# LORD (Legend of the Red Dragon)

5 Hacker News commenters recommended LORD (Legend of the Red Dragon) and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for BBS-era nostalgia and for multiplayer fun with other callers. Its appeal is mostly social, and it is only fun for many players unless it is heavily modded.

## Why people recommend it

- Nostalgia for BBS-era games (3 comments): "I was a LORD man myself. One of my good friends from the BBS scene in my hometown had a Telnet/SSH instance of LORD that ran for a good decade plus." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49326352)) "LoRD was fantastic, as were the turn based games that other people would dial in to take part of." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46152706)) "Other awesome BBS door games, for a those that want a shot of nostalgia" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49326773))
- Social multiplayer with other callers (2 comments): "LoRD was fantastic, as were the turn based games that other people would dial in to take part of." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46152706)) "LORD was fun mostly only fun (unless it was heavily modded) for social/community aspects" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49327421))
- Long-running hosted server instances (1 comments): "I was a LORD man myself. One of my good friends from the BBS scene in my hometown had a Telnet/SSH instance of LORD that ran for a good decade plus." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49326352))

## What people warn about

- Fun mostly social unless modded (1 comments): "LORD was fun mostly only fun (unless it was heavily modded) for social/community aspects" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49327421))
- Licensing feels encumbered (1 comments): "it Just Feels Wrong(tm) that a popular game based on 9600baud phone modems is encumbered" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49006810))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [TradeWars 2002](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tradewars-2002.md): 8 recommend
- [Barren Realms Elite](https://hackerapproved.com/p/barren-realms-elite.md): 6 recommend
- [Legend of the Red Dragon](https://hackerapproved.com/p/legend-of-the-red-dragon.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "LORD (Legend of the Red Dragon)", https://hackerapproved.com/p/lord/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).