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 \                        D R A G O N   W A R S                           /
 /                            Reference Card                              \
 \                         typed by Zippo Pinhead                         /
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Before You Begin
        You must play with backups, use any copy program or just d/l them from some board like the Lexicon Exchange (213-879-6857). If you want to play Dragon Wars on a 3.5 or Hard Drive just copy all the files into one directory called Dragon-Wars, for the brain-dead this doesn't mean a disk copy it means copy the files.

Loading Instructions

1. Insert Dragon Wars disk Side 1 into your disk drive.
2. Turn on your computer and the program will load automatically.
3. If you have two drives, Dragon Wars uses both automatically and when prompted to insert a disk, you may insert it into either drive.

After it finishes loading, the title page will appear. Press the "U" key to go to the Utilities screen, or any other key to stop the music and continue.
Dragon Wars Utilities

From the Utilities screen, you may back up your Dragon Wars disk, or transfer characters from Bards Tale I, II, or III into the Dragon Wars world. To back up your disks, press "1". All the disk drives attached to your computer will be listed. Use the up and down arrows to pick the source drive, and then press RETURN. Then select a drive for you blank destination disk. From that point the copy program will prompt you to insert disks when needed. You can use this utility to copy to the same disk type only; see above instruction for coping to 3.5 or hard drive.

To transfer characters from Bards Tale I, II, or II, press "3" from the Utilities screen and then follow the prompts to copy the characters into the Dragon Wars world. Note that transferring characters will destroy any existing characters and saved game. Your characters will not be transferred perfectly, either; expect them to lose all of their magic items and most of their power and spells.

Starting The Game

If you are playing for the first time, the computer will list the four starting characters and ask if you want to begin.  You may press "B" to begin a game of Dragon Wars with this party, or you may delete some or all of the characters and create your own. To delete a character, press the character's number and then press "D" to delete. From this list you can also rename and view characters with the "R" and "V" keys. (A quick note throughout Dragon Wars: Whenever you are prompted to hit ESX, you may also press the space bar.)

If you have a game in progress that you have saved before, the computer will ask if you want to Begin a new game, or Continue your old game. Pressing "C" will resume the game where you left off; pressing "B" will destroy your saved game and start your characters from scratch with a new game. Any accumulated experience will be retained, but all items will be lost.

Creating Characters

You can create a character if there are 3 or fewer characters in your current party. (You can make room by deleting some characters.) Press "C" from the character list at the start of the game to create a character. New characters cannot be created in a continued game.

After deciding on a name and sex for your character, you'll be presented with a list of skills. Use the keys A through E, your mouse, or the up and down arrow keys to select an ability, then use the +/- keys or the left and right arrow keys to spend points to increase your skill, and the number under "Cost" shows how many points it will cost to increase that skill by one level. The other skills are shown on the other two skill screens, which you can reach by pressing the "Z"key. (The same keys are used to select your skills on the other two skill screens, too.) If you wish, you may spend all 50 points on skills at the start of the game, or you may save some points to increase your skills in the future.

When you have adjusted your character to your satisfaction, press ESC or the space bar to return to the initial character menu.


Playing Dragon Wars

The movement keys (I - Forward, J - Turn Left, and L - Turn Right) will take you where you want to go when walking around the Dragon Wars world. If there is a wall or other barrier in front of you, the "K" key (Kick Forward) will make your party try to smash in, in case there is a secret or concealed door in the wall in front of you. You may also use the arrow keys to navigate around. The left and right arrow turn to the left and right; the up arrow does a 'Kick Forward," and the down arrow makes you do a 180 about-face.

Command Keys

The number keys, arrow keys, and keys in this table correspond to these actions:


        Key     Effect
        ---     ------
         C      Cast spells
         D      Dismiss character
         O      Order
         Q      Quit game
         S      Save game
         U      Use item or skill
         X      Experience Screen
         ?      Automap

Cast spell: The program will prompt you for who should cast the spell, what class of magic you wish to cast, what type of spell (Combat, Heal, or Miscellaneous), and finally the spell name.  You may either type the first letter of the selections, or click on the appropriate word with your mouse.  If the spell lets you invest variable amounts of power in its casting, you;; be prompted for a number of power points.  Dragon Wars will then tell you how it went - whether you successfully cast the spell, or if the casting failed for some reason.

Dismiss character: If you want to get rid if a character from your party, pick this option,  It will work on both player characters (those you create) and NPC's (those you recruit in your journeys).  Warning: If you dismiss a character, that character is gone FOREVER, along with all items, spells and abilities!

Order: This option lets you pick a new marching order for your characters. You'll want to put the characters with the best AV, DV, and AC in the first four character slots, because on the first four slots can hit opponents with weapons or be hit by opponents. Magic and missile weapons can be used from any slot.

Quit: Exits Dragon Wars, abandoning the present game, and reboots.  Be sure to pick SAVE GAME before quitting if you want to save your progress!
Save Game: Saves your current characters and position so you can resume later.  Only one game can be save on the Dragon Wars disk.

Use: This multipurpose command lets you use an item, skill or attribute.  After pressing "U" for "Use," you will be prompted to for which character (type a number) and whether and item, skill, or attribute is being used (press I, S, or A). If you pick "S" for Skill, you'll further be asked whether the skill is a Lore skill, a Knowledge skill (including the Magic skill and Bureaucracy)< or an Ability (most other skills).  Then you'll be asked what you want to do from a final list of skills or items.  After picking what you want to do, you may be asked for a target; for instance, with Bandage skill, you'll be asked which character you want to bandage.  When you find a spell scroll, Use the scroll to read it.  If you have the appropriate magic skill, you will then remember that spell forever.


Experience: This command brings up the skill point allocations screens (remember Creating Characters?).  If you're notified that a character gains a level, you may wish to go to the Experience screen so you can use newly gained skill points to learn some skills immediately.

Automap: This brings up an overhead view that show where you have travelled on the present map.  In Automap, you may use the I-J-K-L keys or the arrow keys to move up, left, down, and right on the overhead view.  Black areas are places you have not entered; you must walk through an area to place it on the automap.

Number keys and arrow keys:  You may press any number key to bring up the View screens for a character.  The left and right arrow keys adjust the speed of message display during combat.


Viewing Characters

When viewing a character, either by typing the character's number or clicking on the character with the mouse, you'll first be presented with the choices: General Overview
Abilities
Low magic
High magic
Druid magic
Sun magic
Misc magic

Kreeplowe's statistics
Str: 14    Dex: 24     Int: 10     Spr: 10
Attack: 6  Defense: 6  Level: 1    AC: 2
   Health 12/14            Stun  6/14
   Power: 0/0              Exp: 573

            Carried items
         A) Gold         $1271
         B)-Battle Axe    --
         C) Bolts        #10
         D)+Gauntlets

The screen above is an example of a General Overview for Kreeplowe.  At the top of the screen are his attributes.  "Attack" show his AV and "Defense" shows DV.  Note that a "12/14" Health means that Kreeplowe has been hurt for 2 points of Health. If he's hit for 12 more points of damage, he will die.  You may press any letter that's next to a carried item if you want to Trade the item to another character, Drop the item for good, or Equip the item so you have it ready for use instead of just toting it around,  If you press "A" for gold, you'll get a screen where you can:

    Pool gold: All party members give all their gold to one character
   Share gold: That character's gold is divvied up equally to all party members
   Trade gold: Give any amount of gold to one other character

The minus sign next to Kreeplowe's battle axe means that he cannot equip the item - in this case, it because you need a 17 Strength or higher to use a battleaxe.  The plus sign next to the gauntlets means that Kreeplowe has successfully equipped the gauntlets - he's wearing them so they protect him in combat.  The " #10" next to the "Bolts" means that Kreeplowe is carrying 10 bolts.

Note that you can equip one each of armor, shield, gauntlets, boots, weapon, and helm, and you can equip as meany miscellaneous items as you want.  To equip a weapon that launches missiles, like a bow and arrows or a crossbow and bolts, you must first equip the weapon, then the missile.

One final note about viewing characters: At almost any time, you can press another character's number to jump to that character, even when you are looking at spells or items or your gold.


The Main Screen

Under each character's name will be two or three colored bars.  The first (purple) indicates the character's current health, the second (green) indicates stun, and the third (blue) indicates power and will only be listed if the character has a magic skill.  If the bar is all the way to the right, that statistic is at 100% of its maximum value.

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3)   This is a shrine to the dark lady Irkalla, queen of Magan, the underworld of Oceana.  Of all the structures in this area, this is the best preserved. Simple offerings of weeds and rocks lay before Irkalla, indicating some residents of this world worship the dark queen.

Irkalla's image is blasted from bronze.  She seems serene and confident, with a terrible sort of beauty lurking in her fierce countenance.  The black pits of her eyes stare at you without emotion.  Here is a deity to be feared - perhaps also to be loved.

4)   You stand before the gate to Purgatory's great public arena.  Bloodthirsty residents of the Dilmun interior come here to enjoy the spectacle of outlander scum such as yourselves fighting to the death on the floor of the arena.  A guard swaggers up to you.  He is clad in the trappings of authority - the fine armor, a weather-beaten harness, well-oiled weapons.  "Say there, you filthy street scum," the guard growls. "You look fit enough to hold a weapon. Why not haul your butt into the arena and make yourself useful?"  Why fight for another man's pleasure when life in Purgatory is a daily struggle for survival?  You're about to turn away when the guard lays a heavy hand on your shoulder and adds, "You'll get your choice of arms...and if you defeat your foe, which I doubt, you might win Papers of Citizenship. Namtar help me - heathen dogs like you living in Dilmun! I don't like it, but the law is the law."

9)   A statue of Namtar, the Beast From The Pit, dominates this dirty city square. You carefully examine the statue, trying to memorize the features of the

villain who exiled you to Purgatory. You struggle in vain. The citizens of Purgatory, themselves no less fond of Namtar, have taken it out on his image - the nose is broken, limbs are chipped, and the mouth is deformed beyond all recognition.

As you watch, a wild beggar spits on the statue. "Filthy face of stone!", she mumbles. "Laid down with lizards he did, that stone face lies as much as he!" The poor mad creature wanders off, still spitting and mumbling, leading you to wonder if a similar fate awaits you in the months to come. 
14)  You knowledge of city lore serves you well. This place isn't so much a city as a prison. The streets are unpaved and evidently double as an open-air sewer system. May of the city's structures are buildings only in the loosest sense of the word - several have holes in the roof (or no roof at all), others have been gutted by fire. Everything is damp, showing this city is little different from any other on Oceana...the rising sea level is eroding the land upon which the city is located, and it is slowly sinking.  Doubtless those buildings that have basements will be at least hip-deep in water. Graffiti is scrawled on walls everywhere, generally curses directed at Namtar and crude pornographic renderings of all species of Oceana. In all, Purgatory is and ugly place you would do well to leave as soon as possible.

16)  Before you is a tumble-down collection of huts. A group of ill-clad unfortunates are gathered around a fire. They see you approach and rush to your side. "We saw you swim across the bay", says a toothless man who seems to lead the group. "Any enemy of Purgatory is a friend of ours. C'mon in and sit by the fire." 
67) This is an open-air slave market, filled with the cry of fleshmongers and the laughter of a perfumed crowd. Here men and women are for sale - people such as  yourselves - to the jaded residents of the Dilmun interior. From the gate of the slave market you watch as several young men are auctioned off. They seem less healthy than yourselves - maybe they've been in the city longer than you. It seems a sad way out of this place, to make yourself a slave...but isn't anything better than a life of misery and slow death in the streets of Purgatory ?

You scan the crowd, anxious to measure the characters of citizens of the Dilmun interior. Their faces seem cruel and aristocratic, with a faint hint of the more -than-human. Here and there you spot a face that seems kinder than most, but if you were on the block, what guarantee would you have of receiving a kind master?  Could you truly live with yourself as a slave?

There is a long line of lost souls waiting for the auction block. Nothing will stop you should you decide to join them.

94) You recall learning of waters like this during your mystic studies.  The pool of water fits the description of Apsu Waters...waters of the world ocean that underlies the surface of Oceana. Apsu Waters are coterminus with the world of Oceana, the mystical Magan Underworld, and dark dimensions where gods and devils reside.

121) Pearls of hysterical laughter assail your ears.  You've discovered the secret undercity of Lansk, and where the city is staid and conservative, this place is a true part town. Citizens stagger about in drunken stupors, angry soldiers wrestle with one another, women and animals run through the streets.


