Champions of Krynn is the first entry in the second of SSI's “Gold Box” series, this time set on the then-popular Dragonlance setting. I bought it when I was 14 years old, attracted by the box art and the back of the box description. I had only just discovered Tolkien and entered my first fantasy phase, I guess. (“It's not a phase, mum!”)

When I bought the game, I had never played D&D and I didn't really know what it was. I thought it was something very American, probably expensive, and surely I wouldn't find anyone to play it with anyway. (I did have Hero Quest and it was already tough finding friends who wanted to play that.) A computer game was the ideal solution to my fantasy role-playing needs.

The manual first describes how to play the game, then explains the AD&D rules (often in great detail), followed by several journal-like entries to which the game refers to once in a while in order to advance the story. It was all quite overwhelming. Just by reading these, I understood that Krynn was something real, complex and detailed. I knew it was made for me.

I think you remember your first computer RPG because it draws you in. You are absorbed by it and you care about your characters so much, you dream about them. In hindsight, the story wasn't exactly the strong point of the Krynn series, but the stories you come up with yourself, these live forever.

Now that I know Dragonlance, I appreciate the attention to details. How a lot of iconic characters make their appearance in these games. How magical items are rare and mages aren't trusted. How they made the gods, and even the three moons and their cycles a gameplay feature, boosting certain magic depending on their phase. How you could create a Kender or a Solamnic Knight, and how there were already quests that only a certain class could solve.