All MUD players would agree that the first few games are very confusing, and not everyone stays the course. However, many years of experience in showing newcomers the ropes has highlighted certain areas where most players have problems. To help you find your feet more quickly, then, the commonest questions asked by novices are paraphrased in this document, with the appropriate replies. Note that these questions are game-related only - if you have problems accessing the game, or with your communications software, contact MUSE direct (MUSE is the company which runs MUD). The address to write to is 34, Grantham Road, Great Horkesley, Colchester, Essex, Gt. Britain. CO6 4TU. Their (voice) telephone number is (0206) 272633.
The questions are listed in a vaguely "easiest first" order. Some of the later ones you won't understand until you've played the game and seen things happen you'd like explaining. At the very end, after the questions, is a list of words and phrases commonly used in MUD by the players, the meanings of which aren't always apparent to the beginner.
Other essential information is provided within MUD itself, by the commands HELP, COMMANDS, INFO, and HINTS. There is also a good deal of assistance and advice in the MUD on-line Library, written by some of the more experienced players. Take a browse through some time: select option L from the menu you get after you've logged in, and type HELP from there to find out how to work the Library program.
Throughout this text, and normally in MUD itself, commands are written in upper case. The reason for this is so you can tell what to type; there is no requirement that you actually type the commands in upper case when you're playing! Similarly, example responses from MUD are placed in single quotes, so you can tell at a glance what they are, although in the game itself they obviously won't be quoted.
However, if you have no points you will get a 'feeling of dread' when you try to leave the Tearoom, and can't get out until you become 'suitably composed'. To become 'suitably composed', take the advice given at the end of the description of the room, and SIP TEA. This will give you one point, enough for you to get out by going N. There is no need to SIP TEA every time you play, only if you have no points.
It may be that you do a WHO and the only name you see on the list is your own! Since MUD is supposed to be a multi-user game, that may surprise you. There are three explanations:
Since MUD is insulated from the real world, people often use the game to role-play, since it lets them be anything they feel like being. If you see a character called Helga walking around shpeaking mit ein cherman accent, it doesn't mean she's really German, or that she's called Helga, or indeed that she's female in the real world. In MUD, you just have to take people as you find them!
There is a command VALUE (or VAL for short) which tells you how much an object is worth. VAL ALL will tell you about everything you can lay hands on, including players in the room, and VAL T will just go through the treasures (including trinkets).
The second means of communication is more local: you can talk to everyone in your room by using a string without any command, eg. "HI FOLKS!". Again, you need not type the final quote. The message goes to all players in the same room as you, and they can tell who said it because it appears as 'X says "HI FOLKS"'.
The third way to communicate is on a person-to-person level: to talk to an individual player, give their name (NOT including their rank) followed by the message in quotes, eg. PERCY "WHERE ARE YOU? (the final quote has been omitted, as usual). Percy would know you had communcated directly to him because he'd see something of the form 'X tells you "WHERE ARE YOU?"'.
The final method of communication is via WISH, as in WISH "PLEASE HELP, I'M NEW". This sends your message only to the most powerful (and friendly!) players, known as "wizzes" (wizards/witches). If there are any playing, even invisibly, they'll receive your message and will normally come to your assistance; a message from 'someone powerful' means it is from an invisible wiz. WISH is actually a spell, and you usually fall asleep when you use it, so don't be surprised if this happens.
As well as these 8 directional commands, there is U and D for UP and DOWN. These are sometimes more convenient than compass points, although they normally match one of them. For example, if you're going up a hillside it's quicker to type U a few times than to read the room description in full to find out exactly which direction actually IS up!
A similar pair of convenience commands are IN and O (for OUT). If you're next to some opening, IN will normally take you through it (unless it leads outside). Although IN won't always work, you can use O almost anywhere - it moves you one room towards the room most centrally located in the game, which is nominally the point where the road fords the river. If you're ever lost, keep repeating O until you find somewhere you recognise.
Similar to O is the SWAMP command, which moves you one room towards the swamp from anywhere on the surface. You may have to do a few Os before SWAMP will work if you're deep underground. See the question on how to get points if you want to know why this command is so handy!
The last movement command is JUMP (or LEAP). This command is not used very often, and implies that there is a drop of some kind, over or down which you wish to move. Don't use JUMP casually, it can easily get you killed. As well as these 14 movement commands, there are other, magical ways to move about, but they're too high-powered to be discussing here.
Adjectives shouldn't be used, and articles are ignored. If you try to OPEN KITCHEN DOOR you won't be understood - just OPEN DOOR; if you OPEN THE DOOR, you wasted your time typing the THE. Most commands, but direction commands in particular, can be strung together on one line, separated by dots or commas, eg. O.O.O.O.O.O.O will move you OUT seven times.
Some objects, eg. bags and boxes, are containers. You can put objects in a container by using DROP (or PUT), eg. DR COIN IN BAG. To get something out of a container, use GET, eg. G COIN FROM BAG.
You can also get objects from creatures and other players by using GET (or STEAL). G AXE FROM NORBERT will attempt to transfer Norbert's axe to you, although you won't always succeed, especially for big objects. DROP (or GIVE) will hand an object to a creature or another player, eg. GIVE BOX TO VAMPIRE.
To find out what you're carrying at any time, use INVENTORY, which is shortened to just I. There is a limit to the number of objects you can carry loose (ie. not in containers), and also in the total weight you can cart around with you (including anything in your containers).
Now, if you were in a room and said G GROAT, it would only pick up the groat. G COIN would pick up the groat and any other coins there, and G MONEY would pick up all objects of type money (which of course includes the groat). G TREASURE (shortened to G T) will pick up anything in the room which is worth points, and G SOLID will get anything solid (treasure or not). G ALL will attempt to get everything in the room.
This classification system works with nearly all commands in MUD, although the fancier aspects of it aren't used so often. So long as you remember G T, G ALL, DR T and DR ALL, you should get along fine.
The second way to get points is by doing certain actions. For example, deep underground is a 'fountain of wisdom', and entering it will get you a considerable number of points. Needless to say, getting to it isn't all that easy! Eating food is another good way to get points.
Finally, there's fighting. You get points if you kill someone or something in a fight, or if they flee from the fight. The rewards of fighting are immense, and the higher-ranked players can be worth many thousands of points if killed. However, it is also very dangerous, since if you are the one who is killed you will lose ALL your points, whether you started the fight or not. Even if you win, you will have made yourself an enemy (even the non-players you fight will remember, at least until the next time the game resets!). Fighting players is a high-risk, yet potentially high-return, business.
Whenever you gain (or lose!) points, you will be reminded by the appearance of your new score in round brackets after the event. You'll see it, for example, when you SIP TEA in the Tearoom for the first time; you'll also notice it when you drop treasure in the swamp, and when a fight finishes (assuming you survive!).
The particular places to look are in the lounge and small bedroom of the cottage; the lounge bar and small bedroom behind the door marked "PRIVATE" of the inn; the nursery in the villa (near the top of the tower - just keep going up from the 'ingresso'). There are also trinkets in other easy-to-find places, such as the stable.
The easier treasure is to find, the less it is worth, so don't expect to come across really valuable stuff until you've explored more.
To get an impression of what the particular room you're in looks like, you can either read the room description (which will tell you where the main exits are situated), or use a "mapping" command. There are two of these, EXITS (or just X) and MAP. X provides you with a list of all the exits from a room, and where they lead to (assuming you can see in there). The MAP command gives a visual representation, which is handy if you're looking for a particular kind of room, or want to know what is blocking your way in a particular direction (eg. door or wall). To find out what the symbols on the MAP command mean, there's a KEY command that explains them. You can AUTO MAP to get a map every time you move; likewise AUTO X. Use UNAUTO MAP or UNAUTO X to stop it.
You should certainly make a map, it will make things far easier to find in the long run. Ideally, log all your screen output to a disc somewhere, and explore The Land with gay abandon. Then take time to make a map later, "off-line" when you're not playing.