excerpt from DRAGON Magazine #143 (not cleaned up)

March 1989

p 76-78

The Role of Computers

(C) 1989 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser

Phlan-tastic adventures at the Pool of Radiance

In an unusual step, this month we fea-

ture the review of only one adventure

game. We feel the first true AD&D(R) game

for computer gamers requires this

column

Strategic Simulations, Inc.

(distributed by Electronic Arts)

1046 North Rengstorff Avenue

Mountain View CA 94043-1716

(415) 964-1353

* * * * 1/2

Pool of Radiance

Commodore 64/128 version

$39.95

MS-DOS (Tandy 4000) version $49.95

The following is taken from the journals

of Aessopp, a human magic-user:

me. They discuss basic information, hints,

warnings, and enlightenments that may

provide that extra bit of data needed to

conclude a successful adventure. I have

experienced the terrors of numerous

adventure programs

that genre, others not. But never before

has such an environment existed as this

one: a world based upon the authentic

ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS?

game rules.

large force of hobgoblins and orcs has left

me bereft of spells. I need several hours

perhaps days

memorizations I must accomplish, and I

need to inscribe new spells into my spell

book before our party can once again

attempt to clear the slums. The wounds

we have received and the death of a com-

rade will seem less severe when we gain

the 500-gp reward offered by the City

Clerk for this accomplishment. Unfortu-

nately, it appears that the slums go on

forever.

unsuccessful, but we haven

consists of Lord Hart, Ironsmyth (our

dwarven fighter), Footsore (our halfling

thief), Lady Patricia (our cleric), Ellwylly

(our jack-of-all-trades), and myself. We

have already managed to clear Sokol Keep

on Thorn Island. Fortunately, we had

amassed a small fortune in gold and plati-

num pieces prior to taking the boat to the

island. This money enabled us to purchase

the silver weaponry we needed to defeat

the gangs of undead that inhabited that

dread place.

Phlan. When characters have earned

enough gold to purchase training to their

next levels, they must visit the training

areas. Characters of each class take a

different door into the area; once through

the portal, each character is examined and

advanced if 1,000 gp are in hand.

Phlan, each possessing the restorative

power so hungrily sought by those who

are wounded, poisoned, or afflicted in

some manner. The temples even have the

power to fully restore deceased comrades!

The price of this restoration is high, but

what value can one place on the life of a

friend? The temples are dedicated to a

variety of gods. Not surprisingly, one can

find shopkeepers within Phlan who might

sell specific holy items for each temple

worshipers

adventurers. These sales are worth your

investigation.

that sells some surprising items, and sev-

eral retailers who can provide all manne

of things, from the most basic arms and

armor to advanced weaponry. The loca-

tions of all shops should be recorded, fo

sales of your treasures to these retailers.

will enhance your fortunes.

slums, the nesting place of the evil crea-

tures that the City Council wishes eradi-

cated. A city park and several taverns ar

also present, as well as the latter

ant rumors. Parties with little experienc

might wish to avoid these drinking halls,

as fights among patrons are common, an

few patrons are as lowly in stature as a

beginning party.

offered by the City Clerk. Read well the

proclamations found fastened to the hall

within the City Hall. Each offers an inter

esting bit of information that can aid you

party in its cause. These coded clues are

deciphered by using the Adventurer

Journal included in the game. Listen to

each NPC encounter. Several citizens of

Phlan (and those from beyond) offer valu-

able items of knowledge, ranging from

information on a sudden invasion of

undead to details on places where gems

are rumored to be hidden. You should also

use your own mapping skills during every

turn within the adventure to keep track of

your current location.

Through the deciphering of rumors, map-

ping, and other skills, we have learned

that beyond the slums lie areas that

include Podol Plaza, Valjevo Castle, Kuto

Well, and more. Certainly, if we survive to

collect the reward for clearing the slums,

there are hundreds of exhausting hours of

adventure ahead.

grounds have signaled they are ready to

move onward. My spells, as well as Lady

Patricia

rized. Ironsmyth has readied his heavy

crossbow, and Lord Hart has spent most

of the evening sharpening his two-handed

sword. We

slums. We can only hope our reward will

be the continuation of life itself!

Aessopp and his companions have been

our software adventure testers for nearly

a decade, through a variety of software

entertainment offerings. This group has

been deeply involved in both the MS-DOS

and C64/128 versions of Pool of Radiance,

a computerized FORGOTTEN REALMS

adventure. The scenario was written by

TSR designers and coded by the crack

programmers at Strategic Simulations, Inc.

Pool of Radiance falls into the must-buy

category for avid AD&D game players, as

it is the first offering that truly follows

AD&D game rules.

You create your own save-game disks,

assuring character continuation no matter

what might happen to your PCs during the

game. If you have an MS-DOS machine

(such as our Tandy 4000), you can copy

the game to your hard-disk drive. When

you save a game, simply select a storage

area from Game A to Game J, and wait for

the program to save your current game

status. One warning: When using the

installation program included for MS-DOS

machines, you must have the patience of

Job. SSI has packed so much code onto

three disks that the program had to be

compressed. Uncompressing the code took

nearly 30 minutes. However, we can hap-

pily say that the final product is more than

worth this timely effort. If you are gaming

on a C64/128 computer, you must have a

separate save-game disk.

What a great fantasy role-playing game

Pool of Radiance is! It plays truer to the

AD&D game rules than any software

adventure we have yet experienced. Only

a few minor differences exist in the crea-

tion of your characters, which is normally

accomplished by using multisided dice. In

Pool of Radiance, you tell the program

whether or not you want a character

created for you, and you decide whether

or not to keep the statistics that the com-

puter generates.

Our testing on the C64/128 version

required 207 such rolls to create an

acceptable human fighter with an 18

strength. (Granted, there were many

opportunities for a character to possess

17s as its primary characteristic, but we

wanted to see how many rolls would be

required for an

second fighter, a dwarf, needed only six

rolls to get an 18 as its primary character-

istic; our halfling thief required 110; the

magic-user required 50; the cleric

required 73; and a cleric/magic-user/

fighter with acceptable attributes in all

prime requisites required 350. The num-

ber of rolls required with the MS-DOS

version were about half these numbers.

We required strong characters right

away in order to enter the game and

quickly build up experience points and hit

points, allowing us to investigate as many

areas as possible. Missing during character

creation are your rolls for the initial num-

ber of gold pieces owned and languages

known. The gold-piece figure is automati-

cally assigned by the computer to your

character, and it appears as though lan-

guage does not become much of a problem

as long as your intelligence is above medi-

an range. So far, we haven

one or anything that didn

common, orc, hobgoblin, dwarven, or

elven tongue.

Encounters seem to be based on the

encounter tables in TSR

manuals. Even the countenances of those

that confronted our party looked as

though they had jumped from the pages of

the Monster Manual.

Phlan is quite a settlement, having risen

from the ashes, so to speak. Located on

the northern shore of Moonsea (known

earlier as the Dragon Sea) within the For-

gotten Realms, Phlan is situated between

Zhentil Keep and Melvaunt. The civilized

area of the city possesses just about every

sort of shop needed to outfit a party of

stalwart characters. Don

shopping around

from one shop to another within Phlan.

Two quests immediately available to new

adventuring parties require the clearing of

specific geographic locations (known as

blocks) that lie beyond the city

area. One of the blocks is in the slums of

Phlan; the other is in Sokol Keep. These

quests are designed to allow starting par-

ties to build up experience points, but not

without plans of action. You

parties before you realize exactly what is

needed to clear each area.

Successful combat earns your characters

the right to search captives, the lame, and

the dead for whatever they might possess

(as in a regular AD&D game). Our PCs

took everything they could get their hands

on. Items such as weapons and armor

were then sold at the stores in Phlan so

that enough gold and platinum pieces

could be accumulated to buy the silver

weaponry and armor required for our

assault on Sokol Keep. With the turning

ability of our cleric and a keen edge to our

silver weapons, the undead there melted

away like butter on hot toast. Getting

enough money to purchase these special

items is not easy, though. It takes many

one-encounter forays into the slums to

build up the contents of your purses.

The only negative aspect of the C64/128

version of Pool Of Radiance is the technol-

ogy of the computer itself. The C64/128 is

notoriously slow. Due to the large number

of disk accesses required for the various

scenes and activities throughout the game,

and due to the agonizingly slow disk

reads, the game tends to bog down, espe-

cially during lengthy combats where the

computer must manage numerous ene-

mies. Casting a spell can also lead one to

prolonged yawning while waiting for

various screens to appear; the screens

allow you to decide who will cast what

spell on whom. Strategic Simulations does

have a software-based fastloader utility

integrated into the game; without this aid,

the game would become nearly unplay-

able. The MS-DOS version, certainly our

favorite format, is extremely fast

much so that in order to catch on-screen

messages, we had to slow the game opera-

tion down. We enjoyed the Enhanced

Graphics Adapter (EGA) graphics mode

and found ourselves playing at twice the

speed of the C64/126 version.

We advise you to rush out to your local

dealer and buy

Pool Of Radiance!  We also

recommend you buy the FORGOTTEN

The Magis-

REALMS campaign set and FR4

ter

(a FORGOTTEN REALMS accessory

sold by TSR) to further your enjoyment of

this world of enchantment and adventure.

All AD&D game players will appreciate

Pool of Radianceattention to detail, its

forthrightness in adhering to all applicable

AD&D game rules, and the hundreds of

hours of game play incorporated into the

different scenarios within the Forgotten

Realms. You will receive enormous value

for your dollar, for the Forgotten Realms

stretches far beyond Phlan. Adventure,

excitement, advanced programming, ani-

mated graphics, puzzles

found in Pool Of Radiance. This is truly

Strategic Simulation

will undoubtedly bring thousands of com-

puter enthusiasts into the adventure-filled

worlds of TSR.

p 83

Clue Corner

Pool of Radiance (SSI)

About halfway through your search of

the slums, you

larly nasty assortment of goblins that are

rather accurate with their bows! Allow

them some rest before taking them to

task. All may not be well near the Well.

Until good old Norris has been dumped,

ambush is the name of the game near a

secret door. When you are making your

way to the Nomad Camp, try to find a way

through the trip wire quickly. If not,

expect no aid in fighting off the kobold

attack. As is true in life, respect for one

elders is worth a stand at the keep where

the lizard folk reside. However, to get into

their good graces, perhaps you should

have set free a particular group of like

types on Sorcerer

word should have been given to you to get

into the chieftain

northwest corner of Valjevo Castle, should

you make entry during daylight, the giants

may be lying down on the job.

Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser