History VideoGame / TaskMaker

* BeeAfraid: Zig-zagged. "Worker Bees" have a Good alignment and very low health and attack. There are, however, Giant Wasp, Giant Hornet, and Giant Killer Bee, who all have an Evil alignment.

* DeathIsNotPermanent: A player can die and go to Hell an indefinite amount of times.
* DiscOneNuke: The Tutorial level gives an Ethereal Potion, which can either be sold for a high price to get powerful weapons early on, or used to phase through walls near the [=TaskMaker=]'s throne to access several high-powered weapons. (All four are located in catacombs that are otherwise inaccessible until the final task, and while said catacombs feature several high-powered monsters, two of the three are located in a "safe" room that also features [[spoiler:a switch to access the hidden weapon in the fountain]], the third can usually be accessed before the monsters spawn, and sometimes the fourth can as well.)

** Nearly every dungeon has a hidden message. Pentamerous has a very ''long'' one that explains the game's history in detail.

* EscapedFromHell: The tricky thing about monsters is there tend to be a limited amount, and randomized ones are rare unless the player stocks up on Make Monsters scrolls. This makes level-grinding tricky, especially for players who just want to kill monsters. When the player dies, he has to make his way through a fiery maze in FireAndBrimstoneHell back to the living, while avoiding respawning devils (three of which are blocked off and can't hurt him). The player can get sent to Hell [[WhatTheHellPlayer by casting a spell with a swear word in it.]] (Or use an item like a Hell Scroll or Adam's Apple that RandomlyDrops). Also, the devils re-spawn if the player saves in Hell and reopen the file…
* EvenEvilHasStandards: If a player attacks an NPC with a Good or Neutral alignment, then any other NPC on the screen at the time will become angered if they are not already so — ''including'' [=NPCs=] who have an Evil alignment.

* FirstTown: Castle Hall.

* GameBreakingBug: If a player's food meter is drained, he will lose health ''very'' quickly and be sent to Hell. Unless he finds food right away, he will be stuck in an infinite death loop.

* InexplicableTreasureChests: One of the items available at a shop is "Old Empty Chest," which is empty and has no value at all.

* InvisibilityCloak: One is available for sale in the shops. Wearing it will lessen the chance of monsters or otherwise-angered [=NPCs=] from attacking, but the player will also be unable to interact with shopkeepers or the [=TaskMaker=], and all other non-angered [=NPCs=] will merely say "I can't see you!"

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Almost all dungeons are swarming with [=NPC=]s and/or monsters.

* PlayerNudge: Attempting to talk to the [=TaskMaker=] before the player has found the current task object will make the [=TaskMaker=] demand again that he find it, and give a hint or two on finding it.

* PowerUpFood: DagwoodSandwich or Spinach will restore all stats along with Hunger.

** If the player loses a battle to a Devil while in Hell, and is still on the entry tile, the Devil will disappear to prevent the player from being cornered.

* AwesomeButTemporary: Magic wands of various sorts can be found all over the place. While they boast power far beyond even the most powerful sword, and can even be wielded, they'll usually last for only one to four shots before turning into a useless stick.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: A spell in "Other spell to invoke" can turn off the stepping noise every time a player moves, the "ooph" sound when they run into a wall, and the appearance of random monsters. It can also make the game automatically save whenever you enter or exit a town/dungeon/etc.

* PlayableEpilogue: After winning the game, a doorway behind the [=TaskMaker's=] throne reveals an access to an epilogue level in which all of the game's creators are [=NPCs=].

* RandomlyGeneratedLevels: Hell is randomly generated every time.

* SkeletonKey: Of the "open any doors" variety.

* SprintShoes: "Boots o' Speed".

* TeleportSpam: Inverted; the final boss can teleport-spam ''the player''.

* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Killing an NPC with a Good alignment decreases Spirit. Also, don't kill "Mom" in Enitsirhc and "Rusty" in Poet's Nightmare. They will warn the player of this when frightened (done by any NPC when its health is low) by saying [[WhatTheHellPlayer "You're making a big mistake!"]]. And killing them will render the player permanently blind, deaf, and drunk, thus unable to progress.
* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: One of the tasks in the first game is to kill a rebel and bring back his head. His alignment is given as "unknown" when he is met, and killing him [[spoiler:reveals him to be a "good" alignment]]. Averted from version 2.0.3 onward, as the level was changed so that instead of killing the rebel, the player can [[spoiler:bestow a gift to him, thus causing him to give you a slave's head, which the [=TaskMaker=] always assumes to be the rebel's head]]. Similarly averted in the Island Prison from 2.0 onward, where the player [[spoiler:can either bestow a gift to the prisoner in the Island Prison, or just do nothing to him at all]].

* VoiceOfDramatic: A deep voice says the game's name in the opening screen.

The player is an agent of the title character, sent to fetch objects from various towns and dungeons while gaining experience. Along the way, he has to fight various monsters. The player can also go to shops to buy useful potions, weapons and scrolls to enhance his fighting ability, as well as not-so-useful items. Stats are measured in bars such as food, spirit, health, stamina, etc. — these stats can be depleted and restored at any time, but leveling up increases how much ''overall'' he has of each. He can also cast various preset spells to aid in killing monsters, replenishing stats, etc. [[spoiler: For the final task, the player is asked to kill a prisoner, who actually turns out to be a good person. The player then discovers that the [=TaskMaker=] is evil, and has to kill him to win the game.]]

* AllThereInTheManual: The shareware version came with a manual, without which some of the puzzles are pretty hard to solve.

* BagOfHolding: All items are placed in the player's pouch, which can hold up to 41 items, regardless of how big each individual item would be in RealLife. It's possible to carry 41 old empty chests in there.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: One character says "This game is too tough." when frightened.

* DualWielding: A player can hold a weapon in each hand (and probably should). However, there are some two-handed weapons, including shovels, picks, and bows.
* DungeonBypass: Invoked in Poet's Nightmare. After deciding that it was too tough a dungeon, the programmers added a staircase hidden behind a wall. Just one Passwall or Ethereal Potion will get there.

The player is an agent of the title character, sent to fetch objects from various towns and dungeons while gaining experience. Along the way, he has to fight various monsters. The player can also go to shops to buy useful potions, weapons and scrolls to enhance his fighting ability, as well as not-so-useful items. Stats are measured in bars such as food, spirit, health, stamina, etc. — these stats can be depleted and restored at any time, but leveling up increases how much ''overall'' he has of each. He can also cast various preset spells to aid in killing monsters, replenishing stats, etc. For the final task, the player is asked to kill a prisoner, who actually turns out to be a good person. The player then discovers that the [=TaskMaker=] is evil, and has to kill him to win the game.

** Pentamerous tricks the player with one of these. The purple [=TaskMaker=] floor that one expects to be a path to the King's Bones actually leads to a room shaped like a devil's head, with traps the player within thanks to a floor trap. The only way to get out is to use the Escape to Outer Terra spell (which also costs a level), or hope that you have a Teleport Scroll or Escape to Outer Terra.

* SchmuckBait: Inverted. "Poison Potion" will actually increase all stats.

''[=TaskMaker=]'' is a WesternRPG, first designed as a TabletopGame and later adapted for the black-and-white {{Macintosh}} in 1989. While almost nothing is known about the board game, the computer version was fairly popular, especially after a 1993 rerelease as {{Shareware}} by Storm Impact added color graphics. (The company had previously done the same with ''VideoGame/MacSki''.)

* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything:
** Although difficult, it's possible to reduce the Health bar to 0 while still in the Tutorial.[[note]](The player would have to run into a wall repeatedly and slowly grind their health down; get lucky with the hidden "random monster" spell and deliberately lose to an attacking monster; or phase through a wall with the lone Ethereal Potion and attack one of the shopkeepers in the later rooms of the Tutorial and deliberately lose to them.)[[/note]] Reducing health to 0 in the Tutorial will, instead of killing the player, simply reset the Health to full and display a message stating that the player would have died, dropped their pouch, and gone to Hell under normal circumstances.
** The Ethereal Potion does not allow passage through black walls or walls with shapes on them. Vidair's Tower is largely composed of black walls.
** Frightening an NPC will not work if the player is drunk.
** The hidden "summon a ship" spell doesn't work in Castle Hall, because it can be used to access a powerful weapon in the fountain.

* TakeThat: [[Franchise/{{Ultima}} Richard Garriott]] is held in the Island Prison, in a prison covered with feces. (He can only be accessed by phasing through walls.) He says "I don't make games anymore."

* TakeThat: [[{{Ultima}} Richard Garriott]] is held in the Island Prison, in a prison covered with feces. (He can only be accessed by phasing through walls.) He says "I don't make games anymore."

** HenryDavidThoreau's ''Civil Disobedience'' is quoted in Enitsirhc.

* LikeABadassOutOfHell: The tricky thing about monsters is there tend to be a limited amount, and randomized ones are rare unless the player stocks up on Make Monsters scrolls. This makes level-grinding tricky, especially for players who just want to kill monsters. When the player dies, he has to make his way through a fiery maze in FireAndBrimstoneHell back to the living, while avoiding respawning devils (three of which are blocked off and can't hurt him). The player can get sent to Hell [[WhatTheHellPlayer by casting a spell with a swear word in it.]] (Or use an item like a Hell Scroll or Adam's Apple that RandomlyDrops). Also, the devils re-spawn if the player saves in Hell and reopen the file…

* LikeABadassOutOfHell: The tricky thing about monsters is there tend to be a limited amount, and randomized ones are rare unless the player stocks up on Make Monsters scrolls. This makes level-grinding tricky, especially for players who just want to kill monsterss. When the player dies, he has to make his way through a fiery maze in FireAndBrimstoneHell back to the living, while avoiding respawning devils (three of which are blocked off and can't hurt him). The player can get sent to Hell [[WhatTheHellPlayer by casting a spell with a swear word in it.]] (Or use an item like a Hell Scroll or Adam's Apple that RandomlyDrops). Also, the devils re-spawn if the player saves in Hell and reopen the file…

The player is an agent of the title character, sent to fetch objects from various towns and dungeons while gaining experience. Along the way, he has to fight various monsters. The player can also go to shops to buy useful potions, weapons and scrolls to enhance his fighting ability, as well as not-so-useful items. Stats are measured in bars such as food, spirit, health, stamina, etc. — these stats can be depleted and restored at any time, but leveling up increases how much ''overall'' he has of each. He can also cast various preset spells to aid in killing monsters, replenishing stats, etc. For the final task, the player is asked to kill a prisoner, [[spoiler: who actually turns out to be a good person. The player then discovers that the [=TaskMaker=] is evil, and has to kill him to win the game.]]

The player is an agent of the title character, sent to fetch objects from various towns and dungeons while gaining experience. Along the way, he has to fight various monsters. The player can also go to shops to buy useful potions, weapons and scrolls to enhance his fighting ability, as well as not-so-useful items. Stats are measured in bars such as food, spirit, health, stamina, etc. — these stats can be depleted and restored at any time, but leveling up increases how much ''overall'' he has of each. He can also cast various preset spells to aid in killing monsters, replenishing stats, etc. For the final task, the player is asked to kill a prisoner, who actually turns out to be a good person. Regardless of whether or not the prisoner is killed, the player then discovers that the [=TaskMaker=] is evil, and has to kill him to win the game.

* LevelGrinding: Pretty much a necessity. It's possible to pull off in the ''tutorial'' despite that level not having monsters; just use the entry-level spells (Heal/Cure, Illuminate) enough times and the player can probably get to level 7 (by which point he will know all the spells) before he'ss even done with the tutorial.

* WizardNeedsFoodBadly: One of the stat bars is Food. This is replenished by buying or finding any food, from Apples and generic Rations up to Home-Cooked Meals and Spinach, which replenish both Food and all other stats. Similarly, an "Instant Vacation" spell will also replenish all stats including Food, Hungergone potions will fill up the Food bar instantly, and a Food Ring will keep the Food bar full at all times. As mentioned above, the Food bar hitting 0 causes the other stats to drain ''very'' quickly until the player finds food or dies from his health hitting 0 (or by summoning an expensive food shop if in a pinch).

* EverythingsWorseWithBees: Zig-zagged. "Worker Bees" have a Good alignment and very low health and attack. There are, however, Giant Wasp, Giant Hornet, and Giant Killer Bee, who all have an Evil alignment.

** Although it's not that easy to set up such a circumstance in the first place, it's completely impossible to die in the Tutorial level.

* DiscOneNuke: The Tutorial level gives you an ethereal potion, which can either be sold for a high price to get powerful weapons early on, or used to phase through walls near the [=TaskMaker=]'s throne to access ''three'' powerful weapons and a switch that unveils a fourth.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even un-angered monsters will become angry if the player attacks a Good or Neutral NPC in their presence.
* EverythingsWorseWithBees: Zig-zagged. "Worker Bees" have a Good alignment and very low health. There are, however, Giant Wasp, Giant Hornet, and Giant Killer Bee, who all have an Evil alignment.

* HealingPotion: In addition to the traditional one, the game offers "Extra Healing" (a stronger potion), and various items that will restore health and/or other stats to various degrees (including "Instant Weekend" and "Instant Vacation").

* InexplicableTreasureChests: One of the items availableat a shop is "Old Empty Chest," which is empty and has no value at all.

The player is an agent of the title character, sent to fetch objects from various towns and dungeons while gaining experience. Along the way, he has to fight various monsters. The player can also go to shops to buy useful potions, weapons and scrolls to enhance his fighting ability, as well as not-so-useful items. Stats are measured in bars such as food, spirit, health, stamina, etc. — these stats can be depleted and restored at any time, but leveling up increases how much ''overall'' you have of each. He can also cast various preset spells to aid in killing monsters, replenishing stats, etc. For the final task, the player is asked to kill a prisoner, who actually turns out to be a good person. Regardless of whether or not the prisoner is killed, the player then discovers that the [=TaskMaker=] is evil, and has to kill him to win the game. The [=TaskMaker=] will insta-kill you if you killed the prisoner.

* BagOfHolding: All items are placed in the player's pouch, which can hold up to 41 items, regardless of how big each individual item would be in RealLife. You could carry 41 old empty chests in there if you wanted.

* CheatCode: Many spells can be entered into "Other Spell to Invoke", including one which summons a(n expensive) food shop, another which summons a(n also expensive) key shop, one which blows away any force field in your path, one which returns you to the docks at the start of the game, one that summons a ship when facing water, etc.

** Frightening an NPC will not work if your player is drunk.
** You can't use the "summon a ship" spell in Castle Hall, because it can be used to access a powerful weapon in the fountain.[[note]]But you can get to it if you flip a switch in the [=TaskMaker's=] catacombs.[[/note]]

* DungeonBypass: Invoked in Poet's Nightmare. After deciding that it was too tough a dungeon, the programmers added a staircase hidden behind a wall. Just one Passwall or Ethereal Potion will get you there.

** If you try to throw a task item in the recycle bin, you'll get a funny message such as "You can't recycle that! It would turn you into a tuna fish sandwich."

*** "Kiss" on a monster or guard drains your Spirit and displays the message "You should seek professional help."

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even un-angered monsters will become angry if you attack a Good or Neutral NPC in their presence.

* ForcedTutorial: Subverted; you can skip the tutorial. However, you shouldn't, because it offers far more treasure than is given to players who skip the tutorial. (For instance, you can gather multiple weapons and an Ethereal Potion, which can be sold for a high price or used to get a powerful sword early on.)

* GetOnTheBoat: Required to get to Vidair's Tower. You have to sail out of Pentamerous.
* HealingPotion: In addition to the traditional one, the game offers "Extra Healing" (a stronger potion), and various items that will restore your health and/or other stats to various degrees (including "Instant Weekend" and "Instant Vacation").

* InconvenientlyPlacedConveyorBelt: The tutorial shows an example of a conveyor belt being used to deny exit from a room (you have to turn it off via switch). However, this trick only shows up in one village, where all it blocks you from is a small pile of {{Skeleton Key}}s amid lots of garbage. Even then, it can easily be thwarted by using the Haste spell or Boots o' Speed to run across the conveyor belt.
* InexplicableTreasureChests: One of the items you can acquire at a shop is "Old Empty Chest," which is empty and has no value at all.

* ItsUpToYou: You have to do all the fighting, {{Item Get}}ting, and everything else. None of the [=NPC=]s can help you beyond giving hints.

** The Wisdom Teeth seem useless at first, but they will prevent you from being teleported by the final boss.
* KarmaMeter: In a manner of speaking; the game keeps track of how many "good", "neutral" and "evil" beings you kill. In the first game, kill too many good beings [[spoiler:(or the Prisoner)]] and the BigBad insta-kills you.

* LevelEditor: Sort of. After winning the game, you can edit all of the dungeons.
* LevelGrinding: Pretty much a necessity. You can even pull it off in the ''tutorial'' despite that level not having monsters; just use the entry-level spells (Heal/Cure, Illuminate) enough times and you can probably get to level 7 (by which point you will know all the spells) before you're even done with the tutorial.
* LikeABadassOutOfHell: The tricky thing about monsters is there tend to be a limited amount, and randomized ones are rare unless you stock up on Make Monsters scrolls. This makes level-grinding tricky, especially if you only want to kill evil monsters. When you die, you have to make your way through a fiery maze in FireAndBrimstoneHell back to the living, while avoiding respawning devils (three of which are blocked off and can't hurt you). You can get sent to Hell [[WhatTheHellPlayer if you "cast a spell" with a swear word in it.]] (Or use an item like a Hell Scroll or Adam's Apple that RandomlyDrops). Also, the devils re-spawn if you save in Hell and reopen the file…

* PlayerNudge: If you talk to the [=TaskMaker=] but haven't yet received the current task object, he will demand again that you get it, and give a hint or two on finding it.
* PoisonMushroom: "Skeleton Scroll" temporarily drains your player stats by about 10%, and "Depressions" knocks them down even further. "Devil's Scroll" goes so far as to lower your ''overall'' stats.

* SchmuckBait: Inverted. "Poison Potion" will actually increase all your stats.

* SequenceBreaking: Subverted. While you can clear out the path to a task object whenever you want, you can't actually pick up the next object in line until the [=TaskMaker=] has assigned it to you. The game even informs you of this.
** You also can't go into any other town at the start of the game until you've talked to the [=TaskMaker=] in Castle Hall.

** [[ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} Eating spinach]] restores all your stats.

** When angered, the Happy Bat threatens to [[Music/OzzyOsbourne bite your head off]].

* TakeThat: [[{{Ultima}} Richard Garriott]] is held in the Island Prison, in a prison covered with feces. (You can only get to him by phasing through walls.) He says "I don't make games anymore."
* TeleportSpam: Inverted; the final boss can teleport-spam ''you''.

* VideoGameCaringPotential: If the player keeps a good alignment (e.g., by only killing monsters, not neutral or good [=NPCs=]), they will find that their health will replenish much more quickly in the Lost Gardens.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can kill off almost every NPC, then use "restart place" to reset the current area and re-spawn every NPC, although you will lose a small amount of points for each one you kill. Lather, rinse, repeat.
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Killing an NPC with a Good alignment decreases your Spirit. Also, don't kill "Mom" in Enitsirhc and "Rusty" in Poet's Nightmare. They will warn you of this when you've fought them to the point that they become frightened (done by any NPC when its health is low) by saying [[WhatTheHellPlayer "You're making a big mistake!"]]. And if you kill them, your player will permanently be rendered blind, deaf, and drunk (i.e., completely unable to finish the game).
* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: One of the tasks in the first game is to kill a rebel and bring back his head. His alignment is given as "unknown" when you first meet him, and killing him [[spoiler:reveals him to be a "good" alignment]]. Averted from version 2.0.3 onward, as the level was changed so that instead of killing the rebel, you can [[spoiler:bestow a gift to him, thus causing him to give you a slave's head, which the [=TaskMaker=] always assumes to be the rebel's head]]. Similarly averted in the Island Prison from 2.0 onward, where you [[spoiler:can either bestow a gift to the prisoner in the Island Prison, or just do nothing to him at all]].
* VisualPun: In Enitsirhc, you can find a Skeleton hiding in a closet.

* WakeUpCallBoss: The final boss is about 10 times more powerful than any monster in the game. He can also teleport, deafen, blind, or intoxicate you, in addition to summoning monsters and healing himself. He used to be nearly ten times more powerful than ''that'' in 2.0, but was severely cut down.
* WalletOfHolding: Zig-zagged. You can carry forms of currency, but you can't use them in a shop until you deposit them in an Auto Teller. As with any other object, forms of currency take up room in your pouch until deposited. Also, you will lose any un-deposited currency if you die. However, money deposited in the Auto Teller or earned from selling shop items has no upper limit, so a good looter can become filthy rich in a hurry.

* WhatTheHellPlayer: As stated above, this happens if you try to recycle a task object. Also, if you attack a good or neutral NPC, any other [=NPC=]s onscreen will become angered and start attacking you, usually with WTHP?-esque statements. If you do this in Castle Hall, it will also anger the Guards, no matter how far from them you are.
* WizardNeedsFoodBadly: One of the stat bars is Food. This is replenished by buying or finding any food, from Apples and generic Rations up to Home-Cooked Meals and Spinach, which replenish both Food and all other stats. Similarly, an "Instant Vacation" spell will also replenish all stats including Food, Hungergone potions will fill up the Food bar instantly, and a Food Ring will keep the Food bar full at all times. As mentioned above, the Food bar hitting 0 causes the other stats to drain ''very'' quickly until the player finds food or dies from his health hitting 0.[[note]]If you're desperate, you can also spawn a high-priced food shop using "Other Spell to Invoke."[[/note]]

* WalletOfHolding: Zig-zagged. You can carry forms of currency, but you can't use them in a shop until you deposit them in an Auto Teller. As with any other object, forms of currency take up room in your pouch until deposited. Also, you will lose any un-deposited currency if you die.