Spiders in the Castle! by Doug Pibal copyright 1997 -INSTRUCTIONS- -INTRODUCTION- A magic potion has exploded in the castle's laboratory, splashing some nearby spiders. Now the spiders are magically growing out of control! In this strategy game, the castle people must find the best weapons to fight off the magically growing spiders before the spiders devour everybody! A mouse is required. -THE GAME MENU- "New" to start a new game. In the registered version, you can choose between 3 castle floor plans, 3 groups of inhabitants, 1 or 2 players, and 4 starting spider levels (18-36 spiders). In the unregistered version, press "begin" to accept the default settings. 31 people each appear in one of their likely rooms. Spiders of mixed types are placed in adjacent rooms. "Save" to save the game. Choose a slot 1-5. Then type a saved game name. Each save file takes 9460 bytes. "Load" to load a saved game. Choose the slot 1-5. "Sound" to toggle PC speaker sound on/off. "Instructions" to read instructions. "Registration" to find out how to register. "Quit" to quit game. "Done" to exit game menu (if game in progress). -THE CASTLE MAP- Each castle consists of 64 rooms (or corridors). The people and spiders move from room to room (or corridor). Each has a grey room number which is used in the attack menu. The small map in the upper right shows the whole castle with a square centered on the current view. You can change the view at almost any time by either clicking on the small map, or by clicking on the 8 arrow buttons. The colored dots in the small map represent creatures as follows: blue = person, grey = web, dark red = egg, medium red = baby spider, bright red = adult spider. -THE PEOPLE- Each of the 31 people has 3 attributes. "Attack" is the number of 6-sided dice the person rolls in a hand attack. An attacked spider dies if the roll equals or exceeds the spider's tough value. A person's "tough" is the value which the spiders need to roll to kill the person. "Move" is the number of spaces (rooms or corridors) the person can move each turn. There are two special case people: the green knight is so tough that any spiders in the same room are compelled to attack only him, and the rabbit cannot use weapons. -THE SPIDERS- Each spider has 3 attributes (attack, tough, move) which are used in the same way as the people's attributes. Unlike people, the number of spiders increases through the process of growing. There are 4 spider types: adults, babies, webs, and eggs. Each turn, all spiders of one type grow into a new type (or lay eggs). However, the maximum number of each type which can exist at any given time is 15 adults, 24 babies, 27 webs, and 24 eggs. The "spid" button will list the totals. -THE WEAPONS- The people can use certain objects in the castle as weapons. If a person is in a room with a weapon shown in the room's upper-left corner, then the weapon can be grabbed and carried along for use in attacks. You know that an object is a weapon because there's a white number beside it on the map. The number indicates the quantity of that weapon currently available (not being carried) in the castle (not just in that room). For example, there are 3 daggers available in the castle. Daggers can be grabbed in the barracks and the guard chamber. Therefore, there's a number 3 next to the dagger shown in these rooms. If someone grabs a dagger, the number will change to 2 in both rooms. People can also start bonfires which automatically inflict an attack on any spiders which move into the room. Weapon effects are all unknown to start with. They are different each game and must be discovered at the time of first use. Some effects benefit the spiders! (Also see "Weapon Effects") -GAME PHASES- Each turn consists of 5 phases (except the first turn which starts with spider move). A message announces each phase. Click anywhere or press any key to begin the phase, then press the "done" button to end the phase. 1. "Person Move" is when all the people move a number of spaces up to their move values. You'll see the move menu which can be scrolled by clicking on the up or down arrows which appear. Beside each person is either their hand attack value or carried weapon. The A, T, and M stand for the person's attack, tough, and move values. At any time during movement, before their moves reach 0, they can grab, drop, and trade weapons. If they don't move at all, they can build or remove a bonfire. Important: Don't press "done" until after ALL the people are done. a. To select a person to be the active mover, either scroll and click on the person in the move menu, or click on the person on the map. Clicking on the person again will deselect. It's often easiest to click the people in the menu in order. You can't select people whose moves are 0. b. To select an adjacent room for an active mover to move to, click anywhere within that room on the map. Each move will reduce the person's move value by one. If the room is full, it can't be entered. If it contains a bonfire, move is reduced to 0. When move reaches 0, the person is deselected and can't perform any more actions. c. Press "grab" to have an active mover grab a weapon in the same room. d. Press "drop" to have an active mover drop a weapon anywhere in the castle. The weapon is then available for grabbing again in rooms where it's pictured. e. Press "trad" to have an active mover trade weapons (or give or take) with someone in the same room (including those with 0 move). The button changes to "with" until the target person is clicked on. f. If an active mover still has all move points, press "fire" to build or remove a bonfire in the same room. Move will be reduced to 0. The bonfire reduces the moves of all spiders and people who enter the room to 0, and immediately inflicts its weapon effect on spiders who enter the room. There can only be 2 bonfires in the castle, and there must be an open floor space in the room where it can be built. 2. "Person Attack" is when all the people set up their attacks against spiders. When this phase begins you'll see the attack menu. The left column shows the people (attackers) who occupy the room numbered at the top of the column. The right column shows the spiders (targets). Beside each person is an attack value or a carried weapon and effect. Beside each spider is its tough value. Each column will show up and down arrows to click on if scrolling is needed. The main idea here is to set up all the attacks in all the rooms before any actually occur. a. Scroll to the desired room. The arrows which appear to the left and right of the people's room number will scroll through every room containing at least one person. Spiders in the same room are also shown. b. Click on the desired attacker. You can also click on an attacker's weapon to toggle between "use weapon" and "use hands". If the attacker has a weapon whose area of effect can extend beyond the same room, scroll arrows may appear to the left and right of the spiders' room number. You can then scroll the spiders' room number to view all possible targets. Also, if an adjacent room is full, you can attack within it as if it were the same room. c. Click on the desired target. The person's attack value or weapon effect will appear next to the spider so you know what attacks are set upon it. A grey box will appear next to the person so you know who has attacked already. If a weapon affects "all" or "area", the weapon effect will appear next to all affected spiders. Notes: You can also click on attackers and targets in the map view. Many people can attack the same spider. Setting a new attack will replace a previous setup. Setting the same attack will cancel a previous setup. d. Repeat the above steps until all desired attacks are set up, then press "done" to go on to attack resolutions. During "attack resolutions", targetted spiders are shown one at a time. Unknown weapon effects are revealed, attack dice are rolled to kill the spider if the total is greater than or equal to its tough value, and other weapon effects are applied. Cumulative weapon effects occur in this order: grow, shrink, attack dice, webs. Continue to press "next" to see each resolution. 3. "Spider Grow" is when all spiders of one type grow. Either eggs or webs become babies, babies become adults, or adults lay eggs. Some might not grow if restricted by spider type maximum limits. 4. "Spider Move" is when the spiders move: adults=2, babies=1, webs=0, eggs=0. You can see them move if you watch the small castle map. 5. "Spider Attack" is when the spiders set up their attacks, followed by attack resolutions. Spiders can only attack people in the same room (or an adjacent full room). When a person is killed, one of the attacking spiders will devour the body and immediately grow! -WEAPON EFFECTS- Press "weap" to see the weapons list. The top of each weapon entry shows the name and total available in the castle (carried or not). The middle shows the picture, effect, and people currently carrying it (or room names for the bonfire). The bottom shows the number of spiders affected, the area of effect, and if the weapon is lost or kept when used. Here's a table containing the unchanging weapon info: WEAPON TOTAL AFFECTS AREA KEPT ? ------ ----- ------- ---- ------ torch 2 one same kept longbow 2 one sight kept flask of oil 3 all sight lost watermelon 3 all same lost horn 2 all area kept battle axe 2 one same kept club 2 one same kept wine bottle 3 one adjacent lost magic scroll 2 all area lost bonfire 2 all same perm dagger 3 one sight both potion 3 one adjacent lost magic staff 2 all same kept coil of rope 3 one adjacent kept water bucket 3 all adjacent lost "One" affects one spider in the area of effect. "All" affects all spiders in the area of effect. "Same" affects targets in same room. "Adjacent" affects targets in same or adjacent room. "Sight" affects targets in same, adjacent, or a room visible by a straight line of sight (can pass through an adjacent door but not a distant door). "Area" affects targets in same or adjacent room, and also affects all spiders in all rooms which connect to that room without going through a door (ie. several corridor spaces). "Lost" means weapon is lost when used, but is available to be grabbed again. "Kept" means weapon is kept when used. "Both" is a special case for the dagger. It is lost when thrown into an adjacent or sight room, but kept if target is in same room. "Perm" is a special case for the bonfire. It is permanent until removed. Weapon effects are unknown until randomly determined (based on the "number possible" out of 20) at the time of first use (during attack resolution). Effects are cumulative and occur in this order: grow, shrink, attack dice, webs. SYMBOL EFFECT NUMBER POSSIBLE ------ ------ --------------- ? unknown - 0 no effect 3 3 3 attack dice 3 4 4 attack dice 3 5 5 attack dice 2 G grow 2 S shrink 2 W webs 5 "Grow" causes targets to immediately grow. Eggs and webs become babies, babies become adults, and adults lay eggs. "Shrink" causes targets to immediately shrink. Adults become babies, babies and webs become eggs, and eggs are killed. "Webs" causes targets to be killed, but each splatters into 1-6 webs (which can overflow into adjacent rooms). Note that grow, shrink, and webs may not actually occur if the spider type total is at maximum. -REGISTERED VERSION EXTRA RULES- 1. Choose between 3 floor plans: No additional rules. 2. Choose between 3 groups of inhabitants: Considering the rules for the 2 special case people, green knight = white knight = gnarltree, and rabbit = bullfrog = bat. 3. Choose between 1 or 2 players: The spider player clicks on the spider type to grow when asked during the grow phase. The spider player moves and sets up attacks in the same way that the people player does. 4. Choose between 4 spider levels (number of starting spiders): The number of starting spiders is 18 on level 1. Level 2 doubles the number of one of the starting spider types (eggs, babies, or adults). Level 3 doubles two spider types. Level 4 doubles all starting spiders for a total of 36. -WINNING THE GAME- The phases repeat until there is a winner who has eliminated all enemies. You can do it!