Dark Tower Gameplay
The Game Board Empire
The game board consists of four kingdoms, separated by frontiers, surrounding the Dark Tower itself. Each kingdom contains one Citadel, Sanctuary, Bazaar, Tomb and Ruin. Each player (1-4) chooses a warrior pawn as his or her player token and begins play in the Citadel of his or her home kingdom (the one with the same color buildings as his or her warrior pawn). The game comes with the following:
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Here's what the assembled game looks like.
DIGITAL
DISPLAY WINDOW THREE LIGHT-UP WINDOWS 12 KEYBOARD BUTTONS POWER SWTICH THE GAMEBOARD EMPIRE WITH 4 KINGDOMS |
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The world of Dark Tower is divided into the four kingdoms of Arisilon, Brynthia, Durnin and Zenon. One of these kingdoms is a player's home, while the other three are referred to as foreign kingdoms. You must travel through all three foreign kingdoms on your journey around the gameboard and discover a key in each kingdom... a brass key in the first, and silver in the second and a gold key in the third. You will not find a key in your home kingdom. Each kingdom is made up of many territories, each of which is one game play space. Movement is conducted one game play space at a time. Some of the territories contain such buildings as Ruins, Tombs, Bazaars and Sanctuaries. The frontiers are the four long, narrow territories that separate the kingdoms from each other. A frontier is considered one game play space. Dark Tower spaces surround the base of the tower, one in each kingdom, and is also considered one game play space. You can only enter the Dark Tower space at the end of the game when you are ready to lay siege to the tower. Citadels are the starting spaces for your pawns. You are not allowed to move into a foreign Citadel territory.
You move your warrior pawn only one territory per turn. You may decide not to move but rather remain in place and perform an action (for example, shopping at a Bazaar). Movment may only be made to an adjacent territory. Movement from kingdom to kingdom (via the frontiers) must be done counter-clockwise, but within a kingdom the player is free to move as he or she wishes. Two or more pawns may be in the same territory in the same time, and do not affect each other. A warrior pawn may not enter the same territory as the Dragon pawn.
Score
Charts and Pegs
Each player is given a score chart with peg markers to keep an inventory of the warriors and supplies won, lost or purchased during the game. This record is for player use only; the tower keeps track of these numbers internally. Battleship-style pegs are used to keep count of items, and there are special key markers to keep track of which keys you have found.
To begin the game, each player is supplied with 10 warriors, 30 bags of gold and 25 rations of food.
Playing Pieces
There is a plastic Dragon
pawn, four plastic warrior pawns and four cardboard Pegasus tokens. The warrior pawns are
the player tokens. The Dragon pawn is used to mark territories where the Dragon has
struck; these areas are off limits to players (until the Dragon strikes elsewhere). The
Pegasus tokens keep track of who has been awarded a Pegasus (one per player only).
The Keyboard
The twelve buttons in
the base of the tower are used to convey information to the game unit. Briefly, their
purposes are:
YES/BUY - Respond affirmative to a
prompt, or add an item to the shopping cart (in a Bazaar).
REPEAT - Used to repeat a display you may
have missed.
NO/END - Respond negatively to a prompt, or end turn.
HAGGLE - Attempt to lower an item price in a
Bazaar.
BAZAAR - Enter a Bazaar territory.
CLEAR - Cancel an
illegal move (turn is lost).
TOMB/RUIN - Enter a Tomb or Ruin territory.
MOVE - Enter an empty territory.
SANCTUARY/CITADEL - Enter a Sanctuary or
Citadel territory.
DARK TOWER - Enter the Dark Tower space to
begin the siege of the Tower.
FRONTIER - Enter a Frontier territory.
INVENTORY - View a list of your warriors and
supplies (uses the entire turn).