Pool of Radiance

Did You Know?

• The game's monsters were adapted directly from the Monster Manual book.
• The party begins in the civilized section of New Phlan, governed by a council.
• Proclamations posted on walls within City Hall offer coded clues decipherable using the included Adventurer's Journal.

Gameplay

Pool of Radiance uses the same game mechanics as the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rule set. Players begin by creating a party of up to six characters, choosing race, gender, class, and ability scores. Six races are available, including elves and halflings, and four classes: fighter, cleric, magic-user, and thief. Non-human characters can become multi-classed, gaining abilities from more than one class but advancing more slowly in levels. The computer randomly generates statistics, though the player can alter them. Each character's alignment is chosen, affecting how non-player characters view their actions. Players can customize the appearance and colors of each character's combat icon, or load a pre-generated party. The party can include up to six characters, leaving two open slots for NPCs. Save-game files allow characters to continue regardless of in-game events. The MS-DOS version can be copied to the hard drive; other systems like the Commodore 64 require a separate disk for saved games. Exploration uses a first-person perspective with a rectangle in the top left showing the party's view, while the rest of the screen displays text information. Players access menus to use objects, trade items, parley with opponents, buy or sell items, pool money, cast spells, and learn new magic skills. Characters' movement can be viewed from different angles, including an aerial view. Three versions of each sprite indicate short-, medium-, and long-range encounters.

Development

Pool of Radiance marked the debut of a video game built on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. TSR designers Jim Ward, David Cook, Steve Winter, and Mike Breault crafted the scenario, while Strategic Simulations, Inc.'s Special Projects team handled the programming. The game’s corner of the Forgotten Realms was set aside for SSI’s exclusive use. Developed over a year by a crew of thirty-five, it ran on Apple II and Commodore 64 machines. This title introduced the engine that would power SSI’s later D&D releases, collectively called the Gold Box series. Chuck Kroegel led the SSI team, noting that the biggest hurdle was translating AD&D rules into precise code. The developers had to juggle visuals and gameplay to recreate the AD&D experience within home computer limits. Besides the core AD&D manuals, the team drew from Unearthed Arcana and Monster Manual II. Monster sprites were lifted straight from the Monster Manual. Keith Brors and Brad Myers did the original programming, with George MacDonald as developer. Graphic arts came from Tom Wahl, Fred Butts, Darla Marasco, and Susan Halbleib.

Reception

SSI moved 264,536 copies of Pool of Radiance on computers in North America, a figure three times higher than Heroes of the Lance, another AD&D-licensed action game they put out that same year. This made it the company's biggest hit to date; even the hint book for Pool of Radiance sold more than any earlier SSI title. The game kicked off a series that, by 1996, had shifted over 800,000 copies globally. When Computer Gaming World previewed it in July 1988, the writer pointed out a feeling of familiarity, noting the three-dimensional maze view in the top-left corner resembled those in Might & Magic and Bard's Tale, the character list window was like the one in Wasteland, and the single active character representing the whole party came from Ultima V. The reviewer also said the gameplay design leaned closer to SSI's own Wizard's Crown adventures than to other RPGs of the time. Critics were largely kind. G.M. described the graphics as good and praised the role-playing and combat, calling Pool an essential buy for roleplayers but warning that pure computer game fans might hesitate. Tony Dillon of Commodore User scored it 9 out of 10, with the only downside being slow disk access, and declared it the best RPG ever for the C64 or any other machine. Computer + Video Games rated it highly, insisting no roleplayer or adventurer should miss it. The Games Machine gave 89%, applauding the third-person arcade-style combat view as a big step up for SSI, though they found the presentation unoriginal and the colors drab. Zzap was less impressed, handing out 80% and complaining the game leaned too heavily on hacking and slashing without enough puzzles.

Sequels and related works

In November 1989, TSR published a novelization of the game, also titled Pool of Radiance, written by James Ward and Jane Cooper Hong. Set in the Forgotten Realms, this book kicked off a trilogy that continued with Pools of Darkness and Pool of Twilight. Dragon magazine summed up its plot as five companions defending a nearly abandoned town against a foe with immense power. The game itself was the first of four computer D&D adventures set in the same campaign world, with SSI releasing sequels annually: Curse of the Azure Bonds in 1989, Secret of the Silver Blades in 1990, and Pools of Darkness in 1991. SSI also made Hillsfar in 1989, but it wasn't a direct sequel. Dragon reviewers called it a side-trip for players waiting for the next main game. Characters from Pool of Radiance can be moved into Hillsfar, though they lose all gear and are reset to basic levels. Hillsfar characters cannot go into Pool of Radiance, but they can be exported to Curse of the Azure Bonds. Computer Gaming World noted that importing Pool of Radiance characters into Curse of the Azure Bonds gives a useful head start. GameSpot praised Pool of Radiance for its detailed art, varied quests, loot, and tactical combat, saying it successfully brought a standardized version of AD&D to home computers and set the stage for later gold box RPGs. Scott Battaglia of GameSpy called it the pinnacle of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games, with fans still using slowdown software to run it on modern machines.