Lotsa questions from a newb

[Takarai]

I've applied for armageddon but have yet to get approval for my character. From reading some of these posts, I notice that a client may be needed. I don't know if I have one. Could someone help me with one (A totally free one if you don't mind, I have no means to buy one).

Next, I'd like to ask a few questions to familiarize myself with some things:

1) Backstabbing: I'm playing an assassin with subguild mercenary (though, most likely it should have been scavenger) but what happens if you want to use a bow or sap someone? can you backstab/sap or backstab with a bow? if so, what in the world would be the syntax?

2) exactly how are stats and suck kept up with? I'm coming from a virtual table top chat room rp and can't seem to get a grasp on what these stats are about or how they're measured/used.

3) What's a dragon? I heard about it and know what they are in other fantasy games but it seems "dragon" is more of a title in this game rather than a creature.

4) If I get enough Karma, will I eventually be able to make an Assassin with the subguild of Elementallist? (I was particularly attracted to shadow magic).

5) Is a glass dagger better than an obsidian one? excluding fragility.

6) is it possible to use 2 weapons and use one only for parrying?

7) Do people here parapost?

Is there any advice you can give me that would help me further?

I'm truly interested in rping but where I came from, the rps were full of people who thought they were invincible, I came here in hopes that I can get away from that and find a slightly more complicated atmosphere with which to rp.

[jhunter]

Welcome to Arm!
Let's see I don't have much time so I'll answer one for you and give a bit of advice.


Backstabbing-You can only do this with a subtype of piercing weapons called stabbing weapons, what weapons are stabbing is something you'll have to find out IC, try using assess "weapon" if it's in your inventory, or "view weapon" if it's in a merchant's list of items for sale.

Sap-You can only do this with weapons of the bludgeoning type.
I don't think bows can be used for anything other that shooting arrows, but I could be wrong, I've never tried it.
In game, the help file for backstab would be help skill_backstab, for sap, help skill_sap.
If you just type help in game, you'll get a list of subjects that there are help files for.
Also on the home page of this site, you can access the help files, and also take a look under general information as well.

[Quirk]

1) Backstabbing: I'm playing an assassin with subguild mercenary (though, most likely it should have been scavenger) but what happens if you want to use a bow or sap someone? can you backstab/sap or backstab with a bow? if so, what in the world would be the syntax?

No, you cannot backstab or sap with a bow. You would backstab your foe with a short stabbing weapon, or sap them with a sturdy, big blunt stick, club or mace-like weapon. If I remember right, assassins aren't much use with bows, although they're wizards with throwing knives.

2) exactly how are stats and suck kept up with? I'm coming from a virtual table top chat room rp and can't seem to get a grasp on what these stats are about or how they're measured/used.

At character generation you will be randomly assigned stats in strength, agility, wisdom and endurance. These affect your hit points (obvious), your stun points (also obvious) and your stamina (which governs how far you can move over rough terrain). You have one chance to reroll them. They also affect combat, sneaking and many other skills, although by the time you have grown highly proficient in any particular one their effects aren't a huge deal.

3) What's a dragon? I heard about it and know what they are in other fantasy games but it seems "dragon" is more of a title in this game rather than a creature.

A dragon is still a creature, albeit a highly intelligent one capable of casting magicks. Sorceror-Kings have been known to take dragon form.

4) If I get enough Karma, will I eventually be able to make an Assassin with the subguild of Elementallist? (I was particularly attracted to shadow magic).

No. There is no provision for magick as a subguild - each type of magicker is a guild in its own right. You could, however, become a Drovian given sufficient karma.

5) Is a glass dagger better than an obsidian one? excluding fragility.

Your character will have to draw his or her own conclusions. It likely will depend to some degree on the individual dagger, in any case.

6) is it possible to use 2 weapons and use one only for parrying?

While wielding two weapons will enhance your ability to parry, you will still strike with both of them. If you want more effective defence use a shield, if you want more effective offence use two weapons (or one giant two-handed one).

7) Do people here parapost?

Not sure what paraposting is...?

Is there any advice you can give me that would help me further?

While combat may or may not play a significant part in your character's life, the heart of the game is the role-play, and staying in character at all times. Endeavour always to look at the world through your character's eyes, and consider whether what he's doing is a sensible thing to do for someone living in that world, and whether it fits his personality. Frequently the "sensible" thing to do in character, as a product of the Zalanthan culture will jibe with your feelings for what would make your character most fearsome from an OOC perspective - perhaps one of the prime examples is in dealing with magickers. Magickers often have loads of lovely spells that could buff you up into an unstoppable killing machine, but there are very few on Zalanthas would be comfortable with having magicks cast on them.

I'm truly interested in rping but where I came from, the rps were full of people who thought they were invincible, I came here in hopes that I can get away from that and find a slightly more complicated atmosphere with which to rp.

Armageddon is likely the most complicated environment to RP in in terms of tensions, conflicts and a well-realised culture that exists among MUDs. Be warned, you are likely to find it addictive.

Quirk

[aeshyw]

Takarai,

First, welcome to Armageddon.  It sounds like you are the type of person who is interested enough in details and RP that you will fit in here just fine and really enjoy the environment.

That said - I would highly suggest you go back to the main website and read a bit more of the introduction section at http://www.armageddon.org/intro/ .  Instead of trying to answer your questions one by one I'll make a few generalizations.

First - starting with an assassin you may already be setting yourself up for disappointment if you are hoping to start right off with a loner.  While assassins are perfectly viable characters, you will have a -much- easier time if you join a clan or group to get you started with your first PC.  Since you're choosing mercenary for a subguild, I reccomend trying to join the Byn once you get into the game.

Secondly, if it doesn't seem logical..you probably can't do it - find the right tool for the right job...

Your stats are created at character creation.  You really don't need to worry about them much, in my opinion.  Even characters with poor stats can end up doing very well.  Don't worry that they will cripple you in some fashion.

I'd save your combat questions for now and join the Byn.  They will teach you all you could ever want to know about fighting.  Also, go to the help file section of the main website and look at the files for combat.  These will help you as well.

Karma is something that comes in time, but magick is not something anyone really just 'dabbles' with.  You're either a magicker or you aren't, and if you are you are likely hated and feared and discriminated against at the least, killed at the most.    Again, I'd suggest clicking on the 'General Information' link on the main website and at least surfing through the majority of links listed there.  

Get ready.  Armageddon is -nothing- like any mud you've played before.  Other characters are not fair.  They are not nice.  People will use whatever means they have to take advantage of you for their own profit/benefit.  We like it that way.

Lastly, if you find yourself still aprehensive, try contacting one of the helpers listed on the website.  Unlike their characters, they are generally nice people always willing to lend a hand to new folks.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I've applied for armageddon but have yet to get approval for my character. From reading some of these posts, I notice that a client may be needed. I don't know if I have one. Could someone help me with one (A totally free one if you don't mind, I have no means to buy one).

Hey, welcome aboard, I hope you have as much fun as I have.

There are lots of free clients out there, you'll get plenty of links soon enough.  I'd look for maybe mudmaster or roaclient.  If those are a little confusing you can always use the 30 day demo of zmud until you find one you like.  There are tons of free ones out there.

1) Backstabbing: I'm playing an assassin with subguild mercenary (though, most likely it should have been scavenger) but what happens if you want to use a bow or sap someone? can you backstab/sap or backstab with a bow? if so, what in the world would be the syntax?

You can only backstab with weapons that it would make sense to backstab with, the bows in Zalanthas aren't typically made for this purpose.  Sap is a separate skill.

2) exactly how are stats and suck kept up with? I'm coming from a virtual table top chat room rp and can't seem to get a grasp on what these stats are about or how they're measured/used.

Physical stats are divided into four categories Strength, Agility, Wisdom and Endurance.  They each affect the game in some way but most of the mechanics are (thankfully) kept from us.  Its pretty ease, however, to divine that strength makes you hit harder and lift more, agility makes you more able to do things that require, well, agility.  Endurance is how quickly you regenerate hitpoints.

There is also the stat pools of Hit Points, Stamina Points, Stun Points and Mana.  Only magickers utilize mana.  Hitpoints are handled much like any other game, you take damage your hitpoints decrease but your PC's regeneration kicks in after a while, just like in real life.

Stamina is used for running anywhere or walking through rough terrain.  When its out you have to rest.
Stun is used for the way and also can be decreased during combat.  Lose all your stun and you are knocked out.  Its an exciting thing.

3) What's a dragon? I heard about it and know what they are in other fantasy games but it seems "dragon" is more of a title in this game rather than a creature.

You'd be best off going to the main page www.armageddon.org and looking through the history link under general information for this.

4) If I get enough Karma, will I eventually be able to make an Assassin with the subguild of Elementallist? (I was particularly attracted to shadow magic).

There are no magickal subguilds.  The way karma works is that it opens up new guild and/or race options as you progress.

For an assassin with magickal abilities you'd need to go through the special app process, but I'd give it several months before I tried, personally.

5) Is a glass dagger better than an obsidian one? excluding fragility.

I don't know the answer, but I think you'll have more fun finding out in game, even just by asking other PCs.

6) is it possible to use 2 weapons and use one only for parrying?

No, if you have two weapons you swing with two weapons.  Interesting idea though...

7) Do people here parapost?

I don't know what that means, heh.

Is there any advice you can give me that would help me further?

A lot of new players have difficulty differentiating between PCs and NPCs because both move around and sometimes seem to speak.

PCs, however, are generally the ones that are doing A LOT of speaking and aren't saying the same thing one time every 5 minutes.

Either start in Tuluk or Allanak and I'd avoid all manner of conflict until you get your feet from under you.  Permadeath is a wonderful thing, since its what makes conflict and combat so interesting, but its also final.

Also, don't spend your money, put it in your pack and close your pack.  If you must, buy a cheap belt, a cheap weapon and a cheap cloak and keep the rest.   Food and drink weighs heavily when you spent all your money.

I'm truly interested in rping but where I came from, the rps were full of people who thought they were invincible, I came here in hopes that I can get away from that and find a slightly more complicated atmosphere with which to rp.

Nobody is ever invicible here, ever.  Some are just harder to kill.  Enjoy your time here.  The only other thing I'd suggest is that you forget notions of fair treatment or pride.  A regular old PC, especially non-humans, are pretty low on the ladder compared to nobles and Templars who can have a PC tortured, disfigured, banished or just plain killed and nobody bats an eye in this world.  When dealing with figures of authority a typical PC would be thinking about escaping with his life intact, not taking a futile (and most assuredly final) stance.

But, its just that sort of stuff that makes this game fun.  And there's nothing that says your PC can't one day creep up from behind that noble, templar or soldier that gave him or her a tongue lashing and stick something sharp in their back.

[Barzalene]

I've applied for armageddon but have yet to get approval for my character. From reading some of these posts, I notice that a client may be needed. I don't know if I have one. Could someone help me with one (A totally free one if you don't mind, I have no means to buy one).

A client is a wonderful thing.

The first two links are completely free. The last will give you an annoying unregestered user screen, but is still a good program and you do not have to register. (Though if you can afford to you should)

http://members.fortunecity.com/jo7683sa/gmud/
http://4.18.158.29/RhoneWare/RoAClient/cli-down.htm
http://simplemu.onlineroleplay.com/download.html

[Barzalene]

Just a little more advice. Go to the helper page before you start playing. Have an instant messenger program open. Maybe even contact the helper of your choice in advance. There are many types of information that you need to learn ic, and helpers will not tell you everything, but all of them should be happy to help you find the correct syntax for commands. When trying to fit in to this new rp world, it's nice to have that security blanket of an online friendly to help you through the awkward fumbles.

Also, you might want to keep your web-browser open to the helpfiles for a while, so you have yet another resourse at your fingertipes.

The helpfiles are here: http://www.armageddon.org/help/index_frames.html

And the helpers are here: http://www.armageddon.org/intro/helpers.html

Finally, if you don't use an instant messenger you can always send a private message to people on the gdb.

[Bestatte]

I'll add one thing that gets posted every couple of weeks, and bears repeating often:

When you're playing the game and need/want to leave it, find a quit-safe room. You can tell it's quit-safe by typing quit test

As far as I know, every tavern in every city either is, or has, a quit-safe room. There are others, but those would be the obvious choices for a new player.

Once you find the quit-safe room of your choice, do -not- "x" out of your client! All that will do is leave your "character-object" link-dead in the room for anyone to rob or kill, if it's in their character's character to do so. To quit "correctly," type the word quit and then you can safely leave the game.

Another point is about the assassin guild. Choosing this guild doesn't mean you have to actually play an assassin. It just means you liked various skills that the docs indicate comes with it and think you would like to make use of them. You don't have to make use of any of them to be a viable character, because there's no "advancement" that you have to deal with from a mechanics standpoint. Your advancement will be determined by how your character fits into the world, which is further determined by your roleplaying.

I had an assassin character for several months, who never killed ANYONE. In fact, she sucked at the backstab skill, preferring throwing knives (which the assassin guild comes with). The only reason I practiced the backstab skill was to hopefully branch to other things. She never branched anything particularly useful, but she was a hella good character and got involved in all sorts of neat plotlines.

My last point is to respectfully disagree with Aesyw, who says that stats aren't important and not to worry about them. In some cases, they're not. In others, they are. For instance, if your character is destined, through his background, in being GODLY in using the psionic skills Contact and Barrier, then "poor" wisdom will be a bad thing. Average wisdom, however, is fine, and in that case I agree it wouldn't be anything to worry about.

If your character wants to be this mondo muscular bad-ass he-man guy, and you end up with "average" strength, then it's probably gonna suck for you.

My advice, is to -not- put in your character's background any indication of being "really good" at anything. That way, if the stats end up good, it'll be a great bonus. If they end up average or better than average or just - not as good, then you won't be disappointed when you find out that your plans to be a leet waterbarrel-lifting killer gets trashed because you suck.

Stats matter. They're just not a primary concern. That's the only place I disagree. And everyone else has already made some awesome suggestions so now I'll jump off the soapbox and sweep it for the next player to hop on.

Welcome to Armageddon!

[Carnage]

1) Backstabbing: I'm playing an assassin with subguild mercenary (though, most likely it should have been scavenger) but what happens if you want to use a bow or sap someone? can you backstab/sap or backstab with a bow? if so, what in the world would be the syntax?

No. If you're going to knock someone out with a weapon, what kind do people use in real life? A blackjack, right? Which is a blunt weapon. And what sort of weapon would you use to make a sneaky attack? A dagger or small, concealable weapon. Use your head.

2) exactly how are stats and suck kept up with? I'm coming from a virtual table top chat room rp and can't seem to get a grasp on what these stats are about or how they're measured/used.

The variously effect skills and things.

Strength: How much you can lift, how much damage you do.
Agility: Effects skills such as pickpocket, parry, and so on. Also will help you avoid more damage in combat.
Wisdom: How fast you learn skills. Your magick points are also effected by this, but that shouldn't concern you until you get at least two points of karma or put in a special app.
Endurance: Hitpoints, stun, movementpoints. and various things that count on your constitution, such as walking, how well you can stand up to poison, and so on.

3) What's a dragon? I heard about it and know what they are in other fantasy games but it seems "dragon" is more of a title in this game rather than a creature.

It's not 'a dragon'. It's THE Dragon. Read the site regarding history and such and you'll find out.

4) If I get enough Karma, will I eventually be able to make an Assassin with the subguild of Elementallist? (I was particularly attracted to shadow magic).

No. There's no such thing as elementalist subguilds.

5) Is a glass dagger better than an obsidian one? excluding fragility.

Read the descriptions, compare prices, and use your head.

6) is it possible to use 2 weapons and use one only for parrying?

Code-wise, no, but there are parrying weapons that you can equip in your offhand that should help. They'll be pretty obvious and you'll know it when you see it.

7) Do people here parapost?

Huh?

Is there any advice you can give me that would help me further?

Read the helpfiles. No ifs, ands, or buts. Read them. Particularly the top40, the helpfiles regarding nobles, magickers, and a variety of other things.

Don't roleplay something beyond what you are. That means when you're a warrior fresh out of chargen, don't roleplay a master warrior. In your emotes, show that you're a novice weapon-user. Humble beginnings can lead to good things.

Be fluid. With your says and your emotes. When you type out a sentence ask yourself if it strains itself or if it flows nicely.

Know symbols and who does what and don't mix up Allanaki and Tuluki things. It makes you look bad. In general just get to know one area well, then when you're ready move onto the other.

Act realistic. Don't walk into a tavern when it's filled with people (and most likely noisy with people minding their own business) and start yelling questions. In real life, would you do that? I wouldn't. I'd go to the bar, sit down with someone, make smalltalk, and then ease the conversation that way.

Not being polite enough will get you in IC trouble. It never hurts to be too polite, especially around nobility.

That's my advice.

[Drayab]

For a client, you can try //www.mudconnector.com and click on the link for resources and then on the link for mud clients. They've got a nice list of links to many different clients, most of which are free, including the most common clients and many that most people have probably never heard of, like the one I use called "JMC 3.22."

Good luck and stay safe. Welcome to Armageddon.

[Flaming Ocotillo]

The best advice I can give to a newbie who's ready to go gung ho and kill the world:

Almost every single command in the game related to combat will LAG YOU for a certain period of time. You will actually not be able to enter -any- command whatsoever while you are being lagged from your first attack, from attempting a disarm, from attempting a kick, or whatever else you try to do. This is extremely confusing for people who come from a MUD that doesn't choose to jam your telnet connection with an emulated lag. While some MUDs might prevent you from entering certain combat commands between rounds, Armageddon will jam your ability to input even non-combat commands during any "recovery" period, I.e. not even the WHO command or WISH command or EMOTE command will function. Typing out these commands while in a lagged state will queue all of them in whatever order you typed them out, and then spit them all out at once.

So, if you're in combat and things start to get all laggy and nothing seems to work right, it's probably not your connection; it's the way Armageddon has been coded since its earliest Diku days of thunder.

[FiveDisgruntledMonkeysWit]

The best advice I can give to you is to keep your eyes open, stick to it, and have a damn good time (which you almost certainly will). Armageddon is one of those games where you're always learning new things. I'm sure you'll never get bored. If you can manage to get over the trauma of your first character's death, that is.

Good luck, buddy!

[jhunter]

I would like to add to this that everything that has been added to this thread (IMVHO) is very helpful and beneficial information.
Secondly, I think this embodies both in game, and on the GDB what needs to be done to help build the playerbase and add to the -BEST- roleplaying game in existence.
Do your best, to help those fully understand the game and the world it exists in, and in the end, (Of all those chars we come to love and remember.) our efforts will be rewarded.
Holy shit! If all of the newbies we once were, became what the veterans  the long-lived players -are-...how much -more- fun the game would be?

[John]

No that group ISN'T the best place to go. It spreads IC information OOCly (some people like to have fun with Armageddon and actually find out some things through hard work) and it's also against the rules (I had a long debate about it, I still think it's against the rules).

Also, the information you get from it is just as likely to be wrong. The "IC info" they're trying to spread can be fairly inacurrate (according to both players AND Immortals)

Also, I asked a simple question and it has yet to be answered