Dungeons & Dragons Games Vol. 12: Gold Box - Champions of Krynn (MS-DOS) - Part 1

Developer:

SSI

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Release Date:

1990

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Systems:

DOS, Amiga, C64, Apple II, PC-98

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing Champions of Krynn, a 'Dragonlance Fantasy Role-Playing Epic Vol. 1' (Version 1.2). It's the beginning of a brand new Dungeons & Dragons trilogy!

I've already played a few games in the Dragonlance campaign setting, like Heroes of the Lance and Dragons of Flame, but even though they were based on tabletop modules I wouldn't exactly call them RPGs. Champions of Krynn is actually a proper Gold Box RPG however, just like Pools of Radiance... except I'm probably going to have to deal with those annoying dragon men that shoot magic at you and explode when they die again.

This also the beginning of a new decade: the 1990s! I'm on year 9 of my quest to play the first 10 years of Dungeons & Dragons games, and the end is in sight. Though in truth I'm only halfway through them, as SSI were releasing a ton of these games at this point. We got three AD&D titles this year:

• Champions of Krynn - What I'm playing right now.
• DragonStrike - A dragon combat flight sim.
• Secret of the Silver Blades - Chapter three of the Pool of Radiance Gold Box tetralogy.

Plus there was Buck Rogers XXVc: Countdown to Doomsday. It's got nothing to do with D&D, but it's adapted from another tabletop game by D&D creators TSR and it runs on the Gold Box engine, so they basically just swapped the dragons for spaceships.

Okay, I'll be playing the game for a couple of hours, taking screenshots and writing words, so there'll be SPOILERS below.

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I'm switching to another collection of games here, as Champions of Krynn isn't included in Forgotten Realms: The Archives or Silver Box Classics. The Krynn Series is its own thing, which means no option to import save games this time.

It's still using the Gold Box engine though, which means I get to use Gold Box Companion tool to make my life far easier. They've also given me all the important documentation, including the cluebook, which I'll probably need to check at some point just to clarify something.

In fact, I'll probably be making use of a bunch of wikis and walkthroughs, even if it's only to figure out what kind of team I should be making.

The first thing you do in any Gold Box game is make a party of adventurers, though this time I'm in Dragonlance instead of Forgotten Realms, so my options are a bit different. There are multiple types of elves and dwarves to pick from now, so I need to know the difference between a Silvanesti elf and a Qualinesti elf. 

Wait, I already know the country of Silvanesti, it was in War of the Lance! Under my leadership the enemy were able to invade and conquer them in five turns. Though I did get a lot of use out of their ships.

Anyway, the race I pick will determine what classes are available for them, and that's changed a bit too.

The game introduces the 'knight' class, clerics get a choice of gods to worship with different bonuses, and magic-users are called mages now. Plus alignment actually does something this time, as there are good white robe mages and neutral red robe mages. (But no evil mages, as they're all on the enemy side).

The trouble is that this is 1st Edition AD&D still, which means characters who aren't human follow different rules. Demi-humans have bonuses (eg. a resistance to sleep or an immunity to fear) and they can be two or three classes simultaneously. The trade-off is that they can only level up so many times before hitting their level cap, and if you're planning to bring the same characters into the sequels you need a team that won't be hopelessly underlevelled before the end of game #2.

But the Dragonlance games are less harsh with the level caps, so if I do my research right I should be able to create a cleric/fighter/mage demi-human that will continue to grow in strength during the later games. And they've taken out dual-classing for humans, so I either bring demi-humans, or everyone will be stuck in a single class forever.

The six ability scores are the same as ever and I don't have to worry about rerolling them now as they can be modified later once I've got the rest of the team sorted out. I could just go with the random scores it's given me, but I was getting my ass kicked in Curse of the Azure Bonds and I'd rather maximise my survivability to minimise my misery.

I've heard that Champions of Krynn isn't actually so bad, though if you've got plans of bringing your team all the way through to the end of The Dark Queen of Krynn you can't afford to mess up here. There are no skill trees or stat points later on, everything but your spell list is decided right now. It's like a test that you only know if you've passed after 60 hours of gameplay.

After rolling your scores you get to choose what your little dude looks like.

Oh no, not this again. 

I'm starting to lose hope that they'll ever upgrade the Gold Box icon creator. I'll be doomed to cycle through 15 different colours for every part, twice, for all six characters, for however many of these games that I have left.

The thing that's really frustrating is how much faster it would be with a decent interface. Put the colours on screen, let me click on the ones I want! This is the first Gold Box game with mouse support on PC but so far that mostly means that there's a pointer on screen somewhere I'm ignoring while I'm selecting options using the keyboard.

Amiga

The Amiga version knows what I'm talking about.

Plus it even lets you pick special icons with better art, though you can't customise their colours. Also you'll probably run into these people at some point in the game and end up confused about which is your guy.

Okay I think this is the team I'm going with. 

First I've got two human Knights of the Crown as my armoured sword guys. Both male so I don't hit the 1st Edition AD&D strength cap. 

Next I've got a kender thief with some cleric skills. I want a kender because they're Dragonlance exclusive and are the only race that can use a hoopak. I'm assuming that using a hoopak will benefit me.

After that I've got three elves with a mix of classes. Between my demi-humans I've got three clerics, three fighter-types and two mages, so I can adapt to deal with any situation. Well, except for situations that would require me having one really powerful single-class mage I suppose.

Look, there's that bloody mouse pointer up on the top right, spoiling this beautiful screenshot. It does actually look pretty nice I reckon; it's not the absolute best a game could look in 1990, but the game doesn't support VGA and they've done well within the harsh limitations of EGA graphics hardware.

Oh, good news, the War of the Lance is over and we won! Someone way more competent than me took over commanding the armies of Whitestone and sorted it all out. Now I'm playing as a brave band of adventurers tasked with wiping off the last remaining bits of evil from the lands.

Oh damn, I don't know what this guy's facial hair situation is about, but he's not messing around. 

Sir Karl is a Knight of the Rose on a mission to evaluate some outposts, and he's given us the mission to patrol Throtl. Though to find out what he says next I'll have to read journal entry 51. It wouldn't be a Gold Box RPG if I didn't have to get out my Adventurer's Journal to read half the dialogue.

Hang on, two of my characters are Knights of the Crown, so should I have put a 'Sir' in their names too? Speaking of names, didn't the place used to be called Throtyl?

War of the Lance (MS-DOS)

Yeah, I'm not going crazy, it was called Throtyl in War of the Lance. There it is up in the middle of the screen, between the Whitestone capital of Solanthus on the left and the creepy mountainous lands of the evil Dragonarmies on the right.

Okay, what does journal entry 51 say?

Alright, I need to report back whenever anything unusual or dangerous occurs. Also I should probably start numbering my reports in chronological order instead of jumping straight to #51, as it'll make it easier for my superiors to read.

This picture is from the PDF included in the game, but I can just use Gold Box Companion to displace the text over the game window instead. That's probably the best idea, as I don't need more excuses to get distracted.

Okay I need to go to Throtl. But first I'm allowed to wander our outpost and get whatever gear I need.

Oh, turns out the outpost is like the towns in Curse of the Azure Bonds where I just select my destination from a menu instead of walking there myself. At least it means the game won't keep pausing to make me read some descriptive text as I'm trying to walk down the street.

I need two things before I head out to Throtl, equipment and spells, so I'll select 'Armoury' first. Huh, they spelled that with a 'u', that's interesting for an American game.

Damn, where are all the exotic polearms? In the other games if I wanted a long sword or some arrows I had to flip through three pages of weapons with names like guisarme-voulge, fauchard-fork, spetum, bec de corbin, bardiche, ranseur, jo stick...

Though it's funny how the most expensive thing here after diamonds are short bows. It's not giving me anything I can aspire to own.

I checked the manual and it suggests a whole shopping list of gear including two melee weapons for each character. It seems that for certain enemies you can get your weapon stuck while killing them, and it's handy to have a spare. So that's weird.

The currency in this game is 'steel', so I selected 'Pool' to put everyone's steel in a pile on the table, and now I'm going to buy as much as I can before it runs out. I don't know when that'll be though, as the game doesn't show me my money on the buy screen.

Next stop is the inn, because I need to rest and memorise some spells. 

This gets awkward for multi-class cleric/mages as it just dumps all the spells into the same pile without even an (M) or (C) next to them to let me know what class they belong to. It's even more awkward for people playing the Apple II version as it keeps pausing for a bit when you select something.

I'll just grab whatever looks good until I run out of all my categories. Like 'sleep', that's something I'll need. I'll take 2 casts of that for sure. Plus I guess Terra gets 'silence 15' radius' for free because they worship Majere, and it seems like the right moon is in the right phase to give white robe mages a couple of bonus spells too.

Before I leave the inn, there's a brand new feature hidden away here for inquisitive players to stumble across: a difficulty select that adjusts enemy hit points!

I always play games on medium difficulty so I'll leave it on the default middle setting, but I like that people now have the option to adjust how much they have to struggle to get through it. Especially as I hit a couple of difficulty walls back in Curse of the Azure Bonds.

Though easy mode apparently comes with a catch: the XP you earn decreases on lower difficulties and the manual itself points out that this could make the game more challenging over time.

Hey, they're letting me out onto the wilderness map right from the start in this game! It took me ages before I could ride my horse around the map in Pools of Radiance and I had to fight my way out of the sewers before Curse of the Azure Bonds let me pick destinations from a list . 

They've changed map travel again for this one, as I'm controlling a dot which slides around a tile at a time. I'm currently at the yellow box at the top left and the black circle next to me is Throtl, so I'm only two moves away. Hang on, if that's Throtl, then I know what this place is - these are the mountains I just showed you on that War of the Lance screenshot. The game takes place in the lair of evil, the Dragonlance equivalent of Mordor!

I started walking the two steps to Throtl, but I only made it to one step before I got interrupted.

Here, have a special enhanced screenshot that keeps switching between different versions while you're trying to read the text.

This was the last D&D game on the Apple II and it's pretty clearly the most dated of the five systems. On the other end of the scale, the Amiga is doing the best job of impressing with its artwork I reckon, with more natural colours. Meanwhile the PC-98 version has music playing, which is a pretty massive break with tradition for these games.

Though the secret best version of this scene is revealed when you combine the MS-DOS, Amiga and PC-98 screenshots together:

Composite image - not a real screenshot!

See, I wasn't even joking.

Anyway, these unfortunate folks are being slaughtered by draconians and it's my duty to do something about that. I'll go report this suspicious activity to the outpost commandant right away!

Well the battle system is exactly the same as the last two games. Characters each get a turn to move and attack. If you hit the enemies enough times they stop moving and attacking you.

Gold Box Companion is back doing its thing as well, hooking onto the DOSBox window to give extra information and a map to show where the enemies are. There are four of them with 9 health each and there are six of us with 20, so it doesn't seem like it'll be a particularly tough battle.

Though if turns out they've got a low AC (armour class), then the health won't matter, as I'll never bloody hit them. D&D is funny like that.

Alright, I've got everyone running toward the enemies, firing off magic missiles if they've got them.

You can tell I'm a Gold Box veteran at this point because I remembered to select 'Manual' to aim my spell at someone else before I fired it off with 'Target'. I could've also used 'Next' and 'Prev' to cycle through enemies, but it wastes too much time cycling through my own dudes as well.

Having to manually unequip someone's sword and shield so they can use a bow is also a waste of time, but it doesn't seem like there's any way around that. Funny thing is, you can switch units to AI control and the computer has no problem equipping the right weapon automatically, so having a convenient button to swap between melee and ranged setups would've been a pretty basic feature by comparison.

It would've also been nice if the character sprite changed so I could see what my guys have equipped just by looking at them, but I suppose that would've meant even more loading for Apple II users.

Agh, that dude's face gave me a jump scare.

I won the fight in two turns, with my kender cleric/thief Zidane missing both times. Plus he was the only one to take any damage. One the plus side, we also took 20 bucks from the bodies and got a bit of XP for our trouble.

Afterwards one of the surviving women explained that all their menfolk are dead and asked if we can help them get to the outpost, and I actually got a yes/no option to respond.

Hmm, should I take a single step backwards to get these unarmed civilians and their children to safety?

I am supposed to report back to the outpost when I see anything suspicious, so helping them wouldn't delay or disadvantage me in any way at all. But on the other hand, I could select 'no' and then do what I want instead. It's crazy how the game just drops such a tricky moral dilemma like this on you right at the start!

Okay ladies, I think I can help you out. We have four menfolk in our party and only one of them is useless, so getting you to the outpost shouldn't be a problem.

In fact, the two womenfolk on the team are almost equally as capable as the guys, except for the 1st Edition restriction on strength limiting their melee and carrying potential, with no benefit in exchange. It's fine, there's no limit on their magical power and I can cast 'enlarge' magic to increase their strength past the cap if needed.

"Cloud gives his tithe to the knighthood"? What?

I checked the manual and it says that Knights of the Crown give 10% of the money they're holding whenever they enter an outpost, while Knights of the Sword and of the Rose give away all but 20 coins. I don't want to give away my money though, I need that to buy new gear!

While I'm back I might as well spend my steel to stock up on arrows, maybe buy another short bow if I can afford it. Also I'll restore Zidane's health at the inn, visit the training hall to get him the level up he's inexplicably earned, and then I'll go celebrate at the pub.

Hang on, it's asking me to look up Tavern Tale 19 and Gold Box Companion only does journal entries.

Well that's great, I'm glad I got the PDF open for that.

I already know about this, I'm the one who just reported it!

Funny thing is, the game is always making me check my journal, but it doesn't let me use it to keep track of what I'm supposed to be doing. I can't just look up where I need to be next. Oh right, I remember now, I'm going to Throtl.

THROTL

Damn, that's a lot of hobgoblins waiting for me at the door. I guess the training wheels are off then. Okay, let's see how many of my mages know 'sleep'.

Sleep is a fantastic spell at lower levels, because it hits a square of 9 units and has a chance of making them all fall unconscious. That means a: they're not attacking me, b: they're in the way of the other enemies, and c: they die in a single hit.

Unfortunately I just accidentally pressed 'Target' instead of 'Manual' and fired the sleep spell at myself. Now both my armoured heavy-hitters, Cloud and Squall, are entirely helpless and I can't cure or protect them!

Fine, I'll just fight off 15 enemies with 4 heroes then. Well, 3 heroes and Zidane.

I actually won? Uh... okay then.

This means all that gear the enemies were carrying is now mine for the taking, multiple pages of it. I think I'll just leave most of it where it is though, as I'm not that desperate for money. Oh, I could use a couple more shields though.

One of my characters has 'detect magic' as their special spell and I could cast that right here in the menu to determine if any of this loot is more than meets the eye. There could be some +1 swords in here! Though there probably isn't.

Alright, I've finally reached the 3D view that I'll be using for most of the game, presumably. I can already see five different directions to investigate, but I'm going to start by doing a 180 and heading back out the front door, because both my knights got one-shotted while helpless and need some emergency healing at the inn.

BACK AT THE OUTPOST

I could've just camped in Throtl, but there's a chance I would've been interrupted by enemies looking for a fight.

Restoring health is no problem at all in this game, as like in Curse of the Azure Bonds I just press 'Fix' to automatically cast and re-memorise healing spells until everyone's HP is back.

Unfortunately the spells I fired off in combat have to be re-memorised manually, which is another unnecessary annoyance. Especially as I have to keep track of what I've used!

THROTL, AGAIN

Well Throtl seems like a fun place to visit. It's supposed to be a city, but it looks more like a dungeon to me.

I don't know who this guy is, but it turns out that that Heroes of the Lance star Caramon Majere came here with his own patrol and didn't fare so well. So I need to watch out for traps, somehow. Maybe the game just rolls a dice to determine if my thief is awake enough to spot them. 

Or maybe I need to switch to 'search' mode, which makes the team walk slower and encounter enemies more frequently.

I wouldn't say that the game's been unreasonable with its random encounter rate, but I'm already running into enough battles in the streets and/or dungeons of Throtl.

It's fine as long as I have places to rest and recover my HP and spells. The only thing I'm in danger of running out of is arrows.

I feel like rooms are probably safer than the hallways so I'll try resting in here. Terra's about to drop so she really needs it.

I'm mostly using the Gold Box Companion map to get around, as the tiny 3D view is barely even good enough to set the atmosphere. There's no need to walk over every tile and fill in the whole map, but I feel like doing it anyway.

Sometimes the game will give me a description of the room I'm in, like "This is a well furnished study," but it always looks like walls and doors to me. It could've been worse though. 1979 RPG Temple of Apshai has you looking up the room descriptions in the manual, for every single room. Computers from the late '70s and early '80s only had a tiny amount of RAM to work with and games had to be designed around those limitations.

Seriously? A copy protection question when I'm saving my game?

I've already saved a few times without this popping up, so I'm hoping this was just a surprise check in the middle of the first dungeon and I'm done with it now. I can deal with a one-time manual check if I'm playing an older game, especially if I have the manual open already.

Though I would've preferred it if the current publishers had patched it out entirely.

An enemy cleric is opening a chest? What?

This is an RPG mate, I'm the only one who's allowed to open chests! If bad guys were allowed to open them then there'd be no good loot left anywhere.

Though to be honest I wouldn't have even known there was a chest there if this hadn't just told me about it. I can't see them on the level and the only hint I get is when a message pops up saying something like "The party has found treasure! Each character receives [more XP than they've gotten from every random encounter so far combined]." 

It doesn't happen often.

Anyway, this guy sent undead after me, which is always a laugh. I mean I've got a cleric/thief, a cleric/ranger, and a cleric/fighter/white mage, so I can use the 'turn undead' command to make his army disappear three times over before they can even hit me. Doesn't work on rats though, which is a shame as there are a lot of them in this place.

It doesn't work on clerics either, and I need to be really careful whenever one's on the battlefield as they have the same kind of spells that I do.

BACK AT THE OUTPOST

I killed enough rats and found enough treasure for four of my characters to earn their first level up, so I had to rush back home and visit the training hall. And this time I remembered to take all the money off my knights first, so they didn't give it away!

In fact I've got enough coin on me now to deposit some in the bank. This is another new feature and it's a big help considering that money has weight. In Pool of Radiance I was spending my coin on gems because it was the only way I could carry my vast wealth around, but that's thankfully unnecessary now.

Alright I can afford to buy everyone a bow now and I'm fully stocked on arrows, so I'm ready to save the game and then head back to Throtl.

Oh come on!

What, you think I pirated the game mid-dungeon? I haven't even turned it off since the last check! Were they worried that players were going to start the game up, get past the manual check, and then let someone else take the manual home to play from their copied disks?

Anyway, I try to get at least the starting area finished before the end of part one, but I've hit my screenshot limit and I feel like it's a good time for a break. So I'll see you in part two.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Next on Super Adventures, it's more Champions of Krynn! Hopefully a lot more, because I haven't gotten anywhere yet.

There has to be something here you can comment on though, so feel free to make use of the message box below.