Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[octavius]

My most liked Goldbox is the PoR, but indeed, it have some interface issues. You can start with CoK or GttSF. GttSF is pretty short, by the way. Just stay clear from SotSB yet. It's a worst Goldbox game.

Matrix Cubed is worse.

 

[Fowyr]

Pity, I played Matrix Cubed too much time ago. I remember only some hand-to hand battle with giant lizard or some thing like this.
Can you please refresh my memory?
On the other hand, SotSB have giant city full of trash encounters and little interesting (I mapped it by hand), shitty plot (Black Circle? Really?) unispired mines, full of idiotic monsters and whatnot. The only hard encounter was additional battle with iron golems (and only because of their sheer quantity) behind lich's throne. Or so my memory tells me...

 

[Temaperacl]

Personally I would recommend playing the following:

Pool of Radiance
Curse of the Azure Bonds
Secret of the Silver Blades

Not that I would suggest starting with it, but any reason why you would suggest not going on to Pools of Darkness?

 

[Jaesun]

Personally I would recommend playing the following:

Pool of Radiance
Curse of the Azure Bonds
Secret of the Silver Blades

Not that I would suggest starting with it, but any reason why you would suggest not going on to Pools of Darkness?

I think once you have a very good grasp of the mechanics (spells and combat) of the gold box games, then play PoD. It might be a bit difficult to someone just starting out.

 

[Vicissitudes]

Gateway to the Savage Frontier question: why they made you to press M to move? Is it because you can play with mouse? Annoying but probably it just needs time to get used to (like healing after battle in PoR)

 

[alx3apps]

M to move also present in Secret of the Silver Blades and in Pools of Darkness. It was some kind of usability "improvement" I guess. They turned it back to (much better) default move mode in FRUA.

 

[octavius]

I've started on Treasures of the Savage Frontier now.

So far it's better than Gateway. Encounter design in is better (more varied and few random encounters so far). It's also a bit harder; monsters seem to hit more often than they did in Gateway.
OTOH the game is made easier by free healing in Temples, with a nifty Repair option.

Not all items were transfered from Gateway. I miss the Gauntlets of Dexterity. And Valgaamon's +5 items were not transfered, of course. Neither was the Wand of Defoliation (so I guess there are no Shambling Mounds in the game) or clerical scrolls.

So what do others think of Treasures of the Savage Frontier?
Better or worse than Gateway?
Are the romances in Treasures signs of The Decline™?

 

[SinVraal]

Man I have started this game like 5 times and never got very far. For some reason it just didn't hold my interest.

The only gb games I finished were pool of radiance,curse and champions of krynn

The only game in the group I really loved was pool of radiance. All the others were just ok for me for some reason

Pool of Radiance is the closest of the GB games to resemble classic D&D which for me is: Leveling up, exploring dungeons, killing monsters and taking their stuff. There is a somewhat localized save the area plot but it isn't too grandiose. It's a very good RPG in the classic table top sense. Some of the other GB improved encounters with timed checks with encounter tables that made a bit more sense. Other games went the whole "Save the whole world and slaughter legions of dragons" (dragonlance).

One of my favorite GB games is actually is Buck Rodgers :D

 

[Marquess Cornwallis]

Many people find this the weakest entry in the Gold Box series, but for me it's a personal favourite (along with Pool of Radiance). The random encounters never bothered me that much and like octavius said, they are restricted to certain areas (and even then rather easily avoided) and while all the other shortcomings are surely there, the game managed to nail (for me at least) that elusive balance of combat, exploration and story that made it really enjoyable to play, even though any of those elements considered on its own is less than impressive (again, as octavius pointed out, combat is more fun than tactical, exploration is restricted to visiting new towns and finding an occasional secret room, and the story itself is hardly exceptional). Plus, it has the ideal character level range for a D&D based game.

 

[Jaesun]

I still have yet to play the Savage Frontiers series. I missed it back in the day, that or it never got an Amiga port.

 

[octavius]

I still have yet to play the Savage Frontiers series. I missed it back in the day, that or it never got an Amiga port.

Both Savage Frontier games were ported to the Amiga. The only Gold Box games that was never ported to the Amiga was Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed.

 

[Jaesun]

I still have yet to play the Savage Frontiers series. I missed it back in the day, that or it never got an Amiga port.

Both Savage Frontier games were ported to the Amiga. The only Gold Box games that was never ported to the Amiga was Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed.

Interesting. I wonder how the hell I missed it back in the day then. And nice write up by the way. Will plan on giving this a try, both games, in the future.

 

[Alex]

(...snip)
Vaalgamon is a mean mofo of a Fighter/Mage with -8 AC, 150 HP and a +5 Sword, who regenerates HP between each round. But my Hasted and Enlarged Fighter/Thief killed him with four backstabs.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your impressions. The game seems interesting, and I will be sure to play it once I start playing the Gold Box series. It is a real pity there is nothing interesting on the overland. That is the whole point of hexcrawl games and I have yet to see a game implement that right besides Darklands.

 

[octavius]

I find the amount of hugging in Treasures of the Savage Frontier rather nauseating...
The only hugging in a Gold Box game should be from an Owlbear!

After my characters climb out of the cavern under Waterdeep, this is the reaction of the "Heroes of Ascore":
"Everyone hugs each other in happiness of completing such difficult and dangerous an escape!".

 

[SinVraal]

Anyway, thanks for sharing your impressions. The game seems interesting, and I will be sure to play it once I start playing the Gold Box series. It is a real pity there is nothin interesting on the overland. That is the whole point of hexcrawl games and I have yet to see a game implement that right besides Darklands.

While overland travel in Realms of Arkania was not as "open" as other games (especially Darklands), their random wilderness encounters were pretty memorable. Poor river loggers who ask for help fixing their log train, broken bridges you could repair, other adventuring parties, lost items in the swamp to name a few. Then the idea of necessary places on the map not discovered if you have someone with poor tracking in the lead was cool. But Darklands is the best if I could brofist you I would :D

 

[Murkwater]

Go with Pool of Radiance, and play the Amiga version

 

[Comte]

I'm wondering what classes some of you use as your starting parties in Champions of Krynn. I'm thinking about playing the Krynn trilogy and wanted some ideas. I'm thinking of making two Solamnic knights a Red Robe mage and a White robe Mage one Cleric of Mishakal and either a Thief or a fighter. Probably gonna have all humans. Does this sound like a good setup?

 

[Gregz]

I swear this thread necros itself at least once a month around here.

 

[octavius]

I'm wondering what classes some of you use as your starting parties in Champions of Krynn. I'm thinking about playing the Krynn trilogy and wanted some ideas. I'm thinking of making two Solamnic knights a Red Robe mage and a White robe Mage one Cleric of Mishakal and either a Thief or a fighter. Probably gonna have all humans. Does this sound like a good setup?

An all humans party is safe, but rather boring. You don't need to worry about class level caps and unlike elves humans can be raised or resurrected if they die. But there is no dual classing in the Krynn games, so that means you'll be stuck with single class characters. Thieves are virtually useless as single class.

I went with this party last time I played Champions of Krynn:

Human Knight
Human White Mage
Kender Cleric of Mishakal/Thief
Silvanesti Elf Ranger/Cleric of Majere
Qualinesti Elf Fighter/Red Mage
Dwarf Fighter (may replace with a Human Paladin in Death Knights of Krynn)

A Knight is obligatory in these games, I think.
The single class White Mage is the main "artillery" since he'll do more damage than the multiclassed mage.
The Kender Cleric of Mishakal/Thief can backstab with his Hoopak, use the Taunt ability (it's almost like a free Prayer spell) and Clerics of Mishakal heals twice the amount of HP per healing spell.
Ranger/Cleric is a powerful combo, while single class Clerics becomes rather useless in combat.
The Fighter/Mage is used as backup artillery, and for casting spells like Slow and Haste, and buffing/protecting himself.
There are no Paladins in COK, so I went with a Dwarf Fighter instead. Too bad Dwarves can't advance far as both Fighters and Thieves, or I'd make him a Fighter/Thief for extra backstabbing power.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Start with Pools of Darkness and create a party of 2 halfling fighters, 2 dwarven thieves and 2 elven clerics. That's the easiest game and easiest party combination to go with. The game doesn't require any of the other classes and especially magic-users are useless in PoR.

Good luck, keep us posted, make an LP!

 

[kmonster]

I'm wondering what classes some of you use as your starting parties in Champions of Krynn. I'm thinking about playing the Krynn trilogy and wanted some ideas. I'm thinking of making two Solamnic knights a Red Robe mage and a White robe Mage one Cleric of Mishakal and either a Thief or a fighter. Probably gonna have all humans. Does this sound like a good setup?

It's a good setup. This way you can experience the strengths and weaknesses of the different classes and get access to the high level spells early. Without elves you'll be able to resurrect members easily in DQoK.
I'd make the thief a kender so you can use the powerful hoopaks you find.
One disadvantage is that you won't be able to cast level 7 cleric spells in DKoK without a cleric of neutrality so you'll have to use powerword:reload when a party member dies.

Depending on your playing style you might most likely reach the level caps long before the games are over.

CoK and DKoK are considered quite easy games and there's no real benefit in importing a party from CoK into DKoK but it will help a lot if you start DQoK with an imported party since you'll have more XP and can keep all the items you found.

 

[Erebus]

I'm wondering what classes some of you use as your starting parties in Champions of Krynn. I'm thinking about playing the Krynn trilogy and wanted some ideas. I'm thinking of making two Solamnic knights a Red Robe mage and a White robe Mage one Cleric of Mishakal and either a Thief or a fighter. Probably gonna have all humans. Does this sound like a good setup?

I'd suggest having having a second cleric (a fighter-cleric or wizard-cleric will work fine). Clerics are pretty much your only source of healing in Champions (resting cures one single HP per 24 hours). So if you have a single cleric and he gets knocked out during a fight while you're in the middle of a dungeon, you'd be in serious trouble.

Backstab can be devastating, but don't expect other thief abilities to be often useful.

I've never tried having two knights. I guess it could work, but remember that their armors make them fairly slow-moving, which could be annoying in some fights.


The party I used the last time I played the series (as you can see in my unfinished LP of DQK) was a knight, a ranger, a fighter-cleric, a wizard-cleric, a white wizard and a red wizard. Three wizards might seem too much, but they have several very useful low-level spells, such as Sleep and Charm Person. Stinking Cloud is also surprisingly powerful.

 

[Comte]

Start with Pools of Darkness and create a party of 2 halfling fighters, 2 dwarven thieves and 2 elven clerics. That's the easiest game and easiest party combination to go with. The game doesn't require any of the other classes and especially magic-users are useless in PoR.

Good luck, keep us posted, make an LP!

I think PoD is too difficult to complete without a mage if not impossible. I still have nightmares thinking about those hordes of Rakshasa's in Myth Drannor.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Lacking a mage is the only problem you have with that post of mine?

 

[kmonster]

SotSB isn't a bad game. Storywise it had the most moving encounter in the whole gold box series for me.
Unlike the other gold box games it's always in first person view and doesn't have a top down overland travel map, travelling in first person view yields more random encounters and you can get lost but teleporters, maps in the journal and even travelers who offer to take you back to town make it bearable.