Date sent:        Mon, 17 Jul 1995 13:21:53 GMT
From:             editor@elbon.demon.co.uk (Paul Noble)
Send reply to:    editor@elbon.demon.co.uk
To:               eccles@ozemail.com.au
Subject:          DQG

                                'DQG'
                        Definitive Quest Guide

Contact: PAUL NOBLE, 18 MOORSIDE SOUTH, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, NE4 9BB, UK
                       Phone No : 0191 2735863
                       Editor@elbon.demon.co.uk

                         The Guide to Quest.
                             Version 1.2

All the information, hints and tips in this article are gleaned from my own
experiences and also from several known reliable and experienced contacts 
but as always I will have made some critical errors in here so please if 
any of you readers have differing experiences or if you have some special 
hints and tips please write and tell me and I'll revise this guide.

The aims of the guide is to cover all games, all Kharnes and Crasimoff. I 
don't need particular details about each game, just the game play side of 
things, once the main guide is complete then hopefully players will collect 
data about each of the games, what is needed is a settlement map (map with 
all settlements located upon it with list of names & numbers of settlements 
on the bottom) and in the games 1-12 I need the locations of magic skill on 
sale.

There are sections which I have not covered like town combat and detailed 
magic casting and group combat tactics, if anybody wishes to write a guide 
for any missing areas please do. A piece for submission should be as 
detailed and indepth as possible, try to put in every atom of tips you can 
think of, even something as simple as buying a paper to get all groups 
names.

Beginners Guide: Ewan Jones, Dungeoneering section: Matt Saunders
Recruiters Guide: Tom Clark
Mage Skill: Chris Smith of Knights Templars G13

The Beginners Quick Guide:
Getting Started:
 Read through the rulebook at least twice, more if necessary, 
familiarise yourself with the rules - this will provide a good base for 
getting you group up and running. Just because the rulebook says something 
it doesn't make it 100% correct, some things have just been put in or 
described just to add roleplay to the game. This also goes for the blurbs.
 If possible get some friends to start up at the same time as you, this way 
you can learn off each others mistakes and gain experience twice as quick.
 Be prepared for anti-social players, these people are the kind to be 
disruptive to the game, give messages against players not the group and 
often pick on new groups to fight thus putting prospective long term 
players off the game.
 It can sometimes help to think of quest for what it is, a computer program,
 this means that everything is based on numbers and as such you can 
sometimes work out game mechanics by thinking about how the code for quest 
would have been implemented.Various character classes are more suited to 
professions than others:

               ELF     HUMAN    DWARF   HALFBLOOD
FIGHTER        NO       NO       YES      NO
THIEF          NO       NO       NO       YES
PRIEST         NO       YES      YES      YES (low charisma)
MAGE           YES      NO       NO       YES (low skill)
	
 Although it is accepted that these characters are the best in their fields 
you can opt for a roleplaying approach e.g. the group doesn't like 
halfbloods, be warned though as this can mean that your group won't turn 
out as good as it could do.
 A good idea if you want information on a groups composition is to 
investigate a group thus getting it's race mix and names - from this you 
can work out what classes the races are likely to be, especially if the 
player has been playing for a while.

Group Formats:
 One of the first things you should decide when starting up a group is what 
kind of group composition you want.
 The fighter based group - this is the most common kind of group which 
typically consists of 6-7 highly skilled dwarf fighters. This kind of group 
is unrivalled in melee combat and is quick to get high weaponskills, also 
they are in my opinion the most fun to play and really come into their own 
when in dungeons. On the other hand they are very vulnerable to priest/mage 
groups who are able to overwhelm them with spells and avoid melee combat.
 The Priest based group - this kind of group consists of anything from about
8-14 priests and a thief. this is one of the quickest to build groups and is
one of the most deadly (one of the best anti-personnel groups), also it is 
pretty cheap to do.
 The Mage based group - this is the most effective killing machine of all, 
typically it would consist of 10-12 mages, a thief and a priest or two. 
Obviously the mages death spells is what makes this group but it is also 
the most challenging to build up, for example imagine a mage based group 
with fighters toughness and 100 weapons skills! On the minus side this kind 
of group is not popular with KJC and it may be that as time progresses the 
mages power decreases, also mages are horribly expensive and it is essential
to concentrate on making lots of money 99% of the time.
 The Balanced group - fairly obvious in make-up, typically having around 5 
fighters, 1 thief, 5 priests and 4 mages. the advantage to having this kind 
of group is that you are competent in most areas but not as good as 
specialist groups (as listed above) and against most groups they can hold 
their own. On the other side of the fence they are quite costly as they have
to buy a bit of everything.

Standing Orders:
 Sometimes these are overlooked by new players, this is a mistake, remember 
that these are extra orders and should be set as early as possible to make 
the most of them.
 Good cominations are always a good idea, if you have any priests in your 
party you should put 2-3 'P 0' orders in. An 'I 0' is a good idea if you are
new in town or a B 99 0 620 (newspaper) if you have found all the hidden 
shops and only want a listing of groups in town. Also if you have one left 
put a cast order or something similar so you will be getting a mage some XP 
for training each turn. Some people would advise 'I 99' but this is only a 
good idea if your weapon skills are likely to change in the next turn or so.

Alliances and player interaction:
 Alliances: When you first start itis a pretty good idea to join an alliance
that suits your aims and ideals (if any), the obvious benefits are that you 
can get a lot of advise out of them, make useful contacts and genrally get 
involved more in the game.
 Joining an alliance does have some drawbacks though, make sure that unless 
you really do know what you're doing you are not joining an alliance that 
everybody in the game hates and are likely to get battered in the near 
future. Larger alliances provide better protection, often more information 
and things to do but you may feel a little left out.
 Participation: Participation in the game as a whole is something you must 
decide for yourself but I would say that if you are making a name for 
yourself you don't make all the older groups want to kick your head in. Try 
to provide some input for the game newsletter, it genrally makes the game 
that much better and adds to the overall enjoyment of the game (your name in
lights!).
 Doing Things: You will probably find that if you are new to quest you will 
enjoy the game that much more if you try a bit of everything eg 
dungeoneering, powerplaying, roleplaying etc. Once you find what you like 
doing best you can start concentrating on that area more.

Quests:
 There are three types of quests - library (LQ), temple (TQ) and npc quests 
(NQ)
 TQs require the group to have 2000XP in total, they require the group to 
kill a monster group near town that has been endangering farmers or some 
such explanation. This is called a higher level quest and you can only be 
on one at a time and can only apply for one every two turns (unless previous 
quest is Zapped). Rewards vary but it can be anything from about 40 gold to 
over 1000 gold per character, also you get half the gold value in XP per 
character when completed. If the monster group is killed before you kill it 
a message is passed on to you. 
 LQs are also higher level quests, they require 4000 XP and require you to 
find and map a piece of terrain (usually a mountain or forest), this only 
involves entering one square of the terrain. Good ways to find this are to 
put it on your chat list (remember it could be anywhere), examine the battle 
reports and if you find one with the relevent name on it write to that group 
and ask them where the battle took place or contact someone with a 
comprehensive map. Again rewards vary in size but the main advantage to 
doing these is that you get the same amount of xp as gold when you complete 
the quest.
 NQs are fairly common, you get these by having associated words on your 
chat list. Tasks often involve going somewhere, buying something and 
bringing it back (remember actual reward is minus item cost) or going 
somewhere to take a messgae or seeing how much another settlement is paying 
for hides. Generally you will find that most of these quests are not very 
good but occasionally you get one which is worth a few hundred gold per 
character.

Dungeoneering:
 Beneath Kharne lies a world of gloomy catacombs and dark chambers which 
offers monsters to slay and gold to steal. these dungeons can provide 
amounts of money which even the highest paid quest can not equal, but to 
gain access to this treasure takes a lot of work.
 Finding the location of a dungeon can be quite difficult. Your best bet is 
to visit a library. however, the information given can be very vague and it 
is often best to visit the library about five times in one turn to gain the 
exact location. This does tend to push your alignment chart towards 
Phyloqure which is bloody annoying. Alliances and other players can also 
help in finding dungeons.
 Before visiting a dungeon, stock up on torches! I cannot stress how 
important this is. i believe in giving each character five torches because 
only one is used up at a time and each one lasts for two turns. It is also 
best to equip your highest skilled thief with a lock pick because this will 
be the character who does most of the stealing. Lock picks can be bought at 
thieves guild which are hidden around most cities. You also need a lot of 
spell components (especially if you are staying for a long time).
 I believe that before entering a dungeon you should sell all items which 
are not vital because it is my belief that the more equipment your 
characters wear, the more chance you have of setting off traps. I also say 
that you should add 'N 0' to your standing orders so that the members of the 
group don't become weighed down by a lot of gold and thus begin to lose 
energy. Another idea is adding 'I 474' to the standing orders (this allows 
the party to search for bags of gold).
 Spells should be carefuly ranked. make sure that you have a Healing spell 
first followed by 'specialised' spells such as 'Kill Undead' (this is 
espcially important for lower levels). An ASL of three or four is usually 
the best. Keeping spells such as 'Jaunt' and 'Reveal Monsters' at hand is 
useful but is not really necessary.
 You should also consider the God you choose to follow while inside the 
dungeon. The God you select should depend upon why you are in the 
dungeon....
Reason for Entering Dungeon	Best Gods to Follow
Treasure          Novala, Garthrana, Ythcal
Combat				Sundonak, Fleyshur, Ythcal, Garthrana
Mapping				Fleyshur, Garthrana, Phyloqure*

*Phyloqure followers should only enter a dungeon when they obtain Slumber.

 The best choices are Garthrana, Sundonak (both do self enhancing melee 
miracles, ideal as dungeons don't have missile combat) and Ythcal (call 
monsters will hurt any type of monster) while the worst are Phyloqure and 
Molwanh. The best idea is to remain neutral and exploit each of the gods 
powers (allowing your alignment to slide towards the most natural god for 
the tasks performed, having Healing ranked first will soon get you a good 
healthy Baldor bonus). You need to be fairly powerful to get the best out 
of this so you can cast Novalas Luck when searching for treasure, Sundonaks 
Beserk for combat and also Strength to help the weaker party members, etc...
 Unless you are really confident or are in the dungeon for combat I would 
say that a friendly attitude is the best to adopt. you can then set some 
special attitudes for certain monsters.
 When you enter a room you will receive a list of ID numbers such as 15001, 
15003, 15004 etc. Where is 15002? It is a good idea to investigate any 
missing numbers because this usually reveals a secret compartment.
 Many people keep all their gold and hides with them but my tactic is to 
clear a room in each level and then leave all of these items in the room. 
this way your party will not get too exhausted by heavy loads. this can be 
dangerous if there is another party on the same level who is likely to steal 
some of your items (a good idea is to cast a Fleyshurs Gift on an item which 
you leave in a room beside your treasure room. Then when the other group 
picks up this item, they will think about picking up any more of your 
treasure!)
 Remember that normal movement orders do not apply in a dungeon! Many people 
forget this and issue M orders instead of L orders. If possible, move into a 
room which is already mapped on your turn sheet using the 'I' order (this 
serves as a I 0 and a L  order, ideal if oyu have just magically 
mapped the level) and always try to move in a diagonal direction (such as 
NorthEast). Moving diagonally means that if your group can't go in one 
direction they will attempt the other. If you have Map Dungeon Level try to 
to so at the end of a turn when you go deeper down, thus you won't be 
wandering blindly about an unmapped level. Lastly, remember to investigate 
everything as you never know where a bag of gold will be hiding!
	
Advanced Guide

Priests:
 For a good powerful group it is easy to go the priest path, this is where 
you rake in large numbers of priests early on in the groups career and then 
using a magic 'spell wall' which will cripple most parties, see 'Combat 
tactics' for a more indepth explaination.
 Basically a well balanced group of 15 characters need not go this priest 
path, 3-6 priests is good enough to serve the purpose of supporting the 
melee phase and also to strengthen the back bone of the parties weaker 
characters, ie mages and thiefs.
 I have found in my limited experience that P0s are the most queried subject 
in the game. The best example I can see is the history of the DeathShoe, my 
group which is now nearing 50 turns old. Rather than blab and attempt to 
explain the occurances with words and descriptions I'll just write the
highlights and lowlights of their history.

Turn           Event                   Number of P0s
1		recruited 1st priest HP 26sk				1
4		recruited 2nd priest HP 29sk				1
8     1st HP has stopped on 33sk             1
10    3rd HP recruited at 23sk               1
11    2nd HP stops on 35sk                   1
16    4th HP joins on 28sk                   1
17    3rd stops on 29sk                      1
22    up P0s                                 3
26    3rd starts again                       3
30    5th DP on 23sk, all priests increase   3
31    2nd & 5th are killed                   3
33    down the P0s                           2
38    6th BP with 26sk                       2
39    7th BP 23sk, 4th stops on 50sk         2
41    down the P0s again                     1
42    All go up                              1
44    4th stops on 52sk                      1
45    all go up                              1
46    4th stops on 53sk                      1
47		4th go up but 1st stops on 50				1
48		3rd stops, all others go up				1

 It seems that from the above history (looking at two other groups of 
similar age my theorys seem to hold water), certain factors effect the 
success of the P0s. I believe there is a certain level, when the priests 
personal counter drops below this level then he stops working, but P0 enough 
and the priests count will stay above the level and thus his skill will 
continue to grow. Each turn 1 priests will drop the counter by 1, so if 
you've 3 priests it will drop down by 3 points.
 A P0 will up this count and counteract the drain on points from multiple 
priests. Several P0s will increase the count but only one P0 - the first 
will work to increase skill - the rest prop up the P0 count.
 Looking at the early turns when priest after priest was recruited they 
increased for 7 turns and then stopped. This was with 1 P0 only so perhaps 
each priest starts with a + count of 7 which gradually degrades despite the 
P0s, this is bourn out by the first 17 turns. The sudden introduction of 3 
P0s seems to upset the balance as the 3rd restarts and the 4th never stops 
until turn 39, in fact until the P0s are reduced to 2 a turn. This seems to 
bear out my theory of the P0 workable level. The death of two priests will 
also have affected the P0 count.
 The other things that can up the count is Tithing at temples. Tithing when 
you are near neutral will cost a lot of money and may not even work, best to 
try over 20gp and tithe individually. But it is more likely and my 
experience shows that if you have an extreme alignment then you need not 
tithe so much, The Guys Who Go HAGGAR (another of my groups) had 3 priests 
who, on turn (try and guess) 7 all stopped, this was with just 1 P0 between 
them. Turn 9 they had a +22 Novala bonus and tithed to the Novala temple, 
this is what I tithed: 4gp, 7gp and 9gp. They increased for 2 turns and then 
stopped once more. I upped the P0 standing orders to 3 on turn 13 and did 
numerous P0s during the turn, in all it was 4P0s and then 3 standing order 
P0s made 7 in one turn. Next turn, all were going up and have only faultered 
since I lowered the P0s to 2 a turn.
 Each new priest has a free 7 turn increase and unless there is more than 1 
P0 a turn the new priest will stop . Three P0s seems to be the ideal number 
of P0s in a turn. When they stop going up, tithe at a favourable temple with 
an extreme bias and put in loads of P0s, this should work. It has for me. 
The last word on the situation is that perhaps betraying your alignment may 
also nullify the P0s ie you're +22 ythcal and start P8ing , it may effect 
the P0s state.

Thieves.
 There are basically two ways of going about getting good thieves. Firstly 
you can stick with your original character who will invariably be inferior 
to a new recruited version but the original may have enough xp to actually 
be worth keeping in the party. Or you can recruit a new 1000gp BT.
When looking for a thief go for the BT every time and offer 1000gp always. 
This can produce some magic recruits, the maximum figures you can expect 
from a 1000gp BT is 
		60sk	70to	90aw	50ch
 When looking, the awareness and skill are the most important stats. Ch is 
almost useless but the toughness should also be noted, minimums you want 
is...
		45sk	50to	75aw	and Ch isn't really important.
 The recruited characters are more well rounded than the startups, which is 
why it's normally worthwhile kicking the old thief out and getting a new one.
I advocate having only one thief in the party as when two are present you 
may just get the crap thief attempting the robberies, my experience has 
shown that the first thief  in the party line up trys to breakin, but this 
was only for about 3 turns so it may have just been luck, more info on this 
is needed.
 With 2 thiefs more sectors and items are discovered in the wilderness as 1 
thief scouts 2-3 sectors whereas with 2+ thiefs  you'll be checking all the 
surrounding sectors.
 Always use a Lucks and a Call Spirit when robbing, the Luck will maintain 
your Novala bonus and the Call spirit will -when inside a +12 Novala bonus- 
greatly increase your chances of success. It is also important to note that 
a successful robbery also bumps your Novala bonus by +2.
 If you are in a city you can also use Insanity which although indefinite is 
said to lower defence levels and gets the town guard to ignore your previous 
crap attempts. But it is said that Insanity only effects the suburb it was 
cast in, so try all you're robberies from the Insane suburb.

 Targets to try are in order of hardness:-
		inns, pubs, general stores 		crap gold
      temples, journeys, news          up to about 200gp
      Armouries, weapons shops         upto 400gp,
		magic shops and powdershops		same but a bit harder
      Jewellers and banks              2000gp?

 These can change if the town is severely robbed, the more times it is 
robbed the harder it gets to break in and the more xp gained when you do 
succeed., but take note that even unsuccessful attempts push the defence 
levels up.
 But shops are not the only target, NPC's wander about the town, Talk to 
the shops (best shops are the inns) and you may come across the NPCs, rob 
these as well, using the S order.
	If groups are in town you can also rob from them, although you won't 
get much xp and they may start a fight with you, so it's best to have a 1% 
or 0% flee factor unless you specifically want a fight.
 The last thing to remember is that contrary to the Call Spirit blurb it 
doesn't last for the whole turn, just for about 4 orders (only applies to 
the Novala Call spirit), so do it directly before any robbing. And always 
put down a Locate settlement order after your rob orders, this applies to 
group steals as well coz you can still get kicked outta town (you can't be 
ejected for failed NPC attempts).
 When buying thief skill it is important to note that when you have over 
300xp then you'll get 3 aw points as well but even if you've got 400xp + 
you'll  get 3 aw points but will get 5 skill points. As with mage skill, 
when bought it is the hundred xp plus 1 so if you've got 100xp you'll get 2 
skill and if you have 400xp then you'll get 5 points. 5 points at one time 
is the maximum increase.
 My advice is, if you have a start up char buy skill as soon as you've 
300+xp to get the aw so the AW doesn't lag beheind when the skill catches up 
(for robs above 60xp you get 1 thief skill increase until your thief gets 
more skilled, then you'll have to go for bigger targets for the skill 
increases). If you've a recruit then the Aw will probably be in excess of 20 
points above the skill in which case the skill increase is best so it may be 
worthwhile to wait till you have over 400xp.
 When you have your thief up and running you can be pulling in over 5000gp a 
turn, remember that once you have over 5000gp on the group and you wait in 
town then you will have 10% of that gold stolen from you by the KJC theives.
 You can do nothing to prevent it, even sleeping in an inn will not stop the 
theft, try to put it all away in the bank before the turn ends.

Recruiting Characters
 Recruiting characters is something everyone has to do if they are to expand 
their party beyond the initial 6 characters. As nearly everyone will do this, 
knowing about recruiting is very important as it heavily influences the 
abilities of your group. Recruiting is by far the most economical method of 
obtaining characters with high all round attirbutes.

CHAR TYPE  SKILL     TOUGHNESS   AWARENESS   CHARISMA
			MIN	MAX	MIN	MAX	MIN	MAX	MIN	MAX
HF 1     20    30    50    60    40    50    40    50
HM 2     20    30    20    30    30    40    30    40
HT 2     20    30    30    40    50    60    20    30
HP 3     20    30    30    40    30    40    50    60
EF 2     20    30    40    50    50    60    40    50
EM 3     20    25    20    25    40    50    30    40
ET 2     20    30    20    30    60    70    20    30
EP 2     20    25    20    30    40    50    50    60
DF 3     30    40    60    70    40    50    30    40
DM 4     20    25    30    40    30    40    20    30
DT 2     20    25    40    50    50    60    20    25
DP 1     20    25    40    50    30    40    40    50
BF 4     20    30    60    70    50    60    20    30
BM 4     20    25    30    40    40    50    20    25
BT 3     30    40    40    50    60    70    20    25
BP 4     20    25    40    50    40    50    30    40

1 = Sometimes used in startups but never join any afterwards, there are 
	better alternatives
2 = Basically crap, pointless etc.etc. recruit then kick out!
3 = The most common recruits, for good reason. Well balanced (generally).
4 = People often use these, sometimes as alternatives. However I rate DM 
	nowhere - BM however is ok.

Offering more money, as stated in the Quest rulebook (so everyone knows) 
gives better recruits all round. It's an interesting question as to what the 
lowest amount offerable is, for the sake of argument let's say it's 50gp 
although it may well be lower (40 gp has been reported). The minimum values 
for all recruits, regardless of how much is offered is the same as the 
'absolute' minimum of the startups. The maximum value is what is altered 
with larger sums of money.
50gp - 499gp As for startup.
500gp-999gp 10 above the start up maximum
1000gp + 20 above the start up (absolute maximum)

 This might seem like the boundaries are rigid - ie you will get a startup 
equivalent for 499gp and a much better recruit for 500gp. This is not the 
case. Usually when offering above say 250gp, the character recruited has 
stats very close to the maximums of its category, the same applies to those 
nearing the 1000 barrier. Characters recruited for 50 of 1000gp often don't 
stats anywhere near their respective maximums. One way you can modify this 
to your advantage is to use Novala miracles. Call Spirit it possible, plus 
2-3 Lucks of Novala definitely helps. Some say that Bless also helps, I 
always thought this was a combat miracle and even with 60 skill priests my 
Garthrana modifier is so bad I have never been able to use it in over 3 
years of questing. Anyway one would not normally associate Garthrana with 
luck. Maybe it does have an effect, I really don't know. As Novala miracles 
are somewhat random, it becomes very difficult to ascertain the 
effectiveness of other spells/miracles used in conjunction with them, 
especially considering the random generation of new recruits stats.
 Only one thing is certain: new recruits stats are random ; they can 
sometimes be very high with no magical assistance whatsoever, but Novala 
miracles 702 & 903 definitely help (although even with them there still 
exists a chance of getting a crap recruit, but much reduced).
 This is why it's a good idea to get as close to Novala as possible  (plus a 
general friendly attitude) if going on a recruiting phase - and to make use 
of the Novala modifier as much as possible while you have it. certainly try 
recruiting as often as possible - ie everytime your turn ends in town, and 
you have 1000 gp spare, plus a couple of orders spare for casting Call 
Spirit & Luck of Novala. Rob a few more shops than usual around this time 
too - this doesn't mean completely disregarding TQs but they should take 
less priority.
 It's a good idea only to offer the sort of gold which can produce a very 
good recruit - ie 1000 (or 1001) gold. Offering very large sums, eg 2000, 
2001, 3000 etc, doesn't seem to make any difference to the values generated 
by 1000gp. The maximums are not affected and recruits can still be crap!

N.B. While, apparently, the figures for recruits can be more than 20 above 
the startup maximum in Crasiworld Quest, there is insufficient evidence (ie 
none that I have seen, and I know I'm not the only one) to suggest that the 
same is true of KJC Quest.

Good Weapon Skills.
 This is perhaps the only reason to have any fighters in the party and once 
other chars are up to Ace then the fighters can be kicked out if needed.
 Fighter skill cannot be bought or increased deliberately. the only way to 
increase the skill is to fight against the harder types of monsters like 
Fire Elementals and other such monsters, sometimes you may get a point or 
two from just crappy monsters but this is rare. The DeathShoe gained a 2pt 
increase on the BF and a 1pt increase on the HF in their ill fated bouts 
with the Fire Elemental, they didn't actually score any hits.
 What I like to do with my groups is getting each fighter to aquire 100% on 
a sperate weapon eg HF is xbows, DF is bows and BF is axes. The reason for 
this is so that once they are onto 100% the other priests who have massive 
surpluses of xp can train off the ace fighters thus I don't spend any money 
to get the priests decent with weapons. This works as long as you have a lot 
of castings which generate a lot of cheap priest xp. The training from char 
to char requires that the teacher is 10 wp skill higher than the pupil. As 
always if you have the money, buy skill over all other methods, without 
money this is the next best thing.
 Fighters should be able to self practice up to 41 (average) from which 
you'll have to buy them up to Ace. Fighters don't gain so much xp so buying 
is more effective than training from others.
 When choosing weapons always try to get skill in your missile skills first,
but avoid slings, they are crap. Remember that when you join a new member 
*always* buy them or hand them a missile weapon first, this will gain them 
some rudimentary weapon skill in the first weapon the new char touches. If 
you don't give them a weapon they'll aquire skill in a random weapon.
 Average gains in weapon skill is 6-10 when bought (2 when training from 
another), 6 is the minimum increase and 10 is the maximum. When buying skill 
assume you're getting 7 or 8, this way if you get skills on either side it 
should average out.
 Weapon skills training can be bought with xp or not, but without xp you 
probably won't get so much increase, without, between 4-8 points of increase.

Mages - Training
 Mages can gain skill by either casting spells which give large amounts of 
experience (combined with xps gained from temple quests) and buying mage 
training 9610) from the magic circle shops or by systematically learning all 
the spells from each power level and then buying spell research (609) form 
a magic circle to advance to the next power level.
 The first method is the one most commenly used and because mage training is 
so expensive it requires a lot of gold, this is where doing the temple 
quests come in handy for financing the training with the added bonus of 
giving the mage(s) 'free' xps from doing the quest (each character gains 
half the gold value of the quest in xps... 400gp per character = 200 xps per 
character). Another method of gaining 'free' xps whilst earing funds is to 
ensure your mage has the highest awareness in your party (other than the one 
thief in the group), this way when you send your thief robbing the mage gets 
xps for being the lookout. unforunately this method can come unstuck if you 
have more than one mage, as the mage with the highest awareness will always 
be the lookout! the spells to cast that give large amounts of xps depend on 
the mage skill and the size of the party, for example a small group should 
get their mage(s) to cast Battle Lust (51), as it gives 58xp and because 
it's power doll is based per character it doesn't cost much to cast. For 
larger parties this spell is not a viable proposition and Make Food (978) 
used to be the best, as it only cost 8 power points, unfortunately KJC 
realised players were spending entire turns casting it and getting high 
powered mages very quickly and so reduced the xpto 35 (from 65), so this is 
no longer viable either (unless you play Crasiworld, where the xp value 
hasn't been changed). So these days it's harder to recommend specific spells 
but I would say put a mage casting Map Wilderness 1 or 2 (if high enough 
skill) on your standing orders as it gives you a very handy larger map on 
your printout and gives the mage 38xp per turn for casting it (58xp if Map 
2). Another good spell when your mage reaches 60+skill is Black Void 
especially against monsters when doing temple quests, as it only costs 8 
power and gives 65xp. Plus it seems to work every time unlike when it's used 
against groups (as characters with high toughness are uneffected).
 Because training is so expensive you need to make sure you have 400 or more 
xp for your mage. Then when you spend your 50gp your mage will gain a 
maximum of 5 skill points. If you have less than 400xp you will get 1 point 
of skill per 10xp plus 1 extra. ie 200xp = 3 skill, etc. If you are 
attempting to get a very highly skilled mage quickly and the xp and money is 
not a problem then purchases of skill when 200xp and 300xp are aquired will 
be more beneficial as instead of getting 5 points for 400xp you'll get 6 
points if bought at 200xp+ and again in the same turn. Another handy tip is 
when you've recruited a new mage get him to learn and cast in the same turn 
new spells. I've found that his skill goes up by 1 point for every new spell
he casts that turn eg if a member of your group is injured then teach the 
mage Healing 2 and then cast it at the character and the mage's skill will 
go up by 1 point!
 Using the Spell Research method to train your mage has several advantages 
the main one being he (or she) does not need any xp for the skill increase, 
also it should only cost (depending on the mages starting skill) between 
3000 gold (20+ starting skill) and 1500 gold (50+) to get your mage to 80+ 
skill and you have the bonus of being able to cast every spell. the way it 
works is that you get your mage to learn (by casting at target 0) every 
spell upto & including his skill level, starting with the 20+ skill spells. 
When he has learnt them all, buy spell research(609) and this will boost his 
skill upto the next power/skill range (ie by 10 points_ and give him the 
first spell in that range. he then learns all of those spells and does the 
same again and so on. It's best to start with the simplest spells at the 
lowest levels and logically continue from there ie the 20 skill; 1 component, 
then 2 component and the 3 components, following the same procedure with all 
the other spell levels. Another advantage of this method is that you can 
recruit a dwarf or halfblood mage with mega high toughness (60+) and get 
them upto 80+ skill, unlike elven mages who have 40ish toughness if your 
lucky! The main disadvantage is that it's going to take a lot of orders (65 
spells to learn) to get your mage upto 80+ skill, plus the fact you're not 
guaranteed to learn the spells on your first attempt. I have found recently 
it's worth using this method until your dwarf/halfblood mage reaches 60+ 
skill and then move him onto the other method (although by this stage you're 
well over half way to getting the complete spell list).
 One final tip, when buying mage skill (610) try and buy it when your mage 
has used up his power, the mage training will totally repower your mage thus 
leaving you ready to cast yet more spells! 

Combat Tactics.
 There are two basic methods to fighting against groups, the Spell Wall and 
the Hack and Slay. Of the two types the Spell Wall is the hardest to 
counteract. This is my basic rundown of the two types, the pros & cons, and 
the recognisable features of the two types of groups.

Spell Wall.
 These will have a large percentage of magic casting characters - priest and 
mages.
 They will most probably have a low flee factor.
 The standard attack of these groups is multiple Engages (or moving over the 
target lots) in one turn with most if not all casting high damaging spells 
which hit a lot of characters, Lightning Blast, Magic Blast, Poison Cloud, 
Ball of Fire, Acid Blast, Call Monster and Wrath Of Sundonak.
 Repeated attacks with these spells on ASL 0 will humble the strongest of 
groups. The best deterrent is to do W wait and ambush orders on them, thus 
nullifing the magic/missile phases. Casting Deflect Magic may help. Other 
than resorting to the same tactics as them there is little way to kill them 
outside of Deathspells. Repeated castings of Acid Blast and Disintergrate 
may stop them from actually casting back, if you're lucky enough to destroy 
the mages components. High Missile skill is  essential to make a Spell Wall 
troop successful, otherwise the enemy are reduced to 1 hp and cannot be 
killed.
 From this you may think that this is the best type of group but it does do 
away with a lot of the spirit of the game as it doesn't take any talent to 
make a quick priest group and 0% flee factors are generally frowned on as 
being utter cowards tactics.
	
Hack and Slay.
 The HnS type of group is finding it increasingly hard to actually do a 
Spell Wall group any damage. The HnS troop will have a large proportion of 
fighters and priests with only minimal mages, these groups rely on strength 
in combat as opposed to the magic & missile. Using self enhancing spells 
like Bless, Flame, Strength, Beserk and Poison these groups can mince 
another party if the enemy is caught unawares.
 Alas if a group has a low flee factor it means that all the HnS groups work 
is for nothing. The best situation for these groups is to meet in a town 
when fully powered up or to meet another group of the same style, in which 
case a huge  battle will result with deaths in melee as opposed to magic & 
missile.
 In both styles the missile weapon skills is more important than melee, 
missile comes first and allows a HnS group to actually do damage to a Spell 
Wall group as well as being very effective against monsters.
 Of course most groups have a mixture of both types of fighting styles but 
it is always a compromise, in magic they'd be beaten by a SW group and 
they'd suffer against a HnS group if they stuck around for melee.

 The introduction of Deathspells into the fighting equation means that a SW 
group of inferior quality would certainly think twice about losing a 
character or two every fight, consider they attack 2 or 3 times in one turn? 
That's 4-6 characters dead, half or a third of most groups.
 A HnS may make it past a couple of char deaths in which case they may get 
to kill the deathspellers but once again we see the SW coming out on top 
when the extreme 15 mages deathspelling comes to the fore, even if half fail 
that's most parties wreaked beyond recovery.
 Out of all the Deathspells, Engulfing Globe seems to be the favourite as it 
doesn't use as much power as the mildly more reliable Total Death.
 There is one sure fire way to get rid of the SW group, this is Dispel 2, if 
your Dispel mage isn't killed then the enemy will find themselves up to 25 
sectors away and thus they'll be very pissed off and you won't be punished 
numerous times.
 One more thing to remember is that if you're in a city or around a temple 
of Baldor or temple of Phyloqure then after your fight buy a Minor Healing 
with a 99 buying it, it will cost only 50gp and get all chars healed of 
everything except death.

Definite Goals
 It is quite essential to have goals which are within reach but will take a 
lot of work to actually attain, with a goal to aim for you have a motive to 
actually work hard at the group.

Temple Quests
 2000xp should be every groups initial goal unless you're a capable enoguh 
player who doesn't need TQs quite yet. Temple Quests are the mainstay of 
most experienced groups, it provides easy money and half the gp total in xp, 
quickly you'll find you have a lot of surplus xp, thus the training 
technique described under 'good weapon skills' becomes more realistic. 
Mostly the money from TQs is used to recruit better characters for 1000gp 
and to buy skills for the mages and thieves.
 A Black Void is very useful in raking in the big TQs for dark oaks and the 
like. One spell later and you're rather rich whereas you'll have to chase 
the bastard for ages with numerous Call Monsters flying around to kill it. 
A perfect example is the DeathShoe killing a Dark Oak for 640gp with one 
Black Void. The Invincible Fools in G14 cast more than 30 Call Monsters and 
7 diseases to kill a Life Bringer over 2 turns (catchup and normal turn) 
after chasing it for 14 turns. Be warned some of the tougher monsters 
require more than 1 BV to kill, recently a Dragon needed 3 BVs to kill it 
and a Valkyrie took 4 and still didn't die. Summary of the BV spell, these
conflicts and the types of PC that die to BV point ot the fact that it
reduces a monsters health by a certain amount and only the weaker PCs are 
vulnerable to the BV attack.

 Next available are Library Quests which require over 4000xp on the group.
These tasks are where the group has to go to and find a certain location and 
then return to a library and Y the quest. These produce the equal in xp as 
gp but I have yet to hear of a player who has completed a LQ. Supposedly you 
aquire a map of the area upon completion, hence LQs are only available from 
settlements which have map shops.

 The obvious character goals are deathspell mages, 100% weapon skills, 60
skill priests, 99 aw & 99sk thief. These particular goals are covered in 
other sections of this article. But I have yet to achieve any of my personal 
goals other than 100% in Axes with the DeathShoe so it remains to be seen if 
once I've achieved my immediate goals whether I will become bored with an 
ultra hard group.                                                                                          
 
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