Black Stone - Wizardry Scenario
===============================


"Black Stone" is a Wizardry scenario I created from scratch back in late '85.
It was made mainly using the Wizard's Workbench and Big M scenario editors.
The scenario has 8 levels, uses all new monsters and items, and even new races
and character classes.  I consciously made it much tougher than the original
"Proving Grounds" scenario (on which it is based), with lots of tricks, traps
and puzzles that need to be solved before advancing to a new level.

After playing through "Black Stone" again recently having more or less
forgotten about it for 13 years, I was surprised to find that it is actually
rather good, and that the plot and humour in it still work well.  So I decided
that it may be of interest to other die-hard fans of the early Wizardry games.


Background
----------

Early in '83 I visited a relative of a friend who had an Apple II and found
him playing (you guessed it) Wizardry.  I put together a party and had a wander
round the first level and was instantly hooked!  So I rushed out, bought an
Apple and a copy of Wizardry and proceeded to play it for hours on end, 
sometimes sitting up all night then going to work bleary-eyed but still thinking
about Wizardry in the morning.  After nailing Werdna a few times I bought and
went through "Knight of Diamonds" and "Legacy of Llylgamyn" in similar fashion. 

Some time in '84 with no sign of the 4th scenario on the horizon, I decided to
write my own Wizardry-style game in Pascal.  The game was unashamedly
Wizardry-like in look and feel (after all imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery), but included some new ideas such as developing character attributes
by training rather than by level increases, and provision for ranged combat.
I continued work on the project in desultory fashion until late-'85, by which
time much of the game was complete with the encounter module being the only
significant bit of code left to finish.  But by this time graphically superior
games were starting to appear and I decided that game design had passed me by,
so I abandoned the project.  However, I did manage to salvage many of the ideas
from my own game by putting them into an actual Wizardry scenario, and hence
the creation of "Black Stone".


Apologies to Sir-Tech
---------------------

At this point I must apologise to Sir-Tech for having mutilated their fine game
for my own purposes.  I must stress that at no stage have I sort to obtain or
obtained any financial gain from "Black Stone", and it is presented now nearly
2 decades after the original Wizardry game was released as a tribute to this
great game, by a long-time fan.


The Quest
---------

In "Black Stone" your quest is to descend into the dungeons beneath the city
to seek out and vanquish the undead lich, Llorgarth.  The lich has stolen the
greatest of the magic power stones, the "Black Stone" and only by regaining
this gem and returning it to its rightful owner, your master, Lord Valacar,
can the city be saved from evil.  Along the way you will face the minions of
Llorgarth and other denizens of the maze, together with the tricks and traps
the lich has set to defend his stronghold.  But you may also find help from
unexpected quarters.


Running "Black Stone"
---------------------

To play "Black Stone" you'll need the original Wizardry I Boot disk.  After
booting Wizardry, insert the "Black Stone" scenario disk when asked for the
scenario master/copy.  And you're now ready to play.

To play "Black Stone" on a PC or Mac you'll need to use an Apple ][ emulator
such as AppleWin (Win95/98) or ApplePC (DOS).  If playing on an emulator be
sure that the Wizardry boot disk image has the read-only flag set.  To do this
in Windows 95, right click on the disk's icon, select properties, and select
read only.


Enjoy!!!


Steve Evans

trout@netspace.net.au

