Adventurer
An adventurer is a character controlled by the player who serves as the protagonist in adventures. An adventurer, like player characters in other fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, consists mostly of numerical representations of various skills and physical attributes; many of these are normally assigned at random, and some may improve through experience.
Adventurers in Eamon are members of the Guild of Free Adventurers and always leave from (and return to) the Main Hall in Evenhold when traveling. Other guild members sometimes appear as non-player characters in adventures.
Characteristics
Statistics
An adventurer has more detailed stats and characteristics than those normally assigned to computer-controlled monsters, though unlike monsters the adventurer has no textual description. The following is the minimum data that normally comprises an adventurer record:
- Name
- Sex
- Attributes of Hardiness, Agility, and Charisma
- Weapons expertise ratings with axe, bow, mace, spear, and sword
- Weapons held
- Armor expertise
- Armor worn
- Magic abilities: Blast, Heal, Power, and Speed
- Gold in hand and in the bank
Some variants of Eamon record additional data about the adventurer, such as handedness.
In the September 1993 issue of the club newsletter, Tom Zuchowski writes, "I would define a 'normal' character in this range: HD, CH, AG = 20; all weapon abilities = 50; armor ability = 20; all spell abilities = 70; gold = 10,000; two swords with 10% complexity and 2D8 damage ability; plate armor and shield."
Personal
Since players can create their characters in many different forms (man or woman, strong or weak, human or non-human), many specifics of the adventurer's life are necessarily vague and left to the player's imagination. Nevertheless, some personal details have been established by various authors over the years. The adventurer...
- is considered one of the most able adventurers in the land.
- enjoys the favor of the King, for whom the adventurer undertakes a number of different missions and quests.
- sometimes has a romantic companion. In The Lair of the Minotaur this individual is identified as either girlfriend Larcenous Lil or boyfriend Slippery Sven, depending on the adventurer's sex. (In Picnic in Paradise the adventurer's date is similarly named either Heather or Magnum.) By the time of The Ice Cave the adventurer had been living in the forest with his girlfriend (now "Lovely Lil") for two years. Operation Crab Key describes the adventurer as having a "wonderful wife".
- has an elder brother named Jollifrud, a retired adventurer who lives in the city of Fahrnor (Stronghold of Kahr-Dur). Jollifrud's daughter — the adventurer's niece — is Lady Mirabelle.
- enjoys drinking.
- lives in or near the town.
The adventurer also has many friends. Among them are...
- Heinrich (The Beginners Cave, A Vacation in Europe)
- Professor Axom (The Zyphur Riverventure)
- Ingemar Hansen, a coin collector (Castle of Doom)
- Kathryn, an adventurer (The Abductor's Quarters) later afflicted by possession (The Quest for Marron)
- Jason (In the Clutches of Torrik)
- Melvin of New Alfredtowne (The Valley of Death)
- Thug, a large man with a pet imp (Starfire)
- Otho the dragon-slayer and Morlock the wizard (Feast of Carroll)
- Conan the Cimmerian (DharmaQuest)
- Damian (The Beermeister's Brewery)
- Adam of Wagramtown (Lair of the Marauders)
- Larrabbold (Gartin Manor)
- Lorin, an old friend and a cleric at the Abbey of Light (Demongate)
- Professor Eric Johnson, a famous inventor (The Shrunken Adventurer)
- Ford Prefect (The Heart of Gold)
- Mekstel, a wizard (Batman!!)
- Galin, an "old friend" (Return of Ngurct)
- Frolic, an elf (The Caves of Eamon Bluff)
- Whitey O'Thraight (Super Eamon)
- some friends who died of fever (The Black Death)
- some friends who died by the Hellsblade (Curse of the Hellsblade)
Known adventurers
In adventures
Adventurers sometimes appear or are mentioned in published adventures:
- Heinrich (The Beginners Cave, Enhanced Beginners Cave, Eamon v7.0 Demo Adventure, A Vacation in Europe)
- Smithy (The Tomb of Molinar)
- "The Abductor" (The Abductor's Quarters)
- A crazed adventurer (Castle of Doom)
- Wilk (The Quest for Trezore)
- Genzenbraun (The Caves of Treasure Island)
- Ted (Nuclear Nightmare)
- Sidney (The Lost Island of Apple)
- Megrim (The Quest for Marron)
- Wade (Black Mountain)
- Yohab (Death's Gateway)
- Orion, Melancton, and Volstagg the Obese (Lair of the Mutants)
- Olthen Bedwier (The Citadel of Blood)
- Laura (The Harpy Cloud)
- Bob the Wanderer (The Prince's Tavern)
- Deljem Frolic (The Prince's Tavern)
- Drocles (The Mountain of the Master)
- Samuel (The Creature of Rhyl)
- James (The Creature of Rhyl)
- Iron Mike (Revenge of the Bookworm)
- Randolf (Museum of Unnatural History)
- Nice Guy Eddie (Eamon Deluxe Demo Adventure)
- Andy Sysive (Eamon Deluxe Demo Adventure)
- An injured adventurer (A Runcible Cargo)
- A terrified adventurer (A Runcible Cargo)
- Joslyn and Oscar (Realm of Fantasy)
- A.J. (The Jim Jacobson Adventures Deluxe, Adventure in Interzone)
- Charlie Brown, wearing yellow armor with trademark black zigzag (Fiends of Eamon)
- Yeelquagsumomomag (captured by Mr. Roessler in The Pathetic Hideout of Mr. R.)
- Glenda (The Underground City, The Fugitive)
- Ellwyn, Sheenah (The Fugitive)
- Matlin (Buccaneer!)
- Hector, Elbidahs, Ming, Thuvia (Expedition to the Darkwoods)
- Brian Gendreau, David Lechner, Russell Lewis (Journey Across the Muerte Sea)
- Deathstalker (Deathstalker's Castle)
- Filipe Silva (The Waiting Room)
- Maya (Malleus Maleficarum)
- Bleazak (The Orb of Polaris)
- Taurus (Jewel of Yara)
In main programs
Eamon distributions often include pre-existing adventurers; the best known of these may be Sam, a strong character frequently provided on Eamon master diskettes. John Nelson noted in the May 1985 newsletter that the club had been including a capable adventurer named Galahad on the Master Disk for a couple of years.
Eamon Deluxe
Eamon Deluxe comes with a number of preexisting characters from whom the player can select when entering the Main Hall (or alter with the character editor), including the following:
- Leasuresuit Frank, named in reference to Eamon Deluxe creator Frank Black and the Leisure Suit Larry series of adult computer games.
- Floyd the Barber, a likely reference to Floyd Lawson
- Bill of Accounting
- Nanock the Thick, an adventurer pictured in the August 1984 issue of the Eamon Adventurer's Log
- Tom Zucchini, a reference to Eamon club president Tom Zuchowski
- Tank Black (another pun on the EDX creator's name)
- Zeus Hightower Flabbergibungander, a character who's name Black found particularly amusing when hearing it pronounced by voices of screen reading programs when testing the systems vi compatibility mode. Zeus also appears in the Eamon Deluxe conversion of The Beginner's Forest, where he ineffectively assumes the job usually performed by William Misslefire of keeping out experienced adventurers.
- Dirk Gently
Eamon Deluxe also has characters built into its Dungeon Designer to test adventures with a range of characters of different strengths and genders. Unlike regular adventurer characters (and those created by the player), the Dungeon Designer characters can test multiple adventures at the same time; however, they do not get to participate in the Main Hall or raise their stats in the normal way, since their character statistics remain the same so that they can be used to test different adventures effectively. This set includes:
- Hard Hat Mack, a weak character named for the video game
- Stan, a medium-strength character
- Sir Lunchalot, a strong, well-rounded character
- Brutus, a super-tough character
- Sally Van Weenus, a weak character
- Wendy, a medium-strength character
- Molly Millions, a strong, well-rounded character named for the William Gibson character
- Jane MacMurderkill-Jones, a super-tough character
Previous versions of the Eamon Deluxe Dungeon Designer had a character in its line-up by the name of Zombi Sam, a reference to the popular Sam character from the original Eamon master; this character is not present in the current version and his slot is now occupied by Stan.
Expanded Master
The copy of the Expanded Master distributed by the Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online includes six preexisting adventurers:
- Galahad
- Junior Badnews
- Hakkard of York
- Wimpy
- Tami Frater
- (Ami Coneas)
The version attributed to the Big Red Apple Club includes several more:
- The Gringo
- El Kabong
- Orphan Anne
- Grog
- Liora
- Joe Cool
- Diana de Dandelion
- Grod
- Fern Heathertoes
- Kragoric
- Zoorbokish
- Zigzag
- Godzilla
- Sam
In utilities
- Testor of Bench, the default adventurer created by the Test Bench utility program.
In documentation
- Hedric the Horrible (Eamon Player's Manual, Recreational Computing)
- Marcus Antonius (Creative Computing)
- Lovable Linda (Eamon Player's Manual)
- Jo Normal (Eamon Player's Manual)
- Jason of the Boar Ring (Recreational Computing)
- Gorgar the Beef (Eamon Adventurer's Log, October 1985)
- Big Rolf the Crude (Eamon Adventurer's Log, October 1985)
- Lazarus Long, Stark Dextix, and Bob the Wanderer (Eamon Adventurer's Log, March 1985)
- Aldo Cella (Eamon Adventurer's Log, October 1984)
- Capitu (The CRPG Book)
- Kheda, Fost Longstrider (Retro Games Trove)
Player-created
Many people who play Eamon create their own characters, so the number of player-created adventurers generated over the years is likely very large. Visitors are invited to record their favorite adventurers below:
- Gothmog, Zharn, Sybil (Huw Williams)
- Dark (Luke Hewitt)
See also
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