=== The Angband World.  Last revised for Oangband 0.3.1 ===

     This file discusses the symbols you see on the main window (or screen), 
including terrain, objects, and monsters, and then provides a brief tour of the 
town before guiding you into the dungeon.  It introduces the dungeon layout and 
features, and the objects and monsters you will find there.  Finally, you learn 
how to win the game, and what happens should you die.


=== Symbols On Your Map ===

     Angband and many of its variants allow you to use either ASCII (text) 
characters or graphics to represent the world around you.  Other variants, 
including Oangband, are text-only.  Using text characters has the great advan-
tage of allowing instant on-line identification of any symbol you see.  Type 
'/', then the character.  Also, you may consult the following tables of symbols, 
divided into dungeon features, objects, and monsters:


                               Special
  @   The player

                Features that do not block line of sight
 
  .   A floor space                   1   Entrance to General Store
  .   A trap (hidden)                 2   Entrance to Armoury
  ^   A trap (known)                  3   Entrance to Weapon Smith
  ;   A glyph of warding              4   Entrance to Temple
  '   An open door                    5   Entrance to Alchemy Shop
  '   A broken door                   6   Entrance to Magic Shop
  <   A staircase up                  7   Entrance to the Black Market
  >   A staircase down                8   Entrance to your Home
  .   Water                           9   Entrance to the Bookseller

                   Features that block line of sight

  #   A secret door                   #   A wall
  +   A closed door                   %   A mineral vein
  +   A locked door                   *   A mineral vein with treasure
  +   A jammed door                   :   A pile of rubble
  +   Tree                            #   Lava


                             Objects
 
  !   A potion (or flask)             /   A pole-arm
  ?   A scroll (or book)              |   An edged weapon
  ,   A mushroom (or food)            \   A hafted weapon
  -   A wand or rod                   }   A sling, bow, or x-bow
  _   A staff                         {   A shot, arrow, or bolt
  =   A ring                          (   Soft armour
  "   An amulet                       [   Hard armour
  $   Gold or gems                    ]   Misc. armour
  ~   Lights and Chests               )   A shield
  `   Junk, Sticks, Skeletons, etc    &   (unused)
 
 
                             Monsters
 
            $   Creeping Coins      ,   Mushroom Patch
            a   Giant Ant           A   Angelic being
            b   Giant Bat           B   Bird
            c   Giant Centipede     C   Canine
            d   Dragon              D   Ancient Dragon
            e   Floating Eye        E   Elemental
            f   Feline              F   Dragon Fly
            g   Golem               G   Ghost
            h   Humanoid            H   Hybrid
            i   Icky-Thing          I   Insect
            j   Jelly               J   Snake
            k   Kobold              K   Killer Beetle
            l   Giant Louse         L   Lich
            m   Mold                M   Mummy
            n   Naga                N   (unused)
            o   Orc                 O   Ogre
            p   Human               P   Giant Human(oid)
            q   Quadruped           Q   Quylthulg
            r   Rodent              R   Reptile/Amphibian
            s   Skeleton            S   Spider/Scorpion/Tick
            t   Townsperson         T   Troll
            u   Minor demon         U   Major demon
            v   Vortex              V   Vampire
            w   Worm or Worm Mass   W   Wight/Wraith
            x   (unused)            X   Xorn/Xaren
            y   Yeek                Y   Yeti
            z   Zombie/Mummy        Z   Zephyr Hound

     Any of these symbols may be changed using preference files, accessed using 
the command '%'.


=== The Town Level ===

The town level is where you will begin your adventure.  The town consists of
nine buildings (each with an entrance), some townspeople, and a wall which
surrounds the town.  The first time you are in town it will be daytime, but
note that the sun rises and sets (rather instantly) as time passes.

--- Townspeople ---

     The town contains many different kinds of people.  There are the street
urchins, young children who will mob an adventurer for money, and seem to come 
out of the woodwork when excited.  Blubbering idiots are a constant annoyance, 
but not harmful.  Public drunks wander about the town singing, and pose no 
threat to anyone.  Sneaky rogues hang about watching for a likely victim to mug.  
And finally, what town would be complete without a swarm of half drunk warriors, 
who take offense or become annoyed just for the fun of it.

     Most of the townspeople should be avoided by the largest possible distance
when you wander from store to store.  Fights will break out, though, so be 
prepared.  Since your character grew up in this world of intrigue, no experience 
is awarded for killing the town inhabitants, though you may acquire treasure.

--- Stores ---

     To enter a store, simply move onto the entrance, which is represented by a 
number from 1 to 9.  Once inside a store, you will see the name and race of the 
store owner, the name of the store, the maximum amount of cash that the store 
owner will pay for any one item, and the store inventory.  The price of items on 
sale depends on their base cost, how well your and the store owner's races get 
along*, your Charisma, and the innate greediness of the store owner.  Some shop-
keepers have really small purses, which can force you to sell valuable items for 
a pittance.  On the other hand, these same people hold plenty of sales.  Occas-
ionally, shopkeepers retire, and the store comes under new management.

     * Everyone likes their own race best.
     * Elves and Dwarves detest each other.
     * Nobody loves a Half-Orc or Half-Troll but another orc or troll.

     You will also see an (incomplete) list of available commands.  Note that
many of the commands which work in the dungeon work in the stores as well, but 
some do not, especially those which involve using objects.

     Stores do not always have everything in stock.  As the game progresses, 
they will get new items, so check from time to time.  Any item that you sell 
them will eventually be sold to another adventurer.  Note that the inventory 
of a store will not change while you are in town, even if you save the game and 
reload.  If you have a lot of spare gold, you can purchase every item in a 
store, which will induce the store owner to bring out new stock, and perhaps 
even retire.

     Store owners will not buy harmful or useless items.  If an object is un-
identified, they will pay you some base price for it.  Once they have bought it 
they will immediately identify the object.  If it is a good object, they will 
add it to their inventory.  If it was a bad bargain, they simply throw the item 
away.  In any case, you may receive some knowledge of the item type.

Bargaining:
     If you toggle the auto-haggle option off, you may bargain with the store 
owners for items, which allows you to get noticably better deals with only a 
small amount of effort.  When bargaining, you enter prices you will pay (or 
accept) for some object.  You can either enter the absolute amount, or precede 
a number with a plus or minus sign to give a positive or negative increment on 
your previous offer.  Once you learn how much to increment or decrement your 
offers by, you will be able to avoid insulting the shopkeepers, and possibly 
even getting thrown out of the store.  After you have bargained with a shop-
keeper long enough, and forced him down to his final offer often enough, he 
will recognize that you are such a superb haggler that he'd might as well give 
you the best possible price without argument.  The more expensive the item is, 
the less likely the store owner is to assume that you are a good haggler.


The General Store ("1")
     The General Store sells foods, drinks, cloaks, torches, lamps, oil, 
     shovels, picks, spikes, and ammo.  All of these items and some others can 
     be sold back to the General store for money.

The Armoury ("2")
     The Armoury is where the town's armour is fashioned.  All sorts of pro- 
     tective gear may be bought and sold here.

The Weaponsmith's Shop ("3")
     The Weaponsmith's Shop is where the town's weapons are fashioned.  Hand 
     and missile weapons may be purchased and sold here, along with arrows, 
     bolts, and shots.

The Temple ("4")
     The Temple deals in healing and restoration potions, as well as blessing 
     scrolls, word of recall scrolls, some approved priestly weapons, as 
     well as prayer books.

The Alchemy shop ("5")
     The Alchemy Shop deals in all types of potions and scrolls.

The Magic User's Shop ("6")
     The Magic User's Shop deals in all sorts of rings, wands, amulets, rods, 
     and staffs.

The Black Market ("7")
     The Black Market will sell and buy anything at extortionate prices. 
     However it occasionally has VERY good items in it. The shopkeepers are 
     not known for their tolerance...

Your Home ("8")
     This is your house where  you  can  store  objects  that you cannot carry 
     on your travels, or will need at a  later date.  You may check the contents 
     of your home when in the dungeon using one of the options made available 
     with the '~' command.

The Bookseller ("9")
     This shop carries all low-level spellbooks, and will purchase any book you 
     find.


=== The Dungeon ===

     All levels other than 0 (or zero feet) lie within the dungeon.  Each level 
of the dungeon is fifty feet high, and is divided into large rectangular regions 
(several times larger than the screen) by inpenetratable walls.  Once you leave 
a level, you will never again find your way back to that region of that level, 
but there are an infinite number of other regions at that same "depth" that you 
can explore later.  Monsters move about just as you do, and you may see them 
again.

--- Dungeon Features, Light, Level Feelings, and Mining ---

Terrain:
     In Oangband, the following terrain affects movement, combat, or both.  
Because they less frequently take advantage of terrain, monsters benefit more 
from favorable and suffer less from unfavorable terrain than the player does.

     Rubble:
          Slows down the player and all monsters that cannot bore or pass 
     through rock.  Ends LOS, stops missiles, bolts, and beams, and reduces the 
     radius of ball spells.  Grants the player and monsters within it some 
     protection from melee, ranged, or magical attacks.  Rubble may dissolve to 
     mormal floor.

     Water:
          Cannot be passed by players with heavy burdens, or fiery, earthbound
     monsters.  All melee or ranged attacks and most spells benefit when the 
     target is in water, especially water-based spells.  Fire-based spells 
     become much less powerful, so find a lake if you battle Smaug.  Water may 
     evaporate.

     Lava:
          Can be passed by any character, but inflicts substantial fire damage 
     (less for players with feather fall - they're light on their feet).  
     All monsters other than fiery or strong flying creatures will not cross. 
     Water and ice-based spells suffer and fire-based spells become more power-
     ful against a target in lava.  Lava may freeze to rubble or normal floor.

     Trees:
          Slows down players not familar with druidic techniques, and all 
     non-natural monsters that neither fly nor pass through rock.  Ends LOS, 
     stops missiles, bolts, and beams, and reduces the radius of ball spells.  
     Grants the player and monsters within it some protection from melee, ranged, 
     or magical attacks.  Trees can burn.


Staircases, Secret Doors, and Traps:
          Staircases allow your character to ascend or descend from one level to 
     another, and are represented by "<" (up) and ">" (down).  Each level has at
     least one up staircase, and two down staircases, unless it is the home of
     Sauron (level 99/4950') or Morgoth (level 100/5000').  The staircases are
     guaranteed, but they may be difficult to find.  Staircases may sometimes 
     allow you to ascend or descend more than one level at a time.
          Many secret doors exist in the dungeon, and may lead to anything from 
     a new section of the dungeon level to an empty closet.  As your familiarity 
     with the dungeon grows, you will know where many secret doors are likely to 
     be.  Secret doors always look like granite until found and, for historical 
     reasons, are never locked.  
          Traps also await you in the dungeon.  They look like normal floor 
     squares until found, too often by your getting caught by one.  Both secret 
     doors and traps may be found using the 's'earch once command, or by going 
     into 'S'earching mode ('#', using the roguelike keyset).  Many classes can 
     also use magic, and everyone can use the appropriate rod or staff.  Be 
     warned: although magical disarming is convenient, it is never a sure thing.

Light:
          Your character must have some source of light in order to see, unless 
     the area around him is magically lit.  Depending on the items he has equip-
     ped, he may have a light radius of one (torches), two (a lantern), or more, 
     up to a rarely-attained maximum of five.
          A torch or lantern burns fuel, and may be refilled (use the 'F'uel 
     command) with other torches or flasks of oil respectively.  It is rumoured 
     that other light sources exist which never need replenishing.

Level Feelings:
          If you have spent enough time on the previous level, you will get a 
     message describing the level as you enter it.  The more interesting the 
     choice of adjectives, the more dangerous and lucrative the level is likely 
     to be.  If you have chosen Preserve mode when creating your character, you 
     will occasionally get the message "you have a special feeling about this 
     level", indicating the presence of a monster pit or nest (sometimes, only 
     at shallow depths), a vault (more often), a player ghost, or an artifact.

Mining:
          There is much treasure in the walls of the dungeon, just waiting for 
     an industrious adventurer to come and dig it out.  Once you can afford it, 
     and if you can handle the weight, bring a shovel or pick along.  See the 
     section below on inscribing objects for the most convenient way to use it.
          As you get richer, the treasures in the wall won't seem so appealing 
     anymore, but keep a item or spell of tunneling handy.  Not only do all 
     sorts of special vaults lie deep below the surface, some completely en-
     closed by solid rock, but smart adventurers deliberately alter the dungeon 
     to make the most dangerous breathers and summoners manageable.

--- Objects ---

          The mines of Angband are full of objects just waiting to be picked up 
     and used.  The treasures of long-forgotten kingdoms, dragon's hordes, heir-
     looms, wizard's stashes, and the plunder from every age of the world unite 
     with the scattered earthly possessions of all the foolish adventurers that 
     died before you to offer unimaginable wealth for those bold enough to seize 
     it.

Your inventory (backpack) and equipment (your person):
          You pick up objects by moving on top on them, and possibly using the 
     'g'et command.  You may carry up to 23 different items or piles of items, 
     and have 12 areas of your body where wearable equipment may go.  If you 
     somehow manage to stuff 24 items into your pack, for example, by removing 
     a helmet from your head while your pack is full, then your pack will over-
     flow and the most recently added item will fall out and onto the ground.
          Carry too much weight, and you will begin to slow down, making it 
     easier for monsters to catch up to you.  The point at which your load thus 
     hinders you depends on your strength.

Specific Types of Objects:
          Many objects found within the dungeon have special commands for their 
     use.  Wands must be Aimed, staves must be Used, scrolls must be Read, and 
     potions must be Quaffed.  You may, in general, not only use items in your 
     pack, but also items on the ground, if you are standing on top of them.

     Wands:
          In Oangband, known wands stack, uniting their charges.  Such a stack 
          may be heavier, but can be recharged more easily and effectively.
     Staffs:
          Staffs do not combine their charges and only stack if they happen to 
          have the same number of charges (they take up plenty of space in your 
          backpack).  If stacked, the number of charges that they display is 
          prefixed by a quantity indicator (e.g. "(2x 13 charges)", which shows 
          that each of two staffs have 13 charges.  Although bulky, staffs often 
          have plenty of charges and recharge well.
     Rods:
          Rods always stack.  A stack of rods with at least one charging member 
          will show an appropriate inscription.  When zapped, a rod is "timed 
          out" for a given number of turns.  Each recharging rod in a stack 
          contributes to the stack's total recharge rate; if three out of five 
          rods are charging, the stack's total timeout period will decrease by 
          three per normal player turn.  
          Note:  In Oangband, rods are not invulnerable...

          Chests are difficult to open, as they contain both traps and locks, 
     but the adventurer that opens one will be rewarded handsomely.
          The Scroll of Word of Recall deserves special mention.  Read in the 
     dungeon, it brings you back to the town.  Read in the town, it takes you 
     as deep in the dungeon as you have ever gone.  This spell takes a little 
     time to take effect, so don't expect it to save you in a crisis.  Should 
     you mistakenly read a Scroll of Word of Recall, you may cancel it by 
     reading another.

Object Inscriptions:
          Angband allows you to conveniently swap between main and backup 
     weapons, have a set series of keystrokes always use the same object, 
     prevent accidental use of an object, or simply assign neat names to your 
     favorite gear.  Use the '{' and '}' keys to inscribe and uninscribe 
     objects.

     To designate a main and backup weapon:
          Inscribe both with "@x0".  The 'X' command will replace whatever 
          melee weapon you are wielding with another inscribed thus.
     To get very paranoid about an object:
          Inscribe it with "!*".
     To set up a wand that is always aimed with the same set of keystrokes:
          Inscribe it with "ax#", or "zx#" in the roguelike keyset, replacing 
          the '#' with whatever digit you desire.  This allows you to set up 
          macros to, say, check for traps instantly.  Similar inscriptions make 
          archery very convenient.

          The game also inscribes objects automatically.  Wands and staves which 
     are known to be empty will be inscribed with "empty".  Objects which have 
     been tried at least once but haven't been identified yet will be inscribed 
     with "tried".  Cursed objects are inscribed with "cursed".  Broken objects 
     may be inscribed with "broken".  Items purchased at a discount are so 
     marked.  Some of these inscriptions will disapear when the item is iden-
     tified, and you may overwrite others.

Pseudo-ID:
          All adventurers are able to automatically gain information about many 
     equippable objects, but some classes are much more likely to learn about 
     objects this way than others.  Priests, and Mages, Rangers, Druids, and 
     Necromancers to a lesser extent, can tell whether an item is "good" (with 
     magical enhancements of some sort), or "cursed" (items with foul magics 
     that need at least a scroll of Remove Curse to take off).  Warriors, and 
     Rogues, Paladins, and Assassins to a lesser extent, can learn whether an 
     item is "terrible" (a item with perilous magics), "cursed", "average" (an 
     item with no magical bonues or penalties), "good", "excellent" (an item 
     that grants special bonuses or abilities), or even "special" (an artifact).

Cursed Objects:
          Some objects, mainly armor and weapons, have had curses laid upon 
     them by joyful evil sorcerers who enjoy a good joke when it gets you 
     killed.  These horrible objects will look like any other normal item, but 
     will detract from your character's stats or abilities if worn.  They will 
     also be impossible to remove until a remove curse is performed.  In fact 
     some are so badly cursed that even this will not work, and more potent 
     methods are needed.
          If you wear or wield a cursed item, you will immediately feel deathly 
     cold, and the item will be marked "cursed".
          Skopkeepers will refuse to buy any item which is known to be cursed.

--- Monsters: Monster Memories, Stealth, and Player Ghosts ---

Your Monster Memory:
          When you see a monster for the first time, all you know are its 
     physical attributes and whatever information the monster description may 
     provide.  As you fight and kill monsters, use various attacks on them, 
     probe them with magic, and get killed by them, you learn more about their 
     strengths and weaknesses.

Stealth:
          Characters have a base chance to wake up monsters that increases as 
     player speed does (since a speedy character will perform more actions 
     making noise every time a monster gets to take its turn) and greatly 
     decreases as stealth improves.  This value can be modified:  combat and 
     bashing boors makes it more likely that monsters will awake (especially 
     those in line of sight), and resting makes it less likely.  The higher 
     your base stealth, the less extra noise you will make in combat.

Player Ghosts:
          Player ghosts vary from game to game depending on the name, sex, 
     race, and class of the adventurer or Angband/Oangband Hero whose bones 
     file was used during ghost creation.  Should your character die, informat-
     ion about him will often be added to a new bones file, inside the folder 
     /lib/bones, and a future game might bring him back from the dead...


=== Winning The Game ===

     Once your character has killed Sauron, who lives on level 99 (4950') in the 
dungeon, a magical staircase will appear that will allow you to finally reach 
level 100.  Morgoth lurks on this level of his dungeon, and you will not be able 
to go below his level until you have killed him.  Try to avoid wandering around 
on level 100 unless you are ready for him, since he has a habit of coming at you 
across the dungeon, the Mighty Hammer 'Grond' in hand, to slay you for your 
impudence.

     Morgoth cannot be killed by some of the easier methods used on normal
creatures.  Morgoth, like all other "Unique" monsters, will simply teleport away 
to another region of the level if you attempt to use a spell such as destruction 
is upon him.  Morgoth, like some other monsters, cannot be polymorphed, slept, 
charmed, or genocided.  Magical spells like Mana Storm and Orb of Draining are 
effective against him, as are some of the more powerful weapons, but he is diffi-
cult to kill and if allowed to escape for a time he will heal himself rapidly.

     If you should actually survive the attempt of killing Morgoth, you will 
receive the status of WINNER.  You may continue to explore, and may even save 
the game and play more later, but since you have defeated the toughest creature 
alive, there is really not much point.  Unless you wish to listen to the rumors 
of a powerful ring buried somewhere in the dungeon...

     When you are ready to retire, simply "commit suicide" (using the "Q" key)
to have your character entered into the high score list as a winner.  Note that 
until you retire, you can still be killed, so you may want to retire before wandering into a room packed with 95 Power Dragons...


=== Upon Death and Dying ===
 
     If your character's hit points fall below zero, he dies.  The dreaded 
tombstone will appear, and you may then dump a record of your character to a 
document in the /lib/files folder.  Afterwards, you see all of your possessions 
(identified) on screen.

     Your character will leave behind a reduced save file, which contains only
the monster memory and your option choices, both of which new characters may 
use.  It is very helpful to know something about the monster that slew your 
ancestor!

Cheating Death:  For those who, like myself, find such information helpful...
     One of the really neat things about Angband is that your character's life 
is so important.  Let him die, and you start over from scratch.  This is one of 
the secrets to this game's fascination; anyone who cheats death is really not 
getting the full Angband experience, and any Morgoth-slayers yanked from the 
jaws of death are not full winners.
      But what if your characters seem to die all the time (like mine!), and you 
really want to keep playing with the same guy?  Well, Angband has a few answers 
for that too.  You may cheat death by:
     -toggling on the "cheat death" option (see the help file on options).  This 
      keeps your character ticking, and is even kind enough to give you a run-
      ning tally of your deaths by setting the character's age to zero when 
      first activated, and increasing it by one each time therafter.
     -making backup savefiles.
     -Aborting the game just as the tombstone appears or before.

Good luck, and I hope you do what I have never managed to:  Post a genuine 
Angband/Oangband winner!
