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366 lines
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Plaintext
366 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
Enchanter
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Introduction
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"Enchanter" is a new adventure game in the Zork tradition,
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but in a different setting and with a different overall
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philosophy. The emphasis in Zork was on treasure and
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fighting, but in Enchanter the emphasis is on magic.
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This document describes the game as currently envisioned.
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Comments are welcome; send them to Dave (PDL) and Marc
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(BLANK).
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General Comments
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The viewpoint character is a low-level magician. He has a
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few abilities represented by spells in his spell book. The
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goal of the game is two-fold. First, to become a better
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magician. Second, to defeat an evil magician who is taking
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over the dungeon, repairing the damage he has done.
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The Milieu
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The dungeon is deteriorating, from the point of view of
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anyone reasonable (such as you, we hope). Rooms are
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darkening, passages choking off (via magic and rockfalls),
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monsters are being released to prowl the halls.
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The Warlock
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The evil magician is "the Warlock." He just recently moved
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into the neighborhood and began taking it over, and you were
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sent by the Council to clear him out. He is much too much
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of a wizard for you to take on directly until the end of the
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game, and if you try (which should be possible), you get
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fried for your trouble. The Warlock is possibly also the
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priest who sacrifices you in the Temple scene. The
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Warlock's Tower (which is nonetheless underground) is at the
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top (bottom?) of the Endless Stair, and guarded by nasty
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creatures with nasty sharp teeth, etc. They are probably
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evilly magicked bunny rabbits.
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The Adventurer
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The Adventurer may come to your assistance after you magic
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him over from the other side of the mirror. He is from the
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Zork world, effectively, and comes equipped with an Elvish
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sword and various other paraphenalia. He will be turned
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against you by the Warlock at some point and have to be made
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friendly again. He will be needed to perform some task
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which is too physical for a cerebral type such as you.
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While he is turned against you he is like the thief in Zork,
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and may even attack you.
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Monsters
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There are lots of nasty, sharp-toothed creatures wandering
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around. Eventually, you can avoid them via "Protection from
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Evil." If you don't, you will get destroyed pretty quickly,
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or perhaps captured by the bad guys for sacrifice to their
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even nastier dieties.
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Spells
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Magic plays a big part in this game. There are several
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magical objects, magic spells (which you learn as you go
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along), and your spell-book, which is all-important. See
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"Spells, Detail" below for more on spells.
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The ultimate action in the game is going to be to say some
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number of spells sequentially at the Warlock, which will
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banish him and restore the dungeon.
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Some spells (English names):
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*Light (makes a light wherever the caster goes)
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Open (opens something closed; a passage, a box...)
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Resurrect (restores something dead to life)
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Charm (makes someone friendly to you)
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*Write Magic (allows you to copy a spell into book)
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Fly (lets you fly around)
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Haste (makes things go fast)
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*Talk to Animals (lets you talk to turtle)
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and others. * marks spells you have at the beginning.
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Events/Problems
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Darkness
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As the game begins, you are in total darkness, having just
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entered the underground (perhaps you were teleported there
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by the Council). You have only your spell book.
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Fortunately, the words written in such books glow in the
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dark, so if you open the book you can read the spells you
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have, one of which is "Light".
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Sacrifice
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This is probably the only overt reference to the Zork
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trilogy, as it is based on the Viewing Table scene in Zork
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3. You are captured by the followers of the Warlock and
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dragged to the Temple, where you are sacrificed in a rite
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horrible and bloody. You are left lying on the altar, the
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magical sacrificial knife stuck in your chest. If you had
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the foresight to cast a "cheat death" beforehand, you revive
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a few moves later.
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Gordian Knot
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An ornate box is wrapped securely in a magic rope which you
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cannot cut or untie. In fact, if you try to untie it, it
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reties the next move. Like the original, this knot must be
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cut, but with a magical blade (it's a magical rope, after
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all). The blade is the sacrificial knife from the Temple
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scene. The prize here is (naturally enough) the "Open"
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spell.
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Endless Stair
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The entrance to the Warlock's Tower is an infinite stair.
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It is literally infinite, in that you can go up or down it
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any number of times (keep a count and a table of objects and
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locations in case twit drops things). Now, it isn't really
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infinite, it's only an illusion, and by casting that "Dispel
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Illusion," you discover it's actually only a round room
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which you have been marching around in for hours, and has an
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exit opposite the entrance.
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Malleable Maze
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There is an area of about ten rooms in a traditional Zork
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maze configuration. There is a (magic?) map of this area
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with none of the connections shown, only the rooms. As you
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roam about in the maze, the connections appear.
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Interestingly enough, there is one room you can't get to.
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Fortunately, there is also a (magic?) pencil which you can
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use to draw in connections in this area. If you use it to
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draw the connection to the final room, you can retrieve the
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scroll contained therein, but also disturb the monster which
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guards it.
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The monster chases you and can catch you if you don't erase
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an appropriate connection or two, trapping him.
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The map and pencil can be used to vary the maze in any way
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you choose, erasing and drawing passages. Perhaps the maze
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should even be generated randomly in each game. It would be
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represented by ten tables of eight elements (or ten, if we
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include up and down as directions). You would draw by
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saying "Connect Red Room to Blue Room," and erase by saying
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"Disconnect Red Room from Blue Room."
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Sleep
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"Sleep" is both a spell and something you must do from time
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to time. By sleeping, you recover the energy used to cast
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spells and can rememorize spells. Also, you get a vision in
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a dream that either gives you a spell or a clue to solving
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one of the puzzles. This could even be a "Hint" facility if
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we wanted it to be.
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Purloined Letter
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This is the problem the silly adventurer is useful for.
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There is a huge door, decorated with magical runes and
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obvious enormously charged with power. It might even say
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something on it like "Magician, Keep Out!" If you touch it,
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you get seriously frotzed, and "Open" fizzles against it.
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This door is warded to the hilt. However, if you ask the
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adventurer to open it, he has no trouble, not being a
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magician. In fact, he doesn't even see it as a formidable
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door, just a random dungeon door. If you ask him, he will
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tell you. "Dispel Illusion" will reveal this, and waste the
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spell.
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Rainbow Turtle
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This huge, brightly decorated creature wanders around on the
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beach. See "Gears" for more.
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Gears
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Huge grinding gears and pounding machinery fill a certain
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room. Things are being thrown around in here, all the time,
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and if you try to get across the room to get the spell
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scroll clearly visible in an alcove, you are speared or
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crushed by the pounding machinery. The turtle is impervious
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to the spears but is crushed by the pounding stuff. But, if
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you cast "Talk to Animals" on him, you can ask him to
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retrieve the scroll. If you cast "Haste" on him, he can get
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across between "Crunch!" and "Crunch!", otherwise he is
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smushed.
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Faberge Easter Egg
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This is an object of great beauty and enormous complexity.
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It has lots of little twisty handles and knobs and stuff in
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the filigree (which you see if you examine it). They
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presumably open it (and in fact they do, if all turned or
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pushed or whatever). However, if the Egg is opened that
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way, the stuff these frobs are connected to inside destroy
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the scroll contained within. You must use the "Open" spell
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to actually open it safety.
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Spells, Detail
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(Theory and Practice of Thaumaturgy)
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[Much of what follows is adapted from "real" D&D.]
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Spells are ways of performing magic. They are either
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general in their effect ("Light!") or specific ("Open!").
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Spells have an English name and a one-word nonsense
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incantation to invoke them. For example, "Light!" might be
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invoked by "Krebf!" and "Open!" by "Frotz the door!" You
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may encounter the incantation word without knowing the
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associated English for a spell! It is therefore possible to
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invoke a spell without knowing for sure what it will do.
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You have a spell book. Your spell book records the spells
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you learn. There is a distinction between learning a spell
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and memorizing it for use. Only a small number of spells
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can actually be memorized at one time, and you must rest and
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rememorize them to use them again. A spell written in your
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spell book can be memorized again and again. Once you have
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memorized a spell, you can use it without having the spell
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book around. When you use a spell you have memorized, you
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forget it.
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You might have a spell book containing ten spells, but only
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be able to memorize five of them at one time. Correct
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selection of spells to memorize is one aspect of the game.
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If you lose your spell book, you are in deep trouble.
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Newly found spells may be written into your spell book using
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the spell "Write magic!" Sometimes a spell is too powerful
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to be used more than once, and it appears in the book in a
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different form. Such spells disappear from the book after
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being used (the book "forgets" them).
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Once a spell is written in your spell book, its English name
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becomes apparent. In fact, reading your book probably would
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look like:
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Spell Book
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Frotz - perpetual light
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Ozmoo - open a closed object
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Fweep - charm an unfriendly creature
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etc.
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There will be a command ("Spells") which will inventory
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those spells you have memorized for this day. It is
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possible to memorize a spell more than once; you get "more
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than one copy," in some sense. If you try to memorize more
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spells than you can remember, you will forget the first one
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memorized.
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Magic spells usually have a duration, and sometimes a cycle
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time (meaning that you can't do them many times right in a
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row).
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In addition to the Spell Book and Spells, there is going to
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need to be a sort of crib sheet giving enough detail for the
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player to get started. The rationale is that having just
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graduated from Wizard School, you are still a little shakey.
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Spell Implementation, Details
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You want syntaxes like:
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<spell>. FROTZ! ("Light!")
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<spell> <object>. FWEEP DOOR! ("Open door!")
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Cast <spell> spell.
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Cast <spell> on <object>.
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Cast <spell> spell on object.
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SPELL is the main synonym, so:
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>Cast spell
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Which spell, the foo spell or the bar spell?
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You should also be able to
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>Learn <spell>
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>Frob <spell> ;Where "frob" is "write magic"
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>Memorize <spell>
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>Memorize <spell> twice ;Frill?
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I see a "spell" as being the following;
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<OBJECT FOO-SPELL
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(IN SPELL-BOOK)
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(SYNONYM SPELL)
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(ADJECTIVE FOO)
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(MEMORIZED 0) ;"count of times memorized"
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(ACTION FOO-SPELL-F)
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... >
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There is also a GLOBAL-FOO-SPELL, which is not put in
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GLOBAL-OBJECTS until you first encounter/learn "Foo."
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GLOBAL-FOO-SPELL has its ACTION property the same as
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FOO-SPELL's, and so all checking is done in the same place.
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The command to check your memorized spells can just wander
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down the list of all spells and tell you which have
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MEMORIZED properties greater than zero.
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Other Possible Characters
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Dwarves -- these guys are getting out, and might tell you
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about the Warlock and about the Terror if you ask. They
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would be comic figures like those in Steve's book. They
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might also give you a weapon (which you can't use, being a
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magician).
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Cultists -- worshippers of the evil Warlock. They would be
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the ones to capture you and take you to the Temple.
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Other Possible Problem Ideas
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;;This problem is superceded by the Malleable Maze, but is
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;;left here in case we can salvage a smaller problem from
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;;it.
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;; Maze of Glass
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;;This is a large room divided into small rooms by glass
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;;partitions, some of which are there, some not, to produce a
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;;maze. You must have the "Fly" spell to solve it, because
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;;some of the exits are "Up". There is a spell scroll as a
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;;prize. Implementation is analogous to that of the Chinese
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;;puzzle in Zork 3. Depending on how nasty we want to be,
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;;this could be a 3x3x3 up to a 5x5x5 cube.
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"Coal Chute" - adapt Coal Chute problem from original Zork.
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Use magic rope? Gist is that you can hang on for a limited
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time and carry a limited weight, and there is an exit in the
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middle of the chute. This may be too "Zorkish" for Enchanter.
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Summary of Problems
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-Specific Problems- -File- -You Need-
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Darkness "Light"
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Sacrifice TEMPLE "Resurrect"
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Gordian Knot KNOT Magic Knife
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Malleable Maze TERROR Magic Pencil and Map
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Adventurer "Summon" and "Charm"
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Purloined Letter PURLOINED Adventurer or "Dispel Illusion"
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Faberge Easter Egg EGG "Open"
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Sleep SLEEP
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Gears/Turtle GEARS "Talk to Animals" and "Haste"
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Endless Stair STAIR "Dispel Illusion"
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Warlock everything
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-General Problems- -File- -You Need-
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Protect Self "Protection from Evil"
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Protect Spell Book "Protection from Evil"?
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Magic/Learning Spells MAGIC "Write Magic" |