Parties
 

 
Sometimes four groups of monsters against one character just doesn’t seem fair.  To compensate for this, a player is able to organize a party of up to 4 characters to run around together, fight together, and interact with each other (e.g. cast Heal/Resistance spells on each other, or trade items).  To create a party, a character must “ask” another character to join them.  This is done by pressing ‘a’ and then selecting or typing in the name of the character that the user wishes to add to the party.  Once a character becomes a member of the party, they can interact with all other characters in the party. 

One can also Ask a character who is dead to join, but the character being asked must have a “raise” spell cast on them already.  Once asked, the player will be prompted to accept the raise or not.  If the raise is accepted and successful, the character will join the party as soon as they are alive. 

One of the major advantages to having a group of characters running around versus a single character is that the player will generally be able to take the group deeper into the dungeon and have a better chance of all characters surviving the trip since they can depend on each other. 

Characters that are oppositely aligned cannot be in the same party together (e.g. a Good character can’t join a party that has an Evil character in it). 

Control is based on the currently “selected” character.  For example, if a player has a party of three characters, the player can select which character they wish to “bring up” or enter commands for by using the mouse to click the portrait of the player (in the Party Window) or by pressing Alt-<character number> (e.g. Alt-1).  Once the character is selected, the interaction with the game is the exact same as if the character was running by themselves. 

Creating a Party 
The way you create a party is by ‘a’sking other existing characters to join the current character that you are running.  In order for other characters to join you, they must be in the same room, or in the city with you, and alive.  Once a party of characters is formed, the program will automatically remember and reload the party when the party leader is loaded again.  A party is only automatically reloaded if the party leader is run from the Main Menu.  Parties are limited to a maximum of 4 characters.  You can remove a party member by asking them to ‘L’eave, or use the options menu presented when you right-click on a party member. 

For a more detailed list of commands in reference to Parties, see the Commands section of this Online Information System. 

The Party Window Section 
This section of the lower Window Pane is the control center for the party, displaying each character’s status, and allowing certain options to be selected. Of course, in Multiplayer mode you can only control your own character, and many of the options given below won’t work there. 
 The Party Window 
 

Party Order 
A player can change the order of the party (and swap character positions) by Dragging and Dropping the character pictures in the Party Window. 

Giving Items & Gold 
You can also give an item to another character by Dragging & Dropping the selected item from the Items Window to the picture of the receiving character in the Party Window. 

Asking a character to Leave 
You can ask a character to leave you party by right-clicking on the desired character and selecting the Leave option or by pressing Alt-l. 

Setting Character Combat Default Options 
You can change the default combat options for a character by right-clicking on any portrait in the party, then clicking on options.  This allows you to define the ‘start combat mode’ for each character during combat.  Options are: None, Fight, Defend, and Buffer.  For example, if you set Character #1’s option to buffer #5, then every time that character enters a room with hostile monsters, they will default to casting/using buffer #5. 
 

Character Interaction 
Any character that is a member of the party can interact (i.e. cast spells on, give to, etc.) with any other character that is a member of the party.  In Multiplayer mode, relative location (in the same room, on the same square, ...) is usually more important than whether or not you’re in a party with the other character. 

If a player wishes to Give items to another character, but doesn’t want to run around in the dungeon with the other character, simply add the other character to the party, give the items, then have the character Leave the party. 

Moving Around 
Walking around and casting movement spells (e.g. Teleport, Ethereal Portal) can be done by any member of the party.  If the party leader hits a teleporter that’s random, all members of the party will probably disappear, and the leader will be alone, returning to single-character play.  Keep in mind that if the Leader of the party casts Teleport and lands in Rock, all members of the party will also land in Rock. 

Combat 
Combat is where the fun starts.  Since it takes place in real time, a player must be quick at the keyboard with switching between characters to select what option they wish carried out for the current round.  If a character has a default option other than “None” set for combat, that option will automatically be executed every round unless it has been interrupted by the player. 

In the dungeon, when the player presses Alt-<character number>, the Dungeon Commands window ‘focus’ is switched to the specified character and the character’s buffer window is updated to show the current character.  Once a character is ‘switched to’, all commands made will be the selected character’s commands for combat.  Below is an example of a combat situation with a party of three. 

Example 
The party walks into a room containing three groups of monsters, which the player realizes are pretty nasty.  Since focus is on the party leader, the player hits Shift-5 to cast a spell from buffer 5.  They then press ‘n’ to move to the next character (i.e. Character 2) and press ‘2’ to select monster group 2 then ‘f’ to engage in fighting.  The user then presses ‘n’ once again to select party member 3 and presses ‘3’ to select monster group 3 and then Shift-6 to use an item that is in (that character’s) buffer 6. 

And now, when the round takes place, character one will cast a spell on monster group 1, character two will attack the 2nd monster group, and character three will use their item (#6) on monster group 3.  After the round is over, the player can then choose their combat options once again. 

Experience 
Experience isn’t distributed any differently for a party than for a single character.  Whoever hits the monster and/or kills the monster will receive the experience – nobody else.  However, the amount of experience that a character earns for hitting/killing a monster (or casting a spell, etc.) will be less for larger parties.  For best experience, run solo! 

Quests 
If one or more members of a group are quested for a specific monster that was just killed by the quested character (or a companion) or another character, all members that had that monster for a quest will receive credit for the kill. 

Messages 
Certain messages will appear when something out of the ordinary happens to a character, or when a character is close to death.  Some examples of messages: 

“Crashland” has been paralyzed!  
“Sork” is now a statue!  
Crashland - “Help!  My hits are 15/250!”  
Thief - “Thanks for the Potion of Fitness, Sork!”  

It is very important for a player to keep an eye on all messages that appear, since they may be of importance. 

Treasure & Traps 
All gold found after combat or from a chest is split evenly between all characters that are still alive.  Any magical items found will be given to one of the party members, selected randomly.  If a character other than the leader opens a chest and triggers a Teleport trap, they will disappear from the party.  If the Leader opens a chest and triggers a Teleport trap, they will disappear and the next character in line will become the Party leader. 

Dying 
When a  member of the party dies, they automatically are unloaded and treated like any other dead character.  If the party leader dies, the character next in line will become the new leader.  If all members of the party die, the last “selected” character will become the main character. 

Summary 
All in all, the game functions for parties just as it does in single-character mode, except that the player has the option of switching between characters and having the characters interact with each other. 

Also, keep in mind that regulating a party of characters takes some time to learn and can be tricky, so be sure to be patient and careful when running around with a group of characters.  It is recommended that players new to this feature run the upper levels to get the feel of controlling multiple characters in combat. 
 
 

 
 
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