Duelmasters: FAQ Teaser From: ccs012@yogi.ucdavis.edu (Dennis Cleary) Date: Wed, 08 Jan 1992 01:08:31 +0000 There seems to be some interest in the Duelmasters game lately among new players and potential new players. One of the people on the net is putting together a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list, but I don't know when that will be done. In the meantime, I will try to cure some of the curio- sity. First of all, Duelmasters is a game "of ancient gladiatorial combat." It's run by a company in Arizona named Reality Simulations, Inc. The game itself has been around since (I believe) 1984. I began playing since 1985. It's very enjoyable, not "simple" (as I've seen some non-players on the net describe it), has a streamlined strategy input process that is both easy-to-learn and strategically satisyfing (for lack of a better word). The Boring, Mundane Stuff ========================= The address of the company is: Reality Simulations, Inc. PO Box 22400 Tempe, AZ 85282 The rules and your initial set-up is free. Unfortunately, RSI doesn't offer any packages that include free turns right off the bat (more on that in a minute). The costs are: $3.25 base cost, plus $1.50 per warrior that you fight, up to a total of $10.75 per turn for all 5 warriors. Turns are run either every 2 weeks, or every 4 weeks. There is the possibility of winning free fights, an advanced game exists, and there are 4 tourneys a year: 2 mail-in, and 2 face-to-face (one in Arizona, one in Baltimore). Warrior Set-Up ============== When RSI sends you your team set-up, or when they send you your (free) re- placement warrior(s) (when one of your warriors dies), they randomly award you 70 points in 7 areas: Strength, Constitution, Size, Wit, Will, Speed, and Deftness. You are then allotted 14 points with which to "customize" your warrior. You may add up to 6 points to any area (excluding SZ, what you get is what you're stuck with), but you may not subtract points. A typical roll-up might look like this: ST 10 + 3 = 13 CN 5 + 0 = 5 SZ 15 + 0 = 15 WT 11 + 6 = 17 WL 12 + 5 = 17 SP 6 + 0 = 6 DF 11 + 0 = 11 At the same time that you design the warrior, you pick a warrior name (up to about 17 characters long, including spaces), a team name (when you first design the team), and a fighting style. The ten styles are: Bashing, Striking, Slashing, Parry-Strike, Lunging, Parry-Lunge, Wall of Steel, Total Parry, Aimed Blow, and Parry-Riposte. Those of you who have been reading the net will realize that there is a lot of debate as to the merits of each style. Just for the sake of argument, let's say that I name this guy "Sir Bash-A-Lot" and choose for him the Bashing Attack style. The Overview ============ For each warrior, you get a free overview, telling you your warrior's basic strengths and weaknesses, and also giving some clues as to his natural fighting inclinations. For Sir Bash-A-Lot, the roll-up may look something like this: Sir Bash-A-Lot 35-1000 of Bashed Heads Stable fights using the Bashing Attack is Right Handed Is Very Intelligent seldom hesitates, moves instantly if given an opportunity makes very clever attacks is a genius at keeping his foes at sword's point has the wisdom to conserve his endurance is a Very Quick and Active fighter Is Very Frail - even a single blow can devastate him Is Slightly Uncoordinated Has a Good Endurance Cannot Carry a lot of weight in Weapons and Armor Is Very Quick on his feet Does Great Damage With a Blow [Note: this a fictitious character. These are guestimates as to what a character may get, along with a couple extra comments thrown in] From this, you get the basic information about your character. You then determine the strategy that he might like to use. Strategy ======== Weapons ------- The first choice is weapons. There are several in Duelmasters. There are 4 attributes that determine whether or not you are "well suited" to the weapons: Strength, Size, Wit, and Deftness. If you fail to meet the require- ments in any of these areas, you warrior's effectiveness will be diminished. If you exceed the requirements, his ability to use that weapon will be enhanced. Weapons should be chosen on the basis of speed, range, and damage. Since you are allowed to give 3 different weapons, against a range of armors that you determine, this does involve some thinking. The Halbard is great for damage and range, but is exceedingly slow. Something like this is useful only against the heaviest armors. Lighter weapons, that do good damage are also available. The Quarterstaff and War Hammer fall into this category. Medium weapons that do good damage include the Mace and Great Axe. For weapons, you should con- sider how well your opponent is going to be able to move (heavier armors mean you can use heavier weapons), and how well protected he'll be (a dagger against Plate Mail is rarely effective, no matter how quick with it you might be). In case your weapons break, you can carry up to 4 backups. Armor ----- Next, you choose your armor. The choices are None, Leather, Padded Leather, Ring Mail, Scale Mail, Chain Mail, Plate Mail, and Plate Armor. Each is heavier than the last, but also offers more protection. Helms offered are None, Leather Cap, Steel Cap, Helm, and Full Helm. Shots to the head cause more casualties than any other body location, so it's almost always a good idea to wear something. Even a leather cap is much better than a bald pate. For armor worn, you have to consider how much your warrior can carry, how much damage he's likely to take, and how quick off the mark you want him. For Sir Bash-A-Lot, he's not able to take much damage anyway, so he'd better be quick. Even in Plate Armor, his damage taking ability is minimal, so I would go light armor, say leather, with a token helm, say leather cap. The wearing of any armor at all is beneficial, but since I want him quick, I'll keep him as light as possible. Training -------- Your warriors get better as they advance and train. Just through fighting experience, your gladiator will get better, but you are also allowed special training. This comes in the form of Skills training, and Stats training. There are 6 skill areas: Attack, Initiative, Decisiveness, Parry, Defense (basically your ability to dodge a blow), and Riposte. At generation, each warrior gets a base score in these areas, which are closer or farther away from experts than other warriors. Learning skills makes you better in each area, and thus a more effective warrior. At specific proficiences, you get your Expert, Advanced Expert, Master, Advanced Master, and Grand Master ratings. It is possible to start with an Expert or an Advanced Expert rating "on the roll-up" but usually requires a very good character to begin with. Your ability to learn skills is directly affected by your Wit (17 Wit characters learn upwards of 2 skills/fight, where as 13 Wit characters learn about 1/fight), the length of the fight (longer fights increase your abilitry to learn skills), and the relative experience of your opponent (if you survive a fight against a 10-fight veteran on your first match, you will tend to learn more than if you had fought another "newbie." [0 fight warrior]). Stats increased are directly affected by your WL, and how many times you've increase that stat before. The general formula is (WL*5)/number of times you've increase that Stat before. If my basher tried to increase CN to 6, he'd have about an 85% chance. To increase it again to 7, he'd have about a 42.5% chance (you may only increase a stat once per fight). Fighting Strategy ----------------- Your fighting strategy includes 7 areas: Attack Effort, Activity Level, Kill Desire, Attack Location, Protect Location, Offensive Tactic, and Defensive Tactic Attack Effort, Activity Level, and Kill Desire are all rated on a scale from 1 to 10. They are all fairly self-explanatory. Obviously, an offensive like my basher needs to run at high levels in order to be effective. Other more defensive styles need to run at lower levels in order to maintain control. Attack Location is broken up into several areas: Head, Chest, Abdomen, Right and Left Arm, and Right and Left Leg. You may defend the Head, Body, Arms or Legs. Head shots tend to kill more often, body shots stun your opponent, and head and leg shots make him less mobile and less able to defend himself. Your ability to hit your attack location is dependent on your Deftness. You ability to defend your Protect Location is dependent on your Speed and Deftness. Tactics include: Bash, Slash, Lunge, and Decisiveness for Offense, Parry, Dodge, Riposte, and Responsiveness for Defense. These reduce your overal effectiveness, while greatly improving your warrior in that one respect (if you run with Decis, for example, your character is _much_ quicker off the blocks, but has miserable defense). Each strategy can be completely undone by use of the proper defense strategy (dodging, for instance, competely undoes the lunge tactic). The Fights ========== You fight other warriors from the same arena, generally from within your warrior's class. The arena is broken up into three main groups: Initiates, Adepts, and Champions. Highly placed Initiaties may fight the Adepts, and highly recognized Adepts may fight the Champions, but your first fight warrior will never face a Champion (this is a major improvement over the old system!). Fights are reported blow by blow, with your warriors actions and words given in great detail. The crowd, Arenamaster, and even your Arena's Duelmaster may become so involved in your fight that their actions are reported as well. Challenges and avoids are allowed, but that's a rather advanced feature in the game, and not something that an initial overview needs to address. Well, that's a fairly quick and dirty overview of how the game is run. I'm sorry it turned out to be so long, but I do seem to run on and on (at least, that's what everybody tells me :). If you have anymore questions, don't hesitate to post them, or send me e-mail directly. I hope you can enjoy the game as much as I do! +--------------------------------------------------+-------------------------+ ! Donald Trump, CEO Trump Gladiatorial Enterprises ! dfcleary@ucdavis.edu ! ! Too Much Posse - Murska (35) ! "People use the DA too ! ! Stragety, Dammit! - Andor (57) ! much -- let me kill ! ! Riff-Raff Crew - Free Blades (103) ! them!" - Peel The Cap ! +--------------------------------------------------+-------------------------+ Up