

If a character's hit points (HP) fall below zero, he or she must be bandaged by another character or the character will die. Characters and monsters may make an extra attack on a retreating enemy that moves next to them. Optionally, the player can let the computer choose character moves for each round. These actions are taken immediately, rather after all commands have been issued as is standard in some RPGs. In combat mode, the screen changes to a top-down mode with dimetric projection, where the player decides what actions the characters will take in each round. The game uses three different versions of each sprite to indicate differences between short-, medium-, and long-range encounters. Players can view characters' movement from different angles, including an aerial view. During gameplay, the player accesses menus to allow characters to use objects trade items with other characters parley with enemies buy, sell, and pool the characters' money cast spells, and learn new magic skills. The game's "exploration" mode uses a three-dimensional first-person perspective, with a rectangle in the top left of the screen displaying the party's current view the rest of the screen displays text information about the party and the area. Clockwise from upper left: conversation with a dragon the party in combat exploring the graveyard sample character view Other computer systems, such as the Commodore 64, require a separate save-game disk. On an MS-DOS computer, the game can be copied to the hard-disk drive. Players create their own save-game files, assuring character continuation regardless of events in the game. These characters are combined into a party of six or less, with two slots open for NPCs. Alternatively, the player can load a pre-generated party to be used for introductory play. The player can then customize the appearance and colors of each character's combat icon. The player also chooses each character's alignment, or moral philosophy while the player controls each character's actions, alignment can affect how NPCs view their actions. During character creation, the computer randomly generates statistics for each character, although the player can alter these attributes. Non-human characters have the option to become multi-classed, which means they gain the capabilities of more than one class. Six races are offered, including elves and halflings, as well as four classes ( fighter, cleric, wizard, and thief). As in many role-playing games (RPGs), each player character in Pool of Radiance has a character race and a character class, determined at the start of the game. Pool of Radiance is based on the same game mechanics as the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rule set. Also well-regarded was the ability to export player characters from Pool of Radiance to subsequent SSI games in the series. Some reviewers criticized the game's similarities to other contemporary games and its slowness in places, but praised the game's graphics and its role-playing adventure and combat aspects.

Generally well received by the gaming press, Pool of Radiance won the Origins Award for "Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1988". During combat sequences, the display switches to a top-down " video game isometric" view. The game primarily uses a first-person perspective, with the screen divided into sections to display pertinent textual information. During play the player characters gain experience points, which allow them to increase their capabilities. The characters move on from one area to another, battling bands of enemies as they go and ultimately confronting the powerful leader of the evil forces. The player's party is enlisted to help the settled part of the city by clearing out the marauding inhabitants that have taken over the surroundings. Just as in traditional D&D games, the player starts by building a party of up to six characters, deciding the race, sex, class and ability scores for each. Pool of Radiance takes place in the Forgotten Realms fantasy setting, with the action centered in and around the port city of Phlan.
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The other games in the " Gold Box" series used the game engine pioneered in Pool of Radiance, as did later D&D titles such as the Neverwinter Nights online game. It was the first adaptation of TSR's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ( AD&D or D&D) fantasy role-playing game for home computers, becoming the first episode in a four-part series of D&D computer adventure games. Pool of Radiance is a role-playing video game developed and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc (SSI) in 1988. Commodore version of the box cover for the gameĪmiga, Apple II, C64, MS-DOS, Apple Macintosh, NES, PC-9800
