You take out 'Strider's Guide for the Young Adventurer' by Strider, the Elven Cleric and begin to read. The Strider's Guide for the Young Adventurer (Third Edition) is a partial rewrite of the Second Edition by Linar, with caster advices by Fanael and Maerlyn and proof-reading by Aikios and Nokiel. The two first chapters have been nearly completely rewritten, the rest got only updates, corrections and additions since it was less outdated. The Second Edition being a reissuance and compilation of the advice given by that cleric of old to the new traveler in Arda; edited by Artheniel the Scribe; and with other helpful documents by Task, Thurin the Dwarf, and other legends concerned for the well-being of the young and inexperienced. Chapter 1 - How and Where to Get Experience. Chapter 2 - Basic Techniques Chapter 3 - Frequently Asked Questions Chapter 4 - Link Loss, Reboots, Crashes, and Lag Chapter 5 - Some Useful Commands (by Task) Chapter 1 - How and Where to Get Experience. ============================================ The days of the Istari have slowed down as we enter the 4th millennium, and with it comes a horde of newbies who are agitated that there is no one around to give them free levels. Now, first of all, the excuse "I can't kill anything" doesn't hold - there is something even for the weakest of Mages. Here is a suggested order of mobs that you try to kill - if you cant beat one lower on the list, don't try to beat higher ones until you have conquered it: Trout, carp, rabbit, deer, stag, bat, fox, cow, bull. Then try black wolves (not large black wolves - just the generic large wolf), then try some of the other types of wolves - the grey wolf, and move onto wargs. Do NOT try to take on the brown bear, black fungus, or mewlip which all preside near Bree. In the next sections I will discuss the surroundings of the cities suitable for newbies. This does not include Rivendell, since this city is right in the middle of the War. I mostly won't talk about the secret areas, which are often the home of dangerous mobs, or equipment, or the both. Following the "help map" should show you the general Arda geography. The Blue Mountains ------------------ This is the natural hometown of the Dwarves. Newcomers may have a hard time finding their way inside all the caverns; however, the slate map that is contained in their newbie kit should be a big help. Inside the city itself you will find some easy mobs - have a look to the garden (ground floor) or near the mine on the 2nd underground floor. In case your equipment and/or skills are too low to take them, be sure to keep a finger near the "f" key. Also, don't go inside the Theddin's mines (all south from Nordri's Chest) - this is a maze inhabited by giant spiders - unless you wish to spend some time in a deadly cocoon, of course. South of the city, you can find some easy prey. The area is mostly friendly, except for an aggressive spider, and a ram waiting for you to test its bashing skills. Be careful when you wander in the forests; especially the southern one which contains a grizzly bear known to transform young adventurers into a tasty bear meal. However, staying on the trail should keep you safe. East of the Blue Mountains isn't good for the lonely newcomer: a dense maze forest, the lair of some huge black wolves, then another forest with snakes, wolves, ravens and vines. Staying on the trail should however lead you safely to a farm full of, guess what, farm animals. Wandering farther isn't a good idea, though, since you may run into a pack of wild dogs. There are a few dangers in the Narbrethil forest located north of the Nan Duin. One is the abandoned mine shaft, the other is the wildlife if you go too far east. Take the boars as a warning of the lions living nearby. A final note about the Blue Mountains & Dwarves: They can very easily make money. Just wield a pick (there are plenty laying around), "mine", then sell your ore to Vig. While the two mines inside the city itself (and the one south-west of its gate) are 100% safe, at level 3 you should look for the abandoned one some south-east of the city, which produces more. Be careful about the small bats which are often found there, and about the spirits in the forgotten tunnel. They are feeling a bit lonely at the moment and wouldn't mind procuring a dead dwarven guest. The Grey Havens --------------- The Elvish city is split in two by the Gulf of Lhun. If you prayed there, you will find yourself in Harlond. Taking the ferry (free up to level 5) will get you to Forlond. Both have some newbie XP, however the pike east of the Forlond boat shop will probably want to check if the flesh of your feet is as tasty as it seems... Outside the north gate is safe on about 15 rooms, with deer and foxes to test your bow. Keep in mind that they will probably try to defend themselves when attacked, so "consider"ing them may help you. By going further, you may run into snakes, wolves, a lioness and eventually reach the areas covered in the Blue Mountains section. Northeast of the east gate you can hunt some foxes, however not far from them lies some more dangerous wildlife, together with some supernatural beings... South of the gate you can find some tasty crabs on a nice beach and a farm some east of there. This is a peaceful area, except for the bull and the giant earth beetle maybe. Further east the things become more "interesting", with boars, wolves, brigands, thugs, ... The rule of thumb is that the farther you travel, the more dangerous it is. Also, the beings hiding in the undergrounds rarely like to be disturbed. Some Elven villages and camps lie north and south of the road, they may be worth of your visit. Also, if you follow the road and avoid the boars and wolves, you will eventually reach the Shire. The Shire --------- Most hobbits are very peaceful. Thus, it is quite logical that they made their area very alike. However, they are very afraid of magic - so, unless you are a citizen of the Shire, casting even a healing spell is the best way to be led to the jail. Except for some smugglers and thugs in its southern part, this area is very safe and full of small docile animals that are easy to kill. However, you may find a very dangerous wolf pack roaming the lands in the winter, so asking if the Shire pack is loaded and its current location may be good for your health. Try to get a map of the Shire (can be found in some shops) if you plan to leave the East Road, since it is very easy to get lost. On the other hand this could probably bring you a lot of travel points... East of the Brandywine Bridge ("bwb" for short) is covered in the next section. Bree ---- West of Bree: You will find that the Old East Road leads to the Shire - a nice place where you can find easy mobs to kill. You can also head up the lane about 7 North and fight grasshoppers and rabbits to the west. Beware of the Old Forest: ONCE YOU ARE IN THERE, YOU WILL NOT GET OUT. If, however, you don't pay attention to where you walk, try asking Tom Bombadil to lead you out (tell bombadil help, then follow him when he shows up). Keep in mind that getting young people out of the forest is far to be his main preoccupation, so he won't help you twice in a short time. Period. North of Bree: You will find the Lane, which becomes the Road to Fornost further north. East of it is a forest with aggressive vines, wolves and even a black bear. (steer clear of these until you are level 7...8...9..10?) There is also a band of very weak ruffians. A level 4, or a capable and reasonably well-equipped level 3, should manage if he doesn't allow them to gang up on him all at once. East of Bree: This is about the same level requirement than for the forest. You will encounter a lot of aggressive mobs, however they are pretty easy to kill, except for the mewlips maybe. These annoyances have hopefully tired up Bill Ferny and his crooks; they now stay in their lair instead of roaming the area. Much more dangerous are the evil Black Numenoreans and Orcs who can sometimes be found there (seen as *Man* and *Orc*). Trolls (seen as *Troll*) are not likely to be encountered there outside of the big raids. One may also find it useful to know that some parts of these marshes are mazes, which will not only make you lose your way, but also split your group, if any. South of Bree: fairly harmless - watch out for brigands (they can steal your money and can easily make newbie soup). All in all, southwards is fairly safe. An adventurous newbie can once again find rabbits and cows to slaughter here. It is wise however to not wander too far south, as you may enter the camp of Morthan Blacksoul and of his very well organized highwaymen. Farther south the probability of an encounter with evil players increases. Fornost ------- This is the logical hometown of Men (since only experienced players should start to play in Tharbad or Ingrove - and they are obviously not targeted by this guide). There isn't much newbie XP inside the city, and outside isn't much better. You can find some foxes and rabbits in the forest south-east, however you may also run into wolves.. It would also be wise not to seek any advice from the witch who lives nearby - except if you want to learn to run fast. Northeast of the city you may find some deer, but also a brigand, so watch out that you don't become the prey yourself. After a higher level (10 ?) you will be able to show these evil-doers how to behave; the same goes for the thieves wandering in Old Fornost (accessible by the west gate of the new city, or by the old west gate). However, trying to kill the thief guildmaster may not be a good idea, for two reasons: first, he is much tougher than his friends, and second, you may anger people who want to learn from him. Also, keep away from the supernatural beings which reside in the old city, until you get a group of (1, 2 ?) level 15 with you. It isn't uncommon to meet an *orc* or a *man* around Fornost. About all you can do is run fast, and to listen to the narrates in case someone else spotted one of these evil players. For all these reasons it may be a good idea to get your first levels in the peaceful Shire instead. How to get experience --------------------- A newbie does NOT have to go with an Istar to earn experience - all that one needs is a little patience and a little common sense - try the shire, kill some grasshoppers, and for your first long voyage, at level 6 or so, take a trip to Grey Havens where you'll find a very beautiful city. Also consider grouping - but more on this in the next chapter, and in the excellent "Newbie Guide to the MUME Combat System" by Petrel. Chapter 2 - Basic Techniques ============================ There are a lot of mistakes made by newcomers which are easily avoidable, that could save any new player a lot of time and effort. This multi-part guide has been made to help in the long run. It will not give you experience or travel points, and it won't level you, but hopefully you won't die as often as you would otherwise. Hunting as a Group ------------------ Group hunting is used the most on MUME. You can have 8 or 9 people in your group if you WANT, but this is often a waste of your time. The effort to organize and to keep such a large group together is almost impossible. The experience you gain is also very, very small. The most productive group I have found is a group of 2 (cleric-warrior, mage-warrior, cleric-thief, mage-thief working very well together). The experience is respectable, parry bonuses of the mobs you are fighting are cut and the spell caster is usually able to cast at will during the battle. Solo hunting (hunting alone) can give you more experience, but if you die, who is there to retrieve your equipment? Practicing ---------- During your first levels on MUME, you will want to start practicing some basic abilities. Refer to the map of your home town and find your native guild. Hobbits and Dwarves who have gone in for the magical or clerical arts will have to go elsewhere to practice, with the Grey Havens being the best bet to start. Some notes on the practices: Avoid practicing too much in skills/spells outside of your class, since that will lower your class abilities. This is however not true for the Ranger (aka. General) skills, which you can practice at will without hurting your abilities. You will notice that the first practices in a skill/spell will raise your knowledge much more than the next ones, allowing you to get half-decent knowledge of, for example, parry, without ruining your other abilities if you're not a warrior. Also, you can "forget" a skill or spell. Either by not using it for a long time, or by typing "train off ", which will make sure you don't refresh your knowledge even if you use it (this is necessary for skills such as "endurance", for example, that you cannot avoid using). The freed practices will be available to learn other things. Here is a list of the skills/spells you I would advise you to learn, even off-class (not including the ranger/general ones): In the warrior guild, learn some endurance and parry (2-3 pracs of each ?). In the thief guild, dodge is always good to have (3 pracs, or more if you plan to be a dodging defense warrior), learn some missiles and/or piercing weapons if you have very low STR;later, you may find some pick useful, but keep in mind that using lockpicks can help a lot in this task (thus requiring fewer pracs). Search can also be useful when learning the areas to find the secret doors. For non-casters, in the cleric guild the cure light spell is probably the best way to use your otherwise wasted mana. Bless is also useful when you don't have a cleric with you. Casters (Mages/Clerics) should switch to cure serious as soon as possible. Speaking of spells, the more you practice one, the greater the chance you have to cast it successfully (see "help backfire"), and the less mana it will cost. Until legend, you will gain 10 practices with each level. I would spend the first 10 ones on parry, dodge and firstaid. Then, specialize yourself according to your class (read on for more info). In the first levels you should learn to swim and climb, also take some ride and/or wilderness. Now, a quick review of the useful skills and spells available for the young adventurers (you can always get more info by asking a guildmaster who teaches this skill/spell: ask help ). Warriors -------- Bash allows you to keep an opponent on the ground (and thus to hit it harder while he is stunned). However you will be less able to defend yourself while preparing your bash. Also useful to open some stubborn doors. Kick does not stun the opponent, but requires less preparation time. Thus it is only useful to break the concentration of a caster. I usually take only one practice in it, to kill an incapacited opponent when using a slow weapon. Endurance will raise your general health and moves. Rescue allows you to intercept the blows of an opponent, so you can protect and rescue your weaker friend if necessary. Very useful for the defense warriors (learn it only after getting a decent knowledge of your weaponskill). Weapon classes, sorted by defense/attack bonus. Note that they all rely primarily on your strength: Slashing weapons are the defense warrior best choice. Get a broadsword for maximum parry bonus, a bastard sword to fight armored opponents, or a longsword/falchion for general use. The dexterity this skill need fits well with the requirements for dodging. Perception helps. The strong point of stabbing weapons is to give you the first strike if attacked by a user of any other melee weapon class. You may even make your opponent miss his first attack completely. These weapons hit a bit less than the cleaving ones, but are effective against mounted opponents. You should be able to find an elven hunting spear or a pike without too much trouble. They rely on the same stats as slashing, but have a much lower minimum strength requirement. Cleaving weapons are mostly the one-handed axes, and the Dwarves are good at using them (when not mounted). The best axe you will be able to get is probably the battle axe, sold at the Blue Mountains weaponsmith. This weapon class is also dependent on dexterity, and on your willpower. Concussion weapons are rather poor at defense and they include maces, clubs and hammers. You should be able to find a warhammer easily, otherwise look for a morningstar. Due to their weight, these weapons rely on your constitution and willpower. Two-handed weapons usually do a lot of damage; however, since you can't wear a normal shield at the same time, they will lower your parry a lot. The halberds (sold in Fornost) are probably the easiest good two-handed weapons to get. Same requirements as the concussion class. Warriors are usually Dwarves or Men. Clerics ------- At low level, the clerics are given a lot of various healing/curing abilities, but nothing to actually kill stuff, and this doesn't change much later. So you will have to learn killing skills in the other classes. Depending on your abilities, you may choose to learn some mage spells; with enough dexterity and perception, you may learn missile abilities or even slashing skills (but only with at least 13 STR). When you will have a working blind spell, you may be able to fight decently alone (read for example "Caster's Guide to Bows and Arrows" by Vainamoinen). Until then (and also later), easiest way to XP is still to assist a warrior, healing his wounds and lowering the parry of the opponent. Curing spells: Cure serious isn't available before level 5, so use cure light at start, then replace it with the former (more efficient). These spells focus on the general health of the target. Cure critic will cure any actual wounds (not hps) while only slightly increasing the target's general health. Heal costs much more mana, but will raise a lot the health, cure some wounds and diseases. Remove Poison is quite useful when having to fight certain snakes and spiders. Create Water and Food do what you probably guess, and they are quite useful when you don't want to carry two stones' worth of meat with you. Bless and Strength will help you (or whoever you cast them on) to fight. Breath of Briskness (or "bob" for short) will restore somewhat the moves of all your groupmembers (or only yours if you are not grouped, of course). At a higher level you may want to learn Dispel Evil - one of the rare cleric attack spells, or Sense Life to avoid backstabs in PK areas. And, last but not least, blinding opponents will greatly reduce their fighting skills, making Blindness a very useful spell. Clerics are usually Half-elves, Elves, or Men. Mages ----- The low-level spells are pretty ineffective, as you may have guessed. Some, however, use Magic Missile and then Burning Hands to stay in the class, while others prefer to learn how to use a bow. The choice is up to you; although I think missiles aren't a bad investment, anyway, since they allow you to spare your mana when assisting a warrior, which you should do anyway when at low levels. The fire-based attacks, like Burning Hands or Fireball will perform well against wooden enemies (roots, trees, ...) as you may guess, while Colour Spray is known to cause great pain to enemies of the spirit world. In order to have effective offensive spells, you should practice them high (aim to get them at least at 95%), and wait a couple of levels more than needed before to cast them. For example, "help lightning bolt" will tell you that a level 9 can learn this spell; however, it won't do enough damage before level 11 or so. Once you get this spell working, you will start to be a "real" mage and make consequent damage. It is also good to know that most spells are only taught to their maximum knowledge in Rivendell. So you may have to chose between learning more levels before effectively using a spell you don't know too well and making this dangerous journey. A special attack spell is Call Lightning. At legend level it makes an incredible amount of damage; however, it is useless when the weather doesn't fit (here the Change Weather spell comes in handy) or indoors. Other useful mage spells (in no particular order) are Shroud (the low level animals do not see you until you hit or are hit, pretty much useful at any level), locate life + teleport (at a decent level you will be able to teleport yourself, however watch out for the misports), Armour and shield (the first one will absorb part of the blows, the second will raise your dodge bonus, also useful ones), Earthquake + Store (to XP alone, starting at level 11/12), and Charm (useful after level 15 to XP alone by getting some strong mobs to assist you, also learn some Command). Mages are usually Elves or Men. Thieves (aka. scouts) --------------------- The real power of the scouts is the backstab, which can be defined as inserting a valuable piece of metal into a worthless back, causing great pain at the same time. However, you will need to be about level 15 to use it effectively. Until then, you won't fight too well. However, learn to dodge (and carry light equipment), also get a light shield (Cardolan, Arthedain or gilded). To deal damage, either use a bow (effective, but any hit will make you lose your concentration, thus preventing you from shooting, so it's best used behind a buffer), or learn piercing weapons + attack (this skill will give you more chances to pierce your opponent per round). Hide and Sneak can be useful at low level when trying to escape or pass through a tougher opponent, but running fast may give better result. It will be required when trying to backstab later. Escape may be useful (allows you to leave a fight in a chosen direction instead of fleeing headlessly) but it isn't as useful as the other skills at low level. Steal is now completely useless, except to see other's inventories. Due to abuses, the Ainur decided to raise the difficulty of this skill to make impossible to steal from other players. Hobbits make the best Scouts, although all races but Dwarves are suited for this career. Ranger ------ This isn't really a class, but rather a group of general skills that are useful to everyone. Swim and ride are good to know at any level. First, they prevent you from hurting yourself or drowning. Second, knowing that most mobs do not have these skills may let you use the terrain to your advantage. Last, you may use rivers to lose the *orcs* who were tracking you. You should put some practices into wilderness as soon as possible. Not only will moving be less tiresome, but you will also have less frequent need to eat and drink. Firstaid is also very important to know. Unless you want to leave a bloody track leading to your corpse, of course. Sneakers should practice awareness to 95% in order to get nightvision, since trying to backstab wearing a lit lantern may not work as expected... However the high amount of practices required do not make it worthy until you get a related skill. Except for this use, it may also, quite logically, help you avoid being backstabbed. Leadership will allow you to lead a big group, while track is mostly useful to check for the presence of Sauron's Minions, or later, to hunt them down. These two skills would be a waste of practices at low level. Stats ----- A long time ago characters weren't able to discover their stats before reaching the level 5. Now they are even able to choose them at start, with nice presets. When You Die ------------ You shall die quite a bit in your Arda adventures. However, take note of the following: Unless you are pretty sure that you are in a good enough condition to retrieve your equipment, do NOT go out by yourself to get your equipment back. It rather useless to go back to the mob that just killed you and let it kill you a second time (this has happened to me many times before). Remember that in general, experience is harder to get than basic equipment (especially under level 5, since you can pray for a newbie kit). Ask a higher level player, or a companion of yours to retrieve your equipment. Explain your situation nicely and you might get somewhere. Offer a reward if you come upon a particularly stubborn player. On the other hand, do not loot the corpses of other Free People--see how it feels to wander around naked. Don't narrate stuff like 'I died! I'm never coming back again! This $$%$$%& Mud! #$$%', because people really don't appreciate that. A dead newbie often has trouble getting basic equipment - in fact it is quite easy. Read about this in "Riches at Your Feet!" by Otho Banks of Witfurrows. Chapter 3 - Frequently Asked Questions ====================================== Unless stated otherwise, "See also" refers to the helpfile on this subject; for example, you may read "help inn" and "help rent" to know more about the answer to the question 2. Many other questions are answered in "help faq". 1) When the innkeeper says 'You have enough rent for two months,' does he mean MUME months or Real Life months? He means Real Life months. 2) The innkeeper says 'The rent is five silver a day - you have enough for twenty days.' Can't he do arithmetic? Shouldn't that be four days? Is this a bug? It's not a bug. The rent is not linear - the cost per day declines as you rent for a longer time. This means, by the way, that if you log on every day for ten days, even if you just look at the boards and rent, you will pay a lot more in rent than if you stayed rented the whole ten days. See also: Inn, Rent 3) What player characters can I kill? MUME discourages player killing among the Free People. Following these evil paths may get you on the Sauron List, hunted by everyone and finally brought back to level 1 when you die. If you do decide to player kill at a low level, you are doomed for the rest of your stay on Arda. A level 6 character has no chance against 30+ other characters online. Player killers are not respected and without help from other players, you will not advance. The only advantage I see to player killing is lots of equipment, but why destroy all of your morals to get a couple of swords and a bear skin? This does NOT cover however killing in the War, which is highly encouraged, i.e., Elves killing Orcs, Numenoreans killing ordinary Men, etc. See also: help PK, rules PK, rules Sauron 4) How do travel points work? Ok, here is how I understand it. Every room in Arda, at a certain time has a certain number of travel points attached to it. For the most part, the number of travel points is zero. When you visit a room with some travel points in it, you gain the travel points yourself, and that amount of points are distributed (almost) randomly to another room on MUME. This explains why you get almost no travel points riding up and down the Lane. Areas that aren't traveled much often contain a lot of travel points. See also: TP 5) Ok, so where can i find them? Since high-level characters often hunt for larger mobs, there are certain mobless areas that are ignored. Find these yourself and remember them. The Shire is fairly safe for any adventurous newbie. Any body of water just before winter is also a good source of travel points. 6) Why do I keep getting diseased? All races except elves can get sick from sleeping during cold weather. Type 'weather local' to see what the weather is, and if it's cold, do not sleep. Elves may still sleep at any time. If you do get diseased, find your local cleric and ask for a heal. See also: Diseases, Heal 7) I'm blind! What do I do? Blindness only last for two game hours (two real-time minutes), so if there isn't a cleric around, simply find a place with no mobs to sit and wait it out. It's not permanent. See also: Stat, Blindness 8) I practice dodge, but by dodge % only goes up 2%!! why? Dodge is a bonus that does go up very, very slowly. You will find that equipment is the key to have a high dodge bonus. Light equipment, and items such as cloaks, iron rings, etc will raise your bonus. I believe that your dodge bonus can only increase by 20% with 100% dodge practiced. See also: Dodge 9) Why is this Eagle or -Bear- talking? If you are talking to a Mighty Horse, or a White Eagle, or a Bear, you are talking to another player in animal shape - either a Beorning or someone on the Istari Quest. See also: Istar, Istar quest, Metamorph, Bear, rules Istar 10) Why do people buy wimpy dogs to follow them around? Dogs, cats, and falcons are very useful to take hunting with you when you go alone. They help you break the opponents parry bonus, making it easier for you to hit them. They die quite easily though. 11) I don't see an uizunghabugl spell or a nosalari spell anywhere! When someone casts a spell that you don't know, it is quite logical to don't understand at first what they are casting. After a while you'll get to know them. See also: Spells 12) How do I read mail? Go to the nearest mailbox (all cities have one, it may not be the case for the villages) and type "look mail", then "read next" or "read ". See also: Mail, Write, Read, Board 13) I try to read the board, but nothing happens! Unfortunately, when a board has a lot of messages on it that you haven't read, it is very hard to read. You have to do this: (a) Type 'catchup'. This will set all the messages on the board to 'read'. (b) Type 'look whole board'. This will give you a LONG list of the messages. Save the list somewhere... (c) Read the messages one at a time, using the numbers in the list. This is more work than it should be, and maybe the gods will improve things someday. Also, at step b, you could type 'look threads', which will give you a shorter list of threads, and then type 'read thread 1 next' until that thread runs out, then 'read thread 2 next' and so on. Unfortunately, this method will not let you read the messages that are not in threads, that is, that nobody replied to. 14) There's a warg on the Old East Road! What do I do? Wait about 10 seconds. Someone will come along and slaughter it really fast. 15) I'm trapped in the Old Forest! Help! Try typing 'tell bombadil help'. There are some areas of the old forest that Tom does not respond to, so you'll have to start panicing. Head west - try to find an exit out of the forest that way. There are other exits, but all are quite hard to find. The best advice is to keep out of the old forest at all costs. * I am helplessly lost in the middle of nowhere - dying, no food, water. Well, you're in trouble. First type 'where' to see if anyone is near you, and if so, ask them for aid. If that fails, try asking your local cleric or mage to transfer you out of there. You will find that most are willing to help if the mana is available. If you are lost, type 'map'. This will at least let you know where you are in the world - the 'X' on the map will be your position, while the other letters represent the major towns. Each character on the map is a zone which is ten rooms square. That way, you can narrate 'I am lost four zones east of Bree', which is a lot better than narrating 'help trans me'. See also: Map, Rangers, Who 16) Ah! No movement points and orcs are coming! Immediately hide valuable equipment. You will probably die, but at least the orcs won't take your equipment (orcs usually don't take normal swords, shields, and clothing - you'll find that it is usually other people who will wander in and take your stuff). Note that if you die, retrieving your hidden equipment or telling anyone about it considered as cheating and is forbidden. See also: rules Banking 17) Where do I get a horse? At low levels, you will want to find the areas that regenerate with horses. There are a few of them very close to Bree. Later you may want to buy your own horse, but you'll find that you'll never keep it for long (either it'll be left somewhere, stolen, summoned, etc..) A good thing to do is to find horses and ponies, take them to the stable, and type 'rent horse', whereupon you are given a ticket which you can use later on - at ANY stable - to get a fresh horse, at a cost of six to ten silver or so. At a later time, if you need a horse in a hurry, this will be a lot cheaper than buying a whole new horse at a Pet Shop. See also: Rent, Pet 18) I can't see the description of the room, so how do I get out? Type 'exit' for a list of available exits. 19) As a slasher, should I use a long sword or a falchion? Well a falchion does more damage, but a long sword will be more effective at passing trough the enemy dodge and parry, so it is up to you. Quite often, a warrior will carry both, and when fighting alone, will use a long sword. When with a group, the higher damage falchion is more useful. 20) Where do I get a thorn? The only mobs that have thorns are the rather difficult spiny bushes east of Bree down the old east road. Two or three mid to high level characters are needed to kill this mob. If you are less than level 7 or so, there is no use getting a thorn, because you will die and probably lose the thorn. Ask around to some high level friends/acquaintances - you never know who might have a spare thorn. 21) The fang keeps zapping me - why? If you are good aligned and you try to use an evil aligned weapon, you will be zapped by the weapon and will drop it. It is no use to you unless you are of its alignment. Dark shields/swords, and many other weapons are like this too. This will also be the case if a weapon has been enchanted by a mage of the opposite alignment. Try to find someone able to dispel its magic if you want to use it. See also: Alignment, Enchant, Dispel Magic 22) Can you starve to death? Nope - but when hungry your hit points and movement points regenerate very slowly, almost to a point where it will take you days to get back to full points. Always carry extra food and water. 23) Where do I get a water skin? This barrel is too heavy. They are usually sold in the groceries. Refer to your city map to find the closer one. 24) My movement points are dropping VERY fast - why? Weather conditions, such as snow can contribute to high movement costs. So do terrain types, your constitution (I think?), and the amount of weight you are carrying. Try to travel light. More recently, "snowshoes" have been invented which make it much easier to travel in snow. The maluses will also be dependent of your race. For example, a Dwarf or a Hobbit will suffer much more from the snow than an other race. 25) How do you use a stone? Hold the stone or wear it on your belt, wield the weapon you want to mend, and 'whet'. Mend weapons in SAFE rooms.. There's nothing as bad as mending your weapon just as the white worm regenerates :) 26) How do I get stuff from that second corpse there? Use the convention itemnumber.itemname. If there were 3 corpses, to get stuff from the second, use get (whatever you want) 2.corpse. 27) It says that I'm burning! Why am I on fire?!?! Nonononono.. that is your mana level. Your status line at the bottom shows you how your hitpoints/mana/movement points are going. Here is a list of the order of them: Hitpoints: Healthy, Fine, Hurt, Wounded, Bad, Awful, Dead(not good) Mana: Burning, Hot, Warm, Cold, Icy, Frozen Movement: Tired, Slow, Weak, Fainting, Exhausted 28) Why can't I get into Grey Havens? Unless you are good aligned, the magical gate will not open for you. 29) How do I get into Tharbad? If you're a newbie, forget it. The guards will instantly toast you. See also: Tharbad 30) What type of armour should I use? There are two strategies that I have seen: go for high dodge, low absorption, or high absorption, low dodge. It's all up to you. There are arguments for both. Most low- average strength players choose dodge simply because the armour is too heavy. See also: Dodge 31) Where is the town of the Shire? The shire isn't a town - it is the area between Road to Grey Havens and the Brandywine bridge. There are a number of very small towns that you might find some stores in. See also: Shire 32) How do I get citizenship in the shire? Either be a hobbit, get born there, or kill a wanted criminal. Higher level players may also acquire it by killing one of the leaders of the wolfpack. See also: Citizen 33) Who is *a Man*, and why did he just kill me? Characters seen as *a Man* are not standard Men, but evil Numenoreans sorcerers. They function much as player orcs do - that is, they do not hear the narrates of the good races, will not see you by name, and can attack people without penalty. 34) Did a player orc or mob orc just attack me? Player orcs are seen as *an Orc*, the *'s showing a player character The orcs see you as *an Elf* or whatever you are. If you see *'s, run. There are some especially notorious and dangerous minions of Sauron whom even the most inexperienced person will know. They will be seen as *Norsu the Orc*, *Cele the Hill Troll*, etc. If you see any such thing, leave the scene IMMEDIATELY. 35) What's a Lauren? Lauren = gold, Celeb = silver, Busc = copper in Elvish. See also: Money 36) What does a white skull do? It is a cursed item. Get rid of it... I suggest hiding it so that some other newbie doesn't walk along and get toasted. See also: Hide 37) Is good ? What class is it ? How much weights my breastplate ? Use "consider " if you have it in your inventory or "show ", "show " if you want informations about an item sold in a shop. For all objects it will display its weigth, and for weapons it will also show its class and an indication of its efficiency. See also: Consider, Show 38) No Istar online ! Who should I ask for help ? You can try the rangers ("who rangers"), they are people who decided to be flagged as newbie helpers. Note however that, unlike Istari, they are allowed to deny you help (maybe are they busy helping someone else, fighting, etc.). Also, immortals aren't supposed to be newbie helpers. You may find some kind soul willing to give you hints, but most have their own duties and will simply ignore, at best, the "Help me ! I'm lost in the Old Forest !" type prays. See also: Who, Rangers, Istari, Ainu 39) Someone just stole from my backpack ! Guards ! Calm down, nobody can steal from a container, would it be open or closed. So the "A leather backpack feels lighter" message you seen meant that something decayed in it - some food usually. The same goes for any sack, box you may be carrying. However one might steal the whole sack, of course, although it's now very hard to do so (due to abuses, the Ainur raised a lot the difficulty of this skill). 40) I sent my prayer to the Ainur for a kit, but nothing seems to happen. First, check that you really didn't get your kit ("i" - "inventory"), since sometimes the related message is simply not noticed in the narrates spam. If you really didn't get anything, check your name, few Ainur are willing to approve a poor one with a kit. Lastly, maybe nobody has seen your pray yet (because they are AFK, they are writing something, ...). In this case, don't retry before 5-10 minutes, since nothing is more annoying than to see the same message spammed on the screen. Chapter 4 - Link Loss, Reboots, Crashes, and Lag ================================================ Link Loss --------- Suppose you lose your link, or break it deliberately. After a little while, the game realizes that it is not getting any acknowledgment from you, so it treats you as linkless. When this happens: - It automatically changes your autoflee to your hp maximum - that is, you will flee from anything that attacks you. - If you have NOQUIT (you have been in a fight recently) and/or NOVOID (you have seen or heard an *enemy* recently), then you can be hurt or killed, although you will still try to flee from everything. - Else, once the game notice you are linkless (the amount of time it takes depends on the technical cause of the problem) you will be flagged as such. If you are following someone/something, you will keep on following her/him/it for a couple of ticks. If you are on a mount, you will stay on the mount for a couple of ticks. And if you reconnect after a short time, nothing much will have changed, EXCEPT that your autoflee level is at max (remember to fix it!) - AFTER a couple of ticks, however, the game gives up trying to pretend things are normal, and you 'disappear into the void'. The people you are following may go on without you; you are no longer riding your mount. Nothing can hurt you in the void. But when you come back, you will return to the place where you were when you voided. Note that this may not be the last place you remember! If beasts have been attacking you, you may have fled somewhere else before you voided. Or your leader may have led you down the road, you voided, and the leader went on. Now you come back and find yourself unmounted, and possibly alone. Also, you may be in the dark (your lantern keeps using up fuel in the void). Don't forget to mount up again, figure out where you are, narrate to see if you can find the other people in your party, and use your best judgment in resuming your ordinary life again. If you are linkless for more an hour, you start paying 'linkless rent'. This is MANY TIMES as much as if you were rented at the inn. Reboots ------- If the gods have to reboot the game, they usually announce it up to a half an hour ahead of time (followed by reminders). This gives you time to rent. If you aren't rented, the game will treat you as linkless. Some people will not bother to rent, but will just try to find a safe place, wait there during reboot, and try to reconnect afterward. This is very risky though! The gods like to add new features or make changes during reboots. Suppose one of them crashes the MUD, and they can't get it working right away? People are always asking, 'Will this be a short reboot?' But this is silly - it will probably be a short reboot unless there is a bug, but how do they know if there is a bug or not? If some problem arises, you may find yourself disconnected and paying linkless rent until you are able to get back on. Crashes ------- MUME sometimes crashes, and when it does crash, there are certain things that you should be aware of. In the first place, there are three separate things that can happen which people call crashes, but which are actually rather different: (a) The actual game crashes and has to reboot. In this case, the server (or your client if you are connecting directly to mume.pvv.org) will give you a message that says 'Connection lost' etc. (b) The internet gets lagged between your server and the MUME machine. In this case, you will get the SAME message as in case (a). The server doesn't know whether the game has crashed or whether there is just a lot of net lag - it only knows that MUME hasn't sent it any messages lately! You won't find out whether the server was lagged out, or whether the game actually crashed, until you log in again. So in case of a crash OR or bad lag, you will get a message from the server. If the game is still really up, then you may be lucky enough to find a less lagged server. If NO servers are working, it may be that the game actually did crash. (c) The server -itself- starts sending you garbage, or kicks you off. In this case, the game is almost certainly still up, so try and find another server. The game is treating you as a linkless player. So eventually you get back on. Where are you? Well, it depends on whether the game actually crashed (case a) or whether it stayed up (cases b and c). If the game crashed, you will come back in the Halls of Mandos. You will come back online with maximum mana/hitpoints/movement points, and with the same equipment and gold that you had at the time of your last autosave. Anything you acquired after the last autosave - including money, experience, items - you no longer have. When you will pray back to Arda you will recover your mount too. Here are some of the effects of crashes, the first two ones are the same than a zone repop (which happens usually every 30 minutes): - All mobs regenerate - if you killed a huge wolf before the crash, be prepared to fight it again. - All doors/unlocked exits are now closed and locked. If you were in a strange exit room (and voided while the crash), you are most likely in a lot of trouble. If the game did NOT crash - if the problem was just with the server or with network lag - then when you come back, the game has treated you just as if you were linkless; see the discussion of that above. System Lag ---------- Often when the Imps are compiling, or the network is a little messy, you will come upon times of extreme 'lag', where your commands take a long time to register. If you are in a safe area, cha mood wimpy (just in case) and wait it out. If you are in a very dangerous area, cha mood wimpy and watch very carefully. If you suddenly find yourself in battle, cha wimpy 999 and hope that you flee. If, for some reason you can't get that command in, I suggest dropping link. If the GAME is lagged because the Imps are compiling, then all mobs, characters, and time itself slow down; so at least nothing will happen to you. If you find that your commands are not going through, even though you hear lots of narrates, wolves and *orcs* are running in and attacking you, etc., then it is probably net lag somewhere between you and your server or between your server and MUME. In that case, anything can happen to you. Chapter 5 - Some Useful Commands (by Task) ========================================== I have wondered a while why there is no summary of all the somewhat obscure commands used in MUME available anywhere. I have therefore prepared a list. Some of the words are in the MUME helpfile already: Mend (At a shop. Use resize if you just want to be able to wear the object) Enter portal (when someone has cast a 'portal' spell) You can sometimes enter other things, like the coach to Tharbad) Fill lantern (when lantern is held and you have a flask in inventory) Lead horse (when you have dismounted a horse and when not invisible) Wield 1|2 (for bastard sword or steel-shafted mattock) Bribe x gold (outside gates of Tharbad, i haven't tested only saw in helpfile) Call (outside gates at night, or when the gatekeeper is on the other side of the gate. You cannot be invised and must have light source) Say open (inside gates at night, or when gate otherwise is closed.) Sleep Wake Fish (when held rod) Whet (when held stone) Throw die (when held die) Flip coin (when no die) Trade (at stables. You must be holding a horse ticket) Camp (builds a campfire. Useful for scaring away wolves, boar, etc. Also good if you want to mend your sword at night or cook food) Map (Shows where you are) Map rooms (Shows a map of the surroundings) Weather local (Tells what the weather is where you are) Weather global (Gives a weather map of the world) Weather fog (Gives a fog map of the world) Listen tales (Turns narrates on and off) Brief (Turns 'brief mode' on and off. In brief mode you do not see room descriptions when you move around) Spam (Turns 'nospam mode' on and off. If you are in 'nospam', you will not see your group members enter and leave rooms, or see fight messages unless someone gets hurt) Examine (Shows you the room description and everyone in the room. Handy if you are in brief/nospam mode and don't remember where you are or who is with you) Compact (Turns off the extra blank lines that otherwise make the screen scroll real fast) Also, a declaration on objects: You can pinpoint a specific object out of many that has the same description, by using the #.object syntax: At the sign of the prancing pony. A horse is here this is 1.horse A horse is here this is 2.horse A horse is here and this is, of course, 3.horse etc. Likewise: You are carrying: a shortsword this is 1.sword a longsword this is 2.sword or 1.longsword a longsword and 3.sword or 2.longsword If you hold something, it becomes 1.stuff and the things in inventory follow in order. The same goes for inventories and other lists, that the last thing to enter the list is 1.object or person, i.e, the one on top. So if you have a metal shield in your inventory and is wearing a wooden shield, when you remove the wooden shield it will say: You are carrying: a wooden shield a metal shield Well, these are a few of the things I had to learn by experience and I hope they quick things up for you. There are certainly more commands that ought to be added to this list, but you have to start somewhere.