Revisiting the Gold Box games

Thrasher said:
The rules are part of their charm, I think. May be nostalgia talking though. ;) I certainly prefer them over the oversimplified rules in most modern games though.
Oh, I agree wholeheartedly. I much more prefer this over the modern superstreamlined, oversimplified way. Being from a Pen-and-Paper RPG background, I like stats, rules, numbers, dice and all that. In CRPGs I love to have solid rules and virtual dice rolling in the background (not necessarily under the hood either, I'd like to see actual roll results too, if possible). It's just that some rules are better and less clunky than others, heh.

azraelck said:
Darksun was actually brought back with 4E. The only good thing that 4E did, actually.

No word on any licensed games though. Seems like everyone is going gaga over the Forgotten Realms still, even DDO opened a planar rift to escape from Eberron into FR.
Dark Sun is the only D&D campaign world that I really like and would consider running PnP games in (maybe not with D&D rules, though). Never really got into the other worlds, but then again, I've not followed D&D that much, so I'm not very familiar with them (most of my limited knowledge of Forgotten Realms, i.e. Faerun, comes from CRPGs, for example). Anyways, Dark Sun (i.e. Athas) rocks!
 
Joined
Jan 4, 2008
Messages
564
Location
I come from the land of ice and snow
The rules are part of their charm, I think. May be nostalgia talking though. ;) I certainly prefer them over the oversimplified rules in most modern games though.

I dont really see the complexity of the 2nd edition AD&D. There are some inconsistencies in the way dice rolls are used (sometimes low numbers are bad, sometimes high), but the system itself is rather unimpressive and frankly sucks in one aspect that I value highly, namely character customisation. Characters are (for all practical purposes) defined by their class, level and gear.

3rd edition is vastly superior when it comes to that.

Whatever build variety you get comes from party makeup instead. This goes for the iconic Baldurs Gate as well.
 
Joined
Nov 4, 2006
Messages
2,013
I dont understand with all the Vampire rage and all why they dont resurect (heh) Ravenloft; but then again they might turn Strahd´s deal with Tatyana into a Twlight drama of seeking love so maybe the setting is better off dead.
As for Darklands, I would love to see a remake but it aint gonna happen...at least the PE guys (especialy Sawyer) are fans of it so we might some some of the games mechanics (armor type protection vs certain weapon types, separate skill system etc) in it
 
Joined
Nov 27, 2012
Messages
27
Heh. It's funny to see someone say they don't like any D&D campaign settings and then they admit they aren't familiar any of them. Well, gosh, how do you know you don't like them? Sure, the Forgotten Realms got wrecked over time, but the 1E era was very focused and generally interesting.

Ravenloft is bound to come back with D&D Next. The third party 3E Ravenloft books are pretty neat stuff, too. It's certainly less dead than Birthright or Planescape.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 28, 2009
Messages
837
Heh. It's funny to see someone say they don't like any D&D campaign settings and then they admit they aren't familiar any of them. Well, gosh, how do you know you don't like them? Sure, the Forgotten Realms got wrecked over time, but the 1E era was very focused and generally interesting.
Well, to be exact, I said I wasn't very familiar with them and I did not say I didn't like any of them - Dark Sun is a very good setting (as I said above). Also, I'd say I know enough, that I can tell those other settings wouldn't be my cup of tea exactly. One doesn't have to know all the ins and outs of a campaign world to judge if it suits them/if they like it. At least that's how I see it. I'm picky, I guess. If a book doesn't grab me by 100 pages (or so), for example, then I'm not going to read all through it just for completeness sake.

I used to own the boxed set of Forgotten Realms back in the 1980s and I've seen Faerun represented in many CRPGs later, so I have seen enough to know it doesn't inspire me that much. I'm well content to play CRPGs set in Faerun, for example, but to use it for PnP campaigns wouldn't interest me (which is why I sold the boxed set back in the day), nor the other settings, except Dark Sun, which is why I said "I never got into the other worlds". That's all.

P.S. Have to add, that Star Frontiers is a cool setting too (not D&D, but TSR published like D&D).
 
Joined
Jan 4, 2008
Messages
564
Location
I come from the land of ice and snow
Champions of Krynn completed!

30kexvl.png


I finally got some time to finish my playthrough of Champions of Krynn with these Christmas holidays (had an almost 3 week hiatus in my adventuring due to lack of time). I enjoyed the game immensely, but the story did take a turn to the worse by the end. I didn't like the flying castles much and the "hah, we duped you" twist didn't really work, IMO. These superintricate and fiendishly cunning plots, where the enemy's grand idea is to use you to feed false information to your side, but all the while they're still fighting you at every turn trying very hard to kill you - they just don't make any sense to me. So they're actually hoping to lose the fights against you and planning to lose a considerable amount of troops in doing so? And not just one fight, but hundreds of them? Good plan, buddy, no wonder you lost.

That being said, I didn't find much else to complain about the game. Sure, the UI could have been smoother and there could have been prettier graphics and fancier this and fancier that, but as a game from the 1990 and evaluating it on that basis, it was a blast! Considering how little memory (etc.) the developers had to work with, the game did provide a fantastically varied and full CRPG experience. I was completely hooked from the get-go. I even liked the early parts, when the party-members are so weak that they're killed from hitting a toe on a rock (this used to frustrate me to no end before, but not this time). The middle third of the game was the best, however, both game-wise and story-wise. By then you've uncovered enough of the plot to be immersed by it and the party-members are strong enough to not die from one unlucky roll and there is enough variance in gear and spells (with the mages having a nice repertoire of spells to cast), etc.

If you can stomach the archaic graphics and UI and don't mind doing notes plus mapping by hand, I do enthusiastically recommend this game to any CRPG fan. Krynn is waiting for champions, join us! :)

As for me, it's onwards to the second game in the trilogy!

fvl7hk.png
 
Joined
Jan 4, 2008
Messages
564
Location
I come from the land of ice and snow
They really need to put these games on the iPad. Imagine being able to play them in your bed laying down every night ala avernunescape from the pit oron vacation trips to your folks.
 
Joined
Nov 15, 2011
Messages
698
Congrats on completing Champions!

You have much fun in store as the Krynn games just got better and better.
To me the encounter design and tactical combat is what I really love about the Gold Box games.
Champions was a good game, but all the evil elves really annoyed me, and is in direct contradiction to what Weiss&Hickman says about them in the Dragonlance novels. "Elvish Killer"? <shudder>
Death Knights of Krynn is rather short, but it is the most unlinear of all the GB games, with lots of interesting places to explore.
Dark Queen of Krynn is a tour-de-force of one challenging and varied fixed (not random) encounter after the other, and has some of the IMO best designed areas of the GB games.
 
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
90
Location
Bjørgvin
If you can stomach the archaic graphics and UI and don't mind doing notes plus mapping by hand, I do enthusiastically recommend this game to any CRPG fan. Krynn is waiting for champions, join us! :)
These boxed games are pretty hard to find, even on eBay, though. I bought the Realms of Arkania series from GoG but haven't got the time yet to play it seriously.
 
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Messages
499
Location
Chapelle Guillaume
They really need to put these games on the iPad. Imagine being able to play them in your bed laying down every night ala avernunescape from the pit oron vacation trips to your folks.

You can probably play them in Android using a Dosbox emulator, considering these games play on Dosbox
 
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
5,645
Location
Tardis
You can probably play them in Android using a Dosbox emulator, considering these games play on Dosbox

Depends on device. My phone won't run them. I've tried. But I have a old phone, and I don't have as much memory to offer ADOSBox. A newer phone, or a tablet, may be different.
 
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Messages
2,740
Location
In the Middle of Nowhere
Are the Krynn Goldbox games available on abandonware sites?

My bad ! I should've stated that I'm a collector for old cRPGs and love to own their cardboard box edition before envisaging to buy them digitally to actually play (I often rely on GoG for that purpose). I hate playing an old game without owning a boxed version of it, mainly because I love these old paper manuals and even more, the genuine paper or tissue maps. Relying solely on a digital one is ruining a great part of the pleasure for me.
 
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Messages
499
Location
Chapelle Guillaume
Greets.

Loot questions at Pool of Radiance.

Exploiting a random loot at the old rope guild trolls, and after about 3 hours of quits & reloads (for which macro programs are handy) + autofight, I found these quite worthy items, but cannot decide which set to choose:

a- 2-handed sword +3,
b- broad sword +2, long sword +2,
c- cloak of displacement,
d- ring of invisibility
e- 2x ring of fire resistance
f- bag of holding,

——concerns:——-
a & b:
-will such powerful weapons abundant?

c:
- seems to be the most worthy, coz of cumulative effect with other AC enhancers

d:
-is invisibility effective only till the 1st attack or attacking spell casting of wearer?
-Or casting buff spells doesn’t interrupt its effect?
-Also, will invisibility not return after a (few)passive round?

e:
- for later stages of game against spellcasters / breathers seems quite important.

f:
-it decreases encumbrance, but really handy?
-will not items disappear if “bag” overloaded, as wiki states it in general about this ad&d item?

—— rumored item: Cloak of Elvenkind ——

some dude said it exists in PoR (though no FAQ mentions it) and found it right after this troll battle.
-False rumour?

Thanx for info.
 
Joined
Aug 23, 2012
Messages
6
I always ran with two handed weapons in the pools games until you get silver shields much later in the series (Secret of the silver blades). Except for clerics who I used the mace/shield option. The extra damage they do against large enemies is just too much to ignore.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
3,075
Location
Sigil
I OTOH always played sword and shield style. The extra AC is always handy. I'd also pick the cloak of displacement first among the items on that list, followed by the 1H weapons (I usually find +2 weapons much later than at the old rope guild).
 
Joined
Nov 4, 2006
Messages
2,013
thanx for tips,
though I already have some +2 items, coz for being able to autofight that battle, characters had to be somewhat experienced.

Rarity News

start_001.png


start_002.png
start_003.png


start_006.png


start_036.png
—-
If someone liked to experiment with that unknown behaving Cloak of Elvenkind, use Save G from this only save files Zip:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12413456/Pool%20of%20Radiance/POR_SAVE_items.zip
and plz inform us, if u know its usage!
 
Joined
Aug 23, 2012
Messages
6
Back
Top Bottom