DECISIONS, DECISIONS, DECISIONS....
-----------------------------------

When you first elect to explore the Realm you will be asked for a name for 
your character. Once you select a name you will be offered a selection of 
classes and races. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type. Once 
you choose a character type, you live with it for the rest of the game.  

SUGGESTION: You might want to test drive a few character types before you 
finally decide on what type you want to be forever. Get the feel of one for a 
bit and then if you are not happy with it, SUICIDE it and start over with 
another. If you want to know more about the different classes and races now, 
go check out that help document at the main menu.

WHERE AM I AND WHAT AM I DOING HERE?
------------------------------------

When you first enter the game you will be in "Town Square". You already have
some armor and a weapon. Type "inventory" (or "inv" for short) to see what
you are carrying. Items don't last forever. They eventually break or get
lost. But, you can get more by going to the Mercantile. The directions to the 
Mercantile from Town Square are east, then south. Just type the direction you 
want to move. You can quickly get to the mercantile by exiting back to the
main menu and selecting "Mercantile" as your destination.

SPECIAL NOTE: Town Square is a special kind of room. Whenever you go to
Town Square, all of your body, fatigue and magic points are restored to
full. So, if you've been hurt and want a quick fix, go to Town Square!

THE MERCANTILE
--------------

In the mercantile you can buy and sell things. Buy weapons and armor when 
you lose the ones you have, and sell the stuff you find when you kill
monsters. You need money to pay for increases in your character's stats,
so whenever you find an item, pick it up, bring it to the mercantile and
sell it.

To access the mercantile menu, simply type "menu" (or "m" for short) once you 
get inside the mercantile. You can then list the items for sale, buy 
something or sell something. Once finished with your transactions, press "X" 
at the menu prompt to return to the main game prompt.

When you buy something, it is placed into your inventory. To use something 
you purchased, you'd type something like "use scimitar" or "use armor" 
(depending on the name of the item you want to use). You can also refer to an 
item by it's inventory number, e.g. "use 1" to use the first item in your 
inventory.
	
NOVICE MODE
-----------

Your character has a number of personal preference settings called "options".
To see what they are, type "options". To turn an option on or off, you
simply type "option X", where X is the number of the option you want to
change. Notice that option #12, Novice Mode, is turned *ON*. Swords of
Chaos is a fairly complex game, and not always easy for new players to
get started in. Novice Mode helps make things easier for you (more on the
specifics later).

EXPERIENCE QUESTS
-----------------

Whenever you kill a monster, you earn a number of "experience" points. These
are applied to "experience quests". When you complete an experience quest,
one of your stats will increase (thus making you more powerful). To see
your character's stats, type "stats". To see how you're doing on your
experience quests, type "experience" (or "exp" for short).

In Novice Mode, you don't have to worry about training for specific 
experience quests. The game will take care of all that for you. Basically
you just have to concern yourself with killing things and getting gold (the
gold pays for your stat increases). If you don't have enough gold, your
character won't earn any more experience until you do get enough.

FINDING A MONSTER TO FIGHT
--------------------------

Just east of Town Square is a room called "The Mall". In the mall you will
encounter monsters that should be fairly easy for you to kill.

Now, you want to surprise your enemies. Hiding seems like a good idea for 
a surprise battle. Type "hide", and in this heavy cover you will find 
yourself hidden with an "H" indicator on your prompt. 

You need something to fight! You can just sit there patiently, waiting
for something to wander in. Or, if you want to attract something you can
yell to attract monsters. Type "yell". 

As a new player you have to be a little careful what you attack. Like 
Goldilocks, you want the monster that is not too little or too big but just 
right. You can see the level of a monster by typing LOOK and the first two or 
three letters of the monster's name. The higher the level, the tougher the
monster.

So, you yell and a monster comes. It is a Shopkeeper. You look at it 
(l sho) and see that it is a level 3 Shopkeeper. Monsters in SoC are real 
monsters. They are not kind... even to new players. A level 3 Shopkeeper is 
at the top of the heap in the mall. So you wait. DO NOT YELL AGAIN. If you 
yell again, the Shopkeeper will attack. This is true of every room with 
monsters already present in them. But, monsters like company, so more will 
come. So you wait a bit. Ah... here comes a clerk. You look at him (l cl) and 
see that he is a level 1 monster. That clerk is YOUR enemy.

KILL OR BE KILLED
-----------------
	
You have choices on how to try to kill Mr. Clerk. You can:

BASH: This is an attack where your goal is not to injure the opponent but to 
set him up for your next attack. If you succeed, you may stagger the monster 
or knock him to the ground. A stunned or floored monster is somewhat easier 
to deal with. Of course you can fail to bash him at all.

Command: bash clerk (or "ba cl" for short)

HIT: Hit performs a basic attack on a monster. Your chances of hitting 
successfully are based on your combat bonus, your weapon, your target's armor 
and your luck.

Command: hit clerk (or "hi cl" for short)

GREATBLOW: Greatblow is useful to kill weak monsters or monsters that are
almost dead. If you hit, you do double the damage of a simple "hit". There's 
a catch. You are vulnerable to return strikes and you tire faster.

Command: greatblow clerk (or "gr cl" for short)

PARRY: The parry command is useful when attacking monsters that are a higher 
level. It is a defensive attack. When parrying, you only do 1/2 of your 
normal damage. But your chances of getting hit in return are greatly reduced.  
If you are hit, you only get 1/2 of the normal damage from the enemy. Finally 
you do not lose any fatigue points when parrying.

Command: parry clerk (or "pa cl" for short)

MAGIC: Only the Sorceror class starts with magic spells that are useful in 
attacks. These are langour and lightning. Langour slows a monster down so 
that he is easier to attack. Lightning attacks will damage the enemy. Magic 
spells must be "cast", and make use of your psychic powers. To see what 
spells you have learned, type "spells". Notice that Langour has a 2 in front 
of it and Lightning has a 17. You can use these numbers to help cast spells. 
Magic can be combined with physical attacks. Using magic is not as important
for new players as it is for more advanced players. As you become more 
powerful and learn more about the game, you will eventually come to
understand the importance of magic. For now, slice'n'dice will probably be
your main strategy.

Command: cast lightning on clerk (or "c 17 on cl" for short)

NOTE: It is possible to fight using two weapons, or a weapon and a shield.
However, as a brand new player you may find it difficult to perform these
rather complex tasks. Try it out- you'll feel like a clutz, fumbling and
tripping all over the place. Until you get your stats up a bit higher,
you should probably stick to fighting with just one weapon and no shield.

You choose to hit this enemy clerk. Enter "hit cl". After that, the computer 
takes over for you and continues to attack the monster until you kill it, or 
it kills you. From here on, your duel with the clerk is on automatic pilot;
you can sit back and watch. You can temporarily interrupt the combat or 
change your attack method by typing a new command.

As you watch the fight you will see a set a numbers on your main prompt, 
e.g., [BP 12 Ftg 13 MP 10). BP is your body health points. Looks like the 
clerk nicked you. Ftg is your fatigue points. Fighting monsters is tiring 
work. These change depending on fighting method and time and of course enemy 
attacks.

Whoa! The clerk tripped! Good news. Type Gr (for greatblow). You hit and the 
clerk is weak. Arrgh! The clerk just hit you for 6 and you think you might be 
bleeding bad. Now type pa (for parry). If the clerk is not dead and your BPS 
shows 7 or lower, type w (for west) immediately. If the monster is nice he 
will let you get to the safety of Town Square. However, he may smell your 
imminent demise and physically stop you from leaving the room. In this case 
type FLEE. The command will bring you to a random safe area close by in town. 

Once you make it back to Town Square, you will be back to full health. If you
fled, you'll have to head to the Mercantile to purchase a new weapon. A 
"flee" action causes you to lose it. Don't forget that you need to USE the 
items after you buy them. If you see **PUNCH** you are engaged in a 
barefisted fight and not one that will go in your favor!

When you are ready, go back to the Mall. Type hide. Yell. Another clerk! 
Begin to battle again as before- hit cl. As the battle progresses you see you 
are winning. The clerk dies! And he drops all his possessions and he gives 
you experience towards your experience quests! Great job!

ITEMS FROM A KILL
-----------------

A monster you kill will drop its possessions. They are yours for the taking.
To get the items, type "get 1" (to pick up the first item on the ground),
or else type "get X" where X is the name of the item you want to pick up.  
Type "inv" to check your inventory. You can hold 20 items. Take the items to 
the mercantile and sell them.

The money from the loot you sell will go directly into your bank account.  
However, if you picked up bags of money or coins, you need to deposit them in 
the Bank. From the Mercantile go out (o) then north (n). Once in the Bank
you will be asked whether or not you want to deposit your cash. Just answer
yes. 

There are a couple of goodies from your kills in this room you might want 
to keep:

A) A staff of strength. Keep this in your inventory. When your fatigue points 
go down, type "use staff". This will restore some or all of your fatigue
points.

B) A pure ring. Type "use ring". This increases the rate at which both 
fatigue and body points are restored. It has a limited life so if you are 
selling things or taking a rest, type "use ring" again to take it off and 
save its energy.

Suppose you have three pure rings?  Go to the Mercantile and notice that 
there is a closet. Each player has a closet. Enter the closet by typing 
"go closet". In the closet, drop from your inventory (using the "drop"
command), whatever you want to store in your closet. Exit by typing out (o). 
Later when you enter your closet, all sorts of things may be scattered on the 
floor. To GET something type "items" (or "ite" for short) and they will be 
arranged neatly by number. If the Pure Ring you want is item number 3, type 
get 3. It will then be placed in your inventory, ready for use.
	
WEEP! I DIED!
-------------

When you die you lost 1 stat point from:

   Strength
   Dexterity
   Constitution
   Psychic Ability
   Intelligence
	   
You also lose your possessions in your inventory. And you lose whatever 
experience you may have gained toward a quest. If your physical attribute 
stats get below 5 and your money is low, using the SUICIDE command may be 
advisable. You may be better off in the long run starting over.

But wait, you completed several quests, you like this character and you have 
money in the bank. If your stats in the 5 areas listed above do not go below 
5, then take your death gracefully and move on to another quest. Here's a 
nice surprise for you though. Visit the scene of your death first. You will 
find your own smoldering corpse PLUS all the items you were holding at the 
time. Take them... you died for them!

UH OH! WHAT'S WRONG? THE MONSTERS ARE FLEEING FROM ME?
------------------------------------------------------

When this happens you have done your job well! The monsters will flee the 
Mall when you are too AWESOME to fight in that room.

BUT BEFORE YOU GO FURTHER!
--------------------------

The Mall is for beginners. It has kinder and gentler enemies most other 
areas of the game. It also can be a good area to get into bad fighting habits.  
More often than not you will be able to escape a threatening situation by 
heading south into the safe Mercantile, or west into Town Square. You might 
even forget that your 100% chance of getting out of a tough situation alive 
is fleeing.

FLEE is your friend. It will save your life. Sure, you leave behind your
weapon and shield, but that's a small price to pay to save 5 stat points. The 
death toll of our noble adventurers in Swords of Chaos would be reduced 
significantly by use of a four letter word.. this one.. FLEE.

Suppose you want to see what is beyond the small area you have been playing 
in. Roaming around as a low level player can be hazardous to your health.  
However, IF you stay in town and do not enter any buildings or other areas, 
there is a safety measure in addition to FLEE. Elfhelm is a mean town. Some 
monsters attack without provocation. They are EVIL. Should you encounter one 
of these on your stroll, type GUARD. We have a few trustworthy guards left in 
the hamlet who will haul away the offender for you. Do not attack the monster 
and do not linger. Call the GUARD quickly or flee.

Finally, TALKING to other people in the game is fun. In Novice Mode, anything
you type that is not a command will be sent out to everyone else playing
the game.

PLAYER-VS-PLAYER ATTACKS, OR WHY IS THIS BIG GOON POUNDING ON ME?
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Swords of Chaos takes place in an unnamed land, situated somewhere between
those noted realms, Anarchy, Chaos and Bedlam. There are no official rules
of conduct and decorum, except for the very few that are enforced by cold,
hard program code (safe havens, for example). In general, you're on your
own out there. Not only do you have to deal with mindless, mayhem-dealing
monsters but you might also find yourself in conflict with nigh mindless,
mayhem-dealing *players*. For those of a law-abiding, non-aggressive nature
it can come as quite a shock to have some other player slice your guts out
for little or no reason. 

Your sysop has a number of configureable options available to him or her
for placing limits on player-vs-player attacks. If the game has been 
configured for wide-open play, with few or no limits on PVP, then it's best 
to just adopt a low profile and try not to upset the powerful people.

Loud mouthed, obnoxious, whining beggers usually don't last too long on the
mean streets of Elfhelm. 'Nuff said!

OK, I DON'T FEEL LIKE A NOVICE ANYMORE
--------------------------------------

If you think you're ready to tackle the more complex aspects of gaming in 
Swords of Chaos, feel free to turn off Novice Mode. If you feel comfortable
with the game, you won't need it anymore - it will have done it's job.
Take off the training wheels and live happily ever after!
