The heroes from Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds return once again. This time, they arrive naked via a magical well inside a frozen town wishing for heroes to help them. The party once again attempts to save a town under siege (once re-equipped) and struggles to learn the secret of the Silver Blades... The gameplay is quite similar to that of the previous Gold Box games. Following the AD&D rules of role-playing, the player creates a party of characters (up to the maximum of six). Exploration takes place in pseudo-3D environments, from first-person view. Battles (random as well as pre-set) take the player-controlled and enemy party to a top-down battle screen. Commands are issued in turn-based fashion, and the player-controlled characters can freely navigate the battle field. Unlike the previous games, there is no "world map" traveling in Secret of the Silver Blades. All the exploration takes place in the 3D world.