PLATO Moria

Moria is a Dungeon Crawling Role-Playing Game for the PLATO Network, developed around 1975. It's based on dnd, though it features multiplayer parties and a Faux First Person 3D perspective.

Players create an Honest Rolls Character by choosing from four pre-rolled combinations. The stats are Cunning (equivalent to thieving ability), Piety (clerical magic), Valor (strength and armor class), and Wizardry (offensive magic). There are no classes, instead a character's stats determine which weapons and spells they can use. There is also a Vitality stat, which combines Hit Points and Character Level. Players start in a town, where they can buy weapons and armor, or sell items found while out adventuring. There are also guilds the player can join once they have leveled up enough. Up to ten players join with each other to create parties; one player acts as the Guide, who controls overall party movement.

Outside of town is a wilderness, which is something of a Noob Cave with weak monsters. In the wilderness are entrances to four dungeons. Each dungeon is 60 levels of 6x6 grids, generated dynamically. Players can move around individually inside rooms, and can tie magic strings behind them to avoid getting lost. As time goes by, your character consumes food and water; if you run out, you start losing Vitality until you die. Combat is turn-based, with several options including fighting, running, bribery, and praying. Hidden within the dungeons are magic objects, defended by bosses. The equivalent of a Final Boss guards the Ring of the Reaper, which lengthens a character's lifespan. If you get the ring, you join a Hall of Fame.

Moria provides examples of:

 * An Economy Is You: The town.
 * Character Level: Stat increases rather than discrete levels.
 * Critical Existence Failure
 * Divine Intervention: Praying during combat.
 * Dungeon Crawling
 * Faux First Person 3D
 * Final Boss: Sort of, as there's no ending. It guards the Ring of the Reaper.
 * Hit Points
 * Heroic Fantasy
 * Honest Rolls Character
 * Level Grinding
 * Money Spider
 * Noob Cave: The wilderness.
 * Role-Playing Game
 * Wizard Needs Food Badly