Connie,

I highly recommend playing Temple of Elemental Evil with the Circle of Eight mod pack: [link]

The Standard version includes a huge number of bug fixes and game tweaks that make the game much more playable. (There's also a New Content version that adds stuff to the game if you feel the game is too short, though the quality of said content varies.)

Full disclosure: though I haven't done any work with them in many years (starting a family took away a lot of my free time), I was Co8's resident D&D rules expert for awhile, and personally overhauled a lot of the monsters in the Standard part of the game to make them work closer to the way they're supposed to. (No real programming involved there. It was pretty much just changing values in a spreadsheet.)

ToEE

Kalshane, it is a buggy little thing, isn't it? After installing it refused to open, till I Googled that I need to run it as admin each time. Now it won't open Saved games--which, considering my entire party is getting wiped out fairly quickly, isn't such a loss at this stage. I've seen references to the Co8 package, but I shall investigate further on your recommendation.

RftG

Choices have been made. For Phase II, both Connie and Laga pass. chrismg plays Genetics Lab, which costs him 0 cards with Investment Credits and choosing Phase II. He now gets an extra card when trading a Green good, and produces on a Green windfall world (of which he has two) in Phase V. Which just happens to be up now.

RftG

For Phase V (Produce), Connie produces two Blue goods. She produces on her windfall world, Galactic Resort, because she chose this Phase. She also drwas 1 card for producing on Galactic Studios.

Thanks to his new Genetics Lab, chrismg produces 1 Green good, on (say) Ancient Race.

Laga has two production worlds, and produces 2 Blue goods. She draws 1 card for producing on Gem World. She also has Consumer Markets, which gives her 1 card for every Blue good she produces - she draws a total of 3 cards.

That concludes Round 7. Time to choose Action cards for Round 8.

RftG

End-of-round summary:

Round 7
Connie Neil
Layout
Galactic Studios (Non-Military Blue Production World)
Galactic Resort (Non-Military Blue Windfall World)
Mining League (6-Cost Development)

Cards in Hand: 4
Victory Points: 5
Layout Value: 5

chrismg
Layout
Ancient Race (Non-Military Green Windfall World)
Contact Specialist (Development)
Rebel Sympathisers (Military Blue Windfall World) + good
Export Duties (Development)
Rebel Warrior Race (Military Green Windfall World)
Investment Credits (Development)
Replicant Robots (Development)
Genetics Lab (Development)

Cards in Hand: 4
Victory Points: 0
Layout Value: 10

Laga
Layout
Earth's Lost Colony (Non-Military Blue Production World)
Investment Credits (Development)
Gem World (Non-Military Blue Production World)
Expedition Force (Development)
Consumer Markets (Development)

Cards in Hand: 6
Victory Points: 1
Layout Value: 7

VP Pool: 30

ToEE

Kalshane, it is a buggy little thing, isn't it? After installing it refused to open, till I Googled that I need to run it as admin each time. Now it won't open Saved games--which, considering my entire party is getting wiped out fairly quickly, isn't such a loss at this stage. I've seen references to the Co8 package, but I shall investigate further on your recommendation.

Connie, it really is. Best thing you can do, if you don't install the mod, is to turn off the "Auto Save on Map Change" feature in settings. It means you have to remember to save it yourself more often, but the Auto-Save feature breaks a bunch of scripts that the game runs when it loads various maps (meaning things don't work the way they're supposed to) and has a tendency to corrupt your game saves.

It's a shame, because when it works right, it's probably the most-faithful rendition of the D&D rules of any video game and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. (Which is why I spent so much time back in the day working with the Co8 modding team to try to fix it.)

ToEE

I installed all the updated on Co8, and I'm about to see if I can open a saved game and see if I die quickly again.

ToEE

If you're dying a lot, there's a bunch of fetch quests and the like in town you can do that should get you up to level 2 before heading to the Moathouse.

Another option would be to hire Elmo. He's expensive, but he's a beast in combat.

ETA: Also, make sure you have a character with good social skills selected when talking to people. If the whole party is selected, the game defaults to your party leader doing the talking (for good or ill.)

RftG

Round 8: here are the choices.

Connie Neil: Phase IV (x2) - Consume (double VPs)
chrismg: Phase IV ($) - Consume (Trade)
Laga: Phase III - Settle

We have two phases. Phase III (Settle) is first. Everyone, if you haven't already done so, please send me orders.

RftG

We are good to go on Phase III, and there's a lot of settling going on.

Laga plays Spice World for 2 discards. This is another Blue production world, and gives her a 2-card bonus when trading a Blue good. She chose this phase, so she draws 1 card.

Connie plays Asteroid Belt for 2 discards. This is a Brown windfall world. Her Mining League means she will produce on this world in any Phase V.

chrismg plays Radioactive World, another Brown windfall world. His Replicant Robots gives -2 cost, and it costs him 0 discards.

Phase IV is next.