Dungeons & Dragons: Krynn Series

I am a 51 year old man. I grew up with a VIC-20 in the early 80's and then a C64 playing the Ultima series that you can also get from this GOG website. I upgraded to an Amiga 500 in 1989 with a 20mb HD. I then spent the next 4 years playing all the gold box adventures and the Eye of the Beholder series. I then got my first PC at the end of 1992 and bought them all again for PC. Skip ahead to 2020. I have now bought them again to remember all the great times of computer gaming. Buy them now in this stay at home time and play them to escape from Covid-19 and enjoy

While most of the other Goldbox games are set in the Forgotten Realms, the Krynn series takes place in the Dragonlance setting; as someone who has played both settings in CRPGs as well as pen-and-paper, Dragonlance is by far the more enjoyable one due to considerably overhauled - and thus much more flexible - rules concerning non-human races and available classes. Every non-human race can now choose from a wider selection of classes, and can also reach the maximum level in several of them. Want an elven cleric/ranger in your party who can reach the maximum level in both classes? Done. A dwarven fighter who doesn't stop dead at 9th level? Done. A half-elf cleric who can attain more than just measly five levels? Also done. No more parties that are composed (almost) completely of human character out to sheer necessity. Aside from the whole race-and-class business, the Krynn series also offers the most interesting and thrilling story of any Goldbox series. Like in every other Goldbox series, you can - and should - take your party through each game of the Krynn saga. But unlike in the Pools, Eye of the Beholder, or Savage Frontier series, NPCs you encounter here will not be just quest-givers -- they will be allies, and some will even be friends. And while the overall story arc across the three games is not only grander and more epic in scale, it is also more personal, more intimate at the same time. The Goldbox engine itself has been considerably improved in these games, and you don't need to use hotkeys anymore (you can if you want, though). Mouse controls are also available, but they're a tad more cumbersome than using a mix of menus navigated with the cursor keys and the occasional hotkey. All in all, the Krynn series is without a doubt the crown jewel of the Goldbox series of games. I've played it many times since its original release, and still enjoy it ever single time. If you like any of the Goldbox games *at all*, you are going to love the Krynn series.

There is nothing in the SSI Gold Box RPG range that is remotely accessible for modern gamers. Rules are unexplaind, combats are brutal, the UI is unintuitive, and story fragments are buried in documentation that you'll have to look up in a PDF while simultaneously playing the game. Plus there's an assumption that you're already a Dragonlance fan and have read the books. If you don't already know you want these games, don't buy them. BUT - if grappling with retro RPGs is your thing, or you played and loved these back in the day, or you're just so curious you can't help yourself, then they're every bit as good today as they were then. It's all here - a surprisingly faithful and deep realisation of the AD&D ruleset, a story that builds on classic Dragonlance lore in surprising and exciting ways, epic high-level play and genuinely challenging and lethal combats.

I love the GoldBox Forgotten Realms/Krynn series. I still own the original CDs and the Floppy disks for the C64. These games are awesome with a great story. One of the best things is that you can transfer your characters from 1 game to the next. So when you reach max level in Champions you can transfer them to Dark Knights to level up even more and then level up even more with Dark Queen. A must play for RPG lovers. I hope they removed the tedious password requirements to play the game. In order to help to copy right protection these games came with a rule book and journal book and then the game would ask for a specific word on a specific page from one of these books. Example: "What is word number 3 on page 4 after the heading Introduction" from the journal. However, I wouldn't pay $9.00 for them, wait until they are $5.00 or less.