Today, Dungeons and Dragons Online is relaunching as a free-to-play product with options to upgrade to a VIP account for extra perks, and microtransaction support for purchasing character slots, unlocking previously hard to unlock races and classes (such as drow and monks), and adding access to new quests.

The VIP option runs around $15 a month, and includes 10 character slots (as opposed to the free account’s 4), and access to additional content and classes.

I played DDO back when it had first launched, and am happy to say they’ve polished the experience considerably. The controls are still not quite what most MMO gamers will be used to, but are fairly comfortable after a short adjustment period. Character customization is nicely fleshed out in both the appearance and the skills department.

Previously it could be daunting for a new player to try and adapt to D&D rules and come up with a starting build - but they’ve deveoped a “paths” system for all classes where you can choose a preset path which you may later deviate from if you so choose, and they give a very accurate “solo ability” score to let the player know what they should expect for each class and path.

Overall, I am impressed with the changes, though most dungeons I have attempted are old ones that have been slightly retouched in some cases. It should be interesting to see how their new business model pans out.

For more on D&D Online, visit http://www.ddo.com/