Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[Jaesun]

Is there a dos-box or other pack that includes all the Forgotten Realms games

There isn't any legal packages that bundle them all together currently. I am no Copyright Lawyer but it is probably because:

1. UBISoft bought SSI, and since all their games must feature 24/7 always online copy protection, we wont ever see these on GOG.

2. It is entirely possible that the settlement of WotC and Atari finalizes the ownership of all D&D games (all the older classics too) so we might see them on GOG in the future..

with an easy to use front-end? My old dos-box copy is giving me shit...

i.e. a modern re-packaging for Win 7 for ease of use?

http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

So, it's possible to recruit new characters? I'll have to give it one more chance.

 

[dragonbait]

So, it's possible to recruit new characters? I'll have to give it one more chance.

Yep. You can recruit additional characters at the training hall so that you have 8 characters instead of 6. Hero's are a good addition to the party. & If the hired characters die, you can take their armor + weapon.

Plus, since the only area that you benefit from having a Thief in your team is the Kudo's Well area, you could temporarily hire a Thief character from the Training Hall, and instead have an extra fighter in your regular party.

 

[Jaesun]

I never once hired heroes. Just took my party of 6 though it. I never knew you could hire some from there. heh

Though that just means my party got more xp per battles instead of being divided by 8 members.

 

[octavius]

So I ended up in a tavern brawl while exploring civilized Phlan and now half my party is dead.

You need to bandage your characters that go down. That way they will just be tossed out of the bar by the city watch with 1 HP even if you lose the battle.

I never once hired heroes. Just took my party of 6 though it. I never knew you could hire some from there. heh

Though that just means my party got more xp per battles instead of being divided by 8 members.

But that is mostly irrelevant due to the XP caps.

 

[Jaesun]

I never once hired heroes. Just took my party of 6 though it. I never knew you could hire some from there. heh

Though that just means my party got more xp per battles instead of being divided by 8 members.

But that is mostly irrelevant due to the XP caps.

Doh! Yes you are correct, I forgot about the damn level cap. But we level up faster to the level cap.

 

[Metro]

I used a hired guy to help with the troll fight in the slums. That was a pain in the ass.

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

I used a hired guy to help with the troll fight in the slums. That was a pain in the ass.

I encountered those trolls and promptly got my ass kicked. I have to say that the encounters are hard as fuck for the most part. I know that the difficulty is just part of the deal when it comes to low-level AD&D, but still some of these fights are taking numerous tries and often leave several of my characters unconscious (and not receiving experience). I'm enjoying the game quite a bit, but I am starting to wonder if I need to roll up some new characters with munchkiny stats -- my one-roll characters are really struggling.

 

[Elwro]

SMA, are you playing the version which requires you to set spells to be memorized during every rest? I was wondering whether you can avoid this somehow, that was a PITA...

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

I'm playing the DOS version 1.3 that came with the Forgotten Realms Archives Silver Edition which I picked up over a decade ago. And yes, I have to manually memorize spells before every rest.

 

[Zomg]

I played a one-roll character ironman game of PoR until I got bored of it, using a mix of like 5 mages or clerics and a fighter. I just whored sleep and hold person spells most of the time, then backed out to rest, and used fighter hirelings when they'd be a big help. But I've played the game completely through several times over the years and I know how to beeline for the important loot/XP (which is the same thing in first edition).

The really nice thing about playing twinked up 18-stat characters is that you can autobattle a lot of boring garbage fights safely, and there's plenty of that in every Gold Box game.

 

[GarfunkeL]

After the first two/three blocks you have to clear, money becomes a non-issue as you get more than you can carry and there's not that much you need to use it for - except for levelling. So don't worry about copper and silver that much, only carry gems&platinum and gold and even gold can be dropped later. Same with XP, there's enough stuff in the game to reach level caps easily before you even enter the final dungeon so don't be afraid of hiring those two NPCs for tough fights.

Aside from that, sleep and stinking cloud and hold person are the three most useful spells you can utilize in most fights. Fireball is good for clearing out a lot of enemy archers - at some point you will encounter a literal hordes of them. Lightning bolt will bounce from a nearby wall.

Mapping is not really required except for the pyramid and the last castle. Good luck!

If you do take your party into CotAB, don't dual-class all of them immediately. Plan your party from beginning (PoR) to the end (PoD) with level-caps of each game in mind. Dual-classing thief early in CotAB is a good idea as there's not much use for that class.

 

[octavius]

Dual-classing thief early in CotAB is a good idea as there's not much use for that class.

I disagree about this. A thief's backstab ability is very useful in CotAB, and the multiplier is dependent on the thief's level. Also thieves don't get much HP, so dual classing from a thief means low HP and poor backstab damage.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Hmm, I do agree... BUT

PoR, being relatively low-level adventure, doesn't punish the player (much) for having a pure thief in the party and there are actually few situations where a thief is useful. Dualing her after the initial dungeon in CotAB is smart since there's no need for thief after that except for back-stabbing the Drow. So you could also dual her after Hap.

And she will have more HP than your initial wizard, the one you brought forth from PoR.

 

[deuxhero]

The series that starts with PoR, the Savage Frontier duo, the Krynn trio or prehaps even Pirates of Realmspace?

I don't think I'll play them all (at least not without a large gap between), but I do love me some good turn based combat.

 

[octavius]

If you should play only one, play the Krynn series.

 

[Erebus]

The Krynn series is pretty entertaining. The first game (Champions of Krynn) is probably the weakest of the three, but that doesn't make it bad ; low-level combat is really entertaining. Death Knights of Krynn is a very nice game, with many cool optional quests. And you can have a look at the LP I started recently to see what Dark Queen of Krynn is like. There are some limited story ties between the first two games.

Haven't tried the other games, though I intend to. There's a nice LP of Pool of Radiance somewhere in the Playground, though it has unfortunately been abandoned.

 

[Luzur]

Pool of Radiance and onwards.

 

[PorkaMorka]

Pool of Radiance has a lot of cool stuff which was simplified or eliminated in the later games.

But unfortunately it has a bit of poor design that is rather irritating; it doesn't automatically re-memorize your spells when you rest. So you have to go in and manually select them.

So if you're not sure if you like the series and you're used to modern games, you're probably better off playing the Krynn series starting with Champions of Krynn and importing into Death Knights of Krynn then Dark Queen of Krynn. Krynn series has a number of gimmicks that aren't available in the FR series and overall I'd say that they are a net positive. The awesomeness of Knights, Draconians and Dragonlances cancels out the horrible fact that Kender exist in that universe.

Playing that series should give you a good idea how much you enjoy the core gameplay, then you can't really go wrong picking between the epic 4 game FR series, the savage frontier series or the Buck Rodgers series. And don't forget FRUA.

 

[hanssolo]

Definitely Pool of Radiance.

edit: alternatively follow Jaesun's super awesome thread on FRUA and play The Realm.

 

[Crooked Bee]

There's a nice LP of Pool of Radiance somewhere in the Playground, though it has unfortunately been abandoned.

That's because the game gets somewhat boring later on. Don't start with it. Start with Krynn, I guess.

 

[MMXI]

That's because the game gets somewhat boring later on. Don't start with it. Start with Krynn, I guess.

Lies. It only got boring for the LPer because he was obsessed with leveling up constantly.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Thought about adding "in before MMXI" at the end of my post

 

[Jaesun]

Play:

PoR + CotAB + SotSB + PoD (Good luck with that)

After playing all 4 of the above, if you are screaming at the top of your lungs for MOAR, then play the Kyrinn series.

Then after being burned out by the D&D setting, switch over to the Buck Rogers series.

 

[mondblut]

Savage Frontier are the most polished of the series, and are only 2 games long if you lack devotion. Also, no ridiculous 40-levelness by the final chapters. So if you don't plan to play them all, it's your best bet.

Also, Buck Rogers, for identical reasons.