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Gold Box Never played them seriously, so... what's the best Gold Box game?

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
12,787
Other than, what's the best order to play them? I know now I'm to start with Pool of Radiance

Pool of Radiance
Gateway to the Savage Frontier
Curse of the Azure Bonds
Treasures of the Savage Frontier
Secret of the Silver Blades
Pools of Darkness
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,294
Best one is Dark Queen of Krynn.

Best series is the Krynn series.

Best game to start with is Pool of Radiance. It has a bit clunkier UI than the rest of the games, though, so it's a bit harder to get into, but OTOH it makes you appreciate the UI improvements in the other games even more.

Most newbie friendly is Gateway to the Savage Frontier.
Yes. Krynn series is the best. The game devs hit their stride there and it shows.

Gateway and Treasures are good games also, and has a lot of at-the-time cutting edge stuff, e.g., named items, item history, items with effects beyond +x to something, a romance that may actually affect PC behaviour depending on what happened, etc. Note that the romance that actually affect the character is something that even now, no other CRPG has managed to emulate.

The PoR series is good, but watch out for the level limits of multiclass characters. It can comes as a shock for people who played the other GB games or are used to more modern DnD CPRG.
 

Dorateen

Arcane
Joined
Aug 30, 2012
Messages
4,332
Location
The Crystal Mist Mountains
The Krynn trilogy is notable for the many setting-related mechanics they implemented. Such as spell casting based on the phases of the moon; the different paths for red and white robed mages; Solamnic Knight progression tables, character subraces (Silvanesti or Qualanesti elves and Mountain or Hill dwarves); cleric bonuses from choosing a deity; kender taunting and the draconian special effects on their death throes.

Other Gold Box titles continued expanding the engine from Curse of the Azure Bonds, which first introduced the ranger and paladin classes, and the Fix command to speed up healing in camp. Treasures of the Savage Frontier added weather effects to traveling, NPCs who could join battles midway on either side, and (ugh) romances.
 

mondblut

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
22,205
Location
Ingrija
Pools of Darkness and Treasures of SF are the best, Treasures of SF and Dark Queen of Krynn are the least hostile. Don't listen to people who suggest you to start with Pool of Manually Spamming Cure Light Wounds, they want you to be disappointed and walk away.
 

ProphetSword

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
1,755
Location
Monkey Island
If you love D&D based combat, definitely start with Pool of Radiance. It's arguably the best anyway.

If you'd rather try your hand at something with more of a story, jump straight to Champions of Krynn or Curse of the Azure Bonds or even Gateway to the Savage Frontier.
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,294
...and (ugh) romances.

And they don't take too kindly when you don't allow them to date, you lose one fighter and your lead char becomes a total wuss
Yep. The consequences of that romance can be alleviated only by replacing that character. Never put the NPC on the front lines, despite them being fighters. Always the backline with a bow or one Hold Person and you are in a permanent world of hurt.
 
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
2,930
How could anyone group the Dark Sun games in with gold box stuff? DS:SL plays like a clunkier version of the infinity engine games. It created the RPG-adventure game hybrid that’s since become the standard for the genre.

It has very little in common with the Gold Box games (sure, it’s turn based with full party creation, but if that’s your rubric you might as well recommend Temple of Elemental Evil).

I have no gold box recommendations. I played PoR as a kid, but I think I’d have trouble getting back into it now. I booted up the first Buck Rogers game a couple of days ago and the modern world has clearly depleted my attention span because just the process of distributing loot to each character was enough to sap most of my patience.

Unless you already know you love old DOS games with first person dungeon crawl design and lots of menus, I recommend taking some ADD medication before you get started. Buck Rogers was a joy once I borrowed some Ritalin from a good friend. IIRC Pool of Radiance was better, but I played that on the NES like 25 years ago, so who knows?

not trying to be a dick, because I suffer from the same thing, but does it not worry you a little that your attention span is worse than when you were 12? It does me, not sure what to do about it...but I don't feel its an improvement. I tried to read a rule book to pretty complicated boardgame the other day and it took me forever to focus and i kept wanting to go do other things in the middle and my mind wandered. When I was 11 I would have finished in like an hour or two...my attempt the other day took me half a day and I did not even finish, just quit doing it
 

Funposter

Arcane
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
1,773
Location
Australia
How could anyone group the Dark Sun games in with gold box stuff? DS:SL plays like a clunkier version of the infinity engine games. It created the RPG-adventure game hybrid that’s since become the standard for the genre.

It has very little in common with the Gold Box games (sure, it’s turn based with full party creation, but if that’s your rubric you might as well recommend Temple of Elemental Evil).

I have no gold box recommendations. I played PoR as a kid, but I think I’d have trouble getting back into it now. I booted up the first Buck Rogers game a couple of days ago and the modern world has clearly depleted my attention span because just the process of distributing loot to each character was enough to sap most of my patience.

Unless you already know you love old DOS games with first person dungeon crawl design and lots of menus, I recommend taking some ADD medication before you get started. Buck Rogers was a joy once I borrowed some Ritalin from a good friend. IIRC Pool of Radiance was better, but I played that on the NES like 25 years ago, so who knows?

not trying to be a dick, because I suffer from the same thing, but does it not worry you a little that your attention span is worse than when you were 12? It does me, not sure what to do about it...but I don't feel its an improvement. I tried to read a rule book to pretty complicated boardgame the other day and it took me forever to focus and i kept wanting to go do other things in the middle and my mind wandered. When I was 11 I would have finished in like an hour or two...my attempt the other day took me half a day and I did not even finish, just quit doing it

Mobile phones + information overload of modernity have led to a decrease in attention spans. Ignoring things like social media etc. even the way you sit around posting on the codex or whatever is different to the way that you'd have done the same sort of thing 10 or 15 years ago. You now have youtube or something on a second monitor creating perpetual background noise, curated content that you can actively look through when your mind begins to wander. If it's not twitter, facebook or youtube that's distracting you, it's probably something else. I know that I have experienced the same thing you described when attempting to sit down and read for extended periods of time, although that may be because philosophy/history is a bit more intellectually draining than the trashy fantasy novels of my adolescence.
 

glass blackbird

Learned
Patron
Joined
Apr 9, 2015
Messages
664
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
How could anyone group the Dark Sun games in with gold box stuff? DS:SL plays like a clunkier version of the infinity engine games. It created the RPG-adventure game hybrid that’s since become the standard for the genre.

It has very little in common with the Gold Box games (sure, it’s turn based with full party creation, but if that’s your rubric you might as well recommend Temple of Elemental Evil).

I have no gold box recommendations. I played PoR as a kid, but I think I’d have trouble getting back into it now. I booted up the first Buck Rogers game a couple of days ago and the modern world has clearly depleted my attention span because just the process of distributing loot to each character was enough to sap most of my patience.

Unless you already know you love old DOS games with first person dungeon crawl design and lots of menus, I recommend taking some ADD medication before you get started. Buck Rogers was a joy once I borrowed some Ritalin from a good friend. IIRC Pool of Radiance was better, but I played that on the NES like 25 years ago, so who knows?

not trying to be a dick, because I suffer from the same thing, but does it not worry you a little that your attention span is worse than when you were 12? It does me, not sure what to do about it...but I don't feel its an improvement. I tried to read a rule book to pretty complicated boardgame the other day and it took me forever to focus and i kept wanting to go do other things in the middle and my mind wandered. When I was 11 I would have finished in like an hour or two...my attempt the other day took me half a day and I did not even finish, just quit doing it
I don't think I have less of an attention span--I literally have less time to spare. When I was in school, it was easy to commit to some RPG that might take many hours of uninterrupted focus, because there were lengthy periods when I genuinely did not have any responsibilities to take care of. But now I have a job and a life and I have to be available for people--it's much harder.
 

The Old Kiwi

Educated
Joined
Nov 9, 2017
Messages
63
I was looking for some DOSbox hints regarding the SSI CRPGs when I read this thread that I'd missed when it was current. PoR was "late" to MS-DOS somehow, at a point in time when I had no 8-bit home computer, only my PC-386 by then. I played the first one of them ported over, Azure Bonds, and PoR felt like such a downgrade when it became available.

I hated that cavern full of Kobolds you had to deal with in PoR. It took forever to kill them all, when if they had been true to D&D, they'd have fled once we killed a sizable percentage. It was as bad as the great room full of Berserkers in the Bard's Tale's first game! I would skip that one entirely (PoR). Champions of Krynn was a lot of fun.

Anyway, I've dragged this oldie back into the light of day. It was Google's fault, actually. I wasn't digging around in the old thread graveyard on purpose . .

Really!
~
 

Null Null

Arbiter
Joined
Aug 2, 2014
Messages
542
I kind of like Champions for beginners, or Pool and use the Goldbox Companion.

Oh, and who is this Safav Hamon person, and why would people here hate him?
 

moleman

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Mar 8, 2018
Messages
604
Location
Birthplace of the headless horseman
...
Oh, and who is this Safav Hamon person, and why would people here hate him?

Who? There is no such person here.

Gessen-PB-PromoSocial2.jpg
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,294
...
Oh, and who is this Safav Hamon person, and why would people here hate him?

Who? There is no such person here.

Gessen-PB-PromoSocial2.jpg

OK, that's the picture of Yezhov being airbrushed out of the photo with Stalin, so I'm guessing he's a friend of the people who own the site and the Codex doesn't like him for some reason?
No. He is just such an asshole, even by the standards of the Codex, that people not only ignore him, but pretend he doesn't exist.
 

Comte

Guest
I think your best option is to try the krynn trilogy if you want to get into goldbox. Dark Queen of Krynns end game is fair unlike pools of darkness which sucks.
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,294
I think your best option is to try the krynn trilogy if you want to get into goldbox. Dark Queen of Krynns end game is fair unlike pools of darkness which sucks.
Savage Frontier series is good, too, but only 2 games and rather short.
 

Daemongar

Arcane
Joined
Nov 21, 2010
Messages
4,706
Location
Wisconsin
Codex Year of the Donut
I was one of those fools who bought Pool of Radiance for 50 euros after finishing Baldur's Gate 2
After see how battle paced so slow I never played it again.
Well, you shouldn't give up now. I don't like to brag but I have serious connections and can get you a copy of Curse of the Azure Bonds for 42 euros - and you can transfer your party from Radiance! The pace and excitement does pick quite a bit. If satisfied, I can get you copies of the next two - or BUY all 3 now for 100 euros! You can't lose! I will even throw in PDFs of the manuals!
 

The Old Kiwi

Educated
Joined
Nov 9, 2017
Messages
63
I was one of those fools who bought Pool of Radiance for 50 euros after finishing Baldur's Gate 2
After see how battle paced so slow I never played it again.
We're discussing the 1987/88 Gold Box version of PoR and sequels. There was a newer version that was really a turd that came along slightly more recently. Baldur's Gate II was a year 2000 product, by which time the only way to get the original PoR was in a collection. However, the "Ruins of Myth Drannor" version came along in 2001.

I've never had that one. The reviews I saw were quite negative.

~
 

The Old Kiwi

Educated
Joined
Nov 9, 2017
Messages
63
Well, you shouldn't give up now. I don't like to brag but I have serious connections and can get you a copy of Curse of the Azure Bonds for 42 euros - and you can transfer your party from Radiance! The pace and excitement does pick quite a bit. If satisfied, I can get you copies of the next two - or BUY all 3 now for 100 euros! You can't lose! I will even throw in PDFs of the manuals!
As pointed out above, the second "Ruins of Myth Drannor" version really was awful, and the Gold Box PoR was only draggy because it tried doing so much within the tight limits of 8-bit home systems, such as Commodore's C64.

I may have still had an Apple II to play Phantasie and Wizard's Crown on, the predecessors from SSI to the TSR-based Gold Box series. that was quite a number of years ago now. I don't recall if they bogged down anywhere.
 

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