Elf Lore In Adventurers Guild - by Mark Riedel
Adventurer's Guild by Entertainment Plus is a play by mail gladatorial simulation and role-playing game. It offers a broad range of options to the player, including 9 different warrior races and lots of weapons to choose from. Not all the races are quite equal at first, unfortunately. Some players have found it difficult to produce a successful warrior of the elven race. Successful elves can be achieved in Adventurer's Guild with patience and the right management.
I'd like to pause briefly to explain my own history with Adventurer's Guild (AG henceforth). I've been playing AG since about March of '90, having read about it in Paper Mayhem's PBM Activity Corner. I needed Something To Do while on an out-of-town assignment for my then-employer, and signed right up for AG and Monster Island. MI has since fallen by the wayside, but I am currently very active in AG with 3 elves, among other characters (the elves happen to be Ariel Daystar, Elwe Greymantle, and Jeanne D'elf). When laid off recently I happened to write a rather lengthy dissertation on AG elves with information I had come up with on my own and from other elf managers. This article is a by-product of that work. I'd like to make it clear that these notes are one player's ideas, and not the last word on the subject.
A few notes about Adventurer's Guild (AG) are in order before starting. An AG player runs 1 warrior for 7 fights in a round-robin tournament, using a pre-programmed battle plan for all 7 matches. A free challenge match is possible. Warriors have 4 attributes: strength, dexterity, stamina, and cunning; the numbers representing them begin between 5-18 and correspond with those of other FRP games. Special abilities such as combat magic or tripping opponents can be used as combat tactics. AG combat occurs at 3 ranges (long, medium, short) with 5 possible defensive modes (parry with right, parry with left, dodge, retreat, ignore). The warrior's success in their matches determines the amount of experience points (EPs) awarded for the fight; at the end of the turn knowledge points (KPs) are awarded. These EPs and KPs are used between turns to improve the warrior by raising attributes, improving known skills, or learning new skills.
There are actually two ways of playing AG at present. The first is the normal round-robin matches described above. The second is to go adventuring, where fights occur between a party of warriors and the fiends they happen to meet.
Elf difficulties center around 2 areas; they have heavy strength and stamina imposed at creation, and the attributes denied them at first are also the hardest to obtain later. Strength affects what weapons can be used, and stamina determines how tired a warrior gets in combat. New elves in AG are outclassed by their peers in these areas.
Elves do have an edge in AG combat - magic! Elves start the game with limited combat magic, and learn new spells most easily of all the races. Magic is represented by 2 systems, combat and advanced. Combat magic is always used in combat situations and drains a warrior's energy while advanced magic uses magic points acquired by a warrior between turns. EPs are used to train in combat magic while KPs are used to learn advanced magic, and any warrior can learn magic in both systems.
The best way to implement a successful elf is to start at the elf's conception, as it were, and decide what kind of elf the player wants. These types are not absolute, and are likely to overlap as he or she develops. Not all are combat oriented, but each type emphasizes a particular attribute or skill. Most of this discussion, by the way, will apply to other AG races than elves.
Elf types include the strong, nimble, stout, smart, mage, and standard elves. Strong elves become physically very strong (a painfully slow process) to gain the benefits of strength, mostly the ability to carry more weight and to enhance damage done to opponents. Nimble elves use a high dexterity to avoid wounds while using thier agility to pound opponents with many attacks in a short time. Stout elves develop a high stamina to curb the natural AG elf lack of energy and accept more damage in combat. Smart elves use a high cunning to develop skills and to make their combat spells more effective. Mages specialize in magic rather than weapon skills. Standard elves do not emphasize any attributes or skills, but develop any attribute or skill at will. In AG right now, Elwe Greymantle is a strong elf, Ariel Daystar is a nimble elf, Elcee The Wise is a cunning elf, there are no stout elves, Pallida Mors is a mage, and Legolas, the best elf in AG, is a standard elf.
Once an idea has been chosen, the warrior can be designed around it. Design considerations for AG elves include attributes, handedness, and weapon, but some aspects of warrior creation have role-playing considerations.
Every AG character starts with 50 development points, which are allocated by the player to be spent on attributes, weapons, and handedness. 4 points must be spent for a weapon, leaving 46 for attributes. Each race has starting limitations on the 4 attributes, and elves ought to spend the maximum allowed for strength and stamina (11 each). This leaves 24 to be split between dex and cunning. A cunning of 12 is required to obtain new combat spells, so a split of 12 each is a fair arrangement.
AG elves should either be right or left-handed. Warriors can be ambidextrous, but it costs 5 development points which elves can ill afford, and AG requires the off (non-weapon) hand to be free to cast combat magic anyway. For some unknown reason, nearly all ambidextrous characters in AG seem to be dwarves.
Weapons are used in 2 ways, primary (weapon hand) and secondary (off hand). A primary weapon should always do medium or light/medium damage. The damage given is directly to the weight (fatigue rating) of a weapon, but lighter weapons will always be faster than heavy ones. Starting elves can use light to medium damage weapons, with a fatigue of 4 or less (fatigue ratings go from 0 to 12). Elves should use the off hand to cast magic instead of using an off-hand weapon, although the spiked gauntlet will allow combat magic.
Neither gender nor alignment will affect a warrior's performance. They will influence how other players (through their warriors) will perceive and react to them, though. Elcee the Wise, for example, was designated a "party elf" by her friends because of liberal interpretations of certain message board comments, which probably wouldn't have happened were she male. Snorri the sexist hafl-troll refuses to do challenge fights against females. Much of the fun in AG is conceptual role-playing, with everybody having their say on (and inventing) such sundry items as dwarf throwing (very unpopular among certain segments) or goblin season (likewise) and trading personal messages on the message board.
After an elf has been designed, a style of combat must be determined. Several factors will influence combat, including armor, tactics, special abilities, and opponents.
The armor and helm should be considered in light of the tactics used and the opponents being faced. Short warriors facing tall ones may decide that a helmet is necessary; tall warriors may not feel the need for head protection. Too much weight will hinder movement, and since combat is an offensive enterprise just enough armor should be worn so as to not interfere with attack potential. The standard elf arrangement is primary weapon, leather armor, and leather helmet.
Some strategies are the standard, dodge, advancement, distant, and static strategies. The dodge strategy involves forsaking protection to move freely and dodging blows rather than parrying (this works better if the dodger has a higher dexterity than his opponents. The advancement strategy forces short range opponents at all costs and attacks repeatedly once there. The distant strategy strives to keep the adherent at long range, using blast magic against opponents until it becomes advantageous to attack with the primary weapon. The static strategy has the adherent neither advance nor retreat during the fight (this usually results in a trip to the healers for those who try it, but it sounds good until it's tried). The standard combat strategy is to fight without any special tactics, using special abilities. Supplementing a warrior's tactics will be special abilities. There are two kinds of special combat abilities, magic and tricks. No special ability is decisive at it's training level, but they all get better at increased training. Special abilities are specified on the battle order sheets.
Combat spells include blink, heal, power, blast, daze, vertigo, and speed. Blink is invoked at random when a warrior is about to be struck by an opponent and teleports the use to safety (if successful). Heal heals damage taken in combat. Power strengthens an elf for the duration of a fight. Blast shoots a magic projectile at opponents, although victims may dodge, parry, or even blink against it. Daze may cause victims to be temporarily confused so that they cannot attack or defend themselves. Vertigo (if successful) causes an opponent to have an inner ear failure and fall down. Speed gives the user extra actions. Speed and power magic are twice as tiring as the others.
Other, non-magic combat abilities exist, and can be used at the character's discretion. Some, such as trip, can produce adverse effects on the user should the ability fail (the tripper falls instead of the victim). The initiative skill also gives the user extra actions but uses energy like magic. Mind wall adds an extra layer of protection against daze and vertigo magic.
The final combat consideration for warriors is what kinds of opponents they will face. Kinds of opponents can be divided into general, bruisers, dodgers, and specific opponents. General opponents use a generic attack strategy using their own abilities; there are no special methods to defeat general opponents. Bruisers wear heavy armor and/or wield heavy weapons; they must be hit hard and fast, before they have a chance to mangle their victim. Dodgers must be attacked frequently as their foe's objective (to hit) is exactly what they're trying to prevent; multiple attacks should sooner or later strike somewhere. A combat strategy can be tailored against a specific opponent whose tactics are expected (beware of surprises!) for challenge matches.
Elves have an entire niche carved out for them in the adventuring aspect of AG. Every adventuring party will need somebody to perform mage functions. This is not to say that only elves can be party mages, but elves are best suited for the job. Generally, party mages stay well to the rear of the main fighting and support the frontline fighters with combat and advanced magic during a fight. Party mages can also use missile weapons, which will not drain energy or spell points.
Currently, there are 3 advanced magic spells: cure party, block missiles, and fury. Cure party will heal wounds incurred during combat on the whole party between fights. Block missiles can deflect sling stones, arrows, etc. shot at the party. Fury will magically attack a party of foes at a distance. Every one of these spells is useful, and virtually every adventuring party will require someone to perform cure party.
Some managers have had a difficult time running elves in Adventurer's Guild. Set-up limitations make running a successful elf a challenge. But with the right tactics and development, elves can be very successful.