SSI is back as TSI, aiming to resurrect "Gold Box"

[Angry Jedi]

Remember the old Gold Box D&D adventures? Well, they (or something like them) could be making a comeback thanks to the newly formed Tactical Simulations Inc, a company made up of SSI veterans Paul Murray and David Shelley.

Exactly what the company is up to is a mystery at present, but a press release published by Develop suggests they're keen for a return to the Gold Box era's "true to tabletop" experience through "providing the player full control of their party, with a focus on creating immersive and unforgettable story experiences, exciting exploration, meaningful social/political choices, and robust tactical combat.".

Sounds good to me. You can stay up to date with the new company via Twitter -- and there's some sort of reveal coming via their official website in about a week.

[Beige]

We can only hope. D&D 4E is essentially already a FANTASTIC fully-realized FF Tactics style tactical grid-based combat / powers based game. It's come under a lot of flak from players as a matter of fact for that very reason.

I would snap up D&D Tactics in a flat second if such a thing existed. The rules are already there in black and white. Don't change anything, just put sound effects and animations on my Lead the Attack or the rogue's Deft Strike ability. Hit an enemy, slide them 1 square. Flank for +2 combat advantage.

[Alex Connolly]

If memory serves, wasn't there a D&D Tactics game on PSP? Surely to be on PSN for a song. Or bawdy tavern shanty. Or kobold chitter.

[Angry Jedi]

If memory serves, wasn't there a D&D Tactics game on PSP? Surely to be on PSN for a song. Or bawdy tavern shanty. Or kobold chitter.

D&D Tactics was D&D 3.5. Nothing wrong with that, but I'd agree with Beige here; the very nature of how 4th Edition works -- which is very different to 3.5 -- would make for an even better tactical game. As he said, you wouldn't have to change anything about it at all since it already works like a video game -- character classes, abilities with "cooldowns", rules for movement, line of sight, blast radius, all that good stuff. The biggest criticism of 4e from RPG nerds was that it was too much of a board game rather than an RPG -- which is where the new 5th Edition stems from, and which is why I believe both 4e and 5e will coexist for quite some time.

I must confess I never played a lot of the old "Gold Box" games -- they were kind of before I really knew about RPGs, since I was a latecomer to that genre. I did, however, fiddle around a bunch with Unlimited Adventures, a package that was essentially the "Gold Box Construction Kit". I'd pay good money for just a modernised version of that, frankly, with 4e combat.

I'm very keen to see what TSI will come out with. Their countdown appears to have reset for just under 2 weeks away. Wonder what it'll be!

[Beige]

Confession: I spent 2 years in university creating a module in D&D "Unlimited Adventures" which was what they called the Gold Box games when they ultimately opened up the dev tools to allow 'create-your-own-D&D-campaign' once the fervor had passed.

The whole schmeer - writing, art, maps, character sprites, equipment. I still have rolls of graph paper somewhere around here that have dungeons designed on them, and reams and reams of sprite art.

[Alex Connolly]

D&D Tactics was *snip*

Interesting. That Tactics game looked kinda stodgy, but I suspect it comes with the territory and tech.

[Angry Jedi]

The new game is called Seven Dragons Saga, it seems, and is based on an original pen and paper system made by SSI alumni rather than an established, existing system such as D&D.

It promises turn-based combat with destructible terrain, meaningful decisions to make on both a social and political level, a party of adventurers who are heroes from the get-go rather than a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears former farmhands and what sounds like a design philosophy that is true to the original Gold Box titles.

Interested to see what the final product ends up looking (and playing!) like. We shall see!

[Beige]

Sounds like a wish list straight from my own nugget for sure. Intrigued!