Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[Radiane]

Also, if you're early in the game (before the last level), you can just drop a character and swap him for something different. I remember I started the game with a neutral half-elf cleric, switched him close to the end of the game to deathify the undead hanging around the Graveyard, and still had enough experience to progress him.

That wasn't an option for me sadly, as the affected character already had like 55k exp and was a level 6 fighter, so I just wanted go on and end the game soon. But that character's inability to move at least provided me with an incentive to let him use the fine longbow which turned out pretty well.


After wandering on the world map my party stumled across this cobold cave which it then cleared out. While that one battle there was pretty epic, it almost seemed as if my party wouldn't make it, but they did prevail in the end. After reaching Phlan afterwards, I noticed that my other front line fighter had also become immobilized.. really now ? Did I even fight against any other ankhegs, I can't seem to remember? In any case, it's another wtf-moment.

I want to like PoR but this game keeps on shitting on me.

Anyway, in the meantime I finished Curse with a newly generated party there, and after importing them to Secret, two of my chars now have an asterisk next to their CON stat. During Curse, four chars in my party died and were raised back again which resulted in each of their CON stats to drop one point. I thought that that could be the reason why the game showed the asterisk now after importing. But why does Secret show an asterisk at only two of the chars? Could it have to do that the asterisk is there as they both are half-elves while the other two that died and were raised again in Curse were human? In any case I made sure to unequip all their items before exporting my chars from Curse..

 

[octavius]

Raise Dead reduces CON by 1, Resurrect doesn't.

 

[Radiane]

Raise Dead reduces CON by 1, Resurrect doesn't.

Yes, but like I wrote above, I wonder why Secret shows an asterisk at the CON stat of two of my risen characters, but does not show any asterisk on my other two risen characters.

Ftr, I like to play in some sort of soft iron mode, where I continue when one or a few characters die, and then live on with the stat loss. Besides, are there any options in Curse for the Resurrect spell? I didn't see any, but that would have been preferable, obviously.

 

[octavius]

I thought maybe two of your guys had been Resurrected instead of Raised. But I can't remember if Resurrect is available from Scrolls and/or Temples.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Thinking back to The Dark Queen of Krynn, I either had downloaded a hacked version back in the day (maybe, I'm doubting it was hacked like my terrible Pool of Radiance for Amiga where every encounter ended in thousands of gems & jewelry) or I used UGE. I'm betting I just figured out UGE and modified it just enough to dual class on DOS. I had previously finished it on Amiga so I guess I figured why the hell not.

I saw some older messages blathering about hacking:

https://forums.goldbox.games/index.php?topic=3079.0
https://af.gog.com/forum/forgotten_realms_collection/cheating_in_the_gold_box_games?as=1649904300

What I am curious about is the packaged GBC with goldbox on Steam vs the site GBC is originally found on. What is the massive difference? Is it worth getting if you already have GOG & the originals?

 

[Rincewind]

What I am curious about is the packaged GBC with goldbox on Steam vs the site GBC is originally found on. What is the massive difference? Is it worth getting if you already have GOG & the originals?

The author is on the Codex, so maybe you can ask him. I chatted with him about the GBC's incompatibility with DOSBox Staging, probably in this thread.

 

[Joonas]

What I am curious about is the packaged GBC with goldbox on Steam vs the site GBC is originally found on. What is the massive difference? Is it worth getting if you already have GOG & the originals?

Mostly the Steam version is just easier to use. GBC starts automatically with the game.

 

[Cael]

Also, if you're early in the game (before the last level), you can just drop a character and swap him for something different. I remember I started the game with a neutral half-elf cleric, switched him close to the end of the game to deathify the undead hanging around the Graveyard, and still had enough experience to progress him.

That wasn't an option for me sadly, as the affected character already had like 55k exp and was a level 6 fighter, so I just wanted go on and end the game soon. But that character's inability to move at least provided me with an incentive to let him use the fine longbow which turned out pretty well.


After wandering on the world map my party stumled across this cobold cave which it then cleared out. While that one battle there was pretty epic, it almost seemed as if my party wouldn't make it, but they did prevail in the end. After reaching Phlan afterwards, I noticed that my other front line fighter had also become immobilized.. really now ? Did I even fight against any other ankhegs, I can't seem to remember? In any case, it's another wtf-moment.

I want to like PoR but this game keeps on shitting on me.

Anyway, in the meantime I finished Curse with a newly generated party there, and after importing them to Secret, two of my chars now have an asterisk next to their CON stat. During Curse, four chars in my party died and were raised back again which resulted in each of their CON stats to drop one point. I thought that that could be the reason why the game showed the asterisk now after importing. But why does Secret show an asterisk at only two of the chars? Could it have to do that the asterisk is there as they both are half-elves while the other two that died and were raised again in Curse were human? In any case I made sure to unequip all their items before exporting my chars from Curse..

Fine Longbow adds your Strength bonus to your Dex bonus to the attacks. Couple it with the Girdle of Giant Strength and you have a ranged killing machine.

If there is no actual stat change it could be just a graphic glitch with regards to your Con.

 

[dmwyvern]

Hi Octavius! Been a long slumber for this dragon.

Quick question for you: is it possible for players to find gauntlets of dexterity in later games in the Forgotten Realms series past the Pool of Radiance?

Imported characters are more prone to being bugged by stat changing items, like Ioun Stones and Girdle of the Dwarves. Haven't experienced problems with the Gauntlets of Dexterity.
Always remove such items before transfering characters.
Save before equipping such items. Then equip and unequip and check if stats have changed.
If characater has been bugged, fix with Gold Box Companion.

 

[octavius]

Hi Octavius! Been a long slumber for this dragon.

Quick question for you: is it possible for players to find gauntlets of dexterity in later games in the Forgotten Realms series past the Pool of Radiance?

They are definitely in Curse of the Azure Bonds. Not in PoR, AFAIK. And I can't remember them from Secrets and Pools of Darkness.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I don't recall them in any of the other games either.

 

[dmwyvern]

Hail Codexers!

As many of you know, I have hit Power Word Reload and taken us back to the early 1980s and the dawn of the computer role-playing game genre with classics like Pool of Radiance, the first game in the Gold Box from SSI, set in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ruleset.

I have clear memories of playing through the Krynn series of Gold Box games as a child and chucking dice with friends while arguing over the opaque rules of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set. Those formative experiences helped shape my love for high fantasy, role-playing games and so many of my interests and hobbies today.

While playing through these beloved classic CRPGs, I thought it could be fresh and fun for myself and my community to invite both luminaries from the TSR and game developers who were influenced by Dungeons & Dragons and tabletop role-playing games to come by the channel and share with us memories where they discovered their own love for this genre.

And we're kicking things off this Thursday, September 5th, with celebrated CRPG developer George Ziets! His highlights include:

Wasteland 3
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Pillars of Eternity
Dungeon Siege III
Fallout: New Vegas
Neverwinter Nights 2
Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO)
Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
Earth & Beyond

And of course, his work as the creative lead on the acclaimed expansion for Neverwinter Nights 2, the Mask of the Betrayer. Looking forward to seeing you all there for the discussion; here’s the link to the stream:

The Pool of Radiance with George Ziets

 

[dmwyvern]

Hi Octavius! Been a long slumber for this dragon.

Quick question for you: is it possible for players to find gauntlets of dexterity in later games in the Forgotten Realms series past the Pool of Radiance?

They are definitely in Curse of the Azure Bonds. Not in PoR, AFAIK. And I can't remember them from Secrets and Pools of Darkness.

Good to know. Thanks Octavius. I decided to run with a non-munchkin party, so no 18 Dex spellcasters.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I looked on gamebanshee for a quick reference and saw none. I also see that the entries are really lacking. There are far more misc magic items in POR than they put up.

This doesn't help either:
https://gbc.zorbus.net/

GameBanshee's Walkthroughs & FAQs

• Pool of Radiance
• Curse of the Azure Bonds
• Secret of the Silver Blades
• Pools of Darkness

 

[Radiane]

In Gateway there are also Gauntlets of Dexterity

if you want to know where exactly

The magic shop in Silverymoon sells those for 10k Gold each.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I don't remember if the cluebooks listed all items at the back or not. When I was converting POR to table top with FRC1 Ruins of Adventure, I certainly had extensive notes. Well, I did until I got a virus that fucked my computer and I had to format and reinstall win98se.

 

[Radiane]

Taking a look at the clue books of some of the goldbox games, I think it can said that some of the info in them are not entirely accurate. They also generally remain a bit on the vague side. In the case of Gateway's inventory of its magic shops, it is stated at the according city page's numbered texts, but not directly at the back of the book. But I'm also currently (re)playing Gateway, so those Gauntlets felt familiar.

Haven't read those clue books extensively but so far my favorite part has to be the descripton of Dave's Challenge in Death Knights. The clue book doesn't provide much information at all and basically only shows a grid full with question marks and says something like "Good luck, you'll need it". Imagine having paid good money for those clue books back in the day and then reading something like this?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I haven't checked GameFAQs or such either. Sadly, I didn't keep detailed coherent notes when playing these games originally. I did with Might & Magic I for the most part except... Mobs, items, different containers and shops stores. I may have skimped on dialogue but hand writing can be tedious. My maps were far better than my Pa's maps imho. (Back when he was more sand and a gamer). But damn I loved hand mapping these games then refining the maps later on new graph paper. I played CRPGS to port over to PnP but only POR ever came close.

 

[newtmonkey]

Secret of the Silver Blades

I finally completed this one, but found it to be quite a disappointment after Curse of the Azure Bonds, which itself was somewhat disappointing compared with the awesome Pool of Radiance. This took over a year to complete; it's not a particularly long game (maybe 20 hours), but I found it difficult to stay motivated due to the poor dungeon design and tedious seemingly never-ending cut-and-paste random encounters.
The game actually starts out fine, with a cool setup and an interesting concept. Instead of separate first-person interior exploration and an overworld wilderness map, the entire game (sans combat) is played from a first-person perspective; it's basically an attempt at a Gold Box dungeon crawler. Sprawling "dungeons" connect each individual area of interest, but you also slowly unlock portals back to a central hub to make backtracking easy. It's pretty enjoyable for the first 5-10 hours.
However, it's at this point where the game completely goes off the rails. It forces you through several boring, long, and linear maps and constantly bombards you with random battles against the same handful of enemies. If you are playing single-class characters (like I was), you quickly reach max level partway through the game, so combat truly feels meaningless after a certain point.
Fortunately, the game ends with you exploring a great castle map full of unique encounters (why couldn't the rest of the game be like this?) and a final battle that's not particularly difficult but still satisfying to beat.

---

I was able to take my legitimately-rolled party of single-class characters (and a dwarf fighter/thief) through PoR, CotAB, and now SotSB...
and although I had no problems getting through the series so far, I really started to notice the flaws of several of my characters toward the end of this game (mostly low DEX), and I'm not sure they're all up to the task of completing Pools of Darkness. I'll probably end up transferring the best 2-3 characters in my party as is, and will create new characters from PoD to fill out the rest of the party. Another option would be to hack a couple of my characters up to 18 DEX and transfer them over, but I don't know if I want to do that.
In the meantime, I'll probably take a break from the Forgotten Realms and start the Dragonlance series with a new party (of course) in Champions of Krynn.

 

[Butter]

Fair and accurate. It's a testament to the quality of the Gold Box gameplay that people are wiling to play Secret through to the end. This came out the same year as Wizardry 6, and it's pretty clear which dungeon crawl is superior.

 

[octavius]

The intro to Secrets is clever; your party becomes the (naked) object of the mining town's Wish spell.
But from then on it's downhill, with far too many and samey random encounters, few memorable encounters, and the whole setting with legions of high level fighters, clerics and mages down in a mine, makes it hard to suspend disbelief.
But at least story faggotry is kept to a minimum, and there's no romances.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Vala. You can spank her ass and tits and she don't mind. She actually likes that old dwarf priest in the mines....

 

[newtmonkey]

Champions of Krynn

My party:

• Human Knight (promoted to Sword, but probably should have just stayed as Crown during this game)
• Human Fighter
• Qualinesti Fighter/Mage[White]
• Qualinesti Cleric[Shinare]/Fighter
• Kender Cleric[Majere]/Thief
• Human Mage[Red]

Though surprisingly short and much easier than I expected, I had a great time with this one! It has really reinvigorated my interest in the Gold Box series, after the slight letdown of Curse of the Azure Bonds and the total disappointment of Secret of the Silver Blades. The unique Krynn mechanics made character/party development a lot of fun, and although the game was very linear with just a handful of optional missions, the story was fun and each area was really quite interesting; I liked how some quests could be solved through alternate (non-combat) means. Combat remained at least somewhat interesting throughout, and I liked how you could exhaust random encounters in most (all?) areas after fighting just a few of them.

I'm really looking forward to bringing my party into Death Knights of Krynn, but will probably go in chronological release order and play Countdown to Doomsday first.

 

[The Limper]

Krynn was my favorite setting, more party options. I always wanted a FRUA version with the Krynn PC options.

 

[Daemongar]

I was able to take my legitimately-rolled party of single-class characters (and a dwarf fighter/thief) through PoR, CotAB, and now SotSB...
and although I had no problems getting through the series so far, I really started to notice the flaws of several of my characters toward the end of this game (mostly low DEX), and I'm not sure they're all up to the task of completing Pools of Darkness. I'll probably end up transferring the best 2-3 characters in my party as is, and will create new characters from PoD to fill out the rest of the party. Another option would be to hack a couple of my characters up to 18 DEX and transfer them over, but I don't know if I want to do that.
In the meantime, I'll probably take a break from the Forgotten Realms and start the Dragonlance series with a new party (of course) in Champions of Krynn.

First, congrats. I think Secret of the Silver Blades was the weakest of the 4 part series, but worth getting through. The problem for me when I played it was my party was on C64 for PoR and CotAB, then I played Silver Blades on the Amiga. Recreated the party, but just wasn't as fulfilling as taking a party from start to finish.

The thing is, when you import the chars into PoD - you can modify the party I believe. I wouldn't, as I like the idea of taking the same chars to the end. But if you want to complete *everything* and have a good run in PoD, yah, modify those chars.