INSTRUCTIONS

for using the
amazingly useful, 
“why didn’t I think of that”,
Blades of Exile scenario designer’s
supplemental tool, the

High Level Party Maker

Text (C) 1998 by Tarl Roger Kudrick.
This manual must be kept with, and distributed with, 
the UNMODIFIED VERSION OF the High Level Party Maker scenario.
Modified version don’t require this text.
This text may not be changed in any way.

SO WHAT’ S THIS ALL ABOUT?

	Ever wondered how you can make a high level scenario for Jeff Vogel’s “Blades of Exile” game if you’re never sure what level characters your players will have? Oh, sure, you could tell your players to use the Character Editor, but come on. It’s not easy to figure out exactly how many hit points, weapons, and such a character of any particular level should have. And a FEW people out there might take a request to use the editor as a license to cheat wildly. 

	Wouldn’t you rather have some real say in what kind of party goes through your custom adventure? They can’t ALL be for beginning parties, you know...

	Enter the High Level Party Maker (HLPM). The HLPM is a tiny, one-dungeon, three-rooms-and-one-hallway scenario with a whole lot of special encounters that give the characters gold, experience points, weapons, spells...

HOW MANY SPECIALS? HOW MUCH GOLD, XP, AND SUCH?

	That’s entirely up to you! See, the HLPM is TOTALLY customizable. Anyone with even a little experience with the Scenario Editor will be able to alter the HLPM to fit the needs of any custom scenario.

	The basic version of the HLPM comes with the features listed below. I emphasize again that, using the scenario editor, you can alter any of these features any way you want. Since it’s easier to get rid of things when making scenarios than it is to add them, I’ve put in more special encounters and the like than you may need. So if there are too many special encounters for your needs, erase some.

	The basic version of the HLPM comes with:
	
	1) a “special” that gives 25,000 gold (amount modifiable by you, of course)
	2) Twenty one-use-only “specials” that give roughly 140 experience points to each member of the party (more on what “roughly” means in a moment) 
	3) A trainer
	4) Eight salespeople: an armorer, a weaponsmith, three “miscellaneous” sellers, a priest for priest spells, a wizard for wizard spells, and a witch for alchemy, and
	5) A way out that calls an “end of scenario” special node, takes away all excess gold from the party, and then gives them the amount YOU want them to start with (currently set at 5,000).

	Players going through the scenario should take only a few minutes in turning a party of first-level characters into a party that is adequately set up for your scenario. And it shouldn’t take you much more than fifteen minutes or so to customize the HLPM to fit any scenario of any level you want. (Very high level scenarios may take a bit more work--see below.)

WHAT DO YOU MEAN, “ROUGHLY” 140 EXPERIENCE POINTS?

	I don’t like this either.
	The “Blades of Exile” game, apparently, has severe limits on just how many experience points can be given out with one “affect experience” special node. The limit seems to start at 150 x.p., and then decrease as characters get more powerful. This limitation is terribly unfortunate, for it means that making characters gain, say, 3,000 x.p. really fast (to get them to 25th-30th level right away) isn’t easy. You will need a LOT of “affect experience” special nodes to get characters from 1st level to 30th. 
	I was greatly disturbed by this finding. I was personally hoping that, much like with gold, where one special encounter can give the party a ton of gold, I could set up one special encounter to give the party a ton of experience. Currently, the game doesn’t work that way--hence the need for 20 one-shot nodes. 
	Of course, if you only want your scenario to be for medium-level characters, that’s fine. And if 20 is too many nodes, just remove some with the “erase special” button on the terrain editor. If 20 is too few, you’re in for some work. 

WHY ARE THERE THREE “MISCELLANEOUS” SALESPEOPLE?

	Because when you give a seller a list of items for sale, the items have to be an unbroken string from the list of items in the Blades of Exile editor. (Exception: random item sellers, whose lists of random items could be cleverly manipulated so that all four lists show the exact same items. That’s how some people sell torches AND lockpicks AND gems, even though those items are not adjacent in the game’s item list.)

HOW DO I BUNDLE THE HLPM WITH MY CUSTOM SCENARIO?

	First, download the HLPM. Then make a COPY of it and mess with that. You may name this copy anything you want, but remember that it has to be in the DOS-style 8.3 filename format, with “.exs” as the suffix, or Blades of Exile won’t recognize it. 
	I would rename this new, customized copy to fit the name of the scenario you’re using it with. For instance, I’m working on a scenario for 10th-level characters called “Islands of the Wheel”, and I’m going to rename “hlpm.exs” into “islahlpm.exs” and give the new file the same custom icon as my custom scenario’s going to have, just for good measure. That way if this thing catches on, people won’t have eight different versions of the HLPM on their drive and getting all of them confused with one another. 
	When you put your custom scenario on the Net, include the customized HLPM in the same folder. Then leave instructions to run a brand-new first-level party through your custom HLPM to get them ready for your custom scenario. 
	Don’t worry about the players failing to use the HLPM right. Instructions appear during the use of the HLPM. Try it, it’s fun. 

IF I USE THE HLPM FOR MY CUSTOM SCENARIO, DO I HAVE TO GIVE YOU CREDIT?

	Silly person! I’ve already taken care of that. My name is on the HLPM scenario details text. So your conscience is clear.

ANYTHING ELSE I NEED TO KNOW?

	Of course! Oh, you mean about the High Level Party Maker. Well, probably not. But if there is, then write me at 

	tarl@access.digex.net

	and I’ll help you out. 

	It sounds a lot weirder and more difficult than it really is. Download it (from the custom scenario section of www.spidweb.com, Jeff Vogel’s “Spiderweb Software” site) and try it. Or tell me you want a copy and I’ll e-mail you one. I’ll also see if I can’t put it on my own FTP site. Really, use the HLPM with a first-level party of your own and you’ll see how simple it all is. Your players will thank you for it. I know I will!

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Release date for Version 1.0.0: January 13, 1998

No known bugs.