Introduction
Did you grow up in the company of the Brothers Grimm, Snow
White, The Red Fairy Book, Flash Gordon serials, The Three Musketeers,
the knights of the Round Table, or any of the three versions of The Thief of Bagdad?
Have you read The Lord of the Rings, The Worm Ouroboros, The
Incomplete Enchanter, or Conan the Conqueror? Have you ever wished you could
cross swords just for funwith Cyrano or DArtagnan, or stand by their
sides in the chill light of dawn, awaiting the arrival of the Cardinals Guard? Ever
wondered how youd have done against the Gorgon, the hydra, the bane of Heorot Hall,
or the bull that walks like a man? Would you have sailed with Sinbad or Captain Blood,
sought passage on the ship of Ishtar, or drunk of the Well at Worlds End? Did
Aphrodite make Paris an offer you couldnt refuse? Would you seek a red-hued maiden
beneath the hurtling moons of Barsoom, or walk the glory road with Dr.
Balsamo, knowing it might be a one-way street?
If any or all of your answers are yes, youre a
player of role-playing gamesor you ought to be. (If your answers are all
no, you have either stepped through the looking glass by mistake, or Fate
knows your destiny better than you do.)
Role-playing games (RPGs) allow you a chance to step outside a
world grown too prosaic for magic and monsters, doomed cities and damsels in distress .
and enter instead a universe in which only quick wits, the strength of your sword arm, and
a strangely carved talisman around your neck may be the only things separating you from a
pharaohs treasureor the mandibles of a giant mantis.
The standard (non-computer) role-playing game is not, in its
commercial incarnation, much more than a rulebooka set of guidelines a person uses
to create a world colored by myth and legend, populated by brawny heroes, skilled
swordsmen, skulking thieves, cunning wizards, hardy Amazons, and comely wenches, and
filled with cursed treasures, spell-forged blades, flying carpets, rings of power,
loathsome beasts, dark towers, and cities that stood in the Thousand Nights and a
Night if not The Outline of History.
Role-playing games are not so much played as they are
experienced. Instead of manipulating an army of chessmen about an abstract but visible
board, or following a single piece around and around a well-defined track, collecting $200
every time you pass Go, in RPGs you venture into an essentially unknown world with a
single pieceyour alter ego for the game, a character at home in a world of demons
and darkness, dragons and dwarves. You see with the eyes of your character a scene
described by the author of the adventureand no more.
There is no board in view, no chance squares to inspect; the
imaginary landscape exists only in the notebooks of the world's creator (commonly called a
referee or dunjonmaster) and, gradually, in the imaginations of your fellow players. As
you set off in quest of fame and fortune in company with those other player/characters,
you are both a character in and a reader of an epic you are helping to create. Your
character does whatever you wish him to do, subject to his human (or near-human)
capabilities and the vagaries of chance. Fight, flee, or parley; take the high road or
low: the choice is yours. You may climb a mountain or go around it, but since at the top
may be a rock, a rocs egg, or a roc, you can find challenge and conflict without fighting
with your fellow players, who are usually (in several senses) in the same boat.
Role-playing games can (and often do) become, for both you and
your character, a way of life, Your character does not stop existing at the end of a game
session; normally, you use the same character again and again until he dies for a final
time and cannot be brought back to life by even the sorcerous means typically available.
In the meantime, he will have grown richer on the treasure he (you) has accumulated from
adventure to adventure, may have purchased new and better equipment, won magic weapons to
help him fight better or protective devices to keep him safe. As he gains experience from
his adventures, he grows in power, strength, and skill-although the mechanics and
terminology of this process vary greatly from one set of rules to another. Aside from
keeping a running total of `experience points" from one adventure to another, you
need not concern yourself much with this, since in DUNJONQUEST the computer will make the
necessary adjustments to your character.
Ordinary role-playing games require a group of reasonably
experienced players, an imaginative and knowledgeable referee/dunjonmaster willing to put
in the tremendous amount of time necessary to construct a functioning fantasy world, and
large chunks of playing time, since the usual game session lasts four to eight hours
(although twenty-hour marathons are not unheard of). DUNJONQUEST solves those problems by
offering an already created world with enough detail and variety for dozens of adventures.
There is only a single character-your character-pitted against the denizens of the dunjon
at any one time, but you can play for just as long or short a period as you like, and
return whenever you feel like it. While there are greater practical limits to your actions
than is usually the case in a non-computer RPG, there are still a large number of options
to choose from.
Much of your time in the dunjon will be spent exploring the rooms,
searching for treasure, or fighting the hostile denizens there who are reluctant both to
relinquish their hoards and to allow any adventurer out of their clutches. While all
monsters in the dunjon are basically hostile, they come in various sizes, shapes and
degrees of nastiness. While one creature may go down from a single blow, another may take
half-a-dozen and remain standing.
If you (and your character) are new to RPG adventuring, you should
begin with the first level of the dunjon. Lower levels are progressively more dangerous,
inhabited by deadlier monsters, and their typically more enticing treasures should be
sought only after you have become more familiar with the system, and your character has
acquired experience, good equipment, and perhaps some magical aids.
Any activity in the dunjon is potentially tiring, and fatigue is a
nearly constant consideration. A young, healthy adventurer who is lightly armed and not
loaded down with treasure may trot through the dunjon at a good pace without tiring much.
A heavier load or a loss of blood caused by wounds would necessarily reduce his pace-or
force him to stop periodically to rest. If you go too slowly, some of the dunjon's
hungrier inhabitants are more likely to come across you.
Combat, of course, is a frequent occurrence, and one of the
central features of the DUNJONQUEST series is a combat system designed to mirror with some
degree of fidelity the nature of sword-and-shield fighting. Hundreds of things might
happen in a hand-to-hand battle: your weapon might break; you might slip in a puddle of
blood or trip over a fallen body; a shield might splinter; you might put an arrow right
into the eye socket of an otherwise nearly invulnerable beast. However, systems which
attempt to allow for huge numbers of these possibilities are tedious at best and, because
they almost necessarily overemphasize such unusual occurrences, are statistically as
inaccurate as simpler systems. Historical research, a knowledge of various martial arts,
and practical experience in the Society for Creative Anachronism (a group of medieval
enthusiasts who get together in tournaments and similar affairs to bash each other about
energetically with authentic imitations of the weaponry of the Middle Ages) have all gone
into designing a system which, while simpler than some, is as accurate as any and far more
authentic than most. Although you cannot, in DUNJONQUEST, succeed in chopping your own leg
off (which a particularly clumsy person might in fact manage), a great many variables of
equipment, strength> coordination, skill, practice; etc., are involved in determining
the outcome of any particular battle. Fortunately, the procedure need not concern even a
first-time player, since the computer is doing all the work.
It is, however, perhaps relevant to note that fighting for your
life with a sword and shield is, naturally, even more strenuous than running. If you
(which is to say, your character) are of average strength and are burdened down with heavy
equipment-to say nothing of the sacks of treasure you're looking for-you may soon get so
tired you can no longer defend yourself.
CHARACTERS AND EQUIPMENT
As in other role-playing games, in DUNJONQUEST the incredibly
complex factors that make up the simplest human being have been abstracted into a few
basic characteristics, rated numerically from a low of 3, through an average of 10 or 11,
to a high of IS. The higher the number, the greater/higher/stronger is the attribute. A
90-lb. weakling might have a Strength of 6 or less, while the average football player
would have a Strength of 14 or more. These numbers are typically obtained by rolling three
dice; in this case, however, the computer generates them randomly.
There are six basic attributes-three physical and three
mental-used in DUNJONQUEST to give a unique and distinctive character to a dunjon
adventurer.
Strength, fairly obviously, is a determination of
how physically strong your character is: how much weight (of treasure and equipment) he
can carry, for instance. It also controls how heavy a weapon he can use and how much
damage one of his blows will do to whomever (or whatever) he's fighting.
Constitution is a measure of health and endurance
-general physical fitness. The higher the Constitution, the farther a character can run
before collapsing, and the more wounds he can sustain before dying. Since the ability to
move or fight without becoming exhausted is also largely responsible for keeping an
adventurer alive, this is perhaps the single most important attribute.
Dexterity is a matter of reflexes, coordination,
and even eyesight. Someone with high Dexterity has an edge in weapons use; he's
more likely to hit what he's aiming at and is better at keeping his shield between an
attacking weapon, claw, or mandible and his fragile self. Someone with a really low Dexteriiy
might be so clumsy he would have trouble hitting a locked door without a running start.
Intelligence is reasonably self-explanatory,
although in DUNJONQUEST it is limited to what might be termed left-brain intelligence: the
ability to reason logically and to express oneself verbally. In many systems (including
the one on which DUNJONQUEST is based), this is connected with the ability to work magic.
In DUNJONQUEST the major function of Intelligence is to affect a character's
ability to bargain with the innkeeper or to parley with monsters.
Intuition, the complement of Intelligence,
is a measure of right-brain functions (real and hypothetical): spatial perception, getting
an answer from "inadequate" data, an awareness of the spiritual or mystical
aspects of the unverse, ESP, and luck. Someone with a high Intuition is more
likely to detect secret doors, traps, and unpleasant surprises; with an exceptionally low Intuition
a character might be doing well to find an open doorway without a signpost.
Ego measures mental toughness and willpower. A
character with a strong Ego can more easily influence others (the innkeeper or monsters)
and is more likely to fight fiercely despite his wounds ("when the going gets tough,
the tough get going," as the saying goes). Someone with a weak Ego will not
do as well when the tide of battle turns against him.
All three physical attributes may influence your choice of
equipment, which, in DUNJONQUEST includes five kinds of bladed weapons (swords), a bow and
arrows, five types of armor, and two different sizes of shields. Generally, the bigger,
heavier, and moreexpensive an item, the more effective it is, although heavier equipment
is more tiring to wear/use/carry. A larger sword is naturally capable of doing more damage
than a smaller one (though not every time), but it takes more strength to use; a character
with a low Strength is restricted to the lighter weapons. The most powerful
weapon, a greatsword, requires two hands and, consequently, cannot be used with a shield.
Because it is not fatiguing and is, at least until a monster gets
within chomping range, the safest form of combat, firing arrows at a beastie from a
distance is often desirable. However, arrows will only hit if the monster is on a straight
line vertically or horizontally away from you, and a good sword blow may very likely do
more damage, Trying to play Robin Hood while an unpleasant critter with claws and teeth is
chewing on your ant is also dangerous, but distance shooting certainly saves wear and tear
on the armor.
If you are hit/bit/struck, the armor you are wearing will protect
you from some damage (the claw/bite/stinger has to penetrate a layer of leather or steel
to get at the stuff that counts-your tender flesh); plate armor naturally provides much
more protection than leather. Shields make it harder for you to be hit, although a
particularly good strike/chomp may glance off the shield onto a more vulnerable area or
may even (if the monster is big enough and sufficiently hungry) take a chunk out of the
shield, the armored sleeve, and your (character's) body. A large shield is, obviously, a
bigger barrier to such incursions than a smaller one, but in the hands of a character with
high Dexterity a small shield may be nearly as effective.
CHARACTERS FROM OTHER GAMES
If you have played other RPGs and wish to bring one of your
favorite characters from another game into the dunjon, you are welcome to do so; instead
of having the innkeeper create a new character for you, enter the attributes of your old
one. (Note, however, that these must be within DUNJONQUEST's "human" range of
3-18.) Depending on the game system you are used to using, you can substitute Intuition
for Wisdom, Luck, or Power, and Ego for Charisma; while these are not exact
correspondences, this is the easiest method of "translation."
If you are bringing in "high-level" characters, you
should be aware of certain important differences between DUNJONQUEST and other systems.
Neither attributes nor "hit points" are raised wholesale with increases in
experience. A 10th-level fighter is formidable but not a Sherman tank. Also, the limits of
a microcomputer-based system do not yet permit the use of all the different sorts of magic
items you may have picked up in other games.
If you wish to buy things from the innkeeper, you should note that
DUNJONQUEST is on the silver standard. If you are used to playing on a gold standard,
please alter your gold pieces to silver and your silver to copper. (You may reverse the
process if you wish to take DUNJONQUEST treasure back into your usual game world,)
The upper levels of The Temple of Apshai are appropriate
for lst-3rd level characters, while the lower levels are more suited to 4th-6th level
characters, Being essentially an introductory dunjon, Apshai is not designed for still
higher level characters, although even they may find an occasional challenge within.
We invite you to project yourself into the labyrinth. See and
touch the treasures, hear and smell the creatures that inhabit the place. Discover for
yourself the fantasy world of Apshai!