Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[Zed Duke of Banville]

IIRC, you can import your party between the games in the same series also. Assuming that is the case, its another incentive to play through in order.

Yes, and Death Knights of Krynn is the best game in its trilogy, in contrast to the quartet of games that starts with Pool of Radiance, one of the best CRPGs ever, before declining substantially for Curse of the Azure Bonds and then declining substantially again for Secret of the Silver Blades.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

I will always remember DKoK because of the

Spoiler

awesome hidden dungeon in the corner of the world. Some awesome loot inside, but practically speaking I don't think you could survive in there until near the end of the game.

 

[Lt Broccoli]

Difficulty level mostly affects HP (novice=1/2, squire=3/4, veteran=nl, adept=5/4, champion=3/2); some games like Secret it'll affect your ability to run away from random encounters. Occasionally the number of enemies is affected (as in the boss fight in Dave's Challenge in Death Knights of Krynn). In the first few games it affected XP, but you only got a few more--they were going by the standard XP/HP formula in the 1e DMG. Goldbox, particularly near the beginning, was big on being tabletop-accurate--that was the whole point of the series, to play D&D on your computer.

The exact formula has been figured out, by Stephen S. Lee:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/564785-pool-of-radiance/faqs/73869

It's 0.4*cleric levels + 0.8*mage levels + 0.5*(AC below 0) + 0.5* (THAC0 below 21) + 0.1*HP.

Yes, this means you can walk around with your armor unreadied and run into smaller enemy parties.

Fascinating article. Quite a lot of research done there. I particularly like the part about enemy morale in each encounter. Makes the Curse spell more deceptively effective. Though, not all the Gold Box games from memory allow you to use Curse from what I've seen. I wonder if casting Curse multiple times would stack the morale penalty. Does anyone recommend changing difficulty levels in Gold Box? I haven't play Death Knights of Krynn yet (currently halfway through Champions of Krynn) but I heard about that crazy boss fight in Dave's Challenge in the thread here.

 

[Lt Broccoli]

From what I've seen of Champions of Krynn, the game focuses more on the plot and less on exploration as compared to Pool of Radiance. The enemies are broadly speaking more challenging and magic-heavy as compared to Pool of Radiance which often means 'who wins initiative' is commonly the victor - that said preparatory defensive spells can give you a small edge if you are bombarded with Charm/Hold Person spells. I ended up choosing a magic-heavy party to compensate and heavy use of Invisibility to set up the battlefield though some enemies can see through it. I have a particularly 'weak' party (virtually all abilities between 9 and 13). So preparation and caution are the order of the day. The game seems quite in-keeping to the DragonLance campaign setting.

 

[Elwro]

Thank you KeighnMcDeath for the videos you posted earlier!

 

[octavius]

Champions is the weakes one of the Krynn trilogy IMO.
But one thing to keep in mind is that like Pool of Radiance there is a finite amount of randomly timed encounters on a map, but unlike PoR they are reset if re-entering a map. So you need to rest a few times.

 

[Dorateen]

I like Champions o Krynn, but I agree Death Knights of Krynn is better.

What makes Champions special is the gradual introduction of the different types of draconian enemies and the interesting ways to fight them. As well as other Krynn-based mechanics such as the moons influencing magic and clerics getting a bonus according to which deity they pick.

 

[Null Null]

The Krynn games don't let you use the reversed versions of clerical spells--Curse, Cause Light/Serious/Critical Wounds/Disease/Blindness, Slay Living, etc.

Historically good clerics used the healing/buff spells and evil clerics used the damage/debuff ones. (This is more of a BECMI/1e thing.) Krynn didn't let you be evil, so they removed access to the 'evil' spells, though the enemies still have them.

And yah thanks for the videos Keighn McDeath. Funny how the Amiga version started out being the best and then wound up looking worse near the end of the series.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Difficulty level mostly affects HP (novice=1/2, squire=3/4, veteran=nl, adept=5/4, champion=3/2); some games like Secret it'll affect your ability to run away from random encounters. Occasionally the number of enemies is affected (as in the boss fight in Dave's Challenge in Death Knights of Krynn). In the first few games it affected XP, but you only got a few more--they were going by the standard XP/HP formula in the 1e DMG. Goldbox, particularly near the beginning, was big on being tabletop-accurate--that was the whole point of the series, to play D&D on your computer.

The exact formula has been figured out, by Stephen S. Lee:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/564785-pool-of-radiance/faqs/73869

It's 0.4*cleric levels + 0.8*mage levels + 0.5*(AC below 0) + 0.5* (THAC0 below 21) + 0.1*HP.

Yes, this means you can walk around with your armor unreadied and run into smaller enemy parties.

That's pretty awesome. Thanks.

I never tried the FRUA Pool of Radiance nor the Neverwinter Nights version. I should try the frua when i run though the nes as well.

I'll restate the amount of fun i had just mapping the games. I should map the overland rather than just screen-shotting. I think Best might be the spreadsheet way. I'll link up my ultima 3 file if I haven't before. It is a pretty neat way to map though gridcartographer might do overland better. Those goldbox maps are more artistic compare to say ultima1-5 style of overland.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Aaaand I just realized I can FIX my party mid-dungeon (not just in safe spots) for free. This makes things way easier, and worse.

Maybe I'm just not in the mood for this.

 

[KateMicucci]

The game offers little to no exploration, and the plot seems to be a linear epic tale about some war I know nothing about (I've never read a Dragonlance novel, and I doubt I'm missing out much),

I thought they were great. But I also read them when I was 12.

 

[RPK]

The game offers little to no exploration, and the plot seems to be a linear epic tale about some war I know nothing about (I've never read a Dragonlance novel, and I doubt I'm missing out much),

I thought they were great. But I also read them when I was 12.

they're still fun, for what they are. Popcorn flick equivalent of fantasy novels.

 

[Glop_dweller]

I liked the trilogy, and I played them for the first time only a few years ago—2018~ish.

 

[Rincewind]

Somewhat related: about the FR novels, I really enjoyed "Azure Bonds", it has really surpassed my expectations. There's nothing "deep" or philosophical in it, it's just a very enjoyable and well written fantasy adventure with no pretense and a good dose of humor. The prose might be "workmanlike" to some, but I actually prefer that style to flowery writing. There's a dragon in it too!

 

[Sukhāvatī]

Aside from the Finder's Stone trilogy, are there any other series worth reading?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_novels

 

[Rincewind]

Aside from the Finder's Stone trilogy, are there any other series worth reading?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_novels

These threads contain some good recommendations:

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/d-d-novels.141477/#post-7678500

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/are-there-any-actually-good-d-d-books.133650/

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Yeah, all I needed to make this game fun was to roll a new party and pump their Strength up to improve their THAC0, now I'm breezing through formerly long and tedious encounters.

Still a tacticool game pretending to be an RPG, but now it's an anjoyable one.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Apparently we can't have threads dedicated to different gold box series, all posts must be cornered in here. What about merging every Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment discussion into a single Infinity Engine megathread? That would make just as much sense.

Besides, this thread is a disgusting circle jerk.

 

[Butter]

Apparently we can't have threads dedicated to different gold box series, all posts must be cornered in here. What about merging every Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment discussion into a single Infinity Engine megathread? That would make just as much sense.

Besides, this thread is a disgusting circle jerk.

I'm all for it. This thread is busier than all discussions of BG, IWD, and PST (lol) combined.

 

[Alter Sack]

Aside from the Finder's Stone trilogy, are there any other series worth reading?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_novels

I would recommend the early works of RA Salvatore.

Namely the Dark Elf Trilogy and after that the Icewind Dale Trilogy.

Good old eighties forgotten realm novels.

 

[octavius]

Aside from the Finder's Stone trilogy, are there any other series worth reading?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_novels

I would recommend the early works of RA Salvatore.

Namely the Dark Elf Trilogy and after that the Icewind Dale Trilogy.

Good old eighties forgotten realm novels.

I only read the first Drizzt book and it definitely did not tempt me to read the rest.

 

[Alter Sack]

Aside from the Finder's Stone trilogy, are there any other series worth reading?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_novels

I would recommend the early works of RA Salvatore.

Namely the Dark Elf Trilogy and after that the Icewind Dale Trilogy.

Good old eighties forgotten realm novels.

I only read the first Drizzt book and it definitely did not tempt me to read the rest.

Well, maybe my judgement is a little bit misty eyed because I read them in my youth 25 years ago.

Or maybe you simply have bad taste.

I would also read Homeland (the first book of the Dark Elf Trilogy) first, because despite written later, its story is chronologically placed before the Icewind Dale Trilogy and explains the youth/origins of Drizzt.

At least the Dark Elf Trilogy books are decent fantasy novels in my opinion (at least for forgotten realm novel standards).

For its time the focus on the evil side (the dark elfs) was certainly refreshing.

But nobody should expect a literary masterpiece.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Aside from the Finder's Stone trilogy, are there any other series worth reading?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_novels

I haven't read any of this stuff since I was a teenager and the books were new, but at the time, I also enjoyed the original Drizzt trilogy as mentioned above and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_novels#The_Cleric_Quintet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_novels#The_Moonshae_Trilogy

For what it's worth, the Moonshae trilogy is referenced by some items in Baldur's Gate.

Note that I don't claim that these books will hold up for an adult. I'm fairly sure I wouldn't want to read this stuff now, but at the time I thought they were good. YMMV

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I don't recall if there was a Silver Blades Novel.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

What would we call Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Warriors of the Eternal Sun? Black Box? (I didn't include Al-qadim as it plays more like a video game but maybe I should include Order of the Griffon.