Hi, I was just wondering if anyone could help me out? I'm fairly new to PC gaming and wanting to try out some of the earlier RPG's that came to PC i.e The Gold Box Collections by SSI. I've been lookng up on YouTube and various other forums about The Gold Box Collections as they're highly regarded as been some of the best RPG's to come out on the PC. The question I want to ask is. Which Gold Box Collection is worth purchasing to someone who is totally new to these RPG's? I haven't been able to find a definitive answer on other forums and YouTube and I would love to play some of these games but I'm a bit worried about how difficult these games can be. Is there a Gold Box RPG that is quite easy for a new comer to get into and to be able to learn? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

edit: oh okay, GreasyDogMeat beat me and he seems to have more experience.

I'm not an RPG guy but here's my 2 cents if it's worth anything:

Unless you really want to try some older stuff, I'd advise reconsidering trying such old RPGs simply because they may not be that accessible to newcomers. I'd suggest looking into more modern RPGs. For instance Witcher 3 is only slightly more expensive (currently, on sale for $15USD) but incredibly well-received and 20 years newer. (edit: though of course it takes a lot more hardware to run it :P) Consider waiting until the Gold Box games are on sale.

Also GOG has some free Ultima RPGs; again though, very old and probably rough to play today. Search for Ultima 4, Savage Empire, and Martian Dreams.

That said, it looks like Forgotten Realms Collection 1 and 2 are the best rated Gold Box collections here. But I'll let someone else go into more depth.

here's a general search for the "role-playing" genre: https://www.gog.com/games?category=rpg

"The Box. You opened it; we came."


Sorry. Couldn't resist. :D

Thank you to all the members on this forum that have took the time to reply to my post. It's greatly appreciated and I've took all your feedback on board. I think I'm going to give the Krynn collection a go and see how I get on after reading reviews and watching many YouTube video's on this collection. Thanks again everyone ☺

I think "Gold Box" lumps together quite a few different games. The classic games most often connected with the term "Gold Box" are the ones in Collection 2, as well as the Krynn series. They're probably quite similar to each other in terms of difficulty. I'd recommend to watch some gameplay footage of e.g. "Pool of Radiance" (1988, not the 2001 game!) and if you're okay with what you see and it's not too oldschool for you, get Collection 2.

You will also get access to Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures (FRUA), which I personally consider the best investment of the bundle. Even if you end up not liking the official Gold Box games or find them too difficult, you can find tons of more accessible fan-made adventures for FRUA that are free to download. FRUA also has a more accessible UI and the modules partially use better graphics. If you want to run hacked modules (which is highly recommended!), you need to invest a little bit of work first (see here), but it's not that difficult and totally worth it. And last but not least, the small FRUA community at https://ua.reonis.com/ is very friendly and helpful and can assist you if you have trouble getting into FRUA or the Gold Box games of Collection 2 (+ Krynn).

On the other hand, if you find you don't like the gameplay of these games, try the Eye of the Beholder series contained in Collection 1. It's a completely different subgenre of RPG, grid-based 3D dungeon crawlers with real-time combat. The RPG elements are lighter, simplified and I believe the games are quite easy to get into. The drawback is that you have to draw your own maps (in your head or on paper), or use third party programs to help you with that. Otherwise it's easy to get lost in those 3D labyrinths.

EDIT: Oh, and another advice: Unless you're in a hurry to play them or don't care about the price, maybe wait for the end of the sale before buying them. Since they're currently not discounted, it's not guaranted but perfectly possible that they will be part of a flash deal later on during this sale.

Original Pool of Radiance can be quite a laborious game, as the battles can take time. then again, that goes with most of the old gold box games. I did a longer write up of the game a while ago:

https://playernone.blogspot.com/2018/08/pool-of-radiance-1988.html

The second game in the series, Curse of the Azure Bonds is actually more playable, as it has refined some of the aspects.

Oh boy...ain't that the truth?
I remember the market place(?) in the slums of New Phlan...the battle against dozens and dozens of adversaries took me hours, because every single NPC had to use up its APs, even if it only was moving five steps to the right, then the same five steps to the left again.

But, god, after I beat that crowd...what a sense of accomplishment. :)

I remember one long battle, which ended with a power outage. That was always fun.

Hi Leroux
Thanks for advising me on the Pool Of Radiance games. After looking into them on YouTube and other forums I went ahead and purchased them. Like you said they do seem a little easier for a newcomer to the D&D RPG's to get into. So far I'm liking the real time combat and I must admit it's actually quite fun drawing the the dungeons on grid paper haha.

I assume you mean the Eye of the Beholder series? :)

Sorry my bad. Yeah I meant Eye Of The Beholder series :)

Never played it then. I was more of a Bards Tale player. "Will your stalwart band choose to (R)un or (F)ight?", this sentence has burned itself into my brain! :-D