Newbie Guide

The best way to learn the ways of our world is by living in it,
but here is some information you may find useful at the beginning
of your stay among us.

Let me explain a convention first: anything between () means
you should type what is inside ().

Anything between [] means you should put a word there, for
example if I have written (look [name]) and you want to look at
that Jake fellow, you would type (look Jake).

 

  1. Character Creation
  2. You are 17 years old. It’s your birthday today.
  3. ABC, ABC, 123, 123…
  4. Level gain.
  5. I’m just a dumb tank. Or not.
  6. Hello, mind if I join?
  7. Death and rent, but no taxes.

For some reason, this page doesn’t display correctly in all
browsers. I’m trying to fix that but don’t make any promises. I
know it can be read correctly in Internet Explorer and
Netscape.
  Character Creation  To create your
character you pick several things. Let’s see what they are:

  • your name. This should not be too complicated, a complicated
    name will make it harder to interact with you: talk with you, group
    with you, give information or objects to you. There isn’t an
    automatic filter for names, but the immortals may tell you to
    change your name.
  • your gender. Male or female, very basic. The code sees no
    difference, really, but your fellow players do.
  • your birth town. Gaining levels requires both experience and
    money: the monetary cost will be twice as high, if you level in a
    town where you are not a citizen. You may change citizenship as you
    travel along the world, for a fee. Each continent has certain
    characteristics which will make it interesting at different points
    of your life. You can get an overview of each continent at the Map
    Room (there is a link in the left-hand column).
  • your four initial classes. If this is your first character,
    don’t try to “optimize” it now or you’ll get real dizzy – pick four
    classes that you like, based o­n their name and the information
    given by the menu, and explore around a bit. o­nce you have
    learned how the law of gravity works, come back here for more
    information o­n picking classes. You can get information on
    each class under “Class Abilities” (there is a link on the left
    column), but don’t worry overmuch about it. You can also check
    “Classes” and “Stat Ordering”, both under the “Royal Library”
    menu.
  • Each class has different abilities to be learned.
  • The order of your classes will determine the cost for each
    level, as well as the ordering of your basic “stats”.

    You are 17 years old. It’s your birthday today.
OK, now you have chosen a name, a
town and your profession. You are ready to adventure! When you
first enter the game, several things will happen:

  • your newbie channel will be turned on. A message will tell
    everybody who is listening to this channel that you have just
    arrived. Use this channel to ask questions and to ask for help. I
    have seen many people who say “oh, I don’t want to clog
    the channel with my stupid questions!” – but sometimes
    the question you ask is something other people were thinking and
    were too shy about. Anybody who is listening to the newbie channel
    is there either because they want to help, or because they need
    help, ask as many questions as you want.
  • you will wear or wield different objects. You have different
    objects depending on which is your first class. You can see the
    objects you own by typing (i), short for inventory – this
    will show you the items you hold in your arms – and (eq),
    short for equipment – this will show you the items you are
    wearing.
  • you appear in the town you chose. The room where you appear is
    a special room called the “recall room”. When people give
    directions for a certain continent, they usually do so assuming
    that you start walking from this room. There are objects and spells
    which will let you return to this particular spot from anywhere on
    the continent. You will see a description of the room, including
    the evident exits. If an exit is hidden, you will not see it.

Your worldly possessions include a map of the town. Typing (look
map) will do the obvious. Look for the guild of your primary class
and go there. Some guilds will be in the town, others outside. If
you are given directions, they are for “speedwalking”, so something
like 3nwn2ed;op door means n n n w n e e d open door Speedwalk is
not a SlothMUD feature, but it may be a feature of your “client” (a
special program that lets you connect to a MUD and create helpful
functions like aliases and actions).     Are you there
yet? You may have to look at the map several times. There is a big
wrinkle in the middle, you have to hit enter to read all the way to
the bottom. To make sure that the map displays all the way, you can
set your lines, try (lines 40). The default is 20 lines. And if you
want to see things in color, just use (color). (color set) will let
you choose different colors for different kinds of messages. All
right, here is the guild. The guildmaster will give you
instructions; you may have seen other “mobs” – monsters, NPCs –
which talk to you. Some of them give instructions to any young
adventurer, others are just talkative. Listen to what they say, for
it may have interesting clues. Type (level) to see how much
experience and gold do you need for your next level. Type (sco) –
short for score – to see how much you have. Oops,
···········You have 0 gold coins.
···········You have 1 unused experience points.
Not much there yet! What you do now depends on what your first class is.
Try typing (prac). The guildmaster may give you a list of abilities you
can practice, or not. If you get a list, it will also say how many “practices”
you have. Pick a skill and practice it until you are out of practices.
The skills I have found most useful at level 1 are:

  • for warrior, double attack or kick
  • for thief, backstab
  • for monk, kick (the other two need manuals)
  • for bard, any and none
  • for druid, shapeshift, which is the only skill druids
    have.

Some classes get spells – some get both spells and skills. The
majority of skills are practiced, some require the use of books.
Spells always require a book. The books for skills in the first
three levels of a class will be found within the guild, in one or
more rooms close to the guildmaster. If you get there and you try
to (get [book]), you will see that it is too heavy. Rest and read
it. You will have to read each book several times – for now it will
be four times. For spells which are level 4 and over, the books can
be bought in stores or obtained from mobs. Some of them will
require a special item to read. To read a book, you must have it in
your inventory and be resting. – unless it is of the special,
extra-heavy kind, like those in the guilds. Once you have read a
book once, type (sco). Hey! You have experience now! Reading books
will give you experience points. Other ways to obtain experience
are by fighting mobs, by exploring areas and “autoquests”.  
  But what about money, you also need that. You can obtain it
by looting mobs you kill. SlothMUD has ingame aliases. Type (help
alias) and read it. Now type (alias gg get all corpse) and (alias
sac sacr corpse). Those are my own aliases, pick others if you
want. Type (alias) to verify that you set the aliases correctly. Go
back to your guildmaster, if you are done reading. Type (con
guildmaster) – you may have to put in the master’s actual name.
Woah, the teacher can splat you against the wall from a casual
backhand. This is a nice command to help you figure out who may you
be able to beat up – and who would turn you into mush, which is not
a particularly healthy state of being. Go to any street in town,
and (scan). That will let you see who is nearby. Let’s say that you
have started in Newbatia. Look for kittens and go where they are.
Now you have found a kitten. You want to kill the kitten. Yes, I
know it’s cute, but a newbie’s gotta do what a newbie’s gotta do!
Kill the kitten. It will probably not die directly, but “mort”: it
gets stunned, or mortally wounded. Just. Keep. On. Beating. It. Up.
Such effort to kill a kitten! And it was a cute one, too. Type
(gg). If you set that alias before, -IF- you set it, you will get
whatever the kitten had. A bit of cash, nothing to make you rich.
Let’s set another alias, (alias cc carve corpse). And now, type
(cc) until you get a message that there is no more meat left. Then
type (sac) – the way sacs work is explained someplace else, but
we’ll worry about it later. For now, let’s just say that it keeps
the streets clean. If you are a necromancer you will have other
uses for corpses, too. OK. You got your money, and cleaned off the
kitten’s remains. Type (l) – short for look. There are several
slices of a kitten here! You can (get all) to grab them off the
floor. Look at your map. There is a general store: go there and
sell the slices, using (sell slice). If you have 3 slices, you can
also (sell 3 slices) – this works to sell or buy items, the maximum
number is 10. Congratulations, you have made your first kill and
your first sale! You will probably need to rest now. You will
“regen” – that is, get healed in hit points, mana and movement –
faster if you sleep than if you rest, and faster if you rest than
if you’re in any other position. It is better to sleep out of the
street – some mobs will attack sleepers, the cowards! While you
rest, check out the helpfiles – or go on reading this webpage. We
have a list of frequent commands and their explanations, as well as
definitions of common slang.     ABC, ABC, 123, 123… If you have chosen Newbatia
as your town of birth, you can go to school. From South Gate (the
room where you first appeared, it’s on the SW corner of the map)
just go up and follow the instructions in the signs.