Welcome!

Welcome To the game module enviornment of John Dailey's Dungeon Master, the incredible, one of a kind, online game adventure package.

This player guide will give you an overview of basic game play and tips that you may apply to your character while in the world of a Dungeon Master game module.

John Dailey's Dungeon Master is a unique online RPG (Roll-Playing Game) that allows a sysop to "plug" in an almost unlimited number of adventurers, or games known as game modules. In order to understand this completly, think of the Dungeon Master game itself as a home game entertainment system, with each game module being like a game cartridge that you'd plug into the system to play. There is no limit the the number of different adventures, graphic displays, or sounds available to the system itself.

The Dungeon Master game environment is simple enough for new RPG game players to understand, while at the same time, being challenging enough for the more seasoned player.

Characters

In the world of Dungeon Master, you will become someone else, played through a character active in the game. You will control this characters actions entirely throughout the game, deciding where he or she will walk, decisions that they make and determining how and when they advance. As in other roll-playing environments, your character has five basic attributes that signify his or her strengths and weekneses:

• Strength (ST): Your character's brute strength
  
  
• Intelligence (IQ): Your character's mental prowess
  
  
• Constitution (CN): Your character's physical health
  
  
• Dexterity (DX): Your character's agility
  
  
• Luck (LK): Your character's luck

These values range from 1 to 99, 99 being the best, and will change during game play, either for better or for worse. You will "randomly" assign these values to your new character when first entering a game module.

As well as those five attributes, your character has many other elements about him or her:

• Level (LVL): The level of a character is a basic measurement of how advanced he or she is. The higher the level, the more learned a player (more often than not). As with any character attribute, this values can change either in a positive or negative way.
  
  
• Spell Level (SPLVL): The spell level of a character is the basic measurement of their spell casting abilities. Usually, the higher a spell level a player is, the more spells the know and can cast. There are seven spell levels in the Dungeon Master world.
  
  
• Armor Class (AC): The Armor Class, or AC, of a player is a numeric value that summarizes their ability to avoid damage. The lower this value, the better protection from an opponent hitting them. AC values range from 10 being the worst armor class, and -10 (or "LO") is the best armor class.
  
  This value is affected by what armor your are wearing, if any armor class bonus spells have been cast on you, or other special events. It will fluctuate often during game play.
  
  
• Experience (EXP): Experience is what speifies how well a player is learned. Experience is granted to a player each time they defeat monsters, find special items, or some other special event takes place. Experience points are used to determine when and how far a player can advance in level.
  
  
• Gold: Gold is the basic unit of monetary value in the worlds of Dungeon Master. Player's may store their gold on hand, or in a vault, if one is available within the world the player is exploring.
  
  
• Hit Points (HITS): A player's hit points is the total number of condition points that a player may have. Hit and condition points describe the players current health. The lower the values, the weaker the character currently is.
  
  
• Condition (COND): Condition marks your player's current health. When a character's condition has dropped to or below zero, the player is considered dead.
  
  
• Movement Points (MOV): Move points are what determine the length of play each day that a player has. To move around a city, dungeon, tower, etc. costs move points. Certain things effect expendature of movement points. Most of the time, one move takes one movement point. However, if specific spells are cast, or a player is currently ailed with an old age ailment, movement points are affected. Note that the use of movement points is a configuration option by the sysop and you may or may not use them in every game module you play.
  
  
• Spell Points (SPPT): To cast a spell requires a certain number of spell points. When a character's spell points have been used up, they cannot cast any more spells. In general, the more powerful a spell, the more spell points that are required.
  
  
• Attack Rate: How many attacks a character gets per combat round. During combat, this value determines how quickly your character can attack. The higher the attack rate, the more attacks your character gets each combat round.
  
  
• Resurrections: Death is a fact of life, and Resurrections are potions purchased from Magic Shoppes that may mean the difference between life and death. If you are a level one character and you die, you will start over with a new character the next day if you are NOT carrying any resurrections. Level two and up are automatically resurrected each day upon death. However, with level two and up characters, if you do NOT have any resurrections, you may loose gold and experience points.
  
  
• Kills: Simply enough, this number specifies how many opponents you have defeated in combat.

Game Controls

During game play, you may use any of the following key combinations to perform various functions:

• Cast Spell (C): Allows your character to cast spell that he or she knows. View your spell book to see what spells you know.
  
  
• Inventory/Stats (I): Brings up information about your characeter. An image of you will appear in the view window (and may reflect your health status), followed with character attribute information, and finally a list of items you are carrying. From this secondary menu, items may be viewed, dropped, equipped and unequipped.
  
  
• Map (M): While exploring the 3-D worlds in John Dailey's Dungeon Master your character automatically sketches maps for your reference. You may view maps for any area you've explored simply by pressing this key.
  
  
• Quit Game (Q): Obviously, this option allows you to quit the game and return to the BBS.
  
  
• Suicide/Start Over (S): If you get stuck, or don't know what to do, you may want to start over with a new character. Use this key to do so. Be warned, however, that you will forfeit your turns until the next day.
  
  
• Use Item (U): Items in your inventory that are equipped may be used at nearly any time. For example, if you've got a wand that teleports you to safety, you would "Use" it with this option.
  
  
• CONTROL + D: Allows you to download the Dungeon Master and or module player guide if available.
  
  
• Tab/CONTROL + I: When you first start playing a Dungeon Master game module, you may want to use this option to bring up context sensitive help about the game module information.
  
  For example, if you are currently engaged in combat and don't know what to do, simply hit this key and help will be displayed pertaining to combat, explaining the input (if any) that Dungeon Master is expecting.
  
  
• CONTROL + R: Redraws the game play display. Useful for line-noise ridden connections.
  
  
• CONTROL + S: Toggles ANSI Music/Sound on and off. When ANSI music is turned off, no sound will be heard. Toggling ANSI music back on will play a short little "blip."
  
  
• CONTROL + V: Use this key command to view your spell book, which contains a listing of spells that you currently know. Each spell is listed with vital information about it, usually including a description of what the spell actually does.

That's all there is to it! Explore, have fun! There's a lot more to the game module enviornment that what I've listed here, but in all actually, most is only important to the game software itself. Refer to the software documentation for a more-than-complete description of all player data and more.

Player Tips

While creating the Dungeon Master game module environment, I've compiled a brief listing of some tips related to game play that you may be able to use for your advantage.

Spell points regenerate at a rate of 1 point per 6 rounds in daylight (maps that are outside and don't require illumination) only.

Old age decreases your condition at a rate of 1 hit point every 10 rounds, decreases damage done during combat by half, and doubles damage done by monsters. In addition, old age causes attack rate to be half that of their actual values.

Poisoning decreases your condition at a rate of 1 hit point per level per round.

Possession makes your player less controllable during combat.

Insanity makes your player more difficult to control while traveling.

You cannot run from encounters if inflicted with the monster attraction ailment.

Disease decreases both hit points and condition one point per round. Hit points are reduced PERMANENTLY and will not fall below one.

Items cannot be found on any "outside" map levels - those levels not requiring light spells to see.

When advancing levels from the review board, keep these items in mind:

• Spell points increase by 1-4. In addition +1 per point of IQ over 14.
  
  
• Movement points increase by 2-10. In addition, +1 per point of dexterity over 14.
  
  
• Every two advancements, attack rates increase by 1 for a maximum of 7.
  
  
• Every three advancements, AC decreases by 1 to a minimum of -10 or LO, and your save throw bonus increases by one to a maximum of 19.
  
  
• Hit points increase by 2-8. In addition, +1 per point of constitution over 14.
  
  
• One character attribute (st, dex, iq, etc.) is increased by 1-5 points.

Player ranking is based on the following attributes of your character: experience points, total opponent victories, gold on hand, gold in vault, spell level, and player level.

High dexterity, strength and luck values, as well as a LO armor class are all vital to successfull saving throws. Saving throws are used if your player encounters a sudden burst of damage that has the potential to kill them, or do large amounts of damage.