MacFormat 1997 May

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ MacFormat 1997 May / macformat-050.iso / Shareware Plus / Games / Phantasie / The Rule Book < prev

Wrap

Text File | 1996-12-09 | 26.3 KB | 502 lines | [TEXT/WPC2]

Phantasie’s Instructions - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Forward Phantasie is something that has been on my mind for roughly 15 years. When I first started playing Role-playing games, I had the thought, “Hey! It’d be nice if this was all computerized.” I’ve been working on Phantasie off and on ever since. I’ve put several thousand hours into this. It stopped being a hobby a long time ago and started becoming more of a quest. Now that it’s done, it seems pretty amazing to me. It’s nice to achieve goals, especially big ones. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Introduction Phantasie is a computerized role-playing game. Unlike MUDs and MUSHs and all other similar stuff, Phantasie puts people in control of the game. Instead of a bunch of guys just running around an internetted text adventure, and that’s basically all that MUDs and MUSHs are, a referee is in charge just as it is with all of those book, paper, and dice based role-paying games. Now, the computer will keep track of all of the information involved in your game. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A Warning I did all of the actual programming of Phantasie in Japan. My Japanese is not great, certainly not good enough to referee games of Phantasie with my neighbors. Therefore, I did all of the play testing and creation of Phantasie alone. I’m happy with the results. But, there are probably problems with Phantasie that I never ran across. Unfortunately, you get to run across them first. The one problem that I am expecting is game balance. Because Phantasie has not been play tested for hundreds of hours in actual gaming environments, basic balance of the game may be a problem. Fortunately, the on-line editors will allow you to change the game as you wish. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Data File Format Phantasie is broken up into 7 different categories of data files. These are: Species, Spells, Individuals, Magic Items, Journal Entries, Areas, and The Store Files. They are text files. This means that they can easily be looked at with any Macintosh wordprocessor. They can also be exchanged between you and your friend’s computer, or downloaded from and uploaded to ftp sites. If a PC version of Phantasie ever becomes available, those files will also then usable by those machines. Because they are text files, you do not need Phantasie to create and edit them. Any simple text editor will work fine. However, I suggest you use Phantasie. It will just make your life a lot simpler. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - On-Line Help In all of the screens of Phantasie, each item has its own small help section that will appear at the top of the screen when you place the mouse button over it. Because of this, I won’t go into too much detail here. It is much simpler to just use the on-line help. Please realize that learning this game and the software will take a lot of experimentation and just ‘looking-around’ on your part. Get a box of cookies and a glass of milk, sit back, and just look around for a while. It’s much more enjoyable than reading through a manual. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Role-Playing Games! First things first, if you know absolutely nothing about role-playing games, you should probably consider spending some time with seasoned players before you try jumping into this game. If you live in America or Canada, most large cities have shops that specialize in games like this and other like items. Look in your yellow pages for comics. Go to those shops and ask around. You’ll usually find gamers (people that play role-playing games) nearby. Many times also, they will play games right in the store itself. Get into games with them or watch them and you’ll be able to understand better how to play games like this. The one thing I’ve noticed about role-playing games, is that they are largely intuitive. Watching a good game for 15 minutes will teach you more about role-playing games than hours of reading books about it. In brief, if you don’t know anything about role-playing games, go watch a game before you try to learn this. The experience will help you immensely. Because role-playing games are so intuitive, I’ve kept my explanations on spells, species, and other categories fairly small. All of my explanations assume that you already know something about role-playing games and that you already have your own opinions and patterns about how they should be played. To make the sort of game that anticipates and addresses all of the possible problems that you will encounter during play would take me at least another year of writing and programming. I don’t have that kind of time. I also don’t have that kind of patience. Realize that you are in charge of your own games. You are the rule book. If a situation occurs that you have no ready answer to, make one. The sooner you learn to depend on yourself for dealing with problems, the more solid your games will become. In the meantime however, I can give a brief description of the theory behind role-playing games. Good luck, I hope this helps you. In some games, such as chess, you are basically pretending that you’re a general in charge of a large army fighting another general who’s in charge another large army. In other games, such as most video games, you pretend you’re in some sort of a dangerous environment trying to fight and figure your way out of it to safety. In those games though, the act of pretending is not where the drama and excitement come from. The act of pretending is down played to the point that it is sometimes, almost barely mentioned. Role-playing games are unique in the fact that this act of pretending becomes the main emphasis of the game. You and the other people that are playing pretend that you are someone else. In Phantasie, you will probably pretend that you are a person who was born several hundred years ago. You will also pretend that during this time there are such things as magic and monsters. Your referee will place you in a situation and ask you simply, “What are you going to do?” The question “What are you going to do?” is pretty much the basis of all role-playing games. From that point on, it will be up to you to choose your actions to deal with whatever situation the referee has chosen to place you in. If your referee is skilled, the story line of your adventure will be just as detailed and intriguing as a novel. If your referee is not skilled, you will probably just spend your time fighting monsters. The different situations that a referee could place you in could be as simple as being at the entrance of a wizard’s castle with four of your friends, to something as ornate as, chasing a band of goblins that have kidnapped your family, hoping that you can find them before lunchtime. What happens in your game will depend entirely on you and the other players. Because role-playing games are basically just ‘simulated life’, there’s a lot of numbers to keep track of. Some people are stronger than others, therefore, in battle one person will do more damage with a sword than another. Therefore, Phantasie keeps track of comparative strength numbers for each individual. Life is pretty ornate, so, the rules to simulating life, role-playing games, tend to be pretty ornate also. Therefore, there’s lots of numbers and information to keep track of. Computers are good at keeping track of numbers. Therefore, I made Phantasie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Screens The next few sections will deal with each of the different screens of Phantasie. The on-line help for each of these screens is pretty extensive, so, I’m only going to explain things that are not easily understandable. I’m hoping that my on-line help will take care of the rest. - - - - - The Main Referee Screen The Main Referee Screen is where you will spend most of your time during game play. This window is where the player and enemy information is held as well as activity buttons, the area information window, and the timekeeper. Once you have designed all of your individuals, species, spells, magic items, and areas, this is where you finally come to actually play. Once you have loaded players and enemies in, you will probably want these individuals to do something: fight, cast a spell, use a magic item, parry, or just skip their turn so that they can perform some other action. To do this, you will have to select a player to do the performing. Do this by putting whatever player you wish to the top of his list (Shift/click). Click on the small button above that player until it looks like crossed swords. Once you’ve done this, you can click on any of the activity buttons on the bottom left of the window. These buttons will then allow the individual to act. For more information than this, please consult the on-line help. - - - - - The Store Screen Your individuals will want to buy various items during their adventure. This is where you write out those items. All categories ending with a “!” are assumed to be items that do not affect encumbrance (e.g. staying at an inn for a night). These items will only have a name and a price. Other items are just physical items that have no bearing on an individual during a fight other than slowing them down (e.g. a lantern). These items have a third piece of data, weight in pounds. Other items are used directly in combat. These items have two other pieces of information, number of points that they protect for or can damage for, and the type of weapon or armor that they are. Here’s an example of a weapon: Battle Axe,100,5,65,2 The name of this weapon is ‘Battle Axe.’ It costs 100. It has a weight of 5 pounds. It will do 65 points of damage. It is a weapon type 2 weapon, or a two- handed swung weapon. Here’s an example of a suit of armor: Jazeraint,2750,45,30,M The name of the armor is ‘Jazeraint.’ It costs 2750. It weighs 45 pounds. It protects for 30 points. The ‘M’ signifies that it is a suit of mail. The different codes for weapons and armor types are as follows: 1 One handed swung weaponry (long swords, flails, daggers) 2 Two-handed swung weaponry (battle axes, large clubs) 3 Thrown weaponry (Rocks, darts, knives) 4A Ranged weaponry that uses arrows (Long Bows, Short Bows) 4B Ranged weaponry that uses bullets or any other projectile (slings, blowguns etc.) 4Q Ranged weaponry that uses quarrels (Arbalest, Crossbow) 5 Pole arms and other similarly used weapons (tridents, pole axe) UC Weaponry used as an aid during unarmed combat (cestus, bagh nahk) A Arrows B Bullets Q Quarrels S Shields M Body Armor Once you have made these items, they will be automatically available in the individual and area editors. - - - - - The Property Transferring Screen Individuals can trade objects here. Individuals can also pick up the objects in areas with this screen. If an individual is using a ranged weapon, all of the used ammunition is deducted from their individual file and placed in the current area file. They can then retrieve those objects by using this screen. - - - - - The Journal Editor During play, the referee may wish to keep notes about his campaign. Please do this here. Each file is limited to 30000 characters. Every professional word processing program ever made is better than this journal editor..but hey! it’s better than nothing. - - - - - The Species Editor Species are the basic root of all role-playing games. Some species have strengths and abilities that other don’t. Cats are faster than dogs. Dogs are stronger than cats. This is where the species editor comes in. All species are compared to humans. The human species has a maximum in each statistic of 100. Giants will have a much larger strength. But, humans have a better intelligence. Please make all of these comparisons here. - - - - - The Individual Editor I can talk a little bit about some of the features, but I’m hoping that most of it will be self explanatory. Here is where you can change all of the numbers dealing with an individual file. Combat, magic or thieving levels can be bought or given. Individuals can compile their inventories and spell lists. Statistics can be changed...etc. There are three areas that may not seem self explanatory, so, I will explain. There are two sets of statistics on this screen. The first set (ratio statistics) is a number usually from 41 - 100. This is the percentage of that statistic that an individual has in regards to his species. The second set of statistics (real statistics) is the actual statistic number in regards to the rest of the world. Therefore, if a dragon has a strength ratio statistic of 50 and the maximum strength of a dragon is 7000, then the real strength statistic will be 3500 (50% of 7000). The next area that you may need some explanation on is inventory items. Here’s the format: #,name,value,encumbrance,damage/protection value,weapon/armor type,charges The last item, charges, I will cover more in the Magic item editor section. For now, just realize that all items are individually editable. Shift/Clicking on an object will allow you change any part of that item’s description. This is how magic items are recharged. Individual, one-of-a-kind objects are also made this way. The last thing that may seem strange is that new characters will have a lower real agility than you expect. Don’t forget to figure in money. Money encumbers. Encumbrance affects agility. Agility affects combat. Be careful! There are 100 money (silver pieces) to the pound. If an individual starts out with 2000 money, he is encumbered by 20 pounds. This affects his agility. The computer automatically takes care of that. Individuals wishing to avoid this problem may wish to carry around higher denomination coins. These can be found in the Jewelry and Gems store option. A note about money. Please call it whatever you wish. 1 money, however, is the equivalent to 1 silver piece in the system I’ve placed in the Jewelry and Gems store menu option. - - - - - The Spell Editor Individuals can be affected by spells in the following ways: Strikeroll An individual’s attacking skill can be altered. Maneuverability An individual’s defending skill can be altered. Combat Damage The amount of damage an individual does with one attack can be altered. Maximum Protection The amount of armor protection that an individual has can be altered. Life Force An individuals life force can be affected directly. This usually applies to healing and damaging spells (e.g. fireball, lightning bolt, heal) All spells that affect the life force directly have a instantaneous duration. If a spell does not affect an individual in any of these ways, just explain the effect in the referee’s description window. If the spell is something like Reincarnation, you may have to make all of the changes that occur manually. Otherwise, a written explanation should be enough. - - - - - The Magic Item Editor There are two parts to a magic item. The item and the potential it has for holding magic. The item itself can be enchanted. But, also, the item can act as a magical container. Here’s what I mean. A wand of fireballs is just a stick that has had a fireball spell placed within it. A magical sword that helps you do lots of damage to your opponent in a fight has nothing in it, but the item itself has been enchanted. Therefore, a sword of fireballs that also does an extra amount of damage during combat has been enchanted in two different ways. First, the item itself has been enchanted so that it helps during combat. Second, a fireball spell has been placed inside the item. If a command word is spoken, the fireball is unleashed. This is how Phantasie’s magic items work. The numbers at the top left of the screen are the numbers that affect the wielder’s combat numbers (strikeroll, maneuverability, combat damage, and maximum protection) and life force. At the bottom of the screen is a window for the spells that this item holds. Please see the on-line help for further information regarding this. - - - - - The Area Editor Areas really are just containers that hold individuals names, a list of objects and a description. Items are editable here also. Shift/Click to edit items. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Combat In most fantasy and medieval movies I’ve ever seen, people are usually not hit 10 times before they die. Instead, they are only hit once or twice. This combat algorithm tries to mimic that. Also, any man can be killed by one arrow or one dagger stab. In other systems, this only seems to be possible at low levels. This algorithm allows one hit kills at any level against any creature. It is probably going to seem very different and probably very inaccurate to most gamers, but I feel confident about it. The attacker in a combat sequence is the individual that is at the top of the window that has a pair of crossed swords above it. The defender in a combat sequence is the individual that is at the top of the window that has a shield above it. Individuals can be moved to the top of the lists by shift/clicking on them. The basic rule to combat is that the defender’s maneuverability is subtracted from the attacker’s strikeroll. The remaining number is then compared to a random number from 1 to 20. If the random number is lower than or equal to the remaining number, the attack is successful. A random number of 1 always hits. A random number of 20 always misses. From there a random number based on the damage amount of the weapon used is generated. Another random number from one to 20 is generated. If this number would successfully hit the target then the full damage amount is applied. If not successful, the maximum protection value of the defender is subtracted from the damage amount. This remaining damage amount is then subtracted from the defender’s life force total. From here another random number (one to 20) is generated. If this number would successfully hit the opponent at a -3 penalty, another like amount of damage is subtracted from the defender’s life force. This continues until the attacker fails his roll. All individuals start out with a strikeroll of 20, a maneuverability of 14, a combat damage of 0, and a maximum protection of 0. However, all four of these numbers can all be affected by many different methods. The first way to alter them is with an individual’s statistics. Strength will increase or decrease an individual’s combat damage. Agility will affect the individual’s maneuverability. Agility or Hand-to-eye will affect the individual’s strikeroll depending on the type of weapon that they are weilding. Species information can also alter the armor and combat damage numbers. Many species have claws or tough skin that help them in combat. These numbers can be seen in the species editor. Of course, buying and wielding weapons or armor quickly increases combat damage and armor numbers. Another way to alter these numbers is with spells and referee determined modifiers that have been placed in the timekeeper. These spells and modifiers are consulted just before each attack. Modifiers are created by shift/clicking on the time keeper window. Follow the instructions as they appear. When the modifier is no longer needed, option/click on it to remove it. Another way to alter these numbers is by using magic items. Many magical trinkets and weapons have enchantments that change these numbers. Another way for these numbers to change is through skill. As individuals gain weapon levels, strikeroll, maneuverability, and combat damage numbers are all increased by a like amount. An individual with 3 weapon type 1 levels has an automatic bonus of +3 awarded to his strikeroll, maneuverability, and combat damage if he is wielding a weapon type 1 weapon. Next, an individual’s size will assist or hinder him in a fight. An individual receives a +2 bonus to his strikeroll and maneuverability for every time he is taller than his opponent. Therefore, an 18 foot tall giant will receive a +6 bonus if he is fighting a 6 foot tall elf. Next, unintelligent species receive a bonus that simulates the skill that they have to possess just to survive. They receive a +1 modifier to their strikeroll and maneuverability if their species maximum intelligence is less than 40. During combat, a player may choose to parry. Parrying allows the player to temporarily multiply his maneuverability by 1.5 until his next turn. If a player has a maneuverability of 14, parrying allows him to temporarily increase his maneuverability to 21 (14 x 1.5 = 21) Lastly, a player may choose to perform a sneak attack (option/click the fight activity button) on his victim. This assumes that the target is unaware of the presence of the attacker. The defender must then pass a standard perception check that is affected by two other modifiers. The number of thieving levels of the attacker times five modifies the roll negatively. The highest level times five that an individual has in anything modifies the roll positively. Therefore, a player that has many thieving levels trying to sneak attack an individual with very few levels in anything will probably succeed. A successful sneak attack temporarily changes the maneuverability of the victim to a random number between 1 and whatever his current manueverability happens to be. Like I said, Phantasie keeps track of lots of numbers. Fortunately for you, all you have to do is push a button. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Timekeeper Don’t be afraid of it. I don’t use rounds in Phantasie. The computer estimates the amount of time it takes everyone to do what their doing. Then when you click on the ‘Batter Up!’ button, the computer finds out who’s next and then places them automatically into the ready position. Use the timekeeper for modifiers. If it’s dark outside, make a Dark modifier and select as the target everyone that it affects. If someone is temporarily suffering from a blindness curse, give them a -5 modifier to their strikeroll. The Timekeeper is probably the biggest help that Phantasie has to offer. You can make a timed event. When the duration has expired, the timekeeper will tell you. Spells will end when they’re supposed to and not at some convenient time for the caster. Learn how to use it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Thieves Some thieving activites pit the thieves’ skill against an opponents’ ability to notice. Therefore, in order for a thieving activity to occur, like fighting, there must be an attacker (the thief) and a defender (the victim). To use most of the theiving menu options, there must be two individuals selected just as they would be selected were they about to attack each other. The individual at the top of the window with the crossed swords above it will act as the thief. The individual at the top of the other list will act as the victim. Other thieving options pit the skill of the thief against an object such as a lock or a trap. For these options, only a thief needs to be specified. All of these thieving activities are performed by using the Thieves menu on the Main Screen. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Other Rules - - - - - Falling Damage Any individual that falls will take the number of points of damage equal to the number of feet that they fell. Before the damage is applied, if the individual can pass an agility check with a modifier of the number of feet that he fell times two, no damage is applied. Therefore, an individual with a 65 agility that falls 15 feet needs to pass his agility check with at least a 30 to escape the damage, otherwise, they take 15 points of damage. - - - - - Innate Abilities Many creatures have innate abilities such as fire breath, hypnotism, and such. These creatures experience value should be increased. Here’s the rule of thumb: If the innate ability of a species in useful, add an additional 5% of the individual’s worth to the creature. If a creature has several useful innate abilities, they only receive this award once. If the innate ability of a species in defensive, add an additional 10% of the individual’s worth to the creature. If a creature has several defensive innate abilities, they only receive this award once. If the innate ability of a species in offensive, add an additional 20% of the individual’s worth to the creature. If a creature has several offensive innate abilities, they only receive this award once. Example: A red dragon has two innate abilities. One is offensive (Firebreath). The other is useful (Flight). The basic value of the dragon is about 2800 points. Add an additional 5% (140) of this to the value. Also add an additional 20% (560) of this to the value. Therefore the final value of the dragon is 2800 + 140 + 560, or 3500 points. If the red dragon had either an additional useful or offensive ability, the value of the creature would not increase. But, if the creature had an innate defensive ability, the price would increase by another 280 points (10%). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Future Versions If enough people pay me for this, future versions will come. If I’m not paid well enough for this, the only guarantee I can give is that, if I happen to come across several thousand hours of free time, I’ll consider it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A note to any companies interested in working on Phantasie with me Maybe. Please get in touch. I have lots of great ideas for the next version. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A note to anyone with a lot of extra hard drive space and an internet connection Hopefully, as Phantasie gets used, people will want to share their ideas with the rest of the world. This is probably the biggest strength of Phantasie. If you feel like hosting an ftp site for Phantasie files I would appreciate it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A Final Note This Instruction manual isn’t comprehensive at all. I’m sorry. I didn’t think that Phantasie needed one. On-line help is a lot better. It’s faster. Please use it. If you’ve already paid for this, thanks. It means a lot to me. If you haven’t paid for this yet, the shareware fee is $25. Please send it to: Jonathan Scott Haishi 10-18 Imabari-shi T799-15 Japan songe@shikoku.or.jp - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sources Grund, M. ListSelect. (1996). [Computer Hypercard XCMD]. Heidelberg, Germany: G-w@re. The Holy Bible. (1979). Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Pugh, J. Files. (1990). [Computer Hypercard XCMD]. Cupertino, CA: Jon Pugh. Pugh, J. Directories. (1990). [Computer Hypercard XCMD]. Cupertino, CA: Jon Pugh.