OPERATIONS MANUAL THE TOME OF VAST KNOWLEDGE COPYRIGHT DOUGLAS P. WEBB 1993. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, AD&D, Monster Manual, Fiend Folio, Monster Manual II, Dungeon Masters Guide, Player's Handbook, Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Dragonlance, Spelljammer and Dragon Magazine are Trademarks of TSR, Inc. IBM, PC/AT, PS/2 are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. ADDCHAR is Copyright of Micheal Hermann 1992,1993. 2 Warranty and Disclaimer of Warranty THIS SOFTWARE AND ACCOMPANYING WRITTEN MATERIALS (INCLUDING INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE) ARE PROVIDES "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. FURTHER, DOUGLAS P. WEBB DOES NOT WARRANT, GUARANTEE, OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE, OR THE RESULTS OF USE, OF THE SOFTWARE OR WRITTEN MATERIALS IN TERMS OF CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, CURRENTNESS, OR OTHERWISE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS ASSUMED BY YOU. IF THE SOFTWARE OR WRITTEN MATERIALS ARE DEFECTIVE YOU, AND NOT DOUGLAS P. WEBB OR HIS DEALERS, DISTRIBUTORS, AGENTS, OR EMPLOYEES, ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION. THE ABOVE IS THE ONLY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, THAT IS MADE BY DOUGLAS P. WEBB, ON THIS DOUGLAS P. WEBB PRODUCT. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION OR ADVICE GIVEN BY DOUGLAS P. WEBB, HIS DEALERS, DISTRIBUTORS, AGENTS OR EMPLOYEES SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY OR IN ANY WAY INCREASE THE SCOPE OF THIS WARRANTY AND YOU MAY NOT RELY ON ANY SUCH INFORMATION OR ADVICE. YOU MAY HAVE OTHER RIGHTS WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO STATE. NEITHER DOUGLAS P. WEBB NOR ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE CREATION, PRODUCTION OR DELIVERY OF THIS PRODUCT SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, AND THE LIKE) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE SUCH PRODUCT EVEN IF DOUGLAS P. WEBB HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT BY USING THE FREEWARE VERSION OF THE TOME OF VAST KNOWLEDGE YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS LIMITED WARRANTY, UNDERSTAND IT, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ITS' TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU ALSO AGREE THAT THE LIMITED WARRANTY IS THE COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE PARTIES AND SUPERSEDE ALL PROPOSALS OR PRIOR AGREEMENTS, ORAL OR WRITTEN, AND ANY OTHER COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THE PARTIES RELATING TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THE LIMITED WARRANTY. 3 Index Limited Warranty & Disclaimer .............................. 3 Contacting the Author & Technical Support .................. 5 1 Introduction ......................................... 6 2 Installation & the Setup Program ..................... 7 2.2.1 Installing the Tome on a Hard Disk ................... 7 2.2.2 Installing the Tome on a 2 Floppy System ............. 7 2.2.3 Adding Programs to the External Programs Menu ........ 8 2.2.4 Printer Configuration ................................ 9 3 The Top Level (Main) Menu for the Tome ............... 10 3.1 The Spell Menu ....................................... 10 3.1.1 List Searching ....................................... 11 3.1.2 Keyword Searching .................................... 12 3.2 The Monster Menu ..................................... 13 3.2.2 Terrain Based Monster Searches ....................... 15 3.2.3 Random Monster Determination ......................... 17 3.3 The Magic Item Menu .................................. 18 3.3.3 Random Magic Item Determination ...................... 21 3.4 The Various Topic Menu ............................... 22 3.5 The Utilities Menu ................................... 22 3.5.1 The Sword Builder .................................... 23 3.5.2 The Hoard Generator .................................. 23 3.5.3 The NPC Maker 1st Ed. ................................ 23 3.5.4 The NPC Maker 2nd Ed. (ADDCHAR) ...................... 25 3.5.5 Auto Spell ........................................... 25 3.6 External Programs .................................... 27 3.7 Keyboard Macros ...................................... 27 3.8 Electronic Dice ...................................... 29 4 Last Word ............................................ 30 Appendix A - Writing Your Own Printer Driver ............... 31 Appendix B - Changing the Default Backup key ............... 35 4 Contacting the Author & Technical Support Don't expect too much, this is freeware, and I'm a busy graduate student, but any suggestions, bug reports, etc. would be appreciated, and will handled as quickly as possible. Internet: dwebb@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca (until at least May/93) Write me (until at least June '93): Douglas Webb 228 Murray St. Montreal, Quebec CANADA H3C 2C7 5 1 Introduction The Tome of Vast Knowledge is designed to help Dungeon Masters (DM's), and/or players keep track of the large amounts of rules, spells and monsters that are an integral part of the Advance Dungeons & Dragon (AD&D) game. The number of essential books has increased greatly over the last 10-12 years and the number of articles, modules and accessories that have been published is almost beyond counting. This program should help you find what you are looking for, and make it easy and fast. This product is not a substitute for the various official AD&D reference books, it is rather a complementary tool. You will find that large amounts of material which are available in the various official books are reproduced here, but none of the illustrations or diagrams, and few of the tables are reproduced here, so you will want to use this with your other books, rather than instead of them. This version of the Tome was designed as an accessory for 1st edition AD&D, however much of the information contained herein is compatible with the 2nd edition AD&D system. 6 2 Installation & the Setup Program 2.1 System Requirements: The Tome of Vast Knowledge requires that you run it on an IBM PC/XT/AT,PS/2 or 100% compatible with 512K of memory, an MDA/CGA/EGA/VGA/Hercules Monochrome or 100% compatible video card, and one floppy disk drive and a hard disk drive, and DOS version 2.11 or later. It is recommended that the Tome be used with 640K of memory. 2.2 Installing the Tome of Vast Knowledge The first thing you should do is backup the Tome. This can easily be done using the DISKCOPY program that comes with DOS. The Tome will be unable to run properly and may work improperly if the following line does not appear in your CONFIG.SYS file: Files=20 (For more information on the CONFIG.SYS file consult your DOS manual.) 2.2.1 Installing the Tome on a Hard Disk Once you have backed up your copy of the Tome you can install the Tome by copying all files that come with the Tome (these are listed in the FILES.DOC file) into their own directory on your hard disk. 2.2.2 Installing the Tome on a 2 Floppy System It is theoretically possible to run the Tome on a computer with 2 floppy disks. On the program disk must appear: All the .EXE, .INI, .PRD, .DAT, .IDX, .KDX, .KDT, both the SPELTITL files and the .TXT files that VADDCHAR depends on. The .PAK files which contain the actual database texts can be placed on Data floppies in any arrangement deemed to be convenient. The Tome will prompt for the appropriate Data disk when it is required. 7 Once you have successfully installed the Tome, you can run it by using DOS to go to the directory it is installed in and type 'VAST', then press the key. NOTE: This program will run faster if more memory is available to it. It is recommended that you have as few memory resident programs, like keyboard enhancers, loaded as is possible to allow the Tome to run as fast as it was designed to. 2.2.3 Adding Programs to the External Programs Menu The Tome has the facility to run user designated programs from a menu, see section 3.6 for more information. You must add programs to this menu using the installation/ setup program. The setup program can be accessed from the External Programs menu (see section 3.6). If you wish to add a program (or batch file) to this menu so you must know the PATH to the program, which must be supplied when it is added to the menu. Parameters which are to be passed to the program should appear after the PATH. (For example: Suppose you have a program called 'NOTEBOOK.EXE' in another directory that you want to run from time to time. If NOTEBOOK accepts the filename to be edited as a command line parameter you can place the command line parameter after the program name. In this case you should use a PATH of C:\NOTE\NOTEBOOK.EXE ADD.TXT NOTE: You should designate the program's file extension (EXE or COM), as this will allow the external program to be loaded faster, and use less memory. You can rerun the Tome's setup program to add or delete external programs from this menu at any time. You can run a DOS batch file as an external program (assuming the COMMAND.COM file is in the root directory on the C: drive) by using a PATH as follows: C:\COMMAND.COM /C BATNAME (where you should replace BATNAME with the name and path to your batch file). It should be noted that there may be no more than 9 external programs installed at any one time. (Information on what a PATH is can be found in your DOS manual.) 8 2.2.4 Printer Configuration The Setup program, which can be accessed from the External Programs menu (see section 3.6), has the facility to change the currently selected printer. When running the Tome, it will undoubtedly become necessary to print out information from time to time. The Tome has accompanying it printer drivers for many of the most commonly used printers. However, if you want to take advantage of this capability you must run the printer configuration utility which is part if the installation program. You will be asked what port your printer is attached to (sorry serial printers are not supported at this time), and then you will be presented with a scrollable list of printers which are supported. Move the highlight bar (with the arrow keys) until the printer which is closest to yours is highlighted, then press . NOTE: I have written printer drivers for as many printers as I could get my hands on, but there are undoubtedly more than a few which cannot emulate any of the commonly available printers that I have tried to support. Appendix A of this manual describes what is involved in writing a printer driver (not for the faint of heart). If you are having trouble doing so mail me the appropriate sections from your printer manual I will try and write a driver in my copious free time. Conversely, if you write a nice driver for a heretofore unsupported printer, please send me a copy (with your name prominently embedded) so others may benefit. 9 3 The Top level Menu When first encountering the Tome of Vast Knowledge you will be greeted by the Main Menu, as pictured below. Insert TOME1.EPS picture here if you have printed it. From this menu you must select the area of information you wish to explore. If you are interested in perusing the texts of any of the many types of spells, you should type 'S'. If you want to examine the specifics about any of the monsters in the Net Monstrous Compenium or other monster database you should type 'M'. If you want to take a look at the descriptions of any of the many magic items, you should type 'I'. If you want to look at any of the other miscellaneous texts collected, including a collection of new character classes/kits, or a list of optional rules every dungeon master should know about, you should type 'V'. A small collection of utilities have been assembled and these can be accessed by typing 'U'. If you want to run an external program, or need to shell out to DOS you must type 'E'. You can quit the program from this menu by typing 'Q'. You will notice that here, as well as in many other locations in this program, you can get help by pressing the key. The help screen presented will tend to describe your current options, and how to accomplish them. To return from a help screen to where you were before you called it up, press the key. 3.1 The Spell Menu If you press 'S' on the main menu you will be presented with this second tier menu. From here you have two options. You can browse through complete lists of spells, or you can search for specific types of spells by keyword, by pressing 'S' and 'K' respectively. You can return to the program's main menu by pressing , or you can get help by pressing . You will find that just about anywhere in this program you can press and return to the previous menu. NOTE: The spells listed in this section are not official, and Dungeon Masters are encouraged to disallow the use of any spell that you think will unbalance your campaign, remember you are the final arbiter of what is allowed in your campaign. 10 3.1.1 List Search If you select 'S' from the spell menu, you will be presented with a list of the various type of spells that are available to browse: Net Wizard, Net Priest, and possibly others, as illustrated below. Insert TOME2.EPS picture here if you have printed it. You can use the up and down arrow keys to move the scroll bar onto the type of spell you are interested in and then press the key. You will then be presented with a scrollable list of all spells of that type. Pressing the and keys will move the cursor to the first and last entries in the list, respectively. (You can press the first letter of each of these as a shortcut, 'W' for example will pop up a list of all net Wizard spells.) If you are, for example, searching through the list of wizard spells, as pictured below, you will notice that there are several options available to you: Insert TOME3.EPS picture here if you have printed it. As always, pressing will return you to the previous menu. You can use the up and down arrow keys to move the scroll bar over the list of spells. In addition you can use the and keys to scroll the list faster (15 items at a time). As previously, pressing the key returns the scroll bar to the top item in the list, and the key places the scrollbar on the last spell in the list (in this case Zephyr). In addition you can speed your way through the list by pressing the first letter of a known spell you are interested in and then scrolling using the arrow keys once you are close to the desired spell. For example, suppose you were interested in examining the Sonic Barrier spell, you could, when browsing the list of net wizard spells, press 'S' which will advance the scrollbar to the first spell starting with 'S', and you can then quickly scroll down to Sonic Barrier with the arrow keys. Futhermore, by pressing you access a shortcut option which will allow you to speed your way directly to the spell of your choice. As in our previous example, you want to examine Sonic Barrier, press and a window will pop up asking you what spell you want, you then type in as much of the spell name as you want (usually enough to allow unambiguous spell determination). In this case type 'SONIC BA' to avoid confusion with Sonic Blast), then press . The scroll bar will be advanced to the first spell 11 that matches completely with your input. With a little practice you'll discover what method best allows you to find your favorite spells rapidly. Once you have positioned the scrollbar on the spell you are interested in, you can then press , this will cause the complete text of that spell to be presented to you on screen. 3.1.1.1 Browsing a spell Suppose you had scrolled down to Sonic Barrier as in the previous example and pressed . You would now find the first 21 lines of the spell presented on the screen. You can use the up and down arrows or the and keys to scroll through the text. You will notice that in many spells important words and phrases are in bold face to draw your attention. In some spells you will see that there are words that are green (or underlined on monochrome monitors), these are hotlinks. Usually these hotlinks are names of other spells that you are referred to for further information. You can use the key to move the cursor to the first hotlink. If there is more than one hotlink, repeated pressing of the key will move the cursor to the 2nd, 3rd and so on, and finally back to the first hotlink. Once the cursor is on the hotlink you can press the key and the text associated with that hotlink will be called up on screen immediately. You can continue on in this fashion to a depth of 5 calls, or until you run out of memory. For example, while browsing Pobithaker's Protection call the hotlink to Pobithaker's Placer, from there call the link to Pobithaker's Tracer, you are now 3 levels deep. You can return to the previous spell, or ultimately, the spell menu you were browsing by pressing . 3.1.2 KeyWord Search If you pressed 'K' from the spell menu you will find yourself in the keyword search menu, as illustrated below. From here you can search for a specific type of spell. Suppose the 9th level wizard Non-Player Character (NPC) you are preparing to challenge your party with needs a few good offensive combat spells to round out his arsenal, you could use this menu to find out what his options are. 12 Insert TOME4.EPS picture here if you have printed it. First, you should move the highlight bar onto 'Caster- Type' using the left and right arrows, then press (or as a shortcut type 'C'). You will then be presented with a scrollable list of the types of spells there are. Using the arrow keys move the scrollbar onto 'net Wizard' (if it isn't already on it) and press . You should notice that 'net Wizard' just appeared in the window in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, this is to help you keep track of what you have selected. You can remove a single spell type from this search window the same way you entered it in the first place. Move the highlight bar onto the name of the spell type you wish to remove and press . Once you have all the spell types you want to search through, press to return to the keyword search menu. Now select the level of spells which you are interested in by moving the highlight bar onto 'Level' using the left and right arrow keys then press (or type 'L' as a shortcut). Continuing with the example of a 9th-level wizard, 1st-5th level spells should be considered, because 9th level wizards can cast 1st-5th level spells, so add '1', '2', '3', '4' and '5' to the 'Level' search criteria window. Press when you are finished to return to the keyword search menu. Finally the keywords describing the types of spells you are interested in should be added. Move the highlight bar onto 'Keywords' using the arrow keys then presss (or type 'K' as a shortcut). Then, as described above add the keywords desired, in this case 'Offensive, Active' and 'Offensive, Passive', and when you have done this press to return to the keyword search menu. (You will find most of the keywords self explanatory, but in some cases you may have to experiment to see what type of spell you get using different search criteria.) NOTE: There is any option to use 'Any Keyword', which return all spells matching caster types and levels selected. NOTE: When in the keyword search menu you can press to clear a single search window. For example, if the highlight bar is on 'Levels' and you then press the window indicating which levels should be considered for the search will be cleared. Clears all three windows. 13 To perform the search, you can then move the highlight bar over to the 'Search' and press (or press 'S' as a shortcut). If any of the 3 search criteria windows is empty this operation will be unsuccessful. You must specify what you are looking for in terms of level, caster type and keyword. Once a search has been done, you will be presented with a scrollable list of all spells that match at least one criterion for each of caster type, level and keyword. In the above example, any net Wizard spells which are of level 1-5 and are fundamentally combat-offensive in nature would appear. You can then use the up and down arrows and the and keys to scroll through this list. Pressing at any time will put the full text of the spell which is highlighted on screen as you have seen before. 3.2 The Monster Menu If you type 'M' in the main menu you will be presented with this second tier menu. From here you have three options. You can browse through complete lists of monsters (section 3.2.1), you can search for specific types of monsters by terrain (section 3.2.2), or you can generate random encounters (Section 3.2.3), by typing 'S', 'K' and 'R' respectively. You can return to the program's main menu by pressing , or get help by pressing . 3.2.1 List Search If you select 'S' from the monster menu, you will be presented with a list of all commonly known monsters. As you are searching through the list of monsters, you will notice that there are several options available to you: As always, pressing will return you to the previous menu. You can use the up and down arrow keys to move the scroll bar over the list of monsters. In addition you can use the and keys to scroll the list faster (about 15 items at a time). Pressing the key returns the scroll bar to the top item in the list, and the key places the scrollbar on the last monster in the list. In addition, you can speed your way through the list by pressing the first letter of the monster you are interested 14 in, which will advance the list to the first monster which matches the letter pressed, and then scrolling using the arrow keys once you are close to the desired monster. For example, suppose I was interested in examining the Dragon Fisher I could, when browsing the list of monsters, press 'D' which will advance the scrollbar to the first monster starting with 'D', you can then quickly scroll down to Dragon Fisher with the arrow keys. Futhermore, by pressing you access a shortcut option which will allow you to speed your way directly to the monster of your choice. As in our previous example, you want to examine Dragon Fisher, press and a window will pop up asking you what monster you want, you then type in as much of the monster name as you want (usually enough to allow unambiguous monster determination). In this case type 'DRAGON F' (to avoid confusion with Dragons of various types), then press . The scroll bar will be advanced to the first monster that matches completely with your input. Once you have positioned the scrollbar on the monster you are interested in, you can then press . This will cause the complete text of that monster to be presented to you on screen. You can then browse the text in the fashion described in section 3.1.1.1. 3.2.2 Terrain Search If you pressed 'K' from the monster menu you will find yourself in the keyword search menu very similar to that described in section 3.1.2. From here you can search for monsters, based on the terrain which they inhabit. Suppose that you are preparing to challenge your party with some monsters, but you would like the monsters to be appropriate to the terrain they will be crossing. You can use this menu to find out what the appropriate monsters are. In this case the monster search automatically encompasses all available monsters, these will be listed in the monster-type window in the upper left hand corner of the screen. You must select the level of monsters that will be appropriate, say 3rd level. Then select the keywords describing the terrains you are interested in, for example, Temperate Desert and Temperate Plains. You will find most of the terrains self explanatory. Some of these keywords are descriptors, that is they describe what the monsters are, not where they are found. 'Undead' encompasses all 15 creatures which have most or all of the general characteristics of undead. 'Constructs' are monsters that can be built, and will therefore likely only be found where they have been placed by powerful NPC's. NOTE: There is any option to use 'Any Terrain', which return all monsters matching the levels selected. SPECIAL NOTE: You will notice that 'Underdark' describes creatures which will, as often as not, be found only underground. If you want all monsters that can be found underground in a certain terrain, it is a good idea to select the terrains above ground in the area of the caves/tunnels, as well as 'Underdark'. For example, suppose you wanted to populate a cavern in a topical mountain, you would select 'Tropical, Wilderness Mountains' AND 'Underdark, Land'. You might discover some creatures which are incompatible with underground existence, but this will mostly be obvious. It should be noted that some monsters (eg. dragons) can progress through various levels, ie., young dragons may only be 3rd or 4th levels, while ancient dragons may be 7th or 8th level. You can, when in the terrain search menu, press to clear a single search window. For example, if the highlight bar is on 'Levels' and you then press the window indicating which levels should be considered for the search will be cleared. Clears both windows. You can then move the highlight bar over to the 'Search' and press (or press 'S' as a shortcut). If any of the 2 alterable search windows are empty this operation will be unsuccessful, you must specify what you are looking for in terms of level, and terrain. Once all this has been done, a search will present you with a scrollable list all monsters that match your search criteria. You can then use the up and down arrows and the and key to scroll through this list. Pressing at any time will put the full text of the spell which is highlighted on screen as you have seen before. 16 3.2.3 The Random Search Menu If you press 'R' from the monster menu you will arrive at this random monster search menu. Here you must specify what type of monsters you are interested in, both in terms of level, and in terms of the terrain they inhabit. You can then have the program randomly select the specific monster that, for example, might be part of an encounter in that terrain. There are two types of immediate random monster searches: weighted, and unweighted. A weighted search will have monsters that are 'Common' more likely to be encountered than those that are 'Uncommon', which are more likely to appear than those that are 'Rare', and those that are 'Very rare' and 'Unique' will appear the most infrequently of all. Unweighted search allows all types of monsters which match the search criteria an equal chance of being selected. If either of these two options is employed, (by moving the highlight bar with the left and right arrow keys to highlight the desired search and then pressing , or by typing 'W' or 'U' respectively,) a single monster from all those that match the search criteria you have specified will be selected, and presented with complete text, on screen. You can then browse the text in the fashion described in section 3.1.1.1. If the 'RE-Table' option is selected, you will be presented with a whole new menu (pictured below) which allows you to build a random encounter table for the terrains and level of monsters you are interested in. Insert TOME5.EPS picture here if you have printed it. Note: A table is impossible to build if there are not at least 19 monsters which match the search criteria you have selected, and you will be unable to proceed to this menu. Random encounter tables are useful if you want to prepare wandering monsters for your campaign, and have the monsters match the terrain in which the campaign is occurring. A random encounter is a list of 19 monsters. To determine which monster is encountered you roll a 12-sided dice and an 8-sided dice and sum the two rolls, then index the result to the table. Note: If a unique being appears in your encounter table and it is encountered, you may wish to scratch it off the table so that it is not encountered more than once, repeated random encounters with a unique creature are very unlikely. 17 You have several options in this menu. Most likely you will want to build a random encounter table, press 'B'. If you don't like the table at all try again. (The variation in the table will depend on how many matching monsters there are.) If you are unfamiliar with the specifics of a monster or two in the table and you want to examine them, press 'E' and you will then be able to scroll through the list. Pressing when the highlight bar is on a monster will allow you to view the entire description of that monster. Press when you are finished examining monsters. If one (or more of the monsters) does not fit what you had in mind, press 'R'. You will then be able to scroll through the list of monsters, pressing will replace the currently highlighted monster with a new, randomly determined monster that matches the search criteria. Pressing will return you to the RE-Table menu. You have the option of printing this table if you have any supported printer attached to your computer. (See section 2.2.2 for further details on printer configuration). There is a brief reiteration of the information found herein which can be viewed by selecting the 'How to use this table' option. 3.3 The Magic Item Menu If you press 'I' from the top level you will be presented with this second tier menu. From here you have three options. You can browse through complete lists of magic items (section 3.3.1), you can search for specific types of magic items by keyword (section 3.3.2), or you can determine random magic items (as may be found in treasure troves)(Section 3.3.3) by typing 'S', 'K' and 'R' respectively. You can return to the program's main menu by pressing , or get help by pressing . NOTE: The magic items in the databases acompanying the Tome are not official, and their experience point value (where given) and gold piece value are also not official. The DM is encouraged to change these as he or she see's fit and to disallow the use of any magic items that you feel will unbalance your campaign. 18 3.3.1 List Search If you type 'S' in the magic item menu, you will be presented with a list of the various types of magic items that are available to browse: Potions & Oils, Scrolls, Rings, Wands, Rods & Staves, Miscellaneous Magic items, Armor & Shields, Swords, and Miscellaneous Weapons. You can use the up and down arrow keys, and the , , and keys to move the scroll bar onto the type of magic item you are interested in, then press the key. You will then be presented with a scrollable list of all magic items of that type. (You can press the first capitalized letter of each of these as a shortcut, 'P' for example will pop up a list of all potions.) If you are, for example, searching through the list of miscellaneous magic items, you will notice that there are several options available to you: As always, pressing will return you to the previous menu. You can use the up and down arrow keys to move the scroll bar over the list of magic items. In addition you can use the and keys to scroll the list faster (about 15 items at a time). Pressing the key returns the scroll bar to the top item in the list, and the key places the scrollbar on the last spell in the list. In addition you can speed your way through the list by pressing the first letter of the magic item you are interested in and then scrolling using the arrow keys once you are close. For example, suppose I was interested in examining Cloak of Thespis I could, when browsing the list of miscellaneous magic items, press 'C' which will advance the scrollbar to the first item starting with 'C', and I can then quickly scroll down to Cloak of Thespis with the arrow keys. Futhermore, by pressing you access a shortcut option which will allow you to speed your way directly to the magic item of your choice. As in our previous example, you want to examine Cloak of Thespis, press and a window will pop up asking you what magic item you want, you then type in as much of the magic item name as you want (usually enough to allow unambiguous magic item determination). In this case type 'CLOAK OF TH' (to avoid confusion with other types of cloaks), then press . The scroll bar will be advanced to the first magic item that matches completely with your input. Once you have positioned the scrollbar on the item you are interested in, you can then press , this will cause the complete text of that item to be presented to you on screen. You can then browse the text as described in section 3.1.1.1. 19 3.3.2 Keyword Search If you pressed 'K' from the magic item menu, you will find yourself in the keyword search menu. From here you can search for a specific type of magic item. Suppose the 9th level wizard Non-Player Character (NPC) you are preparing to challenge your party with needs an interesting staff with which to confound the party. You should use this menu to find out what his options are. You move the highlight bar onto 'Item-Type' using the left and right arrows, then press (or as a shortcut type 'I'). You will then be presented with a scrollable list of the types of magic items there are. Using the arrow keys highlight 'Wands, Rods & Staves' and press . You should notice that 'Wands, Rods & Staves' just appeared in the window in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, this is to help you keep track of what you have selected. Removing a single magic item type from this search window is the same as entering it, move the highlight bar onto the name of the spell type you wish to remove and press . Once you have all the magic item types you want to search through press to return to the keyword search menu. Now select the level of magic item, in the case of a 9th-level magic-user you might want to look for something in the 3rd-5th level range, and the keywords describing the types of magic items you are interested in, in this case, for example, 'Offensive, Combat'. (You will find most of the keywords self explanatory, but in some cases you may have to experiment to see what type of magic item you get using different search criteria.) NOTE: There is an option to use 'Any Keyword', which returns all magic items matching item types and levels selected. NOTE: Level designations given to the various magic items are not official, and are based on subjective criteria, 1st level magic being the weakest and 8th level magic being reserved for use in very special occasions by VERY powerful characters. These level designations are simply designed as a guideline for dungeon masters who are trying to decide how to equip NPC's and place magic in treasure hoards. Furthermore, the levels do not necesarily correspond with the level of character that should be wielding the magic item (otherwise 8th level characters would be wielding vorpal weapons). 20 You can press to clear a single search window. For example, if the highlight bar is on 'Levels' and you then press the window indicating which levels should be considered for the search will be cleared. Clears all three windows. You can then move the highlight bar over to the 'Search' and press (or press 'S' as a shortcut). If any of the 3 search windows is empty this operation will be unsuccessful, you must specify what you are looking for in terms of level, item type and keyword. Once all this has been done, a search will present you with a scrollable list all magic items that match your search criteria. In the above example, any rods, wands or staves which are of level 3-5 and are fundamentally combat-offensive in nature would appear. You can then use the up and down arrows and the and key to scroll through this list and pressing at any time will put the full text of the magic item which is highlighted on screen as you have seen before. 3.3.3 The Random Magic Item Menu If you type 'R' from the magic item menu, you will arrive at the this random magic item search menu. Here you must specify what type of magic items you are interested in, both in terms of level, and in terms of keywords describing the type of item you are interested in. You can then have the program randomly select the specific magic item that, for example, might be part of a treasure hoard. There are two types of immediate random magic item searches: weighted, and unweighted. A weighted search will have less powerful magic items encountered more often than more powerful magic items. You would probably expect to find a lot of +1 swords before you stumble upon a +5 holy avenger, unless it has a specific reason for being there. Unweighted search allows all types of magic items which match the search criteria an equal chance of being selected. If either of these to options is employed, (by moving the highlight bar with the left and right arrow keys to highlight the desired search and then pressing , or by typing 'W' or 'U' respectively,) a single magic item from all those that match the search criteria you have specified will be selected, and presented with complete text, on screen. You can then browse the text in the fashion described in section 3.1.1.1. 21 3.4 The Various Topics Menu If you select the various topics menu by typing 'V' at the main menu you will be presented with a scrollable list of the databases which do not fit into the categories spell, monster or magic item. There is a database containing several new 'Classes and kits'. These texts tend to offer unusual and interesting new roleplaying opportunities, and are by and large well thought out. There is a database which contains often sought after rules, descriptions of topics that are inadequately covered in the official AD&D references. You will find a (growing) selection of articles which will allow a DM to add spice and three dimensionality to his or her campaign. There is also a database listing non weapon proficiencies which do not appear in the official Ad&D rules, but which could add a little more realism to an adventure. You can access these databases by highlighting the desired one using the up and down arrow keys and then pressing (or pressing the first capital letter as a shortcut). You will then be presented with a complete list of the associated topics, these can be viewed as described in section 3.1.1 and 3.1.1.1. 3.5 The Utilities Menu If you type 'U' in the main menu you will find yourself in the utilities menu. You will find yourself presented with a scrollable list of the various handy tools which have been collected here for easy access. The tool desired can be selected by highlighting it using the arrow keys and then pressing . (Or as a shortcut, you press the first capitalized letter in the option you desire.) 22 3.5.1 The Sword Builder The sword builder is designed to take the drudgery out of determining if a sword has special attributes in terms of intelligence, speaking ability and so on. The rules describing how this should be done (page 166-167 of the 1st Ed. DMG) have been automated. You press to determine if a sword has special abilities. If you want to weight this process slightly towards more intelligent and more powerful swords press . If the sword you have generated is perfect in every way except that the alignment doesn't fit, you can change it by pressing and then selecting the alignment you want. (By highlighting the alignment of your choice, and then pressing .) If you have any supported printer connected to your computer you can print out your sword by pressing . (See section 2.2.2 for further details on printer configuration). 3.5.2 The Hoard Generator The Hoard Generator is designed to simplify the generation of monster hoards. Pressing will present you with a list of the 26 available treasure types and the number of occurances of each treasure type in the hoard, using the left and right arrows highlight the treasure type desired then press the '+' key to increment the number of occurances of this treasure type in the hoard. Press the '-' to decrement the number of occurances. When the correct treasure types have been selected, press and the hoard will automatically be generated and the results presented on screen. Pressing allows you to select the Treasure Table desired. The default is to use the 1st Edition treasure table printed at the back of the Monster Manual, but the 2nd Edition and Dark Sun treasure tables are also supported. Pressing will run the Gemologist. NOTE: if the Gemologist is used to determine the value of a number of gems equal to the number in the current hoard (this is the default) then the total value will be returned to the Hoard generator. If you have any supported printer connected to your computer you can print out this information by pressing . (See section 2.2.2 for further details on printer configuration). 23 3.5.2.1 The Gemologist The Gemologist simplifies the process of determining the value of gems found in treasure hoards. Pressing will present you with a list of the type of gems that exist (as per 1st Ed. DMG p 25). After selecting the type of gems you want you will be asked how many you want. Type in a number between 1 and 500, then press . Then indicate what type of gemstones are desired (an automatic random selection is possible). The results are presented and tabulated, on screen. If more than 40 gems are selected then only the total value of all the gems will be displayed. If you have any supported printer connected to your computer you can print out this information by pressing . (See section 2.2.2 for further details on printer configuration). 3.5.3 The NPC Maker 1st Ed. The NPC maker simplifies what can otherwise be the arduous process of creating a non-player character. This tool is like those above specifically developed to create NPC's which conform to 1st Ed. rules. Pressing will present you with a list of the supported non-player character types. Use the arrows keys to move the highlight bar to the NPC type you want to create, the press . You will then be ask whether you want to create the character manually, or automatically (actually even a manually created character is mostly automatic, except you are prompted for character race, alignment, and a few other pertinent specifics. When finished the results will be presented on-screen. Pressing will allow you to customize the characters attributes (Strength, Intelligence, etc.) after the character has been generated. If you have any supported printer connected to your computer you can print out this information by pressing . (See section 2.2.2 for further details on printer configuration). 24 3.5.4 NPC Maker 2nd Ed. (ADDCHAR) The ADDCHAR program is both very powerful, and there is context sensitive help along the way, however some nuances of the programs use and extending the datafiles on which this program depends may be somewhat complex. Micheal Hermann the creator of this program has written a comprehensive manual for it (look for the file ADDCHAR.DOC). So you are referred there for a complete description of the operation of the ADDCHAR program. 3.5.5 Auto Spell Auto Spell allows you to (almost) instantly create a spell list for a non-player character automatically. It also allows you to create/edit/save spellbooks for any spellcaster that uses them. From the main menu in Auto Spell pressing 'A' will allow you to automatically generate a spell list for an NPC character. Spell list generation is described in section 3.5.5.1 Other options are available for creating/editing/ browsing and printing spellbooks. These spellbooks can, of course be saved on disk for later examination/modification. Pressing 'N' from Auto Spell's main menu will allow the creation of a new spellbook (this cleans up from any previous spellbooks that might be open, and prepares for the creation of a new one.) You will be given the choice of either creating the spellbook manually or automatically. If you elect to create it manually you will be asked for a name/ title for the spellbook and returned to Auto Spell's main menu. If you select automatic spellbook generation you will be asked to select a list of databases from which the spells should be pulled, as well as the level and type of spellcaster. Then Autospell will build the spellbook automatically. (NOTE: this is a very computationally intensive process, and in the worst case (a slow computer and a spell caster with many spells) this may take 5 minutes or even longer, so do not reboot.) You will be returned to Auto Spell's main menu when the spellbook has been generated. Pressing 'E' from Auto Spell's main allows you to edit the contents of the current spellbook adding/deleting spells. Furthermore, the complete text of each spell can be browsed so that it's easier to decide whether a spell is appropriate for the spellcaster whose book you are editing. NOTE: No spellbook may conatin more than 300 spells. 25 Pressing 'B' from Auto Spell's main allows you to browse the contents of the current spellbook, including the option of examining the complete text for each spell. Pressing 'P' from Auto Spell's main allows you to print the contents of the current spellbook. There are 3 choices here. You can print just the list of spells, the complete text of each and every spell, or you can export the spellbook into LATEX format (a powerful document processing program available on most UNIX platforms.) Pressing 'S' from Auto Spell's main allows you to save the current spellbook to a disk file. Pressing 'L' from Auto Spell's main allows you to load a spellbook from a disk file. 3.5.5.1 Automatic Spell List Generation Pressing will present you with a menu of the types of spellcasters for whom spells are available. Select the spell caster type desired by moving the highlight bar with the arrow key until the desired cast type is highlighted then press enter. You will then be asked for the caster's level (and in the case of clerics the caster's wisdom), then Auto Spell will create a spell list. (NOTE: this is a very computationally intensive process, and in the worst case (a slow computer and a spell caster with many spells) this may take a minute or even longer, so do not reboot.) The spell list generated will be displayed on-screen when the process is finished. Pressing will allow you to influence the method by which Auto Spell selects spells. Normally, Auto Spell selects one offensive spell and one defensive spell at each spell level, then the remaining spells are selected randomly from a list of all available spells at that level. With this option you can list the spell type(s) which you want to dominate the spell list. A menu containing all spell types will appear, this menu can be scrolled using the arrow keys, pressing the key will cause the highlighted keyword to be added to the list, selecting the same keyword again will remove that keyword from the list. The list remains in effect until it is changed, or until you leave Auto Spell. Once you've created a spell list, pressing will present you with a scrolling menu which will allow you to browse the complete text of every spell in the list. 26 If you have any supported printer connected to your computer you can print out this information by pressing . (See section 2.2.2 for further details on printer configuration). 3.6 External Programs This menu presents you with a list of the external programs you can run from within the Tome (this includes the ability to shell out to DOS). By default there are two options available: 1) Shell out to DOS; 2)Run the Tome's Setup Program. Using the setup program you can add programs to this list. This could for example, allow you to access a notepad program you use to jot down information and ideas as you need to, without the need to exit the Tome. If you shell to DOS you can return to the Tome by typing 'EXIT' and pressing at the DOS prompt. 3.7 Macros Built into the Tome is a macro recorder. What the macro recorder does is record keystrokes, and then save them so that they can be played back at the touch of a key. For example, I can create a macro which quickly moves me to a search for clerical spells by pressing , for example, or almost anything else. 3.7.1 The Macro Menu The macro menu allows you to view a list of the existing macros, add new macros, delete unused, or unwanted macros, and disable macros if you so desire. You can call up the macro menu (pictured below) by pressing (the key and the 'M' key at the same time). Insert TOME6.EPS picture here if you have printed it. 27 3.7.2 How to build a Macro To build a macro you must first call up the macro menu then select type 'A' to add a macro, you will then be asked to select a key which will run the macro you wish to record. Press the key combination you want to activate your macro. (Legal macro keys are the pressed at the same time as the .. keys, ie., you can have up to 10 user defined macros.) You will then be asked to select a name/description for the macro. Type in the name you want, then press . The macro menu will now disappear and you can start typing the macro you want recorded. You will hear a click each time you press a key to remind you that the macro recorder is operating. NOTE: Macros must be 40 keystrokes or less. This should be fine for all but the most unusual circumstances. When you have finished typing the macro you want recorded you again press and a window will pop up asking you whether you want to keep the macro or not. After you have made a useful macro you will want to save it to disk, this can be accomplished from the macro menu by typing 'S'. NOTE: You will only be able to save the macros if the disk the Tome is running on is NOT write protected. NOTE: When the macro menu is popped up you cannot activate any of the macros, and you cannot pop up the Electronic Dice (described in the next section). 28 3.8 Electronic Dice Most aspects of AD&D will sooner or later require a dice roll. To avoid forcing you to use your dice at the computer, an electronic dice utility has been provided which allows easy, fast dice rolling. To call up the electronic dice, simple press (the key and the 'D' key at the same time), and the electronic dice menu will appear (as pictured below). Insert TOME7.EPS picture here if you have printed it. You will be presented with a choice as to the type of die you want to roll, type the number corresponding to the type of die you want to roll. You will then be asked how many, type in the number you desire, then press . Alternately, if you wish a single die of any type you can simply press (instead of a number corresponding to a die type) and you will be presented with one die of each type, or you can press the spacebar and the last die roll selection will be rerolled. eg. you just rolled 6d6 and you want to do it again - press the spacebar. You can pop down the electronic dice and return to your program any time by pressing . 29 4 Last Word Hopefully the Tome of Vast Knowledge will make searching for obscure and arcane AD&D titbits a pleasure, and adding spice to your campaign less of a chore. In short, may your adventures always amaze your friends, and keep them on their toes. 30 Appendix A Making a Printer Driver for the Tome Several of the tools in this program make use of the printer. To do this effectively, the TOME needs to know how to handle your specific printer properly. This involves knowing the control codes your printer uses. There are about seven Printer Definition (PRD) files that come with the Tome. The nice thing about these files is that they are stored as (mostly) readable ASCII files, and you can read or edit them to suit your needs. This means that, if there is no PRD file for your printer, you can make one. When you install the Tome for the first time, the PRD file selected as the default is called EPSONMX.PRD. This PRD will work with many dot matrix printers, but will not make use of many more advanced printers features. To change the PRD file to one matching your own printer, choose the Printer Setup option in the installation program. You will then see a sub-menu of all the printers defined in the PRINTERS.DAT file. Select the printer driver that most closely matches your printer. Once selected, data files will be updated and the new printer data will be loaded next time the Tome is run. You will then be able to use any of the Tome printing functions. There are many printers which are not listed in the PRINTERS.DAT file, and a somewhat smaller number which are not able to emulate any of the printers listed there. You can either use the EPSONMX.PRD file and hope for the best, or you can create your own printer driver. To create your own, simply make a copy of the PRD file for the printer which is most similar to your own printer (if in doubt use the EPSONMX.PRD file). Place the copy in a file with a name that resembles your printer, it MUST have a .PRD extension. For example, if you had an IBM Laser printer, you could make a copy of the LASERJET.PRD file and call it IBMLASER.PRD. 31 Once the copy is made, all that remains is to edit the file. Tome PRD files are ASCII files that can be edited using any ASCII word processor that supports embedding ASCII codes. If you edit the file using a word processing program that has its own format (such as Word for Windows, Wordstar, etc.), you must make sure to save the file as ASCII only. Load the PRD file to edit into your word processor and take a look at it. You'll see some comments describing each portion of the file. Notice that many lines of text are preceded by a pound sign '#'. A line with a pound sign as the first character is a comment, and is ignored by the Tome. The comments are used to explain what's going on inside on of these files. Refer to the comments if you are having trouble understanding the PRD file. At the top of the file is an optional header that is merely informative for anyone viewing the PRD file. You should change this header to indicate the name of the printer the new driver is designed to support. Add other comments where you see fit. Now notice that there are a few lines that are not comments. These consist of a header in square brackets (eg., [BOLD]), followed by one or more lines of printer commands. These are the actual printer information lines. The info required by the Tome includes codes to make your printer: 1. Define any variables which might need to be used by the printer driver (the postscript driver is a fair example of how this can be used.). [DEFINES] 2. Setup the printer (which usually entails turning on Near Letter Quality mode, and possibly resetting the printer. [PREAMBLE] 3. Clean up after printing (which might entail resetting the printer). [POSTAMBLE] 4. Turn Bold print on. [BOLD] 5. Turn Bold print off (and Normal printing back on). [NORMAL] 6. Any information the printer should receive before every line. (You might want to indent a couple of spaces.) [PRELINE] 32 7. Any information the printer should receive after every line. [POSTLINE] 8. How to eject a page. [FORMFEED] 9. Whether any normal text characters need to be filtered/ modified before they can be printed out. [REPLACE] 10. How may lines of text can appear on a page. [LINES/PAGE] Codes for printers are usually ESCAPE sequences, that is, numerical values of ASCII characters, preceded by the ESC character. For example, the code to make an Epson FX printer change to Emphasized (Bold) mode is the ESC character, followed by the 'G', and the character. The appropriate lines in the printer definition file would look like this: [BOLD] G This is exactly how you enter the codes in your PRD file. Find out the sequence of characters needed for the specific code you want, and then convert them to their ASCII values. You can find an ASCII chart in any DOS manual, or your printer manual. There are two exceptions to this rule. 1) The [REPLACE] header is followed by a list of regular printable ASCII characters and the string which should be used to replace it in the printer output. For example, postscript output treats '(' and ')' as special (because they may indicate the beginning or end of a postscript statment so the must be replaced with '\(' and '\)' respectively. (Look at POSTSCR.PRD for an example.) 2) The [LINES/PAGE] header must be followed by line with the decimal value indicating the number of lines of text your printer can put on a single page. For example if you printer puts 66 line of the page (as many dot matrix printers do) the following line should appear in you PRD file: [LINES/PAGE] 66 33 NOTE: If your printer does not support one of these features, or you if is irrelevant for your printer (as many of these fields are for dat matrix printers), you can disable it by not putting any values after the code, such as [BOLD] In which case the default action will issued at the appropriate point when printing out information. In every case except [POSTLINE] (what to do after a line of text) the default is do nothing, in the [POSTLINE] case the default is to issue a carriage return/linefeed. Once you have created your own PRD file, the Tome program needs to be informed of its existence. To do this add 2 (or more) lines to the PRINTERS.DAT file. The PRINTERS.DAT file is a plain ASCII file the format for each printer entry is: 0 DRIVER.PRD 1 Name of printer supported 1 (optionally) other printer supported with the same driver. So add your driver to the PRINTERS.DAT file, then select the printer supported by the new PRD file from the Tome's installation/setup program and you'll be all set. If this process eludes you, and you want the Tome to take advantage of your printer's capabilities, send me a copy of the pages of your printer manual that detail the printer codes for the features mentioned above, and I'll do the best I can to write a PRD file for you. 34 Appendix B Changing the Default Backup key By default every menu (except the main menu), every list box, and every utility can be backed out of by pressing the key. This may distress some individuals whose keyboard layout places the in a hard to reach local. The Tome reads the backup key from the VAST.INI file. Under the heading [BACKKEY] in the VAST.INI file there will be an integer. The Tome uses this value as the keystroke which will allow escape from every menu, utility, etc. By default this integer value is 196 decimal which corresponds to the secondary scan code returned by the BIOS when the is pressed + 128. This number may be replaced by a number corresponding to the secondary scan code returned by the BIOS when another function key is pressed + 128 (although this is NOT recommended) or the number corresponding to the secondary scan code returned by the BIOS when an ALT-key combination is pressed + 128 or the value returned by the BIOS when a CTRL-key combination is pressed or the #27 which is the value returned by the BIOS when the key is pressed. The recommended method for changing the backup key used by the TOME is to run the SETUP program and select the option to modify the backup key by pressing 'B', then selecting the keystroke you desire. A list of suggested backup keys are: F10 (The default). ALT-Z CTRL-A ESC 35 NOTES: The backup key for the help screens cannot be changed from the default (F10). While the keystroke actually used as the backup key can be changed, the program will still display messages insisting that the backup key is F10. This cannot currently be changed. I sincerely hope you enjoy this program. Douglas P. Webb 36