____________ _________ _______ ______ ____________ __________ _____ ______ ____________ __________ ______ ____ ____ _________ _______ ____ ____ _________ _______ ____ ____ ____ ____ ______ ____ ____ ____ ____ ______ ______ ____ ____ ____ ________ ______ PRESENTS SECRET OF THE SILVER BLADES RULE BOOK Amigatized by Orage Rouge Thanks to Lazarus Long/NASA for the original! Introduction. Welcome to the Official Advanced Dungeons and Dragons computer product, Secret of the Silver Blades, a Forgotten Realms Fantasy role-playing epic. This game is based on the rules and background created by TSR, Inc. and a story line created especially for this game. The people of New Verdigris have uncoverd an ancient evil that threatens to close forever the mine that is their livelihood. In desperation the miners gathered up the whole of their treasury and sacrificed it to the Well of Knowledge, beseeching the ancient artifact to send them heroes to combat the monsters -- Your Party of adventurers are those heroes. When you regain your senses after being brought to the Well of Knowledge, the Mayor of New Verdigris explains that the mining town is desperate for heroes to save it from the evil that has been unearthed. The mayor will give you several magical items and money to purchase equipment. You should distribute the items to the members of your party and then go into the town to finish outfitting your adventurers. Transfering Characters from Curse of the Azure Bonds Secret of the Silver Blades will accept characters which were created and played in Curse of the Azure Bonds, to transfer charcters use the REMOVE CHARACTER FROM PARTY command in the Party Creation Menu to take characters from their adventuring parties, then use the ADD CHARACTER TO PARTY command to put them in a Secret of the Silver Blades party. Using Menus All commands are menu based, and the concept of the active character is central to the game. Outside of combat the active character's name is highlighted on the display. During combat the active character is surrounded with a cursor at the start of his combat segment. During combat the active character is chosen automatically according to a character's initiative and random factors. Other times the active character may be selected by you before choosing commands. If a command affects the whole party, just select the command. If the command effects one character make that character active and then choose the command. Beginning to Play To begin playing the game you must load a saved game or generate characters and band them together into a party. This first menu gives you the intial options : CREATE A NEW CHARACTER ADD CHARACTER TO PARTY LOAD SAVED GAME EXIT TO DOS Create New Charcters - is used to build a character. Detailed information about character, races, classes and so on is available in the journal. (The Journal will be released soon! Be Patient - Lazarus). This command displays the following menus to define the character. - Pick Race - lists six races a player-character can be in the Forgotten Realms. - Pick Gender - lists the sex the character can be. Gender affects the characters maximum strength. - Pick Class - lists the class or classes the character is qualified for based on race. - Pick Alignment - lists all the possible alignments for the character based on character class. The computer randomly generates the character's ability scores. If you are not happy with the character's scores you may roll them again. Remember that you can use the MODIFY CHARACTER command on the Party Creation/Hall Menu to change the character's ability scores and hitpoints ( HP ) after the character has been generated. Name Character - provides a 15 letter space to type in the character's name. This name will be automatically saved to disk. Select Combat Icon - allows you to design the shape that will represent the character in combat. Customize this icon to represent the character's favorite weapon, armor, and colors. Different computers and graphic adapters have different capabilites, experiment to create the best icon for each character. Add Character to Party Allows you to add characters to the party from the saved game disk. A party is a group of characters composed of up to six player characters (Called PCs) and up to two non-player characters (called NPCs). A party should have a balanced mix of characters with different classes. You will also need to indicate the last game the character adventured in. Party Creation/Hall Menu Drop Character - elimnated a character from the party and erases him from the saved game disk. A dropped character may not be recovered. Modify Character - can change the characters ability scores and HP. Use Modify Character to change a character generated in Secret of the Silver Blades to match a favorite AD&D game character. A character cannot be modified once he has begun adventuring Train Character - (from Hall Menu only) increases a character's level when he has gained enough experience points (XP). Choose the character to train and if he has sufficent XP he will be able to advance one level. If a character has gained enough XP to advance more than one level, he will advance one level and then lose all XP in excess of one point below that required for advancement to the next level. See the section on Experience Points in the Journal for an example. Advancing in levels takes no game time. When magic-users advance, they may add a spell to their grimoire (spell book). See the Maximum Level Limites by Race, Class, and Prime Requisite chart in the journal for level limites. There is no charge for training characters. Human Change Class - allows human characters to become a dual class character. Dual class characters lose the advantages of their first class until they exceed that level in the new class. For more information about Dual Class characters look under character Classes in the Adventurer's Journal. View Character - displays a character. Remove Character from Party - tranfers a character from the party to the saved game disk. Save Current Game - stores the current game to the saved disk or directory. Begin Adventuring - Starts the Game!! Non - Player Characters (NPCs). During the game the party will encounter non-player characters (NPCs). They may talk to the party, attack or even offer to join the party. There are two kinds of NPCs : those who volunteer to join the party and those who will only give information or fight the party. NPCs that join the party are treated like player characters with a few differences. The computer commands the NPCs in battle. They have morale. If things are going badly for the party, NPCs may run! Items can be traded to some NPCs, but they cannot be traded from conscious NPCs to other characters. If an NPC dies however you can use the TRADE command on the items Menu to take his items. Only TWO NPCs at a time may join the party and they may take a share of all treasures found. Viewing Characters The View command displays the character summary screen. Characters have no money at the start of the adventure, although the Mayor of New Verdigris will give the party some to help outfit them. The party will accumulate wealth, in the form of gems, jewelry, and some coins as they go. The value of gems and jewelry varies, and can only be determined by having the items appraised. Coins always have the same values. Platinum coins are the most valuable while gold and copper are more common. The relative value of each kind is : 1 Platinum piece (PP) = 5 Gold pieces (GP) = 10 Electrum pieces (PP) = 100 Silver pieces (SP) = 1000 Copper pieces (CP). Encumbrance is the total weight the character is carrying. Combat movement is how many squares a character can move during a combat segment. This is based on his readied armor, strength, and totaly encumbrance. Character Status OKAY - Status means that the characters has positve HP and can move and fight normally. UNCONSCIOUS - Status means that the characters has exactly 0 HP. He cannont move or fight, but is in no danger of dying. DEAD - Status means that the character has kicked the bucket. Non-elf characters have a chance of being resurrected with a Raise Dead spell. The character's chance of being resurrected is influenced by his constitution. See the constitution chart in the journal. Stoned - Status means that the character has been turned to stone. The character can be returned to normal with a Stone to Flesh Spell, which is availble at the temple in New Verdigris. Magic Users may also get a Stone to Flesh Spell if they are of high enough level. Fled - Status means that the character fled from the previous battle. After the battle he will rejoin the party. Gone - Status means that the character has been totally destroyed. Nothing can bring the character back to life. From the View Menu several options are available to inspect the active character. Not all these commands are available at all times. Items Menu - Ready - is used to change the status of a weapon, armor, or other item. Only readied items can be used in combat. A character cannot ready more than two hand-held items at once. Arrows and crossbow quarrels are assumed to be in a quiver and can be readied at all times. Some items may take one or two hands to ready. Some items can only be readies in either camp or combat. - USE - Activates an Item. - Trade - is used to transfer an item from one character to another. Choose the character to trade to and then choose the item or items to trade. Remember that a conscious NPC will not give up an item once he has it. - Drop - Permanently removes an item from a character. Dropped items can NOT be recovered. - Halve - will divide a bundle of some items into two equal bundles. - Join - combines all similar items into one line. No more than 255 similar items can be joined on line line. Some items, such as poitions, cannot be joined. - Sell - is described under the Armoury Menu - ID - is described under the Armoury Menu - Spells - is a listing of the spells a character has memorized and can cast. HEAL - is an ability of Paladins. Paladins may heal two HP (per level) of damage a day. Select the heal command and then select the character to be healed. This command is only displayed when a paladin has a heal available. CURE - is another ability of Paladins. A Paladin may perform one Cure Disease per week at levels 1-5, two cures a week at levels 6-10, and three cures a week at levels 11-15. This option is only displayed if the paladin has a cure available. Adventuring After setting up your party and reading the background information in the Adventurer's Journal, it is time to head for adventure, fame and glory. During your adventuring the party will engage in fierce battles, find treasures, and sometimes have to stop, recuperate, and memorize spells for futre use. Adventure Menu. Move - is used to change the party's facing or to move forward. The party can turn right or left, turn around, or move forward. Normally each move forward takes one minute of game time. If the party has Search On, each move takes ten minutes. Area - Toggles between the Area and 3-D View. In many regions this command may not be available. Cast - displays the Cast menu if the active character is a Spell-Caster. See the Magic section for more infomation. Some spells have no effects in combat. View - Displays the character screen and the View Menu. Encamp - displays the Encamp menu. Search - toggles searching on and off. A party moving with Search off is a moving at a normal rate of one minute per move. With Search On the party takes 10 minutes per move because they are checking for secret doors, traps, etc. When a Party has Search On, SEARCH will be displayed on the screen to the right of the point of view windows. Because of the slow speed the chance of random encounters is also greatly increased. Look - is used to search an individual square. A LOOK command acts as if the party moved into the current square with Search on. Encamp Menu. The Encamp Menu includes options like saving the Game, Resting to heal, and memorize spells, and changing items such as game speed or party orders. REST - Allwos characters to memorize spells and to heal naturally. Characters catch their normal sleep without having to encamp. When spells are momorized, the intial rest time is established by the time necessary to memorize any spells selected from the MEMORIZE command in the Magic Menu. For every 24 hours of uninterrupted hours of rest in camp, each wounded character regains one HP. Rest can be interrupted by encounters. If possible find safe places to take LONG rests, such as the Mayor's Residence in New Verdigris or places that you are told are safe during the game. Rest Menu - includes commands Rest,Days,Hours,Minutes,Add,Subtract,and EXIT Alter Menu - included commands Order, Drop, Speed, Icon, pics, and Game Level and Exit. Fix Command in Encamp Menu - is used to heal many wounded characters with a single command. ALl characters with first level clerical spells will memorize as many cure light wounds as they can, cast them on the party, and then rememorize their previous spells automatically. FIX takes game time and may be interrupted by an encounter. Fix will not return HP to diseased characters, a Cure Disease spell must first be cast upon them. Magic To get the Magic Menu options, the active character must be able to cast spells. Spell-Casters can get a list of their memorized spells from the Cast option of the Magic Menu or from the Spells option of the View Menu. They can get a list of their spells on scrolls from the SCRIBE option in the magic menu. Civilization In The Game.......... The Mining town of new Verdigris will provide many valuable services and supplies for the adventurer. In the town you will find an armour, hall, temple, bar, and the Mayor's and Mage's Residences. The Mayor's Residence - is a good place to rest and gather information. He will inform you of anything the people of New Verdigris have learned since your last visit. Whenever the party is in town, the mayor will provide a safe place to rest and memorize spells. While staying with the mayor, the party may safely encamp to memorize spells and regain HP! The Armoury - Provides a place to buy and sell equipment using the Armoury Menu of Buy, View, Take, Pool (to pool Money), Share, appraise, and exit. The Mage's House - is where you go to purchase magic items. The options that appear are similar to those in the Armoury Menu. The Hall - is where the characters can advance levels. Here you can modify the party using the Party Creation / Hall Menu. The Temple - offers healing spells and performs other clerical services. The commands on the Temple Menu are the same as those on the Armoury Menu and the addition of the Heal Command. The Bar - is a rowdy place full of gossip, stories, and information. Buy a round of drinks and listen to the stories and pinch the Bar Maid's Butt. The Vault - will store money and equipment for you. You may also convert platinum pieces into gems. One hundred platinum pieces will usually buy you one gem. There is no charge for this service. The Old Man - in New Verdigris is a valuable source of information and clues. All you have to do is FIND him. The Well of Knowledge - is another valuable source to the players. This Powerfull magic place is where the people of New Verdigris wished for warriors (you) to combat the menace of evil. The well will also answer queries you may have about your adventure. 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