Set to hit our shelves sometime soon, Spells of Gold is an RPG with a bit of a twist. Billed as a "role-playing game with strong trade influence", developers Jonquil Software have created a non linear game with a focus on trading activities. Set in the fantasy universe of Lokatrien, Spells of Gold comprises over 25 different worlds, each with several cities for your character to explore and trade with. Your character travels between worlds via portals, using his trusty Magic Sack of Monroke to haul around the goodies for trade. Of course, the life of a travelling salesman is never an easy one, and your character will often be set upon by bandits and other nasties. On many such occasions, you will have the choice of taking the offensive and chopping your way through your assailants, or, paying them off to gain safe passage as you explore the gameworld and unravel the story of Spells of Gold.

As you make your way through the gameworld, your character will of course gain experience, and develop according to the way you wish to play the game. Which is where the main focus of this article comes in; character development. Time for a closer look at the options available to you in developing your character in Spells of Gold.

Your character, as you would expect, has a selection of abilities, and as you gain experience and increase levels in the three areas of combat, magic and trade, you will be able to raise the values of these abilities. The cost of increasing abilities will depend upon which area you have leveled in. So, if your character is a warrior, you will have to spend more points on raising your intellect, and for mages it will be more costly to increase strength.

The main abilities are fairly standard, being; strength, dexterity, intellect, constitution, willpower and charisma. Values for health, mana, defense, damage, armour, luxury, maximum weight and the number of student points you are allocated, are tied to your abilities.


The skill system in Spells of Gold consists of 23 skills, divided into three groups, Military, Spiritual, and Common. They have varying levels of mastery, ranging up to 20.

Passive Skills



Active (mana-draining) Skills



Skills in Spells of Gold are learnt and improved by using schools in the various cities you will travel through. Each school has a limit to the level of knowledge it can impart to its students, and so, in order to advance past this level, you will have to go in search of a better place of learning. You must pay for your education, both using gold and student points. Student points are based on your character's intellect and literacy skill. Spent student points are replenished over time, the speed at which they are recovered also being dependent on your intellect and level of literacy.

Some skills are passive, and as such do not need to be activated, and do not drain mana. Active skills need to be selected to be used, and often drain mana levels.

Teachers may refuse to teach you new skills, in which case, you may opt to solve some quests for them, in order to improve their attitude and encourage them to part with their knowledge.


There are 5 different gods for your character to worship in Spells of Gold:

• Oterion ~ God of Warriors
• Balaor ~ God of Mages
• Enaryth ~ God of Traders
• Tennara ~ Goddess of Night
• Joella ~ Goddess of Nature

You can choose any or several gods to worship, although you must be aware of the fact that some gods do not get on, and so an increase in favour with one may well cause a decrease in your favour with another.

To increase favour with the gods, your character can make donations at temples, and solve quests for priests. This will result in a reward from the gods, augmenting your abilities.

Each god has a number of prayers for your character to learn, and these are available in temples. After saying a prayer, the relevant gods will favour your character with a blessing. Learning prayers works in the same way as learning skills.


There are five different guilds for your character to choose from, and as one would expect, they carry various requirements as listed below:



So there you have it, character development in Spells of Gold. Hopefully you will get to see it for yourselves in the near future. ;-)