Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures (FRUA) thread

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
Patron
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
37,236
Location
Seattle, WA USA
MCA
Gay Elf Sex got you down? Is QTE just making you rage? Need a break from ArmA II? Missing some of the good old Gold Box turn based game lovin? Remember all those awesome old D&D Modules?

Well guess what bitches! It's time to start up the motherfucking Incline Machine and start playing some good old D&D Second Edition Gold Box action, and play some of them good old classic modules of the past!

A while back, someone had mentioned playing with Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures (FRUA) and following the order of the really good "Realm Series" user made modules from Ray Dryer http://therealm.flopsyville.com/Menu.htm On this page I recommend you click on the WEST, and follow all the mods listed there. The EAST and SOUTH are quite a bit more difficult than the modules suggested for the WEST.

I am currently at B4, The Lost City, and having played all the modules in that order above I am giving this series a huge fucking thumbs up. I will explain later why.....

Next, figuring out how to set these games up took quite some researching and a bit of trial an error. It was really fucking frustrating trying to figure this all out, but now I have decided to provide you with this handy guide (based off of this post here).

********************************* START INSTRUCTIONS *********************************

First things first:

1. Install DOSBox or install the highly recommended D-Fend Reloaded. This is a front-end for DOSBox and makes setting up games a BREEZE. Highly recommended.
2. You will need a copy of FRUA. *COUGH*
3. Download the FRUA 1.2 patch: http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/misc/fruav12.zip
4. Download UAShell: http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/uashell/uashellc.zip
5. Bookmark this page: http://frua.rosedragon.org/modulelist/file.php

UAShell is a program that allows one to use HACKED Modules with FRUA. In the link above, there is a column named "Hacked" and an entry of "Hacked" or "Not Hacked" for each modules listed. ANY MODULE LABELED HACKED REQUIRES YOU USE UASHELL! Since the entire Realm series is hacked, you will need UAShell to play them.

Now let's get this all set up!

1. Run DOSBox and install FRUA. The rest of my instructions ASSUME YOU WILL INSTALL FRUA into your C:\FRUA directory. So just use all the default options when installing and you will be fine.

2. Extract the fruav12.zip into your FRUA directory. Install the 1.2 patch (UPDATE.BAT) by typing update.bat c in DOSBox.

3. Extract the UAShellC zip file contents to your FRUA directory.

4. Run the UAShell batch file by typing uashell.bat in DOSBox. Ignore the warnings about your temp directory containing files and just hit ENTER
(you will get 2 of these warnings).
You should finally see a message saying "Installation of UA editor(s) successfully completed."

5. Make your choices for music and sound. When in doubt, answer no. You can change this later if you mess up or want to change it.

6. Another message says "Check files in TEMP subdirectory -- they must be deleted or moved elsewhere before you can run UA-Shell." Click ok and then a message "Default Settings Restored" appears. Click OK.

Click on the Design menu at the Top Left. The only available options at this point are Show, Default, and Exit. Choose Exit. (If you still have DOSBox open, you may see a line "Illegal Command: MODE". Just ignore that.

7. Open up your FRUA directory. Open up the TEMP subdirectory. See that file in there called UAShell.txt? Cut and paste it to a more appropriate subdirectory, such as DOCS.

8. Now, go back to your main FRUA directory and run the UAShell batch file again (UASHELL.BAT) in DOSBox. The Design menu should now have more options available. Choose Exit for now.

8A. in your FRUA directory Make a new directory. I named mine HOLYSHIT. Now in your FRUA Directory there is a directory called DISK1. Go into that directory. Copy the 2 files: ALWAYS.TLB and GAME.FON and paste these in the new directory you created. Now go to FRUA directory and open the DISK3 directory. Copy the file FRAME.TLB and paste that into the directory you created. The 3 files you copied are going to be ANTI-RAGE INDUCING files, which some users may need to use later on. I'll explain later.

9. Next, download a hacked design from the Rosedragon Magic Mirror site. I suggest http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/modules/g/game00.zip as this is the beginning module to introduce you to the realms, and using the overland map, you can decide where you want to begin adventuring.

10. Using my above suggestion, extract the game00.zip somewhere on your computer. You will now see a directory named game00. RENAME that directory to "GAME00.DSN" (ALL MODULES MUST BE WITHIN A DIRECTORY WITH THE SUFFIX .DSN for it to work with FRUA). Now open your GAME00.DSN directory and make a new directory named SAVE. All modules must also have a directory named SAVE inside of them, this is where your characters and saves are stored). Now copy your GAME00.DSN directory and place it in your C:\FRUA directory.

11. Run the UAShell batch file again (UASHELL.BAT) in DOSBox. From the Design menu, choose Apply, then select GAME00.DSN, and click the "Open" button. You should get a message that says, "GAME00.DSN successfully applied."

Now press F8 or click on Run and FRUA will now start! After the intro Press the "Play The Game. Then press Create Character and start rolling your 6 hero's (or less if you want)!

After you have created your party, click on Add Character, and add your characters. Once you have added all the characters you want, then press Begin Adventuring. And you are now off to discover The Ream on your own!

The introduction is very cheesy so just ignore it. It is NO indication of how good/bad his mods are. After the bit of dialogue, I then recommend hitting the overland map and just explore and see where you want to begin. I chose WEST and decided to start in the city of Specularum (Game05 - Module B6 The Veiled Society) as that was the first city I walked into (and said it was for levels 1 - 3) and it said if you want to start here, download game05 and start here.

After you are done exploring the Overland Map, click on Encamp, and Save your Game. It will then ask if you want to Exit? Press YES if you are done exploring. (if not, PRESS NO and keep exploring the Map). If you pressed YES and Exited the game, You are sent back to the games start screen. You will need to do the following:

Click on Play The Game. Click on Load Saved Game, and load the Save game you just saved.
You now see all your characters. Click on 1 character and do the following for all the rest:

Click on Remove Character. When it asks you to Update Character ALWAYS SAY YES.

Do this for all your characters, and when you no longer see any more characters, then just exit the game. Exit FRUA, and you will notice UAShell immediately loads up. A message "GAME00.DSN successfully applied". This is just a reminder as what module UAShell has currently "Applied". Just press OK, and then Select Exit.

Now, after you have decided what module to start your adventuring career in, download the module you want. Un-zip it somewhere on your computer. RENAME the folder to add the .DSN to the end of it. Also remember to make a SAVE folder INSIDE of this directory as well. Copy this game to your FRUA directory.

Now, go to your GAME00.DSN directory in FRUA, and open the SAVE directory. You will see files with the same name as all of the characters you created with a .CCH extension at the end. Now, just copy the .CCH files of your characters, and now paste them into the SAVE directory of the module you want to play (for example I decided to start with game05. So I copied all my .CCH files into my SAVE directory INSIDE of my GAME05.DSN directory.

Now load up DOSBox and type UASHELL and UAShell loads up. It will still say "GAME00.DSN successfully applied". Click OK. Now click on Apply, and now select the new module you want to play. So for me, I clicked on GAME05.DSN and it then copies all the files for GAME05.DSN and then gives the message GAME05.DSN successfully applied. I hit F8 and was on my way to Specularum.

That is pretty much the basics. Download a module. Unzip it. RENAME the directory to add the .DSN to the directory name. ADD a SAVE directory INSIDE.

Also when you are done playing a module. Load a save game, Remove your characters and ALWAYS PRESS YES when it asks to update your character (if you do NOT press YES, you will lose all the gear and items you found when playing that module).

************************************************** END INSTRUCTIONS ******************

Jebus Chris! What a wall of text! Now for my personal opinion on WHY you should go through all of the above fucking hassle to play these.

I personally have played and finished: Game 05 - B6 The Veiled Society, Game 06 - B8 Journey to the Rock, Game 07 - B10 Assault on Raven's Ruin, GameR2 - Night in Daelwyn's Rest, Game 08 - B11-12 King's Festival/Queen's Harvest, Game 03 - B3 Palace of the Silver Princess, and I am now on fucking Level 7 of Game 04 - B4 The Lost City.

ScreenShot509.jpg


Why the fuck should you play these? Here is why:

Disabled Search Function. Ray does not like players to turn on the fucking stupid pop-a-mole Search Function (The LOOK function works just fine, and you will need to use it. A lot.). Try it, and see what happens.

Ray does not like players exploiting the Rest function. (He IS a bit lenient on this for 1-3 level modules, just FYI). For example in his awesome B3 Palace of the Silver Princess (game 03) there are only TWO places where you can rest. and you can ONLY rest there ONE TIME. SO choose very carefully when you decide to rest.

One huge exploit in the gold box games was when you find treasure. If you were fighting some low level Orks and got 500 xp and are told you found some items, you KNOW you found a magic item. Ray throws you off the track by including items AND money so if you do get some unusually high XP for a battle and get treasure, you will be wondering is there a magic item here OR is it because of the money we found? So detect magic is now useful again.

Ray loves to fuck with players that always use the LOOK function repeatedly (especially in an area where you don't need to be LOOKING. And he usually give VERY SPECIFIC WARNINGS). There are 2 instances where VERY VERY BAD THINGS HAPPEN. I'll let you discover those awesome events for yourself.

ScreenShot500.jpg


You WILL need Graph Paper and a pencil. The overhead map is turned off. The reason why, is due to a limitation of the engine, and the particular way he makes his modules. I can explain why further if you are curious. So you will be needing to map all the areas you play in. Some are not too complicated (like B8, Journey to the Rock). I didn't even need to map anything. It wasn't that hard. However B4, The Lost City, you WILL have to map out.

The dialogue so far has been good (no, it's not PLANESCAPE), but good. I have played WAY fucking worse user made mods for NWN2 that have just fucking horrible writing. Ray (to me) thankfully is fairly good.

Quite a number of STAT and Class and Race based checks. Rangers can track creatures. Thieves can check for traps (and they do NOT always 100% succeed) Elves may hear someting etc. Be sure to make a well rounded party.

I have not come across much C&C yet, but I have had different things happen when I did things differently. So I'll let you discover this on your own.

The loot you find is not fucking outrageous. I'm on my 6th module and we only have 1 +2 weapon (a Mace). We are not all wearing +5 Plate armor and +6 Long Swords. He really has kept the good loot down to a minimum. I personally feel it is well balanced.

I know this will appeal to a few people on here, and for them I wanted to provide these handy dandy instructions. I am having a blast with these mods, and you should too. Additionally, if someone wanted to do a LP of these modules (and do a codex crew, be sure to add Me!), it would be some good material.

A few things MAY make some people just RAGE! And that is Ray loves to design new "Frames", Fonts, and colors for each of his modules. Some of these work very very well (In my opinion):

ScreenShot433.jpg


And then sometimes bad (your mileage may vary):

ScreenShot425.jpg


You can change any of these custom Frames, Font and colors back to the defaults, if some of these elements of his module makes you RAGE. This is why I had you copy 3 files in step 8A above. If you want to replace these, just ask. I'll add it to this guide later.
 
Last edited:

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,164
Location
Bjørgvin
Excellent post! :salute:

This will be extremely useful when I give FRUA another go. I have a tedency of playing user made maps/levels/missions/whatever for my favourite games in chronological order, so I haven't played any of the really juicy stuff yet.

And I'm glad to hear that Ray is disallowing the lame "unleash hell, rest, rince and repeat" tactic. That should fit very well with my own play style (conserve spells and if possible not rest more than once each day).
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
Patron
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
37,236
Location
Seattle, WA USA
MCA
Do GarfunkeL. You will thank me later,

Also some TIPS when playing Ray's modules:

When you think you have finished a module. You should walk around on the overland map. Sometimes the module is not actually over.....

Some overland maps may have a town, and will give you a description of what module to download if you want to play it when you walk on them, AS WELL AS being a area where your characters can train, but good etc. Again, walk and explore.

Some modules (like Game 08 - B11-12, King's Festival/Queen's Harvest) allow you to find items while exploring (such as a gold goblet, a bearskin rug etc). You are usually asked if you want to pick these items up. If you do, they don't show up in one of your characters inventory, but show up in the INV panel. Just click the INV button at the bottom right, and the items will be listed there.

To sell these items, when you are in town, go Shopping, then select leave, then a prompt will ask if you want to sell any of the items you have found. Selling these items gives you XP and Gold, so BE SURE to do this. You unfortunately cannot sell all of them at once, just one at a time in a shop. So just go back to the shop, leave and then sell another item.

Also in the you might think the module is over, again in Game 08 - B11-12, King's Festival/Queen's Harvest, after resting in town, more events will pop up and you are asked on how to proceed. So don't be a moran like I was when playing this, and rest, save your game then quit. Then moved on to play the next module. I missed out on 3 other chapters to this module. heh (and some sweet items). Again, always rest perhaps a few days, go shopping, and something might pop up.

Carry spare arrows and quarrels. You sometimes find small amounts while exploring, but more often than not, you will not find any.

Gold is basically fucking pointless (except you do need it to train and buy items). Be sure to always pick up gems and jewelry as they weigh much less than gold.
 

mondblut

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
22,178
Location
Ingrija
Re: Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures thread

Jaesun said:
And then sometimes bad (your mileage may vary):

ScreenShot425.jpg

The font is a venerable one from older GB series, infinitely better than those scrawny handwritings elsewhere; and the frames are fugly on all 4 screenshots.

I played a few of his early modules back when they came out, but have long lost track since then. They were playable but fairly basic, I could easily name a couple of dozens of vastly better mods. I might someday give them more tries, but only after somebody fucking says what order are they supposed to be played in. A prudent idea: if you are giving sequential numbers to your games, it wouldn't be unwelcome to make them match the suggested order of play, not take them off the ceiling at random.
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
Patron
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
37,236
Location
Seattle, WA USA
MCA
Re: Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures thread

And yeah I like that font too, just that color scheme made me RAGE. So I changed it. :D

mondblut said:
I might someday give them more tries, but only after somebody fucking says what order are they supposed to be played in.

This is the suggested order: http://therealm.flopsyville.com/Menu.htm (click on West, East, Or South).

I'm following the suggestions for West (but I also played the module Game 05 - B6 The Veiled Society as it felt weird to just ignore that module, it IS located in the west).
 

sirfink

Scholar
Joined
Sep 10, 2008
Messages
290
I remember playing many of these -- god, 20 years ago? -- damn I'm getting old.

There's some well done non-D&D stuff too. I remember playing a Gamma World mod once that was pretty good.
 

Vagiel

Augur
Joined
Jan 20, 2008
Messages
319
Location
Greece
Amazing work! Thank you for your great guide and for bringing this in to the spotlight.

:salute:
 

catfood

AGAIN
Joined
Aug 28, 2008
Messages
9,301
Location
Nirvana for mice
Ok, I've tried this thing out. I have never played a Gold Box game before, but judging from the screenshots I always got the impression that the interface is a complete nightmare. Boy, was I right.

I'll give it a shot though. The project seems worth playing.

By the way is there a "remake" of this under work? And by remake I mean a better interface similar to the one KOTC had with scrolling, middle-button mouse support and all of the other wonders of technology.
 

Quilty

Magister
Joined
Apr 11, 2008
Messages
2,406
This is exactly what I've been looking for!

A thousand virgins for this man! :salute:
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
Patron
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
37,236
Location
Seattle, WA USA
MCA
catfood said:
By the way is there a "remake" of this under work? And by remake I mean a better interface similar to the one KOTC had with scrolling, middle-button mouse support and all of the other wonders of technology.

Yes. http://uaf.sourceforge.net/features.html

That project is FAR from finished however. It will eventually be able to play all of the old FRUA modules and will use this new engine.

Quilty said:
This is exactly what I've been looking for!

:salute:

Just post if you have any questions. I'll be happy to help where I can.

I'm currently starting a new campaign South, with an all Codex BRO Squad, and currently in the first dungeon of TOEE. I STILL don't have ONE fucking magic weapon yet....

:(
 

Dyskolos

Cipher
Joined
Apr 19, 2006
Messages
571
Location
Eumeswil
Having a blast rediscovering these, just wish I could remember what modules by people other than Dyer are worth recommending as I recall some of those being even better than his.
 

Fowyr

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
7,671
Standard advice, try As Seen through the Eyes of Jade, Secret Nocturnes and Hellbound.
Also you can try The Stars are Right! for the lulz.
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
Patron
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
37,236
Location
Seattle, WA USA
MCA
Fowyr said:
Standard advice, try As Seen through the Eyes of Jade, Secret Nocturnes and Hellbound.

Any reason in particular why you recommend them?

Ray Dyer's mods I enjoy for his draconian hold on the playing being allowed to rest, stat, race and class checks, and the writing is fairly good.
 

Fowyr

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
7,671
Secret Nocturnes - awesome Ravenloft module about young necromancer. Good mixture of story/combat.
Hellbound - adaptation of classic Planescape modules.
As Seen through the Eyes of Jade - Just try it.
 

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
Patron
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Messages
15,048
Location
In quarantine
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Got it all running. Thanks, Jaesun-sensei. :P

And thank you, Fowyr; added those modules onto my to-play list.
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
Patron
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
37,236
Location
Seattle, WA USA
MCA
Crooked Bee said:
Got it all running. Thanks, Jaesun-sensei. :P

:love:

If you or anyone else play some of these mods, and the custom Frame, Font or Colors make you go :x

Just post here, and I'll show you how to remove them, and have them use their defaults.
 

catfood

AGAIN
Joined
Aug 28, 2008
Messages
9,301
Location
Nirvana for mice
Blackadder said:
How is the interface a nightmare?

Just a small example: I made a cleric/mage. So The first thing that I do is I go to the spellbook to memorize some spells. Lo and behold both categories are lumped together. Sure, they aren't mixed and I know which one is wich, but was it that hard to have different colours for each category, or a C in front of cleric spells and M in front of mage spells such as:

C Bless
C Cure Light Wounds
M Sleep
M Magic Missle

Or space them out:

Bless
Cure Light Wounds

Sleep
Magic Missle

Or take the inventory tab. If I want to equip my party I have to select a character, go to its character sheet and only then go to its inventory. If I want to equip someone else I have to exit the inventory screen of character A, exit the character screen of character A and then repeat the above procedure. It's tedious. I don't think implementing a Next and Previous Character button in the char sheet and inventory menu would have been that hard, really, so you can quickly cicle through each dude.

I like the movement, though, it's nice and smooth.

@ Jaesun,

I checked out your Dungeon Craft link and it seems something worth keeping an eye on, though I noticed that they haven't really tried improving the interface at all. I guess implementing the game's basic functionalities comes first and maybe then they can try and improve it. I checked out the editor a bit and it seems fairly user friendly so maybe there is hope yet.

Just post here, and I'll show you how to remove them, and have them use their defaults.

Good thing you threw in that little tip about keeping those files safe. When I saw a grey background, with pink coloured characters I thought my eyes were going to melt. Luckily the default one is easy on the eyes. :thumbsup:
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom