What are you currently playing?

[Dark Savant]

Okay, that's certainly enough.  

I'll provide both high-level overviews and absurd detail.  (It wouldn't be me if I never did the latter.)

Count me as interested, Dark Savant! I enjoyed Pool of Radiance and the rest of the series back in the day. Thanks for the link to your guide; I may have to pick these up on GOG and wander through that world again.

Pool of Radiance definitely both lacks polish but does have a lot of loving craftsmanship, compared to any other Gold Box game.  It's the first game of a series with 12 released titles, after all.  Lots of features only got added later, but there was also much more urgent pushing to get more games out the door; later game design often had corners cut.

I'm now looking at the the original Phantasie.  I chose that because this time, I'm outright disassembling and analyzing the game binaries, so I want something that I like and can attack from multiple angles:

• It runs on the original IBM PC, so it has a relatively limited instruction set.
  

Holy crap.  I played that game on DOS, somehow I got a copy of it from a friend of a friend when I was like 10.  I had no idea what I was doing and didn't get anywhere, I didn't even know what the general idea of an RPG was yet.  I think this is the first I've ever heard of Phantasie again since then, and wasn't even sure that it really existed or if it was some misinterpretation of Phantasy Star instead.  I don't remember anything about it nowadays, but I'll read along with whatever you do with it.

It's one of those games that's significantly easier if you read the manual.  Among other things, it becomes clear how important high statistics are when first rolling a character (even if you're 10 years old).

Starting statistics are more important than any other game I can think of, actually.  For instance, in Pool of Radiance, if you don't care about transfer to later games, you'll do okay with maximum Dexterity and all other statistics below average.

If you have the manual, and know to spend at least a little time rolling for high statistics, Phantasie is easier than any other older RPG I can think of.  It's also a quick play; if you set aside several hours, you have good odds of winning the game in a single session even without knowing anything other than what I've just said.  (No need to take more than a handful of notes; no need to map; combat is not difficult once you figure out a few tricks, easier if you RTFM.)

It's also easy to die horribly and repeatedly if you don't have the manual or have low stats.

I don't hold a game being either very easy or very difficult against it, though.  I think it's a great play.  (Though I'll probably do a formal screenshot Let's Play anyway.)

[T-hawk]

Yeah, I didn't have any manual. I didn't even know what an RPG stat was yet, I learned that from a D&D rulebook maybe a year or two later. My experience with Phantasie was maybe two 30-minute sessions where I died within about four fights. I vaguely remember figuring out how to use a healing potion once then having no idea what to do after they ran out.

(Yes, I was once one of those incomprehensibly helpless newbs that we make fun of in games like FTL...)

[haphazard1]

Went ahead and got Pool of Radiance from GOG and started it up (after reading the manual, of course! ). Wow, this brings back some memories from a LONG time ago. I had forgotten just how primitive this game was, although for its time it was decent enough technically. I had also forgotten just how weak magic users were starting out in that era of D&D. Any threat at all is cause to run and hide behind your tougher, stronger party members.

First battle with some kobolds survived, minor damage, and some loot. Small beginnings, but this party is so weak that small is good for now.

I do like the adventure setting flavor with the city council proclamations and rumors in the taverns. "We need some bold adventurers to check out the graveyard!" Also, "We need some bold adventurers to find out what happened to the last people we sent to check out the graveyard!"

[Dark Savant]

Went ahead and got Pool of Radiance from GOG and started it up (after reading the manual, of course! ). Wow, this brings back some memories from a LONG time ago. I had forgotten just how primitive this game was, although for its time it was decent enough technically.

Pool of Radiance was actually slow, on a lot of nominally supported hardware, even by 1988 standards.  At the time, developers were only just starting to abandon support for early-1980s hardware (Apple ][, Commodore 64, IBM PC).

In the department of technical sophistication, it has its own Turing-complete scripting language to drive events.  (It may be the first one, come to think of it; I can't think of an older example for a CRPG.)

I do like the adventure setting flavor with the city council proclamations and rumors in the taverns.  "We need some bold adventurers to check out the graveyard!" Also, "We need some bold adventurers to find out what happened to the last people we sent to check out the graveyard!"

That was also fair, as if you wander too far into the graveyard and end up on the wrong side of an epic beatdown, you can't say you weren't warned.

[haphazard1]

Pool of Radiance was actually slow, on a lot of nominally supported hardware, even by 1988 standards.  At the time, developers were only just starting to abandon support for early-1980s hardware (Apple ][, Commodore 64, IBM PC).

I originally played the game on some of that early 80s hardware -- an Apple ][e, if I am remembering correctly.

That was also fair, as if you wander too far into the graveyard and end up on the wrong side of an epic beatdown, you can't say you weren't warned.

There is a lot of useful info in the history section of the manual and in the local rumor mill. There is some misleading stuff, too, of course -- separating out which is which being part of the fun.

I had forgotten how careful you have to be with the Sleep spell. Hitting party members is not a good idea. But when it is the only offense your level 1 magic user has got....

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

I had also forgotten just how weak magic users were starting out in that era of D&D. Any threat at all is cause to run and hide behind your tougher, stronger party members.

I had forgotten how careful you have to be with the Sleep spell. Hitting party members is not a good idea. But when it is the only offense your level 1 magic user has got....

Pool of Radiance magic works like Final Fantasy Tactics Black Magic where it hits half your allies in addition to the enemies?  I've never played the former (or any Dungeons and Dragons game) before, so it's nice to see a report here.


Wizards create problems instead of solving them.  If Helga the witch from the telenovela "Alegrijes y Rebujos" had followed through with her plan to destroy the mansion with a backhoe, the show would have been over.  She relied on stupid magical gimmicks like aging powder, which led to her downfall.


Most of the backstory and Age of Ascendancy campaign for Tales of Maj'Eyal is based on all the times wizards have ravaged the planet.  Rampant necromancy, burning the world with the Spellblaze, and even breaking the space-time continuum.


Not that my own advice will stop me from trying something like an FF12 Black Mage run or something in the future.  And even that game sort of qualifies as an example of magicians being up to no good.  The player characters may end the reign of the Occuria, but doing so may lead to the extinction of most of Ivalice's races and a technological collapse by the time of the distant sequel Final Fantasy Tactics.  And a few bosses will Reflect your spells back on you or have an arena that drains MP. . .

[haphazard1]

Pool of Radiance magic works like Final Fantasy Tactics Black Magic where it hits half your allies in addition to the enemies?  I've never played the former (or any Dungeons and Dragons game) before, so it's nice to see a report here.

The sleep spell is a group effect spell that (I think) starts with the selected target and then works outwards, hitting additional nearby targets until all of its strength has been expended. So one really strong target would absorb the entire effect of the spell, while a bunch of weak targets would see the spell propagate farther.

My wizard cast the spell into a group of goblins, and they were weak enough that it spread back to my own party. There were a couple goblins who were separated from the main group and were unaffected, who then walked up and killed my snoozing heroes. Definitely my own fault for not being careful enough.

Wizards create problems instead of solving them. 

Magic users are like the guy in the squad with the flamethrower. Useful, but you have to be careful whenever he is around....

[Dark Savant]

The sleep spell is a group effect spell that (I think) starts with the selected target and then works outwards, hitting additional nearby targets until all of its strength has been expended. So one really strong target would absorb the entire effect of the spell, while a bunch of weak targets would see the spell propagate farther.

It also has a maximum range of 10 feet from whatever you target.  You can target an empty square; that means the most you can target is that square and the eight touching it.  (It's also limited by the strength of the creatures in those squares, just as you and the manual say.)

The original Pool of Radiance manual doesn't actually say that, I don't think (the manual to later games is more thorough), but it's how the tabletop spell works.  (And even that isn't clear these days; the 1st Edition PHB says it has a 3" diameter effect.  1" here means 1 scale inch, equaling 10 feet.)

This does mean the typical Pool of Radiance doorway is 30 feet wide.  (Unit sensibility?  In my gaming?  )

My wizard cast the spell into a group of goblins, and they were weak enough that it spread back to my own party. There were a couple goblins who were separated from the main group and were unaffected, who then walked up and killed my snoozing heroes. Definitely my own fault for not being careful enough.

Well ... this:

Magic users are like the guy in the squad with the flamethrower. Useful, but you have to be careful whenever he is around....

... can be rather literal, given the AI's habit of mis-aimed Fireballs.

[haphazard1]

This does mean the typical Pool of Radiance doorway is 30 feet wide.  (Unit sensibility?  In my gaming?  )

They built things on a grand scale, back in the glory days of Phlan!

given the AI's habit of mis-aimed Fireballs.

Fun with fireballs, yes indeed. Well, that is still a long ways off for my party, assuming they can survive my mistakes while re-learning how things work in this game. Second and third expeditions outside the civilized area went a lot better, with several groups of minor enemies wiped out. Time to spend some gold on better equipment.

[haphazard1]

Having fun with Pool of Radiance. The Gold Box Companion utility is tremendously useful, providing much better party status information at a glance and tons of useful features to simplify the ancient (and clunky) game interface.

I had forgotten how bizarre some of the D&D rules and systems were. Encumbrance from all the low value copper and silver coins you get as early loot, for example; you can slow your party to a crawl carrying coins that barely pay for a round of drinks in the local tavern. Stores with interfaces that don't tell you how much money you have to spend. Strange combat odds and armor mechanics. And the ridiculous sleep system to regain one-use spells or heal -- weeks worth of time pass with my brave heroes mostly sitting around in camp.

The actual battles hold up surprisingly well. I suspect some of the minor encounters will get repetitive pretty quickly, though. I have no idea if the quick combat AI for your heroes is at all trustworthy.