Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[Zed Duke of Banville]

This is part of the reason why I never bothered playing the last two games again (Pools and Queen). Low to mid level campaigns are always my favourite.

It's a pity that SSI wasn't prepared to substantially alter their game engine to accommodate play at higher levels --- already in Curse of the Azure Bonds, they removed overland exploration travel when this aspect should have had systems added to correspond to the game's mid-level play, and later Gold Box entries at best kept the same as existed from the beginning in Pool of Radiance. There should have been a natural progression from dungeon-crawling to wilderness exploration (accompanied by dungeon-crawling) to dominion rulership (accompanied by wilderness exploration and dungeon-crawling).

 

[Dorateen]

already in Curse of the Azure Bonds, they removed overland exploration travel

Did you mean Secret of the Silver Blades? Azure Bonds still had the wilderness map, which the party traveled, including those mini-dungeons that could be discovered.

 

[Butter]

Curse doesn't allow you to roam wherever you want on the map like Pool does (or most of the later games would). They probably didn't want people wandering straight to Myth Drannor.

 

[Dorateen]

Maybe not Myth Drannor, but I recall being able to tackle the other bonds and their corresponding locations in any order.

 

[Desiderius]

This is part of the reason why I never bothered playing the last two games again (Pools and Queen). Low to mid level campaigns are always my favourite.

It's a pity that SSI wasn't prepared to substantially alter their game engine to accommodate play at higher levels --- already in Curse of the Azure Bonds, they removed overland exploration travel when this aspect should have had systems added to correspond to the game's mid-level play, and later Gold Box entries at best kept the same as existed from the beginning in Pool of Radiance. There should have been a natural progression from dungeon-crawling to wilderness exploration (accompanied by dungeon-crawling) to dominion rulership (accompanied by wilderness exploration and dungeon-crawling).

Death Knights had good wilderness exploration. Dave's Challenge is one of Gold Box highlights. I remember watching my buddies playing with Skomp before I'd ever owned a Gold Box myself.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

They knew they goofed with Azure bonds point crawl which ain't even close to a hexcrawl or gridcrawl. Hillsfar could have been an epic solo adventure but its mostly mini-game shit with realtime "dungeon" explore like gauntlet but no combat. Mega failure.

 

[octavius]

I like CoAB's overland. Every journey between two locations was a possible scripted encounter.
Much better than Champions of Krynn and Gateway to Savage Frontier.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I like CoAB's overland. Every journey between two locations was a possible scripted encounter.
Much better than Champions of Krynn and Gateway to Savage Frontier.

I do too. I like PoR's too, but Curse's had a nice tabletop feel of:

"Ok, we set out for Yulash."

"Sure, you travel for several days and then..."

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Note: to hit every overland encounter (special) you'd want to travel back and forth each route to hit the scripts esp after clearing each sigil. I'm not sure if that is on any walkthroughs. When you can search and find the bonus maps is the real fun. I enjoyed mapping Curse just as much as POR.

Say what you will about Secret, it was also a fun mapping romp. Loved its stages through.

POR had a different feel but was fun also.

To tell the truth, Goldbox and eyes were damn joys mapping. Sega eterna sun was also fun to map.

 

[Radiane]

Up until now, the enemies in Secret don't really pose a threat to my imported party, partly because imported chars are generally a few levels higher than newly generated ones, but even with newly generated heroes, I think the early challenges would be relatively easy to overcome (quality items are to be found pretty soon in the game).

So far my party has explored the first level of the mines and found the first piece of the staff. Thank goodness, the mine levels aren't too complicated to traverse through even without any map. I like those "monster lairs" where you find a bunch of random items afterwards, for some reason this reminds me of a certain jrpg gameplay style.

The items that you cannot transition from Curse to Secret aren't really anything to mourn about, even at such an early stage all my chars have already been equipped with at least +2 weapons and armor (only my mage still has a +1 quarterstaff, but that doesn't really count) But still, the one item which I think is a bit of a pity that you have to leave behind, is the wondrous ring of wizardry. It felt very fitting for your mage to be equipped with such a powerful item, taken from a powerful wizard after all. Oh well

Well I finished Curse now, it was ok i think,

I have to quote myself here for a moment, branding Curse as "ok" may seem a little bit harsh, i'd rather say that Curse is quite good. The thing is, after a while all the (samey) combat can get on your nerves, but then again, I think these games were rather meant to be played in short bursts. Indeed, everytime I come back to a goldbox game, the combat feels enjoyable again. But this may differ depending on person

 

[Butter]

Curse is an excellent game, and the more time passes the more I'm convinced of that. I've played several GB games since I last touched Curse, but I can recall Curse much more vividly than those others. Things like teaming up with Alias and Dragonbait in Yulash, then having to escape the Pit of Moander without being able to rest, were such thrilling adventures. I remember thinking that Champions of Krynn was just as good as Curse when I played it, but most of that game is a blur in my mind.

Pool of Radiance is similarly chock full of memorable experiences.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Hmmmm.... with GBC could you import similar items throughout? Hell, I completed the games several times on c64, amiga, and pc (well only once on amiga).

 

[Cael]

All this talk has me up for another run. So, COK/DKK/DQK or Gateway/Treasures? What do you guys think?

 

[mediocrepoet]

All this talk has me up for another run. So, COK/DKK/DQK or Gateway/Treasures? What do you guys think?

I think you seem like someone who loves COK a lot.

 

[octavius]

All this talk has me up for another run. So, COK/DKK/DQK or Gateway/Treasures? What do you guys think?

I think you seem like someone who loves COK a lot.

How about you? Do you prefer DKK or DQK, or do you suck at both?

 

[mediocrepoet]

All this talk has me up for another run. So, COK/DKK/DQK or Gateway/Treasures? What do you guys think?

I think you seem like someone who loves COK a lot.

How about you? Do you prefer DKK or DQK, or do you suck at both?

I'm more into Pool, myself.

 

[Cael]

All this talk has me up for another run. So, COK/DKK/DQK or Gateway/Treasures? What do you guys think?

I think you seem like someone who loves COK a lot.

How about you? Do you prefer DKK or DQK, or do you suck at both?

I'm more into Pool, myself.

I see your croprophilia has reared its ugly head again.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Saw this just now: http://ua_domain.tripod.com/links.html

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

And I noticed this little blog of the japanes computer version of Secret of the Silver Blades

Pc98. That music ugh.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Saw this just now: http://ua_domain.tripod.com/links.html

Ok, I get this is a bit of fun that the guy had there, since those are Masters of the Universe icons, but I got a give the designer a lot of credit. It probably wasn't that easy to make and those character icons are damn good looking.

 

[Radiane]

Huh those He-Man characters really look very nice, playing with such graphics looks like it could enhance the whole experience of a FRUA adventure, especially for fans of the MOTU franchise (also, I can't recall any good (or any ?) MOTU-RPGs...)

I've put my Secret run on hold for the moment, currently playing through Pools of Darkness with a newly there generated group. (I have been playing some goldbox games simultaneously, and my Darkness run had started quite a while ago, before I even finished Curse, but I intend to play through Pools of Darkness again with my imported party once they have finished their Secret run).

Apparently I have beaten the first one of Bane's lieutenants already, passing through the portal was also an interesting concept. It's quite amazing how many magical artifacts and money you have to simply leave behind in this game, only take the best and forget the rest.

Also amazing how my party has been defeating dragons left and right as if they were some low level kobolds. But I did read beforehand around the interwebs that PoD is such a tremendously difficult game, and nearly impossible without tremendous cheese etc. etc... so I turned down the difficulty to Squire Novice (the lowest difficulty). I'm not sure if it was the right decision, but I will stick with it now for my first playtrough. Looking forward for the next lieutenant battle

Edit: Nope, it's not Squire, it's Novice difficulty to which I actually changed the game, argh

 

[Ladonna]

Also amazing how my party has been defeating dragons left and right as if they were some low level kobolds.

Yeah, this is just another aspect of how high level D&D goes to shit. It can be sorta explained away in Pools by the fact the world has been torn asunder, and you aren't in the "real world" anymore, but usually it is just a given. Random hordes of Dragons and Vampires wandering maps, that could have wasted Phlan, Zhentil Keep, and the entire Moonsea region in a week during Pool of Radiance (where the Big Bad is a Dragon, and a Vampire is another Big Bad).

This is usually why high level campaigns got shifted to a managerial role with armies, and the odd adventure to some hell island, or other dimension. By the end of Pools and Queen your characters would be able to challenge God's.

 

[Cael]

Also amazing how my party has been defeating dragons left and right as if they were some low level kobolds.

Yeah, this is just another aspect of how high level D&D goes to shit. It can be sorta explained away in Pools by the fact the world has been torn asunder, and you aren't in the "real world" anymore, but usually it is just a given. Random hordes of Dragons and Vampires wandering maps, that could have wasted Phlan, Zhentil Keep, and the entire Moonsea region in a week during Pool of Radiance (where the Big Bad is a Dragon, and a Vampire is another Big Bad).

This is usually why high level campaigns got shifted to a managerial role with armies, and the odd adventure to some hell island, or other dimension. By the end of Pools and Queen your characters would be able to challenge God's.

Raistlin was level 29 when he took out Thakisis. By the end of DQK a red mage would be in the region of 33...

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Lol, literally in the case of DQK. Sadly, you don't get to fight Bane in POD. Honestly, I wanted a lot of battles with Tyranthraxus again (think of him just going on possession crazy maybe getting a pc or Vala or whomever) and a few of the primordials mentioned in the first game. For PnP I looked these guys up a lot. If you look at the pnp modules of Bane and crew they seem kinda pussified compare to late POD characters.

I'd love to see a full demi-hunan group make it through the series; lol. Yeah, i imported my group but later I just made humans with the same names. Later in the playthrough, anout 2/3s done I had an idea. I remade group again as all fighters and a paladin. And i got them up to lvl 39. I don't think you can dual class a ranger or a paladin. And then i dual classes the party. 2 mages, a priest, a rogue, or was it 2 priests, eh? Maybe 3 mages. And the grind continued. Beat the game that way. A final playthrough I beefed their stats up on the creation page.

Way back in pool of radiance (dos 486) i cheesed/duped the saves and got a bunch of manual of bodily healths. Man, 25 con is damn nice. I can't recall if it worked in later games.

Hillsfar completion is supposed to get you a wish and bonus hp but i don't recall if that transferred in Curse. Someone verify c64, dos, etc.

I did the same party trick in DQK with dual humans I think.

What really sucks is the settings. Novice or expert or w/e does NOT grant any extra xp or treasure. Meh. That sucked. It is just bragging rights.

 

[Ladonna]

Also amazing how my party has been defeating dragons left and right as if they were some low level kobolds.

Yeah, this is just another aspect of how high level D&D goes to shit. It can be sorta explained away in Pools by the fact the world has been torn asunder, and you aren't in the "real world" anymore, but usually it is just a given. Random hordes of Dragons and Vampires wandering maps, that could have wasted Phlan, Zhentil Keep, and the entire Moonsea region in a week during Pool of Radiance (where the Big Bad is a Dragon, and a Vampire is another Big Bad).

This is usually why high level campaigns got shifted to a managerial role with armies, and the odd adventure to some hell island, or other dimension. By the end of Pools and Queen your characters would be able to challenge God's.

Raistlin was level 29 when he took out Thakisis. By the end of DQK a red mage would be in the region of 33...

Well, in that case what fucking level is Elminster or whoever that old retard is in the Forgotten Realms GB games that is giving you orders in Pools?

Pretty sure there was some other old guy giving orders out in Queen too, but I can't remember his name. I remember he had a tower dungeon that you had to fight through to the top early in the game.

I need to play through these again.