The '''Role-Player's Vault''' is a collection of [[role playing game]]s, written by Samuel Stoddard and hosted on the [[RinkWorks]] web site.
[[As of 2005]], the vault has two games available for play:
* ''Murkon's Refuge'', a game where a group of [[hero]]es have to descend a [[labyrinth]] ten levels deep to defeat the evil archmage Murkon.
* ''Murkon's Vengeance'', a sort-of sequel to ''Murkon's Refuge'', where the player takes the role of Murkon, and has to ascend the labyrinth to the surface, killing parties of heroes along the way.
Both games are ''[[Wizardry]]'' clones played on the [[Internet]] via a [[web browser]]. ''Murkon's Refuge'' was originally published on RinkWorks in [[March 2002]] and ''Murkon's Vengeance'' was published in [[May 2005]].
==Technical details==
The games run as [[Common Gateway Interface|CGI]] applications on the RinkWorks [[HTTP]] server. <b>All</b> interaction is done via HTTP, with the RinkWorks server containing all the game logic, and the client computer used only for the [[Graphical user interface|GUI]].
The interface is 100% pure [[HTML]], with HTML form controls used to make the player's choices. No [[Java (programming language)|Java]], [[JavaScript]] or [[Macromedia Flash|Flash]] is required or used.
The games automatically save the situation on every step. Thus, when a player feels he/she wants to continue later, he/she doesn't have to do anything special. The game will pick up where it left off when it is started again.
To provide for server failures, the games include support for snapshot files, which contain the current game situation and can be downloaded locally on the user's computer. When the server comes back up, the file can be uploaded back to RinkWorks and the game then continues from there. [[As of 2005]], the server has not crashed once.
==Murkon's Refuge==
===History===
<i>This is a brief synopsis of the '''Making of Murkon's Refuge''' page on RinkWorks.</i>
''Murkon's Refuge'' originally dates back to the [[1980s]]. In his school years, Stoddard was a devoted fan of computer [[role-playing game|RPG]]s, and he wrote his first RPG, ''Swords and Sorcery'', in [[BASIC programming language|BASIC]] on an [[Apple IIe]].
Later, in college, Stoddard decided to write a better RPG. In [[1993]], he wrote the first version of ''Murkon's Refuge'' in [[C (programming language)|C]] on a [[Unix]] computer. This ''Murkon's Refuge'' ran locally on the user's computer and used [[ASCII art]] to display the graphics in the game.
In [[2000]], Stoddard began rewriting ''Murkon's Refuge'' in [[C++]] as a client-server game, and it was published on RinkWorks in [[2002]].
===Story===
<i>This is a brief synopsis of the '''Murkon's Refuge Story''' page on RinkWorks.</i>
For many years, the kingdoms of Peregham and Stiltshire were at war. King Lehowy of Peregham ordered his First Mage Anwyk Arisses to make him a magical diadem to win the war. Anwyk succeeded, but the diadem was stolen by First Mage Murkon of Stiltshire and his three comrades.
Corrupted by the power of the diadem, Murkon murdered his comrades and constructed a huge, labyrinthine dungeon ten levels deep, settling himself down at the end of the lowest level.
When King Lehowy heard of this, he called upon a group of warriors to brave the dungeon and retrieve the stolen diadem.
===Game play===
====Characters====
A player's party can include six characters. These can be male or female, of several different races (including human, elf, dwarf, troll and gwuil), and of the following classes:
* Knight
* Rogue
* Wizard
* Sorcerer
* Assassin
* Druid
Every class has a set of minimum requirements for the character's abilities. The requirements for Assassins and Druids are so high that new characters cannot become these classes. Once created, a character can later change his/her class, provided he/she meets the requirements.
====Play====
''Murkon's Refuge'' plays like a simplified version of ''Wizardry''. Every one of the 10 levels is a rectangle of 30*20 spaces, with walls forming a labyrinth of corridors. Making a map of the dungeon is essential for avoiding getting lost.
Various [[monster]]s inhabit the dungeon. These range from lowly [[orc]]s to powerful [[dragon]]s. There are also four "boss" monsters which are amazingly powerful and hold vital key objects. The last of these is Murkon himself, holding the magic diadem.
A notable feature of ''Murkon's Refuge'' is that when a character dies, he/she is not deleted from the game, but remains in the party, in an unusable state. In town, a dead character can be resurrected, but at a great cost. Even if the entire party dies, they are taken back to the town they last visited, and can be resurrected if the player can afford it; if not, a completely new party must be created at the starting city in order to be able to get enough gold to the city where the first party resides so that they can be resurrected.
===Notes===
As of 2005, hundreds of players have completed ''Murkon's Refuge'', many of them several times. This has led to fans of the game trying several different challenges, such as:
* Completing the game with only one character.
* Completing the game without ever visiting any other town than the first one.
* Completing the game without ever using magic.
* Completing the game by only using magic.
* Completing the game without ever changing a character's class.
* Completing the game without any character dying.
Some of these challenges have already been accomplished, while some are just too difficult.
==Murkon's Vengeance==
According to Stoddard, ''Murkon's Vengeance'' is ''Murkon's Refuge'' in reverse. The game uses the same engine as ''Murkon's Refuge'' but with slight modifications.
===Characters===
Contrary to ''Murkon's Refuge'', the only character available to play in ''Murkon's Vengeance'' is the evil archmage Murkon. This character can develop his skills and acquire new items just like the characters in ''Murkon's Refuge''.
The enemies in ''Murkon's Vengeance'' come in the form of actual player parties used in ''Murkon's Refuge'' from [[2002]] to [[2005]]. Stoddard has only had the chance to use about 200 of the tens of thousands of parties that have been played, but if you're a veteran of ''Murkon's Refuge'', you might well encounter one of your old parties.
===Play===
''Murkon's Vengeance'' plays similarly to ''Murkon's Refuge'', only you proceed the opposite way, starting from level 10 and working your way upwards to level 1. On each level, there is a preset number of player parties you have to kill. When all parties on a level have been killed, you can proceed up to the next level.
There are a few differences to ''Murkon's Refuge'':
* When Murkon dies, he is not automatically transported to the previous city to be resurrected. Instead, time rewinds to the last time you used one of the many checkpoints scattered around the levels (including one that's always on the entry space to each level). Everything is the same as when you first reached that checkpoint, except that you have no monsters with you. If you haven't reached any checkpoints (you're at the beginning of the game, or close to it), you simply start over. A checkpoint can only be used to save your progress once, but you can rewind back to the checkpoint as many times as is needed, so you never really lose permanently.
* Murkon has the ability to summon monsters to help him kill player parties. These monsters follow Murkon around. However, they can't be directly controlled, but instead act on their free will in battles.
===Notes===
The idea of a heroic quest in reverse, playing the evil overlord, has been used at least twice before.
* The original ''Wizardry'' series included a game called ''The Return of Werdna'', where the player took the role of Werdna, the main enemy of the previous game.
* The [[United Kingdom|British]] software company [[Bullfrog Productions]] developed a role playing game called ''[[Dungeon Keeper]]'', where the player's job is to maintain an evil presence in an underground labyrinth and kill off heroic parties.
==External links==
*[http://www.rinkworks.com/vault/index.cgi The Role-Player's Vault]
[[Category:Online games]]
[[Category:Rinkworks]]
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