Gold Box Gold Box & other SSI D&D classics released on Steam & GOG

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I've only read the first one and it was a long time ago, but from what I've heard about, those five novels half-destroyed the setting by removing 90% of its main villains.

Yes, TSR made the mistake of establishing as canonical the events occurring in all Dark Sun novels (and at least a few of the adventure modules that were not directly tied to novels), releasing in 1995 a revised version of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting Box Set incorporating these changes. It wouldn't have been a problem to treat as canon the first novel/module (The Verdant Passage and DS1 Freedom) in which Sorcerer-King Talak was overthrown by the inhabitants of Tyr or perhaps even the second novel/module (The Crimson Legion and DSQ1 Road to Urik) in which Tyr wages war against the city-state of Urik, but by continuing to the end of the Prism Pentad novel series they eliminated the Dragon that was a principal background element in the setting as well as several more of the (fairly small number of) sorcerer-kings, and also added further changes from other novels and modules, such as a vast Thri-Kreen empire outside the Tyr Region or an attempt by a powerful psionicist to use an artifact to conquer the entire region.

 

[Fedora Master]

Last Sea.
Surfing druids.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Actually a resource management building Dark Sun might be cool but if you're adding trading caravans and such I think there us a game out atm that was inspired by Dark Sun.

Vagrus: the Riven Realms. I'd say loosely though. I like the combat of DS.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Actually a resource management building Dark Sun might be cool but if you're adding trading caravans and such I think there us a game out atm that was inspired by Dark Sun.

Vagrus: the Riven Realms. I'd say loosely though.

Considering it's a visual novel with jrpg combat, very loosely indeed...

 

[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: http://ua.reonis.com/

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.

 

[Boleskine]

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-classic-gold-box-dandd-games-are-on-steam-but-whats-special-about-them/

The classic Gold Box D&D games are on Steam, but what's special about them?

What's different in the Steam versions?
While the Gold Box Companion has been around for years, SNEG's Steam release of the Gold Box Classics, which also throws in the Eye of the Beholder series and a few other games, comes with updated versions of the Companion and the All-Seeing Eye preinstalled. These versions of the apps are paired with a launcher, which means they open automatically rather than needing to search for your savegame every time. The Companion also has a new option to change the games' font, and the launcher lets you easily reconfigure the window size to make room for the add-ons. On my 1440p monitor, running them at 1080p is a snug fit, with a little room at the top for my wallpaper to peep over.

I played the GOG versions of these games a few years ago, downloading the Companion separately. The standalone version may have lacked the font-changing and needed more faff to get running (using GOG Galaxy's graphics mode setup I set the scaling engine to normal2x, then realized everything looked too wide and went back to tick the Keep Aspect Ratio box), but it did have some extra options. Namely, a character editor, save editor, teleporter, and more character classes so you can play paladins and rangers in Pool of Radiance rather than waiting for them to be added in Curse of the Azure Bonds, as well as an experimental monk class that was never part of the videogames.

The standalone Companion was a more powerful toolset, but I eventually ended up with corrupted saves both times I used it, so I can see why the Steam version has been streamlined to prevent you monkeying around as thoroughly with your files.

If you want to try some of those options in the Steam release, Joonas has uploaded a couple of Steam extras. One download adds the character editor and an "explore map" button, another adds playable paladins and rangers to Pool of Radiance. A third bolts onto Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures—a DIY scenario design kit released in 1993 that lets you create your own Gold Box adventures—making it easy to install modules constructed by fans.

A sizeable fan community has been making modules for Unlimited Adventures over the years, so there are plenty to choose from, including adaptations of classic D&D scenarios like The Keep on the Borderlands as well as remakes of the earlier Gold Box games. If you can't bear to play Pool of Radiance without mouse controls and more than 16 colors, playing it inside Unlimited Adventures is another option. The fan versions also restore the theme music to it and Curse of the Azure Bonds, a banging tune that's sadly been removed from both the Steam and GOG releases.

 

[AdolfSatan]

In short: nothing's special about the steam release and that was one sad attempt to sell an unnecessary re-release.

 

[Infinitron]

We need to add these games to the Codex Steam curator.

Eye of the Beholder: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1882240/Forgotten_Realms_The_Archives__Collection_One/
Pools + Savage Frontier: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1882280/Forgotten_Realms_The_Archives__Collection_Two/
Dark Sun: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1904580/Dungeons__Dragons_Dark_Sun_Series/
Krynn: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1904610/Dungeons__Dragons_Krynn_Series/

Maybe the Ravenloft games too? https://store.steampowered.com/app/1904560/Dungeons__Dragons_Ravenloft_Series/

Each one of these pages needs a short description for the curator (max 200 characters). Looking for volunteers! Unkillable Cat felipepepe Sceptic Dorateen etc

 

[Dorateen]

Each one of these pages needs a short description for the curator (max 200 characters). Looking for volunteers! Unkillable Cat felipepepe Sceptic Dorateen etc

Do you still need a write up for Pools and Savage Frontier?

 

[Infinitron]

Each one of these pages needs a short description for the curator (max 200 characters). Looking for volunteers! Unkillable Cat felipepepe Sceptic Dorateen etc

Do you still need a write up for Pools and Savage Frontier?

I need a write up for all of them! Note that it's not for each individual game but for these bundles.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Each one of these pages needs a short description for the curator (max 200 characters). Looking for volunteers! Unkillable Cat felipepepe Sceptic Dorateen etc

Do you still need a write up for Pools and Savage Frontier?

I need a write up for all of them! Note that it's not for each individual game but for these bundles.

you should probably post that in the goldbox thread

 

[JamesDixon]

I picked up Forgotten Realms Archive Two and currently playing through PoR. I decided to go with an all human party of Paladin, Ranger, Thief, 2 Clerics, and 1 Mage.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Swen has good taste

 

[Dorateen]

Too bad Swen's ideology finds the Dark Sun setting problematic, and his people couldn't make a game like Shattered Lands on their best day.

 

[Brozef]

Pool of Radiance, while good, is vastly overrated. The encounter design is terrible, there isn't enough experience without grinding duels, it has fewer classes than the other GB games, and it lacks various QoL features from the subsequent GB games. It's worth playing for its scale and ambition, and for some of the late game quests like the Pyramid and Graveyard. Curse of the Azure Bonds is like the BG2 to Pool's BG1. It's higher level, it cuts out the boring wilderness, it has better encounters, and it's overall more fun. But it feels more hand-holdy because the unimportant locations are all menu towns.

I think Pool of Radiance is a phenomenal starting point. And it does something much more important than the QoL features (which you can get with the goldbox companion anyway) it has a tight, well defined setting. You are a group of low level adventurers just hired to murder hobo around the slums. And you do just that cleaning up the map in a zen like manner (almost as fun as painting in the map in MM3-5). I still enjoy that way more than immediately jumping into some world saving plot. That being said I also prefer BG1 to 2 and still have fun clearing Vertigo of bugs every few years. So your mileage may vary.
I don't remember xp being an issue either. But that might depend on race/class combinations, especially if you go wild with multiclassing.

After looking at the collection, does anyone know why they didn't include the Buck Rogers games? Or is this still planned? Because steam has the "whole" collection on sale right now and they aren't mentioned anywhere.

 

[Butter]

Pool of Radiance, while good, is vastly overrated. The encounter design is terrible, there isn't enough experience without grinding duels, it has fewer classes than the other GB games, and it lacks various QoL features from the subsequent GB games. It's worth playing for its scale and ambition, and for some of the late game quests like the Pyramid and Graveyard. Curse of the Azure Bonds is like the BG2 to Pool's BG1. It's higher level, it cuts out the boring wilderness, it has better encounters, and it's overall more fun. But it feels more hand-holdy because the unimportant locations are all menu towns.

I think Pool of Radiance is a phenomenal starting point. And it does something much more important than the QoL features (which you can get with the goldbox companion anyway) it has a tight, well defined setting. You are a group of low level adventurers just hired to murder hobo around the slums. And you do just that cleaning up the map in a zen like manner (almost as fun as painting in the map in MM3-5). I still enjoy that way more than immediately jumping into some world saving plot. That being said I also prefer BG1 to 2 and still have fun clearing Vertigo of bugs every few years. So your mileage may vary.
I don't remember xp being an issue either. But that might depend on race/class combinations, especially if you go wild with multiclassing.

It makes complete sense that people who prefer low level AD&D would prefer Rool of Radiance, and there's nothing wrong with that. Saying "just use GBC" is a poor argument though. I'm not going to give the game credit for something modders did decades later. Similar to Baldur's Gate and SCS, I do sometimes wonder if people routinely using GBC forget just what the original experience was.

 

[Tomas]

This is not just gold box related but there should be better integration between Steam and GOG. So that if you own game on one platform it can be added to the other (there are few games that allow it but it is a very small number).

 

[Brozef]

Pool of Radiance, while good, is vastly overrated. The encounter design is terrible, there isn't enough experience without grinding duels, it has fewer classes than the other GB games, and it lacks various QoL features from the subsequent GB games. It's worth playing for its scale and ambition, and for some of the late game quests like the Pyramid and Graveyard. Curse of the Azure Bonds is like the BG2 to Pool's BG1. It's higher level, it cuts out the boring wilderness, it has better encounters, and it's overall more fun. But it feels more hand-holdy because the unimportant locations are all menu towns.

I think Pool of Radiance is a phenomenal starting point. And it does something much more important than the QoL features (which you can get with the goldbox companion anyway) it has a tight, well defined setting. You are a group of low level adventurers just hired to murder hobo around the slums. And you do just that cleaning up the map in a zen like manner (almost as fun as painting in the map in MM3-5). I still enjoy that way more than immediately jumping into some world saving plot. That being said I also prefer BG1 to 2 and still have fun clearing Vertigo of bugs every few years. So your mileage may vary.
I don't remember xp being an issue either. But that might depend on race/class combinations, especially if you go wild with multiclassing.

It makes complete sense that people who prefer low level AD&D would prefer Rool of Radiance, and there's nothing wrong with that. Saying "just use GBC" is a poor argument though. I'm not going to give the game credit for something modders did decades later. Similar to Baldur's Gate and SCS, I do sometimes wonder if people routinely using GBC forget just what the original experience was.

I think mentioning GBC is fair, since it is included in the steam version and you were mentioning the QoL issues. So if anyone tries the game nowadays they are solved. Also were they that bad in the first place? The only big issue i remember was having to manually reset all the spells which each rest, which admittedly was a huge pain. But other than that I can't recall anything terrible.

 

[Butter]

Pool of Radiance, while good, is vastly overrated. The encounter design is terrible, there isn't enough experience without grinding duels, it has fewer classes than the other GB games, and it lacks various QoL features from the subsequent GB games. It's worth playing for its scale and ambition, and for some of the late game quests like the Pyramid and Graveyard. Curse of the Azure Bonds is like the BG2 to Pool's BG1. It's higher level, it cuts out the boring wilderness, it has better encounters, and it's overall more fun. But it feels more hand-holdy because the unimportant locations are all menu towns.

I think Pool of Radiance is a phenomenal starting point. And it does something much more important than the QoL features (which you can get with the goldbox companion anyway) it has a tight, well defined setting. You are a group of low level adventurers just hired to murder hobo around the slums. And you do just that cleaning up the map in a zen like manner (almost as fun as painting in the map in MM3-5). I still enjoy that way more than immediately jumping into some world saving plot. That being said I also prefer BG1 to 2 and still have fun clearing Vertigo of bugs every few years. So your mileage may vary.
I don't remember xp being an issue either. But that might depend on race/class combinations, especially if you go wild with multiclassing.

It makes complete sense that people who prefer low level AD&D would prefer Rool of Radiance, and there's nothing wrong with that. Saying "just use GBC" is a poor argument though. I'm not going to give the game credit for something modders did decades later. Similar to Baldur's Gate and SCS, I do sometimes wonder if people routinely using GBC forget just what the original experience was.

I think mentioning GBC is fair, since it is included in the steam version and you were mentioning the QoL issues. So if anyone tries the game nowadays they are solved. Also were they that bad in the first place? The only big issue i remember was having to manually reset all the spells which each rest, which admittedly was a huge pain. But other than that I can't recall anything terrible.

More annoying than resetting all spells each rest (which was admittedly still a thing in Curse and Secret) was the lack of Fix. So you'd have to use all your healing spells, rest, use more healing spells, rest again. Fix allows you to skip this tedium. Additionally, there were 4 different trainers in 4 different locations, which got replaced by a single trainer in subsequent games.

 

[octavius]

More annoying than resetting all spells each rest (which was admittedly still a thing in Curse and Secret) was the lack of Fix. So you'd have to use all your healing spells, rest, use more healing spells, rest again. Fix allows you to skip this tedium.

I just went to a Temple to get my Fix.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Money eventually was simplified. I'd have to go through each one to check which currencies were changed. Sad about Buck and I don't recall if Buck works with GBC. Spelljammer doesn't. I really barely used GBC or ASE. I toyed with them. I have the Ad&D modules and the novels. I was going through POR, recording all text, encounters, descriptions and naturally maps some 25 years ago. Sadly, I got a virus on the computer that destroyed all my notes excelt the hand drawn maps. GBC, would be helpful redoing this. My goal was to combine the modules with the CROG and the novels and some web pages of enthusiasts. I was devesrated esp since I was done with POR and 95% done with Curse and oh, 90% done with Hillsfar.

Sucked ass losing it all.

 

[Cryomancer]

Why buy in steam if they are DMR free on gog?

 

[Hobknobling]

Why buy in steam if they are DMR free on gog?

Do these even have DRM in Steam? I would assume you can just run them from the install location if you want.

 

[Desiderius]

Pool of Radiance, while good, is vastly overrated. The encounter design is terrible, there isn't enough experience without grinding duels, it has fewer classes than the other GB games, and it lacks various QoL features from the subsequent GB games. It's worth playing for its scale and ambition, and for some of the late game quests like the Pyramid and Graveyard. Curse of the Azure Bonds is like the BG2 to Pool's BG1. It's higher level, it cuts out the boring wilderness, it has better encounters, and it's overall more fun. But it feels more hand-holdy because the unimportant locations are all menu towns.

I think Pool of Radiance is a phenomenal starting point. And it does something much more important than the QoL features (which you can get with the goldbox companion anyway) it has a tight, well defined setting. You are a group of low level adventurers just hired to murder hobo around the slums. And you do just that cleaning up the map in a zen like manner (almost as fun as painting in the map in MM3-5). I still enjoy that way more than immediately jumping into some world saving plot. That being said I also prefer BG1 to 2 and still have fun clearing Vertigo of bugs every few years. So your mileage may vary.
I don't remember xp being an issue either. But that might depend on race/class combinations, especially if you go wild with multiclassing.

It makes complete sense that people who prefer low level AD&D would prefer Rool of Radiance, and there's nothing wrong with that. Saying "just use GBC" is a poor argument though. I'm not going to give the game credit for something modders did decades later. Similar to Baldur's Gate and SCS, I do sometimes wonder if people routinely using GBC forget just what the original experience was.

The original experience was staring in slack-jawed wonder at how convenient it was compared to doing everything by hand. Second only to the slightly guilty pleasure of getting to play all you wanted without having to put in another quarter. Underrated factor in people's willingness to jump through whatever hoops were necessary to play the game.

 

[almondblight]

Encounter design is great, too, unless you boost all your abilities to 18.

Eh. The game starts with the slums that have over a dozen trash mob encounters playing out exactly the same, with low hit point enemies just running straight at you. The only somewhat memorable one was the hidden troll encounter. I don't know how anyone can play a game like KotC and think the encounter design in PoR is great. ToEE got a lot of complaints about it's encounter design, and it wasn't as bad as this.

Pools is an alright game, but it is overrated here, with a ton of drawbacks that almost never get mentioned. The fact that almost everyone uses GBC is a testament to the amount of annoyances the vanilla game has. The brainless AI and the vast majority of encounters being completely uninspired copy and paste jobs. The town that consists of the same 3 shops copy and pasted over and over, but all having the same exterior so that you can't tell which shop you're entering from the outside. First person movement that mainly consists of wandering aimlessly around blank nondescript rooms hoping for something to happen. All the password protection garbage that they built into older games. The large variability in the system if you don't try to game the stats (particularly when it comes to hit points).

There are good things about the game, but the fact that pretty glaring issues with it never get mentioned (or even get praised) is a good indication that people aren't really giving it a dispassionate appraisal.