Hey all,

My gaming PC recently decided to stop working for me (graphics card fried, and I think PSU has packed up). I've decided to start budgeting and saving to build a PC from scratch, but obviously this takes time and I have an itch to satisfy.

I have a custom ThinkPad T440p which is quite powerful in its own right, but it runs Ubuntu. I've found that while it's somewhat nice to not be distracted by all the PC games I had (which were mostly fast-paced, competitive multiplayer games), I am still distracted by endlessly scrolling endless websites (Reddit, social media etc), and I'd rather sink my teeth into something more worthwhile such as a good story game. When I was younger, my favourite RPG ever was The Elder Scroll IV: Oblivion and I used to love story-based games. I think multiplayer games have fried my attention span, and so has social media.

But with the thanks of my PC breaking, I've picked up books and other more productive hobbies. Still n the evening, however, I'd still like a moment to relax and unwind. I believe a good video game can offer that.

So if anyone has any suggestions for a good, not too difficult to learn, fun RPG classic which can be played on Linux, I'd appreciate it!

Thanks,
Eli

Baldur's Gate! I think it's on Linux. I hope you don't find the beginning a little bit hardcore (you need to quicksave before a combat to make sure you don't get oneshot if you play as a wizard, due to low HP, until you reach level 2-3, which doesn't take long usually), but the story is great, in my opinion.

Just checked, BG has tons of guides how to run on Linux, if you don't have Ubuntu 12 (Steam requirements list Ubuntu 12, GOG doesn't list Linux). I recommend going for the classic version instead of Enhanced, if you can get your hands on that one.

Well, Oblivion and all the other TES games here on gog work fine in dosbox or wine (depending on vintage). Morrowind also has OpenMW, which is a native engine. Other, similar games that work on wine/Linux are, I guess, Gothic series, Two Worlds series, Fallout 3/NV, and probably a lot more that I am forgetting about.

I get a lot of RPGs (although I prefer non-FPS-style; in fact, I am currently playing the recently released Alliance Alive and Wizardry: LoLS, both on wine), and most of them work fine, either natively (e.g. Pathfinder: Kingmaker, ATOM RPG, Pillars of Eternity 1-2, surprisingly many more) or under wine. If there's a specific game you're interested in, just ask here and someone probably has at least tried it on Linux.

I hear Baldur's Gate mentioned a lot. Is there a steep learning curve to it? And what are the main differences from Enhanced? If Enhanced is much better and it's a pain to set up on Linux, I could invest on PS4 anyway. I loved Fallout NV too. I really would like to try an RPG like Pathfinder, ATOM and Pillars of Eternity (isometric is the style, and it seems they have a lot of depth). Which would you recommend to someone with no experience with them?

Totally NOT what you were asking for, but give Battle for Wesnoth a go (it's a turn based strategic rpg-lite game). It's free!

Now i'm not 100% about Ubuntu (but pretty sure it will be the same) but in Linux Mint (which is based on Ubuntu) you can access games from the 'Software Manager'. Ubuntu is bound to have something like this also. Pretty sure all of them will be free and you can spend hours looking through those and trying them out etc.

Oh, if you want an isometric RPG like Pathfinder or PoE, then definitively go for Baldur's Gate! It's a classic that actually inspired these two games, and PoE was actually done by some former devs who worked on BG.

If you have any experience with Dungeons and Dragons, then it's going to be very easy. If not, and you pick a non-spellcasting class, it's easy. The only "steep" learning curve is getting used to the magic system, where you memorize (select) spells from your spellbook and you have a number of slots/casts you can use, and when you use them up, you need to rest to get them back - each selected spell is one time only. Every level raises the number of casts you get, so for example level one mage has two, if I remember correctly, and you start out with about...5 spells or so you get to pick at character creation (you get more during each levelup and spellbooks in the game). So for example if you picked fireball, grease and chill touch, you can either pick 2x of these spells, one each - eg. you can cast a fireball and chill touch, each once, until you rest and get them back again, or you can pick a spell twice - 2x fireball. At level two, you'd gain more casts per day (rest, but most people rest often, and you can rest anywhere and for free outside of a town, in a town you need to pay for an inn), so you could select each spell once or a mix, eg. 2x fireball, 2x chill touch, 1x grease. And you can change your spells any time before resting, so you can mix and match according to what you're expecting will happen. If you change a spell you haven't used yet, it's gone though.

All magic classes use this system, and atlhough they're weak at the beginning of the game, they get progressively strnonger until you can solo the game with them. It's actually a fun challenge people do in the sequel, where they get rid of other party members and try a solo run as a mage. Some do solo runs even in the first game.

Otherwise it's easy, the hardest part is probably character creation, as you don't get to allocate or select any skills afterwards, you just get to pick your spells before rest (if you want to mix them up) for mages, clerics and druids (paladins and rangers get theirs automatically, if I remember correctly) and sometimes allocate bonus points to weapon skills. Otherwise you just focus on battle tactics themselves, like ranged/melee, using your spels at the right time etc. I like it.

I recommend checking the GOG or Steam page for it, it lists most of the changes, and you can read reviews about the Enhanced Edition - my main issue is, that it added new characters and possibly new dialogue elsewhere as well, and like other users have remarked, it's fairly obvious who the new characters (party members) are and they don't fit the story that much. As a new player you might not mind, but I personally prefer the original version how it was meant to be played, rather than playing a game with new characters added in 15 years later (by a different company, with none of the original writers, by the way). They also did some gameplay changes (it uses now the system from the second game, rather than the one in BG1, magic is still the same, btw) and made the combat too easy due to removing some things, however the difficulty part might have been reverted in a patch?

+1
It's very good once you learn the basic stuff (not much) but have depth to it. It's probably available on Ubuntu software center (or whatever is called).

Some cool games that runs natively on Linux are Divinity Original Sin, Shadowrun series and Witcher 2.

Exception: The Sorcerer class works differently. You pick your spells when you level up (and can't learn them from scrolls, unlike a Mage), then you can cast any combination of them on the fly. So, if you picked grease and chill touch (focusing on these spells because they're both the same level), and you have 3 casts of that level, you can cast any combination of those spells without having to choose which combination you want in advance. In other words, the system works more like Wizardry 1-5 or Final Fantasy 1. It's worth noting, however, that the Classic Edition of Baldur's Gate 1 has no Sorcerers, as they were introduced in Baldur's Gate 2; they're in the Enhanced Edition, and are alsp playable if you're using a BG1-in-BG2 mod like TuTu or Trilogy.

Speaking of Wizardry, I note that Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls works on Linux via WINE. It's also possible to get Wizardry 8 to work, and the DOS versions of Wizardry 6 and 7 can also be made to work. Elminage Gothic is a bit harder to run on Linux, but it can still be done, and that game has a *lot* of content (and it's on saile right now). Of course, these games are first-person with turn-based combat, so quite different from the others.

Of course, you could also try Temple of Elemental Evil if you want to stick to D&D-based games; it uses 3.5e rules, so it's closer to Pathfinder mechanically.

(Personal opinion: The Baldur's Gate games aren't that good, and aren't worth getting.) I actually got those two recent releases, though I have yet to try Alliance Alive.

By the way, I just remembered that there are some decent roguelikes that run natively under Linux. For example:
* nethack, which is in the repositories of most major Linux distributions. It uses ASCII instead of graphics, however.
* Tangledeep, which is available on GOG and has some features that are clearly inspired by Japanese games (Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, Shiren the Wanderer, probably others).

For a fun and light hack&slash, there's Torchlight 2. I guess it can be called a "classic" at this point.

Actually, one of the few advantages of enhanced vs. classic is that they did a "Linux port", so it should be trivial to set up. It's a winelib port (or at least it appears to be based on comments by others; I only own the classic myself), but if you're averse to setting up wine, it's probably what you want. I'm not sure about the experience factor. You say you liked Oblivion, so at least you're not entirely averse to creating characters at the start of the game with little to no input as to what is "best". This is what turns off a lot of newcomers to these RPGs, Getting used to the UI usually doesn't take all that long. Almost all games have a tutorial at the beginning combined with on-line help. Back in the day, I played games for a few hours before restarting once I realized what character would likely give me the best experience. These days, I look for on-line guides to save me the effort.

I think Pathfinder: Kingmaker offers the most depth (in story, character generation, and variety of play) of these native games. I have, and recommend, the Imperial Edition, which includes the extra classes, extra campaigns, unlimited dungeon, etc. The content is epic, to say the least. There are mods available at nexus, including a full cheat assistant and turn-based mode. Like all D&D-likes, it takes some getting used to the rules. It also doesn't come with a manual, but you can get by at first without, especially augmented with on-line resources like the game-specific forum and d20pfsrd. Just stay away from the spider cave until you're ready for it (same goes for any optional combat, really).

I recommend Pathfinder over Baldur's Gate, even though BG is classic and well-loved (in fact, BG2 is probably #3 on my list after Fallout 1-2, even though I don't really play it any more -- mostly just good memories), because Pathfinder offers more for excessively long-term play. Also, it isn't a winelib port by a disrepuatble developer.

There are lots of Linux native RPGs on sale right now, some at or within $1 of their historical low price on gog (including Pathfinder).

Given that he wants something more casual and story-based, I don't think games like Elminage or Wizardry are good to recommend, and especially not Temple of Elemental Evil (or roguelikes like Nethack).

I've played TOEE when I had read 3.0 corebooks and had played BG, and I had difficulty with making a good party at first, until I tried some combat and realized the importance of Cleave and some other stuff (being unused to feats). Also the game has a terribly slow beginning and rather brutal combat at first, especially if you run into the spiders, so if the OP was asking about the steep learning curve for BG, I definitively would not recommend TOEE. Also TOEE is usually said to be not as good of a game as BG or Icewind Dale/Neverwinter Nights/Planescape, and from my experiences I'd recommend trying it only after having at least a go with one of the above games unless you're a grid-based strategy fan who doesn't mind the steep learning curve and the need to first do all the quests in Hommlet, so that you have more XP for the combat. Personally, I did enjoy TOEE after getting used to it, but it's definitively not something I'd recommend to someone who wants to have a fun RPG experience like in Oblivion, Baldur's Gate with its semi-open world and various optional quests seems better. Or the other games people suggest, like Pathfinder.

Except when there are situation where you have to do something in a certain amount of time or someone will leave your party.

Or, for that matter, after a certain event, you must complete a certain task in a certain amount of time or it's game over, which can lead to a situation where you can save an unwinnable game state.

Baldur's Gate 2 is even worse with timed quests, sometimes with the quests coming to you, interrupting you when you're trying to do something else. (I don't think it has a quest where running out of time is a game over, at least.)

Not everyone will take advantage of that. Case in point: Wizardry 4 (not a game I'm recommending here, though it is one of my favorites, and I wish it would show up on GOG) has one point of no return after which you need an item that you need to get before hand, the game *clearly* warns you right before the point of no return (which is rather uncharacteristic of the game), and the game offere 8(!) save slots, yet someone on Youtube saved over their only save after that point, got stuck, and gave up on the game.