In order to register mages to take part in battles on Firetop Mountain, you must sign on as a User. This is achieved by sending an e-mail to the server with the following details:
It must go
To: fm@gamerz.net
with
Subject: FM Orders
and with the command
NewUser UserName Password
in the body. "UserName" is the name that you want to be known by on the server, and "Password" is the password you will use to identify valid orders in the future.
For example:
NewUser Fred Freddy
You use this User name and password with all subsequent orders you send to the server. Once you have a reply from the server acknowledging your user name, you can register one or more mages, by sending in a registration command. For example:
User Fred Freddy Register MerlynOnce you have registered your Mage, you will receive a list of all the living mages and their scores, and you can proceed to challenge one or more of them to a duel!
When you register (and at any other time you specify) you receive a
copy of the latest scores and status of all the Wizards of Firetop
Mountain. You can pick one or more of these who are not currently
engaged in battle and issue a challenge using the
NEWGAME order. The
controllers of the wizards that you challenge will receive an e-mail
notifying them of the challenge. When they accept, you will receive
an e-mail telling you that the battle is ready to commence.
Alternatively, you can issue the
CHALLENGES order and you
will receive a list of 'Open' challenges. You can join in one of these
games if you like, by using the
ACCEPT command.
The battle then takes place at a pace set by the players. Each round,
each player may have to submit orders. The server waits until all the
required orders are received, then processes the round and mails out
the results.
At the end of these rules you will find a list of the commands that
the server accepts, including
REGISTER,
NEWGAME,
CHALLENGES and
ACCEPT. You can try these
commands out before even proceeding with the rest of the rules, if you
like! There is commentary on an example game
for you to look at.
On average, people playing games by e-mail tend to like to have a few
turns per day. Some like a lot more, and some are a little slower. If
you want to play at a particular speed, you should check with your
opponent(s) about how fast they will be able to play before accepting
a challenge. Typically the challenger will issue a comment with the
challenge indicating how fast the game is expected to proceed.
Really slow games will not be allowed to drag on forever. Every so
often (about twice a week) the janitor runs a program (called the
"Auto Nagger") which checks to see that all the games are
progressing. If a player has not submitted orders for a week, the
server will send that player a 'reminder' notice. That player will
continue to get reminder notices until either orders are submitted or
two weeks have passed. Once three weeks has passed without a player
submitting orders, the server will close the game, declaring the
opponent to be the winner and killing off the timed-out mage.
If you have to go away for some time in the middle of a game, you can
contact the game administrator and be put on a list of people 'on
vacation'. These people are excused from being slow.
Once a challenge has been issued and accepted, each turn the players
send in to the server the directions for their wizards and the
monsters under their wizard's control. After orders for the players
have been received, the server deals with them as if the actions
specified therein occur simultaneously. Certain spells may alter
these circumstances. For example, you don't get to see all of your
opponent's moves if their wizard is invisible.
Each turn, a player's wizard can either gesture with their hands to
weave part of a spell, stab with their knife, or do nothing. They use
both hands and each hand can act independently or in concord with the
other.
A monster will obey its master's commands
exactly. A monster may change controller as a result of enchantment.
From that point on the monster's attacks are directed by the new
master. A monster may make a single attack each turn against a target
chosen by its master or (as a result of a spell) it may spend the
turn doing nothing. A monster will attack on the turn in which it
is summoned.
Monsters are untrained, unintelligent creatures and can neither
gesture nor cast spells. Players personally acquainted with monsters
who wish to vouch for their ability to cast spells are requested to
keep quiet.
Monsters are created by
SUMMON spells. Monsters
usually have a "controller" who can direct who they will
attack. The control of a monster can change hands if a Charm Monster
spell is cast on the monster.
All spells have a target, and
SUMMON spells are no
different.
The target of a SUMMON
spell determines who the controller of the monster will be.
Read that last sentence again. It is very important, and not
what everyone expects!
If the target is a Wizard, that Wizard will become the controller. If
the target is a monster, then that monster's controller will be the
controller of the new monster.
The initial target of the monster's attacks will be the opponent of
its controller specified for the
SUMMON spell. The
TARGET command can be used to
change the target of the monster.
CHALLENGING YOUR OPPONENT TO A BATTLE
Slow Games
THE TURN
MONSTERS