POLL: Favorite Gold-Box Game?

[DesertScrb]

Would it be a huge, or difficult task to extract some, or most of the information about writing modules from the UANL's and place it in some kind of logical order here on the forums, similar to how all the reviews have been copied and placed here in one convenient place for everyone to search through?  I don't want to over commit myself to anything and thereby disappoint the membership here if I am slow in completing such a task, but I would be willing to help in the searching through old UANL's to copy and paste portions of the text to a place here created to hold it.  That would be one good way for me to look for and read such information while I was helping complete such a task.

You probably need to browse through all the old UA News Letters, because they all contain various nuggets of valuable information.  The best way to learn how to design, however, is to start designing.  Just by fiddling with the map, zones, events, and art will give you insight into how the game fits together.

Here's my suggestion for a typical fantasy adventure: Start small.

Short version:

• Use one dungeon module to create a town.
• Use another dungeon module to create an adventuring area.

Long version:

• Use one dungeon level to create a base of operations (a town or village).  Make it as detailed or as bare-bones as you like, but you should include all the basic eventss: places to rest, train, heal, and buy stuff.  As you design, you will probably come up with ideas for back story and history, which you can convey via text events and/or tavern tales.  Once you're done with the adventuring area, you can come back to add some foreshadowing or hints about the dungeon.
• Once you get your home base finished, use another dungeon level to create the adventure site (ruins, forest, cave, dungeon, whatever).  Link it to your base (and vice versa) with a "transfer module" event.  In your adventure area, play with zone events for wandering monsters, and a few "who tries" events for tricks or traps, along with some set combats.  You don't have to have tons of different monsters, just two or three basic types, with a few more powerful versions thrown in, along with one or two unique encounters with solitary beasts.  Don't forget--you don't have to go straight into combat; you can instead play with the "encounter" event to give the player a chance to outthink or outrun the foes.  Again, use zone events to create atmosphere and text events (along with the appropriate art) to generate color for your adventure site.  Then go back into the town and add hints and foreshadowing about the dungeon.
• Throughout the design process, you should test the adventure from both the editor and from standard UA.  This will give you quick feedback as to whether your events are set up correctly.  If your events don't do what you want, open the hood back up and start messing around some more.
• When you're done, go back and play the whole thing through.  Fix any bugs you find.  Then ask someone else to playtest it.  Fix any bugs they find.  Once you're satisfied it's bug-free, upload the adventure and let us take a look at it!

This sounds complicated, but it's not.  Each dungeon module in UA has room for just 100 events, and when you start including a bunch of stuff that doesn't have any text, it's easy to use up all the events pretty quick.  In other words, some careful effort will quickly produce a dungeon module that feels very full.

[ProphetSword]

Would it be a huge, or difficult task to extract some, or most of the information about writing modules from the UANL's and place it in some kind of logical order here on the forums, similar to how all the reviews have been copied and placed here in one convenient place for everyone to search through?  I don't want to over commit myself to anything and thereby disappoint the membership here if I am slow in completing such a task, but I would be willing to help in the searching through old UANL's to copy and paste portions of the text to a place here created to hold it.  That would be one good way for me to look for and read such information while I was helping complete such a task.

I'll drop some in the "Module Design Discussion" area.  Hopefully they'll give you some inspiration.

[AmigaDave]

Would it be a huge, or difficult task to extract some, or most of the information about writing modules from the UANL's and place it in some kind of logical order here on the forums, similar to how all the reviews have been copied and placed here in one convenient place for everyone to search through?  I don't want to over commit myself to anything and thereby disappoint the membership here if I am slow in completing such a task, but I would be willing to help in the searching through old UANL's to copy and paste portions of the text to a place here created to hold it.  That would be one good way for me to look for and read such information while I was helping complete such a task.

I'll drop some in the "Module Design Discussion" area.  Hopefully they'll give you some inspiration.

You're amazing Ben!

Seems every time I visit here my last wish or request (and sometimes my unknown NEXT wish or request) has been fulfilled.  Anyone interested in UA that is not checking in here regularly is really missing out.

I have spent the better part of the last couple hours reading those messages you transferred from the UANL's to the "Module Design Discussion" area here.

Thanks a ton,
David

[ProphetSword]

I'll do some more when I have time.  So, keep checking back.

[Iranon]

I only played the Forgotten Realms and Krynn cycles, so I wouldn't know about the others.


Of these, I loved Pools of Darkness... I liked the attempts of non-linearity and truly epic scope. However, there have been plenty of details that annoyed me....

- parts of the plot doesn't make sense. Why would Bane work with demons instead of devils?
- game balance felt off. Every human opponent had double digit levels, but the Dragons must have been babies and Bane's lieutenants were mostly push-overs.
- problematic spell deviations from P&P D&D. Deeper magic system at high levels? Not really. Delayed Blast Fireball solves almost anything with instant casting and without a damage cap.

Still, I loved it enough that my eternal epic project is a sequel to it.

[jrudy]

I've played most of them to some extent or another, but Matrix Cubed is the only one I actually finished. The others were great, I'm sure, but most of them never held my attention. Of the others, the one I've played most was PoR -- I remember cracking open that gold box (on a Commodore 64!), and being floored at playing D&D on my computer! (At, what, 11 or 12 years old?) But soon, as I got more and more lost in it, it lost me.

Off topic, for what it's worth, I went through the same thing when I recently tried Elder Scrolls: Morrowind. I'd beaten the death out of Oblivion (and loved every minute of it), but when I saw how difficult it was to follow what you should be doing in Morrowind, it totally lost me. I like games that, somehow, remind me of what I'm supposed to do.

[uydevotee]

Of these, I loved Pools of Darkness...  However, there have been plenty of details that annoyed me....

- game balance felt off. Bane's lieutenants were mostly push-overs.
-

I liked the Gauntlet AKA "Dave's Challenge"
it cheerfully reminded me of my first attempts on the Mulmaster Beholder Corps in CotAB all those years before.
that's saying alot, considering the experience I had accrued since then; to find some challenge.

aww the poll's closed

[Ben J]

My favourites were Death Knights of Krynn, Pool of Radiance and Pools of Darkness... don't know which one would have gotten my vote.

[hans]

Boy, the Savage Frontier games really look embarrassed.    

They added some nice features (I especially liked the possibility of new combatants joining a fight-in-progress), but I guess the stories weren't stand-outs, hunh? 

[hans]

Hey, here's an idea for a couple of future polls along this vein: 

Who's your favorite villain from a Goldbox game,

and...

Who's your favorite NPC from a Goldbox game.  

It'd probably be a pain to research them all, though, and actually put together a list, what with minor villains and characters being pretty abundant... 

[Olivier Leroux]

Why a poll? If you want to find out about people's favorite characters, you could just start a simple thread here or on the mailing list. Most will want to comment their choice anyway and that way you don't have to remember all the names (although you could still make a poll afterwards, using the names the posters provided to you  ).

[uydevotee]

the worst party NPC comes to mind

Akabar Bel Akash

-he of many "in party" fireballs/stinking clouds against the drow

I'd take the vampire in PoR over him.

[Rosestar]

Boy, the Savage Frontier games really look embarrassed.    

They added some nice features (I especially liked the possibility of new combatants joining a fight-in-progress), but I guess the stories weren't stand-outs, hunh?

|sf>That's because I wasn't around to vote for Gateway as my favorite GoldBox module.  It's the first one that I beat, even though I've played at least some of each one (except for DQK).  I really love the final labyrinth, since it's unique among the fights.  Too bad that there would never be a way for something like that fight to ever be duplicated in FRUA. 

[PetrusOctavianus]

the worst party NPC comes to mind

Akabar Bel Akash

-he of many "in party" fireballs/stinking clouds against the drow

I'd take the vampire in PoR over him.

Akabar was great! Thanks to him my party didn't have to battle the entire Drow occupation force in *one* battle.
And you could always drop his spells or refrain from memorizing them.

[PetrusOctavianus]

Boy, the Savage Frontier games really look embarrassed.    

They added some nice features (I especially liked the possibility of new combatants joining a fight-in-progress), but I guess the stories weren't stand-outs, hunh?

|sf>That's because I wasn't around to vote for Gateway as my favorite GoldBox module.  It's the first one that I beat, even though I've played at least some of each one (except for DQK).  I really love the final labyrinth, since it's unique among the fights.  Too bad that there would never be a way for something like that fight to ever be duplicated in FRUA.

Yeah, the final fight(s) was one of The Great CRPG Battles, and the SF had some other nice features.
Too bad they partly ruined the games with the lame random encounters (1/6 chance on overland?!? Only one or two possible encounters (either one Ankheg or one Troll, for example) and only Attack or Flee option).