Introduction

Titleless Stuff

Play the game by running "windowed.exe" or "fullscreen.exe", depending on whether or not you want to play Notmucher windowed or fullscreen. If you have trouble figuring out which is which, experiment, or contact me using the information at the bottom of this document.

I'm including the source, just on principle, but I recommend no one actually look at it: it's really, really bad.

Control

You move your character, Matilda, around with the arrow keys. Use the up and down arrow keys to navigate menus. Use the space bar to talk to people, and to select an item from a menu.

You can change the game settings with the number keys (the ones at the top, not on the num pad) and the function keys. The number keys change the speed of the game, by changing the scrolling rate: 1 is slowest, but prettiest; 0 (interpret as "10") is fastest, but sketchy. The function keys change the screen size, as follows:

• F1: 640x480 (not recommended; entire screen will not be visible)
• F2: 800x600 (recommended screen mode)
• F3: 1024x768
• F4: 1152x864
• F5: 1280x1024
• F6: 1600x1200
• F7: 2048x1536
• F8: don't press this button

Press the escape key to exit Notmucher.

Combat

Stepping Outside

Sometimes, you'll get into fights. Can't be helped; that's life in the vicious world of Roald Dahl. This can happen in one of two ways: random encounters, in which case you fight a random enemy from the level (excluding the boss), or by purposefully initiating combat, usually by talking to an enemy. Either way, the result's the same: messy combat. You'll see a picture of your charming self, and next to that your combat statistics. Across the ring you'll see your hated enemy, and his stats. Between the two of you like a sheet on a clothesline dividing a room in a sitcom because the two protagonists, who previously got on like wildfire, now hate each other, is the menu, which contains the choices you can make in battle; speaking of which...

Choosing Your Broken Beer Bottle

Combat is turn-based; each turn, you and your opponent choose an action. Once actions are chosen, damage is assigned based on those actions. Usually, you have four options:

1. Thrust: A quick jab forward, not dealing much damage, but at the same time not exposing yourself too much.
2. Riposte: You wait in a defensive position for your opponent to attack, hoping to catch him off-guard, evading his strike but landing one of your own.
3. Lunge: You rush forward heedlessly, aiming for vital parts and trying to inflict the maximum damage possible on your opponent.
4. Flee: Ah, run! Help! Help! You get the idea.

Each action works best against one other action, sort of like Rock, Paper, Scissors. Thrusting is best against an opponent who ripostes; riposting is best against an opponent who lunges; and lunging is best against an opponent who thrusts. It's all laid out in the following table:

	You Thrust	You Riposte	You Lunge
Opponent Thrusts	You Deal 3, You Take 3	You Deal 0, You Take 2	You Deal 5, You Take 3
Opponent Ripostes	You Deal 2, You Take 0	You Deal 0, You Take 0	You Deal 0, You Take 2
Opponent Lunges	You Deal 5, You Take 3	You Deal 2, You Take 0	You Deal 5, You Take 5

or, to put it verbally, there are three rules:

1. If you thrust, you deal damage at a factor of 3, unless your opponent ripostes, in which case you deal damage at a factor of 2.
2. If you riposte, you deal no damage and take no damage, unless
   1. your opponent thrusts, in which case you take damage at a factor of 2.
   2. your opponent lunges, in which case you deal damage at a factor of 2.
3. If you lunge, you deal damage at a factor of 5, unless your opponent ripostes, in which case you deal no damage, but take damage at a factor of 2.

Anyway, it sounds more complex on paper than it really is.

When you attempt to flee, there is a 1/2 chance that you will succeed. If you succeed, combat is ended, and you're safe and sound. If you fail, your opponent determines his action as normal, and your action is then determined to be whichever one is countered by his. If he chooses to lunge, you automatically choose to thrust. Bad news, yes. But don't let this stop you from running from battles with opponents more powerful than you; you're sure to lose, otherwise. Never fail to retreat from a battle you don't think you'll win.

Counting the Bruises

Your character has 3 stats, corresponding to the 3 combat actions (excepting flee). When you attack your opponent, you do damage equal to (appropriate stat * appropriate factor) / 25. So if you thrust when you have a Thrust stat of 100, and your opponent thrusts as well (and therefore your damage factor is 3), you would deal (3 * 100) / 25, or 12, damage.

You don't need to remember that, though. Just remember that the higher your stat is, the more damage you do when choosing the corresponding action.

Whenever you perform a combat action, the appropriate stat rises by one. So when you thrust, your Thrust stat increments. Practice makes perfect.

Each combat round, your health has a 1/3 chance of raising by one, as well. This should keep it more or less on par with the average of your other stats, maybe, most of the time.

Sucker-Punching

The key to winning combats is knowing what your opponent is going to do. The easiest way to do this is to look at his stats: usually, he'll favour his best action, and disfavour his worst. Sometimes, however, this doesn't work, in which case the only thing to do is wait and see if you can't figure out which attacks are coming most frequently.

Well, that's the simple part; the hard part is that some enemies can learn. When such an enemy's manoeuvre is countered, it begins to favour the action that would counter that counter. For example, you lunge, he thrusts. He wizens up, and this time, you lunge again, but he counters with a riposte.

Usually this is an incremental process, and not nearly so marked as in the above example, but then again some enemies are smarter than others. Some enemies are too smart for their own good, and because their stats swing so wildly in response to your actions, they become predictable once again.

Tossing a $20 to the Bartender Afterwards, and Saying "Sorry about the Mess", 'Cause That's How Bad-Ass You Are (I.e., Combat Resolution)

Your opponent dies when his health falls below 1. When this happens, you win (obviously), and as a reward you gain a bonus to all of your stats equal to your opponent's experience value. And everybody's happy. If your health falls below 1, you die; but the wake'll be awesome, I promise.

Known Issues and Requirements

Thanks to

• Katton, for fixing some graphics and pointing out a major flaw in this manual which, if I had ignored it, would have made the game suck.
• DrV, for testing Notmucher.
• Bjørn, for testing Notmucher too.
• The makers of Allegro, the game library, because they just rock so much.
• RPGDX and _____ for hosting.

Contact Information