88 Names
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GENDER: All player characters are designated either male or female. Like race, this is a cosmetic choice, with no direct effect on gameplay. (Unfortunately, Call to Wizardry does not currently support non-binary as an option, but a trip to an in-game transmogrification parlor can provide your character with a suitably androgynous appearance, and of course we at Sherpa, Inc., will respect your choice of pronouns.)
LEVEL: A measure of your character’s power and experience. A 100th-level warrior fights like the Roman gladiator Maximus, while a 10th-level warrior would be a guy who gets killed during practice warm-ups at the arena. The character we provide you with will be of sufficient level to handle whatever in-game content you wish to experience.
ROLE: Call to Wizardry puts a heavy emphasis on fighting. Each character in an adventure party is assigned one of the following combat roles:
DPS — The dps (short for “damage per second”) characters do most of the actual killing. They hack, slash, and burn monsters to the ground. This is the simplest of the combat roles and a good choice for first-time players. In a typical five-person party, three characters will be assigned to dps duty.
TANK — The tank is a heavily armored character who typically deals less damage than the dps but can absorb a lot more punishment. The tank’s job is to “hold aggro”—to keep the monsters’ attacks focused on them while the more fragile dps and the healer do their jobs. Tanking effectively is a skill that requires practice, but it can be very rewarding. Let us know if you’d like to learn the ropes.
HEALER — The healer keeps everyone else alive. Like tanking, this takes significant skill, and gamers who prefer a more aggressive play style may find it is not to their taste. But the job is yours if you want it.
COOLDOWN: A powerful class ability that requires a lengthy recharge period between uses. We’ll show you how to use these efficiently.
SECONDARY SKILLS: In addition to the powers granted by their class, characters can learn resource-gathering and crafting skills like mining, fishing, and smithing. If you just want a few hours’ adventure, you don’t need to worry about these, but if you intend to purchase your character or create one of your own, we can advise you on what secondary skills will be most useful to you. (We can also level up your secondary skills and/or gather resources for you, freeing you to focus on more interesting parts of the game. Please see Appendix B, Additional Services.)
DUNGEON: A scripted adventure zone featuring a fixed set of challenges, including several powerful boss monsters and their minions. You can think of these as violent theme-park attractions scattered throughout the game world; some are literal dungeons, but they come in many forms, including time portals to important events in the history of Asgarth. Each dungeon is designed to be tackled by characters in a specific level range, and most offer a “heroic mode” with increased difficulty and better rewards.
RAID: A special type of expert dungeon, intended for highly experienced players using max-level characters equipped with the best armor and weapons. Where normal dungeons are restricted to five-person parties, raids allow—and often require—much larger groups. Because of the extreme difficulty and the logistical challenges involved, we generally recommend that players interested in raiding join a guild devoted to that purpose. But if you’ve got money to burn, we can cater a raid for you. Email for a price quote.
LOOT: The spoils of victory. When you kill a monster, the game server generates a random number and consults a hidden “loot table” to determine what treasure(s) it was carrying. The loot tables of dungeon bosses and other elite foes often contain unique items, like powerful weapons, that cannot be obtained anywhere else.
ACHIEVEMENT: A challenge goal, like clearing all the bosses in a dungeon within a given time limit. Most achievements award only bragging rights, but some of the more difficult ones earn you special tokens or titles like “[Character name here], Destroyer of Worlds.” An up-to-date list of achievements can be found on the Tempest website. Please let us know if there are any we can help you with.
PVE: “Player versus Environment.” The default game mode, in which you fight, kill, and loot computer-controlled monsters and non-player characters (NPCs).
PVP: “Player versus Player.” If the computer AI isn’t challenging enough for you, you can also pick fights with other players. PvP combat is ostensibly optional—outside of designated PvP zones, players must voluntarily flag themselves for PvP before you can attack them—but there are ways around this restriction. Ask your guide for details.
PWNED: “Owned,” as in totally dominated. What your enemies will be, when you adventure with Sherpa, Inc.!
About the Author
MATT RUFF is the author of the novels Lovecraft Country, The Mirage, Bad Monkeys, Set This House in Order, Fool on the Hill, and Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Also by Matt Ruff
Lovecraft Country
The Mirage
Bad Monkeys
Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls
Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy
Fool on the Hill
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
88 NAMES. Copyright © 2020 by Matt Ruff. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Cover design by Jarrod Taylor
Cover photograph © Lester Lefkowitz/Getty Images
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ruff, Matt, author.
Title: 88 names : a novel / Matt Ruff.
Other titles: Eighty-eight names
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Harper, [2020].
Identifiers: LCCN 2019020231 (print) | LCCN 2019021528 (ebook) | ISBN 9780062854698 (E-book) | ISBN 9780062854674 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780062854681 (softcover)
Subjects: | GSAFD: Science fiction. | Fantasy fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3568.U3615 (ebook) | LCC PS3568.U3615 A615 2020 (print) | DDC 813/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019020231
Digital Edition MARCH 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-285469-8
Version 02152020
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-285467-4
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