=== The Town and Wilderness === After you have created your character, you will begin your Hengband adventure in the town called Outpost. Symbols appearing on your screen will represent the walls, floor, objects, features, and creatures lurking about. In order to direct your character through his adventure, you will enter single character commands (see command.txt [b]). We recommend that you go to the Yeek cave next to your starting position in the town of Outpost. Although the King of Yeeks at the lowest level is a fierce enemy, the rest of the cave should be fairly safe. Once you complete this dungeon, you will be strong enough to leave Outpost in search of greater adventures. Carry lots of food and fuel, for the journey can be a long one. --- The Global Map ( Press the '<' at first! ) --- Since this world is very large, it is convenient to go into global map mode by pressing the '<' key, and then return to local map mode by '>' key when you are at the destination. When in the wilderness, stay in safe grids such as roads or plains; seas and lava fields are best avoided for a while. Many towns and dungeons await you; good ones to explore early on include the orc caves and the Labyrinth. To the northeast of the town of Morivant, near the center of the map, is the dread dungeon of Angband. It is home to the Serpent of Chaos, whom you must kill in order to win the game. ***** === Town and Wilderness Symbols === Symbols on your map can be broken down into three categories: terrain features such as walls, floor and doors, and trees, water and lava; objects which can be picked up such as treasure, weapons, magical devices, etc; and creatures which may or may not move about, but are mostly harmful to your character's well being. Symbols specific to the town and wilderness are shown below. Note that many creatures and objects from the dungeon may also appear in town and you should also review the comprehensive listing of all the various symbols which can be found in the dungeon section (see dungeon.txt#MapSymbols [c]). Terrain Shops ------- ----- # (Green) A Tree 1 Entrance to General Store ~ (Light Blue) Shallow Water 2 Entrance to Armory ~ (Dark Blue) Deep Water 3 Entrance to Weapon Smith ~ (Orange) Shallow Lava 4 Entrance to Temple ~ (Red) Deep Lava 5 Entrance to Alchemy Shop ^ (Brown) Mountains 6 Entrance to Magic Shop . (White) Floor / Road 7 Entrance to the Black Market . (Brown) Dirt 8 Entrance to your Home . (Green) Grass 9 Entrance to Bookstore > (White) Dungeon Entrance 0 Entrance to the Museum > (Yellow) Quest Entrance < (Yellow) Quest Exit Note that trees, water (deep and shallow) and lava (deep and shallow) may also appear in the dungeon. ***** === The Town Level === The town level is where you will begin your adventure. The first time you are in town it will be daytime (unless you are playing an undead race who start at night), but note that the sun rises and falls as time passes and if you enter the town at night, the town will be dark. Fortunately, the various shops and the other special buildings are open on a 24-hour basis. The world of Hengband includes five towns separated by a wilderness and many dungeons. Fixed quests (see below [d]) could be begun by entering certain buildings in the towns. While most people welcome this large world, they are not for everyone and consequently, there are three possible town options in Hengband - the 'Standard' town(s), the 'Lite' town and the 'Vanilla' town. The default is the standard town and the lite town and the vanilla town options can be selected by pressing '=' during character generation. (see option.txt#Birth [e]) Your choice of town is fixed for the duration of your character's life and will be the new default for future characters created with that savefile. This of course may be changed by again pressing '=' during the creation of your next character. ***** --- The 'Standard' Town --- The 'standard' town consists of a 97x62 square world. Each square (actually a rectangle) is the size of a standard Hengband dungeon level and contains themed wilderness terrain (mountainous areas, oceans, plains, etc). There are several towns located in various parts of the world and each town is situated in its own wilderness square. The wilderness is not uninhabited and can be dangerous indeed for the unwary. As a general rule, the further your character gets from civilization the more cautious he or she should be. Since this world is very large, it is convenient to go into global map mode by pressing the '<' key, and then return to local map mode by '>' key when you are at the destination. In the global map, however, you might suddenly get assault from monsters. In such situation, you cannot run away using the '<' key, you might go to the border of the screen to run away. Each of the towns contains the standard nine shops where you can purchase your supplies for your trips into the dungeon and sell the items you have collected. There are also special buildings offering services for a fee. The services available and the prices charged may vary from town to town so it can be worth hunting around for the best prices. Selection of the standard option also allows the creation of the buildings from which the various fixed quests begin. ***** --- The 'Lite' Town --- The 'Lite' town option creates a 1x1 wilderness square containing a single town. This town contains the nine standard shops, the special buildings and access to a limited wilderness. The fixed quests are also available. This option is intended to be used by players who want to take advantage of the special buildings and fixed quests but don't want the large wilderness and by players who need a smaller wilderness for computer efficiency reasons. ***** --- The 'Vanilla' Town --- The vanilla town consists of the nine standard shops only and an impenetrable wall which surrounds the town. There is no other embellishments. The special buildings and the fixed quests are unavailable if you select this option as is the wilderness. ***** === Townspeople === The town contains many different kinds of people. There are the street urchins, young children who will mob an adventurer for money, and seem to come out of the woodwork when excited. Blubbering idiots are a constant annoyance, but not harmful. Public drunks wander about the town singing, and are of no threat to anyone. Sneaky rogues who work for the black market are always greedily eyeing your backpack for potential new 'purchases'... And finally, what town would be complete without a swarm of half drunk warriors, who take offense or become annoyed just for the fun of it. Most of the townspeople should be avoided by the largest possible distance when you wander from store to store. Fights will break out, though, so be prepared. Since your character grew up in this world of intrigue, no experience is awarded for killing the town inhabitants, though you may acquire treasure. One word of warning however, occasionally a creature who normally would inhabit only the wilderness and dungeons may wander into the town. These should generally be handled with much more caution than the ordinary townspeople. ***** === Shopping in Town === Your character will begin his adventure with some basic supplies, and some extra gold with which to purchase more supplies at the town stores. You may enter any open store and barter with the owner for items you can afford by simply moving onto the entrance, which is represented by a number from 1 to 9. Once inside a store, you will see the name and race of the store owner, the name of the store, the maximum amount of cash that the store owner will pay for any one item, and the store inventory, listed along with tentative prices, which will become "fixed" (at the "final offer") should you ever manage to haggle a store owner down to his final offer (see below [f]). You will also see an (incomplete) list of available commands. Note that many of the commands which work in the dungeon work in the stores as well, but some do not, especially those which involve "using" objects. Stores do not always have everything in stock. As the game progresses, they may get new items so check from time to time. Also, if you sell them an item, it may get sold to a customer while you are adventuring, so don't always expect to be able to get back everything you have sold. Note that the inventory of a store will not change while you are in town, even if you save the game and return. You must spend time in the dungeon if you wish the store owner to clear out his stock and acquire new items. If you have a lot of spare gold, you can purchase every item in a store, which will induce the store owner to bring out new stock, and perhaps even retire. Store owners will not buy harmful or useless items. If an object is unidentified, they will pay you some base price for it. Once they have bought it they will immediately identify the object. If it is a good object, they will add it to their inventory. If it was a bad bargain, they simply throw the item away. In any case, you may receive some knowledge of the item if another is encountered. ***** --- Bartering --- When bartering, you enter prices you will pay (or accept) for some object. You can either enter the absolute amount, or precede a number with a plus or minus sign to give a positive or negative increment on your previous offer. But be warned that the owners can easily be insulted, and may even throw you out for a while if you insult them too often. If you consistently bargain well in a store, that is, you reach the final offer much more often than not, then the store owner will eventually recognize that you are a superb haggler, and will go directly to the final offer instead of haggling with you. Items which cost less than 10 gold pieces do not count, as haggling well with these items is usually either very easy or almost impossible. The more expensive the item is, the less likely the store owner is to assume that you are a good haggler. Note that you may disable haggling with a software option, though this will inflict a 10% "sales tax" on all purchases for which the store owner would have required you to haggle. (See option.txt for details). ***** ---- Object Pricing --- Each store owner has three primary attributes: the maximum amount they will pay for an object, their race and how greedy they are. Each of these affects how much a store owner will charge for an object and how much they are prepared to pay for something. Only the first two attributes can be known by the player. The final factors affecting pricing are the race and charisma of the player. Each object has a base value which is contained in the game's source code. This value is modified based on the store owner's greed (greedy store owners charge more and will pay less), your charisma (charismatic players pay less and can charge more) and whether or not the shopkeeper is friendly to your race (dwarves dislike elves so a dwarf shopkeeper will charge an elf player more and pay less for items the player is selling). Finally, when selling objects, the cap on the store owner's purse is applied so that even a favored race with a high charisma can not sell an item for more than that amount. This cap applies only to single items so it is possible to sell a stack of similar items for more than the cap on the store owner's purse. ***** === List of Shops === The General Store ("1") The General Store sells foods, drinks, some clothing, torches, lamps, oil, shovels, picks, and spikes. All of these items and some others can be sold back to the General store for money. The Armoury ("2") The Armoury is where the town's armor is fashioned. All sorts of protective gear may be bought and sold here. The Weaponsmith's Shop ("3") The Weaponsmith's Shop is where the town's weapons are fashioned. Hand and missile weapons may be purchased and sold here, along with arrows, bolts, and shots. The Temple ("4") The Temple deals in healing and restoration potions, as well as bless scrolls, word of recall scrolls, some approved priestly weapons, as well as books of Life magic for priests and paladins. The Alchemy Shop ("5") The Alchemy Shop deals in all types of potions and scrolls. The Magic Shop ("6") The Magic Shop deals in all sorts of rings, wands, amulets, and staffs, as well as some magic books. The Black Market ("7") The Black Market will sell and buy anything at extortionate prices. However, it occasionally has VERY good items in it. The shopkeepers are not known for their tolerance... Your Home ("8") This is your house where you can store objects that you cannot carry on your travels, or will need at a later date. The Bookstore ("9") The Bookstore deals in all sorts of magical books. You can purchase and sell spellbooks for the spellcasters here. The Museum ("0") This is a place where you can donate any item to display. Use it when you find interesting but needless items and you want to leave it in memory. ***** === Special Buildings === In addition to the shops, the Standard and Lite town options will cause special buildings to be generated. The buildings vary from town to town significantly both in terms of their name and the services they offer. Each town contains an Inn where the player may obtain food (assuming food does them any good) and rest for the night. Each town also contains a building which houses the local ruler. In addition to the inn and the ruler's house or castle, other buildings might include libraries where you can research objects and monsters, guilds for the various classes and magic realms, gambling dens and casinos, temples, healers and more. Note that some buildings such as guilds may offer preferential prices to members of their guild or offer services which are only available to their guild. Some building owners may offer preferential treatment to their own race or to a group of races. ***** === Fixed Quests === At least one building in each town available in the Standard and Lite towns will offer the player the opportunity to undertake a quest. Such quests typically fall under the following categories: kill a certain number of a certain type of monster (for example kill 10 orcs), kill all the monsters in the quest level, retrieve a certain object, and escape from the quest level. When you request a quest, you will be given a brief description of the quest and your objective and also an indication of its danger level (a number which represents the dungeon level equivalence of the quest). Note that the danger indication can be somewhat misleading since the fixed nature of the quests allows you to apply tactics learned through several attempts to the same situation often making successive attempts easier. It also allows the quest designers to set up some particularly nasty ambushes! Once you have accepted a quest an quest entrance will appear and you may enter the quest level. Note that you do not have to enter the quest at that time and can delay entering until much later in the game should you wish. Many of the quests only allow you to attempt them once per game and you should therefore not enter them until you are confident in your ability to succeed. Whether you complete a quest or fail it, upon leaving the quest level return to the person who assigned the quest and report. If you were successful you may receive a reward which will normally be waiting for you outside the building when you leave however the rewards may take other forms. If you failed, you will receive a damning review of your performance. Note that you may not request another quest from that person until you have collected your reward or reported your failure. Note: You can not use Genocide, Mass Genocide and *Destruction* in a quest. -- Original : (??) Updated : (??) Updated : Zangband DevTeam Updated : Hengband 1.0.11 ***** Begin Hyperlinks ***** [b] command.txt ***** [c] dungeon.txt#MapSymbols ***** [d] town.txt#FixedQuests ***** [e] option.txt#Birth ***** [f] town.txt#Bartering