But this is not the story of the mages, nor of the demons. This is of those who move between the City and the Sand, trading wounds for riches in the lonely places, treasure for magic in the light. Forgotten of history, their names are written only on the wind that blows Between.
Each player controls a small group of characters in an open-ended
fantasy
web game designed to encourage specialisation and co-operation rather
than
solitary play. Starting with nothing and living forever, characters
pursue
their own goals, including wealth, magical power in several areas,
knowledge
and diplomacy.
The board is infinite, in the sense that locations are created as
players
explore them, and new dimensions will be added during play. The initial
locations form a square grid of squares with the City inside the square
at 0,0 and extend into the desert for at least two billion locations in
each direction. Characters can move to adjacent locations simply by
walking,
and can jump between more distant locations using teleportals and
suitable
spells. Each location contains one site suitable for building, with a
size
varying from zero to twenty units of land.
Gems are held by demons and spiders in the Desert and bought by mages in the City: the basic economy for players depends on acquiring gems from monsters and selling them to mages.
There are ten different types of standard gems, such as diamonds,
rubies
and emeralds. Mages only buys gems in the largest batches available, so
players benefit from trading to expand their larger gem stockpiles and
liquidate their smaller stocks.
There are two kinds of monster, demons and spiders: each location can contain one or none of each. Demons appear at random and do not move or change, their strength and gem treasure increases with distance from the city.
Spiders fill the unexplored part of the world, and spread by
spawning
into adjacent locations which lack a spider. Spiders of strength up to
sixty grow with a 2% chance per turn by a random amount up to doubling.
Spiders of strength greater than sixty do not grow but spawn a new
spider
of random strength one to ten into any adjacent location without a
spider.
Each spider has a single gem as treasure/
The non-player market is in the City, gems cannot be sold to the mages and spells cannot be bought from them anywhere else, or at any time other than when a turn runs. (Characters can trade with each other anywhere and any time they meet of course)
The non-player mages buy gems at random intervals, with each type of gem only bought on turns with a fixed lowest digit, e.g. 0 for diamonds and 1 for rubies. Characters may set a limit price for each type of gem, being the least they will accept from the mages for that type of gem. The default limit is zero, meaning sell at any price.
Gems are only bought from characters who are willing to sell at the mages' price, and of those only from the one character who has the most of that type of gem. The price in gold per gem is fixed in advance, selling is automatic as long as the price is at least as high as the character's limit price.
In current testing the prices and buying turns are revealed in advance, eventually this information will be harder to obtain.
The market also sells magic for gold, in the form of scrolls which can be used to learn any spell, and keybirds which can be used to attract bats for spell casting.
Scrolls and keybirds are sold to characters each turn up to the
limit
that they wish to buy and can afford. The price is fixed at one hundred
gold: the character's buy offer is used only to decide whether they buy
at all (by offering to pay one hundred or more, offers of ninety nine or
less get nothing from the mages).
Characters may buy and sell gems and other items with each other at any time that they are in the same location. Trade is always between two characters, one active and one passive.
The passive trader must already have an offer outstanding and need not be online. The active trader chooses to accept the offer and the number of items requested is transferred immediately (up to the limit of each side having the gold or item needed).
An offer consists of up to four parts: buy/sell, item, amount and price. Amount can be left out, meaning trade any amount.
Buy/sell is whether the character making the offer is going to
buy or
sell.
Item is scroll, keybird, bat or one type of gem.
Amount is the number of items to trade (one at a time).
Price is the amount of gold per single item.
Walking to an adjacent square uses energy (measured as percentage of fully-rested), according to the terrain type and to how well the character knows the way. The basic cost of entry to a square is fixed, and the penalty for not knowing the way is initially the same as this basic cost. Each time a character enters a location the penalty is reduced by one, until it reaches zero. This has no effect on the cost of entry for other characters.
The basic cost for most locations is 8-12, but the City's surrounding location (0,0)'s cost is only 6%.
Walking is possible only when the character has enough energy before the move.
Entering a location which includes spider webs risks being tangled in the webs. A tangled character cannot do anything which uses energy except break free of the webbing, which halves the webbing in the location and costs 10% energy. A non-tangled character may voluntarily clear half the webbing for a cost of 5%.
Movement is easier in some ways for characters riding spiders. The basic cost of entering a location is reduced by three for riders, the penalty for entering unexplored locations is reduced by 1, and there is no risk of becoming tangled in webs. (These effects do not apply to inner locations costing only 1% to enter.)
However, riding a spider into a location which already contains a
wild
spider (not another being ridden) causes the two spiders to fight to the
death. The result is random with chances of winning proportional to each
spider's strength. If the ridden spider wins, its strength increases by
one permanently.
Each turn that a character spends in the same location as a wild spider there is a chance (the spider's strength divided by 1000) that the spider will attack the character. Combat does not cause injury in this version but forces the character to use up energy avoiding the spider. This cost is unavoidable, so a character's energy level can become negative as a result.
If the character is free of webs the cost is 5%, if they're in webs the cost is 15% and they become free at the same time. The attack then includes a risk of being caught (or re-caught) in webs as if entering the location.
A character riding a spider or inside a castle or the city is never ambushed.
Spiders attack castles with a chance of their strength divided by
10000
each turn, destroying one tower (or the castle itself if it has no extra
towers).
Each location contains one site suitable for building, starting with from zero to twenty units of vacant space. Building costs energy and new buildings need vacant space. A building is shown as a set of descriptions of ascending levels, each in brackets. Currently only ground level building is possible.
Three types of building are currently available: castles, stone
circles
and cairns. A single level may contain only one castle and/or only one
stone circle, and as many cairns as will fit into the space. Once a
castle
is built it may be strengthened by building extra towers, and similarly
a stone circle can be enhanced by adding extra standing stones. Castles
and stone circles are shown as castle=n and circle=n where n is the
current
strength, starting at one and increasing with each tower or standing
stone
added. Building costs in energy and vacant land are:
| Building Type | Energy Cost | Vacant Land Cost |
| Cairn | 5 | 1 |
| Castle | 75 | 4 |
| Tower (needs castle) | 50 | 0 |
| Stone Circle | 50 | 3 |
| Standing Stone (needs circle) | 25 | 0 |
Any type of building can be razed for 5% energy, freeing its original
vacant land if it used any.
Cairns: Unlike other buildings, cairns are permanently owned by their builder, and give a benefit only to that character. The effect is to reduce the unexplored location penalty of the location for the owning character by one. A level may contain as many cairns as will fit into the available land.
Castles: All the buildings on a level are protected by the level's castle if it has one - entry to the level is only by entry to the castle. A castle has one entrance for the basic build, plus one for each additional tower (in the castle=n notation, the castle has n entrances). All the entrances are traps except one, trying to enter a castle by a trapped entrance damages a character and leaves them still outside (not implemented in current testing). The safe entrance is determined by the castle's "key", which can be set by any character inside the castle. A level may have only one castle, but it may include any number of extra towers.
Stone Circles: Teleportation is possible between stone
circles,
with suitable spells and preparation. The power and flexibility of a
circle
as a teleport gate is determined by the number of standing stones it
contains,
including one for the basic build plus one for each additional stone (in
the circle=n notation, it's n).
Characters begin knowing all the spells they can learn with a quarter of their initial aura, to the highest level they can learn with that amount of aura. For the awkward case of 6 aura, characters have arithmancy and healing to level 2, with scrying and teleport to level 1.
The player also chooses a religion at startup, being one of the ten gem types. This is the type of gem all that player's characters need to increase their aura: increasing aura by one point costs as many gems as the square of the new aura level.
Character's actions normally apply directly to the character, but a "target" of any other character in the same location can be selected for certain actions. These include gifts of gold or items from inventory, and healing or teleport spell casting.
Magic consists of using known spells. Spells are sold in the City's market for gold and come in single-use scroll form. A character can carry scrolls, trade them to other players, or use them to learn the spells on them. Learning a spell destroys its scroll.
Magic is divided into categories explained further below: arithmancy (combat against demons), teleportation (use of teleportals for rapid movement), healing (removing curses) scrying (observing conditions in other locations) and duelling (for combat with other characters)..
A character's total magical power is measured as their aura, initially 4-12 and increased by use of gems of the character's religion. Aura is always allocated to one of the magical categories or to reserve. Switching a point of aura to or from reserve cost 5 energy, switching directly between non-reserver categories costs 10 energy.
Generally, a character needs sufficient aura allocated to a magic category in order to cast a spell in that category. Specifically, arithmancy and healing spells need allocations as big as their numbers, teleport needs allocation as big as the distance being jumped and scrying needs allocation as big as the size of the eye being deployed.
Each spell cast costs one magic bat. Bats can be caught for 25 energy anywhere, or attracted to a location by releasing a keybird. The keybird is replaced by 15 wild bats, which can't be caught with energy actions but will freely join characters. Each turn there is a 20% chance of each character in the location gaining a free bat and a 20% chance of one wild bat returning to hyperspace.
In arithmancy, all usable spells are combined to attack a single
target
for the cost of one bat. In healing and teleporting each individual
spell
cast costs a separate bat.
The strength of a monster is defined by a number, being the curse a character takes to defeat it and take its treasure. This number can be reduced by characters who know arithmantic spells which are its factors. A spell is a factor of the strength number if there is no remainder when the strength is divided by the spell. For example, a monster strength 42 can be reduced to 21 by the 2 spell, or to 14 by the 3 spell, or to 6 by the 7 spell, but the 5 spell has no effect on it.
All relevant spells are used in combination, so knowledge of 2, 3 and 7 reduce a strength 42 monster to strength 1 for the cost of a single bat.
Spells can be learned any number of times, increasing the level known each time, and dividing strength again where possible. For example, strength 54 can be reduced to 18 by a single level of spell 3, or to 6 by 3 at the second level, or to 2 by 3 at the third level.
Monsters may lurk in lairs (demons), with potentially large
treasures
and high strengths, and cost 5 energy to defeat, or may wander (spiders)
with a single gem for treasure and relatively low strengths, costing 20
energy to defeat. Spiders may also be captured, costing 50 energy, and
can then be ridden for faster and safer movement. In all cases the
attacking
character takes a curse equal to the monster's strength.
A character's mastery of teleportation (their "level") is the minimum of the number of times they have learned the teleport spell from a scroll and the amount of aura they have allocated to teleporting. At level zero a character has no interaction with teleportation. At level one a character can detect and close teleportals when in a stone circle with one, but cannot use or create them. At level two and above a character can open and use teleportals.
Teleportals form networks of one or more, allowing movement within them. Each character may create a single network for each number from two upwards, and this network can contain only as many teleportals as its number. A single stone circle may be connected to at most one network at a time, and every open teleportal is part of a network.
A character can open a new teleportal to any network up to their level which does not already have the maximum open teleportals allowed. The teleportal is marked with the character as creator and the network number chosen. This association with the opening character does not prevent other characters using the teleportal, but does define which of the networks at each nunber the teleportal is part of.
When a stone circle already contains a teleportal, any character of level one or above can close the teleportal. The stone circle can then have a new teleportal opened in it in the usual way.
A teleportal can be used by a character with level at least as high as the number of the teleportal's network to move instantly to any other teleportal on the same network within distance up to the network's number. This "jump" is on the movement menu and costs one bat.
A character who can teleport can also teleport another character in the same location by setting them as their "target" character.
A character defeats a monster by accepting a curse which is its strength expressed as a binary number, eg 47 is 101111. Curses are added to the character's existing curses by appending them at the end, there's no limit to how long a string of curses a character can have. The effect of a curse is to increase the energy cost of many actions (such as movement and defeating further monsters) by the number of '1's in the curse. A curse can be reduced non-magically by paying 15 energy to remove the first bit ('1' or '0').
The healing category is made up of numbered subskills, from two upwards without limit. Each subskill is the ability to remove as many bits from the start of a curse as the number of the subskill, but they have to be the right bits. Each subskill is first learned to level zero, and can be advanced with more learning (scrolls) up to one less than two to the power of the subskill (ie subskill two can be learned up to four times, three up to eight times and so on). A subskill matches curse bits if it's learned to at least the level of the number those bits represent.
A character can heal another character in the same location by setting them as their "target" character.
Examples:
Learning subskill three gives the option to remove 000 from a curse. Learning it again and again will add options to remove 001 and 010. Learning it for the eighth time adds 111.
A character with subskill two to level three and subskill four to level zero, faced with the curse 10000 could use the spell 10 to reduce it to 000, then 00 and a non-magical single removal to finish it off, but this would be less clever than starting with a non-magical removal of the '1' and then using the 0000 to eliminate it for just one bat.
Casting the scrying spell deploys an eye with a strength which is the less of the character's scrying spell level (how many times they've learned scrying) and their aura allocation to scrying. This eye remains in the location, updating the character's map data for that location, even after the character leaves.
There is a 2% chance per turn that an eye will reduce in strength
by
one point. It is eliminated when its strength falls to zero.
Duelling is distinct from all other types of magic in not including
any specific spells. Instead it increases the average and maximum values
of cards used in combat. In general terms, a character can increase
their
ability both to attack others and to defend themselves by allocating any
aura to duelling magic, and can double their basic strength by
allocating
all their aura to duelling.
Combat is always between a pair of characters, attacker and defender. Conflicts between groups of characters consist of the basic 1:1 combat combined with alliance rules below.
Each character has a combat "card" for each point of their aura. New cards have a random value from one to the character's aura plus the amount of aura they currently allocate to duelling magic. An attack involves the attacker choosing a target character and a card to play, and the defender automatically playing their highest value card to counter the attack. The attacker pays 10% energy to attack, the defender pays nothing, both cards are discarded and immediately replaced with random new cards.
If the attacker's card exceeds the defender's card in value, the attacker gains gold equal to the difference from the defender. If the defender doesn't have this much gold, they instead lose their entire inventory (gems, scrolls, keybirds and bats) to the attacker and (if inside a building) are forced outside.
If the defender's card is at least as high in value as the attacker's, the attacker takes a curse equal (in binary) to the difference. So a tie gives a curse of "0", and a difference of three gives a curse of "11", added as usual to the end of the victim's current curse list.
A characters can at any one time be either a leader, a follower, or neither. A character can have at most one leader, or (not and) any number of followers. A leader and their followers must be in the same location (counting in or out of a building as two distinct locations), the alliance between them is removed when one moves away.
Initially characters have only a "Follow" menu, on which they can choose a leader to follow from the eligable characters in the same location (excludes characters who are themselves followers of other characters). Use of this makes them followers, and provides different options for the character they follow, who is then a leader.
The leader has two menus listing their followers, allowing the two actions of resigning to oe expelling a follower. Resignation by the leader promotes the follower to leader, both of the original leader (who becomes a follower) and of any other followers the original leader had. Expelling a follower returns them to the status of being neither a leader nor a follower.
Players can be added at the login screen. Other players's characters can be examined freely but it's impolite to change their orders.
The game may restart at any moment if/when it goes badly wrong.