I recently took advantage of the 60% off sale for the M&M series. I purchased the Limited Edition 6-pack and MM7. I figured I would start at MM3 (I need mapping) and so far I am having an absolute blast! This is literally the type of RPG I have been looking for. I am in my mid 30's so I am trying all these games I missed when I was a teenager.

I recently messed around with Wizardry, Ultima, some of the D&D games (which are all great games in their own right) but this is the 1st one that had me playing until 2AM. It is strangely addictive, good UI for an early 90's game and light-hearted enough where I am just flat out having fun. Excellent combo of exploration and character advancement.

I'm sure most people that are on this forum have played 1 or all of the games but anyone that hasn't, you're really missing out. I am super excited now to play my entire M&M collection.

Thanks GOG and to other forum members that recommended this series.

Welcome to the group! :)

M&M8 is really good, too. And I'm told 9 is good with fan patching. I own it now, but haven't tried it.

They're pretty long games, so it might be until your mid-40s that you get to them. :-D (I'm a slow player, so I spend years on my RPGs usually -- if they're really good)

Yeah. I've already accepted the fact that my gaming collection will have to be a part of my living will. lol.
Hey, at least I'll be having fun when the time comes. Now if I can just figure out where I'm supposed to go after Fountain Head.. This is a pretty large map :0

Slighty off-topic: How do I see stats for my weapons/armor? Is it possible?- MM3

This is digging in memory, so it might not be right. But try going to a weapon shop and ask them to identify your equipment. That should get you stats. (I think -- I'm most familiar with MM2 from the older games, and that's how it works there).

It costs money to ID them, so write down what you learn so you don't have to keep paying for the ID.

Personally I found the inability to check weapon and armor stats without getting them officially IDed to be really annoying. It was the one thing I used the cluebook for (although I actually haven't played MM3 yet, I used the cluebook for this purpose in MM1, MM2, and MM4-5). Since GOG provides the cluebooks in PDF format, you can search the PDF for the specific item to minimize spoilers.

But I think that Tallima is right, and the in-game method is to get the items IDed by the blacksmith. You can also check selling prices to get a sense of which items are better than others.

Does MM3 have different materials for equipment? Steel, silver, obsidian, etc.? MM4-5 do, and that makes IDing items an even bigger nightmare. So you may decide the cluebook is better for those.

Edit: Woops got ninja'd by Waltorious. And yes, MM3 has the different materials for equipment, with obsidian being vastly superior to anything else.

After clearing Fountainhead, stick to clearing out maps closest to Fountainhead and slowly move out farther as you get stronger. Keep in mind that most of the dungeons and caves are significantly harder than the overworld map they are located in, so you might want to come back to them later.

As far as weapons and armor, yeah you need to get them ID'd at the shop. And like Tallima said, write it down. Conversely, the hint guide included in the GOG version includes the damage range for all weapons as well as the meanings for all the descriptors. It also includes a walkthrough, maps and bestiary, so beware of spoilers if you decide to go that route.

Enjoy the game! I just played and beat it about a month ago and loved every minute of it. The exploration aspect of it is just top notch.

I found an old list I put together with all the item stats for MM 4 & 5 (MM3 should share some info), so I could skip using the blacksmith's ID service. I can't upload the .txt file, so short of a rather bloated spam post, I'm not sure how to pass it on. I'd be glad to share.

http://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/flamestryke/

Here is a site to help you through M&M 7-9 and even Wizardry 8. The author died a couple of years ago, but some folks salvaged the site. It's definitely the best resource for the said games.

Great advice. Thanks everyone! I may use the hint guide just for the damage range/item description stuff. Definitely always try to avoid spoilers when I can. Everytime I go out of Fountainhead, I feel like I just keep coming right back for training and healing. Is that normal for the 1st few levels? I'm already at like day 51 or something and have barely scraped the outside world. I hope all my characters don't die of old age or I will never finish this game.

Yeah, I found out the hard way about dungeons last night. lol. I figured out you can't walk through swinging axes. Who knew!

Funny, that is excactly what happened to me first time I played MM3. But that was due to unnatural aging, though.
Natural aging is not so bad, but a day passes each time you enter a shop, training hall, temple or guild. On the bright side your HP and spell points are maxed each time you train, so it's a long time until you need to rest at all.

MM3 has better system of materials than MM4 and 5. Items can roll with 2 affixes - from material and special property, unlike in MM4/5 where item can roll only with 1 property and you gain no bonus AC from material accessories (e.g., obsidian rings). You will memorize really valuable affixes very fast. You can also check on www.gamefaqs.com, item system is explained there very well.

I had some arrow gem that let me shoot arrows for a while but I swear it disappeared. Maybe it only had limited uses? I read the manual and ref card but I understand these games don't hold your hand as much as more modern crpgs. Figure it out as I go along, I guess. Cool to see this thread active.

All gems, coins and similar items have limited amount of uses. I usually never used them and always sold for gold, as gold is very important in those games.

Ohh.. Thanks for the heads up. I think I might do a restart on the game. Now I understand better what I'm supposed to be doing and I want new characters anyway. OCD. Hooray. ;)

no, they are the same, as far as i can remember.