Champions of Krynn: Final Rating

The flying citadel on the box is a bit of a spoiler.

Champions of Krynn

United States

Strategic Simulations, Inc. (Developer and Publisher)

Released 1990 for DOS, Amiga, Apple II, 1992 for PC-98

Date Started: 27 August 2013

Date Ended: 4 September 2013

Total Hours: 17

Difficulty: Easy-Moderate (2.5/5)
Final Rating: 56
Ranking at Time of Posting: 107/113 (95%)
Ranking at Game #403: 393/403 (98%)

Champions of Krynn is a good entry in a series that I've already blogged about fairly extensively, so this GIMLET isn't going to contribute worlds of new knowledge to our understanding of the Gold Box games. It makes effective use of a solid game engine, the lore and history of its campaign setting, and AD&D rules.

Because this game is essentially my only exposure to the Dragonlance campaign setting, it often felt very foreign to me, and it was always clear that Dragonlance fans (especially readers of the novels) would get more out of the game than casual players like me. Oddly, the game is probably more enjoyable to me in 2013 than it would have been in 1990, before I had the Internet to look up the characters and locations that the game uses. While this didn't make me go, "Wow! I'm actually adventuring alongside Tasslehoff Burrfoot! I'm never quitting this DOSBox session!," it did at least keep me from playing the entire game saying, "Who?"

The issue of difficulty was on my mind a lot as I played Krynn. The game strikes me as fundamentally too easy because, paradoxically, the battles are quite hard. When I played Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds, I adhered to my limited-save policy by which I saved at the entrance to each new map, but not after every combat or major event. This was the only way that I could preserve the edge-of-the-seat tactical tension of games like Wizardry and Might & Magic.

I started doing that with Krynn but soon realized it would be an exercise in frustration. The previous Gold Box games featured combats of relatively moderate difficulty (save for special examples, like the Beholder Corps), so there was a reasonable chance I could get through an entire map without having to lose my progress. Because Krynn's battles were so much harder, I realized I'd be tripling the time it took me to get through the game if I kept that save policy. So I did what almost every other player does and saved liberally throughout every map.

Doing so gave me a far different experience than I had with Pool or Curse. In those games, limited saving also meant limited resting, because I wasn't going to burn hit points and spells on random encounters unless I really needed the healing or the spell replenishment. I looked carefully for those rare spots in which the game told me it was safe to rest. In Krynn, on the other hand, I would take a chance on "Fixing" and sleeping in just about any corridor, and usually it was fine. As I discussed yesterday, the "Fix" command worked far more often than just sleeping, but even sleeping worked more often than it should have.

There's a special kind of challenge--a special kind of fun--that accompanies the navigation of foreign corridors at half your hit points and half your spells cast, when suddenly there's another attack by minotaurs, and you're carefully checking your spell and item inventories for anything that might help, because you've cast all your fireballs and lightning bolts and you've got one cure spell left and at least three people who need it. I missed that. I could have gotten it back by doing some tweaking, like setting the difficulty slider one setting lower and adopting a "save only twice per map" policy or something, but I'd rather the game didn't make me do such things. The Gold Box series could significantly ramp up the challenge by limiting either saves or rest breaks, and between the two, the latter makes the most sense. "Fix" shouldn't work where sleeping doesn't work, and you shouldn't be able to sleep except when you've cleared an area or have found a hidden location.

On a related note, an anonymous commenter had a good point a few days ago:

Your sentence about re-trying the fight with cold resistance spells memorized does sum up quite nicely what I dislike about AD&D2 magic. You can almost never react to a battle situation with minor spells without first casting power word: load.

I felt this more in Krynn than in previous Gold Box games. Most of the major fixed battles followed a predictable pattern for me: I'd first stumble upon them unaware, then get slaughtered, then reload and cast my buffing spells (including battle-specific protection spells) before trying again. It would be really nice if games didn't force you to break the illusion of continuity this way, perhaps by giving some alert that a major battle is about to happen in the next square. It's not like it's unrealistic. Chances are, if three dragons are milling around behind the next door, I'm going to be able to see something through the cracks.

I mean, honestly, how does this kind of thing happen as a surprise?

Aside from these minor complaints, the game was a lot of fun, and I expect it to do well on the GIMLET; I would expect it to come out slightly below Curse of the Azure Bonds, but not by much. In the review below, I'm including some intelligence I received via correspondence with developer Victor Penman.

1. Game World. Like the Forgotten Realms Gold Box games, it's hard to rate this area independently of the large mythos constructed by the books, gaming guides, and modules. What we can say is that the Dragonlance realm is certainly tighter than the Forgotten Realms setting, with a more cohesive history and more consistent characters. As I indicated in the first posting, to me it feels like it goes a little too far in the other direction. If we can fault the Forgotten Realms for being a confusing, inconsistent patchwork, we can perhaps fault Dragonlance for at times feeling a little too engineered.

The game itself does a decent job integrating itself with the Dragonlance mythology, something that developer Victor Penman tells me was strictly regulated by TSR--they required SSI to "faithfully adhere to the Krynn mythos." In general, the game made me feel that I was the protagonist and the canonical Heroes of the Lance were the supporting characters, though it did skirt the edge sometimes.

There was one notable regression from Pool and Curse: the overland map is meaningless. Unlike Pool (which featured similar movement), there is nothing to "discover" in the mountains and valleys of the map. Unlike Curse, there are no special encounters that take place only on the road. Unlike both, random encounters are few and far between. The game might as well have just given me a menu of places to go.

And so much of the travel is automatic anyway.

On the plus side, the series continues to do well by incorporating the events of the game into an evolving world. I fully expected that when I journeyed to Kernen after the end of the game, I'd encounter dragons and Draconians in the same way that in Pool of Radiance, I could keep returning to the castle to fight Tyranthraxus. But instead I found a group of knights sifting through the rubble, willing to pat me on the back and throw me a party. Tavern tales continually evolved to reflect the progress of the quest, and cleared areas remain cleared. It was so good, in fact, that when I tied up a cleric at one point after interrogating him, when I returned to the square hours later, I got a message that "a bound and gagged cleric glares at you." Score: 7.

And this after a battle with minotaurs outside the inn.

2. Character Creation and Development. Essentially, we can say the same thing about all games of this era based on AD&D: there is a satisfying but not earth-shattering level of customization during character creation; character progression happens often enough; and it's satisfying to watch the characters grow in spell and combat power. However, the games lack the customization of skills and abilities that we see in third-edition AD&D and in many other RPGs throughout the 1990s and 2000s. One solid advantage to Krynn over its predecessors is that characters gain experience even when they seek alternatives to combat; I just wish the game would tell you how much.

Krynn did have some changes from the previous games, predominantly in the introduction of the knight class, the associated promotion levels, and at least one quest (Sir Dargaard's tomb) in which the class really mattered. The clerical deities and division of mages into white and red were also new, though I can't say they added a lot to the gameplay. The moon phases and spell bonuses and penalties they conveyed added to tactical considerations. I didn't find the races to be significantly different from their Forgotten Realms counterparts. The game stripped evil alignments, but this seemed less like a real loss than an honest acknowledgement that it would make little sense to go through the plot in any meaningful way as an evil party. Score: 7.

Coral achieves her maximum level.

3. NPC Interaction. The game featured about the same NPC level as previous Gold Box titles, but (as usual) with no dialogue or role-playing options. The NPCs in Krynn had more interesting in-game stories than any we found in Pool or Curse--I'm thinking particularly of the ill-fated Sir Karl and his dragon girlfriend--but still not at the level where I felt any significant attachment. The "attitude" options (whether to parlay nice, haughty, sly, etc.) appeared less often than in the previous games, there were no hirelings, and you didn't even have the ability to reject NPCs who wanted to join the party (not that it would have made sense anyway). Altogether, I think the game's approach to NPCs was slightly less than Pool or Curse. Score: 5.

What's wrong with this description?

4.  Encounters and Foes. This category remains a strength of the Gold Box series. The menagerie of creatures is well-described in the game's documentation (and of course in plenty of other sources), and this is one of the few series of the era where knowledge of a foe's strengths and weaknesses radically changes your approach to combat. Of particular interest are the four Draconian species [Edit: As Victar points out, it's five], each with unique characteristics and special attacks. I really hated the Auraks, but in a good way--a way that recognized their unique challenge.

Mr. Penman told me that the development team faced a problem regarding the canonical monsters of the Dragonlance setting: "There were not enough monsters, of different levels, to give good challenges for all levels of parties." He says that TSR actually created new monsters "just so we could use them in the game," but overall the lack of a menagerie the size of Forgotten Realms Monster Manual was responsible for many of the issues I noted relating to combat balance. (He didn't specify which monsters were specifically created for Krynn, but my money is on "mobats" as one.)

The series also continues to show strengths in the numerous encounters, allowing the player to either avoid or pursue combat, to act slyly or bluntly, to favor brawn or intelligence, depending on his or her preference. A lot of the encounter options led to essentially the same outcomes, or offered choices between manifestly smart and dumb actions, but they still offered far more than most other RPGs. Such choices will become far more consequential in later games, and with a greater ability to really play a role, but they're still welcome here. Score: 7.

I'm not saying I agonized over this one, but it was nice to have the choice.

5. Magic and Combat. Yet another category for which it would make sense for me just to write a standard "Gold Box entry." I love the engine, it supports enjoyably tactical use of spells and melee attacks, and I could happily spend hours fireballing, lightning-bolting, and backstabbbing enemies. While the magic system doesn't break new ground, the list of spells is a good balance of offensive and defensive, and they must be used tactically to have a chance at victory. This game had harder combats than the previous two, but fewer large, long combats, which I missed a bit. I felt like too many combats in Krynn required "getting the jump" on the other party and wiping them out quickly, and fewer involved the types of long-term tactics that I loved in, say, the kobold battles in Pool of Radiance. Nonetheless, it remains an excellent combat engine and the primary reason to play a Gold Box game. Score: 7.

My Kender uses her "yell" ability, a new feature in this game.

6. Equipment. Another area that I could just copy and paste from my reviews of Pool or Curse. There are lots of weapons, armor, rings, girdles, gauntlets, wands, scrolls, bows, and other items to buy and find, and the game provides a solid "weapon upgrade" almost every map. The shop selection was smaller than in the previous games, but it's not like players were carefully weighing the choice between a glaive-guisarme and a guisarme-voulge anyway. I still don't like that the magic equipment all appeared in fixed positions, and there are no good item descriptions.

There were some small innovations in this game, such as the hoopak, the Solamnic plate, and the Dragonlance. I didn't miss ioun stones. Still no helms or boots. Score: 5.

Perhaps the best-equipped character I've ever had in any Gold Box game.

7. Economy. I've just entirely given up on the Gold Box series when it comes to this category. As usual, the game offered far more treasure than my characters needed for the few paltry things they could do with it. Training doesn't even cost anything in this game. The stupidity of "steel pieces" was balanced by the usefulness of the "vault," though I only ever made deposits. If it wasn't for the magic shops, there would be no reason to collect money at all, and the shops barely sold anything worth buying. (My characters are all going into Death Knights of Krynn with scores of arrows +1 and a few superfluous Wands of Magic Missile.)

I asked Mr. Penman about this, and he attributed this problem mostly to the AD&D rules, which gave experience rewards based on both enemy hit dice and the amount of treasure collected. Since TSR required SSI to use official rules for both experience and treasure, I guess I see how it went wrong, but I still think it should have been fixable somehow. My suspicion is that they just didn't consider it a problem. Penman somewhat brusquely told me that, "Following the rules and providing XP were our concerns, not what people spent money on." Score: 2.
 

8. Quests. The main quest of Krynn is more epic than the previous games, and perhaps a tad more confusing. I rather liked the low-key nature of the plots of Pool and Curse, in which you saved a city rather than the entire world, and I was sorry to see Krynn reverse this trend. Nonetheless, it's a decent story, well-framed within the Solamnic order, and I was never confused about what I was supposed to be doing. In addition to the main quest, the game had a few side quests, although I didn't realize they were side quests until I'd finished the game and looked at a walkthrough. Technically, the crypt of Sir Dargaard, the third outpost, the ogre base, and rescuing the slaves below Neraka were all optional. Score: 5.
 

Bit by bit, the quest unfolds.

9. Graphics, Sound, and Interface. The graphics are a little improved from the previous Gold Box games, which weren't so bad to begin with, with the exception of the bland and generic 3D-view corridors and rooms. We had pretty EGA cut scenes and animated monster portraits, and much better use of current sound hardware than I remember in Pool or Curse. The newly-installed mouse support made things worse, but it was easy to disable. Overall, I found the interface intuitive, but my complaints are still the same: unnecessarily having to choose "move" before moving in combat and having to re-select spells every time you go to memorize. I hear these elements get fixed later. Score: 6.

10. Gameplay. Krynn was much more linear than the previous games, though there were some minor choices in quest order during the mid-game. It was also shorter than the other two: 17 hours compared to 19 for Curse and 30 for Pool. I talked about the difficulty issues above; while I can't honestly say that they were worse in this game than the others, I did notice it more. It's "replayable" to the extent that different party combinations would alter the tactical challenge. Score: 5. 
 

This provides a final rating of 56, which is 4 points less than Curse (and 8 points less than Pool), but still my seventh highest-rated game. I swear, if any Gold Box game would simply retain Pool of Radiance's extensive side quests and nonlinearity, and then fix the economy, it would rocket to the top.

Since the ad mentions only Pool and Curse as previous SSI D&D games, I'm confident I'm playing the 1990 games in the right order.

 
Scorpia's review in the April 1990 Computer Gaming World is her usual mix of regurgitation of the manual, commentary, and blatant spoilers. She spends a lot of time complaining about how characters unconscious at the end of combat don't receive experience, which I agree is stupid, but it's been part of the game mechanic since Pool. She also complains a lot about how the Knights of Solamnia take away all the good equipment at the end of the game. Since I'm fairly accustomed to starting every sequel naked, I don't really see what the fuss is about. (Has there been a single sequel yet, other than The Bard's Tale II, in which equipment transfers from the first game?)

She has a good point that the copy protection system has you look at keywords from the journal entries, which you're not supposed to read ahead of time, but I didn't have a lot of trouble just counting the words while ignoring the text. Anyway, despite a review that mostly consists of complaints, she ends by saying, "actually, [it's] a pretty good game overall." Always one for le mot juste, that Scorpia.
 

MobyGames's round-up of both contemporary and current reviews suggests that it was regarded as a solid game in its own time and is remembered as a "classic" by modern reviewers. 

The SSI developers have always struck me as slightly more anonymous than those at other companies. You don't see names like Richard Garriott and Brian Fargo jump out from their credits; rather, they emphasize a "development team" and rely less on big personalities. In Krynn's credits, Victor Penman is the most prominent name, with sole credits as "project manager and developer" and "director" and co-credits as "original story" and "writing/dialogue/story," so it was to him that I chose to write, even though he credits Keith Brors and Paul Murray as the "creative and technical talents" behind the Gold Box games.

Penman's passion was wargames--in which, of course, SSI specialized--but by the late 1980s, the company thought that RPGs were the wave of the future and assigned Penman there. His history starts strong as one of two developers/designers for The Eternal Dagger (1987) and one of five developers on Pool of Radiance. Though he was almost absent (just "playtesting") from Curse of the Azure Bonds, but he comes in as the project manager for Secret of the Silver Blades, Death Knights of Krynn, and the two Buck Rogers games, and as the producer of Pools of Darkness. Basically, a lot of the Gold Box series games have his fingerprints. His last credited game is an action title called CyClones in 1994; since then, he's been a project manager on other software ventures.

The character on horseback on the hill announces the sequel.

I look forward to seeing how the Krynn saga continues in Death Knights of Krynn, but we'll have to wait until 1991. For now, after a brief return to the 1980s, I'm on to a dungeon-crawler called DarkSpyre.