This is roleplaying guide web page, posted concurrently to the release of An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire. The web page originally posted to the old bethsoft.com website circa 23 September 1997.
Roleplaying Primer
Every Player Character (PC) has a set of ability scores. Ability scores are exactly what they sound like-a measure of the PC's abilities. In AD&D;, the most popular RPG, ability scores are Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each ability is determined by the roll of the dice when you create your character. Scores can range from 1-20, 20 being the best. Strength is a measure of the PC's strength (obviously), and includes a qualifier which describes the PC's ability to Bend Bars and/or Lift Gates. Strength is also used to determine a PC's running ability, since a stronger person can run further more quickly.
Constitution is a more precise ability akin to strength but not identical. Constitution is used to measure things like the PC's ability to live after drinking poison or being breathed on by a large angry dragon. Someone with a higher constitution is more likely to survive.
Dexterity is a measure of the PC's agility. Dexterity plays a role in how well a PC can climb, jump, dodge, parry, and aim. A PC with a low Dexterity would also be much worse at Baseball.
Intelligence measures the PC's memory and ability to comprehend. On the heels of that is wisdom.
Wisdom is something that must be learned from experience, and a wiser PC will make less rash decisions than a rookie. Of course, rash decisions can sometimes be a lot of fun, but it depends on what type of gamer you are. You can be an intelligent gamer and still have a wisdom of 2. This simply means that you have a vast knowledge of many things, but you often tend to disregard it.
Charisma is a measure of your charm. The higher your Charisma, the more followers you would have if you were a priest. If your character is a bard or any kind of performer, you would have problems making a living with a low Charisma.
In The Elder Scrolls series, slightly different Ability Scores are used. The Elder Scrolls PC has scores in Strength, Intelligence, Willpower, Agility, Speed, Endurance, Personality, and Luck. Some of these scores (such as Strength and Intelligence) correspond directly to the scores used in AD&D; games. Others are not quite as easy to define. Willpower and Endurance both include aspects of Constitution. Each is a measure of exactly what it sounds like. Willpower is the basic hard-headedness of your PC, and Endurance is how long you can physically last.
Agility corresponds pretty closely to Dexterity, and Personality is fairly similar to Charisma.
Luck is actually luck, if you can believe that, and is simply a measure of how often your PC gets lucky. Technically speaking, of course. The same principle of obviousness applies to the Attribute of Speed. Speed is how fast your character can move. Pretty simple concept, really.
Alignment is something which is not used in The Elder Scrolls games, but which is a valuable aspect of Paper-and-Pencil RPGs. In The Elder Scrolls, your character is always going to be the same type of person, as he's always going to be a hero. However, for those of you out there who are unfamiliar with RPGs in general, you may be interested to know how Alignment works. Alignment is basically the status of your character's morals (or lack thereof). Good, Neutral, and Evil are personal, moral measures. Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic describe whether or not you follow the laws of whatever land you happen to be adventuring in. The combination of one of each of these categories is what makes up your character's motivations and therefore often guides his actions.
If your character is Lawful Good, he is inherently a nice person, and he follows the laws of the land. This is generally reserved for knights, and means basically that your character would do anything to help anyone who was in trouble, often eschewing his or her own personal interests and goals. Often the Lawful Good person in the party is the one who absolutely refuses to raid a camp, no matter how long it has been since the party has eaten. Personally, I find these characters rather difficult to play convincingly.
A Lawful Neutral character is a law-abiding citizen for all intents and purposes. This type of character would not rob a bank, but on the other hand, he may care less one way or the other whether a kitty cat is rescued from a lofty perch in a large tree. Lawful Neutral generally describes the average citizen, with certain obvious exceptions. Keep in mind, in order to be Lawful, you must fall into certain character classes, since thieves usually (but not always) have to break the law to make their living.
A Lawful Evil character is someone basically like Tim Curry's character in the movie "The Three Musketeers". He somehow manages to abide by the law, while at the same time having an evil streak a mile wide and just basically not being a very nice guy.
A Neutral Good character is one who is basically a good guy, and tends to try to help people out as much as possible, but who may or may not care what the law says he should do. Often unfair laws are what creates the difference between a Neutral Good character and a Lawful Good Character. Good means that the character will not hurt anyone if he or she can help it, and the Neutral part may, in some cases, just mean that the character does not agree with, or even care about, the laws set up by whoever is the ruler of the land.
True Neutral (Neutral Neutral) is probably one of the most difficult alignments to play accurately. True Neutral characters believe strongly in everything being equal, to the extent that, in a fight, they will fight for whichever side they feel needs assistance, regardless or with whom they were previously allied. Defenders of Neutrality believe that the universe will not be able to function without the balance of opposites, and they therefore attempt to uphold that balance to the best of their ability. That is the characteristic that makes True Neutral characters difficult to play, especially in games with multiple players in a party (on a team).
Neutral Evil means that the character doesn't care one way or the other about the law, but is led only by his or her own evil plans. Neutral Evil characters basically step on whoever they must to succeed. If the law happens to agree with their plans, that's fine, but if it doesn't, it would not stop the Neutral Evil character.
Chaotic Good characters are often bandits from the law. If a character is Chaotic Good, he or she has no regard for the law of the land, but is nonetheless a good person. Just because the character does not agree with the laws of the land they inhabit that doesn't necessarily mean they are bad people. Sometimes laws are unfair and demoralizing, and a Chaotic Good character would therefore disregard the law to do what he or she thought was best. Robin Hood was Chaotic Good.
Chaotic Neutral is an interesting character to play. Chaotic means the character has no regard whatsoever for the laws of the land, and the character can and will do basically as he or she chooses. A character who is motivated purely by fun could be played as Chaotic Neutral.
Chaotic Evil characters are bad. They are rarely played as PCs in most gaming worlds. A Chaotic Evil character has no regard for anyone or anything, and is basically not someone you want to take home to meet mom and dad. Evil characters may not necessarily be malicious, they just have no regard for the consequences of their actions.
In The Elder Scrolls world, alignments can not be chosen by the PC. The hero you play is automatically going to be of a certain alignment which would accept the quests laid out in the games.
Armor makes it more difficult for a monster to hit the player. There are many different kinds of armors, and each one gives the player a different bonus to his or her armor class. Armor class is a measure of how hard it is to be hit. In AD&D;, the lower your Armor Class (AC), the better. This is not always the case in the Elder Scrolls series, but if varies from game to game. Armor Class basically ranks your armor, adds in a factor for your Dexterity or Agility Skill, and tells you how hard it is for you to be hit. Armor Types include: Hide, Leather, Studded Leather, Chain, Banded, Plate, Scale, Ring, Splint mail. Each type or armor has its pros and cons. Leather, for example, only gives you a few extra points on your Armor Class (better than wearing no armor at all), but if you are a thief, it will much easier for you to move silently with leather armor. Conversely, a fighter who cares nothing about stealth could wear plate mail or banded mail, both of which provide protection far superior to leather.
The class of your character is basically his or her chosen profession. In the contemporary world you might be a computer programmer, or an artist, or a web-page designer. The original classes of fantasy role-playing games were fighter, mage, cleric, and thief. Since then, the world of role-playing has evolved and changed to include many more diverse character classes and options.
The generic names for classes (Warrior, Wizard, Priest, and Rogue) now include a vast array of subclasses which vary from world to world.
In The Elder Scrolls games, your character can be a Warrior, a Knight, a Ranger, a Monk, a Barbarian, an Archer, or a Spellsword, and all of these could be classified as Fighters. Warriors are the epitome of strength and prowess. Knights are the guys in shining armor, Rangers are woodland warriors, Monks are highly skilled in the Martial Arts, Barbarians are savage fighters with high strength and endurance, and Spellswords are warrior mages who use their control of magicka and strength of sword together.
The Elder Scrolls world of Tamriel also has a vast array of choices under the category of Magic User. Mages, Healers, Sorcerors, Nightblades, Battlemages, and the aforementioned Spellswords all use magic as their ally. Sorcerers and Mages are both specialist magicians. The main difference between the two is that Mages regenerate Spell Points while Sorcerers must absorb it from the spells of others. Nightblades are basically mage-thieves. They use their magic to enhance their thiefly abilities, and are masters in the School of Illusion. Battlemages specialize in the School of Destruction, using offensive spells to attack their enemies.
Priests in the world of Tamriel are limited basically to being Monks. The Healer class COULD be represented as priests, but since they don't actually rely on a god, this would be a false categorization. The original Cleric was distinguishable from other kinds of magic users by one basic trait. Clerics use similar spells to Mages, but Clerics do not memorize their spells. Instead, they pray to their gods to let them cast the spells when needed. Mages memorize spells, or have spellbooks instead. In role-playing games, each method has its drawbacks. In The Elder Scrolls world of Tamriel, however, Clerics do not exist as a seperate class.
The final group of classes, the Rogue, can be found in several forms in Tamriel. Rogues include Thieves, Burglars, Assassins, Rogues, Acrobats, Bards, and the elusive Nightblades. Each type of Rogue focuses on a special skill or set of skills. Thieves are generally agile, intelligent individuals with a taste for adventure. Assassins are deadly, business-like killers, who are trained to commit murder for profit. Rogues are basically warrior-thieves, who are unabashed at having to knock a few skulls to accomplish their goals. Acrobats specialize in agility and speed, and are as difficult to hold as a drop of quicksilver. Bards are the performers of the Role-playing world, kind of wandering story-tellers who sing for their suppers. Nightblades, as described above, use their powers of illusion to enhance their thiefly skills.
to be continued...we will be adding to this primer, so stay tuned....
Glossary
About halfway through this little exploration of RPGs, I realized it would probably be an excellent idea to start off with a few basic terms which I used constantly without even realizing they're not plain English. So, read this section carefully, and/or refer back to it as you come upon parts where you just can't figure out what I'm trying to say. If you check this list and you STILL don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry, it's probably my fault, not yours.
PC-- Player Character: The person you pretend to be (the ROLE you PLAY) in a RPG.
RPG-- Role Playing Game: Stick a C in front of it (CRPG), and it just means COMPUTER Role Playing Game. Paper-and-Pencil is just another way of delineating RPGs from CRPGs. RPGs are games unlike anything else, but the whole purpose of this is to explain to you what they are, so read on for more details.
NPC-- Non-Player Character: Someone who is a character in the game, but is controlled by the DM, and not by a seperate person. The opposite of a Player Character.
GM or DM-- Game Master or Dungeon Master: Person who makes up the story and controls the game play.
Gamer -- you: If you are playing a RPG, that makes you a gamer.
Party or Gaming Party -- Group of people adventuring together, usually with some kind of common goal.
Question Time
Your responses and information are important to us. We want to know what you think of the Elder Scrolls page. Also any information you'd like to offer about the accuracy of our RPG primer is greatly appreciated. We'd like to make this a valuable resource for beginners.
In that light, any questions or comments that are sent in by you will be posted here for everyone else who visits the page. Of course we strive to provide as much CORRECT information as possible for our loyal customers to use as a reference. Thanks for your input, keep those messages coming!
--Rob
Subject: "Online Games" (10/15/97)
Question
Hello again people of Bethesda.
I had written you guys about a year ago about making DaggerFall into a online RPG. It was & still is the Best rpg I have played to date since owning my PC.
Now please tell me that BattleSpire is going to have TCP/IP support & how many adventures will be able to play at any given time? Please, please tell me that it will have the online playability because frankly if it does not you are going to miss a very large market. look at the success of Ultima Online (for which I was a Beta tester) they can barely keep copies on the shelf. None of the Ultima titles can even remotely compare to DaggerFall, so just imagine what this could mean to your company in sales alone. Not to mention the cost of the monthly service for playing? I see that it has a "Death Match" option but that has been done to death.
Thank you
Answer
Dear Sir--
Glad to hear you're so interested in Battlespire, we're doing our best to make it as cool as humanly possible. The multi-player elements will include three different options: Deathmatch (with which you are obviously familiar), Cooperative, and Team vs. Team. Each of these has a max of eight players total. They can be played via IPX or the internet. We will be utilizing a system called MPlayer, for more information on that, visit their website at www.mplayer.com. There are "special" levels for Deathmatch, as deathmatch is not a mode that is particularly conducive to completing levels. There will be lots of different kinds of weapons, tons of monsters, and some kick ass graphics. We're also implementing many different options for selecting screen size and resolution, so that Battlespire is playable on any machine P133 or better, and on a P200 (which is what I've been playing it on) it pretty much flies. The multi-player interface is pretty cool, you can send messages to everyone, and they pop up at the top of the screen within the game (practically real-time, better than some chat servers!). Team vs. Team allows you to gang up on one another, as there are no restrictions on team size (you can play 6 on 2, for example), and the cooperative option is basically a lot like the single player game, only with more monsters to impair your ability to finish the game.
I've heard a lot about Ultima, and from what I can gather it's a really neat idea, and everyone I know who has it thinks it pretty much rocks. I understand you pay a monthly or annual fee to play in a massive game with tons of other people, is that roughly correct? Anyway, we won't be able to implement that for Battlespire, as its a smaller game than Daggerfall.
Happy Gaming!
Kate
Subject: "The Battlespire World" (10/17/97)
Question
I am planning on Battlespire and am wondering about one main aspect of the game. I have seen lots of screen shots of the game, but have seen no shots of a town or castle. Does it have a fully populated town in addition to the 8 levels/worlds? I think the game would not be very RPG like if it did not have atleast a town/castle with people to talk to, things to buy, and things to do.
Thanks.
PS-Are the screenshots shown of Battlespire the 3dfx enhanced ones?
Answer
Dear Sir-
Thanks for your interest in Battlespire. The concern you expressed, having seen the few screen shots we posted, is understandable. Battlespire is not as huge and all-encompassing as The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall, and therefore does not have quite so many millions of nooks and crannies to explore. However, there are a few townships, complete with buildings to go into. If you look on the screenshots page, at the picture of the execution block, you can see a few buildings in the background. That's because this particular execution block is in the middle of a town called Trybador. These screen shots are taken in hi-res from the game, and they are NOT 3DFX enhanced. Check the webpage around the end of this week, we'll try to have some new ones up by then. And yes, they will include shots of towns and castles.
Now, Battlespire does not have the same kind of interaction (ie, going into pubs, hanging out with people, and hearing rumors), because you must remember that this is a pocket universe inhabited almost entirely by daedra who have taken over. It's kind of like a ghost town in the old west, where you can see that it was once inhabited, and maybe find some treasure and dead bodies, but there aren't really many people around with whom you can interact (in fact, I think the "human being" count totals out to about three, and that's INCLUDING the PC). There is a castle or two also, but again their inhabitants are the invading daedra, and not the lords and ladies of Tamriel. With the miniscule number of human NPC's, and total lack of shops, you don't buy and barter. The setting for Battlespire is a celestial citadel-- an academy for training battlemages-- so its not exactly like being in the huge kingdom of Tamriel. The Battlespire is self-contained, and you can FIND everything you will need by killing monsters, exploring, and searching the bodies of dead battlemages, but even if you COULD find a place to buy things, you don't have any money on you, because you thought you were going to a training school, and only took a few things with you, as money would only weigh you down. You CAN talk to the locals, they just may not be particularly friendly all the time. I assure you, however, the plot will intrigue you, the art will amaze you, and the game will suck you in from start to finish. I know, I've played it.
Happy gaming! --Kate
To help lessen any doubt about the existence of towns in Battlespire, here are a few screen shots of Trybador, a town on the fifth level of the game.
Subject: "Ethical/Moral Alignments" (9/25/97)
Question
Your (whoever wrote the descriptions of the alignments) assessment of some of the alignments misses the spirit of "law." While your example of a Chaotic Good person was apt (That being someone who is motivated entirely by fun), I disagree with what I presume must be your position on a "lawful" character.
In role-playing games, or in real life, a law-breaker is not necessarily "chaotic", nor is a rule-follower "lawful." Your use of Tim Curry was good, although I hesitate to say he would not break the law to achieve his own ends... ...Your using the example of Robin Hood as "Chaotic" is flat wrong. "Chaotic" is, in part, a characters Ethical predictability. Robin Hood would not go back on his word, nor were his acts of violence aimless. His motivations were not personal, but National.
Are you saying that a revolt against an unjust government is a "chaotic" act by nature?! Were the ravaging hordes of Atilla the Hun or Genghis Khan "lawful?" An absurd concept, I would think. It is possible to act with Paladin-like purity against an existing system, and not be "chaotic," just as it is possible to work "correctly" within a system that legalizes atrocity, and not be "Lawful." Those poor women in Bosnia who were raped assembly-line fashion; do you view their rapists as "Lawful Evil" because their crimes were government sanctioned? The Mores/Ethics of Role-Playing games are about personal codes, not responses to existing ethical systems.
Answer
Dear Sir, Let me first say how much we appreciate you visiting our website, and taking the time to let us know what you think of it. Your response to the ALIGNMENTS section of the RPG primer is an interesting topic, yet, makes me wonder if you are A) a role-player, and if so, do you B) play AD&D.; I pose these two questions to you because, while your argument is valid in the generally accepted use of the WORDS "chaotic" and "lawful", if you reference the descriptions of alignment found in the AD&D; Players' Handbook, you would understand that they are given slightly different connotations.
According to the Players', Lawful and chaotic are used to describe whether or not a character abides by laws. Though I may agree with you entirely that Robin Hood was not Chaotic as we know it, I would disagree with this same statement when set in terms of the definitions set forth by TSR, in which chaotic means one who does not abide by the law. Admittedly the Laws of the land surrounding Sherwood forest were cruel and unfair, but since the definition of chaotic is, in this case, used solely to describe LAW, and not ETHICS, then Robin Hood was, in fact, chaotic.
TSR broke the alignments down into two sections: the first meaning whether or not the character abides by the local law, and the second a measure of the character's ethical standings. Thus, imposing ethics onto the first adjective is neither fair nor correct. And yes, the rapists WOULD be considered Lawful Evil, as would Hitler. The first describes ONLY abiding by the current system of government (regardless of how unfair it may be), and the second describes moral and ethical character. If you'd like more information regarding these definitions, feel free to check out a copy of the AD&D; Players' Handbook.
I realize that these descriptions can not be made to cover all types of people, and one of the main debates between role-players is on this exact subject. Many players do not USE alignment types for this reason. They feel it is unfair to restrict the possible characteristics and morals of a person to a set number of "categories", as there are so many levels of moral and ethical beliefs. Many who DO use the alignments often use them loosely, as GUIDES to their character's possible reactions, rather than as Strict Gospel. In describing them for a role-playing primer, I was only trying to shed some light on the many different aspects of role-playing for those who are unfamiliar with it. Please feel free to respond with any further questions or comments, and thanks again for taking the time to give us your input.
Sincerely, Kate