Note on the game display: Angband began life on computers with limited graphical capability, so standard keyboard characters were used to represent everything in the game: your character, monsters, found items, the walls, doors and stairs of the dungeon, and so on.

This is still the default display option?, but there are now a number of sets of graphical symbols which have been developed by players and which can be selected as alternatives. Throughout this guide, general descriptions will refer to the basic text-symbol set, but all the different sets are catalogued and described on comprehensive reference pages.

In the Town

The town is where your character begins the game; this (or near here!), is where your character was brought up and his or her home is still here. The town is surrounded by an impenetrable wall, and contains within it eight buildings (the eight rectangular grey blocks). The buildings are (with one exception) stores, each specialising in a particular type of goods useful to adventurers in their quest.

Also somewhere in the town are the stairs by which adventurers enter the dungeons of Angband (the > sign; descending staircases are always shown as >, and ascending staircases as <)

The dots, or full stops, are a visual representation of the spaces characters and monsters move through, each representing one movement step. The brighter dots represent the area visible to your character. At the beginning of the game, it is daylight, but the sun will set, and rise, as time passes in the game.

Your character will encounter the inhabitants of the town while moving around: townsfolk, merchants, rogues and warriors, pet and stray animals. Most are harmless, if annoying in the way they pester adventurers, but some like the warriors can prove dangerous if provoked, and others may be light-fingered enough to filch your character's purse if allowed to get close. No experience is gained for killing any creature or human in the town.

Moving around the town

To move your character around the town, use either the numeric keypad, or the arrow keys and Home, End, PgUp and PgDn. Note that other sets of keys can be set for use for movement and other commands; this will be described later in the manual.

Stores

The doorways of the stores are represented by the numbers 1 to 8. To enter a store, simply move your character onto the doorway.

Each store has an inventory of items it may stock; at any given time, not all items will be available in the store (except the General Store, which always has the same selection of items), but each time your character returns from Angband, you may find that some items have come into stock, and others disappeared. At much greater intervals, a shop may pass into new hands, and the new shopkeeper will often reduce prices drastically on items inherited from his predecessor.

From time to time, the stores that stock non-magical items (weapons, armour, etc.) may have magical items of that kind for sale, but prices will be much higher than for normal items.

You may both buy and sell in all the stores, other than the General Store, which only sells. Stores will only buy items of the types they normally sell, and then at a much lower price than they will sell them on at.

If you sell an unidentified magical item, such as a potion, the storekeeper will automatically identify it, and in future you will be able to recognise that item. When selling an unidentified item, you will be given the price for the lowest value item of that type.

When you buy and sell, the price you pay (or receive) is based on a specified base cost for the item, modified by your CHArisma, and the relations between your race and the shopkeeper's race. There is also an absolute ceiling on how much each shopkeeper will pay, which is part of the store display you will see when your character is in the store.

List of Stores

The stores, and the numbers that identify them, are:

1. The General Store

The general store sells a useful miscellany:

• food and drink? to nourish your character while exploring
• means to light your way? through dark tunnels
• digging? tools
• ammunition for missile weapons
• cloaks
• scrolls of Word of Recall
• spikes for jamming doors closed.

2. The Armoury

The armoury deals in all types of armour:

• body armour
• shields
• helms and other head protection
• gloves and gauntlets
• boots

3. The Weapon Smiths

The weaponsmith's shop specialises in:

• weapons for hand to hand combat
• missile weapons
• ammunition for the latter.

4. The Temple

The temple offers:

• prayer books (spell books for priests and paladins)
• some potions, specifically healing and restoring potions
• some scrolls, particularly protective scrolls
• non-edged weapons suitable for use by holy adventurers

Note that although the temple only stocks specific categories of potions and scrolls, any potion or scroll can be sold here.

5. The Alchemy Shop

The alchemist deals in:

• magic potions
• spell scrolls

6. The Magic Shop

The magic shop stocks:

• [spell books[ (.Spellbooks)
• magical wands, staves and rods
• enchanted rings and amulets

In addition, you can sell potions and scrolls to the proprietor.

7. The Black Market

Unlike the other stores, the black market will buy and sell anything. The price you pay will be much higher than the same item elsewhere, and when selling you will get considerably less, but the black market sometimes stocks items that are very powerful, and not available elsewhere.

8. Your Home

The final building is not a store at all, but your character's home. Items can be left here for future use (see below)

Store Display

When your character enters a store, you will see a different display in the form of a menu.

At the top left is the name and race of the storekeeper; this may help you estimate how well-disposed towards your character the storekeeper is likely to be. At the top right is the name of the store, and a figure in parentheses – this is the absolute maximum the storekeeper will pay you for any item you offer for sale, no matter how powerful it is.

Below this is the Store Inventory. This is formatted into three columns: item name and quantity available; weight (for a single item of that type); price per single item.

Prices are normally shown in white (bright blue when highlighted) ; for items you cannot afford, prices are shown in grey (highlighted as dark blue).

On a small screen, you may also need to press the space bar to see the latter part of the inventory.

Pressing Esc at any time will allow your character to leave the store.

Buying

Each item is preceded by a reference letter, e.g. a). You can navigate to an item by pressing the appropriate key, by using the up and down arrow keys to move up and down the list, or by clicking on the item with the mouse. The currently selected item is shown by a yellow box cursor around the reference letter, and the reference letter, weight and price are shown in blue.

To see more information about a highlighted item, press l.

Pressing the letter of the selected item again, or pressing Enter, is an offer to buy one or more of that item. You will be asked what quantity of those available you want to buy- - type a number and press Enter. You will then see a summary of the transaction – what your character is buying and in what quantity, and the total price. Press Esc if you want to back out of the deal, or any other key to pay for the goods. The final deal is then summarised.

Selling

While in a store, if your character has items of interest to the storekeeper, you may sell them. Press s or d to attempt to sell items from your character's inventory. If you have nothing the shopkeeper likes the look of, nothing will happen, but if he wants to trade, you will see this message at the top of the store display:

(Inven: x-x, * to see, / for Equip, Esc) Sell which item? (where x-x could be any letters)

Press * to see a list of all items in your character's inventory for which the shopkeeper will offer a price; similarly to buying, you then press the appropriate letter key to choose which to sell, and (if appropriate), a number for the quantity to sell. You will then see the price the shopkeeper is offering; if you feel the price is unreasonable, press Esc to cancel the sale, or any other key to sell it.

Note: There is more explanation about your inventory and equipment in the next section.

Leaving Items in Your Home

As your character explores deeper into Angband, he or she will accumulate magical items, weapons, armour and other useful equipment. The only place anything can safely be stored so that it can be picked up later is in the character's home. The actions to do this are exactly the same as selling in one of the stores, beginning with pressing s or d.

Space in the home is limited, so at some stage you will have to begin to pick and choose what your character keeps and what is sold for cold hard cash.