The Dragon's Claw ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Welcome to The Dragon's Claw. The Dragon's Claw is a midevil style scenario for Rude Dog On-Line Adventure Engine. This game uses ANSI graphics extensively to give you a topographical view of, and easy movement around, the game's terrain and dungeon maps. The Dragon's Claw features over 200 monsters, each complete with descriptions and their own successful hit descriptions. Other features include towns, inns, temples, ruins, ancient relics, traps, various shops, and much more. Getting Started ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ This documentation is meant as a quick start reference. It describes the details of creating your character, and some other basic concepts of the game. For a complete description of the game's options, choose "C" to view the full documentation. The first and most important thing about playing The Dragon's Claw is to turn on your Num-Lock key. Movement around the terrain and dungeon maps is done using the keys on your numeric keypad as shown in the diagram below. If your computer isn't equipped with a numeric keypad, you can use the corresponding number keys on your standard keyboard. 7 ³ 8 ³ 9 Up- ³ ³ Up- Left ³ Up ³Right ÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄ 4 ³ 5 ³ 6 ³ ³ Left ³ ³Right ÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄ 3 ³ 2 ³ 1 Down-³ ³Down- Left ³Down ³Right The second most important thing is that you can save your position and character nearly anywhere in the game by pressing "S." Saving often is a good idea. If you get killed by a trap or monster, you can restart at your last saved position. Creating Your Character ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ The first thing that you will do in the game is to create a character. You should pay special attention to this process. A good character is the key to winning The Dragon's Claw. Below is a list of questions asked during the character creation process. Name: The name you want your character to be called. Gender: What gender you want your character to be. Alignment: The alignment that you want for your character. Alignment is used to determine if a given priest or priestess will heal your character, and to determine if a monster will negotiate with you. A list of available alignments is listed below: Chaotic Evil Lawful Evil Evil Chaotic Good Lawful Good Good Neutral Evil Neutral Good Neutral Character Attributes: At this point the game will randomly generate your character's attributes. Each attribute determines your character's strengths and weaknesses in certain aspects of the game. You can have the game re-roll these attributes until you are happy with their values. In all cases, the higher the value, the better. Below is a listing of the randomly generated character attributes: Strength: The strength attribute ranges from 1 to 20. This is used in determining the amount of damage that your character does to an opponent during combat. If your strength is greater than 15, you will receive a damage bonus against your opponent. If your strength is less than 15, you will be assessed a damage penalty. Dexterity: The dexterity attribute ranges from 1 to 20. This is used in determining your ability to hit an opponent during combat, as well as his ability to hit you. If your dexterity is greater than 15, you will receive a 'to hit' bonus against your opponent, increasing your chance to hit your opponent and decreasing your opponent's chance of hitting you. If your dexterity is below 15, you will receive a 'to hit' penalty, decreasing your chance to hit your opponent and increasing his chance to hit you. Constitution: The constitution attribute ranges from 1 to 20. This attribute is used in the determination of contracting a disease of some sort. As with the other attributes, you gain a bonus if your constitution is greater than 15 and a penalty if your constitution is lower than 15. Hit Points: This attribute ranges from 9 to 12 for new characters. Hit points are basically your character's life force. When you get hit in combat, you lose hit points. If your hit points get to zero or less, your character dies. You can restore lost hit points by means of a healing potion. When your character advances a skill level, his overall hit points are raised by 1 to 6 hit points. Trap Disarm: This attribute is a percentage. It is used in determining your character's ability to find and disarm traps. Go For It ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ The rest of the game is pretty much self explanatory. If you need more information, refer to the full documentation. Have fun!