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## About This Content
A great evil force descended on the town of Phlan years ago. The townspeople
were all either killed or driven away, and Phlan became (literally) a ghost
town. Fifty years later, the survivors are ready to reclaim their town. But
they need a band of strong and brave adventurers to lead the fight-they need
you.

Ruins of Adventure is a set of connected short adventures written by James
Ward, David “Zeb” Cook, Steve Winter and Mike Breault-four names familiar to
all Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game fans. It uses the same setting, locations
and characters as the classic computer game Pool of Radiance by Strategic
Simulations, Inc. In fact, many of the scenarios here in Ruins of Adventure
will provide important clues to the successful completion of Pool of Radiance.

Product History

FRC1: Ruins of Adventure(1988) is a computer-game based Forgotten Realms
adventure. It was published in August 1988.

Origins (I): Early Computer Games. The origins of D&D (1974) overlap with the
origins of public computer, so young programmers created D&D-based computer
games from the earliest days of the hobby. These early computer games appeared
at college campuses, most of them on PLATO time-sharing systems … and they
tended to be illicit. These forbidden releases include pedit5or The
Dungeon(1975), dnd, or The Game of Dungeons(1975), Oubliette(1977),
Moria(1978), Orthanc(1978)), and Avatar(1979). DND(1977) was an early release
that appeared on another platform: the TOPS-10 operating system. A few years
later, another public game of particular note appeared on UNIX systems:
Rogue(1980), which would create a whole new genre of “roguelike” games that
continues to evolve to this day.

It took the advent of personal computers to really get computer roleplaying
games (CRPGs) going. Akalabeth(1980) led the way, but it was soon overshadowed
by two popular series: Ultima(1981-1999) and Wizardry(1981-2001). The Bard’s
Tale(1985-1988) and Might and Magic(1986-2002, 2014) would eventually join the
club of high powered fantasy CRPGs.

Some of the commercial computer RPGs were even obvious knocks-offs of D&D.
Daniel Lawwrence’s TOP-10 DNDeventually led to Telengard(1982), published by
Avalon Hill. It also shared gameplay ideas with a DND game (1981) commercially
produced for the Heathkit computer that claimed to be a “version of the
popular game ‘Dungeons & Dragons'” — even boldly giving its name as “Dungeons
and Dragons” on its title page.

The problem with all of these computer games was that TSR wasn’t receiving any
royalties for them. Though the games that incorrectly used the D&D trademark
probably weren’t big business, Ultima, Wizardry, Bard’s Tale, and Might &
Magicwere.

And TSR wanted in on that!

Origins (II): Early Licenses. TSR began licensing D&D to computer
manufacturers almost as soon the computer roleplaying field appeared.
Unfortunately, their first licenses didn’t take advantage of the personal
computers that would make the early CRPGs so successfully.

In fact, TSR’s first computer license was for a handheld toy from Mattel: the
Dungeons & Dragons Computer Fantasy Game(1981), which was more hunt the wumpus
than dungeons or dragons. TSR’s next deal was more thematically successful.
Intellivision produced two games for their home video game console
(1980-1984): Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain(1982) and Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin(1983).

The Intellivision console did quite well for a few years, but ultimately
couldn’t compete with the much more popular Atari 2600 (1977-1992), which
literally sold ten times as many units as the Intellivision. But the plan was
for Intellivision’s D&D games to make the jump to the 2600 console: Treasure
of Tarminwas to be converted to the Atari as would their third cartridge,
“Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Mystery”.

Except that Intellivision went out of business in January 1984.

This left TSR without a publisher for their computer D&D games, just when the
newer games like The Bard’s Talewere making their successful debuts …

Origins (III): Enter SSI. Jimmy Maher has written extensively about computer
game publisher SSI on his historian’s web site, The Digital Antiquarian. Its
story starts with a wargamer named Joel Billings, who came into the hobby
through a popular entry point, Avalon Hill’s Tactics II(1965). Following some
computer experience at college, Billings decided to bring wargames to the
nascent computer industry. The company he formed to do so was first called
“Computer Simulations”, then “Strategic Simulations”, then to avoid an
unfortunate abbreviation, “Strategic Simulations, Incorporated”, or SSI. Its
first game was an unlicensed clone of a classic Avalon Hill game: Computer
Bismarck(1980). Over the next four years, SSI proved themselves a serious (but
minor) mover in the computer gaming industry, publishing about one wargame a
month.

Billings wasn’t interested in roleplaying games, but it was hard to ignore the
roleplaying boom of the early ’80s, so SSI eventually published a computer
roleplaying game of their own, Questron(1984), after it arrived as an
unsolicited submission. It was so similar to Richard Garriott’s popular
Ultimagames, that Garriott threatened legal action — causing SSI to actually
publish it under license from him! The result did well; in fact, it quickly
became one of SSI’s top releases.

Unfortunately, a whole new set of legal issues caused long delays in the
release of Questron II(1988), but SSI published other RPGs in the interim,
such as the Phantasietrilogy (1985, 1986, 1987). However SSI’s most
significant games were probably Wizard’s Crown(1985) and its sequel The
Eternal Dagger(1987), which were the first roleplaying games designed in-house
by SSI, giving them the expertise (and codebase) for something more …

Origins (IV): Pitch Us Your Games! That brings the story back to TSR, who in
1986 announced that they wanted to see a new Dungeons & Dragons computer game,
and that they were taking pitches from the industry. Though D&D had previously
only skirted the CRPG industry with its handheld toys and its console games,
it had the potential to be the biggest license in the industry. SSI, whose
growth was faltering at the time, was interested.

So was the rest of the CRPG industry, including Origin Systems and Electronic
Arts, the publishers of Ultimaand The Bard’s Tale. In fact there were at least
ten different publishers pitching to TSR, and it’s likely that most or all of
them were larger than the relatively small-time SSI.

It was David SSI against Goliath. And his brothers.

SSI made their pitch on April 8, 1987. And somehow they won. Perhaps because
they were a small company, who would give TSR all of their attention. Perhaps
because they didn’t have a massive series like Ultimaor The Bard’s Talethat
required continued focus. Perhaps because they had a vision for a whole series
of products that went beyond a single computer game release.

TSR and SSI announced their new partnership at the Consumer Electronics Show
in June, 1987. Their license went into effect on January 1, 1988.

Origins (V): Show Us Your Vision. The original pitch for SSI’s D&D line
modeled it after TSR’s roleplaying books. Core game modules would focus on the
rules, starting with an electronic Players Handbookand continuing on to
expansions for more advanced gaming systems. Adventures would spin off of
those core modules and would eventually be supplemented by setting editors,
which would allow GMs to create their own adventures.

The idea of rulebook modules, required for play, was quickly discarded, but
the adventures formed the core of SSI’s gold box adventure line, which was
neatly arranged into series of connected adventures. The core line of gold box
adventures was then supplemented by two other lines that are less well known
today. The “silver box” modules were action-adventure games, while the
“Dungeon Master’s Assistant” line supported game masters, but in coordination
with the printed books (rather than replacing them entirely, as might have
been the case with the setting editor that SSI originally conceived, and which
ironically was a problem that D&D’s publisher would face two decades down the
line).

In August 1988, right on schedule, SSI had three products ready to go: Dungeon
Masters Assistant Volume 1: Encounters(1988), the silver box Heroes of the
Lance… and the gold box Pool of Radiance(1988).

Origins (VI): Enter the Gold Boxes. The beauty of the gold box adventures was
that, for better or for worse, they were D&D in computer form. Built in part
on the functionality of SSI’s earlier Wizard’s Crown, they featured a tactical
combat system that closely emulated the D&D combat system. Of course, there
were downsides to the close emulation, such as the cryptic spell memorization
system, which carefully ticked off required minutes of study every night.

Still, as a whole, Pool of Radiancewas clearly a success, selling a quarter-
million copies in the US and becoming the best-selling CRPG of its era. It was
followed by sequels Curse of the Azure Bonds(1989), Secret of the Silver
Blades(1990), and Pools of DarknessHillsfar(1989). Three other series of gold
box adventures would appear over the next years: a Dragonlanceseries
(1990-1992), The Savage Frontier(1990-1991), and a Buck Rogersseries
(1990-1992). There were also two notable adjuncts, Neverwinter Nights(1991), a
multiplayer game, and Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace(1992). An editor
finally appeared years later as Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures(1993).

Origins (VII): Converting the Gold Boxes. And that brings us at last to FRC1:
Ruins of Adventure, an adventure module produced by TSR simultaneously with
the publication of Pool of Radiance. It’s not quite an adaptation of the
adventure; though it repeats many of the maps and neighborhoods from the gold
box adventure, it also includes many blank spaces for GMs to fill in. And,
it’s not in fact a conversion at all: TSR stated in Dragon #159(July 1990)
that SSI had based their computer game on the module, not vice versa. In any
case, Ruins of Adventuregives tabletop roleplayers the opportunity to engage
in the same quests as their computer brethren (and also acted as a de
factohint book for the computer game).

Adventure Tropes. Ruins of Adventureis a very traditional dungeon crawlset in
a ruined city. Its most notable aspect is probably the tight constraints of
the “dungeon”. It’s laid out in big squares that are each 16×16 grids
(160’x160’) — which was a constraint of the gold box adventure design.

About the Media Tie-Ins. It took a bit longer for TSR to complete a full
trilogy of media tie-ins with a novel, Pool of Radiance(1989) by James Ward
and Jane Hong, which appeared the next year.

Exploring the Realms. Ruins of Adventure provides extensive details on the
ruined city of Phlan, north of the Moonsea. It also considerably expands the
background of the computer game by featuring a number of adventures in the
wilderness nearby, revealing a Zhentil Keep Output, a thri-keen village, and
more.

About the Creators. Ruins of Adventurewas produced by a variety of authors
including Mike Breault, David Cook, James Ward, and Steve Winter, with editing
by Scott Haring.

Converted by: Terry Buckingham

Released on August 04, 2019. Designed for Fantasy Grounds version 3.3.7 and
higher.

Requires: An active subscription or a one time purchase of a Fantasy Grounds
Full or Ultimate license and a one time purchase of the 2E ruleset.

Fantasy Grounds – D&D Classics: FRC1 Ruins of Adventure (1E)