Game #81: Swordthrust

Swordthrust is an interactive text adventure/RPG hybrid written by Donald Brown. There were many of these type of hybrid games in this early era of CRPGs and this series is the best of the breed. It was the commercial successor to Brown’s Eamon creation and while the reception and reviews of the first scenario were very good, as well as initial sales, the series never did take off and ended with The Hall of Alchemie. There were seven different adventure scenarios six of which were sold separately at what was then an expensive price of $29.95 apiece which might help explain why the series was not a huge commercial success. Each new scenario also needed the master diskette (sold separately) so each new scenario was never going to mathematically sell more than the original. The complete series is listed below:

1. The King’s Testing Ground by Donald Brown
2. The Vampyre Caves by Donald Brown
3. The Kidnappers Cove by Donald Brown
4. The Case of the Sultan’s Pearl by Donald Brown
5. The Green Plague by Donald Brown
6. The Eternal Curse by Donald Brown
7. The Hall of Alchemie by Peter Wityk

Players take on the role of a warrior/adventurer in the magical, feudal world of Diurla. Your play begins at the Main Hall of the Guild of Free Rogues, where you create a character, buy equipment and learn spells before venturing out to gain wealth and experience. Each scenario has a different goal, and typically a time limit.

The Main Hall of the Guild of Free Rogues will look very familiar to veterans of Eamon. From the Main Hall you can visit the Weapons Shop, get Training, go to Hokas (which is a Magic Shop) or head to the Bar for drinks.

While there are some similarities to Brown’s Eamon creation; where SwordThrust really differentiates itself is in the improved complex mechanics and character advancement found within.

There are several numbers or components involved which include Hardiness, Agility, Charisma, Fatigue, and Left Hand rating.

Hardiness represents the brute force of your character. A number is randomly generated between 3 and 24 when you’re generating your character. It has two major impacts:

1. Weight in the game is measured in gronds and you can carry 5 times your Hardiness in gronds and still remain lightly encumbered. If you are carrying more than 5 to 10 times your Hardiness then you are encumbered. Encumbrance affects your chance of getting hit with weapons as well as your movement and fatigue. Additionally you can only swim if you are lightly encumbered and also affects how long you can hold your breath underwater.
2. Hardiness also determines how much damage your body can absorb before getting killed.

Like your Hardiness, your Agility begins at some level between three and twenty-four, usually somewhere between twelve and fifteen. It describes your speed and dexterity, and has its most major effect on combat – several factors are added together to find your chance of hitting with a weapon , and one of these factors is twice your agility.

Charisma describes how attractive you are to others and has two impacts on the game.

1. It affects how monsters and non-player characters you encounter will react to you. It can sometimes turn an unfriendly encounter into a friendly one.
2. Market prices in the Main Hall will be lower if your Charisma score is higher.

The game also keeps track of what it calls a Fatigue Reservoir. Movement and attacking subtracts from this Reservoir and when it gets too low you become tired or fatigued and must rest. Casting spells subtracts substantially from this Fatigue Reservoir as well. If you enter combat “tired” it negatively affects your chances to hit.

By an odd stroke of fate, every character in Diurla is right-handed. Most characters have two hands. The most common ways to attack are using a two-handed weapon or having a weapon in the right hand and a shield in the left. However, a few characters from time to time will give up the extra power of a two-handed weapon and the protection of a shield to get a second attack, and fight with weapons in both hands. When this happens, the Left Hand Rating affects your chance to hit with the weapon in your left hand.

Your Left Hand Rating is a multiplier that begins from twenty-five to ninety-nine percent. The chance of hitting a target with a weapon in your left hand is the chance of hitting the target if that weapon was in your right hand, multiplied by your Left Hand Rating over 100.

Which takes us to what I think is one of the most interesting aspects of the game: the mechanics behind the combat.

There are a lot of moving parts that go into combat. The first factor is your agility. The chance of hitting begins at twice the agility number. The next six factors are affected by the weapon: a name, a weapon type, the number of hands needed to use it (one or two), a weapon complexity, and two numbers describing the damage. A good quality weapon has a higher weapon complexity and better chance to hit than a fair quality weapon. Next the player’s expertise in that weapon type is factored in. Every character has a separate weapon expertise for every class of weapon. They begin with 5% for axe, -10% for bow, 20% for club, 10% for spear, and 0% for sword. This number is added to the chance of hitting – therefore, notice that even though a beginning player’s sword expertise is zero, his/her chance of hitting with a sword is not necessarily zero! Finally, an adjustment is made for amor and shield. Although armor will absorb damage from attacks that land on you , it may have the unfortunate effect of lowering your chance of hitting. Every shield or armor has associated with it an odds adjustment. When you attack, the combined adjustments of the suit of armor you are wearing (if any) and the shield you have ready (if any) are taken and may be subtracted from your chance of hitting. However, you can train your character to ignore the constraining effects of armor – your character has an armou expertise, which begins at zero although it will increase. This expertise can cancel out theeffect of armor.

Let’s use my character, Fost Longstrider, as an example.

Fost’s agility is fifteen. He is wearing Leather Armour (which has an odds adjustment of -10%) and is carrying a small shield (which has an odds adjustment of -5%). In his right hand is a sword with a weapon complexity of 10%. He has been fighting a little while , and has raised his armour expertise up to 13% and has raised his sword expertise up to 5%.

He encounters a troll and swings at it. His chance to hit is thirty (twice his agility) plus ten (for his weapon) plus five (for his sword expertise) minus two (his armour and shield would lower his chance to hit by 15%, but his armour expertise cancels 13% of that), for a total chance of hitting of 43%.

There are more subtle complexities within the game but when you peek underneath the hood you can appreciate what is there.

The Weapons Shop found off of the Main hall is run by Heinrich. It is here that you can purchase axe, bow, mace, spear, sword, armor, and shield. Be sure to purchase weapons of Good quality. Do not choose Fair or Poor as they will detract from your weapon complexity and thus chances to hit. You get what you pay for.

Hokas Tokas was once a great rogue himself, and a specialist in magic. However, a great love of odd alcoholic beverages proved to be his downfall. He now hangs out at the bar of the Main Hall, rising from his drunken stupor only to teach others the ten spells. The spells you can eventually learn in this game are:

• Blast
• Heal
• Speed
• Power
• Charm
• Fear
• Deathspell
• Farsee
• Teleport
• Thickskin

You may purchase drinks at the bar of the Main Hall for one gold piece per drink. It is only useful to visit the bar immediately before you go adventuring. . .

For every drink you have at the bar, there 1s a chance that you will get a hint when you begin your next adventure (you heard something useful in conversation) . The chance of getting a hint is your Charisma divided by 30. Having many drinks will almost insure that you will get a hint (although you will never get more than one), but there are side effects to drinking.

The first scenario that comes with the Master Diskette is The King’s Testing Ground. The hint I received before leaving the hall to embark on this adventure was; “Someone gives you a vision of a two-handed sword and says to ‘Remember Royalty’

The initial scenario is much like the Beginner’s Cave in Eamon. Once you go back to the Main Hall you are not allowed back into the King’s Testing Ground. It is only for new characters to build up their experience and inventory. There are a series of caves to explore which are very reminiscent of the Beginner’s Cave experience in Eamon. You’ll encounter a Black Knight which is an extremely difficult battle. However if you can defeat the Black Knight you can take his black cloth armor, 1000 gold pieces, and his sword. There is a secret passage that will allow you to circumvent the knight as he is the hardest encounter on this particular level. A Mimic, a Carnivorous Plant, and a Wolf round out the rest of the encounters in the cavern complex. The Carnivorous Plant is guarding an extremely important item which you will need later. It is what the hint you heard at the tavern was alluding to. The Wolf is also guarding a very important item that you will need later if you want to complete 100% of the scenario. An underground lake leads to a water filled tunnel which eventually leads you to a temple complex. Here you will encounter four different colored rats, an evil priest and an evil worshipper. There are some amazing treasures to find once you are in the temple complex. The leering idol has two huge gems for eyes (this seems like homage to the 1st Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide for AD&D), the Sword of Excalibur is embedded in a rock within the temple just waiting for the right person to pull it out, and there is a large solid gold statue of a mermaid as well.

Trying to work through how to get the heavy gold statue out of the complex is probably the hardest puzzle in this introductory scenario. In the deepest depths of the lake there is an extremely long east/west tunnel that you will not make it through without the ability to breathe water. I’ll allow you the luxury of figuring this out on your own.

My character, Fost Longstrider, made his way out with all of the treasures, including the statue, and I used the money to learn a Heal spell from Hokas and to purchase some armor. I look forward to my next adventure with Fost in this SwordThrust series.