FIGHTING

So, sometimes you have to kill things. Other times you don’t really have to but simply want them dead. In the event of killing something (something capable of fighting back, anyway) the entire world turns into a grid, everyone has magical floating numbers next to them, and new rules apply. You don’t have to participate in battles to play the game, but as long as White Rabbit can’t constantly be here to save your asses at least another one of you better get your game on.



So, every turn you can move all your characters and cast one spell (that is, one spell per turn, not character). How many spaces a character can move is based off their BLUE number (for instance, the character above can move three spaces). They can be any vertical, horizontal, or diagonal direction that is not blocked.

Moving into an enemy (or ally, if you swing that way) will attack them. That means their health is reduced by the RED number (the character above would reduce someone’s health by 4). Attacking a character uses all the attacker’s remaining movement (with the exception of some spells that make it only use one movement point, allowing multiple attacks from the same character per turn). When someone’s health reaches zero, they die. You can not walk over dead characters.

Alternatively, instead of moving, you can defend. Defending requires you to sacrifice all your movement points, but will cause you to only take half damage from melee attacks.

If a spell is cast or special ability is used that turn, the character (or characters, if they are a group) that casts it will take double damage. You can negate this by having that character defend. This applies to the enemies too, so mind your enemies’ actions so you can attack them when they are weakened.

Spells disappear off the list after being used. They regenerate between battles. Also, note that summoned units disappear when they die and after battles.

Some spells have status effects. There can be one good or one bad effect. This isn’t as useful or limiting as it sounds, but keep in mind two things: one, you can’t cast a whole bunch of stat-raising spells on the same person, and two, you can replace a good or bad spell by casting another on that character. Move your mouse over the char to see if they have any spell effects.

So, the average battle command would be like:
Shuriken: N, N, NE
L33tz4n: W, SW
Summon Water Elemental right above Stratn.
Water Elem: South.

Really, it’s all incredibly complicated, but you get the hang of it. Go back to the old thread and watch one of the three battles there, or watch a round when one starts here. The players rarely win their first time.



LOSING

Anyway, speaking of that, let’s talk about death and losing. When all your people die in a battle, or your narrator dies in the regular game, the game loads from the nearest save point (or, until you reach one, from the beginning of the ice cave). Try not to die. It pisses me and everyone else off.

Two members of your party (Fawriel and Fooruman) have spells that can raise the dead. Fooruman also has spells that can raise the roof. Figuratively speaking, that is.