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| Computel Presents |
| |
| The |
| Forbidden |
| Lands |
| |
| Book I: |
| The City of Falchon |
| |
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Thank you for playing the first game in the Forbidden Lands saga!
We think that you will find the game both challenging and fun. The game has no
pre-set goal, although the built-in quests for weapons and special items are
goals in themselves. A player can grow and develop into an almost god-like
character (within the context of the game, of course!), and since experience
needed for each level increases every time, there will always be a goal to
shoot for. We have been as faithful as possible to the original multi-user
version of Book I. The game has been entirely recoded for stand-alone, single
player use and nothing has been removed. This is not cripple-ware! The game is
here in its entire form...the only things not functioning are the Guilds and
the Jail (neither of which is essential for gameplay). All else including keys,
weapons quests, etc. are intact. We hope you enjoy it!

To begin, copy the contents of the file to a separate directory of your hard
drive (we recommend a directory called \lands). Using PKUNZIP, you should get
the following files:

lands.exe
lands.dat
lands.doc.....(this file)
spells.doc....(an explanation of Spells)
player.dat....(will be created once you save your first character)
egavga.bgi
cga.bgi
goth.chr

Once the files are extracted, type 'lands' to begin playing the game. That's
all there is to it!


The City of Falchon
-------------------
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
||-----| |
||Thieves |
||Guild|### |
||-----| # |-----| |-----| |-----| |-----| |-----| |
| # # |Apoth| Trainer |Karmic | | Octagon |
| # # |ecary| | | |Temple | ??? | (Monks) |
| # # |-----| |-----| |-----| |-----| |-----| |
| # # # # # # # |
| ################################################################# |
| # # # # |
||-----| # |------------------| # |-----| @@ @ # |
||Shrine### | ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | # Fighters @ # |-----| |
||--#--| # |~ ~ Pond ~ |----| ###|Guild| Trees ##|Smithy |
|Clerics # | ~ ~ ~ ~| # |-----| @ # |-----| |
||-----| # |~ ~ ~ ~ | |-------------| @ @@ # |
| # |-------------| | | @@ # |-----| |
||-----| # | Hall |@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ # | | |
|| |########################| of |#######################|Pawn | |
||City | # | Passage | # |Shop | |
||Bank | # | | @ |--------| # |-----| |
|| | # |-----| |-----| |-------------| @@ | | # |
||-----| # |Mages| |City | # @ | Inn | # |-----| |
| ##|Guild| |Jail |######### Park @ | | # |Town | |
| # |-----| |-----| # @ |--------| ##|Hall | |
| # # # @ @ # # |-----| |
| # # # # # |
| ########################################################### |
| # # # |
| |-----| # # |
| Militia # # |-----| |
| | HQ | #############| ??? | |
| |-----| # |-----| |
| # |
|------------------------------------Gate-------------------------------------|
trees @@ walls |-
roads ## water ~


Background
----------
The City of Falchon was raised millenia ago. The builders themselves left
little trace of their identity, and when the first explorers crossed the desert
in search of fabled treasures, they found Falchon deserted and empty. As the
years passed, word spread of a magical City that was built above a mass of
dungeons and catacombs filled with both hideous monsters and great riches.
Many who came to explore the depths stayed on to inhabit the town and serve
the next generation of adventurers looking to make their fortune. Today, the
City still lures hardy souls with promises of untold wealth and glory and the
descendents of the first explorers make their living catering to the needs of
these brave men and women. Not even the Elder races are immune to the City's
mysteries. Dwarf, Elf and others also make the arduous trek across the burning
sands hoping to create their own legends. These are the Forbidden Lands.
Welcome!


Text Adventures
---------------
We've heard more and more lately how text adventures are dead, that no one
wants to use their imaginations anymore, that all players need to be lead by
the hand by way of graphics, pull-down menus, mouse use, etc. Not! The text
adventure will always hold a place in the hearts of players. The Zork series
is as exciting to newcomers of text adventures today as it was years ago when
first introduced into the game marketplace. Granted, most of us love VGA
graphics and stereo sound and a lot of people prefer to input all commands
via a mouse. However, for the user on a budget, still using their tried and
true XT compatible, or for those who have no need of or wish for VGA graphics
and a sound card, text adventures are still the way to go. They offer fast
interaction, even on slower systems, adventures as exciting and deep in scope
as the graphical games (often more so!) and an environment that stimulates,
not stifles, the imagination. That is probably why Lands I has been one of
the most popular multi-user games ever created for BBS use. And it is why
we decided to recode the game for stand-alone, single player use. We hope that
after playing the game you will agree with us! Lands II and III will contain
graphics, but it is the games themselves, their content and playability that
we still strive to improve, because we know that many players want games that
challenge and excite, not just look good. Enjoy!


The City
--------
If you are at all familiar with the Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) genre of games,
the Lands will (we hope) feel like home to you. We have attempted to create a
world of myth and magic that will challenge, excite and, hopefully, capture the
long-term interest of players of this type of game and, at the same time,
introduce and encourage newcomers. Players must earn experience points (exp)
to gain character levels and increase their characters hit points and magical
and fighting ability. Each level of every class has a title that goes with it.
And since the game has no final solution, there will always be the lure of
that next level, more hit points, better spells, etc.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the genre, let us give you a quick
overview of how it works...

Players begin the game by rolling for their statistics. Statistic points are
spread into attributes. The six attributes are Strength (Str), Dexterity (Dex),
Intelligence (Int), Wisdom (Wis), Constitution (Con) and Charisma (Cha). All
stats will be from 3-18 with 3 being the lowest and 18 the highest. Except in
special cases, strength spells for instance, no stat will ever go above 18.
After rolling for your stats, you will choose a Race. Choosing your race will
affect your stats in some way. Then you will pick your Class. Different stats
are important for different classes. Str is the primary stat for Fighters, Dex
is important for Monks and Thieves, Int is for Magic-users and Wis applies to
Clerics. A high Con is important for hit points. Cha normally affects the way
monsters and npc's (non-player characters) interact with a character but in
this case it is really important only when it comes to selling anything at the
Pawnshop. A player with a higher Charisma will make more money on an item than
one with a lower Cha. (Please read the Help files in the game to find out how
each race and class will affect your statistics). After choosing your Class,
your stats are locked until or unless you are killed. At death, a player will
lose some random Stat and Con points. If any Stat goes below 3, the death is
final and you will have to create a new character. Otherwise, no level loss
will occur.


Fighting
--------
Fighting is the primary source of exp points. Spell casting will gain a player
a few exp points, but only the death of a monster will get a player substantial
amounts of exp. The monsters are user-reactive; ie. a user has to DO something
in order for a monster to react. Since a player is doing something everytime
he/she hits , this is no problem. Any action taken within the dungeons or
in the desert (or around the sorcerer's tower) in a room inhabited by one or
more creatures will invoke a counter reaction. If a player enters an inhabited
room, there is a random chance that they will be attacked. In fact, doing
anything AT ALL will set off the bad guys (if nothing obvious happens, it's
because the roll of the dice ordained it, not because no response was
initiated). If a player is fighting and gets wounded, trying to REST in the
dungeons will provoke any monsters in the same room, but it ALSO tends to
attract more monsters to that same room (it's probably the character's snores
that get the creatures attention!). If a wounded player attempts to retreat in
order to rest up, there's a good chance that the monsters will block them and
attack. Once a player has killed a monster, the corpse will drop at their feet
and it is up to the player to SEARCH the corpse to find any gold and/or
treasure that the creature was carrying. But if another monster is in the same
room, it will block any attempt to take treasure. In other words, if the player
wants the prize, he/she is going to have to fight for it. Hey, who said
adventuring was easy?

A last word
-----------
This software is as bug-free as we can make it and has been beta-tested
substantially. If any problems arise because of source code errors, we will
do our best to correct them immediately and send out a fresh copy ASAP.

The Forbidden Lands software is protected by copyright. All rights are reserved
by Computel. Freeware copies of The Forbidden Lands may be distributed freely
between BBS's and/or users, however all code must be left intact. It is illegal
to tamper with the program code, period. Copyright (c) 1993 by Computel.