NEW PLAYERS SHOULD READ THIS These are a few things that should help you get past your first few levels. Most important: Mobs of the same race will assist each other in battles. This means that attacking a creature when others of it's kind are around is not very wise unless you can take them all on. Be PATIENT, levels do not necessarily come overnight. Fast gains are usually risky and lead to death too often. If in doubt about something, ask someone. Others: Cityguards and Royal Guards do jump into battles. They will jump in on the side of the person with the higher alignment. There are rules concerning Player Killing. Ask someone important ie. a god or immortal. Some skills you only need to invest one practice into, and then you can improve them with use. This especially applies to Monks and Thieves. Mages & Clerics / Spellcasters: Learn spells from the tomes/books provided at your guildmasters. See "help learn" for more info on this. You have to memorize a spell before you can actually cast it! Druids: Learn Tree Travel at 10th, or else you won't be able to advance past that. Learn Flame Blade, or else getting past 10th will be a real pain. Monks: Fight best with no weapons. Practice and hone your skills. They are going to be your major weapons. Areas that you can go to at low levels: Chessboard (pawns are easy, rest are easier at a bit higher levels) from the western gate, go south a couple of times, and west Midgaard (Vampire bats are good exp, may need to be 2nd, though) unless you are a halfling, this is the city you start in. Zoo (Nursery has monsters in them.) straight south from the city dump White Plume (At least a 5th level group.) White Plume Mountain is westwards down the river from the Levee. Hallways (Varying levels) located inside the temple of midgaard Beneath the Monks Guild (There is an area here, has useful potions, good for groups of 2-3+) the monks guild is west and north from the shire. Deadhame (In Graveyard, ask someone where that is :) Shire (Youths are good for 2-3+ levels it is northwest from Midgaard. If you have any comments about things you think you should see here, post them on the mud board, and we will see what we can do about adding them. OTHER THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW * hit points are ad&d like, not diku like * there are 220+ spells, over 60 skills, more on the way. * many monsters have special routines and can do tricky things at times. * poison is very dangerous (32 hp a round unless slowed). * some poisonous monsters have instantly fatal poison. take care! * sneak allows you to avoid most aggressive monsters. * mobiles have randomly generated stats. * kangaroos hate all kinds of enfan. * most mobs that should see in the dark do. * monsters HELP each other out. They don't sit by and watch. * some monsters are too big to bash.. in general, dragons, most 'huge' things, purple worm, etc, are all non-bashable. * monsters develop hatreds very quickly, and will try to hunt you down and kill you for hurting them. * some monsters are immune to the things you would expect them to be immune to. * some monsters are also resistant to certain attacks and/or susceptible to others (resist = 1/2 damage, susc = 2* dam) * exp loss is changed. If you are under 5th level, you lose only 1/8th when you die. If you are under 10th level, you lose 1/7th. Characters under 15th lose 1/6, and all higher level exp losses remain at 1/5. * rule of thumb: Grouping is a good idea. It is easier to play mages and thieves if you are patient. You don't have to be as patient, if you are more willing to group. * spellcasting is harder to do in combat. generally, the more powerful the spell, the harder to cast in combat. magic missile, acid blast, shocking grasp, cause light, serious, critical, are all fairly easy to cast in combat. * equipment can be damaged, by spells and combat. dragons breath, doing lots of damage to people and equipment. Non pc followers only get 1/2 the exp they would get if they weren't charmed. the other 1/2 is lost. * You can now lose a level if you die too much. If you die after you already have less than 1/16 of the experience needed for your level(s), you will lose a level. This amounts to dying 10 times in a row without getting ANY exp in between. You will receive a warning message if you are getting close to this danger zone. * player characters are very powerful: many many spells, attacks, etc. Monsters are weaker individually, most of the time. However, the monsters here are not as stupid as they are on other muds, and they tend to be tougher, because of that, and because they like to help each other out. * While your equipment can be damamged by spells and such, there are some things you can do do minimize the damage. #1, if you are fighting something that does fire damage, being immune or resistant to fire yourself will help your equipment out as well. Good saves will also in general reduce the amount of damage. * My goals for the classes: Fighters: powerful at lower levels, good tanks at higher levels. Clerics: reasonably powerful and useful all along. Mages: weak at lower levels, very powerful at higher levels. Thieves: Good for scouting, excellent backstabs. Sneaks. Monks: Weak at lower levels, more powerful at higher levels. Druids: Medium at all levels, like clerics. Knights: Hard to play, but Powerful warriors with magic as well.