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August 28th 2014, 05:11 PM
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CocoMonkey
Bard He/Him United States
Please Cindy, say the whole name each time. 
157: Rascal (Beta) Author: Blackduke Release Date: June 18, 2003
"One day... Dink felt like a..."
"a lying, stealing, bug killing, man slaughtering, rascal, who was amused?"


This DMOD placed a respectable third in the contest. It received the only first-place vote that didn't go to the winning entry.

"Rascal" has the single best concept out of all the DMODs I've seen so far. Dink is bored ("not amused"), so he decides to make a lot of trouble between a human settlement and a neighboring settlement of sapient monsters. This is very difficult at first. Despite each being surrounded by a wall and having a posted, armed guard, the two towns actually have rather pleasant relations before Dink gets up to no good. At first, Dink's efforts to get the inhabitants to turn on each other are rebuffed. Soon, however, through lying, scheming, and dirty deeds, the towns stand on the brink of war. And it all starts with one alktree nut falling across the fence.


Trouble brewing.

This game feels a lot more like a LucasArts or Sierra adventure game than a typical Dink adventure. It's all about figuring out what the next naughty thing you have to do is. You're awarded experience points when you sow mistrust and anger. Furthermore, every time you return to the starting screen, Dink assesses his current status. New modifiers are added to his statement as you cause more chaos. "I'm a... lying... bug killing... rascal! And I'm not amused at all!"


These options don't have any effect beyond increasing your stats as usual, but I found this very funny.

There's plenty of funny dialogue to be had. I particularly liked a couple of intelligent pillbugs who unwisely taunt Dink from behind a locked fence. In love with each other, the pillbugs congratulate one another for their insults against Dink.


Pillbugs in love. Yes, this is what we've come to.

Unfortunately, no matter how much I enjoyed being a "Rascal," I was unable to finish this DMOD. Believe me, I spent a long time trying everything I could think of, but I eventually got stuck anyway. There's no walkthrough, and discussion on the forum only offers a few clues to earlier puzzles. It doesn't help that the mod is kind of buggy, and it's hard to tell whether it's always working as intended. There are so many variables being juggled around, and doing things in the wrong order might cause something to mess up, dooming your progress. Because everything that happens is so interdependent, even skimming the scripts didn't help me figure out how to win. There are also some hardness and depth que problems, but they aren't a big deal.


The mod features these nice "goblin house" interiors. I can't remember whether I've seen them before or not.

I won't say more because I don't want to spoil it. Despite its problems, this DMOD is too clever to miss. I strongly recommend giving it a try. And if you're cleverer than me and manage to finish it, how about writing a walkthrough?