The Adventurers' Guild

Has anybody done a serious study of how the game generates your characters? I ask because it appears to vary enormously between versions.

On the C-64 and Apple IIgs, the game appears to use a roughly similar approach - 1d8 + bonus for each stat, the bonus set by your race choice. If the result is above 18, the result is set to 18.

The similarities end there, though. All the bonuses are 1 higher on the IIgs version, which is a pretty major boost to low level character strength. Also, the C-64 version gives starting health from 4-19, while the IIgs starts new characters 10 health higher - 14-29.

I figured this was a generational difference between the 8 bit and 16 bit versions, then I tried the DOS version and found a system significantly different. I was unable to get stats to show the full 8 point spread between lowest and highest observed stats for, well, anything. The starting HP at least seems similar to the IIgs.

These changes don't appear to be listed anywhere else, and since I am emulating from file images retrieved from the internet, who knows what hacks have been put in place on the various editions.

Has anybody done a serious study of how the game generates your characters? I ask because it appears to vary enormously between versions.

Yes. Check This thread for specifics on MSDOS.

For the attributes, there is a base value for each race. Then they throw two 7-sided dice, pick the higher of the two, and add it to the base. Capped at 18.

For hit points, they throw two 15-sided dice, keep the higher, and add 14. Race doesn't matter.

For spell points, roll one 7-sided die, add 10, and add a bonus for high Intelligence.

For starting gold, roll two 60-sided dice, pick the highest one, and add 110.

Maven wrote:

Has anybody done a serious study of how the game generates your characters? I ask because it appears to vary enormously between versions.

Yes. Check This thread for specifics on MSDOS.

For the attributes, there is a base value for each race. Then they throw two 7-sided dice, pick the higher of the two, and add it to the base. Capped at 18.

For hit points, they throw two 15-sided dice, keep the higher, and add 14. Race doesn't matter.

For spell points, roll one 7-sided die, add 10, and add a bonus for high Intelligence.

For starting gold, roll two 60-sided dice, pick the highest one, and add 110.

Thank you. For some reason, it didn't occur to me to check the Developer forum. Anyway, it answered the question - somebody has examined the subject at least a little. It's interesting to see such drastically different generation methods between versions. Having starting health 10 points lower on C64 is particularly painful, but the lower ability scores all around certainly don't help either.