ALTERNATE REALITY: THE CITY By ???. Edited by PARASITE. Part 1 ALTERNATE REALITY begins with the first of six scenarios in THE CITY. Your character, after escaping from the spaceship in which he was abducted from his home, will find himself facing the Floating Gate in the City Square. Your character will have 3 packets of food, 3 flasks of water and some money. Although food and water will always be of concern in this game, you need not worry about them at this time. You do need a weapon. To the north and south of this position are shops. To the west is a smithy's; and to the east, one of the three banks. Near the bank there is a tavern, and near the smithy's there is an inn. Turn to the west and enter the smithy's. Make an offer on a dagger of slightly under whatever your character was given at the start of the game. If the smithy will not accept this offer, try making an offer on a stiletto. Once armed, you are prepared as a beginning character to take on THE CITY. THE CITY is primarily a game of mapping and building your character for the scenarios that are supposed to follow. Although the city square is reputed to be one of the safest parts of town, it is not the cheapest; and you will need to find cheaper inns and taverns in order to survive the initial developement of your character. There are in THE CITY: 7 inns, 14 taverns, 3 banks, 15 shops, 4 smithies, 2 healers, and 12 guilds. Inns provide a safe place for your character to rest and regain hit points. Inns will also allow you to check the time. Taverns supply food and water. Food packets and water flasks are never offered for sale at the same time. Banks will allow you to deposit your money in three types of accounts with increasing risk. They will also purchase gems and jewels. Shops sell a wide variety of clothing which is of little importance in this first scenario. Shops also sell compasses for 5 silver pieces. Smithies sell armor and weapons. As with the shops, prices vary and few items are cheap. There are two healers. Healers can serve a variety of purposes, but are most useful for curing disease. There are 12 guilds in THE CITY. In this first scenario your character may not join the guilds, but they still have their usefulness. Your first visit to a guild will improve one of your stats or your chances of surviving. Guilds can also remove curses from weapons and armor. Prices for these serivces vary from guild to guild. The map for THE CITY is 64 squares by 64 squares. Square 1,1 is in the southwestern corner. When I give locations, I will be giving first the number of squares north on the map, the second number will be the number of squares east on the map. When I give the location of a place, the coordinates listed will be those of the actual place. If you must enter from a specific direction, and it is not an obvious door, these directions will be listed after the coordinates. The following is a list of Inns, Taverns, Banks, Shops, Smithies, Healers and Guilds, and their corresponding map coordinates. INNS: 26, 32 Prices high* 25, 33 Prices high* (*these are both the same inn) 24, 33 Reasonable 20, 10 Reasonable 04, 32 Very expensive 07, 61 Cheap 53, 34 Reasonable 55, 29 Cheap More hit restoring benefits seemed to be gained by renting a room with a bath, but this is not a universal rule. Let your purse and needs decide. TAVERNS: 30, 40 Expensive 20, 33 Reasonable, hours limited 25, 08 Reasonable, hours limited, enter from south 13, 14 Reasonable, special song at midnight 10, 45 Reasonable 03, 61 Cheap 31, 61 Reasonable,enter from east 32,59 to 32,60 south to 31,60 34, 58 Dues to join, expensive, enter from north 36, 06 Reasonable 36, 07 Reasonable 55, 02 Dues to join, limited hours 63, 21 Cheapest, enter by going north at 63,2, then go east to 64,21, then south 54, 34 Dues to join, limited hours 57, 53 Reasonable, can be entered from south or west Food packets and/or Pemmican will never be offered at the same time as water flasks. Menus change hourly. It is easiest to find food on even hours, and water on odd. This is not universally true, but a good guide. Almost all taverns sell food at midnight. BANKS: 28, 39 Interest rates are lower but investment is safe 07, 31 Higher interest rates, more likely to lose money 62, 03 Higher interest, most risky, enter from south at 61,2 Banks that offer higher interest for your deposits are more likely to have bank failures. SHOPS: 25, 36 31, 36 14, 01 Enter going west from square 15,6 13, 04 Enter going west from square 15,6 06, 20 16, 26 09, 52 10, 53 19, 56 37, 47 56, 34 57, 38 Enter from north 62, 61 60, 27 44, 21-22 38, 10 Shops carry a wide variety of clothing which has no importance in THE CITY, but will become important in THE DUNGEON. Shops have different hours. All shops sell compasses for 5 silver. SMITHIES: 28, 33 10, 55 35, 51 33, 20 Enter from north Smithies have different hours. Goods change, prices change, and almost everything is expensive. HEALERS: 20, 05 30, 30 Healers tend to be open for business on ODD hours. Repeated visits in one day will cause prices to increase. GUILDS: 44, 35 Thieves Guild, increase skill, enter from wes| 03, 56 Assassins Guild, increase stealth, north from 2,57 to south from 04, 56 15, 48 Red Wizards Guild, increase strength, north from 13,47 east to 14, 48 north 22, 34 Dark Wizards Guild, increase charm 48, 19 Blue Wizards Guild, increase speed, enter from west 12, 28 Star WIzards Guild, increase hit points and strength 15, 06 Physicians Guild, increase hit points, enter from west 05, 03 Light Wizards Guild, increase wisdom, enter from west 60, 51 Wizards of Chaos Guild, increase charm, enter from east 50, 58 Guild of the Order, increase intelligence 50, 62 Wizards of Law Guild, increase wisdom 43, 12 Green Wizards Academy, increase stamina, enter from north Guilds will raise your stats on your first visit to them. Guilds can remove curses from armor and weapons. Costs will vary from guild to guild. Prices can be as low as 2,000 coppers or as high as 11,000 coppers. POTIONS: COLOR TASTE SIP EFFECT AMB PLN C Cure Poison AMB PLN DD Poison AMB SOUR S Spirits AMB SOUR S Beer BLK ACID C Invulnerability Fire BLK ALK C Invulnerability Water BLK BIT C Invulnerability Mental BLK BIT U Delusion BLK DRY C Invulnerability Power BLK PLN C Invulnerability Sharp BLK PLN C Invulnerability Blunt BLK PLN C Fleetness BLK SALT C Invulnerability Air BLK SOUR S Beer BLK SOUR DD Strong Poison BLK SOUR C Invulnerability Earth BLK SWT C Invulnerability Cleric CLR ACID S Cure CLR ACID C Water CLR ACID DD Acid CLR ACID C Cleanse CLR BIT C Unnoticeability CLR DRY C Mineral Water CLR DRY C Invisibility CLR PLN C Water CLR PLN C Invisibility CLR SALT S SaltWater GRN SOUR C Heal Minor Wounds GRN SWT DD Ugliness -1 Charimsa pt. ORG BIT S Inebriation ORG SOUR C Protection+2 ORG SWT C Protection+1 ORG SWT DD Dumbness -1 Int. pt. RED ACID S Vinegar RED BIT C Strength RED DRY S Wine RED SWT C Treasure Finding RED SWT DD Deadly Poison RED SWT C Fruit Juice SLV BIT D Weak Poison SLV BIT C Intelligence SLV PLN C Cure Major Wounds SLV SWT C Charisma WHT ALK C Milk WHT ALK C Healing WHT ALK DD Poison WHT BIT DD Slowness WHT SALT C Heal All YLW BIT C Noticeability YLW DRY DD Weakness -1 Str. pt. YLW PLN C Cure Wounds LEGEND Colors: RED=Red, BLK=Black, SLV=Silver, WHT=White, YLW=Yellow, CLR=Clear, ORG=Orange, AMB=Amber, GRN=Green. Tastes: SWT=Sweet, SALT=Salty, SOUR=Sour, BIT=Bitter, ALK=Alkaline, ACID=Acidic, PLN=Plain, DRY=Dry. Sips: D=Danger, C=Caution, S=Safe, DD=Dangerous, U=Unsure. Potions can be helpful or harmful. The higher your wisdom and intelligence, the more easily you will be able to identify the potions. Some potions such as Fleetness and Protection+1 and Protection+2 have a greater frequency of occurrence than do the others. What a potion will be is randomly decided by the program when you unseal the potion. You can increase your control over potions by saving them, saving your character, making backup copies, re-entering the game and trying them. If you are not satisfied with the potions you got, you can restore and try again. Treasure Finding will greatly increase your ability to find money, potions and weapons! GAME HINTS: 1) Save your character often to a separate backup disk! 2) Have (or get) a fast copy utility. Do NOT use the backup utility that comes with the game. 3) Copy your character to several disks when: A) you have many potions or B) you are about to increase a level. Enter the game with each of these disks, keeping notes on what potions you found or what stats were increased. Use the best of the ones you tried, or recopy and try again! 4) Avoid Brown Molds, Black Slimes, and Giant Rats as often as possible until you are either rich and can afford trips to the healers, or can defeat these monsters. Tricking them is a successful means of defeating these disease giving creatures IF you have high enough intelligence. 5) Do not carry more food, water, gold and gems then you really need to. Excess weight will cause your character to become weary sooner and reduce your adventuring time between stops at the inns. 6) Do not bother to examine or taste potions, just sip. Avoid too many protection potions as this will cause your character to crash. 7) While still a lower level character, avoid being out at night or in the rain. 8) When finding a weapon, always equip it as a secondary weapon in case it is cursed.