Message 2781 : Gondolin's BN newbie tips (Fletch)
Written on Tue Jan 12 05:55:04 1999

With MUME VII not coming until some indefinite time in the future, I've
decided to write up some information in addition to Spined's material to help
players start out playing Black Numenoreans. Most of this is just recommend-
ations, and not The Way to Level BNS, but hopefully it will help ease some of
the frustration experienced by players just starting out with the bn race. I've
avoided giving away secret eq loading places, actual directions, secret exits,
and the like. Most of this is advice I give to newbie bns all the time anyways.
In any event, I think most of it should still apply when MUME 7 does come.


Gondolin's BN newbie tips

Spamming:

The most important thing to learn for leveling newbie bns is spam directions.
For some places, just making a map is fine, but there are certain places that
you will need to run very fast through, because of the presence of aggressive,
tracking mobs. You should memorise the directions for these routes. Here are
the main ones, in order of importance, with some of the mobs that you need to
look out for:

1) down Ancient Broken Road (abr) to Khuzur - ferocious wargs, assassin,
   boars (+ trolls if you type the wrong directions)
2) Khuzur to beaver pond area in Eregion - huge wargs, ravens, oxen
3) ford area to Dark Tower (dt) - elven hunters, a few wargs and rabid wolves
4) anywhere on Old East Road (oer) to to ford area - lots of pukes, a few
   wargs and rabid wolves
5) ford area to new orc caves (noc) and dt to noc - elven hunters, wargs, hill
   giants

You should also learn the entire forest area east of rivendell where grey-
cloaked man sometimes loads, so that you can find him and practise before
getting hit by one of the mobs (wargs and black bears) there.

You may want to have sneak turned on when you're walking around, even if you
haven't practised it. Mobs and pukes can still miss you sometimes if you're
fast.

Statting: These are the steps I follow when statting newbie bns.

Step 1 - Practising and travel points
- Bring one torch and maybe a loaf of bread when you pray.
- Look for grey-cloaked man (gcm). When you find him, use all your pracs on
  dodge, no matter which of the four classes you are.
- Proceed to look for travel points, enough for level 5. Don't start exping
  yet, just look for tps until you get them or die.
- When you get enough tps for level 5, suicide on a mob or puke, then proceed
  to Step 2.

Step 2 - Experience
- Bring a belt, a lantern, and a butcher knife (all essential) and a shield, a
  dagger, bread/biscuits, and cups (not as important).
- Get some real eq (i.e. a sword or something, dodge or absorb eq, and a better
  shield if possible) to make your exping faster. Exping with crypt eq is
  painfully slow.
- Some of the obvious places for basic eq are dt, Khuzur, and Redhorn caves,
  and any corpses you may happen to find, but there are other places (where you
  don't have to kill anything).
- Go kill mobs.
- Best areas for exping are in Eregion, where there are places with no
  aggressive mobs of any consequence and lots of deer, foxes, birds, etc.
  However, there are places in the north that are good for at least a couple
  levels if you want to stay up there.

Step 3 - When you get to level 2 or 3
- If you are near gcm, go max dodge. If you have pracs leftover, get some
  sneak.
- If you are near ranger guild master ('A Man'), practise ride and find a
  mount. Don't bother if he doesn't load near beaver pond, unless you're very
  confident of your knowledge of the area just south and west of Khuzur.
- Continue exping until you're level 5.
- If you die, you won't lose much experience, so get some more eq and start
  again.


On the bow that loads in the crypt: I've found it to be almost completely
useless. The arrows break as often as not, and it's just a waste of time
running around looking for more, or asking orcs for some (while you're still a
newbie).


On having a friend stat you: This is not something that is normally done, so
don't bother other by people asking them if they can help you level. But if you
do have a good friend who is willing to spend time helping you, or someone asks
you if you want help, then by all means take advantage of the opportunity.
Some players who know what they're doing can help a friend stat in as little
as two or three minutes, if he already has his tps.


Higher levels: Once you stat, get invisibility as soon as possible. Everything
else is up to your discretion. However, sneak + missile (+ blind when you can
get it) can speed up exping a good bit. It's not uncommon for bns to go to noc
and ask orcs to buy them an orkish shortbow and war arrows, though it's by no
means required of them (the orcs). At even higher levels, charm + command is
also very useful.


- Gondolin