WELCOME TO THE KINGDOM OF EXCALIBUR! Conceived and written by Rick and Jami Chism of THE PARTY LINE BBS (512) 280-9018 Austin, Texas 1. Introduction 2. Questing 3. Moves and Potions 4. Knights, Cities, and Taxes 5. Jousts 6. Grievances 7. Being King 8. More on Being King Q. Quit Further help is available using the A command from the Quest menu. Good luck, and enjoy! Rick Chism (California Wino) * * 1. Introduction EXCALIBUR! II is played on a grid 26 spaces across by ten deep, lettered A-Z across the top and 0-9 from top to bottom. Upon your initial entry into EXCALIBUR! you are placed in the city of Camelot. There are many other cities on the board, but in Camelot you can purchase knights, potions, and information, or go jousting for gold. Here also you may visit the Royal Vaults to deposit or withdraw gold, and you may check on your status or rank the players according to their wealth. When you are strong enough you may choose to challenge the King or Queen to war, and if you win, you become the new ruler, which gives you top billing and allows you to joust and obtain free information, collect taxes, and wreak general havoc amongst those who are getting too big for their noble britches! Nore on that later. When you start, you will be given 20 knights and 400 gold coins, 300 of which will be in your purse and the remaining 100 will be placed in the royal vaults. The best thing to do at first is to find your way around the options in the main menu, which is the one you see while you are in Camelot. * 2. Questing After you have become acquainted with Camelot, you should go on a Quest to explore the countryside. There are several types of terrains including deserts, mountains, forests, plains, and swamps, which are beset with various dangers that are best left for you to discover. There are also cities, which you can capture. Each new day, the citizens of the cities which you own will pay you a tax, which you may collect by revisiting the town. The more cities you own, the more taxes you collect. More information will be available if you respond with the A command from the quest menu. As you explore the kingdom, your map will become revealed to you a square at a time. BE CAREFUL! In Camelot you are safe from being captured by your opponents. If you are caught afield, you can be challenged to battle, and if you are defeated, your purse and potions will be taken, and you will be held for ransom, which means that all the gold you have in the vault will be turned over to your captor, and you will be returned to Camelot penniless, although you will not have lost any of your cities, except perhaps the one in which you were captured, if that was the case. * 3. Moves and Potions You have 20 moves per day. You are charged a move every time you travel or send out a scout or attempt to do battle. Sometimes, if the country is rugged or a scout is delayed, you can be assessed two moves. If you find yourself unable to return to Camelot, you can try to hide in a city owned by one of your opponents, but if anyone suspects you are there, they can search for you by spending an appropriate amount of cash and moves. A potion will take you to any spot on the board. A potion is required for you and one for each knight you take with you, so it can get expensive. You cannot take a potion from within a city, but you CAN transport TO a city with them. If you potion away from a spot and do not take all your retinue with you, they may be picked up by the next player to pass by. * 4. Knights, Cities, and Taxes Your RETINUE consists of the knights who accompany you as you explore the kingdom. They are the ones which you will use to battle for you. When you capture a city, you must leave some of your retinue as GUARDS to insure that taxes are collected. You will pay your retinue ten gold coins apiece per day, but your guards will be paid out of the city taxes. Therefore, the more guards you leave in a city, the less tax you collect, but the fewer you leave, the easier it is to have a city taken from you. You may leave up to 32,767 guards in a city without paying a cent in wages, but of course you would long since have stopped having any taxes left over to collect from that city. Each new day you will collect a stipend of 200 gold coins. You will also receive a report on which cities you own and how much tax is available for you to collect. You will be required to pay for any knights that are in your retinue at a rate of ten gold coins apiece. When you leave Camelot to go questing, you will be assessed a tax on your knights, your gold, and possibly your potions, if they are discovered. The tax rate is set by the king. The king may also visit your cities and collect a portion of the taxes or the guard, unless you have instructed your guards to resist, in which case the king might become angry and do battle with you. * 5. Jousting You are allowed to joust twelve times per day, or until you have lost five times in succession, whichever comes first. Jousts cost 25 gold coins to challenge, but may pay up to 1000 gold coins depending upon the prowess of your opponent. Of course, the better your opponent, the more likely you are to be defeated. * 6. Grievances If you have a gripe against another player, and you feel that your peers (the Lords and Ladies of the Realm) and the king will back you up, you can file a grievance with the king. Do this by selecting G from the menu while in Camelot. Upon their next logon, the reigning king or queen will decide whether or not to prosecute. BEWARE! He may decide to fine you 500 gold pieces for wasting his time! If he decides to prosecute, the accused will be allowed to issue a statement in his or her defense, then the matter will be voted upon by all players logging on the next day. If the accused is found to be guilty, the king will issue a suitable punishment, which may be a fine, banishment from Camelot for a few days, confinement to Camelot, banishment from the game for a few days, or the loss of all acquisitions, being forced to start anew. The king may or may not choose to share the fine with the accuser. * 7. Being King If you become king, things are quite different. There are significant advantages to being king, as well as disadvantages. (Otherwise the king would be too powerful to be overthrown.) > Knights cost more money, but if you don't return to Camelot when you run out of moves, you can't be defeated if you have at least one knight in your retinue. But if you are challenged to War or initiate an attack, each knight has a combat value equal to each of your opponent's knights. > You collect taxes while you are king, but you must pay your guards in Camelot as well as your retinue. You establish the tax rate which is levied when players attempt to leave Camelot on a quest, and you may collect additional taxes by visiting cities around the board which are owned by your nobles. You are allowed 30 moves instead of the usual 20. > Change your guard in Camelot by typing G at the (Q)uest menu. > While questing, you cannot capture cities. You can, however, type C to capture and fight a rival or punish someone who will not pay their taxes. You can whip their knights and take uncollected taxes. You can capture nobles who are questing, thus increasing your wealth. You cannot use potions, but can acquire them as you travel in the mountains or capture players. If you are defeated they will remain yours. * 8. More on Being King > If you abdicate, you will begin the game all over again, and lose all the wealth and knights you have accumulated, starting again with 300 gold coins and 20 knights. The only thing you get to keep is your map. > If you are defeated as king, the new king gets the gold you have in the vault (of course, because he owns the vault!), but you get away with your retinue, your purse, and your potions. > The king can joust for free, and purchase information at no charge. > The king can place a patrol on Mountains and Forests to keep bandits or merry men from harassing the populace. This is done by traveling to that location and hitting a + to post one hundred knights on patrol. This can come in handy if you have too many knights and cannot afford to pay them. If you are overthrown, these knights will become vagrants. If you abdi- cate, they will become part of your retinue. > The king passes judgement in all court cases, which can be a powerful political lever. Well, that's enough on the king. The main thing is, he gets top billing. Use your imagination and you can become quite wealthy while you are in power. *