*** NEMESIS MANUAL ***

INTRODUCTION

WELCOME to Nemesis ... a unique role-playing game modeled after the Dungeons and Dragons epic simulations. Very generally, Nemesis is set in pre-history in a world not unlike the one described by J.R.R. Tolkien in the "Rings" trilogy. Unlike "adventure games" with their specifically limited text, and third person characters, Nemesis is a true epic journey, where YOU, represented by the cursor on your terminal's screen, enter a world populated by more than 200 different kinds of monsters, all of whom believe you to be an intruder to be devoured ... a world made up of a friendly castle, where the Armory, Hospital, Inn, and Archives are at your disposal to assist you in your trek ... a world of 10 levels of dungeons beneath the castle, each increasingly difficult to explore and each increasingly dangerous to your very existence ... a world of almost unlimited gold, of powerful spells, of constant growth of your character to combat the increasing powers of evil you will meet. To survive in Nemesis, you will need quickness of thought and quickness of hand. Your reactions, both mental and physical, will determine whether your character will survive the moment to face even more trying moments at deeper levels of the dungeons. Nemesis runs in real time. It is asynchronous, which means that the program will not present you with a question mark and wait patiently for you to make some kind of decision. The monsters are ever-active and will strike as you are thinking, or even in the midst of input from the keyboard. This feature alone sets Nemesis above all other microcomputer entertainments. Part of the beauty of Nemesis is in your discovery of the game itself. This manual will tell you enough so that you can proceed on your journey, but it will not lay out everything for you in total detail.

OBJECT OF THE GAME ••• AND ITS PHILOSOPHY

The object of the game is to explore all levels of the dungeons ... and survive. Once you have become familiar with the game, you can set your own objectives: attaining a certain amount of gold, reaching a certain character level, pushing your character to the ultimate use of his growing powers, and so on. You do NOT play against the Nemesis program itself; its role is that of the Dungeonmaster in familiar D&D games: it keeps track of the rules, provides the random factors, and records for you all the things that have happened. You DO play against the denizens of the dungeon levels, and you find them taking on a very real character and personality as you come to know them. Similarly, your character, as you have selected it--and that character can be one of 15 types, ranging from human to Uruk-hai, with any one of 15 classes ( occupations ), ranging from Cleric to Valkyrie--will become very special to you. It is a role-playing game, and your character is truly unique to you as participant, unique probably to every other character played anywhere on the more than 2,000 Nemesis games sold in the first year of its existence.

CHARACTER RACES

CHARACTER CLASSES (I)

CHARACTER CLASSES (II)

Additional occupations known to the archives but less common in the current trek.

CHARACTER CHARACTERISTICS

• STRENGTH (ST): Ability to bash doors and damage in battle.
• INTELLIGENCE (INT): Spell duration and item identification.
• WISDOM (WIS): Power and effectiveness of Cleric spells.
• CONSTITUTION (CON): Hit Point (HP) growth and durability.
• DEXTERITY (DEX): Agility, evasion, and combat speed.

CASTLE LOCATIONS

• ARMORY: Buy and sell weapons and armor.
• HOSPITAL: Heal wounds and recover status effects.
• INN: Rest to recover HP and spell power.
• ARCHIVES: Donate gold for information and character records.
• ENTRANCE: Enter the 10-level dungeon.

COMBAT COMMANDS

• F: FIGHT - Attack with equipped weapon.
• M: MAGIC - Cast a Magic spell.
• C: CLERIC - Cast a Cleric spell.
• U: USE - Use a special item or artifact.

Note: Combat speed depends on the difference between your DEX and the monster's DEX.

SPELLS & MAGIC

Spells are divided into Magic (M) and Cleric (C) pools with 7 power levels.

• UTILITY: LIGHT (Illuminate), DISCLOSE (ID Item), SEARCH (Hidden doors).
• HEALING: CURE (HP), RESTORE, HEAL.
• ATTACK: FIREBALL, LIGHTNING, CLOUDKILL, POWER WORD.

EQUIPMENT & INVENTORY

• Carry up to 10 items.
• Armor Class (AC) = 10 base + equipped armor + DEX bonus + STR bonus (12–13: +1, 14–15: +2, 16–17: +3, 18+: +4 each stat). Higher total AC is harder to hit.
• Use U to Equip and Q to Unequip.
• Items may need identification (DISCLOSE spell) for full stats.

ITEMS

There are two important things to note about items. First, when they appear in the Armory shopping list or when they are found, they are shown in their generic form, not specific form. "Boots", for instance, may be LOUD BOOTS, which tend to attract monsters while in the levels, or SOFT BOOTS, which allow you to move more quietly, or some other kind of boots, which have other properties. Second, everything in the armory shopping list is in CAPITAL LETTERS. That means that what you see is really what the item is. It is shown in its "disclosed" or true GENERIC form. Later, in the dungeons, you will find items that are noted in lower case letters. Those items may or may not be what the lower case letters say they are; you can only be sure by DISCLOSING the item in one of three ways. Those three ways are: 1. Visiting the ARCHIVES in the Castle and donating an amount equal to at least half the true value of the DISCLOSED item. The Master Archivist then will disclose the true nature of the item to you in its specific form. The "Flask" you found on Level 5, for instance, will be shown immediately as a very valuable and useful "FLASK OF RESTORATION", or perhaps as a relatively useless "BOTTLE OF WATER." 2. Using the Magic or cleric spell DISCLOSE. When you throw this spell, Nemesis will ask which item you want to disclose. The dungeon master may then tell you what it really is. Obviously, your character must have the capability to cast spells, and have accumulated the necessary number of magic or cleric points in order to cast the spell, or be carrying an item that has the spell attached to it before he can DISCLOSE anything. 3. Using the character's INTELLIGENCE to determine the real nature of the object. While in the dungeons, the character can be displayed by hitting the ESC key and then entering I for Information. If the character's INTelligence is high enough, NEMESIS will disclose the true nature of the item. Be forewarned that Nemesis feels that anyone with an INT of less than 20 not worthy of assistance; and there are no guarantees that NEMESIS will help those with higher INTs every time. (As with some other facets of NEMESIS, there are deliberate exceptions for you to discover. For instance, a "HANKY", purchased in the Armory, is really just that ... a worthless capital letter HANKY, but it can be changed to a "Scroll", which in its turn and time, may be DISCLOSED as a SCROLL OF CURE or some other scroll of great value for the character.)

MAGIC AND CLERIC SPELLS

Certain characters can use magic and cleric spells. Certain items, as noted above, carry with them spells that the character can use, even though he may not be allowed to cast that spell directly as a character. When the spell is associated with an item, it is "free" to use--it does not cost the character any magic or cleric spells. The LIGHT spell associated with a Magic TORCH is the most common example of this. The LIGHT spell is used frequently in Nemesis and costs 2 magic or cleric units each time it is cast directly by a character. At the beginning of the game, even spell users may not have any units at all, and thus cannot cast the spell. Even they must find a magic TORCH, at least until they increase in character Level and accumulate the necessary units to cast the spell directly. If a character is a spell user, such as a Demondim who can cast cleric spells, Minstrel who can cast Magic spells, or Sage who can cast either type of spell, he begins the game knowing all the spells available to him, but with zero spell points. As the character increases in Level, the number of spell units that he has increases. Spell units come in two types--Magic and Cleric--and pertain to the type of spell for which they can be used; they are not interchangeable. Further, some spells can only be cast during battle; others can only be cast while traveling unmolested. To cast a spell, the user types an M to throw a Magic Spell or a C to throw a Cleric spell. The program then will expect you to type in the name of the spell, from the following list. The effect and duration of spells are determined by the character's DEXterity and INTelligence for magic spells and by his DEXterity and WISdom for Cleric Spells.

SPELL LIST

Some monsters have the ability to turn spells, which means that the character will receive half the damage of his own spell. A few monsters are unaffected by even powerful spells.