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[The Fifth Horseman]

This is a test version of an interpreter program meant to replicate the system present in the "Golden Dragon" fantasy gamebook series.

Programmed in C++ during two days of weekend and three evenings of regular days, the engine is - to be honest - so far the most complicated single program I wrote.

I did my best to make sure no glitches crept in, but if you find any - do let me know!

How it works:
A compiled executable of the engine must be placed together with the files for the given module. (right now, at least - I do, however, intend to add support for running multiple modules from individual subdirectories)

Each module must have the following files:
player.dat
items.dat
weapons.dat

This file contains a list of inventory items in the game - including weapons - each declared on a separate line. The only tolerance here is for upper/lower case, so keep it in mind.
The actual order of items is irrelevant (the game always identifies the items by their names).

Sword
Leather Armour
Backpack
Silver Candlestick
Crucifix
Oil Lamp
Clove of Garlic
Golden Helmet
Marble Bone
Golden Band
White Bishop Amulet
White Rook Amulet
White Knight Amulet
Golden Flute
Cobra Idol
Dead Knight's Sword
Moebius Ring
Potion of Iron Will
Axe
Flail

items.dat

This file contains a list of inventory items which count as weapons in the game. If the player doesn't have any weapons and enters combat, all combat rolls suffer severe penalties.
Example:

Sword
Axe
Flail

weapons.dat

The file needed to create your player character.
First it contain three pairs of numbers - the base values for the player's Vigour (HP), Agility and Psi (Willpower), each followed by the number of dice rolls to add to the base value.
The seventh value dictates how much gold the player starts with.
After that you list the items the player will start with (optional).
Example:

20 2 
3 1 
3 1 
10 
Sword
Leather Armour
Backpack

player.dat

This is what you need to start the game. Now, the important part is what makes up the actual game data.
Each file name corresponds to a node (scene) in the game - I use numbers, but the engine works so that you could use other names as long as they don't contain spaces(would mess with how some conditions work).

As in, paragraph. These are scene descriptions displayed to the player when entering a new scene. All in plain text, you can break lines manually or enter entire paragraphs on single lines and let the engine handle inserting the linebreaks where appropriate

.par files

Each scene may have an associated event file, with each event for the scene listed on a new line.

There are several types of commands to use here (note that all parameters go in the same line):
find - gives the player an item specified after the command.
lose - takes from the player an item specified after the command.
die - sets player's health to zero.
win - "completes" the game.

Statistic modifiers: The statistic can be Vigour, Agility or Psi. The alteration can be + - or = . (add to statistic, substract from statistic, set statistic to)
statistic alteration value - alters the current level of the given statistic by the given value.
base statistic alteration value - alters the base value of the given statistic by the given value.
restore statistic - restores the given statistic to the base value.

You can also use modifiers to gold or score values. These have no base value, and there is nothing to restore them from (so don't try...)

.evt files

As in, link. These decide what actions the player gets to choose from.
Each .lnk file contains a series of lines in the format

CONDITION
PARAGRAPH
Description

If the condition is fulfilled, the player will be able to choose the corresponding paragraph and the corresponding action description will be displayed on screen.
The conditions currently in are:
always - always returns true, with no conditions involved.
item item - if the player has the item declared after the command, the condition returns true.
else - if the previous link's condition returned false, this one becomes true and vice versa. Do not use else followed by a condition - it won't work. Presently only applies for the item condition, since the other two have different ways of handling their links.
test statistic dice - the following line has to specify two paragraphs separated with a space. The engine rolls the declared number of dice. If the statistic is equal or lower than the sum of the dice, the first paragraph is used. Otherwise, the second paragraph is used.
roll - the following line has to specify six paragraphs separated with spaces. The engine rolls a D6, then uses the paragraph number indicated by the roll.

fight - this supercedes any and all other contents in the link file. If the fight command is present, the engine will run a battle between you and an opponent declared in the associated .fgt file, then return the paragraph returned by that battle.

.lnk files

These only come into account if the .lnk file for the current paragraph contains the fight command.
First line of the file states the enemy's name. After that comes his Vigour (ie HP) and eleven pairs of combat results (one for each possible outcome of a 2D6 roll) in the order of damage to player followed by damage to enemy.
Next three values specify which nodes to move to if the player wins the combat, flees from it or loses it (setting the paragraph for flight attempt to 0 means there is no option to flee from the combat). The final value dictates how much damage the player may suffer when fleeing the combat (if a statistic test is failed). Currently the paragraphs for escape and loss must be given, as must be the flight damage value.
Example file:

Lord Tenebron
18
4 0
4 0
4 0
4 0
4 0
0 3
0 3
0 3
0 3
0 3
0 3
111
199
0
3

.fgt files

Well, that's it for documentation. Let's see what can be done with the engine, shall we?

[The Fifth Horseman]

I decided that having to name each weapon twice was dumb to begin with. So, a slightly updated engine is attached.
Now the weapons only have to be declared in weapons.dat, and the check if the player has a weapon was - shall we say, fixed - so that it doesn't have to open the weapons file every time.

[Fubb]

um, can you add values to weapons? You know, damage, etc? I know this is just an early example, and if not your goona add that stuff later, but yea, just wonderin

[The Fifth Horseman]

Damage bonus for weapons, damage penalty for armour?
Possibly so.

[Fubb]

so i saw in the CB that your almost done your first module for the dragon engine! what can we expect? Is it just a mini adventure to demo all the features thus far?

[The Fifth Horseman]

I'm halfway through inputting the entire first book from the Golden Dragon series. That's going to be a proper, complete adventure with 290 separate scenes.
Weapon and armor bonuses will be added to the engine, just as several other features (some of which will require more extensive changes, but will make stuff easier in the long term).
Doing this also helps me with finding bugs in the engine and features I have to add to properly handle the system.

[The Fifth Horseman]

New beta. Partially complete first module.

[The Fifth Horseman]

I've made it so that the "null" value (no weapon/no armour) can be declared in the weapon file and armour file by using an exclamation mark as the weapon/armour name.

Also, the weapon and armour work differently from each other: The weapons don't increase the damage you deal, but rather modify your combat rolls (greater chance to hit the opponent), while the armour reduces the damage you receive from opponents (it doesn't apply to non-combat damage, though).

[Fubb]

i think i found an error in your vampire crypty game...

Paragraph 190 was eaten by a Grue

thats all so far..

[The Fifth Horseman]

That wasn't a complete version, just a progress release.
The paragraph warp at the start is there exactly to get around this sort of problem.