To start a new game, choose the Start New Game button on the opening screen. You can also choose New Game from the File menu at any time while playing. This will allow you to set the statistics of a new character, and choose such things as the player's name and gender. If you like, you can also specify an icon you've created for your character. Just create a standard icon, and specify the path to it in the dialog; the game will load your icon and use it for your character.
- Part One
- The game then starts out with the player in the small hamlet where he or she was raised. It's a small place, but you'll find a blacksmith shop and a general store to help you get equipped.
- Part Two
- The game then starts out with the player near the central Keep of the City of the Crossroads. It's a fairly large place, and there are a dozen or so stores to aid your quest. The Jarl at the Keep may occasionally be helpful as well.
Signs outside the shop will tell you what's what. To read a sign with the mouse right click 
on the sign to bring up a popup description window. From the keyboard, use the (eXamine) command, position the crosshair over the sign, and press . Just move along the road into a building, and you'll bring up the store window. These stores will be happy to sell you equipment to aid your quest, and will often buy back used or found equipment (at a much lower price of course).
- Part One
- There is also a shrine in the hamlet where you can get healed. A visit to the ruins of your farmhouse will also be useful to help you get started. You can find your farm by exiting through the gate to the hamlet, and then taking the first path to the right along the road outside.
- Part Two
- There is also a temple in the city where you can get healed, a bank where you can leave your money for safe keeping, and a sage who can identify items you find in the castle. The junk store near the north exit of town will buy anything, so it's a good place to unload cursed and broken objects for a few coppers.
- The entrance to the castle is beyond the north gate of the city. Following the road across the river will bring you to the ruins of the castle, and exploring that will give you information on how to continue.
Basic concepts[edit]
Space[edit]
CoTW is a (square) tile-based game, meaning that movements may only occur in increments of one tile. Diagonal and orthogonal adjacency are treated the same way in terms of distance. To pick up an object, the player must be directly on top of it.
There is no way the player can walk through the rock walls of the dungeons, despite that some monsters can. Tiles (in diagonal corridors, etc.) that contain half a wall are treated as walls.
Time[edit]
CoTW is turn-based. Players and monsters cannot attack each other at the same time. However, their speeds can vary, which means the monster may be able to make several steps or strike at the player several times before the player can respond, or vice-versa.
Monster speed depends on the specific monster, and can also be affected by Slow Monster and Haste Monster spells. See Character Attributes for details on player speed.
Winning players are ranked in Valhalla's Champions (the high score list) in order of shortest to longest time to complete the game.