Player's Guide to Mines of Titan
It was hard to keep my mind on what Cornellius Wrak, the Controller of Primus,
was chattering about, when my whole life was in ruins.
It was all so unfair--how little things add up. A tiny pebble no bigger
than my thumbnail--a speck from the rings of Saturn!--had blown a hole in
the main fuel tank as my supply ship entered the upper atmosphere of Titan.
Normally, the sealant would have plugged the hole, but the feed line to
the outer hull shuts down during final entry. So there I was, blowing my
fuel reserves inot space. What else could I do but jettison the cargo? Would
they have been happier if I lost the ship and the mine equipment?
But they blamed me fore the loss and forced me to hock my ship to pay for
the equipment. My insurance company said they'll have a claims adjuster
check things out as soon as possible. Probably a year or two. Yeah. Right.
So here I am, stranded on Titan.
"You've worked with use before, Mr. Jetland," Wrak was saying
as he sudied my file on the monitor. "We can always use a person with
your skill in the mines."
"Anything else available?" I asked. I'd become a Nomad roaming
the frozen Titanian surface before I sold my sould to Paramount Minining,
Inc.
"There's always free-lance bounty hunter," Wrak said with a smile,
clasping his fat fingers together over his mound of stomach. "As a
matter of fact, we do have rather an unusual situation here on Titan. We've
lost contact with our newest project, the city of Proscenium. Because of
the gravity of the matter, we Controllers are offering a handsome reward
to the first party who discovers why the comm-links went down. Enough credit
to reclaim your ship from customs. Sound interesting, Mr. Jetland?"
"Seems simple enough," I answered. "I'll do it." I started
to rise from my chair, but Wrak's frown made me hesitate.
"if it were simple, we wouldn't be offering so large a lump of credits,"
he said with a sneer. "You'll need assistance getting to Proscenium...
and more than a little luck. Personally, I doubt if you have the intelligence
or the intestinal fortitude to succeed. Titan is no paradise."
He reached into the drawer of his vast desk and flipped a small pamphlet
at me. "A present, Mr. Jetland," he said. "Our Visitor's
Guide to Titan. My last copy, I'm afraid, and a bit tattered. Welcome to
Titan, Mr. Jetland, and a good hunt to you."
Leaving his office, I wondered if Wrak meant I was to be the hunter... or
the hunted.
The Visitor's Guide mentioned is the file "motvg.html" that is
included with this file.
Introduction
Mines of Titan is a role-playing adventure set in the 22nd century
on Saturn's moon, Titan. In this role-playing game, you create and control
a party of characters exploring the satellite. You develop youor characters
by improving their natural attributes and by adding new skills. Undertaking
special missions during the game allows your party to build up the credits
(the monetary exchange system on Titan) they will need for training and
for purchasing more powerful weapons. To win the game, you must discover
why contact with they city of Proscenium has been cut off. Success depends
upon competence in combat, using your character's skills to their best advantage,
and tracking down the clues to solve the mysteries of Titan.
The sealed envelope in the package contains information you may discover
on your own during play. DO NOT OPEN THE ENVELOPE UNTIL DIRECTED TO DO
SO BY THE GAME!
Characters
You start of the game with Tom Jetland seeking recruits in a bar on Primus,
the first city built on Titan. Not many people will want to join the party
initially, but as your reputation grows, more recruits will become available.
Recruits can be found in barracks, bars, restaurants, and lounges. Examine
their backgrounds, interview them, and inspect their skills and attributes.
A broad combination of skills and attributes is important for a successful
party.
Characters gain experience through combat and successfully completing
assignments. Gaining experience is import for improving skills and attributes.
Also, credits (the medium of exchange on Titan) may be needed to
improve a character. Credits are gained by selling items, gathered from
dead foes. Bounties are listed at Police Stations and gambling occurs in
Casinos.
When a character gains enough experience to raise a skill, you will be prompted
with a message "So-and-so is eager to leanr" when you inspect
the character.
A dead character will remain with the party until dropped off at a police
station or bar, barracks, lounge, or restaurant. You can tranfer items from
a dead character until he or she is dropped off.
Attributes
The characters in your party start off with certain human attributes --
intelligence, strength, agility, and so forth -- at various levels. The
levels of these attributes can be raised in Personal Development Centers
and Universities if a character has sufficient credits and experience.
Attributes Depicted at All Times
Might: A measure of a character's strength, this attribute determines
what weapons he or she can carry. Stronger characters can carry heavier
weapons.
Agility: A determination of accuracy and speed, agility is the most
important attribute since it determines the number of moves a character
receives in a turn of combat as well as the accuracy of ranged combat.
Stamina: How much physical punishment a character can take before
performance is affected depends on his or her stamina. Once stamina is depleted,
a character loses might and agility.
Health: This attribute is the average of a character's agility, might,
and stamina.
These attributes are represented on the screen by horizontal bar scales.
Pay attention to the Health bar at all times. A green bar means the character
is at full potential. If the bar reaches zero, the character is dead. In
Mines of Titan, dead is dead nothing can change this.
Attributes Determined by Inspecting a Character
Wisdom: This attribute reflects perception and intuition Higher widsom
may give a character an edge in different situations.
Education: This is the ability of a character to learn academic skills.
The level of this attribute may limit how much a character can learn in
a field, such as medicine.
Charisma: This attribute indicates not only a character's good looks
but also his or her charm and ability to convince others to do what you
asked. It is very helpful in avoiding unwanted confrontations.
Sex: Male or female. Sex has no effect for game purposes.
Age: The current age of a character. Older characters begin with
more experience than younger ones, but they usually lack the might and stamina.
Skills
Characters you recruit will have different skills at different levels. For
example, a recruit from the police department will have some skill in wearing
battle armor and using handguns. Skills can be added and increased. Some,
such as gambling, are increased through experience alon. Other skills can
be enhanced at various places on Titan (for example, at a Combat Training
Center, University, or Computer Center) if a character has the credits and
is ready to learn.
While a large party is more noticeable and may attract more foes (possibly
more vicious ones), its size also allows you to have "specialist"
-- for example, someone highly adept at medical skills or a highly trained
programmer who can dig deep into the system to discover important information.
A large party of inexperience characters may often prove ineffective and
may also draw unwanted attention.
The following skills can be acquired or improved:
Administration: The ability to persuade people - especially authorities
- often comes in handy.
Arc Gun: This combat skill is used with weapons that spray chemicals
or chemical fires in controlled arcs.
Automatic Weapons: This combat skill is used with automatic weapons.
Battle Armor: A character must be trained in a variety of ways to
use servo-assisted battle armor.
Blade: This combat skill is used in hand-to-hand combat with all
types of blades, from switchblades to short swords.
Cudgel: This combat skill is used in hand-to-hand combat with handheld
weapons, such as bats, lead pipes, and rubber hoses.
Gambling: The better a character's gambling skill, the more he or
she knows about the rules and odds of the game.
Golum: Golum armor is used mostly by elite police forces and requires
special training. Each suit is specifically modeled and tuned for its user.
Handgun: This combat skill determines how well a character can load,
aim, and fire all types of hadguns. The better the skill, the more powerful
the handgun a character can carry.
Medical: With all the dangers on Titan, it's wise to have at least
one character proficient in this skill. A higher skill level allows a character
to purchase advanced healing items, which are particularly useful when no
hospital is nearby.
Melee: This combat skill is used in hand-to-hand combat with fists.
Mining: Because Titan is a mining colony, most inhabitants have some
skill in this area. Better miners may detect unsafe passages in mines and
may be able to assist in cave-ins.
Programming: The better a character's computer programming skills,
the more he knows of computer systems and how they work - and how to hack
more deeply into the system.
Rifle: This combat skill is used with all types of rifles. The better
the skill, the more powerful the rifle a character can use.
Street: A character's street-wise skill is often useful in talking
thugs out of combat.
Throwing: Throwing items (knives, grenades, and so forth) and projectile
weapons (bows, grenade launchers, and so forth) are covered by this skill.
Items
While attributes and skills reflect a character's capabilities, items
are equally important to a party. Each character can carry up to nine different
kinds of items. Often a characters can carry more than one of an item type.
For example, a character may be able to carry 10 grenades as one item and
the also carry eight other kinds of things. Carried items are listed on
each character's summary.
Your party can also possess object and information in addition to the items
they carry. Such objects can be examined by using the Preferences menu.
Weapons can be bought and sold at Munitions Stores, and more powerful arms
can be acquired as combat skills are raised. Vac-suits (necessary for exploring
the surface) and armor are available at Armories. Repair Shops will pawn
any times your characters have collected and are also excellent sources
of information and gossip.
Combat
You select the level of complexity for combat. You can let the computer
run the whole show or you can control each character's movement and target
selection (this is know as tactical combat). When first playing the game,
you may wish to let the computer run several combats so you can study what
is involved. Eventually, you will want to take control because, even though
the computer plays out battles to the best of its abilities, the tactics
it selects may be quite different from the ones you would select in a given
situation.
Characters and their opponents act simultaneously, giving combat a life-like
feel. If the computer is controlling the combat and you don't like the way
it runs your characters, press the spacebar. Control of the combat will
revert to you on the next turn.
Please note: certain parts of the player's guide are omitted because of
pictures referred to in the original player's guide. I assume that any experienced
gameplayer would learn the omitted parts easily.