Some newbie Qs

[Moonflame]

Hello, I'm completely new to MUDs and have spent loads of time trying to understand the game before creating my character. I still feel like I'll spend like an ingame day looking around and checking out my stats, someone will kill me and I won't even notice or something! But anyway, I have a few questions:

1. Do characters usually create a first name and a last name when they play?

2. In a tavern if I >sit at 7 , does that seat me at table 7 or at the bar?

3. There's tell, say and probably some other talk commands I can't remember. is >tell like a whisper?

4. If you are crafting something, does an appropriate tool have to be in your hand, or can it be just in your inventory or in the room?

5. Does food go off? How fast? If I were online for 2 ingame days, how many times would my character need to eat and drink in that time?

6. I read that you need to use a certain number of words in a line sometimes because it messes up the way people can read it. Can someone clarify the rules on that for me? I found it a bit confusing, is that just when you're doing character creation?

[Cutthroat]

Welcome to Armageddon! It takes a while to get the hang of things in Arm, but the game really allows for a new player to learn as they go, so I'm sure you'll do fine once you're ready to jump in.

1) Most characters only have a first name. Nobles and Great Merchant House family members have a "last name" (the name of their House). Other commoners can have last names too, but it is probably uncommon and would bear little significance (in terms of a family having influence over generations, and such). If you decide to give your character a last name, it wouldn't be during character generation. Rather, you should use just the first name during chargen, and include the last name in your background. When you get in-game, you could use the addkeyword command to add the last name to your character, if you feel you should be targeted with the last name as well.

2) It will sit you on the seventh piece of furniture, whatever that may be (a table, a bar, a giant pillow, etc). 'look tables' will give you the numbered list.

3) Tell is like a directed 'say' command. Whisper is a different command that allows you to say things quietly to someone else - others will have a chance to overhear a whisper based on their listen skill, whereas anyone can hear a tell.

4) Technically, you don't need any tools to craft most things - they provide a boost when held, but you can (and are strongly encouraged to) RP with them in any of the situations you listed.

5) Food doesn't codedly spoil. You would probably need to eat and drink at least once in that time.

6) There is a character limit when inputting blocks of text into the editor - for example, during character creation, when writing your description and background. That is (I think) 75 characters per line, and there will be a ruler to use as a guide when you're doing this in-game. The reason for this is that there is a bigger limit for single commands in general (around 300 I think) and going past this bigger limit will truncate everything after the limit, meaning much of what you wrote will be lost if you go past it. The smaller 75 limit for descriptions, backgrounds, rumor board posts, etc is mainly for aesthetic reasons.

[Bushranger]

Hello, I'm completely new to MUDs and have spent loads of time trying to understand the game before creating my character. I still feel like I'll spend like an ingame day looking around and checking out my stats, someone will kill me and I won't even notice or something! But anyway, I have a few questions:

1. Do characters usually create a first name and a last name when they play?

This depends on your character really. Most of my poor common class character only have a given name, but there are others who always give their characters given and family names.

2. In a tavern if I >sit at 7 , does that seat me at table 7 or at the bar?

Is table 7 the bar? When you enter the tavern you should "Look Tables" and it will give you a listing of the tables and their numbers. You can also use nouns or adjectives of the tables to sit at the one you want. Sit at bar, sit at wooden.

3. There's tell, say and probably some other talk commands I can't remember. is >tell like a whisper?

Say is something your character says in general. Say Everyone stinks!
Tell is something your character says to a specific person. Tell Amos You stink!
Whisper is something your characher whispers to a specific person. Whisper Amos You stink!
Shout is something your character yells out and can be heard at a distance. Shout Everyone stinks!

4. If you are crafting something, does an appropriate tool have to be in your hand, or can it be just in your inventory or in the room?

This depends upon the tool; some tools are hand tools, some tools are so big they can not be held by one person and others are only described virtually. You can generally craft things without any tools (and most people doing this emote about using virtual tools). When using a hand tool many of them will give you a skill boost when held while crafting.

5. Does food go off? How fast? If I were online for 2 ingame days, how many times would my character need to eat and drink in that time?

Food does not go off. Some people have suggested that it should but for now all food can be stored indefinitely. How active is your character? Being active and being out doors can increase how often you need to eat and drink.

6. I read that you need to use a certain number of words in a line sometimes because it messes up the way people can read it. Can someone clarify the rules on that for me? I found it a bit confusing, is that just when you're doing character creation?

In character creation you're limited to about 75 characters per line for descriptions and backgrounds so that they format correctly for people with small screens. This is mostly a hold over from the (now) ancient history of DIKU. There are no rules about it for general emote or say. If you write on a rumor board or add a biography entry to your character you might want to limit it to 75 characters per line just like your character description.

[Barsook]

2) It will sit you on the seventh piece of furniture, whatever that may be (a table, a bar, a giant pillow, etc). 'look tables' will give you the numbered list.

Isn't "keyword table"?

[Bushranger]

2) It will sit you on the seventh piece of furniture, whatever that may be (a table, a bar, a giant pillow, etc). 'look tables' will give you the numbered list.

Isn't "keyword table"?

Keyword is a modern addition to the code. Look tables is the legacy code specifically for tables/furniture in taverns.
Keyword table will only list tables and not the bar or the rug or the couch.
Look Tables will list everything you can sit/stand at.

[Moonflame]

Aha, thank you for your answers 

I am likely to start in Tuluk, and I'd like my first character to be based in the city – not having to go outside of the city too much until I have learned more ingame about fighting and survival. However, I read something somewhere about merchant being a bad choice for a first time player unless you know about trade and things. Is that true? Maybe they meant it's a bad choice to be a trader, though merchant is an alright guild to start with? Or maybe I should go for ranger?

If I can follow through with the idea, I was thinking my aim would be to become some kind of crafter, a jeweler, tailor or armormaker. Is that a realistic goal?

[Bushranger]

An artisan making clother, jewellery or armor is very realistic! If you want to create things Merchant is the perfect class for it as you will be able to craft everything, eventually, at the highest skill.

I think being a trader can be difficult until one has an idea of what can be bought cheaply in some places and sold for more in other places or is in enough of a demand that you can make a living trading them. Many things are not worth much or do not have enough demand to make a living trading especially if you do not travel widely. I also think that people often say Merchant can be a more difficult class to play for newbies because they have almost no combat skill and if they get into any fight they are very vulnerable.

[Barsook]

You can start out as a warrior or ranger and try to get hired by a merchant house or the Byn.  Check the local rumor boards in the city that you start in and keep in mind that these are heard rumors not written ones.

[valeria]

Merchant is a lovely guild to start with IF you plan on joining a clan as a merchant.  Otherwise it can be a little difficult to figure things out, I think.  I love merchants, but if my first merchant hadn't been clanned in a Merchant House, I think I would have been horribly lost.

[Moonflame]

Merchant is a lovely guild to start with IF you plan on joining a clan as a merchant.  Otherwise it can be a little difficult to figure things out, I think.  I love merchants, but if my first merchant hadn't been clanned in a Merchant House, I think I would have been horribly lost.

I think I plan on joining a clan as a merchant, but I'm not very sure what that involves. Do I get to craft things that way, or do I mostly buy and sell?

[Barsook]

You craft things and the merchants and/or merchant trainies sell them and you get a small cut of that total that was sold.  Most of this things can be found IC.

[Moonflame]

You craft things and the merchants and/or merchant trainies sell them and you get a small cut of that total that was sold.  Most of this things can be found IC.

I assumed that it must be something like that, I guess my question is whether you have to pick merchant as your guild if you want to do that? if I pick ranger, would I still have decent enough skills to craft for merchants?

[Barsook]

There are crafter-based subguilds, Merchant guild only allows your PC is to be better at the crafts and a are chance of branching into other crafts.  A ranger with a crafter-based subguild allows your PC to grather the raw materials without even buying them better than a merchant in terms of starting skills would.  You can join a merchant house as a hunter/crafter and do both also.

[Bushranger]

You craft things and the merchants and/or merchant trainies sell them and you get a small cut of that total that was sold.  Most of this things can be found IC.

I assumed that it must be something like that, I guess my question is whether you have to pick merchant as your guild if you want to do that? if I pick ranger, would I still have decent enough skills to craft for merchants?

As a ranger you will only get the skills to craft if you pick a crafting sub-guild. You will also never be good enough to craft everything in that range.

For example a Merchant classed jeweller will eventually be able to craft just about every piece of jewellery that is available to be made (except for some secretive recipes that are limited to specific clans). A Ranger classed jeweller will only be able to craft a limited selection of jewellery which do not need a mastery of the skill. Both can find work in clans as a jeweller though, its mostly dependant how skilled you want your character to end up.

[Moonflame]

Ah that makes a lot of sense, so I guess I have to choose between a bit of survivability in the wild or more skillful crafting

Thanks!

[Barsook]

That's what it really does boil down to you, what type of character do you want.  And not a problem, see you in game.

[Barzalene]

3. There's tell, say and probably some other talk commands I can't remember. is >tell like a whisper?

Say is something your character says in general. Say Everyone stinks!
Tell is something your character says to a specific person. Tell Amos You stink!
Whisper is something your characher whispers to a specific person. Whisper Amos You stink!
Shout is something your character yells out and can be heard at a distance. Shout Everyone stinks!

Talk is something your character says only to the people seated at the same table and can be heard only by those people and people trying to listen. Talk Those people at that other table stink.

[Jinxed]

I would like to add that most of clans don't even allow their recruits outside of the city for quite a while, until they are confident that recruit is able to handle it.
Players here are also suprisingly eager to teach newbies.

[solera]

I find the command
     

Code Select Expand

sit with Amos
a lot easier than trying to work out which table your friends are occupying

I have a feeling that the hunger thirst doesn't kick in immediately for new PCs? I worried too much about starving the first time I put foot in  MUD

[Gimfalisette]

Wait, no one called his/her boots yet??

DIBS.

Also, welcome to Armageddon



IMO, merchant guild with a crafting subguild is an awesome way to go for a new player, especially starting in Tuluk and joining a Great Merchant House. I love the tailor subguild, I'm sure I've played it more than any other subguild. There are about eleventy thousand things you can craft with a tailor.

[Moonflame]

Damn, I was hoping I could be buried with my trusty boots but I guess not. In case there is MUD in the afterlife.

Thanks so much for all the comments, I went for merchant guild with a craft subguild.

One more question: When you learn someone's name, I guess you keep seeing them as "the tall brown-haired man" so you have to memorise their name? Or is there a way that you can view them henceforth by their name?

[Gimfalisette]

One more question: When you learn someone's name, I guess you keep seeing them as "the tall brown-haired man" so you have to memorise their name? Or is there a way that you can view them henceforth by their name?

Yep, it's on you as the player to remember their name. Or not. Sometimes I play PCs with great memories (even keeping notes to help me remember), sometimes I play PCs that think of everyone as "whatshisface" for IC months. Depends on how you want to play it.

[Pale Horse]

One more question: When you learn someone's name, I guess you keep seeing them as "the tall brown-haired man" so you have to memorise their name? Or is there a way that you can view them henceforth by their name?

Yep, it's on you as the player to remember their name. Or not. Sometimes I play PCs with great memories (even keeping notes to help me remember), sometimes I play PCs that think of everyone as "whatshisface" for IC months. Depends on how you want to play it.

Personally, I keep notes on everyone that my PCs meet, as well as a little blurb as to anything they might have remembered about them (that they consider important).

Example:  Amos, the tall, muscular man - kadian hunter, met in bar at Luirs, annoying twat.

This way, I can play off what would be the most significant thing my character remembers about them.  I may have their name, but my character may only remember them as that "annoying twat" who's a kadian hunter, and that they're hanging about Luirs.

Edit:  I should note that I may not necessarily write down their name, just what was most important about them, and that upon my PC's death, I delete said notes.  Keeping such IG information is poor form and it only makes for getting into a new character that much harder.

[Barsook]

Mudlet, a MUD client, has a built in notepad that you can use to take notes.

[Moonflame]

I should note that I may not necessarily write down their name, just what was most important about them, and that upon my PC's death, I delete said notes.  Keeping such IG information is poor form and it only makes for getting into a new character that much harder.

I know what you mean, on another roleplaying games I've played, I feel really odd when two of my characters manage to meet the same person.

Mudlet, a MUD client, has a built in notepad that you can use to take notes.

I had chosen Mudlet, actually. I'm not sure if it's Mudlet or if it just picks up possible tiny blips in my internet connection, but it seems to disconnect me if I don't type for a minute or 5 minutes or something. Is there a way to disable that? As I say though, I guess it could be my internet connection.