Pool of Radiance (game)

Pool of Radiance was the first of a long series of computer role-playing games that shared a common engine that came to be known as the "Gold Box Engine" after the gold boxes in which most games of the series were sold.

Summary
The game takes place in the Forgotten Realms setting, in and around the Moonsea region and the city of Phlan, which has been overrun by forces of evil. The city had originally held off many attacks, but the forces were marshaled by a bronze dragon which was believed to be possessed by a powerful spirit named Tyranthraxus. The object of the game is to have the party clear the old city of its marauding inhabitants, so the people of Phlan can rebuild and repopulate the areas.

Civilized (New) Phlan
The party begins in the civilized section of "New Phlan" governed by the city council. Here, the party buys equipment at the shops, rest up in the inns, listen to rumors at the pub, and make contracts with the clerk of the city council for various commissions. The party can also go to the training hall and hire an experienced adventurer to accompany the party.

Slums (Old Phlan)
Beyond this region the party enters the area of the slums, which have been overrun with monsters such as kobolds, goblins, and orcs. While obtaining a magical potion for Ohlo in the Old Rope Guild, the heroes will encounter a group of marauding ogres and trolls.

Sokol Keep
The next commission is to clear out Sokol Keep, a fortified area located on an island and is filled with skeletons and zombie. Inside the keep, the specter of Ferran Martinez suffers under a curse. When you remove this curse, the keep is cleared and the shipping lanes to Phlan are finally opened.

Other locations
There are a variety of other locations encountered as the party ventures further into the city.
 * Kuto's Well: Catacombs filled with a bandit horde lead by Norris the Gray.
 * Podol Plaza: A common meeting place where an auction is being held.
 * The Pit: A buccaneer bar.
 * Cadorna Textile House: Where the adventurers recover the treasure of a council member, Porphyrys Cadorna.
 * Mendor's Library: An old library containing information and histories of the area.
 * Temple of Bane: A holy building devoted to Tyr, which has been taken over by Mace, a half-orc cleric of Bane.
 * Kovel Mansion: Stronghold of a local thieves guild.
 * Valhingen Graveyard: A sacred place overrun with undead and controlled by a vampire.

Outside Phlan
Eventually the party ventures outside the city by boat, where they encounter a silver dragon named Diogenes in the Dragonspine Mountains. The adventurers visit an encampment of the Zhentarim, stop the polluting of Stojanow on Sorcerer's Island caused by Yarash, and learn the dark plans of one known only as the "Boss". They also work with the Nomads so they don't work with the kobolds, help an old lizardman kill Drythfi, and have to save Lord Bivant's heir from the Buccaneer Base.

Stojanow Gate
After the encounter at the Zhent outpost, the heroes reveal Porphyrys as a traitor of Phlan and the city council commissions the party to hunt him down. The trail leads to the Stojanow Gate, which is guarded by an army of bugbears and giants.

Valjevo Castle
The party enters Valjevo Castle, pass through a poisonous hedge maze, and battle a false Boss. They descend a stairwell to find the pool of radiance guarded by a bronze dragon, possessed by the daemon Tyranthraxus. Here, the Possessing Spirit offers the adventurers to join his side and after a titanic battle, the heroes of Phlan succeed in saving the town.

History
Released in 1988, Pool of Radiance became a huge success, which led to a book and an AD&D module based on the game's plot called Ruins of Adventure. It is the first in a four-part series of Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons adventure computer games published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI). In 1992, the game was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System under the name of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Pool of Radiance.

Sequel
The game was followed by the Curse of the Azure Bonds, which was based on the Jeff Grubb and Kate Novak's novel: Azure Bonds. It was developed by Strategic Simulations, Inc and released in 1989.

Characters

 * Companions: Dirten • Genheeris • Mad Man • Fatima • Skullcrusher
 * Other: Braccio • Cadorna • Grishnak • Mace • Norris the Grey • Ohlo • Rolf • Tyranthraxus • Urslingen • Yarash

Creatures

 * Playable races: dwarf • elf • gnome • half-elf • human • halfling
 * Other: ankheg • basilisk • boar • bugbear • centaur • displacer beast • dog • drider • efreeti • ettin • frog (giant, poisonous) • giant (fire, hill) • ghoul • giant lizard • giant mantis • giant snake • gnoll • goblin • hag • hippogriff • hobgoblin • kobold • lizardman • medusa • minotaur • mummy • ogre • orc • phase spider • quickling • scorpion (huge, large) • skeleton • spectre • stirge • thri-kreen • tiger • troll • vampire • wardog • wight • wild boar • wolf • wraith • wyvern • zombie (juju)


 * spirit

Locations

 * Buildings: Sokol Keep • Valjevo Castle
 * Islands: Thorn Island
 * Mountains: Dragonspine Mountains
 * Rivers: Stojanow
 * Settlements: Phlan

Magic

 * Magic items: cloak of displacement • gauntlets of ogre power • javelin of lightning • ring of fire resistance • ring of protection
 * Spells: animate dead • bestow curse • bless • blink • burning hands • cause blindness • cause disease • inflict light wounds • charm person • cure blindness • cure disease • cure light wounds • curse • detect invisibility • detect magic • dispel magic • enlarge • find traps • fireball • friends • haste • hold person • invisibility • knock • lightning bolt • magic missile • mirror image • prayer • protection from evil • protection from good • protection from normal missiles • ray of enfeeblement • read magic • reduce • remove curse • resist cold • resist fire • shield • shocking grasp • silence • sleep • slow • slow poison • snake charm • spiritual weapon • stinking cloud • strength

Organizations

 * Church of Tempus • Old Rope Guild

Religions

 * Bane • Ilmater • Sune • Tempus • Tyr

Miscellaneous

 * Weapons & Armor: bastard sword • bracer • broadsword • dagger • chain mail • flail • hammer • handaxe • leather armor • long sword • mace • military fork • morningstar • plate mail • quarterstaff • ranseur • scale mail • scimitar • shield • short sword • spear • splint mail • two-handed sword • voulge

Classes
As the first game in the series, Pool of Radiance was to be surpassed in terms of features by later Gold Box games. Party characters could only be selected from among the classes of fighter, cleric, wizard, or thief, and the maximum class level was restricted to level 6 (9 for thieves, 8 for fighters). However, no subsequent Gold Box game featured player selectable character portraits, like Pool of Radiance did.

Awards
Pool of Radiance won the Origins Award for "Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1988".

Differences between versions of Pool Of Radiance
Pool Of Radiance was released for several computers/game consoles, so there are differences between the versions.


 * Commodore 64 (C64) and Commodore Amiga versions: Featured different music, while the DOS version had none. The C64 and Amiga versions also had more detailed graphics. Unfortunately, C64 had notoriously slow load times, unless the computer had a fast load cartridge installed. The game was also distributed on four double-sided floppy disks, making disk swapping a common frustration for players


 * Macintosh version: Unlike the sequels, the Macintosh version was done in black and white.
 * Nintendo (NES) version: Featured original music, different graphics, and a unique interface. It lacked many of the features of its computer counterparts, such as editing character icons. It also lacked several areas to explore, most notably the randomly generated creature lairs found on the wilderness map. Battles in the NES port were also considerably toned-down, partly because the NES had trouble with a large number of sprites and partly to lower the difficulty.

Difficulty
Pool of Radiance is considered to be very unbalanced with regard to difficulty, especially by today's standards. The frequent random encounters were often more challenging than the set-piece battles and tended to be very time consuming.

Bugs

 * Bag : The Commodore 64 version of the game had an interesting bug - if a character had a lot of arrows you could split them until all of the character's 16 inventory slots were filled, and then split them once more. The result was that the topmost item in the character's inventory would be transformed into an item called "bag" and appear as a 17th item slot. The bag was not worth anything to sell, however it virtually made the base item +57. So if you had a plate mail transformed into a bag, you could get an Armor Class of well below -50 and if you had a weapon transformed into a bag, you would easily deal 60+ points of damage with each blow at a miss chance of 5% (natural 1). Basically, the same thing also worked with all other items that had quantities (quarrels, flasks of oil, silver arrows, carpets etc.). The bonus the so created item had and its name varied. Some had minor bonuses, some had huge bonuses and some had so high bonuses that they turned negative (silver arrows made superb items with a malus of about 100).


 * Wraith : When fighting a wraith, it was possible to have a character's level drained until it reached 0 and then drained again, wrapping around the 8-bit register to level 256. If a member of your party survived, it was possible to resurrect this dead character and have a level 256 character with 256 hit points.


 * Export : Not so much a bug as an exploit, if there was a particular item you wanted more of you could give it to a character then export them at the adventure hall. Strip the item from the character then drop them from the party. Re-enter the adventure hall and add the character back in - with the original item still in their possession. This could be repeated ad infinitum.

Game Credits

 * Amiga:
 * Programming: Jean-Claude Lhote, Nicolas Eypert, Philippe Derencourt
 * Additional graphics: Jean-Claude Lhote, Nicolas Eypert, Philippe Derencourt
 * Graphics: François Déon, Pierre Boutavant
 * Music‑SFX: Wally Beben
 * Scenario created by TSR, Inc.: James M. Ward, David Cook, Steve Winter, Michael Breault
 * Programmers: Keith Brors, Brad Myers
 * Additional Programming: Westwood Associates, Raymond J. Huges, Peter Schmitt, Eric Nickelson
 * Artists: Tom Wahl, Daria Marasco, Susan Manley, Fred Butts, Maurice Molyneaux, Vince Reynolds
 * Additional Art by: Westwood Associates, Scott A. M. Ruggles, Doug Barnett, David Shelley, Joana Zegri, Rob Wong
 * Music: David Warhol
 * Sound Effects: David Warhol
 * Developers: George MacDonald, Victor Penman, Paul Murray, Ross Brown, David Shelley
 * Playtesting: Dick Vohlers, Cyrus G. Harris, Graeme Bayless, James Kucera, Scott Barnes
 * Project Manager: Charles J. Kroegel Jr.
 * Art, Graphic Design and DTP: Louis Hsu Saekow, David Boudreau
 * Rules: Steve Perrin, George MacDonald
 * Print: Camel Advertising


 * Apple II:
 * Project Manager: Keith Brors
 * Programming: Keith Brors, Jim Jennings, Eric Knopp, Brad Myers
 * Developer: George MacDonald (George Mac Donald)
 * Encounter Coding: Paul Murray, Russ Brown, Victor Penman, David Shelley (Dave Shelley)
 * Graphic Arts: Tom Wahl, Fred Butts, Daria Marasco (Darla Marasco), Susan Manley (Susan Halbleib), Dick Davies
 * Playtesting: Rick White, James Kucera, Steve Perrin, Jim Jennings


 * Commodore 64:
 * Scenario Created by: TSR, Inc, James M. Ward, David Cook, Steve Winter, Michael Breault
 * Programmers: Keith Brors, Brad Myers
 * Additional Programming: Westwood Associates, Raymond J. Huges, Peter Schmitt, Eric Nickelson
 * Artists: Tom Wahl, Daria Marasco, Susan Manley, Fred Butts, Maurice Molyneaux, Vince Reynolds
 * Additional Art: Westwood Associates, Scott A. M. Ruggles, Doug Barnett, David Shelley, Joana Zegri, Rob Wong
 * Music and Sound Effects: David Warhol
 * Developers: George MacDonald, Victor Penman, Paul Murray, Russell Brown, David Shelley
 * In House Playtesting: Dick Vohlers, Cyrus G. Harris, Graeme Bayless, James Kucera, Scott Barnes
 * Project Manager: Charles J. Kroegel Jr.
 * Rules: Steve Perrin, George MacDonald
 * Customized Apple Disk Operating Systems: Roland Gustafsson
 * Art, Graphic Design and Desktop Publishing: Louis Hsu Saekow, David Boudreau
 * Printing: A&a Printers and Litographers


 * DOS:
 * Scenario created by: TSR, Inc., Michael Breault, David Cook, James M. Ward, Steve Winter
 * Programmers: Keith Brors, Brad Myers
 * Additional Programming: Westwood Associates, Raymond J. Huges, Eric Nickelson, Peter Schmitt
 * Artists: Fred Butts, Susan Manley, Daria Marasco, Maurice Molyneaux, Vince Reynolds, Tom Wahl
 * Additional Art: Westwood Associates, Doug Barnett, Scott A. M. Ruggles, David Shelley, Rob Wong, Joana Zegri
 * Music: David Warhol
 * Sound Effects: David Warhol
 * Developers: Russell Brown, George MacDonald, Paul Murray, Victor Penman, David Shelley
 * In House Playtesting: Scott Barnes, Graeme Bayless, Cyrus G. Harris, James Kucera, Dick Vohlers
 * Project Manager: Charles J. Kroegel Jr.
 * Rules: George MacDonald, Steve Perrin
 * Customized Apple Disk Operating System: Roland Gustafsson
 * Art, Graphic Design and DTP: David Boudreau, Louis Hsu Saekow
 * Printing: A&A Printers and Lithographers
 * Cover artwork: Clyde Caldwell (uncredited)
 * Clue Book: George MacDonald
 * Art, Graphic Design and Desktop Publishing: Louis Saekow Design, David Boudreau, Peter Gascoyne, Kathryn J. Lee


 * Macintosh:
 * Scenario created by: TSR Inc., James M. Ward, Dave Cook, Steve Winter, Michael Breault (Mike Breault)
 * Producer:Christopher Erhardt
 * Programmer: Paul Biondo (Paul A. Biondo)
 * Artwork: James Shook (James M. Shook), Tanya Isaacson, James Sullivan (Jim Sullivan), Ulrike Botz, Sophia Greene
 * Sounds: Eddie Silvia, Christopher Erhardt
 * Playtested: Bob Bugental, Jackie Fuchs
 * Original Version Programmers: Keith Brors, Brad Myers, Scot Bayless (Scott Bayless)
 * Developers: George MacDonald, Paul Murray, David Shelley (Dave Shelley)


 * NES:
 * Developer: Kunihiko Kagawa
 * Technical advice: Hitoshi Yasuda
 * Translater: Miyuki Kiyomatsu
 * Graphic designer: Seishi Yokota
 * Music composer: Seiji Toda
 * Senior programmer: Yoshiaki Sakaguchi
 * Co‑programmer: Hiromi Sato, Takatsugu Watanabe
 * Senior ECL programmer: Motoki Himi
 * ECL programmer: Masayuki Hirashima, Masato Kobayashi, Yukihiro Goto
 * Graphic coder: Hideyuki Furuhashi
 * Music programmer: Hironari Tadokoro
 * Music coder: Yoshiyuki Ishii
 * Presented by: Pony Canyon Inc.
 * SSI developers: Daniel Cermak, Nicholas Beliaeff

Also see

 * Curse of the Azure Bonds
 * Secret of the Silver Blades
 * Pools of Darkness

Connections
Pool of Radiance