>>>QUEST OF THE APOSTLES<<<
"Read Me" Notes and Musings
---------------------------
(June 2001)

TOC
---
1. Introduction
2. Game Info
3. Experience Points
4. Character Movement
5. Items
6. More Game Info
7. Hints on Gameplay
8. About QotA and legal stuff

Installation Instructions---if you haven't already installed on
your hard drive, just click setup.exe and it will take care of the
rest.

1. Introduction
----------------
If you're reading this you've either downloaded Quest of the 
Apostles to your hard drive, or someone else has; in which case 
you might want to find out who and why? But seriously, if you are 
clueless as to what Quest of the Apostles is; or if you're the 
culprit who downloaded the game then READ ON for details on QotA 
and game play.

Quest of the Apostles is a Role Playing Game (RPG for short), which 
means you get to pretend you're somebody else for a little while. 
In this game you begin as Saul, a Jewish rabbi who lived at the 
same time as Jesus Christ. Zealous for the Jewish religion, you 
believe it is your duty to stomp out Christianity with its false 
messiah (Jesus).

[The Beta ends with Saul's conversion to Christianity. This game is
a work in progress, and in the near future additional volumes will 
track Saul's (actually, now Paul's) missionary journeys]

2. Back to the game
--------------------
As a rabbi, your main tools (or weapons) are your knowlege of the 
Torah (first five books of Moses), the Psalms (songs and wisdom 
literature) and the Writings (or Prophets). These books make up 
what Christians call the Old Testament of the Bible. You will also 
quote the Talmud (Jewish commentary on the Bible) and use your 
impressive debating skills. [After you become a Christian you will 
be able to work miracles and drive out demons in Jesus' name...but 
right now you've got your mouth and your fists]

Your quest is to find Christians and arrest them; but you MUST make
sure the person(s) you're speaking with are Christian before you 
make the arrest. If you arrest a good, Jewish citizen you will have 
to answer to the magistrate and will lose self-confidence. [Some 
people will already be labled as "Sadducees" (a Jewish sect which 
you also oppose, but aren't out to destroy) or "Christians"...don't 
arrest the Sadducees but go ahead and argue with them to gain 
experience levels - see below!]

3. Experience Points
---------------------
RPGs are supposed to reflect real life in that your strengths and 
abilities increase as you gain experience in your travels. Every 
time you win a battle you will gain experience, and maybe other 
things (like money or items). Make sure you investigate everything 
and talk to everybody possible for hints, clues and allegations. 
[To speak with somebody you must be standing next to them or in 
front of them and press the "space bar" on your keyboard.]

4. Character Movement
----------------------
Which gets me into another subject: controlling your character. All 
moves are made with your keyboard.

+Use the "arrow keys" to move up, down, left or right. 
+Use the "space bar" OR the "Enter key" to talk to people, inspect 
or move items, make selections, etc. 
+Use the "Esc key" OR the cipher on the Num Pad to escape the 
screen you're in, to bring up your item menu or to cancel your last
move (if it's not too late to cancel).

NOTE: If the game is moving slow, try pressing your "F4 key" to minimize 
the play screen. (I personally think it looks better in this mode!)
NOTE: If your arrow keys aren't working properly, try disabling any
joysticks or gamepads you have on your computer. Don't worry, you
can reinstall them when you're done. (Go to START, SETTINGS, CONTROL
PANEL, SYSTEM, DEVICE MANAGER, SOUND VIDEO & GAME CONTROLLERS and
check "Remove")

Battles will happen automatically and often when you least expect 
them. You have three basic choices in a battle (whether a battle of
words with a person, an actual fist-fight, a demonic attack or 
attack by animal). 

These 3 choices are: Battle, Strategy and Escape. 
+If you choose Escape you might be pursued and forced to fight; but 
sometimes "run away, run away" is the best thing you can do. 
+Strategy picks your attack for you. This is good if you're fighting 
more than one person or enemy at a time.
+Battle allows you to choose how you will attack and/or defend
yourself. If you just hit the "space bar" or "enter key" repeatedly
during a battle, you will basically be using your hands or fists to
fight. You can also choose from items you already have, that you've 
purchased or that were given to you. Experiment with them all to 
find out what is best against which enemies.

5. Items
---------
Which brings me to items. Items restore your strength, protect you 
from attacks or give you special abilities. To check your item 
inventory, click the "Esc key" and click on items. To equip items, 
choose the item you want to use and hit the "space bar" or the 
"Enter key" (standard stuff in all RPG games...)

6. Now back to the game
------------------------
Since QotA is based on historical fact (if you don't believe the 
Bible is historical, please e-mail me at gzanow@new-mercies.org---
we've got to talk!) you will be basically repeating what is already 
recorded in the Book of Acts. However, since this is a game we've 
taken some creative liberties (just like Hollywood!) to fill in the
"missing spaces" and make the gameplay more interesting. Feel free 
to explore Saul's world by traveling around and inspecting buildings. 
Since this is still the Beta version, some areas will be off limits 
(you won't be able to enter); however, there are "side-quests" 
built into the game and you might learn something or find useful 
items by wandering around and playing with things.

7. Hints on Gameplay:
----------------------
*Make sure you save OFTEN! In the cities you can save by visiting 
a Synagogue or Temple. When on the world map, you can save by 
pressing the "Esc key" and choosing "SAVE JOURNEY" from the menu.
*Find the "Hint Man" ---he's always hanging around waiting to give 
you clues.
*Go to the school in Tarsus for basic training on equipping and 
using items, as well as to find some clues and gain some experience
points.
*Make sure you visit the shops to purchase items you might need. 
*There are poisonous scorpions in the desert. A few bottles of 
antidote are good to carry with you at all times. Then again, 
scorpions are one battle you may want to just run away from.
*If the game is moving slow, try pressing your "F4 key" to minimize 
the play screen. (I personally think it looks better in this mode!)
*If your arrow keys aren't working properly, try disabling any
joysticks or gamepads you have on your computer. Don't worry, you
can reinstall them when you're done. (Go to START, SETTINGS, CONTROL
PANEL, SYSTEM, DEVICE MANAGER, SOUND VIDEO & GAME CONTROLLERS and
check "Remove")

8. About this Beta
-------------------
This is a Beta game, which is to say it's still a work in progress
and might have some bugs we didn't catch. If you find a bug, 
please report it to gzanow@new-mercies.org so we can make the fix 
in the updated version. Nothing in this game program should harm 
your computer in any way, but for the sake of keeping legal and 
avoiding a law suit I must make the following statement:

QUEST OF THE APOSTLES (QOTA) AND RPG MAKER 2000 IS
DISTRIBUTED "AS IS". NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND IS 
EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. ***USE AT YOUR OWN RISK*** 
THE AUTHOR WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR DATA LOSS, DAMAGES, 
LOSS OF PROFITS OR ANY OTHER KIND OF LOSS WHILE USING 
OR MISUSING THIS SOFTWARE.

Well, that's about it for now. To give credit where credit is due 
I want to underscore that this game was created using RPG Maker 
2000 which is available on the internet for a free download (make 
your own, custom RPG games!) Go to http://rpgmaker.chat.ru for 
free download.

Any complaints or comments please e-mail Gary Zanow 
(gzanow@new-mercies.org) or Dylan Zanow (marstead@hotmail.com)