Overview
The Clans is a text-based fantasy role-playing game for bulletin board systems. You lead a small clan of adventurers through a dangerous world of mines, monsters, rival clans, village politics, and empire warfare.
Each day you have a limited number of actions. You fight monsters in the mines to earn gold and experience, train your members, buy equipment, manage an empire, and compete against other players for control of the village.
If your BBS participates in an InterBBS league, you can even travel to other villages on other BBSes and compete in a larger world.
Creating a Clan
When you first enter the game, you will be asked whether you want to create a clan. If you accept, you will:
- Choose a clan name (up to 24 characters, must be unique).
- Create each member of your clan. For every member you choose a race and a class. Each combination produces different starting attributes, hit points, spell points, and known spells.
- After reviewing each member's stats, you can accept them or reroll for a different result.
- Name each member (up to 12 characters each).
Your first member is the clan leader and receives slightly higher starting stats than the others. All starting gold from your members is pooled into your clan vault.
Your First Day
On your first day in the game, certain options are restricted. You cannot travel to other villages or trade at the market. Use this day to explore the mines, fight some monsters, and get familiar with the menus.
You start at mine level 0. Fight monsters to earn experience and gold, then visit the market to equip your members with weapons, armor, and shields. Check the training hall to spend any training points you have earned.
Protection
New clans receive a period of protection during which other players cannot attack your empire. The number of protection days is set by the sysop. Once protection expires, any player can target your empire.
Game Settings
From the pre-game menu, press G to view the current game settings. This shows the daily limits and other configuration values the sysop has chosen for this game, such as the number of mine fights and clan fights allowed per day.
Daily Limits
Each day you receive a fresh allotment of actions:
| Limit | Description |
|---|---|
| Mine fights | The number of monster battles you can have. |
| Clan fights | The number of player-vs-player battles you can have. |
| Quest | You may go on one quest per day. |
| Chat | You may chat with villagers up to 4 times per day. |
| Church services | Mass, prayer, and blessing are each once per day. |
| Economic changes | The ruler may adjust each rate once per day. |
These limits reset during the daily maintenance cycle.