This manual is rather in-depth and covers many aspects of the game that you are not required to know to have fun. It is intended for those who really want to get into the nuts and bolts of creating characters and watching them progress. If you just want to jump in and start adventuring, you can use some pre-generated characters included with Realmz. Otherwise, you can generate new characters, called player characters or PCs.
To start a new game:
1) Select the name of the scenario you wish to play in the Adventure menu.
2) Select Begin New Adventure from the Game menu.
3) Choose the characters you wish to adventure with.
4) Select the difficulty level for play.
5) Click 'DONE' Thats it. The game should now build a new world for you to adventure in. Have fun!
To generate new Player Characters (PCs), select Generate New Character from the character menu. See the chapter on CREATING CHARACTERS for more information on creating new PCs.
Each scenario will have a recommended number of experience levels to begin an adventure. As you add PCs to the party, the total number of experience levels of the current party is compared to the recommended number.
If you begin the adventure with less than the recommended amount, you will earn experience and monetary treasure at a faster rate to account for the added difficulty. The opposite is also true. If the party has more levels than the recommended number, then PCs will earn experience at a slower rate. Each scenario also has a maximum number of levels.
The City of Bywater has a recommended number of levels of 6. What this means is that you may start with any number of PCs with a total of up to 6 levels of experience at normal difficulty to gain experience and treasure at 100% the normal rate. If you have more/less than this amount or vary the difficulty level the rate at which you gain experiance and treasure will vary.
NOTE: Registered copies DO NOT have a maximum level limit. The rate at which you gain experience will decline as you add more PCs so if you add too many, you will be hard pressed to gain levels.
How to add/drop characters from your party
To remove a PC from the party select the PC and click DROP.
ERASE will delete a PC from the list of possible PCs FOREVER, and remove his character file from your hard drive. Never do this unless you are sure you do not want this PC anymore.
Done will band the party together and start you on the road to adventure.
Difficulty level will adjust the difficulty and frequency of battles and the rate at which PCs will gain experience. The game remains the same, but monsters will be tougher or easier. The amount of experience and monetary treasure will also vary by the difficulty level.
Import will allow you to add characters created from a different copy of Realmz. To import a character put the character file in the Character Files Folder, start the game, select Begin New Adventure and click the IMPORT button. The game will then ask you to locate your existing PCs. Once they are selected they will be added to the list of characters available to play.
What makes a good party
A good party will consist of a well-balanced mix of characters. Too many of any one type of character is doomed to failure. Each class of character has its strong and weak points. See CHARACTER CLASSES in the Creating Characters chapter for a description of the various classes, together with their various strengths and weaknesses.
