General Information

This document gives a brief introduction to the game. FrogComposband is 
a single-player dungeon simulation; you play a character whose ultimate 
aim is to slay the dreaded Serpent of Chaos, who lurks somewhere in the 
dark depths of the dungeon. Along the way, you will complete many side 
missions, learn mighty magical spells, defeat or befriend fantastic 
monsters, acquire wonderful treasures, navigate dark labyrinths, 
navigate long sentences, get baffled by obscure references to foreign 
popular culture, bang the desk in frustration many times as things go 
wrong, and hopefully end up enjoying yourself a lot.

About the Help Files

You have probably seen many games that come with a 300-page manual the 
authors expect you to read before you start to play. FrogComposband is 
like that, except its manual is not as pocket-sized.

Of course you do not really have to read the whole thing before you 
play; you can just jump in, figure things out through play, and look up 
the more mystifying stuff in the help as it becomes relevant. Read 
enough that you know what you are expected to do in this game and how 
to go about doing it. This file is definitely worth reading, as is the 
commands help file ([a]); you cannot really do anything in the game 
without knowing the commands. The Newbie Guide ([b]) you can either 
treat as a quick reference to most of the basics, or ignore completely 
and never open. The Frequently Asked Questions ([c]) you can initially 
skip, at least apart from the early part, and return to once you have 
the commands and other basics figured out; much of the documentation 
concentrates on the basics (in varying levels of detail), while the FAQ 
is a good place to find quick coverage of more advanced topics.

Throughout the help, some concepts are highlighted in red, occasionally 
green or yellow, to create the illusion they are important and to make 
the pages look a bit less dreary. A green letter in [square brackets] 
is a link to another part of the documentation that can be followed by 
pressing the letter. You can also press ? for help on the help itself.

The Basics of the Game

Before the game can begin, you must create a character. You may choose 
from a large number of races, classes, personalities, magic realms and 
birth options (see [d]), but your ultimate goal is always the same: 
defeat the evil Serpent of Chaos. Whether you do this to rid the world 
of evil, or just to become its next overlord, is entirely up to you...

You guide your character through simple key commands as you explore the 
world, discover useful items, and fight monsters with steel and magic. 
Killing the Serpent is a very long-term goal; a single game may take 
days, weeks, or even months. To get ready for that final encounter, you 
must gain much experience from your adventures, and find ever more 
valuable magical equipment to protect you and enhance your powers.

The game comes with a vast wilderness featuring many towns and numerous 
dungeons to explore. Most dungeons have a boss guarding the bottom 
level; killing the boss often gives you a nice reward. Each dungeon 
also has a theme; for example, the Orc Caves are infested with... you 
guessed it: orcs! But the theme might be something else entirely, such 
as the Anti-Melee Cave where melee is prohibited, or the Arena where 
each monster is isolated and you can (usually) fight them one-on-one. 
There is much to explore; but in case you want a simpler game, this 
wilderness is optional.

Play Modes

There are several different modes of play. Beginner Mode limits the 
number of races and classes available, removes personality selection, 
assigns birth options automatically and turns off the wilderness; this 
mode is designed to simplify the birth process so you can get to actual 
play as soon as possible.

Some players skip Beginner Mode and jump straight to Normal Mode, the 
usual and expected way to play. Normal Mode has a wilderness by default 
(though you may still turn it off), and also offers the full repertoire 
of race, class and personality choices. Prepare to be overwhelmed!

Finally, if you tire of dying to myriad powerful monsters, you can play 
as a monster yourself in Monster Mode; here you pick one of many types 
of monsters to play, start as a weak monster of that type, and evolve 
into more powerful forms as you gain experience. Equipment management 
can be very different in Monster Mode; many monsters have unique body 
types, and some rely purely on their innate attacks (claws, teeth, 
acidic pseudopods and the like) and cannot wield conventional weapons. 
There is no class selection in Monster Mode; the type of monster you 
select is effectively both your race and your class.

Coffee-break mode is an accelerated, faster-paced version of the game, 
with no wilderness, no level repetitions, smaller levels in the early 
game, increased monster item drops and faster leveling-up. Selecting 
Beginner Mode automatically activates coffee-break play, but the mode 
is also available as a birth option for Normal Mode and Monster Mode, 
and is not intended exclusively for new players. The "no wilderness" 
option is balanced around coffee-break mode, and turning off both 
coffee-break mode and the wilderness is not recommended.

First Things to Do

You begin your adventure in the town of Outpost, where you may acquire 
supplies, weapons, armor, and magical devices by bartering with various 
shop owners. You will have some gear as a birthright, and a little bit 
of gold as well.

First of all, you should visit the shops and buy some key supplies - 
Scrolls of Phase Door and Teleportation from the Alchemy Shop and 
Potions of Cure Serious Wounds from the Temple Shop. It is very easy to 
get in over your head, especially early on, so having ready ways to 
escape and heal is essential. If you have gold left over, consider 
upgrading your starting torch to a lantern at the General Store; a 
lantern casts more light, and so allows you to see further in the dark.

You are now ready to descend into the dungeon, where fantastic 
adventures await you... but hold on a moment! If you visit the castle 
of Uldrik, the ruler of Outpost, you will receive a special town quest 
you might want to complete first.

See [e] for more on the town and its shops, and [f] for a detailed 
explanation of town quests.

Into the Dungeon

    Note: The parts of this help that cover no-wilderness 
    play assume that coffee-break mode is active. If you 
    selected Beginner Mode, this is automatically the case.

If you are playing with the wilderness on, the first dungeon to explore 
is Warrens, a small dungeon whose entrance is located next to your 
starting position in Outpost. Like many of the dungeons, this one has a 
boss: some king or lord of the kobolds. He is reasonably tough for his 
level, but this is mostly due to his vast host readied about him; keep 
your wits about you and avoid fighting his whole army in one go, and 
you should be fine. If you already completed Uldrik's first town quest 
and requested another, you will also find the Pest Control quest in 
Warrens; completing this quest is an excellent way to ready yourself 
for the kobold lord. See [g] for more on what to expect in a dungeon.

If you are playing with the wilderness off, the choice of dungeon at 
least is very easy: there is only one, Angband. The choice of direction 
within the dungeon is also easy: you can only go deeper! Pretty soon 
(with the same caveats as in wilderness play!) you will find the Pest 
Control dungeon quest, an early make-or-break moment for your budding 
character. You will also meet random level guardians once in a while; 
do your best to kill them, as they drop valuable items. Once you feel 
you have done enough dungeon adventuring, read a Scroll of Word of 
Recall to return to Outpost.

Wilderness

Your adventures take place in a large and dangerous wilderness. 
Fortunately, you begin your journey in the relative safety of the town 
of Outpost; but beware, even inside the town walls the wilderness is 
not far off, and dangerous monsters can wander in.

Once you have conquered the starter dungeon Warrens (and possibly also 
Hideout, another early dungeon accessed from Outpost), you should be 
ready to set out into the wild. You will need ample supplies of light 
and food; but even more important is teleportation, as the wilderness 
is a dangerous place.

If your intent is to journey to another town, or to locate a dungeon 
entrance, you should use the special global wilderness map (sometimes 
known as the "overworld map") for your travels. Entering and leaving 
this special map uses the same keys as stair climbing:

    Press < to enter the global map, and > to leave it.

Watch out, though: you cannot enter the global map if alert foes are 
nearby. Also, you can be ambushed even on the global map; this is more 
likely at night and away from the relative safety of the well-traveled 
roads. Ambushes can be very deadly if you do not have some means of 
teleportation to escape with.

On the overworld map, you may look about with the * command to inspect 
towns and dungeon entrances. Pay attention to the danger level of the 
various dungeons and wilderness tiles; this is displayed on the top row 
as you use look around, and indicates safe (or dangerous) areas of 
travel. For dungeons, the shallowest depth is indicated.

Many towns and dungeons await you; good dungeons to explore early on 
include the Orc Caves, the Tidal Cave, the Icky Cave and the Labyrinth. 
You should also visit the towns of Morivant, Anambar and Thalos quite 
early - though going to Thalos on foot is not recommended... To the 
northeast of the town of Morivant, near the center of the map, is the 
dread dungeon of Angband. It is home to the Serpent of Chaos, whom you 
must kill in order to win the game.

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Surface

From time to time, I will include screenshots in the documentation to 
help explain things. In the picture above, the player (me, represented 
as @) has entered the global map by pressing < and then walked from 
Outpost (the southwestern *) to the town of Morivant, which he is 
currently standing next to. Dungeon entrances are marked as >, and the 
entrance to Angband is highlighted as >.

As you can see, it will take a while to run out of dungeons to explore 
(and only a small part of the whole map is shown here!); but some of 
these dungeons are much deadlier than others. Dragon's Lair, for 
example, starts at depth 60 and runs to depth 72. There is no one right 
order to visit the dungeons in, though most players do like to start 
with the easy ones...

Many of the most dangerous dungeons have entrance guardians, high-level 
monsters who try to keep you from even entering the cave. The entrance 
to Crystal Castle, for example, is guarded by a very nasty Ethereal 
dragon. Most entrance guardians tend not to move much, preferring to 
remain as close to the entrance as possible.

A final note on the wilderness: to penetrate the mountains, you will 
need a source of levitation. Several of the dungeon entrances are 
buried in the mountains, so you won't be able to reach them otherwise - 
and as for the deep waters of the oceans, best to stay away altogether.

See [h] for a more detailed account of the wilderness and its dungeons.

Winning The Game

OK, we are getting a little ahead of ourselves here, but by now, you 
surely have defeated Oberon, right? Perhaps not, but eventually you 
will be powerful enough to face the King of the Amberites on level 99 
(4950') in the dungeon of Angband. Defeat this foe and a magical 
staircase will appear that will finally allow you to reach level 100 
and face the dreaded Serpent of Chaos. You will not be able to go below 
his level until you have killed him. Try to avoid wandering around on 
level 100 unless you are ready for him, since the Serpent has a habit 
of coming at you across the dungeon, to slay you for your impudence...

In no-wilderness play, these final fights differ from the other Angband 
quests in that you can flee and recall to town if you find you were not 
adequately prepared. Wilderness play allows this in the random quests 
as well (see [i]).

The Serpent of Chaos is a very difficult foe and you will need to 
garner all of your resources in order to stand a decent chance of 
success. This typically means lots and lots (and lots more besides 
that) of Healing and *Healing*. And you will need plenty of destruction 
besides to deal with his summons. I won't give any more hints than 
that, since figuring out how to win is part of the fun, right?

If you should actually succeed in your attempt to kill the Serpent of 
Chaos, you will receive the status of WINNER. You can continue to 
explore, and may even save the game and play more later, but since you 
have defeated the toughest creature alive, there is really not much 
point. Unless you wish to listen to the rumors of a powerful ring 
buried somewhere in the dungeon. And then some monsters have been 
rumored to come back from the dead!

When you are ready to retire, simply "commit suicide" (^K) to end the 
game (don't forget to take a final character dump for posterity). Note 
that until you retire, you can still be killed, so you may want to 
retire before wandering into a hoard of Cyberdemons...

Upon Death and Dying

Hit points (HP) track the health of your character. If your character 
falls below 0 hit points, he has died and the adventure is over; you 
can say a few last words before the dreaded tombstone screen appears. 
Your character will be added to the Hall of Fame, and you can still 
access your character sheet (with all items mysteriously identified) 
through either the Hall of Fame or the tombstone screen.

Whether your character is killed or retires victorious, it will leave 
behind a reduced save file, which contains your option choices, monster 
knowledge and object knowledge (see [j]) and selections at birth. If 
this savefile is restored, a new character is generated exactly as if 
the file was not there, but the old character's monster and object 
knowledge are inherited by the new one. You also gain the extra option 
of a quick start, which allows you to easily start a new character of 
the same race, class and personality.

Don't get discouraged! Dying is very common and makes victory, when it 
comes at long last, all the more sweet. It may take months to win the 
game, perhaps even years. But there is fun in the journey, and much to 
try along the way. Good luck, and enjoy!


--
Original   : (??)
Updated    : (??)
Updated    : Zangband DevTeam
Updated    : Hengband 1.5.4
Updated    : PosChengband 4.0.0
Updated    : FrogComposband 7.0.nougat
Updated    : FrogComposband 7.1.liquorice