Welcome!
Blades of Exile is a classic RPG, made around 1997 by Spiderweb Software. It was similar to their earlier games (Exile: Escape from the Pit; Exile 2: Crystal Souls; Exile 3: Ruined World) except it had a slightly different gameplay type. Instead of playing through one massive quest, you get to move your party through three smaller ones, increasing in difficulty. And, Blades of Exile's greatest feature--A complete scenario editor, giving everyone the opportunity to make (and play) their own adventures.
Of course, when it first came out, they were selling it, trying to make money. And I believe that they did. I have heard that Blades of Exile was one of their most successful games. But this is 2009. Computers have changed a lot, and some people couldn't get it to run on their new machines. So instead of just letting it die, along with all the custom scenarios people have made over the years, Spiderweb Software decided to make it open source. So if anyone wanted to mess around with it, fix it, they could.
I'm a newbie to all of this. I have wanted Blades of Exile since it first came out. I just never actually bought it. So I was overjoyed at discovering this chance to catch up. I've been playing scenarios I downloaded from various sites, and in between working on my own. My first scenario, 'The Cherth Campaign' is finally released, though not particularly good. At the moment, I am working on my newest scenario idea, a much less combat oriented one.
Just for fun, our family recently held an impromptu 1-hour scenario contest. The rules were, create a scenario in 1 hour, then you get 15 minutes to alpha-test, and up to 5 minutes more after that to fix any essential things that might be broken. Needless to say, Jedi Nescioquis won. Tornac has just learned to node, so her scenario is actually finishable. Dia Chan needed my help with the nodes (she's only 11) but it's a pretty good attempt. If you want to play them, you can find them under 'Other Stuff'.
