===================Adventurama		Ver 1.1=================	
by Ron Forte 


Welcome to "Adventurama", the hot new game for Kyle's Quest 3.2  
from the creator of "Have Guitar, Will Travel."

Both Pilot and WindowsCE versions are available for this level.
It has been extensively tested on the Palm Pilot Pro (TM) OS 2.0, 
and should be compatible with all later Pilot versions.
Please note that the WindowsCE version has NOT been tested, as
I have no intention of either personally testing my level on a
CE device, or ever owning a CE device.


===============Notes from the Author===============

This is my second effort at designing a level for Kyle's Quest.  
For this level, my concept was to create an adventure which pushed 
the limits of the Kyle's Quest engine, but is still fun to play.  
Whereas my first level was very "linear" in nature, i.e. get to 
point A, then B then C and so on, I wanted this adventure to 
offer as much freedom for the player to "explore" as possible.  
The danger in this, of course, is creating a game that has little 
or no focus or direction.  I hope I've successfully avoided that 
through the use of Adventurama's guild system.

My plan from the beginning was to take the concept of "guilds" in 
Kyle's Quest to the N'th degree.  I wanted to offer the players the
freedom to develop the character as they wish.  That's why 
Adventurama has 12 distinct "classes" or paths which you may 
follow.  Depending on which Guild the player joins, one can aquire 
a greater or smaller range of spells and weaponry.  Those 
experienced in Fantasy Role-playing games will get the idea fairly 
easily:  Priest types will have more and better healing spells; 
Wizard types will have a broader range of offensive spells, and 
Fighter types will have access to better Weapons and Armor.  More 
detail on that in a bit... but first:


====================Introduction===========================

"You are Foley, slacker extroidinaire.  After years of grubbing 
off of your parents, you finally get the boot out of the house by 
dear old dad.  Not fancying the idea of being ridiculed by your 
friends and neighbors, you decide to begin your new 'independent' 
life far from home, in the foreign 'land beyond the great 
mountains'.  You've heard stories about the wealth of opportunities 
as well as the perils there, so you decide to take a chance and 
become a stranger in a strange land.  Your objective:  prove that 
you're not the loser your father thinks you are."

That's it, folks, that's the setup.  I'll let the game itself tell 
the rest of the story....  There won't be any "spoilers" here, 
because I don't want to ruin the fun, and frankly, I'm a bit too 
lazy to lay everything out for everyone in a complete walk-through.
However, especially for those of you new to the idea of "classes" 
and "guilds", here is a brief description of the guild system in
"Adventurama":


==========Guilds========

When you begin the game, there are four main guilds you may join.  
Admission to each guild requires passing some sort of "test".  The 
characters in the game will explain the quests to you, but the 
four guilds and their features are:

Warrior:  Your basic fighter.  Good selection of weapons and armor, 
	and not a spell to speak of.

Rogue:  A common street thug.  Gets decent armor, and some pretty 
	good special weapons as well.  Also can use some minor 
	defensive and stealth spells.

Priest:  Not exactly the "turn the other cheek" type you might be
	expecting.   Good weapons, good armor, good defensive 
	spells, an offensive spell or two, and the very very 
	valuable use of healing spellls.

Mage:  Poor weapons, poor armor and no use of healing spells.  But 
	offensive spells that are guaranteed to wreak havoc upon 
	opposing creatures.

But no-siree, it doesn't stop there!  At a certain point in the 
game, you will graduate to one of the 12 "elite" guilds.  This is 
where you can really start kicking butt.  Essentially, each of the 
four main guilds can promote you to one of its three elite 
guilds.  (After passing another test of course.)  Here are the 
elite guilds associated with the four primary ones:
======================
(Warrior)

Knight:  A Warrior on steroids.  Still no spells, but the focus on 
	 Strengh, Agility and HP and greater selection of deadly 
	 weapons and armor makes the Knight the best pure fighter 
	 in the bunch.  Knights have the benefit of being able to
	 train in more than one Lawful Castle.

Paladin:  A Warrior who fights for the church.  Paladins get access 
	  to most of the same spells as Priests, with some of their 
	  own, and they also have great armor and powerful weapons.  
	  Their focus on spells makes them inferior fighers to 
	  Knights, however.

Ranger:  The Woodsman.  Rangers are excellent at fighting, and have
	 good weapons and armor, as well as a wide array of all 
	 types of spells.

======================================
(Rogue)

Thief:  Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky.  Great stealth spells, access to
	good healing, and some deadly weaponry make the Thief a 
	pretty darn good survivor in a dangerous land.

Bard:  The featured class of the hero in "Have Guitar, Will
	Travel", the musical bard is really a pretty well-rounded
	character.  He can cast some low-level spells of all types,
	and has some offensive ones of his own that are pretty, 
	um... rocking!  And some of the musical weapons from
	"Guitar" are also available.

Ninja:  Ninjas are cool!  They get some minor offensive, stealth
	and healing spells, some deadly weapons that only the
	martial artists have available, and they can aquire the
	virtually limitless ability to use their hands and feet as
	deadly weapons.

=============================
(Priest)

Druid:  Rather than following God directly, Druids worship God
	through nature.  Besides the healing spells they aquired
	as Priests, the elite Druids also can channel the forces
	of nature into some heavy-duty offensive, defensive and
	stealth spells.

Healer:  Healers, well...heal.  Learning just a handful of
	offensive and defensive spells, the healers' specialty
	is their use of the most effective healing spells bar
	none.

Bishop:  A Priest on steroids.  Bishops get a little bit more of
	every talent of the Priests.

==============================================
(Mage)

Mystic:  I named this guild "Mystic" because "Illusionist" is too
	many letters for the KQ Engine to handle.  A mystic has
	better stealth and defensive spells than anyone else, and
	also has one or two healing spells.

Warlock:  Warlocks are evil, man.  Evil in a good way, I mean.
	They just may be the most diverse of all the spellcasters,
	having some truly deadly offensive AND good healing
	spells.

Wizard:  What happens when a Mage takes 'roids? You guessed it!
	The only spells Wizards are lacking in is healing, but
	other than that, nobody can touch their spellcasting
	power.  I also like to call them "combat mages".


Oh, please note:  Membership in more than one primary and one elite
guild is forbidden and physically impossible.  (I already fixed this 
bug once!)

So, that's all of the guilds...  The main reason I've included 
these brief descriptions is to help you players decide which type of
character you'd like to play in order to complete Adventurama.
Hopefully, it will entice you to play through more than once;
Believe me, choose a different class, and you'll find that much of
your experience will be quite different.  The game does include a 
few critical choices during your adventure;  Why not try something
different the second time around?


======Spell System=====

Just some notes about how Adventurama's spells operate.  Spells in
Adventurama DO NOT improve with use or "level up".  Once you
aquire a spell, it stays at the same level of effectiveness.
Part of the challenge in Adventurama is in aquiring more powerful
items AND spells as you go along.  Also, while spellcaster's
guilds can teach you a few of the minor spells, most spells
need to be learned via spell scrolls which must be found or
purchased.  This is a play balance thing for the most part;
 I realized while playtesting that joining one of the
spellcasting guilds would cause an extreme surplus of gold,
since the better and more expensive weapons and armor are
not available to members of those guilds.  So, when you finally 
get into the Wizard's Guild, be prepared to shell out a comparable
amount of cash for that "Invisibility" spell to what a Knight 
would pay for his "Mithril Armor".  Again, just a game mechanics 
thing: Hopefully, it'll keep you from being too rich or too poor.


===========Helpful Tips=====================

1)  Try to talk to everyone, especially those suspiciously standing 
alone.  Most people are shy and don't want to
be bothered, but you never know when you might run into someone
who has an important quest or piece of info. for you.

2)  Read carefully!!!  When someone directs you to a person or
place, remember it or jot down the name or location.  They might not
repeat it!

3)  This goes for nearly every adventure game you play.  SAVE 
OFTEN!!!  In the event of your untimely death, or worse, in the 
event that you forgot tip #2 and missed an important direction, 
it would behoove you to restart from your last saved position.

4)  Be cautious!  There's usually no real need to walk
boldly forward in a Northerly direction with the intention of
plowing over everything in your path.  Stop and stroll through
the towns;  read the notices in your local guild; and chat
with some of the local Peasants.  There are lots of cool mini-
quests you can go on in order to gain experience, money and items.
Don't worry about finding the main "plot"... it will likely find
you!

5)  Please direct any questions or bugs to forteny@pipeline.com, or
post on the KQ message board.  I promise to be responsive.  Not
responsible, but responsive.

6)  Oh yeah, Adventurama is HUGE!!!  -Over 380k!!!  Overkill?
Probably.  And it may not seem so big considering the amount of
time it might take you to finish the adventure.  But, keep in
mind that when you finish the game once, you will have only
experienced a small portion of the world of Adventurama.  As I
said before, try it again;  do things differently!

Enjoy the game that is "Adventurama"!  Please feel free to contact
me with any questions, comments, suggestions, or praises.  Yeah,
most importantly the praises!  :-)


-Ron

forteny@pipeline.com
www.earthtogod.com


=====================Version updates==========================

1.1 (May 5, 1999): Fixed bug preventing completion of Wizard's guild 
initiation quest.  A few minor dialog and item bugs as well.  Also 
fixed a bug that allowed admission to more than one primary guild.
Fixed bug that had prevented Ninjas from obtaining important mission.
Fixed a MAJOR bug that was not allowing a critical encounter to fire:
ALL 3 endings now reachable!  

--------------------------------------------------------------
Legal mumbo-jumbo: (c) 1999 Ron Forte.  All rights reserved. 
This level is intended for use in conjunction with the Kyle's 
Quest (TM) game engine.  It may be freely distributed by any
means, provided that no monetary transactions occur in association
with this product.  The author asks that appropriate credit be
given to Ron Forte and EarthToGod.com for design of the game
wherever possible, though it is not a legal obligation.  
In the event that any party seeks to earn a
profit through the use or distribution of this product, the
offending parties will be immediately damned to an eternity
of listening to Leif Garret songs.  Have a nice day.
