Teudogar Complete FAQ
by Wolf Mittag

Teudogar Complete FAQ
by Wolf Mittag

ABOUT THIS FAQ

About this FAQ

This is a somewhat edited compilation of email replies and forum postings regarding Teudogar that I've written over the years.

Apart from the main English text, there are a few German postings appended to most chapters, which usually deal with the same questions already answered in English before.

If you still have any questions you couldn't find answers to in this FAQ, you are welcome to contact us: wolfmittag.com/contact.

Best regards,

Wolf Mittag (author of Teudogar)

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What's in all these German passages?

Usually, the same questions have already been answered in English before.

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Ich verstehe kein Englisch! Was mache ich mit diesem FAQ?

Es tut mir leid, daß es bisher noch keine deutsche Version gibt. Wie Sie sehen, ist es ziemlich viel Text, und der Übersetzungs-Aufwand wäre erheblich.

Eine Notlösung wäre vielleicht folgendes: Sie könnten die Passagen, die Sie besonders interessieren, markieren und kopieren (Strg+C), und dann zu Babelfish http://babelfish.altavista.com gehen und dort einfügen (Strg+V). Die davon erstellten automatischen Übersetzungen sind zwar nicht sehr gut, aber meistens doch hinreichend verständlich.

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GAMEPLAY

What I'm supposed to be doing in this game?

In general, the only way to proceed is to talk to people - they'll tell you of new locations, quests etc. In your home village, talk to Ortwin (northwestern part of the village): He'll give you an overview of the situation and will tell you the location of the village of Cattanford.

(Unlike Darghul, Teudogar doesn't have a continuous game world but rather consists of a number of single locations. You can travel to those locations that you know or that you've heard of by using the Travel command on the upper Menu Bar.)

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Is there any manual in the demo download?

During the game, press F1 to go to the Help Menu. There you'll find detailed information on control and gameplay, game rules, technical questions and so on - if these are the issues. If you have questions regarding the game's plot, in the Full Version there's a Walkthrough available, which is organized by chapters, so you can look up just specific topics without spoiling the rest of the game for yourself. You might also find some answers in this FAQ.

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Should I gather up everything I find in houses and containers?

Things you find in people's houses or containers usually belong to somebody, and cannot be taken without consequences.

If you want to form a tribal alliance, it's not a good idea to turn potential friends into enemies just because you fancied some trinket.

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Should I steal stuff in order to buy a chain mail?

You could do so. But I'd advise against stealing: Teutons considered that to be extremely cowardly. Since you are supposed to be a Teuton yourself in this game, you'll share that view, and acting against your beliefs will reduce your charisma.

A much better way of acquiring some gold and equipment would be to travel around: You'll meet plenty of enemies you can defeat, and whose possessions will then be yours. You could also talk to people, and if anyone seems to be looking for a fight, you can accept and fight a duel, then take your slain opponent's equipment.

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Is there a time limit? Or can I wander, fight, trade endlessly and the plot doesn't break?

Endlessly; the game is purely event-driven. While that may not be perfectly realistic, I think it's more fun that way.

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Is there a limit to how many days you can travel around?

No, you can travel as much as you want. The plot is basically event-driven, i.e., even if you spend several extra months traveling to and fro between the cities, it won't affect the plot's outcome. (Apart from a few exceptions where you need to act fast to complete a mission.)

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What's the use of slaves?

Slaves produce not just food for you, but also things like cloth, clothing, torches etc (placed in the boxes and chests in your home after a couple of days). (Their decision on what to produce is based on what you might need - e.g., when they notice you lack a cloak etc.)

Apart from this, your slaves will also heal you, give you food (more convenient than getting it yourself from one of the chests in your house), repair your clothes and so on. (And, of course, you can sleep with your female slaves.)

Your friends' slaves will do some of these things for you, too; besides, you can bribe slaves with gifts or money. (You can bribe your enemies' slaves as well, so they'll fight for _you_ when you start a quarrel with their master.)

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How can I get more slaves?

Well, you could capture someone's farmstead, including his slaves: Start a fight, defeat or kill all men, and when you're victorious, the slaves (and everything else) will be yours. (However, you can't take you new-won slaves to your own homestead yet, for technical reasons.)

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Do you benefit in anyway by freeing your slaves?

No. From the point of view of people living in that epoch, freeing your slaves would have been a pretty unreasonable act under most circumstances, and few people would have done so during their lifetime (it's a bit like giving away your house, car, pc etc).

Sometimes, a man on his deathbed might decide to set some of his slaves free rather than pass them to his heirs (who might not need and would therefore sell them). Or one might consider to free one slave after many years of exceptionally good and loyal service, both as a reward and as a motivation for the other slaves to do their work well. Or if one had enough slaves for farmwork, and one of these proved to be exceptionally bold and loyal, one might decide that this man would be more profitably used as a henchman than as a farmhand, and would consequently free him.

But apart from such exceptions, freeing slaves would have been a rare thing, because it meant a substantial loss of property for the former slave owner.

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What's the difference between slaves and freedmen?

When you set a slave free, he or she will stop to produce anything but food. (Btw, if you kill everybody living in your farmstead, no new food will be added to the boxes and chests in your home.)

Anyway, since there weren't that many employment opportunities in Germania, and a man without land or a girl without family would have found surviving on their own quite difficult, your former slave will stay on your farmstead as your henchman or maid.

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Will freed slaves still contribute anything?

They will still contribute by producing food (check the containers in your house). And the herdsman should still manage your cattle.

However the entire idea of setting them free is that, from now on, they're free to produce for themselves (rather than for you); so basically a bit of food as a sort of rent/tithe will be all you'll still get from them, plus of course their willingness to fight for you.

(It's meant to be a financial loss for you. After all, there's a reason why, in the real world, people generally didn't set their slaves free.)

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Can you chose your career, e.g. be a blacksmith?

You can be a blacksmith in the sense that you may spend your gaming time repairing damaged weapons and then selling them (over time, your skills and capabilities will improve), just like you can be a merchant by travelling around and bartering with everybody. There is no need to follow the game's plot.

But you can't set up your own shop, and while you can produce simple things like cloth, you cannot produce any technically sophisticated items like e.g. swords or helmets.

The idea was that mastering these specialised crafts would have required several years of instruction and training, which you, having grown up as a free landowner, naturally haven't had, and, due to the Teutonic anti-work mentality, never would have considered getting, either.

So I've implemented these handicraft features only as sub-plots, more for your own use (repair your weapon), than as real main plots and careers. (This will be different in DARGHUL, though.)

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How can I make a living as a merchant?

Mainly, by buying things from people who don't value them, and reselling them to people who do (e.g. a warrior sells you some jewelry he has no use for, which you resell to a noble lady who is willing to pay a much higher price, and from whom you might also cheaply acquire a good weapon that she can't fully appreciate).

There wasn't much commerce in Germania. Most people produced everything they needed on their own farmstead. There were no shops (apart from, possibly, the smith's farmstead). Merchants weren't stationary, but always traveling around. So you can't set up your own shop and wait for customers, but must instead go out and find them yourself, carrying your merchandise with you.

(Btw, this is also the case with the merchant in Cattanford, who is just staying for a few days or weeks as Thoralf's and Radomund's guest. In theory, he will move on to the next village as soon as he has sold most of his goods.)

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I want to be a farmer. What is there to harvest?

Alas, nothing. According to the plot, it is currently spring. The fields have just been plowed. (And since the game's plot is meant to go over a time period of just a few months, it basically remains spring forever.)

Anyway, your fields have been plowed by your slaves. And right now, your slaves are sowing. Another of your slaves looks after your cattle. Since you own slaves, there isn't much need for yourself to do anything.

What you could do is to sell the things your slaves produce (look into the chests and boxes in your house and storage hut). Or you could use your fishing line and spend your days fishing, or travel around and go hunting.

(In a few months, when the wheat is ripe for harvesting, there would actually be a lot of work, probably more than your slaves could handle, so you'd have to participate. But that is beyond the scope of Teudogar's plot.)

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Why aren't there more crafts you can learn?

Regarding crafts you're mostly restricted to repairing your weapons/armor, and weave cloth and the like.

This is mainly for historical and cultural reasons: This was an aristocratic, warlike culture, much similar to the Roman or Greek one: Work was for slaves. It was demeaning to work, particularly to work for others. A free man, unless crippled, ought to fight and win slaves instead of doing any work himself.

I think this was a real conviction in most Indo-European cultures. As far as I remember, Aristotle, Cicero, and Seneca were all full of scorn whenever they mentioned workers; the only thing worthwhile was virtue, which was understood as a noble warrior's braveness, self-control, and gentlemanliness, but never as dedication to manual work, since only war, politics and perhaps law were considered worthy fields of action for a free man.

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Does how much people like you affect anything?

Many dialogs take a different course depending on whether your interlocutor doesn't care about you, or likes or loves, or dislikes or hates you.

Your friends will fight for you if you get into trouble somewhere near their place. Your friends' slaves will offer you many services. If people don't like you, they may attack you at the slightest provocation. And you won't get anything from them or their slaves, not even food (you can still help yourself, though).

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Does giving gifts to people have any effect?

Giving expensive gifts (like swords or gold coins) to people within the game usually increases the sympathy they feel for you, as long as someone has been at least neutral and doesn't already dislike you. A valuable gift may be seen as formally founding a friendship (Germanic custom).

However, you cannot make anyone love you by giving them gifts, regardless of value. And if someone dislikes you, there's nothing you can do about it; people can't be bribed into liking you (though they may accept your gifts).

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How do you make people like you more?

The main characters' sympathy for you increases as the plot proceeds and you prove yourself to be reliably fighting for your common cause. This also applies to many sub plots. So in general, talking, interacting, and possibly helping people will be the main factors.

Apart from that, you can give valuable presents to people. (For Teutons, friendship was a bit of a formal concept, with clearly-defined rights and duties, maybe somewhat like a commercial partnership today: Similar to how a contract would found such a partnership today, a precious gift like e.g. a sword would found/confirm friendly relations with the Teutons.)

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How do I become popular? Will anyone like/love me?

There's a girl in Bruglund who is likely to fall in love with you when you rescue her (full version). And the people you work with in order to form your tribal alliance will become your friends if you prove reasonably reliable and successful. You may also win some people's sympathy by giving expensive gifts (Germanic custom; see above). And your slaves will be grateful if you set them free.

However, since Teudogar aspires to be realistic, most people naturally don't and won't care about you, and your enemies will almost never cease to hate you (which is reinforced by Germanic culture with its emphasis on honor, clan loyality, and revenge).

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How do I get to have sex in Teudogar?

You may have to change your censorship level settings to allow this. Press "O" to go to Options Menu, select Control, and set censorship to "none". (Because I assumed that with some people in the U.S., there might perhaps be some cultural sensitivities concerning nudity and sexual topics, the default setting for pcs with a U.S. country code currently is "no sex/nudity".)

First of all, you'll need a partner who loves you or whom you've seduced, or whom you've paid, or who is your property. Consider your slave maid, for example. Otherwise, the easiest way to find someone would be to try to win over other people's slave girls by giving expensive gifts to them (this won't work when they're already in a relationship, or when their master is your enemy).

Anyway, that's all: Wait until your girl is in bed; then in order to join her, simply double-click on her. If she doesn't want you / belongs to someone else / isn't _your_ slave and therefore isn't obligated to sleep with you etc, you'll just get a "no response".

However, you can't really have sex with anyone in Teudogar; the maximum you get is to share a bed with some woman; sex is just implied. I didn't consider this to be a serious game feature; but looking at the level of interest this gets, maybe I actually ought to add some more details as well as perhaps some animations...

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Is there any point to sex in Teudogar?

Basically, no. It's just one of the things you (may) do, like eating or sleeping, and it's a pretty natural and un-spectacular thing to do. (Though it currently doesn't have any effect on your stats, maybe I ought to implement some beneficial effects on health and charisma. I should also adjust some dialogs to reflect your relationship.)

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Why do I get ambushed and killed after I killed a main character?

Because Npcs in other villages have no dialog passages to adequately react to what you've done - so it's partly a death for technical reasons... Changing this would require quite a lot of additional dialog text.

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Is it possible to defeat the warriors who are avenging a main character's death?

No, you can't defeat them, for technical reasons. (Other people would have to react to your killing of such an important person - that means, I'd have had to write hundreds of additional dialog passages - every NPC for every main character you might have killed. By making sure you can't reach other villages after killing a main character, I only had to take care of the NPCs in that same village.)

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Is there a trick or cheat in Teudogar to get more money?

Well, the best (and most Barbaric) way to get a decent weapon or other equipment would be to start a fight with some henchman who's carrying a sword or some golden bracelets, to slay him, and then to take what you've won.

An alternative might be to do some unfair trading: Make your trading partner drunk (give three or four cups of beer to him), and you'll get a much better deal; this way, you may be able to afford buying a used sword from some warrior.

If you really want to cheat outright, here's a description of how to do this (warning: major spoiler): www.teudogar.com/cheat_barter.txt; but I'd strongly recommend not to read or use this, since it really spoils the gaming fun.

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How do I get people drunk?

Give the amphorae etc to them: drag from your inventory to the person, then drop - they'll be saying "thank you" and drinking the stuff. (You can check the effects by afterwards pointing on them with your mouse cursor and pressing the CTRL key to take a detailed look.)

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Why aren't there any bows as weapons in Teudogar?

Fletching: Romans used Cretan auxiliary units with bows in some places, but to my knowledge, not in Germania. They did definitely use slings with leaden projectiles in Germania, though (these were found in Kalkriese in great numbers; but no arrowheads as far as I remember; have to look this up though). The Teutons apparently didn't use bows at that time, preferring javelins or slingstones instead. (As a programmer, I was happy they didn't, since programming weapons needing ammunition is a lot more work than sticking with simple swords.) But yes, in future fantasy games... And of course your need to get and restock ammunition would be one more gaming feature.

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Can you do anything with unfinished swords, chainmails, etc.?

Alas, not yet. The only use these have right now are 1) as decoration and 2) as bartering goods. (Smiths will tend to pay well for these things.)

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Why are there so few books in Teudogar?

For historical reasons, with most people being analphabetical, there was little demand for books.

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If I give a cloak to my slave, why doesn't he/she put it on?

Custom wouldn't allow them to wear these. (Well of course they'd wrap themselves in some sort of cloak during winter; but the Teudogar plot assumes it's summer, and the cloak in question here would have been more of a status symbol.)

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When you dig for treasure, does the resulting pit have any effect?

No, these pits are just a graphical by-product of your digging. They aren't large enough to cause other people to fall in. And you won't be able to reach lower game world levels by digging. The pits and other traces of your digging will vanish automatically after a couple of days.

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Why can't I join a bandit group?

That'd require random-generated travelers. (Otherwise you'd have no one to rob, since people generally stay in their villages.) I may add this in future versions; but this won't bring much action (most of your time would be spent waiting); and coordinating your fellow robbers with your actions would be tough (unless I leave them stationary). So I'll put this off too until I've introduced a sort of party system in some later version: Then you could simply form a party with them.

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Is there such a thing as karma in Teudogar?

Something like this is mainly done via your Charisma and Belief skills: Depending on your behavior, these will increase or decrease.

Unethical behavior will generally cause you to feel bad about yourself, and this will take a toll on some of your skills, especially your charisma, but also your religion- and magic-related belief skill. (Unless you start the game - in DARGHUL - as a good-for-nothing/rogue; in this case we assume you don't feel bound by ethical values, and consequently don't suffer from ignoring them.)

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I keep finding so many small, often hidden gaming features and game details!

There are many small game features, like having your friends come to your aid when they see you in combat, bribing your enemies' slaves so they won't aid their master, giving jewelry to girls and seeing them actually wearing it, having women participate in combat by blessing their friends or cursing their enemies, setting your slaves free, pickpocketing the key to a locked door or buried chest from the owner, seducing slave girls with expensive gifts, making people drunk in order to get better deals when bartering, or to facilitate pickpocketing, avoiding places guarded by dogs when stealing where everybody is sleeping, impressing people by wearing lots of gold and expensive weaponry, noticing Radomund secretly visiting Alfhild's farmstead at night, noticing Adalmar's newly refurbished hall after his inauguration, poisoning food or beverages with herbs, getting high by eating toadstool mushrooms, and so on.

I'm often surprised how many people actually find and enjoy these and others. But there's usually a limit to how deep they go, because the amount of programming work rises exponentially with every additional layer of detail one adds.

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In Höhlen sind Wege manchmal durch Baumstämme oder Stalagmiten blockiert?

Graben/Rumhacken mit Waffe hilft hier nicht (wäre auch nicht realistisch, glaube ich). Aber da Höhlen oft mehrere Eingänge haben, lohnt es sich in solchen Fällen meistens, aus der Höhle herauszugehen, etwas in die Richtung zu gehen, wo der versperrte Höhlenteil ist, und zu schauen, ob es dort nicht noch einen zweiten Eingang gibt.

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Wo ist die Waffe/Spitzhacke, die ich gerade gekauft habe?!

Sie wird erst hergestellt. Man bekommt z.B. die gerade bezahlte Spitzhacke nirgendwo SOFORT, sondern immer erst EINEN TAG SPÄTER, weil sie erst produziert werden muß. D.h., nach dem Bestellen und Bezahlen der Spitzhacke muß man erstmal einen Tag warten. Wenn man dann wieder mit dem Schmied redet, händigt er einem die (dann fertige) Spitzhacke aus.

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Wovon hängt ab, was für Sachen die Sklaven und Hausbewohner produzieren?

Das hängt davon ab, welche und wieviele Leute im jeweiligen Haus sind. Manche Dinge werden nur von Sklaven produziert (meistens Kleider/Fackeln); manche (Nahrung) immer solange es Hausbewohner gibt; manche nur von einem bestimmten Hausbewohner (Schwert/Schmied).

Produziert wird nur, wenn es noch nicht genug/zuviel von der jeweiligen Sache gibt; was produziert wird, wird teilweise intelligent entschieden (wenn z.B. Ihre Sklaven bemerken, daß Sie keine Hose oder keinen Mantel haben, wird genau dies produziert); wenn niemand mehr in einem Haus lebt, wird nichts mehr produziert.

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Man kann fremde Sklaven anweisen, Kleidungsstücke zu reparieren?

Nur die Sklaven von Leuten, die mit einem befreundet sind. In dem Fall ist das eine Frage der Gastfreundschaft (siehe Abschnitt Geschichte/Gastfreundschaft).

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Hat es Folgen, wenn man Toten die Kleider abnimmt?

Man empfindet das als unbillig, und hat deshalb ein schlechtes Gewissen und empfindet abergläubige Furcht; deshalb erhält man einen leichten Punktabzug an Charisma, Lebenserfahrung undWodans Gunst. (Die Würde der Toten war den Menschen in der Antike ziemlich wichtig.)

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COMBAT

How does combat work in Teudogar?

Combat is plain and turn-based, yet I tried to make it colorful, dramatic and realistic, with javelin throws and close combat with swords or daggers, with enemies encircling you, women blessing the warriors they side with, with curse and frighten-spells, with blood flowing, fleeing enemies losing their shields and weapons, your armor getting damaged, and booty to be used as a sacrifice for the Gods.

Though there's plenty of combat, killing people or animals (there are no monsters in this game) is not the main way of building up experience. You'll gain experience of life from everything you do (indeed from almost every mouse click you make), even when something fails. Fighting will improve your sword, attack, parade and shield skills - but you could achieve this by combat practice as well. More important for your development are victories and successes, whether in combat, or in fulfilling quests, or reaching your political goals. I.e., the character system's emphasis is on general activity and success, not on body counts. (That does of course not prevent you from making the fight against robbers, or duels with every warrior you meet, your main purpose in life.)

Another potential difference to regular RPGs may be that getting wounded has a serious impact on your current fighting skills: If you manage to wound an enemy once, you can finish him off rather quickly; or if you get wounded yourself, you have no real chance of winning anymore, and better ought to flee. This tends to make combat in "Teudogar" brief and violent, and it increases the importance of armor - which is rare and hard to acquire.

Wizardry is different in so far as there's no "magical energy" or "mana" in "Teudogar": You can cast as many spells as you care to (at least, until your armed opponents put an end to this), since making some gestures and murmuring a couple of words isn't particularily exhausting. Whether your spells will have any effects will depend on your enemies: A strong and well-armed warrior probably won't be too impressed by your curses, while a weaker man, who feels intimidated by your superior strength and weapons, is more likely to be demoralized by the confidence you project when facing him - and therefore, to fear your wizardry.

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What's the most important thing to know about combat in Teudogar?

Once you are wounded, your fighting abilities will be so impaired that you won't have a chance of winning anymore. The only reasonable thing you can do in such a case is to flee (and maybe take up the fight again a week later when you've been healed).

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Why does the Make Peace action hardly ever work?

The problem with this is, if your opponent is strong enough to kill you, why should he make peace with you? (In 12 B.C., there was no Christianity, and ideas like "you shall not kill" would have been considered crazy by both Teutons and Romans.)

So this'll basically only be accepted by people who feel that you are certain to kill them if they don't stop fighting right now.

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Can I make peace with my enemies in Teudogar?

When your opponent is weaker than yourself, or already seriously wounded, he may accept your offer of peace (Actions Menu (left side of screen), 'Make Peace'). But this usually won't work if you've already killed one of his relatives, or if he thinks he has a fair chance of killing you, or if he is so brave that he would rather die than make peace with an enemy. If your offer of peace is refused, you may still defeat him in combat, and accept his surrender. (Don't trust former enemies, though.)

But notice that people's standing towards you is usually clan-related; i.e., if members of their clan/extended family are hostile to you, people will consider it their duty to be hostile towards you as well. So assuming you fight several men from the same clan, you usually won't be able to make peace with only one of them (except if he's an extreme coward), because he can't desert his fellow clansmen. (Solution: defeat them one by one, until there remains only one single hostile fighter - who would then be free to make peace with you.)

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Who can heal me when I'm seriously wounded?

Most noblemen's wifes can heal serious wounds, and will do so for free if you are a friend of their husband. If you're seriously wounded in your home town, Ortwin's wife can heal you. In Cattanford, Thoralf's wife or Radomund's wife. In Heremod's Hall, both of Heremod's wifes.

(When you have only light injuries, your own slave maid can heal you. In other villages, your friends' slave maids will do the same for you.)

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How can I heal severe wounds on my own (not just bandage them)?

There's no way to do that in Teudogar. I thought it wouldn't be realistic - if you're severely wounded, you'd probably be semi-conscious and too weak to heal yourself.

So the only way to heal severe wounds is to have someone who knows the art of healing take care of you for a couple of days. (There's a cheat code, though - see the "cheat"-section for this.)

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Can I bleed to death?

Yes, if you've received several severe wounds (i.e., are already severely wounded), and keep bleeding, and don't stop the bleeding by bandaging your wounds, then you might die before your bleeding stops by itself.

Bleeding even from heavy wounds usually stops by itself (even in real life) once you've lost a certain amount of blood (perhaps due to falling blood pressure), so usually, if you aren't too unlucky, it'll stop by itself before you die.

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If I'm defeated in combat, will my opponents kill me?

In cases of fair, knightly combat that hasn't been provoked by yourself, in most cases, once you are almost lethally wounded, your opponent will talk to you and offer to accept your surrender. Accepting this and surrendering would cost you your weapons and equipment, and would be a dark spot on your honor, but would let you keep your life. And when you fight robbers and are defeated, you don't get killed but just knocked out.

However, other kinds of combat usually end lethally for you if you get wounded and refuse to flee. (I think this is fair since, firstly, you usually had a choice whether to enter combat at all, and secondly, once wounded, you really should have fled.)

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Is there any way to get other people to support me in combat?

You could give a valuable present (e.g. a new sword) to a free man, in a bid for his friendship. If later on you got into a fight with somebody else, and he'd witness that, he would then join that fight on your side (provided it's not against his own people). What's even better, if he has any slaves, these would join your side as well.

But of course that wouldn't make him your henchman. Right now, the only way of acquiring henchmen would be to set your slaves free and arm them. (Yet even they won't follow you around on your travels, since this is a single-player RPG.)

Btw, it's worthwhile to win women's support. Although they won't fight for you physically with weapons. (Considering that women have on average 15 to 20% less physical strength than men do, they'd get killed if they tried to.) But they will bless you, and curse your opponents. And since success in physical combat strongly depends on courage and confidence, this is very effective.

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Will anyone help me in a battle?

Teudogar remains a single player game - you can't set up your own band of warriors like in Ultima. But while your slaves/freedmen won't follow you around, they will aid you when you happen to be in trouble somewhere near to them: Try starting a fight with your neighbors (save game status first), and your slaves ought to join the fight on your side.

(This will also work with slaves in other villages that you might acquire over the course of the game, e.g. when you have captured a farmstead by defeating all free men living there.)

If you face a defeat, you may also try fleeing to one of your friends' farmsteads: When they see you being attacked, they'll probably come to your aid, too (along with their slaves).

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Why do people who surrender still murder you when they get a chance?

Teutons believed in the need for revenge, and would rather use lies and cunning than to forgo their revenge. So while you're armed and awake, defeated people will serve you - however, when you ever sleep in their vicinity, they'll use the opportunity to kill you (from their point of view, it would be immoral not to do so).

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ARMOR AND EQUIPMENT

I'm not wearing any armor. Can I risk to travel that way?

You needn't worry too much about your equipment; you can get by very well with just spear, dagger and shield.

Regarding combat the only thing you need to be aware of is that once you've been wounded, you can't win anymore. If this happens to you, give up, run for your life, then dress your wounds and find some woman who can heal you.

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How important are equipment, weapons, gold etc?

The main point of this game is not to collect as much stuff as possible, but to defend your tribe against the Romans (who are invading your country). The best way to do that will be to form an alliance with your neighboring tribes. That'll require traveling around, talking to people, winning allies, getting rid of your political opponents and so on.

In doing so you'll make plenty of enemies; from a Teutonic point of view there's nothing wrong with killing as many of these as you can (as long as this doesn't jeopardize your effort to form an alliance); so you'll win more than enough booty as a by-product of your travels.

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What happens when I'm carrying too much heavy equipment?

When you're carrying too much equipment, your dexterity will be impaired. (That's in addition to the loss of dexterity already caused by cumbersome pieces of armor, helmet, shield etc, even when you're not overburdened.)

To see how much exactly this amounts to, go to the Player Info Screen, and click on the current/virtual button: "virtual" will display how your character stats would be if you were totally healthy, awake, well-fed, and un-burdened.

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How can I avoid being overburdened?

One of the main causes for being overburdened is wearing a heavy chain mail shirt. The best thing you can do is to replace that with a Roman segmented cuirass (there are several opportunities for winning these as booty in the full version): This type of armor had been newly invented by the Romans during the beginning of Augustus' reign. It's made of flexible metal segments that tend to give in and crumple when hit, just like the crushable bin of a modern car. That effectively blunts the impact, i.e., protection is just as good or even better than that offered by a chain mail, but it requires a lot less metal and is therefore much lighter.

Another thing you might do is to swap some of your silver for gold or golden jewelry (1 piece of gold is worth as much as 25 pieces of silver). The merchant at Cattanford is good for this. He may not have enough gold the first time you visit him, but the more you trade with him, the more gold he'll have to offer when you'll visit him again later.

When you're persistantly slaying robbers, you tend to accumulate more booty than you can conveniently carry. The best thing you can do is to sacrifice stuff you don't need to the gods.

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What is the best weapon in this game?

The best weapon in the game is Ottokar's enchanted sword Tyrfing, in the village of Bruglow (in the full version). Up to then, you'll be fine with a regular blessed sword (such as made by the smith in your home village).

Short swords are good for beginners since it's easier to attack or parry with them; but when your Attack/Parry skills are good enough to usually overcome your enemies' shield/dodge skills, then a regular long sword will be the best weapon because you can do more damage with it.

The stronger a weapon's blessing, the easier you'll find it to attack and parry with it, and the more damage you'll cause with it. The witch Ortruda in Ortruda's Forest (full version) can probably increase your sword's blessing somewhat more; however, it still won't match Ottokar's sword.

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Where can I get Roman equipment?

You can buy a Roman short sword (gladius) already in the free Demo Version: Not from the smith in you home village; but the smith in Cattanford will produce one of these for you. Same goes for a chain mail shirt.

As to other kinds of Roman armor, helmets, cuirasses and shields, you'll have many opportunities to capture these in the Full Version. What will be extremely useful to you is the Roman segmented cuirass, which weighs far less than a chain mail, doesn't impair your dexterity much, and offers great protection. Also worthwhile is getting a Roman iron helmet (more solid than Bronze, and better designed than the Barbarian helmets, with additional protection for cheeks and neck).

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Should I use a large Roman shield?

You'll can capture these in the Full Version. However, I think it's not such a good deal for a single fighter, because its huge size will impair your dexterity too much.

In my opinion, this type of shield is mainly useful for a row of soldiers standing in a file, one closely next to one another, each covering both himself and part of his neigbor with his shield, everyone pointing their spears at the enemy, and this whole troop advancing, mowing down everything in its way like a steamroller (Greek idea; Phalanx). In such a combination, this type of shield really makes sense, creating a sort of solid front, and thus rendering the entire troop fairly invincible to attacks. But for a single fighter I don't think it's worthwhile.

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Can I get a Roman segmented cuirass (lorica segmenta)?

Yes, the legionaries you encounter in the full version of Teudogar are wearing such iron segmented cuirasses, so you'll have the chance to capture such armor (or, in the Alliance plot, barter for it).

This type of armor will greatly enhance your fighting capabilities due to its low weight, rather low degree of encumbrance, and the good protection it offers.

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Can I get a Roman muscle breast plate cuirass?

I'm sorry, but I think there is actually no muscle cuirass to be captured/bought, in neither plotline (apart from killing the general in the Roman camp; but of course this isn't really feasible). As far as I remember, I'd originally equipped the Centurion who holds you up with his men (while you're on your way to get the Usipians' treasure) with such a cuirass, but later decided against this for reasons of historical authenticity.

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What's the deal with the Roman muscle breast plate cuirass?

Basically, nobody wore this type of cuirass except for the emperor and his generals. It was no good for active combat due to its enormous weight and rigidity. Instead, it was meant to look representative (see the picture of Augustus in the Teudogar intro; he's wearing this type of cuirass; of course his is magnificiantly decorated, with a propaganda scene showing the Persians asking for peace). Its only practical use was to protect the highest-ranking officials from assassination and enemy missiles while they directed combat operations, standing far away from the line of battle.

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The jewelry and cloaks and nice armor I can put on, are they just for show?

No. Apart from your armor's protective function, these status symbol will significantly increase your Charisma, and also lift your self-confidence a bit, and therefore, increase your Belief skill somewhat. These effects will be helpful for wizardry and bartering.

Given that the only practical way to acquire wealth was by waging war, and the only way to remain wealthy was being able to defend yourself, displays of wealth were fairly powerful status symbols, and indicators of your capabilities. And war-gear was among the most expensive items (e.g. a chain mail shirt would have cost as much as a house or half a dozen slaves).

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The merchant hasn't got enough gold to buy all the booty I made.

When you sell weapons or other stuff to the merchant in Cattanford, he'll re-sell them in your absence; i.e., the more you trade with him, the more gold, silver and jewelries he'll eventually have to offer when you visit him a couple of days later.

Btw, apart from gold coins, also try to barter for golden bracelets and neck rings - these are valuable yet weigh very little.

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Will the Cattonford merchant ever run out of money or goods?

He shouldn't run out of gold; rather the opposite, when you trade with him, he should actually sell off the stuff you sold to him as soon as you're away; so when you travel for a couple of days, on your return he should have some fresh gold and silver (though admittedly, fewer goods - after all, the war has interrupted the trade routes, so there aren't any fresh amphorae of wine coming from Gaul any more).

Apart from this merchant, there are a handful of craftsmen in Teudogar - smiths, weavers, people who make leather goods, pots or torches etc; these at least keep producing new stuff (check the boxes and chests in their houses).

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Is there a way to display the total value of the selected goods during bartering?

Yes, Options Menu / Language&Control / Bartering: Display total value.

Per default this is off, because this was a money-less bartering society (the coins are used as just another bartering good). Therefore, there were no generally accepted money-prices, and consequently, things didn't have an 'objective' value, either: An object was worth as much or as little as my trading partner would be willing to offer me in return. And for myself, the value of his offer would depend on how well I could use the objects offered, and not on their theoretical monetary value.

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What's the most effective way to steal things?

Note that stealing was considered to be extremely dishonorable, and that you, being a Teuton, would probably share such a view. Therefore, stealing will reduce your Charisma.

If you want to do it anyway, the most effective way would be to wait until all inhabitants of a house are outside, then close all doors in order to avoid being seen, then start looting. (In this case, you may be suspected, but still won't be caught or attacked.)

A (less effective) alternative would be to wait until everybody is sleeping. However, there's a chance that your actions will wake up somebody - particularly when anybody is sleeping in a place close to the objects you are trying to steal. And if there is a dog in the house, it'll very likely wake up everybody.

Perhaps the best way, if you're strong enough and your victim isn't politically important, would be to simply slay the owner of a farmstead, and kill or defeat his henchmen (if he has any). (His slaves will stop fighting the moment you've defeated the last free man, so you needn't worry much about them.) Having defeated all free men, you've become master and owner of their house, and can now take everything you want openly, and without dishonoring yourself.

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What kinds of different magical attributes for weapons and armor are there?

Weapons etc have attributes like new / used / damaged / etc, and blessed / normal / cursed, with gradual intensity. A blessed weapon will facilitate your attacks, and increase the damage you do, a cursed one will handicap your attacks and reduce the damage you can do. Parrying is also affected. With armor, protection is enhanced / reduced.

There's no sharp distinction between blessed / not blessed, since, according to Germanic thinking, every weapon had a certain degree of 'Heil' (intrinsic luck, good fate) that the bearer could make use of. You can turn a normal weapon into a 'magical' one by blessing it or having it blessed. And since it's a gradual thing, blessing a weapon already somewhat blessed will increase its magical power.

In Darghul (a Fantasy RPG based on the Teudogar engine I'm currently working on), I will additionally implement a number of unique magical weapons with unique characteristics.

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Where do I get boots/shoes in Teudogar?

There are no real boots in this game, only shoes. (Teutons wore shoes that looked kind of like Indian mocassins.)

If you want to get shoes, simply buy them in Cattanford from the merchant who sells leather armor, in the north-western part of the village. Alternatively, kill someone (anyone but a bare-footed slave), and take his or her shoes. (Such a deed would cause you a bad conscience and damage your charisma; however, you can still do it if you want to.)

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Is it too easy to get the best equipment?

I don't know. Of course you can make a lot of booty and then buy a chain mail shirt, iron helmet and the like - but the best armor and weapons can not be bought, but must be captured from the Romans (segmentes cuirass) or other special people (magical sword etc).

(Here's one more problem with the historical realism: Too few people possessed real armor; so it's true that once you've got a chain mail you'll have a considerable advantage over most enemies. But since the number of randon-generated robbers increases corresponding to your skills and equipment, and since more of them will know enough wizardry to curse or frighten you, there should be some challenges left even if you're well-armed.)

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Was ist die beste Ausrüstung?

Meine Meinung: Schwert, Speer, Eisenhelm mit Wangenklappen, römischer Schienenpanzer (nur in Vollversion) oder Kettenhemd, normaler Schild. Mit Händler in Kattfurt reden für nähere Infos über Waffen u Rüstungen.

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Wie bekomme ich römische Rüstungen?

In der Vollversion: Bei dem Verteidigungs-Bündnis-gegen-Rom-Lösungsweg werden Sie zwangsläufig eine Reihe von Scharmützeln gegen römische Truppen ausfechten. Dabei können Sie römische Waffen und Rüstungen erbeuten - einschließlich von Schienenpanzern (beste im Spiel vorkommende Rüstung) und großen Schilden (für Einzelkämpfer nicht zu empfehlen) und römischen Eisenhelmen mit Wangenklappen (empfehlenswert).

Im Bündnis-mit-Rom-Lösungsweg geht das natürlich nicht allzu gut; schließlich wollen Sie ja Frieden mit den Römern halten. Die einzige Möglichkeit hier wäre Tauschhandel im römischen Lager.

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Kaum daß ich ein Kettenhemd trage, bin ich überladen?

Ich glaube, das ist realistisch. Kettenhemden waren wirklich sehr schwer (ca 9 kg), und mit Helm, Schild usw kommt man dann schnell auf über 20 kg, die man am Leib verteilt mit sich schleppt. Damit kann man einfach nicht so unbeschwert herumlaufen (selbst als trainierter Krieger).

Allerdings ist die Einschränkung der Geschicklichkeit auch nicht gar so groß (etwa 15%), und der bessere Rüstungsschutz wiegt fast immer auf, daß man deswegen etwas häufiger getroffen wird. D.h., es lohnt sich (realistischerweise) immer noch, eine gute Rüstung zu tragen.

Die Römer haben das Problem aber mit ihren neuen Schienenpanzern (in der Vollversion erbeutbar) weitgehend gelöst: Diese sind so leicht, daß man damit keine nennenswerte Einschränkung der Geschicklichkeit mehr hat.

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Was soll das mit den Silber- und Gold-Münzen?

Silber kommt in der Natur etwa 10 bis 15mal so häufig vor wie Gold, war deshalb schon immer entsprechend billiger, und ist deshalb gewöhnlich für kleinere Münzen verwendet worden, mit denen man alltägliche Besorgungen bezahlen konnte.

Goldmünzen dagegen haben den Vorteil, pro Stück wesentlich wertvoller als Silbermünzen zu sein, so daß man damit bequem auch sehr große Beträge mit sich führen oder aufbewahren kann. Nur für kleinere Einkäufe sind Goldmünzen eben wegen des hohen Stückpreises weniger geeignet.

1kg Gold ist heute etwa 20.000 EUR wert. Für die Menschen damals wäre ein Goldstück von der Kaufkraft her etwa so wie heute für uns ein 200 oder 500-EUR-Schein gewesen; ein Silberstück wie heute ein 10 oder 20-EUR-Schein.

In römischer Zeit entsprach 1kg Gold etwa 10kg Silber. Das Münz-Verhältnis in Teudor ist 1 Goldmünze = 25 Silbermünzen, weil ein römischer Gold-Aureus doppelt so groß war wie ein Silber-Denar (diese Münz-Größen waren von den Römern natürlich willkürlich festgelegt worden).

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Warum erziele ich beim Tauschhandel im Laufe der Zeit immer bessere Preise?

Das liegt vermutlich an Ihrem mit wachsender Lebenserfahrung steigenden Charisma, und evtl Ihrer besseren Ausrüstung. Charisma beeinflußt die Preise, die Sie erzielen können; erfolgreiche Kämpfe und bestandene Aufgaben etc verbessern Ihr Charisma; repräsentative Kleidung oder Statussymbole (Mantel, goldener Schmuck, Kettenhemd) verstärken es zusätzlich. Wenn Sie reich und mächtig wirken, lohnt es sich für Händler auch, Sie besser zu behandeln (Aussicht auf lukrative zukünftige Deals).

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Kann man sich beim Tauschandel den Gesamtwert der ausgewählten Waren anzeigen lassen?

Ja; einschaltbar über Optionen / Sprache&Steuerung / Tauschhandel Gesamtwert anzeigen.

Die Voreinstellung ist 'aus', weil die Dinge in einer Geld-losen, Tauschhandel-treibenden Gesellschaft keine allgemeinverbindlichen Preise, und damit auch keinen 'objektiven' Wert, hatten: Eine Sache war jeweils soviel oder sowenig wert, wie mein Gegenüber mir dafür zu geben bereit war. Und wieviel mir das Gebot meines Gegenübers jeweils wert war, hing davon ab, wie gut ich selbst die von ihm angebotenen Sachen brauchen konnte.

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CHARACTER SYSTEM

What were your thoughts on the character system?

Your character attribute values (strength, dexterity, intelligence, vitality) describe your basic capabilities relative to other non-player characters (e.g., women usually have less physical strength, or professional warriors, after years of training, have a better dexterity than you do). Your attribute values are simply typical values for any average male, and they won't change much over the course of the game, either.

What will change, and possibly significantly, are your skill values: They will slightly improve with everything you do, every time you apply a skill, thus enabling you to form a character with unique strengths and weaknesses over time - solely determined by your way of life within the game.

These skill values describe your level of practice, and your ability to use your strength, dexterity and intelligence for a particular purpose. Therefore they determine your success in combat (your Attack and Sword skills set against your opponent's Parade, Shield and Dodge skills), with wizardry (Charisma, Belief, Experience of Life skills), bartering (Charisma, Experience of Life) and so on.

Attributes and skill values are subject to temporary changes, e.g. when your armor reduces your dexterity, or your being wounded decreases your strength: This would decrease your Attack and Sword skills, too, just as being tired reduces your intelligence and dexterity, and therefore your charisma as well.

My main intention was to make the character system feel real. That means less awareness of your precise (numerical) skill values; instead, you'll simply notice over the course of time that certain actions have become easier for you than they were in the past. There's no artificial choice over which skills to improve with the experience you gain (e.g. like slaying a monster with a sword and then using the experience gained to improve your magical energy). Instead, there's constant growth in tiny steps, but only where you apply a skill or a related skill.

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How does character growth work in Teudogar?

The game's plot encompasses just a couple of months: In such a brief span of time, you couldn't really grow into a superhero. So while there's some emphasis on improving your combat skills by frequent practicing, equally important are acquiring decent weapons and armor, and learning spells.

E.g., it's very useful if you can convincingly frighten people into just giving up a battle against you. Apart from learning to do this in a way that's credible to both yourself and your intended victim, that would also require a lot of charisma to be effective. (In order to acquire this, you'd need a number of victories and successes.)

When you're fighting against multiple enemies, armor becomes extremely important. You'll have a huge advantage over your enemies once you've managed to capture one of these light, newly-invented Roman segmented metal cuirasses.

In the end, you'll become pretty powerful, but part of this will be due just to the equipment you've acquired, the self-confidence you've gained, and the convincing techniques (spells) to impress others you've learned.

However, my job as a game designer is to make sure you'll always face challenges that are difficult (yet not impossible) for your character to overcome. In "Teudogar" that means the more powerful you become, the more and stronger enemies you'll face as the game's plot unfolds; also the number of enemies in random encounters with robbers etc will increase, thereby counterbalancing your increased power.

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How do I gain experience and increase my skills?

The way to gain experience at anything in Teudogar is simply to practice it, as often as possible. So in order to increase your Attack or Sword skill, do some combat practice or actual combat. To increase your Experience of Life or Knowledge skill, talk to people, or solve some of the quests of the game plot.

Unlike most fantasy games, you don't get experience points from slaying monsters (besides, there aren't any monsters in Teudogar). Victory in combat will increase your Charisma and Belief skills. But actually killing anyone won't have any positive effect on your skills.

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How can I increase my strength?

Every time you make use of a skill that requires strength, you'll gain not just experience in that skill, but also in strength. These gains are minimal but accumulate over time. So things like combat and combat practice will help, but this takes time and you won't make as much progress as in most fantasy rpgs.

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What is the maximum weight my character can carry?

The absolute maximum you can carry around with you (not just lift) is about 50kg/110lbs if your strength is 'average', about 60kg/130lbs if 'good', and about 65kg/140lbs if 'very good'.

While this is what you can carry, actually doing so would of course make you far too encumbered to fight. The amount you can carry without being encumbered is half that, i.e., 25kg/55lbs if 'average', 30kg/66lbs if 'good', 33kg/73lbs if 'very good'.

I think these numbers are realistic, considering that most of that weight would usually come from your body armor, which is far more convenient to carry than, say, 4 heavy shopping bags would be, since the armor's weight rests on your upper body, without any need for you to exert muscular strength.

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What do my weapons skills mean?

In Teudogar, you have basic Attack/Parry (plus Dodge and Shield) skills which apply to all weapons. Your Weapons skill (Sword, Axe, Spear) reflects your experience in handling the kind of weapon you're presently using, and will determine how well you can use your Attack/Parry skills with that weapon.

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How do magic skills work?

Your success in performing spells like Frighten or Curse depends mainly on your Charisma and Experience of Life skills (other spells require Faith or Knowledge or Perception skills). So practicing the Frighten-spell will automatically make you better at Curse (and vice versa), since both require Charisma skill, and practicing one or both spells will gradually increase this skill.

(However, if you're good at Frighten and then learn Curse, you'll be equally efficient in this new spell, too, right from the beginning. Since this is unrealistic, I should perhaps add an additional experience counter for each particular spell.)

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Although my combat skills improve easily, strength, dexterity and intelligence don't?

Your character development in Teudogar is reflected mainly by your skills (such as Attack, Dodge, Charisma, Belief etc), while your attributes (Str/Dex/Int/Vit) improve only slightly and very slowly.

The basic idea was that if you've got an I.Q. of 110, you'll still have an I.Q. of about 110 after graduating from a university. Your basic intelligence doesn't change much over the course of your lifetime (apart from possible declines caused by illness). The only thing you can really increase are your skills - and these will decide on how effectively you can apply your intelligence.

Increasing your skills (such as Knowledge, or Attack) by practicing is something you can do comparatively easily and quickly. And this will enable you to make better use of your mental or physical capacities.

But it's very hard and takes many months or even years to improve your basic attributes. So even if you are very active, your Strength and Dexterity won't improve a great deal (particularly in comparison to what you can do in some fantasy RPGs).

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My character's strength doesn't increase at all!

You're probably still playing Teudogar 1.00 (during the game, press the 'V' key to have the version number displayed).

I'd originally thought that the few months' time the plot covers wouldn't be sufficient to really increase your basic attributes - so in version 1.00 there was only a gain in skills, but not in basic attributes like strength or dexterity.

While I still consider this approach reasonable with regard to intelligence, it was wrong with regard to strength - there one can obviously achieve significant increases even within a few weeks of training. Consequently I've implemented gaining of strength and dexterity starting with Teudogar version 1.01.

If you're still playing full version 1.00, there's a free update patch in the download section of this site; downloading and running this will update your installed version; your saved games will remain fully usable. (To update a demo version, simply download and install the most recent one, overwriting your current installation.)

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Given equal skills, what is my chance of hitting my opponent in combat?

Your attack skill is set against your opponent's defense skill (randomly chosen: either shield / parry / dodge). The relevant effective skill levels will be determined by your health (wounded?), equipment (cumbersome armor?), etc.. When both effective skills are equal, you ought to have a 55% chance of hitting (odds are tilted a bit in your favor to make sure you don't get killed too easily).

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What happens when you are overburdened?

When you're carrying too much equipment, your dexterity will suffer. (That's in addition to the loss of dexterity already caused by cumbersome pieces of armor, helmet, shield etc, even when you're not overburdened.)

To see how much exactly this amounts to, go to the Player Info Screen, and click on the current/virtual button: "virtual" will display how your character stats would be if you were totally healthy, awake, well-fed, and un-burdened.

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Why does wearing heavy armor increase my faith and charisma?

Because knowing how well-pr