Mines of Titan manual - player guide

Player's Guide to Mines of Titan
It was hard to keep my mind on what Cornellius Wrak, the Controller of Primus, was chattering about, when my whole life was in ruins.

It was all so unfair--how little things add up. A tiny pebble no bigger than my thumbnail--a speck from the rings of Saturn!--had blown a hole in the main fuel tank as my supply ship entered the upper atmosphere of Titan. Normally, the sealant would have plugged the hole, but the feed line to the outer hull shuts down during final entry. So there I was, blowing my fuel reserves inot space. What else could I do but jettison the cargo? Would they have been happier if I lost the ship and the mine equipment?

But they blamed me fore the loss and forced me to hock my ship to pay for the equipment. My insurance company said they'll have a claims adjuster check things out as soon as possible. Probably a year or two. Yeah. Right.

So here I am, stranded on Titan.

"You've worked with use before, Mr. Jetland," Wrak was saying as he sudied my file on the monitor. "We can always use a person with your skill in the mines."

"Anything else available?" I asked. I'd become a Nomad roaming the frozen Titanian surface before I sold my sould to Paramount Minining, Inc.

"There's always free-lance bounty hunter," Wrak said with a smile, clasping his fat fingers together over his mound of stomach. "As a matter of fact, we do have rather an unusual situation here on Titan. We've lost contact with our newest project, the city of Proscenium. Because of the gravity of the matter, we Controllers are offering a handsome reward to the first party who discovers why the comm-links went down. Enough credit to reclaim your ship from customs. Sound interesting, Mr. Jetland?"

"Seems simple enough," I answered. "I'll do it." I started to rise from my chair, but Wrak's frown made me hesitate.

"if it were simple, we wouldn't be offering so large a lump of credits," he said with a sneer. "You'll need assistance getting to Proscenium... and more than a little luck. Personally, I doubt if you have the intelligence or the intestinal fortitude to succeed. Titan is no paradise."

He reached into the drawer of his vast desk and flipped a small pamphlet at me. "A present, Mr. Jetland," he said. "Our Visitor's Guide to Titan. My last copy, I'm afraid, and a bit tattered. Welcome to Titan, Mr. Jetland, and a good hunt to you."

Leaving his office, I wondered if Wrak meant I was to be the hunter... or the hunted.
Introduction
Mines of Titan is a role-playing adventure set in the 22nd century on Saturn's moon, Titan. In this role-playing game, you create and control a party of characters exploring the satellite. You develop youor characters by improving their natural attributes and by adding new skills. Undertaking special missions during the game allows your party to build up the credits (the monetary exchange system on Titan) they will need for training and for purchasing more powerful weapons. To win the game, you must discover why contact with they city of Proscenium has been cut off. Success depends upon competence in combat, using your character's skills to their best advantage, and tracking down the clues to solve the mysteries of Titan.

The sealed envelope in the package contains information you may discover on your own during play. DO NOT OPEN THE ENVELOPE UNTIL DIRECTED TO DO SO BY THE GAME!
Characters
You start of the game with Tom Jetland seeking recruits in a bar on Primus, the first city built on Titan. Not many people will want to join the party initially, but as your reputation grows, more recruits will become available. Recruits can be found in barracks, bars, restaurants, and lounges. Examine their backgrounds, interview them, and inspect their skills and attributes. A broad combination of skills and attributes is important for a successful party.

Characters gain experience through combat and successfully completing assignments. Gaining experience is import for improving skills and attributes. Also, credits (the medium of exchange on Titan) may be needed to improve a character. Credits are gained by selling items, gathered from dead foes. Bounties are listed at Police Stations and gambling occurs in Casinos.

When a character gains enough experience to raise a skill, you will be prompted with a message "So-and-so is eager to leanr" when you inspect the character.

A dead character will remain with the party until dropped off at a police station or bar, barracks, lounge, or restaurant. You can tranfer items from a dead character until he or she is dropped off.
Attributes
The characters in your party start off with certain human attributes -- intelligence, strength, agility, and so forth -- at various levels. The levels of these attributes can be raised in Personal Development Centers and Universities if a character has sufficient credits and experience.
Attributes Depicted at All Times
Might: A measure of a character's strength, this attribute determines what weapons he or she can carry. Stronger characters can carry heavier weapons.

Agility: A determination of accuracy and speed, agility is the most important attribute since it determines the number of moves a character receives in a turn of combat as well as the accuracy of ranged combat.

Stamina: How much physical punishment a character can take before performance is affected depends on his or her stamina. Once stamina is depleted, a character loses might and agility.

Health: This attribute is the average of a character's agility, might, and stamina.

These attributes are represented on the screen by horizontal bar scales. Pay attention to the Health bar at all times. A green bar means the character is at full potential. If the bar reaches zero, the character is dead. In Mines of Titan, dead is dead nothing can change this.
Attributes Determined by Inspecting a Character
Wisdom: This attribute reflects perception and intuition Higher widsom may give a character an edge in different situations.

Education: This is the ability of a character to learn academic skills. The level of this attribute may limit how much a character can learn in a field, such as medicine.

Charisma: This attribute indicates not only a character's good looks but also his or her charm and ability to convince others to do what you asked. It is very helpful in avoiding unwanted confrontations.

Sex: Male or female. Sex has no effect for game purposes.

Age: The current age of a character. Older characters begin with more experience than younger ones, but they usually lack the might and stamina.
Skills
Characters you recruit will have different skills at different levels. For example, a recruit from the police department will have some skill in wearing battle armor and using handguns. Skills can be added and increased. Some, such as gambling, are increased through experience alon. Other skills can be enhanced at various places on Titan (for example, at a Combat Training Center, University, or Computer Center) if a character has the credits and is ready to learn.

While a large party is more noticeable and may attract more foes (possibly more vicious ones), its size also allows you to have "specialist" -- for example, someone highly adept at medical skills or a highly trained programmer who can dig deep into the system to discover important information. A large party of inexperience characters may often prove ineffective and may also draw unwanted attention.

The following skills can be acquired or improved:

Administration: The ability to persuade people - especially authorities - often comes in handy.

Arc Gun: This combat skill is used with weapons that spray chemicals or chemical fires in controlled arcs.

Automatic Weapons: This combat skill is used with automatic weapons.

Battle Armor: A character must be trained in a variety of ways to use servo-assisted battle armor.

Blade: This combat skill is used in hand-to-hand combat with all types of blades, from switchblades to short swords.

Cudgel: This combat skill is used in hand-to-hand combat with handheld weapons, such as bats, lead pipes, and rubber hoses.

Gambling: The better a character's gambling skill, the more he or she knows about the rules and odds of the game.

Golum: Golum armor is used mostly by elite police forces and requires special training. Each suit is specifically modeled and tuned for its user.

Handgun: This combat skill determines how well a character can load, aim, and fire all types of hadguns. The better the skill, the more powerful the handgun a character can carry.

Medical: With all the dangers on Titan, it's wise to have at least one character proficient in this skill. A higher skill level allows a character to purchase advanced healing items, which are particularly useful when no hospital is nearby.

Melee: This combat skill is used in hand-to-hand combat with fists.

Mining: Because Titan is a mining colony, most inhabitants have some skill in this area. Better miners may detect unsafe passages in mines and may be able to assist in cave-ins.

Programming: The better a character's computer programming skills, the more he knows of computer systems and how they work - and how to hack more deeply into the system.

Rifle: This combat skill is used with all types of rifles. The better the skill, the more powerful the rifle a character can use.

Street: A character's street-wise skill is often useful in talking thugs out of combat.

Throwing: Throwing items (knives, grenades, and so forth) and projectile weapons (bows, grenade launchers, and so forth) are covered by this skill.
Items
While attributes and skills reflect a character's capabilities, items are equally important to a party. Each character can carry up to nine different kinds of items. Often a characters can carry more than one of an item type. For example, a character may be able to carry 10 grenades as one item and the also carry eight other kinds of things. Carried items are listed on each character's summary.

Your party can also possess object and information in addition to the items they carry. Such objects can be examined by using the Preferences menu.

Weapons can be bought and sold at Munitions Stores, and more powerful arms can be acquired as combat skills are raised. Vac-suits (necessary for exploring the surface) and armor are available at Armories. Repair Shops will pawn any times your characters have collected and are also excellent sources of information and gossip.
Combat
You select the level of complexity for combat. You can let the computer run the whole show or you can control each character's movement and target selection (this is know as tactical combat). When first playing the game, you may wish to let the computer run several combats so you can study what is involved. Eventually, you will want to take control because, even though the computer plays out battles to the best of its abilities, the tactics it selects may be quite different from the ones you would select in a given situation.

Characters and their opponents act simultaneously, giving combat a life-like feel. If the computer is controlling the combat and you don't like the way it runs your characters, press the spacebar. Control of the combat will revert to you on the next turn.