THE DUNGEON MASTER Crystal Computing AN ADVENTURE ROLE-PLAYING GAME Welcome to the Dungeon Master, an adventure game based upon the development of a character the fate of whom is decided partly by chance but mostly by the actions of you, the player. The Dungeon Master differs from standard text adventures in that the dangers and rewards are not pre- determined by the program but can be set up and tailor- made to suit the experience of the individual player and their character, As with traditional role playing games then, it is first necessary to design and develop one or a series of dungeon modules which can be added to and extended as required. This is exactly the function of the Dungeon Creation program which is described later. The second stage involves the creation of your character whose task is to rise from the obscurity of Novice through the ranks ultimately to become a Master of Creation conquering a series of adventures each more challenging than the last. The Dungeon Master is your umpire and judge as you battle your way through an adventure as endless as your imagination! The sample 140 location dungeon will be used to illustrate the main features of the Dungeon Master before proceeding to the Dungeon Creation program. LOADING AND RUNNING THE DUNGEON MASTER 1. Rewind the cassette to the beginning of the side labelled THE DUNGEON MASTER 2. Set the volume on your cassette recorder to about 3/4 maximum and the tone to full treble. 3. Connect the EAR or LOUDSPEAKER socket on your cassette recorder to the EAR socket at the rear of your Spectrum. 4. Type LOAD "DM" or simply LOAD "". Press ENTER and start the tape. STOP THE TAPE immediately you are asked to. After a small delay you will see the copyright message and you will be asked to enter your name or the name of your character (up to a maximum of 10 letters). If you make a mistake use DELETE (i.e. CAPSHIFTED '0') and re-type. Next you will be asked to enter the 'Dungeon File Name' ie. the name used to save the dungeon on tape. The file name of the sample dungeon is: DUNGEON 1 You may either type this in and press ENTER or just press ENTER (in which case the computer will load in the next dungeon it finds on the tape - this just happens to be DUNGEON 1). Now restart the tape. When the dungeon has loaded in you will be asked if you wish to load in a previously saved character: a major feature of the Dungeon Master is the ability to transfer the character you hove built up from adventure to adventure. This feature is explained in the section on SAVE. For now, press N. After a pause the screen will clear and your character STATUS REPORT will appear. Initially your ranking is Novice and you are at level 1. The Dungeon Muster has selected values for your character's attributes which will now be explained. YOUR CHARACTER Your character has six main qualities which are strength, intelligence, wisdom, agility, health and charisma. At the start of the game these range between 3 and 18 but magical items such as potions and rings may alter these values for better or worse. STRENGTH - Sheer muscular power; useful for opening doors and attacking monsters. With a good strength value you can carry more weight without penalising your armour class. INTELLIGENCE - Helpful when using magical artefacts. A good intelligence will produce a higher rate of success with these artefacts, especially at lower levels. WISDOM - Used when searching for hidden doors. AGILITY - Improves armour class (18 Agility gives you a 4 point armour class bonus). Also useful when picking locks, as is Intelligence. HEALTH - A good health value increases your hit points etc. and gives you bonus hit points when you go up levels. CHARISMA - A measure of the influence you are able to exert over others. Useful when dealing with traders and warlocks which you may meet on your journeys. GOLD PIECES If you are victorious in battle, the monsters and villains you meet may be carrying gold pieces which you can add to your purse. These may then be used to buy various goods off traders and warlocks. HIT POINTS Are a measure of how much damage you can sustain before you are killed. It decreases every time you are hit in combat but can be restored by use of various magical items. MAXIMUM HIT POINTS Refers to the maximum number of hit points your character may have at the present level. This value only increases when you go up a level or when certain magical items take effect. EXPERIENCE Is a measure of how much your character has achieved. At certain values you will advance up to the next experience level which increases your hit points and gives you greater skill in combat. Lock picking and magical abilities are also improved. ARMOUR CLASS Is a measure of now difficult you are to hit. The lower the value the better. Each point of armour class represents a 5% change in the probability of a monster successfully striking home during combat. An unarmoured Novice has armour class 10. When you find a set of armour you will be asked if you wish to wear it. If you reply 'yes' it is assumed that you have removed the old set and placed it in the room. When you change armour all magical effects on the armour are lost. When you find a weapon or a magical item you may pick it up. However, to activate a magical item you must use the command word 'magic'. Similarly to make a weapon ready for use you must use 'weapon'. Failure to do so will assume that you are attacking with the last weapon you used or with your bare fists! COMMAND WORDS There are two sets of 'command' words. One set is prompted by: WHAT IS YOUR NEXT MOVE? This is known as Command mode and is used when there are no monsters present. The second set is prompted by: WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO NOW? This is known as Option mode as it is used when you are confronted by one or more monsters Command Mode In this mode you may do any of the following: Go NORTH SOUTH EAST or WEST; OPEN; CLOSE; LOCK; UNLOCK; BREAK; REST; LOOK; KEEP; DROP; STATUS; SAVE; SEARCH; MAGIC; WEAPON. NORTH, SOUTH, EAST or WEST; You may move through any door archway or opening by typing these commands followed by Enter. OPEN is to try to open a door. CLOSE is to try to close a door. A secret door will pretend to be a wall unless you succeed in opening it. BREAK is to try to forcibly open a door. As breaking a door uses brute force it is likely to attract wandering monsters. Stone doors are harder to break than iron doors which are harder to break than wood doors. UNLOCK is similar to break except that as you are trying to pick the lock it is unlikely to attract as many monsters. The first time a lock is picked successfully you will gain 100 experience points. Stone and iron doors are no more difficult to pick than wooden ones but chances of success at unlocking are slight at lower levels. LOCK: After a door has been unlocked it may be locked again to minimise the risk of a wandering monster entering the room. REST: You may rest to regain hit points. This increases the chances of encountering a wandering monster. DROP allows you to drop weapons or magic items. SEARCH looks for hidden doors. If one is found (and if one isn't it doesn't mean that there isn't one there) its direction wIll be indicated. MAGIC asks which of the magic items in your possession you wish to activate (to abort the menu enter 0 or a high number). WEAPON transfers a weapon from your pack to your hand for active use. It stays there until you either drop it or choose another weapon. LOOK: Produces a list of items of interest which you find as you examine the room. KEEP: Gives you the option of adding any of the room contents to your pack. SAVE either allows you to save the current game for future continuation or allows you to save the character for transferring to a different dungeon. STATUS displays the information on your character. Option Mode In this mode you may use the following commands; FIGHT; MAGIC; STATUS; RUN; WEAPON. FIGHT launches you into a combat round with the threatening monsters. MAGIC as in command mode except if more than one monster is attacking you will be asked which you wish to attack before you select the magic item. WEAPON transfers a weapon from your pack to your hand for active use. It stays there until you either drop it or choose another weapon. NOTE: If Magic or Weapon is used the time taken to evoke the magic or change the weapon forfeits your chance to attack in the next combat round. STATUS as in command mode. RUN is the only way to move when in Option mode and the only way to break out of combat with a monster without hitting it. THE REST OF THE GAME By referring to the above command list you should now be able to venture into DUNGEON 1. But beware - contained within are space warps, trap rooms and many other hidden dangers ... it may take you weeks to complete, but persevere and have fun! As has been indicated, the sample dungeon is only the start of a limitless series of adventures which you and your characters can undertake. The next section on the Dungeon Creation program details how you can transfer your own dungeons from paper onto your Spectrum quickly and simply. THE DUNGEON CREATION PROGRAM The Dungeon Creation program provides all the facilities you need to enter and modify your dungeons for use with the Dungeon Master. To load, rewind the tape to the start of the DUNGEON CREATOR side and load using LOAD "DC" or simply LOAD "". Once successfully in you will be asked to choose from the following: CREATE; INSPECT; EXTEND; MODIFY; APPEND; LOAD; SAVE; QUIT. If you wish to create a new dungeon it is advisable to firstly draw it out on paper. A dungeon as used by the program consists of a network of rooms connected by doors or openings. Each room map contain treasure potions or other magic artefacts, weapons etc. or monsters, both or nothing. Each room may have up to 4 exits from it to other rooms (or even to itself). You will be firstly asked to specify the number of rooms in your dungeon. The next screen is used to establish the 'victory condition' of the dungeon which is based on the player collecting a number of turquoise rings. When the number has been collected by the player the dungeon has been conquered. It is thus up to the Dungeon designer to make this a suitably difficult task. There may, of course, be more turquoise rings scattered about the dungeon than is necessary to fulfill the victory condition. In your travels you will come across traders and wizards who will offer you various items in exchange for gold pieces. You will next be asked to input the percentage probability of meeting a trader and that of meeting a warlock. It is advisable to make these values less than 5%. To create the dungeon simply follow the menus produced asking you to detail firstly the exits and secondly the room contents. After specifying the type of exit in a particular direction you will be asked to input the number of the connecting room; note that this could be the same room creating a trap and that it does not have to be an adjacent room, creating a 'space warp'. One way doors are also permissible. Notes: 1. Room exits: Stairs up and Stairs down allow multi- level (3 dimensional) dungeons to be created. There are three types of Archway: good, bad and neutral. Passing through a good archway heals 10 hp up to maximum. A bad archway inflicts 10 hp of damage. The most common arrangement is for an archway to be good in one direction and bad in another. 2. Monsters: Monsters are held in foot categories arranged in descending order of nastiness (ie. Demogorgon - the hardest to Giant Centipede - the easiest). The points system gives an indication of the experience points gained by successfully disposing of said beasty. 3. Weapons: The weapon table details the speed factor and the maximum damage of each weapon. The speed factor is a measure of how often a weapon can be used to attack in a particular round. The smaller the speed factor the more attacks per round. 4. The effect of potions and magic artefacts are as follows. 1) STRAWBERRY POTION heals 1-10 hit points. 2) RASPBERRY heals all hit points. 3) GARLIC reduces charisma by 1-4 points. 4) CHOCOLATE inflicts 1-30 hp of damage. 5) LIME POTION attracts wandering monsters. 6) EGG POTION sets all characteristics to 3 and hp to 1 (suicide). 7) BLACKBERRY POTION for the next 12 combat rounds after drinking you regenerate 20 hp per round (up to max). Gives 4 point armour class bonus, reduces health by 1 and max. hp by 4. 8) CINAMMON POTION increases intelligence by 1-3 points. 9) PINEAPPLE POTION ditto for agility. 10) BANANA POTION ditto for strength. 11) GRAPE POTION ditto for health. 12) LEMON POTION if not in combat, regenerates 2 hp per round up to maximum. Chocolate cancels this potion. 13) ORANGE POTION strength is reduced by one every time an attempt is made to open a door (cancelled by a raspberry). 14) FIG POTION Reduces strength, intelligence and agility by 1-4 points, health and charisma by 4 pts. 15) RICE POTION gives 7 extra hp (increases man.) but acts as a slow poison, eventually causing death (no antidote). 16) GRITTY POTION degrades armour class by 1-4 pts. 17) PLUM POTION sets strength equal to 20. 18) CHERRY POTION gives 10 extra hp (increases max.) Miscellaneous Magic Note: Difficulty is a measure of how hard it is to get an item to work. To determine if an item will work a random number is chosen between 1 and intelligence level. The magic only works if this number is greater than the difficulty for that item. 1) ASTRAL ESCAPE SPELL: difficulty 50 Teleports you randomly within the dungeon - also teleports itself somewhere else. 2) ROD OF BLASTING: difficulty 10 Inflicts 1-10 hp of damage on target monster; it can explode, inflicting 1-1O hp of damage on you. 3) ROD OF ANNIHILATION: difficulty 50 Inflicts 1-50 hp on target monster - has limited use (up to 15 times) after which it will inflict 1-50 hp of damage on you and disappear. 4) AMULET OF FINDING: difficulty 3O Finds one hidden door (if present) per use. 5) RUBY RING: difficulty 15 Strength is increased by three for the next 10 combat rounds. The Ring will explode if used again whilst still active causing 21-80 hp of damage to you. 6) SAPPHIRE RING: difficulty 15 Armour class is improved by three points for the next 10 combat rounds. The Ring will explode if used again whilst still active causing 21-80 by of damage on you. 7) DIAMOND RING: difficulty 15 Strength is reduced by 5 for the next 10 combat rounds. The Ring will explode if used against you while still active causing 21-80 hp of damage. 8) EMERALD RING: difficulty 15 Obliterates room contents; can only be used 3 times. 9) TURQUOISE RING. Counts towards victory condition. 10) CURSE SCROLL: difficulty 30 Inflicts 1-30 hp of damage on target monster. If the spell fails it may backfire inflicting 1-30 hp of damage on you. 5. Armour: As well as the type of armour details are given of the base armour class, ie. the armour class provided before other factors are accounted for (eg. high level, magic items invoked). MODIFYING AN EXISTING DUNGEON When you have entered all the data connected with your dungeon you may wish to modify it. The commands provided to facilitate this are as follows: Inspect: Simply produces a listing of the contents of the specified room along with details of all exits and where they lean to. An option is given to copy the result to the ZX printer. Modify: After specifying the room you wish to alter you are given the chance to completely re-write the room (contents and exits). Append: This provides an opportunity to add to the contents of a given room. Extend: Increase the size of the dungeon. First you are asked by how many rooms you wish to extend the dungeon. The program then goes to Alter mode and you may specify the room exits and contents. SAVE: Allows you to save your completed dungeon to tape. Before saving you will be given the opportunity to swap the names of the potions. The ability to swap the names of the potions means that in each adventure you will have to deduce which potion has which effect by noting the effects each produces. LOAD: Allows you to work on a previously saved dungeon. -- additional information not included on the inlay card ===================================================== DUNGEON MASTER (Crystal Computing) Class 1 208 + points Class 2 90-207 points Class 3 28-89 points Class 4 0-27 points Please choose which class 1-4 Monster Armour Hit Class Points 1 Ankheg 2 60 7 Beholder 0 75 10 Bulette -2 72 15 Demogorgon -8 300 16 Jubilex -7 125 18 Orcus -6 225 21 Asmodeus -7 300 23 Geryon -3 200 27 Blue dragon 2 80 28 Green dragon 2 72 29 Red dragon 2 72 32 Fire elemental 2 128 41 Lich 0 100 43 Medusa 5 48 50 Big rat -5 50 59 Titan -3 176 60 Trapper 3 96 Monster Armour Hit Class Points 13 Chimera 2 72 14 Cockatrice 6 50 19 Render -4 80 20 Balrog -2 72 24 Pit fiend -3 104 26 Black dragon 3 64 30 White dragon 3 56 31 Earth elemental 2 128 46 Hell horse -4 54 51 Roper 0 96 57 Giant spider 4 36 62 Troll 4 60 63 Umber hulk 2 72 64 Vampire 1 67 65 Wight 5 35 66 Will-o-wisp -8 72 67 Xorn -2 63 Monster Armour Hit Class Points 2 Carniverous ape 6 40 4 Cave bear 6 54 6 Boring beetle 3 46 8 Blink dog 5 32 11 Carrion crawler 3 25 22 Bone devil -1 72 25 Displacer beast 2 48 33 Gargoyle 5 36 37 Hell hound 4 56 40 Leucrotta 4 49 42 Evil warrior 4 17 44 Minotaur 6 51 45 Mummy 7 48 47 Ogre 5 33 53 Salamander 2 63 56 Large spider 8 9 58 Stirge 8 9 Monster Armour Hit Class Points 3 Basilisk 4 49 5 Fire beetle 4 10 9 Bugbear 5 25 12 Giant centipede 9 2 17 Manes 7 8 34 Ghoul 6 16 35 Gnoll 5 16 36 Goblin 6 7 38 Hobgoblin 5 9 39 Kobold 7 4 48 Orc 6 8 49 Rat 7 4 52 Sahuagin 5 18 54 Shadow 10 7 55 Skeleton 7 8 61 Troglodyte 5 16 68 Zombie 8 16 Weapon Speed Damage 1 Dagger 2 4 2 Battle axe 7 8 3 Great axe 9 20 4 Club 4 6 5 Hammer 4 5 6 Javelin 6 6 7 Mace 7 7 8 Morningstar 7 8 9 Pike 11 12 10 Scimitar 4 8 11 Spear 6 8 12 Spetum 8 12 13 Longsword 5 12 14 Shortsword 3 8 15 2-Handed sword 10 18 16 Trident 7 12 17 Cold spear 7 15 18 Holy avenger 3 25 19 Axe of destruction 5 17 20 Vorpal blade 5 25 21 Sword of lightning 2 20 1 Strawberry potion 2 Raspberry potion 3 Garlic potion 4 Chocolate potion 5 Lime potion 6 Egg potion 7 Blackberry potion 8 Cinnamon potion 9 Pineapple potion 10 Lemon potion 11 Orange potion 12 Banana potion 13 Grape potion 14 Fig potion 15 Plum potion 16 Rice potion 17 Gritty potion 18 Cherry potion 1 Astral escape spell 2 Rod of blasting 3 Rod of annihilation 4 Amulet of finding 5 Ruby ring 6 Diamond ring 7 Sapphire ring 8 Emerald ring 9 Turquoise ring 10 Curse scroll Armour Armour Weight Class 1 orcmail 5 200 2 elfmail 4 100 3 dwarfmail 3 200 4 platemail 2 250 5 +1 platemail 1 200 6 +2 platemail 0 200 7 +3 platemail -1 150 8 +4 platemail -1 150 9 mithril platemail -2 75 10 +5 platemail -3 100 11 platemail of power -5 150 -- --