Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures (FRUA) thread

[MRY]

#1, amazing Lore check success.
#2, yeah, this just underscores the advantage FRUA had, even I (with my much lower Lore) recognized some of the digitized images. But they picked relatively consistent ones, so the style isn't all over the place.

 

[A horse of course]

Obviously the low hanging fruit would be the encounters:

vs

Though in fairness any game could look good by digitizing Caldwell D&D artwork:

GAZ9 The Minrothad Guilds cover

Me in the bottom-left.

 

[Kruno]

I have to ask.

Has anyone re-created a major city in a module? I mean everything, every person, every schedule (think Ultima 7), etc...

 

[ProphetSword]

IMO, you can never underestimate the importance of aesthetics in the adoption of turnkey game development software. If the early RPG Maker suites hadn't had very strong SNES-era aesthetics, they never would've taken off. It's not even an answer to say that you can manage all of it under the hood (assuming you can). One look at the screenshots and my interest vanishes.

If you're going to judge it based upon the default artwork, then I understand why you don't like it. But everything in Dungeon Craft can be customized easily...

 

[MRY]

If you're going to judge it based upon the default artwork, then I understand why you don't like it.

This is how anyone is going to judge it. When you went to Egghead Software in 1993 and saw an awesome box for FRUA, you rushed and flipped it over and this is what you saw (sorry I can't find a better pic):

The text is very compelling and the screenshots are gorgeous.

By contrast, someone who somehow comes across the Dungeon Craft website gets this text pitch, utterly devoid of fantasy or enticement:

Dungeon Craft is an effort to develop an RPG and editor that mimics SSI's Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures (FRUA). A few improvements have been made over the original FRUA, 16/24/32-bit color, more levels allowed, editable items/monsters/spells, and the resulting design includes the game executable so that each design is playable without the editor. Other differences exist, but I have attempted to duplicate FRUA/Gold Box behavior as much as possible. Of course, suggested improvements have a good chance of making their way into the source code.

And the screenshots look like the ones I showed above. (In fact, the screenshots on the main page are even a little worse.)

But everything in Dungeon Craft can be customized easily...

But the question was why people aren't drawn to Dungeon Craft, and the answer is that the fantasy it's selling you is at best Pygmalion's: start with a lump of stone, and maybe you can carve it into something you can love. The fantasy FRUA sold was that at the push of a button, you are "creating the greatest fantasy game of all time--yours!"

These still look really bad to me compared to FRUA. More playable, probably, but totally unaesthetic. No harmony of elements. They look sort of like a Geocities page?

Again, I just want to be clear: if you stripped out all the premade assets, it is insane that someone would prefer FRUA to Dungeon Craft. And since you can import assets into Dungeon Craft (provided you take a cavalier view of intellectual property rights), you could probably make it look just like FRUA. But, ultimately, only a tiny number of people would be interested enough to put in that effort at the outset, and since only a small percentage of people who started with FRUA or Dungeon Craft ever made anything worth playing, you're dealing with a tiny fraction of a tiny base. The result is not enough activity to build a community, and in turn not enough community to sustain the tiny number of people engaged in activity.

I'm not saying it's fair or just or anything like that, but that would be my explanation for the phenomenon.

 

[Fluent]

Just a quick update of my FRUA ToEE run. I did a blind, no-map run thru some of the Temple and did find new areas in the northern section. Found the torturer's room, freed some prisoners (including a gnome who joined my party), and found some weird staircase that a prisoner told me i should know about. Really fun stuff. FRUA does exploration and encounters really awesomely, it's such a joy to explore some huge dungeon etc.. Debating going down the staircase next time OR just trying to clear out the first floor. Going to do another no-map run probably just to see if i can find any new encounters. Funnnnnn game. <3

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

If you're going to judge it based upon the default artwork, then I understand why you don't like it.

This is how anyone is going to judge it. When you went to Egghead Software in 1993 and saw an awesome box for FRUA, you rushed and flipped it over and this is what you saw (sorry I can't find a better pic):

The text is very compelling and the screenshots are gorgeous.

FR6 The Bloodstone Lands cover by Larry Elmore

 

[MRY]

I'm probably crazy, but this is an unusual instance in which I think the cropping and processing made an already great illustration more compelling.

 

[ProphetSword]

I mean, we could make Dungeon Craft look good on the back of a box with tiny screenshots too...

 

[MRY]

In the dark all cats are gray.

[EDIT: In all seriousness, I certainly do think that a little bit more aesthetics, maybe even making a fake back-of-the-box to imitate FRUA, plus a little more marketing could probably move some people over from FRUA to Dungeon Craft!]

 

[Glop_dweller]

 

[ProphetSword]

Mind if I share that over on the Dungeon Craft forums?

Edit: Nevermind, I see it’s already been shared there.

 

[MRY]

ProphetSword Is the website still being actively maintained? I'd be happy to take a pass at some copywriting for a catchier description, and you could put together some better screenshots. Perhaps it's all shouting into the void, but my love of all things FRUA makes it hard not to want to help!

 

[ProphetSword]

I’m not sure what website you mean. I’m talking about the FRUA & Dungeon Craft Community Forums located here: http://ua.reonis.com/

 

[Fluent]

Small update to my FRUA ToEE run. Found the Earth temple part of the first floor finally. Aaaand, yeah, it's loaded with TOUGH enemies. Slight spoiler here, it's got 4

Spoiler

Earth Elementals, with 70+ HP

. Sooo yeah, fun times, heh. Killed one so far but had to leave the Temple to rest. Will work on clearing out the rest of em. Fun stuff!

 

[Fluent]

Another quick update. After leveling up to about level 5, I decided to try to tackle the tower out in the courtyard of the temple. And...success! And...wow! Interesting adventure ensues, adventure I had no idea I'd find in such a seemingly obscure place. Let's just say things get DEADLY serious in that tower, and that's after you've survived the initial destructive event! So cool. Can't wait to play more but I have to figure out how to revive a dead character, heh. Hoping the Church of St. Cuthbert can help me out, I asked on the forums so we'll see. Hope u guys are having fun too! <3

 

[Fluent]

Does anyone here know if the Church of St. Cuthbert will do resurrections in Ray's ToEE design? What does the pen and paper module say about that? Any help here? Thanks!

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Does anyone here know if the Church of St. Cuthbert will do resurrections in Ray's ToEE design? What does the pen and paper module say about that? Any help here? Thanks!

According to the module, in Hommlet the Church of St. Cuthbert contains only Calmer and Terjon who are 3rd and 6th level respectively and therefore cannot cast raise dead (5th level) or resurrection (7th level). In Nulb, Canoness Y'dey is also just 6th level, although she does possess a single scroll of raise dead (and there is a possibility of obtaining another such scroll in the dungeon's third level). There is also a possibility of randomly obtaining a rod of resurrection (15 charges) from monster's treasure in the nodes of elemental evil, near the end of the adventure.

If a PC cleric attains 9th level prior to the adventure's conclusion, they will gain the capability of casting raise dead.

 

[Fluent]

According to the module, in Hommlet the Church of St. Cuthbert contains only Calmer and Terjon who are 3rd and 6th level respectively and therefore cannot cast raise dead (5th level) or resurrection (7th level). In Nulb, Canoness Y'dey is also just 6th level, although she does possess a single scroll of raise dead (and there is a possibility of obtaining another such scroll in the dungeon's third level). There is also a possibility of randomly obtaining a rod of resurrection (15 charges) from monster's treasure in the nodes of elemental evil, near the end of the adventure.

If a PC cleric attains 9th level prior to the adventure's conclusion, they will gain the capability of casting raise dead.

hey, thanks buddy, that's interesting! Please, no spoilers though. Those were minor so no biggie, thank u for not giving direct coordinates etc.. However, is there a way to meet the Canonness that I haven't found yet? If so, can u please like, just give me a hint instead of directly telling me? Hehe. Thanks Zed!! <3

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

hey, thanks buddy, that's interesting! Please, no spoilers though. Those were minor so no biggie, thank u for not giving direct coordinates etc.. However, is there a way to meet the Canonness that I haven't found yet? If so, can u please like, just give me a hint instead of directly telling me? Hehe. Thanks Zed!! <3

The mild spoiler I'll give you is that you might already have met the Canoness in Nulb

Spoiler

as she is in disguise.

 

[Fluent]

Interesting Zed Duke of Banville , thanks! Strange about the resurrection bit, though. According to the design document there are plenty of poison needles that will one-shot your characters as traps. How is it expected to open those chests/etc. without having a proper raise ability in the module? Ray hasn't gotten back to me on this yet, maybe he slipped something more in. I'm a bit confused at that.

And I'm still unsure if some items that are named as mundane items possess any hidden abilities. Like that crossbow I found that the descriptive text said can fire two bolts at once. But it's only named "crossbow". Weird. And it's non-magical.

Anywho, I'm a little hesitant to continue until I hear from Ray on the FRUA forums. But thank u for the help Zed! Cheers. <3

 

[Dorateen]

According to the design document there are plenty of poison needles that will one-shot your characters as traps. How is it expected to open those chests/etc. without having a proper raise ability in the module?

Do you have access to Neutralize Poison? Unless I am misremembering, characters who "die" from poison can be revived through this spell. Maybe that one is available from the clerics.

 

[Fluent]

Do you have access to Neutralize Poison? Unless I am misremembering, characters who "die" from poison can be revived through this spell. Maybe that one is available from the clerics.

Neutralize Poison appears to be a 4th level Cleric spell, so no, I don't have access to it yet (just got access to 3rd level at level 5, my Cleric is a Cleric/Fighter). But when I do get it, should I cast it *first* and then attempt to open the chest? Or if I cast it after it will revive the dead character? That's probably the answer Dorateen, thank u very much!

Edit - I'm not sure any NPC has the spell. Perhaps Jaroo? He has a Heal ability but i'm not sure that counts for poison. Hmm...

 

[Fluent]

i know it's not FRUA but it's kinda similar - but can i update my dark sun playthru here? just give u guys some small text updates?

 

[Elwro]

I didn't really understand what you wrote, but there's this rule here that Dark Sun is considered so good you can post about it anywhere, anytime!

I remember we had a dedicated DS thread but I don't think anyone cares. Do post your stuff anywhere and someone will shortly be there to complain that your main character wasn't a Three-kreen or whatever it was called so you missed some content (which is true, as I'm sure you know ;-))