The Newbiescroll HTML-ized!
The Newbiescroll can now be found at 3 places: The Adventure guild, Herbert's
cabin in Newbieville, and now: At the Web!
The Newbiescroll, both the MUD-version and the HTML-version, was made by Jada
This document contains the following sections:
- What am I doing here?
- What is all this about experience, stats and levels?
- So, how do I kill?
- Quests? What's a quest?
- I feel lonely! How do I communicate?
- Tips and trix for the advanced MUDder
What am I doing here?
Since you read this scroll I will asume that you are indeed a newbie, a
person who have little or no experience of MUDding whatsoever.
Some of the things I will cover here might seem quite obvious to some,
but might provide some enlightenment for others. Some commands covered
here are common for many MUD's, but some are Viking-specific. If you
have experience from other MUD's, you can probably skip lots of the text
in this document.
So - What ARE you doing here?
You are here to play MUD. There are several aspects of MUD, but
the main goal is to adventure, gain Experience, find Treasure and
with time Advance Level and Statistics. More about that later.
The goal of the game is to hang out with cyberfriends, join in cyberparties
and kill some cybermonsters. The ultimate goal for some players is to reach
level 20, where one will be presented to a choice between becoming a Wizard
or becoming an Eternal player.
The main point of MUD is to have FUN! Don't forget that. :-)
If going gets tough, remember - After all it is only a game.
Well, I mentioned the goals earlier. So how to reach these goals?
To reach your goals, you will need Experience. Experience can be gained
by Killing Monsters, and by solving one of Viking's many Quests.
You might be a bit confused by now, but don't worry.
It is not as complicated as it looks. Don't get confused by all the new
words and terms. Read on, and things will be sorted out.
What is all this about experience, stats and levels?
Experience is a measurement of how experienced you are. The more
Experience (hereafter referred to as XP) you gain, the more
powerful you get, and you will aquire a higher status as you spend
experience on Level and Stats. You can not have a higher average of
Stats than your current Level.
There are certain ways to gain this XP. You can Kill Monsters, and
solve Quests. To see how much XP you have, type 'score' at your prompt.
Type 'help score' for more info. Most probably, you have an XP score
close to 0, as you haven't been adventuring much yet.
But let us say that you have been adventuring a bit, Killed some nasty
Monsters and maybe solved a Quest. You will then be a more experienced
player who've been around, and your XP score will increase accordingly.
But you still feel wimpy, you are still the Utter Novice, and you
'never' hit opponents during combats. Why?
A high XP score won't do you any good if you don't intend to spend those
points on Stats or Level. If your current XP score is higher than the
XP-limit to increase a certain Stat, you can increase this Stat by one
point. Players on Viking have 4 different Stats to think about:
STR (Strength)
Affects your carrying capability and
how much damage you inflict on your opponents in combat.
DEX (Dexterity)
Affects your ability to hit monsters during combat.
INT (Intelligence)
Affects your psychic strength. (SP)
CON (Constitution)
Affects your bodily health. (HP)
The higher Stat score you have, the better (obviously).
You can type 'score' at your prompt to see what Stats you have.
But back to increasing these scores. When you think you have gained
enough experience to Advance, make your way to the Adventurers Guild
in Larstown. It shouldn't be too hard to find. Ask someone if you
can't find it. Well there, type 'cost' to get a list of how much
XP it will cost you to increase your Stats and Level.
Let's say you have a Dex score of 1. You have been out adventuring,
and gained some XP. After a while, you find the Adventurers Guild,
and strolls in to Advance your Dex, because you want to be better on
hitting your opponents during combat.
Type 'cost'. It will give you info about how much XP you can use on
stats. If this number is higher than the number following the Dex:
on the overview, you can advance this stat.
Type 'advance dex' to achieve this. Type 'score' to see your stats.
Most probably, your Dex score will be one higher than it was.
VOILA! You are now better at hitting opponents during combat!
Okay, after a while you have gained so much experience and increased
stats so much that when you try to advance your stats, you get the
message 'Sorry Sir/Madam/Creture(?), but you are not high enough level'
or something similar. Then it is time to advance Level. This is done in
much the same way as increasing stats. You adventure, gain XP, and
then go to the adventure guild. Type 'cost'. The overview will tell
you if you need more XP to advance Level, or if you need more XP to
advance. Collect XP until you have enough, then go to the Adventurers
Guild again, and type 'advance leve' at your prompt.
Voila! You advance in level! Type 'score' to view your current level.
The higher level you gain, the higher status you aquire, and your
title will change, so that other people can see that you are no longer
the Utter Novice! You are an experienced player!
A time will come when you need to solve more Quests to advance level.
Quests will be covered under another header.
So, how do I kill?
Killing is an important part of this MUD. It may sound brutal, but
remember that you whack away at a chunk of LpC code. :)
So, how to kill these bad guys?
To attack a monster, simply write 'kill < monstername > at your prompt.
Ofcourse you have to be in the same room as the monster you wish to
attack.
So, if you were in the same room as a Cute Little Rabbit,
you should write 'kill rabbit' to begin a battle with it.
It may be a good idea to 'exa rabbit' or 'look at rabbit' before
you attack to see what kinds of armours and such it might be carrying
around. (A Rabbit with armours? *boggle*)
You can also type 'shape rabbit' to check the rabbits shape during combat.
If you decide that this rabbit is a worthy opponent and attack it,
combat will start. You will exchange blows and parries until one of
the opponents are dead, or until one flees or abandons the battle.
Now, let's take a look at your HitPoints (HP).
Type 'score' to get your hitpoints on screen, or simply 'sc' for the short
version. Hitpoints is a measurement of your current health. The higher the
score, the healthier you are, and the more damage you can endure. A high
Con score will give you many Hitpoints. At level 1 you start out with 50
HP's, and your HP's will increase with the amount of 8 per point of Con
you have. If you get hit in battle, your HP-score will decrease temporarily.
If your HP-score reaches 0 you die. You should consider fleeing from
battle before this happens. :-) Keeping track of your HP's at all times is
a good idea if you plan to live longer than a few hours. :-)
Okay, you attack the rabbit, and a battle will start. The rabbit looses
HP's, and so do you. Every time you hit the rabbit, you will get XP.
If you kill the rabbit, you will get an XP kill-bonus (a lot bigger than the
XP for hitting once) for slaying it. If several players attack the same
monster, the player who scores the final hit will get this bonus,
unless you are in Party. Type 'help party' for more info about parties.
It is possible to attack the rabbit without weapons, but it is probably
not a good idea. Try to find a weapon you can use. Axes, swords, clubs,
sticks... When you find a weapon, get it, and WIELD IT!
A weapon will do you no good unless you wield it! Remember this.
Such is the case with armours as well. The human skin is not providing
good protection from monster attacks, so consider wearing armour of
different kinds. Examples of armours are: Helmets, shields, jackets,
mails, gauntlets, boots, and even cloaks and rings.
And again, armour will do you no good unless you WEAR IT!
Type 'eq' to get an overview of which bodyparts that are protected by
armour, and in which condition the armour are in.
Type 'remove [armour/weapon-name]' to remove armour from your body.
Okay, dressed up in a leather armour and wielding a woodchopper axe in
your hand, you are ready for battle! But keep an eye on your HP's.
If you wish, you can let the computer keep track of your HP's for you,
and give you a hand in keeping alive.
If you type 'wimpy 20' for example, you will flee from a battle if
you HP's decrease below 20% of your max HP's. Type 'help wimpy' for
more information about this. Note: If you flee from battle with wimpy,
you will not get as much XP for the monster as you would have got without
wimpy enabled.
If you are low on HP's, there are certain ways to restore them.
One way is to wait for your wounds to grow. This is boring, but cheap.
It will probably take a long time.
A better, but more expensive way, is to buy food and drinks to heal.
Newbieville Inn is one of the places that you can spend your hard
earned cash on healing. Go there after battle, and type 'eat' or 'drink'.
Then check your HP's (and purse (-:).
Monsters you kill will most probably carry some treasure with them.
It may be coins, weapons, food or armour for you to take.
If you want to loot a corpse, simply type 'get all from corpse'.
If you want a specific item only, type 'get coins from corpse' if
you wanted the coins for example.
You will probably find more treasure than you will want to carry around.
You can sell equipment at one of the shops, and also deposit some of your
money at the bank. Both a shop and a bank can be found in Larstown.
You may have noticed something named SP (spellpoints) by now.
Spellpoints is a measurement of your psychic health.
Spellpoints will be used when casting spells and by using magical
items. They will be restored in the same way as you restore HP's.
To be able to cast spells you must join a guild, or pick up the
diploma in the Adventurers Guild. There are several guild to join,
but you should probably reach level 5 before thinking about it.
I will not discuss guilds here, but most of our guilds have excellent
help files for players who join. Note: Some guilds require a quest to
be solved before you can join, and some guilds can not be joined again
later if you leave.
Quests? What's a quest!?
Surely MUD is much more than just killing the same old boring
monsters all the time?
You've got that right. :-)
An important part of this mud are the Quests. Go to the Adventurers Guild
and type 'quests'. You can type 'quests solved' or 'quests unsolved' to
get a list of solved and unsolved quests. You may notice some numbers
after each quest entry. These numbers represent the dynamic and basic
quest points you will get for solving that particualr quest. The first
number are the dynamic points, and the second number are the 'normal'
points. The more times a quest is solved, the dynamic points will go down.
The dynamic points will go up if it is a long time since the quest was
solved. The Quests low numbers are easier to solve than the ones with
higher numbers. To get a hint about what a quest is about, type 'quest #'
where # is the number preceding the title of the quest.
So what do you have to do to solve a miniquest? This varies.
A good idea is to go to the place indicated in the hint you get,
and at all times be observant. Look at everything. Listen carefully
to NPC's (Non Player Characters).
For example, let us look at the Sheriffs Key quest.
The hint tells you that the Larstown Sheriff has lost his key.
And who will find it for him? That's right! - YOU will.
So, go to the Sheriff and listen to what he has to say.
Look at everything. The Sheriff has a pretty good idea of where
he lost his key, so why not locate those places and search there
for him? If you find the key, the Sheriff will probably want you
to deliver it to him, so do that. :)
If you successfully solve a Quest you will get a message similar
to 'You have solved the quest. You feel more experienced.' or
something similar. Type 'quests solved' in the Advanturers guild to get
a list over the quests you have solved.
There are small and big Quests. Some Quests requires but a couple of
puzzles to be solved, whereas the bigger Quests are made up of lots of
rooms to be explored, and lots of intricate small puzzles.
Some of the bigger Quests are quite hard to solve, and some quests may
require that you kill some really bad guys, so don't try to solve the
later quests as a newbie. :) Some quests require that you get help from
other players as well.
You need to have a certain amount of quest points to advance your level,
and you need a certain amount of points to become Eternal or Wizard.
The amount of points needed will increase as the number of Quests constantly
increases.
There are Quests and small missions on the MUD that are not on the
Quests-lists. You do not have to solve these Quests to advance level, but
mosts of these Quests have rewards of another sort.
Quests are fun. They really are! If you think of the Quests as but an
obstacle in your way to Eternal, they might not be, but if you see the
Quest as a kind of expidition to new, strange places with wonderful
interacting and interresting NPC's that are not just another stupid
monster to kill, you might grow to enjoy solving Quests! Really!
Again, please remember - look at everything! Examine carefully.
Use common sense. Problems usually have a logic solution.
'open drawer','move carpet','unlock door with key','search trash'...
Imagine yourself in the situations the quests present for you.
What would you have done in this situation? Find out, and try to
type it in. It might work!
I feel lonely! How do I communicate?
You are not alone on this MUD. Players from around the world
guide their players around in the same realm as you venture.
That's neat, you might think. So how do I communicate with
this Viking from Norway, and how do I flutter my eyelashes at
this Babe from France? ;)
Let's start with the most simple commands first.
If you want to say something to a player in the same room as you,
simply type 'say < string >'.
All players in the same room as you, will get what you are saying on
their screen.
Example:
>say Hello!
You say: Hello!
The other players in the room will get on their screen:
'Yourname' says: Hello!
If you wish to say something to one person only, but still want the
other persons in the room to know that you are saying something, use
the 'whisper' command.
Example:
>whisper 'Friendname' Hello there! Long time no see!
You whisper to him/her: Hello there! Long time no see!
Your friend will get on their screen:
'Yourname' whispers to you: Hello there! Long time no see!
The other players in the room will get on their screen:
'Yourname' whispers something in 'Friendname''s ear.
If you wish to say something to a player that only you and that player
shall know about, use the 'tell' command.
Example:
>tell 'Friendname' I've been missing you, my love.
You tell him/her: I've been missing you, my love.
Your friend will get on screen:
'Yourname' tells you: I've been missing you, my love.
You don't have to be in the same room as your friend to tell him
something. People in the same room as you and in the same room as
your frind won't even notice that you talk.
If you wish to say something that everyone the mud shall hear, use
the 'shout' command.
Example:
>shout Hi all!
You shout: Hi all!
Everybody else on the MUD will get on their screen:
'Yourname' shouts: Hi all!
If you wish to say something that special groups of people shall
hear, you can use one of the chat channels. Type 'view channels'
to get a list of available channels.
The most common is the chat channel. To say some words of wisdom,
or to brag about your latest kill, use this one.
Example:
>chat Boy, one dragon down, two to go!
Everybody else that have this channel turned on will get on their screen:
'Yourname' [Chat]: Boy, one dragon down, two to go!
You can turn on and off channels as you please. (Well, mostly)
Some channels requires that you are member of a certain guild,
and yet some requires that you are above a certain Level.
To turn on a channel, simply type 'turn on < channelname >'
To turn it off, type 'turn off <channelname>
Instead of the name, you can type 'turn on/off <channelnumber>'
You will get the channels number by typing 'view channels'
Example:
>turn off chat
You give up listening to General Chit-Chat.
>turn on swear
OK
>turn on 2
OK
Okay, let's say you just turned on the Trade channel.
After some time, Jada decides he want to sell some stuff.
Jada [Trade]: Toledo, misty cloak, small chest for sale!
You sure want the Toledo, and decide to bid on it.
To say something on specific channels, you must turn it on.
Once you turn it on, it's on until you turn it off again.
Well, you want to say something on [Trade].
You must use 'Chat' to indicate that this is a chat channel,
and the name 'Trade' to indicate which of the channels you wish to use.
Example:
>chat trade: 2000 gold coins for the Toledo!
NB! NOTICE THE COLON!
Everybody with the trade channel on get on their screen:
'Yourname' [Trade]: 2000 gold coins for the Toledo!
You might want to type 'help turn/view/channels' for more info.
Well, all this is well and good, but what about body language?
Is that possible as well? Sure. :-)
This MUD has an unique set of feelings for you to use.
They are very flexible (To say the least :) and easy to use.
Type 'feelings' to get a list of all available feelings for you
to enjoy. Frequent use of feeling enhances the fun of the game,
and creates a certain athmosphere as well. The feelings are there
to be used.
Example:
>smile
You smile happily.
>smile 'friendname'
You smile happily at 'friendname'.
>smile eag
You smile eagerly.
>smile eag 'friendname'
You smile eagerly at 'friendname'.
The 'eag' is an abbreviated adverb. This allow you to execute a feeling
in different ways. Some feelings have a default adverb, as smile has.
Type 'adverbs' to get a list of abbreviated adverbs. You only type the
abbreviations, not the complete adverb. Feelings and abbreviated adverbs
can be mixed wildly, for better and for worse. :)
Example:
>smile sed
You smile seductively.
>bonk 'friendname'
You bonk 'friendname' on the head.
>waggle bon 'friendname'
You waggle your finger with a bonecrushing sound at 'friendname'.
You can perform feelings on the chat channels as well.
Again, notice the COLON!
Example:
>chat feeling:cackle
[Chat]: 'Yourname' cackles with insane glee!
>chat trade feeling:nod sad
[Trade]: 'Yourname' nods sadly.
Everybody with the channels in question on will see this.
Then you come up with something that there are no feelings available
to express. In these cases you can use emote. The best way to explain
how emote works, is by examples.
Example:
>emote pulls your pants down.
You emote: 'Yourname' pulls your pants down.
All the players in the same room as you, will get on their screen:
'Yourname' pulls your pants down.
(And they will probably wonder what's on your filthy mind! (-: )
You can emote on chat channels too.
Example:
>chat emote:is happy today.
[Chat]: 'Yourname' is happy today.
There are a lot of possibilities. Get used to them, try them out,
enjoy them. Feelings are fun!
Use emote with care, mind you. Your reputation depends on how kind
you are, and how you behave. Remember, the other players are human
just as you! Don't mess with people. Be a nice adventurer, and see
how people treat you in a while.
Tips and trix for the advanced MUDder
Under this header you will find - you guessed it - some useful commands!
One of the mose important commands is the 'help'.
Type 'help <commandname>' to get some info about <commandname>
Example:
>help help
Will show you a helpfile to the 'help'-command.
>help feelings
Will show you a helpfile concerning the use of feelings.
Most commands you can execute on the MUD has a helpfile assigned to them,
so if you are uncertain about a subject, try help <subject>, and most
probably you will get help...
After some time adventuring, you will notice that you execute some
commands quite frequent. It might be 'get all from chest',
'buy nutradrink' or 'put firebreather in chest'
Wouldn't it be nice to replace those long strings with a few letters?
Guess what? You can! *bounce*
The way to do this, is by using the 'alias' command.
You can type 'help alias' for some info, but here is the simple way
to use it.
Example:
>alias drf drink firebreather
>drf
You drink a firebreather.
>alias lf chat love feeling:
>lf smile sed
[Love]: You smile seductively.
>unalias drf
Will erase the drf-alias.
>alias -c
Will erase all aliases.
Another useful command is the 'prompt' command.
This will let you replace your ordinary '>' prompt with something
more informative and useful.
Example:
>prompt #H-#S-#X: <- NB! Capital letters!
This will you give you a prompt like this (or something similar)
78-128-14302:
Where 78 is your current hitpoints, 128 is your spellpoints, and
14302 is your current experience score.
Use 'help prompt' for more info.
If your telnet client/terminal supports colours, you can assign different
colours to different kinds of text on the mud. For example, you could assign
the style Bold to each tell you receive and send, to easier keep track of
your conversations. The way to do this is:
>screen term ansi
Terminal type set to ansi.
>colour tells bold
Your tells attribute is now inverse.
Neat, huh?
Another command that is quite useful is 'split'.
With split, you can split an amount of money equally between the present
players, and you can even exclude some players from the split.
For example, you want to split 2500 gold coins among your friends.
Example:
>split 2500
If you want to exclude your friend 'Luringen' from the split, do a:
>split 2500 Luringen
Let's say you were fighting some monster, and someone told something
to you. But the text flashed by so fast that you were unable to catch
the name of teller. The command 'last' will give you the name of the last
person to tell you something, and what he/she said.
Example:
>last
[last] Jada: Hello! <15:31:12>
So, if you want to reply him, and this particular guy had some really
weird and complicated name as Azaxthraxas, it is a pain in the... uh..
neck.. to 'tell Azaxthraxas Boy you have a difficult name!'
You won't have to do this. Use 're(ply)' instead.
Example:
Azaxthraxas tells you: Hi there!
>re Hi!
You reply to him: Hi!
If you keep a conversation with more people at a time, you can switch between
the commands 're' and 'lt' to reply to the last person who told you somehing,
and tell something to the last person you told something accordingly.
You can also use 're' and 'lt' without an argument to see who you last
're'-ed and 'lt'-ed. :-)
Well, you wander aimlessly around in the world, and you're feeling very
lonely. You want someone to talk to.
To get a list of players presently playing on the mud, simply type 'who'.
Some players (read: Wizards, Arches and such) have the power to go
invisible, though. They probably have a reason to do this, so don't
whine about it. :)
Well, let's say you found an interesting name on the Who-List.
If you want some more info about this player, 'finger <playername>'
This will tell his e-mail-address (if any), how experienced he/she is
compared to you etc. It will also let you read this players plan.
To type in your own personal plan, simply type 'plan'
You will enter an editor where you can write in your plan line by line.
Type '**' on a line to end.
It is possible to write letters to other players on the mud.
This can be done at the post office in Larstown.
Simply 'mail <playername>', type in the subject of the mail, type in the
message, and end with '.' on a line by itself to end the mail. On the Cc:
prompt, type in the names of others who are to receive copies of the mail
as well.
We have a wonderful board system on this MUD as well. Type 'bn' to activate
it. Type 'h' to get a list of commands, and 'h #' where # is the command you
want help for to get help for that command. Briefly, the commands are:
Type 'L' to list all boards you can subscribe to. Type 'S' to subscribe
to all public boards, or 's #', where # is the number of the board you wish
to subscribe to. Type 'l' to get a list of the boards you have subscribed
to, and 'u #' to unsubscribe board. Type 'N' to read next unread message.
Type 'f' to followup last read note, or 'f #' to followup note with
number #. Type 'w <subject>' to start a new thread/note.
Type 'q' to quit thread/board/bn (in that order).
THE FOLLOWING IS IMPORTANT!
If you notice a bug, typo, get an idea of how a certain room or area
could be improved, or want to give praise to the creator, use the
'bug', 'typo', 'idea', 'comment' and 'praise' - commands.
Example:
>bug I am unable to go east from here!
Thank you!
>idea What about adding a torch or something here somewhere?
Thank you!
>praise Newbieville is the best area ever! <- Yeah sure. :)
Thank you!
Also, type 'creator' to get info about who created the area you're
standing in.
Type 'verbs' to get a list of all commands for you to execute.
Try them out, experiment with them, or ask someone if you are stuck.
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