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 fun—with Cyrano or D’Artagnan, or stand by their sides in the chill light of dawn, awaiting the arrival of the Cardinal’s Guard? Ever wondered how you’d 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 World’s End? Did Aphrodite make Paris an offer you couldn’t 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,” you’re a player of role-playing games—or 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 pharaoh’s treasure—or the mandibles of a giant mantis.
    The standard (non-computer) role-playing game is not, in its commercial incarnation, much more than a rulebook—a 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 piece—your 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 adventure—and 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!

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