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1. Viewing Characters To view a character point to his name on the cast list and click or type the number that corresponds to his place in the marching order 1 6 Character information appears in the white requester along with the options to Trade Gold Pool Gold or Continue The Continue command is followed by the equipment list from which you can T rade or D rop items or E quip the character Press T D or E or click on the desired option Combat Commands During battle your characters actions and options appear in the white information requester You can respond by clicking the option you want or pressing to Fight to Run to start intra Party combat at any time to Attack monsters in the first two ranks hand to hand Available to the first three party members to Defend This lessens the chance of damage from a monster in that round to Use a magical item The character must be equipped with the item in advance to sing one of six Bard s tunes for one combat round You can also press the function key that corresponds to your Bard s character number Available only to Bards to Cast a spell Type the first letter of or click on the spellcaster s name then select the spell code from the list that appears You can also press the the function key that corresponds to your spelicaster s character number then type the spellcode and press Return Available to magic users only H to Hide in the shadows Avai
2. Save Party Saves the entire party to disk under a single party name Party names are preceded by an on the disk menu Caution This does not save character information it only saves the party name Leave Game Exits the Bard s Tale When you select this option you re offered a yes no choice before you actually leave the game A no answer returns you to the Main Menu A yes answer takes you to the DOS screen Enter the City Leaves the Adventurer s Guild and starts play Safety and Death Face it The sort of streets where you run into wandering Kobolds Werewolves and Orcs are dangerous especially at night Don t be shy about spending the night in the Adventurer s Guild When you leave the Guild the clock is always set ahead to the next morning Moving About When you place the pointer in the view window in the upper left of the screen it turns into a directional arrow As you move the arrow it points out the various directions you can travel ahead around corners into buildings through doors Click to indicate that you want to go in the direction currently indicated by the arrow You can also control your motion with the keyboard arrows Viewing Characters To view a character point to the name on the cast list and click or type the number that corresponds to the character s place in the marching order 1 6 Character information appears in the white requester along with the options to Trade Gold Pool Gold
3. 23 COMMAND SUMMARY THE BARD S TALE COMMODORE 64 128 Getting Started Note Make sure your Shift Lock is OFF and there are no joysticks or cartridges plugged into your system If you have a Commodore 64 insert the Boot disk and type Load EA 8 1 If you have a Commodore 128 insert Boot disk and turn on the computer Press the Spacebar to leave the title page When the prompt Insert Character Disk appears insert Side 2 of the boot disk and press a key Making a Character Disk Before you begin playing you will need to create your own character disk a disk the computer can write to as you play to keep track of your fortunes and misfortunes Use the following steps to make a copy of the character disk which contains a completely outfitted and ready to go band of adventurers named ATEAM that you will find on the flip side of your boot disk Get a blank disk or one which contains information you no longer need to use as your character disk Select M ake a disk to make a copy of your Character disk The entire copy process takes about 5 disk swaps follow the onscreen instructions until you see the message Copy Complete This process can be time consuming and you may want to use another copy ulility instead of M ake a disk Do not write protect your copy of the character disk because the program writes information on the disk during game play After copying the character disk rebo
4. Adventurer s Guild Disk menu does only one thing it saves a roster of the currently loaded characters under a party name To write the current status of a single character to disk use the Remove command to remove him irom the party To write the current status of all loaded characters to disk use the Leave game command in the main Adventurers Guild menu If you turn off the power without using the Leave command all currently loaded characters will lose all their gold regardless of when they acquired it fi THE BARD S TALE Making a Character Disk Before you start playing The Bard s Tale for the first time you need to make a character disk on which to store your games To make a character disk put an initialized blank disk in your disk drive Click the new disk icon to select it then choose Rename from the Workbench Menu and name the disk BARDS TALE CHARACTER DISK Be sure to use this exact wording After you ve renamed the character disk put the Workbench disk back into the drive Double click the Preferences icon then turn on the CLI gadget and select Save Open the System drawer and double click the CLI icon there Type Copy from BARDSTALE Members to RAM and press return A series of prompts asks you to switch disks When the copy is complete put the Workbench disk back in the drive and type Copy from RAM to Bards Tale Character Disk Again the program prompts you to switch disks When the copy is complete
5. Mangar s worst two levels Bill Heineman for data compression routines that allowed me to pack so much graphics and animation and the following play testers who helped this program be its very best Caren Edelstein Jay Patel Philip Ybarra Ayman Adham Carl Ybarra Mike Easting ELECTRONIC ARTS 2755 Campus Drive SAN MATEO CA 94403 415 571 7171
6. The amount is indicated after every successful combat A character s running total of experience points is indicated in view mode GOLD Gold is the unit of currency in this world Your characters start with just barely enough gold to buy the armor and weapons they need to survive There are two ways to get rich enough to buy better equipment taking gold from the monsters you defeat in combat or selling items you find in dungeons The first way is more fun LEVEL LV 1 Level is a general measure of achievement within a character s class Level 1 is a novice Level 13 for example is required to become a Master of a Magic User class The Review Board will promote a character to higher levels based on his experience points but only upon the character s in person request An advance in level is very important because it generally means an increase in attribute scores hit points spell points and other abilities SPELL LEVELS e g MAGI 1 This shows the highest group of magic spells a character can use in any of the 4 classes of Magic Users There are 7 groups of magic spells for each different class To learn a new group of magic spells a spell level a Magic User must advance two experience levels NOTE spell levels and experience levels are not the same thing For any of the four magic classes a Magic User advances as follows Experience Level Spell Level 1 1 2 1 3 2 5 3 7 4 9 5 11 6 13 7 14 a
7. activate them with this command others run out of power after only one use V to turn sound on or off Does not work when you re in the Guild 7 NOTICE ELECTRONIC ARTS RESERVES THE RIGHT TO MAKE IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCT DESCRIBED IN THIS MANUAL AT ANY TIME AND WITHOUT NOTICE THIS MANUAL IS COPYRIGHTED ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED NO PART OF THIS MANUAL MAY BE COPIED REPRODUCED TRANSLATED OR REDUCED TO ANY ELECTRONIC MEDIUM OR MACHINE READABLE FORM WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT OF ELECTRONIC ARTS 2755 CAMPUS DRIVE SAN MATEO CALIFORNIA 94403 ELECTRONIC ARTS MAKES NO WARRANTIES EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WITH RESPECT TO THIS MANUAL OR WITH RESPECT TO THE SOFTWARE DESCRIBED IN THIS MANUAL ITS QUALITY PERFORMANCE MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE THE PROGRAMS ARE PROVIDED AS IS ELECTRONIC ARTS MAKES CERTAIN LIMITED WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO DEFECTIVE RECORDING MEDIA PLEASE SEE THE ELECTRONIC ARTS LIMITED WARRANTY ENCLOSED WITH THIS PRODUCT SOFTWARE 1985 INTERPLAY PRODUCTIONS MANUAL BY MICHAEL CRANFORD AND BING GORDON 1985 ELECTRONIC ARTS MANUAL ILLUSTRATIONS BY AVRIL HARRISON Michael Crantord wishes to acknowledge the great illustrator David Lowery for fantastic monster pictures city buildings and dungeon walls my buddy Lawrence Holland for such great music the devious Brian Fargo for the treacherous design of Harkyn s Castle and
8. code and press Return Available to magic users only P to start intra party combat at any time i B to sing one of six Bard s tunes while travelling You can also press the function key that corresponds to your Bard s character number Available only to Bards cy A to adst up through a portal The party must have a levitation spell in operation Works only in dungeons D to go Down a portal Works only in dungeons to learn the name of the street your party is on and the time of day N to establish a New marching order for your party Click on the name of character you want to move Click again on the position in the cast list you want the character to occupy You can also type the number that corresponds to the character s place in the marching order and then the position in the marching order you wish the character to occupy All other characters will move up or down to accomodate the new placement T to Pause and Resume the game U to Use an item Some items like torches don t work until you activate them with this command others run out of power after only one use V to turn sound on or off Spacebar You can speed up a message display by pressing the spacebar after the first part of a message The next message or window display will promptly appear Creating and Saving Characters You ie erin characters and form parties only at the Adventurer s Guild To create characters form your own parties remove characters or re
9. drive 2 before turning on your computer When the GEM screen appears it contains an icon named Bard PRG Double click on this icon to load the program Game information and menus appear in the white requester in the upper right of the screen To select from this screen click on the option you want or type the option s first letter You make all game decisions except direction of travel from this box Ee eee es ee Information about your characters appears in the cast list at the bottom of the screen When the white requester asks you to select a character for any reason move the pointer to the character s name and click or type the number that corresponds to character s place in the marching order 1 6 Main Menu You only have access to the Main Menu while in the Adventurer s Guild Your options are Add a member Adds members from other parties on your disk to the current party You can also use it to recombine characters into entirely new parties The requester that appears contains all the parties and characters saved to the disk party names are preceded by an Click on the name of the party or character you want to use Remove a member Removes a member from your current party and saves that character to disk Create a member Creates a new character The prompts that follow this command ask you for the new character s 1 2 class and name up to 14 characters Answer the prompts either by clicking your selectio
10. fingers doing 1 4 hits of damage to a select opponent times caster s level SORCERER SHIELD The mage is protected by an invisible shield of magic that turns aside many blows that would otherwise hit him TRAP ZAP This spell will disarm any trap within 30 feet in the direction the party is facing It will also disarm traps on chests Level 2 FREEZE FOES This spell binds your enemies with a magical force slowing their movements and making them easier to hit CODE Pt Cost Range Duration MAFL 2 View Medium ARFI 3 1 Foe SOSH 3 Self Combat TRZP 2 30 FRFO Group Combat 14 KIEL S MAGIC COMPASS A Compass of shimmering magelight appears above the party telling the direction they face BATTLESKILL This spell increases one of your party member s skill with weapons increasing the accuracy and ferocity of his attacks WORD OF HEALING With the utterance of a single word the spell caster can cure a party member of minor wounds healing 2 8 points of damage Level 3 ARCYNE S MAGESTAR A bright flare will ignite in front of a group of your enemies temporarily blinding them and causing them to miss the next combat round MACO 3 Medium BASK 4 Char Combat WOHL 4 Char MAST Group LESSER REVELATION This is an extended Mage Flame spell which also reveals secret doors LEVITATION Partially negates the effect of gravity on the party causing them to f
11. or Continue The Continue command is followed by the equipment list from which you can T rade or D rop items or E quip the character by pressing the number of the item or clicking on it and then selecting the desired option Combat Commands During battle your characters actions and options appear in the white information requester You can respond by clicking the option you want or pressing F to Fight R to Run P to start intra Party combat at any time A to Attack monsters in the first two ranks hand to hand Available to the first three party members D to Defend This lessens the chance of damage from a monster in that round U to Use a magical item The character must be equipped with the item in advance B to sing one of six Bard s tunes Available only to Bards C to Cast a spell Click on the spell code from the list that appears You can also type type the spell code and press Return Available to magic users only H to Hide in the shadows Available only to rogues gt to speed up message scrolling rate lt to slow down message scrolling rate Other Adventuring Commands The following commands are available while you re peacefully exploring the streets of Skara Brae C to Cast a spell Click on the spelicaster s name then select the spell code from character s place in the marching order or you can press the function key that corresponds to your spelicaster s character number then type the spell
12. press S for S tart game For information about the other 3 choices including the option that lets you transfer in characters from Wizardry and Ultima lll see Utilities Menu inside 4 The Character disk you made in Step 1 already contains a good beginning party of adventurers who are equipped and ready to go To use them justtype A to A dd a character and then type ATEAM to load the entire party You can then E xit the Guild and enter the town of Skara Brae by typing E To learn how to create your own characters form your own parties remove characters or rearrange their order see the inside of this card HINT The first dungeon is the wine cellar in the only tavern in town which serves wine It s on Rakhir street continued inside r Face it The sort of streets where you run into wandering Kobolds Werewolves and Orcs are dangerous And the streets of Skara Brae are especially dangerous at night Beginning parties should not be shy about spending the night in the Adventurer s Guild Leaving the Adventurer s Guild always sets the clock ahead to the next morning Also don t despair if you lose a favorite ATEAM member First delete him from your Character disk with the Delete command available in the Disk menu in the Adventurer s Guild Then use the Copy characters command in the Utilities menu described inside to copy the original from the back of the Boot disk or the most recently saved version from a backup o
13. protect your copy of the Program disk or you will not be able to set your screen configuration Playing from Floppy Disk To load The Bard s Tale insert the Program Disk in drive A and at the A prompt type bard lt return gt The program will load automatically Playing from a Hard Disk To install The Bard s Tale on your hard disk place your Program disk in drive A and at the A prompt type a install c lt return gt then follow the on screen prompts Your character disk will automatically be created in the bardtale subdirectory If this is your first time booting Bard s Tale type setup when prompted and choose a display mode refer to Game Configuration below for details To play The Bard s Tale type the DOS command cd bardtale lt return gt bard lt return gt Making a Character Disk Before you start playing The Bard s Tale for the first time you need to make a character disk Prepare a blank formatted disk If you have a two drive system place your blank disk in drive B and your Picture disk in drive A At the A prompt type copychar lt return gt If you have a one drive system at the A prompt insert your Picture disk in drive A and type copychar lt return gt When instructed to do so insert your blank formatted disk in the drive and follow the on screen prompts cee O Note On a one drive system you may be prompted to place your disk in drive B please use drive A at that prompt throughout the character disk crea
14. spell from the lists that appear type the spelicas number in the order and then the four letter spelicode Spellcodes are listed in the manual Available only to magic users HH to Hide in the shadows Available only to rogues Left Arrow to speed up message scrolling rate naco gt vam Right Arrow to slow down message scrolling rate Other Adventuring Commands The following commands are available while you re peacefully exploring the streets of Skara Brae Click the option you want or press Or type the spellcasters C to Casta Click on the ter s name then select a spell class and spell from the lists that appear cast a span ae four letter spellcode Spellcodes are listed in the manual Available only to magic users i to start intra Party combat at any to sing one of six Bard s tunes while traveling You can also press your bard s character number Available only to Bards to Elevate up a portal The party must have a levitation spell in operation Works only in dungeons 4 De is on and the time of day to learn the name of the street on Snare e New marching order fee your party Rearrange characters by typing their old numbers in the new marching order or click on a character s name and drag him to his new position on the list All other characters will move up or down to accomodate the new z omayv T openen Hit any key to resume use U to Une an item Some items like torches don t work until you
15. taller than a human and very inclined to magic DWARF The Dwarven people are short and stout extremely strong and healthy but not amazingly intelligent i e excellent fighters HOBBIT Hobbits are slightly smaller than Dwarves but are nimble and dexterous Just the right make up for a rogue HALF ELF These crossbreeds are usually blond and fair skinned like elves and get some added size and strength from their human ancestry HALF ORC An orc is a large goblin like creature often found working for evil wizards The Half orc being half human is not quite as despicable as his orc parent but you wouldn t want to date one GNOME Gnomes closely resemble dwarves but have less hair and even shorter tempers They are also more magically inclined as a rule CHARACTER CLASSES In fantasy role playing games characters choose different Classes or professions There is no single best class each has its own strengths Your characters must use teamwork to succeed Class selection is the most important aspect of creating a character in The Bard s Tale There are ten different classes of characters but only 8 can be selected for a newly generated character Class types carry with them different abilities and limitations as are roughly covered below WARRIOR the base fighter type in The Bard s Tale warriors can use nearly every weapon there is For every 4 levels of experience after the 1st Warriors get an extra attack
16. 2 Characters page 4 Places page 8 The Combat System page 10 The Magic System page 12 Conjurer Spells page 14 Magician Spells page 16 Sorceror Spells page 18 Wizard Spells page 20 Bard Songs page 21 Spell Key Glossary page 21 Tips from the Underground page 22 Items page 23 So turn the page and get started Skara Brae awaits A QUICK OVERVIEW An orientation for beginners a quick start guide for experts How to Use This Manual This manual has three parts This overview is designed to give first time adventure gamers a quick sense of the overall gameplay and give experienced fantasy role players all they need to know to start quickly The rest of the manual is reference material about how various parts of7he Bard s Tale operate including character building and development places and mapping the combat system and the magic system There is also a listing and description of all the magic spells and the beginning items available in The Bard s Tale Finally there are hints and clues interspersed throughout the manual 1 Command Summary Card Inside the front flap of your album cover is a Command Summary Card which lists keystroke commands disk utilities and step by step instructions for starting up lf you are an experienced adventurer this card gives you most of what you need to know the rest is covered in this section 2 Adventurer s Guild The ADVENTURER S GUILD is where you start each time This is the O
17. MATED SWORD A magical sword will appear and fight like a summoned monster in defense of the party STONE TOUCH This spell will often turn an enemy to stone or a stone monster from living stone to dead stone But it doesn t always work Level 6 PHASE DOOR This incantation will alter the structure of almost any wall directly in front of the party tuming it to air for exactly 1 move YBARRA S MYSTICAL COAT OF ARMOR Causes an effect like Air Armor to cover every member of the party lasting indefinitely Level 7 RESTORATION Makes all wounds disappear as your entire party is reforged into unflawed bodies Also cures poisoning and insanity DEATHSTRIKE This incantation is very likely to instantly kill one selected enemy big or small 17 ANSW Spec Combat STTO 1 Foe PHDO 1 Wall 1 Move YMCA Party Indef REST 12 Party DEST 14 1 Foe SORCEROR SPELLS Level 1 MANGAR S MIND JAB The mage casts a concentrated blast of psychic energy at one opponent doing 2 8 hits of damage for each experience level of the mage PHASE BLUR The entire party will seem to waver and blur in the sight of the monsters making the party very difficult to strike LOCATE TRAPS Ina state of magically heightened awareness the spell caster will be able to sense a trap within 30 feet if he faces it HYPNOTIC IMAGE If successfully cast this spell will make a group of your enemies miss the following attac
18. NLY spot a party can be formed characters created or characters saved to disk 3 Use the Pre Built Party For your convenience you will find a pre built party already waiting for you when you enter the Guild for the first time The party is called A Team They are even outfitted with weapons and armor affordable to characters of their humble stations For more about characters and party selection see pages 3 6 4 Use City Map on the Package On the inside of your album cover is a map of Skara Brae You ll need it Notice 2 walled off towers wonder what s in there A castle protected by Guardian Statues Temples for healing Equipment Shop for purchasing more weapons Taverns for drink and gossip Roscoe s for more spell energy You ll have to find the Review Board where levels are awarded and magic is taught on your own Mapping the dungeons and mazes is up to you You even have to figure out how to get into the mazes on your own One clue each of the 16 mazes is set up on a 22 by 22 grid North is to the top of the screen East is to the right Be sure to go to every square there are lots of specials For more about the City of Skara Brae see Places on pages 7 8 5 Combat Only your first 3 characters and the first 2 rows of monsters can attack in hand to hand combat There are several new combat commands including Party Attack for fighting between party members Bard Song for making magic by playing mu
19. OR CLASS AC This statistic reflects the level of protection a character has from physical attack In classic fantasy role playing style the armor class starts at 10 for a totally unprotected unarmored character with low dexterity and goes down to 10 called LO as his protection improves by armor spells or other means HIT POINTS HITS Hit Points measure the damage a character can take before he is killed The Hits statistic shows his potential at fullest health rather than current status CONDITION COND Condition shows the characters present number of hit points For example if a character with 10 Hit Points is wounded for 7 hit points his Condition will drop to 3 Another wound of 3 or more hit points will kill him If he is fully healed his Condition will return to the full 10 again Even though his Condition score changes his Hit Points stay at 10 SPELL POINTS SP PT This shows current spell point status Points are used up with each cast of a magic spell If a Conjurer has 20 spell points and casts a Mage Flame spell at a cost of 2 spell points his new total would be 18 A character s maximum spell points are listed in his view Ccharacter mode EXPERIENCE POINTS This measures abilities gained by experience the higher the number the better the character Characters get experience points for successful combat according to the difficulty of the fight and the number of characters who survive
20. REATER SUMMONING This GRSU spell will gate a greater demon into 22 our universe and bind him to the Spec party BARD SONGS 1 FALKENTYNE S FURY This tune increases the damage your party will do in combat by driving them into a berserker rage 2 THE SEEKER S BALLAD This song will produce light when exploring and during combat it will increase the party s chance of hitting a foe with a weapon 3 WAYLAND S WATCH This song will sooth your savage foes making them do less damage in combat 4 BADH R KILNFEST This is an ancient Elven melody which will heal the Bard s wounds during traveling and heal the party s wounds during combat 21 Hrs 5 THE TRAVELLER S TUNE This melody makes the members of your party more dexterous and agile and thus more difficult to hit 6 LUCKLARAN This song sets up a partial anti magic field which gives party members some increased protection against spell casting SPELL KEY GLOSSARY Range Terms View spell affects line of sight 1 Foe spell affects a single monster regardless of how many you face All Foes spell affects all monsters you face Group spell affects 1 of 4 monster groups Self spell affects spelicaster only 30 3 squares in the direction you face Char one of 6 party members or special Party spell affects all 6 party members and special Special spell affects S slot only summoned creature enters combat next round Durati
21. RTANT This command does not save the characters themselves It only saves a roster of the currently loaded characters under the name you type in When you use this command the program will automatically add an asterisk to the name to mark it as the name of a party You must type that asterisk first when you want to load the party again D to D elete a character from a character disk to make room for another character L to L eave the game saving all current character status information to disk E to E xit the disk options menu and return to the Guild UTILITIES MENU i To produce this menu start your system with the Bard s Tale Boot Disk and insert a Character disk when prompted to do so When the menu app ars press to S tart playing the game C to C opy characters from one character disk to another Just follow the prompts as they appear This disk you are copying from is the source disk the one you are copying to is the target disk M to M ake a new Character disk The disk you plan to use for your new Character disk must have been formatted with DOS before you use this command This command does not put any characters on the disk prepares the disk for a new game of the Bard s Tale i e where they belong at the start of a game etc I to T ransfer characters to a Character disk from a Wizardry character backup disk or an Ultima III player disk At the prompt type W for Wizardry or U for Ultima Ill If you are t
22. Tale the most ed games available for your Apple IIGS We ask you plion ceca ny sana he instruc Scrat Betas ob starting any new procedure and double check to make sure you re using right disk at the right time Also please don t remove the game disk during play unless you re instructed to your computer may reac strangely We hope you enjoy your sojourns in Skara Brae Getting Started Your Bard s Tale disk is copy protected you cannot make backup or working copies Be sure to always keep the disk write protected To do this move the tab in the corner of your disk so the hole is open Before than one drive string them in a your A IIGS hook up the disk drives you plan to use If you use more sant Al ERE ia ai pa adaa h aa ane dam aaa lf you plan to transfer characters m another Apple II fantasy game add a 5 1 4 floppy disk drive at the end of your chain of drives or if you have a controller card connect card to slot 6 and hook the drive directly up to the card ntrol Panel When you ve hooked up the drives turn on the computer Before you begin playing The Bard s ee is set correctly it won t be accessible during the game Press Control Open Apple Escape to enter Desk Accessories l then Slots Set the Startup Slot to 5 and Slot 5 to Smart Port Be one Geo o re om here on we ll call this your primary drive If you re chaining a second ve from 3 second pmatically assigned to slot 5
23. YES The members of the mage s party will all receive perfect night vision which will last indefinitely WIND WARRIOR This spell will create the illusion of a battle ready warrior that joins your party KYLEARAN S INVISIBILITY SPELL This invocation will perform a Vanishing Spell on the entire party Level 5 WIND OGRE This spell will create the illusion of an ogre which will accompany and fight with your party SESI 6 30 Medium CURS 5 Group Combat CAEY View Indef WIWA Spec INVI Party Combat WIOG Party 19 DISRUPT ILLUSION This spell will destroy any illusion fighting the party and any new illusions created later in the combat It will also point out any dopplegangers in the party MANGAR S MIND BLADE A sharp explosion of psychic energy that inflicts10 40 hits to each and every enemy you face Level 6 WIND DRAGON This incantation will create an illusionary red dragon to fight with your party MIND WARP This spell will make a member of your party go totally insane Useful for possessions Level 7 WIND GIANT This spell will create an illusionary storm giant to join with and fight for your party SORCERER SIGHT This spell functions the same as the Second Sight spell but it will last indefinitely Be DIIL 8 Party Combat MIBL 8 All Foes WIDR 10 Spec MIWP Char WIGI 12 Spec SOSI 30 Indef Ce WIZARD SPELLS Level 1 SUMMON DEAD T
24. ability in combat PALADIN Paladins are fighters who have sworn to abstain from all evil and to uphold honor and purity in all places They can use most weapons and even some that no other fighters can They get multiple attacks at higher levels They also have a greatly increased resistance to evil magic ROGUE a professional thief with so so combat ability the rogue can hide in shadows search for traps and disarm them Without a rogue your party will pay very dearly for the booty it wins BARD The Bard is a wandering minstrel You ll see him with a tankard of ale in front of him in the less reputable taverns the rowdier the better Bards were once warriors and can still use most warrior weapons But they turned to music instead and now play songs with an almost magical effect on other characters Bards don t get the warrior s advantage of extra attacks in combat anymore but their magic is so unique it is almost impossible to survive in Skara Brae without one Any true Bard has 6 tunes on his lips though to play them he must have an instrument equipped A song played as the party is exploring is long lasting and continues even after the party returns from combat mode even if other songs were played during combat Any songs played during combat are abbreviated and so create different magical effects than the full non combat versions The shorter combat versions don t endure as long either only one round of fighting On
25. acter number then type the spell code and press Returm Available to magic users only H to Hide in the shadows Available only to rogues gt to speed up message scrolling rate lt to slow down message scrolling rate Other Adventuring Commands The following commands are available while you re peacefully exploring the streets and dungeons of Skara Brae C to Cast a spell Click on the spellcaster s name then select the spell code from the list that appears You can also type the number that corresponds to the character s place in the marching order or you can press the function key that corresponds to your spellcaster s character number then type the spell code and press Retum Available to magic users only P to start intra party combat at any time B to sing one of six Bard s tunes while travelling You can also press the function key that corresponds to your Bard s character number Available only to Bards A to ascend up through a portal The party must have a levitation spell in operation Works only in dungeons Le a ee S ee lied So cil D to go Down a portal Works only in dungeons to leam the name of the street your party is on and the time of day N to establish a New marching order for your party Click on the name of character you want to move Click again on the position jn the cast list you want the character to occupy You can also type the number that corresponds to the character s place in the marchin
26. acters You can create characters and form parties only at the Adventurer s Guild To create characters form your own parties remove characters or rearrange their marching order use the Main Menu commands described above COMMAND SUMMARY The Bards Tale Atari ST Making a Character Disk Before you start playing The Bard s Tale for the first lime you need to make a character disk Prepare a blank formatted diskette Insert your Bard s Tale PICTURE disk in the drive and boot your computer When instructed to do so insert your blank formatted disk in the drive Follow the on screen prompts When you have finished your new character disk will have a completely outfitted and ready to go band of adventurers named ATEAM To use the ATEAM select A dd a member from the Main Menu Because your Bard s Tale disks are copy protected you cannot make backup or working copies of the disks Be sure to keep the PROGRAM and PICTURE disks wnite protected Make sure your newly created character disk is always write enabled To Start Playing The Bard s Tale If you are playing with a mouse plug it into port 0 Insert your Bard s Tale PROGRAM Disk in Drive 1 and tum on your computer Important you must tum on the computer with the program disk already inserted any time you want to play the game If you have 2 disk drives insert your PICTURE disk in
27. als are cleared out of the S slot when killed Illusionary specials created by a sorcerer are cleared out if any foes disbelieve them lf a non illusionary special is attacked by another member of the party for any reason it will turn immediately hostile and fight until defeated 11 Be Tips from the Underground Combat 1 Usually the highest dexterity character attacks first For particularly nasty monsters like blue dragons attack with your highest dexterity characters first Your less dexterous characters may not survive long enough to get in a first strike 2 Use your spells and Bard songs to lower the armor class of your entire party The lower the better 3 If you are attacked by more than 2 groups of monsters concentrate on Magic Users first If you cannot kill off all the magic using monsters you may want to cast anti magic spells to protect against illusions possessions and other spells 4 You can minimize damage by killing off all but one monster in either of the first two attacking groups As a general rule attack groups with only one monster last unless it is a deadly monster 5 Many of the undead monsters are capable of draining experience levels turning characters old and gray or even turning characters to stone Treat the undead with respect In other words kill them quickly 6 Be prepared to die a lot with level 1 and 2 characters Especially at night Especially when you don t have any weapons an
28. arrange their marching order use the Main Menu commands described above Music Dave Warhol amming Troy Worrell Frog J Data Compression Jay Patel Illustrations Todd Camasta the list that appears You can also type the number that corresponds to the THE BARD S TALE SAFETY AND DEATH HOW TO START 1 Before you begin playing you need to create your own Character disk a disk the computer can write to as you play to keep track of your fortunes and misfortunes Here s how to make a Character disk which contains a completely outfitted and ready to go band of adventurers named ATEAM Get a blank disk or one which contains information you no longer need Use your DOS 3 3 disk to Start your computer then create a Character disk by using your DOS copy program to make a copy of the back side of the Bard s Tale Boot disk Refer to your DOS manual if you need help with this Step For information about the Make command in the Bard s Tale Utility menu see Utilities Menu inside 2 Now restart your computer using Side 1 of the Bard s Tale Boot Disk When the title screen appears you may press Return at any time to begin the game When at Sella ale s for your Character disk remove the Boot Disk and ISK you made in step 1 then press any key APPLE lle AND Il OWNERS BE SURE YOUR CAPS LOCK KEY IS DEPRESSED F 3 The Utilities menu which appears contains 4 choices To enter the Adventurer s Guild so you can start playing just
29. d are just walking to Garth s Shoppe It might even be a good idea to stay close to a Temple at night so you can quickly heal any wounds 7 Fill the special slot quickly Conjure or summon a monster or create an illusion if necessary The special member will take a lot of heat off your fighters Monsters tend to attack special members first 8 Monsters are smart They usually attack your most vulnerable characters first unless one of your members represents a significant threat As THE MAGIC SYSTEM Magic is power It can make the difference between success and failure in The Bard s Tale It is not always necessary or wise to rely on magic though because magic is by no means foolproof There are some places where magic never functions and some monsters who are highly resistant to spells Sometimes you just have to wade in with fists flying and get dirty The best way to tell that your party has wandered into an anti magic zone is that all residual spells except light spells are cancelled Residual spells are magic spells that keep working for more than just an instant Light spells trap detection secret door detection and magical armor are some examples Most residual spells cause a graphic symbol to appear in the central blank strip on the screen to keep the player aware that the duration hasn t yet expired All spells have a point cost In other words all spells cost the mage casting them a bit of his
30. deals with the summoning and control of supernatural creatures The wizard has fewer spells than the other three classes but his are by far the most potent The creatures he can summon come from another plane of existence called the Negative plane They join the special slot in the party and will fight until defeated The wizard has some ability to trap and control normal monsters as well Mages who have learned at least 3 spell levels in an art may elect to change to another mage class at any time Thus a level 5 conjurer could choose to become a level 1 magician His experience points would be reset to 0 but he would retain his previous attributes hit points spell points and all knowledge of his conjurer spells He would be unable to learn any higher conjurer spells however once a mage leaves a magic art he cannot return to it A mage can become a conjurer magician or sorcerer as a second class A mage can become a conjurer magician sorcerer or wizard as a third class A mage who has knowledge of all 7 levels of spells in all 4 classes is called an Archmage and is one of the most powerful personages in the world of The Bard s Tale CONJURER SPELLS KEY see page 20 for glossary SPELL NAME Description 2 NE ee CONJURER SPELLS Level 1 MAGE FLAME A small mobile torch will appear and float above the spell caster as he travels ARC FIRE A fan of blue flames will shoot from the caster s
31. drive 2 which we ll be referring to as your secondary drive slot 6 drive 1 Ifthe 51 4 drive is part of a chain ve hooked up a 5 1 4 floppy disk drive the drive is automatically assigned to gdb to your CPU sat alot cs Disk Port if the S 1 4 dsive le hooked directly to a controller card set slot 6 to Your Gi a Character Disk Before you play The Bard s Tale for the first time you need to make a character disk on which to store your games I sure you have a blank formatted disk on hand refer to your ProDOS manual to find out how to format a disk Load your Apple IIGS System Disk To load from the Program Launcher double click Basic System on the Main Menu To load from the desktop click the System Disk icon then double click the Basic System folder When remove i s ake player press spinnin the System Disk and replace it with the Bard s Tale disk Type run m A When the new character disk is done replace it with the Bard s Tale program disk and press Return The game loads automatically drive Load the Game If your computer is on and you ve already made your character disk put your program disk in your primary Press Pibe penda zi rn nnt aeia Aon deaa aeaiee A ae anon tak tne ches a ded aac aactecaes drive your compu simp drive and turning on Bard s Tale automaticall y putting the program disk in the primary ek E gambader ynm aino iaag A Pees ee Sete Seek pas Bal eae annie done TONON a
32. e ATEAM member First delete him from your Character disk with the Delete command from the Disk menu in the Adventurer s Guild Then use the Copy characters command in the Utilities menu described inside to copy the original from the back of the Boot disk or the most recently saved version from a backup of your Character disk Finally add him to your party MOVING ABOUT or Return move forward K kick a door open J or Left Arrow iurn left L or Right Arrow tum right VIEWING CHARACTERS Press the number 1 6 of the character whose statistics you want to view In the sub menu Press E to E quip a character with an item You will be prompted for the item number 1 8 Press to unequip all of a character s items T to T rade an item Type the item number at the prompt To trade gold type G Then type the number of the character you want to give the item to D to D rop an item Type the item number at the prompt P to P ool all gold This gives all the party s gold to the character being viewed Press the Spacebar to leave the View Character mode COMBAT COMMANDS If monsters attack press F to F ight or R to R un Note you don t always get to run just because you want to Or you can press P for P arty attack at any time to voluntarily enter intra party combat In combat press A to A ttack monsters in the first 2 ranks hand to hand Available to the first 3 party members D to D efend This lessens the chance o
33. e and map every square in every maze There are Magic Mouths that give hints There are 1 of a kind magic items and spell regeneration zones Good maps will show you the logical spots for secret doors and secret rooms too 3 Avoid traps Higher level rogues are excellent at opening chests but when in doubt use the Trapzap spell TRZP is guaranteed to work with no harm to the party unless of course the trap is protected by even more powerful magic In fact you can use TRZP to disarm any traps you encounter Gas Cloud traps have doomed many brave but foolish adventurers lf you set off a trap and nothing happens you were lucky not good You could have been killed 4 Be sure that your party is fully healed before entering a new dungeon 5 When you are finding your bearings in a maze remember that each succeeding level goes UP ina tower or castle and DOWN in a dungeon THE COMBAT SYSTEM The Bard s Tale is a game of fighting It s the only way to build experience Fortunately Mangar and his gruesome creatures are very evil so don t worry about their feelings Kill them if you can Combat with monsters the generic term for all opponents occurs both randomly and at set locations You can also initiate intra party combat at almost any time in case one of your members is turned to the dark side At the outset of combat a list of foes will be given broken down into the number of foes in each group The maximu
34. e protection for the hands Gauntlets metal gloves Mandolin Harp Flute musical instruments for use by Bards Item Abbreviations FGN is an abbreviation for Figurine a magical statuette which can come to life MTHR is an abbreviation for Mithril an elven metal with magical qualities ADMT is an abbreviation for Adamant another magical metal DMND is an abbreviation for Diamond one of the hardest substances known to man or monster Tips from the Underground Items 1 Generally the more expensive the item is the better it works Almost like real life 2 There are no cursed or bad items unlike real life 3 Don t be stingy Equip your fighters with the best armor weapon shield helmet and gauntlets money canbuy After all he can t take it with him 4 Experiment with all items you find to determine their capabilities Magical items are key to success Remember that an item may only be magical for certain characters and classes so trade items around if you have to 5 Make sure some of your characters carry less than 8 items or else the party will never be able to pick up new magical items in the dungeons 6 Whenever your party captures an especially interesting or powerful magic item save the party as soon as possible That way even if disaster strikes you will never lose that powerful armor weapon talisman or whatever 7 This manual is not protected by magic shields or air armor Don t let your dog eat it
35. e the characters themselves It only saves a roster of the currently loaded characters under the name you type in When you use this command the program will automatically add an asterisk to the name to mark it as the name of a party You must type the asterisk first when you want to load the party again D to D elete a character from a character disk to make room for another character L to L eave the game saving all current character status information to disk E to E xit the disk options menu and return to the Guild UTILMES MENU To produce this menu start your system with the Bard s Tale Boot Disk and insert a Character disk when prompted to do so When the menu appears press S to S tart playing the game C to C opy characters from one character disk to another Just follow the prompts as they appear The disk you are copying from is the source disk the one you are copying to is the target disk M to M ake a new Character disk MANUAL ADDENDA On page 21 item number 3 what s said about intelligence and spell points is true as far as it goes the higher the intelligence of your magic user the faster the rate of increase in spell points through experience But the beginning number of spell points is randomly bestowed at creation On Page 21 item number 2 the manual uses the words save and exit in connection with game They were meant there as common verbs rather than as command names The Save command in the
36. ers who are dedicated to the summoning and binding of various supernatural creatures These creatures are not friendly to humankind and trying to control them is extremely hazardous The Wizard class is not available to new characters either For more on magic classes see page 11 CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES Each character you create has five basic attributes which define his physical and mental prowess When you create a character each attribute is randomly assigned a value from 1 to 18 with the higher number reflecting higher capability STRENGTH Shown as ST on the screen Strength is physical power and chiefly affects the amount of damage a character can do to an opponent in hand to hand combat Make sure your fighting characters are strong INTELLIGENCE IQ Intelligence is mental power A high intelligence rating will enable your Magic Users to get bonus spell points DEXTERITY DX Measures agility amp nimbleness A high score makes your characters harder to hit and helps them strike the first blow in combat CONSTITUTION CN Measures healthiness It takes more damage to kill a character with a high constitution score This is reflected in bonus hit points the character s life span LUCK LK Luck is an ambiguous attribute as it has a number of unseen effects on gameplay For example lucky characters are more likely to resist evil magic and avoid nasty traps OTHER CHARACTER STATISTICS ARM
37. es a large amount of energy to produce even a moderate effect A conjurer can also produce effects that distort non solid things to produce new effects like the distortion of space and time required to teleport human bodies to a new location MAGIC Magic meaning the art practiced by a magician deals with bestowing magical effects on common objects The items do not become magical but radiate fields of power for the duration of a spell which is usually the length of combat The gist of Magic is that it can increase an item s Capability give it a totally new capability or change its form to something totally different Some examples making a sword do greater damage making dungeon walls glow with a magical light or causing a wall to totally vanish for 1 move SORCERY The byword of sorcery is seeing is believing Sorcery does not deal with a physical manifestation but rather a creation of illusion and a tapping into a heightenend sense of awareness An illusion is an image envisioned by the spell caster which he then lays over the retinas of all who watch augmenting this with appropriate stimulation of nerve endings to fool the other four senses The human mind believing an illusionary creation to be real can be hurt or even killed by it unless it is somehow disbelieved 13 Has A sorcerer with the aid of his art can also perceive certain special things hidden from view WIZARDRY Wizardry
38. es magic by playing music He needs an instrument of course He can play in combat or during exploration with different effect Only one tune at a time And one tune for every experience level Then he needs to get a drink from any nearby tavern You can listen to his music or not See the COMMAND SUMMARY card for details By the way the Bard is not too shabby as a fighter 8 Time Time waits for no one Even without keystrokes time passes from day to night and back again Nighttime is especially nasty The really evil monsters hit the city streets at night looking for characters just like you And what s worse you use up spell points faster because spell points only regenerate in daylight Now you know enough to get started if you are an experienced adventurer By the way the tavern on Rakhir Street is the only tavern that serves wine And that wine goes down easily You may wish to drop by to wet the whistle of your Bard Good luck ee CHARACTERS RACES Humans are not the only race in the world of The Bard s Tale Others are more magically inclined stronger and smarter Part of the fun of a fantasy role playing game is getting to know these different races and forming your party accordingly The races and their descriptions are HUMAN While possibly being of hardier stock this character is nonetheless like you or me ELF Patterned after the Tolkien elf the elf is slight of build frequently
39. ewing Characters To view a character point to the name on the cast list and click or type the number that corresponds to the character s place in the marching order 1 6 Character information appears in the white requester along with the options to Trade Gold Pool Gold or Continue The Continue command is followed by the equipment list from which you can T rade or D rop items or E quip the character by pressing the number of the item or clicking on it and then selecting the desired option Combat Commands During battle your characters actions and options appear in the white information requester You can respond by clicking the option you want or pressing F to Fight R to Run P to start intra Party combat at any time a A to Attack monsters in the first two ranks hand to hand Available to the first three party members D to Defend This lessens the chance of damage from a monster in that round U to Use a magical item The character must be equipped with the item in advance B to sing one of six Bard s tunes for one combat round You can also press the function key that corresponds to your Bard s character number Available only to Bards C to Cast a spell Click on the spellcaster s name then select the spell code from the list that appears You can also type the number that corresponds to the character s place in the marching order or you can press the function key that corresponds to your spellcaster s char
40. f damage from a monster in that round U to U se a magical item The character must have been equipped with the item in advance B to sing one of the 6 B ard s tunes for one combat round Available only to Bards C to C ast a spell Type in the code letters for the spell at the prompt Available to magic users only H to H ide in the shadows Available only to rogues CRSR Left and CRSR Right to speed up or slow down the combat message scrolling rate OTHER ADVENTURING COMMANDS C to C ast a spell when not in combat At the prompt type the number of the character who will cast the spell then type the code letters for the spell P to start intra party combat at any time with a P arty attack B to sing one of the 6 Bard s tunes while wandering Availabie only to Bards E to go up a portal The party must have a levitation spell in operation Works in dungeons only D to go down a portal Works in dungeons only to learn the name of the street your party is on and the time of day N to establish a N ew order for the party members At the prompt type the numbers of the members in the order you want them to march U to U se an item Some items like torches must be activated with this command in order to work Type the character number who has the item at the prompt then pick the item by typing its number from the list which will appear Some items run out of power after only one use V to turn sound orvoff Use the Left arrow key in the u
41. f your Character disk Finally add him to your party MOVING ABOUT Jor left arrow turn left L or right arrow turn right VIEWING CHARACTERS Press the number 1 6 of the character whose statistics you want to view In the sub menu Press E to E quip a character with an item You will be prompted for the item number 1 8 Press 0 to unequip all of a character s items T to T rade an item Type the item number at the prompt To trade gold type G Then type the number of the character you want to give the item to D to D rop an item Type the item number at the prompt P to P ool all gold This gives all the party s gold to the character being viewed Press the Spacebar to leave the View Character mode Lor Return move forward K kick a door open IF YOU HAVE TWO DISK DRIVES From time to time as you play you will be prompted to put a Character disk or a Dungeon disk in the drive If you want to play with the character disk in drive 2 and the Dungeon disk in drive 1 type a 2 after inserting the Character disk when first prompted to do so You can then play the game without doing any disk swapping i a igh ene CMe E a COMBAT COMMANDS If monsters attack press F to F ight or R to R un Note you don t always get to run just because you want to Or you can press P for P arty attack at any time to voluntarily enter intra party combat In combat press Ato A ttack monsters in the first 2 ranks hand to hand Available on
42. from your current party and save them to disk Create a member A series of prompts asks you for the new character s race class and name up to 15 characters Respond by clicking your selection or typing the selection number D elete a member from your party Caution when you use this command the character disappears forever S ave the party roster to disk under a single party name Party names are preceded by an on the disk menu Warning This does not save the characters themselves use the Leave Game or Remove Member options to save the characters and their status to disk Ljeave Game Exits The Bard s Tale and saves the status of your characters on disk Before you actually leave the game a prompt offers to return you to the ProDOS selector If you want to re enter the game press ESC To save your characters and leave the game press Return To quit The Bard s Tale without saving your characters simply remove the game disks and turn off the computer E nter the City Leave the Adventurer s Guild and start exploring Safety and Death Face it The sort of streets where you run into wandering Kobolds Werewolves and Orcs are dangerous especially at night Don t be shy about spending the night in the Adventurer s Guild When you leave the Guild the clock is always set ahead to the next morning Moving About a r As you move the arrow When ut the pointer in the view window in the upper left of the screen it turns into a directiona
43. g order and then the the position in the marching order you wish the character to occupy All other characters will move up or down to accomodate the new placement T to Pause and Resume the game U to Use an equipped item Some items like torches don t work until you activate them with this command others run out of power after only one use V to tum sound on or off Using the Pull Down Menus You can access the pull down menus by clicking once on the right mouse button Click once on a picture with the left mouse button to choose a command Once chosen the pull down menu commands work like the keyboard menu commands Creating and Saving Characters You can create characters and form parties only at the Adventurer s Guild To create characters form your own parties remove characters or rearrange their marching order use the Main Menu commands described above Programming Mike Quarles Illustrations Todd Camasta Music Dave Warhol Data Compression Jay Patel Additional Testing Tom Norwood OE COMMAN D SUMMARY The Bards Tale IBM Tandy and Compatibles Getting Started gt Never try to play The Bard s Tale using the master disks Boot your computer with a PC DOS disk version 2 0 or later and make copies of both your Program and Picture disks See your PC DOS User s Manual for copy instructions After you have copied both disks put the master disks away Do not write
44. ge in combat Luck allows Rogues to survive even if they accidentally set off a trap and Constitution gives all characters bonus hit points 4 Most character races have at least one attribute they are particularly high in Pay close attention to starting attributes when designing your party 22 5 Develop a Sorceror fast They are very useful in dungeons Wizards are extremely important in advanced levels they can summon demons extremely powerful specials Develop an Archmage too You ll need one you ll want more 6 Your pre built party excellent for beginning levels may not be the best group for advanced levels You may want to experiment with a hunter because his critical hit capability can vanquish superior monsters and the monk who is perhaps the best fighter of all after he reaches the 6th level 7 Warriors and other fighters often play less of a role against higher level magic using monsters But without the protection of their armor and strong arms your Magic Users would not survive long enough to learn the higher level magic spells 8 Beware the Doppelganger monster It enters your party and looks just like one of your members Magic 1 Don t venture too far into any dungeon without your maximum spell points A good rule is to leave a dungeon when you are down to one quarter of your maximum spell points 2 Manage your spell points carefully Don t waste a spell if you can accomplisk the same thing without
45. his spell will gate into our universe a zombie or skeleton to fight for the party REPEL DEAD This spell will do 16 to 80 points of damage to a group of undead creatures Level 2 LESSER SUMMONING This spell will gate into our universe a lower power elemental or demon who will under protest join the party DEMON BANE This spell will do 32 to 128 points of damage to a single demon The power to summon is the power to destroy Level 3 SUMMON PHANTOM This spell will bring a medium level undead creature into the party DISPOSSESS This spell will make any possessed party member retum to his normal state SUDE Spec REDE 4 Group LESU Spec DEBA 1 Foe SUPH 10 Spec DISP 10 Char Level 4 PRIME SUMMONING This spell gates in a medium level elemental or demon to fight with the party ANIMATE DEAD Gives a dead character undead strength making him attack your enemies as though he were truly alive Level 5 BAYLOR S SPELL BIND This spell if successful possesses the mind of any enemy forcing him to join your party and fight in its defense DEMON STRIKE This spell works like Demon Bane but it will affect an entire group of demons 20 SPBI 14 1 Foe DMST Group Level 6 SPELL SPIRIT This spell will gate SPSP in a higher level undead creature 15 to fight for the party Spec BEYOND DEATH This spell will BEDE restore life and one hit point to a 18 character Char Level 7 G
46. internal energy This energy is returned automatically in direct sunlight and may be regenerated at Roscoe s Energy Emporium or in special regeneration zones you have to discover 12 There are magical items hidden in the dungeons and carried by the monsters of The Bard s Tale Magical weapons do extra damage Magical armor gives extra protection Other magical items radiate special energies There are even magic keys and talismans necessary to get into certain important parts of the game The most powerful magic items are secreted in the most challenging dungeons and are guarded by ferocious monsters When you win one you should be very proud and very happy They can be the key to success against the wickedest opponents To cast a spell you type in 4 letter codes which are a rough abbreviation of the spell name The entire list of spells codes and spell points required begins on page 13 All Magic Users even Level 1 novices start the game with knowledge of all level 1 spells in their magical art Rather than learning one spell at a time Magic Users always learn whole groups spell levels of spells at once It s the closest thing to mass production in Skara Brae Here is a description of the four magical arts CONJURING Conjuring deals with the instantaneous creation of objects and effects through the channeling of a mage s power Conjurer spells are potent but not unlimited in effect since the exercise of creation tak
47. k round Level 2 DISBELIEVE This spell will reveal the true nature of any illusion attacking the party causing it to TARGET DUMMY A magical illusion appears in the party s special siot Unable to attack it will serve to draw enemy attacks to himself MIJA 1 Foe PHBL Party Combat LOTR 30 Short HYIM Group DISB Party TADU Spec Combat 18 MANGAR S MIND FIST A higher power Mind Jab does 3 12 hits of damage to one foe times the experience level of the mage WORD OF FEAR This incantation will make a group of your enemies shake in fear reducing their ability to attack and do damage Level 3 WIND WOLF This spell creates an illusionary wolf to join the party This and other illusions are only effective as long as an enemy believes them Depending on power and location the monster may see through the illusion and cause it to vanish KYLEARAN S VANISHING SPELL The mage casting this spell will turn nearly invisible in the eyes of his enemies who will hav jreat difficulty in striking him MIFI 1 Foe FEAR Group Combat WIWO Spec VANI Self Combat SECOND SIGHT The mage will experience heightened awareness and be able to sense stairways special encounters spell negation zones and other unusual occurrences CURSE Causes a group of your enemies to fear you greatly lessening their morale and their ability to hit and damage you Level 4 CAT E
48. l arrow y points out the various directions you can travel ahead around corners into buildings through doors Click when you want to go in the indicated direction You can also control your motion with the keyboard arrows black You can s Equi t When view Garth s inventory list some items appear in green others appear in A mote ae ane Han ut the comenthy edaced charactar can oniy use the black liams Select another character and see how the list changes Viewing Characters To view a character int to the name on the cast list and click or type the character s number in the marching order Chara informa appears in the white window along with the options to Trade Gold Pool Gold or Continue and the equipment list from which you can T rade or D rop items or E quip the character Press T D or E or click on the desired option Combat Commands During battle your characters actions and options appear in the white window Respond by clicking the option you want or press to Fight to Run You won t always be able to pull this offi to start intra P combat at time to Attack enonstans tn Gia fas Seas tien hand to hand Available to the first three party members i ie 8 ened ton is eencte beens to Use a magical item The character must be equi leding one of ois Booi You can also press your Bard s character number nay hye to Cast a spell Click on the spelicaster s name then select a spell class and
49. lable only to rogues gt lt QO Bscorwan to speed up message scrolling rate to slow down message scrolling rate Other Adventuring Commands The following commands are available while you re peacefully exploring the streets of Skara Brae C to Cast a spell Type the first letter of or click on the spellcaster s name then select the spell code from the list that appears You can also press the function key that corresponds to your spellicaster s character number then type the spellcode and press Return Available to magic usere only P to start intra Party combat at any time B to sing one of six Bard s tunes while traveling You can also press the function key that corresponds to your bard s character number Available only to Bards E to Elevate up a portal The party must have a levitation spell in operation Works only in dungeons D to go Down a portal Works only in dungeons to learn the name of the street your party is on and the time of day N to establish a New marching order for your party Click on the name of character you want to move Click again on the position in the cast list you want the character to occupy All other characters will move up or down to accomodate the new placement T to Pause and Resume the game U to Use an item Some items like torches don t work until you activate them with this command others run out of power after only one use V totum sound on or off Creating and Saving Char
50. levels higher and lower than the one you re on via Stairways portals and teleportation Stairways are not visible from a distance But when you move onto one you will be asked if you wish to ascend or descend Portals are holes in the floors and ceilings and are visible from a distance You will not go through a portal merely by standing on it you must first command your character to do so If he jumps down through a portal he will be damaged from the fall unless he is using a levitation spell The only way to go up through a portal is by levitation The locations of dungeon entrances are well kept secrets but there are plenty of hints in Skara Brae ROSCOE S ENERGY EMPORIUM if your spell points aren t recharging fast enough go see Roscoe But be prepared for electrifyingly high fees te TEMPLES Temples are divine places of resurrection and complete healing In fact this is the only place to cure characters who have been withered or turned to stone A resurrected character retains all the items gold and experience points he had before dying but he comes to life with only 1 hit point When he finds out how much it costs to be resurrected he may tum over in his grave Tips from the Underground Places 1 Your first three dungeons should be the sewers the catacombs and the castle in that order Each is progressively tougher Don t attempt the catacombs without a party of level 9 or higher characters 2 Explor
51. loat over traps or up through portals WARSTRIKE Causes a spray of energy to spring from the caster s extended finger sizzling a group of opponents for 4 16 hits damage Level 4 ELIK S INSTANT WOLF With this spell the caster can make a real wolf appear and join the party fighting in its defense FLESH RESTORE This powerful healing spell will restore 6 24 hit points to a party member and cure poisoning and insanity POISON STRIKE This spell hurls porcupine sharp needles from the mages finger into a selected monster poisoning it Level 5 GREATER REVELATION This spell functions like a Lesser Revelation spell only iuminates a wider area LERE View Long LEVI Party Short WAST Group INWO 6 Special FLRE Char POST Foe GRRE View WRATH OF VALHALLA Makes a member of your party fight with the strength and accuracy of ancient Norse heroes for the entire combat SHOCK SPHERE A large glove of intense electrical energy envelops a group of enemies doing 8 32 hits of damage Level 6 ELIK S INSTANT OGRE This incantation will cause a real ogre to appear and join the party MAJOR LEVITATION This will make the party levitate as does the level 3 spell but its effects will last until dispelled Level 7 FLESH ANEW This spell behaves like the Flesh Restore spell except that it will affect every member of the party APPORT ARCANE Allows the party to telep
52. ly one Bard tune can be played at atime Ifa second one is played while the first is still playing by the same or a different Bard the first will end A Bard can play as many tunes as he has experience levels before his throat gets dry Then it s off to a tavern for a drink to rejuvenate his voice Tough duty but someone has to do it Bard songs vary according to the difficulty of the dungeon When the going gets tough the Bard goes drinking Be HUNTER an assassin a mercenary a ninja The hunter can use most weapons and has the ability which grows with experience to do critical hits in combat i e to attack a nerve center or other vital area and instantly kill an opponent A good skill MONK a martial artist an almost inhuman fighting machine trained to fight without weapons or armor The monk can use them but at higher levels particularly often does better without CONJURER one of the 4 classes of Magic Users Conjurers deal in the physical creation and manifestation of real things like fire light healing MAGICIAN another of the 4 classes of Magic Users Magicians deal with magic as it affects physical objects i e enchanting a sword making armor stronger making a dungeon wall disappear SORCERER Sorcerers are Magic Users who deal with the creation and manipulation of illusion Due to the power of sorcerer spells this class is not available to newly created characters WIZARD Wizards are Magic Us
53. ly to the first 3 party members D to D efend This lessens the chance of damage from a monster in that round U to U se a magical item The character must have been equipped with the item in advance are sing one of the 6 B ard s tunes for one combat round Available only to rds Cc to C ast a spell Type in the code letters for the spell at the prompt Available to magic users only H to H ide in the shadows Available only to rogues and right arrow to speed up or slow down the comb scrolling rate p at message OTHER ADVENTURING COMMANDS C to C ast a spell when not in combat At the prompt type the number of the character who will cast the spell then type the code letters for the spell P to Start intra party combat at any time with a P arty attack ae sing one of sh 3 mahal tunes while wandering Available only to Bards o up a portal The part itati j i j he hating party must have a levitation spell in operation Works in D to go down a portal Works in dungeons only 2Z1to learn the name of the street your party is on and the time of day N to establish a N ew order for the party members At the prompt type the numbers of the members in the order you want them to march U to U se an item Some items like torches must be activated with this command in order to work Type the character number who has the item at the prompt then pick the item by typing its number from the list which will appear Some items run out of po
54. m is 99 monsters per group with up to four groups Combat is divided into a series of rounds like a boxing match At the start of each round each of your characters must decide what action he will undertake in the upcoming melee unless of course your party decides to run away A menu of possible selections will appear for each character These options are as follows Attack foes To physically assault foes in the first or second group of monsters Party attack To assault another member of the party including special members Defend Do not interact this round reduces chance of being hit Use an item Make use of a magical item held in the character s inventory and currently equipped This may require specifying a target for the effect Bard Song Bards can play a short tune to affect the party or the foremost group of monsters in some fashion Cast a spell Cast a spell at the party or a group of foes The spell code must be entered and a target identified Hide in shadows A rogue can try to avoid combat altogether by hiding and if successful will be skipped as a target of attack in the upcoming combat round The first three characters in your party can be attacked physically by monsters and can attack back The last three characters can only be struck by magical attacks and can only attack back with magic This simulates your first three characters being up on the front line of attack with the last th
55. magic Torches for example often work as well as magic light spells On the other hand don t be shy about using magic in combat When in doubt blast em with magic 3 Locate traps second sight and sorceror sight spells all identify traps within 30 feet Trapzap spell disarms all traps within 30 feet 4 Cast a long lasting Bard spell right before entering a tavern It s like getting a free spell ITEMS These are the basic items found in Garth s Equipment Shoppe in unlimited quantity Torch for light in dungeons Lamp longer duration than a torch Broadsword most damaging non magic sword only usable by fighters Short Sword a lighter sword usable by all but mages Dagger usable by all not too effective War Axe a heavy damaging weapon not usable by bards rogues or magic users Halbard a combination battle axe and pike the most damaging non magical weapon Mace the most powerful weapon a rogue Can use an armor crusher Staff a simple non magical cudgel Buckler a small round shield Tower Shield a larger shield Leather Armor _ the lightest armor wearable by all but magicians and conjurers Chain Mail light metal mesh armor best against light weapons Scale Armor better still difficult to pierce Plate Armor strongest non magical armor Robes will dull old knives but that s it Helm covers the head and saves the adventurer s good looks Leather Gloves som
56. mmary of keyboard commands Game information and menus appear in the white requester in the upper right of the g screen To select from this screen a you want or type the first letter You make all game decisions except direction of travel from this Information about your characters appears in the cast list at the bottom of the screen When the white requester asks to select a character for any reason move the pointer to the character s name and click or type the first letter of the name Note Infrequently you may get a read write error during play If this ha click Amiga 3 ppens Retry The DOS screen appears though you are still in the Bard s Tale program Click the front back gadget in the upper right corner to move the Amiga DOS screen to the background and the Bard s Tale reappears where you left off Main Menu You only have access to the Main Menu while you re in the Adventurer s Guild Your options are Add a member Adds members from other parties on your disk to the current party You can also use it to recombine characters into entirely new parties The requester that appears contains all the parties and characters saved to the disk party names are preceded by an Click on the name of the party or character you want to use Remove a member Removes a member from your current party and saves him to disk Create a member Creates a new character The prompts that follow this command ask you for the new cha
57. ms identified or pool all the party s gold for buying expensive items Due to a deal with the city blacksmith Garth has an infinite supply of basic armor and supplies But unique items found in labyrinths even if sold to Garth remain in his inventory only until they are sold Occasionally an item won in combat will remain unidentified This means that its general type might be apparent e g shield ring but not which exact type e g Dragon shield Ring of Power Garth can identify this item for you for a price THE REVIEW BOARD The Review Board is a group of high level representatives from all ten different classes Upon your request in person the Board will determine whether a character has accumulated enough experience points for advancement to higher levels The Board teaches new spells to Magic Users who qualify for higher spell levels too but charges for this training It pays the rent You may have to do a bit of exploring to locate the Review Board And it s closed at night TAVERNS Taverns are the Bard s favorite places for gossip and refreshment There s even a tavern named after him Watch him carefully though the Bard has a tendency to overtip the bartender DUNGEON DELVING The term dungeon refers to any indoor labyrinth designed for mapping combat and puzzle interaction They take a variety of forms from towers to catacombs and have a varied number of levels for each You can go up or down to
58. n about your characters appears in the cast list at the bottom of the screen When the white requester asks you to select a character for any reason move the pointer to the character s name and click or type the number that corresponds to the character s place in the marching order 1 6 EE CE r Main Menu You only have access to the Main Menu while in the Adventurer s Guild Your options are Add a member Adds members from other parties on your disk to the current party You can also use it to recombine characters into entirely new parties The requester that appears contains all the parties and characters saved to the disk party names are preceded by an Click on the name of the party or character you want to add or use the up down arrow keys to highlight the name and press lt return gt Remove a member Removes a member from your current party and saves that character to disk Create a member Creates a mew character The prompts that follow this command ask you for the new character s race class and name up to 14 characters Answer the prompts either by clicking your selection or typing the selection number If you are not satisfied with your character s statistics feel free to re roll Delete a member Deletes a character from your party Caution When you use this command the character disappears forever
59. n or typing the selection number If you are not satisfied with your character stats feel free to re roll Delete a member Deletes a character from your party Caution when you use this command the character disappears forever Save Party Saves the entire party to disk under a single party name Party names are preceded by an on the disk menu Caution this does not save character information it only saves the party name Leave Game Exits the Bard s Tale When you select this option you re offered a yes no choice before you actually leave the game A no answer retums you to the Main Menu A yes answer takes you to the GEM screen Enter the City Leaves the Adventurer s Guild and starts play a EEEa d aal orala ano a S a re a a Safety and Death Face it The sort of streets where you run into wandering Kobolds Werewolves and Orcs are dangerous especially at night Don t be shy about spending the night in the Adventurer s Guild When you leave the Guild the clock is always set ahead to the next moming Moving About When you place the pointer in the view window in the upper left of the screen it turns into a directional arrow As you move the arrow it points out the various directions you can travel ahead around corners into buildings through doors Click to indicate that you want to go in the direction currently indicated by the arrow You can also control your motion with the keyboard arrows Vi
60. nd up 7 maximum To change class to Sorceror a Magic User must first have learned Spell Level 3 or higher in at least one magical art To change to Wizard a Magic User must first have learned Spell Level 3 or higher in two other magical arts ITEMS Items fall into 10 categories Weapons shields armor helms gloves musical instruments figurines rings wands and miscellaneous Only one item of each type can be equipped for use at any one time For example two different shields cannot be used at once to protect a character though the spare shield could be toted around Some items can only be used by specific characters For example only Bards can use musical instruments An item which can never be used by a character is marked with a 8 when he examines it in his view mode or in the Equipment Shoppe An item which has been equipped is marked witha 4 A character can carry up to 8 different items How To Create a Character 1 While in the Adventurers Guild select a race 2 Character attribute numbers displayed are a combination of genes and luck For each different race there is a lowest possible number for each attribute the genes The computer then adds a random number the luck to each attribute 3 If you are satisfied with the roll of the dice choose a character class then name this character If you aren t satisfied reroll the dice 3 After being named the character will be saved to di
61. ndl KB KEETA PORADIA ira SOR your find youre ot Ore Adventura s Qld in Shere Bona ATEAM In addition you can contains a com outfitted and ready to go band of adventurers named select A dd a member from the Main Menu The list that appears shows all parties and characters stored on the disk Click on ATEAM When the party is loaded the Main Menu reappears Transferring Characters from Apple II Games Connect a 5 1 4 disk drive to your system and set the Control Panel according to the instructions under Getting Started above Load The Bard s Tale When the title screen appears press Return the next screen you see is the Transfer Screen Type one of the following letters to load characters from Bard s Tale I to load characters from Wizardry I II to load characters from Legacy of to load characters from Liltime II to Start playing Bard s Tale GS ocrgu Put the 5 1 4 character disk in the floppy disk drive and your Bard s Tale Apple IIGS character disk in a 3 1 2 drive To indicate the source disk that the characters are from double click slot 6 drive 1 on the menu in the white window When the window asks for the destination disk double click the slot number that corresponds to the drive your new character disk is in slot 5 drive 1 for the primary drive or slot 5 drive 2 for the
62. on Terms spell lasts until all monsters or all party members are killed or until party runs away Short spell lasts only a few minutes Medium spell lasts a little longer Long spell lasts twice as long as Short Indef spell lasts until party enters the Adventurers Guild or an anti magic zone Cs TIPS FROM THE UNDERGROUND Characters 1 Don t be concerned about losing a Level 1 character Just make another one But when your characters reach the 3rd level back them up regularly using your favorite disk copy program 2 If your favorite character gets killed there are several things you can do You can resurrect him by magic or in a temple by spending spell points or gold You can turn off the computer and reboot and your entire party will be restored but without the experience gold and magic items they have won since the last time you saved game Or you can load the character from your back up disk onto the main disk after first deleting the dead character from your main disk NOTE you can only restore a character by rebooting if you have previously saved your party by exiting the game when in the Adventurer s Guild 3 In rolling a character s attribute numbers 17s and 18s can often make a big difference as follows Intelligence gives Magic Users bonus spell points Dexterity gives fighters but not Bards bonus armor protection and first strike capability Strength allows fighters to do extra dama
63. ort anywhere within a dungeon except for places protected by teleportation shields 15 WROV Char Combat SHSP Group INOG 9 Special MALE Party indef FLAN 12 Party APAR 15 Party vats MAGICIAN SPELLS Level 1 VORPAL PLATING This spell causes the weapon or hands of a party member to be covered with a magical field which causes him to do an additional 2 8 points of damage AIR ARMOR This spell will make the air around the spell caster bind itself into a weightless suit of armor SABHAR S STEELIGHT SPELL Causes all metal near the party to glow with a magical light illum inating the surrounding area SCRY SITE The walls themselves will speak under direction of this spell revealing to the spell caster his location in the labyrinth Level 2 HOLY WATER A spray of water will emanate from the mage s fingers doing 6 24 points of damage to any undead foe e g skeleton zombie vampire WITHER STRIKE Any foe at whom this spell is cast is likely to be turned old thus reducing his ability to attack and defend in combat VOPL Char Combat AIAR Self Combat STLI View Short SCS Party HOWA 1 Foe WIST 1 Foe MAGE GAUNTLETS Makes a party member s hands or weapon more deadly adding 4 16 points of damage to every wound he inflicts AREA ENCHANT This spell will cause the dungeon walls within 30 feet of a stairway to call out if the party i
64. ot the system following the steps outlined above NOTE The Commodore 64 128 version of Bard s Tale does not accept characters from Ultima Ill When the prompt appears asking for your character disk insert the copy you made then press any key Again make sure your joysticks are unplugged The Utilities menu which appears contains 3 choices To enter the Adventurer s Guild so you can start playing just press S for S tart game For information about the other 2 choices see Utilities Menu inside The ATEAM The character disk you made above already contains a good beginning party of adventurers who are equipped and ready to go To use them just type A to A dd a character and then type ATEAM to load the entire party Type E to E xit the Guild and enter the town of Skara Brae To learn how to create your own characters form your own parties remove characters or rearrange their order see the inside of this card HINT The first dungeon is the wine cellar in the only tavern in town which serves wine It s on Rakhir street SAFETY AND DEATH Face it The sort of streets where you run into wandering Kobolds Werewolves and Orcs are dangerous And the streets of Skara Brae are especially dangerous at night Beginning parties therefore should not be shy about spending the night in the Adventurers Guild When you leave the Adventurer s Guild the clock is always set ahead to the next morning Don t despair if you lose a favorit
65. ott The Manual About Fantasy Role Playing Games The Bard s Tale is a tantasy role playing game First in a series of Tales of the Unknown this one is set in the city of Skara Brae Like other fantasy role playing games there are three objectives you will be trying to accomplish How you do this is up to you Your most important goal is to complete the quest built into the game In The Bard s Tale the city of Skara Brae is threatened by an evil mage called Mangar You must find Mangar and persuade him to release the once harmonious city from his evil control But Mangar is protected by layers of obstacles mazes and evil henchmen Your second goal is to develop characters capable of surviving these barriers These characters are your alter ego in The Bard s Tale They act according to your commands but over the course of the game they change much as real people do over a lifetime They improve their skills in magic combat stealth etc They amass wealth and treasured objects And they worry about dying too soon Your third goal is to explore the entire world of The Bard s Tale There are numerous goodies puzzles and special places in Skara Brae Part of the fun is finding them and discovering the layout of this fantasy world How do you get into the walled off towers What s in the castle Where are the legendary catacombs of Skara Brae THE BARD S TALE 1 Table of Contents A Quick Overview page
66. pper left corner of the keyboard to pause and the Spacebar to resume HOW TO FORM PARTIES AND CREATE NEW CHARACTERS Characters can be created and parties formed only in the Adventurers Guild When you re ready to leave the Guild type E for E xit Here are the other commands available to you there Press C to C heck the roster of characters and party names contained on the Character disk Party names are indicated with an The characters that belong to a party may be anywhere in the list A to load a party or A dd a character to an already loaded party Type either a character name or a party name at the prompt Party names must begin with an e g ATEAM A party can contain up to 6 adventurers and must contain at least one adventurer to use the E xit command R to R emove a character from a party This saves all current character status information to disk N to establish a N ew marching order for a party D to bring up a set of additional D isk options so you can create a new character save a party name delete a character from the disk or leave the game saving the current character status to disk After pressing D to bring up the disk options press C to C reate a new character Select the race and class for the character as prompted then type in a character name up to 15 letters and spaces Press Return to enter the name A disk can hold up to 30 characters S to S ave a party name IMPORTANT This command does not sav
67. racter s race class and name up to 15 characters Answer the prompts either by clicking your selection or typing the selection number Saee member Deletes a character from your party Caution when you use this command the character disappears Party Saves the efftire party to disk under a single party name Party names are preceded by an on the disk Leave Game Exits the Bard s Tale When you select this option you re offered a yes no choice before you actually Le nee you to Menu If you want to save your characters make sure you do it you give A yes answer to the Ami screen Sen toon TART ALS ari Aa enon you ga DOS If you want to re enter the game from Enter the City Leaves the Adventurer s Guild and starts play ens oa Safety and Death ace it sort of streets where you run into wandering Kobolds Werewolves and Orcs are dangerous especially at night Don t be shy about spending the night in the Adventurer s Guild When you leave the Guild the clock is set ahead to the next morning Moving About When you place the pointer in the view window in the upper left of the screen it turns into a directional arrow As you pn on ag nga et out the various ee you can travel ahead around corners into buildings through doors t you want to go in the direction currently indicated by th Pi lso n ts Rane ese y y the arrow You can also control your motion w
68. ransfering characters with a Wizardry character backup disk type 1 for Wizardry and Il characters and 2 for Wizardry IIl characters Follow the prompts as they appear NOTE Character data will not be changed in any way on your Wizardry or Ultima III disks Just to be safe though you may wish to write protect those disks before using the Transfer command It simply it places all objects MANUAL ADDENDA On page 21 item number 3 what s said about intelligence and spell points is true as far as it goes the higher the intelligence of your magic user the faster the rate of increase in spell points through experience But the beginning number of spell points is randomly bestowed at creation On Page 21 item number 2 the manual uses the words save and exit in connection with game They were meant there as common verbs rather than as command names The Save command in the Adventurer s Guild Disk menu does only one thing it saves a roster of the currently loaded characters under a party name To write the current status of a single character to disk use the Remove command to remove him from the party To write the current status of all loaded characters to disk use the Leave game command in the main Adventurer s Guild menu If you turn off the power without using the Leave command all currently loaded characters will lose all their gold regardless of when they acquired it THE BARD S TALE isti j that you take extra care to s
69. ree characters acting as backup in case one of the first three is killed The first two groups of monsters are in a similar position they are the only monsters who can attack or be attacked physically Once all the choices for your characters have been entered the round begins The most dexterous characters or monsters usually make the first strike but luck character level and character class also affect this In evenly matched fights the outcome 10 often depends on which side gets in the first blow The rate of scrolling of the combat messages can be speeded or slowed See the Command Summary list of keystrokes for details At the end of a combat round dead monsters will be removed from the ranks of your foes and dead characters will be shuffled back to the end of your party A fresh group of monsters may also advance into the first two ranks to give their fellow monsters a breather At the end of combat treasure and experience points will be split among the battle s survivors SPECIAL MEMBERS The special slot marked S is for monsters who can become part of your party They can join by 1 Being summoned or created as an illusion or some other artifice related to a cast spell or 2 Introducing themselves to the party and offering their services as a comrade Specials cannot be controlled in battle they choose their own attack mode and generally go after the primary group of monsters the party is facing Speci
70. s travelling toward it Level 3 YBARRA S MYSTIC SHIELD The air in front of the party will bind itself into metallic hardness and will accompany the party when it moves as a sort of invisible shield OSCON S OGRESTRENGTH Allows a member of your party to damage monsters as if he were as incredibly strong as an ogre 16 MAGA Char Combat AREN 30 Short MYSH 6 Party Medium OGST 6 Char Combat MITHRIL MIGHT Increases the armor protection of each party member by enhancing their armor s natural strength by magic STARFLARE The air surrounding a group of your enemies will instantly ignite causing them to be bumt for 6 to 24 damage points Level 4 SPECTRE TOUCH This spell will drain a single enemy of 12 to 48 points of damage as if touched by a spectre DRAGON BREATH Allows the mage to breathe fire at a group of foes doing 8 to 32 points of damage to each SABHAR S STONELIGHT SPELL Makes all stone and earth within range of the party glow with magical light revealing even secret doors Level 5 ANTI MAGIC Causes the ground to absorb a portion of the magical energies cast at the party frequently allowing the members to escape all damage MIMI 7 Party Combat STFL 6 Group SPTO 8 1 Foe DRBR 7 Group STSI 7 View Medium ANMA 8 Party Combat Also aids in disbelieving illusions and in turning back magical fire like a dragon s breath AKER S ANI
71. secondary drive The menu lists all the Apple II game characters that Bard s Tale Apple IIGS can transfer to its own character disk Select each character you want to transfer and double click or press Return Press the ESC key or click ESC onscreen to complete the transfer then press S to begin the game During Play Several conventions apply throughout the game Click the mouse button to make selections and give commands or press the number or letter indicated on the menu Game information and menus appear in the white window in the upper right of the screen To select from this screen click on the option you want or type the first letter You make all game decisions except direction of travel from this box Information about your characters appears in the cast list at the bottom of the screen When the program asks you to select a character for any reason move the pointer to the character s name and click or type the character s number in the marching order Main Menu You only have access to the Main Menu while you re in the Adventurer s Guild Choose options by clicking on the command you want or press A dd a member from other on your disk to the current party You can also use this command to recombine characters into entirely new parties The window shows all the parties and characters saved to the disk party names are preceded by an Click on the name of the party or character you want to add R emove all members
72. sic Hide in Shadows to avoid combat For more information see The Combat System on pages 9 10 6 Magic There are 4 classes of Magic Users each with unique magical capabilities Conjurers can create objects and heal adventurers Magicians can bestow magical effects on common items Sorcerors can create illusions and heighten awareness Wizards can summon and control supernatural creatures Sorceror and Wizard classes are not available to first level adventurers To create one of these you must change class of a Magic User who has achieved 3rd level magic spells in one for Sorceror or two for Wizard other magical arts Class change takes place in the Review Board A Magic User who successfully learns all 7 levels of spells for each of the 4 Magic Classes is an Archmage one of the most powerful character in The Bard s Tale Once a Magic User leaves a class he can never return to it Magic Users qualify to learn next level spells based on their experience levels but it takes gold to actually learn the new spells Casting spells uses spell points in different amounts depending on the spell Spell points are regenerated automatically when a Magic User is in Pes the City in the daytime and may also be regenerated in Roscoe s Energy Emporium or special Regen squares in some dungeons For more information see The Magic System on page 11 Magic spells are listed on pages 13 20 7 The Bard The Bard mak
73. sk ready to adventure i PLACES THE CITY MAP There is a map of Skara Brae on the inside of the album cover your program disk came in Notice that there are several important looking places that are blocked off Like the castle and the two towers protected by locked gates There must be a way to get in there wouldn t you think Use your map to guide you in Skara Brae If you ever get lost just press the key and the program will tell you where you are and what time of day it is UNMARKED BUILDINGS Most buildings in Skara Brae are unmarked But some of them are inhabited by the corrupt creatures who have skulked into Skara Brae So kick in a few doors and find them Remember that fighting is good for you it s the only way to build up enough experience to challenge Mangar You should be disappointed when you kick in a door screaming a battle cry and find it empty No fun When you exit a building and enter the street the building will be behind you and you will be facing the building or landmark across the street THE ADVENTURER S GUILD The Guild is like a union hall where adventurers hang out hoping to join a party This is where you form a party and where all adventures begin GARTH S EQUIPMENT SHOPPE Garth is one of yesterday s almost forgotten heroes now retired from active adventuring to supply tomorrow s would be greats At Garth s Shoppe characters can buy armor and weapons sell items have ite
74. so is your character disk To start playing The Bard s Tale put your program disk in the drive and reboot the Amiga by pressing Control R Amiga L Amiga simultaneously If you have two drives put the character disk in drive 2 Getting Started If you ve already created your character disk you can use Kickstart 1 2 to start your Amiga When the Workbench prompt screen appears eject Kickstart and insert the Bard s Tale program disk If your computer is already on reboot by pressing Control R Amiga L Amiga simultaneously and insert the Bard s Tale disk The program loads automatically click the left mouse button when the title screen appears and in a moment you ll find yourself at the Adventurer s Guild in Skara Brae Your Bard s Tale character disk now contains a completely outfitted and ready to go band of adventurers named ATEAM In addition you can create other parties and store them on the character disk To use the ATEAM select Add a member from the Main Menu The list that appears shows all parties and characters stored on the disk Click on ATEAM When the party is loaded the Main Menu reappears Because your Bard s Tale disk is copy protected you cannot make backup or working copies of the disk Be sure to always keep the disk write protected During Play Several conventions apply throughout the game Click the left mouse button to make selections and give commands The right mouse button is your Help key use it to view a su
75. tion routine When you have finished your new character disk will have a completely outfitted and ready to go band of ee named ATEAM To use the ATEAM select A dd a member from the Main enu Game Configuration The Bard s Tale can be played with the keyboard mouse or joystick If you wish to use a mouse make sure that your mouse driver is loaded before loading The Bard s Tale See the manual that came with your mouse for instructions On a Tandy computer to use the joystick it must be plugged into the right hand port When you are ready to start play insert the program disk and type setup lt return gt and you will be presented with the Display Configuration menu Use this menu to specify the type of graphic card and display your computer is equipped with The four choices are 1 Composite or TV monitor 2 RGB monitor 3 EGA monitor 4 Tandy computer with RGB monitor Choose the appropriate monitor display by selecting 1 4 This does not need to be done again unless you change your system set up Note If you have a Tandy with a composite monitor try 4 If it doesn t work try 1 Game Play When the game begins you ll find yourself at the Adventurer s Guild Game information and menus appear in the white requester in the upper right of the screen To select from this screen click on the option you want or type the option s first letter You make all game decisions except direction of travel from this box Informatio
76. wer after only one use i V to turn sound on off Esc to pause resume the game Smee ea HOW TO FORM PARTIES AND CREATE NEW CHARACTERS Characters can be created and parties formed only in the Adventurer s Guild When you re ready to leave the Guild type E for E xit Here are the other commands available to you there Press C to C heck the roster of characters and party names contained on the Character disk Party names are indicated with an The characters which belong to a party may be anywhere in the list A to load a party or A dd a character to an already loaded party Type either a character name or a party name at the prompt Party names must begin with an e g ATEAM A party can contain up to 6 adventurers and must contain at least one adventurer to use the E xit command R to R emove a character from a party This saves all current character status information to disk N to establish a N ew marching order for a party D to bring up a set of additional D isk options so you can create a new character save a party name delete a character from the disk or leave the game saving all current character status to disk After pressing D to bring up the disk options press C to C reate a new character Select the race and class for the character as prompted then type in a character name of up to 15 letters and spaces Press Return to enter the name A disk will hold up to 30 characters S to S ave a party name IMPO

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