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Ancient Domains Of Mystery An Interactive Adventure In A Fantastic World Copyright 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 by Thomas Biskup. All Rights Reserved All Over The World Dedication ---------- To my parents for always allowing me to choose my path in life. To Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax for inventing the most wonderful pastime ever. Table Of Contents ----------------- Introduction The Coming of Chaos The Stars & The Omens of Birth The Player Character The Races The Classes Alignment Skills Increasing skills Weapon skills Attributes Experience and Advancement Mindcraft Corruptions The Game The Main Screen The Display Miscellaneous Commands Movement Dice The Inventory Filtering the stuff list Spells Shops Wishing Saving the Game How to start -- a beginner's guide Appendix A: Credits Appendix B: Customizing ADOM Appendix C: Command Line Options Appendix D: Customizing the keymap Introduction ------------ Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM for short) is a rogue-like game, which means that it is a single-user game featuring the exploration of a dungeon complex. You control a fictional character described by race, class, attributes, skills, and equipment. This fictional character is trying to achieve a specific goal (see below) and succeed in a difficult quest. To fulfill the quest you have to explore previously undiscovered tunnels and dungeons, fight hideous monsters, uncover long forgotten secrets, and find treasures of all kind. During the game you explore dungeon levels, which are randomly generated each game. You might also encounter certain special levels, which present a particular challenge or are built around a certain theme. IMPORTANT: If you are a first-time player you should read the 'How to start' section of this manual. The Coming of Chaos ------------------- For 6000 years the world of Ancardia was left untouched by the incursions of Chaos, but finally the sinister forces of evil and darkness have found this young and teeming world. In a remote mountain complex, huge dungeons were formed by great magical powers. They seem to contain some kind of dimensional gate, which allows terrors from unknown dimensions to enter the world of Ancardia and wreak havoc. For years nobody understood the true cause of sudden ambushes by evil monsters, incursions by hideous monster armies, and the rising tide of Chaos. Finally Khelavaster, the great sage, uncovered an ancient prophecy foretelling the Coming of Chaos -- a dark and sinister time, when the skill, power and valor of a single hero would determine the future of the world. The ancient scrolls of prophecy hinted at a remote mountain range -- the Drakalor Chain -- which was destined to be the final battle ground for an epic fight between Chaos and Order. Khelavaster quickly made this known to all the intelligent races of Ancardia. Within weeks many heroes set out to find the source of the chaotic forces and destroy it. Khelavaster was among the first to enter those dungeons. Many heroes have followed him since then but no one has ever returned from the dungeons. Thus the forces of Chaos continue their conquest and threaten to defile Ancardia... You are one of those young heroes willing to risk your life to defeat the forces of Chaos, gain fame, fortune, power, and ultimately save your world and your people. After weeks of arduous travel you have finally reached the center of the Drakalor Chain and now face the entrance to those dungeons of mystery, which must contain a means to save your world. You were told to visit a small village by the name of "Terinyo" and talk to the village elder for he might have the latest information about the region. Steady yourself and be prepared to engage in a heroic struggle for the fate of your home world! The Price of the Game --------------------- ADOM is available for free as long as you honor the license of the game (either see the file 'license.doc' or type 'adom -b' at your command line. If you want to thank me (Thomas Biskup) for creating ADOM, maintaining it, fixing all discovered bugs, providing support and generally spending a lot of time on the game and if you are having fun with the game, please consider rewarding my efforts by sending a postcard to the following address from wherever you are living: Thomas Biskup Timmerbrinksweg 37 45896 Gelsenkirchen Germany I *love* receiving postcards from all over the world. Weigh the fun ADOM provided to you against the ten minutes you probably need to send write and send such a postcard -- and if you find that you like and enjoy the game -- please do it. I'm really not asking much... am I? To further the development of the game... ----------------------------------------- There is an institution called 'World Charts Download Top 100 Games' available on the Internet which lists the favorite games of netizens all over the game. You can vote for ADOM on this chart (at the point of this being written ADOM holds place #2 on that list). The further ADOM advances to the top the more I am encouraged to add even more nifty and exciting features to the game (if people like my game, my work has meaning and this greatly boosts my enthusiasm). To vote you just need to visit the following WWW page and follow the links at that place: http://www.worldcharts.com/gld.html The Horoscope ------------- The sky of Ancardia is covered by a myriad of stars. One moon is circling the world, too. The inhabitants of Ancardia believe in the magical forces controlling the movements of the celestial bodies. Magic energies influence ones life dependent on the time of birth. Each month is named after a particular star sign. One year has 12 months, each with four weeks of seven days each. In addition there are two special days in each month which don't belong to any week. The first day in a month is Darknight, when no moon is visible. The 16th day of a month is called Silvernight, when the moon shines brightly. Darknight is considered to be a dangerous day followed by a night filled with evil magics. In contrast Silvernight is a joyful day (where usually nobody works) and is followed by a night full of feasts and reveries. During the day of Darknight all evil magics are very strong while good magics are severly hampered. On the day of Silvernight good magics enjoy great advantages while evil magics are severely hindered. The weeks usually are named Oneweek, Twoweek, Threeweek and Fourweek. Thus a typical month is structured like this: Day Specific Name ----- ------------- 1 Darknight 2- 8 Oneweek 9-15 Twoweek 16 Silvernight 17-23 Threeweek 24-30 Fourweek The following twelve star signs are used to name the months: Spring ........ Book .......... 2 Wand .......... 3 Unicorn ....... 4 Summer ........ Salamander .... 5 Dragon ........ 6 Sword ......... 7 Autumn ........ Falcon ........ 8 Cup ........... 9 Candle ........ 10 Winter ........ Wolf .......... 11 Tree .......... 12 Raven ......... 1 When the game is started a star sign is determined (together with the birthday of your character). The star sign has some effects on the career of the character. Note that some signs are quite variable in the attributes they govern. Also he will be slightly favoured during the month named after his star sign. Finally characters tend to be very lucky on their birthday. You might want to consider these factors when creating a character. Raven: Death, Messengers, Companion, Tricks Book: Knowledge, Learning, Laws Wand: Laws, Neutral Magic, Leadership Unicorn: Grace, Beauty, Purity, Innocence, Dignity Salamander: Magic (especially fire), Eloquency Dragon: Ferocity, Combat, Might, Rulership, Anger, Combat Magic Sword: Combat, Execution, Tactics, Strategy Falcon: Nobility, Hunt, Force of Personality Cup: Collected Knowledge, Experience, Comradery Candle: Hope, Life, Serenity, Transition Wolf: Hunt, Ferocity, Community with Nature, Devotion, Loyalty Tree: Tradition, Inflexibility The game itself begins on the first day of the month of the Unicorn. Game-related effects of star signs ---------------------------------- Each star sign has specific game effects which will be enumerated below: Raven ***** Harder to trick by deceptions, messengers will reach you faster, youself are faster (+5 to speed), companions are more powerful, +2 to initial Perception. Book **** Lawful tendencies (it's harder to change), one free skill increase per level, increased chance to learn spells. Wand **** Lawful tendencies (it's harder to change), spells for neutral casters are 10% cheaper in power points, +2 to initial Charisma, starts out with lawful tendencies but gets +2 to Mana and 10% more power points if neutral initially. Unicorn ******* Harder to corrupt by Chaos effects, hard to change to a different alignment once lawful, +2 to initial Appearance. Salamander ********** Fire magic is 20% cheaper in power points, +1 to initial Charisma, +3 to initial Mana, +20% to power points (always). Dragon ****** 50% increased effects from Tactics settings, -3 to initial Willpower, +2 to initial Strength, +1 to initial Toughness, costs to increase weapon skills are reduced by 10%. Sword ***** Positive modifiers from Tactics settings are increased by 50%, costs to increase melee weapon skills are reduced by 20%, +1 to the initial Learning score. Falcon ****** Very good at surviving in the wilderness, +2 to initial Willpower, +1 to initial Charisma. Cup *** Requires 10% less experience points to advance in level, receives one free skill advance every two levels, learns spells more effectively (20% better than others), +2 to initial Learning. Candle ****** Heals faster, the gods are more forgiving when asked for favours. Wolf **** +3 to initial Perception, +3 to initial Willpower, food is more nutritious for you (by +10%). Tree **** It's generally hard to change alignment, +5 to initial willpower. The Player Character -------------------- To be able to fight Chaos, you will have to create a fictional character, often called the player character (or PC). This character will be chosen from one of the intelligent races of Ancardia, will undergo long and hard hours of training to learn a profession and many skills enhancing his chance to defeat evil and finally save the world. All these concepts are explained in detail in the sections below. The Races --------- In ADOM, a wide variety of fantasy races can be chosen for your player character. Each race has certain advantages and disadvantages and receives different equipment and attributes. Each race also gains some default skills as their cultural heritage (see the section on skills for a complete list of all available skills in the game). You can choose among the following races: HUMAN -- Humans are the most generic of all races. They tend to be adaptable, suited for every profession and generally well equipped. They are also very fast learners. While humans do not have any other special advantages, they don't suffer from any disadvantages either. Humans train in the following skills: Climbing, Food Preservation, Haggling, and Swimming. TROLL -- Trolls are extremely huge and strong creatures with large muscles, pointy teeth, big horns and a lot of hair all over their body. They are nearly always in a bad mood. Most races shun them because of this. Trolls are by far the strongest and the dumbest race available in this game. They make for excellent fighters and lousy magicians. Trolls are somewhat disadvantaged by their great size (good targets!) and the great amounts of food they need to sustain their bulk. They also learn very slowly and need a lot of experience points to advance in their profession. On the positive side, they are by far the toughest and strongest race in the game and heal real fast. Trolls train in the following skills: Athletics, Bridge Building, Food Preservation, Gemology and Mining. HIGH ELF -- High Elves are a beautiful race of immortal creatures. High Elves are of slender build, nearly six feet 10 inches tall and generally have golden or auburn hair and amber or purple eyes. Their ears are very pointed and their skin is very fair. They live in the forests, where they like to hunt, frolic, engage in musical and romantic affairs and generally have a good time. They tend to shun the other races, partially because of their arrogance and partially because they have had conflicts with most other races in their long history. High Elves are excellent fighters (great shots with their deadly long bows!) and mages. Their magical powers are especially noteworthy. On the negative side, they are not very well-liked and somewhat frail. High Elves train in the following skills: Dodge, Listening, Literacy, and Stealth. GRAY ELF -- Gray Elves are the most noble of all elven races. Their beauty is ethereal, they move with unsurpassed grace and are among the greatest mana-wielders in the game. Gray Elves look similar in appearance to High Elves, although most of them sport silver or golden hair and purple or light blue eyes. They are even of more slender built than their lesser cousins. But besides their great beauty, they are arrogant and haughty beings, generally disliked by most other races, that have contact with them (which is next to no one on regular basis... mostly you will meet a Gray Elf in a chance encounter -- if you notice them at all!). Gray Elves tend to regard all the non-elven races as lesser beings, more closely related to animals than to "True Beings", as they like to call themself. They are also even more frail than their lesser cousins, which they balance with a greatly enhanced agility and magical powers, of which other races only dream. Gray Elves train in the following skills: Dodge, Listening, Literacy, and Stealth. DARK ELF -- Dark Elves are as evil as Gray Elves are beautiful. Many millennia ago they were exiled into the Underdark after a long and hateful war with the other elven sub-races. Dark Elves worship Lol'th, the evil demon queen of all spiders. In the millennia beneath the earth, they were corrupted by the dark secrets they managed to unearth. Their skin is as black as their souls. In contrast their heir is of pure white color. Dark Elves are of very slender frame and slightly smaller than their surface-dwelling cousins. Dark Elves are hated and feared by almost everyone (because of their cruelty and lack of mercy). They possess great magical talents, are very nimble and have an excellent perception in the underground. Because of their long absence from the sunlight, they are almost blind when adventuring in the daylight. Their greatest enemies are their surface cousins. Despite the general evil disposition of this race over the centuries, they have spawned some very rare individuals, who have left their homelands and are eternally remembered in legends and song because of their valor, goodwill and courage. Dark Elves train in the following skills: Alertness, Climbing, Find Weakness, and Stealth. DWARF -- Dwarves are a small, hardy and taciturn race. They barely grow to be four and a half feet. They body is stocky and their endurance is legendary. Dwarves are especially proud of their long beards and their great craftsmanship with metals. The dwarven race has spawned the greatest of all smiths. Their skill in forging weapons and armor is unsurpassed, as is their greed for gold. They are able warriors, brave to the fault, have an excellent sight in the underground and are experts at detecting secret doors and traps. Dwarves train in the following skills: Climbing, Detect Traps, Metallurgy, Mining and Smithing. GNOME -- Gnomes are the smaller cousins of dwarves. They live in rolling hills and wooded valleys. They are great connoisseurs of gems and the best gem carvers known in the whole world. Gnomes are famous for their very black humor and their great magical skills. They are about four feet high and not so stocky like dwarves. They groom their beards very well, although they generally favor short cropped beards. Gnomes are great leather workers and gnomish boots are a quality product every race greatly enjoys (except trolls maybe). Their greatest enemies are the kobolds living in the tunnels below the mountains. They normally attack each other on sight. Gnomes train in the following skills: Gemology, Listening, Mining, Pick Pockets, and Ventriloquism. HOBBIT -- Hobbits are the smallest of the little people. They grow to be an average three to three and a half feet high. They are sturdy and brave. Most hobbits prefer to walk without shoes. Their feet are very well accustomed to this, as they sport a leathery sole and are covered with thick and bushy hair. Hobbits rarely wear beards and generally prefer short-cut hair. Hobbits (mostly) are not an adventurous people. They enjoy their burrows, like to farm and sit together to tell stories. Their greatest pride are their beautiful gardens and the good tobacco they produce. Hobbits generally mistrust outsiders and foreigners and shun them most of the time. A hobbit needs six meals a day to be happy and a comfortable bed to sleep in. Those few hobbits, that chose to be an adventurer, are mostly very talented thieves. Because of their small size and their low strength, hobbits are not very well suited to be fighters. Hobbits train in the following skills: Archery, Cooking, Food Preservation, Gardening and Stealth. ORC -- Orcs belong to the dark races, created in the same dark pits as trolls. They mostly are the arch nemesis of many of the intelligent races, as they reproduce quickly and enjoy plundering, killing and spreading havoc in general. The average orc is five and a half to six feet high, weighs 130 to 150 pounds and has a gray to black skin. Their eyes glow red in the dark. Orcs shun sunlight, as it tends to hurt their eyes greatly. Because orcs mostly live in the underground they are very good at detecting secret doors. Orcs make for good fighters and are also known to spawn mighty priests serving their cruel war deity, Gruumsh, the One-Eyed and All-Seeing. Orcs train in the following skills: Backstabbing, Climbing, Find Weakness, Metallurgy and Mining. DRAKELING -- Drakelings are humanoid lizard-like creatures about six feet tall. They weigh 150 to 200 pounds and are covered with blue or green scales. They speak with a hissing accent and normally wear few clothes (besides their armor and weapons). Drakelings are able to spit a powerful acid at enemies, although this fatigues them. The origins of the Drakeling race are hidden in a past long forgotten. They reappeared some years ago and quickly spread across the continent. Sages believe, that they remained in a kind of hibernation for many centuries, which only recently ended. Drakelings are good at everything. They are very deadly shots with a weapon unique to their race, the drakish scurgar. Drakelings are cold-blooded creatures. Therefor extreme temperatures influence them: if it gets cold they slow down. On the other hand great heat is beneficial for them as it speeds up their reflexes. Drakelings train in the following skills: Alertness, Food Preservation, Music, and Swimming. The Classes ----------- In ADOM every character belongs to a certain profession, which describes, what he learned in his youth. This profession is called a class and determines his special abilities and starting equipment (equipment is also dependent on race). Also each class receives a skill package to account for the knowledge you gain during your apprenticeship (see the section on skills for a complete list of all skills available in the game). The following classes can be chosen: ARCHER -- Archers are deadly shots. Although the name of their class seems to imply this, not all of them prefer to use bows. The race of an archer has great influence on their preferred missile weapon. Archers are expert fighters in missile combat, rarely missing their targets and trained to hit the vital spots of their opponents. In close combat archers are less formidable, although they still are dangerous. Archers are trained in the following skills: Alertness, Archery, Climbing, Concentration, Dodge, Fletchery, Listening, and Stealth. ASSASSIN -- Assassins are a dark and mysterious class. They are trained to end the life of their opponents quickly and silently. Many of them favor poisons to achieve this goal. Assassins are trained in the following skills: Alchemy, Alertness, Archery, Backstabbing, Climbing, Detect Traps, Find Weakness, Open Locks, and Stealth. BARBARIAN -- Barbarians hail from the harsh northern lands of Ancardia, from the roughest mountain peaks, the wildest hills and the most remote forests. What they lack in equipment they more than equalize with their great strength, enormous toughness and deadly weaponry. Barbarians are very well accustomed in the arts of battle and are well prepared to cope with the dangers of the wilderness. Barbarians are trained in the following skills: Athletics, Climbing, Dodge, First Aid, Herbalism, Stealth, Survival, Swimming, Two Weapon Combat, and Woodcraft. BARD -- Bards are musicians, entertainers and entrepreneurs. They try to make an easy living by telling good stories for a meal. Most of them are below average fighters and possess not much equipment. This is balanced by their knack to stumble upon strange items. Also bards make fast friends with strange beings at times. A bard starts his dungeoneering life with one loyal monster or animal companion. Once a bard has become friends with another being, this friendship lasts for a lifetime. Many legendary bards in Ancardia were accompanied by monster or animal companions of equal fame. It is said that talented bards are able to calm the spirit of the beast with their ethereal music. Bards are not trained in specific skills (except for Music), but rather receive a randomly determined group of skills. BEASTFIGHTER -- Beastfighters are partially mystic, partially primitive warriors, which excel at weaponless combat. They are lightly armored but extremely tough and fearsome opponents due to their weaponless fighting style. They are well accustomed to wilderness settings and very resistant to poisons -- especially to animal poisons. The more experienced a beastfighter becomes, the more deadly he is in melee combat. Beastfighters are trained in the following skills: Athletics, Climbing, Dodge, Healing, Herbalism, Listening, Stealth, Swimming, and Survival. DRUIDS -- Druids are nature priests. They worship the Old Gods and regard all nature as a holy thing to worship and protect. Their specialty are spells of nature and protection. It is said that no animal will willingly harm a druid. Druids are trained in the following skills: Climbing, Concentration, First Aid, Healing, Herbalism, Listening, Literacy, Survival, Swimming, and Woodcraft. ELEMENTALISTS -- Elementalists are magicians specialized on dealing with the four elements: fire, water, earth and air. Their spells specifically deal with those elements and their magic equipment reflects this preference, too. Elementalists normally don't use written magic but employ powers they harness from within. Their magic thus is somewhat limited in one way and a lot more powerful in other ways. Elementalists generally use a less scientific approach to magic than wizards usually do. Elementalists are trained in the following skills: Climbing, Concentration, Gemology, Healing, Listening, Literacy, Metallurgy, and Swimming. FARMER -- Even among the most average folks there are some valiant and larger-than-life persons which are born to become more than their parents and grand parents. After the news about the impending danger had spread throughout the lands, those people started their journey to the location in the Drakalor Chain which might change their destiny -- and the destiny of their world. Farmers are neither great fighters nor skilled magicians but they possess inner strength and endurance from years of labour. Often they are accompanied by their trusted dogs. They are accustomed to hunger and hardship and often have very little to loose compared to the amount of fame they might be able to win. Equipped with a broad knowledge about herbs and food they are probably the best prepared class (except for barbarians and beastfighters) for extensive travels. Farmers are trained in the following skills: Archery, Bridge building, First Aid, Food Preservation, Gardening, Haggling, Herbalism, Smithing, Stealth, Survival, and Woodcraft. FIGHTER -- Fighters are simple warriors, who learned, how to best face an opponent in melee combat. Most of them are well armed and armored. Fighters are tough and strong due to their physical training. Fighters are trained in the following skills: Athletics, Archery, Dodge, Find Weakness, Metallurgy, Stealth, Swimming, and Two Weapon Combat. HEALER -- Healers are exactly that -- masters of the arts of healing, well equipped with magical healing items and means to examine patients. Most of them are very robust and resistant to poisons and diseases. Healers are not great fighters. They prefer to save lives than to take them, although they are nonetheless able to live through fights. Healers are trained in the following skills: Alertness, Concentration, Cooking, Find Weakness, First Aid, Healing, Herbalism, and Literacy. MERCHANT -- Merchants are masters of trade and bartering. They almost all are very wealthy, charming and experts in communication. Each merchant specializes in trading with a certain type of magical items during their apprenticeship. At the beginning of their career they are equipped with a sample of items to trade with (or use them). Merchants are neither well-armed nor well-armored and have to be careful in fights. Should they encounter one of the rare dungeon shops, they probably will make some great deals. Merchants are trained in the following skills: Appraising, Detect Item Status, Gemology, Haggling, Herbalism, Literacy, Metallurgy, Pick Pockets and Survival. MINDCRAFTERS -- Mindcrafters use a very exotic and very different magic. They utilize their mental powers to evoke astonishing effects. Mindcrafters are very rare and only few people ever have heard about them. While they are physically weak, they are mentally extremely strong and resistant. Mindcrafters are trained in the following skills: Concentration, Find Weakness, Gemology, Haggling, Herbalism, Literacy, Music, and Stealth. MONK -- Monks are able martial artists striving to achieve perfect mastery of body, mind and spirit. They are experts at fighting unarmed, very good at dodging attacks and strong of will. Monks need to be unencumbered to be able to use their special martial art powers. Monks take vows of poverty at their initiation to prevent distraction through worldly means. Monks are trained in the following skills: Alertness, Athletics, Concentration, Dodge, Find Weakness, Healing, Literacy, and Stealth. NECROMANCER -- Necromancers are practitioners of the dark arts. Though not very effective in melee combat their spells are deadly and dangerous. Their most horrible power though is the ability to animate corpses and use them as slaves. Luckily only humanoid corpses can be used in this evil way. Necromancers are outlawed and despised in most places and feared and avoided like the plague in all other locations. Necromancers are able to command the slaves they create. Their slaves will follow these commands without questioning. To invoke a command you need to press 'C-x'. Necromancers are trained in the following skills: Alchemy, Appraising, Concentration, Find Weakness, Herbalism, Literacy, Necromancy, and Stealth. PALADIN -- Paladins are noble fighters (from the point of view of their respective race... an orc paladin is _very_ different from a human paladin). They are well trained both in physical activities (not as well as fighters but still very good) and in philosophical activities (not as good as priests but...). Paladins generally are very well equipped by their respective churches. Many of them possess blessed items. Paladins are trained in the following skills: Athletics, Concentration, Dodge, Healing, Law (if they are lawful initially), Literacy, Stealth, Swimming, and Two Weapon Combat. PRIEST -- Priests serve the various gods. They receive magic powers from their gods but are servants for their whole lifetime. Many of them carry holy items. Priests are trained in the following skills: Concentration, Detect Item Status, First Aid, Healing, Herbalism, Literacy, and Music. RANGER -- Rangers are fighters favoring natural environments. They are excellent trackers and masters at fighting with two weapons. Most of them are wearing light armor to retain their mobility but in turn are well armed. Many rangers carry missile weapons. Rangers are trained in the following skills: Alertness, Archery, Athletics, Climbing, Food Preservation, Healing, Herbalism, Survival, Swimming, Two Weapon Combat, and Woodcraft. THIEF -- Need we say more? For the sake of completeness: Thieves are very good at stealing, opening locks, finding and disarming traps and other criminal activities. Thieves are trained in the following skills: Alertness, Appraising, Climbing, Detect Traps, Disarm traps, Listening, Open Locks, Pick Pockets, and Stealth. WEAPONSMITH -- Weaponsmiths are crafty men and women able to create new weapons, repair damaged metal equipment and improve items. Weaponsmiths normally are well-equipped and carry the tools of their trade. They are strong and resilient, hardened by many hours of strenuous work. Weaponsmiths are trained in the following skills: Appraising, Athletics, Concentration, Detect Traps, Find Weakness, Haggling, Metallurgy, and Smithing. WIZARD -- Wizards are masters of the 'art'. They wield great magically powers and are able to create fireballs, lightning strikes and magical protection spells. Their great magical powers are balanced by their mediocre fighting abilities. Most mages spend their life studying books and conducting arcane experiments in hidden laboratories and thus have next to no time to practice their physical skills. Wizards are trained in the following skills: Alchemy, Concentration, Find Weakness, Healing, Herbalism, Literacy, Stealth, and Ventriloquism. Alignment --------- One very important characteristic of the persona you are creating is his alignment. ADOM depicts the epic struggle between Law and Chaos and your character needs to take one side! Either your PC will side with Law and bring order to the multiverse or your PC will side with the everchanging forces of Chaos and bring chaos, change and upheaval to the world. There even might be a third way, but will your PC find out how to proceed on this path? Generally alignments represent the basic moral ideas and beliefs of the character. A lawful character believes in law, order, the welfare of the whole community, tradition, peace and happiness. Chaotic characters enjoy change, are creative but are also quite selfish and generally are an unorganized lot. Many of the more extreme chaotic beings are downright evil, many extreme chaotics are quite mad. Lastly there are the neutral beings, which apply the best or worst principles of both sides to make up their basic belief system. All in all the system is not as "black and white" as it might seem. There are many shades. Nonetheless the basic axis looks like this: Chaos <-----------------> Neutrality <-----------------> Law In ADOM every being has an alignment. Your PC's initial alignment depends on his race: High Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits are lawful initially, while Trolls, Orcs and Dark Elves are chaotic. All other races are initially neutral. Choosing to be a necromancer also alters the alignment towards Chaos. If your character starts out as a Druid, he will always be neutral. In ADOM these alignments are sorted into five categories. A shortcut describing the current category your PC belongs to will always be listed on the screen to represent your PC's current position. The following five symbols are possible: L+ : The character is extremely lawful. He might be able to become a very powerful Champion of Law. L : The character is lawful. He can become a Champion of Law. N : The character has not yet chosen a side, but prefers to remain unaligned. N= : The character is as close to total neutrality as possible for a mortal. He can become a Champion of Balance. C : The character is chaotic. He can become a Champion of Chaos. C- : The character is extremely chaotic. He might be able to become a very mighty Champion of Chaos. There are also four "in-between" alignments which show your characters tendencies. Generally the alignment is still rated according to the first letter of the alignment description (L for lawful, N for neutral and C for chaotic). Nonetheless these in-between alignments indicate that a change to the alignment described by the second letter might be impending due to your PC's actions. The following special alignment descriptions are possible: LN : Lawful with tendencies towards Neutrality. NL : Neutral with tendencies towards Law. NC : Neutral with tendencies towards Chaos. CN : Chaotic with tendencies towards Neutrality. Thus the complete range of alignment order from Law to Chaos looks like this: L+ -- L -- LN ---- NL -- N -- N= -- N -- NC ---- CN -- C -- C- L A W F U L N E U T R A L C H A O T I C Now the final question: what effect does alignment have upon the game? Depending on the alignment a different deity is worshipped. Some items might be more or less useful for your character depending on the alignment. Other beings might react in different manners depending on the alignment. There are lots of things that can happen... try to find out for yourself. Skills ------ Each character possesses a certain number of skills, which allow for actions that cannot be simply described by class, level and race. Skills are rated as a score of 0 to 100. The score given can be assumed to be the average chance of success in percent when trying an average feat. This chance is lowered when trying something difficult and raised when trying something simple. There is always a chance for automatic success and automatic failure. A NOTE ON HIGH SKILL SCORES: High skill scores are generally very helpful although they can be particularly effective with some specific skills. All skills below marked with a '+' will make ADOM behave in a special way if the score is greater than or equal to 80 or equal to 100. If the skill score is greater than or equal to 80, ADOM will internally always make two skill checks when one was requested by the circumstances and use the better result. If the skill score is equal to 100, ADOM will make three skill checks whenever requested to do one and will also use the best result. Some skills need training material so that you can improve them. On the skill screen in the game such skills are marked with a '(mr)', if training material still is required (and thus currently no improvement is possible) or with '(ma)' if the required training material is available. Skills, which need such material, are marked with a [!] below. Skills can be marked so that you can select often used skills a lot faster. How to do this is described at the end of this section. Not all of the skills listed below are immediately available to your character. Some are available to everyone by default, some skills are determined by your race and some by your class. If you would receive a skill due to class _and_ race, the skill score will be higher than normal. The following skills are available during the game (skills marked with a [*] are default skills available to everyone): Alchemy: Alchemy allows you to brew magical potions. To use this skill you need to collect the ingredients required to mix magical potions. Also it would be useful to have the recipe for a potion at hand. Alertness [+]: This skill is used automatically. It helps to sense traps and invisible monsters although it is not too effective (which basically means that an active search for traps with the respective skill has a much higher chance of success). It can save your character from some nasty surprises at times. It's also *very* helpful when trying to dodge combat magic, since high reflexes (as created by a high alertness skill) will help to dodge combat magic with lightning speed. Finally a high skill value grants some minor DV bonusses, +1 at 75+, +2 at 90+ and +4 at 100. Appraising [+]: This skill allows to estimate the value and power of unknown items. Items are rated on the following scale: horrible terrible poor mediocre fair good great superb amazing A score of poor and below should be considered to be a warning. Handle such items with great care! Archery: This skill increases your skill with missile weapons. Archers receive a bonus of +1 to hit per 10 points in this score and a bonus of +1 to damage per 20 points in this score. All other classes receive a bonus of +1 to hit per 25 points in this skill and a bonus of +1 to damage per 40 points of skill score. This skill also slightly increases the range of your missile attacks on a successful skill check (which is done automatically whenever you use a missile). Athletics: This skill is a passive skill. It is used to raise your physical attributes by training your muscles and movement powers. Whenever you raise a level, this skill influences your chance to raise a physical attribute. Athletics works especially well for characters with low (< 10) to very low (< 5) physical attributes. This skill also slightly influences your looks. Athletics also effect your speed score. At 70+ you gain +1 to speed, at 75 you gain +2 to speed, at 80 you gain +3 to speed, at 85 you gain +4 to speed, at 90 you gain +5 to speed, at 95 you gain +6 to speed and at 100 you gain +8 to speed. Backstabbing [+]: This skill increases your chance to hit and your chance to score a critical hit when you attack friendly or neutral monsters. Bridge Building [!+]: This skill allows to build bridges. Climbing [*+]: This skill is used to climb out of pits and holes. Concentration: This skill influences the time required to regenerate lost magic points. A high skill value also makes it easier to learn new spells. At score 75+ you regain mana points a lot faster, this once more increases at 90+ and finally at 100. Cooking [!+]: Cooked food is more nutritious and less prone to rot away. Very effective if used on corpses. You need a cooking set to use this skill. Courage: It is difficult to be a cold-blooded warrior when you are surrounded by dozens of enemies in a horrible fray. Usually your PC will receive disadvantages in combat when surrounded and attacked by lots of opponents. Once a certain critical number of attackers is surpassed (two for fighters, paladins, rangers, monks, barbarians and beastfighters; one for all others) your combat abilities will deterioate. Your character receives a -1 to hit per monster above the critical number, the monsters above the critical nmumber receive a +2 to hit per such monster and your chances to hit with missiles are reduced by -4 per such monster above the critical number... ...unless you know this skill. This skill will allow you to remain calm and cold-headed in bloody situations and thus mass attacks by monster hordes might be less effective. It's a skill you need to learn somewhere *in* the game. Detect Item Status: This skill is automatically used to determine the {cursed|uncursed|blessed} status of items. This skill is comparable to the automatic ability of priests (in version of ADOM older than 0.9.0) to discover the status of an item. Detect Traps: This skill must be explicitly used to discover hidden traps. It also helps to avoid known traps. The 'Search' command also activates this skill. Disarm Traps [+]: This skill allows to disarm previously discovered traps. Be careful... if you fail a check badly, you might spring the trap! Dodge: This skill increases your Defensive Value. The higher your dodge skill the more points will be added to your DV (+1 for Dodge 1-30, +2 for Dodge 31-50, +3 for Dodge 51-65, +4 for Dodge 66-75, +5 for Dodge 76-83, +6 for Dodge 84-90, +7 for Dodge 91-95, +8 for Dodge 96-99 and +10 for Dodge 100). Dodging is also in a minor way helpful for evading combat magic cast on you (Alertness is more helpful since it trains the subconscious reflexes, which are more important since combat magic is so fast). Find weakness: This skill increases your chance to score a critical hit when fighting monsters. First aid [*+]: This skill allows to stop bleeding wounds and even might allow you to recover some hit points... but only if those hit points were lost very recently. Fletchery [!+]: With this skill you can create new arrows and bolts. You need a fletchery set and some wood to use it. Food preservation: This skill is automatically used. Certain types of food (mainly corpses) decompose over the time and finally vanish. Food preservation helps to prevent such food from decomposing. If given enough time food will nonetheless decompose... this skill only helps to slow down the process. Gardening [+]: This skill enables the character to plant herbs and to later harvest them. This might come handy since some herbs have magical properties. Gemology [+]: This skill is used to identify gems and separate them from worthless pieces of glass. Haggling [*]: This skill allows to haggle down prices for item. Charisma is also important but a PC good at haggling probably will have few problems to make a bargain. Please note, that although you might have bargained successfully at times, the price for individual items won't necessarily go down, since ADOM drops all fractions and rounds prices. Healing: Healing covers long-term treatment of wounds and diseases. Long-term treatment is used automatically. A high healing skill allows for a quicker hit point recovery. Also the chances to survive wasting sicknesses are greatly increased by high healing skill. Herbalism: Herbalism cover both plant and herb lore. A character skilled in herbalism will be easier able to recognize some of the strange plants that grow in the dungeons. Also, when collecting herbs, such a character will have a definite advantage over unskilled characters. Law [+]: Law allows you to notice (maybe) whenever you go beyond law and commit a chaotic act. Listening [*]: This skills allows to better notice sounds. It is automatically checked whenever the need arises. If you want your character to be very very perceptive, you should take care of your skill value in this skill. Literacy [+]: This skill governs your ability to read and write texts. If your learning score is at least 10 and you are neither a barbarian or a beastfighter you will receive this skill for free. Metallurgy [+]: This skill is automatically used. When you discover metal ingots it allows for automatic identification (not always, but...). It is of great importance to weaponsmiths. It can also be actively used to determine the type of metal an item is produced from (the item needs to be identified for this). The higher your skill score is the more detailed the results will be. Mining [+]: This skill determines your ability in building tunnels. You'll need to use a pick axe to do that. The higher the skill is, the less time you need to dig a tunnel section. Music [+]: This skill controls your ability to play musical instruments. Some people contend that it is possible to tame wild animals if you are a very skilled musician. Necromancy: This dark and forbidden art allows the user to create undead creatures which will serve him (or her). But there is a price to it... and don't forget to bring the necessary corpses for animation. It's also important to note, that Necromancers using this skill are a lot more versatile than simple dabblers in necromantic affairs. Necromancer receive a wide variety of choices for the type of undead they wish to create (starting with level 6). Pick locks: This skill allows to open locked doors, chests and hatches. To utilize it you need some kind of thieves picks. If a lock is trapped, the trap will probably be sprung when successfully unlocking the door without disarming the trap. Pick pockets: This skill allows to steal small items from the pockets of certain monsters. Not every monster will carry treasures around, not every treasure will be accessible and finally you always risk making your victim very angry (at least if your victim notices your attempt). Smithing: Smithing allows the PC to repair damaged or destroyed metal items. It is hard to use, because you need the necessary tools to practice it, the material to work with and finally you have to find a smithy. Stealth [+]: This skill prevents some monsters from noticing the character. If you are very good at it you might be able to sneak past monsters or mount a surprise attack. Survival [+]: This skill allows the character to gather food while travelling through the wilderness. It can be very handy since more than one adventurer already starved while in the wilderness. Swimming: This skill enables you to traverse bodies of water. To fail an attempt to swim can be very deadly nonetheless. Tactics: This skill modifies the bonuses and penalties yielded by the 'T' command (see the command list), which allows to control the fighting techniques of a character. No character starts out with this skill -- you'll have to learn it somewhere. Two weapon combat: This skill increases your offensive power when fighting with two weapons. Your chance to hit is increased by +1 per 20 points in this skill. Ventriloquism: This skill can be used to confuse monsters. You try to project another voice and if successful, this helps to confuse monsters for two or more turns. This skill is very difficult to use effectively. Woodcraft [+]: Whoever uses this skill is able to act competently while crossing woods and trying to work on trees. Many woodcutters and rangers learn this skill. Increasing skills ----------------- Skills can be increased in several ways. If you practice a skill quite a lot, you might receive automatic increases in your skill score from time to time. You are also allowed to raise your skill score when you advance to a new level. Increasing skills in this way is not very effective since you normally are not allowed to increase your skills by a lot of points when advancing a level. Practicing the skill often and training a little bit (it is said that some skilled trainers are living in the area known as the Drakalor Chain) can help a lot in this regard. Marking Skills for Quick Selection ---------------------------------- By using the 'A' command you can mark skills with a number from 0 to 9. This allows you to quickly select skills you like to use very often in a speedier way. If you have marked one or more skills and press the 'a' key, you will be asked whether you want to use a marked skill or choose from the complete list. Since many skills in ADOM are passive (automatically used), it might be a good idea to mark such skills like 'Detect Traps', 'First Aid' and others. Weapon skills ------------- Every character also has some weapon skills he can train. Weapon skills can only be increased one way: by practice. Basically this means that your skill will increase after a certain number of successful attacks (hits). Depending on the weapon type, this can result in increases in to-hit and to-damage ratings. Hand weapons also can yield a bonus to the characters DV. If a character achieves Grand Mastery with a melee weapon, he is allowed to attack _twice_ per round with that weapon. For melee weapons the following numbers are used: Weapon Level To hit To damage DV Level ------------ ------ --------- -- ----- 0 0 0 0 unskilled 1 +1 0 0 basic 2 +2 0 0 basic 3 +2 +1 0 basic 4 +2 +1 +1 skilled 5 +3 +2 +1 skilled 6 +5 +2 +1 skilled 7 +5 +3 +2 skilled 8 +6 +4 +2 excellent 9 +7 +5 +3 excellent 10 +9 +6 +3 excellent 11 +10 +7 +4 Mastery 12 +12 +8 +4 Mastery 13 +14 +10 +4 Mastery 14 +16 +11 +5 Mastery 15 +18 +12 +6 Grand Mastery If a character wields two melee weapons the DV modifier is calculated by taking the DV modifier of the weapon in the right hand plus one-half of the DV modifier of the left hand weapon. If the character fights without any weapon he will receive DV bonusses but once. Wielding a shield does not count as fighting unarmed since it impedes your mobility. Missile weapon skills yield a +2 to hit and +1 to damage for every skill level and an additional +1 to damage for skill levels 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14. Missile weapon skills have no effect on the characters' DV but instead the range of your missiles is increased by +1 for each 3 skill levels. The following table shows the number of required successful weapon checks to advance to the level in question (after achieving a new level you start collecting marks from scratch): Level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Marks 15 25 40 65 105 170 275 445 720 1165 1885 3050 4935 7985 12920 NOTE: If your character is fighting too defensively he won't get any marks for successful attacks (which basically means that you should not use the 'very defensively' and 'coward' settings of the 'T' command, if you want to increase your weapon skills). NOTE: The weapon skills in ADOM reflect the practical experiences a character is able to make during his adventuring career. The class-inherent fighting capabilities (e.g. fighters being more capable at fighting than wizards) is already taken into account by granting to-hit bonuses after advancing in level. Thus all weapon skills can be trained by all classes and races for the same cost. Attributes ---------- Basically every character is described by eight attributes which represent his abilities by birthright. Every attribute is rated from 1 to 99 (in theory). 10 is an average score, 8 is slightly below average, 5 is quite bad, 3 is horrible, and everything below this is a real hindrance. 13 is a good score, 15 very good, 17 exceptional, 20 very high and everything above this of epic proportions. It should be remembered, that the average PC is rated higher than normal individuals of his (or her) race, because PCs are meant to be true heroes. The absolute maximum for all attributes is 99, which is probably equal in power level to demi-gods. The potential maximum attribute scores are based on the initial attribute scores. The maximum for an attribute is dependent on the base score and the player race. These maximums can only rarely be exceeded by natural training. This is a long and ardous process. Only magical methods can exceed these limits with ease. Attributes are rated as either primary attributes or secondary attributes. Secondary attributes are derived from primary attributes and often are greatly influenced by your experience level, class and race. The following attributes are used: STRENGTH: Strength describes your ability to inflict damage in combat, determines your carrying capacity and influences your chance to hit opponents in melee combat. The initial hit points are also partially based upon strength. LEARNING: The learning score describes, how easily your character learns new things, how good the PC is at increasing skills and how easily magical spells are learned. Your ability to read and write (no, that's not automatic!) is also influenced by this score. WILLPOWER: This attribute describes the strength of your will. The higher it is, the better your PC is able to resist attacks affecting his mind. Willpower influences your initial hit points and your initial magic points. DEXTERITY: This attribute rates your agility, nimbleness, speed and many other things. A high dexterity allows you to better dodge enemy attacks and traps. PCs with low dexterity are clumsy and slow-moving... easy prey for your enemies. Dexterity is also very important when attacking with missile weapons. TOUGHNESS: This attribute rates your physical resistance, your endurance, your constitution and your resistance to pain. Toughness is a major factor influencing the number of hit points of your character. CHARISMA: This attribute describes the personality of your character. PCs with high charisma are outgoing, friendly and easily make friends, while characters with low charisma are disliked by many people and have difficulties interacting on a friendly and enjoyable basis. APPEARANCE: This attribute describes the looks of your character. PCs with high appearance are good-looking and draw attention, while characters with low appearance are unattractive or simply ugly but also draw attention (unfriendly attention most of the time that is!). MANA: This attribute describes the luck of your character, his attunement to the forces of magic and his resistance to magic. Mana is a prime determinant for magical power. PERCEPTION: This attribute describes the general perception ability of your character. Perception is very important. It influences how far you can look in dungeons. Characters with low perception have problems finding secret doors, hearing noises and noticing certain traps -- they also can't see very far in the dungeons. Characters with high perception are very alert and notice slight details. They have superior vision and good hearing. The following secondary attributes are used: DEFENSIVE VALUE (DV): The defensive value determines how hard you are to hit. It starts at 1, 10 is about average, and, in theory, it is not limited in its value. The higher the value is, the harder you are to hit. This value is influenced by race, class, dexterity, equipment, burden level, hunger and dozens of other factors. PROTECTION VALUE (PV): PV determines how many points of damage are stopped, when your PC is hit by a physical attack. This value can be positive (which means that you have adequate protection) or negative (which means that your are carrying some kind of cursed items making it easier for your enemies to inflict wounds upon you). This value is influenced by your toughness, your equipment and several minor factors. HIT POINTS: Hit points represent how much punishment your character can take before dying. The higher this value is, the better for you! Your maximal hit points are listed in brackets. Your hit points can decrease through combat wounds, traps, magical attacks and many other things. As soon as your current hit points are lower than your maximum hit points, you start to heal wounds. How fast you heal injuries depends upon race, class, toughness, healing skill, equipment, general conditions and several minor factors. POWER: Magical power is described by a certain number of power points. To cast a spell (if you are able to do so) you have to spend a certain amount of power. If you do not have enough power points to cast a certain spell, your life energy will slowly be drained instead. Be careful -- this might kill you! Your maximal power points are listed in brackets. Power is influenced by mana, class, race, experience and willpower. Experience and Advancement -------------------------- Each PC in ADOM is rated by his experience level. Every character starts at level 1 (a newly created adventurer) and might be able to advance to higher levels by collecting experience points. Experience points are mostly gained by killing monsters, but there might be other ways to learn... try to find out for yourself. To advance to a higher level, you have to collect a certain number of experience points. How many points you have to collect for your next level is determined by the following categories: race, class and attributes. Generally, you need more experience points to advance if you are very good in one or more of these categories and that you need less experience points to advance if you are below average in one or more of those categories. Whenever you have earned a certain amount of experience points, you increase in level. Increasing in levels is a very good thing to do, because this brings many benefits. Whenever you increase levels, you get better in combat, receive more hit points and more magical power (depending on your class and race). You are also allowed to increase your skill values. The number of skill improvements depends on your learning score. Finally, you get a chance to raise (or lower) your attributes. This decision is made by the game and is heavily influenced by your class, your experience level and your actions during game play. There are finite limits to the number of times you might be able to increase attribute scores in this way. Once you have reached your natural potential, no more training of whatever kind will help to increase attributes. Only magical means will further enhance your attribute scores. Mindcraft --------- The art of Mindcraft is a very strange discipline. Many believe it to be just another type of magic, but the truly enlightened know that it is a very different way of using one's inner strengths and willpower. Mindcrafters utilize their mental powers to generate astonishing effects. The arts of Mindcraft and magic do not work very well together. Only long meditation and inner peace will allow one to awaken the mental powers within, while magic seems to encourage active and curious minds. The following sections will describe the mental powers available to Mindcrafters. The number in brackets mentions the level at which the power will become available. Be warned! The powers of Mindcraft come at a price. Artificial beings are immune to mental powers and undead are a great danger to all Mindcrafters. Their corrupted and insane minds are able to backlash the mental powers upon the Mindcrafter, harming or killing him. Also walls are not able to block the powers of the mind -- so be careful about what might be lurking behind the next wall before wildly employing Mindcraft. Many beings don't like others trying to toast their brains. Mental powers are fed with power points and if the character does not have enough power points to activate the power, he is at a loss. Some powers are continuous and cost power points each turn. The following special powers are available in the game (W is the shortcut for willpower, L for the level of the Mindcrafter): Teleport Control (1) - The ability to control your destination when teleporting. Confusion Blast (1) - A linear blast which disturbs the minds of your opponents and confuses them. Confusion Wave (3) - Similar to Confusion Blast, but effects all beings within a certain range. Mind Blast (6) - A mental attack trying to destroy the brain cells of the victims. Damage: [{(W + L) / 6} + 1]d5. Mental Shield (9) - A mental defense, which effects both defensive and protection values of the character. DV: + [(L + W) / 5], PV: + [(L + W) / 8]. Continuous power. Mind Wave (12) - A mental attack similar to Mind Blast with the difference, that it effects all beings within a certain range. Telekinetic Blast (15) - A projected force which might shatter doors and is able to physically damage beings. Damage: [(W / 5) + L]d3 Eyes of the Mind (18) - A hypersense which allows the character to sense creatures and beings with a certain range. Greater Mental Blast (25) - A more advanced form of Mind Blast. Damage: [{(W + L) / 8} + 1]d9. Greater Telekinetic Blast (30) - A powerful force ball causing a lot of physical damage to beings. It might even be powerful enough to shatter stone. Damage: [(W / 5) + L]d6 Regeneration (35) - A defensive power which allows the Mindcrafter to heal his wounds. Continuous power. Teleport Self (40) - A power allowing the travel to remote places within the blink of an eye. Teleport Other (45) - Similar to teleport self, but can be used on other beings. Greater Mental Wave (50) - Similar to Greater Mental Blast, but affects all creatures within a certain range. Corruptions ----------- The forces of Chaos slowly start to get a grip on the world of Ancardia. Rumor has it that the dark magics used by the forces of Chaos and their presence itself have corrupting effects on all living beings on Ancardia and even on the environment itself. Strange mutants have been sighted and formerly normal humans suddenly were horribly changed. Be prepared to be faced with these dangers and try to avoid becoming transformed into a horrible being of Chaos. Although the powers might seem advantageous, they nearly always will bring doom (or so they say). The Game -------- ADOM is started by typing adom at your command prompt. After some moments the game will start. First you will have to enter a name for the character you are going to play. The name has no further influence on game play but serves to individualize your character. If you just press ENTER instead of entering a name, the game will christen your character with a default name. Next you have to choose whether you want your character to be male or female. This has some influence on game play (in ADOM female characters are more agile, male characters are slightly stronger). When this is done you will be asked whether you want to choose a specific race and class or let fate decide your future. If you decide to go for a specific race and class you are free to choose any of the races and classes described above. Otherwise you will have to go for what fate deems to be appropriate. Next the background of your character will be described. The game will mention your sex and race (in case fate is responsible for your race) and then detail your life prior to starting to adventure. Every character lives through four major phases of development: early childhood, childhood, youth and young adulthood. For each phase certain events are generated. These events serve to detail your PC and influence his attributes. Finally you will get to know your class, your area of specialization (if available) and your starting age. After all this you will be dumped directly into the game. You are assumed to have entered the first dungeon level and from that point on everything is based on your actions. The Main Screen --------------- Most of the time you will see the main game screen, which contains most of the interesting information about your character, your surroundings and your condition. The following sample shows how a game screen might look: ------------------------< Begin Screen copy >---------------------------- The skeleton fails to hurt you. ################ #..../.%.......# ######### #.####.........######.......# ######### #.# #............../.......# #.......### #.# ########/#######.......# #......./.############# #.# #.# ######### ####### #.......#./...........############.###########.#####################.....# ####.######.............^..z@............................................# #.# #....<......############.###########.#####################.....# #.# #...........# #.# #######/# #.....# #.# ##/########## #.# #.......# #.##### #.# #.# #.# #.......# #.# #.# ##/############ #.# #.......# #.# ####/#### #......^......# #####/### ######### #.# #.......# #.....###.....# #.......###############################.# #.>.....# #.....# #.....# #......./...............................# #.......# #.....# ####### #.......################################# ######### ####### ######### Geffrey St:19 Le: 9 Wi:14 Dx:12 To:22 Ch: 8 Ap: 8 Ma:11 Pe:15 N DV/PV: 10/4 H: 27(27) P: 3(3) Exp: 1/139 D: 1 M: 346 -------------------------< End Screen copy >----------------------------- The first two lines of the screens are reserved for messages which explain certain events and actions. If more text is issued than fits into those two lines, a (more) prompt will appear. To continue you have to press SPACE (or Z). If you are expecting many messages in one turn, which you don't want to read, you also can press ENTER. All messages will scroll through without waiting for a confirmation. If you later want to look at one of those messages, you can still use the ':m' command (see below). The last three lines contain information about your character in the following order: Name: Let's guess what this is :-) St: The strength score of your character. Le: The learning score of your character. Wi: The willpower score of your character. Dx: The dexterity score of your character. To: The toughness score of your character. Ch: The charisma score of your character. Ap: The appearance score of your character. Ma: The mana score of your character. Pe: The perception score of your character. DV: The defensive value of your character. PV: The protection value of your character. H: The hit points of your characters. P: The magical power of your character. Exp: The experience you have to collected up to now and your experience level. The first number stands for the number of experience points you already have earned and the second number describes your current experience level. D: The number of the current dungeon level. M: The number of moves you have made. A sequence of up to two characters describing your alignment (more about this in the section on alignment). All lines between these two screen parts are used to display the map of the current dungeon level (as far as you have explored it). Specific characters are used to represent items, monsters, locations and other stuff. The Display ----------- During game play everything you encounter is represented by certain symbols on the map. Symbols are simple colored characters. Some symbols have more than one meaning. This section explains the various symbols and their potential meanings. --- Map Symbols (dungeon) --- # Rock or wall = Water / Open door T Tree + Closed door 0 Pool or hive . Floor, passage, tunnel + Tombstone & Forge or other special place | Webs < Stair leading upwards > Stair leading downwards _ Altar * Hole ^ Known trap 8 Gate --- Map Symbols (wilderness) --- ^ Mountains . Road ~ Hills = Water & Forest * Entrance " Plains or Swamp o Buildings --- Item Symbols --- [ Protective gear, shields \ Wands & Necklace ? Scrolls ( Hand weapon & Tools } Missile weapon ~ Bracers * Rocks % Food / Missiles $ Gold = Rings { Music instruments " Books --- Monster Symbols --- Monsters are grouped into specific categories to make it easier to differentiate them. The following scheme is used (with some exceptions): a Ants A Aquatic beings b Bees B Bats c Centipedes C Chaos creatures d Dogs & other canines D Dragons e magical Eye E Elementals f Felines F Fantastic beasts g Grungy humanoids G Ghosts h Humanoids H giant Humanoids i Insects I Imps & other minor demons j Jellies & oozes J (unused) k Kobolds K berserKers & barbarians l Lizards L Liches m Mimics M Mummies n (unused) N Natural beasts o Orcs O Ogres p Pixies P Plants q (unused) Q (unused) r Rodents R Rust monsters s Snakes S Spiders t Townsfolk T Trolls u Underdark humanoids U Unicorns v (unused) V (unused) w Worms W Wyrms x grues X eXtra-planar beings y (unused) Y constructs z Zombies & other lesser undead Z greater undead & greater demons @ (demi-)humans [ animated armor * will o'wisp The Player Character Screen --------------------------- ADOM provides a screen with most of the important statistics you might want to know about your PC. Usually (as per default command set) this screen is invoked by pressing '@'. The PC screen is divided into several parts dedicated to certain aspects of the PC. The upper left half of the screen is dedicated to the attribute scores of your PC. It lists all the attribute names in the first column (in yellow, if not yet maxed out or in brown if maxed out in the natural way), followed by the current unmodified attribute score. The next column lists the natural maximums for the attribute scores. They can be raised by long and hard training but usually only magic will be of quick help when trying to pass these limits. See the section on attributes for more details. The next column displays temporary attribute bonusses (e.g. from certain potions), followed by a column listing special bonusses (e.g. due to magical items). The last column shows the total score for each attribute. If your attribute score is raised, it will be displayed in green, if it's lowered by some means it will be displayed in red, if it's equal to the maximum score possible it will displayed in brown and in all other cases yellow is used. The upper right half of the screen contains a list of miscellaneous data. First you'll see the current speed rating. If you also enjoy a temporary speed bonus it will be displayed in square brackets. This is followed by a verbal approximation of that rating. Then the screen lists your current financial status, potential debts, the name of your deity, and the elapsed amount of game time. The next entries are concerned with your omens of birth and star sign. First you'll see the number of the day on which you were born in the ancardian year followed by your star sign. Then you'll see the *current* month in the game (both by number and by name). The next line describes the *current* day in the game, both by it's number in the current month and by its absolute number in the current game year (so that you can compare it to your birthday). Finally the state of the moon (full, new, waxing, waning) will be described. The last entry in that section displays the age of your character. In the middle of the screen you'll see the encumbrance data for the PC. In order you'll see current encumbrance, the minimum encumbrance to be considered burdened and the respective minimum levels for being considered strained and very strained. Below you'll see the data for melee combat, kicking and missile combat. Miscellaneous Commands ---------------------- During game play commands are issued by pressing one or more keys. Whenever you find a description like 'C-x' you are expected to press the Control-key and the key 'x' at the same time to invoke the corresponding command. The following default commands are normally available: C-t Activate trap at current position a Apply skill < Ascend stairway Z Cast spell C Chat with monsters H Change highlight mode T Change tactic L Check literacy E Clean ears c Close door w s Continuous search ( Create short character log ) Create verbose character log [ Create screenshot > Descend stairway & Enter location (in the wilderness) ! Dip (something) into (potion) A Display skills and quick-mark skills B Display background P Display bill : b Display burden levels = Display configuration variables \ Display chaos powers : c Display companions $ Display current wealth C-e Display elapsed game time @ Display extended character information / Display identified items K Display kick damage : k Display killed monsters : m Display message buffer M Display missile statistics : w Display monster wound status : g Display name of your deity q Display quest status R Display recipes x Display required experience V Display version C-w Display weapon skills W Display weapon statistics D Drink d Drop item(s) C-d Drop items in a comfortable way e Eat l Examine environment : d Extended drop : p Extended pay : u Extended use g Give item to monster h Handle something C-o Issue order to companion (reaction heavily depends on your charisma) i Inventory k Kick C-l Look I Miscellaneous equipment 1 Move to the southwest 2 Move to the south 3 Move to the southeast 4 Move to the west 6 Move to the east 7 Move to the northwest 8 Move to the north 9 Move to the northeast n Name monster/yourself ? Online help o Open door p Pay ; Pick up items primitively (fast) , Pick up items C-p Pick up items comfortably _ Pray Q Quit game r Read C-r Redraw screen O Sacrifice S Save and quit game s Search : = Set variable t Shoot/Throw missile : s Swap position with monster C-a Switch auto-pickup on/off C-k Switch the required (more) key C-u Unlock door U Use item C-x Use class power m Use special ability u Use tool Wait . Wait 5 Wait w 1 Walk to the southwest w 2 Walk to the south w 3 Walk to the southeast w 4 Walk to the west w 5 Walk on the spot w 6 Walk to the east w 7 Walk to the northwest w 8 Walk to the north w 9 Walk to the northeast F Wipe face z Zap wand In the game you will encounter multiple screens containing tables, lists, etc. Whenever you are given the choice to get out of one of those screens by pressing the 'Z' key, you can also press the space bar. The 'Z' key is always listed in the help lines because of historical reasons (and because it's easier to display than the ' ' ;-) It is possible to redefine the keybindings. Appendix D details the process involved. Movement -------- You can move into eight directions by pressing the relevant number key displayed in the following movement grid: 7 8 9 \|/ 4 -5- 6 /|\ 1 2 3 To attack a monster simply try to move into the field the monster is standing on. This will result in a melee attack. If you opt for faster movement you can activate the so-called 'walk-mode' by pressing 'w' followed by a direction key. This will make your character walk into the chosen direction until he meets something of interest. Movement will cease as soon as one of the following things happens: * Your direction of choice is blocked. * A monster appears in your immediate vicinity. * Items are lying at your current position. * Something special (e.g. a stairway) is located at your current position. * A move will bring you into the immediate vicinity of a monster. * You are stunned, confused or blinded. * Your hunger status changes. * You are bleeding, sick or poisoned. Generally activating 'walk-mode' is a good way to cover long distances which have been explored before. To make full use of the vast array of available tactical options, you should not use 'walk-mode' when exploring unknown locations. Walk-mode also allows the character to wait in place (e.g. to regenerate lost hitpoints or power points). Just press 'w' for walk-mode and the '5' for waiting in place. Walk-mode will abort, if a monster enters your immediate vicinity, your equipment weight or your hunger level changes or 50 turns have gone by. If you are using the numeric keypad remember to press NUM LOCK. Speed ----- Actions in real life rarely are synchronous. Rather beings act individually, move with different speeds and generally are slower of faster than others. ADOM simulates this by using a 'speed system'. The core notion of this system is that every character and monster has to collect a certain amount of energy to be able to act. Some beings are able to gather this energy faster and thus can act at higher speed, others gain this energy more slowly and thus act in a slower way. To be able to act once in ADOM your character needs to accumulate at least 1000 energy points. Every acting being has a 'speed rating' (SR) and a current energy rating (CER). ADOM divides each player turn into a number of segments. In each segment every being on the current level adds its speed rating to its current energy. Each being that passes the '1000 energy minimum' with its current energy rating is allowed to act. Afterwards the CER is reduced by 1000 (in most cases). All Player Characters start with a basic speed rating of 100 which basically means that they can act once every 10 segments. This rating can be modified by class (monks and beastfighters get faster with more experience), dexterity (a score of 17 or higher can be helpful), encumbrance level (the more you are encumbered the slower you get), alcohol level (being drunk is not a good idea in all cases), satiation level (a full stomach makes you move slower... starving doesn't help either), your Athletics skill and special items. Being born under the sign of the Raven also helps. Your energy can never be lower than 1 (although this spells certain doom) and is not limited by any value. The sole limit is that you can act only once per segment (even speed scores of 2000+ can't help in this respect... although they are impossible to attain in any case). Most monsters also have a base speed rating of 100, although there are exceptions. Be prepared to face charging speed monstrosities occasionally. Finally you need to understand that some items don't increase your overall speed score but might limit the energy costs for certain actions (e.g. seven league boots could require you to expend but 500 energy points to be able to move -- thus you could move faster but all other actions would be resolved at normal speed). Dice ---- Roleplaying games mostly use dice to determine random events. Paper games rely on several kinds of dice -- most often 4-, 6-, 8-, 10-, 12- and 20-sided dice are used. Computers are not limited by arbitrary die forms and thus enjoy the freedom to use any kind of dice imaginable as a random number generator. Roleplayers use an abbreviated way of describing the number of dice to be rolled to generate a random number. Basically a certain number of dice is rolled, all the face values are added and maybe a modifier is added or subtracted to generate a total. This is normally abbreviated as {x}d{y}+{z} and means to roll {x} dice with {y} faces and finally to add the value {z}. {z} can be positive or negative. If {z} is not mentioned, it is assumed to be zero. EXAMPLES: 1d20 means to roll one 20-sided die to generate a number between 1 and 20. 2d6 means to roll two 6-sided dice to generate a number between 2 and 12. 4d4+3 means to roll four 4-sided dice and finally add 3 to generate a number between 7 and 19. 3d13-9 means to roll three 13-sided dice and subtract 9 to generate a number between -6 and 30. The Inventory ------------- Every PC normally carries quite a number of items -- some of them belong to the initial equipment, others are found during the adventure. All the items worn or equipped are displayed upon pressing the 'i' key. If you want to change your equipment (either by wearing an additional item or by removing an item currently used) you simply need to press the letter preceding the bodypart in question. If an item was equipped, it will automatically be removed. If no item was used you will automatically be shown a list with items which might be useful on that bodypart. Items normally have to be identified by some means to get more than just some general information. Some items are identified by using them (e.g. weapons and armor), others have to be identified by magical means. When identified, every item might list a number of values which further describe the powers of the item. Armor must be worn to have any effect. Weapons must be wielded to have effect. Rings, bracers and necklaces must be worn to be useful. Items are generally rated as uncursed, cursed or blessed. Cursed items cannot be removed when worn and mostly do not function with full effect. They also are susceptible to damage more often. Blessed items are of very high quality and might exert some additional powers. They are more difficult to damage. Uncursed items represent average items. Items also might be broken or rusty. There might be means available to repair or improve such items... try to find out about this for yourself. In the following section, the items are listed by category with all possible modifiers. The following abbreviations are used to describe the modifiers: CHA - Number of charges remaining DAM - Damage dice (given in the dice notation explained above) DVM - DV modifier MDM - Missile damage modifier MEM - Melee attack modifier MIM - Missile attack modifier PVM - PV modifier ATM - Modifier to a specific attribute The following item descriptions are available. First the item type is listed, then the possible modifiers follow. Not all modifiers always appear, this depends on the specific item. The kind of visible modifiers can be determined by the type of brackets surrounding them: <bracers> [DVM, PVM] <shield> (MEM) [DVM, PVM] <armor> (MEM, MIM) [DVM, PVM] <gauntlet> (MEM, MIM) [DVM, PVM] <cloak> (MEM, MIM) [DVM, PVM] <girdle> (MEM, MIM) [DVM, PVM] <helmet> (MEM, MIM) [DVM, PVM] <boots> (MEM, MIM) [DVM, PVM] <wand> (CHA) <melee weapon> (MEM, DAM) [DVM, PVM] <missile weapon> (MIM, MDM) [DVM, PVM] <missile> (MIM, DAM) Any item (in theory) can be followed by {ATM}, which means that the item in question grants the specified bonus to the mentioned attribute. Any weapon can be followed by (p), which means that the item is poisoned. Finally the number of charges for wands will only be visible, if you zapped that specific wand successfully or identified that specific wand. In other words: if you identify 'tin wands' as 'wands of magic missiles' you still won't know the number of charges of a newly found 'wand of magic missiles' (although it will be correctly identified in all other respects). Filtering the stuff list ------------------------ Besides those items you carry directly on your body (which can be viewed by pressing 'i') you also have a backpack which might contain large numbers of items (directly viewable by pressing 'I'). At times you need to retrieve an item from that backpack and this can be a very tiring process, if you are carrying a large number of items. Therefore ADOM contains a mechanism to filter the list of items in the backpack, so that only certain item types are displayed and it's easier to find the item you are looking for. Whenever it is possible to apply a filter to the items in the backpack, the last line of the screen will display the current filter and the possible commands to select a certain item type. In all cases (except for '#' -- which stands for all items) you can select a certain category of items by pressing the symbol, which usually represents those items. The following keys are used to filter the items in the backpack: [ all wearable items & all amulets and tools , all bracers (this is an exception to the 'image rule' since some systems wait for a second key to be pressed after the '~' used for bracers and this would make this feature somewhat tiresome to use). ( all melee weapons } all missile weapons / all missiles { all musical instruments = all rings \ all wands ! all potions ? all scrolls " all books % all food $ gold * gems Spells ------ Pressing 'Z' will display all the spells you know and some additional data concerning them. Following each spell you will notice two numbers. The first one describes how well you memorized the spell. It is decreased whenever the spell is cast (by an amount determined by the power level of the spell, your attributes and some more factors). If this number is reduced to 0 or less, the spell is forgotten and you no longer are able to cast it. The second number is the number of power points you need to expend to cast the spell in question. If you do not have that many power points you can still cast the spell. But beware -- this is very dangerous. The strain imposed by casting a spell in such a way could kill you, if you are not completely healed. Shops ----- On certain levels of the dungeon, adventurous merchants have opened their shops to provide supplies for the various bold adventurers exploring the dungeons. The risky environment is made up for by the huge gains possible by selling rare (and even magic!) items to heroes venturing down the dungeons. Since most of them are carrying large amounts of gold, the trade seems to be going very well. Needless to say that only daring and powerful merchants are willing to undertake the risks of opening shops deep in the dungeons. If you enter a shop, you will be expected to look around, barter and buy stuff. You can leave without buying or selling anything, but remember that at times shops might contain important or powerful items. To buy something in a shop, you have to pick it up first. The shopkeeper then will block the exit (there seem to be so many thieves around nowadays) and wait for you to pay (which is done by using the 'p' command). If you do not have enough money, you probably will have to leave the item(s) behind. You can also sell items in a shop to raise some more funds. Not every shop will buy everything as most of them are rather specialized (e.g. on potions or scrolls). If you want to sell something, just drop that item. The shopkeeper will immediately tell you how much he is willing to pay and then you can decide whether or not to accept the offer. Wishing ------- In ADOM you might encounter magical wishes. Wishes are a powerful form of magic, which allow a variety of effects. ADOM supports two types of wishes. You can wish for abstract things and concepts like friends, money, wealth, strength, health and other things. You also can wish for items. Such wishes can be very useful, since ADOM features many powerful and rare items. If you do not want to wait for a certain item, just wish for it, as soon as you receive a free wish. Since wishes are powerful but not very precise magic, you only can wish for very general items. For example, it's not possible to wish for 6 blessed long swords (+6, 1d8+6) but rather you would have to wish for long swords or mithril plate mails. Saving the Game --------------- To save a game in progress you just have to press the 'S' key and answer the following question with a 'y'. The game will be saved and you can restore it later to continue your game. You should make sure that you have enough free space on your disc before saving the game, as ADOM will otherwise crash. You need about 30000 bytes plus 12000 bytes per level that you have explored. Levels with lots of monsters or items need more space. Generally three free megabytes should be enough for any one game (no matter how deep you venture). To restore a saved game, just start ADOM and type the name of the character you played, when ADOM asks you to do so. ADOM will automatically recognize, whether a saved game under that name exists and load it. You can also restore after starting the game when ADOM asks whether you want to generate a new character or restore an old one. If you choose the latter option a tiny menu will display the available games to be restored (if there are any). Please note, that this menu only displays a maximum of 20 saved games (without telling you that there might be additional saved games). This should be sufficient for most purposes. How to start -- a beginner's guide ---------------------------------- ADOM is not a simple game -- at least if you are really trying to win and don't just play to have fun and pass some time. ADOM is also very different from other roguelike games like Nethack, Angband and Rogue in that it offers a lot more detail and uses a different approach in certain respects. The following advice might be helpful for both the hardened veteran of other roguelike games and ADOM: * Try to talk to people. The 'C'hat command is an absolute necessity to get anywhere in the game. At times it even pays to talk to so-called monsters. * Take care about your satiation. Finding enough food to survive is important in ADOM. Once you learn the tricks you'll have no problems to cope with this, but in the beginning this might be a bit difficult. * Pleasing your gods by offering sacrifices is a wise thing to do. If you are in dire straits and need help, they might listen to your prayers. * Know when to fight and when to run. * If a dungeon seems to be impossibly difficult maybe you should look elsewhere first. * There are a number of places and situations in ADOM which require the careful use of tactics. * Not every monster is meant to be defeated. It's possible to kill everything but don't be surprised if some opponents put up a _very_ tough fight. * Make sure that you have at least read the introduction in this manual so that you understand what the game is all about. * During the game you should refer as often as necessary to the online keyboard map ('?'-'K') and this manual ('?'-'M'). Appendix A: Credits ------------------- Many people were involved in the creation of ADOM. At this point I'd like to thank my great testers, who sacrificed their precious time to test the work of a madman. Thanks (in alphabetical order) for their efforts in testing pretty buggy alpha software and enduring endless program crashes go to: * Thomas "Where are the keys to those doors?" Dembach * Kilian "Do this... and that... and that... and that..." Guenther * Tim "Lord Gek" Jordan * Stefan "Infocom Man" Jokisch * Nicole "Rabid Dog" Lubinski * Michael "Wow... I can eat corpses?!?" Niewoehner * Jens "I generally don't like games" Spitczok v. Brinski * Jochen "That's not the fault of my Amiga!" Terstiege * Andreas "Where's the 'fclose'?" Willenbrink Miscellaneous credits (for inspiration, ideas, more testing and similar contributions) currently go to: * Boudewijn Wayers for providing some space on his FTP site for this game and for creating the first ADOM WWW page. * Cenk Ergan for providing the new official ADOM FTP site and for providing web space (I yet have to use :-} ). * Dan Shiovitz, for doing all the work necessary to create the newsgroup rec.games.roguelike.adom (look out for the CfV!). * Richard Fowler, for maintaining the FAQ for ADOM. Direct all questions to thinker@texas.net. * Erwin Mascardo, for being the first FAQ maintainer. * Sandra Whiting, for being a wonderful proofreader for the manual and for creating a Winword-based manual. * R. Dittmer, for creating another Winword-based manual (and he was the first one to do so). * Thomas Friedetzky, for creating a TeX-based manual for ADOM. * Daniel Quaroni (goat@pelican.cit.cornell.edu), for maintaining the spoiler files for ADOM. * Jason Konrad MacEachern for being one of the first two spoiler file maintainers and helping to get them started. * Erwin Andreasen for providing a termcap entry for Linux, which seems to solve the color problems many people seem to have. * Jochen Terstiege, for his tireless efforts and support while porting ADOM to the Amiga, while debugging Windows 95 to make it work with ADOM and for his endless zeal in searching for bugs. * Simone Heidenfelder for her help in creating the star signs for ADOM. * Evan Gibson, for providing a launcher interface to ADOM for OS/2. * Jonathan Santaana, for proofreading many of the text files. * Eric Bazin, Matt Chatterley, Aaron Dutton, R. Dittmer, Frank Duphorn, Bridget Farace, Evan Gibson, Jeff Goodson, Adam Horowitz, Ken Iwasa, Tim Jordan, Nicholas Kenyon, John Lame, Perttu Laurila, Cameron Lay, Philipp Lucas, Derek Ludwig, Joshua Malmquist, Erwin Mascardo, Jonathan Santaana, Don Stauffer, Greg Wheatley, Gerry Kevin Wilson and Krey Younger for providing (some really great) suggestions. * Michael Allchin for being the first one to send a postcard (see the introduction in this manual or section E of the general readme file for more information about this topic). * Mike Sands from New Zealand for sending the most original postcard I up to now received. * Jurriaan Kalkman for being the first to provide some great songs for the Mad Minstrel. * Evan Gibson and Jeff Goodson for providing additional songs for the Mad Minstrel. * Dave Decot (for a certain scroll -- wherever you are, contact me) * Thanks to Boris Blazevic for giving me the decisive hint for fixing one of the most annoying bugs ever. Credits for additions to the source code go to: ----------------------------------------------- * William Tanksley for providing a new random number generator for ADOM with lots of possibilities and for providing many helpful comments about improving the source code in general. Credits for various minor tidbits of ideas go to: ------------------------------------------------- Jon Abbott, Julian Arnold, Charlie Ball, Florian Beck, Richard Sheaves-Bein, Ian Michael Bell, Douglas Bonar, Mike Bowen, Massimo Campostrini, Zachary Sundance Davies, Gregory Dean Dearing, Robert DeLoura, Leen Droogendijk, Nick Duffek, Torsten Edelmann, Robert Fermier, Mike Ferry, John Thomas Flanagan, John Fouhy, Richard Fowler, Lucas French, Jeff Goodson, Jurriaan Kalkman, Joel Kamentz, Jonathan Katz, Chris Keiner, Janne Keskinarkaus, Sami Kivela, Tero Laiho, Jeff Lait, Timo Laitila, Sami Luoma-Pukkila, Joshua Malmquist, Dan Martin, Russ Melanson, Justen Meltz, Paul Mosquin, Dirk Jan Out, Ross Morgan-Linial, Ronald Neumann, Mikko Parviainen, Kent Peterson, Martin Read, Ian Roberts, Will Rogers, Daniel Rutter, Osku Salerma, Jussi Salomaki, Andrew Schoonmaker, Katie Sehorn, Aaron B. Simpson, Joe Slater, Christian Sommerer, Nicholas Stallard, Kjetil Svendsberget, Erno Tuomainen, Uoti A. Urpala, Greg Wooledge and Scott Yost Credits for bug reports go to: ------------------------------ Travis Acton, David L. Adam, Adina Adler, Steven Aitkin, Erwin Andreasen, Craig Arnold, Julian Arnold, Antti Arola, David Assaf, Robert Au, Penny Baker, Scott Barcik, Eric Bazin, Charles Bell, Chip Bell, Timo Berthold, Neil Blaber, Eric Bleich, Erik Inge Bolsoe, Michael Brassell, Adam Paul Bronson, Larry Brown, Christian Caesar, Greg Cambridge, Massimo Campostrini, Bobby Chan, Paul Chapman, Kok-Leong Chin, Will Chose, Gian Paolo Costantino, DeWitt Clinton, Frits Daalmans, Zachary Sundance Davies, Adam Dawes, Greg Day, Jeff Derenne, Joseph W. DeVincentis, Dominic DiPalantino, Leen Droogendijk, Nick Duffek, Conrad Dunkerson, Frank Duphorn, Krid Dusitsin, Grant Dvorak, Peter Ebbeson, Torsten Edelmann, Jacob Eliason, Georgy Evseev, Bridget Farace, Robert Fermier, Mike Ferry, Dean Fitzgerald, John Flanagan, Steve Flynn, John Fouhy, Richard Fowler, Lewis Futrell, Ben Thomas Galehouse, Alan Gallauresi, Jamie Gannon, Ashley Garrett, William Gauvin, David Gerber, Evan Gibson, Christopher J. Gibson, Patrick Goguen, Jeff Goodson, Richard Graham, Jonathan Michael Greenberg, Bruce Alan Greenwood, Joe Groszkiewicz, Matthew Grove, Tom Hanlin, Joseph R. Hauser, John Mark Hawley, Jarkko Heino, Jukka Heiskanen, Patrick Hjelt, Iiro Hietala, Karl Hiller, Eric Hilsdale, Adam Horowitz, Markku Hunnakko, Eino Iivari Ii, Chris Ingersoll, Eric Robert Jablow, Robert Johnston, Stefan Jokisch, Sheldon B. Jolson, Tim Jordan, Nuutinen Juha, Jurriaan Kalkman, Martha B. Kapouch, Matti Karppanen, Richard Kenan, Janne Keskinarkaus, Eino Keskitalo, Chris D. Koeberle, Elmar Kolkman, Mikolaj Konarski, Juha Krapu, Tom Kronmiller, Antti Kuusela, Scott Vander Laan, Paul Labuda, Jeff Lait, Timo Laitila, John Lame, Jukka A. Lang, Justin Larue, Christian Lassem, Perttu Laurila, Michael A. Laux, Clark Lawton, George Leidolf, Tommi Leino, Ville Leminen, Tony Leneis, Jerry C. Lin, Terry C. Lin, Stephen Lin, George C. Lindauer, Ilkka Lindblom, Oskar Linde, David Lodge, Nicole Lubinski, Philipp Lucas, Derek Ludwig, Matthew Maclean, Paul Marshall, Dan Martin, Erwin Mascardo, Chris Mathews, Chill McCrear, John McGrady, David McGrath, Chuck McKenzie, Justen Meltz, Mikhail Moldavskiy, Katy Mulvey, Jan Erik Mydland, Jefferson Ng, Yen Nguyen, Yrjo Sakari Niemela, Michael Niewoehner, Toni Nikkanen, Blair Nilsson, Ivar Nilsson, Tyler Novak, Tom Nowacki, Georg Oberwinkler, Dale Ondeck, Gunnar Opsommer, Niilo Paasivirta, Kris Parker, Tom Parker, Kenneth Paulson, Kent Peterson, Pasi Tapani Pirhonen, Antti Pitk"am"aki, Colin Pritchard, Alexander Purikov, Joska Pyykko, Brian Ramos, Michael Rams, Toni Rasanen, Derek S. Ray, Martin Read, Sam Reisner, Judd Reiffin, Adam K. Rixey, David J. Robertson, Steve A. Robinson, Jean-Philippe Rodriguez, Gerald W. Rutsch, Daniel Rutter, Rich Ryker, Osku Salerma, Mika Salovaara, Nate Sarbin, Ben Sayer, Mark W. Schmelzenbach, Jonathan Schmidt, Markus Schwarz, Michael Searle, Zoe Seekins, David Shafer, Scott Shaw, Erlend Simonsen, Aaron B. Simpson, Klaus Sommerer, David Soule, Toni Stauffer, Benjamin Stein, Matthew Stephans, Dave Storey, Mika Sutinen, Kjetil Svendsberget, Martin Svensson, Bruno Tabbia, Avier Taylor-Paul, Jochen Terstiege, Justin Thiessen, Mirko Thoele, Marcy Thompson, Matthew Trevor, Erno Tuomainen, Uoti Urpala, Olivier Della-Valle, Jeff Vandenberg, Ryan Vurlicer, Pete Warren, Olaf Weber, Mason Wheeler, David Whitcombe, Steven White, Matt Whitfield, Sandra Whiting, Aaron Williams, Andy Williams, Jason Willoughby, Gerry Kevin Wilson, Dan Winsor, Greg Wooledge, Stephan "W" Wrammerfors, Scott Yost, Krey Younger, Ben Zealley and Colin Zealley Appendix B: Customizing ADOM ----------------------------- It is possible to set certain default values for ADOM with the standard configuration file. The name of the file and its location depends on the system you are playing ADOM on. The system-related readme file (readme.linux, readme.dos or readme.amiga) accompanying this distribution will give you more details about this. The configuration file can contain certain variables, which control parts of ADOMs behaviour. This file is a plain ASCII file. Generally a line in the configuration file can start with or without a '#'. If the line starts with a '#' it is considered to be a comment and will be ignored. Otherwise ADOM expects to find something that looks like this: <variable> = <value> For example a line might contain the following text: Name = 'Big Bang' or Recovery = 400 ADOM recognizes a certain number of variables which have a specific meanings. Each variable must have a value of a certain type. Allowed types are strings, numbers (only whole integers) and Boolean values ('true' and 'false'). Strings which contain whitespaces must be enclosed by ' (see above). ADOM variables also can be set during the game with the ': =' command which requires the user to enter a line in the format explained above. The following variables currently are recognized: Allow_Default_Names ******************* true, false: defaults to 'false' and allows you to determine whether the default names will be allowed or not Auto_Open_Doors *************** true, false: will ask automatically whether you want to open or unlock a door Auto_Lock_Nearest ***************** true, false: if set to true, the targeting code (used for missile weapons and a few spells) will automatically use the nearest monster as the new target, if no monster was locked before. Auto_Pickup *********** string containing the symbols of items chosen from the following categories, which are to be picked up whenever you move on a field containing items of that type: [ Armor, shields, cloaks, boots, girdles, gauntlets and helmets * Gems and rocks & Necklaces, amulets and tools ( Melee weapons } Missile weapons / Missiles (except for stones) = Rings \ Wands ! Potions ? Scrolls ~ Bracers % Food $ Gold { Instruments " Books Check_Item_In_Hand ****************** true, false: if set to 'true' you will be asked if you want to wield an item other than a pick axe, a torch or a melee weapon Class ***** any of the available classes Colored_Menus ************* true, false: if set to 'false' you won't have to endure the colored menus (and yes, there probably will be configurable colors for the menus at some point in the future although it's pretty low priority for me). Colored_PC ********** true, false: if set to 'false' the player icon '@' will be displayed in white -- otherwise the color is dependent on your class. Compact_Kill_List ***************** true, false: if set to 'true' the final kill list will be compacted by printing more than just one killed monster type per line. Display_Key_Code **************** true, false: if set to 'true' you will see the keys you pressed during a multi-key command Fast_Missile_Readying ********************* true, false: will prompt you whether you want to add a (heap of) missiles to your missile slot when the missile slot is empty Fast_More ********* true, false: if set to 'true' any key will be accepted when the '(more)' prompt is displayed. Setting this variable to 'true' is equivalent to pressing 'C-k' once at the start of the game. Fated_Gender ************ true, false: if set to true, ADOM will select the gender for your character Low_Hitpoint_Warning ******************** true, false: if set to true ADOM will beep (or flash the screen if beeping is impossible but flashing is possible on your system) if the hitpoints of your character fall below 20% (or 15 -- whichever is lower). Message_Buffer_Size ******************* A number, which describes the size of the message buffer in lines. The value is required to be between 50 and 10000. Metric_Measuring **************** true, false; if set to true, your height and weight will be printed according to metric measuring Name **** the default name for your PC Nice_Stuff ********** true, false: if set to true the stuff list will display cursed items in red and blessed items in green. Persistence *********** a numeric value; determines the number of steps that will pass when you use the 'walk mode' to search in one place (see -> Continuous search via 'w s'); the default value is 50 Quitters_Allowed **************** true, false: if set to 'true' all games in which you quit will also be recorded in the highscore Race **** any of the allowed races -- don't forget the ' for races like High Elf Random_PC ********* true, false; determines whether a randomly rolled character will be used each time you start ADOM Recovery ******** a numeric value; determines the number of steps that will pass when you use the 'walk mode' to wait in one place; the default value is 50 Reverse_Message_Order ********************* true, false: determines the order in which the messages are displayed in the message buffer; true means that the latest messages will be displayed at the bottom, false means that the latest messages will be displayed at the top; 'true' is the default value Sex *** male, female Short_Log_Format **************** string: the string is used by ADOM to create a log file. The string contains one character for each set of information to be included in the log file. The following options can be used: a: Achievements (attribute changes, ...) b: Background of the PC c: Spells d: PC data (attributes, ...) e: Effects of corruption i: Items in the inventory k: Kill list of the PC l: Skills m: Items in the backpack s: Screenshot w: Weapon skills The default is: "dbim". Sorted_Skills ************* true, false: if set to 'true' the skill list will be ordered alphabetically Starvation_Warning ****************** true, false: if set to 'true', ADOM will beep if you are in danger of starving. Uncursed_String *************** string: some people don't seem to like the word 'uncursed' ADOM uses to describe an item that is neither cursed nor blessed. You can define an alternative by using this environment variable. Be careful about what you do since ADOM does not check your definition and using 'cursed' or 'blessed' is possible, too. Moral: he who confuses himself gets what he deserves. Verbose_Level_Messages ********************** true, false: defaults to 'false'; if set to 'true', level messages will be displayed whenever you enter a special level, otherwise only on the first time Verbose_Log_Format ****************** string: This string has the same format as 'Short_Log_Format'. ADOM internally does not care about the format of the two strings (and which one is longer). The intention of these two environment variables simply is to allow the user to have two different means of creating a logfile. The default is: "sdbwcleimka". Walk_Carefully ************** true, false: if set to 'true' ADOM will abort from Walk-Mode as soon as you spot a non-tame monster. If you initially do not have a configuration file, ADOM will create one for you. APPENDIX C: Command Line Options -------------------------------- ADOM can be supplied with some command line options to make it do certain things. Up to now the following command line options are supported: -c <file>: forces ADOM to use <file> as configuration file -d: display the directories being used by ADOM -h: display the available command line options -k: use the standard keymap -l <name>: load the saved game <name> -m: use monochrome display -n: forbids ADOM to use any configuration file -o: prints the used compiler options -r: create keymap reference file 'keyref.kbd' -s: prints the complete highscore to stdout. -v: display the current version of ADOM. The syntax for calling ADOM with options is: adom [-c <file>] [-d] [-h] [-k] [-m] [-n] [-o] [-r] [-s] [-v] Important note: If you have changed the default keymap, but would like to have a reference file of the original bindings, you need to call ADOM like this: adom -k -r (It's important that the '-k' is set before the '-r'!) APPENDIX D: Customizing the keymap ---------------------------------- ADOM allows you to customize the keybindings used during the game for invoking commands to a certain extent. When ADOM is started it searches for a file called 'adom.kbd' (or '.adom.kbd' on Linux systems) in your data directory (call 'adom -d' to determine your data directory). This file contains a description of its syntax, which should answer all questions. Customizing a keymap to a very specific system requires quite some work on your side if you want to use special keys and such stuff (you will need to know the ASCII codes your system generates when a special key is pressed). Note that customization is possible only to a certain extent. If you would like to have a printed reference of your own keymap bindings at hand, you can enter adom -r at your command prompt. This will make ADOM to create a file called 'keyref.kbd', which contains the current bindings and can be printed on any line printer. Check it for the details about how to define new key bindings.