Moraff's World
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Moraff's World was the second of three in a series of roguelike shareware computer games produced by Steve Moraff in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although more technically and conceptually advanced than its predecessor, Moraff's Revenge, it still lacked the plot and "modernized" graphics found in its successor, Dungeons of the Unforgiven. It is noted for being an excellent example of a game that sacrifices graphics for enjoyable gameplay.
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[edit] Gameplay
The basics of the game are simple, yet addictive. Like most games of its genre, the player creates a character and can choose between several different races and classes. The character will eventually explore a series of dungeons that are 202 levels each. Although these levels are, for the most part, randomly generated, once the player has played the game once, they never change again.
The player's objective in the dungeon is relatively straight-forward: kill monsters, gain experience, find treasures and have the character obtain Level 200 so that they can find and kill the evil Red Dragon King. The top level is always a monster-free town level with services such as an Inn for regenerating spell points (but not hit points), a bank for converting stones into jewel pieces (the currency form in Moraff's World), shops for weapons and armor, a temple for curing and access to the wilderness.
The wilderness leads to other dungeons in Moraff's World, although the rendering is poor, making travel confusing. Since other dungeons offer little variation gameplay, and merely provide different dungeon layouts, travelling outside of the original dungeon generally serves little purpose. Also, boats that are required to cross bodies of water are expensive, and difficult to use since the water is often unintelligible from the other terrain on many computers. There is not much else to be done in the wilderness, and thus it appears that Moraff was merely testing this engine in Moraff's World, since it is absent in the sequel, Dungeons of the Unforgiven (where simple teleporters are used instead).
Travelling to and from dungeon levels requires locating ladders that lead to other floors. Some ladders skip a few floors for the player, and certain up ladders send a player several floors higher, but disappear after, preventing the player from climbing back down again. Alternatively, a player may find a floor "slosher", use a "descend" spell or, failing all else, dig through the floor (risking damage to weapon wielding ability) to go down a level. There are also "ascend" spells to go up, although none of the tactics work below the 64th level. When traversing a ladder, monsters do not get a free strike on you, so ladders of either direction can provide refuge for casting healing spells or, if the character has a ring of regeneration, gaining back some hit points by waiting around. Chutes are a one-way means of travelling down if the character steps on one. They are hidden, but are revealed in any explored squares when the player leaves the level. Chutes can be a quick escape from monsters, but can also lead to worse troubles.
Combat in the dungeons is turn-based and initiated in one of three ways: by pressing the "F" key, by clicking on the "Fight" command in the upper right corner of the screen, or by simply clicking on the monster. One of the distinctive features of all of Moraff's RPGs is that the main screen is divided into four mini-screens that allow the player to view creatures and hallways in all directions (but also allow them to be attacked by up to four different creatures in open spaces). Damage is dealt through standard RPG rolling systems and checks (i.e. armor class, weapon strength). A notable feature about combat is that, although all monsters die when they hit zero hit points, the character has to go below zero in order to die.
When the character dies, it can be immediately raised from the dead (with a loss of one point of constitution) if they have a raise dead contract with a town temple. Raise dead contracts can be repurchased after resurrection, but they get more expensive as the player's level increases, up to a maximum of 500,000 jewel pieces.
[edit] Bosses
At eight key depths in the game are bosses who are more powerful than the average enemy for the level. Residing in the top 25 levels are the Shadow Dragonfly, Shadow Mini-Dragon, Shadow Major Dragon and Shadow Dragon King. When defeated, each of these monsters drops a power item to enchant weapons and armor and generally toughen up the player's character. Level 125 houses the Red Dragonfly, whereas Levels 150, 175 and 200 are the dwelling places of the Red Mini-Dragon, Red Major Dragon and Red Dragon King, respectively. These bosses are relatively far tougher than the Shadow Beasts were, because of stronger breath weapons and the ability to drain the player's level. Naturally, however, these creatures drop even more powerful items. The Red Dragon King, who apparentely was able to defeat even Steve Moraff himself, drains four levels with each hit and can strike three times per round even on faster characters. Once he has been defeated, the player may continue with the game, but this is somewhat pointless as they have already defeated the most powerful creature Moraff has to offer. Reportedly, Moraff made the final four bosses red because it is his favourite colour.
[edit] Character classes and race
The first task for a player is to choose a race. There are eight different races to choose from, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and with the human being the "average" race (i.e. all statistics are equal). The other seven classes are elf, dwarf, hobbit, gnome, ogre, sprite and imp. Each race's attributes are more or less the traditional ones; for example the Ogre is strong, but stupid and the Imp is intelligent, but weak. Unlike in Moraff's Revenge, the player's choice of race has a significant impact on gameplay.
There are seven classes to choose from, each listed below with their in-game description:
- Fighter: Simple to play, can use many weapons, no spells and very little magic. Should have high strength, agility, constitution.
- Worshiper [sic]: Very poor fighter. Can cast many priestly spells. Interesting to play, but requires very peaceful attitude.
- Monk: Doesn't use weapons, can't keep any items, magic or not. Deadly with hands, and has ability to cast spells without spellbooks.
- Wizard: Doesn't fight well but gets more spells than any other class. Should have very high intelligence. Good for advanced players.
- Priest: Moderate fighter with many defensive and subtle spells. Should have high wisdom, but all characteristics are important.
- Sage: Poor fighter, poor spell caster. Good for exploring without being noticed. Gains experience just for exploring. Needs high agility. This class must be played very carefully. Not for beginners.
- Mage: Combination of fighter and wizard. Very hard to start, but very powerful later. Needs well-balanced characteristics.
The classes are fairly self-explanatory. It is useful to note which classes can use which types of spellbooks, weapons and armor, most notably that the Mage cannot wield the Greatsword or the strongest form of armor.
[edit] Monster types
There are over 40 different monsters to be found in Moraff's World, who fall into several different classes.
[edit] Regular monsters
This group includes Walking Swords, Dwarves, Armored Fighters, Ogres, Kobalds [sic]), Apes and Orcs. These monsters are fairly common and don't possess any particularly unique traits, save for that they are plentiful and dangerous on lower levels.
Some regular monsters, such as Foot Stompers, Faces of Doom, Titans and Stone Golems are crudely drawn and far less common, although they have no special traits. One such creature, the Flesh Eater, became the basis for Moraff's Escapade.
[edit] Blockers
This group includes Giant Coloured Balls and Garbage Can Men. While having no unique characteristics in and of themselves, they often have massive amounts of hit points (up to 32000 on the lower levels), making them extremely tedious (and dangerous if there are other monsters around) to kill if the character cannot use an Autokill spell.
[edit] Puffballs
Puffballs are a unique class that come in many different colours and have an exceedingly low hit point count, even in lower levels. When engaging a puffball, if it isn't killed within a few rounds, it will either raise or lower one of the character's attributes and disappear. A general rule is that if the puffball is "light", it will raise an attribute, whereas if it is "dark", it will lower it. Like the magic pills found in Moraff's World, each distinct colour of Puffball will always raise or lower a specific character attribute, as shown in the table below.
| Colour | Attribute | Action |
|---|---|---|
| White | Dexterity | Raise |
| Black | Dexterity | Drain |
| Yellow | Constitution | Raise |
| Brown | Constitution | Drain |
| Light Blue | Strength | Raise |
| Sky Blue | Strength | Drain |
| Light Red | Intelligence | Raise |
| Dark Red | Intelligence | Drain |
| Light Green | Wisdom | Raise |
| Dark Green | Wisdom | Drain |
| Gray | Luck | Raise |
| Dark Gray | Luck | Drain |
[edit] Poisoned and diseased monsters
Poisoned and diseased monsters are regular creatures that have been painted black (in the case of poison) or green (for disease). Creatures of this type include Giant Ants, Spiders, Bats and Scorpions. Poison drains strength after a certain number of rounds, while disease drains constitution. There are also yellow versions of all these creatures which function as regular enemies.
[edit] Dragons
This category includes Dragonflies, Mini and Major Dragons and Dragon Kings. Orange and Blue breathe fire and ice respectively, which does a large amount of damage with no after effects. Black and Green function as poisoned and diseased creatures, while White can spray acid that will melt the character's current armor. The Shadow dragon series mentioned above is difficult to hit with physical weapons, whereas the Reds drain levels with every attack.
[edit] Level drainers
Level drainers are undead creatures that, as the name implies, drain the player's level with every hit. When killed, they drop different coloured pills that raise and lower statistics and keys that allow access to the level-skipping trapdoor system. The trapdoor system is crucial at levels below 64, where conventional means of level skipping do not work. The level drainers include Zombies, Medusa, Skeletens [sic], Wraiths, Spectors [sic], Demons, Mummies, Vampires and Ghouls. A list of each type of pill and its effect on character attributes is shown in the table below.
| Colour | Attribute +4 | Attribute -2 |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Intelligence | Dexterity |
| White | Dexterity | Intelligence |
| Orange | Strength | Luck |
| Yellow | Luck | Strength |
| Red | Constitution | Wisdom |
| Blue | Wisdom | Constitution |
[edit] Superbeings
Zeus and Devil are the two superbeings to be found in Moraff's World. They are exceedingly rare, but also incredibly dangerous. They have a high number of hit points, powerful spells and attacks, and cannot be killed with Autokill, or even the Holy Hand Grenade. The Devil is especially dangerous, because he is also a level drainer who takes away four levels with every hit.
[edit] Graphics
The graphics are, objectively speaking, horrible, even considering the release year. The bricks and walls can be very distracting to players who are not used to them, even with the option of changing brick styles. Many of the monsters are poorly drawn, even childish and crude at certain points. As mentioned above, the wilderness is confusing and frustrating even to advanced players. Clearly, however, Moraff was more interested in perfecting the gameplay.
[edit] Strategy
Although the hints and strategy section within the game is fairly helpful, one of the largest tips that was left out (but included in Dungeons of the Unforgiven) is that magic is essential to winning the game. Spells such as Magic Bolt deal damage based on the character's level, which means that they can do upwards of 1000 points of damage for higher leveled characters, carnage that is impossible with regular weaponry. Spells such as these also help "cavalier players" gain levels rapidly by allowing them to destroy high leveled monsters that would be otherwise impossible to hit physically.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Moraff's Games. RPGDot. Retrieved on September 8, 2005.
- Moraff's World. Home of the Underdogs. Retrieved on April 21, 2006.
