Help Foz kick it old school - AD&D Gold Box Style (Pools Of Radiance started!)

[SirFozzie]

I have an urge to play some of the old Gold Box games. Which ones? Well, that's up to you. Let's see what you think:

Pools Series (Forgotten Realms)

Games:

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

The original series, this four pack of games take heroes all the way from little known nobodies helping rebuild the city of Phlan to world spanning heroes defeating the plan of the Evil God Bane to snatch several cities off the face of Faerun. Pretty standard series of games, but by the time you get to Pools of Darkness, things can get slightly ridiculous (Characters can hit up to Level *FOURTY* in a class in Pools of Darkness).


Krynn (Dragonlance series)

Games:

Champions of Krynn
Death Knights of Krynn
Dark Queen of Krynn

The second series of AD&D featured the world of Dragonlance, one of TSR's hottest properties at the time. Don't let the Pulp-ish title fool you, this is a pretty good series of games, offering some different things then the other Gold Box series (three classes of Knights, kender, etcetera). Does suffer from some of the same problems as the first series (the final game has you travel to the Abyss to deal with Takhisis, the chief evil goddess), but has some of the coolest bad guys ever (including Lord Soth, the aforementioned Death Knight)


Savage Frontiers Series (Forgotten Realms)

Gateway to the Savage Frontier
Treasures of the Savage Frontier

The second Forgotten Realms series, this was licensed out to a new development team (Stormfront Studios, who made a ton of hit games, the Tony LaRussa baseball series, the first PGA Tour Golf game, the Madden series, etcetera). They created two pretty good games in the series, (set in the Savage Frontier region of the Forgotten Realms, far away from the previous Forgotten Realms series) and the follow up to the series was the first ever Graphical MMO, America OnLine's Neverwinter Nights (not to be confused with the more recent series).


Buck Rogers duology (Buck Rogers)

Countdown to Doomsday
Matrix Cubed

Doesn't seem right, does it? Above, we have 9 sword and sorcery games, and here we have.. Buck Freaking Rogers? Well, therein lies a tale.

It seems that head of TSR at the time (who had taken control of the company from Gary Gygax in a semi-hostile takeover, going so far as to sue Gygax when he formed his own company and attempted to create a new fantasy RPG) held the rights to Buck Rogers , and decided to use TSR as a launching point to reintroduce Buck Rogers to the modern audience.

This led to "Buck Rogers in the XXV Century" The RPG (based off AD&D rules). The RPG was not a huge success, and it (along with over optimistic expansion plans, and a huge flop with a collectible dice game, Dragon Dice that started pretty strong, but when TSR flooded the market with expansions (as well as trying to sell through book retailers), the market collapsed, and TSR was holding the bag for millions of dollars in losses (which eventually led to the company's sale to Wizards of the Coast).

While I have not played the two games before, they are pretty well reviewed, so I figured to provide the option if folks wanted me to play it.

[xjayex]

I said the Pools series because that's what I played when I was 9-13yo.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by xjayex

I said the Pools series because that's what I played when I was 9-13yo.

I was a little older But played Pools as well, great series of games!

[Autumn]

Yeah, Pools was the shit for me. Didn't get far in the series, but I used to play Pools all the time.

[SirFozzie]

Looks like it's decided... but I'll leave this open for 24-48 more hours while I try to get DOSBox and PoR to play nice together

[Izulde]

I didn't get far in the Krynn series but that by far was my fave.

[SirFozzie]

[SirFozzie]

Meet our party:

Alex (Human Fighter)
Ailee (Human Cleric)
Laiana (Human Thief)
Thaddeus (Human Mage)
Balefor (Half Elf Cleric/Mage)
Batol (Half Elf Fighter/Cleric)

None of them have their gear yet, so they look weak, because they are, they're all first level

[SirFozzie]

We buy our gear, memorize the spells (Uselessness, thy name is mage at level 1. one spell for four hours and 15 minutes rest, and it's a sleep spell.. not even a magic missle), and head out to try to clear the slums.

Glory and gold await..

Or a monster's gullet.

One of the two.

[SirFozzie]

We go wandering through the slums, and fight off waves of goblins, kobolds, and orcs. We nearly lose a couple fights, but we're lucky, and stumble into a hidden treasure room with enough money to not worry about gear for quite a while, just carrying it made our backs groan, but we decide that we need help, and w hire 2 of Phlan's finest (a warrior and a rogue).. they take more treasure then we do, but we're pretty much set, and some of these encounters are getting pretty rough (like 10-15 guys, and at first level, we go down in 1-2 hits!)

We bust into a room where Orcs are discussing things, and things look to get a bit hairy. How Hairy?



(this is just SOME of the foes we're facing)

The sleep spell is actually very useful, as it puts all opponents in a one square radius around the target to sleep.. then it's just a matter of onehit takeouts

[SirFozzie]

We barely survive, two of us are down, but the orcs start to panic as we mow through their sleeping comrades (never mind the fact we couldn't do it again if we wanted), and we survive the battle. We then break up the leaders of the monster (two gnolls, an ogre, and a hobgoblin)..

we're not quite ready to go up a level (and the encounters are getting insane because I think they're leveled to the party, and we have two higher level characters as NPCs)

[SirFozzie]

We head back out, rest and train (training is a MAJOR sink, as it costs 1000GP per character per level).

Alex is now a level 2 fighter, Balefor is a level 2/1 Cleric/Mage, , Ailee is a Level 2 Cleric, Laiana is a Level 2 THief and Thaddeus is a Level 2 Mage

[Autumn]

Oh my god, this is such a trip down memory lane. Wow.

[BYU 14]

This is awesome, such found memories of these games that did the true D&D style so well for their time.

[SirFozzie]

I've run into a "grind and gear" check part. It's killed my characters (even with the help) three times. I'll post a new update as soon as I can get past it :P

[SirFozzie]

There's one more area that we must clear to explore everything. It's in the old "Rope Guild" (I hope like heck that's an accurate spelling and not one letter off, because, I'd hate to meet the Guildmaster of THAT guiild....)

Apparently trolls and a couple ogres are easily amused... and cry like babies when their toys break:



This leads them to decide that we should be their next throw toy.

This leads to this fight, as we realize we'd end up like the sack of grain



yes, that's right, they decided to throw two ogres and three trolls (you know the kind you have to step on or they'll get back up after you kill them?) to a bunch of barely second level nobodys. Our clerics are on heal overtime duty.. Thaddeus uses the wand of magic missles he picked up (he finally learned the magic missle spell from a scroll too), to try to hit the Trolls (they're more dangerous than the ogres, as they have three attacks).. Laiana is throwing rocks from a sling, and Batol is shooting from a distance.

Things are bad. The Robber goes down first, followed by Balefor, we're cutting down their numbers, but things are slowly tilting away from us. Our "Hero"'s morale breaks (despite the fact that our clerics are keeping him up) and he hides in a corner (surrenders).. and it looks like the forces of evil will win, but apparently the bad guys have had enough too, and the ogre throws down his weapons and run! The two remaining trolls (one injured) mill around in panic, and we take them down safely at a distance. Now, the good news is we survived.. the bad news is the party looked like this at the end:



and it stinks because we earned nearly 2K XP for it.. but only the people up at the end get the reward. So that means Alex and Balefor will probably miss out on levelling up

[SirFozzie]

After spending a couple rest/memorize spells/heal cycles, we head back to Phlan. We don't have enough random encounters yet to have cleared the slums, but we manage to level up the folks who staye up till the end of the fight:

Current party

"Hero" Level 4 Fighter
Alex Level 2 Fighter
"Robber" Level 4 Thief
Batol Level 2/2 Cleric/Fighter
Balefor Level 1/1 Cleric/Magic User
Ailee Level 3 Cleric
Laiana Level 3 Thief
Thaddeus Level 3 Magic User

[finketr]

50% losses. Many more like this and there won't be a next time.

[SirFozzie]

After finding one small group of hobgoblins, we head back to Phlan



Woo!

Our next mission is to travel to Sokol Keep and reclaim it from the foul forces that have taken it over...

Spoiler:



It's a real fixer upper :P

[Autumn]

I remember those trolls and ogres well. That damn sack of grain!

[SirFozzie]

At Sokol Keep we have a lot of weird things to deal with, including Poisonous Frogs.. (you kids have it so easy these days, in the bad old days, you got hit by a creature with poison, you didn't save to avoid damage, or even ability damage.. your save versus poison meant YOU DIED IF YOU FAILED).. tons of undead, and this group of lovelies..



About 30 or so hobgoblins and orcs. Yeesh. Another Fun, by the tips of our fingernails battle :P

[SirFozzie]

We manage to survive, and find out that the "Boss" sent these minions to keep us from helping Phlan. Bruce, wat's the problem you have with Phlan.. did they threaten to turn the E Street Band into zombies or something?

We continue on, and things are looking up..



Ok, or not: Usually things that can do this kinda Indiana Jones stuff to interlopers don't exactly have a working way to designate friend from foe. But let's hope for the best..

Lucky for us, the head spirit in charge is the shade of a priest of Tyr who was cursed to wander Sokol Keep when the temple was destroyed in a monster attack. He asks us if Phlan has been restored to its previous status.



We're tempted to tell him it's all ok, that Phlan is great and hunky dory. Don't want to disappoint mister "I disintegrate Orcs when I'm disturbed".. but we decide to tell the truth.

He tells us an interesting story. Some of those names we may see again!





We head back to Phlan, and everyone's happy, we can use the Sokol Keep area now that the undead have been pacified to avoid the polluted Stejanow river.. hopefully it's enough to level up!

Oh, and we have a private commission from this man..



Would you buy a used car.. er.. a used warhorse from this man?

[SirFozzie]

Our Current Party

"Hero" Level 4 Fighter
Alex Level 3 Fighter
"Robber" Level 4 Thief
Batol Level 3/2 Cleric/Fighter
Balefor Level 2/2 Cleric/Magic User
Ailee Level 4 Cleric
Laiana Level 4 Thief
Thaddeus Level 3 Magic User

[SirFozzie]

We're wandering in Kuto's Well, on our way to an auction in Podal Plaza:

We free a strange woman from lizardmen guarding her, and she gives us the following warning:



After that.. we notice a group of kobolds climbing out of the well itself (mostly because they're attacking us!)., so we go down and investigate.

(oh, and as an aside, this game is SO much easier when you can combine sleep and hold person spells)

After dodging and ducking several arrows shot at us, we confront the bandit leader Norris the Grey and his lizard and kobold minions.


(real charmer, ain't he?)

On his dead body, we find the following note:

"Assemble a group of at least 30 of your followers. Meet up with a hobgoblin assault force at the small docks to the west of town. You and your group will be under the command of the hobgoblin leader. Follow his orders. Upon completion of the mission you will be rewarded with food, treasure, and many slaves."

Signed,

The Boss

Scribbled on the back of these orders is Norris the Gray's unsent reply to The Boss

"I will never follow the orders of a hobgoblin. I don't go on missions until I know exactly what we're supposed to do. And I don't go on missions for an unknown amount of food, treasure and slaves'. I do go on missions where I am in command; where I know exactly what the target is; and where I know exactly how much I'll get paid. Don't send me another order until you can meet my terms."

Signed,

Norris the Gray


We make it back to Phlan without hitting the auction (yet), but we manage to get a small reward. We decide "regretfully" to terminate the Robber's service.. we already have a thief, and he was just getting beat oin and taking away healing spells from those who deserved it.

So, our party after a bit of training:

"Hero" Level 4 Fighter
Alex Level 3 Fighter
Batol Level 3/2 Cleric/Fighter
Balefor Level 3/2 Cleric/Magic User
Ailee Level 4 Cleric
Laiana Level 4 Thief (owner of Bracers AC6)
Thaddeus Level 4 Magic User (Owner of Bracers AC4)

[SirFozzie]

Good news: I finished PoR. Bad news, I can't get the transfer characters thing to work

[JAG]

Missed this by some days, but good stuff. I loved the gold box games back in the day (I played both Pools, Curse, and the Krynn games). I actually tried firing up Champions of Krynn about six months ago and was enjoying the gameplay, but the interface was so clunky I just didn't want to keep going after a while.

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by JAG

Missed this by some days, but good stuff. I loved the gold box games back in the day (I played both Pools, Curse, and the Krynn games). I actually tried firing up Champions of Krynn about six months ago and was enjoying the gameplay, but the interface was so clunky I just didn't want to keep going after a while.

My oldest son got a tablet for Christmas, and I just got him the Bard's Tale Ap, and he's really enjoying the old school original trilogy right now...

[Izulde]

Google turned up this, Foz:
To transfer a character file from Pool of Radiance to Hillsfar or Curse of the Azure Bonds you need a 'charname.CHA' file. However, Pool of Radiance does not create files that end with .CHA UNLESS you remove the character from the party in one of the training rooms.

Once you complete the game and are ready to transfer from Pool of Radiance then you should go to the training hall, enter one of the 4 training rooms for fighters, thieves etc and then select the option 'Remove Character From Party' for all characters you intend to transfer.

You may then successfully use the 'copycurse.exe' or 'copyhill.exe' files to transfer characters, or simply drag and drop the 'charname.CHA' file over to Hillsfar or Curse of the Azure Bonds. With Hillsfar you would place the .CHA file inside the main 'c:\hillsfar' folder and with Curse of the Azure Bonds you would place it in the 'c:\curse\save' folder.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Breeze

My oldest son got a tablet for Christmas, and I just got him the Bard's Tale Ap, and he's really enjoying the old school original trilogy right now...

Bards Tale was epic, my fav RPG from the 80's