The Foundations of Phlan: Revisiting Pool of Radiance (1988), Part 1

 

The opening graphic from the Amiga version, which I initially attempted to play.

         

The only really bad thing about Pool of Radiance, the landmark game from SSI that launched the "Gold Box" series (my 2011 coverage begins here), is its name. It evokes nothing that you'd want to evoke in a fantasy RPG: dungeons, dragons, swords, magic, treasure, or adventure. The titular pool is a very minor part of the story, not interesting, and not well explained.

   

Even worse, the title makes no sense from a marketing perspective. The same story, NPCs, and encounters that went into Pool of Radiance were also used for the tabletop module Ruins of Adventure, which hit the shelves about two months later than Pool. Why would the two companies not use the same name for both module and computer game? Ruins of Adventure fits the plot so much better than going all-in on the silly pool.

     

It did, however, make sense for TSR to supply the writers for its first proper foray into computer gaming (Mattel had licensed the D&D name for 1982's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Cartridge and 1983's Treasure of Tarmin, but neither game had anything to do with D&D or its rules). From the perspective of a tabletop RPG maker, probably the worst thing about these new "computer RPGs" was their plots. Computer RPG authors knew how to program the mechanics of character creation and combat, but they had shown repeatedly (with a few exceptions, of course) that they hadn't been able to replicate the experience of playing a D&D module, with proper attention to the backstory and developing narrative, NPCs, sub-quests and side quests, and encounter design. 

   

The rights to the D&D license reportedly came down to a fierce battle between Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) and Electronic Arts (EA). EA's pitch was based primarily on its prestige and market reach, as it had no particular expertise in RPG design or even wargaming design. The company's only RPG efforts to that date were in publishing games created by other studios (e.g., The Bard's Tale, Starflight) or by independent auteurs like Stuart Smith (Adventure Construction Set) and Chuck Dougherty (Legacy of the Ancients). SSI, in contrast, had shown that its staff--including such luminaries as Charles J. Kroegel Jr., Jeffrey A. Johnson, Paul Murray, and Keith Brors--could program the hell out of combat and character development in games like Wizard's Crown and The Eternal Dagger plus dozens of wargaming titles. To me, the choice would have been obvious.

  

But I wouldn't necessarily have trusted SSI with the plot, and neither apparently did TSR, which leads us to the involvement of TSR designers Michael Breault, David "Zeb" Cook, James M. Ward, and Steve Winter. This team, working out of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, collaborated remotely with SSI in Mountain View, California, on all the game's content--the same content that went into Ruins of Adventure. In researching the relationship between the computer game and the module, I found roughly a billion web sites that claim Pool was based on Ruins, the source apparently being an editor's throw-away comment in the letters section of a 1990 Dragon magazine issue. In an e-mail conversation, however, Michael Breault related the opposite: The material was designed for the computer game first. Ruins of Adventure was an afterthought, published months after Pool, a way for TSR to make some extra money with the same basic material. The tabletop module mentions Pools repeatedly; the idea was that the module would serve as a companion to the game. Because SSI didn't know of the concurrent development of the tabletop module, the manual for Pool says nothing about Ruins, but the later cluebook does.

   

The tabletop module based on the computer game--not the other way around.

      

Ever since I played Pool of Radiance in 2011, I have lauded it as one of the best CRPGs in history. It currently occupies my number three spot, behind Ultima V and Ultima VI. I regard it as the best of the Gold Box games--not in graphics and sound, of course, and later games would make incremental interface improvements. But in a dozen more games using this engine, SSI never exceeds Pool in quality of writing, depth of encounter design, use of NPCs, availability of side quests, and choice of role-playing options. In making this argument for the last decade, I have repeatedly overlooked the obvious reason: Pool was one of only two games in the series whose content was written by professional RPG authors. The other is, not coincidentally, the Gold Box game I rated second-highest: Curse of the Azure Bonds. (The story was by TSR designers Jeff Grubb and George MacDonald, based on Grubb's previous 1988 novel.) After Curse, TSR stopped participating directly in the development of the computer games, and further content was developed in-house at SSI. The plots and backstories remain fine, but the games start feeling less like modules. NPC companions become temporary and scripted, other NPCs become less interesting (or based on other media), the concept of side quests vanishes, and encounters offer fewer role-playing choices. It's still an excellent series of games, of course, but it never really improves.

      

Commenters alerted me to the existence of Ruins of Adventure while I was playing Pool of Radiance. I found the existence of a tabletop module mildly interesting, I suppose, but I largely dismissed it from mind. Back then, I wasn't as interested in the development process, or the personalities involved, and my entries are the poorer for it. Playing Pool of Radiance with a copy of Ruins of Adventure at my side is an unmitigated joy. It spoils the game--the module could be used as a cluebook, frankly--but it's fantastic for a replay, deepening the player's understanding of the setting and NPCs.

     

This treasure isn't in the module. Nothing that happens in the slums is in the module.

      

I had started this entry purely to write about the module and its relation to the computer game, but I couldn't think of a good way to do it without simply replaying the game. This is the first time I've completely revisited a game that I've previously covered from beginning to end. (Previous "Revisiting" entries have all been about winning games I didn't win the first time.) So let me get a few ground rules out of the way. First, I'm not interested in revisiting the GIMLET for Pool of Radiance; this series of entries will be unrated. Second, my primary focus is on how the computer game relates to the module, so I won't be revisiting all of the mechanics of Pool. Third, and most important, these entries do not mean that you can look forward to replays of other previously-covered games, no matter how inadequately you think I covered them. This is a lark, not a precedent.

    

For a slightly new experience, I wanted to play a different version. But since GOG started selling the game, it's tough to find even non-DOS versions on the usual sites. I messed with an Amiga version for a while but it wouldn't recognize any disk as the save disk. Ultimately, I gave up and went back to the DOS version, deciding to focus on a different character experience rather than a different technological experience. Since I wasn't planning to move on to Curse and the later games, I didn't have to be overly worried about racial caps, which meant I could explore more multi-classing options. I briefly toyed with making an ultra-challenging party, like all fighters or all thieves, but to keep the series short, I decided to play with a party that would initially be a challenge but later be unstoppable: six multi-classed mages. I didn't remember that Pool had as many racial restrictions as it does. Only elves, half-elves, and humans can be mages, and only humans and half-elves can be clerics. To implement my "all multi-classed mage" plan, I had to create a party entirely of half-elves. I could have used elves for the fighter/magic-users, but they're allowed one less fighter level than half-elves, so there was no point.

   

• Foberon, a lawful good male half-elf fighter/magic user
• Galadreish, a chaotic good female half-elf fighter/magic-user
• Demibrimbor, a neutral good male half-elf  fighter/cleric/magic-user
• Quasiel, a lawful neutral female half-elf fighter/cleric/magic-user
• Halfdir, a chaotic neutral male half-elf magic-user/thief
• Sudolas, a neutral evil male half-elf cleric/magic-user

             

I had no patience for the icons this time around. I just randomized the colors.

   

The module is generally more detailed than the game, but one exception is in the backstory. The adventurer's journal for the game covers hundreds of years of history, while the module covers only the last 50 years, during which the latest attempt to rebuild Phlan was defeated by an army of orcs led by a dragon. The module makes it explicit that this dragon was Tyranthraxus, and he's been "ruling" Phlan from Valjevo Castle the entire interim. Maybe we were supposed to get that impression from the game, but I never quite extrapolated it.

    

The module lays bare Tyranthraxus's plans and Porphyrys Cadorna's machinations, something that the game only does through notes, letters, and encounters that you have to piece together. Seeing the way the module describes it makes me even more impressed with the game. The backstory is that Tyranthraxus, a demonic entity from an unknown plane, tricked a bronze dragon named Srossar into bathing in the Pool of Radiance. This allowed Tyranthraxus to possess the dragon. It turns out that all of the good things the players hear about the Pool of Radiance conferring blessings or power is simply a misinformation campaign on Tyranthraxus's part to trick powerful entities into bathing in it so he can possess them. The Pool was never anything more than a gate to Tyranthraxus's home plane. It makes so much more sense now. 

      

In the module, you can go up on the stockade wall, which is always patrolled by teams of four watchmen. If you attack one, they'll raise the alarm and up to 52 more guards will show up. The module requires a pass from the Council to go through this portal, which is closed at night.

    

Tyranthraxus ultimately wants to cross the Moonsea and conquer the kingdoms to the south, but the orcs and goblins and such that he's chosen to lead are fickle creatures and tough to keep organized. He allows the human resettlement of Phlan in hopes that he can find more effective servants among the humans, but he naturally becomes alarmed at the party's growing success. The module has him far more proactive than the game's Tyranthraxus, seeding the populace of Phlan with his own agents and informants, many of whom try to lead the party astray.

     

Porphyrys Cadorna is presented in the module not as an ally of Tyranthraxus but an opportunist. He initially employs the party (via Sasha, the clerk) to seek information about Tyranthraxus for his own purposes. He wants to oust the demon as much as the players do, but so he can claim wealth and items of power. The module posits a couple of pivotal stages for Cadorna that I'll cover as I reach them.

     

The module makes it clear that Cadorna is behind this quest.

     

The module offers nothing about how the party gets to Phlan. Rolf, the NPC who greets the party at the docks in Pool and gives them a tour, appears nowhere in Ruins, not even within the long list of stock NPCs. The creators didn't even create a map for the civilized section of Phlan, instead telling the DM to make up his own layout. There are complex rules about what happens in abandoned buildings, in occupied housing, and along the stockade wall that don't appear in the computer game. Neither do rules about crime and punishment; the CRPG lacks the module's jail, for which one of the only ways to get out is to pull a Suicide Squad and offer to do missions for the Council for free. (If you commit crimes in the CRPG, guards just show up and try to kill you.) Facilities are also notably different. Both products show three inns in Phlan, but the module names them--The Cracked Crown, Nate Wyler's Bell, and The Bitter Blade--and gives them each a unique character, while those in the computer game are generic. The module also names several shops that are interchangeable in the CRPG. Finally, the module posits an outdoor marketplace in which a chandler, a wine-seller, a proselytizer, and a map maker offer services. 

       

This guy has no module counterpart.

       

Where the CRPG has three temples--one each to Tyr, Sune, and Tempus--the module has only one generic one. There is no training facility in the module (I don't even know how the tabletop game handles training and leveling) and thus no place where generic hirelings can join the party. On the other hand, there are a lot of named hirelings in the module that the party can meet under various circumstances. For instance:

        

Onyx is an 8th-level half-elf fighter. He is huge and strong and uses a giant magical axe in battle. He works for any neutral or lawful that pays him the most and joins the party for a starting fee of 500 g.p. There is a 50% chance when dealing with other neutrals and lawfuls that these parties will offer Onyx more money to work for them. At these times, Onyx gives the party a choice of matching the offer or letting him go. The offer is always double what the last offer was.

     

The CRPG notes that the river to the north is poisonous; the module gives a lot more detail, including the fact that orcs on the opposite banks will fire occasional shots at anyone visible on the civilized side.

    

Not just poisonous but "reeking and poisonous." It utterly prevents boat traffic up the river. "On some days, the view across the river is blocked by sickening mists and foul vapors that rise and writhe across its surface."

    

Both the module and the CRPG have a series of random rumors the party might encounter (in the computer game, only in taverns), but the specific text is very different. There are 12 in the module, half true, while the adventurer's journal lists 23, although some might be red herrings that never appear in the game. I think the computer game's versions are better, frankly, often discussing things happening in the wilderness around Phlan while the module's rumors are confined to the city.

   

As usual, I began the game in the generic armory, buying weapons from a list that the module leaves up to other rulebooks. It offers two smiths, Matteo and Georg. Georg has everything, but it's substandard; his weapons break on any roll of 1. Matteo offers better stuff, but you have to order it, pay 1.5 times the price of the usual item, and wait 1-3 weeks. The CRPG has no difference in quality among the armorers and doesn't implement any rules associated with weapon or armor condition and breakage. The CRPG also didn't implement rules about multi-classed characters using weapons and armor. A fighter/magic-user can cast wearing anything he likes, and my fighter/cleric/magic-users can use bladed weapons. But there are weirder rules, like my cleric/magic-user can use a mace but not a morning star and my thief/magic-user can wear leather armor but not studded leather. My thief/magic-user cannot use a bow, even a short bow, and my cleric/magic-user cannot use a sling.

      

I'm still waiting for a D&D game to offer a ranseur +2 or a Spetum of Frost.

       

I memorized spells. More oddities that have nothing to do with the module: Clerics start with three Level 1 spells, but mages only start with one. None of my mages got "Magic Missile" by default, meaning that they're all going to be casting "Sleep" in their first few combats. Still, having six "Sleep" spells ready is nothing to laugh at. 

   

The two products agree in how the party gets missions: they're posted outside the Council Hall. In the game, however, guards block the players from visiting any of the council members at the beginning, whereas tabletop players can theoretically see them. I'll talk more about the council members later. My game started with three proclamations about Valhingen Graveyard and one about reclaiming the slums. The module doesn't give any specific order for the missions presented by the Council, except in general terms at the beginning of each section, and for some reason the sections aren't listed in any logical order. The slums is the third listed, after Sokol Keep and the Mansions district, but the introduction says that the slums should probably be the first map attempted by the new party. 

      

Oddly, the quests posted outside don't always match what Sasha gives you inside.

      

The module's account of the slums is pretty lame. The area takes up only half a page of the book, and there are no fixed encounters listed. The background says that "some of the braver, more pioneering souls have already begun rebuilding homes and shops" in the area, but it doesn't say anything about Ohlo, the Old Hemp Market, the Rope Guild, the fortuneteller, or--most important--the tavern where the trolls are tossing around a sack. I was looking forward to that one. Instead, the module just refers the DM to a random encounter chart which has generic orc, goblin, hobgoblin, gnoll, kobold, and ogre parties, as well as some minor treasures. The maps are also entirely different.

     

My map of the slums (left) versus the module's (right).

    

I thus cleared out the slums without having anything new to reference in the module. It was what I remembered: one of the best introductory locations in CRPG history. It's got a nice mix of random and fixed encounters, all tailored to the location, some places in which spending a little time searching leads to some extra reward, and a couple of fun side quests. I found most of the enemies surprisingly easy. With six characters capable of casting "Sleep," I could neutralize a good portion of the orc, kobold, and hobgoblin forces in the area, and resting to restore the spell was easier than I remembered. My party slowly replaced its starting equipment with +1 gear.

   

The troll battle was as memorable as always. After a few failures, I won by a) using "Sleep" to freeze the ogres in place and thus prevent all but one troll from striking in melee range; b) using the "Fireball" spell on a scroll I'd found; and c) reducing the trolls' remaining hit points with arrows and flasks of oil. Once there are only two trolls left, they flee to the corner. After that, you can take your time killing them as long as you position party members on the squares where the other trolls previously stood, so they can't regenerate and get back up.

       

With my "ogre buffer," I just have to take out the one troll in melee and then use missiles on the others.

       

The experience from the area was enough to get most of my multi-classed characters at least a couple of levels. Obviously, the ones with three classes are lagging behind the others. Sasha rewarded us for clearing out the first block and gave us the Sokal Keep and Podol Place quests. Fortunately, from here on, there's lots of module fodder to look at. I'll try Sokal Keep first.

     

Selecting "Enlarge" as my next mage spell.

    

I'll probably have entries in this limited series every couple of weeks, so don't look for the next one very soon. Since I'm very early into the game, I'm willing to try a different version if anyone has disk images and configurations that you know for sure work.