Adventure Construction Set

Getting Started:  

Start  your Amiga with your Kickstart disk as you normally would.  You need
at  least  one blank, initialized disk to use as an adventure disk with ACS.  If
you don't have an initialized disk available, insert a Workbench disk and create
one.  (See your Amiga User Guide for information on initializing disks.)

Once  you  have  one  or more initialized disks available, reset your Amiga
with Control-Left-Amiga-Right-Amiga, and when the "Insert Workbench Disk" screen
appears,  insert  your  Adventure  Construction  Set  program disk.  After a few
moments  the  ACS title screen appears and the demo begins.  Click either of the
mouse  buttons,  a joystick button, or press any key to leave the demo and start
ACS.


Main Menu commands:

Main  menu commands are issued by using the function keys at the top of the
Amiga  Keyboard.   The  six  main menu function keys and their resulting actions
are:

     F1:  Creates an adventure on a blank, initialized disk.
     F2:  Makes a backup copy of an existing adventure disk.
     F3:  Enters adventure construction mode.
     F4:  Lets you play an existing adventure on an adventure disk.
     F5:  Toggles between a mouse in port 1 (the mouse will only work
          in port 1) and a joystick in port 2, or joysticks in both 
          ports.  The default is the mouse and joystick setting.
     F6:  Toggles between one or two disk drives.  The default
          setting is for two drives; press F6 to change to one drive.


Additional Playing Tips:

1.   The  manual  tells  how  to  drop  objects your character is carrying.
Please  note  that you can drop items directly on top of your character.  If the
item  is not magic and is not set to disappear when dropped, it will appear when
you  move  off  the  square  you dropped it in.  If it's a magical item which is
activated when dropped, you will be the beneficiary (or victim) of the magic.

2.   To  pause  a  game during your turn, click the Wait option with either
mouse button.  Click again to restart the game.

3.   Never  eject  a  disk  while a disk drive's red, "in-use" light is on.
doing  so can result in damaged disks.  Change the disks in the drives only when
prompted or when the "in-use" light has gone out.

4.   The  Amiga  version  of  ACS  contains  an additional adventure entitle
"Galactic  Agent"  that  isn't  mentioned  in  the ACS manual.  "Galactic Agent"
cannot  be  created  with  the Make an Adventure option from the main menu.  Use
Copy  an  Adventure  to copy "Galactic Agent" onto your own adventure disk.  The
Copy  an Adventure feature requires an already initialized disk as does the Make
an Adventure option.

5.  At the beginning of Play an Adventure mode, you are asked to choose the
device  that will control your characters by pressing a button on the device you
want to use.  This means that you can use a mouse for editing and a joystick for
play  without  having  to  unplug either.  to move your character with the couse
during  play  mode,  place  the X-cursor on your character's destination.  Click
either  mouse button to make the character move.  Each click of the mouse button
moves  the  character once.  (See the ACS manual for information on the movement
bar.)


Additional Construction Tips:

1.   When  entering  text messages, use the cursor keys to move the cursor.
Press  Return to start the next line.  Use the Delete or Backspace keys to erase
characters to the left of the cursor.  Also, function key F1 erases all the text
so you can work with a blank screen.

2.   The  "Edit Graphics" menu described in the manual has been modified to
take advantage of the Amiga's advanced graphics.  There are a total of 32 colors
available  for use at one time.  To draw, select a color then hold down the left
button as you draw with the mouse in the editing window.  You can change the hue
of  any  color  by  clicking  on a color and selecting the Change Colors option.
This  brings  up  a  palette control that allows you to increase or decrease the
mixture  of  hue, color, and brightness, thus changing the overall appearance of
the  selected  color.   Click  the  greater-than  (>)  or less- than (<) sign to
increase or decrease the color values.
Click  an  image in the upper portion of the screen to magnify and edit the
image.   You  can  page  through  all  of  the images by selecting the Edit More
Pictures  option.   When this option is used, another set of images replaces the
first.   Pictures  are  edited  on  a pixel-by-pixel basis in the magnified view
window.   Click  on  a  pixel  to change it to the currently selected color.  To
erase  a  pixel, select the background color and click on the pixel.  Additional
new options in Edit Graphics mode include:

    Erase - Erases all of the currently selected picture with the
               Currently selected color.
     Save - Saves the current picture in a clipboard area that's
               shown at the bottom of the editing screen.
     Restore - Replaces the currently selected picture with the
               contents of the clipboard.
     Swap - Switches the contents of the clipboard with the
               currently selected picture.

It's often a good idea to Save a picture before editing so that you can use
Restore to undo any adverse changes.

3.   Here  are  some restrictions you should keep in mind when changing the
ACS 32-color palette:

     * The bottom row of colors are used by ACS as the system colors;
       i.e., the colors used in messages and cursors.  You can change
       these colors if you want, but the resulting changes may make
       some of the displays difficult to read or view.
     * The upper-left color in the palette is the background color
       used in all the ACS displays.  Changing the background color
       could also result in hard to read messages, or hard to see
       cursors.  Also, some characters contain areas where the back-
       ground color shows through.  When you draw characters and 
       objects with these "hollow" areas, be sure to use the actual
       background color.  For instance, if you draw hollow areas in
       a character with a standard color that matches the background,
       rather than the actual background color, the hollow in your 
       characters won't look hollow when you change the hue of the 
       background color.

4.  You cannot use Deluxe Paint pictures in ACS.

5.  If you've never made an adventure before, you'll find it easiest to use
"Let  ACS  Finish Your Adventure" on the Fantasy construction set for your first
attempt.   (Follow the instructions in the manual).  ACS will build an adventure
where  all  rooms have at least one door, all regions have a way in and out, and
all rooms within a regions have room names that belong together.
Use  the  "Non-Altering Play" option from the Adventure editor menu to test
the  new  adventure.   As  you  play  the adventure, not the names you'd like to
change,  places  you'd  like  to  add text, objects you'd like to add or delete,
creatures  you'd like to modify, etc.  Use the other ACS construction options to
make  those  changes.   (Refer  to  the manual for help.) To leave "Non-Altering
Play"  mode  and return to the adventure editor, select the "Save" option during
play then follow the prompts.

6.  If you're an adventure user and want to start constructing an adventure
from  scratch, use the "Make an Adventure Disk" option to make an adventure disk
containing  one of the three basic construction sets.  Then select "Construct an
Adventure".  Next, select "Do More Detailed Work" twice.  Finally, select "Erase
Everything But Graphics".

           Credits
Amiga Version of ACS:  Glenn S. Tenney of fantasia Systems Inc.
Technical Assistance:  David Buolton
Graphic Arts:  Greg Johnson & Avril Harrison
Sound and Music:  Dave Warhol
Producer:  Monty Finefrock
Associate Producer:  Shelley Day
Technical Director:  Steve Shaw
Product Manager:  Chris Garske
Command Summary:  David K. Simerly
The all-new "Galactic Agent" game was created with ACS by Ken St. Andre'

ADVENTURE CONSTRUCTION SET
THE MANUAL

How to Use Adventure Construction Set

Your Own Theater...

Owning  Adventure Construction Set is like having a theater and a troupe of
actors completely at your disposal.  Hundreds of extremely versatile actors wait
for  their  assignments.   They  can play just about nay kind of person, animal,
monster, magical being, robot or vehicle you can imagine.
Your  set-building  crew  can  construct  settings  containing  up  to  240
different  "rooms"  (or  as they might say in the movies business, "locations").
And  you  can  connect  these  locations  to  each  other in quite unusual ways,
creating  time  portals,  "beam me down" transporters, and circles of connecting
rooms you can only go through in one direction, and much, much more.
Last  but  not  least, you have a very resourceful props department who can
equip any setting and story with hundreds of objects and special effects.  Magic
items,  treasures,  furniture,  weapons,  sound  effects and music, ways to make
objects  appear  and  disappear,  ways  to  produce messages, ways to summon and
banish  creatures  -  they're  all  there.  And if you still can't find what you
want,  your  props department has the tools you need to design and construct the
items yourself.


How to Play the Adventure on the ACS Disk...

This section tells how to make an adventure disk, how to create a character
and how to move your character on the map.

1.  Making an Adventure Disk - You will need your ACS disk and a blank disk
(or  one which contains information you no longer need).  Boot your ACS disk and
select "Make an Adventure Disk".  Then use your joystick to move the cursor down
and  into  the  name  of  the adventure your want (either "Land of Aventuria" or
"Rivers of Light") and press the button.
"The  Land  of  Aventuria" contains a "How to Play" tutorial adventure play
the  6  other mini-adventures described later on.  "Rivers of Light", is a large
complex adventure designed to delight even the most experienced adventurer.  (It
was built entirely with the same ACs system you now own, by the way.)
Creating  an  adventure  disk  may  require several disk swaps.  Follow the
instructions  as they appear.  When the process is complete, use the joystick to
move the cursor up to Exit, and press the button as prompted.

2.  Creating a Character - Select "Play an Adventure" then press the button
as  prompted.   Select  "Create  an New Player" when it appears (by pressing the
button  while  that  option is highlighted), and continue to follow the prompts.
When  a  character  picture  appears,  move  the stick right and left to look at
different  picture  choices,  and  press  the button to select the one you want.
Then type in a name (up to 15 characters long) and press the button once more.
Up  to 4 characters can play at once.  And since players take turns moving,
all four can be controlled from the same joystick.  For information about adding
more than one character to an adventure see Add Someone further on.

3.   Reading  the  On-Screen  Status  Reports  -  Once  you've  selected  a
character,  the  display  will  change.   You'll  find  your  character standing
somewhere  in  the  adventure you choose.  If you chose "Land of Aventuria" your
character  will be standing just above a castle in a valley between two mountain
ranges.   The  castle  marks the entrance into a simple adventure called "How to
Play".
The  text  in  the  wide  bar of color across the bottom of the screen will
change  continually  as  you play.  The top line in the bar contains the name of
the  human-controlled  creature  whose turn it is and the name of the area it is
standing in.  Below that is a message which tells how to proceed.  And on either
side  are  rising  bars  of  color which give information about the individual's
status.

4.  Moving Your Character - To move your character, move the joystick which
controls  it in the direction you want the character to go.  The bar on the left
side  of  the  screen  will  shorten with each move.  When the bar is gone, that
character's  turn  is  over.   (The  bar will also shorten gradually even if you
don't  move.   Time  passes  as you play, and you aren't given forever to decide
what to do.)
If  you  try  to  move  onto  a  square  which  contains impassable terrain
(mountains,  for  instance)  or  an obstacle, your character won't move and your
movement  bar  will not change.  If you try to move onto an object which you can
pick  up,  you'll  be told the name of the object you are adding to your list of
possessions, and you'll be prompted to press the button to continue.  If you try
to  move into a creature and you have a melee weapon (like a knife, a sword or a
club),  a  battle  will  be  initiated.  The computer will give you blow-by-blow
account of the battle, prompting you to press the button when necessary.
If   there's   only   one   character   in   the  game  and  there  are  no
computer-controlled  creatures on the screen, that character may move again when
the  movement bar reappears.  If others are playing or if there are creatures in
the  room,  each will get a turn before the first character moves again.  (Note:
If  different  players are simultaneously exploring different regions, each will
be given several turns each time his or her turn comes around.)

5.   Exploring the World of an Adventure - As you move, you'll see more map
scroll  into view.  The main map of an adventure can cover an area 40 squares by
40 squares, but only a 10 square by 15 square area can be seen at once.
Scattered  about  on  the main map are "doors" into regions within the map,
like  the  castle  that  leads to "How to Play" in the "Land of Aventuria".  The
"Land   of   Aventuria"  contains  7  such  regions,  one  for  each  of  the  7
mini-adventures.

A  region  can  itself contain up to 16 different rooms.  When you move into
rooms,  new  area does not scroll into view.  Instead, when you move onto a door
that  leads  to  another room (or another regions or even back to the main map),
the picture of the new location completely replaces the icture of the old one.


6.   Things You Can Do During Your Turn - If you press your button when it's
your  turn, a menu containing additional options will appear in the message bar.
To  select  one  of  the options, use your joystick to move the highlight to it,
then press the button.
The  next  paragraphs describe how to use your options and how to interpret
the  information  available  to  you as you play.  If you're new to adventuring,
don't  feel  like  you  have  to  master  all  this  information  at  once.  The
mini-adventures  in  the  "Land of Aventuria" were designed to let you play your
way  into  an understanding of how adventures work.  Start playing them whenever
you  like, then use this manual as a reference when you'd like more information.
(For a tutorial walk-through of the "How to Play" mini-adventure.)

Summary of Player Options...

This  section  describes actions a player/character can take during a turn.
To  produce  the  menu containing these options, press the button.  To select an
option,  move the highlight to it with the joystick, then press the button again
and follow the prompts, if any, as they appear.

Move - Select this to remove the menu so you can move your character.
Rest  -  Select  this  to  attempt  to restore some Life Force to a wounded
character.
Fire  - Select this to use a missile weapon (if you're carrying one) like a
bow, rifle, grenade, etc.
Use  Object  -  Select  this to use a magic object you are carrying.  Magic
objects always work, by the way, but some magic items must be dropped instead of
used to be activated.
Drop Object - Select this when you want to drop a possession to see if it's
magic or to put it on a particular square you're adjacent to, or when you simply
want  to  stop  carrying  something.   If  you  use this option on the main map,
whatever  you  drop will be lost forever from that adventure.  (Note:  sometimes
an  effort  to pick up an object will produce a "sorry, but you can't carry more
of  those"  message.  If you need to pick the item up in order to move, drop the
one you're carrying first.)
Use  Power  -  Select  this when you want to cast a spell you possess.  The
greater  your  character's  Power, the greater the chance that spells will work.
Note:  Be careful with spells which banish creatures.  A banished creature takes
all its possessions with it, so don't banish the creature who just stole the key
you need to get into the next room.
New Weapon - Select this so you can ready a weapon you're carrying for use.
(Note:  Picking up a weapon automatically readies it.)
New  Armor  -  Select  this  to  put  on  or  ready a piece of armor you are
carrying.
Profile  - Select this to look at your character's rating in the catagories
described in the next section and to see your character's list of possessions.
Add  Someone  - Select this to add another character to the adventure.  (Up
to  4 can play at once).  The character will come onto the map at the same place
the  first  character  did, regardless of when the new character begins playing.
If  you choose to add a character from another ACS adventure, you'll be prompted
through the necessary steps.  The character will come with its traits and skills
intact, but it will keep none of its possessions.
Retire  -  Select this to save your character for later use in an adventure
or to remove a character from an adventure altogether.
Save  Game  -  Select  this  to  save an adventure in progress but continue
playing.

IMPORTANT!  If your character should happen to fall victim to a powerful monster
or  a  deadly trap, all is not lost.  You will be give the opportunity to resume
the  game at the point where you last "Save Game".  "Save Game" is automatically
invoked when you enter or leave a region.


Summary of Traits and Skills...

Each individual begins each adventure with values assigned to certain basic
traits  and  skills.   Those  numbers determine how the characters and creatures
move  and  fight, how durable they are in battle, and how powerful they are with
magic.
In  the  course  of  an  adventure  the  numbers will change to reflect the
outcome  of battles, the casting of spells, successful experience, etc.  To find
out  what  the  ratings  are  for  your  character,  press the button and select
"Profile"  when  it's  your  turn.  The descriptions below tell what each of the
entries  in  your  profile signifies.  (Note:  A mark like this "_|_" next to an
item signifies a higher than average rating for that item.  A similar mark which
points down instead of up signifies a lower than average one.)

The  Traits  The  maximum possible number for each trait is shown in parenthesis
following  the  trait  description.   Normal  starting range is 10 to 11 for all
traits except Speed.  Normal starting range for speed is 6 to 7.

Speed  - How far an individual can move each turn.  Speed may be permanently
increased  and decreased by magic spells.  An individual's movement range can be
decreased  by  trying  to  carry  too  much  weight  and by being adjacent to an
individual  who  is aggressive and not friendly.  Movement range is indicated by
the rising bar on the left side of the screen.  (Maximum of 15.)

Life  Force  and  Constitution  - Life Force (shown by the rising bar on the
right  side  of  the  screen)  is  an  individual's  physical durability.  Blows
received  from  an  enemy  in battle subtract from an individual's Life Force as
does being the victim of certain spells.  Being the "victim" of other spells can
add  to Life force.  When Life force goes to 0, an individual dies.  (Maximum of
63 for Life Force and 31 for Constitution.)
Constitution  is  an individual's natural capacity for Life Force.  for new
characters,  initial  Life  force  is  always the same as Constitution.  Wounded
individuals may restore lost Life Force up to the limit of their Constitution by
using  the  "Rest"  option.   If  they  do  not rest, their lost Life Force will
return,  but  it  will  take it 6 times as long to do so.  Characters whose Life
Force is greater than their Constitution will fight better.
Power  and  Wisdom - Blows received from an enemy in battle also reduces an
individual's  Power.   so  does  using  magic  spells and objects, and being the
victim  of  certain  spells you may encounter.  Other spells may increase Power.
The  higher  an individual's Power rating, the greater the chance that spells he
casts  will  succeed.   Individuals  with higher Power ratings also fight better
than those with lower ones, and they are more resistant to battle damage.
Power  is not stable.  On each turn, an individual's Power will increase or
decrease  by a small amount in the direction of that individual's Wisdom rating.
Thus  Wisdom  is an individual's natural spell casting ability, toward which his
Power  will always tend.  Wisdom also helps an individual make better deals when
selling items to a store.  (Maximum of 127 for Power and 31 for Wisdom.)
Strength  -  Swords,  treasures,  armor,  gold,  etc.  all have weight.  An
individual's  strength  determines  how  much  weight he can carry without being
slowed  down.   If  you notice a decline in your movement bar, yet have not been
the victim of a "reduce speed" spell and are not standing next to any aggressive
"unfriendlies",  chances  are  that  you're trying to carry too much stuff.  You
need  to  drop  some things and find a magic bag or horse or some other means of
carrying more weight.
If  you  are wounded, your ability to carry things declines.  It returns as
you heal.  (Maximum of 31.)
Size   -   Larger   individual's  make  more  powerful  fighters.   Smaller
individuals  dodge  and  parry  better.  Size cannot be changed, so take note of
what  it  tells  you  about  your  character's  limits  and  plan  your strategy
accordingly.  (Maximum of 31.)
Dexterity  -  When  the  battles start, dexterity comes in very hand.  Like
size,  high  dexterity  increases  the  force  of  blows that land.  Further, it
increases  the  likelihood of landing an unusually powerful blow.  It also helps
to  determine how many blows an individual can get in and how many shots he, she
or it can get off.  (Maximum of 31.)

The  Skills  In  calculating  the effects of a battle, the program considers the
weapons  and  the  armor  being used and the Skills, Power and Life Force of the
combatants.  (Some weapons and armor are better than others.  If you'd swear you
were  doing  better  before  you  started  using that shield or sword, maybe you
should leave it behind for some other poor soul to find.)
To  determine  the  likelihood  that  you'll hit the mark with a long-range
weapon  like  a  bow.   ACS  looks  at  your  missile  skill.   To determine the
probability  that  you  were  able  to  get out of the way of a shot from such a
weapon, it looks at dodge skill.
For  gauging the accuracy of your blows in close-range fights, ACS looks at
your  melee  skill.   To  determine the likelihood that you were able to meet an
opposing  blow  with  your  own  close-range  weapon,  it  looks  at parry skill
(provided you had your weapon readied of course.)

Armor  Skill  -  lets  you  overcome the disadvantages of armor (because it
tends  to  make  you  clumsy,  armor reduces the accuracy of your blows) without
giving up the advantages (it absorbs some percentage of blows from the enemy).



Each of these skills can improve each time you use it successfully - that is,
dodge  a blow successfully and your dodge skill may increase, hit the target and
your  missile skill may go up, etc.  The higher a skill rating is, the harder it
is  to  improve  that rating still further.  The maximum for any skill rating is
127.   Normal  starting range is 25 to 35 for all except Missile Skill and Armor
Skill, 10 to 20 for Missile Skill, and 0 for Armor skill.
Magical  Defense  -  Is  a special kind of skill.  At its most powerful, it
stops  completely  all blows or missiles from non-magical weapons and reduces by
half  the force of all blows or missiles from magical ones.  It is, as you might
imagine, a very valuable ability to possess.


Exploring Aventuria:  A Tutorial...

This   section  offers  a  tutorial  walk-through  of  the  "How  to  Play"
mini-adventure, plus brief guide-posts to the other mini-adventures in "The Land
of  Aventuria".   (Remember,  before you can play these adventures, you must use
the  "Make  an  Adventure  Disk"  option  to make a disk containing the "Land of
Aventuria".

Using  the  "How to Play" Adventure - In which you can learn how to use the
"help"  squares,  how  to  pickup  objects,  how  to fight and how to cast magic
spells.

1.   Help  Squares - If you create a character and then move into the first
castle you see on the main map of Aventuria, you'll find your character standing
in  a room which has one square marked with a large H, and three doors.  To find
out where the three doors lead, move onto the square marked with the H.
Help  squares  like this appear throughout the Land of Aventuria.  Use them
for  helpful  tips  and  information  as you play.  To continue with the "How to
Play" tutorial, go through the door at the top.

2.   Picking  Things  Up - In the next room, you'll see a sword lying on the
floor.   To  pick  up  the  weapon,  try to move on top of it as the help square
advises.

3.   Using  Your  Other Options - If you press the joystick button when it's
your  turn  to  move,  a  menu  containing additional options will appear in the
message  bar.   To  select  one  of  the  options, use your joystick to move the
highlight to it, then press the button.
Try  the  Drop  Object option in the middle of the first column of options.
Use  the  cursor  as  the screen instructs to drop the Sword on a square next to
your  character.   Then  move  toward it to pick it back up.  You'll do a lot of
dropping  and  picking things up as you play.  It's how you'll get rid of things
that  prove  too  heavy,  how  you  move things blocking your way and how you'll
acquire the wealth, goods and tools you'll need to reach your goal.

4.   Dealing  with  Life-Threatening Enemies:  an Example - If you move your
character  through the door, you'll soon find yourself in a new room, outside of
which stands a vicious dragon poised to spring.

To  attack  with  the sword, move outside the room and into the dragon, then
press  the  button when prompted to do so.  Keep at this when it's your turn and
you  should  win, thanks to the fact that your game designers made your opponent
look stronger than he is.  And still, he's strong enough to do some damage if he
gets you with his fangs.
When  the  dragon  dies, its picture will disappear and a picture of a lamp
will  appear in its place.  That's because the dragon was carrying the lamp.  If
you  had  died  instead, your picture would have been replaced by the picture of
the  sword you are carrying.  Whenever a character or a creature dies, it leaves
behind  whatever  it  was carrying (except when it dies on the main map, or when
the  adventure  constructor  designed the objects to disappear upon the death of
the owner). Be  sure  to pick up the lamp before you leave the room.  
Who knows?  Maybe it's magic.

5.   Your  Life  Force Bar - Once you've been through a battle, it's time to
begin  using  some more of the information always available to you on your turn.
The  Life  Force Bar (on the far right) indicates how durable you are in battle.
When  you fight, enemy blows which land on you subtract from your Power and Life
Force  totals,  and blows you land on your enemy subtract from his.  When either
side's Life Force reaches 0, the battle's over and the loser is dead.
You  can restore lost Life Force in two different ways; by using the "Rest"
option,  or by finding some place or item which invokes an "increase your force"
spell.  In the Land of Aventuria, the first aid square marked by a cross invokes
such  a  spell when you bump into it.  As you use these different methods, watch
your  Life Force Bar to see the effect of your action.  (Note:  Before your next
battle, charge your Life Force way up before you fight.  It'll make you a better
fighter.)

6.  Your Power Bar - The Power Bar (just to the left of your Life Force Bar)
shows  how  much magical energy your character has.  You might thing of Power as
endurance  or  fortitude,  as  "the  Force",  as spiritual enlightenment, as the
energy in your personal science fiction power pack, etc., depending on what best
fits the adventure you are playing.
You  need  Power to protect yourself in battle and to cast spells you might
find as you play.  The lamp the dragon was carrying contains just such a spell -
in  this  case  a "summon creature" spell which will bring a mighty genie to the
room.
The  likelihood  that a spell will succeed when you cast it is determined by
how  much  Power  the spell uses up and how much Power you have.  The more Power
you have, the greater your chances of success.
In  "How  To Play", moving into the next room temporarily boosts your Power
so  you  can cast the "Summon Genie" spell.  Try it, then stay in the room until
the genie appears and gives you a valuable gift.

7.   The Profile Option - If you press the button and then select "Profile",
a new screen will appear filled with a listing of the various traits and objects
possessed by your character.

Don't let the display overwhelm you, and don't try to master it all at once.
You  already  know  about  some  of what is listed there.  (Speed determines the
height  of the Movement Bar on the left of the screen; Life Force determines the
height  of  the  Life  Force Bar and Power the height of the Power Bar.) And the
rest will become more meaningful as you gain adventuring experience.
For  a  description  of  all  the profile entries, study the section called
Summary  of Traits and Skills as you play.  To continue with the mini-adventures
in  the  "Land  of Aventuria", go through the door after receiving the gift from
the  genie.   You'll  find yourself standing in the first room of "Agent 00111",
about to get some practice in firing long-range weapons.

What  You  Have  Learned - Before going on, you might want to stop to reflect on
all you've learned so far from this simple adventure.

     * You know how to move around now and how to pick up and drop
       things, and you know the significance of the three bars that
       appear on the screen whenever it's your turn.
     * You know how to fight and how to cast spells - though you will
       learn from more challenging adventures, the weapons don't
       always work and neither do the spells.
     * You know that some creatures are friendly and some are not - a
       complexity to consider when you're trying to decide whether to
       attack when a new creature appears.
     * You know that passing through doors can produce surprising
       results - increases power, destruction of objects you are
       carrying, etc.

These  are  principles  you'll  encounter  over and over while you play and
create with your Adventure Construction Set program.  As you play the adventures
described further on, you'll learn new variations on these, plus a whole host of
new things to consider besides.


Playing  the  Other Adventures in the "Land of Aventuria" - This section briefly
describes all the adventures in the "Land of Aventuria".

NOTICE TO ALL ADVENTURERSWHO GO DOWN THESE PATHS!
There  are  Wandering  Monsters  on  the  main  map of Aventuria.  Some are
Friendly.  Some are not.  If you are pulled into the lair of any of these during
your  journey,  study  their  names  for  clues to their disposition.  But don't
believe everything you read.

Features  Common  to  All the Mini-Adventures - Throughout the adventures in the
"Land  of Aventuria", a square marked by a large H will produce a screen-full of
helpful text if you move on top of it.  Trying to move onto a square marked by a
cross  will increase your character's life force.  Do so often to keep your Life
force high and you'll be harder to kill and a better fighter as well.


Secret  Agent  00111 - A simple adventure that demonstrates a common adventuring
problem  -  the need to find an object (in this case, a key) before you can pass
through  a  door  to  reach your goal (in this case, microfilm and the kidnapped
girl being held prisoner).  There are two entrances to this mini-adventure - the
door  that  leads to the right from the first room in "How to Play" and the door
that leads out of the last room in "How to Play".

Sam  Club,  Private  I  -  If  you've  ever seen Humphrey Bogart in "The Maltese
Falcon",  you'll  get  a chuckle from this one.  And if you haven't you'll still
have  the  pleasure of discovering who's lying and what really happened.  You'll
also  get  the  chance  to  see  that  doors  can  lead all the way across town,
especially when they're disguised as subway trains and cars.

Alice  in  Wonderland  -  An  adaption from Lewis Carroll's classic.  Follow the
White  Rabbit down the Rabbit Hole, wander past the Caterpillar and the Cheshire
Cat,  look in on the Mad Tea Party and more.  Confront the puzzle of how to grow
big  enough  to  reach  the  key  atop  the  glass  table.  A good example of an
adventure where conversation, not combat, tells the tale.

Washington  Crosses  the  Delaware  -  Even  historical  dramas can be done with
Adventure  Construction Set.  Figure out how to get Washington across that river
in  this  fanciful  telling  of the tale, and you'll win the day.  Teachers take
note;  Enter  the schoolhouse on the other side of the river for a demonstration
of how adventure puzzles can become entertaining reinforcement drills.

Deep  Dank  Dungeon  -  A  15-room  adventure in the classic "explore a dungeon"
tradition.   There  are  bad guys and treasures, there's a room where everything
looks  like a door and another where nothing does, there's even a labyrinth of 4
rooms  which  all  look  exactly alike.  Try this one when you're ready for some
puzzles  with the sort of diabolical twist that makes you suspect the creator is
somewhere watching you, and laughing.

In the Nazi Castle - A 15-room adventure set in the castle of the enemy.  You'll
run into lots of armed guards and trick treasure chests in this one, so build up
your  life force every chance you get.  Your goal is to get the secret plans and
escape with them.  If you like to fight, this is the adventure for you!

Save  the  Galaxy!   - A 15-room adventure set on a space ship, a planet surface
and the subterranean caverns of a frozen asteroid.  Wistrik the Evil is stealing
all  the  crystite  from  the  planet of Irata.  You'll be able to find and stop
him...but you better disable the bomb that has mysteriously appeared in the port
engine pod of your ship, as well.

Rivers of Light...

This new Stuart Smith epic is set in ancient Egypt and the Near East at the
dawn  of human civilization.  The goal is the essence of Osiris, god of the dead
and giver of eternal life.


Your  quest  begins  in  the  valley  of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the
cradle  of  civilization.   Your  first problem is that the world map is full of
uncrossable rivers - uncrossable, that is, for those who don't know how to swim.
The old woman and the hunter can help.
If  you  locate  the  Tigris and Euphrates rivers on a map in a good atlas,
you'll  know where to look for Egypt on the world map of "Rivers of Light".  The
adventure is historically accurate in many other details as well.  If you'd like
to  know  more about the mythology that lies behind this tale, look into some of
the books listed in the bibliography in the appendix.
A  few  words of friendly encouragement and advice.  "Rivers of Light" is a
classic  adventure  filled with challenging puzzles.  There's a powerful weapon,
for  instance,  in  Assur,  available  to  all  who  can find it.  And there's a
substance with great healing power in the Ancient Valley where the old woman and
hunter live.
Poke  around  as  you  adventure.   Look for messages, for hidden doors and
treasures,  for  things  which  reveal  themselves  only  after you've crossed a
particular  space  while carrying a particular item.  True, you may die from too
bold a move and have to go back to the last position where you entered or left a
region or saved the game, but at least you'll know not to try that move again.
When  you  get stuck, allow yourself to stay that way for a while.  Not all
possible  solutions  will come to you immediately, but the ones that come slowly
will  feel even better when they finally do come.  Give yourself every chance to
play  "Rivers of Light" to its conclusion before you use the editor to study how
it was put together.


The ACS Construction Options...

Think  of the Adventure Construction Set construction menus as belonging to
3  main screens.  And think of the joystick as a kind of gearshift which you use
to  move  the  cursor  around  in  the  menus  so you can select the options you
want..........

1.   Making Easy Changes - The top screen (see below) i.e., the one you see
first when you select "Construct an Adventure", contains the options you need to
work on the surface of your adventure - to change the name, the theme music that
will play at the beginning, etc.

This  screen  also  contains  the  three options which cause the program to
write to the adventure disk you are working on:  1) "Save Work and Continue" (to
save  the work you've done so far so you won't lose it if there's a sudden power
failure);  2)  "Save Your Work and Exit" (so you can quit constructing and start
playing);  3) "Let ACS Finish Your Adventure" (so you can let the program do the
constructing work for you).

2.   Building  the  Map and Regions - If you select "Do More Detailed Work"
from  the  top  screen, you produce the menu that lets you work on the world map
and on regions and rooms.
Selecting  options  from  the  screen  produces menus which let you create,
populate and fill up the map, the regions and the rooms in your adventure.  Here
also, you put in the doors which lead from place to place in your adventure.

3.  Creating and Editing Things, Creatures and Graphics - If you select "Do
More  Detailed Work" again, you produce the screen that lets you add to and edit
the  Master Creature List, the Master Thing List and the Master Graphics Set for
an adventure.
Selecting  option son this screen produces the menus you need to create and
modify  the things, creatures and pictures you need for your map and your rooms.
This  menu  also  contains  the  options  that let you erase particular parts of
existing adventure disks.


Asking ACS to Build Adventures For You...

Your  ACS  program  comes with three basic construction sets located on the
back  side  of  the  disk.   One  is ideal for fantasy adventures (the sword and
sorcery  sort  of  thing),  another  is  great  for contemporary spy and mystery
dramas, and the third comes equipped for science fiction escapades.
To make an adventure disk containing one of the basic sets, select "Make an
Adventure  Disk" from the main option screen and follow the instructions as they
appear.   You  may then select "Construct an Adventure" and "Let ACS Finish Your
Adventure"  (described  below) to ask the computer to build you a new adventure.
Note:   For best results, start with the Fantasy set or the Science Fiction Set,
especially if this is your first time to use this option.

1.   You  can enter the adventure Name, Author by line and Map Name, or you
can  let  ACS  do it for you.  If you want to do it yourself, move the cursor to
each  of  those  options  and  press the button so you can type in the names you
want.

2.   Mood  offers  3  possibilities:   Fantasy,  Spy/Mystery,  and  Science
Fiction.  To select among the possibilities, repeatedly move the cursor into the
"Mood"  option  until you have the one you want.  Unless you make a change here,
ACS  will  use  the  mood  which matches the construction set you're using.  The
"Mood"  setting  determines the names ACS will choose for the map and the rooms,
the pictures it will use to make up the walls, etc.

3.   Move the cursor to Challenge and move the joystick right and left until
you  have  the setting you want.  The range goes from "1 Easy" to "10 Hard".  In
easy  adventures, the creatures you'll encounter won't be too mean and powerful,
and the hints and clues will be more plentiful and easier to figure out.

4.   The  Goal  of  an adventure is to find some particular object.  If you
want  to  pick  the  object  from the Master Things List, select "Goal" and then
select  an  object  from  the list which will appear.  (Moving the joystick left
brings  up  a  new list.  Moving it up and down moves the highlight from item to
item  within  a  list.   Moving  it  right  and  pressing the button selects the
highlighted item.)

5.   Don't change the next two options - ACS Completely Redraws the Map and
ACS  Tries  to  Use  Only  Defined  Things.   These are useful for scrambling an
existing  adventure,  as  described below.  (You should change "ACS Tries to Use
Only  Defined  Things"  to  "ACS Creates Several New Things" if you are starting
with  a  sparse  master list and you want ACS to add to it so it can make a more
interesting  adventure.   The  basic  sets  which  come  on the ACS disk are not
sparse.)


6.   Use  Edit  Region  Attributes  to  tell  ACS how many and what kinds of
regions you want in your adventure.  You can have up to 15 different regions and
can  name  each  one or let ACS do it for you.  If you make no changes here, ACS
will  automatically  build  an  8-region  adventure  and  will  use your overall
"Challenge" setting to determine the difficulty of each region.
If  you  do  select  this option, a new menu (below) will appear so you can
give  ACS specific instructions about how many regions you want and how you want
them built.
Use  "Type" to tell ACS what you want the rooms in the region to look like.
(There  are  8  possibilities, including letting ACS pick the type for you.) Use
"Challenge" if you want the region to have a different difficulty level from the
one you chose from the overall adventure.
Use  the  second  option from the top to set the number of regions ACS will
build.  Set it to "Write a Completely New Region" for each region that you want,
then  set  the  next  region to "Leave This and Later Regions Empty".  Use "Edit
Another Region" to move from region to region to make these settings.

7.  Select Let ACS Write the Adventure, then go do something else while ACS
does  it  work.   A message will appear when your new disk is ready for playing.
In  the  meantime,  the  screen will periodically give you a new estimate of how
much longer the process will take.

Important:  Remember, playing an adventure changes it.  Things get picked up and
moved  around  or  destroyed, creatures dies and give up their possessions, etc.
Before you play your new adventure for the first time, you may want to use "copy
an Adventure" to make a copy of it.  That way you'll have an original version to
work  with if you decide you want to edit the adventure and/or make copies of it
for your friends who also own ACS.


Starting With an Existing Adventure

You can also use the "Let ACS Finish Your Adventure" option to scramble old
adventures  into  freshly  playable  new ones.  If you want to use the same map,
select  "ACS  Adds  a  Few  Doors  to the Map".  Otherwise, pick "ACS completely
Redraws the Map".

You can also decide how much you want to change each region, selection among
"Write  a  Completely  New  Region",  "Leave  Region Almost Unchanged", "Shuffle
Contents  Only"  and  "Shuffle Room Layout and Contents" for each one.  The only
thing  you  can't  select  for  a region which already exists is "Leave This and
Later Regions Empty".
As  before,  when  you've  entered  the  directions you want ACS to follow,
select "Let ACS Write the Adventure" and go do something while ACS does its work
for you.

Note:  Any adventure created with the "Let ACS Finish Your Adventure" option can
be  edited  and changed with the other ACS construction options described in the
next  sections of this manual.  You can add sound effects and music, edit out or
tone  down  a  creature  who's  causing  players  a  lot of trouble, put in text
messages  to  make the adventure more richly detailed and suggestive (especially
important for spy/mystery stories), and more.

You can also use the "Copy or Erase Part of an Adventure" option to use work
you've done for one adventure as the starting place for another.  See further on
for more information.


Editing and Constructing Adventures...

Overview

The  ACs  construction  options  let  you work on the 5 fundamental program
parts which underlie every adventure:

     * The World Map, which contains terrain of various types and
       doors to and from the map regions.
     * Maps of each region, which are composed first of a diagram
       showing an overview of all the rooms in the region, and then
       of pictures of each room in detail.
     * The Master Thing List, which contains a record of every basic
       prop and special effect.
     * The Master Creature List, which contains a record of every
       basic creature and from which the creature lists for the world
       map and for each region may be made up.
     * A Master Graphics Set, from which pictures can be selected for
       terrain, things and creatures.

Learning Your Way Around The System...

The  fastest  and  easiest  route  to understanding how the ACS construction
options  work  is  by  using  them to modify an adventure you've spent some time
playing.   The  next  few  paragraphs  contain step-by-step instructions for the
editing actions you are likely to take most often.
     
To  follow  along, use a disk containing an adventure you know, and try to
perform  the operations described.  If it's an adventure you still want to play,
use  a backup copy so you can make changes without worrying about messing things
us.   (You needn't worry too much anyway.  Since deleting and adding are equally
easy,  you  can always take out whatever you wish you hadn't just added, and you
can always put back what you wish you hadn't taken out.)
One  bit  of  friendly  advice.  Don't use the editor to look at "Rivers of
Light"  until  you've  given  yourself  plenty  of  time  to  solve its puzzles.
Sometimes  it  takes  a  while for the solution to a puzzle to come, but when it
does,  figuring  it  out yourself is just that much more satisfying.  Wait until
you're  through  playing  "River  of Light" before you use the editor to see how
Stuart Smith put it together.


Step-by-Step Adventure Editing Guides...

Doors may lead form one place on the world map to another or to any room in
any region.

1.   Select  "Edit World Map" from the map and region menu to produce a set
of map editing options.  Then select "Draw World Map".

The  large rectangle on the right represents the whole map, and the lighter
rectangle  within  it  represents the section of the map you are looking at.  If
you  move  the  cursor up from the menu onto the screen and then move it against
the edges of the map section, new terrain will scroll into view and the position
of  the  lighter  rectangle  will change within the darker one.  Experiment with
this  until  you  understand  how  to use the little "two-rectangle" map to tell
where the section on the screen lies on the big map.

2.   Use  "Select New Terrain" to flip through the 16 terrain possibilities
until you come to the doors.

Move  the cursor back down into the menu and push it toward the "Select New
Terrain"  option.   Each  time you do this, a new terrain picture will appear in
the  small  square  and  a  new  terrain description will appear below the menu.
There  are 16 different terrain types to choose from in all.  Numbers 13 through
16  -  Castle, Regal Gateway, Boat, and Cavern door in the Land of Aventuria set
are  doors.   When  you add them, ACS prompts you through the process of telling
where you want the doors to come out.

3.   Move  the  cursor  into the map, then move it to the spot you want the
door on and press the button.

On  world  maps,  putting down new terrain replaces what was already there.
And  terrain can be set so that it is open only those who do or don't carry some
object  (which  you  pick)  or  so  that it evokes a spell (which you pick) when
someone moves on it.  For more information see the World Map Reference Guide.


How to Add and Edit World Map Creatures...

Up to 8 creatures can be instructed to appear.  You pick the creatures, the
terrain they will appear in, and what percent of the time they will show up.

1.  Select "Edit Map Creatures" and then select "Add Another Map Creature".

A  list  of all the creatures available in the Master Creature List on your
adventure disk will appear.  Move the joystick up and down to move the highlight
from  creature  to  creature.   Move  it to the left to select a different group
within  the  list.   Move  it  to  the  right and press the button to select the
highlighted creature.
If there is no "Add Another Map Creature" slot available, select a creature
you no longer need and edit it as described in the next step.

2.  Select the creature you want to edit, then select each of the items you
wish to change.

A  new  menu will appear.  Repeatedly selecting the top lines lets you flip
through  12 terrain types to pick the one you want the creature to appear in (12
and  not  16 because you can't pick any of the doors).  Repeatedly selecting the
third  line  in  the menu lets you tell ACS what percentage of the time you want
the creature to appear.  The higher you set this percentage, the more likely you
are to run into the creature while exploring in the terrain type it inhabits.
If  you  select the "Edit Trait" option, a screen will appear which is very
much  like  the  one you see when you select "Profile" option while playing.  By
moving  the  cursor  to  any  item  in  the  list  and  then  moving  the  stick
simultaneously holding down the button, you may change any of these settings.
For  more information about creature traits (especially including using the
three  "Strategy"  settings to determine how the creature will move and behave),
see Creature Reference Guide.


How to Add Rooms and Regions...

Adventures  may  have  up to 15 regions and up to 16 rooms per region.  You
decide  the  number of regions you want and the number, size and location of the
rooms in each region.

1.   To  add  a  room  to an existing region, select "Edit Region" and then
select the particular region you want.

If  the  name  of  the region you want isn't on the bottom of the new menu,
select "Next Region" until it is, then select it.  A top-view diagram of all the
rooms  in the region will appear.  Select "Add Room" and follow the instructions
as they appear on the screen.
Rooms  may  be  up  to 15 squares wide and 10 squares high.  If you want to
connect  the new room to its neighbor with a normal two-way door, position it so
that it shares a common wall with that neighbor.  If you make a drawing mistake,
use the "Delete Room" option and then start over.

2.   To  add a region, select "Add Region", type in a region name and press
the  button,  then  continue  using  "Add Room" until you have all the rooms you
want.

You  may build up to 16 rooms.  It's better at first, though to build fewer
than  that  so  you  can  add on later if you decide the adventure needs another
room.   If  you  want  to put things and creatures in the rooms as you go along,
select the "Edit Room" option described in the next section.


How to Add to and Change the Contents of Rooms...

You  may  have  up  to 16 creatures from your Master Creature List and more
than  500  things  from your Master Thing List in each region.  You could if you
wanted, stack them all on a single square in a single room.

1.   Select  "Edit  Region", then select the region which contains the room
you're interested in, and then select "Edit Room".

The  cursor  will appear (as a very small solid square) so you can tell ACS
which  room  you want to edit.  When you do so, a menu containing 4 options will
appear.   To  change the characteristics of creatures already in ("resident") or
assigned  to  ("random")  the room, select the 2 options on the left.  To add or
delete either things or creatures select the "Edit Contents of Room" option.

2.  After selecting the "Edit Contents" option, select each option as often
as  you  want  and  follow the directions as they appear.  To return to the main
region editing menu, select "Exit".

To  get  information about what's already in a room, select "Examine Room".
Use  "Add  1  Thing" to bring up the Master Thing List so you may select an item
from  it.   Use "Add Many Things" if you want to put down multiple copies of the
same  thing.  Use "Add Creature" to bring up the Master Creature List so you may
select  from it.  Use "Delete Thing" to get rid of something - thing or creature
- previously added. Unlike  world map terrain, new items do not replace old 
ones.  Instead they form  a  stack.   For  more  information  about  
regions  and  rooms,  including information  about  adding  random  
creatures  to rooms, see the Region and Room Thing Reference Guide.

Note:   When the Master Thing and Creature Lists appear, they do so in segments.
Select  "View  Another  Group"  to  bring  up a different segment.  Select "Next
Thing"  and  "Previous  Thing"  to  move  the  highlight  within a segment.  For
information  about  the  logic  behind  the  groupings,  etc,  see  the Creature
Reference Guide and the Thing Reference Guide.


How to Add to the Master Thing and Creature Lists...

Each list can contain up to 128 items.

1.  To add a new thing, select "Edit Things" and then "Add Thing".

You  will  be warned that once a thing is added, it cannot be deleted.  (It
can  however,  be edited into an entirely different things within its category.)
Then  you  will  be  prompted by the screen to tell whether you want to proceed,
what  type  of  thing  you  want  to add, and how many of them an individual may
possess  at  one time.  You may then move the cursor to each option in the thing
profile to set it as you want.
To  return to the main menu, select "Exit".  For more information , see the
Thing Reference Guide.

2.   To add a new Creature, select "Edit Master List of Creatures" and then
select "Create a Creature".

A  creature profile - similiar to the profile for characters - will appear.
You  may change any of the items in the profile and then return to the main menu
by  following  the  on-screen instructions.  Note:  When you change a creature's
characteristics  in  the  Master Creature List, the changes are not reflected in
the adventure. For more information, see the Creature Reference Guide.


How to Edit Pictures and Create New Ones...

The  picture  possibilities  you  scroll  through  for terrain, characters,
creatures  and  things  are  grouped  onto  3 screens.  To get to those screens,
select "Edit Graphics".

1.   Select  the  picture you want to edit or the blank area into which you
want to add a picture.

The  first  screen  has room for the 16 pictures which must be used for map
terrain  but  which may also be used for things or creatures.  The second screen
(select  "Edit  Another  Group  of  Pictures"  to  see  it) can contain up to 48
pictures  which  may be used for things, terrain or creatures.  The third screen
can contain up to 46 pictures, all reserved for creatures only.
When  you  have the screen you want, use the "Edit Another Picture" line to
move  the  selector from picture to picture, bringing an enlarged version of the
selected picture into the drawing area.

2.  Use the joystick to paint what you want into the drawing area.

To  draw, move the cursor from the menu into the drawing area and press the
button  to  put down a block of the selected color.  Choose "Draw Another Color"
to  select  another  of  the four available color choices.  Choose "Change Paint
Color" to change the color of the paint swatch currently selected.
For more information see Graphics Reference Guide.


Magic Spells...

Magic spells are both a category of things in their own right and something
which  can  be hooked to Magic Items, Portals (doors), and Obstacles and Spaces.
Altogether there are 15 different base spells available.
Each  magic  spell  can  be made to display a short three-line text message
when it is invoked (providing the opportunity to explain to the player/character
what  is  happening) and may be made to disappear after its first use.  Here are
the 15 base spells and what each does.

1.   Kill  all  But an Owner of (you pick the things from your Master Thing
List).   Don't  be  casual about how you employ such a spell in your adventures.
It  does just what it says, and no one wants to adventure in a world where death
is too frequent and too often arbitrary and unexpected.

2.   Summon/Banish  Creature (you specify the creature, picking it from your
Master  Creature  List).   This can be used to banish all creatures present in a
room  where  the  spell  is  cast,  or  it can be used to summon to the room any
creature  on the Master Creature List.  Banishment happens immediately.  Summons
will  not  be  answered until the following turn.  This spell may not be used on
the  world  map.   (Note:   When  you  banish  creatures,  they  take  all their
possession into oblivion with them.  Don't banish the creature who stole the key
you need to get into the next room.)



3.   Increase  Magic  Defense  But  Not  to Better Than...(you pick from four
possibilities).   At its most powerful, a magic defense completely absorbs blows
from normal weapons and reduces damage from magic weapons by half.

4.   Decrease  Magic  Defense  But  Not to Better Than...(you pick from four
possibilities).  The opposite of the previous spell.

5.   Increase  the  Victim's...(you  pick Constitution, Strength, Dexterity,
Speed,  Wisdom,  Dodge  Skill,  Parry Skill, Armor Skill, Melee Skill or Missile
Skill.)  Traits  are increased by 1 point, skills by 5.  The effect of the spell
is permanent - until the next spell is encountered, that is.


6.   Decrease  the  Victim's...(you  pick  Constitution, Strength, Dexterity,
Speed,  wisdom,  Dodge  Skill, Parry Skill, Armor Skill, Melee Skill, or Missile
Skill).  See previous spell.

    7.   Change  Power of Victim by...(you specify a number between -63 to +63).
Because  an  individual's  Power  automatically  changes in the direction of his
Wisdom  each  turn,  it  does not matter whether you choose for the effect to be
temporary  or permanent.  All changes to Power are temporary, no matter what the
setting.

8.  Change Life Force by ...(you specify a number between -63 to +63).  Like
the  previous  spell,  except  Life Force does not decay when it is greater than
Constitution.   A permanent increase is Life Force can only be lost in battle or
to another spell.

9.  Give to Victim (you pick the thing from you Master Thing List).  One use
for this spell is to give a Magic Spell to a hero/player or a creature.

10.  Display Long Message (up to 8 lines long, up to 32 characters per line).
This  spell  is usually used with the spaces and obstacles in a means of telling
the player/character about a special occurrence or object or to give a clue.

11.   Play  Music  (you  select from 30 different possibilities).  Choices 1
through  12  are  sound effects.  Choices 13-30 are musical themes.  The choices
with  "endless"  in  their  titles  (14  through 17) will continue to play until
another  music choice is activated.  (See "Stacking Things on One Square" for an
example of an effective use of endless themes.)

12.   Rid  Room  of  Every  Uncarried...(you pick the thing from your Master
Thing List).  A particularly fiendish use of this spell would be to attach it to
an invisible object (one with no picture) which you place directly in front of a
visible  treasure,  naming  the  treasure  as  the  thing  to  rid  the room of.
Alternately  you  could  use  it  to  rid  the  room of a covering placed over a
valuable  object  hiding  underneath.   (See  the  section  called "Let There Be
Light".

13.   Add  to Room One (you pick the thing from your Master Thing List).  Does
just what it says.  The effect is immediate.

14.  Activate All Things at This Place.  Especially useful for setting off a
series  of  spells  associated  with items, spaces and/or obstacles stacked on a
single square.  See "Stacking Things on One Square".

15.   Do  nothing.  Use this when you simply want to display a short message
at  the  bottom  of the screen but don't want to do anything else.  Since spells
can't be dropped, it might also be used to give creatures or player/characters a
characteristic  they could not rid themselves of-a curse perhaps, which prevents
passage through certain doors.




Some Special Things and Their Uses...

The  basic  Fantasy,  Spy/Mystery and Science Fiction construction sets all
contain  a  few very useful special purpose things.  Here's a listing of some of
them, along with brief descriptions.  For more information, see Things Reference
Guide.

1.   The  Do-all  Spaces  and  Obstacle - The Do-All-Walk Space is activated
whenever  someone  walks  on  it and the Do-All-Bump Obstacle when someone bumps
into  it,  and  each  will  then activate, in order from top to bottom, whatever
spells  lie  below  it.  The Do-All-Carry Space (a Custom space, actually) works
the  same  way,  but  is  activated  only by someone carry;ing a particular item
(which you get to pick when you place one of these in a room.)


2.   The  Music  and Message Custom Spaces - When you place these in a room,
you  get  to choose the particular text or music which will be produced when the
space is activated - either by being walked on or by a Do-All spell above.  it.
 
3.   The Rid the Room Custom Space - Place this one in a room and you get to
tell  ACS  what  to  remove  from  the  room  when  the space is activated.  Its
storytelling  power  lies  in  its  association with the thing you name when you
place  it  in  the room.  For a nice example of what can be done with a "Rid the
room"  spell,  see the discussion of "Let There Be Light".  (Note:  If you check
the  basic  sets,  you'll find other custom spell spaces there as well - "Add to
Room  1", "Increase Life Force", etc.  Like the Rid the Room Custom space, these
let you pick the spell modifier when you place them in a room.

4.   The  Flight  Spell  -  If  you use "Edit Thing" to take a look at this
spell,  you  may find it hard to imagine what it's good for.  By itself, it does
nothing.   But  if  you  set  some  terrain to be "Open Only to Owners of Flight
Spell", it becomes powerful indeed.  (The same principle can be used, of course,
for  rivers open only to owners of a swim spell, a trick employed to get "Rivers
of Light" off to an interesting start.)

5.   The  Decoder  Custom  Space  -  Available in the Spy/Mystery set, this
variation  on  the  message  space  described above will display text whenever a
Coded  Message is dropped on it.  It's a good example of how a basic idea like a
custom  message  space can be tailored with a picture and a different activation
method  to  perform  a very useful function in an adventure.  The same trick was
used to produce the Help spaces in "How to Play" in Aventuria.


General Construction Tips and Techniques...

1.  Do some browsing and planning before you start constructing.

ACS  will  let you begin the construction process with as much or as little
as  you  like  (down  to  "nothing  but  graphics") on your adventure disk.  The
advantage  to starting with a basic construction set is the time it saves you in
the creation of Master Things and Creature Lists.
Pick  one of the sets and spend some time browsing through the Master Lists
to  see  what's  available.   Think  about  where  you  might use this powerful,
aggressive  enemy  creature  or  that  magical  crossbow.  Draw diagrams of your
regions on paper so you an think about where you want to place things.
If you decide you need something not in the set or want to modify something
that  is  there,  you  can  use the "Edit Things", or "Edit Creatures" and "Edit
Graphics" options to create new items or change existing ones.  In time you will
wind up with new versions of the basic sets which have been modified to fit your
own style, taste and adventure construction ideas.

2.  Pay attention to the pace of your adventure.

Some  actions  take  the  computer  longer  to  perform  than  others.   Be
thoughtful  about  how  you place these in your adventure.  When a door leads to
another  region  for  instance, the program must go to disk for new information.
Use  such doors sparingly so that adventurers do not tire of waiting for the new
information to appear.
Also  pay  attention to the order in which things occur.  When a short text
message  is  associated with a spell for instance, the message will be displayed
before  the  spell  itself  if activated.  Make sure your message makes sense if
read before the spell takes effect.

3.   Pay  attention  to  the  pacing  of difficulty and frustration in your
adventure.

If  you  make  things too hard at the outset, no one will keep playing long
enough  to  discover all the neat stuff you planted.  Make sure you've given the
adventurers  enough success and mystery to hook them before you ask them to deal
with your more fiendishly clever tricks and traps.
You  might  accomplish this by leaving a very powerful but breakable weapon
in  the  first room adventurers will enter.  Or you might orchestrate matters so
that  passing through an early door delivers a big temporary boost in Life Force
or  Power.   Either of these actions will help adventurers make it through early
perils without giving them too much of a permanent advantage.

4.  Use the work you put into one adventure as a starting place for others.

To  use  an  existing  adventure  as  a  starting  place, begin with a disk
containing  that  adventure  and use the "Erase Part of the Adventure" option to
get rid of the parts you don't want.  (To find the "Erase Part of the Adventure"
option,  select "Construct an Adventure" and then select "Do More Detailed Work"
twice.)  You  can  erase  the  maps  of the world and the regions, or the Master
Creature List, or everything but the graphics.
You  can  also copy graphics from one adventure into another.  Select "Copy
Graphics From Another Adventure", then select the option you want and follow the
instructions  as  they  appear.   You  could  use  this option to copy a strange
graphics  set  into an existing adventure.  More to the point, though, you could
use it to copy your own custom graphics set into each of a series of adventures.

5.  Back up and date your work.

Good  adventures  are not constructed in a day.  As you work, make a backup
copy at the end of each session and put the date you did the work in the name of
the  adventure  (e.g.,  "Superdungeon  Oct.   15").   Doing  this keeps you from
trusting all your hard work to a single disk and makes it easy for you to figure
out which version is the latest should you get confused about the disks.


Map Reference Guide...

1)  Draw  World  Map  -  The  full map area is 40 squares by 40 squares.  Only a
10-square  by  15-square  section  can be on the screen at one time.  The larger
rectangle  to  the  right  of the map represents the whole map; the smaller grey
rectangle inside of it represents the section visible on the screen.
The  square  on the lower right contains a picture of the terrain type that
can  be  added if you move the cursor up into the map area and press the button.
Moving  the  cursor  into  the menu and to the left brings a new terrain picture
into  the square.  The name of the terrain type appears at the end of the second
line.  Whether the terrain is passable or whether it evokes a spell when crossed
appears on the third line.
When  you put a piece of terra on top of existing terrain, the new replaces
the old.  There are 16 different terrain types available.  To select a new name,
picture,  or travel condition or spell for any of the 16, see "Change Definition
of  Map Terrain" below.  To learn how to put doors on the World Map, see "Adding
Doors" below.

2) Change Map Name - Selecting this option lets you type in a new name (up to 15
characters long) for a map.

3)  Change Definition of Map Terrain - Repeatedly select "Terrain #" to move the
selecting  highlight  among the 16 possibilities.  To select "Change Picture" to
change the picture for the highlighted terrain type.  (Both these options can be
activated  by moving the joystick either right or left to go forward or backward
through the available choices.)

Select  "Name"  to  type  in  a  new  name,  and select the fourth option to
determine  whether  and  under what conditions the terrain may be passed over by
players and creatures.  If necessary, ACS will bring up the Master Thing List so
you  can pick an object or spell from it to complete your editing of the terrain
type.
Terrain   pictures   are  shown  in  groups  of  4  so  you  can  see  what
multiple-square  patches  of  the terrain will look like when you're considering
new  pictures.  If you want to modify one of the pictures or draw a new one, see
Graphics Reference Guide.

Important!   Terrain  types 13-16 are portals (doors).  See "Adding Doors" below
for information about using them.

4)  Movement  Off  Edge  of  Map  Is/Is  Not  Permitted  - Select this option to
determine  whether  or not the map "wraps".  If you permit movement off the edge
of  the map, the top edge and bottom one are treated as though there were joined
to  each  other,  and  so  are  the  right  and  left edges.  Topologically, the
three-dimensional  shape  a wrapping map corresponds to is a torus.  (A doughnut
is also a torus.  Think about it.)

5) Move Entrance to the Adventure - Use this option to select the spot where all
new adventures will start regardless of when they are added to the game.

Adding  Portals  (Doors)  - ACS considers terrain types 13-16 to be one-way
doors  regardless  of their pictures or names.  When you add a door to the world
map,  follow  the  instructions as they appear to say where you want the door to
come out.
You may have up to 32 one-way doors on the World Map.  Those same doors may
also  be  used  to  mark the exit points of one-way doors which lead from inside
rooms back to the World Map.
Using  the  same  place  to  mark an entrance and an exit destination helps
players  make  conceptual sense of the map.  A door might represent the entrance
to  a  city  whose  streets and shops are defined by the rooms in the region the
door  leads  to.   Making a one-way door lead form inside the region back to the
same  spot helps underline the notion that the region represents an extension of
the world map.
You may also use 31 additional locations on the map as places where one-way
doors  come  out.  You can even have doors on the world map lead to other places
on the world map (see the Boat in Aventuria, for instance).
Generally,  you  will not want to add doors to the world map until you have
build  the regions you want them to lead to.  Moreover, because ACS will let you
put down whatever you want, including impassable terrain, on top of places where
one-way  doors come out, you will not want to do a lot of map revision after you
have  designated  a  number  of  map locations as one-way door exits.  You won't
usually  want  to  have  players  emerge  from  a region only to find themselves
surrounded by mountains unable to move.

For  information about "Editing Map Creatures", see "Putting Random Creatures in
an Adventure" in the Creature Reference Guide.


Room and Region Reference Guide...

Each  Adventure can contain up to 15 regions and each region can contain up
to  16  rooms.   Select  "Add  Region"  to  build a new region, and select "Edit
Region" to modify or add to an existing region.
Either  choice  leads  to  a  menu  which  contains the options "Add Room",
"Delete  Room"  and "Edit Room", (If you select "Edit Region", you will be asked
to select the one you want to edit before these choices appear.)

1.   Add  Room  - When you select "Add a Room", the room first appears as a
small flashing square which you may move about on the screen with your joystick.
Once  you  press  the  button,  the  joystick  will make the square grow in size
instead  of moving it.  You may use it to make a room up to 15 spaces wide by 10
spaces high.
New  rooms  may  be  placed anywhere you like so long as they don't overlap
with existing rooms (but rooms may share a common wall).

2.   Delete Room - This option lets you place the cursor in a room you want
to get rid of and press the button to get rid of it.  Note:  If you accidentally
delete  the  destination  for a one-way door, ACS will banish creatures who pass
through the door and will place all player/characters who pass through it on the
world map at the adventure's starting point.

3.   Edit Room - Select this option and use the cursor to identify the room
you want to edit, then select a choice from the new menu which will appear.  The
choices  allow  you  to  change  the  room's  name and to add, subtract and edit
creatures and things in the room.

4.   Change  Room  Name - Selecting this option lets you type in a new name
for the room.

5.   Edit  Room's  Contents - Selecting this option brings a picture of the
room  to  the screen along with a new menu of options.  The options on the right
let  you  pick  things and creatures from your Master Things and Master Creature
Lists, and they let you add those things to the room at the places you designate
with the cursor.  Use "Add Many Things" when you want to put down several copies
of the same thing before selecting something else.
The  top option on the left - "Delete Thing" - may be used to remove either
things or resident creatures from the room.  The selecting cursor will appear so
you can pick the thing or creature you want to delete.
Selecting  "Examine  Room"  lets  you  move  the  selecting  cursor around,
pressing  the  button  when you want a description of the thing or creature at a
particular  spot.   (Note:   The  Examine  option  will tell you if a spell at a
location  produces  music  or a sound effect, but it will not play the sound for
you.)
"Select  Wall  Picture"  lets  you choose a new picture for the wall of the
room.   This  is  especially useful when you want the room to "play the role" of
something else - a field, for instance, or a forest, or a mountain valley.


6.   Adding  Doors  -  When you use the "Add Thing" option to add a two-way
door  to  a room, the program will let you place the door on a wall shared by an
adjacent  room.   When you use it to add a one-way door, follow the instructions
as  they  appear to determine where the door comes out.  Doors may lead to other
places  within  the same region (or even in the same room), or to other regions,
or to the world map.

7.   Stacking Things on Top of Each Other - Unlike editing on the world map
where  new terrain replaces whatever old terrain it is placed on top of, you may
stack many things in the same space in rooms.  For more information, see "Stacks
of Things".

To  learn  more  about  the  "Edit Resident Creature" and "Edit Random Creature"
options study the Creature Notes section below.


Creature Reference Guide...

You  can have up to 128 creatures in a Master Creature List.  Each can have
its  own  unique combination of name, picture, traits, skills, battle equipment,
behavior patterns and possessions.
Further,  you  can  customize  each of these characteristics for individual
creatures after you have placed them in a room or instructed them to appear in a
room  or  on the World Map.  Thus, you might design a single leprechaun for your
Master  Creature  List,  yet  have  many  leprechauns  in  the game, each with a
different list of weapons and possessions.

1.   Creating  and  Editing  Creatures  -  To  add creatures to your Master
Creature List and modify ones already there, select "Construct an Adventure, and
then  select "Do More Detailed Work" twice, and finally select "Edit Master List
of Creatures".

2.   Grouping  Creatures  in  Catagories  - ACS lets you divide your Master
Creature List into 8 smaller lists to make it easier to think about the kinds of
creatures  you  have.   The  Fantasy  builder  set, for instance, has four lists
containing  persons  (one for friends, one for enemies, one for thieves, and one
for  neutrals),  two  lists containing beasts (one for hostile beasts, the other
for  neutral  ones), one for evil beings (banshes, demons and the like), and one
left open for a category of your own choosing.
To  change  the  name of a creature category, select "Change Creature Class
Name",  then select the name you want to change and type in a new one.  You pick
the  class  a  creature  belongs  to  when  you use the "Add Creature" and "Edit
Creature" options.  To learn how to make a creature behave like a friend, enemy,
etc., see Setting Creature Strategy below.

3.   Changing  a  Creature's Profile - Begin by selecting "Edit a Creature"
and then the name of the creature you want or by selecting "Add a Creature".  To
change  any  item  in  a list of creature characteristics, move the highlight to
that  item  with  the  joystick,  then simultaneously hold down the button while
moving the stick.



If the item needs typed input from you, ACS will ask for it.  If the item is
one where you can choose among 2 or more preset possibilities, repeatedly select
the  item  to browse through the possibilities until you reach the one you want.
If  the  item  needs something from the Master Things List, it will bring up the
list so you may select from it.
Use  the  last item in the profile list to determine how many copies of the
creature  ACS  may  put  into  an adventure when you use the "Let ACS Finish the
Adventure"  option.   When  picking  resident  creatures,  ACS  looks  first for
creatures  which  are  limited  in  number.   When  assigning randomly appearing
creatures, ACS looks for creatures which may appear many times.

4.   Creature Traits, Skills and Possessions - You can set any of the trait
and  skill  numbers  anywhere  between  0  and their maximum (see Traits section
earlier).   To calculate how much a creature or character's strength will let it
carry, subtract Life Force from Constitution and divide by 2, then subtract your
answer  from Strength and multiply and result by 100.  Individuals carrying more
than half their maximum capacity will be slowed down.
Before  you  can ready a weapon or a piece of armor, you must add it to the
creature's  inventory with the "Change or Examine Possessions" option.  Choosing
the  "Mimics"  option  causes  the  creature  to exactly mirror the opponents it
encounters.   (Note:   If  you  set  Speed to 0, the creature's name will not be
displayed when it is its turn to move.)
Selecting  "Change  or  Examine  Possessions" lets you page through all the
treasures,  magic  items, weapons and armor on your Master Thing List.  Pressing
the  button highlights the item indicated by the pointer on the left side of the
screen,  and adds that item to the creature's inventory.  If the item is already
highlighted (i.e., already belongs to the creature), another will be added if an
individual is allowed to own more than it already has.  Otherwise, the item will
be  removed  from  the  creature's  inventory.  Moving the pointer to the top or
bottom  of the list brings a new segment of the list to the screen.  There are 4
segments in all.
Deciding  what  to give to creatures and how powerful, durable and skillful
to  make  them  is  an  art,  not  a  science.  Finally there is no shortcut for
experience  when  it  comes  to  shaping  creatures  to  fit your adventure.  In
general,  the  higher the number in any category and the more potent the weapons
and  magic  in  the creature's possession, the more powerful and resourceful the
creature.
But  player/characters  can  themselves  become  more  powerful  and better
equipped  as  they  play.   Thus,  the  effect on the game of a creature's power
possessions  and goals depends upon where in the adventure it is encountered.  A
mean  duel with maximum power and the magic sword to end all magic swords is not
someone  you  want to run into just outside the main entrance, nor is a complete
wimp worthy to face a powerful experienced hero.
The  three construction sets each contain a range of creature strengths and
weaknesses  in  each  category.  Learn you way to good adventure constructing by
experimenting  with  them.   Place them in rooms or on the map, then play to see
whether  they  have  the  effect  you wanted for your adventure.  If they don't,
return to construction and edit them, then try them out again in play.


5.   Setting Creature Strategy - Thing of creatures as having personalities
which  shape their decisions.  When it comes time for them to move, they look at
the  alternative  possibilities, then choose a path or action that matches their
personality.
Use  the  three  items  on  the  strategy  line  to  set a creature's basic
personality.   Each  item  has  two possible settings.  Think of the last item -
Friend/Enemy/Thief/Neutral  -  as determining four basic types, and think of the
first two as a pair shaping that type's behavior.
A  creature  which  is Aggressive and either Brave or unwounded (Life Force
equal to or exceeds Constitution) will behave as a fighter.  A creature which is
Peaceful   or  which  is  both  Cautious  and  wounded  (Life  Force  less  than
Constitution) will behave as a slinker.  No slinker will attack or cast a spell.
When  a  creature's  turn comes, each possible type will look for an pursue
its targets in the order they are listed below.

A) A fighter enemy loves to attach player/characters and friends, and may attack
neutrals  and  thieves  it encounters on the way to its goal.  It won't attack a
fellow enemy.  It will seek a player/character, an aggressive friend, a peaceful
friend, an exit, an aggressive neutral or thief, a peaceful neutral or thief, or
gold.

B)  A  slinker enemy will seek a peaceful enemy, an aggressive enemy, an exit or
gold.

C)  A  fighter  friend  will  seek an aggressive enemy, an aggressive neutral, a
peaceful  enemy,  an aggressive thief, a player/character, or an exit.  It loves
to  attack the first four categories, is willing to attack a peaceful neutral or
thief, but won't attack a player/character or another friend.

D) A slinker friend will seek a player/character, or an exit.

E)  A  fighter  neutral  will  seek an aggressive friend or enemy, an aggressive
thief,  a  peaceful  friend  or enemy, a peaceful thief or aggressive neutral, a
peaceful  neutral,  gold  or an exit.  It is not averse to attacking anybody but
prefers  to  attack player/characters, aggressive friends, peaceful thieves, and
aggressive enemies.

F) A slinker neutral will seek an exit.

G)  A  fighter  thief  will seek treasure or gold, or an exit.  It is willing to
attack  anybody  in  the  way  but  will  go  around a peaceful enemy, friend or
neutral, if possible.  (No allegiance is shown to other thieves, however.)

H) A slinker thief will seek treasures of gold or an exit.

Note:   A  creature  who  is damaged in combat with a player/character will:  1)
turn  into  a  neutral  if  currently  a friend; b) turn aggressive if currently
peaceful;  or  3)  turn into an enemy if currently a smart (see next paragraph),
aggressive  neutral.  For more information about creature movement, see the next
two sections.



6.   Creatures  and Spells - Creatures are smart if their Wisdom is greater
than  14 and dumb if it is less than 6.  Creatures between those limits will act
smart  some  of  the  time,  and the higher their Wisdom rating, the greater the
chance that they will do so.
Only  smart creatures will cast spells or use magic items when they possess
them, and even smart creatures will only cast spells when their Power is greater
than or equal to their Wisdom.
Creatures  will  cast  damaging  spells  only  on their foes and beneficial
spells  only  on  their  friends.  If a creature casts a "Banish" spell, it will
banish all creatures from the room except for itself.  Creatures cannot cast the
following:   Do  nothing, Rid room of all, Add to room one, Activate all things,
Display message and Play music.

7.  Additional Movement and Behavior Rules -

A)  Creatures  who  reside  in a room do not get a turn until a player/character
enters  the  room.   The  player/character  gets  his or her turn first, but the
creature  then  gets  its turn even if the player/character leaves the room.  In
that  case the creature may move toward an exit permitted to it (see next rule).
Creatures may, therefore, "follow" player/characters into a new room.

B)  No  creature  will  move  onto any space or obstacle, including custom ones.
Creatures will move onto doors only if the doors have no do-all, rid room or add
to room spells associated with them, and lead to someplace in the same region.

C)  Creatures  will  not  pick up magic items, weapons or armor.  All creatures,
except  friends and slinker neutrals, will pick up gold.  Only thieves will pick
up treasure.

D)  Most  creatures  will  go toward a less favorite goal if it is closer than a
more desirable one.

E) A slinking, wounded creature will see an exit.

F) Smart, powerful (Power greater than or equal to Wisdom) creatures will cast a
spell on their selected goal if it is an individual and they have an appropriate
spell.  If they have more than one appropriate spell, they will use the one with
the  lowest item number.  Smart, half-powerful creatures will use magic items in
a similiar fashion provided the objects are activated when used.

G) An overburdened creature will drop a magic item, a treasure or gold.

H)  A creature will ready an appropriate weapon.  If it is "safe" (not next to a
foe)  it  will  ready a missile weapon if it has one.  Otherwise it will ready a
melee weapon if it has one.  If it has more than one appropriate weapon, it will
ready the one with the lowest item number.

I)  A  fighter  who  is "safe" and has a readied missile weapon will fire if its
selected  goal  is  a  foe.  Note:  fired missiles may hit anyone in the line of
fire.

J)  A  friend  who  selected a player/character as a goal and who is next to the
player/character will drop a magic item if it has one.

8.   Putting  Random  Creatures  in  an  Adventure - By selecting "Edit Map
Creature"  or  "Edit Room's Random Creature" you may instruct a creature to show
up  some items but not others in a particular type of terrain or in a particular
room.   This  is  particularly  useful  for  creating events like the occasional
appearance  of  a river god or of a ghost who sometimes haunts a corridor.  It's
also  a  way  of  keeping  the  adventure  fresh  by  giving players a chance to
experience different challenges on different visits to the same room.
When  a random creature appears on the map, the hero/player is drawn into a
special  area  for  the  encounter.   The  borders of the are will match the map
territory in which the player/character was traveling.
You  can  have  one random creature list for the world map and one for each
region in an adventure.  Each random creature list can contain up to 8 creatures
chosen  from the Master Creature List (and customized i.e., give different trait
settings, possessions, etc.).
Each creature on the random creature list for the world map can be assigned
to  appear  in  a particular terrain type by repeatedly selecting the "Appearing
in" option.  The percentage of the time that the creature will appear can be set
for all random creatures.
The  appearance percentage range for random map creatures is 0 to 60%.  For
room  random  creatures  it is 0 to 75%.  (The range can be set higher for rooms
because  adventurers  typically spend less time in particular rooms than they do
in  particular  terrain  types on the world map.  Also, the opportunity to add a
creature exists before every move on the map, but it exists only upon entering a
room in a region.
Once  you've  added a random creature to a random creature list, you cannot
remove  it.   But  you  can set its appearance percentage to 0 or edit it into a
completely different creature.  Random creatures will only be added to a spot in
the room which doesn't have a thing on it.
No  more  than  16  creatures  can  occupy  a  region at once.  Once 16 are
present,  no  new  random  creatures  will appear and no creatures will answer a
"summon  creature" spell until someone leaves.  Random creatures which have been
added  to  rooms  no  longer  occupied  by  a  player/character are periodically
removed.


Thing Reference Guide...

A  thing  in  ACS  can  be  just  about anything - a weapon or magic item a
hero/player  might  pick up and use, a door leading from one place to another, a
space  fixed so that walking on it causes music to play, etc.  And things can be
made  to  masquerade  as  other things (even as terrain and individuals) to keep
adventurers  on  their  toes.   You  can have up to 128 things on an adventure's
Master Thing List.

1.   Creating and Editing Things - To add things to your Master Things List
and  modify ones already there, select "Construct an Adventure", then select "Do
More Detailed Work" twice, and finally select "Edit Things".  The profile of one
thing in your Master Thing List will appear.


The  options  in thing profiles work just as they do elsewhere in ACS.  Some
must  be  repeatedly  selected  to  bring  up their various possibilities, while
others will ask you to type in text or numbers.  To add a new thing, select "Add
Thing" and follow the instructions as they appear.
To  work  with  a different thing already on the list, select "Edit Another
Thing".  A new menu will appear along with a list of the things in one of the 13
different thing catagories.  Moving the joystick up and down moves the highlight
from  item  to  item  in  the  list.   Moving  the  joystick  right  selects the
highlighted item.  Moving it left brings a new category to the screen.
Once you add a thing to your list, you cannot remove it, nor can you change
the  decision (which you made when adding it) about how many of it an individual
may own.  You can, however, edit it into a completely different thing within the
same category.
the  categories  are  Treasures,  Magic Item, Missile Weapon, Melee Weapon,
Armor,  Magic  Spell,  Portal,  Space,  Custom Space, Obstacle, Custom Obstacle,
Store, Room Floor.  The options which you may set for each thing depend upon the
category the thing is in.

2.   Treasures  -  Treasures are perhaps the simplest of the things you can
include in an adventure.  You may select their weight (which determines how easy
they  will be to carry), their value (important for determining how much a store
will  sell  them  for  and how much it will offer to buy them back), and whether
they will disappear if dropped.
But  even  within  this  simplicity, ingenious tricks are possible.  If you
look,  for  instance, at the Magic Bag in the Fantasy builder set, you'll notice
that  its  weight is set to a negative amount.  ACs adds the weight of all items
in  an individual's possession when determining whether the individual is strong
enough to carry everything without slowing down.  Having something with negative
weight  means  being  able  t  carry much more than before without slowing down.
Whoever finds that magic bag will be grateful indeed.  (The same negative weight
trick is also used for horse in the Fantasy set.)
There's  one  Treasure you'll always find on a brand new list.  It's called
Gold,  and  it  has  some special properties.  Individuals are allowed to own as
many  of these as they can carry (25,000 pieces is the maximum, more than anyone
could  possibly  carry  unless you set the weight to 0).  And you may not change
the value from the preset value of 1.
Change the picture and name when you want to replace the gold standard with
something  different  for  a  particular adventure.  (Dollars, for instance, are
used in the Spy/Mystery builder set, and crystite is used in the Science Fiction
one.)  Whatever  the  standard, by carefully setting the weight in tune with the
strength  you  give  to  characters  and  creatures  and  the  value you give to
desirable objects, you build a basic economy for your world.
For  example,  consider  a  world  in  which  gold  weighs 1 unit per piece,
individuals  begin  with  strength  of 12, and the magic sword to end all swords
costs  1500.   In  such a world, a hero would need to be the beneficiary of some
strength-increasing  spells  or  the  lucky finder of a magic bag of some light,
valuable objects (like jewels) before he or she could afford that sword.



3.   Magic  Items - Magic items are treasures with magic spells attached to
them.   The  spell  can  be set to be invoked when the item is picked up and /or
used  and/or  dropped.   For a discussion of all the possible spells, see "Magic
Spells" earlier in these instructions.

d 4.  Missile Weapons, Melee Weapons and Armor - Missile weapons are those which
can  operate  at  a  distance  (bows, rifles, grenades, etc.), Melee weapons are
effective  up  close  (daggers,  claws, clubs, etc.).  Armor absorbs some of the
force of blows against its wearer (chain mail, thick hide, shield, etc.)

Power (set between 0 and 31) is a measure of the damage a weapon will do or,
in the case of armor, of the damage it will prevent.

Attack  adjustment (set between -35% and +40% for weapons and -65% and +10%
for armor) combines with a player/character's weapon or armor skill to determine
how  likely  it  is  that blows or missiles will hit their mark.  The higher the
positive attack adjustment, the more likely success will be.
Note:  The attack adjustment for armor does not affect anything about blows
struck against the armor.  Instead it affects the success of its wearer with the
weapons  he  is using.  Think of it as a representing how awkward and cumbersome
the  armor  is.   And  think  of  armor  skill  as  the  ability to overcome the
cumbersomeness of the protection so you can fight well while wearing it.
You  might also use armor as a "cloak of skill" by setting it's power to 0,
so it doesn't ward off blows, while setting the attack adjustment to +10%, so it
will  improve  its  owners  skill  with weapons.  Such a piece of armor might be
called  a  "priest's  protection  spell" and could be set to disappear after the
first use or to break easily (see next item).

Chance of Breaking (set between o and 15%) determines how likely it is that
the  weapon or armor will break when it is used.  (Individuals automatically try
to  parry  melee blows if they have a melee weapon of their own readied.) If you
are  using a weapon to represent some natural quality that it doesn't make sense
that the owner would lose, be sure to set the Chance of Breaking to 0.

Magic/Not  Magic determines how successful the weapon will be against magic
defenses.

Select  Usable  Only  by Owner for items like claws, teeth, fists, etc.  If
this  option  is  set to Can be Used By Anyone After Owner Dies, the weapon will
appear  when the body of the departed owner disappears.  A player/character will
not be permitted to drop an item that is usable only by its owner.

Range   determines  the  number  of  spaces  (horizontally,  vertically  or
diagonally)  that  missiles  will  travel  before  their force is spent.  (Note:
missiles  will  not  pass through Obstacles, but they can pass between two items
which are diagonally adjacent to each other, if the shot is accurate.)

Thinking  About  Weapon  and Armor Design - Like creature constructing, the
design  and placement of weapons in an adventure is an art, not a science.  As a
starting  place,  study  the  weapons  and armor in the basic construction sets.
Notice  that  the  more powerful ones tend to have negative attack adjustments -
that is, they decrease the likelihood of a successful blow and therefore require
higher skill ratings if they are to be used effectively.
One  good  rule,  then,  is that the more powerful the weapon or armor, the
greater  the  degree  of  skill  which  ought  to be needed to wield or wear it.
Another  good  rule  is  to  avoid making super weapons (+40% Attack Adjustment,
Power  in  the  10's or 20's) unless you want to guarantee a huge edge to anyone
who  finds them.  Try placing and modifying different weapons in different ways,
then notice their effect on the game when you play.  In time, you will develop a
feel  for  the  kinds  of  weapon  characteristics  that  best suit the kinds of
adventures you want to design and play.

5.   Magic Spells - Magic Spells are both a category of things in their own
right  and  something  which can be hooked to things (Magic Items), portals, and
obstacles  and spaces (including custom obstacles and spaces).  Altogether there
are  15  different  base  spells available.  They are described earlier in these
instructions.
When  a  spell belongs to the Magic Spell category, it can only belong to a
creature or a player/character, and it is invoked only when the owner casts it -
and  only then if he, she or it has enough power and/or luck to do so.  (You may
set the amount of power required to any number between 0 and 127).
Each  Magic  Spell  can  be made to display a short three-line text message
when it is invoked (providing the opportunity to explain to the player/character
what is happening) and may be made to disappear after its first use.
When  spells are invoked by a space or obstacle or by dropping an object on
a  space,  they  take  effect  at that space or obstacle.  When they are cast or
invoked  by  the  use  of a Magic Item, the her/player chooses the target of the
spell.   (An  exception:  if a spell invoked by a dropped object applies only to
an  individual  and  it's  dropped  on  a square next to the dropper unless it's
dropped on a creature.)
Magic Items which invoke spells upon being picked up take effect where they
were,  unless  they apply to individuals.  If they do apply to individuals, they
act on the one who picked them up.

6.   Portals  -  Portals  (i.e., doors, passageways, tunnels, time windows,
etc.)  may  invoke  a  spell  (which you pick) whenever they are passed through.
Alternately,  they may simply allow passage from one room to another (or even to
another region or to the world map).  And if they are not set to invoke a spell,
they  may be set to allow passage only to those who own or don't own a thing you
pick from the Master Thing List.
Portals  may be designated as normal two-way doors or as one-way, no return
passages.
Two-way doors can only be used to provide passage between rooms which share
a  common wall.  One-way, no-return passages can be made to lead anywhere within
the region they start in, or anywhere on the map, or anywhere in another region.
When  you  install  them,  the  program  will  prompt you through the process of
setting where they come out.


Whenever  you make passages lead from one region to another, or to and from
regions  and  the  map,  ACS  must go to the disk for new information.  Use such
jumps  by  all  means, but to keep the pace of your adventure brisk (and because
jumps  from  one  region to another can be very disorienting), use such passages
sparingly.
If  a  Portal  is  set  to  bar  passage  to  all  carrying or not carrying
something, it may also be set to display a 3-line message explaining why passage
is blocked.  You may type in any message you want.  You may also set the blocked
passage  so  it  will destroy the object named when you pass through it - a nice
little way to set a chasm so it can only be crossed by a rope which breaks after
delivering you to the other side.
Don't forget that you can have any picture for a door that you like.  For a
delightfully  puzzling use of that fact, see the room where the whole wall seems
made of doors and the adjacent one where there seems to be no door at all in the
Land of Aventuria mini-adventure called "Deep Dank Dungeon".

7.   Spaces  and Custom Spaces - These things offer a way to put spells and
barriers  within  a  room  without  using a door.  Like doors, Spaces and Custom
Spaces  can be made to invoke any spell, or they can be set to bar passage - and
say  why  -  to  any player/character carrying or not carrying anything you pick
from the Master Thing List.  In addition, a Custom Space can be made to invoke a
spell if a thing you specify is dropped on it.
A   Custom   Space  is  like  a  wild  card.   It  lets  you  choose  which
characteristics  you  want in common for every copy you put down, and which ones
you  want to vary each time you put a copy down.  The Help spaces (marked with a
big  H) used in the "Land of Aventuria" adventures on your ACS disk offer a good
illustration  of the usefulness of Custom Spaces.  By creating the Help space as
a  Custom Space, the tutorial designers were able to give you a symbol you could
depend  on for helpful information and still give you different information each
time they used the symbol.
A  Custom  Space  can also be used as a "vending machine", a place where an
individual  can drop one thing and get back another.  To create this effect, set
line  5 to "Invoke Spell When Thing Dropped Here" and pick the thing you want to
use as quarters ("Gold" perhaps).  Then set line 7 to "Add To Room One" and pick
the  thing  you want the machine to dispense (anything from candy bar to a magic
sword).   Since  this  is  a  Custom Space, you must pick either the thing to be
dropped or the thing produced when you put this trick into the room.
There  is  one  limit  on Custom Spaces.  While they can be associated with
both  a  spell  and  a  thing  (if  they  contain  a  spell evoked by dropping a
particular  item, for instance), you cannot wait until placing them in a room to
pick  both  the  spell and the thing.  One or the other must be specified during
construction  of  the  Custom Space.  (Note:  ACS will not use any Custom Spaces
when you use the "Let ACS Finish the Adventure" option.)
Spaces and Custom Spaces are wonderfully versatile props.  Turned into beds
and  chairs  with the appropriate spell attached (Increase Life force), they can
be  made to heal all who "rest" upon them (i.e., move onto them).  As "costumes"
they  can  masquerade  as  anything  or  terrain  type, creating puzzles for the
adventurer where things are not what they seem.



You  might, for instance, make a space called "invisible cover" which is the
same color as the floor.  By placing this item on top of other things in a room,
you  could  then  hide those things from view.  You might then make a Magic Item
which  invokes  the spell "Rids the Room of All Uncarried Invisible covers" when
it  is  picked  up.   Picking  up  the item would then have the effect of making
visible any item covered by an invisible cover.
For  more  uses  of  Spaces  and Custom Spaces, see "Stacking Things on One
Space" below.

8.   Obstacles and Custom Obstacles - To make a place in a room or on a map
impassable  to  everyone  under all circumstances, put an Obstacle there (like a
table  or  mountain).   If  you  want  the  obstacle  to be temporary, set it to
disappear after the first time it's bumped into.
You  may  also  associate  a  spell  with an obstacle so it will be invoked
whenever  a player/character bumps into the obstacle.  If you want to be able to
chose  a  different  spell  modifier  each  time  you  put  a copy in a room - a
different text message, perhaps, or a larger or smaller increase in Life Force -
use a Custom Obstacle.
The  treasure  chest  used  in  the "In a Nazi Castle" mini-adventure is an
example of the usefulness of Custom Obstacles.  The designers were able to leave
immediately  recognizable  treasure  chests  throughout the adventure, yet put a
different treasure (with the "Add to Room One" spell) in each one.
Like  Spaces,  Obstacles are remarkably flexible props.  Obstacles with not
associated  spell  are useful for decorative detail, for making mazes with walls
within  rooms  (see  the  "Land  of  Aventuria" mini-adventure called "Deep Dark
Dungeon")  and  for  making  red  herrings - items which look like they might be
worth  investigating  but  which  adventurers discover to be simply obstacles if
they spend the moves necessary to check them out.

9.   Stores and Room Floors - Stores and Room Floors are not very editable,
but  they are especially useful.  You may pick the picture for each, and you may
have  only  one  of  each per Master Thing List.  The picture you assign to Room
Floor will be used for the floor of every new room you create.  ACS will not add
any  Stores  to  the  adventure  it  creates  when  you  use the "Let ACS Finish
Adventure" option.
When  you  place  a  store  in a room (you may add up to 1 per region while
editing  a room's contents), your things list will appear so that you can select
the  store's  inventory.   You  may  pick from among the treasures, magic items,
weapons  and  armor  in  your list.  How many you can have in inventory for each
item  depends  on  what  you chose for the "No one may own more than X of these"
option.  Just keep pressing the joystick button over an item to discover whether
you can have only 1 or up to 3 of it in stock.
Stores  know  the  value  you have assigned to things in the adventure, and
they compute all transactions accordingly.  Stores will also buy back items at a
reduced  rate.  The smarter a player/hero is (i.e., the higher his or her Wisdom
rating ) the better the deal.

10.   Stacking  Things  on One Space - You may have more than 500 different
things  in  each region in an adventure, and if you wished, you could stack them
all on a single square in one room.  And though you are not likely to go to that
extreme,  you  will  find  stacking  things on top of each other very useful for
creating various special effects.

When you create a stack of things, it's important to remember that the thing
on  top (the last one you put down) will be executed first.  Also, if a "Rid the
Room  of  All  Uncarried" spell names an item in a stack, that item will also be
removed  when  the  spell  is cast.  And finally, an "activate all things" spell
activates  only  spells  in  the  stack.   Here are some special effects you can
create with stacks of things.  Each stack is listed from top to bottom.

A)  Disease  -  This  stack is both simple and deadly:  1) "Activate All Things"
Space, 2) "Increase Life Force by 10 Temporarily" Space, 3) "Decrease Life Force
by 10 Permanently" Space.

The  adventurers  leave the square the stack was on with the same amount of
Life Force that they entered with, but now 10 units of that Life Force will tick
away  at  the rate of 1 unit every few turns - about twice as fast as Life Force
regenerates when less than Constitution.
Four such disease would be enough to kill an adventurer.  The rate of decay
would be too great for rest to overcome.

B)  Using  Endless  Music  Themes  -  Whenever  you  use the "Let ACS Finish the
Adventure"  option, it always places the goal of the adventure on top of a stack
designed  to  give  you  musical accompaniment while you read the congratulatory
message  for successful completing the adventure.  This "success stack" contains
1) the treasure/goal; 2) an "Activate All Things" space; 3) a "Play Music" space
set to play the endless theme which matches the music mood for the adventure; 4)
a  "Display  Message"  space  set to display a congratulatory page of text; 5) a
"Play Music" space set to play the short fanfare.

After  the  player/character  picks  up  the object, and then moves onto the
space,  the  Do-All  spell puts everything in motion.  The music starts to play.
The  message  appears  as the music continues.  When you press the button again,
the short fanfare plays, ending the "endless theme" in the process.

C)  Let There Be Light - Here's how to create the effect of shining a light into
a  dark room.  Place objects in the room and cover them with "Invisible Covers".
Then  put  the  following  stack  at  the  room's entrance:  1) an "Activate All
Things"  Space;  )  an  "Open  only  to owners of a lantern/Rids the room of all
uncarried  covers"  Custom  Space set to display the message, "Your light shines
into  every nook and cranny"; 3) an "Open only to those who don't own a lantern"
space  set  with  a  do  nothing spell which displays the message " You can walk
forward, but it's quite dark here".

The  Do-All  Space lets both passage conditions shine through but continues
only with the spell that was actually invoked.  Player/characters not carrying a
lantern  receive  the message that it's dark.  Those carrying a lantern are told
that light is shining into the room and they see items appear.

The  messages  play a crucial role in this trick, by the way.  By persuading
adventurers that they need a light, it sets their expectations so they'll accept
what  they later see as the result of light being shined into darkness.  In good
adventures, messages often work in this fashion.  Your ability to create depends
greatly  on  how clever you are in using messages to plant ideas you can play on
later.


Graphics Reference Guide...

You  can have 3 "pages" (screens) of pictures with up to 16 pictures on the
first  page,  up  to  48 on the second an up to 46 on the third - a total of 110
pictures in all.
The  third page in the set is reserved for pictures of creatures - that is,
you may choose pictures from it only when selecting pictures for creatures.  The
pictures  from the first two pages can be used for anything - terrain, things or
creatures.  Unless you make a change with the "Change Definition of Map Terrain"
option  (in  the  "Edit World Map" group), the 16 pictures on page 1 are used by
ACS as the world map terrain pictures.

Selecting  a  Picture  to Edit - Moving the cursor back and forth along the
"Edit  Another  Picture"  line  at the bottom moves the selecting bars among the
pictures  on the page.  The picture being selected by the bars is displayed just
above  the menus.  If you want to draw a brand new picture, select a blank space
on  the  page.   To  choose  a  different  page,  select  "Edit Another Group of
Pictures"

Drawing  -  Move  the  cursor up into the magnified version of the selected
picture.  Hold the button to put down a block of the color currently outlined by
the  selecting  box.  If you draw on top of colors different from the one you're
using,  the  new  color  will  replace  the old.  If you draw on top of the same
color,  the  color  will  be replaced by the currently selected background color
(the top left one of the four currently available color choices).

Selecting  a  Different  Color  -  Selecting  "Draw  another Color" moves a
selecting rectangle among the four currently available color choices.  Selecting
"Change Paint Color" changes the color in the selecting rectangle.  Changing the
paint  color in the top left choice changes the background color.  Any change in
paint color will affect all pictures using that color.

Erasing  a  Picture  - To erase a picture, select the background color (top
left of the four possibilities), then draw over everything with that color.

Note:   To  draw  pictures  which won't blur into adjacent pictures when you use
them  use  only  the  background color for the the bottom and right edges of the
picture.

APPENDIX BIBLIOGRAPHY

"Rivers  of  Light"  Bach,  Marcus,  Major  Religions  of  the  World, New York:
Abingdon Press, 1959

Champdor,  Albert,  Babylon  Ancient  Cities and Temples, New York:  London Elek
Books, G.P.  Putnam's Sons, Ryerson Press, 1958

David,  A.   Rosalie,  The  Ancient Egyptians:  Religious Beliefs and Practices,
London:  Routledge & Kegan paul, 1982

Faulkner,  R.O.D.   Lit., F.S.A., The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, Warminster,
England:  Aris & Philips Ltd., Vol.  I, 1973, Vol.  II, 1977, Vol.  III, 1978

Ferm,  Vergilius,  Ph.D.,  editor,  Ancient Religions, New York:  Citadel Press,
1965

Gastor,  Theodor  H.,  The  Oldest  Stories  in the World, New York:  The Viking
Press, 1952

Kramer,  Samuel  Noah,  History  Begins  at  Sumer:  Thirty Nine Firsts in Man's
Recorded History, Philadelphia:  The University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981

Leeming, David, Mythology, New York:  Newsweek Books 1976.

Mailer,  Norman,  Ancient  Evenings,  Boston-Toronto:   Little, Brown & Company,
1983.

Parrinder,   Geofrey,   African  Traditional  Religions,  London:   Hutchinson's
University Library, 1954

End..........