KJC Games - Quest - Quest Basic Rulebook

STANDING ORDERS

From TURN TWO ONWARDS, you can specify five orders which you wish to become standing orders. These will be processed every turn until either changed or cancelled. They are always processed last, after your normal 15 orders, making a total of 20 altogether. Standing orders must be written in order slots 1 to 5 of your Turncard. To indicate that you wish an order to be a standing order you should double up the first letter.

For example: If you wanted to set standing order 1 to be P 0 and standing order 3 to be I 99 you would write:

Order no 1 PP 0

Order no 2 U 3 101 3

Order no 3 II 99

REMOVING A CHARACTER

You can drop a character from your group. For this to be successful you must write the character name clearly in the order. As a check, the computer will match your spelling of the name with that on the character. If it is, he will disappear along with anything he was carrying. Once this has been done, he can not be recruited again.

XPEL CHARACTER

X (character) (name)

For example: x 3 Ravenhall would throw Ravenhall out of your group.

SPLITTING YOUR PARTY

There may come a time when you want some of your characters to go off an do their own thing. This can be achieved by splitting the party into two. This will require up to three QUIT PARTY orders.

QUIT PARTY

Q (character) (character) (character)

The chosen characters, at the end of your turn, will leave your party and form a completely separate new party. Both the new party and your original party must both have at least six members when they are formed, so your original party must have at least twelve members. The new party will be completely independent. You will send in separate turn cards for each, and each will be charged a turn fee. It is not possible to rejoin the two parties into a single party at a later stage.

For example:
Q 6 7 8
Q 10 12 13
Q 14 0 0
will form a new party consisting of characters 6,7,8,10,12,13 and 14. with the remaining characters staying in the original party

XCEPT RECRUIT

X (recruit) (name)

For example: X 23 Nordheim will accept recruit number 23.You can make the character female at the time of recruitment by using XF instead of X.For example: XF 23 Elanor will accept recruit number 23.

CHARACTER NAMES

You will have already named your character when you recruit them but if you wish to change their names, this can done using the following order.

RENAME CHARACTER

RC (character) (new name)

For example: RC 3 Owyn Orcslayer would give a new name to character 3.

CHARACTER SEX

Al characters when they arrive at your party are classed as male unless you use the XF order. You can if you wish change them to female. The sex of the character has no affect on the success or otherwise of an action.

SEX CHANGE

SX (character/99)

For example: SX 5 will change the sex of character number 5.

SWAP CHARACTERS

SC (character) (character) You can change your party's marching formation using this order. For example: SC 6 2 will have character 6 move to the second position in your party. If a character was already in slot 2, they will swap places with character 6
Next....

INDIVIDUAL ITEMS

It could happen that a character gets to carry two of one type of item. Rather than list them as two swords, the unique item numbers (10,000 plus numbers) will be displayed rather than their general item type. This is so you can indicate to the computer the exact item you require. This is not relevant at this stage of the game but is important later when a character may have two magic swords of different abilities.

This may seem complicated, but it allows each item in Quest to be unique. Every item or monster group has its own set of statistics that can change as the game progresses.

GOLD

Gold is the standard currency of Kharne. You can share out your gold between your characters using the NEW MONEY order. To give an equal amount to each character you would use 99 or to share it out to minimise party loads use 0. Using a character number would result in all gold being given to that character.

NEW MONEY DISTRIBUTION

N (character/95-99/0)

For example: N 99 will share your gold amongst all characters.

If you wished to move an amount of gold from one character to another, the order to use would be the GIVE MONEY order. This order also allows you to give your money away to others. To do this, they must be in the same sector as you.

GIVE MONEY

G (character/99) (target) (amount)

For example: G 12 1 200 would have character 12 give 200 gold to character 1

TRANSFERRING AND SELLING ITEMS

You can transfer items from one character to another or from a character to another player or monster.

You can also sell unwanted equipment and treasure items to shops. If the shop accepts the item, you will be given an amount of gold but if not, they will hand it back. As a general rule, shops buy the same sort of things they sell.

HAND ITEM

H (character/95-99) (target) (item)

For example: H 3 4 150 tells character 3 to give character 4 item 150 (a suit of cloth armour).

H 2 45 151 tells character 2 to sell to shop 45 item 151

ROBBERIES

An alternative way of acquiring gold and items is to arrive at the shop when it is closed! Your thief, with another character as look out, will attempt to break in. Shops selling expensive items tend to have the best defences but even taverns and general stores will install better locks if broken into regularly. Robberies can attract the attention of the town guard and if caught, parties have been known to be thrown out of town.

WAIT AND ROB

W (shop)

For example: W 31 instructs your thief to break into shop 31 and take any money and/or items they find there.

STEAL

S (target)

A thief from your party will attempt to steal money and items from another party, monster or NPC. Unsuccessful stealing may result in an unwanted attack by the monster or party concerned! This is made even worse as the rest of the party may be some distance from the thief when he is caught.

For example: S 2487 sends your thief to rob monster group 2487

BUYING ITEMS

One of the first things you will need to do is purchase some weapons and armour. Looking at your first turn report, you will see that you have started the game at a town. The items and services that the shops sell are listed underneath the maps, along with the price in gold. To purchase an item or a shop service, you must use the BUY order.

If an individual character tries to buy an item and does not have enough gold, the rest of the party will lend him enough so the purchase can still go ahead. However, if all the party tries to buy an item (code 99) or one character type, (options 95, 96, 97 and 98), then only the characters that can afford the item will purchase it. Between these two options and by placing your gold with the correct characters, you can quickly equip a party.

If in a city, and you try to buy an item from a shop in a different suburb, your party will move there automatically. To buy an item when you don't know a shop that sells it, use a shop number of zero. Your characters will search for a shop selling it, moving to other suburbs as necessary.

BUY ITEM

B (character/95-99) (shop/0) (item)

For example: B 1 34 102 will tell character 1 to purchase from shop 34 item 102.

B 99 34 152 will tell all your characters to buy item 152.

An army marches on its stomach and so do adventurers. At any time you are outside a town you must carry supplies or your party will begin to starve. Each character will eat one ration per turn.

While in town, it is possible to buy overnight accommodation in a private room but as this can be expensive, towns do not strongly object to parties sleeping on the streets after a night in a tavern's common room. This is fortunate as a new party often has more important ways to spend their limited gold. Taverns do tend to get rowdy and fights can break out. Prices for inn accommodation and travel to other towns are quoted per character.

Each class also has a number of professions. These are characters that started out life training under their more general heading but found they had a natural ability in one particular field or were somehow brought up in a specific manner. However, due to the dedication to their chosen specialisation or as a consequence of their social station destiny set them on a different path. While this has meant that certain avenues of learning have been open to them, other aspects of their class often suffer. Hence an archer could be exceptional with a bow but if he got caught in a close combat situation, his abilities would be below that of a similarly skilled fighter who has a more rounded range of abilities.

The reason for only having four character classes and many professions is that it allows you to use a single order for all the characters of a certain class. This makes changing tactics and trade easier and faster.

As there are certain restrictions on many of the rarer professions such as cannot be resurrected or can only cast certain spells and miracles not to mention certain specific attitudes for the first twenty turns only the common professions of Warrior, Wizard, Cleric and Rogue can be recruited. When other professions become available to recruit, an info-token will be attached to the end of the turn giving a description of important information appertaining to the profession.

While the four basic professions are common, others such as the knight are very rare. The chance of one of these being available for recruitment is almost legendary. It is therefore best not to spend relentless turns attempting to gain a specific profession but choose from whatever comes your way. Just because you want them it does not follow that they want you!

PRIEST

Priest is the generic term for somebody that is able to channel the powers of the gods through themselves in order to perform miracles. Priests are the servants of the gods and their services are rewarded with the ability to perform miracles.

Clerics are the most common priests. Clerics worship and acknowledge the entire pantheon of gods. Even though the cleric acknowledges the entire pantheon, he or she can favour a specific god in return for miracles. The nature of these miracles will be determined by the god, or gods, that the priest serves. As the priest's skill increases, he will be granted the use of more powerful miracles. As certain gods are aligned to war while others are aligned to peace, a priest is inclined to follow the teachings of the god to which they are most closely attuned. The actions of a priest in combat will be determined by his alignment. Followers of the Gods Garthrana and Sundonak would be found fighting long after a priest of Novala or Phyloqure has fled the battle. All priests have to spend some of their time learning to protect their faith and as such have learnt how to act effectively while wearing armour. Some priests such as the Paladin are the holy warriors of the faith. They strive for tests of valour and wish only for a glorious death before joining the gods of war in heaven. From an early age they have sacrificed learning the teaching to learn warfare. As such they rate equal to fighters with the ability to perform miracles. On the down side, many find their fanaticism towards conflict more trouble than it is worth.

THIEF

Thief is the generic term for somebody that shows no aptitude towards fighting, does not believe strongly in the majesty of the gods and has no gift for mystical forces. The character does however possess some qualities that frowned upon by most upright citizens.

The most common profession of thief is the Rogue. No surprises here. The rogue is a catburglar, pickpocket, and locksmith all rolled into one. Good awareness is the vital attribute here. This also tends to make them good with missile weapons. In combat they will fight if necessary but prefer to use bolts or arrows to strike from a distance. Heavy armour hampers their agility quite severly. Anything bulkier than leather causes severe set-backs. The darker side to the thief is the assassin. Most will not accept their company along with other thieves due to guilt by association or some of the

QUICK REFERENCE

COMPLETE LIST OF ORDERS

Hover over order for more details:

GENERAL ORDERS	TOWN ORDERS
Attitude Change A (target/0/180) (attitude)	Buy B (character/95-99) (shop/0) (item)
Cast Spell C (character) (spell) (target)	Sell Item H (character/95-99) (shop) (item)
Cast Test Spell C (character) (powder) (0)	Investigate I (target)
Combat Preference CP (character/95-99) (0/1)	Join Me J (type) (amount)
Engage E (target)	Locate Suburb or Shop L (suburb or shop)
Flee F (1-100)	Move out of town M (direction code)
Give Money G (character/99) (target) (amount)	Select Speed S (speed)
Hand Item H (character/95-99) (target) (item)	Talk T (shop)
Investigate I (target)	Visit Arena VA (target party/0)
Keep Eyes Open K (target)	Xcept Recruit X (recruit) (name)
New Money Distribution N (character/95-99/0)
No Attack Status NA	WILDERNESS ORDERS
Order of Casting O (character) (position) (spell)	Investigate I (target)
Pray P (0/god)	Locate Town L (town)
Quit Party {character) (character) (character)	Move M (direction code)
Rest R (time)	Select Speed S (speed)
Rename Character RC (character) (new name)	Track T (target)
Remount (character/95-99) (Horse No.)	Wait and Ambush W (target)
Speed S (1=fast, 2=normal, 3=cautious)
Steal (target)	DUNGEON ORDERS
Swap Character Positions SC (character) (character)	Depth Control D (direction)
Sex Change SX (character/99)	Investigate I (target)
Use Item U (character) (item) (target)	Locate room L (direction/room)
Use Weapon Practice U (character) (weapon) (trainer)	Move out of Dungeon M (direction code)
Xpel Character X (character) (name)	Select Speed S (speed)
Yes, Accept/Complete Quest Y (quest)	Track T (target)
Zap Quest Z (quest)	Wait and Ambush W (target)

6. MOLWANH, Goddess of the Fields - nature

A nature goddess but far from benevolent. She resents the order which civilisation brings to the wilderness and takes pleasure in killing crops, sending evil spirits, and making foul weather. Peasants and farmers pray to her constantly in an attempt to appease her.

7. NOVALA, Lady of Fortune - luck

Novala is the queen of trickery, wilfulness and deceit, worshipped by thieves, charlatans and lovers. She often acts on a whim, sometimes to aid, sometimes to hinder. Her followers are natural suspects whenever a robbery or swindle has occurred.

8. PHYLOQURE, Master of Scrolls - knowledge

A god of knowledge and wisdom. He believes that knowledge will always overcome ignorance in the end and that violence is folly of the worst kind. Scholars have found that study and research come easiest to Phyloqure worshipers.

THE GAME OF QUEST

As a new player in Quest, you control a party of brave but inexperienced characters exploring the fantasy land of Kharne. In this world, magic is common and the standard weapon is the sword or bow. All manner of hostile creatures and strange races inhabit the wilderness, with monsters from your worse nightmares located in the deepest dungeons or high in mountain retreats.

The following pages will explain how to control your party and the wide range of options available to you

CHAT LIST

Some of the 'monsters' controlled by the computer are characters or people that travel from town to town or can be found in shops. You can attack them if you wish but if you approach them in a calm, reasonable manner they will often be happy to talk to you. Some will have special information that could be very valuable.

Each party can have up to twenty words on a 'Chat List'. Whenever you meet a character your Chat List is compared with what they know and if any words match, they will tell you something about that subject.

You may add four words to your chat list each turn. A 'word' can consist of up to twenty letters including spaces but not punctuation. Just write the words you wish to add in the space provided at the bottom of your Turncard. If this brings the total on your list to more than twenty words, the oldest one will be deleted. To remove a specific word, write the number of the word in your Chat list. E.g. to remove the sixth word, you would write 6.

In general, the only words that should be used are names of one kind or another. Recommended words to begin with are the names of gods, towns, dungeons, and monster classes. To start you off, a few names have already been added to your chat list.

Shopkeepers are also friendly and often know something about the surrounding countryside. As they are busy, to get them to chat you need to issue the TALK order.

TALK TO CHARACTERS

T (shop)

For example: T 22 has you talk with the owner of shop 22 and any customers.

SELECT SPEED

S (speed)

Speed can be 1, 2 or 3. You can change this by doing another Select Speed order while in a dungeon. Each room you enter normally costs two movement points so a party with speed one can explore thirteen dungeon rooms per turn, ten at speed two, and just seven at speed three. The advantage of moving slow is that your party is more likely to spot traps and ambushes, and will lose less energy.

For example: S 2 selects a medium speed of ten rooms per turn.

TRACK

T (target)

This is the same as the Wilderness order of the same name. Your party will attempt to follow the specified target.

For example: T 830 tells your party to look for tracks made by a type 830 monster.

WAIT AND AMBUSH

W (target)

Your party will prepare an ambush against the party or monster type specified. This is the same as the Wilderness order of the same name.

INVESTIGATE

I (target)

When used in a dungeon this order has an extra use. If you write a room number as the target your party will move to that room (as though an L order had been issued), and will then explore the room with an 'I 0' order, briefly examining everything discovered there. You must know where the room is located for this order to work. The results will be shown on your printout as two separate orders.

LOCATE ROOM

L (direction/room)

Your party will explore the dungeon, moving in the specified movement direction or to a particular room. To move to a room, you must know where it is already.

For example: L 1 would tell your party to explore in a northerly direction.

L 23 will move your party back to room 23.

MOVE OUT OF DUNGEON

M (direction code)

A party in a room with stairs leading to the surface can use this order to leave a dungeon and then travel in the direction indicated by the direction code. The direction code can consist of up to seven directions.

For example: M 233 will move you out of the dungeon then north-east, east, and east again.
Next....

DUNGEON MOVEMENT

Dungeon movement is a slow cautious process. Your party is moving through a strange unfamiliar environment in poor lighting with danger on all sides.
Moving one dungeon room at a time could make for a very slow game so your party will move in a general direction, exploring several rooms at once. Each room entered costs two movement points.
Hint: Make sure you have a good source of light before venturing below ground. Although movement in dungeons is possible without torches or lanterns, it is slow, dangerous and unrewarding.

DUNGEON ORDERS

DEPTH CONTROL

D (direction)

Use this order to indicate whether you wish to move up or down any stairs found within a dungeon. The direction parameter is 0 to remain on the same level, 1 to move up, and 2 to move deeper. You will continue to do this until you either issue another Depth order, or leave the dungeon.

For example: D 2 would move your party down any stairs found to lower dungeon levels.
Next....

Move

M (direction numbers)

For example: M 557 will move your party south two sectors and then west one.

LOCATE TOWN

L (town number)

For example: L 43 tells your party to move towards town number 43.

WAIT AND AMBUSH

W (target)

Your party will prepare an ambush against the party or monster type indicated. If you meet the target during your turn you will start combat immediately. This order remains in effect until your next turn begins. e.g. at the end of your turn your party will lie in wait and attack the target if it passes through your current location. Should this occur, you will be told the results of the combat on your next turn.

For example: W 3222 tells your party to ambush monster group number 3222

WILDERNESS MOVEMENT

In the wilderness, there are many different types of terrain, each of which costs a number of movement points to enter. As you travel, the cost of entering each sector is deducted from your total available movement points. Once you have insufficient movement points left to enter any more sectors, you can not move any further.

Moving cautiously in the wilderness makes you more likely to find hidden features and enemies will find it harder to take you by surprise. When moving fast, heavily loaded characters can get tired and you are unlikely to discover anything hidden.
Using the MOVE order, you indicate the direction you wish to travel by a series of numbers (1 to 8). Each number represents a compass direction. By putting several of these direction numbers together you get a path for your party to travel. You can if you wish move further than the area you can see but you will of course be doing this blind.
Issuing the MOVE order while in town will make you immediately leave town and start you off on your travels.Seven movement digits are the maximum allowed in one MOVE order.
If you are in the wilderness and moving to a town, rather than working out the movement code, you can use the LOCATE order. When issued in the wilderness, this will move you as far as possible towards the town you specified. Even if you don't know where the town is, one of your characters may.


3 Road	4 Field	4 Open	4 Village	3 Town	3 City

6 Hills	7 Mountain	7 Jungle	5 Forest	6 Heavy Forest	Sea

5 Barren	5 Rough	5 Desert	7 Swamp	5 Marsh	Unseen

Next.....

TOWN MOVEMENT

Within a settlement, a party moves from shop to shop, conducting business along the way. No movement points are used doing this. Moving cautiously in towns will help you explore the city in more detail, possibly finding hidden shops but can leave you exposed to pickpockets.

Certain shops sell stagecoach or ship travel to other cities and towns. If you buy this service, it will take your whole party immediately to the new town and any orders following this will be processed there.

Villages and towns have just one area but cities are much larger and have from two to five different areas or suburbs, each of which has its own list of shops. As you move from shop to shop you will automatically move suburb as necessary. However, as you only receive the list of shops for the suburb in which you end your turn, to get a list of shops from a different area, you will need to use the LOCATE order.

Locate Suburb or Shop

L (suburb or shop)

For example: L 3 will move you to suburb number 3.

MOVEMENT POINTS

How far you can travel depends on how many movement points your party has available. If you choose a movement speed of cautious you will normally have 15 movement points, at normal 21 points and at fast 26 points.

Certain things can reduce or increase movement points; for example injuries can slow you down while horses speed you up. You will be told on your turn report how many movement points you have available for your next turn

MOVEMENT

In Quest there are three different types of locations, these being towns, wilderness and dungeons. Each is treated separately with the same order sometimes having different affects depending on the environment. Dungeon exploration has been left for the advanced rulebook.

In any of the three environments, your party can choose to move either fast, normally or cautiously. This is set using the SPEED order and is initially set as normal (code 2) for all locations. You would use code 1 to move quickly, 2 for normal and 3 for cautiously.

A separate speed can be selected for travel in the three different environments. Your party will remember the speed set for each and return to that speed whenever they re-enter the environment. To change speed simply issue another SPEED order while in the right environment.

Speed

S (1=Fast/2=Normal/3=Cautious)

For example: S 1 selects rapid movement for your party in their current environment.

MIRACLES

The spells used by priests are often referred to as miracles. Unlike ordinary spells, no special incantation, movements or powders are required. The priest simply calls upon his god for aid and the rest follows automatically.

A priest's skill represents his favour with the gods. Casting miracles will drain this and can take several turns to regain, just like magical power. Miracles are cast using the same order and in the same format as spells.

A priest's skill at using a particular god's miracles is adjusted up or down by the value shown to the right of the god's name on the party alignment chart. To use a miracle of a particular god, the priest's skill, plus or minus the bonus with that god, must be equal or higher than the points total of the miracle (shown top right of the table).

For example, a priest with a skill of 25 and a Garthrana bonus of 8 makes a total of 33, high enough to cast both the 20 and 30 point powers. However, he would need 7 more skill before he could cast the 40-point miracle.

If you have more than one priest, the miracles for the most skilled priest will be shown. For the priests of lesser ability you should check the Party Spells and Powers section. Also, as the bonuses depends upon your current alignment, if this changes during the turn, miracles that you could cast may no longer be available

ALIGNMENT

Gods tend to be conceited and over-opinionated, and as such require a large amount of dedicated and regular worship. Priests who take this to heart will rapidly gain favour with the gods. This represents the favour (or lack of it) that your party shows towards the various gods. As you will see from the party's alignment chart, as you swing towards Baldor (good) you move away from Ythcal (evil), and vice versa. Your characters are assumed to be of neutral alignment when they enter the game (the dot is in the middle of the chart or the image is washed out except for the centre).

	Good
P e a c e		W a r
	Evil

It is important to note that the characters in your control are not slaves to your every whim. They do have ideas of their own and this is indicated by the alignment of the party. If you order actions which are strongly opposed to your party's alignment it is possible that your characters will not co-operate.Alignment is especially important to any priests in your party. Priests are the servants of the gods. They are trained to spread knowledge of the gods and are gifted with special powers to help them in their work. The extent of these powers is largely dependent on their dedication and experience but the nature of the powers they receive depends on their alignment, (see miracles further on). It is quite possible with prayer to become dedicated to one particular God and so be far over to one side of the chart. If you do this and then decide to worship another god, at first you will not be accepted and your alignment will drift from your first god back towards neutral. Once you have become neutral, regular prayer will move you in the direction you wish to go. Certain priest professionss pray only to a single god or a few gods. Should you wish for one of these to join your party, you may find that they restrict future actions of the party. These are generally detailed in the infor-token corresponding to the priest profession at the time of recruitment.

PRAY

P (0/god)
For example: P 5 instructs your party to pray to god Ythcal - the Lord of Death).

THE GODS OF KHARNE

Each of the gods grant different powers and as a priest's alignment approaches that of a god, his ability to use the powers favoured by that god will increase. At the same time his use of the powers from the other gods will decline.

1. BALDOR, Lord of Healing - good

Baldor is a kind God and his priest must always be prepared to provide aid to the weak and the sick. Followers of Baldor are greatly respected by common folk and because of their alignment are often called upon as judges in non-religious disputes.

2. GARTHRANA, The Avenger - vengeance

Garthrana is a goddess of vengeance against evil. Although of good alignment she is war-like and prone to great rage especially against the followers of the evil gods. Her followers must campaign constantly against the evil creatures of the wilderness.

3. SUNDONAK, Warrior Lord - war

The god of war is worshipped by soldiers throughout Kharne. Courage and honour are highly valued while cowardice and treachery will earn his eternal contempt. His followers believe that there is no greater honour than to die in battle.

4. FLEYSHUR, The Destroyer - death

A god of devastation and violence. Fleyshur delights in conflict and battle. While he does not object to slaughter, he prefers a more even battle, where both sides take damage.

5. YTHCAL, Lord of Death - evil

Less violent than Fleyshur but evil to the core. He likes pain and death. Ythcal is probably the most feared of the gods, and his followers are usually shunned by all other priests. His followers are encouraged to injure and kill whenever they get a chance.
Next.....

LEARNING NEW SPELLS

A mage can practice mixing powders together to try to learn a new spell. Basically, he picks a single powder or mixes two or three different powders together and then sees if he can cast it. As he does not know what the spell will do, he uses a target of zero. If the spell works, he will then be able to cast it, plus his skill may increase as he has learnt something new.

It is best to practice learning spells that have just one powder at first, then move on to those with two powders. Knowing the powders that are used in a particular spell does not guarantee success as some spells may be above the skill of the mage. Careful reading will indicate if it was a wasted experiment or if the powder combination may work in the future.

Spell powders always have item numbers of 301 to 309 and a particular spell never uses the same powder twice, however a different order of mixing the powders could be successful, e.g. spell 71 is different to 17.

CAST TEST SPELL

C (character) (powder(s)) (0)

For example: C 2 346 0 tells character 2 to experiment using spell powders 303, 304 and 306.

AUTO SPELL CONDITIONS

It is often the case that you will not want to use the same spells for all occasions. Ranking and de-ranking them them is too slow. Auto spell conditions allows you mages and priests to add certain conditions to each spell that will determine whether it is cast during the combat. Every spell for the character or characters is given a condition at the same time so it is imperative to make certain that the number order is correct.
Each spell can be given a value from 0 to 9.
The order sets all six spells at once, so remember to use 0's for spells that aren't ranked.

AS Character or 97 or 98 or 99 6 Digits

Each of the digits indicate if the spell will be used in a combat.

0) No condition - Always cast (the default setting)
1) Don't use when engaging weaker monster groups
2) Don't use when engaging smaller monster groups
3) Don't use when engaging player parties
4) Don't use when engaging weaker or smaller monster groups
5) Don't use when engaging parties or weaker monster groups
6) Don't use when engaging parties or smaller monster groups
7) Don't use when engaging parties or weaker or smaller monster groups
8) Don't use when engaging monster groups
9) Don't cast!

e.g. AS 12 038380 - Your character 12 will always use the first and sixth ranked spells, the 2nd and 4th will not be used when engaging player parties and the 3rd and 5th will not be used when engaging monster groups.

Smaller monster groups are those with fewer members than the party.

Weaker monster groups are those where the total health of the monsters is less than 1/5 that of the party

CASTING SPELLS

The casting of a spell usually involves an incantation, (complicated chant) waving of the arms and most importantly the mixing of rare herbs and powders. These are called spell powders. The spell number indicates the powders used in a spell, each digit representing the last digit of the spell powder.

For example, spell 98 would require powders 309 and 308, one of each would be used when the spell is cast

A Mage's skill represents the magical power or energy available to a mage. Casting a spell causes a lot of mental stress and uses some of this power up. Some power will be regained at the end of a turn and during rest. To cast a spell, the mage must have enough power points available.

Cast Spell

C (character) (spell) (target)

For example: C 11 23 14 will have character 11 cast spell number 23 on character 14

MAGIC

Characters that start the game as mages will know how to cast only a few simple spells; those listed in the Spells and Powers table of your turn report. An information token will be provided for each spell which describes what the spell does and what you can cast it on.

ARENAS

Arenas are an exciting place to learn much about combat. It gives you the chance to pit your party against another player's party in a duel. The difference between arena combat and normal combat is that the effects only apply for the duration of the combat. Once the fight is over, the two sides are magically restored to how they were prior to the fight.

To have a fight in an arena, you need to issue the VISIT ARENA order, challenging another player's party. This order can only be issued in a city or town. The player controlling the other party will be notified of your party's desire for a duel. If they accept the challenge, next time they are in a city or town, they should issue their own VISIT ARENA order, this time against your party. The duel will then occur immediately, irrespective of where the first party is currently located.

If your challenge is not accepted, you can issue another order against a different party. This will cancel your original challenge so you should wait a couple of turns before doing this. Only one VISIT ARENA order is allowed per turn. A target 0 will cancel the prospective duel and select no new target, this is a special case and can be used anywhere.

VISIT ARENA

VA (target party/0)

For example: VA 1230 will request a duel with party 1230.

NO ATTACK STATUS

To allow you to quickly get into Quest and provide you with some protection from older, more powerful parties, your own party is on NO ATTACK status. This means that other players can not attack you but you in turn can not attack them. Attacks on or by monsters are unaffected. When you feel you are ready, you can switch this option off but once you do, you will never be able to switch it back on again.

Parties which are using the NO ATTACK option have an asterisk (*) listed after their party name when shown on the terrain map or city list.

NO ATTACK STATUS

For example: NA will switch off the No Attack status

INJURIES, POISON, DISEASE AND DEATH

When a character is injured, their health will drop. If it ever reaches zero they are considered dead. The value in ( ) shows the characters maximum health while the other figure is his current health. Injuries heal naturally but they can be speeded up by priest or mage spells or from buying temple services.

It is possible for a character to become diseased, poisoned or cursed perhaps from a spell or creature. These are not classed as 'normal' injures so healing spells have no affect. The effects will disappear by themselves in time or more specialist help can be found.

If one of your characters dies, the rest of your party will, if possible, salvage the body for possible resurrection later. The longer a character remains dead, the more the body decays continually losing statistics and knowledge. Eventually, a body will get in such a poor state that resurrection is no longer possible.

Baldor temples will resurrect characters from parties on turn number 20 or less for free. Above this, a fee is demanded as tribute. If you decide you don't wish to resurrect a character, you can get rid of the body by using the XPEL order

COMBAT EXPERIENCE

All characters taking part in combat will gain experience points. These, along with some gold, can be exchanged for skill increases at training shops found in most towns. Additionally, all characters have a chance of an improvement in weapon skills, even if on the losing side.

It is also possible to gain a very basic skill with a weapon by self-training. This is done by using the same character as both the learner and trainer. To gain a faster and higher level of experience but without going to a professional trainer, other members of your party who have some understanding of the weapon, can give basic instruction. This costs 100 experience points.

Weapons practice can only be done on a single character basis. You can not use options 95-99 to have many members of your party practice together. This would be far too easy!

USE WEAPON PRACTICE

U (character) (weapon) (trainer)

For example: U 5 110 3 tells character 3 to train character 5 in the use of maces.

WITHDRAWING FROM COMBAT

Once a fight has started, it will continue until one side has either been eliminated or retreats from the battle. In the case of player owned parties, these will never fight until all characters are wiped out although several deaths are quite possible. What a monster will do depends on what type it is, some are cowardly and will run away as soon as they see you, others will fight to the death.

You can set the amount of losses you are willing to take using the FLEE order. This is a very rough guide as to how much damage your guys will take before trying to retreat from a battle. It is used for both individual characters and for the party as a whole. This is because in a battle which is not going well, it is likely that one or two characters will become badly injured and these will retreat before the rest of the party in an effort to stay alive. The remaining characters will continue to fight until either they are injured, the party as a whole retreats, or of course, you win.

Different character classes and race types affect retreat, as do some spells. Plus, once a character starts withdrawing, he can still be targeted until he has got away completely. However, as he withdraws, he will parry with any attackers so there is less chance of further injuries. Dwarves, fighters and priest of the War Gods are prepared to take the most damage before retreating. Even so, they will not lay down their life if they can help it. As flee factor is a percentage of the maximum sustainable damage before the character flees, even with a FF of 100, some characters, notably halfblood thieves will run from combat after suffering around half their health. It is good to keep this in mind when setting your Flee Factor as a high value does not mean do or die for ALL your characters.

If you try to pick a fight with a monster or another player that is far tougher than you, your characters will refuse to take part in a suicidal attack. If you elect to use multiple engage orders, you do stand the risk or 'going for it' possibly with horrible results. Keep this in mind when using multiple engage orders against dragons as they tend to eat people.

FLEE

F (1-100)

For example: F 20 orders your party to retreat once they have taken losses of twenty percent or more

COMBAT OPTIONS

As the computer deals with combat, all the actions that your characters will attempt during combat must be specified beforehand. At this time though, the only one of concern is whether your characters will prefer to use melee weapons, option 0, or missile weapons, option 1, at the start of combat.

Missile weapons can obviously be used long before the enemy is close enough for sword fighting, but are generally slower. Further, they cannot be used once an enemy has engaged the character in melee, thus valuable time will be lost drawing a melee weapon.

Choosing melee for a character will mean that the character will never use a missile weapon instead, charging at the enemy. Your character's preferred choice of weapon will be underlined on the party statistics table.

Note, at the start of combat, mages and priests will try to cast any suitable spells rather than use weapons, see later.

COMBAT PREFERENCE

CP (character/95-99) (0/1)

For example: CP 96 1 will set all your party's thieves to use missile weapons.

TRAVELLING FORMATION

The order your characters are listed on your turn report is the order they are considered to be travelling. Hence, character one is at the front of your party, followed by character two, then character three and so on. When in combat, the characters at the front of a party are the easiest to get to so they tend to be targeted by the enemy first. Hence, it is a good idea to have the characters you would prefer to be most protected towards the rear of your group.

Swap Character Positions

SC (character) (character)

For example: SC 6 2 will have character 6 move to the second position in your party. If a character was already in slot 2, he would swap places with character 6.