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Hail Goon Hordes. DM Wyvern here. I would like to invite you as I descend into the Pool of Radiance and attempt to liberate the ruined city of Phlan.  ABOUT THE GAME: Pool of Radiance is a series of role-playing video games set in the Forgotten Realms campaign settings of Dungeons & Dragons; it was the first Dungeons & Dragons video game series to be based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. The series reached combined global sales above 800,000 units by 1996. And the turn-based combat is still addictively simple fun. I discovered this game when I was a kid and still have vivid memories of playing through Champions, Death Knights and the beginning of Dark Queen of Krynn. I have dipped into this series a few times in the past off screen and always found the gameplay a good time. I am excited to begin this LP and add my own experience with this amazing series to the great LPs that are already out there. And speaking of LPs. If you're looking for an awesome text and image LP of the Gold Box series I would highly encourage to check out Into the Chokesverse: Let's Play SSI Gold Box Forgotten Realms by Chokes McGee And if you're looking to find out more about the Gold Box series and SSI in general, you couldn't go wrong spending an evening reading through The Digital Antiquarian write up on Pool of Radiance and the storied history of SSI with the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons computer game license. Check it out here: Opening the Gold Box, Part 4: Pool of Radiance The Essentials: Pool of Radiance A Forgotten Realms Fantasy Role-Playing Epic, Vol. 1 https://www.gog.com/game/forgotten_re... Get the Gold Box Companion here: https://gbc.zorbus.net/ How the LP Works: I plan to accompany every LP episode post with A) an out of character Field Report about my experience, B) an in-character journal from Bargle the Black, one of the magic users in the party and C) and three screenshots previewing the action ahead. The Rules of the Let's Play: No modifying starting attributes and HP (this is retroactive) No re-rolling HP (this is retroactive) No-reloading unless I encounter a full party wipe or game-breaking bug Table of Contents: Episode 1: The Wyverns of Waterdeep arrive in Phlan | YouTube | Bargle's Journal, Entry 1 Episode 2: Slumming it in Phlan | YouTube | Bargle's Journey, Entry 2 Episode 3: LOL OHLO | YouTube | Bargle's Journal, Entry 3 The Story Backdrop: Once the jewel of the Moonsea region of the Forgotten Realms, the city of Phlan has been destroyed and since overrun by forces of evil. After a flight of dragons ravaged the city and weakened the hold of the monstrous warlords that control much of the city, now a bastion of civilization is looking to reclaim the city with the aid of mercenaries and adventurers. The following pamphlet has been distributed far and wide throughout the realms to attract the sellswords and magic users that can turn back the tide for the good people of Phlan:  The Wyverns of Waterdeep have answered the call. And one of the magic-users, Bargle, has begun a journal about the looming campaign in Phlan...  THE WYVERNS OF WATERDEEP: Ali Al-Qadim - Chaotic Neutral Dwarf Fighter / Thief  Warduke - Chaotic Evil Dwarf Fighter / Thief  Aleena - Lawful Good Human Cleric  Venger - Chaotic Evil Human Cleric  Bargel - Human Wizard  Khalida - Chaotic Good Human Wizard  Field Report Episode 1: The game deposited my party on the docks of Phlan without so much as a dagger between them all. The first stop was the weapons and armor shop. Fortunately, the Pool of Radiance is very generous with starting money so I quickly snapped up Banded Mail for all my frontline warriors and class appropriate weapons for everyone. Kitted out, I took a quick rest in a nearby inn and memorized my cleric and magic user spells and then made my way to the City Hall. Here, I was able to read a number of proclamations and get my first quest from the city clerk to clear the slums to the west of the Civilized District. And so, I entered the slums with my newbie adventuring party... CHECK OUT EPISODE 1 HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5r6cdzFO9g dmwyvern fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Dec 19, 2020 |
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Dec 3, 2020 00:24
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From reading the other let's play I can only say, good luck.
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Dec 3, 2020 01:22
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silence2090 posted:From reading the other let's play I can only say, good luck. Thanks! I am going to need it. Almost every LP on YouTube used PCs with modded attributes, all 18s. I decided to go back to my starting save and run through this Gold Box - and all the rest, with an unmodded party, to offer up something unique and to challenge myself. In the next episode, I plan to briefly preview the unmodded starting attributes for the party. The biggest change will be a huge reduction in Armor Class and starting HP. So yes, I am going to need all the luck I can get! ^_^
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Dec 3, 2020 01:32
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Don't these games scale with the attributes of the party? I thought I read that about pool are least. Having all maxed attributes meant so did all the enemies, and you also got more to spawn.
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Dec 3, 2020 02:28
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Drowning Rabbit posted:Don't these games scale with the attributes of the party? I thought I read that about pool are least. Having all maxed attributes meant so did all the enemies, and you also got more to spawn. Yes - these games did in fact track Party Strength. But it is tied to very specific party attributes. According to the incomparable Stephen S. Lee's GameFAQ on this game, it is: A character's contribution to Party Strength is the sum of: * 0.4 * cleric level * 0.8 * magic-user level * 0.5 * each point of AC below 0 (0 if AC is 0 or above) * 0.5 * each point of THAC0 below 21 (0 if THAC0 is 21 or above) * 0.1 * current hit points rounded down to the nearest integer. The values used for AC and THAC0 are the ones shown on your character screen. Party Strength is the above contributions for every character summed.
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Dec 3, 2020 02:52
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So it rates fighter level pretty high then huh? Each level is 0.5, and they come faster than wizard levels. Funny how low-rated thieves are as a result, due to poor thac0 and AC - a high attribute thief party could reasonably stay very low party strength for a long time, then.
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Dec 3, 2020 03:14
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I wonder how it calculated multi-classing. My entire party of Ftr/Mu/+ (Cleric or Thief)*'s didn't have much trouble once they got rolling. *I was 12.
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Dec 3, 2020 11:32
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Deptfordx posted:I wonder how it calculated multi-classing. My entire party of Ftr/Mu/+ (Cleric or Thief)*'s didn't have much trouble once they got rolling. Classic profile picture there, Deptfordx.^_^
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Dec 3, 2020 16:50
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Hail Goons. In EPISODE 2 the Wyverns of Waterdeep strikeout to finally rid the slums of the monsters that have overrun it... Field Report Episode 2: Clearing out the slums street by street, I mostly encountered roving bands of Kobolds, Goblins and Orcs - nothing too hard for my beginning party to handle. I ran into my first difficult fight in Room 10 - filled with Monster Guards, my Sleep spells eventually wore off and I lost both Fighter / Thieves in subsequent rounds. I did not max out HP and this has left my party extremely fragile. I was worried that my two clerics would soon be wiped too leading to a reload...  Meeting a Seer  Slaughter in the Slums:  Party meets Ogre, Ogre, pwns party.  CHECK IT OUT HERE:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZYvlwEBafs dmwyvern fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Dec 8, 2020 |
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Dec 7, 2020 19:54
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I remember getting Secret of the Silver Blades as a kid and putting a ton of time into that but never really getting anywhere. I did enjoy killing Minotaurs and Otyughs in the slums though!
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Dec 8, 2020 01:17
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PotatoManJack posted:I remember getting Secret of the Silver Blades as a kid and putting a ton of time into that but never really getting anywhere. I did enjoy killing Minotaurs and Otyughs in the slums though! Thanks for sharing PotatoManJack! My introduction to the Gold Box series in the early 90s was through the Krynn games, beginning with Champions of Krynn. Playing on my Apple II GS at the time, I had no idea what I was doing back then but I remember enjoying them until the introduction to Dark Queen of Krynn. I found the first fight almost impossible to get through and remember quitting the series at the time. Hope you're enjoying the LP! I plan to put a little more effort into my LP posts but I am in the middle of graduate school finals. I should have some extra time tomorrow to work on the Episode 2 post a little more. dmwyvern fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Dec 8, 2020 |
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Dec 8, 2020 01:25
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Hail Goons. In EPISODE 3 the Wyverns of Waterdeep run an errand for a strange mage and get more than they bargained for... Field Report Episode 3: I thought I had just about cleared the slums after defeating the monster leaders. Turns out there is more work to do! I think in this episode I take down every set encounter and except for the ogres and trolls in the Rope Guild maze but I am reluctant to try and take that encounter on until my mages have Stinking Cloud. Also, the Gold Box games do not play around, When I ran the fetch quest for OHLO I tried to ask for more coin, little did I know that it would trigger an impossible encounter for a level 1ish party. Yikes! I make it to the edge of Kuto's Well at the end of the episode and am hoping to pick a level up here and then backtrack to finally clear the slums once and for all.  Meeting OHLO  Trying to bargain with OHLO  OHLO going LOL and ROFLSTOMPING my party into the ground...  Venturing into Kuto's Well and encountering Lizardmen for the first time  Tough little newts, these Lizardmen  CHECK IT OUT HERE:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSZiEDXQzCw dmwyvern fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Dec 19, 2020 |
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Dec 19, 2020 17:56
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