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Avendar

Getting started

Welcome to Avendar: The Crucible of Legends! Herein you'll find everything you need to know to play in this world, whether you're entirely new to MUDs, or an experienced MUDder visiting Avendar for the first time.

To accomodate players of every experience level, we've broken down this help into a number of sections:

THE MUD, ROLEPLAYING, ADVANCEMENT, RULES, STORY, RELIGION, HOUSES, DEATH, ALIGNMENT, PLAYERKILLING, TICK, LIMITED EQUIPMENT, BASIC COMMANDS

Many of these helpfiles refer to other helpfiles, which should also be read to ensure you're getting the most out of your Avendar experience, as well as complying with our rules (particularly with regards to roleplaying and playerkilling).

Basics

What is Avendar?

Avendar is a MUD, or Multi-User Dungeon, based on the DikuMUD game engine. A MUD is a persistent text-based online multiplayer RPG; imagine a tabletop roleplaying game that players can drop into whenever they like, where the mechanics and rules are adjudicated by the game automatically and GameMasters exist to facilitate interaction and tell stories.

In the parlance of MUDs, Avendar is a RP+/PvP+ MUD. That means we encourage and enforce rules that support both roleplaying and player vs player combat. For more information on how those specific things work, please see those pages.

Syntax

Commands and actions in Avendar will generally be constructed in the order of verb/action -> object -> target. Avendar does not use bridging words or prepositions like 'to', 'from', 'with', 'my', or 'at' in our commands, and those may be omitted. Interaction with objects will default to your own inventory first, then the room. Single quotation marks are used by default to group words together in a single phrase; at times these will be double quotation marks if the phrase in question already has single quotations. Here are some common examples to give you an idea of proper syntax.

 give guide jolinn
 You give a copy of Ateghu's Guide to Demonology to Jolinn.

 cast armor
 You feel someone protecting you.

 cast 'giant growth' jolinn
 Jolinn looks stronger and heartier.

 esay "pats Jolinn's hand, saying" Cheer up buddy, you'll get there.
 Elanthe pats Jolinn's hand, saying, 'Cheer up buddy, you'll get there.'

Lag

Some MUDs have a countdown timer, commonly called roundtime, before you can enter your next command. Avendar instead has lag. When you enter and execute a command in Avendar, such as casting a spell, there will be a delay before the next command you enter will be executed. You may queue up multiple commands while lagged which will be executed in the order you enter them in once you are no longer lagged. To clear all the commands from your queue, enter clear.

Many abilities inflict additional lag on targets, and inflicting lag is especially powerful in PvP situations. NPCs do not experience lag, but abilities which cause lag will debuff NPCs in other ways instead.

Characters

We do not put restrictions on the types of in-setting roles an individual can pursue or be connected to. If you wish to play the member of a royal family, an Earendamian noble, the relative of a famous person or NPC, an aspiring priest of a god, etc-- do it! Player characters are free to be of any origin or be exceptional or not as you wish, within reason. Please see the roleplay page for detailed information about interaction and our approach to characters and storylines.

Player characters in Avendar have a finite lifespan. It is intended that no player character remain in active play for longer than about a year and a half of real-life time, either due to running out of deaths or reaching their maximum age. Please see those articles for more details about those systems.

We are aware that permanent death or character loss can be scary for those who have not played a MUD that incorporates it as we do, but we have many reasons for its inclusion that all relate to the long-term health of the game. Ensuring there is regular character churn means there is never a character or group of characters that perpetually dominates everyone else, and new or returning players coming into the game are not perpetually unable to catch up. New characters mean new storytelling elements as well, instead of the same stale personalities lingering forever.

Equipment and Inventory

Equipment is the primary means by which you gain power for your character once you have reached hero and reached maximum % in all of your skills. As such, exceptional items are often limited, which means that only so many copies of the item may exist in the game world at a time. Particularly exceptional or legendary items will typically be limit 1, while powerful but less rare items may have higher limits.

The more powerful an item is, the more difficult it will generally be to acquire, requiring luck, skill, a large group, or all three of these. PvP and looting is a legitimate and encouraged tactic for acquiring rare items already in the possession of another player character.

Most items can be sold to various merchants in the game for currency, and there are various ways to modify how much money you are able to get from selling items.

Newbie Guide

Create Your Character

Create your character according to your whim. Some class and race combinations may be more challenging than others, but they are all viable, with three exceptions:

Do not select Air Scholar, Spirit Scholar, or Earth Scholar!

Those three scholars are broken and in need of complete rewrites. However, the templars of those elements are fine. If you want to play those elements, go templar!

Basic Tutorial

The basic tutorial walks you through common commands interactively. See the Basic Commands page for reference.

School of Heroes

The School of Heroes is a safe area for new characters to get started. It is available for characters level 1-10. After reaching level 11, you will be ejected from the school, and you will not be allowed to return.

Here is a checklist of things you may want to do before leaving the school:

  • Get your free weapon from Narana
  • Buy clothes and armor from Arslan
  • Buy food and water from Essandra
  • Learn about your alignment from Issthali
  • Train and practice at your guildmaster (very important!)
  • Complete tasks in the Hall of Trials
  • Kill your way through the Tower of Testing
  • Get the key from the Stone Guardian
  • Answer the Magic Mouth’s riddle
  • Get branded with the Sigil of the School of Heroes
  • Accept delivery task from Eliaj
  • Visit Jimacha and receive a packet of supplies
  • Visit Zebinar for new task

Character Advancement

Characters advance by acquiring experience points (xp). You will automatically gain a level when you have enough xp. A new level gives you more hit points, mana, and moves, as well as practice points, trains, and access to higher level skills.

Where to rank

The following areas have plenty of mobs for you to kill. Choose based on your character’s level and alignment.

Good characters will gain more xp from killing evil mobs, and lose xp if they kill good mobs. Evil characters will get extra xp for killing good mobs and slightly less xp for killing evils. Use ‘consider’ to check the alignment of a potential foe!

Levels 10-20
    Var Bandor docks (townsfolk of various alignments)
    Chaja caves (neutral cave creatures, good miners, and evil chaja)
    Jasa Lake (neutral young srryn)
    Eril (good townsfolk)
    Lithling Freehold (neutral creatures, good farmers, evil srryn)
    Merchant Headquarters (merchants of various alignments)

Special mention: The Clockmaker’s Mansion has a mysterious story and puzzles. Xp and other rewards can be earned by solving its mysteries. Unlike most areas, it locks PCs out after level 20.

Levels 20-30
    Qilarn (evil spiders and shura)
    Krilin (good townsfolk)
    Griffin aerie (good griffins)
    Kor Thrandir (good soldiers and archers)
    Gogoth City (aggressive, evil zombies)
    Earendam (trio at the Arien Way Inn)
    Kholis (neutral nefortu townsfolk)
    The Savannah (neutral creatures)
Levels 30-40
    Lidraeu undersea (neutral creatures)
    Kkhilgh tunnels (neutral bugs)
    Var Bandor (neutral Iron street merchants)
    Griffin aerie (good griffins and humans)
    Rahh-Nefor (evil nefortu and neutral granite drakes)
Levels 40-51
    Gogoth Palace (aggressive, evil zombies)
    City and Temple of Yithoul (evil shuddeni)
    Titan Palace (evil demons and good courtiers)
    Kor Thrandir (good swordmasters and spirit students)
Super mobs

These mobs are harder to kill but grant much more xp. Bring a group of friends levels 40-50 to tackle these.

    Ghaunda (evil demon) in the Fens
    Ancient griffin (good creature) in the Griffin aerie
    Ancient srorsian (neutral creature) in the Mlejian Mountains
    Baron Krilin (good town leader) in Krilin Fortress
    High kkhilgh (neutral bug) in Kkhilgh tunnels
    Siyyad Khil’ayum (evil demon) in Titan Palace

There are many more places to go and things to kill! Explore freely–and at your own risk. While you may go most places at any level, the residents may be aggressive and more powerful than you. Be ready to flee and recall!

Quests & Tasks

In addition to killing things, you can gain xp and other rewards by completing tasks. Look for NPCs marked with a green exclamation point (!). Not all quests are highlighted this way (sorry, we’re working on it).

The Quests and Tasks page lists who offers such things, where to find them, and any qualifications you may need.

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