Dark Queen of Krynn

[huntsman1899]

Thinking of buying this one from GOG. Wanted to get thoughts from the Codex. Is this game more than just combat and leveling? Actual adventuring/role playing, etc? Does it hold up?

 

[octavius]

It's mostly about combat. And it does that very well, I think.

 

[Ventidius]

Not sure why you'd wanna buy it from GOG given that it's available for free as abandonware. But yeah, you should try it, as it has some of the best turn-based D&D combat you'll find, along with Pools of Darkness. Party-building in it is also fun.

 

[Dorateen]

It also has dialogue choices:

Although, I would honestly suggest going through the entire trilogy, starting with Champions of Krynn so you can take your party from start to finish. Personally, I liked Death Knights Of Krynn best, due to its open sandbox style adventure design. DQoK is the epic level conclusion to the series, and fun in its own right.

 

[Sinatar]

I hope you like getting hit by a level 40 delayed blast fireball on turn 1 of every random battle you fail the initiative roll on.

God I hate DQoK.

 

[octavius]

I hope you like getting hit by a level 40 delayed blast fireball on turn 1 of every random battle you fail the initiative roll on.

Now you know how the monsters feel.

 

[Matador]

How Krynn trilogy compares to Pool of radiance?

 

[octavius]

Favourably.
More options. No Secret of the Silver Blades.

 

[Fowyr]

GOG, really? For a one DosBox config?
Start with Champions of Krynn or Pool of Radiance. DQoK is too high-level for my tastes, I still remember these random lich encounters and shudder.

 

[CryptRat]

In my opinion Pool of radiance has a particularly good open campaign with some different ways to approach events, and you can get some of the best rewards from risky choices, for example a bracers of ogre strength is in the treasure you're meant to return to an important family of Phlan.

Champions of Krynn is much more linear, it's my least favourite of the Krynn trilogy but it's a good game anyway, encounters are good which is the most important aspect. However I think both Death Knights of Krynn and Dark Queen of Krynn have even better encounters. Death Knights of Krynn may be my favourite game of the trilogy for the reasons Dorateen mentions, you get to free a bunch of small areas from their enemies in the order you want. Dark Queen of Krynn is more linear than Death Knights but less than Champions, the game has complex dungeons compared with the previous games.

 

[Fowyr]

Underwater battles were quite fun, by the way.

 

[Erebus]

Dark Queen of Krynn is quite enjoyable and I've replayed it many times. It looks better than the previous Gold Box games, and is pretty entertaining in general. Its fights are fun and it has some neat ideas (such as the underwater area, in which many things don't work as usual).

Its main flaw is that it's high-level 2nd Edition D&D. Spells with effects that can be completely cancelled by a successful saving throw are nearly useless, and your mages will spend most of their time casting Delayed Blast Fireball.


(I did a half-LP of the game a while back, if you want to see what it looks like.)

 

[Chris Koźmik]

I might be biased since I played it when I was young so I have fond memories of this but I recommend. I liked the story and combat was quite fun (massive hordes of enemies but still it was reasonably paced). I still remember the fireball devastating dozens of enemies :D The best feeling fireball implementation I ever seen.