The MAGIC ITEMS tool will return any type of magic item as specified by the DM's Guide, pp. 120-125. To have this tool create a magic item for you, select it from the menu and choose a magic item category. These categories are identical to those in the DM's Guide, with two extras: 1) Miscellaneous Magic, and 2) Any Random Item. Miscellaneous Magic will create an item from any of the 5 Miscellaneous Magic tables, while Any Random Item will choose an item from any of the magic item tables. Note that one table was not included, the Artifacts table. If you're going to have an artifact in your campaign, it should be generated with purpose and care, not randomly. The NPC tool will generate Non-Player Characters for use in your adventures. To generate an NPC, select NPCs from the menu. The NPC menu will let you set four attributes of NPCs - class, level of experience, race, and alignment. Simply select the item you want from the on-screen menus that appear. The menu entries will be updated to show what the current settings are. When you have the settings how you want them, choose the Generate entry to make the NPCs. The screen will be replaced by NPC information. Hit the SPACEBAR to see more NPCs, the P key to print the current NPC, or ESC to return to the menu. Many of the dependent calculations that take place during NPC generation are taken care of for you. This tool will generate random dragons based on a system designed by the author of this program, Tony Martin. This Dragon Generation System (DGS) is fully detailed in the documentation for the D&D Tools program. Refer to it if you have questions. You can specify the dragon's Hit Dice or Alignment. To do so, select the HIT DICE or ALIGNMENT option from the DRAGONS menu. You will then get to enter a number of hit dice or select an alignment. To generate a dragon, simply select the GENERATE option from the DRAGONS menu. Info about a random dragon will appear on the screen. You can then print the dragon currently displayed by hitting P, generate another dragon by hitting the SPACEBAR, or return to the menu by hitting the ESC key. The Roll Dice tool will allow you to roll any sequence of dice used by the D&D game system, as well as any that aren't. Select the type of standard die you want from the menu, or select "Special" to roll a die type of your own devising. If you select Special, you will be asked to enter the highest and lowest values on the die. Simply type them and hit ENTER when done. After choosing, you will be asked to enter the number of times to roll that die. Type in a number and hit ENTER. Your sequence of rolls will appear in a vertical window. If there were more rolls than could fit in the window, you may scroll through them using the up and down arrows, the PgUp and PgDn, and the Home and End keys. When done, hit ESC. There is a limit of 256 rolls per sequence. This tool will print character sheets to a printer connected to the LPT1 parallel port of your computer. You may choose simple or detailed character sheets, based on your need. Try one of each to see which you prefer. Once you select the type of character sheet to print, you will be asked to enter the quantity you wish printed. Enter a number from 1 to 99, and hit ENTER. Printing will then commence. When the program finishes printing, it will return you to the menu system. You may interrupt the printing process at any time by pressing the ESC key. Choose COLOR SETUP from the OTHER menu. If you have a monochrome display, D&D Tools will let you select 1 of 2 color sets. A sub-menu will appear with two choices. A pointer will be next to the active set. Choose the one you want, or hit ESC to quit. If you have a color monitor, you will get an elaborate setup screen. Basically, you can change the foreground or background (selectable with the + key) of any part of the display (selectable with the up and down arrow keys). Move the item pointer to the item you want to change, and then use the left and right arrow keys to change the color. The right side of the screen contains a model of the D&D Tools program screen, which is updated to reflect the colors you choose as you choose them. Save setup with F2, abort with ESC. You can choose between two print qualities: 1) Draft quality, which is generally faster, or 2) Near-Letter Quality (NLQ), which is generally slower. On some printers, like the HP LaserJet, this has no significance, as the LaserJet is only letter quality. This function is useful mostly with dot-matrix printers, and then only those that support an NLQ mode. Set print quality by choosing the PRINTER SETUP option from the OTHER menu, and then selecting PRINT QUALITY from the sub-menu that comes up. You will get another sub-menu that allows you to select Draft or NLQ. A pointer will be next to the current setting. Simply select the option you want, or hit ESC to abort the operation, and you will be returned to the D&D Tools menu. The D&D Tools program needs to know the printer codes to use for your specific printer in order to handle the printer properly. These codes are stored in a Printer Definition (PRD) File. Several are provided with D&D Tools for the more popular printers. You must select one of these PRD files. You may select the GENERIC one if one does not exist for your printer, or consult the D&D Tools documentation for info on how to make your own - it's very easy. To select a PRD file, choose the PRINTER SETUP option from the OTHER menu, and then select PRINTER DRIVER from the sub-menu that appears. You will then see a menu of all the available PRD files on disk. Select the one you want, or hit ESC to abort the operation. You will be returned to the main menu. You can force the D&D Tools program to eject the page from the printer at any time. Choose the EJECT PAGE option from the OTHER menu. A short message will appear stating that the page has been ejected (though it may be too fast for you to read). You will be returned to the main menu almost instantaneously. The menu in D&D Tools has been designed for simplicity of use. There are two mechanisms for selecting items from the menus. The first is the selection bar. Move the selection bar to any choice on the menu and hit ENTER. This will select the option of your choice. The second mechanism is the "Quick Access" key. Each menu option has a single letter of its name highlighted. You can hit this highlighted letter for immediate access to that option.The only time this does not work is when D&D Tools is started with the /MENU option. You cannot hit Quick Access keys to move to a new menu, although you can use all other Quick Access keys inside any given menu. Use the arrow keys instead to move to a new menu when you use the /MENU parameter. There are two ways to quit the D&D Tools program. The first is to select the Quit option from the OTHER menu. The second is to hit the ESC key while any menu (or no menu) is displayed. In either case you will be asked to confirm that you actually want to quit the program. If you do, then hit the Y key for yes. Any other key will abort the Quit operation. The D&D Tools program supports the D&D game system created (and copyright) by TSR. It does not, however, support the NEW DM's Guide and Player's Handbook - only the older version. The program itselfis copyright 1989-90 by myself, Tony Martin. It was written in Microsoft QuickBASIC v4.5, and runs about 8900 lines, including blank lines and comments. The windows, menus, and other display routinesused are from the QBSCR Screen Routines package, a comprehensive assortment of of screen oriented routines for QuickBASIC. This package was written by me, and you can obtain more information about it by writing to me at 1611 Harvest Green Ct., Reston, VA 22094. Microsoft and QuickBASIC are copyright by Microsoft Corporation. Who would have guessed?
