Menzoberranzan (1994)
Menzoberranzan is a 1994 role-playing (rpg) video game made by DreamForge Intertainment and SSI (Strategic Simulations, Inc.).
Miles below the surface, in caverns lit by faerie fire and lies, the drow city of Menzoberranzan runs on ambition and betrayal. Your party of surface dwellers is drawn into its web, and for part of the journey the renegade dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden walks at your side. This Forgotten Realms outing swaps the old top-down grid for real-time, first-person travel through the Underdark's tunnels and the spider-goddess's black city. Expect ambushes, house intrigues among the noble drow, and a setting built for anyone who ever wanted to see Salvatore's underworld from the inside.
Quick answers
What is Menzoberranzan about?
Miles below the surface, in caverns lit by faerie fire and lies, the drow city of Menzoberranzan runs on ambition and betrayal. Your party of surface dwellers is drawn into its web, and for part of the journey the renegade dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden walks at your side. This Forgotten Realms outing swaps the old top-down grid for real-time, first-person travel through the Underdark's tunnels and the spider-goddess's black city. Expect ambushes, house intrigues among the noble drow, and a setting built for anyone who ever wanted to see Salvatore's underworld from the inside.
When was Menzoberranzan released?
Menzoberranzan was released on 31 December 1994.
Who made Menzoberranzan?
Menzoberranzan was made by DreamForge Intertainment, SSI (Strategic Simulations, Inc.) and KSS.
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Menzoberranzan in our writing
- Companion guide: Dungeons & Dragons on the PC: From the Gold Box to Baldur's Gate 3
A few thoughts on Menzoberranzan
The obvious next step is Baldur's Gate, where Drizzt turns up in a famous cameo and the Forgotten Realms open wide. For the underworld's gothic cousin, the Castlevania series shares the taste for beautiful, treacherous dark places full of monsters with manners.
Forgotten Realms crawls and tactics from the AD&D era
Menzoberranzan sends surface dwellers into the Underdark on the same Forgotten Realms license that built a generation of AD&D crawlers. Pool of Radiance, Eye of the Beholder II, Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights and Temple of Elemental Evil all share that same setting and rules-heavy combat, dungeon after dungeon.
Modern D&D and Pathfinder tactics for the same crunch
Menzoberranzan trades a top-down grid for real-time travel through tunnels thick with ambushes and drow house intrigue. Solasta: Crown of the Magister, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Baldur's Gate III carry that same tactical D&D lineage into modern engines, without losing the sense of a party in real danger.
Dark fantasy where betrayal runs through every court
Menzoberranzan's noble drow houses trade in ambition and betrayal, and a wrong alliance can get a party killed fast. Planescape: Torment, Betrayal at Krondor, The Witcher, Blood of Elves and Castlevania all share that same current of court intrigue and monstrous politics, where the real threat is rarely the creature standing right in front of you.
Adventuring parties who face down ancient evil together
Menzoberranzan pulls a band of surface dwellers into a drow city ruled by a spider goddess and secrets older than any of them expected. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, The Legend of Vox Machina, Willow, The Dark Crystal, The Princess Bride and Stranger Things all follow companies who face something ancient and dark together.