Champions of Krynn is where my journey through Krynn began, and that alone gives this game a special place for me. This is old school SSI, Gold Box and AD&D exactly the way I like it. You build an entire party, step into a world that expects you to understand its rules and slowly turn a group of relatively inexperienced adventurers into something capable of facing increasingly serious threats. There is no constant guidance and no attempt to make sure every player immediately understands everything. You learn the systems, make mistakes, rebuild characters and eventually start understanding how your party is supposed to work together.

What really separates Champions of Krynn from the Forgotten Realms Gold Box games is Dragonlance itself. Krynn has its own identity immediately. Knights of Solamnia, draconians, kender, the different elven races, the gods and the Orders of High Sorcery make character creation feel tied directly to the world. Even magic has personality because the moons affect the power of the different mage orders. These are not just cosmetic changes to another AD&D game. They make Krynn feel like somewhere different, and once that world clicked with me I wanted to see much more of it.

The beginning also has exactly the kind of simple fantasy adventure setup I love. The War of the Lance is over and everyone wants to believe the worst is finished, but the discovery of draconians quickly makes it obvious that something is wrong. From there the party gets pulled deeper into the threat surrounding Myrtani. Towns, outposts, ruins and dungeons gradually open up the adventure without making me feel like I am just moving through a checklist. There is always another place to investigate and another battle waiting somewhere ahead.

Combat is still the heart of the game for me. The Gold Box tactical system can look incredibly basic today, but once a battle starts there is much more happening than those little character icons suggest. Formation matters. Protecting the mage matters. Getting fighters into the correct position matters. Clerics can completely change a battle, and one well placed spell can turn something that looked impossible into a victory. The opposite is also true. A bad position or careless move can suddenly leave half the party unconscious. I love that the game expects me to think rather than simply keep attacking until everything dies.

Character creation is a huge part of the attraction as well. I can spend far too much time deciding exactly what kind of party I want before the adventure has even properly started. Knights, fighters, clerics, thieves, mages and the different races all give me decisions that actually affect how the party functions. Then those characters begin gaining levels, finding better weapons and becoming much stronger. Watching a party that struggled against early enemies eventually start handling much more dangerous encounters gives the game a fantastic feeling of progression.

And then there is the presentation. EGA graphics, small portraits, text windows, first person exploration and those tactical battle screens immediately put me into a very specific era of computer RPGs. Obviously it looks primitive compared with modern games, but I do not care. This style has character. The box art, manuals and interface all feel like part of the experience. These games expected imagination to fill in what the graphics could not show, and somehow that makes the world feel bigger in my head than the screen really is.

It can absolutely be unforgiving. The interface is ancient, AD&D rules are not always obvious, and someone coming to Champions of Krynn today without experience of Gold Box games could easily wonder why anyone ever played RPGs like this. But that complexity is also part of what I love. The game does not constantly protect me from making a bad decision. If the party is badly built or I approach an encounter without thinking, I can get destroyed. When things finally start working, I know it is because I learned how the game works rather than because the game quietly adjusted itself around me.

What makes Champions of Krynn even more important to me is knowing what comes after it. These characters can continue into Death Knights of Krynn and eventually The Dark Queen of Krynn. That makes this first adventure feel like the beginning of something much larger. The party I create here is not just disposable after the final battle. This is the beginning of a proper Dragonlance campaign where those same characters can grow across three games and eventually become absurdly powerful.

There are technically better RPGs and there are certainly easier games to play today. Even within the Gold Box family, later games add more content and bigger challenges. But Champions of Krynn has something those games can never replace for me. This is where Krynn started. This is where the draconians, Solamnic Knights, kender and Dragonlance version of AD&D became part of my gaming world. Rough, complicated and unmistakably old school, but also full of exactly the kind of RPG depth I still love. This is not just an old SSI game to me. This is where my journey through Krynn began.

The adventure genre features exciting journeys, quests, or expeditions undertaken by characters who often face challenges, obstacles, and risks in pursuit of a goal. Adventures can take place in a wide range of settings, from exotic and fantastical locations to historical or even everyday environments.

The fantasy genre features imaginative and often magical worlds, characters, and events. It explores realms beyond the boundaries of reality, featuring elements such as magic, mythical creatures, supernatural powers, and fantastical settings. These stories can take place in entirely fictional worlds or blend fantastical elements with real-world settings.

Elijah Wood in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

After the War of the Lance, a party serving the Knights of Solamnia discovers that the draconians are still active and sets out to stop the powerful Aurak Myrtani and his plans for Krynn.

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Champions of Krynn

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