What is Hellband
================

Welcome to Hellband. This is a turn-based game of strategy, skill and luck.
Hellband has its roots in the game 'Rogue' (an old computer game from around the
time of Pong and Space Invaders) and falls into the genre of 'Rogue-like' games.

More specifically, Hellband is a variant of the popular roguelike 'Angband'.

Hellband is similar in theme to modern computer 'RPG's like Diablo, Dungeon
Siege, and so on. You control a character who equips him or herself with basic
equipment and explores an underground 'dungeon', searching for treasure.
Fighting creatures gains you experience - which improves your abilities. Finding
better treasure and magical items also improves your abilities and your fighting
capability. The big difference between Hellband and these games is that whereas
most modern computer RPGs are 'real-time', Hellband is turn based. You do not
need to click the screen with the mouse frantically trying to kill something.
Instead, you can take your time and think about what you are doing and about
what tactics to use.

The other main difference between Hellband and most modern computer games is in
graphics and sound. Most modern games will have maybe two dozen types of
monster, and each one will be rendered in 3D-accelerated polygons. Hellband does
not have a fancy graphics system. Each type of monster is represented by a
color and a letter. This allows for vastly more monsters and wider
variety than would be financially feasible for a commercial software company to
include in a game. Indeed, Hellband has over 600 different types of monster
spread over 120+ levels of play - a variety that commercial games simply cannot
afford to produce professional graphics for.

On save files and Dying
====================

Hellband is different to most computer games in the way that it handles save 
files.

Whereas most games allow you to save the game as often as you like, so that if
you come across a difficult part you can re-load repeatedly and try again,
Hellband is more realistic.

A Hellband save-file is *not* a 'Saved Game'. It is a 'Player Profile'. It does
contain information about the current game state (as most save files in other
games do, but it also stores information about the history of the player's
previous games and characters and stores information about the options that the
player is using.

A saved player profile must be either loaded or created on start-up and is only 
saved when Hellband is closed. This has two major implications.

Firstly, as mentioned above, you can not 'save' before doing something 
dangerous. You only have one 'life' in the game, and if you do something 
dangerous and your character dies then you will have to re-start with a new 
character.

Secondly, when you do die, you do not need to create a new 'save game'. Next
time you start Hellband, you should load your saved profile as normal. You will
keep the values of any options that you set in your previous game, and the
information that your previous characters found out will be still available to
you.

In this Windows version of Hellband, you may have many player-profiles in your
'save' folder, each with its own options and its own history of characters. In
this way, many players can play with their own preferences set.

Basic Gameplay
==============

You start the game (after having generated a character) in the town of
Volterra. Your first task is to explore the shops and purchase equipment 
(keeping your distance from the various town inhabitants, since most of them are 
tougher than you at this point in the game - and this magical marketplace 
attracts all sorts of unsavoury types). After you have purchased whatever 
starting equipment you can afford in order to supplement your starting goods, 
you should wear your armour, wield your weapon, learn spells in the library if 
you are a spellcaster, and then find the red staircase leading down into the 
Inferno.

Once you have descended to Hell, your task changes. You need to explore the 
dungeons around you, looking for treasure and practicing your fighting. There
are lots of opportunities to descend deeper into hell, but you should be very
wary since descending too quickly will almost certainly result in your death.

User Interface
==============

During gameplay, the screen is split into four sections.

The main section is a top-down representation of you and your surroundings. This
is where most of the activity takes place. You will normally see an 'aura'
around yourself. This is your 'line of sight', and shows what you can see.
Anywhere outside this aura is outside your field of vision. If you are carrying
a light source, then you will also see a (usually) smaller aura around yourself
which shows the area illuminated by your light. Different light sources shed
light out to different radii. If you do not have the power of 'Infravision',
then you will not be able to see anything outside this illuminated area (unless 
it is in an independently lit area).

Along the top of the screen is an area reserved for text messages. As you play
the game, various message will be displayed there. Often, if the game needs an
input from you, you will type text there.

On the left hand side of the screen is a summary of your character status. At 
the top is the in-game time and date. Underneath this is a display of your base
attributes. Normally these are all capitalised, but if one of your attributes
has been damaged then the attribute name will be in lower case.

Under the base attributes are a set of secondary attributes, such as hit points,
mana and armour class.

The final section of the user interface covers the bottom third of the left hand
panel and extends across the bottom of the screen. This contains various
indicators of temporary conditions (such as whether you are currently bleeding
or stunned or slowed) and also a 'Health Bar' tracking the health and status of
the most recent creature targeted by you.

Time and Turns
==============

Every time you press a key in order to perform an action, some time is taken in
the game world.

Each 24-hour period within the game is split into 10,000 turns of just under 10
seconds each. The game times things in hundredths of turns, so it is possible
for actions to not take an exact number of turns to perform.

Assuming you are moving without any external influences speeding you up or
slowing you down, a single movement will take 1 turn. Having your speed
magically increased or decreased (or decreased through carrying too much weight)
will alter this - causing each move to take more than or less than a turn.

Various other actions are rated based on this turn-scale - usually as a
percentage of a turn.

Attacking a creature will take anywhere from 10% of a turn to a full turn, based
on the number of attacks that you have.

Casting a spell will similarly take from 10% of a turn to a full turn, based on
how many far above the spell level your character's level is.

Combat and Health
=================

There is no separate 'combat turn' in Hellband. Combat takes place on the same
timescale as movement.

Each creature (yourself included) has three scores relative to combat.

Firstly, you have a number of 'Hit Points'. These represent a combination of 
both endurance and physical toughness. Each time you are hit in combat, you will
lose an amount of hit points. Should you ever get below 0 hit points you will
die from your wounds.

Secondly, you have an Armour Class. This is a number starting at 0 and
increasing. It represents a combination of how good at dodging blows you are and
how well armoured you are. The higher the number, the more difficult you are to
hit - and the more the amount of damage you take if you are hit is reduced.

Finally, you have an attack score. This number is used internally when you
attack something - it is compared to the Armour Class of the thing you are
hitting - but is never directly shown. Your character sheet will display a guide
to how good your attack score is, but not the exact numerical value.
