myself (this is something I will strive to do better) but I would hazard that I spent roughly around 300 hours with this game. You could make the argument that it took up 25% of my gaming year.

The deeper I delved into the game the more I became convinced that it was unbeatable and that I would likely be playing it forever. My obstinacy with the game was juxtaposed with my desire to create consistent blog posts on a regular basis.

If you have a passion for old school pen and paper dungeon crawls then this is the grandfather of them all. In the 300 hours spent playing this game, I mapped out by hand 171 different dungeon levels. The dungeon levels were enormous too and below you can see an example of one of the levels I mapped by hand.

It was on the 57th level of the Mountain Dungeon level that I found and encountered the Guardians of the Ring.

They were extremely difficult to beat however I proved victorious. No sooner did I have my hands on the Reaper’s Ring then it worked it’s magic and teleported to an even deeper level in one of the five dungeons found in the game. Cave, Desert, Forest, Mountain, and Ocean make up the five dungeons found in Moria. I had completely searched both the Forest and Cave dungeons before finally finding success in the Mountain dungeon. I could have conceivably been playing this game much longer had I struck out in the Mountain complex as I would have then had to map out the Desert and Ocean levels. While it does not advertise this fact, there is indeed an Ocean dungeon in the game and it is a hidden dungeon. You will also need to find the Magic Gills in one of the dungeons in order to survive the Ocean dungeon or you will slowly drown.

Here is proof that I am now one of the Finders of the Ring

In addition to completing the ultimate quest of finding the Reaper’s Ring I found myself becoming the Master of the Circle of Wizards as well. I have the highest Wizardry score in the game among all players who have played which makes me master of the guild. I also find myself near the top of the all time leader board in points which you acquire from battling monsters and acquiring treasure.

Lastly below you can see the info and stats on my character and what was necessary to win my way to finding the Reaper’s Ring.

Character Info on Khelben Blackstaff

One could certainly argue the merits of trying to achieve so much or allowing a game to take up so much of your time. I believe that it all boils down to whether or not you’re still enjoying yourself. I do love a good dungeon crawl, love mapping out levels by hand, and I have yet to encounter a game larger than this one in those two regards.

Permanently dying from an encounter constantly hung over my head like a dark cloud and thus provided a constant level of anxiety. The more time I spent searching for the ring, the more dungeon levels I had mapped out (the stack of dungeon levels piled together looks like the volume of a good book) the more my anxiety increased at the thought of dying and having to start over. I had resigned myself to the fact that I had spent enough time with the game and if I were to perish then I was going to do a final write up and move on. It is therefore immensely gratifying to have encountered the Guardian of the Ring at last.

I find it absolutely amazing that Moria was created in 1975. In 1975 the top song was Love Will Keep Us Together by The Captain and Tennille and the top movie was Jaws and a gallon of gas was only 44 cents. However in Moria we saw many of the things that we would later see in the Wizardry series and many other early dungeon crawlers. The number of items and magic items that you could find in the game was astounding. There were many more armor and weapon offerings and magic items to find than in the previous early games I’ve played (Dungeon, Game of Dungeons, and Orthanc).

I found this game to be extremely challenging. The difficulty level was very hard and it took me roughly 300 hours to find the Reaper’s Ring. It was a real treat to see the progression from Dungeon, Game of Dungeons, Orthanc, and now Moria and how they served as a template for what we would come to know as the Wizardry series and other early dungeon crawlers.

Next up in my quest will be the original version of Adventure, the first ever text adventure game.