Table of Contents Introduction Required System Recommended System Installation Instructions Beginning the Adventure The Main Menu The way of the Viking HUD Weapons Shields Food and Drink Other Objects Gifts from the Gods Runestones Rune powers Games of Valhalla Multiplayer Mode Finding other Players Multiplayer Games Deathmatch Team Deathmatch Arena Headball The Way of the Gods Troubleshooting and Support Runegame.
Long ago, in the time of gods and myth . . . 2 The old man and the girl moved slowly up the narrow and rocky pass under the watchful eyes of the sentries. “You see, child,” the man murmured, “even here one can sense the coming darkness. They cannot see the armies, but they watch the birds fleeing the northern forests. They do not hear the horns, but they listen to the crash of thunder from beyond the mountains.” A viking clad in war leathers stepped forward to block their path, axe held at the ready.
eddas will be told of great battles and terrible bloodshed, not inconsequential villages! ‘Learn the craft,’ you said. ‘Seek out the legends!’ “ The old man smiled. “Your place for now is to watch, and to listen. In doing so, you will come to understand our purpose.” Wotankeld was larger than most viking villages, built in a rift between the high cliffs that surrounded it. Enormous longhouses sat side-by-side along the streets that took Jun and the old man toward its center. The entire town seemed on edge.
man was waiting. “They may know that the darkness is coming, but if he’s defending the village it’ll be in deep, deep trouble.” The skald smiled again. “Perhaps,” he said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “Though all too soon that boy will be the one defending not this village, but all of Midgard. . .
CPU RAM Video Sound Disk Space CD-ROM Internet Play AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium III 450Mhz or higher 128MB Nvidia TNT Series/GeForce Series, ATI Rage 128/Radeon, 3dfx Voodoo5, Matrox G400 DirectX Compatible Sound Card 650MB Free Hard Drive Space 8X Halls of Valhalla is an online multiplayer game, and a TCP/IP connection is required to play. INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS Insert the RUNE CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive. Follow the onscreen instructions to install the game to your hard drive.
approval, the assembled vikings crowded closer. Jun climbed atop a nearby barrel for a better view. The combat had already begun, Ragnar and Sigard circling warily. Suddenly Ragnar rushed forward and brought his blade up in a violent swing easily parried by his opponent. Ragnar attacked again, only to be blocked by Sigard’s shield. As Ragnar leapt back, Sigard used the flat of his blade to clout the young warrior on his sword arm.
yield.” Jun joined the crowd as it erupted in cheers, the vikings raising their weapons in salute. A warrior clad in both leather and mail stepped forward, longsword and dagger strapped to his hips and an enormous axe slung behind him. Boiled and stretched leather had been formed into guards that were strapped over his shoulders and reached almost to the edges of his helm. He raised his hands and waited for the cheers to calm. Finally he put his hand on Ragnar’s shoulder and spoke.
BEGINNING THE ADVENTURE The Main Menu Each time you launch RUNE, you’ll be presented with the Main Menu screen. To return to this screen at any time while playing the game, press the Esc key. The Main Menu offers you the following options: New Game Begin a new adventure. You will be asked to select a level of difficultyEasy, Medium, or Hard-before the game begins. Load Game View games that have been previously saved. Select a game and click on Load to return to an adventure in progress.
Game: Set options that will customize the game environment. Controls: Customize how the game controls map to your keyboard, mouse, and joystick. Input: Select your input devices, such as joysticks, mice, or keyboards. Exit: Lay down your weapons and leave RUNE. PART II Only the warriors had been allowed in the ceremony, so Jun and Bragi resumed their wandering through Wotankeld. “I suppose it’s not such a bad place,” Jun said. “Nice, in it’s own way.
around a dark-bearded man listening intently to a gasping runner. Gudrek pushed his way to the front of the crowd. “What’s happened, my thane?” The older man held up a hand to silence the thanesman as the runner continued. “Conrack’s men . . . They side with giant warriors . . . armed with strange, terrible weapons. Messengers down on. . . the beach.” A viking handed the runner a skin of water and the thane sat on his haunches for a moment, fingering the charm that hung around his neck-a Hammer of Thor.
The thane walked to where Ragnar waited and placed his hand on his shoulder. “This will be more than a battle against some misguided peasants, Ragnar. From the tales we’ve heard, you could believe we are setting off to face the very forces of darkness.” “I know, father,” said Ragnar. “But you know I have trained with every weapon in this village since long before I was bearded.” The young warrior dropped to one knee and held his sword before him. “In battle I will earn this honor.
THE WAY OF THE VIKING HUD: Heads-Up Display As you journey through the world of RUNE, gauges along the edges of the screen will provide you with information about Ragnar’s health and abilities: Breath (left side, blue bar) 12 Bloodlust (red bar across bottom) Shield (right side, thin gray bar) Rune power Health (left side, (right side, large red bar) yellow bar)
Health: Indicates Ragnar’s physical condition; the lower the bar, the closer Ragnar is to death. Shield: How much more damage Ragnar’s shield can take before it shatters. Rune power: The amount of rune power Ragnar can call upon. See page 20 for more information. Breath: Ragnar has the mighty lungs of a viking, but if he doesn’t surface or find a pocket of air before this bar empties, he may suffer the ignominious death of drowning. . .
Attacking: When Ragnar is wielding a weapon, pressing the Attack key will cause Ragnar to make a single swipe with the weapon. Properly timing a second use of the Attack key will allow Ragnar to make a double swipe with the weapon. Smaller weapons-and practice-will even allow for triple- and quadruple-strokes! Throwing weapons: Weapons can also be thrown, if Ragnar wants to attack from a distance. But beware-his enemies may pick up the weapons and use them against him.
Food and Drink If Ragnar has been injured, consuming food and drink of all sorts will refill the Health bar on the HUD. The resourceful viking will also hunt for animals and fruit along his path that will help him rebuild his strength. Other Objects Ragnar can interact with many of the other objects he will find in his journey. Torches will help him find the way through dark caverns-and be relit off anything that’s burning. Chains and barrels can be broken. Ropes and vines can be climbed.
A strong viking may be able to break down walls and wooden barriers, but he will find those bound or made with cold iron to be impassable. Different opponents will have different tactics when they attack-and will require different tactics to defeat. Simpler creatures might be conquered by wading into their mass, but larger and smarter enemies will require more savvy. Ragnar can use his shield to defend himself as he closes on his opponents, but he cannot attack while hiding behind his shield.
Mindful of his oath, Ragnar vowed that he would fight to the death against Conrack’s raiders to prove his courage- to earn the medal of the Odinsblade and a place in the halls of Valhalla. On the shore sat the tiny boat that had carried the messengers from Kopperud. Only one had survived, and he looked to be mumbling incoherently as a woman treated his wounds. Ragnar’s father and Gudrek stood nearby, until the woman turned and shook her head.
“The Runestone of Odin,” whispered Bragi. “Cast down by Odin himself and a holy artifact to the people of this village and the surrounding land. Its wisdom has shaped viking law for generations. Around it the people have gathered stones to record their own history, to remember great deeds and to dedicate them to the Aesir.” An older man raised his arms and the murmuring crowd fell silent. “We call on the Aesir-on Odin, on Tyr. We call on Thor and Njord.
GIFTS FROM THE GODS The gods show their favor for warriors who have earned Valhalla with the gift of runestones scattered throughout its halls and battlefields. These runestones are much more than mere symbols-they are vessels of power that imbue the warrior who obtains them with a wide range of powerful abilities. RUNESTONES There are five types of runestones: Lesser Runestone: Grants raw rune power to the warrior-the level of rune power in the rune power bar on the HUD will rise.
RUNE POWERS Every weapon that your character wields can be imbued with rune power to invoke powerful abilities, from the ability to throw an unlimited number of axes for a short period to the power to slam a mace into the ground and damage every enemy in your vicinity. When wielding a weapon, you’ll see an icon at the bottom of the rune power bar that hints at it’s unique rune power.
If none are detected, set up your own arena. Multiplayer games can be hosted on the computer of any participating player, or for better performance, on a dedicated computer. On the computer you want to host the game, select the Host menu and customize the arena, such as selecting the map and the rules mutators you want in play.
Arena A new multiplayer game in Halls of Valhalla¸ Arena pits warriors against one another in a test of their combat skills until only one remains standing. Basic Arena play is one-on-one dueling, but some maps and servers allow for larger teams--2-on-2, 3-on-3, etc. When you enter an Arena game, equip yourself with weapons and shield and then get in the queue to enter the arena.
When a head is severed, any player can pick it up and make a run for goals placed around the map. Some maps have goals that can be used by any player to score, while others have team-specific goals. Variant maps have multiple goals where each scores a different number of points per head, with difficult to score goals (distant, or requiring trick shots) worth more points.
riors, behind each sword is another person somewhere out on the Internet, a person playing a game. Games have rules, and Rune provides those basic rules in the form of the game loaded onto your computer. As these ‘rules’ are fixed, in the end they are the only ones that can be truly enforced. However, the Internet is as varied as its innumerable users, and games played on the Internet are no different.
attempt to unfairly escape an opponent. A feel for what is ‘fair play’ in a particular match or on a particular server can only be found by open and friendly discussion with the server administrator and other players. In the basic play of Rune, chaotic combat with no rule but that of the sword, Human Head Studios hopes to have created a game that is great fun.
RUNE TECHNICAL SUPPORT (410) 933-9191 9 AM - 5 PM EST, Monday - Friday TalonSoft, PO Box 43730, White Marsh, MD 21236 http://www.talonsoft.com talon@talonsoft.com Note: These contacts are for technical support only. Representatives cannot provide game hints or suggestions. Human Head Studios For more information on the team behind Rune and their other projects, visit the official Human Head Studios website at: http:// www.humanhead.
Sound Effects: Mike Larson Art Manager Ted Halsted Music: Mike Larson Romulus Mars Priscus Jim B-Reay Business Director Timothy S. Gerritsen Manual: Seth Johnson and Ben Condit Programmers Paul MacArthur Chris Rhinehart A long overdue special thanks to Terry Nagy for his assistance on Rune.
Jim Sumwalt Loreguide Seth Johnson Original Concept Ted Halsted PR and Marketing Support Tim Gerritsen Trish ‘Kazi Wren’ Harris Chad Savage Historical Advisor Laurie Wise Viking Ship Model By: John Falgate Additional Animation Mike Werckle Audio Credits Direction and Production: Michael Larson Sound Effects Michael Larson Music Michael Larson Jim B-Reay Romulus Mars Priscus Voice Overs Lee Ernst Ted Halsted Michael Larson Tejumola F Ologboni Sue Quinn Nick Skrowaczewski 28 Dialog Ted Halsted Seth Johnson
original disk(s) and/or CD-ROM (the “Storage Media”) only for backup or archival purposes. Restrictions.
APPLY TO YOU. Product Support and Updates. This SOFTWARE is intended to be user-friendly and limited product support is provided by Owner as specied in the ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS. Jurisdiction. TEXAS LAWS GOVERN THIS AGREEMENT, REGARDLESS OF EACH STATE’S CHOICE OF LAW PRINCIPLES, WITH A FORUM AND VENUE OF DALLAS COUNTY, TEXAS. This Agreement may be modied only by a written instrument specifying the modication and executed by both parties.
