Treasures of the Savage Frontier

About

Treasures of the Savage Frontier is a turn-based strategy game layered with adventure and RPG elements. You lead a band of heroes navigating political betrayal and ancient conflicts in a fantasy region. The campaign follows your group from battlefield victories to diplomatic crises as they’re framed for treason and must clear their name. Gameplay mixes tactical combat with exploration and puzzle-solving, requiring careful enemy targeting to collect key items and progress the story. The game stands out for its intricate mission design and resource management. Players must gather three colored crystals and "lucky papers" from each settlement to piece together a hidden conspiracy. Battles demand strategic order to secure rare loot, while the branching plot ties together rebellion, espionage, and a dragon-hoard finale. With no modern updates, its 1992 DOS and Amiga roots show, but the layered objectives and blend of genres still offer a distinctive challenge for fans of classic strategy-RPG hybrids.

Storyline

A few weeks after the events of Gateway to the Savage Frontier, the mage Amelior Aminitas magically summons the party (by now called the "Heroes of Ascore") to eliminate the (apparently) last remaining troops of the Zhentarim from the dwarven city of Llorkh. Afterwards, the party is given a seemingly simple mission – to protect ambassadors of the "Lord's Alliance", which holds together the different cities of the frontier. However, the ambassadors are kidnapped, the Zhentarim and its allies (the Kraken Society and the Hosttower of the Arcane) plot to break up the alliance to conquer the region, and the party is framed as traitors. Much of the game is devoted to having the players attempt to clear their names (usually done by completing a mission in each town of the Lord's Alliance) and alert the alliance's leaders of the plot. The final mission (which does not necessarily fit in the overall plotline) involves retrieving a treasure held by a dragon. To uncover the plot, the player has to collect two different sets of items: Three different colors of crystals held by one of the three enemy groups (the Zhentarim, the Kraken, and the Hosttower). This can only be done by, in melee battles, carefully selecting and attacking different enemies in the right order. "Lucky papers" from each city in the game. Nominally good luck charms, when combined with the crystals, these papers spell out the entire enemy plot.