Readied and carried
Every hero carries up to nine items, and four of them can be readied: one weapon, one bow, one suit of armour and one shield. Readied means in use. The readied items are what he fights with. You never choose them yourself in 1987. The game readies the best of each kind the hero can use, whenever it re-equips him.
The game keeps the two apart. The nine carried items are one list in the hero's record, and the four readied items are four more entries next to it, each naming an item. Most of the time a readied item is also in the list. This finding is about the time it is not.
Two ways to pass an item
In a town the party has two ways to move items between heroes, and many players only remember the first.
- D) Distribute. The game asks "Are you sure you want to redistribute?", gathers every hero's items into one pile, and deals them out again one at a time. This is also the only place in the game where an item can be sold.
- G) Trade Item. One item, one hero to another. "Whose item shall be traded?", then "Trade which item?", then "Who gets the item?". Then the game re-equips both heroes.
Neither works outside a town. On the map and in the dungeons there is no G.
What Trade forgets
The re-equip that follows a trade only ever puts things on. It looks through a hero's pack and readies an item when it is at least as good as the one he has readied and he is strong or nimble enough for it. It never takes anything off, and it never checks that the readied item is still in his pack.
So when a hero gives away the bow he has readied, the bow leaves his pack but stays readied. The game has nothing better to put in its place, so nothing changes. Nothing on screen tells you either, because his Examine sheet lists only what he carries.
A fight does not look in the pack. When a battle starts, the game works out each hero's dice from his readied items alone. A bow's die is its point value times 2, plus 4, so the God Bow rolls up to 44 on every shot. The hero who gave it away gets the same 44. As far as the fight is concerned, he still has it.
In the pictures at the top of this page, Lockett has just given his God Bow to Relf, and the fight still takes Fire Bow as his order.
One bow, the whole party
Once I saw that, I asked the obvious question. If I give my God Bow away, does my hero still fight with the best bow in the game? And could I hand it to all my heroes? In 1987, through Trade, the answer is yes.
The first hero gives it to the second, who readies it. The second gives it to the third, who readies it too, and so on. At the end, every hero who could use it is shooting with the God Bow, and only the last one in the chain is carrying it.
Using it is the catch. To ready the God Bow a hero needs Strength plus Dexterity of 38 or more. No hero can be made with that much except a Sprite at the very top of its rolls, with Strength 16 and Dexterity 22. Events in two of the dungeons raise an attribute by 1 at a time, which is how others can get there. A hero who cannot use it still carries it and can pass it on, and the next hero who can use it readies it.
The bow is only the best example. A readied sword, suit of armour or shield given away by Trade stays readied in the same way.
Why Distribute leaves no ghost
Distribute starts by taking every readied item off every hero, before it gathers the packs into one pile. Then it hands the items out, and each hero readies the best of what he is given. A hero can only have readied what he really carries.
Selling happens only on the Distribute screen. An item sold there has either just been taken off, or is treasure the party found on the road that nobody had readied, so a sold item never stays readied either. The manual says a hero can also sell an item by trading it to adventurer 7, but Trade Item in the Amiga game never touches the gold.
How long a ghost lasts
A ghost stays readied until one of two things happens. Either the hero carries an item of the same kind at least as good, and the next re-equip readies that instead, or the party uses Distribute. For the God Bow, the best bow there is, the first means finding a second God Bow. Arriving in a town with experience or treasure to share re-equips the party, but only by putting things on, so the ghost survives that too. It also survives saving the game, because it is just an entry in the hero's record.
To clear every ghost at once, choose D in any town and redistribute.
In my recreation
My recreation plays the game exactly as it shipped in 1987 unless you ask for a fix. This one is listed as Given weapon still used.
In 1987
Give away the weapon (or shield, armour or bow) a member has readied and the 1987 game still counts it as readied by him until he readies something at least as good.
With the fix
The giver stops using what he no longer carries.
I left it out of my fixes, so a game disk made With Justin's fixes plays it as in 1987; pick Choose my own to have it.
When you make a game disk, the game asks which rules it plays: The 1987 original, With Justin's fixes, or Choose my own. To change a disk later, pick Set fixes on disk on the list of disks.