Advanced Dungeons Dragons Heroes of the Lance

You push through side-scrolling battles where enemies crowd the screen and spacing matters. The chaos is part of the identity—winning often means surviving moments that feel barely under control. It’s rough, but it has that classic “party under siege” energy.

Join the legendary heroes of Krynn and battle the forces of darkness.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance brings the iconic Dragonlance saga to life, allowing players to control a party of heroes as they fight their way through enemy strongholds, haunted landscapes, and desperate battles against the Dragonarmies.

Featuring multiple playable characters, each with unique abilities, Heroes of the Lance blends action, strategy, and fantasy storytelling into a challenging quest inspired by one of D&D’s most beloved settings.

Heroes of the Lance is a side-scrolling action-adventure built around party management rather than solo heroics.

Party-Based Mechanics
Players control one hero at a time from a roster of Dragonlance characters, including:

Fighters with strong melee attacks

Spellcasters with limited but powerful magic

Support characters essential for survival

Characters can be switched on the fly, and each one has a health pool that persists throughout the adventure. If a character falls, they are gone for the remainder of the game.

Movement & Combat
Side-scrolling exploration with vertical elements

Melee and ranged combat depending on character

Limited spell usage, encouraging careful planning

Enemy waves that overwhelm reckless players

Combat is often chaotic. Enemies attack from multiple directions, forcing players to decide who should be active at any given moment.

Level Design
Stages are long, unforgiving, and filled with hazards:

Enemy ambushes

Tight corridors and platforms

Sudden difficulty spikes

Progression isn’t about speed—it’s about endurance and survival.

Set in the world of Krynn, Heroes of the Lance follows the early events of the Dragonlance saga. The companions—heroes bound by fate—must infiltrate enemy territory and strike back against the Dragonarmies threatening the world.

The story draws heavily from the Dragonlance Chronicles novels, particularly Dragons of Autumn Twilight. While the NES hardware limits storytelling presentation, the sense of epic fantasy comes through via character variety, scale, and relentless opposition.

Rather than focusing on a single hero’s journey, the game emphasizes the idea that victory requires many heroes working together.

Released in 1988, Heroes of the Lance was one of the earliest attempts to translate tabletop Dungeons & Dragons—and a popular novel series—into a real-time action format.

Developed during a period when RPG conventions were still being defined on consoles, the game took a bold approach: sacrificing turn-based mechanics for immediacy and tension.

U.S. Gold – Publisher
Released multiple licensed fantasy and arcade titles during the NES era.

TSR – License Holder
Creators of Dungeons & Dragons and the Dragonlance setting.

Strategic Simulations Inc. – Brand Partner
Known for adapting tabletop RPG systems into digital form.