These orders are concerned with the direct transfer of wealth from one kingdom to another (referred to as DIPLOMATIC PAYMENTS). Remember that while tribute will aid you in negotiate peace attempts and ransom will (hopefully) get a character back who has been imprisoned by another kingdom, a gift order will have no direct effect whatsoever on any other of your game actions. A player who receives a gift from you might take it kindly, however, that player is in no way obligated to do anything in return. A gift is just that...a gift.

Pay Tribute: This order will increase the chance that you will be able to successfuly negotiate peace with a foreign kingdom. Tribute may only be paid on the same turn and to the same kingdom that you attempt to negotiate peace with. There are two levels of tribute, half tribute and full tribute. The exact amount of tribute that you pay will be determined in the negotiations between your envoy and the foreign kingdom. You may be certain, however, that any tribute payment you declare will be expensive, between 10% and 40% of the total wealth in your royal treasury. You may not pay tribute if the wealth in your royal treasury is rated as either NONE or POOR. Examples:

I DECLARE (H)alf (T)ribute to (Kingdom abrv)

I DECLARE (F)ull (T)ribute to (Kingdom abrv)

Gift: Gifts represent gold, jewels, and other forms of wealth transfered directly from the royal treasury of one kingdom to the royal treasury of another. You may give a gift to any other kingdom in the game, but you are only allowed to give one gift per turn. You may not declare a gift when your treasury is rated at either NONE or POOR. There are five levels of gifts based upon the STANDARD rating scale as follows:

• POOR - 1/40th of the total wealth in your Treasury.
• ADEQUATE - 1/20th of your total wealth.
• GOOD - 1/10th
• EXCELLENT - 1/6th
• SUPERIOR - 1/4th

Example:

I DECLARE an (E)xcellent (G)ift to (AQUI)

Set Ransom: On any turn after you have kidnapped or otherwise captured a character from a foreign kingdom, a special ransom declaration line will be automatically printed out on your command sheet. With this declaration you set the amount of wealth you are willing to accept to ransom that character back to his home kingdom. This is the only time that you will be able to set a ransom for that character. If you set the ransom at "None," the character will simply be held in your imperial dungeons until he dies or is rescued. If you do not set any ransom, the computer will default to adequate. You may set ransom at any of the five levels used for gift above by checking the appropriate box which appears on your command sheet. Example:

                                 _          _         _             _
SET RANSOM FOR KUES TRALS AT?   |_| POOR   |_| GOOD  |_| ADEQUATE  |X| EXCELLENT
 _              _
|_| SUPERIOR   |_|  NONE

I DECLARE a (level of ransom) (R)ansom for (Character ID)

I DECLARE an (E)xcellent (R)ansom for (AQUI-21)