Dungeons & Dragons Online

Dungeons & Dragons Online
Original cover art
Developer(s)	Turbine (former) Standing Stone Games (current)
Publisher(s)	Atari (former) Codemasters (former) Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (former) Daybreak Game Company (current)
Designer(s)	Jason Booth Dan Ogles Cardell Kerr Ken Troop Michael Sheidow James Jones
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows OS X
Release	February 28, 2006
Genre(s)	Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine for Microsoft Windows and OS X. The game was originally marketed as Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, then renamed Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited upon switching to a hybrid free to play model, and was finally rebranded Dungeons & Dragons Online, with the introduction of Forgotten Realms-related content. Turbine developed DDO as an online adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), based loosely on the D&D 3.5 rule set. The game is set on the unexplored continent of Xen'drik within the Eberron campaign setting, and in the Kingdom of Cormyr within the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.

Centered in the city of Stormreach, DDO is set on the fictional continent of Xen'drik, in the world of Eberron, a setting from the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game. Xen'drik is a vastly unexplored locale, once the center of the Advanced Giant Civilization, destroyed thousands of years before. Stormreach is a giant-scaled city, recently settled by humans. Areas in Stormreach are the Harbor, the Marketplace, and five Dragonmarked Houses: Cannith, Deneith, Jorasco, Kundarak and Phiarlan. Adventures and quests are available beyond the city walls, across the continent.

Players create their characters following the revised edition of D&D 3.5 rule-set fashion, for play in both indoor and outdoor . The game has some differences from the D&D 3.5 rule set, some of which are due to differences in the dynamics of video game combat versus tabletop gaming. For example, Turbine wanted DDO to use a real-time combat engine, whereas tabletop D&D uses a turn-based system. This meant considerable changes in the handling of combat and character skills; differences include increased hit possibilities in a round, increased spell casting resources over rest periods, and the use of a spell point system instead of spell slots. Other differences, not mandated by the differences by real-time versus turn-based systems include: magical items are at a lower cost (averaging 1/8 of the tabletop D&D prices), characters have higher stats, and offensive effects created by characters do not harm their allies.