Sorcerer Playing Manual

Adventuring

The most important part of the game of Sorcerer is adventuring. After you have gathered together in a party, purchased or traded for the best equipment you can afford, and rested up to restore hit points and spells, it is time to leave the safe, but expensive, confines of the castle and enter the unsafe, but possibility lucrative, corridors of the maze.

CAMP

As soon as you enter the maze from the castle, you will be placed in the camp. Being in camp means that you have stopped somewhere and set up a strong guard against monsters, so that members of the party can trade, equip new items, reorder, and so on. You will see a display of the characters in the party much like that seen in the castle, and a list of options as shown in the picture below.

You can inspect any character by pressing his name, just like in the tavern. In addition to the options available in the Castle, you will be able to CAST SPELLS and USE ITEMS.
When inspecting a character, if you press CAST SPELLS, you will be asked what spell you want to cast. You must choose the name of a spell that can be cast in camp(see Spells and Items) and that you know how to cast, and that you have a spell point left to use to cast it. Remember that for each level of power of spell for both magical and priestly spells, you are given a number of spells you can cast. Say you have five first-level, three second-level and one third-level priestly spells. If you know(have in your spell books) three first-, one second- and one third-level spell, that means that you can cast any of your three first-level spells five times, or two once and one three times, or any combination. You have the abiolity to cast any of your first-level spells five times. Since you know only one second-level spell you can throw only it, but you can do it three times, and you can cast your third-level spell one time.
Note that is possible to be able to throw spells of the second- or higher level, but not know any spells of that level!
For many of the camp spells, especially curative spells, you will be asked who is to be the object of the spell. The characters will be displayed and you press the name of the character who is to receive the spell.
Some magic items, such as scrolls or wands, can magic or priestly spells as well. By USING those items you can cast the spell at no cost to you. Again you may be asked who is to receive the spell. Also, there is a chance that the item will lose its magic powers. Scrolls are only good for one application, but a wand may last for 20 or 30!

The other options in the camp are REORDER THE PARTY, SEARCH ANOTHER PARTY and EXIT THE CAMP.
REORDER lets you select the order in which the players will march through the maze. When fighting monsters, only the first three characters can attack with weapons, and in turn be physically attacked by monsters. Thus, it is a good idea to have the weaker and less armored characters in the rear. You will be asked for the character who is to go in the first position, then for the character who is to go in the second position, and so on.
SEARCH ANOTHER PARTY option lets you search the maze for the bodies of slain adventurers. When an entire party is wiped out (no one makes it back to the castle, and the cemetery is displayed) the bodies may or may not be eaten by the monsters. The most likely consequence is that a body will be stripped of some gold and equipment and left where it fell. Remember, this does not apply to disbanded party members. They will never be stripped or eaten. The SEARCH BODY spell may be used to locate dead or disbanded adventurers.
When you INSPECT, a search is made for all characters in the same place as the party.If characters are found, they will be displayed with a name. You can then press the name to pick one up or Leave. When a character is picked up he or she is added to the party, and so if the party is six strong, you cannot pick up any more party members.
Once back in the castle, the normal Temple donations can be used to obtain the correct spells for revival of dead characters.
A direct consequence of this is that any character you don't want any more because he died and is somewhere in the maze, has to be deleted via the training Grounds. If you do not delete him, space will be wasted on disk and may not be available to others. Also, since dead characters are taken away from the party by the guards when the party returns to the castle, it is a good idea to strip them of items and gold before returning to the castle. If the character cannot be raised from the dead, and is dead forever, the Temple will sacrifice all he has to the gods, because he obviously did something to deserve not being restored!
EXIT lets you break camp and go into the maze. This is where the real adventure begins.

WHAT IS DISPLAYED

Once in the maze, a Hi-Resolution graphics display is used. The information about your characters is at the bottom of the screen. In the top is a 3D Hidden Surface display of where you are in the maze. To the right of it is information about which spells are active at the time, such as protection or light.
Above that is a short list of your option keys, and between the maze display and the status information is a blank area where messages may appear. At some locations you will find special objects such as messages, pits, stairs, and so on. When you enter the maze from the city, you are at the bottom of a set of stairs. Sorcerer uses a 3D perspective plot of the maze as you would see it if you distance. By using a spell such as LIGHT you can light up the maze so that you can see father, and also see secret doors, On the following page are diagram of what the Display page and 3D Maze display show you. In particular, try to get a good idea of the relationship between a top view (a map) and the 3D perspective view. Mapping is an essential part of Sorcerer, and the use of the 3D display makes it more challenging and interesting.

MOTION COMMANDS

While moving around, your options are:
UP ARROW-moves you forward a step in the direction you are facing
LEFT ARROW-turn you left
RIGHT ARROW-turn you right
KICK-kets you kick through a door if it is right in front of you.
CAMP-enters the Camp
QUIT-lets you quit this adventure and return to Castle without a party.
As you move through the maze you may find many interesting things, and messages and questions may appear. You may also encounter monsters, in which case combat may ensue.
It is a good idea to keep a map of maze. This lets you get back to the exit. Also, be aware that there are secret doors which you rerely see, but you can get through by trying to Kick it. if there is a door where you kick, you'll go through. Otherwise you will stub your toe!