Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[Beans00]

Beat secret of the silver blades. Lazy tonight so quicker recap


The ruins were so fucking bad, like legitimately 5-6 hours of pure pain.
The black circle hq was fine

I appreciated the game having a teleport system. Definitely solved a lot of reloads being able to go back to a temple/town within 2-5 minutes.

The mines sucked, but they were easy. I've seen a lot of people complain about them but the encounter rate was pretty low. Each of the 10 levels took like 15-30 minutes each.

Mine level 7 for example, was full of lizard men with 10 hp? The whole thing just seemed like a wasted opportunity.

Everything after the mines was pretty high quality. I really liked the dungeon, crevasses. The drider base sucked.


Way too many medusas and baselisks which turn you to stone which is pretty annoying. With the teleporter system it was quick to get back to a temple.

The end game castle was pretty high quality as well.

Beat the end boss on the first try. Took 24 hours.


curse azure bonds(18h)
por (33h)
gateway sf(19h)
death knights of krynn (21h)
champions of krynn (15.5h)
treasures sf (23h)
Secret of the silver blades(24.5h)


Would rank it the worst, but I didn't hate it. The ruins are genuinely a WTF area though lol.

 

[Cael]

I just found like 2k worth of exp and tons of items while in search mode.

Fuck me bro

What is even the point of turning search mode off?

Search is 10min per step. No search is about 1? I can't remember. There is at least one place where this matters (i.e., it is timed).

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Zed Duke of Banville what were the poison rules for 1ed D&D?

From the Dungeon Masters Guide:
"Poison Saving Throws For Characters:
For those who wonder why poison does either killing damage (usually) or no harm whatsoever, recall the justification for character hit points. That is, damage is not actually sustained - at least in proportion to the number of hit points marked off in most cases. The so called damage is the expenditure of favor from deities, luck, skill, and perhaps a scratch, and thus the saving throw. If that mere scratch managed to be venomous, then DEATH. If no such wound was delivered, then NO DAMAGE FROM THE POISON. In cases where some partial damage is indicated, this reflects poisons either placed so that they are ingested or used so as to ensure that some small portion does get in the wound or skin of the opponent."
Earlier in the DMG concerning assassins and poison: "poison Types: The poison of monsters, regardless of its pluses or minuses to the victim's saving throw, is an all-or-nothing affair."

Even though Gygax insisted that luck, divine protection, and magical protection are among the elements represented by hit points in Dungeons & Dragons, he decided that poisons would generally be save or die, with the saving throw having no relation to characters' hit points.

 

[Beans00]

Dark queen of krynn is hard so far, I only did the first map(which was huge) but man some of these fights kicked my ass a few times.

 

[Cael]

Dark queen of krynn is hard so far, I only did the first map(which was huge) but man some of these fights kicked my ass a few times.

First map? You mean Caergoth? That is like a tenth of the normal sized map...

 

[Beans00]

Dark queen of krynn is hard so far, I only did the first map(which was huge) but man some of these fights kicked my ass a few times.

First map? You mean Caergoth? That is like a tenth of the normal sized map...

it was like 2x the size of any map in any gb minus the silver blades.

 

[Cael]

Dark queen of krynn is hard so far, I only did the first map(which was huge) but man some of these fights kicked my ass a few times.

First map? You mean Caergoth? That is like a tenth of the normal sized map...

it was like 2x the size of any map in any gb minus the silver blades.

I think you are thinking of the draconian caves? If so, that is the second map...

 

[Glop_dweller]

IIRC... neutralize poison (rather unintuitively IMO) will un---dead the poisoned PC. As in un-does the death by poison. Use it, and the PC is alive again.

Do correct me if I am mistaken, I've not played the games seriously in about five years, but that is what I (think that I) remember. I did not know this for the first three or four times I played through the games. I was so used to EoB1 and the like; assuming neutralize poison merely stopped the poison effect (and impending death). It had never occurred to me to use it after they had died from poison.

 

[Beans00]

Not going to make any friends with this one, but I just finished the tombs in DQOK and man. This is my least favorite gold box game by far.

Treasures, and silver blades and COK had their frustrating moments but I never really felt like quitting. Maybe the ruins in silver blades.

DQOK, the maps are way too big, it's either way too hard or way too easy. This is minor but I keep ending up in situations where I need to backtrack for like 15-20 minutes or lose xp since the maps are so big going back to level up is a chore. I've been cheating and occasionally using the level up for the first time playing any of these games.


I think I'm like 40% through it so I'll likely try to finish it, but I'm really not enjoying this one at all.

 

[Cael]

Not going to make any friends with this one, but I just finished the tombs in DQOK and man. This is my least favorite gold box game by far.

Treasures, and silver blades and COK had their frustrating moments but I never really felt like quitting. Maybe the ruins in silver blades.

DQOK, the maps are way too big, it's either way too hard or way too easy. This is minor but I keep ending up in situations where I need to backtrack for like 15-20 minutes or lose xp since the maps are so big going back to level up is a chore. I've been cheating and occasionally using the level up for the first time playing any of these games.


I think I'm like 40% through it so I'll likely try to finish it, but I'm really not enjoying this one at all.

DQK is very old school. It expects you to know what you are doing and it is one of the two Epic level games in the series. Epic levels plays differently. That said, if someone can complete it with just 1 mage and single class characters throughout, it shouldn't be that bad, granted the guy knew how the game works, which you probably don't.

I don't recall needing to backtrack like crazy in the game, though, but then again, I am one of those people who commit genocide vs the sea dragons before bringing the eggs back to the sea elves for the extra XP...

 

[Beans00]

Not going to make any friends with this one, but I just finished the tombs in DQOK and man. This is my least favorite gold box game by far.

Treasures, and silver blades and COK had their frustrating moments but I never really felt like quitting. Maybe the ruins in silver blades.

DQOK, the maps are way too big, it's either way too hard or way too easy. This is minor but I keep ending up in situations where I need to backtrack for like 15-20 minutes or lose xp since the maps are so big going back to level up is a chore. I've been cheating and occasionally using the level up for the first time playing any of these games.


I think I'm like 40% through it so I'll likely try to finish it, but I'm really not enjoying this one at all.

DQK is very old school. It expects you to know what you are doing and it is one of the two Epic level games in the series. Epic levels plays differently. That said, if someone can complete it with just 1 mage and single class characters throughout, it shouldn't be that bad, granted the guy knew how the game works, which you probably don't.

I don't recall needing to backtrack like crazy in the game, though, but then again, I am one of those people who commit genocide vs the sea dragons before bringing the eggs back to the sea elves for the extra XP...

I had to backtrack out of the Tombs twice for level ups, and both times took me like 15 minutes to get out, then however much time to get back.

 

[The Limper]

DQK, SotSB and PoD are Gold Box games gone extreme. They are for the true goldbox fans. Not for everyone. I gotta give it to you for tackling the majority so far, it’s a grind. Nice job.

 

[Beans00]

I'm not even sure where to begin with how much I hated this game.


So after hours and hours of pain. I'm not going to bullshit, I got frustrated and used a gamefaqs guide several times during this. So many areas felt like pure torture.

I'll go area by area since there were only 18 locations in this game

Caergoth was very short and not much to say
the draconian caves had some hard fights that caught me off guard, and it was a huge area.
Naulidus/celanost ruins were confusing but very easy. The only remotely difficult fight was an optional one if you don't give the sea dragons their eggs.
hamlet of hizden not really worth mentioning
luminari was very long, very boring and fairly easy. hated this area
kristophan was annoying and shit,
the tombs were one of the worst areas I have ever dealt with in an rpg, and hard
hulderfolk wood was boring and I got confused so I ended up using a walkthrough
New aurim and the palace of the thenol king were probably my favorite parts of the game, no complaints
hawkbluff was complete horse shit with the pass system and wasting my time
bai'or was whatever, didn't really like it but not like enough to be grating
blackwater glade was easy and short
then for the end game
aldinanachru was a cool idea but annoying fights
the tower of flame can suck a thousand dicks, thankfully half the fights were fire elementals and shit that are a complete joke
the abyss i had to use a guide, annoying area
then the finale was annoying again, I'm assuming they reused the tower of flame because they ran out of money and needed to re use assets.

I thought this fucker was the end boss but this game doesnt end

This one was hard but obviously not the end boss

Which lead to a 4 parter

waste of time

bigger waste of time, i killed the 4 dragons in 1 turn so thats not everything

surprisingly easy fight

Then in what I thought was the final battle of the game, the fight was a complete cakewalk thanks to dragonlances.



So of course this is the game that doesn't end, which leads to the last bizarre fight

I beat the dragon swarm on the 2nd try. My knight and dwarf f/c can kill 4 dragons a turn each. First attempt they took a while to go so I got wiped, 2nd attempt I killed 9 dragons before any of them moved. It was downhill from there.

Having so many multi/dual class had some disadvantages, but it also gave me a lot of versatility having 5 casters.

So for some general bitching about the game/krynn series.

Too many fucking exploding enemies. Those draconian things, all levels of them are legitimately unfun to fight. Some explode, some explode into acid, some explode into meteor swarm. Absolutely awful design.

Dragons being a complete joke when you get dragonlances is w/e, but seems stupid to me. These are supposed to be powerful legendary creatures but they end up being some of the least threatening enemies.


DQOK in particular was hard in a very unenjoyable way. I found myself needing to use buffs more than any other Gb game, maybe any other rpg. I had a debate with JarlFrank about this in dms, when I couldn't beat the final boss in death knights of krynn without buffs, then blew it off the map on the first attempt with haste and prayer. I think buffs general ruin game balance and I've avoided using them through all gold box games(same with IE games) with a few exceptions, usually final battles. Which to their credit are usually pretty hard(as they should be).

With DQOK I had to buff before almost every fight, because every fight was bullshit draconian enemies. Oddly pretty easy series of final battles, I had a lot of heals and nukes so it wasn't very threatening at all.

I'm aware people are going to hate on this post and that's fine. octavius said this is the hardest GB game(I think?), I would almost agree with that, Treasures of the savage frontier may be harder, but this is definitely #1 or #2 hardest for me with that game.


38 hours of pure pain, the first time I've been slower than the crpg addict.

curse azure bonds(18h)
por (33h)
gateway sf(19h)
death knights of krynn (21h)
Secret of the silver blades(24.5h)
champions of krynn (15.5h)
treasures sf (23h)
dark queen of krynn (38h)


Rank it last, hated this one lol. I swapped silver blades and treasures/cok. In hindsight after the ruins I really didn't hate that game at all.


Either pools of darkness next, or I might try that heirs to skull crag or see if I can figure out an easy way to get the BR games working

 

[octavius]

I love DQK because it's overall the hardest of the GB games. But the final fight against the Dragon swarm is relatively easy.
It's Pools of Darkness that has the hardest end fight, though.
Curse of Azure Bonds has the most dificult fight (optional) of all the GB games, against the Mulmster Beholder Corps, which is only doable if you shamelessly exploit the weak AI.

 

[Beans00]

I love DQK because it's overall the hardest of the GB games. But the final fight against the Dragon swarm is relatively easy.
It's Pools of Darkness that has the hardest end fight, though.
Curse of Azure Bonds has the most dificult fight (optional) of all the GB games, against the Mulmster Beholder Corps, which is only doable if you shamelessly exploit the weak AI.

Treasures SF has a really nasty habit of throwing random groups of mages at you during fights to flank you. Overall I thought it was just as hard, if not harder than DQOK.


I skipped oxams tower(only area I skipped), I just looked at a video, I may need to go back and try it lol.

 

[Cael]

I'm not even sure where to begin with how much I hated this game.


So after hours and hours of pain. I'm not going to bullshit, I got frustrated and used a gamefaqs guide several times during this. So many areas felt like pure torture.

I'll go area by area since there were only 18 locations in this game

Caergoth was very short and not much to say
the draconian caves had some hard fights that caught me off guard, and it was a huge area.
Naulidus/celanost ruins were confusing but very easy. The only remotely difficult fight was an optional one if you don't give the sea dragons their eggs.
hamlet of hizden not really worth mentioning
luminari was very long, very boring and fairly easy. hated this area
kristophan was annoying and shit,
the tombs were one of the worst areas I have ever dealt with in an rpg, and hard
hulderfolk wood was boring and I got confused so I ended up using a walkthrough
New aurim and the palace of the thenol king were probably my favorite parts of the game, no complaints
hawkbluff was complete horse shit with the pass system and wasting my time
bai'or was whatever, didn't really like it but not like enough to be grating
blackwater glade was easy and short
then for the end game
aldinanachru was a cool idea but annoying fights
the tower of flame can suck a thousand dicks, thankfully half the fights were fire elementals and shit that are a complete joke
the abyss i had to use a guide, annoying area
then the finale was annoying again, I'm assuming they reused the tower of flame because they ran out of money and needed to re use assets.

I thought this fucker was the end boss but this game doesnt end

This one was hard but obviously not the end boss

Which lead to a 4 parter

waste of time

bigger waste of time, i killed the 4 dragons in 1 turn so thats not everything

surprisingly easy fight

Then in what I thought was the final battle of the game, the fight was a complete cakewalk thanks to dragonlances.



So of course this is the game that doesn't end, which leads to the last bizarre fight

I beat the dragon swarm on the 2nd try. My knight and dwarf f/c can kill 4 dragons a turn each. First attempt they took a while to go so I got wiped, 2nd attempt I killed 9 dragons before any of them moved. It was downhill from there.

Having so many multi/dual class had some disadvantages, but it also gave me a lot of versatility having 5 casters.

So for some general bitching about the game/krynn series.

Too many fucking exploding enemies. Those draconian things, all levels of them are legitimately unfun to fight. Some explode, some explode into acid, some explode into meteor swarm. Absolutely awful design.

Dragons being a complete joke when you get dragonlances is w/e, but seems stupid to me. These are supposed to be powerful legendary creatures but they end up being some of the least threatening enemies.


DQOK in particular was hard in a very unenjoyable way. I found myself needing to use buffs more than any other Gb game, maybe any other rpg. I had a debate with JarlFrank about this in dms, when I couldn't beat the final boss in death knights of krynn without buffs, then blew it off the map on the first attempt with haste and prayer. I think buffs general ruin game balance and I've avoided using them through all gold box games(same with IE games) with a few exceptions, usually final battles. Which to their credit are usually pretty hard(as they should be).

With DQOK I had to buff before almost every fight, because every fight was bullshit draconian enemies. Oddly pretty easy series of final battles, I had a lot of heals and nukes so it wasn't very threatening at all.

I'm aware people are going to hate on this post and that's fine. octavius said this is the hardest GB game(I think?), I would almost agree with that, Treasures of the savage frontier may be harder, but this is definitely #1 or #2 hardest for me with that game.


38 hours of pure pain, the first time I've been slower than the crpg addict.

curse azure bonds(18h)
por (33h)
gateway sf(19h)
death knights of krynn (21h)
Secret of the silver blades(24.5h)
champions of krynn (15.5h)
treasures sf (23h)
dark queen of krynn (38h)


Rank it last, hated this one lol. I swapped silver blades and treasures/cok. In hindsight after the ruins I really didn't hate that game at all.


Either pools of darkness next, or I might try that heirs to skull crag or see if I can figure out an easy way to get the BR games working

Here's something funny for you: I do not memorize buffs as being a waste of an action in every GB game. Never have.

My rating of the games is far, far, far different to yours, so I guess we enjoy different things in the games.