1931: Scheherazade at the Library of Pergamum Walkthrough

1931: Scheherazade at the Library of Pergamum is a fantasy simulation game created by Black Chicken Studios. Play a year in the life of Scheherazade Keating, a smart young woman just out of school with a keen interest in archeology. Travel with her to exotic locations, guide her through adventures and help her achieve her dreams. Who knows, she may even find romance! Gamezebo’s quick start strategy guide will provide you with detailed images, tips, information, and hints on how to play your best game.

Game Introduction – 1931: Scheherazade at the Library of Pergamum

This guide only describes the mechanics of the game — how to play, basic strategy, etc. As there are an endless number of strategies and routes to follow, this guide will not describe any specific adventures or outcomes. It is up to you to decide how to achieve the best results for your chosen ending.

Quick Start Guide

Main Objectives

The main objective for the game is to live through one year in Sadie’s life, guiding her through adventures and building relationships.
Game endings differ according to the relationships Sadie has developed throughout the year and the DREAM she achieved by the end of the game.
Thus, the main component of gameplay is getting prepared for the adventures and the obstacles you may face during your adventures by acquiring SKILLS.

Different Endings

There are 11 different DREAMS Sadie can follow — 5 Romance, 5 Friendship and 1 Family.
Each dream has 10 different endings, depending on your overall score for that dream, meaning that there are a total of 110 different endings!
If you don’t pursue a specific storyline, the default dream will be Family.
Sadie’s dream can change when she’s reached enough Relationship points with one of the other characters. In general, you will need to have achieved about 30 Relationship points with a character by late December to be able to get a Romance or Friendship ending.

Maps and Menus

Once you’ve gone through the opening sequence (which is quite long!) you will arrive on the map of New York, which is the main window of the game.

On the map you will find different locations you can go to for different actions in the game. These locations are shown as colored buildings or little square icons.
Mouse over the locations to get little pop-up widows listing the actions that can be performed at that location.
You can go to these locations directly by clicking on them, or via the skills menu (see below).
At certain times you will travel to different cities and get different maps, each with their own locations.
Each map will also feature an avatar of Sadie, which changes according to her stress levels.
To the side of the main map there are three menus: Skills, Journal and Data.
Go to the Skills menu to check on and train Sadie’s skills, get inspirations, and check on her Relationship and Dream status.
Go to the Journal to review the actions you’ve performed up to now, remind yourself of travel dates and read Sadie’s little diary entries.
Go to the Data menu to save and load games, set various sound and screen preferences, exit the game or start a new game. Be aware that the game doesn’t remind you to save your progress when you click on New Game!!
You can also save, load and exit the game halfway through a caper, if you need to, by clicking on the respective links in the bottom right of the screen. These links are VERY small, but they are there right from the beginning of the game!

Skills and Attributes

Sadie can gain and develop many different SKILLS, which are subdivided into seven main categories, or ATTRIBUTES.
The attributes are indicated on the skill menu by colored circles in the top left corner.

The seven attributes are:
Wits, which determines how quickly Sadie can react in situations.
Knowledge, which determines book learning and understanding of the world in general.
Stress, which affects the difficulty level of obstacles (see below). More stress makes obstacles more difficult.
Athletics, which determines Sadie’s fitness and physical prowess.
Charm, which determines social skills and ability to influence others.
Dream determines how in tune Sadie is with her destiny (see below).
Relationship is related to Sadie’s dream (see below).
When you click on one of the attributes, a list will appear on the right of all the skills that belong to that attribute.
The number beside the skill indicates how many points you currently have for this skill. Your skill level goes up to the next level each time you gain 10 points. For example, if you have 18 points you’re still at level 1, but if you have 21 points you’ll be at level 2.
The maximum skill level is 100 points, or level 10.
The top item of each of the skill lists (except for dream and relationship) shows the overall attribute points you have.
Increasing your overall attribute level improves the bonus you get when training a skill, meaning you’ll receive more than one skill point after one training round.
The attribute points aren’t directly related to the number of skill points under that attribute but increase each time you successfully complete an OBSTACLE when you’re out on an adventure (see below).

Training Skills and Attributes

The easiest way to train a specific skill is to go to the skill menu, clicking on the attribute governing the skill and then clicking on the skill itself in the list. On the right hand side of the screen you will get a list of ACTIONS that will allow you to train the skill, followed by a list of actions that will earn you INSPIRATIONS for that skill (see below).

Click on the action of choice to be taken to the location where the action is set. You can also access the locations directly from the map, if you already know where you want to go.
The location window shows all actions you can do there, not just the ones relating to the skill you’re interested in, so you need to browse through the actions to find the one you need.
Note that one action can have several effects. For example, if you entertain Anna with magic tricks, you increase your Magic Tricks skill as well as your Patience skill.
Actions are usually listed as something like: Expand Magic Tricks 1 with Bonus. This means that your Magic Tricks skill level will increase by a minimum of 1, but you will get a bonus depending on the attribute level. If for example Sadie’s attribute level for Wits (which governs Magic Tricks) is 22, meaning it’s at level 2, she will receive a 2 point bonus when training Magic Tricks.
Once you’ve decided on the action to perform, simply click on the image below the action to complete it.

After you’ve completed an action you will get a pop-up balloon on the map summarizing which action you’ve just completed and how many skill points and inspirations you received.
Attributes can’t be trained directly, but you can increase the overall attribute level (including the total Dream score and Relationship points with individual characters) by going on adventures. Attribute points increase each time you successfully complete an obstacle. However, the attribute that increases isn’t necessarily always the attribute governing the skill you just used. For example, you may pass an obstacle with the Poise skill, which is governed by the Relationship attribute, but get a +1 increase in Athletics instead.

Special Attributes: Dreams and Relationships

The overall Dream score is shown in the left hand column of the skill menu. The Dream score affects the ending of the game.
Note that if you change Sadie’s dream at any point during the game, your Dream points will be reset to 0.
Relationship points can also be found in the left hand column of the skill menu, and are broken down into points for each of the different characters in the game. Relationship points affect the dream you can choose to follow. For most characters you will need to have achieved approximately 30 Relationship points by late December to be able to change Sadie’s dream to a Romance or Friendship one relating to that character.
As with the other attributes, you can only change your Dream and Relationship points by going on adventures.

Special Attribute: Stress

Your overall STRESS level affects how difficult the OBSTACLES are that you encounter during your adventures.
Stress is increased when you fail the obstacles or after other traumatic events.
Each map has one location with an action that reduces stress, which is indicated with a small purple icon.
Make sure to keep an eye on Sadie’s stress level and regularly reduce her stress by choosing a stress-busting activity.
Sadie’s avatar on the city map changes according to her stress levels, which allows you to quickly gauge how stressed she is and whether or not she needs some rest.
Sometimes a little bit of stress may help out in a situation, so don’t eradicate stress completely!

Adventures and Capers

Relationship and Dream points can only be gained when you play ADVENTURES that relate to the person or dream involved. Adventures are storylines that run throughout the game. Thus, the game ending is dependent on the adventures you choose to follow.
Adventures are made up of a series of CAPERS.
A CAPER consists of a text-based story during which you will often get a series of CHOICES, which can be either ACTION or CONVERSATION choices.
The action choices you make will affect how the caper continues. They may affect skill and stress levels, and may even change the course of the caper.
Conversation choices may affect the way your friends perceive you and your Relationship points.

You can find out which capers you can currently go on by going to the main map and scanning it with your cursor.
Capers are distinguished from other actions by little icons next to the description. Capers relating to the main story are indicated with a little icon of Sadie herself; the others have icons of the main character in the adventure (Felix, Nigel, etc.).
Throughout the game Sadie will travel to various different locations in other countries. The foreign locations have location-specific capers and adventures. You must complete any capers and adventures before you return to New York, Sadie’s home town, as you won’t be able to go back to the foreign locations once you’re back.

Obstacles

The most important parts of the capers are the OBSTACLES.

OBSTACLES are situations in which you get several PATHS to choose from to get yourself out of the situation. Each path is related to a skill.
On the left side of the obstacle window you will see the difficulty level for that obstacle.
On the right you see the paths you can choose from. A path consists of a brief description of a method to overcome the obstacle, preceded by the skill required for that method.
To the left of the path you can see the level you currently have for the skill related to that path.
To successfully pass an obstacle you must have a skill level equal to or exceeding the difficulty level of the obstacle.
Failing an obstacle will somewhat change the course of the caper and likely increase your stress levels or award you different skill points. However, in most cases you will be able to continue with the caper and the adventure (see below).

Inspirations

To successfully navigate obstacles, you can’t rely on skill level alone as it is very difficult, and often even impossible, to get skill levels high enough to pass an obstacle.
In these cases you need INSPIRATIONS.
INSPIRATIONS are a kind of playing card that you can use to temporarily increase a skill by several points.
You start off in a game being able to hold 10 inspirations at one time, but this can increase to a maximum of 20 when your Dream score increases (be aware that if you change your dream your Dream score is reset to 0, meaning the maximum number of inspirations you can carry is reset to 10, too).
You can gain new inspirations in the same way you can train skills: by finding a location with an action that will earn you inspirations, and then using one day phase to perform that action.
If an action will earn you more than the number of inspirations you can hold you will automatically be taken to a window where you can choose which inspirations to keep and which to discard.

You can find out which inspirations youâ€™re currently carrying in the Skills menu. Click on any of the inspirations in the list to see what skill bonuses they will give you.

Whenever you reach an obstacle, you will see all the inspirations you currently possess at the top and bottom of the obstacle window.
If you move your cursor over your inspirations you can see how your skill points will change when you use a certain inspiration.
Some inspirations will give bonus levels to any skill under a certain attribute rather than just one skill. You can find these inspirations by clicking on the overall attribute in the skills menu. Look for inspirations saying “athletics type” etc.
Click on the inspiration to use it. Be careful as this action can’t be undone!
You can use multiple inspirations for one obstacle.
Throughout the game, when you complete adventures or travel to different locations you may receive special inspirations that give massive skill bonuses. Use these inspirations sparingly as there are only few of them!

Preparing for Capers

To make sure you successfully pass as many obstacles as you can, you need to get prepared before you go on your capers.
To prepare for capers, first decide which adventure you want to pursue and find the next caper relating to the adventure on your map.

Click on the location of a caper to be taken to the location screen for that location. The location screen will have an information box for each of the actions you can complete there, including the capers.
Mouse over the image at the bottom of the box that outlines the adventure.
A pop-up window will show a list of all the skills you are going to need for the obstacles in the adventure.
The skills are listed in the order in which you will encounter the obstacles. For example, if it says “1 – Occult Lore, Flirting or Resolve” it means that the obstacle paths for the first obstacle in the adventure require Occult Lore, Flirting or Resolve.
Most capers consist of multiple obstacles, but as you can’t exit a caper halfway through, it is best to train or get inspirations for all or most of the skills required for the obstacles in that caper before you start.
Obstacles you will encounter within one caper appear as one continuous list. Places where you can exit a caper are indicated by *Rest*, listed in green. Occasionally (though rarely) the action or conversation choices you make may affect the rests between the caper, meaning you may not get a rest before continuing.
Note that after a rest the adventure may continue in a different location.
You don’t haveto be successful for the obstacles listed in white — if you fail them you will still be able to continue with your adventure. However, your stress levels will increase and you may not gain any new skill points.
Obstacles listed in red must be passed to be able to continue with the adventure. If you fail a red obstacle, the adventure ends there.
The main adventure must be played to a finish and therefore has no red obstacles.
So, before you go on a caper you need to train up or get inspirations for the skills required for the obstacles, in particular the red ones.
Note that the game doesn’t automatically keep track of where you are in the adventure, so you need to remember which skills you used last to remind yourself where you are in the adventure and figure out which skills you will need next. This can particularly be tricky when it’s been a while since you last worked on a certain adventure.

Game Time and the Journal

You play a whole year in Sadie’s life, starting on June 15, 1930 and finishing on June 15, 1931.
Each day is made up of three phases: morning, afternoon and night.
You can complete one action (training a skill, resting, going on a caper etc.) per phase. However, on school days Sadie will automatically spend two parts of her day in school or studying, leaving only one time slot for an action of your choice.

The journal keeps track of the days, lists the actions you have performed on each day and has diary entries from Sadie relating to the storylines you’re pursuing.
Adventures and capers in foreign locations must be completed before returning to New York as you won’t be able to go back later.
Important dates, such as travel dates, are pre-marked in the journal, so make sure to use the journal to remind yourself of how many days you have left in a foreign location when you plan your actions.
Although the choice of adventure is yours, the main adventure must be followed. If you don’t initiate the capers in the main adventure yourself, they will start automatically at specific trigger points. This can be a bit confusing at times as it may happen that you’ve planned to go on a certain caper, but you get a completely different storyline instead as your selected caper coincides with a trigger point in the main adventure.
As you won’t know when the next step in the main adventure will auto-initiate, it’s best to try and stay more or less prepared for it. However, as mentioned before, there are no red obstacles in the main adventure so you can’t fail it.

Getting Started

At the start of the game you’re immediately thrown into the first caper of the main adventure: the treasure hunt.
During the first caper you will meet Phileas Carter, who will give you a very basic tutorial if you choose to keep him around. Note that you can’t access tutorial information at any later stage in the game, so pay close attention to what Phileas tells you (or just refer to this guide).

Starting Attribute Bonuses

During the opening caper you will encounter four action and conversation choices that will give you 10 point bonuses for the Wits, Charm, Knowledge and Athletics attributes, instantly raising them to the next level. These are quite big bonuses at the start of the game, as they determine which attributes will give you the biggest skill increases when you’re training for the earlier capers.
The choices are:
What will Sadie talk about in her speech? Option A: +10 Athletics; option B: +10 Charm.
What is Sadie good at? Option A: +10 Charm; option B: +10 Knowledge.
Will Sadie outrun or outwit the guards? Option A: +10 Athletics; option B: +10 Wits.
Book learning or napping? Option A: +10 Knowledge; option B: +10 Wits.

Difficulty Levels

At the end of the first caper Phileas will ask you to choose a difficulty level.
Easy is for casual players. Obstacle difficulty levels are set at 50%.
Normal is quite challenging. Obstacle difficulty levels are set at 100%. Although achieving a romance by Christmas is quite doable, it is not always possible to be successful at every obstacle.
Hard is for hardcore players who know the game very well and don’t mind a bit of frustration! Obstacle difficulty levels are set at 150%.

Summary of Basic Actions

After you’ve completed the opening sequence you will arrive at the map of New York.
Decide which dream or relationship you want to follow. Some options will take a few days to appear, so in the meantime follow the main adventure.
Find the next caper for your chosen adventure on the map.
Go to the caper location and check which skills are required to pass the obstacles in your next caper.
Train up the required skills and get inspirations.
Go back to the caper location and start the caper.

Have fun!

Congratulations!

You have completed Gamezebo’s quick start guide for 1931: Scheherazade at the Library of Pergamum. Be sure to check back often for game updates, staff and user reviews, user tips, forums comments and much more here at Gamezebo!