45    (W)rite mail
   First you're asked who you want to write mail to. If someone's name
   is a possible match it will ask you if you meant this person, then
   that person, and so on. If you say no to everyone on the list it will
   abort. (this will become clear after you've written mail a few times)
   Once you accept the name of a possible recipient you will then be
   allowed to enter your message.  All the normal color codes apply.

   If the person you are writing to is of opposite gender and you
   haven't flirted with a player yet today, or flirted since killing the
   dragon, you will get a chance to write romantic mail to the other
   player. There are a number of choices:

     (N)ever mind
     (F)latter him/her
     (A)sk for a kiss
     (B)uy him/her dinner
    *(I)nvite him/her to your room at the inn
    *(P)propose to him/her

   *If "clean" mode is on you won't get the option to Invite him/her to
   your room. The option to propose doesn't appear unless your charm is
   100 or more.
46
   If the flirtation is accepted both players will get varying amounts
   of experience, depending on the action and their current level. If
   the flirtation is rejected the inviting person will lose experience
   and the rejecting person will gain some experience.

   If the flirtation is an invitation to the inn, and it is accepted,
   both players will get credit for a lay.

   If you propose and are accepted you and the person  you proposed to
   will be married. As you log on for the first time you will be asked
   if you feel positive or negative about your marriage partner. This
   question will be asked in various ways. If you say you feel negative
   you will be divorced and both you and your spouse's charm will drop
   to 50.  There are similar results when your spouse is deleted for
   inactivity.

   Married couples and single female characters will occasionally have
   children. Marriages, divorces, and childbirth are all noted in the
   daily log. As noted earlier, you get one extra forest fight for each
   child.

      (C)onjugality list
47 This will show you who is married to whom, including those married to
   Sethable and violet. It is generally not a good idea to try to flirt
   with a player who is married to someone else!

      (X)pert Mode
   This let's you control whether you see the whole menu or just the
   line listing the letters for the various commands, similar to the way
   the expert mode on most BBSs work.

      (P)eople online
   This shows you who is online currently. This includes you. The time
   of arrival is also noted.

      (S)laughter other players
   This is how you attack other players if they are not staying at the
   inn. You can attack any player who is still alive and not
   staying at the inn unless they have gone off into "limbo".  BBS and
   IGM lockups can cause a player to be in "another place" called
   "maint". Attacking other players is sometimes a good way to advance
   levels more quickly, especially if you've been given help by cash
   transfers.

   This brings up another submenu:
48
           (L)ist warriors
           (S)laughter another player
           (R)eturn to town
           (E)xamine dirt
           (W)rite in dirt

      {S}  (L)ist warriors in the field
    This will show who is available to attack, and will indicate which
    players are currently online. As noted earlier, players will
    sometimes be in "maint".

      {S}  (S)laughter a warrior
    This lets you actually attack another player. If the name you enter
    matches player(s) you will get a list of matches and be asked one by
    one if that is the one you're after.  If they are not available to
    attack for some reason then you'll get the appropriate message. If
    they are available to attack you will get a message about them
    brandishing a dangerous looking X, with X being the player's current
    weapon and then you are asked if you are sure you want to attack
    him/her.  If you say yes then the battle will begin.

    Sometimes the other player will strike first. If you survive this
49  then you'll get several options, which will also come up if you get
    the first strike.

    You can (A)ttack the other player, view your (S)tats or (R)un away.
    If you have any special skill use points they will also be shown.
    This is pretty much like fighting forest monsters, with a couple of
    exceptions.  You can use your defensive mystical skills against any
    opponent but offensive skills can be used only when the player is
    above your current level. Sometimes offensive special skills do only
    one damage point. This appears to happen in situations where such an
    attack would otherwise do no damage. This has to do with your
    offense, their defense and a random factor.

    As with forest fights fairies offer protection and you can lose
    your horse or any children you have, with the usual results. If you
    try to run away you won't always be successful. The result of the
    battle will be posted in the daily log.

    If you lose the battle you will be dead and will lose any gold you
    have on hand, as well as 10% of your experience.


    If you win you get whatever gold 1/2 of the gems the player has and
50  1/2 of their experience. (if this would put you over 2 billion
    experience you won't get the experience points, but this means that
   you already have over 1 billion experience points so unless you're
   trying to get the top experience points, who cares?). You will
   sometimes get another gem as well.   This is a good way to jump
   levels, if you can pull it off.  You will also get a chance to make a
   note in the daily log that will go along with the announcement of
   your victory. I like to do a parody of the player's name.  If the
   player's name is "wizard", for example, I will say  "we're off to
   slay the wizard!" or if their name is "highlander" I'll say "in the
   end there can only be one!".  The usual color codes apply in these
   remarks but you only get one line of text so plan carefully!

   Player fights are often a very good way to get experience. If you are
   well armed you can sometimes jump from level 1 to level 12 in one
   day.  In many games, however, you'll log on and usually find that
   everyone is dead except some low level players who are staying at the
   inn. Thus, sometimes there is nobody to attack.

   In other games, however, there are usually a lot of people to attack,
   some of them weak players with a lot of experience points. So you may
   get most of your experience points from forest fights or you may get
   most of it from player fights.
51
   If the other player is currently online you'll get involved in what
   is known as an "online duel".   There are special rules concerning
   online duels. Sometimes the challenger gets the first blow, other
   times the player being challenged gets the first blow. Both players
   will get one less player fight. That won't matter to the player who
   gets killed if one of them do.
   In an online duel you occasionally get a chance to "yell" something
   at your opponent. In online duels you cannot use your special skills
   and a fairy does you no good. As far as I know, you cannot lose
   children or a horse in an online duel.
   Regardless of the outcome of an online duel a special message will
   appear in the daily log.
   It is generally not considered very nice to challenge a player to an
   online duel against their will, especially a weaker player who hasn't
   got a chance.  Keep this in mind!

       {S}   (R)eturn to town
   This will take you back to the main menu.

       {S}   (E)xamine dirt
   This is yet another message area, but unlike other message areas,
   this one shows only the last message entered. The message can be
52 quite long, and the normal color codes apply.
   The top of the screen will show the name of the player who has the
   most player kills and how many player kills they have. If two players
   are tied for the top, the one with the lowest record number will be
   shown.  If nobody has killed anybody, then the player in slot number
   one will be shown. If you've just made one or more kills to rise to
   the top of the rankings you may have to leave the game before being
   properly listed as the "most dangerous" player.

       {S}   (W)rite in dirt
   This is how you can write in the dirt yourself. You must have killed
   another player in this session in order to be eligible to write in
   the dirt. Sometimes even entering an IGM will make you ineligible to
   write in the dirt unless you kill again.

            [back to main menu]

       (A)bdul's armor
   Just as you need weapons to fight monsters, you also need armor.
   Similar to weapons, armors add to your defensive strength. Here is a
   table showing the various armor available along with the cost of the
   armor and the defensive strength it gives you:

53     Armour                         Price          defense added
     1. Coat...................................200       1
     2. Heavy Coat...........................1,000       3
     3. Leather Vest.........................3,000      10
     4. Bronze Armour.......................10,000      15
     5. Iron Armour.........................30,000      25
     6. Graphite Armour....................100,000      35
     7. Erdrick's Armour...................150,000      50
     8. Armour of Death....................200,000      75
     9. Able's Armour......................400,000     100
    10. Full Body Armour.................1,000,000     150
    11. Blood Armour.....................4,000,000     225
    12. Magic Protection................10,000,000     300
    13. Belar's Mail....................40,000,000     400
    14. Golden Armour..................100,000,000     600
    15. Armour Of Lore.................400,000,000    1000

   Note that to figure out how much will be gained by buying a certain
   weapon/armor you must take into account the amount added by your
   current weapon/armor which you must trade in. So if you upgrade from
   Magic protection to Belar's mail your net defense strength gain will
   be only 100.

54     (V)iew your stats
   This lets you see your statistics.  This is the same information
   which is shown to you just after you enter through the (E)nter
   command, before you see the daily log.  Here is a sample:
   --------------------------------------------------------------
    nuts's Stats...
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
   Experience   : 106,569
   Level        : 7                 HitPoints          :(223 of 223)
   Forest Fights: 1371                Player Fights Left : 99
   Gold In Hand : 44,340            Gold In Bank       : 0
   Weapon       : Huge Axe          Attack Strength    : 137
   Armour       : Iron Armour       Defensive Strength : 96
   Charm        : 500               Gems               : 1

   You are married to Dear.

   You have 3 children.

   You are on horseback.

   The Thieving Skills: 12          Uses Today: (3)

55 You are currently interested in The Thieving skills.
   -----------------------------------------------------------

   The game will also show if you have a fairy.

       (T)urgon's warrior training
   Once you have enough experience to get to a certain level, this is
   how you actually get to that level.
        You have several options:

            (Q)uestion master
            (A)ttack master
            (V)iew statistics
            (R)eturn to main menu

            now for more detail:

       {T}  (Q)uestion master
   If you question your master, he'll either tell you that you are ready
   to advance a level or will tell you how many experience points you
   need before you are ready to advance a level.  Here are the
   experience points you need to advance to the various levels:

56         Level      exp needed
            2               100
            3               400
            4             1,000
            5             4,000
            6            10,000
            7            40,000
            8           100,000
            9           400,000
           10         1,000,000
           11         4,000,000
           12        10,000,000

       {T}  (A)ttack master
   If you have enough experience points to advance a level you can
   challenge your master to a duel.  If you try to attack your master
   but don't have the necessary experience points you'll find yourself
   holding air and you won't be allowed to challenge your master again
   until tomorrow. If you are ready to challenge your master the battle
   will begin.

   As noted earlier, special skills don't apply here, not even defensive
   mystical skills. You can, however, use extra hitpoints gained by the
57 jennie code and you can use a fairy.  You can also lose your children
   and/or a horse with the usual results.
   If you heal yourself before challenging your master then you
   generally will be successful in your attack. The one exception is
   when you are trying to get to level two. Often you will get 100
   experience, but won't have enough attack/defense points for a
   successful battle. You usually need some extra edge such as a fairy,
   extra HP gained through jennie HOTT, or a 3000 gold weapon/armor.

   If your challenge is not successful, you won't die, but you won't be
   able to challenge your master again until tomorrow.
   If you are successful you will advance a level, get more HP, offense
   and defense. Once you get enough experience to advance another level
   you can challenge your new master. In some games it is possible to
   advance several levels in one day.

   While we are on the subject of levels, let's take a look at exactly
   what you gain by advancing levels. Here are the "stats" for each
   level, with no armor, no weapon, and no enhancements given by turning
   in gems or through the various other means available. To figure out
   what your HitPoints, Attack strength and Defense strength will be at
   a given level you'll have to take into account any enhancements
   you've obtained and your weapon, armor.
58  Here are the base stats:

     Level       HP        Attack strength   Defense strength
       1         20              5                  0
       2         30             10                  2
       3         45             17                  5
       4         65             27                 10
       5         95             39                 20
       6        145             59                 35
       7        220             94                 57
       8        345            144                 92
       9        530            219                152
      10        780            329                232
      11       1130            479                352
      12       1680            679                502

   As you advance a level the game will tell you how much you're
   gaining. When you go from level 1 to level 2, for example, the game
   will tell you that you will gain 10 HP, 5 attack strength and 2
   defense strength. When you go from 5 to 6 it tell you that you have
   gained 55 HP, 20 attack strength and 15 defense strength.

      {T}   (V)iew hall of fame
59 This will show all the players who have killed the dragon, how many
   times they have killed the dragon (this is called a heroic deed), and
   their current level. Players are listed according to their number of
   deeds, with ties resolved by listing the player with the lowest slot
   first.  If nobody has slain the dragon then the game will say "sad
   times indeed, their are no heroes in this realm."

   NOTE: If you have reached level 12, the game will show you a message
   about seeking out the red dragon and then kick you back to the main
   menu. Thus, level 12 players cannot visit the hall of fame. bummer...


      {T}   (R)eturn to main menu
   As you might expect, this takes you back to the main menu!

                [back to the main menu]

      (L)ist warriors
   This lists the players and shows you some things about them.
   Here is a sample listing:



60           Legend Of The Red Dragon 3.53 - Player Rankings

    Name                    Experience    Level    Mastered    Status
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
F D Hi there                     90,000    7                    Dead
F D Dear                         18,408    6                    Alive
  T Bigbadmama                        1    1                    Alive


   The "F" before the player's name indicates a female player. The next
   letter indicates the player's current profession. After this is the
   player's name, followed by their current experience point then their
   level.  The "Mastered" column shows any special skills in which a
   player has 20 or more skill points.  If a player has 40 skill points
   the "D" "M" or "T" will be in white. The last column lists whether
   the player is dead or alive.

   This functions the same as the (L)ist players command in the entry
   menu.

      (D)aily News
   This let's you look at today's news, yesterday's news, or continue,
   just as with the (D)aily News command in the entry menu.
61
      (O)ther places
   You've heard, no doubt, about In Game Modules.  This command is what
   let's you run them.  If no IGMs are listed, that means that none are
   installed.  You'll have to take this issue up with your sysop. Some
   sysops know about IGMs and don't wish to run them, others just don't
   know how.

   For those not familiar with the concept, an IGM is a program which is
   run from within LORD itself.  It is kind of a door within a door.
   Some IGMs are really games in themselves, others will modify the LORD
   game itself.  Some modify it too much and are really destructive!

   I'm not going to go into great detail on individual IGMs, there are
   hundreds of them and I have experience with only a few. Perhaps in a
   future revision of this FAQ I'll have reviews of some IGMs in a
   separate section.

   What I will do is mention a few quirks that can pop up in games with
   IGMs installed.  These are not really bugs in LORD or bugs in the
   IGMs, these are simply quirks which occur because an IGM let's you do
   something that you can't do in the game, and this has consequences
   that the IGM author never imagined.
62
                Double Marriage
   Some IGMs let you change your gender (sex). This could cause you to
   be married to a member of your own gender. This can also allow you to
   be married to both Violet *and* Sethable at the same time! Both
   marriages will show up in your stats and both will be shown in the
   the daily log and in the conjugality list.

                Negative skills
   The skill points you have for a given skill class is stored in a
   single byte signed integer [huh?]. This means that if your skill
   points go over 127, the game will show this as negative skill points
   and as a result you will not have any use points! Since the game
   doesn't let you get more than 40 skill points, this isn't a problem
   unless IGMs are installed.  The IGMs I've seen which let you increase
   your skills *don't* check for this, so be very careful if your skill
   points get over 120.  If you let them get over 127, you'll have to
   keep going until they get over 255, at which point they will go back
   to zero and then you can start over.

                The "fast breeder" bug
   I guess you could say I've saved the best for last.  Double marriage
   is a neat trick, and negative skills can be very annoying, but this
63 one is in a whole different category! Many IGMs let you rename your
   weapon and/or your armor. This has no impact on the effectiveness of
   your armor or weapon, calling your long sword a "Death sword" will
   *not* allow you to beat the crap out of all the other players. The
   trouble is that the IGM will typically let you call your weapon or
   armor anything you want to call it. This allows you to use color
   codes, which can make things interesting, but there are two problems
   that crop up. First, people take advantage of it by calling their
   weapon by "obscene" names which produces amusing, but often sick,
   results when someone attacks them. I'll let you use your imagination
   there.

   Second, and far more critically, "anything" means that you call your
   armor or weapon "`K".  You might think "so what!" or "why would
   anyone want to do that?" Well, if you name either your armor or your
   weapon "`K" then every time you bring up your stats you will get
   another child! By holding down "V" from the main menu you can get
   hundreds, even thousands of children. The next day you'll get
   hundreds, even thousands of extra forest fights!

   As if that wasn't enough, when you have several hundred (or more)
   children the child death sequence kicks in every time you would have
   otherwise taken damage. This makes you invulnerable while you are
64 online (except in online duels)!

   Without an IGM this could never happen, since the game doesn't let
   you name your armor or weapon, so it's not really a bug in the game,
   and since the IGM functions exactly as intended this isn't a bug in
   the IGM either. This is just an unforeseen consequence of an IGM
   feature that wasn't very well thought out.  BTW, this doesn't work if
   you just change your own name to "`K" so don't bother trying it.

   For more about IGMs and a special announcement, see the MISC section!

      (M)ake announcement
   This let's you make an announcement which will appear in the daily
   log. The normal color codes apply. As with most other message areas,
   you end your announcement by entering a blank line.

      (Q)uit to fields
   This takes you back to the BBS and leaves you outside where anyone
   can attack you.

      [1]  [hidden]

   This shows you the game configuration.  Here is a sample:
65
   ---------------------------------------------------------

                     ** GAME STATISTICS 3.55 **

   This game has been running for 13 days.

   You are playing a REGISTERED game.

   Game can be FINISHED by getting 15 heroic deeds

   There are currently 5 people playing.

   Players are deleted after 1000 days of inactivity.

   Clean mode is OFF!  (Thank the stars!)

   Transferring Funds is enabled, max of 1000000 per transfer.
   You can do this unlimited times per day.

   Need an ego boost?  This is what you overhear being said about
   yourself. "She is ok..If you don't care about outward appearances."

66 --------------------------------------------------------------

   This is pretty much selfexplanatory. If the game is unregistered this
   screen will note that it is "not winnable".

   If the sysop has decided to not let the game be finished, the heroic
   deeds field will simply say that the game is set to run indefinitely.
   If the field contains a number of deeds then when a player kills the
   dragon this many times the game will be over and instead of getting
   the usual message when killing the dragon the player will get a
   message telling him that his quest is over and the ancient magic that
   kept the dragon alive is no more. Then, when players enter the game
   they will get a message saying that the game is over and suggesting
   that they ask their sysop to use the "R" command in LORDCFG.   If the
   sysop does this then the game will be reset. In theory at least, this
   will be just like a new game. There have been reports of some data
   files not being properly reset, but I haven't been able to track this
   down. Most notably, some people have found that Olivia seems to
   recognize them in a newly reset game as someone who had been mean to
   her.
   The sysop can, as an alternative, delete the file that indicates the
   game has been won.  If he does this, then the next time the winner
   kills the dragon, or when someone else reaches the number of required
67 deeds, the game will once again be over. This will continue until the
   sysop resets the game or changes the configuration.

   If clean mode is enabled then you cannot get laid, either by
   Violet/Sethable or by other players or by the maidens in the forest.
   This means that you cannot make the list in the darkhorse tavern. I'm
   not sure whether or not you can have children.

   Transferring funds will be restricted as shown in the next to the
   last entry.  This has a limiting factor on alliances and the sysop
   will set this parameter according to his/her knowledge of the game and
   how he/she feels about players making alliances.

   The last entry shows you what players will see if they decide to
   flirt with you.

      [2]    [hidden]
   This will turn RIP graphics on/off. Your terminal emulation is
   detected at login or taken from the drop file, but in case it isn't
   properly detected or you change your terminal after entering the
   game, this command will let you enable/disable RIP graphics.

     [3]     [hidden]
   This will turn ANSI graphics on/off. Normally you won't need to use
   this command but in case the game setting doesn't currently match
   your emulation, you can press 3 to set things straight.


