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D & D T O O L S V e r s i o n 1 . 0 A Collection of Tools for the Serious Dungeons and Dragons Player Conceived and Created by TONY MARTIN The BAD SOFTWARE Company 1611 Harvest Green Court Reston, VA 22094 December 1, 1989 Program and Documentation copyright (C) 1989 by Tony Martin Dungeons and Dragons is a trademark of TSR T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to D&D Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Cost of D&D Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Files Included with D&D Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Quick Start -- for Impatient Ones . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Getting Started -- for Everyone Else . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Obtaining Help from the Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Quitting the Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Magic Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Non-Player Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Dragons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Rolling Dice -- The Dice Simulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Character Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Telling D&D Tools About Your Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Selecting a Print Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Ejecting the Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Setting the Colors of D&D Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 End Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Appendix A - The Dragon Generation System (DGS) . . . . . . 26 page i Welcome to D&D Tools ----------------------------------------------------------------------- D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) is probably the most successful role-playing game ever created, with millions of dedicated followers. Besides being easy to use, the D&D game system is diverse, well-thought-out, and quite thorough. Due to its diversity and thoroughness, however, some of the tasks involved with the game can become tedious if repetition is required. The object of the D&D Tools program is to take a little of the drudgery out of preparing for a game, or playing it. Admittedly, this tool is directed toward the Dungeon Master and the large tasks involved in creating an adventure. Perhaps this will encourage some of you players to put your imagination and creativity in gear and make a few adventures of your own. Toward its purpose, D&D Tools will perform several tasks for you, all automatically, and with everything taken into account that is required. Exceptions will be pointed out in this documentation where they occur. D&D Tools will quickly and easily - Generate a random magic item, with any necessary capabilities calculated for you - Generate Non-Player Characters (NPCs) for use in your adventures, of any class, experience level, alignment, or race - Create random dragons, based on a system designed by myself, Tony Martin (included with this soft- ware, see Appendix A) - Roll any sequence of dice in any number. Supports all dice used by the D&D game system, and also any that aren't - Print out character record sheets, either simple or detailed versions. Also included are a full compliment of program control features, such as the ability to change the colors the program uses, tell the program how to control your printer properly, and on-line help. All this functionality is packaged into a single, easy-to-use menu-driven program. One important note to mention, however. This program supports only the first editions of the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Players Handbook. The program may be updated at a later date to support the second edition of these manuals (after I get the books, whenever that occurs). page 1 The Cost of D&D Tools ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The D&D Tools program is free. It costs nothing for you to use, there are no licensing or registration fees or hidden costs. Use it to your heart's content and may it improve the quality of your gaming. It is not, however, public domain software. This means that I retain all rights to the program and documentation, and neither may be modified in any way. The program is copyright 1989-90 by myself. It is provided "as-is," with no warranties of any kind. I cannot be held responsible for any circumstances or loss resulting from the use or misuse of the D&D Tools program. The program may not be sold by anyone, nor may anyone accept payment or remuneration of any sort for the copying, distribution, or sale of the program, unless they have express written permission from myself. Now that the legal tangle of red tape has been dispensed with, let me say that it's not as bad as it may sound. You can still use the program as much as you like or give it to whomever you choose. Nor does the above disclaimer mean that the program will be cheap, flimsy, or crash your hard drive. D&D Tools has been written to high standards, and can compete with any professionally developed system in its class. page 2 Files Included with D&D Tools ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The D&D Tools program is comprised of several files, each of which is listed below. A short description of each is also included. Some of the files can be created by the D&D Tools program, and are not essential to the running of the program. These files are marked with an asterisk, and are explained in the short description below. File Name... ...Description ------------------------------------------------------------------- D&DTOOLS.EXE This file is the actual executable program. D&DTOOLS.DAT * This file stores printer driver information and will be created by the program when you select a Printer Definition File. D&DTOOLS.CLR * Contains color setup information for color monitors. Not needed if you have a mono screen. If you have color, and this file is missing, you will get a warning message. Simply choose the color setup function and save your colors to create a new file. D&DTOOLS.MON * Contains color setup information for mono monitors. Not needed if you have a color screen. If you have mono, and this file is missing, then choose the color setup option from the menu and select a color set to create a new file. D&DTOOLS.HLP Contains help information for the D&D Tools Help function. If missing, help will give you a warning message stating that it can't find the help file. *.PRD A number of files with names of printers and a .PRD extension. These are Printer Definition files, and contain information about different printers. You will only need the one for your printer, or the one called GENERIC.PRD if your printer is not covered by one of the PRD files. If any of these files are missing and you want them, you can get a new disk from me by sending $5.00 US to the address on the cover of this document (to cover diskette and mailing costs). page 3 Quick Start -- For Impatient Ones ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For those of you who want to get started immediately with D&D Tools I have supplied this Quick Start checklist. Follow the instructions below to get moving fast. 1. Copy all D&D Tools files to the same drive/subdirectory. 2. Change to that drive/subdirectory. 3. Type D&DTOOLS to start the program. Alternately, type D&DTOOLS/? to find out about the command line parameters available in the D&D Tools program. 4. Use arrow keys and the ENTER key to navigate the menus, making the selections you require. 5. Use the HELP function if necessary. 6. To quit, hit the ESC key from any menu, or select the Quit function from the Other menu. Hit the Y key to confirm the Quit operation. If you need more detailed information on any portion of the D&D Tools program, refer to the appropriate section of manual. page 4 Getting Started -- For Everyone Else ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The D&D Tools program was designed with simplicity of use as a primary concern. It is fully menu driven, is very easy to use, and is very functional. Follow the instructions below to get going with the program in almost no time. Step 1: Decide where you want the D&D Tools program and its supporting files to reside. The whole thing can fit on a standard 5.25 inch, 360KB floppy (with the exception of this .DOC file), or you can put it on a hard disk. In either case, copy all the D&D Tools files to the same drive and subdirectory (if applicable). Step 2: Change to the drive and/or subdirectory into which you just copied the D&D Tools files. Step 3: Start the program. This may be done in a couple of ways, but the simplest is to type D&DTOOLS at the DOS prompt and hit ENTER. The D&D Tools program will load, and you will be greeted by an opening screen and credits with my name. You can also specify one or more command line parameters the program understands. Use a /Q after the D&DTOOLS at the DOS prompt to make D&DTOOLS supress the keyclick noise it uses. Use a /M to make D&D Tools run in monochrome mode, regardless of the type of monitor installed. Use a /MENU to make D&D Tools always display a menu, usually the last one you used. Step 4: Perform any of the operations within the program you desire. To select a menu, move the highlight on the top line of the display to the function you want to use, and then hit ENTER or the down arrow key. A menu will appear if you did not use the /MENU parameter above (if you did, the menu will already be displayed - no need to hit ENTER). Once a menu has been "pulled down," you can either move to a new menu using the left and right arrow keys, or select one of the options from the current menu. To do this, you can move the highlight with the up and down arrows or the PgUp and PgDn keys (also Home and End), and then hit ENTER to select the highlighted function. You could also hit the letter that is highlighted in the name of the function you want to use. This will give you direct and immediate access to that function. Step 5: Quit the program. Select the Quit option from the Other menu, or hit ESC from any menu. Enter Y to respond affirmatively to the "Really Quit?" question. page 5 Obtaining Help from the Program ----------------------------------------------------------------------- You can obtain some basic help from inside the program itself. To do so, choose the Help menu and select the topic you want some information about. When you have finished reading the help screen, hit any key to return to the menu. If the D&DTOOLS.HLP file is missing, you will see an error message displayed explaining that it can't find the file. Just hit any key to clear the message. Before the Help function can work, though, you will need to quit the program and locate the file. Make sure it is in the same subdirectory (if applicable) and on the same drive as the D&DTOOLS.EXE program. page 6 Quitting the Program ----------------------------------------------------------------------- There are two ways to quit the D&D Tools program. While you are at any main menu, you can hit the ESC key to quit. Your menu will disappear, and a small window will ask you if you really want to quit. If you do, then hit the Y key, and you will be returned to DOS. If not, then hit any other key, and you will be returned to the program. Alternately, you could select the Quit option from the Other menu. When you select this function, a small window will ask you if you really want to quit. If you do, then hit the Y key, and you will be returned to DOS. If not, then hit any other key, and you will be returned to the program. The D&D Tools program has tried to stay with standards that users expect, such as using the ESC key to quit. page 7 Magic Items ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Magic Items function of the D&D Tools program will generate random magic items based on the tables found on pages 120-125 of the DM's Guide. All tables except the Artifacts have been included. If you plan to have an artifact in your campaign or adventure, you should plan it carefully, not determine it randomly. Mostly the tables in the DM's Guide regarding artifacts have been placed there as guidelines for you to follow when creating your own artifacts. They were not meant to be gaming law regarding artifacts. There are two extra selections you will see on the menu that supplement those found in the DM's Guide. These are "Miscellaneous Magic 1-5" and "Any Random Item." Miscellaneous Magic 1-5 will select an object at random from one of the five Miscellaneous Magic item tables, while the Any Random Item option will select a random item from any of the magic item tables. Note that some magic items require extra calculation. For example, if the item "Robe of Useful Items" turns up, the items on the robe must be determined. Or you may have an intelligent sword with extra powers and capabilities. The D&D Tools program performs all these calculations for you and shows them when the item is displayed. To generate a Magic Item, select the Magic Items menu from the main menu. You will then see a list of about 14 choices, each a different type of magic item. They mostly correspond to the tables in the DM's Guide, with the two exceptions noted above. Move the highlight to the item you need to generate, or select it using the highlighted letter of the item's name. Your item will be generated and displayed as soon as you make this menu selection. The item will be displayed in a window in the middle of the screen, with a small instructions window at the bottom of the screen. After your Magic Item has been displayed, you have the choice of performing one of three activities. These are 1. Print the Magic Item 2. Generate another of the same Magic Item type 3. Return to the menu Printing the Magic Item: To print the magic item, make sure your printer is turned on and connected to the LPT1 port of your computer, and hit the P key. The magic item will be printed on the printer as it appears on the screen. Once the information has been sent to the printer, D&D Tools will display a new Magic Item of the same type. page 8 Generate Another: If you don't want or aren't interested in the currently displayed Magic Item, you can have D&D Tools generate another of the same type. To do so, hit the SPACEBAR. A new Magic Item of the same type will be generated and displayed. You can do this for as long as you like. Return to the Menu: If you are finished with the currently selected type of Magic Item, you can return to the menu by hitting the ESC key. page 9 Non-Player Characters ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This function of the D&D Tools program will generate Non-Player Characters (NPCs) for use in any adventure or campaign. They are generated based on the rules and tables found in the DM's Guide on pages 100-102, along with assorted character information from the Player's Handbook. The NPCs generated by this program are very complete and are immediately usable. Need a shopkeeper who is a retired 3rd level fighter? Create one in seconds with D&D Tools. All dependent calculations are done for you. For example, if you select a Paladin as a character class, all of the basic ability scores that do not meet the minimums for this class will be adjusted up to the minumum. Also calculated for you are a host of descriptives for the character. If some of these contradict each other, simply ignore the part you don't like. The characters generated are, of course, subject to your own judgement. Note that the character class is the single attribute of most importance. Everything is calculated around it. For instance if you choose an Assassin as a character class, the program will only select an evil alignment for it. If you leave the class as random, and specify an alignment, the alignment you choose will not necessarily be a legal one. Since the class is the driving factor, and alignment was "cast in cement" by your selecting a specific one, they may not match. D&D Tools assumes you know what you are doing in this case. This allows for maximum automation, as well as maximum flexibility. With the D&D Tools NPC Generator, you can specify any or all of the following aspects of your NPC: 1. Class 2. Experience Level 3. Race 4. Alignment Once you have set any of these to your liking, you can then generate your NPC, or as many as you like. To set any of the four above attributes, or generate your NPCs, choose the NPCs menu from the main menu. You will then see a menu with five options. The first four are the above listed traits which you may set. Notice that each of the four has the word "random" in parentheses after it. This text in the parentheses page 10 shows the current setting for that aspect of the NPC. When you select a specific item for any of these four aspects, the text in the parentheses changes to reflect this. For example, if you chose "Dwarf" as a race, the menu entry would read "Race (Dwarf)." To change the Class of your NPC, select the Class option from the NPCs menu. You will be presented with a sub-menu of choices; all the available NPC classes. Choose the one you want, or select "Random" to reset the Class to random determination. When you select your choice, the menu entry will indicate your selection. To change the Race of your NPC, select the Race option from the NPCs menu. You will be presented with a sub-menu of choices; all the possible NPC races. Choose the one you want, or select "Random" to reset the Race to random determination. When you select your choice, the menu entry will indicate your selection. To change the Alignment of your NPC, select Alignment the option from the NPCs menu. You will be presented with a sub-menu of choices; all the possible NPC Alignments. Choose the one you want, or select "Random" to reset the Alignment to random determination. When you select your choice, the menu entry will indicate your selection. To set the Experience Level of your NPC, choose the Level option from the NPCs menu. You will see a small window asking you to enter the level for your NPC. It will tell you what the maximum level available is. In most cases, the maximum level is 15. Type in the number of the level you want your NPC to have. To reset the level to random determination, enter a value of 0 (zero). Correct typing errors with the backspace key. When finished, hit ENTER. The menu will now indicate the level of experience you just set. Once any of these parameters are set to your preferences (you don't have to set any of them), choose the Generate option from the NPCs menu to create NPCs with the current settings. A full screen of NPC information will appear. Scan it at your leisure. At this point, you may perform one of three actions. You may either: 1. Print the NPC 2. Generate another NPC 3. Return to the Menu Print the NPC: To print the NPC currently displayed, make sure your printer is on-line and connected to the LPT1 port of your computer. Then hit the P key. The NPC will be printed. page 11 Generate Another NPC: To create another NPC with the same settings, hit the SPACEBAR. Another NPC will replace the currently displayed one. Return to the Menu: If you are finished generating NPCs with the current settings, hit the ESC key and you will be returned to the menu. page 12 Dragons ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Dragons have always been my favorite part of Dungeons and Dragons and Fantasy in general. When the dragons based on simple colors in the D&D Monster Manual became tedious and dull, I created my own Dragon Generation System (DGS). It allows for the creation of dragons of all types, colors, ages, and powers, usable at all levels of experience. This system is completely detailed and fully explained in Appendix A of this manual. The DGS works similarly to most D&D random generation systems. It is comprised of many tables that contain choices, selected by a die roll. This means it was ideally suited to automation and the computer. Therefore it is included with this package. As with the other tools in this program, all dependent calculations are done for you. In the D&D Tools DGS, you can set the dragon's hit dice (which determines a lot of things like age, hit points, size, etc.), the dragon's alignment, both, or neither. Once you have set either (or neither) of these, you can select the Generate option, and information about a dragon will be created and displayed on the screen. Notice that on the Dragons menu, the Hit Dice and Alignment options have the word "random" in parentheses after them. This indicates that for Hit Dice and Alignment, the computer will generate a random value. If you set these items to a specific value of your own choosing, the text in parentheses will indicate your choice. To set the Hit Dice for your dragon, select the Hit Dice option from the Dragons menu. You will see a small window asking you to type in the number of hit dice for your dragon. It should also tell you the maximum, which is 15. Enter a value of 0 (zero) to reset the hit dice selection to random determination. Type in the number of hit dice, and hit ENTER when finished. Use the backspace key to correct errors. When you return to the Dragons menu, the Hit Dice option will display the number of hit dice you just entered. To set the Alignment for your dragon, select the Alignment option from the Dragons menu. You will be presented with a sub-menu of choices; all the valid Dragon alignments. Select the alignment of your choice, or the "Random" option to have the computer generate a random alignment. When you return to the Dragons menu, the Alignment option will indicate your choice in parentheses. page 13 If the settings for your dragon's hit dice and alignment are how you want them, select the Generate option from the Dragons menu to create your dragon. A screen full of information about your dragon will appear. You may peruse this information at your leisure, for as long as you like. At this point you may perform one of three actions. You can 1. Print the Dragon 2. Generate another Dragon 3. Return to the menu Print the Dragon: Make sure your printer is on-line and connected to the LPT1 port of your computer. To print the dragon, hit the P key. Your dragon will be printed. Generate another Dragon: To create another dragon, hit the SPACEBAR. The computer will generate a new dragon with the same settings (hit dice and alignment, if they were specified), and then replace the one currently displayed with the new one. You may repeat this operation as often as you like. Return to the menu: You can return to the menu by hitting the ESC key. page 14 Rolling Dice -- The Dice Simulator ----------------------------------------------------------------------- D&D Tools provides a simulator for any type of die you can dream up. Instead of using a d10 and a d6 to calculate those 1st level Magic User spells, use D&D Tools to roll a d30 (NOTE: There does exist a d30 you can purchase. The polygon for the d30 was invented by a long-time high school friend of mine, John Handwork. If you buy one, he gets .5 cents per die). Or you can create a character by rolling a die that has values from 3 to 18. The capability to create your own die types is rather useful. The Dice simulator provides the standard dice on the Roll Dice menu -- d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, d%, plus the option to create your own die type. To generate any number of die rolls (max 256 rolls) of any type, select the Roll Dice option from the main menu. You will see a selection of the standard die types, plus the Special option. Select the die type you desire. For the Special die type: You will asked to enter the lowest and highest value on the die. Enter these values and hit Enter when done. Use the backspace key to correct errors. For all die types: You will be asked to enter the number of times to roll the selected die. Maximum is 256 times. Enter the number of times to roll the die and hit ENTER. Use the backspace key to correct errors. The die rolls will then be generated and displayed in a window. If you requested more die rolls than will fit in the window, you may scroll the list up and down using the up and down arrows, the PgUp and PgDn keys, and the Home and End keys. When you have finished with the sequence of die rolls, you can return to the menu by hitting the ESC key. page 15 Character Sheets ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To further aid you in your D&D endeavors, D&D Tools provides a facility that will print out character record sheets for you. You can either distribute these to your players (if you are a DM), or use them yourself (if you are a player). There are two types of character sheets available -- simple and detailed. The simple character sheet is less cluttered and gives you more room for each item, but does not have spaces for the more esoteric features of the character. Use the simple sheet if you want to generate quick characters, or are dealing with (or are) beginning players. The detailed character sheet has much more information on it, but less room for each item. Print one of each to decide which would best suit your needs. To print character sheets, select the Character Sheets option from the main menu. You will then see the Character sheets menu, which provides only two choices -- simple or detailed character sheets. Select which option you prefer. The program will then ask you to enter the number of sheets you want printed. You may enter a number from 1 to 99, followed by ENTER. D&D Tools will then display a window telling you to make sure the printer is at the top of a page, and is on-line and ready. Once you have done this, hit any key, and printing will commence. At any point during the print operation, you can hit the ESC key to abort the printing process. Note that the program will finish printing the page it is on, and then stop. Once printing has finished or been interrupted, you will be returned to the menu. page 16 Telling D&D Tools About Your Printer ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Several of the tools in this program make use of the printer. To do this effectively, D&D Tools needs to know how to handle your specific printer properly. This involves knowing a few of the control codes your printer uses. There are typically two methods used to do this. You can either have the user fill in all the codes specific to their printer and save them in a single data file, or you can create printer-specific files that contain these codes, one file or each printer. The former method is easier and reduces the number of files distributed with the program, but also requires the user to re-enter the data if they change printers. The latter method requires more files to be distributed with the program, but allows the user to store data for more than one printer. D&D Tools uses the latter method, and has a data file for each specific printer it supports. There are about six Printer Definition (PRD) files that come with the D&D Tools program. The nice thing about these files is that they are stored as readable ASCII files, and you can read or edit them to suit your needs. This means that, if there is no PRD file for your printer, you can make one very easily. More on this later. For now, let's find out how to use the ones that exist. When you start D&D Tools for the first time, the PRD file selected as the default is called GENERIC.PRD. This PRD will work with any printer, but will not make use of any of the printer's features. To change the PRD file to one closer to your own printer, choose the Printer Setup option from the Other menu. You will then see a sub-menu with two choices -- Set Print Quality and Select Printer Driver. Choose the Select Printer Driver option. The program will then build a menu out of all the PRD files it finds on the disk. Select the printer driver that matches your printer. Once selected, data files will be updated and the new printer data will be loaded immediately. You may now use any of the D&D Tools printing functions. Perhaps you have a printer that has no matching PRD file. You can either use the GENERIC.PRD file, or you can create your own. To create your own, simply make a copy of the GENERIC.PRD file, with a name that resembles your printer. It MUST have a .PRD extension. For example, if you had a Star NX-10 printer, you could make a copy of the GENERIC.PRD file and call it STARNX10.PRD. Once the copy is made, it remains only to edit the file. D&D Tools PRD files are simple ASCII files that can be edited using any ASCII word processor. If you edit the file using a word processing program that has its own format (such as Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, etc.), you must make sure to save the file as ASCII only. page 17 Load the PRD file to edit into your word processor and take a look at it. You'll see lots of explanatory text there. Notice that each line of text is preceeded with a semicolon (;). A line with a semicolon as the first non-space character is a comment, and is ignored by the D&D Tools program. The comments have been used liberally to explain what's going on inside on of these files. Refer to the comments if you are having trouble understanding the PRD file. At the top of the file is a commentary header that tells you what printer this PRD file is for. You can change this header to indicate the name of your printer, if desired. Add other commentary where necessary. Now notice that there are a few lines that are not comments. These are the actual printer information lines. The info required by D&D Tools includes codes to make your printer 1. Turn BOLD print ON 2. Turn BOLD print OFF 3. Turn Near Letter Quality mode ON 4. Turn Near Letter Quality mode OFF 5. Reset There is also a code to tell D&D Tools whether or not your printer can handle the IBM extended ASCII character set, which includes the box drawing characters. Codes for printers are usually ESCAPE sequences, that is, numerical values of ASCII characters, preceded by the ESC character. For example, the code to make an Epson FX printer change to Near-Letter Quality mode is the ESC character, followed by the lower case x, and the character with an ASCII code of 1. When these characters are represented by their ASCII decimal values, they look like this: 27 107 1 This is exactly how you enter the codes in your PRD file. Find out the sequence of characters needed for the specific code you want, and then convert them to their ASCII values. You can find an ASCII chart in any DOS manual, or your printer manual. The exception to this is the XASCII parameter -- we might as well talk about that one first. The first parameter you will see is the XASCII parameter. This has a value of either ON or OFF. It tells D&D Tools whether or not it should use the IBM extended ASCII character set (box drawing characters). Set this value to ON if your printer can handle these characters, or OFF if it cannot. page 18 Example: The line in the PRD file to tell D&D Tools to use the extended character set would look like this: XASCII = ON Note that all the following codes use the numeric representation of characters (ASCII codes) mentioned above. The next pair of codes tells D&D Tools how to turn Near-Letter Quality mode on and off. For some printers this may not be applicable (such as the HP LaserJet, which always prints in Letter Quality). The EPSON FX printers use the following characters to turn the NLQ mode on: ESC x (ASCII 1) where the (ASCII 1) means the character with ASCII code of 1. Numerically, this looks like this: 27 107 1 The final code in your PRD file will look like this: NLQON = 27 107 1 The second code tells the program how to turn the NLQ mode OFF. The line in your PRD file for an EPSON FX printer looks like this: NLQOFF = 27 107 0 Simply replace the numerical codes with the correct ones for your printer. The next (and last) code in the list is actually a pair of codes. They tell the program how to turn BOLD print ON and OFF. The codes used for the EPSON FX series are ESC E ESC G. Numerically this looks like: 27 69 27 71 So the actual code in your PRD file will look like this: BOLDON = 27 69 27 71 Then comes BOLD OFF. For the EPSON FX, it looks like this: BOLD OFF = 27 70 27 72 page 19 Pretty easy huh? Just replace these numbers with the appropriate ones for your own printer. That's all there is to it. Remember these points as you create your PRD file: - If your printer does not support one of these features, or you do not want it to be used, you can disable it by not putting any values after the code, such as BOLDON = - You can place any printer codes after these identifiers. For instance, if you wanted your printer to use bold print in place of NLQ mode, simply place the codes for bold print after the NLQON = identifier. Once you have created your own PRD file, the D&D Tools program will automatically find it (assuming it has a .PRD extension), and add it to the menu of PRD files. Select the new PRD file from inside the program and you'll be all set. If this process eludes you, and you want D&D Tools to take advantage of your printer's capabilities, send me a copy of the pages of your printer manual that detail the printer codes for the features mentioned above, and I'll write a PRD file for you. I'll send you the text of it printed on paper for free, but if you want it on diskette, send a check for $5.00 (to cover diskette and mailing costs) made to Tony Martin to the address on the cover of this document. I'll get it to you as soon as possible. page 20 Setting the Print Quality ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The D&D Tools program allows you to change the print quality of hardcopy output from within the program. If your printer does not have a Near-Letter Quality mode, however, this function will not be of any use. For example, the Epson MX series of printers does not have a Near-Letter Quality mode, so the Near-Letter Quality setting in D&D Tools will have no effect. The Hewlett Packard LaserJet II prints everything in letter-quality, and therefore has no need of a Draft mode. To change from Draft to Near-Letter Quality mode, or vice versa, select the Printer Setup option from the Other menu. Then from the sub-menu that appears, select the Set Print Quality option. A second sub-menu will appear, from which you may select either Draft Quality or Near-Letter Quality. Note that there is a small pointer next to one of these two options. This pointer indicates which Print Quality is currently selected. If you change the Print Quality, this pointer will move to point to your selection. Once you have selected a Print Quality, it stays in effect until you change it, even if you quit the program and start it again. page 21 Ejecting the Page ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This option is used simply to make the printer eject the page it is currently sitting on, and move to the top of a new page. This is useful if you are not right next to your printer and would like to send output to a new page. It has been very useful when an NPC has been printed, with his/her magic items below the character printout, and I want to start a new character on a new page. To make the printer eject the current page, choose the Eject Page option from the Other menu. The printer will then eject the page and move to the top of the next page. A small window will appear to tell you that this is happening, but it may disappear before you get a chance to read it. That's all there is to it. page 22 Setting the Colors of D&D Tools ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The D&D Tools program is smart enough to detect what kind of display you are using and adjust its use of colors accordingly. For example, if your machine has a monochrome monitor (one color), the D&D Tools will only use the colors black, white, and bright white, in varying combinations. If your monitor can display multiple colors, then D&D Tools will use all the text colors available to it. While D&D Tools has a built-in set of default colors, it is clear to this software designer that many people enjoy "personalizing" their programs through the selection of their own color schemes, while others don't care what colors are used. Therefore, the capability to change the colors of the program has been included. It can make using the software much more pleasant. For those who do not care to fiddle with the color layout, the default colors will do just fine. Note that this function will operate differently on monochrome and color monitors. On monochrome monitors, you only have a choice of 2 color sets. You simply choose color set 1 or 2. Color users have a much richer variety to choose from, and can configure the colors of all parts of the display. The "how-to" of changing colors is divided into two sections -- one for monochrome users and another for color users. You need not read both unless you plan to use this program on both monochrome and color machines. MONOCHROME USERS: To change the colors while using D&D Tools on a monochrome monitor, select the Color Setup option from the Other menu. A small sub-menu will then appear. From this menu, you may select either Color Set 1 or Color Set 2. Note that a small pointer sits next to one of these options. This indicates the current selection. If you change the Color Set, this pointer will move to point at the one you choose. When you select one of the options, the colors used by D&D Tools will be updated immediately, and you will see them as soon as you return to the main menu. COLOR USERS: To change the colors while using D&D Tools on a color monitor, select the Color Setup option from the Other menu. A large window will then appear, full of daunting colors and text. Let me take a moment to explain the parts of this display. In the upper left corner of the window, you will see the word FOREGROUND in color. This indicates that you are currently changing the foreground of whatever part of the program you are working with. Below this is a red arrow that points to one item in a list of about six items. These items are the parts of the D&D Tools display of which you may change the colors. The pointer will be page 23 next to the item you are currently changing. Underneath the item list you will see a color bar with a small arrow pointing to one of the colors. This indicates the current color of the foreground or background of the item currently being changed. The right side of the display is taken up by a model of the D&D Tools program screen. This model is where you watch the colors you are selecting being put into effect. As you change colors, this model will be updated to reflect your changes, so you can see them and how they look together. You can change any of these items in the following ways: To change this pointer/value... ...Use these keys ------------------------------------------------------------------- Foreground/Background Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + Item List Pointer . . . . . . . . . . . . Up/Down Arrows PgUp PgDn Color Pointer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Left/Right Arrows Sound complicated? Not really. Let's go through a sample color changing session. Assume the color selection window has just appeared. We would like to change the colors of the Information Windows (the last item in the item list). These are the windows that show the various random things the program generates for you, such as Magic Items, NPCs, etc. We've already decided we would like to have the Information Windows be displayed with a White foreground, on a Blue background. First, the foreground. Make sure The Foreground/Background indicator reads FOREGROUND. If it doesn't, change it with the + key. Next, move the Item List Pointer to the Information Windows item, the last one in the list. You can move this pointer with the down arrow or the PgDn key. Once this is done, it remains only to change the color. Move the pointer on the color bar with the left and right arrow keys until it sits over top of the White portion of the color bar. As you move the arrow, watch the sample Information Window foreground change colors on the Program Display Model. Now for the background. Change the Foreground/Background Indicator using the + key so that it reads BACKGROUND. The Item List Pointer should already be sitting on the Information Windows item. Note that when you hit the + key to change the Foreground/Background Indicator, the small pointer arrow on the color bar changes place to point at the current background color for the Information Windows. All you have to do now is move the Color Bar Indicator to the portion of the Color Bar that is blue. The Program Display Model will be updated as the pointer moves. Our colors should now be how we want them. We could change any other parts of the display at this time, but for now, we'll just save the colors we've set. To do this, hit the F2 function key. A small window will tell you that the colors are being saved, and you will be returned to the main menu with the colors you just changed in effect. If you didn't like the colors you set for some reason, you can lose any changes made in the current session by hitting the ESC key instead of F2. page 24 End Notes ----------------------------------------------------------------------- That's about all there is to the D&D Tools program at this time. This section is generally reserved for trivia and other notes. The D&D Tools will be updated sometime in the future to reflect the changes made to the game system when the second edition of the DM's Guide and the Player's Handbook were released. This will occur whenever I get hold of the books. For Programmers: This entire program was written using QuickBASIC v4.5. It amounts to about 8900 lines of code, including blank lines and comments. If you liked the windows, menus and user interface in general, and are a QuickBASIC programmer yourself, you may like to know that the user interface was created entirely with a package of routines called the QBSCR Screen Routines. This is a comprehensive set of display-oriented routines for QuickBASIC version 4.0 or greater. These routines were developed by me, Tony Martin, and are available as shareware. If you would like to purchase these routines, or would like more information about them or other BAD SOFTWARE products, please feel free to write me at the address on the cover page of this manual. Also note that the D&D-specific routines are very modular and self-contained. If you would like copies of the source code for the D&D Programmer's Toolbox (which is free, but not public domain), which I also wrote, send a check for $5.00 made to Tony Martin to the address on the cover page of this manual, and I'll send you a disk with the source code. This will only include the D&D-specific routines, not the QBSCR Screen Routines. I hope you find some usefulness in this software. If not, that's OK, send the program to your local BBS or give it to a friend. If so, I would appreciate your comments, good or bad (I don't get much mail). Please send them to the address on the cover page of this manual. Try to be as specific as possible if there are bugs you are writing to report. page 25 Appendix A - The Dragon Generation System (DGS) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- If you're anything like me, dragons make up a big part of your conception of the realm of fantasy and Dungeons and Dragons. Indeed, it's half of the name of the game. And while the dragons contained in the Monster Manual I are good, they are also all about the same -- large intelligent creatures that have a breath weapon and fly around. You could only encounter them at high levels of experience. The Dragon Generation System was created by myself in order to make dragons more interesting and more diverse in the D&D game system. With the DGS, you can create dragons that can be encountered by first level characters (in which case, the dragon is very young), or by much higher level characters, or any experience level in between. Besides being more varied in size, age, and capability, the dragons created with the DGS have many more attributes associated with them that make them more like non-player characters (NPCs) than monsters. They have five numerical statistics, like characters, and a host of physical attributes that describe what the dragon looks like. Tables and charts are provided below for complete random determination of dragons. The system that follows is not public domain, but is free for use by yourself and whomever you wish to give a copy. You may change the system to suit your needs, but only your needs. Do NOT send modified copies of this system beyond your own domicile. And now to begin... Wingspan to Length Ratio ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dragon generation begins with the determination of of a ratio that describes the relationship of wingspan to length. This is important in determining not only the actual wingspan, but also whether or not the dragon can physically fly. If the wingspan is not at least the same distance as the dragon's length (wingspan to length ratio of 1:1), the dragon cannot physically fly, even though wings may be present. This will be discussed later when we actually calculate the wingspan. Calculating the wingspan to length (W/L) ratio is done in two parts. First, calculate a wingspan factor, and then a length factor. Use precentile dice (d%) and the following two tables to do this: page 26 d% roll... ...Wingspan Factor ------------------------------- 01 - 02 0.0 03 - 50 1.0 51 - 75 1.1 76 - 90 1.3 91 - 97 1.6 98 - 00 2.0 d% roll... ...Length Factor ------------------------------- 01 - 03 0.7 04 - 09 0.8 10 - 60 1.0 61 - 80 1.1 81 - 90 1.3 91 - 97 1.6 98 - 00 2.0 Note that if your wingspan factor is 0.0, your dragon has no wings at all. Now create the W/L ratio by placing the wingspan factor over the length factor. Example: Our first d% roll was 83, so the dragon's wingspan factor was 1.3. Our second d% roll was 12, so our length ratio is 1.0. Place the wingspan factor over the length factor and we have 1.3 over 1.0, or 1.3:1. This dragon can fly, because its W/L ratio is greater than 1:1. Hit Dice and Related Information ------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, with one d% roll, we determine the dragon's age, hit dice, length, mental modifier (MM), and claw/claw/bite damage. Roll the percentile dice and consult the table below: d% roll Age Hit Dice Length (ft) MM Claw/Claw/Bite --------------------------------------------------------------- 01 - 05 01 - 03 1 2 - 10 0.3 1/1/1-6 06 - 10 04 - 10 2 11 - 15 0.5 1-2/1-2/1-6 11 - 15 11 - 20 3 16 - 20 0.7 1-3/1-3/1-6 16 - 20 21 - 40 4 21 - 25 0.9 1-3/1-3/1-8 21 - 27 41 - 70 5 26 - 30 1.0 1-4/1-4/1-8 28 - 35 71 - 100 6 31 - 35 1.1 1-6/1-6/1-8 36 - 45 101 - 150 7 36 - 40 1.2 1-6/1-6/1-10 46 - 55 151 - 200 8 41 - 45 1.3 1-8/1-8/2-12 56 - 62 201 - 250 9 46 - 50 1.4 1-8/1-8/2-16 63 - 70 251 - 300 10 51 - 55 1.5 1-10/1-10/3-18 71 - 77 301 - 350 11 56 - 60 1.6 2-12/2-12/5-20 (continued) page 27 78 - 85 351 - 400 12 61 - 65 1.7 2-12/2-12/6-36 86 - 92 401 - 500 13 66 - 70 1.8 3-18/3-18/6-36 93 - 98 501 - 600 14 70 1.9 3-18/3-18/7-42 99 - 00 601+ 15 70 2.0 5-20/5-20/6-48 Note that if you want a dragon of a particular experience level or power, this table is where you do it. Select one of the categories, usually by the amount of hit dice you want. Wingspan ------------------------------------------------------------------- To calculate the dragon's actual wingspan in feet, use the following equation: WINGSPAN = (W/L FACTOR) x (LENGTH) Let's build on our previous example, a dragon that had a W/L ratio of 1.3:1. We use a d% and roll a 28. Consulting the chart above, we see that the dragon's length is 31 - 35 feet. To get a more specific number, you could roll a d10 and divide by 2, and add the result to 30. If we rolled a d10 and got a 6, we would add three to 30, yielding an actual length of 33 feet. Now, if we fill in the numbers, our equation above looks like this: WINGSPAN = 1.3 x 33 which evaluates to a wingspan of 42.9 feet. This dragon can fly just fine. Body Color and Ego Modifier ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dragons base their social hierarchy on color. If one dragon should encounter another, seniority is determined by the dragons' ego scores. Ego is directly modified by the dragon's color, hence the Ego Modifier that comes along with the color. Below is a table of colors a dragon may be, and the Ego Modifier associated with them. Roll a d% to determine color. d% roll Color Ego Modifier ----------------------------------------------- 01 - 04 Gloss Black 1.3 05 - 10 Matte Black 1.0 11 - 16 Metallic Dark Blue 1.0 17 - 21 Silver 1.1 22 - 27 Bronze 1.0 28 Gold 1.9 29 - 34 Burgundy 1.0 35 - 40 Amber 1.0 (continued) page 28 41 - 45 Emerald Green 1.1 46 - 52 Bright Green 0.8 53 - 63 Grey 0.5 64 - 68 Ruby Red 1.1 69 - 75 Dark Brown 0.8 76 - 81 Medium Brown 1.0 82 - 85 Tan 1.3 86 - 89 Pale Green 1.3 90 - 93 Violet 1.3 94 - 96 White 1.5 97 - 99 Rust 1.5 00 Spectral 2.0 The color Spectral is a magical color. The dragon with this hue will continuously coalesce all dragon colors randomly. Example: We roll a d% and get 98. Our dragon would have a color of Rust, and an Ego Modifier of 1.5. Later, when we discover how to generate the dragon's numerical characteristics, you'll see that the Ego score will by multiplied by this Ego Modifier for a final Ego score. Markings ------------------------------------------------------------------- In addition to their basic coloring, a dragon may have additional coloration in the form of markings. Roll a d% and consult the table below to determine if your dragon has any markings. d% roll Markings Location ---------------------------------------------------- 01 - 30 None 31 - 40 Main color fades to darker shade toward all extremeties 41 - 50 Main color fades to lighter shade toward all extremeties 51 - 57 Mottled patching of a darker * shade of the main color 58 - 65 Mottled patching of a lighter * shade of the main color 66 - 70 Mottled patching of a color * different from the main color 71 - 75 Tiger striping of a darker shade * of the main color 76 - 80 Tiger striping of a lighter shade * of the main color 81 - 83 Tiger striping of a different * color than the main color 84 - 90 Discolored underside of a darker shade of the main color (continued) page 29 91 - 96 Discolored underside of a lighter shade of the main color 97 - 00 Discolored underside of different color than main color If there is an asterisk (*) in the "Location" column of the above chart, then roll a d% and consult the following chart to determine the location of the markings on the dragon's body. d% roll Markings Location -------------------------------------------- 01 - 20 Markings cover entire body 21 - 50 Markings found only on back 51 - 70 Markings found only on sides 71 - 80 Markings found only on wings 81 - 90 Markings found only on head 91 - 00 Markings found only on underside Morphology ------------------------------------------------------------------- We now embark on the determination of the physical shape of the dragon's body. Dragons in general tend to be long and sinewy, but many characteristics can differ. Feel free to skip over any parts of the dragon's morphology you don't have an interest in. Note, however, that detail can bring a game to life. Head Adornment ------------------------------------------------------------------- The following table describes any interesting features a dragon may have on its head. Roll d% to determine what head adornment exists, if any. d% roll Head Adornment ----------------------------------- 01 - 15 Chin Fringe 16 - 30 Cheek Fringe 31 - 35 Horns, Bovine, Spiral 36 - 40 Horns, Bovine, Smooth 41 - 45 Horns, Swept, Smooth 46 - 50 Horns, Swept, Spiral 51 - 55 Spike, Nose-mounted 56 - 60 Spike, Forehead-mounted 61 - 00 None Fringe is a clump of loose flesh strands that resemble hair. It may be clumped or fan-shaped. Bovine horns sprout from the side of the head and extend outward at right angles to the lines of the head, while swept horns exit from the back of the head and extend parallel (roughly) to the lines of the head. Use your imagination -- these are only guidelines! page 30 Ears ------------------------------------------------------------------- The following table describes the various shapes a dragon's ears may take. Roll d% and consult the table to determine the shape of the dragon's ears. d% roll Ears --------------------- 01 - 70 Invisible 71 - 85 Pointed 86 - 95 Fringed 96 - 00 Amorphous Note that most dragons' ears are invisible on the surface, much like a lizard's are invisible (never call a dragon a lizard -- you may find yourself toasted). Teeth ------------------------------------------------------------------- The following table describes the type of teeth the dragon may have. Roll d% and consult the table to determine the type of teeth the dragon has. d% roll Teeth ------------------------------ 01 - 30 Small, Pointed 31 - 65 Fangs, Viper-like 66 - 95 Fangs, Canine-like 96 - 00 Fangs, Boar-like The small pointed teeth mean that the dragon's teeth are all pretty much the same size -- small but sharp. Viper-like fangs are long and thin, as well as razor sharp. Canine-like teeth are not as long as viper-like, and not as sharp, but are stronger and more general purpose. Boar-like fangs are really large tusks that grow up from the lower jaw. Number of Eyes ------------------------------------------------------------------- Most dragons have two eyes, but the placement of the eyes can differ. Rarely you will find the one-eyed dragon (Draco Cyclopsus) lurking about. Roll a d% and consult the following table to determine the number and placement of the eyes on your dragon. d% roll Eyes, Number and Placement -------------------------------------- 01 - 47 Two, Opposed 48 - 96 Two, Frontal 97 - 00 One, Frontal page 31 Opposed means the eyes are set apart, on the sides of the head. Frontal means both are set on the front of the head. Opposed eyes provide a much larger field of view, but reduced stereo vision. Frontal eyes have a smaller field of view, but much better stereo vision. Better stereo vision means better distance judgement and depth perception, while better field of view means less chance of surprise. The one-eyed dragon is more fiersome due to its strangeness, but lacks on both accounts -- poor depth perception and small field of view. Shape of Eyes ------------------------------------------------------------------- The following table allows you to determine the general shape of the eyes of your dragon. Roll d% and consult the table. d% roll Eye Shape --------------------------------------- 01 - 20 Slit-like 21 - 30 Round (Circular) 31 - 50 Snake-like (Vertical pupil) 51 - 00 Oval (Human-like) Color of Eyes ------------------------------------------------------------------- The following table allows you to determine randomly the color of a dragon's eyes. Roll a d% and consult the table. d% roll Eye Color --------------------- 01 - 15 Blue 16 - 20 Green 21 - 25 Red 26 - 35 Black 36 - 50 Grey 51 - 55 Yellow 56 - 65 Violet 66 - 75 Lavender 76 - 90 Brown 91 - 97 Silver 98 - 00 Gold Intermission ------------------------------------------------------------------- Are you tired of dragon morphology and details yet? Or perhaps tired of the different aspects of dragons' eyes? There are good ways to make all these details count for something besides flavor in your game. Case and point: Suppose your party of adventurers manages to kill a dragon, for whatever purpose. You happen to have page 32 a dwarven fighter who decides to take the dragon's metallic hide back to his mountain smithy from which he will make magical armor. You have a magic user who takes the dragon's golden eyes to sell in the city to other wizards -- golden dragon eyes being the rarest kind, and useful for all kinds of spells. The point is that with a little imagination, you can put these details to work for you and your players. So live it up -- generate all the parts of a dragon (or better yet -- let D&D Tools do it for you!). But to resume... Neck/Spine Adornment ------------------------------------------------------------------- This table describes any decoration that may be present on the dragon's neck and/or spine. Roll d% and consult the table. d% roll Neck/Spine Adornment -------------------------------- 01 - 10 Webbed Spines (Fan) 11 - 25 Spines, Short 26 - 35 Spines, Long 36 - 50 Fins, Pointed 51 - 60 Fringe, Short 61 - 70 Fringe, Long 71 - 00 None Short is defined as equal to or less than 6 inches in length, and Long is greater than 6 inches. Number of Limbs ------------------------------------------------------------------- The number of limbs dragons have varies. While most have four, a few have two and a few have six. Note that this number of extremeties calculation does not include wings as limbs. Roll d% and consult the table. d% roll Number of Limbs --------------------------- 01 - 90 Four 91 - 97 Two 98 - 00 Six Note that a dragon with only two extremeties has no frontal legs, only two rear legs, which are used solely for locomotion. A dragon with six limbs uses four strictly for locomotion, and only the front two are considered frontal limbs, with possible manipulatory capability (see next table). Frontal Extremeties ------------------------------------------------------------------- This table describes the frontal extremeties of the dragon. Note that a dragon with only two legs (see previous table) need not page 33 bother with this table -- it will not apply. Roll d% and consult the table. d% roll Frontal Limbs ------------------------------------------ 01 - 25 Elbowed, Manipulative Hands 26 - 60 Elbowed, Non-Manipulative Paws 61 - 00 Kneed, Non-Manipulative Paws Elbowed means at the elbow joint, the limbs fold forward, as on human arms. Kneed means the limb folds backward at the knee, such as on a dog or horse. Manipulative means the dragon can use its claws as a hand, and pick things up, while non-manipulative means the claws are simply like a foot, and cannot pick things up. Number of Digits ------------------------------------------------------------------- This table determines how many fingers/toes a dragon has on each foot. Roll d% and consult the table below. d% roll Number of Digits ---------------------------- 01 - 40 Three 41 - 75 Four 76 - 00 Five Claws ------------------------------------------------------------------- This table allows you to determine the type of claws a dragon has. Roll d% and consult the table below. d% roll Claws ---------------------------------------- 01 - 30 Retractable, Standard 31 - 70 Non-Retractable, Standard 71 - 80 Retractable, Knife-like 81 - 00 Non-Retractable, Knife-like Standard claws are pointed and somewhat rounded, while knife-like claws are thinner and have a razor sharp edge. Wings ------------------------------------------------------------------- If your dragon has wings (wingspan factor > 0.0), then you can use this chart to determine what kind of wings are present. Roll a d% and consult the table below. page 34 d% roll Wings -------------------------------- 01 - 40 Fleshy, Muscular 41 - 80 Bony, Membranous 81 - 95 Overlapping Scales 96 - 00 Feathered, Bird-like Skin ------------------------------------------------------------------- This table determines the type of outer surface your dragon has. Roll d% and consult the table below. d% roll Skin --------------------------- 01 - 10 Rough, Scratchy 11 - 50 Scaly, Leathery 51 - 60 Scaly, Metallic 61 - 90 Smooth 91 - 96 Fur, Short 97 - 00 Fur, Long Rough Scratchy skin is analogous to sandpaper. Any dragon that has Scaly Metallic skin subtracts one (1) from its armor class. Note that the D&D Tools program does this for you automatically. Tail ------------------------------------------------------------------- All dragons have tails. This table will determine the type of tail present on a dragon. Roll d% and consult the table below. d% roll Tail --------------------------------- 01 - 20 Prehensile, Plain 21 - 35 Prehensile, Whip-like 36 - 75 Plain 76 - 00 Whip-like A whip-like tail is much thinner than a plain tail, which is more muscular. Whip-like tails tend to be faster than plain ones. Tail Adornment ------------------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes a dragon's tail will have some sort of adornment on the end of it. The table below will determine if such adornment exists, and if so, what it is. Roll d% and consult the table below. page 35 d% roll Tail End Adornment ------------------------------ 01 - 25 Spade 26 - 60 None 61 - 70 Spikes 71 - 80 Blades 81 - 90 Stinger 91 - 00 Forked, Split If a stingered tail is present, all hit by this tail must save versus poison or die. Mental Characteristics ------------------------------------------------------------------- That's all there is to the dragon's morpohology. Now we move on to the dragon's mental abilities. There are five characteristics, much like the basic six for D&D player characters. The numerical ratings correspond fairly evenly. A dragon with an intelligence of 12 is roughly equivalent to a player character with the same score. The five characteristics are listed and explaind below. INTELLIGENCE: This is the dragon's ability to think logically and to reason. EGO: The Ego score determines the dragon's force of will and also how highly it thinks of itself. Used to determine pecking order among dragons. Modified by the dragon's color (Ego modifier). WISDOM: The dragons' equivalent of common sense and intuition. HOARD LUST: This is a measure of the dragon's desire for treasure, especially precious metals and gems. The greater the score, the greater the desire for treasure, and the more protective the dragon is of amassed treasure (the Hoard). TELEKINESIS: Some dragons have some degree of telekinesis, the ability to move physical objects by force of will. Determine these score by rolling a d10. This gives a base score of 1 to 10, which is then multiplied by the dragon's Mental Modifier (MM) determined previously along with age and hit dice. A score will never be below 1. Additionally, the Ego score is then multiplied again by the Ego Modifier determined earlier along with color. Therefore, EGO = d10 x MENTAL MODIFIER x EGO MODIFIER page 36 Telekinesis is determined by rolling a d% and consulting the table below, and then multiplying it by the Mental Modifier. Note that this is the only score that may be zero (0). d% roll Telekinesis Score ----------------------------- 01 - 40 0 41 - 50 1 51 - 59 2 60 - 68 3 69 - 77 4 78 - 83 5 84 - 88 6 89 - 92 7 93 - 96 8 97 - 99 9 00 10 On the Offensive ------------------------------------------------------------------- A dragon has three basic physical attacks, those of two frontal claws and a bite. This is further enhanced or modified as follows: - If a dragon has only two extremeties, it may only attack with one claw at a time, and then only every other round. - A dragon can make an additional attack with its tail, lashing at any enemy on either side. The tail does damage as follows, according to its end adornment: Tail Adornment... ...Damage ------------------------------- Spade 1d10 None 1d8 Spikes 1d12 Blades 2d6 Stinger 2d6 Forked 2d8 Don't forget if a dragon has a stinger on its tail and someone is hit, they must save versus poison or die. - If a dragon has knife-like claws, treat its claw damage as if it were one age group higher. On The Defensive ------------------------------------------------------------------- To determine a dragon's armor class (AC), Subtract its number of hit dice from ten (10), as in the following equation: page 37 AC = 10 - Hit Dice Thus, a dragon with 12 hit dice has an armor class of -2. Flying Speed ------------------------------------------------------------------- The actual flying speed of a dragon in miles per hour is calculated using the following formula: FLYING SPEED = (W/L Ratio) x Hit Dice x 25 Assuming a dragon had a W/L Ratio of 1.3, and 7 hit dice, the dragon would have a flying speed of FLYING SPEED = 1.3 x 7 x 25 or FLYING SPEED = 227.5 mph You can use this flying speed to figure dragon travel times from one place to another. Alignment ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dragons, like people, have alignments. To determine the dragon's alignment, use the two tables below. Alignment is calculated in two parts and then assembled to form the complete alignment. Part 1 Part 2 d% roll Alignment 1 d% roll Alignment 2 --------------------- --------------------- 01 - 25 Lawful 01 - 25 Good 26 - 75 Neutral 26 - 75 Neutral 76 - 00 Chaotic 76 - 00 Evil Roll a d% twice. If the rolls were 38 and 77, the dragon's alignment would be Neutral/Evil. Breath Weapon ------------------------------------------------------------------- The most famous natural defense a dragon has is the breath weapon. While the strictly traditional will say a dragon only breathes fire, this is far too limited to be interesting in a game system. Therefore the DGS has incorporated a table that randomly determines one of many interesting breath weapons. A dragon is limited in the number of times per day that he/she can use a breath weapon. The table below shows the relationship between hit dice and the number times a breath weapon can be used per day. page 38 Hit Dice Uses Per Day ------------------------ 1 - 3 1 4 - 6 2 7 - 9 3 10 - 12 4 13 - 15 5 The table below lists them all, and following the table is a detailed description of each breath weapon. d% roll Breath Weapon -------------------------------------- 01 - 07 Fire - Cone 08 - 14 Cold - Cone 15 - 22 Lightning - Line 23 - 29 Acid Spray - Cone 30 - 36 Paralyzation Gas - Cloud 37 - 43 Polymorph Gas - Cloud 44 - 50 Reduction Gas - Cloud 51 - 56 Sleep Gas - Cloud 57 - 63 Chlorine Gas - Cloud 64 - 70 Delusion Gas - Cloud 71 - 74 Negate Magic - Area 75 - 79 Light Flash - Area 80 - 83 Petrification, Rock - Area 84 - 87 Sonic Blast - Area 88 - 90 Metal to Wood - Area 91 - 93 Teleport Gas - Cloud 94 - 95 Petrification, Gem - Area 96 - 97 Phase Gas - Cloud 98 - 99 Time Gas - Cloud 00 Prismatic Spray - as Spell Areas of Effect ------------------------------------------------------------------- After each breath weapon you will notice there is an area of effect specified, such as cloud, area, or line. These are explained below, with calculations for actual sizes. CONE This area is (Hit Dice) / 2 x 10 feet in length, and has a width of (Hit Dice) / 4 * 10 feet at the end of the cone. LINE This area of effect includes any targets in a straight line from the point of origin (the dragon's mouth) to a distance of (Hit Dice) x 10 feet, and will affect anyone within 5 feet of either side of the line. page 39 CLOUD This area of effect has a length, a width, and a depth. The width and depth measurements are the widest at the middle of the cloud. These three measurements are calculated as follows: Length of Cloud = (Hit Dice) / 2 x 10 feet Width of Cloud = (Hit Dice) / 4 x 10 feet Depth of Cloud = (Hit Dice) /4 x 10 feet AREA This area of effect defines a roughly spherical shape, whose radius is calculated as (Hit Dice) / 2 x 10 feet, and whose center is the point of origin (the dragon's mouth). Breath Weapon Descriptions ------------------------------------------------------------------- The descriptions of each breath weapon in the breath weapons table are detailed below. You should find a description of each effect, including results and damage dealt to targets. FIRE: This breath weapon is a magically super-heated fire that sets anything combustible aflame, and causes damage equal to 1d8 per hit die of the dragon. A successful saving throw versus dragon's breath will cut damage in half. Any metal in the area must save versus magical fire or be melted, but in any case will remain too hot to touch for 1d4 rounds. If metal armor is worn and heated by this breath weapon, an additional 1d8 damage is done for each round that it is worn and still hot. COLD: The cold breath weapon is an exhaled, magically frozen frost that will cover and freeze anything it touches. Damage is 1d6 per hit die of the dragon. A successful saving throw has no effect on damage sustained, but will prevent the target from being frozen to immobility. If the saving throw is not successful, the target is frozen solid and cannot move. Thawing time is one (1) hour per hit die of the dragon -- only then will the victim be able to move again. Additionally, if a sharp blow is struck to the person while frozen, the person will shatter into tiny fragments. Recovery from being shattered can only be accomplished via a ressurection or wish. LIGHTNING: This is a bolt of high voltage, high power electricity that arcs in a relatively straight line from the dragon's mouth doing 1d8 of damage per hit die of the dragon. Those subject to the dragon's lightning must save versus dragon's breath or have their nervous systems short out for 4d4 turns, resulting in a -4 to hit modifier in combat, and acting as a confusion spell for the same duration. A successful save will negate this short circuit, but will not lessen the damage accrued. page 40 ACID: The Acid Spray, a fine but dense mist of highly corrosive fluid, does 1d6 of damage per hit die of the dragon. In addition, it will permanently lower the target's CHARISMA by 1 point for each 15 points of damage sustained. This can only be restored by the use of a restoration or wish spell. A successful saving throw will negate the loss of Charisma, but does not affect damage taken. PARALYZATION GAS: This gas is a weakly caustic substance that has the same effect as a hold person or monster spell. It also does 1 hit point of damage per hit die of the dragon. A successful save versus dragon's breath will reduce the effect of the paralyzation to that of a slow spell, but damage is not affected. POLYMORPH GAS: This breath weapon will cause the transformation of all in the area of effect into a creature of the dragon's choosing, usually something it can eat, such as cattle. A successful save versus dragon's breath will completely negate the effect. In other ways, this operates as a polymorph other spell. REDUCTION GAS: The use of this gas results in the reduction of all in the area of effect to a fraction of their original size. The fraction is determined by placing a 1 over the number of the dragon's hit dice + 1, as in: 1 ------------ Hit Dice + 1 Thus, a dragon with 4 hit dice would make anyone shrink to 1/5 of their original size. A successful save versus dragon's breath will completely negate the effect of this breath weapon. SLEEP GAS: All those in the area of effect of this breath weapon must successfully save versus dragon's breath or be put to sleep. If the saving throw is failed by a roll of 5 or more less than the score required (ex.: you needed a 12 to save, but only rolled a 7), the period of sleep is one year. Otherwise, a failed save indicates a period of sleep equal to the dragon's hit dice in days. CHLORINE GAS: This breath weapon creates a cloud of chlorine gas that remains in the area for a number of rounds equal to the number of hit dice the dragon has. Each person in the cloud will suffer 1-2 points of damage for each hit die of the dragon, each round they remain in the cloud. For each page 41 20 points of damage sustained from this breath weapon, 1 point of CHARISMA will be permanently lost, restorable through a restoration or wish spell. A successful save versus dragon's breath will cut the damage sustained in half. DELUSION GAS: This will cause all in the area of effect to experience strange hallucinations and act as if they were real. The hallucinations will always be in favor of the dragon, but related to the target's personality. A successful save versus dragon's breath will negate the effects of this breath weapon. NEGATE MAGIC: This weapon has the effect of negating all spells in the area of effect, and neutralizing the magic from all magic items, rendering them inert, while in the area of effect. Spells cast while in the area of effect are used up, but do nothing. If the level of the spell caster is greater than the hit dice of the dragon, the caster is allowed to save versus dragon's breath. If successful, the spell that was cast takes full effect. This breath weapon has a duration in rounds equal to the number of hit dice of the dragon. LIGHT FLASH: This breath weapon allows the dragon to send forth a brilliant flash of bright light (greater than 1 million candle power), that will render all in the area of effect blind unless a successful save versus dragon's breath is made. If the save is successful, affected persons are only temporarily blinded that causes them to sustain a -2 penalty on all attack rolls for a number of rounds equal to the dragon's hit dice. This flash also does 1-2 points of damage for each hit die of the dragon. PETRIFICATION, ROCK: All living matter in the area of effect for this breath weapon will be converted to fresh granite unless a successful save versus dragon's breath is made. SONIC BLAST: This breath weapon delivers forth a thunderous blast of sound that will deafen all in the area of effect permanently unless a save versus dragon's breath is successful. If this save is successful, a second saving throw is made. If this second roll is failed, the target passes out for 1d4 rounds. Deafened individuals need not make a second saving throw -- they automatically pass out for 1d4 rounds. METAL TO WOOD: All metal in the area of effect for this breath weapon is immediately converted to wood of a frail and dried out nature. The items, if magic, are no longer so if page 42 the magic depended on the item being metal. For example, a metal wand that turned to wood may still operate, but a suit of armor or a magic sword would no longer be magic. TELEPORT GAS: All those in the area of effect for this breath weapon must save versus dragon's breath or be teleported in a random direction 100 to 1000 miles away. Individuals may go different places, as determined by the chart below: d% roll Result ------------------------------------------------------ 01 - 70 All affected go to same place 71 - 90 All affected go to different places 91 - 00 Some go to same place, others go to others PETRIFICATION, GEM: This breath weapon converts all individuals in the area of effect to a type of randomly determined gemstone. They will retain their exact shape, but will be made of this gemstone. The dragon will then attempt to add the valuable statue to its hoard, but the ferocity with which it will do so is determined by its Hoard Lust characteristic. A successful save versus dragon's breath will negate the effect of this breath weapon. PHASE GAS: All in the area of effect of this breath weapon will be phased to another plane of existence, to be determined randomly. A successful save versus dragon's breath negates this effect. TIME GAS: Those affected by this breath weapon are thrown d1000 years into the future or past, to be determined randomly. All affected will go to the same time period. A successful save will negate the effect of the breath weapon. PRISMATIC SPRAY: This breath weapon operates exactly as the magic user spell of the same name. Magic Powers ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dragons throughout the ages tended to be studied from a great distance and then ganged up on by many, so that it never stood a chance of survival. Therefore the dragons generated by the DGS have an additional power available to them with which they are born. These powers tend to be defensive in nature, while the breath weapons are offensive. The table below lists all the magical powers possible, and is followed by detailed descriptions of each. page 43 d% roll Magic Power --------------------------- 01 - 08 Stone Shape 09 - 20 Shape Change 21 - 29 Soul Storage 30 - 36 Water 37 - 50 Flying 51 - 57 Phase 58 - 70 Invisibility 71 - 80 Heal 81 - 90 Regeneration 91 - 94 Weather Control 95 - 00 Teleport Magic Power Descriptions ------------------------------------------------------------------- Some magic powers have a limit on the number of uses per day. If this is so, it will be spelled out in the descriptions that follow. STONE SHAPE: This power allows a dragon to manipulate a mass of stone equal to the number of hit dice times 25, or STONE MASS = (Hit Dice) x 25 kilograms Manipulating is defined as altering the shape of the stone in any way. A boulder could be converted to gravel or a tall pillar, but the mass will always remain the same. This power can be used up to (Hit Dice) / 4 times per day. SHAPE CHANGE: A dragon possessing this ability can change shape as the ninth level magic user spell, Shape Change. This can be done up to (Hit Dice) / 3 times per day. SOUL STORAGE: This power allows a dragon place its soul into any object it desires for storage. If the dragon dies or is killed, it reappears two weeks later next to the object that contains its soul. It will be physically at age 1 year, but with all memories and mental characteristics as they were when death occurred. If the object that stores the soul is destroyed, the dragon dies immediately and irrevocably. WATER: Dragons as a rule hate water, and will never immerse themselves if they can avoid it. This power allows a dragon to immerse itself, while being able to move at it Flying Speed / 10 miles per hour under water (if the dragon cannot fly, calculate the speed he would have had and divide by ten. If the dragon had no wings, assume a hypothetical wingspan equal to its length, and then calculate the flying speed he would have had, and divide by ten). page 44 FLYING: This ability allows a dragon to fly normally if he could not. Calculate the flying speed of the dragon with the normal formula if he cannot fly, or assume a wingspan equal to the dragon's length if he does not have any wings. If the dragon could already fly normally, then this power serves to double the flying speed of the dragon. In addition to doubling the speed, the dragon also has the power to create a CLOUD. This cloud is a dwelling place in the air and is composed of condensed water vapor and magic. It requires one week for a dragon to fashion a cloud. The interior can be any shape, and the size of the cloud can is not limited. From the outside, this cloud is 95% undetectable from ordinary clouds. A dragon can fashion as many clouds as it desires, but will rarely have more than one at a time. PHASE: This ability allows a dragon to shift back and forth at will between planes. Only three different planes may be visited per week, but they may be visited any number of times. This ability can be used once every other round. INVISIBILITY: The dragon with this power can render itself invisible and inaudible for any length of time, for as long as it wishes. Normal restrictions apply, in that when it attacks, it becomes visible. HEAL: This allows the dragon to heal (as the clerical spell) any creature, including itself. This can be performed a number of times per week equal to the dragon's Wisdom / 2. WEATHER CONTROL: This allows the dragon to alter the weather one stage from its current status. The chart below shows the different stages of weather. The dragon may only move from one item to an adjacent item at a time, and must follow one of the connecting lines. /--> Stormy / /------> Light Rain <-------> Snowy / \ Sunny <---> Overcast \--> Hail The dragon could, for example, move the weather from overcast to sunny, or from overcast to light rain, or from light rain to stormy, but not from sunny directly to stormy. Accompanying temperature changes occur as well. This power may be used a number of times per week equal to the dragon's Intelligence / 2. page 45 TELEPORT: This ability allows the dragon to teleport itself or someone else to anywhere on the same plane with no error, and without requiring a system shock check. A clear picture of the destination is required for teleportation. This power can be used a number of times per week equal to the dragon's Intelligence / 2. The End ------------------------------------------------------------- That's all there is to the DGS. Hope you like it. If you have any comments on it or changes you'd like to see, please drop me a line at the address on the cover page of this manual. page 46