Slaves to Armok: God of Blood(also known as STA or just “Armok”)is a revolutionary project. It shares some of the typical virtues of roguelike, like randomness and the generally fantastic setting, but this is where the similarities end. The “storyline” is completely different from other games of it’s kind: mainly because there is really no fixed storyline. You could even say it’s the ultimate experiment in random roleplaying simulation!

In this game, you don’t have to explore the ‘Ancient Domains of Mystery’, find the ‘Amulet of Yendor’ or ‘Defeat Melklor, Lord of Darkness’. In fact, the only sure thing in any of the infiinite universes that the game can generate and in which the player and many other creatures, monsters and deities are born, live and die is that they are created by ARMOK.. But who or what is Armok? ARMOK is the God of Blood…The Supreme God, he gives name to the game, his powers are literally endless…He creates and destroys whole Universes just for pleasure and fun. He enjoys watching death, destruction and, of course, blood run on his Universe…In an Universe, he can have billions of worshippers, while in another his existence might be unknown...but HE EXISTS. This cannot be denied, and allows to play almost any type universe…from a standard fantasy-type world to a “primitive”, stone age world…and, why not a “future world” with star travel? In fact, when Armok creates an Universe, he likes putting more than one planet in it!

Remember…Armok can control and destroy all other creatures, including the other, ”lesser” gods, but he usually enjoys watching civilizations grew, because he hopes that one day these civilizations will fight each other, and thus generate conflict and slaughter!

But the player isn’t Armok! The player is the player, but, unlike many other games, non-player controlled creatures aren’t different from the player character, in the sense that they all have stats, skills and characteristics that define them as individual people/animals/monstrous and horrible abominations of nature.

The combat system is incredible….it’s realistic, almost scientific and, thanks to the 3d graphics, one can enjoy seeing his enemies mutilated and beheaded..

And…there is absolute freedom! The player is not forced to follow a plot like in many other games, and the other creatures will be able to make choices and form entities, a general term which means something like a “clan” or “group.

At the same time, tough, the player character can make permanent alternations to the game universe. Even after his death, these alterations will still be there, and subsequent characters in the same universe will be able to see them.

The game also allows a great degree of freedom for creating a completely Custom universe: you can create completely new creatures, materials and spells or alter the ‘stock’ ones! You can then test and play them, plus if you think they are at least somewhat decent you can share them with other fellow players(there a page of the website where you can download player-made creatures like Centaurs and Hydras, for examples.)

This manual will attempt to teach you how to play the game and use the editors.

The great programmer behind all this is the genial Tarn Adams. In the forum, he is known to all as “ToadyOne”, or “Toady” as we affectionately call him.

We should thank him for all that he has done and is doing.

But, even if ToadyOne was the one who programmed the game, it must be said that many people helped and continue to help with the game, for example with their ideas. For example, I, Zonk was the one who suggested Survivor mode, and got it implemented! So, if you want to see Slaves to Armok improve ,go to www.bay12games.com, register in the forum and post your ideas…even if they look stupid!

And here begins the true manual.

Universes

Creating an Universe

Before creating a character to play, one needs to create an Universe. To do this, on the first game screen, click on

“Start a New Game” and then on “Create a New Universe” .You will be prompted to choose the universe name.

You can also choose the “details”, like what races you will be using in this universe.

Loading an Universe

You can also choose to load an old universe. Just use the “Load an old universe” option. If in the universe there is an active character, you will play it.

Character Creation

As of version 0.04.51, actual character customization is in. After selecting your race and caste or gender(some races have no castes or genders, and are instead

'beings'), you can customize the character you are creating.

Despite this possibility for customization, at the moment, character creation is quite crude. You get a list of available races. Click on the one you would like to play. Then you can choose something….most races, like humans, have sexes. You can click on “Female” or “Male” to see how a character of that race and sex would look. Other races, instead have castes, for example giant ants. If you click on the various castes, you will see how they look. Don’t forget that some races are just “beings”…they have no sexes or castes.

Choosing:

But, before you choose, you should know something. Normally, there are “bipeds” and “quadruped” creatures. You can easily recognize the bipeds by the quadrupeds by looking at the images. Now, there is a BIG difference between bipeds and quadrupeds…

Bipeds are, for example, human. They can use their hands…Not only they can pick items, but also to apply pressure on wounds or other things.

Quadrupeds are, for example, animal. They can’t pick items or apply pressure to wounds…but they usually have a stronger bite.

At the moment, most creatures fall in these two categories…But there are two exceptions…giant ants and centaurs(see the Appendix)

When you have chosen your race and sex/caste, you can click on “Continue”.

But, actually, it isn’t important, so the best thing would be not to loose time and just click on “Accept”.

Now, the last part…you must simply choose a name! After you have typed it, you can begin…if you don’t enter a name, your character shall be known as “The Nameless”.

Looking Around

By the way, remember that these icons will change a bit in appearance after you select them.

Rotate Mode

By pressing “1”or clicking on the icon you can enter “rotate mode” .In this mode, one can rotate the view around the character by holding the right mouse button and moving the mouse.

Look Mode

By pressing “3”or clicking on the icon, you can enter in look mode. In look mode left-mouse click on the creature you want to look. OR click two times in the look mode button to see the list of near creatures.

Status

You can see your status by pressing “S” or clicking on the icon. Here you can access to a lot of info:

(A)ttributes and Abilities

(S)kills

(H)ealth

(W)ounds

(D)escription

Notice the randomly-generated, ugly background. Currently it has absolutely no game effect.

Attributes

Attributes are just what their name says…the attributes of the character…his basic “stats” or “characteristics”

They are divided in two categories: Physical and Mental.

It is VERY important to say that, unlike many other RPGs, you CAN increase your attributes without drinking silly potions or completing epic quests. You just train them, like you would in real life.

For example fighting will train Strength, Dexterity and Endurance. If you just walk around doing nothing ,and get tired that will gradually increase your Endurance. Of course this is not an instantaneous process, but it’s still a reliable way to make your character more powerful..

Physical Attributes

Strength: Strength, at the moment, is probably the most important attribute. It is used for lifting and fighting.

A VERY IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER: STRENGTH IS RELATIVE TO SIZE!

So a giant with Strength 90 will be a lot stronger than a human with Strength 150…But weaker than the average, ”run-of-the-mill” giant with a Strength of 100.

Strength is trained by hitting things.

Dexterity: Dexterity affects your chance to hit, dodge and block.

Dexterity is trained by hitting things and dodging blows.

Endurance: Endurance is useful. With a high endurance, you get tired less often.

Endurance is trained by being wounded and expending energy.

Mass: The mass of your character, what, in everyday life, we usually call ‘weight’

Relative Size to the Average Member of your species: Just what the name says. 100% means your character is really “completely average”. Something below 75% means your character is probably a runt or something…

Character customization allows(for a male Human, at least)values ranging from 50%(36 kgs/78 pounds, 121 centimeters/47 inches/about 4 feet) to 200%(140 kgs/315 pounds, 306 cms/120 inches/10 feet!). You can thus play Midgets and Giants without creating them in the editor..

Mental Attributes

At the moment, all mental attributes except Willpower are useless.

Rationality

Focus

Willpower: A high willpower means a lower chance of passing out and a better ability to resist pain.

Creativity

Intuition

Patience

Memory

Skills

Skills are very important. They tell you what you can do…And how well you can do them!

Weapon Skills

Blades

Swords

[Specific Weapon]

[Unique Weapon]

Knives

[Specific Weapon]

[Unique Weapon]

Axes

Axe

[Specific Weapon]

[Unique Weapon]

Maces

Hand Maces

[Specific Weapon]

[Unique Weapon]

Weapon skills are used and trained when you handle weapons.

Also, there is a “specific weapon” and a “unique weapon” skill.

A “specific weapon” is the smallest category of weapons that the game can recognize…For example, the skill “Long Sword” is a skill for a specific weapon.

A “unique weapon” is just that…Since this is a very detailed game, there is no weapon completely equal to another. Two long swords might have the same weight, material and size, but be different in balance and other little things…For example, ”Long Sword #53”is a “unique weapon” skill. The number #53 just used by the game, but it has little or no meaning in actual playing, other than to differentiate two otherwise identical items.

Unarmed Combat Skills

Bumping

Butting

Biting

Elbowing

Kneeing

Punching

Kicking

These skills, as their name says, are used in combat without weapons.

Combat Styles

At the moment, combat styles are rea senseless and random…so trying to describe them is useless and almost impossible.

Other Combat Skills

Guarding

Dodging

Feinting

Disarming

While Guarding and Dodging are, as their name implies, very useful in defense, Feinting and Disarming are, at the moment, COMPLETELY USELESS.

Body Familiarity Skills

[Form]

[Motif]

[Race]

[Sex/Caste]

[Unique Creature]

Body familiarity skills are useful in almost every action, but especially fighting.

Movement

Moving is easy. You just click with the mouse where you want to go, or use your keyboard’s arrows.

Regions, Areas, Sites

Turn Mode / Real time

You can switch between these by pressing “R” or clicking on the z / icon in the bottom-right part of the screen.

Health and Energy

In this game there are no “Hitpoints”… it’s FAR more realistic!

Energy

Your energy is represented in a bar like this:

Wounds

To check your wounds, go in your Status and press W.

Different types of damages

Bleeding

How to heal from wounds/stop bleeding

Press “G”, select a grasp, click on your characters name in the left part of the screen and then choose what wound you want to stop bleeding.

How to regain energy

You can go in real time mode…Or you can make some time pass by pressing some keys:

Key: Time:

Z 8 hours

, 10 minutes

. 1 second

Inventory and Manipulation

"What’s a city without items?"

-Demon

You can access the inventory by pressing “I” or clicking on the icon

Picking up items or dropping them

Grasps

You can set your grasp to “crushing” to turn some items into dust.

Supporting

Combat

"We could create a race of people who hate everyone and right from the beginning run around and slaughter each other.."

-Alanor

How to attack

While in combat mode, click on an enemy. It’s easy, really.

Combat Mode

By pressing “2” or clicking on the icon you can enter combat mode.

Target Mode

By pressing “4” or clicking on the By pressing 2 or clicking on the icon you can enter target mode.

Setting up the Combat Options

Strikers, Skill and Force

Style

Frequency

Attacks

Options

General Options

Windowed/Full Screen Mode

Skill Advancement

Verbosity

Highlighting Creatures and Items

Zonk’s Survivor Mode

When this option is on, you cannot die.

Graphical Options

Using the Editors

Material Editor

State Name: Use default

State Type: Solid, Liquid, Gas or Energy

Durability: How well does this material resist damage? In-game, this affects how much weapons and armor get worn. Nickel-iron has a Durability of 6, while dirt has 0.

Hardness: Probably affects the damage caused when this material meets other. Diamond has Hardness 10.

Density: This is used in calculating the mass of objects made from that material.

Maximum Edge: If this material is used to make a blade, how well will that blade retain an edge?

Rigidity: Only materials with a Rigidity 10 can be used in weapons.

Malleability:

Creature Editor

(variables for stats)

Modifier: This modifier is applied to a base value of 100. It is important to note that Strength is relative to mass – a race of Giants with a Strength of 100

would still be much stronger than humans.

Value Variability: How much (positively and negatively)this attribute varies between individuals of the same species? Human males have a Strength mod of +5 and a Value Variability of 60, so we can guess that human strength ranges are from 45 to 165.

Potential: How many points can this stat be trained above the starting value(probably the individual’s starting value).

Potential Variability: This is to the Potential what Value Variability is to the stat base value.

Difficulty: How hard is this stat to increase by training it?

Difficulty Variability: Obvious.

Rust Speed:

Rust Speed Variability:

Demote Speed:

Demote Speed Variability:

(Health Data)

Consciousness: None, Localized or Centralized. Localized might, for example, be used to create a Troll-like being whose limbs and body parts can act individually after being severed. Such a creature would never go unconscious. Centralized means just that, the consciousness is found in a organ(the brain in humans)and damage to this organ can lead to severe consequences.

Respiration: None, By Organ, Through Membrane. By Organ, for humans, means using the lungs to breath. Through Membrane means that the creature breathes by osmosis, like Onsects.

Has Circulatory Material: Does this creature have some kind of ‘blood’ or ‘ichor?

Circulation: None, Closed System, Open system.

Body Temp: The default body temperature for members of that species.

FAQ

Who is Armok?

What is this game official site?

Will this game ALWAYS be free?

I have got a fantastic, mega, super-cool idea for this game…what should I do?

Appendix

Species Description

Stock races:

Humans: Humans…Homo sapiens sapiens(well…some are more “sapiens” than others)…That’s US! The average race.Personally, I’m human. And you?

Leaf Tailed Gecko Man: These creatures aren’t too strong…to be honest , they are similar to humans, except for being reptiles…

Kobolds: Kobolds are (may Kurtulmak, mighty god of Kobolds, forgive my honesty…) weak, hunched, creatures…

Goblins: Goblins are green or gray…but they are similar to kobolds in strength and size.

Naked Mole Dogs: A naked mole dog is a quadruped creature that can, with some luck, take down an human.

Titans: Titans are nothing more than big humans…and I mean VERY BIG…

Giant Ants: Giant ants are a caste-based insect race, with six legs, grey blood and powerful mandibles

Dragons: Well…actually dragons can’t breath fire. They are just big lizards…with a dangerous bite…and even more dangerous claws.

Flesh Balls: Flesh balls are immortal. But they can’t move normally (but they can use the Travel Mode) or attack. Also, their blood is a random color. They aren’t very exciting to play.

Face Horror: Face Horrors are a very tough and strange race…and they can attack using their steel spikes.

Shadow Demon: They start burning in sunlight.