L. O. R. D. Legend of the Red Dragon a role playing game created by Seth Able Robinson by Kiteria One of the more pleasurable aspects of playing the Door Game LEGEND OF the RED DRAGON, is the "ROMANTIC MAIL" option. It's nice to have someone to share your adventure with, to know that someone is ready to fund you gold if you need it, hit an enemy for you, and share your Heart Shaped Bed. Please remember this is a "role playing game". You have the opportunity to leave yourself and the real world behind for awhile and become a sword wielding warrior. If you happen to exchange "real life" information with a person it should have no bearing on how you play your character. This is a feature of the game that helps to give it variety and continue to keep it exciting from realm to realm. FIRST THE COURTING: A wise warrior will never ask the object of their desires to hop into the Heart Shaped Bed without making some kind of introduction first. Even if you know them from another game, you are in a new realm and that means this it is a new beginning. Some couples like to stay together from board to board, some don't. For the pleasure of the game, and the relationship, do not take it for granted that you will be a couple everywhere. After all, this is a game that throws different people together, under different circumstances. Courting is one of the pleasurable parts of the game, getting to know each other as your character and playing the part, as yourself, or both. When you look at your Stats, you see that your charm is listed. If you are just starting out, it is at 0, you will need to build it up before you are ready to do any flirting with Violet, Seth or another player. When you flirt with Violet or Seth, you get immediate results, not so with your human counter part. If you have low charm and you go for the big one on Violet or Seth, they are going to slam you hard. Violet will kick the guys, and Seth will insult the ladies. Neither are pleasant experiences, your encounter with Violet is announced in the Daily News, and everyone will know that you moved too fast. Fortunately Seth is a little more soft hearted, your bad experience with him won't physically attacked, but you'll certainly be insulted! CHARM, WHERE TO GET IT AND HOW TO USE IT As you are busily fighting for your life in the forest, an Old Man will come upon you. He is lost and confused and requests that you take him to the Dark Cloak Tavern, if you say yes, you will give up a forest fight. The Old Man will reward you with 1 to 5 charm points and a bit of gold for your kindness. Occasionally the Old Man will have his "Ugly Stick" and will smack you on the head and take away a charm point without even asking you to take him to the Inn. Since it seems like it takes forever to get 100 charm points this will be frustrating. Just take it in stride, after you have a high amount of charm, you can get your revenge by refusing to take him to the Inn. In the game of L.O.R.D. your charm is also a gage of how much influence you have with the Innkeeper, and the Weapon and Armor sellers. The bartender will offer you a free room if your charm is over 100, and the higher your charm the more the shopkeepers are willing to negotiate a higher price for the purchase of your used equipment. WRITING ROMANTIC MAIL You have in mind another warrior that you would like to get to know and you are ready to drop them a line. You will select 'W' at the Town Square (Main Menu) for Write Mail. At this section you can write romantic mail or regular mail, if you choose to write romantic mail then type a "Y" at the query of "Do you want to write romantic mail?" Here is a brief explanation of what you are going to see and the decisions you will need to consider. 1. His/Her Charm Rating is 71. This is their standing with the "SETH CHARM-O-METER" as I like to call it. If a warrior's charm is high, it doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to be turned down if you make advances. 2. A one line descriptive statement. EXAMPLE: (Males) "He makes Stallone look like he needs to workout". (Female) "She is a sweet package of trusting beauty". This information can also be found by pushing "1" at the Town Square (Main Menu). It will say this is what the people around town are saying about you. In this role playing game, it is just a way of getting information to you, please don't get paranoid, no one is really talking about you. 3. (N)ever mind. Believe it or not, this is a great option!! You can check the charm of as many people as you would like (opposite sex of course). It does not cost any of your gold to obtain this information. If you don't like what you see, just type "N" to bail out. 4. (F)latter Him/Her This is a great ice breaker! It is always nice to know that someone has noticed you, and this is a grand way to say hello and that you have seen something admirable about this person. 5. (A)sk for a Kiss Another excellent ice breaker, it won't hurt if you get shot down, and it will allow the gleam in your eye to see that you are romantically inclined. 6. (B)uy Him/Her Dinner There is nothing like a candlelit supper with the one who has stolen your heart. At this point, this is where you can loose experience if you are turned down. There is no loss if you are ignored for the first two, but for this one and the next, you are gambling more than just your pride. 7. (I)nvite Him/Her to Your Room at the Inn This is the big one, this is the one that can make you crazy if you are rejected, as well as lose some of your experience. Try not to take it too personal, after all it's just a game, and not everyone sees you as the great warrior that you are. If you have followed the advice of this author and tested the waters first, you will know who is, and who is not interested in sharing the Heart Shaped Bed with you. 8. (P)ropose to Him/Her (You will not have the benefit of this option until you have 100 charm points.) This option should not be taken lightly, you are asking someone to include you into their game, just as you are telling them you would like to make them a part of yours. The penalty for a failed marriage in the L.O.R.D. game is a drop in charm for both, down to 50. WHO'S AVAILABLE? Along with the option to Propose, OUR CREATOR saw the need for warriors to know who was "taken" and who was available. You will find it at the Town Square (Main Menu), and it is a record of who is married to whom. It is called the CONJUGALITY LIST, which means: to join together. In other words, those warriors who are married and are not available. Before you start your adventure of finding that Mr. or Ms. Right, check the CONJUGALITY LIST first and save yourself the trouble of being turned down. This doesn't necessarily mean that the married person can't be approached, they can, but remember the odds are not in your favor. Many single warriors have stolen the love of a married warrior. Your charming personality will help you as well as a lot of discretion, if you intend to sweet talk a married player out of their present relationship! ACCEPTATION AND REJECTION After you have written your romantic mail and shipped it off on the wings of love, you wait. Your hearts desire receives the mail the next time they enter the realm, reads it and returns the answer for you to read upon your next arrival to the realm. There are two choices for the recipient of your romantic mail to select from. "Yes" or "No" if your love interest has said "yes", you meet in the room at the Inn, the time you share is brief and special, and you both will receive a nice sum of experience points. The event is recorded for the Daily News, and all the realm knows that the two of you shared the Heart Shaped Bed. If the answer is "no", you are snubbed, the recipient has laughed in your face. Your snubbing is recorded for the Daily News and you have lost a small amount of experience. If this is the case just remember what the original Bard said, "Tis better to have loved and loss, than never to have loved at all". THE HANDSOME BARD, AND THE BEAUTIFUL BARMAID So far we have discussed human interaction, now we shall discuss what you can expect from the two computer generated characters, Seth, and Violet. Both of these characters are similar to their human counterparts in that they also do not appreciate being jumped upon. They don't object to flirting, and will accept the flirts of all warriors, but they appreciate it when you start out slow with them just as you would another player. Here are the lists of options that you will see, and the experience points needed for each. Violet Wink - you need 5 experience points Kiss her hand - 10 experience points Peck Her on the Lips - 20 experience points Sit Her On Your Lap - 30 experience points Grab Her Backside - 40 experience points Carry Her Upstairs - 50 experience points Marry Her - 1000 experience points Seth Wink - 5 experience points Flutter Eyelashes - 10 experience points Drop Hankie - 20 experience points Ask The Bard to Buy You a Drink - 30 experience Kiss the Bard Soundly - 40 experience Completely Seduce The Bard - 50 experience Marry Him (NONE) * *Why do you not need any experience to marry Seth? Seth is more charm related than experience. If you have enough charm to marry Seth, then he will marry you. Neither Violet or Seth will visit the Heart Shaped Bed with a person married to another. Violet will tell them they are a "Dirty Old Man", and Seth, well Seth is just plain blunt, you will NOT like what he calls a married warrior who inadvertently or otherwise asks him to the Heart Shaped Bed! As usual, both of these encounters are recorded for the Daily News. MARRIAGE TO VIOLET A marriage to Violet, Turgon's fair daughter, is an excellent source of having children, which is of course another forest fight for each child born. There are rules that are best followed when married to Violet to keep her happy and making babies for you. Do not flirt in any way with another female, nor can you accept a flirt. She doesn't appreciate it when you have a little meeting even with another NPC from an IGM. If it moves your score on the Old Man's Table, and she was not the one to do it, she will either divorce you, or not give you a baby for that day. You must increase your charm daily, you will lose up to 5 charm points each day you are married to Violet. Unfortunately your marriage to Violet will be over in a week or so, I've heard of the marriage lasting longer than that, but I assume it is rare. Upon your divorce from Violet your charm will drop to 50. MARRIAGE TO SETH The singing Bard, who is so wonderful that at times he has even been known to double your gold in the bank by singing to you, is THE catch of a lifetime. As Seth's wife you are also under the same rules that apply to Violet's husband. Seth does allow his wife to visit him at work and he will allow you to flirt with him, but he will only tell you something innocuous and brush you off. The joy of being married to Seth is the forest fights you get for each baby born. If you stay out of the clutches of other males, IGM's included, Seth will bless you with a bundle of joy every day. If Seth is not happy, he will not tell you why, and neither will he give you a baby. If you have enough charm, and have not been with any one else, your wedding will be classified as a "White Wedding", and it will be rewarding. You will receive 5000 experience points, the envy and respect of the other warriors, and the announcement in the Daily News of the rare event. Another fun way of flirting with Seth is if he is married to another and you choose to flirt with him anyway. If your charm is high enough you can make him "Falter". I cannot give you a specific number needed because it varies, but if you succeed in making Seth falter, you will receive a nice chunk of experience points and the incident will be written into the Daily News. A warrior that can make Seth falter is a stunning beauty indeed! Before attempting this, I suggest finding out what his present wives' charm is and then get 250 more. If he tells you that you are X number of charm points away from even being considered a woman, that is a hint as to how much more charm you need. If he tells you that you are silly, you are being told that you are so far away from having enough charm that it is funny. If you are playing a game with IGM's where you can purchase charm you can have a good time playing around with some of these little known features. One thing you should know before you take the big step with Seth, he does not take to divorce lightly. When you and Seth divorce your charm will drop to 30 and it won't bother him one bit. He'll be back to flirting with, and marrying other warrior maiden's in a heartbeat. Now I ask you, did you ever think there was so much involved in "Writing Romantic Mail"? It just goes to show that there is much more to the game LEGEND of the RED DRAGON, than what you see on the surface. Do you have a question, comment, suggestion, or complaint? Contact me at my e-mail address: kiteria@juno.com or Kiteria@rland.wfbbs.com. Please stop by and visit the web page http://web2.airmail.net/bat/kiteria. Have phun(tm) and remember....it's just a game! Suzanne Franklin Co-SysOps RabbitLand II Dallas, TX