I never played the Pool if Radiance game or any of the other old-school SSI D&D games until they were re-released via emulator for modern PCs. Though, interestingly enough, it was the Pool of Radiance novel (by James Ward and Jane Cooper Hong) that first introduced me to the Forgotten Realms as campaign world.
Re: The pool of the radiance
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 6:45 pm
by AcadiusLost
As it happens, that game (the original gold-box SSI Pool of Radiance) was my first introduction into D&D. It was only somewhat later that I discovered there were books and (paper) modules and dice involved. Many fond memories there.
Did anyone else try to "heal" the madman NPC you could get in your party with Restoration scrolls? Due to a bug (I suspect), he just kept getting higher and higher level each attempt, until he was max for the game. Unfortunately, he was still insane and fled from every encounter, so this wasn't a terribly useful discovery at the time.
Definitely some nostalgia there.
Re: The pool of the radiance
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 7:15 pm
by Riotnrrd
I played DnD first in 4th grade (1983), and for some reason am still at it...
Re: The pool of the radiance
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 7:54 pm
by rorax
AcadiusLost wrote:As it happens, that game (the original gold-box SSI Pool of Radiance) was my first introduction into D&D. It was only somewhat later that I discovered there were books and (paper) modules and dice involved. Many fond memories there.
Did anyone else try to "heal" the madman NPC you could get in your party with Restoration scrolls? Due to a bug (I suspect), he just kept getting higher and higher level each attempt, until he was max for the game. Unfortunately, he was still insane and fled from every encounter, so this wasn't a terribly useful discovery at the time.
Definitely some nostalgia there.
I remember i used to edit the PCs stats with a tool called "PC-Tools" and make them all 25. Characters with 20 CON used to regenerate wounds
Re: The pool of the radiance
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:33 pm
by Mulu
I played all the old SSI games, including an online one called Neverwinter Nights....
Re: The pool of the radiance
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 9:10 pm
by Ithildur
Recently discovered these oldies and enjoyed them quite a bit. There's something to be said for turn based tactical options play. Personally I'd love to multiplay something like Temple of Elemental Evil's game engine (sans the infamously horrible pre patch bugs) with a module that featured a decent storyline; it's the most faithful CRPG adaptation of pnp 3.5e rules hands down, especially with Circle of 8's patches/mods installed.
One of the later Goldbox games was titled Gateway to the Savage Frontier, a more polished version of the engine than the earlier titles. Imagine the ALFA tsm server with the gold box engine, though it had a very limited version of Silverymoon - but quite a few other towns/cities from TSF that were nicely done, and quite a few canon NPCs, etc.
Re: The pool of the radiance
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:08 pm
by Mayhem
I had "Curse of the Azure Bonds" for the apple mac.
Fun game.
The final battle was Tyranthraxes (iirc) and about 20 each of high level drow wizards, clerics, and fighters. Hideously tough fight, especially as the big T was immune to most spells.
Having beaten the game once, I was replaying it and reached the battle again, suddenly realising that my spell slots were near empty as I had forgotten to rest - and I had no save that was far enough back to let me rest before the battle.
In desperation I used all the low level stuff I had, including "confusion" which, to my astonishment, actually worked on Tyranthraxes and caused him to join my party for the duration of the battle. THus I beat the game without having to kill him :/
Re: The pool of the radiance
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 9:16 am
by rorax
Mulu wrote:I played all the old SSI games, including an online one called Neverwinter Nights....
LOL.
I never knew that one that's tough battle he had with the frog there!