
                            L. O. R. D.   
                     Legend of the Red Dragon  
                        A role playing game  
                  created by Seth Able Robinson         
                  
                            by Kiteria
                  
                SKILLS AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO YOU

Upon entering the realm your first decision will be who you are, your
second which will be the easiest of the three will be what sex you are,
and lastly you will decide on what skill, or "profession" you will work on
first. Each one has a unique feature that makes it useful throughout your
never ending battles with the forest guardians, and fellow players.  Here
we will discuss each one in close detail, covering what is required of you
to "master" it, then to become "superior" at it, what you can do with it
and to whom, and what it can do for you.

                               THIEF

While in the forest you will be confronted by the Thieves Guild, if you
give them a gem they will give you a lesson. In the game the successful
completion of this is called a "skill" point. After four successful
lessons, you will be given a "users" point. This means that you have
earned the right to the use of your skill one time.  Let's recap: With 1
gem you get 1 lesson, with 4 lessons you get 1 use, therefore to get 20
uses of your thieving skill which will be Master Level, you will have had
to successfully given the Thieves Guild 80 gems.  There will be times when
you are confronted by the Guild and you will not have a gem. If you are
unable to give the Guild a gem at that time, your choices are to spit at
them or mumble.  Either way the Guild will release you, but if you spit
they will compliment you, if you mumble they will insult you.

                               MYSTIC

Learning the art of magic takes a long time, your user skills are just a
little more deadly than a Thieves and SOME are more deadly than the Death
Knights.  You will be taught six magic spells each one capable of more
damage than the other.  While in the forest slaying the guardians, you
will come upon the house of an old mage.  You have the choice to knock or
bang on the door.  Sometimes he won't answer if you bang and sometimes he
won't answer if you knock.  I have found that if you bang the first time
of each set of four lessons, you will get an answer more often than a
knock, otherwise he will not be at home.  Then knock, don't bang the other
three times, or he won't be at home.  Of course this is not a 100% thing,
so go for your gut feeling and do what your vibes are telling you.  If the
old man is answering his door at the time, he will have you guess a number
he is thinking of between 1 and 100 within six tries. Many have a formula
for this, perhaps they work, and perhaps not.  It is up to you to find
what will work for you but I have found that simplicity is the most
successful.  Start in the middle at 50 and go from there, either higher or
lower, relatively in halves. To help you visualize what I'm referring to,
I will lay it out. Let us say the number is 52.
Guess 1:  50
higher
Guess 2:  75
lower
Guess 3:  65
lower
Guess 4:  55
lower
Guess 5:  53
lower
Guess 6:  Here is where you have a 50 - 50 chance.  It's not much, but at
least the odds are a lot better than when you started out.  It is my
observation that odd numbers appear more frequently than even numbers, but
again, this is not ALWAYS true, there are those times when I am awash in
even numbers.  Below is a list of the spells the complete Mystic will
have.

SPELL                       USERPOINTS                 DAMAGE
                              REQUIRED
                               PER USE
                                  
Pinch                          1             Basic, a bit more than a
sword
Disappear                      4             Escape from foe no loss
of
                                             forest fight. Player
                                             opponent never knows you
                                             were trying to do him
                                             in.
Heat Wave                      8             Quite powerful equal to
1
Death
                                             night skill.
Light shield*                 12             Reduces damage TO YOU by half
Shatter                       16             Awesome power! Equal to two
                                             Death Knight skills at one blow 
Mind heal*                    20             Completely heal yourselfright
                                             in the middle of a battle!
                  *may use on players equal or
                  lower level than yourself.

Please understand that it takes 20 USER points to use the Mind Heal, if it
takes 4 SKILL points to earn 1 USER point, you can see that you have to
guess 80 times CORRECTLY to achieve 1 use of the mind heal.  It will take
time and a lot of patience.  You will be learning some very powerful magic
and used with your sword attacks, you will be able to stand your ground
and most likely be successful in killing players one level higher than
you, possibly two.  Use common sense though, know when to take off if that
player or forest guardian you are attacking is doing sever damage no
matter what you throw at them.  Remember, there are two forms of the magic 
skill that you are allowed to use when battling a player on the same level
as you are, or one level lower.  It is the LIGHT SHIELD, and the MIND HEAL. 
This is another aspect of this profession that makes it far superior to the 
other two in my opinion.

                              DEATH KNIGHT
                                    
The moment is upon you,  you are led to the dungeon by the Death Knights,
the prisoner is there and it is up to you to declare his guilt or
innocents. Choose wisely and you either free an innocent man or you call
down the death penalty upon a heinous criminal, choose poorly and the
opposite is true. This is also a hard to achieve skill, but unlike the
Mystic skill that gives you six chances to nail it down, you have a fifty-
fifty chance, which isn't as easy as it sounds.  Unless you have a little
ESP going for you, you can only hope that your best guess is THE guess.
The grizzled warriors tell many rumors at the DARK CLOAK TAVERN about this
one!   It's hard to know who or what to believe, if any.  I've heard them
all and tried them all, and I have not found one anymore successful than
the other.  There is the odd day of the month rumor, select the odd number
on odd days, even day even number. It is even being stated that you should
look at the stat screen by pressing "1" at the main menu and see how many
days the game has been running. Then select "2" if it has been running an
even amount of days, and "1" if it's run an odd number of days.  Then
there is the "formula"  I use, press "1" OR "2" EVERY time, it has to give
it to you at least every 6 times.  (It says here in very small print!!)
Kj Radkey, the co-author of Castle ColdDrake, swears by her formula.  She
says that if she guesses it wrong the first time, then she will guess the
other option the next time.  She's a powerhouse of a L.O.R.D. player so
I'm giving her suggestion serious consideration!

I hope you see my point though, everyone has their own way and they are
all as good as the next persons.  Only through trial and error will you
find what works for you, and you may come up with something that no one's
thought of!   By all means, if you have a theory, work it, and then come
and tell Kj and me!! <G!>

Some players start out by getting a little of all of the skills starting
with thieving skills simply because it's so easy to obtain.  Stay with it 
long enough to have three user skills and at the lower levels, it makes a
fairly good addition to your weapon.  Some players like to start with the
Mystic skill because it does take a lot more time and effort to get the
skill points, then transfer to the Thieving or Death Knight profession.
Regardless of which skill you choose to go for first, you will work long
and hard to MASTER it.  Once MASTERED you will have twenty USER points
and the initial of your chosen profession will be to the side of your
name on the roster.  To become SUPERIOR at your chosen profession, you
must do it twenty more times and then you will have a white initial of
your chosen profession next to your name on the roster.  Once you have
become SUPERIOR in your chosen profession, your Master will tell you that
he can no longer teach you anything and offer the selections for you to
choose another skill. At any time in the game you can change your skill
by going to the DARK CLOAK TAVERN and talking to Chance the barkeep.  
He will present you with the same choices to select from as you had the 
first time you entered the game.  It's also wise to keep in mind that 
certain IGM's cater to certain professions, with a horse you can take 
advantage of all three that are offered, if you have the time to run back 
and forth to the DARK CLOAK TAVERN to change your skill.  I don't consider 
this cheating, I just consider it "maximum utilization of available 
resources."

You will not master a skill the first trip through the levels on your way
to killing the dragon.  This is one of the reasons there are the HEROIC
DEEDS. By the time you are ready to kill the dragon for the 10th time to
become the HERO OF THE REALM, you will not only have mastered all three
professions, you  will more than likely be SUPERIOR in all three. Once you
have become SUPERIOR in all three skills, you may choose the one you
prefer to be for the rest of the game.  I generally choose to be a Death
Knight, because when you meet them in the forest, they will not only give
you an extra user skill for the day, they will refill your hit points.
The other 2 will give you another use (or uses) of your skill for that
day, but they do not refill your hit points.

As you work on your skills throughout your adventure from level 1 to level
12, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that these skills will stay
with you even after you have slain the dragon and started over as a lowly
level one. Each time you slay the dragon and start over, you become a much
more dangerous warrior. Because you are not only armed and armored, you
have a skill.

Do you have a question, comment, suggestion or complaint?  Contact me at my
Email address: Kiteria@juno.com, or Kiteria@rland.wfbbs.com.  Please stop
by and visit the web page http://web2.airmail.net/bat/kiteria.  Have 
phun(tm) and remember....it's just a game!

Suzanne Franklin
Co-SysOp RabbitLand II
Dallas, TX






