Quest Digest 16/1/95 (47K long) From: ">>-Josh->" <J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk> Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 11:42:29 +0000 This is the Quest Digest for Monday the 16th January, '95. It a copy of the compilation of mails that goes out semi-regularly to everybody on my quest mailing list. If you would like to be on this list, just drop me a line at the above address and I will include you. The list is open to absolutely everyone, whatever quest game you play, or even if you don't play it at all! >>-Josh-> "...All I do is keep the beat, and bad company..." ----------------======================<*>====================----------------- JPG> Greetings again folks. Two new additions today, so I will briefly lay down the rules again. Let's see how short I can make them this time... o All material to appear on the list should be sent to me and marked clearly for inclusion. o If you want taking off the list, just ask! o All material appearing in the digest is the author's property and should not be used elsewhere without express permission from the author. JPG> Without further ado, let me get on with the posts. Posts will now appear in the order I received them. This means that I won't leave the long ones till the end any more. Be warned! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Melandra wrote with the following: >DS> Does anyone have any idea how to get themselves goo temple quests. >My team in game 14 (61 turns c. 7000 exp) has never been offered a >quest worth more than 300 gold whilst my team in game 16 (16 turns >2400 exp) was offered a blinding quest to kill a dragon!!! Is it >something to do with charisma or just purely luck? If it is luck, >would luck of Novala improve my chances? M> To be quite frank....offering a 16 turn group a quest to kill a dragon is not something to be called lucky, or even *possible* for a fair while! I think the Goddess is having a bit of fun at your expense! <Martin's stuff about mapping program snipped.> M> It sounds like you're doing something like a program that one of my friends wrote for Quest in game 5 about 3-4 years ago. It was a Pascal program with specially designed graphic characters to resemble the Quest maps with roads overlaid after the terrain was placed down. It took them months to complete but it was very impressive once they got going. So it can be done! M> Onto Chris's stuff.....Loved the story...very good :) reminded me of something I've seen in Monthly Mumblings! :) And then the FAQ. Good ideas, although I can only agree with about 95 % of it. <In the interests of saving bandwidth, bit about the magical armour is snipped. Was taken directly from FAQ> M> What's the weight on these?? Any difference to Plate?? I've never checked! CC> Spell skill levels go up in multiples of 10. IE 20, 30, ... 70, 80 skill. M> Also, however, if you learn all the spells available at a spell skill level you will have your skill level increased with the next spell you buy (I always BUY spells, saves mistakes and failures). Thus you gain the spells and your Mage's Skill increases as well....a useful thng to know! M> Chris, if you want to check, I'll send you a list of when I got spells ( & at what skill) as I think it might help a lot, being that I have about 50 of the spells, so far! M> Now my favourite topic! : >MIRACLES M> I have to say that I believe that Insanity does help ensure that you are not arrested and thrown out of town by the Town Guard. It however, will not help with the actual robberies.... M> Call spirit (when aligned to Novala ) is a REAL Godsend for your thieves. With this you can move up into robbing for 1,000's of Gold a turn. Unfortunately, with the changes KJC have made to robbing, the days of 30,000 gold a turn have gone! The only way to fly in Quest! CC >STEALING >I find that I get better results in towns, than cities. Also, life is made >more difficult if there's a lot of thieving going on. Does anyone have more >accurate data regarding protection levels? M> Reason for this is that there aren't many people that come into Towns compared to Cities. I believe that Protection levels get driven up if there are a only 2 robbing groups in a single city because they will be trying to rob the same places. Thus, its very very hard ALL the time! CC> It's probably not worth the effort doing more than three or four robs. I >have a theory that you have a number of "points" which you can use for >robbing and once they are used, all robs fail. The higher the skill of the >thief, the higher the points you get. So a starting group can expect to >only have two successful robs per turn, while an older group with a 90+ >skill mage might be able to pull off four successful newsagent-level robs, >but only two banks and a temple. This is pure guesswork on my part and I >hope anyone who knows what really happens is enjoying themself <G> M> I don't think this is true! I usually do between 6-8 robberies in a City that has its defenses at max all the time! I will probably make 2 out of my first 3 or 4 robberies on jewellers and banks and then after a quick 'Insanity' I get another 1 or if I'm lucky 2 out of the others. Those last two robberies will probably gain me 3,000 gold...at a minimum so they are defintely worth it! I'll head off to a less populated town soon and see how my robberies go there! M> For some others, I thought I'd mention the strange affair of the disappearing skill....as it was in relation to peoples Thief skill that I observed it! M> At one point I had 103 skill as a thief and a friend of mine (who was a firm believer in 'Money being the root to the TOP!') had a thief at 130 skill. Then KJC decided to cut skills to 99. Fair enough, but they didn't tell anyone they were doing it and didn't reinstate the xp's spent getting those skills. This cost them at least 1 and possibly more players. I'm sorry if KJC doesn't agree with my assessment, but thats the way it seemed to happen! CC> TITHE >Call me stupid, but I actually had to look this up in a dictionary when I >first started playing! I thought "Naff that" and by the time someone had >told me what it meant my G1 groups were pushing 60 but with 36 skill >priests, max! M> A sad mistake made the Athiests amongst us :) When starting this is a definite mistake that can (& is) made on numerous occasions. One to defintely avoid! <stuff about P0's and tithes from FAQ snipped> M> Another thing to get that helps with your Priests skill is the Religious Book, retailing a snap of just 5,000 gold! However, in general it will ensure that your priests still keep advancing, even if it is just one of them a turn. With 4 priests between 64 & 77, I should know. >One P0 per turn will keep things going for a while, but two would be >better. M> I have done 3 P0's since I started (2 in the Standing orders) and it seems to have worked well!!! M> Anyway, thanks for the FAQ Chris, its good and has that necessary tinge of Humour required to enjoy Quest! ________________________________________________________________________________ Steven Fairbrother, our beloved Quest programmer, wrote the following: SF> Answers to some questions: SF> The programs are already altered to cope with bulletin board/EMail use. What this has meant is that turns will be able to be sent back via these methods but they will come out as plain ASCII text, including the map. Any other form of data is not easily transferrable by Email or understood by the various computers which could access the BBS. SF> If somebody finds me an FTP site which will allow the upload and anybody is interested in it, I'll put the Laserjet Soft Font file for the Quest maps on there. If you don't know what I'm talking about here then don't bother to ask, you probably won't be able to use it. SF> Please don't compare Monster Island roads to Quest ones, just because MI has a follow road (but only in the general direction) order. MI roads are straight lines, never cross and were set up to go from one far structure to another. The Quest roads are a lot more 'natural'. SF> Technical Info Quest is written in Borland's Turbo Pascal and consists of about 2Mb of Pascal source which compiles to about 2Mb of compressed executables. Each game is about 8Mb of data. To run at a reasonable speed we use 8 Mb 486DX-33 PCs linked together on a V3.12 Novell Network whose server is an 8Mb 486DX-50 with a 1.4GB hard drive. Hopefully we'll upgrade this to a 16Mb Pentium this year, it's just not fast enough!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ An excerpt from a letter from Chris Dickson to Steven Fairbrother... CD> I believe you're implementing the official alliance routines at the moment, I would like to suggest some more alliance jobs that could be given by the alliance leader with the AJ (I think) command. The problem as I see it at the moment is that Alliance Leaders need to get players' support, both loyalty-wise and game-financially in order to run a worthwhile alliance. A strong inducement of loyalty is the offer of a post but with the alliance jobs available as detailed in the plans sent out there are only 3 jobs to give out when the alliance is formed. I suggest that you should institute another 4 positions, so that alliance leaders can reward more members for their loyalty. These posts would make the job of running an alliance more simple for the leader, more fun for non-leader committee members and more intriguing and diplomatic all round. CD> DEPUTY LEADER. If the leader does not submit a turn for his party in a given week then in the next week he loses his alliance leader powers and the deputy leader can give orders as if he were alliance leader himself - for that week only. This means that alliances do not suffer because alliance leaders miss turns, and enforces alliance leaders find deputy leaders they trust (as the potential for a deputy leader to declare himself permanent leader in his week of office is massive - a new and fun way of alliance sabotage!) CD> RELIGIOUS LEADER. The religious leader of the alliance gets to see all alliance groups' alignments just as if they were leader of a religious alliance. They can spend alliance funds - on tithing to gods only - which affects the alignments of all members in that alliance. So for instance a strong Baldor alliance could regularly tithe alliance funds to Baldor so that new parties in the alliance get access to miracles 102 and 103 more quickly etc. CD> PROPAGANDA OFFICER. They would be responsible for sending in alliance descriptions to the Kharne newspaper (620) and would get extra rumour cards to extol the alliance's virtues at the rate of 1 extra rumour card per 20 turns submitted by alliance members. For example, an alliance with 20 members submitting turns regularly gets an extra rumour card every turn. One with only 10 members gets one every 2 turns and so forth. Perhaps this officer could have the facility of sending in a short message each turn which is printed on the turnsheets of all alliance members. CD> ALLIANCE CHAMPION. This is the one that might add most to Quest! Often 2 alliances of differing opinions go to war and there is very little way of telling which alliance is winning the battle. I suggest that each alliance should be able to name one party as their champion, the toughest party or the one best placed to defend the honour of the alliance. Then whenever the alliance champions of two alliances meet in combat, the short combat report for the battle is printed in every newspaper in Kharne, irrespective of the geography! The reasoning is that a fight between two alliance champions is such a big, rare occurrence that news would travel extremely fast throughout the whole land and it gives people a quick way of assessing how battle between two alliances is going. This would lead to challenges been alliances being settled by alliance leaders fighting and the results being publicly and reliably known, and pressure on alliance leaders to have a strong party defending the alliance's reputation! The description "They are the appointed champions of the <such-and-such> alliance" should appear as part of the description and they should be allowed to have twice (or more?) as much transferred to them as other parties without notice. JPG> I think the best on there is the champion. That would give fighting based alliances a bit of internal competition that could do so much for the roleplaying. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A letter from Paul Noble, who got the formatting perfect!... PN> Around Christmas time I was getting severly piss off about the Magic & Missile tactics of some players (I myself use these tactics to a certain degree but I have never and will never use them while having a 0% Flee factor), not only that but also the use of cowardly tricks like placing a group on holiday every turn if it was in a danger area. So I wrote to Kevin to see if the situation was being addressed, this is what I got back. Alliance routines > KC> First new thing to be added will be the alliances, sometime >in January. This will include attitude changes so parties >can be hostile to just NPC's monsters (but not parties), etc.. PN>I asked why there would be a pay out for alliance members if they left, surely it would encourage long term spying? >KC>With the alliances having to pay people who are thrown out. >This is a strange thing but it needs to be looked at from both >sides. A party when it joins an alliance can be thrown out at >any time in the first four turns no problem. If they continue to >mess about, the other alliance members can throw them out but it >costs some stellars, true. If they leave of their own accord, it >costs nothing. Once a party is in the alliance, party attitudes >will override the parties attitudes so he will still fight >whoever you have as enemy, even if they are his own allies. On >the other hand, a party may have helped form the alliance, done >a lot of work for it, and then had a disagreement with the >leader who wants to throw him out. He should be paid for the >work he has done. PN>Next was a query of mine to see how to stop/cut down the practice of parties to just smash up groups wantonly and get away with it, the fact that most of the groups are low flee factor groups (see the bit that Stefan had to say). Lots of new groups get utterly wreaked. Some may say it doesn't happen all that much, and that if it did then the new players would shout about being beaten up in the newsletter, I don't believe they would, it'd be more the case that they'd just pack in and leave as about half of the newsletters are not produced regularly they wouldn't see any results of their complaints even if they stuck around for over 10 turns as in G14. >KC>...we plan on changing Quest so that all parties will have an >option to avoid combat with other parties. This will allow >parties with this option to travel around Quest knowing that >other parties can not attack them but all other types of >interaction can take place. Parties with this option on will be >shown differently on party maps so everybody knows. parties with >it on will not of course be able to attack others either, just >monsters, NPCs. So this is not abused, there will be a (eight >weeks?) delay from turning it on and turning it off. This will >stop a party turning it off at the start of a turn, attacking >somebody, then switcing it back on again. > >Parties in alliances will be able to override this to smoe >extent although we have not really thought about this bit yet. PN>Personally I'd like to see this delay be applied to the Holiday option also. PN> What about the possibility to use items on ASL's as opposed to external uses, ie Use Lightening blast wand on ASL 3 and then use the spells, or maybe the usage should replace spell casting until the item runs out. PN> How about the full implimentation of already available items like mage robes, shining helms (haven't taken a helm down a dungeon so I don't know if it lights the way), mage prisms etc. This would brighten up the items some what, add more variety. PN>RKM? Hum, I took over the G1 editorship and got some back issues of the G1 paper, I have to ask, what happened to Crimson Death? Last thing mentioned was Quorins Brotherhood, Knights Templar, Vardias Avengers and Beasthunters fought Crimson Death all lost except Beasthunters and then there was absolutely no mention of them from then onwards. To my knowledge only the Beasthunters remain in G1. PN>Temple questing, I have had large and little success with temple quests, When my G14 group was young it got crappy 60gp quests, but at the age of 33 turns it was offered a 1068gp quest, hurrah I thought and ran out to engage the Life Bringer, I was going to recruit crappy priests for 50gp (group was only 8 chars 3priests 50+skill, 2 48sk mages 2 fighters and a thief) and engage it 10 times throwing 6-8 CM's every time, magic blast it and enchant weapons. I found it on a normal turn but since I hadn't found any powder shops I didn't cast Magic blact or enchant weaps just 2 failed Touches. After a fruitless 15 rounds we both left the field of battle. Next turn I did a 11 CM on it but it had moved, I moved to the nearby village and recruited a BP. Next: I moved back to the contact sector, reduced my speed to medium and did a trail order (thief awareness of 75). There were no tracks. The next two turns have seen me moving around the vague area issuing I0 in every sector I moved, but to no avail, it just seems to have dissappeared. Presently I'm heading back to the city to buy Map Wild components and also Locate components, I've even put a P8 standing order to try and get revelation. Has anybody got any top tips to tracking monsters? Anyway back to my original point. I don't think anything really effects the decency of TQ's it's certainly not based on the groups capabilities, a G6 group had 2 out of 3 priests killed and it was promptly offered a 1200gp temple quest to kill a Fire elemental, they didn't have death spells or anything other than CM and magic blast to see them through. PN> Monster toughness, a way to find out about the toughness would be to see how much xp you'd get from killing 1 of the monsters when not using offensive spells or +weapons. The XP is the amount of HP taken off the enemy. I say not to use + weapons, this is because I think they give extra XP when a hit is scored (unsure). In G16 I ran into a battered group which had only 1 remaining char, this group had been kicked shitless for about 10 turns, it had no equipment or money. The remaining char was an elf mage (max hp of 25) I shot him once with a +1 bow and I got 30xp! Following XP=HP then I should have only got 25xp max, so I surmise that either + weaps give a xp bonus or you get a xp bonus for killing the last member in a party. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A short quote from Martin Lind Jans... MLJ> Chris describes toughness as good for carrying capacity, I think it also improves your damage given by weapons. JPG> Interesting... see Stefan's theories below... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The next is from Ian Robert Anderson: JPG> Hmm, just noticed the initials. IRA> I agree with CD that temple quests are disproptionatly balenced between the amount of money you can earn from them to the amount of work needed to compleate one. However I sugest instead of simpley lowering the temple quest rewards, install some code that will monitor how many groups are (and how much money they are getting from it) selling furs, finishing quests, getting (or selling) dungeon treasure and robbing shops. Then from this the prices or rewards can be automaticaly modified. This will mean the prices for everything will be balance no matter what, and groups will have to change tactics every now and again (making the quest more intresting and challenging). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Neil Benson now.... NB> Reply to Stefan Andersson's post of his opinions on Quest: SA>I have the opinion, and I think many other fantasy-fans share it, that on the battlefield a strong fighter-based group should be the mightiest. Of course they can need some help and assistance from mages and the like, but it shall NOT be as now, when the mightiest and most feared group is the one with a lot of mages... NB> I have to disagree Stefan because for several reasons. One, you cannot sum up fantasy fans as admirers of sword over sorcery (ever playerd Ars Magica, for example). In Quest to train a mage to 100 skill and learn Total Death, Engulfing Globe, etc. takes a lot more investment than to train a fighter to 100 weapon skill with a sword. Mages requires powders, mage skill and they require potection while they slowly learn their craft. Fighters are strong enough to take care of themselves, can quite easily gain experience and don't require as much financial investment as mages. Therefore, I believe that mages are the pinnacle of power in the game and should have the power to suck the life from anyone unable to shield themselves. But remember fighters are also killers in their own right, as many BTs will be more than happy to remind you. SA>If I would quit, some of my members would follow me, and some of the alliances in the game would also quit, because there would not be this big alliance to challenge any more. NB> Perhaps Stefan is being a little over ambitious here. I was the leader of a guild with over 100 groups, and the nemisis to a great many players. My withdrawl from Quest certainly didn't cause the game to collapse, not did I ever dream it would. People may miss you for a bit, but life goes on and soon somebody new will step into your shoes. NB> A general complaint about Quest is that it is too wargaming orientated. The program deals mainly with the combat sequences and not a lot else. What players must bear in mind is that they are only paying stlg1.65 per turn and for that price thay can't expect too much. For true role-laying games the cost is extortionate becuase of the much greater time involved in inputting turns, etc. NB> However, Quest IS a role-playing game! There exists every means for you to role-play your group through the newsletter and through personal correspondence. Not enough players take advantage of this oportunity. When I playerd Quest (and I'm shortly rejoining!) I gave little care to my group so long as they could kill people in combat. The real enjoyment came for me through wirting either the newsletter, or to the newsletter editor or to the groups that I met. Is First Class still produced? I can feel an article coming on...<grin> NB> If you (the mailing group) would like to hear some of my ideas for introducing some more role-playing techniques into your game then let me know and I'll drum something up... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Some stuff from Rogerio Fung... RF> Just wanted to ask the FAQ, the blurb list and the spell list, if yo dont have it, could you send this to the person who has??? RF> I must admit maages do have a strong component in the (un)balance of power between battling parties, but I would just like to point out that if a party has several mages with death spells , imagine this experience now on warriors..the result would be almost the same, instead ofcasting some spells, there would be real combat, but with one party with several 99 skill and the other being a normal one, what would be the result???death to the weaker one...oh, yes, perhaps some damage to the strong party, but if one can buy components to their mages, one can easily buy tougher armor to their warriors...so, as to speak, the result would still be the same,i.e. the weaker party gets beat! and if the SP(stronger party) doesn't kill and maim with one order, it will kill and maim with several, but the result would still be the same!So,simply, the only hing to do is:powerful parties cann't engage weaker ones! if they are equal, then at both will get their share of spells and missile fire! Of course, this idea may lead that you all will have only mages, leaving fighters behind, but, there will always be a difference between the professions. All this to point out that setting a minimum flee factor is not permissable. what is a party wishes not to engage anyone???if the mages are too powerful, cut the power out of them. One suggestion is to increase the mana spent when casting a spell, or increasing the price of components..either way would work.If you can't take them by the power, take them by the pocket. RF> Of course, now, if KJC did that, and magic became a rarity, we would all(at least me) pass on to priests,who are without a doubt, oneof the most powerful caracters, with their call monsters..and still fighters would be left behind( again I speak for myself) ..I just don't know what is to be done in this matter.Everyone speaks of the might of spells ..so, just thought about it..why not give more power or new characteristics to fighters??? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Allan Hooper wrote: AH> Since the last digest contained a lot of suggestions for improvements I thought I would add my own (and make a list of all suggestions so far). AH> A chance for groups to roleplay and create things - I see too many negative players wiping out other player groups . There has to be a difference between competative and destructive gaming . How? AH> What about a Devote order - first your alignment must be in that gods box , then once you devote you can do temple quests at that gods temples (otherwise you cant). Then on your turn (or like a newspaper buy-able from a temple of your god) you are told which groups follow your god possibly with ranks or titles . A list of 'High Priests' of the highest power priests that follow your god . Objects like unicorn horns could be valuable to Ythcal worshippers as a way to good favour etc. AH> Objects like Dragon tooths could be used for overland enchantments but of course you would have to find them first.....as you couldnt buy them. High powered death spells may cost skill to cast - this would stop repeated E orders to destroy a group. AH> Alliance membership should be public knowledge and possibly all groups of that alliance should have 'standard' included in their party description. Alliance Hq's should be robbable but on pain of death.... AH> Anyway I'm sure you get the picture - I'd like to see quest go back to the Fantastic and Mystical rather than the current number crunching. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefan wrote with some more stuff... note the snazzy presentation! __________________________________________________________________ | | | Attention all newsletter-editors and art-makers! | | | | To the editors: I draw a little by myself and are interested in | | exchanging artwork with you, done by you or by someone else | | (It must be ok for me to publish it of course). | | | | To the artists: I would be very glad to publish your artwork in | | my game 6 newsletter or the alliance newsletter. Contact me! | | | | Contact: Stefan Andersson (t94stean@und.ida.liu.se) | | Address: Stiglotsgatan 24, 582 39 Linkoping, Sweden | |__________________________________________________________________| SA> The Weapon article: ___________________________________________________________________ | _______________________________________________________________ | | | | | | | Weapons, wounds and that... | | | | by Stefan Andersson and the Eight Gods (game 6) | | | |(Mainly Markus Roper and Michael Nielsen, thank you very much!)| | | |_______________________________________________________________| | |___________________________________________________________________| SA> There is hard to find the exact figures for damage done by weapons and how much in fact a 'light wound' is, but Markus and Michael have done a great job viewing their turn-printouts, and finally have these figures to give you all: ____________________________________________________ | | | The damage done by a hit is: | | (Experience gained for a hit) - (Armour rating). | | A hit always does at least one point of damage. | |____________________________________________________| SA> When a character inflicts a mortal wound, he or she will sometimes receive a bonus (The experience gained is doubled). ________________________________________________________ | | | A lightly wound is 1-5 points of damage. | | A wound is 6-15 pints of damage. | | A serious wound is over 15 points of damage. | |________________________________________________________| SA> Since the damage done with different weapons seems to have some kind of connections with the skill, toughness and type of character, it is very difficult to find out how much a weapons 'does' it might differ a little from character to character, but roughly, this is the figures we use in the Eight Gods to calculate the 'General Combat Value' of a group (A value including almost everything telling how good a group is in combat). These figures are found out by Markus Roper, and the limits within brackets is figures found out by Michael Nielsen: _____________________________________ | | | Bare hands.............1 | | Club...................4 (4-6) | | Mace..................12 (9-12) | | Flail.................12 (10-13) | | Dagger.................6 (5-7) | | Short sword...........12 (8) | | Long sword............14 (10-12) | | Great sword...........20 | | Plus1 sword...........?? | | Plus2 sword...........?? | | Plus3 sword...........?? (23) | | Axe...................14 (15) | | Battle axe............16 | | Great axe.............19 | | Plus1 axe.............?? (24) | | Plus2 axe.............?? | | Plus3 axe.............?? | | Sling..................2 (3-5) | | Short bow..............6 (6-7) | | Long bow...............8 (8-9) | | Light Crossbow.........7 (7-9) | | Heavy Crossbow.........9 (9-14) | |_____________________________________| SA> ...the 'plus-weapons' should according to the info-token about weapon bonuses give an additional damage with as many points as there is 'plus' (eg plus1 sword should give 1 extra damage compared with Great sword). Whether this is right is not sure, since the only figures we have are from the Plus3 sword and Plus1 axe. One of them verifies the theory, while the other does something else... All help to complete this is much appreciated! SA> And finally some bits about self-training, also found out by Michael: _____________________________________________________________ | | | A fighter can self-train until he reaches weaponskill 41. | | A priest can selftrain until he reaches weaponskill 31. | | A mage can selftrain until he reaches weaponskill 21. | |_____________________________________________________________| SA> There is no experience with thieves, but they can probably train to the same level as priests. SA> With these wound limits and the damage codes for the weapons it SHOULD be possible to calculate how much damage a monster can take, can give and how high the armour-rating of every monster is... If anyone have the time to do this, get in touch... SA> A LATE ADD: I today (16 Jan) got a letter from another member of the EG, Erwan Legrand, and he was working on a list of bonuses to the damage as a result of toughness, and this is the first attempt. Anyone with other results or the same results, please contact us to verify or correct these figures: ________________________________________________ | | | Toughness bonuses | | TO: 0 - 41 Bonus: No bonus | | TO: 42 - 56 or 57 Bonus: +1 | | TO: 57 or 58 - 63 or 64 Bonus: +2 | | TO: 65 - 75 Bonus: +3 | | ...and what happens after 75 is unknown, | | the only known is that TO 85 gives a +4 | | bonus. | |________________________________________________| SA> If anyone has any characters with a toughness of 57, 64 or over 75, maybe you can check out what weapon they use and how much experience they get for a hit (= damage done!). SA> List of info-tokens: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * KNOWLEDGE IS POWER! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * THE EIGHT GODS * * Stefan Andersson * * Stiglotsgatan 24 * * 582 39 Linkoping * * Sweden * * * * E-mail: * * t94stean@und.ida.liu.se * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Last Update: 12 Jan 1995 SPELLTOKENS (all): Acid Blast Awaken Ball of Fire Battle Lust Black Void Choking Gas Confusion 1,2 Cure Disease Deflect Magic 1-3 Destroy Undead 1,2 Detect Treasure 1-3 Disintegrate Dispel 1,2 Drain Life Enchant Weapons 1-3 Engulfing Globe Exit Dungeon Fear 1,2 Flesh Rot Healing 1-4 Identify Item Invisibility Jaunt 1,2 Lightning Blast Locate Group Magic Blast Magic Dart Make Food Map Dungeon Level Map Wilderness 1,2 Petrify Plague Wind Poison Cloud Reveal Monsters Reveal Traps Reveal Treasure Shield 1-3 Sleep 1,2 Slow Poison Stop Poison Target Illusion Teleport 1-3 Total Death Turn Undead 1,2 SPELLCOMPONENT TOKENS: (Game 6) 301 Dungmold 302 Maidenseye 303 Dyingbreath 304 Blacklotus 305 Acidpaste 306 Brindledust 307 Tonguesauce 308 Crushednuts 309 Dryvenom (From other games) Braincrystal Gutslime Powderedblood Slicedeye Yellowliver MONSTER TOKENS: (all 92) 801 Basilisk 802 Centaur 803 Gorgon 804 Harpies 805 Hydra 806 Gargoyle 807 Balrog 808 Dragon 809 Wyvern 810 Dwarves 811 Elves 812 Goblin 813 Gnoll 814 Gnomes 815 Half-Bloods 816 Hobgoblin 817 Kobold 818 Orcs 819 Cavemen 820 Unicorn 821 Giant Frogs 822 Giant Ant 823 Giant Spider 824 Kharne Python 825 Giant Toad 826 Drake 827 Giant Wasp 828 Giant Scorpion 829 Giant Beetle 830 Giant Bat 831 Giant Ape 832 Giant Crocodile 833 Giant Crab 834 Bear 835 Sleech 836 Scorpion Wasp 837 Sting Bat 838 Wolves 839 Kresh 840 Kreourse 841 Tiger 842 White Ape 843 Vampire Bat 844 Slime Mold 845 Green Fungi 846 Purple Fungi 847 Hill Giant 848 Mountain Giant 849 Minotaur 850 Cyclops 851 Juggernaut 852 Golem 853 Ogre 854 Trolls 855 Lizardmen 856 Quikadu 857 Garmyk 858 Guzzard 859 Werewolf 860 Imp 861 Jackal 862 Cave Bear 863 Anklet 864 Nymph 865 Rat 866 Roc 867 Shambler 868 Sewer Demon 869 Skeleton 870 Zombie 871 Ghouls 872 Shadow 873 Wight 874 Wraith 875 Mummy 876 Vampire 877 Lich 878 Hounds of Death 879 Air Elemental 880 Water Elemental 881 Fire Elemental 882 Earth Elemental 883 Banshee 884 Doppleganger 885 Venus Man Trap 886 Blood Weed 887 Stinger Plant 888 Dark Oak 889 Jinx 890 Valkyrie 891 Seer 892 Life Bringer WEAPON TOKENS: (all 17) 101 Club 102 Dagger 103 Short Sword 104 Long Sword 105 Great Sword 109 Flail 110 Mace 111 Short Bow 112 Long Bow 113 Light Crossbow 114 Heavy Crossbow 118 Sling 119 Axe 120 Battle Axe 121 Great axe 125 Short Spear 126 Spear Weapon bonuses ARMOUR TOKENS: (all 11) 150 Cloth Armour 151 Leather Armour 152 Ring Mail 153 Scale Mail 154 Chain Mail 155 Plate Mail 156 Enhanced Plate Mail 159 Helmet 160 Small Shield 161 Medium Shield 162 Large shield ITEM TOKENS: 201 Magic Ring 202 Magic Wand 203 Magic Potion 204 Magic Scroll 250 Mycrom gem 251 Azimure gem 252 Efemerald gem 253 Chiro gem 254 Mortant gem 255 Lidestone gem 256 Griss gem 257 Liamond gem 258 Necklace 269 Crowm 270 Coronet 271 Tiara 272 Glass Orb 273 Earring 274 Goblet 275 Bracelet 276 Locket 277 Religious Book 278 Mage's Tome 279 Amulet 280 Shining Helm 281 Medal 282 Medallion 283 Mages robe 284 Gold Chain 285 Silver Chain 401 Altar 402 Throne 403 Statue 404 Pedestal 405 Column 406 Secret Compartment 407 Idol 408 Giant Idol 409 Pew 410 Cage 411 Tapestry 412 Button 413 Lever 414 Fireplace 415 Coffin 416 Sarcophagus 417 Fountain 418 Well 419 Chest 420 Large chest 421 Pouch 422 Statuette 423 Chair 424 Crate 425 Tub 426 Desk 427 Table 428 Barrel 429 Work Bench 430 Shelf 431 Bench 432 Bed 433 Torch 435 Cask 436 Sack 437 Vase 438 Skull 439 Bookshelf 442 Painting 446 Crystal ball 448 Mages prism 449 Pool of water 450 Cupboard 451 Mirror 452 Pipe 455 Jar 456 Bottle 457 Kettle 459 Rack 460 Iron maiden 461 Stock 462 Shackle 463 Manacle 464 Furs 465 Spade & Shovel 467 Backpack 472 Lockpicks 474 Bag Of Gold 603 Drink 604 Sleep/Full Board 605 Minor healing 607 Strength Skill 608 Weapon skill 609 Spell research 610 Magic Skill 612 Map 614 Thief Skill 620 News 621 Poker 622 Roulette 623 Pontoon 624 Craps 626 Library visit 627 Tithe 630 Use edged weapon 631 Use blunt weapon 632 Use range weapon Credit Letter SHOP/NPC TOKENS: Alchemist Armourer Cartographer Credit dealer Disused shops Food shops General Stores Gymnasium Inns Jeweller Library Magic guilds Merchant Banker Money lender News Temples Thieves guild Travel Weapon Smith Weapons Master + all miracles... + all gods... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ <phew!> JPG> I beleive that we have more or less published everything about Quest now. Just the actual text of the tokens (copyright), the numbers of the spells (different in each game) and the prices of everything (they vary). JPG> Some theories may be wrong in the above, but I am not in a position to criticise them. It appears that there is confusion as to whether damage basically equals xp gained, or whether xp gained equals damage. Doesn't matter either way really. JPG> Although it is interesting to know these little game details, it is not the be all and end all of the game. Various people have commented on role-playing which is, IMHO, something dependent on the player. If you don't think a mage should wear armour, don't make them wear it. Forget about the armour rating on the sheet! In reality, this doesn't tend to happen. We don't have money to waste (unless any of you have won the lottery?) on losing characters for role playing. JPG> The newsletters are an ideal way of getting an atmosphere up. Not wishing to criticise newsletter editors here, but I think they ought to come out more regularly. Indeed, it is up to the players to provide the material, not the editors. Sending mail to each other *in character* is also a nice idea, but not many people do this as a rule. It would be more interesting to get a wax sealed letter addressed to your group to arrive on your doorstep, the contents of which are written in blood (or at least reddy-brown ink) declaring war on your party. Or even inviting you to join an alliance. Again, how many of you have actually done this? Even just a purely in character letter? JPG> That is the way the role playing should start. The improvements in the game will add to it and make it easier to do so, but it is up to us, the players, ultimately. JPG> Well, that's my opinion anyway. Thank you to everyone who has sent stuff in for this issue. Please try and keep quoting down to a minimum so that it doesn't get too long. JPG> Right, I shall leave it there for the day, with the exception of the second part of *one* of Chris's stories :-). Hope you enjoy it. I did! Happy Questing! >>-Josh-> "...All I do is keep the beat, and bad company..." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright Chris Clarke 1993-1994 United Kingdom This story is not to be distributed without express permission from the author. Chris Clarke 173 Grange Road Longford Coventry England CV6 6DD ctc@coventry.ac.uk DEAR DIARY (Part 2) by Chris Clarke We made it. WE MADE IT! We're in Dryden and we're still alive! We defeated the Giant Crabs and arrived at the gates of Dryden three nights ago. We were cold, wet, low on rations (and more importantly, beer) but our spirits were high at the thought of 150 gold pieces each. Then wwe met a jobsworth guard at the gates who wouldn't let us in: "Gates close at 7.00 pm - it's 7.05 pm." We explained we'd been marching through that bloody swamp for eight days and deos five minutes really matter? "Course they do, what if we chopped five minutes off every hour - matter then wouldn't it? Anyway, can't let ANYONE in - you might be spies." Qara tried explaining that that's OK because it would be easier to spy during daylight and as it was now dark, even ifwe were spies we wouldn't be able to do anything until tomorrow, by which time he could alert the entire town guard. (Never debate with a blood.) That didn't work either, so we restrained Qara's blade-thrwoing hand, Rochine cast Sleep I and in we wnet! Despite the battles outside, it's fairly quiet in the city itself, although you have to look out for Magic Blasts. Mages should not be allowed to drink beer - they lose all self-control. I know there's an image of drunks where they get "tiddly", make bad jokes and then pass-out, but the reality is quite different. Most drunks, especially habitual drunks go on and on for hours and rarely pass-oout. There's no way to sober themup, all you can do is to try and put them somewhere quiet where they can't upset anyone. The simple solution would be Sleep or Slumber but the damn priests are usually as legless as the mages and if you try and stip them, they cast Strength or Disease. You can't use a bow in town because of the crowds and even if you could, they'd only heal themselves and turn you into toast. You can't win! We've decided to spend a few days here, re'equipping, before buying a journey to Fentham or Granalf - I'm not going into that swamp again! We're doing quite well what with the money from the quest completion and Qara's theiving exploits (we'll have to slow her down, she's beginning to jangle). We should be able to recruit a proper priest and an extra fighter or two. We can also afford to buy one suit of chain mai. To decided who gets it, we're having a fighting contest, the winner getting the suit. I pity whoever has to fight Taunus, you could get killed, let alone getting better armour! At least I don't have to fight - I'm not strong enough to wear chain mail. Wimps of Kharne Unite! Oh well, time for my work-out at the gym. 250 gold pieces to lift a bar with a couple of big plates on either end! Can't see the use in it myself. Back later. Thera. "Reasonable isn't in my species description" ctc@coventry.ac.uk - Chris Clarke - xuuau@warwick.ac.uk Up