special combat ability to sneak up on an opponent from behind, hence the game's subtitle "Thief of Fate". With Tarjan defeated, it is revealed that the player party took the places of the deities Tarjan killed, becoming a set of new stars in the sky. Gameplay This dungeon crawl game featured several improvements over its predecessors: A graphical auto-mapping system for the 84 dungeon levels in the game (it was the first game to offer this type of map interface) An enhanced save game feature Two new spellcaster character classes (geomancer and chronomancer) According to Shay Addams, The Bard's Tale III is: Reception A 1988 review in Computer Gaming World described Bard's Tale III as an improvement over its predecessor, but "still too heavily oriented towards mega-combat." The magazine in 1993 stated that "the series redeemed itself with the third installment, flawed though it was", adding that "the best parts are the quests themselves ... worth playing". One of the chief complaints with the game is, unlike in the first two titles, where spell points (which are expended to use spells) could be recharged instantly an unlimited number of times for a fee at Roscoe's Energy Emporium, there is no such method in this title. To recharge spell points of a spellcaster, the player must either spend time in outdoor areas during the day (spell points are regenerated by sunlight), equip mage-only weapons granting continuous spell point regeneration, or find and use an item called a harmonic gem, which are limited in number within the game. The game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon #138 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3 out of 5 stars. Reviews Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine v12 n13 (1988 12 Mid) Production Michael Cranford, the creator of the Bard's Tale series, was not involved in this sequel, as he had decided to leave Interplay to study philosophy and theology. The Bard's Tale III programmer Heineman has said that the original name of this game was to be Tales of the Unknown - Volume III: The Thief's Tale. Heineman also once sought to continue creating new Bard's Tale games, but was unsuccessful in obtaining the rights from Electronic Arts. Michael A. Stackpole created the storyline of The Bard's Tale III and made maps for it. He has since become a successful author, having penned