Pool of Radiance Guides & News

Pool of Radiance

BuckGB
May 13, 2017

Deadly Sins of CRPG Design

The Digital Antiquarian has editorialized about the “Deadly Sins of CRPG Design”, using a considerable number of examples from a variety of classic CRPGs to help illustrate their points. In addition to calling out well-known failures like rat-killing and impossible…

BuckGB
May 12, 2017

A Modest History of the Desktop Dungeon

While a good portion of the article is devoted to Planescape: Torment and its recently released Enhanced Edition, this “A Modest History of the Desktop Dungeon” feature in the latest Dragon+ issue covers a variety of Dungeons & Dragons-based and…

Val Hull
May 3, 2017

IGN’s Top 100 RPGs of All Time, Part 2

The second part of IGN’s Top 100 RPGs has been revealed. Entries 61-80 include a disproportionate number of Japanese games with several notable exceptions. Here are some of them: Icewind Dale II – 76 Compared to other games in its…

BuckGB
April 1, 2017

Opening the Gold Box, Part 5: All That Glitters is Not Gold

The advancements they made in Curse of the Azure Bonds, player reception to Secret of the Silver Blades, the major drop in sales figures for Pools of Darkness, the team’s foray into sci-fi role-playing with Buck Rogers, their collaboration with…

Val Hull
February 10, 2017

Side Quest Syndrome: Designing The Road Less Traveled

A while back there was an editorial describing how side quests erode everything that makes RPGs great. Now, because we are good Druids and appreciate balance in things, we present a GameInformer feature arguing precisely the opposite. Why have side…

BuckGB
January 16, 2017

Gold Box Companion and The All-Seeing Eye Tools for SSI Enthusiasts

At the tail end of Matt Barton’s most recent “Matt Chat” installment, he brings word of two lesser known tools that immediately piqued our interest. The first of these is the Gold Box Companion, a toolset that will go a…

BuckGB
September 28, 2016

Why the Economy Sucks in the SSI Gold Box Games

In a lengthy editorial, The CRPG Addict provides an in-depth analysis of “why the economy sucks in the SSI Gold Box games”, with a focus on the lack of use for gold and other coinage in the RPG titles, the…

WorstUsernameEver
March 4, 2016

WatchMojo’s Top 10 RPGs From the 80s and 90s

WatchMojo.com has compiled a top 10 of Western role-playing games published during the 80s and 90s, which excludes MMORPGs and only includes one title per franchise. The ten nominations include titles such as The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, Planescape: Torment,…

WorstUsernameEver
August 20, 2015

Thirteen Gold Box D&D Classics Released on GOG

The Gold Box games have always been one of the few blind spots in GOG’s impressive Dungeons & Dragons catalog of games until today. The folks at the retro-focused digital store have announced the release of 13 D&D-based Gold Box…

BuckGB
May 26, 2015

Playing Roles: The Etymology of RPGs, Part Two

Continuing on from the first segment of his historical CRPG piece, TechRaptor’s Robert Grosso has brought us part two of “Playing Roles: The Etymology of RPGs”, which treads into development territory spanning the late 1980s to the early 2000s. Reading…