Getting Started in the M* World
I'm assuming at this point you've already found your game, and gotten a character. If you haven't gotten a character, you'll want to--just connect to the game and type at the entry screen
@create name for email
or, sometimes, just @create name
For example, if I were making my first character over again, I would type
@create Aife for guenwhyvar@juno.com
Some games won't let you do that; they want you to request a character and then they email you the password. In this case, you log on to the game as a guest and then put in your request: usually
connect guest guest
@request Aife for guenwhyvar@juno.com
Then Aife's password shows up in my email, and I can connect to the game and start creating her.
Description
Easy stuff! Just think about what you want your character to look like--hair colour, eye colour, tall, short, gaunt, pudgy, pale, tan. You might include their voice. Try to leave out any action words--this is just a physical description, so don't say "Amy always cares about others," or "Bill turns to meet your gaze when you look at him." The first we can't tell by looking, and what if at the time somebody looks at Bill, he's too distracted to look back? That can be dealt with in posing later. Also try to refrain from things like "happy" and "sad," unless it's a constant part of who your character is. "Her eyes seem haunted" or "It seems he always has a smile for everyone" could be all right...but nobody is constantly feeling the same emotion all the time, so try to leave them out and stick to what people see on the outside. How to do it? Just type:
@desc character as "description"
Example: my friend's character, a Harper apprentice named Will, looks like this:
@desc will as "A tousled mane of sandy blonde curls falls lazy and untamed around his sunbrowned face, where sky-blue eyes sparkle with all the depth of a summer's day. His wiry, slender body is agile and quick, standing at not-quite six feet tall, moving with the lithe, lean fluidity of an athlete. His warm tenor voice is blessed with the gift of expression, a musical lilt lending poetry to his words."
On a MUSH, the code for this is a little different:
@desc me="Description"
Next you'll want to be wearing clothes. The most simple and common way to do this is @wearing. Just decide what your character is dressed in, describe it, and type
@wearing me is "Outfit."
Remember Will? Suppose he wants to wear something reminiscent of an ancient Chinese peasant, and descs like this:
@wearing will is "Dressed in his favourite: vivid Harper blue cotton drapes Will's slender form, high collar closed and frogged with faint gold braid. Straight-lined from shoulder to thigh, a belt does little more than provide a place to carry some few belongings, though its brown leather does match the dusky fawn of his long, loose trousers. Dark leather slippers suit more than boots, worn and comfortable."
There are a few ways to add outfits to your character for later, depending on the game. This is convenient, because seldom do people or characters wear the same clothes all the time, and it saves having to invent a new @wearing every time you log on. I suggest investigating the help files (usually help change, help @change, or help outfit) for your specific M*, but here's a few I've run into:
@addesc outfitname
@save-outfit outfitname
@outfit outfitname
@prop me.outfitname_desc "@wearing msg"
&outfit_charname="@wearing msg" (which gets even more complicated when you try to change it.)
Now you need a gender and age. Gender is very simple. Just type
@gender me=male (or female, depending on which you want to be!) Sometimes it will be
@sex me=male instead, and if you're on a MUSH it's an even simpler
@sex=male
To set your age, the command is usually @setage. Sometimes it'll just be @age. You determine the age is a format of Years, Months, Days. Example:
@setage me to 17 6 15
will set my character's age to 17 Years, 6 Months, 15 Days.
Some games have what is called "Birthsecs" instead of being simple. This keeps track of a very long number representing when your character was born. There will always be a device to determine how many birthsecs your desired age comes to, then you would set
@birthsecs me=(whatever the number is). They like to use this on MUSHes.
Background
Most MUSHes want at least a small background before you're approved for play; a MOO will usually just go on basis of your desc if they need approval at all. To set your background on a MUSH, type
&bg me="text."
%R will give you a carriage-return if you need to start a new paragraph, and %T will usually act as the 'tab' key.
Globals and Messages
Online games have commands called 'globals.' These are usually simple things like 'hug,' 'kiss', 'snug', or 'foof.' Some have only these three, Harper's Tale has three billion of them. Don't go overboard, they get in the way. Just type 'hug name' and you and they will both get a little popup of whatever their 'ohug' message is.
Example: I type
hug Vivian.
The message pops up:
'Aife hugs Vivian! Vivian throws her arms around you exuberantly. Dontcha just love me?'
You can set your own @ohug and other messages by typing @messages me to see what your choices are. Then you'd just type
@ohug me is "(whatever you want your message to be.)'
Example (for Vivian, who we just saw): @ohug me is "throws her arms around you exuberantly. Dontcha just love me?"
Getting Started Role-Playing
Now that you have a complete character, you're ready to be let loose on the world of the game. It helps if you know how to say, do, and move things once you get there! Here are some of the commands to help you out.
Say something:
One of the things you'll want to be able to do is talk. I should warn you that very few people actually use this command beyond their first week, but you should know about it anyway. It's simple. It's 'say' or "
Example:
say Hi there!
or
"Hi there!
will show on the screen as
Aife says, "Hi there!"
Do something:
This is called 'emoting', and it's what you'll actually be using most often. You type 'emote' before your pose, or else just :
Example:
emote waves exuberantly, almost jumping up and down in excitement. "Hi!!"
or
:waves exuberantly, almost jumping up and down in excitement. "Hi!!"
will show on screen as
Aife waves exuberantly, almost jumping up and down in excitement. "Hi!!"
A double :: will close the space between your name and the action. So if I want to pose "Aife's eyes droop shut" then I would type
::'s eyes droop shut.
Emit something:
Sometimes you don't want to start your pose with your character's name. It's just more interesting that way. That's when you @emit. (But don't ever assign actions to other people's characters...that's powerplaying, which is completely different and a big no-no.)
Example:
@emit "What, this? Work." A sage nod looks ridiculous from a four-foot-ten Harper who's hanging upside-down, but she tries it anyway. "Mending, rather. C'mon in, have a seat--what's up?"
shows as
"What, this? Work." A sage nod looks ridiculous from a four-foot-ten Harper who's hanging upside-down, but she tries it anyway. "Mending, rather. C'mon in, have a seat--what's up?"
Paging:
Sometimes you want to ask a question or talk to someone OOC (Out of Character) about what you and they are doing. This is done by 'paging' them, and you don't need to be in the same room to do it, so long as you are both connected to the game. It's done by 'page' or 'p'.
Example:
p vivian=Hi there! Are you busy? Want to RP?
And on Vivian's screen will appear:
Aife pages, "Hi there! Are you busy? Want to RP?"
Interacting with the Environment
Look: abbreviated 'l'. This is how you look at things around you. 'L' by itself will show you the room you're in, 'l thing' will show you a specific object in that room. If I'm in Aife's room and just type 'l', I see the room desc, and a list of things that are inside with me. One of these is a wardrobe where Aife keeps her clothes. Typing
l wardrobe
will get me this:
Battered and bruised, but still possessed of the quiet dignity of its age, this tall mahogany fortress is more than adequate for the storage of a small Harper's clothes. Age-darkened filigree graces its shapely doors, and dragon-claws at the ends of its short, squat legs keep it a few inches above the floor.
Another thing I will see in the room desc is how to get out of it. The last lines read
Obvious exits:
Inner Den Out
So if I want to leave, I need to take one of these routes. Exits usually have a short alias that keeps me from having to type the whole name--"Inner Den" in this case can be reached by typing 'id' or 'den'. To move around, just type the alias (usually the first initials) or the name of the exit you want to take.
Get/Drop
Sometimes, there are objects lying around that you want to pick up or put down. Now it's generally not nice to pick up and move things that belong to other people, but if it belongs to you, or you're taking it to someone, you'll need to be able to touch is. The commands you need are 'get' and 'drop'. Not surprisingly, they can be abbreviated with 'g' and 'dr'.
@examine
This is what you can do after you've 'looked' at something. It will give you a list of all the possible commands to interact with any given object.
Example:
@examine Aife's Gitar (or @examine ag)
gets us
Obvious Verbs:
Now we know everything that it is possible to do to Aife's Gitar. (Instruments are one of the more complicated items...not everything will have that long a list!)
Making Stuff:
@create "Firelizard Banner":fb (the :fb is attaching aliases to the item so that you don't have to type out the full name every time you interact with it.)
Then you add a description to your object:
@desc fb as " This is a brilliant banner embroidered on sky-blue linen. The little queen, almost true to size, seems about to fly out of the picture and lead her bronzes with her. She must be soaring straight up from the sea, as she sprays droplets of water with a flick of her shining tail. The three bronzes ignore the splashes though, in their exhilerating attempt to catch the gold. The foremost bronze arches his neck toward her, stretching his body to its full length."
Not all items will have descriptions that are quite that long and complicated--that one just happens to be an art project, so it needs one.
Sometimes you'll want an item that performs a certain function, like Harpers' instruments or beds or bags. You need to find the number of the 'parent object' that will pass on those properties to its children. For example, on Harper's Tale the instrument parent is #1599. When I want to make an instrument, like the gitar, I type
@create #1599 named "Aife's Gitar":ag
Quota:
In real life, it's our flaws that make us interesting. In a game or a good book, it's the same thing. There's not going to be a lot of dynamic or development in a character who is already perfect, and to top it off nobody will want to play with him. Have some idiosyncracies and flaws--you don't need major phobias or neuroses, but a touch of attitude, alcoholism or antisocial behaviour are a few ideas for making things interesting.
2. Make your background believable. Know the game theme, and work within it.
A lot of games are fantasy-based, but they still have to be believable in the terms of their own frame of reference. If you're playing on Pern, you can't be a knight or a wizard, and dragons will never, ever eat people. If you're playing World of Darkness, you are not Cain's long-lost childe. In the Wing Commander game my friend helps run, it's biologically impossible to play a human-Kilrathi hybrid. You get the idea.
3. Avoid cliches.
In description or background...we've all seen enough "perfect alabaster skin", "rose lips", "broadly defined muscles," and other romance-novel descriptions to last a lifetime. We've also seen more than we ever wanted to of orphans, shipwrecks, amnesiacs, Threascores, and runaways from arranged marriages. The only thing that never gets old is having characters who had nice, stable families, caring parents, and pleasant childhoods.
4. Use NPCs freely.
Your family and friends need not be actual player-characters to be alive and well--they can just be off-camera somewhere. Feel free to talk about your family and friends back home; it lends your character depth.
5. Pose interesting.
Three or four lines is ideal for an average pose, though some will invariably be far longer or far shorter. Include descriptions of your actions with "fifty-cent words", and have something that people can respond to. "Bill glares at his soup from the corner table" does not leave much in the way of invitation, and nobody but Bill's closest friends are going to brave the corner for a few lines of relatively dull text. But what if you tried instead:
Bill glares into his soup, jealously guarding his solitude in the crowded room despite the lack of seating, the dwindling chairs, the ever-increasing liklihood that someone will have to share his table.
Somebody just might come along and play for that.
6. Avoid spectacles of Gross Public Angst.
Angst is an attention-getting mechanism more than anything else, and people do it when they can't make plain old life interesting enough to RP. It leaves the people around you with two choices: ignore or react. You want to assimilate yourself into RP, not interrupt everyone else's conversations with hysterical screaming and gushing blood because the watchwher bit off your hand. (Sorry, Nuff, stole that one from you!) This is disruptive and unpleasant, and forces people to RP something they would probably rather not. So please avoid it. Yes, conflict is inevitable, and it makes life interesting. But think of the game as an ongoing story written by upwards of 100 people, and try to be artistic about upsetting things. This also goes for moping--the people who sit around the common room and always look like they're about to cry. I remember having a perfectly normal conversation about our families with some other characters once, and there was a girl in the room who, though she wouldn't join the conversation, would pose such things as
Katie gets sad when she hears the conversation, because her family is all dead.
This covers practically every Don't in the book. We can't read Katie's mind, so her 'getting sad' is hard to respond to even if we wanted to, as is the fact that all her family is dead. (And we don't really want to respond, because she wasn't even being particularly interesting about her depression. She ended up getting upset that we were ignoring her, and left the room.) That in itself is pretty pathetic angst--if you're going to put something into your history like a dead family, your character has to learn to cope and deal with it in some way other than moping around other people's RP. Cry randomly. Go psychotic. Learn to fend for yourself. But don't just mope around hoping somebody eventually asks you what's wrong. It didn't work at parties in high school, and it won't work here.
7. Be polite.
You, not necessarily your character. The character can be a jerk if that's what you want to play. But OOCly, player-to-player, be polite and respectful to the populace at large. These games are for everybody to have fun. It's not high school. Sometimes it's even nice to warn other players if you're playing a jerk, just to keep things clear.
8. Spelling and grammar are your friends.
This means punctuation, capital letters where necessary, and proper sentence structure. Don't try to get attention by Capitalising Every Word, or playing e.e. cummings and not capitalising anything. Don't be lazy. In a text-based environment, the only way people have of seeing you is what you type. Consider it the Internet version of having good hygiene. Avoid typos, and I recommend downloading a real MUSH Client like Pueblo, since raw telnet has no backspace and is hard to correct. The only good excuses for messy typing is if you're on raw telnet or blind and using a voice-recognition programme. (I know someone who does this.) Otherwise, learn to type.
9. Be real!
Think of your characters as people. Things will happen in their lives, be they good or bad, that they will have to respond to. Some things they will have control over, some they won't. Every experience makes them grow and change, just like real life. Try to keep these responses realistic--or just let them develop on their own. Sometimes characters get away from you and do their own thing. Let them. It's rewarding.
Sometimes, you want to play an orphan, a genius, a beauty-queen, an amnesiac, a shipwreck victim. Yes, it can be done well. But I suggest you don't start out that way, because even if you're good at it, the stigma will precede you. (Unless you're playing World of Darkness, where angst is abundant.) Sometimes you want to fight in puoblic, shake up your character's world, stage a crisis. The more you play, the easier it becomes to get a feel for when thisi s okay and when it isn't.
approve/stamp ag
@check-stamp/@chkstamp/@check-appr*ove/@chkappr*ove ag
tup ag
tdown ag
chktune ag
sing/recite/proclaim/play
con*tents ag
read
write
@html*ize ag
copy
g*et/t*ake ag
d*rop/th*row ag
gi*ve/ha*nd ag to
@setgender ag
While it's hardly really necessary to have objects on a M*, because most of what you do is RP around them anyway, sometimes you want to have an actual Thing to carry around with you. The easiest, simplest way of doing this is just @create 'object'. Gaea once got a wallscroll as an IC gift. It would have been created like this:
@desc ag as "(Whatever I want it to look like)"
Now I have a gitar that I can play, tune, and record songs onto.
Online games have a limited amount of space with which to run and store things, which is why you want to keep your @created objects to a minimum. This is why most games install a Quota, of either items or kilobytes, which keeps track of your descriptions, channels, items, and other gadgetry and tells you when you have to stop making more. To check this, just type
@quota