Legend of the Vampire

I've made a slight name change to the module and also changed the
category to PW Action. Also, at Alex's suggestion I've greatly expanded
the directions.

The ingame directions follow below. Please drop by. I'll be posting
this on Neverwinter connections as well.

Server Name: May vary, usually Legend of the Vampire
Module Name: Legend of the Vampire
Category: Persistant World Action
Difficulty Slider: Hardcore
Vault: Server Vault Only

Server availability: 12pm to 6am (next day) Eastern Time. Game time
lags real time by 12 hours (ie at 5pm ET it is 5am the same day game time)


Legend of the Vampire Instructions
==================================
The URL for the message board for this game is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LotV

If the game proves popular I'll create a full-blown site for it.

This game is loosely based on the ancient BBS "door" game "Legend of the
Red Dragon." If you'd like to see what the original looks like, check
it out at http://lord.nuklear.org/ (I am not affiliated with this site).

Some people like to read instructions. Some don't. This book gives you
the most basic overview, and if you "use" it, it will give you the
option to create additional instructions in your Inventory. However,
this is a fairly simple game and you should be able to discover all the
rules on your own, and it might even be more fun that way.

This is not a realistic, play-for-hours at a time campaign. It is
designed to be played once a day for a short amount of time - each
session should probably take about a half hour (or less if you don't
feel like playing that long).

Each day, you are given a number of "Fights". Enter the
forest/cave/graveyard, fight the monsters, collect loot, and you get
sent back to town. You are racing all the other players of the game to
reach 20th level, at which time you can face the Master Vampire. Once
you defeat him, you are set back to first level (with some nice gifts)
to begin the process again. When a player has defeated the Master
Vampire 3 times, they are declared the winner of the game, recorded in
the Hall of Fame, and the entire game resets (all characters deleted).

One of the funnest features of the game is fighting other players, and
if you are over 1rst level you can fight them even if they are offline
(as long as they are alive).

Don't worry if you die - it's not permanent.

If I have been successful in recreating a "Legend of the Red Dragon"
experience, the first time you play you may find the game to be simple,
even boring. Play 3 days in a row and you're hooked for good.

In addition to regular day-to-day gameplay, I will sometimes be hosting
special events that you can use your LotV characters for.

Offline Fighting
================

You can only participate in offline fights if you are 2nd level or higher.

If when you quit the game, you merely quit - you will be available to
anyone who chooses to fight you while you are offline.

However, if you talk to the bartender at the Stuck Pig Tavern, you will
have an option to get a room (for a price) before you quit (the
bartender will only speak with characters that are over first level).
This provides you with a small amount of protection (see below).

If you want to fight a player that is offline, use that option with your
Information Widget that is in your inventory. You will be taken to a
selection area where you can see any offline player who is alive, over
1rst level, and quit the game without getting a room. To fight one,
target them with your player fight tool. All buffs and summonings will
be dispelled before you enter the arena - you must buff after you
arrive. Which may be hard if a 10th level fighter is wailing on you.
The participants start at a distance of 20 meters from each other.

If you want to fight someone who got a room, you will have to bribe the
bartender. Once you have done this, you will be taken to the selection
area containing players who are offline that got a room. However, only
players that are one level lower than you and up will be present. If no
payers meet this requirement, the bartender will feel sorry for you and
give you half your money back. (You should check out fighter
availability ahead of time using your information widget).

The rewards for the victor are 10% of the victim's XP total and any gold
that they had on hand. The victim is dead until midnight.

If your offline character defeats someone in self-defense, you will get
the XP when you log in, and gold (if any) will have been transferred to
your bank account.

If the fight is going badly and you wish to flee, each arena has several
exits. Make use of one of them before your enemy can kill you.

You get 3 player fights (any combination of offline and online) per game
day.


Online Fighting
===============
If you want to fight another player who is online at the same time as
you, target them with the Player Fight Tool that is in your inventory.
There are no level restrictions whatsoever, but your target can agee or
disagree to fight with you. If they agree, you will both be immediately
transported to a player fight arena. No buffs or summonings will be
dispelled when you do this, so you should arrange beforehand an
agreement with the player you are fighting as to whether you both will
be buffing before or after entering the arena.

If another player targets you for a player fight, you will have 3
choices: (1) Agree, upon which you will both be transported to the arena
(2) Disagree, and the targeting is over with. You might then have a
discussion with the other player about whether you might fight them
under different circumstances (3) Ignore them for the rest of the day.
If someone you don't want to fight is griefing you by constantly
targeting you with the fight tool, you can choose to ignore their
requests for the rest of the day.

The winner of the fight gets a bounty of 10% of the XP total of their
victim (this is the fastest way to gain levels!), as well as any gold
the victim may have had on-hand. The victim is dead until the next game
day. This is the only exception to the "60 second death rule" for first
level characters - even they will be dead until midnight.

If the fight is going badly and you wish to flee, each arena has several
exits. Make use of one of them before your enemy can kill you.

You get 3 player fights (any combination of offline and online) per game
day.

Book of Life and Death
======================
If you are killed, you will lose any gold you had on hand (this makes it
a good idea to use the bank!) and will be penalized 5% of your current
XP. This happens whether you are online or not (more on that later).

If you are first level, you only stay dead for 60 seconds before you are
returned to town. (The only exception to this is if you were fighting
another player, in which case you will be treated as described below)

If you are over first level, you are dead for the rest of the game day.
Each game day starts over at midnight (game time lags behind real
Eastern time by 12 hours).

So basically, everyone gets a new lease on life each new day. If you
were killed the previous day, your status will stay "Dead" until you log
in again. While you are dead you are not available to other players
for offline fights.

Note that all of the above is true even if you are killed by another
player while offline. For instance, suppose you logged in at 1am, and
logged out alive at 1:30a. If you log in again at 2am, you are still
alive. After you have logged out at 2:15a, another player logs in and
kills your character in an offline fight. You are now dead, and will
stay that way at least until midnight that night. Your status will not
change back to alive until you actually log in though.

Regular Fights
==============
You get 20 "regular" fights per day. This gives you something to do to
get experience and treasure to build yourself up for fighting other
players.

There are 3 areas to choose from: the graveyard, the caves, and the
forest. Each area has different characteristics (kinds of encounters,
frequency of additional treasure and where it is located, the chance of
a "special" encounter, etc).

All encounters scale to your character's level, and their variety
increases a lot after about 4th level.