Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures (FRUA) used the famous old Gold Box game engine and permitted users to create games playable through FRUA as well as play them. When it was released in 1993, most buyers treated it as only a playable game and its sample module as the whole thing, so sales collapsed. But a small, robust community of module designers and players has continued to exist, and today there are about 600 FRUA modules created by users available for download free of charge, including all of them in a single 300-meg zipfile.

FRUA was abandonware for many years, but last month GoG released three packages of old games, and one of them is eight games including FRUA. I bought that package of eight games and have been busy learning how to design Gold Box games. There's a lot to learn but there is also a small, active community of FRUA enthusiasts who are helping me a lot.

If your focus is on fancy graphics and special effects, or if you want your game-playing successes handed to you on a plate with a ribbon around them, then FRUA playing and designing are not for you. But if you value subtantive storylines, elaborate combat strategy, and pushing yourself in terms of event and layout planning--not to mention overcoming the obstacles of a software designed for 286s--then I highly recommend giving FRUA a try.

(I have no association with GoG and no commercial link of any kind to FRUA, nor am I planning to go commercial. I'm just providing information for those who are interested.)