Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures (FRUA) thread

[unseeingeye]

I've read this entire thread and just wanted to express my gratitude to everybody involved for the information shared. How I've not heard of this community after all these years is beyond me, it is precisely the kind of gaming material that I've always dreamed of. I'm not a stranger to the Gold Box series and still have tons of my old first and second edition guides, modules and supplemental material at hand, and had been trying to get into the Neverwinter Nights versions of, for instance Eye of the Beholder, Against the Cult of the Reptile God, &c but never could really fall in love with that games presentation, coming from the Gold Box and Infinity games. The Keep on the Borderlands for Troika's Temple of Elemental Evil is great but to learn that an Unlimited Adventures version of it exists completely blows my mind. I feel as if I've been wandering a desert wasteland, lost in the maelstrom of a two decades long dark night of the soul, finally encountering an oasis, and a more beautiful sight I have never before beheld. I'm in ecstasies about to set off on my first adventure after following the instructions to set up UAShell.

Edit - I've requested to join the FRUA and Dungeon Craft forums as well, and look forward to participating.

 

[Null Null]

Welcome! I'm doing a Let's Read of old Dragon magazines...

I'm curious...are there any things people would really like to see in FRUA mods?

 

[Comte]

Welcome! I'm doing a Let's Read of old Dragon magazines...

I'm curious...are there any things people would really like to see in FRUA mods?

Any John Carter of Mars stuff out there?

 

[Null Null]

Welcome! I'm doing a Let's Read of old Dragon magazines...

I'm curious...are there any things people would really like to see in FRUA mods?

Any John Carter of Mars stuff out there?

Don't think I've ever seen that! TSR actually made a supplement (Warriors of Mars) for miniature warfare, similar to D&D's ancestor Chainmail which was, I think, suppressed for copyright reasons but can be found on the web.

There are a couple of problems, though. You'd need pics of the monsters, and the ones in the TSR supplement are in the crosshatched black-and-white style of 70s RPG supplements, which don't translate well to 88x88 FRUA smallpics.

Also the engine just isn't that interesting without magic--this was the problem the Buck Rogers games ran into. A fighter can attack with melee weapons or missile weapons, and there isn't that much else; the 80s-era AI will cause enemies without a ranged weapon readied to charge at the party, so you only have one of two opponent behaviors. Buck Rogers had a variety of usable weapons (rocket launchers, gas grenades, and the like) to give the players a few choices, but due to an oversight in FRUA's programming enemies won't use usable items (give a wizard a wand of fireballs and he'll just sit there without using it while the party whales on him) so you can't really have them, say, throw grenades at the party. The usual workaround is to make the effect a castable spell, but those can be interrupted.

 

[Fluent]

Hey guys! :D I have a qucik Dark Sun question if someone can help me. I'm looking to start Wake Of The Ravager after finishing the excellent Shattered Lands. Is there an import feature for party members? If not, does it make sense narratively to create the same party? And sort of roleplay their story as it continuing into WotR? Thanks guys!

 

[Dorateen]

Yes, you can import characters into Wake of the Ravager.

 

[Fluent]

Yes, you can import characters into Wake of the Ravager.

Thanks Dorateen! Can you explain how to do that? And does it ruin the challenge or anything? And what happens if not all of your characters survived the final battle in Shattered Lands?

 

[Dorateen]

Ah, I see it is more complicated for the GOG version, because the old DOS .exe doesn't work. I found this list of steps, in case this helps:

Spoiler

1. Browse to the WotR directory (The default should be C:\GoG games\Dark Sun 2)
2. Create a new subfolder in this directory called "DSUN1" and copy the entire Shattered Lands directory into it. (Strictly speaking you should only need to copy over the save files, but just in case Chartran happens to look up other files I decided to err on the side of safety and move the entire directory over.)
3. Back in the main WotR directory, open the "dosbox_darksun2_single.conf" file in Notepad
4. Change the line "ravager" to "chartran", then save and exit.
5. Double-click the "Launch Dark Sun 2 - Wake of the Ravager" shortcut in the folder.
6. Once DOSBox has launched, press "1", select "C:" as the source drive, and change the source folder to "DSUN1"
7. Press "2", select C:" as the destination drive, and change the destination folder to "C:\" (This is important as putting any other destination folder seems to derail Chartran and cause it to not work.)
8. Press Enter, and then select the appropriate save game that you want to copy over the characters from. (A - J) If you see some text briefly flash up on the DOS screen before it closes, good! It should have worked.
9. Open the "dosbox_darksun2_single.conf" file and change the line "chartran" back to "ravager".
10. OPTIONAL: If you copied your WotR folder from another drive and want to switch back to your original drive, copy the "CHARSAVE.GFF" file from the C: WotR folder back into your original WotR folder.
11. Launch Wake of the Ravager.
12. When creating your party for a new game, your imported characters should now be in the Add Character folder for transfer into the game.

Wake of the Ravager is a higher level adventure, so an imported party will have an easier time than starting with new characters. It can still be challenging depending on your party.

 

[Fluent]

Ah, I see it is more complicated for the GOG version, because the old DOS .exe doesn't work. I found this list of steps, in case this helps:

Spoiler

1. Browse to the WotR directory (The default should be C:\GoG games\Dark Sun 2)
2. Create a new subfolder in this directory called "DSUN1" and copy the entire Shattered Lands directory into it. (Strictly speaking you should only need to copy over the save files, but just in case Chartran happens to look up other files I decided to err on the side of safety and move the entire directory over.)
3. Back in the main WotR directory, open the "dosbox_darksun2_single.conf" file in Notepad
4. Change the line "ravager" to "chartran", then save and exit.
5. Double-click the "Launch Dark Sun 2 - Wake of the Ravager" shortcut in the folder.
6. Once DOSBox has launched, press "1", select "C:" as the source drive, and change the source folder to "DSUN1"
7. Press "2", select C:" as the destination drive, and change the destination folder to "C:\" (This is important as putting any other destination folder seems to derail Chartran and cause it to not work.)
8. Press Enter, and then select the appropriate save game that you want to copy over the characters from. (A - J) If you see some text briefly flash up on the DOS screen before it closes, good! It should have worked.
9. Open the "dosbox_darksun2_single.conf" file and change the line "chartran" back to "ravager".
10. OPTIONAL: If you copied your WotR folder from another drive and want to switch back to your original drive, copy the "CHARSAVE.GFF" file from the C: WotR folder back into your original WotR folder.
11. Launch Wake of the Ravager.
12. When creating your party for a new game, your imported characters should now be in the Add Character folder for transfer into the game.

Wake of the Ravager is a higher level adventure, so an imported party will have an easier time than starting with new characters. It can still be challenging depending on your party.

Thanks again! Would it be feasible to just import ONE character and make the rest new? Also, if I wanted to import the whole party, would the dead characters be alive when I import them into the new game? Just want to make sure before I get into this.

 

[Dorateen]

As far as I know, you add characters one at a time, so you should be able to pick just one imported party member and then create the rest. I have no idea about if an imported character is dead, but I have a hunch they would come over with the dead condition. They might have to be healed in the new game.

 

[Fluent]

Ok, I'm trying the steps here, followed them to a tee and when I go to import from the chartran in dosbox, the program just closes and nothing happens. After Step 7 there is no Step 8 for me. Any ideas here?

Edit - Nevermind, it works! Thanks again Dorateen! <3

Edit 2 - It says they are "Animated" but have 0 HP and don't appear during combat in WotR. Is there some kind of slick way I can get them healed? Maybe just make it thru to a Cleric or something who can raise dead? Or some hack I can do to alter their HP? Any ideas?

Edit 3 - Basically, is there any way to get

Spoiler

the Dragonbane Sword u get after defeating Dark Sun 1

into Dark Sun 2? Some tricky way? I can get the characters in okay, they are healthy now by loading the previous save before the ending of DS1. But now, I need that item somehow! Any cluessssss, here?

 

[Dorateen]

You might have better luck asking in one of the dedicated Dark Sun threads like:

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/dark-sun-shattered-lands-is-fucking-great.120635/

 

[Fluent]

Hey guys! Been awhile. I'm thinking of trying Sir Dorateen 's module in Dungeon Craft if that's possible. Can someone explain how to install it and I'll go ahead and start an LP for it? Thanks!

 

[Dorateen]

Hey guys! Been awhile. I'm thinking of trying Sir Dorateen 's module in Dungeon Craft if that's possible. Can someone explain how to install it and I'll go ahead and start an LP for it? Thanks!

Do you have the necessary files? I found on a computer what looks the Hearkenwold.dsn folder. This appears all you need, as it contains the dungeoncraft executable and required files. It is version 1.3 which I think was the latest build I had worked on in 2015.

 

[Fluent]

I jumped the gun a bit. I may just wait and try the iceblink module version of Hearkenwold since it's presumably more up to date and also offers more content. But in the meantime, I *may* restart my FRUA series on youtube (still playing thru ToEE) or just keep playing the usual suspects of Grimoire and the like. Thanks for the response Dorateen!

 

[Null Null]

Bit of a crosspost, but apparently Steam's getting the goldbox series, which includes FRUA:

https://www.gamespress.com/en-AU/Du...-Classics-to-Bring-Dungeon-Delving-to-Steam-L

You can make goldbox games pretty similar to the originals (Dark Queen of Krynn's code with Pools of Darkness' monster abilities, character classes, and item list, more or less), and there are hacks that can change around what you can do somewhat.

Figured I'd give this thread a bump. I've worked with hacks and can point people to some of the older art sources.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

annoyingly shills Dungeon Hack for the 4,509th time

 

[Null Null]

annoyingly shills Dungeon Hack for the 4,509th time

I actually rather liked Dungeon Hack, and I think it's in the same package. There weren't that many graphical roguelikes at the time (still aren't I think), I played it quite a bit at the time. You do wind up usually having to play a multiclassed cleric though.

Someone cleverer than me could probably write a script that generates FRUA mods in a similar fashion. I think the format of the GEOxxxx.DAT file has been cracked.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Multiclass Cleric dominance becomes a big thing if you opt to play with Undead on, IIRC. You can make that a house rule though and turn it off.

Dungeon Hack is packed with Menzo though. Which is kind of odd since it'd package better thematically with UA.

 

[dacencora]

Dungeon Hack is packed with Menzo though. Which is kind of odd since it'd package better thematically with UA.

Dungeon Hack is more like a randomized single-character EOTB, though, right? So it’d probably make the most sense to group with EOTB.

 

[Null Null]

Dungeon Hack is packed with Menzo though. Which is kind of odd since it'd package better thematically with UA.

Dungeon Hack is more like a randomized single-character EOTB, though, right? So it’d probably make the most sense to group with EOTB.

Thematically, it's 'unlimited'--you can make as many dungeons to play through as you want.

In terms of gameplay, I agree, much more similar to EOTB. It's EOTB meets Rogue. The limitations of the hardware of the time meant you could only have two types of monster at a time, and I didn't like the way they randomized the monsters below level 10--you should be getting deeper and deeper into danger. But--it's a graphical roguelike, it's 'real D&D', and it was just difficult enough to be a nice way to relax after a long day. Not every game has to be a towering epic.

 

[ProphetSword]

With the Gold-Box games having been released on Steam, I just wanted to point out that anyone who might be interested in the Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures (FRUA for short) toolset will find hundreds of games over at the official FRUA forums, located here: https://forums.goldbox.games

Not only will you find hundreds of adventures, you will also find a community devoted to the creation of AD&D style Gold-Box games. Whether you just want to play around in the toolset or write a Gold-Box epic, the folks on the forums are happy to help.

 

[Cyler Rubin]

Greetings All, been a while for me but I noticed a few people had messaged me. The Realm Starter Kit link I had previously provided went down and I lost the files myself in a nasty computer meltdown, so I recompiled them and will provide a link. Included is GBC, UASHELL, UADAP, and FRUA-MM, as well as all of Ray Dyers Realm Series modules, all files unzipped inside archive. Happy gaming!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/atiyozvocu7zc9v/The Realm Starter Kit 2022.7z?dl=0

 

[ProphetSword]

For those that don't know, the FRUA forums have moved. We are now located at: https://goldbox.games

In the future, the site will be not only the home to the forums for FRUA, but also an information site for Goldbox Games in general, with the hope of creating forums devoted to those as well.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Nice to see the comminuty still alive though I myself haven't played and completed a Gold Box engine game since Champions of Krynn on my C64. Yes, I'm a disgrace.