Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[mediocrepoet]

Takes a split second to trade money between characters.
Needless to add, money is barely of any use in Pool of Radiance.

How else are you supposed to have your entire party only able to move 3 for the rest of the game?

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

Takes a split second to trade money between characters.
Needless to add, money is barely of any use in Pool of Radiance.

Split second? How? I only know this method: Press Pool - Press Take - Choose your type of coin - Type number of coins. Is there a faster method?

 

[ColonelMace]

Either Pool - Share will instantly share as much as you can carry between your adventurers
Or Trade - select coins - mash any button (it'll automatically troncate to your max anyway) if you're not on a loot screen.

Although, you're better off letting go. Gems and Jewels weigh nothing and are worth more than enough to cover your needs in training and eventual purchases (like the composite long bow). I can't count the considerable amount of gold and platinum coins I've left behind at this point.

 

[octavius]

Takes a split second to trade money between characters.
Needless to add, money is barely of any use in Pool of Radiance.

Training, Fine Longbows, healing at temples. Shaking a few Fire Giants until they drop their lunch money is enough to cover most of your costs.

 

[Cael]

Takes a split second to trade money between characters.
Needless to add, money is barely of any use in Pool of Radiance.

Training, Fine Longbows, healing at temples. Shaking a few Fire Giants until they drop their lunch money is enough to cover most of your costs.

If you have high strength, Fine Longbows and some arrows will be the best investment you'll make.

 

[Beans00]

I plan on playing some of these for the first time in the near future. I played dark sun SL last year and thought it was great.


Just curious, I plan on starting with gateway or champions of krynn. I want to start with a shorter game/series and going by CRPGADDICT's playtime, the por series, especially pod is much longer. I will play them eventually.

Which is better to start with, gateway to the savage frontier, or champions of krynn?

 

[octavius]

Savage Frontier is more newbie friendly.
Krynn is better, and longer.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I plan on playing some of these for the first time in the near future. I played dark sun SL last year and thought it was great.


Just curious, I plan on starting with gateway or champions of krynn. I want to start with a shorter game/series and going by CRPGADDICT's playtime, the por series, especially pod is much longer. I will play them eventually.

Which is better to start with, gateway to the savage frontier, or champions of krynn?

Pool of Radiance is the single best game, but the Krynn trilogy overall is much better than the the quartet of games that starts with PoR. Also, the Gold Box engine was designed for low-level play, with hardly any alterations over the nine games that used it (not counting the two Buck Rogers games or the Unlimited Adventures: Fantasy Construction Kit), and tends to falter at representing higher-level D&D adventures. The ideal would be to start with PoR, then shift to the Krynn trilogy and play that to completion. If you haven't yet gotten tired of the Gold Box games, you could then import your party from PoR into Curse of the Azure Bonds and proceed from there.

 

[jakkis]

I always include a Dwarf or Half-Elf Fighter/Thief (with high enough STR to get to Fighter 7 and 1.5 APR).
Backstabbing is the most efficient way of dealing with enemies like Drow.

This is a great pro-tip for those quite high hp and ac magic resist drow lords

 

[Cael]

I always include a Dwarf or Half-Elf Fighter/Thief (with high enough STR to get to Fighter 7 and 1.5 APR).
Backstabbing is the most efficient way of dealing with enemies like Drow.

This is a great pro-tip for those quite high hp and ac magic resist drow lords

Ahh, my sweet child. Wait until you run into enchanted Bozaks...

 

[Beans00]

Pool of Radiance is the single best game, but the Krynn trilogy overall is much better than the the quartet of games that starts with PoR. Also, the Gold Box engine was designed for low-level play, with hardly any alterations over the nine games that used it (not counting the two Buck Rogers games or the Unlimited Adventures: Fantasy Construction Kit), and tends to falter at representing higher-level D&D adventures. The ideal would be to start with PoR, then shift to the Krynn trilogy and play that to completion. If you haven't yet gotten tired of the Gold Box games, you could then import your party from PoR into Curse of the Azure Bonds and proceed from there.

If I play POR first, I'll be compelled to do the whole series of 4 games. I'll probably start with the savage frontiers duo.

 

[Mortmal]

Pool of Radiance is the single best game, but the Krynn trilogy overall is much better than the the quartet of games that starts with PoR. Also, the Gold Box engine was designed for low-level play, with hardly any alterations over the nine games that used it (not counting the two Buck Rogers games or the Unlimited Adventures: Fantasy Construction Kit), and tends to falter at representing higher-level D&D adventures. The ideal would be to start with PoR, then shift to the Krynn trilogy and play that to completion. If you haven't yet gotten tired of the Gold Box games, you could then import your party from PoR into Curse of the Azure Bonds and proceed from there.

If I play POR first, I'll be compelled to do the whole series of 4 games. I'll probably start with the savage frontiers duo.

If you start playing, remember that the class and race restrictions in AD&D 1st Edition were quite drastic. Back then, what we referred to as "demi-humans"—a term that would probably brand me as a Nazi in modern D&D—could typically only level up to 10 and had limited multiclassing options. The game was very much human-centric, as was its original intention.

This doesn't matter much at the beginning, but it can hurt you in the long term. In Krynn, however, these limitations are less noticeable and not as severe.

 

[rojay]

Pool of Radiance is the single best game, but the Krynn trilogy overall is much better than the the quartet of games that starts with PoR. Also, the Gold Box engine was designed for low-level play, with hardly any alterations over the nine games that used it (not counting the two Buck Rogers games or the Unlimited Adventures: Fantasy Construction Kit), and tends to falter at representing higher-level D&D adventures. The ideal would be to start with PoR, then shift to the Krynn trilogy and play that to completion. If you haven't yet gotten tired of the Gold Box games, you could then import your party from PoR into Curse of the Azure Bonds and proceed from there.

If I play POR first, I'll be compelled to do the whole series of 4 games. I'll probably start with the savage frontiers duo.

If you start playing, remember that the class and race restrictions in AD&D 1st Edition were quite drastic. Back then, what we referred to as "demi-humans"—a term that would probably brand me as a Nazi in modern D&D—could typically only level up to 10 and had limited multiclassing options. The game was very much human-centric, as was its original intention.

This doesn't matter much at the beginning, but it can hurt you in the long term. In Krynn, however, these limitations are less noticeable and not as severe.

Only demihumans could multiclass, I think, and the restrictions were there because there were advantages to being an elf or a dwarf that sort of front-loaded their effectiveness. They got ability score bonuses (and some penalties) but also stuff like Elves being immune to sleep spells and having magic resistance, infravision, bonsues to hit with long swords and bows - Dwarves had darkvision, an attack bonus against orcs and other goblinoids, the ability to detect unusual "stonework," including secret doors and traps, a dodge bonus against giants, etc.

But also, as you say, Gygax in particular wanted D&D to be human-centric. In the original game, "Elf" was a class, you weren't a fighter or a magic user, you were an Elf and depending on your ability score you could only progress so far in level.

I read an article or blog post not long ago that suggested the better way to handle the advantages demihumans had would have been to require more XP to gain a level. But that's not the Gold Box solution. It's not a problem in PoR, but later on it becomes an issue.

 

[Mortmal]

Pool of Radiance is the single best game, but the Krynn trilogy overall is much better than the the quartet of games that starts with PoR. Also, the Gold Box engine was designed for low-level play, with hardly any alterations over the nine games that used it (not counting the two Buck Rogers games or the Unlimited Adventures: Fantasy Construction Kit), and tends to falter at representing higher-level D&D adventures. The ideal would be to start with PoR, then shift to the Krynn trilogy and play that to completion. If you haven't yet gotten tired of the Gold Box games, you could then import your party from PoR into Curse of the Azure Bonds and proceed from there.

If I play POR first, I'll be compelled to do the whole series of 4 games. I'll probably start with the savage frontiers duo.

If you start playing, remember that the class and race restrictions in AD&D 1st Edition were quite drastic. Back then, what we referred to as "demi-humans"—a term that would probably brand me as a Nazi in modern D&D—could typically only level up to 10 and had limited multiclassing options. The game was very much human-centric, as was its original intention.

This doesn't matter much at the beginning, but it can hurt you in the long term. In Krynn, however, these limitations are less noticeable and not as severe.

Only demihumans could multiclass, I think, and the restrictions were there because there were advantages to being an elf or a dwarf that sort of front-loaded their effectiveness. They got ability score bonuses (and some penalties) but also stuff like Elves being immune to sleep spells and having magic resistance, infravision, bonsues to hit with long swords and bows - Dwarves had darkvision, an attack bonus against orcs and other goblinoids, the ability to detect unusual "stonework," including secret doors and traps, a dodge bonus against giants, etc.

But also, as you say, Gygax in particular wanted D&D to be human-centric. In the original game, "Elf" was a class, you weren't a fighter or a magic user, you were an Elf and depending on your ability score you could only progress so far in level.

I read an article or blog post not long ago that suggested the better way to handle the advantages demihumans had would have been to require more XP to gain a level. But that's not the Gold Box solution. It's not a problem in PoR, but later on it becomes an issue.

Not exactly ,in basic D&D, demi-humans were treated as classes rather than separate races, unlike in AD&D. They also had better saving throws and specific lore. In BECMI, demi-humans could continue leveling up in the Companion set, gaining martial abilities. However, this is not the case in AD&D, where demi-humans could multi-class but faced class AND level restrictions. Since Pool of Radiance uses AD&D 1e rules, these restrictions become a notable issue when reaching end game , Pool of Darkness, where characters reach higher levels.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Back then, what we referred to as "demi-humans"—a term that would probably brand me as a Nazi in modern D&D

Come on, man. We call them "people of colour" now.

 

[Mortmal]

Back then, what we referred to as "demi-humans"—a term that would probably brand me as a Nazi in modern D&D

Come on, man. We call them "people of colour" now.

I don’t even want to know what people call them nowadays. I’d rather shoot myself than join D&D Discord—or as they say, ‘unalive myself.’ Honestly, I can’t wait for Elon to take over WotC and all the licenses so he can depussify it all.

 

[rojay]

I can’t wait for Elon to take over WotC and all the licenses so he can depussify it all.

In Elon D&D, you get exp for each child you father.

 

[Cael]

I can’t wait for Elon to take over WotC and all the licenses so he can depussify it all.

In Elon D&D, you get exp for each child you father.

And bonus points if you act out the conception?

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Not exactly ,in basic D&D, demi-humans were treated as classes rather than separate races, unlike in AD&D. They also had better saving throws and specific lore. In BECMI, demi-humans could continue leveling up in the Companion set, gaining martial abilities. However, this is not the case in AD&D, where demi-humans could multi-class but faced class AND level restrictions. Since Pool of Radiance uses AD&D 1e rules, these restrictions become a notable issue when reaching end game , Pool of Darkness, where characters reach higher levels.

Yes and furthermore, in original D&D (1974) there are not separate classes for demi-humans but instead every dwarf is a fighting-man, every hobbit halfling is a fighting-man, and every elf is both a fighting-man and a magic-user, each with their own specific racial bonuses as well. Holmes Basic D&D (1977) moved somewhat in the direction of turning these non-human race options into distinct classes though this was not entirely accomplished until B/X Moldvay/Cook D&D (1981) and continued in BECMI Mentzer D&D (1983-6), whereas Gygax had gone in the opposite direction in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons by allowing class options (and multi-classing) for demi-humans, now including half-elves, gnomes, and half-orcs.

 

[Mortmal]

Not exactly ,in basic D&D, demi-humans were treated as classes rather than separate races, unlike in AD&D. They also had better saving throws and specific lore. In BECMI, demi-humans could continue leveling up in the Companion set, gaining martial abilities. However, this is not the case in AD&D, where demi-humans could multi-class but faced class AND level restrictions. Since Pool of Radiance uses AD&D 1e rules, these restrictions become a notable issue when reaching end game , Pool of Darkness, where characters reach higher levels.

Yes and furthermore, in original D&D (1974) there are not separate classes for demi-humans but instead every dwarf is a fighting-man, every hobbit halfling is a fighting-man, and every elf is both a fighting-man and a magic-user, each with their own specific racial bonuses as well. Holmes Basic D&D (1977) moved somewhat in the direction of turning these non-human race options into distinct classes though this was not entirely accomplished until B/X Moldvay/Cook D&D (1981) and continued in BECMI Mentzer D&D (1983-6), whereas Gygax had gone in the opposite direction in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons by allowing class options (and multi-classing) for demi-humans, now including half-elves, gnomes, and half-orcs.

It was even more subtle than this :

• Multi-Classing: Allowed only for demi-humans. A character could advance in two or three classes simultaneously, splitting experience points between them.
• Dual-Classing: Allowed only for humans. A character abandoned their first class to begin a new one, keeping the abilities of the old class but only using them once the new class surpassed the old one's level.

 

[Beans00]

I started gateway to the savage frontier today. I only played for an hour or so, my party is;

human fighter
human cleric
human paladin
dwarf F/T
half elf F/M/T
half elf ranger/cleric

Used a few spaced for characters I normally wouldn't play.



My biggest observation is the inventory/UI is no where near as tedious as I thought it would be. it's pretty quick to navigate though the menus. My biggest complaint is not having a joint gold fun for your party, which is relatively annoying.

Aside from that decent time so far.

 

[RPK]

I started gateway to the savage frontier today. I only played for an hour or so, my party is;

human fighter
human cleric
human paladin
dwarf F/T
half elf F/M/T
half elf ranger/cleric

Used a few spaced for characters I normally wouldn't play.



My biggest observation is the inventory/UI is no where near as tedious as I thought it would be. it's pretty quick to navigate though the menus. My biggest complaint is not having a joint gold fun for your party, which is relatively annoying.

Aside from that decent time so far.

Is the "pool" option not available in that game? At least in older ones, you can pool your money at shops and also share it equally between the party since it has weight.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I started gateway to the savage frontier today. I only played for an hour or so, my party is;

human fighter
human cleric
human paladin
dwarf F/T
half elf F/M/T
half elf ranger/cleric

Used a few spaced for characters I normally wouldn't play.



My biggest observation is the inventory/UI is no where near as tedious as I thought it would be. it's pretty quick to navigate though the menus. My biggest complaint is not having a joint gold fun for your party, which is relatively annoying.

Aside from that decent time so far.

Is the "pool" option not available in that game? At least in older ones, you can pool your money at shops and also share it equally between the party since it has weight.

I would think it would be available since It was one of the last games to come out in the gold box series, but have not played the gold box games in decades, so don't know for sure. They all are a little different.

 

[octavius]

Only one mage, and that a part time one, will hurt.

 

[rojay]

Only one mage, and that a part time one, will hurt.

Was thinking the same thing. When are you going to get 3rd level Mage spells with that lineup? Sleep will only get you so far.

Edit to try and be helpful: maybe swap the paladin or the fighter, depending on how much you like paladins, for a straight magic user. Your fighter thief should be good enough at melee to work as a front-liner and in the early game your cleric can too. You just lack AoE spells for the encounters where they're really useful.